advise for serious guitarist

[jacksonsoloist]

Hi chris,




I really need your advise. First of all I'm 14, I live in Oklahoma, and I don't have a lot of money to work with. I've been playing guitar for four years now. I absolutely love it and I practice every day, but I've never taken lessons. I've learned everything from YouTube because I don't have the kind of Mont for direct lessons.. I am dead set on playing guitar for a career but those odds are slim to none. I want to know everything you did to end up where you r today. Like what college you went to and what courses you took. I will do anything to do what you do no matter how long it takes or how much hard work I have to put in. Please tell me anything that can help. And if at all possible please give me a more private way to contact you bcause I have so many more questions.
Thanks,
Zane Timmons

 

[jacksonsoloist]

Srry I meant to say( money ) and ( correct )

 

[Mr.Sister]

Dude, just practice a fucking lot, absorb everything, that you can learn about the instrument, like a sponge and always listen (!!!) to what you play.

 

[HeavyMetalVagabond]

Hey Zane, you remind me of myself so I thought I'd try and help you out,

you can find a lot of information on Chris' path to success on chrisbroderick.com. It tells you where he studied, how much he practised, what he practised, courses he took, influences, and a whole bunch of other stuff. He also has done a lot of interviews etc that are on youtube that you can learn from.

While I am by no means making a career out of guitar playing, I can throw in my two cents and hopefully help you out. You started playing guitar at a young age, which is fantastic, and have quickly found fantastic guitar "idols" to look up to and learn from. I suggest for now, that you REALLY focus on your technique. I started playing when I was 14, and my first guitar "idol" was Jimmy Page, and as a result (no offense to him ) I developed a DREADFUL picking technique which I only fixed when I was about 18, I WISH I had discovered players like chris broderick when I was your age, so I could have A) learned correct technique from the start and B) had the time to practise them!! You may think you don't have enough time to practise but I'll tell you now, as you get older that problem only gets worse, I guess what I'm trying to say is, really take advantage of the fact that you started playing at a young age... Separate your studies into sections, for example:
1) alternate picking: Use Paul Gilbert's instruction videos for this, they help a LOT, but you must put the effort in (Search into youtube: Paul Gilbert sequences and techniques)
2) tapping: start with Van Halen-y type stuff and some of those 80s shredders, then move on to Chris Broderick and Greg Howe. Greg just makes tapping lines sound delicious, and Chris' tapping is more or less unparalleled.
3) Sweep Picking: Jeff Loomis has some excellent lessons/tricks to improve this, he sweeps like a Janitor!
4) and finally, (something that I'm working on now, and when it comes down to it, is the most important thing of all) try to compose songs, solos, ideas etc. You can have all the technique in the world, but if you can't write songs you won't really get anywhere. I can't really give you advice on this cos I suck at it... But I believe if my music theory knowledge was better (it is well above average, but I am by no means a master), I may have a better chance...

I'm sure you can do a lot of this stuff already, but just to give you some direction. And finally, I appreciate you really want to make a career out of guitar, and it's good that you appreciate how difficult it is and how slim people's chances can be. But I really suggest you have something to fall back on, in short, do your schoolwork

Make a habit of doing everything you do to the BEST of your ability, that way you will always be successful. You may not end up the next guitar hero, but you'll be a success at SOMETHING.

 

[jacksonsoloist]

Hey heavymetalvagabond( hope I got that right ). I can't thank u enough for ur reply that is by far the most helpful advise I could have gotten. Thank u so so much. I'll be sure to look at all of those videos.

 

[HeavyMetalVagabond]

no problem man,

if you have any more specific questions you can post them on this thread and I (and other dudes on this forum) will do my best to help.