Advanced Vs Pro Playing, How to get that extra bit of mojo which makes all the difference? Options

[Kristofer Dahl]

In order to work on my chops - I have been writing a new instrumental tune.

I structured it into sections that would cover different technique areas I need to improve - bending, vibrato, picking, swing phrasing etc. I made sure the song would be interesting enough for me to play it over and over without getting tired of it. It goes through several different arrangements/styles, and some key changes.

Eventually I did get sick of it though and that's when I decided to record it and move on, you can check it out below. Not sure anyone would want to check it out after this introduction - hehe - but maybe this method of practicing can prove useful to some of you.

For me - I start to feel that metronome/drum machine practicing is no longer suitable. Practicing the techniques in a musical situation seems to improve the 'mojo factor' in my playing, in a way that is hard to achieve when I am not stimulated musically. And I really want more mojo in my playing!

To be more concise, this kind of practicing makes me work on the subtle nuances which, when combined with each other, is what I feel makes the difference between average and pro playing: dynamics, phrasing and tone. I know this is a typical cliché. To exemplify - some simple phrases would come to life in a way that surprised me, just by playing them a bit off the beat.

I have to say though - when looking back on this video, my biggest mistake is that I still played too much on the beat and tried to achieve midi/sterile type timing (in spite of my new insights!). So this is something I will keep working on. I guess this goes to prove once again how useful it is to record yourself (*hint* get REC:ing *hint*).

Also, I started experimenting with the volume knob for the first time - which opened up new possibilities. This also proved to be a challenge when recording, as it introduced some buzz/hum which I had to troubleshoot.

Speaking of sound - I have a vision of a warm guitar sound which does not have much treble to it (a bit like a typical clean jazz sound, but with thick distortion). This seems to be achievable in a amp-in-the-room kind of practicing situation - but not so easy to recreate in a mix.

My ambition for future recordings is to keep experimenting - and not rely on specific "safe" sounds/settings which I have used in the past (well actually I might not even be able to recreate those old sounds even if I wanted to - hehe!). In the short run this might give me some strange sounding mixes, but I hope that in the future I will be be able to dial in sounds/mixes that sound unique to the song I am working on - instead of having my standard go-to sound.

Have you reached new insights recently - which have made your practice sessions more fruitful? It would be awesome if you could share them with us so we all can help each other and improve faster!

November 2014 update: check out the follow-up thread here.

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