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If you’re a total beginner or not been playing for lomg then weekly lessons are a must with me. Everyone that took fortnightly lessons or less has quit and I’m not surprised.
Obviously if you’ve played for a while and know most of the basics to intermediate/advanced level and just want to polish a particular area then maybe every other week may suffice.
I tend to find anything less than weekly just encourages them to practice less, however.
players focusing only on the hand fretting the notes, and not enough on the other....
Usually in trial lessons with people who can already play a bit I give them a chord chart taken from the RGT grades and get them to try and play through it without stopping. 8/10 they will stop in the first 4 bars cos they haven't taken into account a split bar, or it 1 chord per bar and also the wrong 7th chord type. There's also several timing issues as they struggle to keep to a 4/4 beat, in the end they can't do it. Baffling, yet they can somehow fumble their way around a minor pentatonic to a backing track (albeit out of tune bends and wrong notes).
Although I have had my eyes opened working on some funk stuff, where rather than just playing impressionistically (which will be in time and sound vaguely like the original part, etc.) I've tried to follow a transcription exactly --- upstroke with emphasis on the 3rd 16th note of beat 1, downstroke with emphasis on 2nd 16th note of beat 2, etc. Which is basically a more complicated version of the exercises described in the last couple of comments. And found doing that _really_ hard, because, for example, I tend to have the habit of starting each beat (say, each group of 4 x 16th notes) on a downstroke, and accenting an upbeat when it's not falling on the 2nd and 4th note of a group feels slightly odd. And yet, following it exactly, really does make a difference to the precise groove. I've occasionally thought of working through some drum tutors (on guitar) for that reason.
While we are talking about skills, I wonder if anyone has good tips for musical memory? Because I'm an OK reader, I tend to be totally rubbish at genuinely memorising anything longer than about 16 bars.
As far as memory goes, playing in a band is good, where you have to perform songs without charts. Easy for me to say as I've been playing in rock bands for 13 years now and not once have I used a chart. Breaking up the bars into phrases helps, usually a 16 bar pop chorus is in 2 halves of 8, e.g the lyrics sung twice, or something.
when my students start nailing all that, they may not be blisteringly quick, but they certainly notice how much more polished they sound..
and of course, as you say... rhythm playing is a guitarist's main job.. so it's the thing they need to be most solid at..
I worked out once that out within the 90 minute set I play, I spend less than 10 minutes soloing
I’ve helped a lot of so so players improve their timing and they do notice it, when the phrase or riff is in time and locks in with the metronome or backing track they kinda nod their head in time and get that musical groove/inner metronome.
And yes it’s true about a set being mostly chords and strumming!
1 - timing / phrasing [which are of course deeply related]
2 - bending / vibrato [considering that they are variations of the same fundamental technique]
these two little gems always seem to me to be the most overlooked when people learn to play
yet these two areas are the ones that really seem expose a new player the most
Also playing in situations other than at home alone.
I see a lot of players who can play well by themselves, or in front of one or two people.
Put them on a stage with an audience and it all goes to shit.
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