How do you best lear new techniques/songs, by watching or reading?

Arktik83 · July 2014

So I've got this Licklibrary DVD called: "Learn to Play Electric Guitar" which Jamie Humphries is the tutor for the DVD. So the first few lessons are open chords, Barre chords, your usual repetoire for a "beginners" DVD then he moves on to scales.

Shows you the box shapes of the pentatonics and then moves on to breaking out of the boxes and incorporates some of the CAGED system technique, this is where I'm watching what he's doing with a vacant stare haha! I just really struggled to grasp that lesson whereas when I went online and looked up the CAGED method I could understand that far more clearly.

So just wondered if any of you have the similar issue, is it easier for you to understand if someone demo's the piece or to read it, or both?

ElectroDan · July 2014

Depends. It can be any of the above. I remember not understanding sweep picking until I watched Frank Gambale's instructional video on the subject where he broke the technique down, and demonstrated it slowly. I still can't do it like he does, but I incorporated a little of the economy picking into my repertoire of technique.

Something like Rhythmic Displacement however would be better (for me) explained with text and notation, showing what is happening with the relationship between the lick and the bars.

The problem you have as a learner today is that there is so much information available, that it can be difficult to find what is right for you.

Roland · July 2014

1. Listening
2. Watching
3. When all else fails, reading about it

ChrisMusic · July 2014

Jamie is pretty high powered, but quite brilliant. He does tend to plough in there, as it is so obvious to him; not so easy for most of us though.

I had the same vacant stare going through his "power pentatonics" DVD (I think it was) the first couple of times.

There is a lot to learn in music, mostly about relationships and context, and that takes a bit of getting your head around, whoever is teaching you.

If you want to fully appreciate a sculpture, or a great bit of architecture, or a curvaceous car (or woman

, then it increases your understanding to take a bit of time and walk around. View from different angles and perspectives and your brain makes sense of it, and its context. You understand the whole 3 dimensional form in a way a single photograph never could show.

I find music, and many other things, a lot like this.

Take your time and explore it from different directions and angles.

People describe the same thing very differently, and with very different styles. Some you will click with, some not so easily.

Read around it, watch a bunch of different videos (YT is your friend here), watch performances, listen to music. They all fill out the 3 dimensional story, fill out the shape and the meaning.

Then it all starts to come together and make sense. You start to see the relationships, understand the context, and build a framework in your mind where everything starts to fit into place. Then you can more easily build on that framework for the future. Every journey starts with small steps.

koneguitarist · July 2014

Playing

mike_l · July 2014

A bit of everything. In no particular order, roughly equal....

Watching

Reading

Listening

playing (everything ends here)

Just depends on what I'm learning.........

EricTheWeary · July 2014

Well, depends but if you want to memorise something doing it by ear is probably the way. And then playing something with others is good for a bit of focus.

frankus · July 2014

Small steps.
Repeated often,
until cherished.
Polished;
utterly endeared;
THEN AND ONLY THEN -
understood.

What you do is you play, it - put the doubts out of your mind, keep playing it - find a time in the day and for weeks keep doing it. Put all notion of identifying results from your mind - it'll slow you down. Practise, practise, practise - THEN one day you'll understand what he's saying because you've EXPERIENCED a small part of it, this will encourage you to keep practising as you'll get more of what he's saying.

The world is crammed to the brim with idiots who surface learn, enough to recite something, they'll marvel at someone rereading a book - as if the insight gained on the first pass can't change as many perceptions on the second pass. They're in a hurry, uncertain and only able to focus on one thing for short bursts... if you love guitar you'll not have this problem, if you want to love the guitar, you'll over come this problem and become a better person for it.

Have faith that Jamie knows his shit AND have faith you can learn it. The majority of guitar teaching happens in the exercises, the doing, you'll know you've learnt the objective when the words his using make sense - but better than any surface learning you'll be able to extemporise what he's teaching - rather than repeat the words as if they make it obvious.

It's a journey, a worthy one, I hope you stick to it and get a sense of what George Leonard and Kenny Werner describe as The Way of Mastery.

oh and learn CAGED and pentatonics

ThePrettyDamned · July 2014

Take your time! It'll sink in eventually. Try all of the above - reading TAB is *not* cheating, if it helps you understand the relationship of notes on the fretboard. I have been preached at by plenty of guitar folk who say TAB is cheating - ignore them.

I never studied CAGED but when I bought a book on the basics of it, I realised I already used it - just without really realising. Then I bought Hot Country and realised there can be as little or as much complexity in the CAGED system as you like (GREAT book by the way, it's focus is country but it is a nice book anyway).

I use TAB to learn songs and ideas, but I can still identify key and some modes - eventually, it sticks. I do what Frankus said - I start very slow, and I build up. A single thing can take me weeks or months to learn (idea, not song! Sometimes just a few bars), but if I can do it at the end, I'm a better player for it - and often, it's improved other techniques, too. Also, if using TAB, try to get an official book, not online stuff (which is usually wrong). Also, don't be afraid of relocating notes - I play One Day Remains a fair bit, but I play it slightly differently to Tremonti - it's not cheating, it's just a more logical way of laying out the notes to me. And that's just a couple of riffs!

nickp · July 2014

if we are talking songs - as in for the band. listen and work out chords - nick some tab to speed up.

then - and this is really important for me - write out the song structure by going through song and preparing a chord chart/crib sheet

that allows me to remember the layout of the song as quickly as poss - i forget stuff really quickly (dyspraxic)

Catthan · July 2014

It depends on what's the available format of the material I want to work on.

If I can watch it cool, if not, read it. If there's neither a vid or a sheet then transcribe.

The important thing is to keep at it until you reach your goal, be it speed, melody, touch etc.

Then practice it in context and often get back to it to maintain it.

Working smth out the first time is the easy bit.

I recently realised most of my flashy fusion lines sounded shit as I focused on the technical side and stopped working on them as soon as I got them under my fingers. When I noodle they sound great but in context they don't.

It's about what you do with what you know, so whatever you learn, make it work. That's more important than how you worked it out.

If you are starting out now it might be good to work on sheet reading instead of tabs. Depending on what your goals are obviously.

Reading notes and charts might get you a bit more work in the long run.

EricTheWeary · July 2014

I have come to think of online TAB as the modern equivalent of mates sitting around a stereogram trying to work out Beatles chords. It's just someone's interpretation and gives you a starting place.

For example, there was a thing in a Specials song I couldn't get right ( and, TBH, couldn't be arsed to persevere). Found an online TAB and the notes they posted for the melody instantly sounded right. They had, however, oddly missed that it was played in octaves and had only posted the high notes. So between us we got there.

And I agree with @nickp that writing out structures can really help. It may be that you never even refer to what you have written but the process of carfeul listening without a guitar in hand can help make sense of a song. Working out lyrics is good too - by the time you have worked out a set of lyrics (and not got a half wrong set off t'internet) you'll probably have a much better idea of how a song fits together.

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How do you best lear new techniques/songs, by watching or reading?

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