If you’ve been visiting this site for any length of time, you know that my guitar playing is more notable for its enthusiasm than its excellence. It’s something that I’d like to fix. Towards that end, I have two guitar teachers. I continue to work with the fellow who taught me from the ages of 12-16 and 39-now. He’s a jazz player and old New York studio cat. My other instructor is a sweep-picking Berklee graduate named Alexander Donaldson. When he left to go on tour last year, I let him borrow some guitars. As a consequence, he managed to snag a bit of a Gibson endorsement.
I sent Alex on the road with two Heritage Guitars: a sunburst H-150 set up with Sheptone Heartbreaker pickups and Jimmy-Page-style 21-tone wiring, as well as a P-90 equipped Korina H-137. Well, somehow Gibson got wind that this kid was out playing with Heritage guitars, because now he’s on the Gibson site talking about Les Pauls, and now he has a Les Paul to play on tour. He’s a great player, and you can check him out below. My most observant readers will note that I’ve written about him before.
I’m not much of a guitar player, so this may not be the best advice, but perhaps playing acoustic would provide you with some benefit. The slower action and the lack of sustain and effects force you to play differently. (As you know, the spaces in between the notes are at least as important as the notes themselves.)
I play acoustic more than anything else and used to do a thrice-weekly 150-minute acoustic set at a local restaurant. What I’d primarily like to improve about my guitar playing is my ability to select and improvise over the modes. Which is a fancy way of saying that I need eight notes in the octave in my solos and most of the time I only have six, and those slowly 🙂
I couldn’t play a lead to save my life.
As far as improvising goes, you might have to watch a few more of those Wes Montgomery videos…
My guitar playing buddy from college took a year off, went to Guitar Institute of Technology in LA (now Musicians Institute, covering all axes). Came back a monster, doing this “new” technique called sweeping* that his teacher, Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson) taught him. Also cam be back with some EVH style tapping, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and pinch harmonics. Wow! Different player entirely, even copied Jennifer’s hairstyle.
So here’s the deal. Pack up, move to LA for a year. Write cars on the side, and 3-5 days a week, do the Guitar Institute. You can study the “theory” of modal soloing at Berkeley or you can have these cats give you the cheat sheet. Here’s the lick, variations of the lick. Combine it with this one and that one and tada. Solo. Mix ‘n match to suit.
My friend couldn’t tell you he was soloing in Eb minor over E major, riffing on the minor third. He just knew it sounded cool, with lots of tension. And that’s really what rock guitar is — what sounds cool. Guitar Institute just loads your bag with tricks (of course, you can take all the theory you want, but meh, boring…sorry Bark).
*Actually started in the 40s by jazz cats.
Db minor. Sorry.