Words of Daniel Robinson
As most of us know, Mr. Daniel Robinson has som very helpful tips for all kind of techniques. I've collected the ones I could find, and filed them here at one spot.
Contents |
Motivation
Compete only with yourself
I have seen alot of threads lately here and other places i go about people feeling discouraged when they compare themselves to others.
It seems these topics seem to come in waves...but i digress.
Playing guitar, or any instrument for that matter is a personal journey, we may share our experiences and try to gauge our playing against others. But its like comparing apples and oranges.
If every guitarist gave up because they heard someone they perceived to be better than them the world would have a handful of guitar players...boring.
Just because you don't have the technical skills you want doesnt mean you don't have something to contribute to music. Technical skills come with time and effort, but there are things that you do right now that cannot be duplicated by anyone, no matter how masterfully gifted they are.
I know especially here alot of people idolize Muris, we all love Muris and watching and hearing him play can you make you feel inadequate with your skills. Does that mean that you can't acheive success as a player? I certainly hope not. Muris is where he is because he spent alot of time behind the guitar. The reason for it sucks of course "War".
This doesnt take away from the fact though that the hours and hours that were spent everyday honing his skills.
Tony Macalpine in an interview pretty much said the same thing, it has to be a labor of love when he was younger he said he had to give up his social life, instead of going to the party on Friday night, or going to concerts and all that he gave all that up to spend more time honing his craft. You have to want it that bad that you shut down everything else and just dedicate yourself to music. In alot of ways playing guitar is a lifestyle, its not a 9 to 5 proposistion.
As far as your skills go, just because you aren't where you would like to be doesnt mean that you are inadequate to make a contribution to the world of music.
Let's say that you write a song, and Muris did a cover of it. Sure i bet he could play it note for note, emulate all the little nuiances in it etc. and so forth. But the fact of the matter is no matter how hard he tried, he would still sound like Muris. He wouldnt sound like Daniel, or Joe, or Ivan or anyone else here for that matter.
You have to learn to embrace the fact that you are a unique individual, technical skills are only part of the equation, there are in fact things you were never taught that just came naturally that no one can perfectly duplicate. It could be as simple as tone even.
A good example of this in my own experience, i was building a patch on my GNX, trying to get a specific sound i was looking for, my bass player/ keyboard player came by. He likes things to have a really bright sound, he was dogging me cause all my patches have a really dark quality to them. So i decided to let him try and fix it the way he wanted cause i was curious.
He picked up my guitar and started to play on the same patch with the same settings etc....as soon as he sounded a few notes it was actually too bright sounding. Something about his fingers, how he picks who knows. It was my patch and it still sounded like him. The patch i made was already "Bright" but the way i play has a darker sound to it.
You are unique, don't forget that, it could be tone, it could be vibrato, it could be note choice it could be alot of things. Just don't give up because you perceive something is wrong with it, bringing your technical skills to where you want them is just time and effort. But the "What" that makes you you has always been there just refine it and let the world enjoy You!
Daniel
Writing and Composing
I have been reading a lot of posts lately about writing, composing, writers block etc.... It seems that these things seem to come in groups. I would like to add my two cents to round out my idea's about writing and composing.
For me writing is more elemental in nature. What i mean by this is that when i compose, i don't try to write happy, sad, angry...etc. I will look out my window during a thunderstorm and try to write "the thunderstorm" I guess its more of an emulation of an abstract idea. I try to find things in nature either grand or mundane to write about musically. It could be something as simple as seeing two leaves chasing eachother in a circle because of the wind, and it sparks a musical idea in me.
Which is not to say i havent written, happy or sad or angry etc.. but more times than not this is not where i get my ideas.
Another way that i write something sometimes is by extracting a song from within a song. This is something i was discussing with Tjchep in chat a few days ago. If a song i am listening to really speaks to me i will take my guitar and compose riffs and ideas that fit in the framework of the song i am listening to. So basically i am drawing out the idea from that song. I am not borrowing riffs, or changing them. I am basically finding what they didnt play hidden there waiting for me to discover.
This comes to the main point of this topic. Experimentation in my opinion is the easiest way, at least for me to write and compose, it doesnt matter what that experimentation entails, it could just be switching picks to get just the sound i am looking for, or changing my tone. Or it could be coming up with a unique way of playing something to get just the sound you want.
As an example one of the more recent ideas i had as i was watching car racing on TV, i picked up the guitar and was trying to mimic the downshifting on the gears as they came into a sharp corner. What i came up with was this whirring bending thing, where i would sound a note and "twitch" a bend very fast and let it fall off slowly as soon as reached the bottom of the bend i would slide and do that again. It created such a weird sound.
Maybe i will use it in a song at some time, maybe i won't but the point here is that i am constantly experimenting with sounds i can get out of the instrument. Sometimes its silly stuff like above. Sometimes though i might mix and match certain phrases along with these sound oddities to create something very unique in my opinion.
My advice to all of you would be to experiment with anything and everything you can get your hands on, you might just find that doing this kind of thing on a regular basis will trigger a writing moment, or help you get out of a writers block situation.
As far as my thunderstorm analogy above is concerned, i might just try to write about how the thunderstorm makes me feel, or i might actually get rhythmic ideas from listening to the rain hit the window. Music is all around you in various forms, be on the look out for it.
Daniel
Speed and more Speed
I have seen several posts talking about speed. I just wanted to take a little time to discuss another thing besides practicing with a metronome for hours and hours. Once you reach a certain point in your playing speed your gonna hit a barrier unless your guitar is in top notch shape.
Your not gonna win the Daytona 500 in a Geo Metro. So it stands to reason if your playing a guitar thats not set up properly for playing fast your not gonna get much more out of it. As you progress as a player your going to want to start looking for a guitar that fits your hand almost perfectly. Is the shape of the neck too fat? Too thin? Are the strings too close together? Too far apart?
What about fret size? For example play 3nps starting on the high E string starting at the 12th fret play 12th 13th 15th. Now completely relax your hand and place your fingers on the fret board in that posistion...does your index finger middle finger and pinky line up naturally with those 3 frets? Maybe your hand is a bit bigger and you need extra jumbo frets....maybe your hand is a bit smaller and needs small frets.
Action height plays a large part in speed as well. Is your action on your guitar set as low as it will go without buzzing? The less pressure you have to exert to sound a note the faster you will be able to play. String gauge plays a part as well. The best advice i can give here is use the lightest gauge string possible without compromising the tone you want.
Me personally i use .009 to .042 D'Addario Nickel Wound strings they have the tone i am looking for and have a nice light gauge to them.
All of these things are going to help you to play faster. Its all about conservation of motion and energy. You don't want to be fighting the instrument.
You look at a shred player like Yngwie for example i have played his signature model thats been set up to his exact specs and let me tell ya its the easiest guitar to play i ever picked up. You barely have to exert any pressure at all to fret a note. When you can play as relaxed as possible your going to acheive much great speed because your not expending all your finger strength pushing down on the string.
Once you start reaching some of your first speed goals think about how you can improve your own guitar to make it easier to play. Or start shopping for a new axe that fits you better.
Daniel
What are your Weaknesses?
Sweep
Problem:
I don't seem to have that big of problems sweeping with more strings, like 5 string sweeps, but when I play with 3 string sweeps I don't seem to get them right which is wierd 'cause you would assume that they are easier than 5 string patterns. And I also have some problems with my palm muting, I don't seem to get them sound that clean as they should...
I had a similar problem when learning sweeps, i could do 5 and 6 string sweeps with ease but shorter spans like 3 or 4 strings it wasnt consistent at all. I really had to pay close attention to what was going wrong.
I realize that when i do 5 or 6 string sweeps there is alot more barring going on which means i was using more of the pads of my fingers for those sweeps the angle of my hand was such that it was easy. When trying to apply this on 3 string patterns i realized that barring the notes more with the pads of my fingers was really the culprit. When executing 3 string patterns its vital to use the very tips of your fingers for some reason on the smaller spacing of 3 strings if you bar more i.e. using more pad of your finger your actually dampening or muting the strings too much.
Also just take your time in the timing execution of the 3 string sweeps. You have trained your right hand to move across double that span, the muscle memory in your right hand wants to move more adjacent strings then just three so thats also probably part of the problem.
Maybe this will help let me know.
Daniel
Legato
Problem:
I feel that my waekness lies in my legato and espacially my pulloffs.... i cant get it to sound smooth when shifting strings i often make i little pause
My advice to you on this problem area is not so much metronome work,.....although very important it sounds to me like your problem is in string transistion and not timing.
First off start by analyzing hand angle and posistion as well as how you move from one string to another. Hand angle can play a big part in pull off resolution to another string. It may seem uncomfortable at first but when making a transistion to a lower string try changing the angle of your wrist. So that you have a sleight turning of the wrist counter-clockwise (towards the bridge) it doesnt have to be a huge angle change just very subtle. Typically when doing a descending legato phrase your leading into the next string with your pinky or ring finger, which obviously isnt as long as your index and middle finger. Get your finger closer to the next string before getting there may help reducing that "Pause" your speaking of.
Also try very hard to avoid the "Fly away fingers" syndrome where when you pull off your fingers go flying far from the fret board.
Another good excersise for working on this is not trying to do say 6 notes descending, practice 4 notes descending then 5 notes descending in an alternate way.
For example start at the 12th fret high E string with your pinky on the 12th play legato 12----10-----9 then shift to the B string with your pinky to the 12th B string. then starting again on the High E string 12th fret 12----10----9 shift to B string with your pinky doing 12----10. Work on this pattern alternating between the two working up the speed.
Pay special attention to hand posistion and how close your fingers remain to the fretboard. Conservation of motion is absolute key in solid legato playing. The less motion you have to have the smoother its going to sound.
One other thing you can try to get your legato smoother dealing specifically with your problem is just to do hammer on pull off excersise on 1 string and try to get your pull off motion to be as small as possible and still sound the notes.
For example just start on the 12th fret again with your pinky and pull off to your index finger on 9th so how little of motion is required on your guitar to just sound the notes. You constantly have to trim motion size the faster you get.
Keep working on it you will get it.
Daniel
Harmony constructions
This is something that alot of guitarists struggle with later in their development, myself included. Its when you start realizing you need to really get into the nuts and bolts of the theory aspect.
My friend and I have been working together on solving this slowly over time, what we are doing is finding actual music scores for symphonies, and analyzing the intricate web of harmonies that are taking place between all the instruments.
When you start to see the patterns in this way it becomes much easier to create those harmonies on a single instrument because you start to develop a sense of the intervals involved and how they interact with the other instruments your playing with.
My recommendation is to try it and see what you can get out of it.
Daniel
Legato/AP
Problem:
Alternate Picking technique for me - cleanliness and speed. My legato is reasonable and has improved a lot over the last year as I find it comes very naturally, and I practice it to the detriment of AP. With AP it is purely about practice time and discipline for me - I believe I have the mechanics right but I am skimping on the time and effort needed to build up speed in a smooth and controlled fashion!
This comes back to the intital reason i started this post, we tend to ignore where we are weak. My friend always tells me you make time for whats important to you and the rest falls by the wayside.
My advice in your particular case is try mixing up your legato with AP riffs...as an example lets say your doing a 3nps pattern across three strings. Play legato on the first two string and AP the last string. This has several things going for it.
First your working on AP while still maintaining your legato technique, your also opening up the possiblity of a different rhythmic sound to your phrasing.
And at the same time your starting to work on the basics of hybrid picking. Try this approach and see what you can come up with.
Daniel
Fast Runs
Problem:
I have a few weaknesses in my playing that no matter how hard I try I cannot put right, the first is fast runs, if for example I am playing a 3nps sequence, I can play it very well up to a certain speed, then I just freeze and my fingers go into meltdown......I try going over and over it with a metronome at a slow speed, then try building up but it is taking me FOREVER to develop the speed I want, my goal in life is to play a few Malmsteen classics note for note perfect, but I am barely able to play them at anywhere near the right speed, its so frustrating!!
I certainly agree with how boggling the speed aspect is. Its something i still struggle with. What i have found though in breaking it down it comes down to a few key things. First off i find that in alot of ways the speed issue especially with Alternate picking comes down to a sync issue between left and right hand and not 1 or the other. For instance i can easily pick 32nd notes at 150bpm if i am just on an open string not fretting any notes.
I can also hammer on and pull off 32nd notes at 150bpm on a 3 note pattern with just my left hand. When i tried to do both it fell apart. I started to realize that it was indeed a sync problem and not a picking or fretting problem.
The other aspect of the speed issue is there seems to be a space at least for me in AP skills at a certain range of BPM.
For the longest time when trying to play 16th note triplets for example at 120 to 125 or so BPM i just couldnt get any kind of consistency....lower BPM i had no difficulty with. Nor with playing 32nd notes at that speed. At first i just thought it was my ears playing tricks on me but i actually recorded myself at 120BPM playing alternate picking licks at 32nd notes and slowed it down and listened for inconsistencies but there wasnt any.
So why was it falling apart at 120bpm with 16th note trips?
I then realized the problem had to do with the syncing between left and right hand, but the sync issue was being caused by my picking hand. I realized that when i was playing the 16th note triplets at that speed i was using more arm motion to pick with then wrist action like when i play faster.
Once i realized what was happening i started to physically watch myself when playing with a metronome at that speed and made sure my picking angle and wrist use was consistent thru the speed ranges i could play.
Perhaps the same is occuring for you. Without actually seeing you play the difficulty your having is hard to judge but take the time on your own to really analyze what is actually happening when you have that "Meltdown" zone.
I think i can safely say that when you reach a certain speed your either tensing up too much so force yourself to relax, or....you are altering something as you approach that speed threshold.
If you find out what the trouble is let us know you can probably help someone else here having the exact same trouble.
Daniel
Whammy Bar
Problem:
One of my many weaknesses is that i'm completely and utterly useless with the whammy bar. I just cant operate that thing without it sounding drunk
As far as either of your problems are concerned i have little advice to give, i completely ignore the whammy bar. The only reason i don't use a hardtail guitar is because i find bending is easier on a guitar with a whammy because the springs will give enough so you don't have to push as hard to reach the pitch you want.
My advice on this particular area would be to take que's from people who use the whammy bar with a great deal of precision and try to emulate what you hear.
A good place to start imo is with someone like Kiko Loureiro from Angra, he has some excellent whammy usage.
Check out this vid, especially the center section of this song is some really awesome whammy work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQL2cLE7HpA...feature=related
Daniel
Vibrato and Speedpicking
As far as vibrato goes its really a preference as to what you do vibrato wise. There are so many vibrato techniques and variations on them i could write a college essay on them lol.
Me personally i have two vibrato styles that are pretty much my staples the first one is with my index finger i don't use a wrist vibrato i just shake the string with my finger back and forth i also almost always really pinch the string when i use this vibrato.
The other vibrato i use is shaking the guitar and sleightly moving my fingers back and forth. Because of the way i shake the guitar it makes my vibrato when i do this eliptic too, which adds another element to it.
As far as practicing vibrato first you need to decide on the technique your going to use for doing it. But once that is settled practice with either a metronome or a backing track...the backing track is more fun for obvious reasons. But try to time your vibrato in natural tempo's that compliment the BPM your using. You dont have to match perfectly but it makes it sound so much nicer when your close to a natural tempo. Alot of newer players i see tend to get very spastic when it comes to vibrato, and it shouldnt be spastic. Fast vibrato is not wrong nor is slow vibrato but it needs to have some kind of order to it. Unless for musical purposes your speciafically trying to sound chaotic.
Now when you say you can't pick fast are you saying that you can't AP fast...or just can't move the pick across the string quickly in general?
If its an AP problem there are several lessons here that can get you started in the right direction. If its picking in general i.e. just sounding the string. Start working on whats hanging you up. In the beginning i remember not having any consistency sounding the string with my picking. First off my hand motions were too big, and secondly my pick angle was all wrong for playing fast.
Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with picking the string with your pick parrallel with the string, if...and thats a big IF, you can get your pick touch light enough so you barely have to move to sound the string at speed. But for the most part precision of that kind is hard to come by without years and years of practice. Its far easier to angle your pick so its closer to 90 degrees to the string. This way when plucking the string with the pick the string will tend to "roll" over the string because the pick is curved on the end. The other way with the pick parallel to the string if your touch isnt super light it will "Hang" on the string making it very difficult to get a smooth picking stroke.
Music theory is just like learning math..or science, you have to study it to understand it. A good first step though in your road to theory mastery is to memorize the notes on the neck of the guitar, to know without thinking about it for example that if you fret a note on the low E string on the 7th fret that its B for example. If you learn the notes to the point you can just call them out in any order, it will make it much easier once you start to apply the theory skills you will learn as you go.
Daniel
