I was never very good at writing chords first on my guitar. I tried doing it for a while and finally had to stick with the standard method of fingerings and soloing. This method requires you to be fast with your fingers and to play fast. It is the most difficult of all the guitar playing methods because it requires a lot of self discipline and the ability to pick it up when you need it.
When did guitar learning come into its own as a discipline you should be familiar with?
I think guitar playing is a fairly modern discipline. It happened to begin in the 50’s and has seen a long run in the West since then. Guitar is very much the modernized version of hand-eye co-ordination.
When I was learning to play on the guitar there wasn’t much of a discipline that taught you how to pick up on the notes as you are trying to play the notes. It is an extension of picking. Your fingers on guitar are not for picking but for picking and fingering chords. They are for picking where notes are going to be touched and not for picking where notes will stay in their heads.
What are some of the things it takes to develop good playing habits on the guitar?
Having a good sense of melody. You have to know how to play in rhythm. You also have to know how to tune your guitar so the guitar doesn’t get beat up in the middle of your playing. You need to understand your guitar and the tone of it so you can use it when you are not using it and not use it when you are.
What are some of the things it takes to progress beyond beginner level?
Most guitar players move up to intermediate when they start to play like pros. I don’t think you really progress beyond intermediate until you really play like a pro. That can be from soloing, playing lead vocal parts, building and refining your soloing, learning chord shapes so that when you play chords in a particular chord you can play them as if you were playing them with your real fingers. And learning to learn from other players on stage.
What types of instruments come into your playing? Do you prefer stringed instruments over banjos? Which type of guitar do you play the most?
I like to play all kinds of different instruments and I have a few banjos. But what I do most is a lot of playing electric guitars and a bunch of steel guitars. I love playing that kind of