Take My Advice: You Can Play Guitar But You Suck!

Sometimes the truth hurts.  But if you can get over yourself for a minute, facing the truth can set you free. Or at least make you a better blues guitar player.

Blues Jam Night

This is a true story. Some years ago when I was working hard at getting my chops together I was a regular at a local blues jam night.  I was at a point where I was learning lots of technical stuff. My fingers were flying pretty fast and I felt pretty damn good about it.  I couldn’t wait to get up there and show the world what I could do.

When it was my turn to play I gave it all I had.  I played my heart out and then I played some more.  I squeezed every last drop of mojo out of that guitar and then I bled it until it cried out it pain.  I played my proverbial rear end off.

“That’ll show ‘em,”  I thought to myself as I put my guitar away.  I had once and for all established myself as a god of the blues guitar. Now I was gonna get some respect!

That’s when it happened.

A guy came over to me, backed me against the wall and said it: “You can play guitar, but you suck!”

“What!” I said, I couldn’t believe he had just said that.

Before I go on I should tell you about this guy. First of all, he’s a great player.  Not just good, but really great.  Second, he is the very rare type of person that really tells you what he thinks.  He doesn’t sugarcoat it, and he doesn’t really give a damn if you don’t like it.  And yes, he’s pissed off a lot of people over the years.

Well at first I got angry.  How dare he say that to me!  But then I calmed down.  I decided to hear him out.

He went on to compliment my technical skill.  I was really improving, he said, “but when you play, forget about all that stuff and play some music.”

He went on to give me some of the best advice I’ve ever been given.   He told me to practice singing what I play.  To start he said to put on a jam track,  a simple slow blues to start.  Choose 2 notes from the scale and sing them while I play them.  You really can make music with only 2 notes!

When that becomes easy, add a 3rd note.  After a while, add another, and so on.

Simple, isn’t it? But also an incredibly powerful way to get to the music you hear in your soul and make it happen on your guitar.

That one piece of advice helped me learn to play musically, not just throw a bunch of meaningless sound at the audience and hope for the best.

You see, playing the blues isn’t about flashy, fast, technical overplaying.  It’s about telling your stories.  It’s about playing your guitar with feeling.  It’s about baring your soul for everyone to see.

What I had been doing was playing too much, too fast, too often, and not really saying anything.  It’s like I was standing on a chair in the middle of the room and screaming my head off.  People just wanted me to SHUT UP!

Now I use this technique every time I play.  It is one of the most important skills I have as a guitarist.  And, the guy who gave me this bit of advice is my friend.

It’s good to have someone around who really gives you their honest opinion.  And he plays a mean blues guitar, too.

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