1. It’s better to practice 30 minutes a day than 10 hours once a week.
2. Take frequent breaks, distract your mind to then go back and give full attention to what you are doing. Usually 45 minutes practice followed by15 minutes break works for me.
3. Always warm up and stretch before playing for hours. Start slow with some technical exercises. I did a theatre gig for 3 years that had a 15 minute band call. I used that to warm up with different technical exercises, and I was shocked how just those 10 minutes every day gave a massive boost on my speed and articulation. 10 minutes!
4. I find that practising tunes (playing actual music) is better than spending hours practising technical exercises. Those are great to warm up. Composing new tunes, finding new ideas , learning and transposing tunes in all keys are by far the best things you can do when practising.
5. Try playing/practising in the dark (pitch black room or blindfolded). You will become more musical and less dependent on ‘visual patterns’. John Scofield used to do this all the time.
6. Keep a basic setup ready to go at all times (if you can at home), this is great for impromptu sessions, when you are more inspired to write/record/practice without loosing momentum by trying to find picks and cables.
7. Record your practice sessions and listen back after a few days to find what you can improve. If you practice with a computer or a phone, video your sessions and you’ll find also you can correct postural problems or see if your performance is visually boring!
8. Practising should not be a boring task. If you find it boring, don’t do it. You should be curious/excited about improving.
9. It is better to practice with a friend than along to backing tracks. Invest in a looper pedal (they can be super cheap these days), it can be fun and beats playing to a backing track. Playing along to tracks is not bad, but I find that after a while it’s easy to loose focus and just ‘noodle’. If you practice to tracks, take a short break after each one, don’t let one roll into the other.
10. Change your practice routine often. Just like working out at the gym, your body gets used to doing the same exercises and stops reacting. Rotate different exercises/tunes/tasks.

I have had a few messages about my Guitar Kit Pro, if I was ever going to include 7 string templates. I am not sure if I will expand that particular product, for now I thought of sharing  three free templates here.

You can download TABs,  TABs+STAFF and BOX shapes for 7 string guitars from the link below. It’s a small zip file which contains 3 PDF files and PNG files.

7_strings_guitar_templates

These are OK to use and modify for personal use, if you do consider making a donation or purchasing one of our products to support this site!  Please do not remove the ‘TrueGuitarist.com’ logo or use these templates commercially.

I am always looking for new exercises to stretch and make gigging less of a physical chore. If you have ever played a whole week of  four-sets-gigs with a heavy Les Paul on you shoulder, you know you will feel better if you stretch before and after your gig, even just for a few minutes.

I bumped into this set of stretches for your shoulders and I must say I found them to be great. Practice them slowly at first! Know your limits!

This is the link:

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/1-7459-1/8-yoga-poses-to-help-cervical-spine-neck-issues.html

This is another great stretch/warm up for your finger to do before and after your gigs and long practice sessions. Remember to warm up your hands (or any part of your body) before stretching and get your blood flowing. Never stretch from ‘cold’.

Great stuff. Those that have read my instructional blues book know how I advocate constructive criticism, where you try to fix problems without putting a negative spin on what you are playing. I was lucky enough to read the Inner Game of Tennis early on and focus on the process of improving rather than getting demoralized by how  many mistakes I was making. A version of the book geared towards music has been since published (see end of post), but I still prefer the original book as really well written and to-the-point.

To improve in every aspect of music making, we have to go through the process of criticising what we play to remove mistakes and try to find ‘our sound’. This unfortunately makes us over-critical, especially in the early stages when we have a hero to emulate and the end result seems unreachable.

A good exercise (always suggested by guitar guru Mick Goodrick) is to record yourself playing and, after a few days, listen back to the recording making note of what to fix and what you liked. Take action.

Some other good thoughts on practice, goals and focusing on the positive can be found in this great video from a Steve Vai masterclass:

Suggested Reading:

To follow, a series of keywords to keep in mind when trying to improve your tone.

Signal Path:

Hand (touch, weight of the picking stroke, way you hold the pick)

I tend to use a lighter touch, letting the amp do the work. Obviously this is genre specific, if you play metal you might want to grip the pick and hit the strings harder. Try and experiment with making the picking motion with your fingers, wrist, forearm or entire arm and notice the difference.

Pick (thickness, material, shape of edge)

I did a video on this a while ago: http://www.trueguitarist.com/using-different-guitar-picks/

In general I use the same picks during live gigs for consistency, but to record (especially pop) I tend to find the right pick for the job.

Strings (material, round/flat, thickness, tension)

this is where things start go get a bit complicated as choice of strings don’t only have to do with tone, but with budget and how easy they are to find…when I was touring and travelling a lot I stuck for a long time (and still use) D’Addario 10′s as they seemed the only set that I could find everywhere in the world (including small villages in the Caribbean when I used to play on cruise ships!).

Wood (Lighter to heavier)

A general rule of thumb is that the lighter coloured the wood, the brighter (and snappier) the sound. Maple fret boards/ash bodies will give you a hollow and bright sound, as opposite to Mahogany and Rosewood fretboard that will give you more punch, body and a darker tone.

Hardware (bridge, nut, hight and type of frets, pegs)

Frets are vital for sustain and they are so important for the choice of the right instrument. In general high frets (jumbo) are great as they allow less of the string/finger to touch the wood on the fretboard and make bending easier. Having said that lower frets are great for jazz as they allow smoother slides.

Check out this video from Paul Reed Smith:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzKT8WrZhhc

I am not a fan of carbon fibre hardware as it seems to dull the sound for me, but if you have issues with breaking strings they seem to save the day. Bone nut seems to be the favourite of most guitarists but there are alternative materials that do just as well, if you don’t play 15 hours a day.

Pickups (if any, output, magnet type)

Possibly the first port of call if you want to improve or change your tone is changing pickups…having said that, I always urge to try and set them up first and try to get them closer or further from the strings. Most times that is enough to add more bass/treble or output to the signal chain. I always try to do this live if I can…carry a small screw driver and try to tweak the hight as you play a real gig…obviously don’t get caught doing it!

Electronics (active, passive, caps)

Try and get the best quality potentiometers and caps in your guitar. I have noticed a noticeable jump in quality by doing that, and in durability. Keep a can of contacts cleaning fluid to keep things working as they should. There are also some tricks to keep the tone from getting dull when the volume is not all the way up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0SLdOWvz3c

Quality and type of Cables/Wireless

Just like for stings picking cables have a lot to do with quality, budget and durability. I always use braided cables as they don’t tangle up (reducing setup time) and make the cable last a lot longer. Not always the more expensive the cable is, the better it sounds. Try and use correct lengths…if you are doing a restaurant gig don’t use a 50ft cable…and try not to bring a 3ft cable for a area tour. Tone changes with a longer cable.

Pedals (how many, True bypass/Buffer, paraller/serial,switching system)

I could write a whole book on this…my experience is to try and find the right solution for the gig. At a small gig/recording session try to bring what you need, and if you build a pedal board my personal suggestion is to use true bypass loops/switching system with possibly a switch-able buffer (sometimes I find they change the dry tone too much). Believe the hype: if a lot of guitarists use a specific pedal, go and try it…it will probably sound good.

Amp Sections (Power soak?)

Usually an amp that is built for early break up, does not have much headroom. Consider using a power soak.  To me a good amp is quite true to the sound of the guitar you are using, and makes it sound just louder. I try to avoid using the send/return section as I find changes the sound. Also I try to cut on the EQ section (unless the guitar I am using is really weak), as that usually allows me to turn up the volume and get more in the ‘sweet spot’ zone of the amp.

Speaker Selection

Changing the speaker makes such a massive difference in your tone, and alongside changing pickups it is the most common upgrade. Try and find comparisons online and take your pick! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWK0sa7tlfI

Keep everything in top conditions! Old strings, dirty cable connections, loose solder joints…technical problems happen, but there is no excuse for negligence. Obviously the first thing is ‘brain/ears’: do we know what tone we want? I find that is the biggest issue sometimes. Can you ‘hear’ the tone you want in your head?

I hope this helped, good luck!

Suggested reading:

This is what I received in the post a few days after ordering from a German website.

As you can see all components are separate, and before you start I definitely advice to read all instructions! In this case I found out that you could follow two separate sets of instructions, one for true bypass and one for a buffered version. All instructions were in German which did not help…!

A trick I have learnt to speed up the process is to identify all resistors and capacitors by taping them on the ‘bill of materials’ page like in the picture below.

This makes things much easier when you will start populating (soldering components onto) the PCB.

After that I started to look into soldering components to the PCB, I decided to go for the buffered version, as this particular overdrive had a famously great sounding buffer section. I am not a fan of buffers, but I was curious to test it out. It can always be converted to true bypass with some small modifications.

The layout is intended to match the ‘plain’ side of the PBC facing you, the one without the exposed metal circles, to be clear.

So this is what should be in front of you before you start soldering.

Next I started soldering all resistors onto the board and the IC sockets.

Following that all Diodes and Elect Capacitors. Make sure you pay attention to the orientation of these two types of components. Diodes have a black band that needs to be on the correct side and Capacitor have the negative side marked usually by a different coloured band. This will all be marked on the PCB layout or on in the circuit.

Next you will solder all remaining capacitors and slot the IC’s onto the sockets.

Almost there! Next you want to screw the potentiometers, jacks, foot switch, led holder and power socket on the enclosure. Sometimes (like I found out later in this case) it is better to wait to fit the potentiometers to the box, as it might make them easier to solder to the PCB.

Before screwing all things onto the box I had applied the decals onto the front of the enclosure, I did this by using waterproof inkjet printable adhesive vinyl. It is an easy option and I found it lasts quite a bit without having to powder coat the boxes or having to spray paint them. Also you can use a regular printer which makes for potentially very creative artwork. I opted for a very basic and clear layout, but if this pedal makes it to my board, I will make it more interesting to look at!

You can now start soldering the leads to the input  output and power section. This will all be shown in the main layout on the instructions.

At this point I will connect the PCB to the potentiometers and in/out/power connections.

I will tidy up all the wires later, I just want to find out if it all works OK or it needs some troubleshooting. Luckily it all work fine, and it sounds great. Below the picture of the finished product in action!

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So I wanted to do a post on what I think a lot of guitarists out there get wrong…remember this is my opinion!!

First of all: you need to  find a balance between what is a volume/tone/sustain that is both comfortable and inspiring for you but not overpowering and intrusive for the other band members.

A good approach is to CUT rather than to BOOST on your amp’s EQ section. Unless you are playing on the same stage every night, every room will make your amp sound different. So I always start from all EQ on 12 o’clock and start cutting what I feel makes my tone muddy. Usually…bass!! I always hear too much bass coming from guitar amps. That’s the bass player’s realm.

Cutting frequencies will also allow me to turn up the volume more, which is always a good thing for tone…we all know that!

A slight boost in the midrange area might help you ‘cut through’ when needed.

I own different amps, but my go-to amp for medium size gigs is a modified Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a Vintage 30 speaker.  Unless you play metal, there is enough in there to make everybody happy at any gig, and not break your back carrying it around. It’s not an expensive amp, and I have seen even Mike Landau use them live and great some great tones…so if it is good enough for him…

Even though ‘all knobs all the way up’ might be  a good setting to record a rhythm part in a studio, this might make your tone clearer and fuller:

Then again…use your ears!! All I mean to say here is try to think like a sound engineer mixing a band rather than just to make your guitar sound bigger.

A last thought: learn to play with a lighter touch. Too many guitarist pick too hard all the time. Let the amp do the work for you, and ‘dig in’ when you need that extra kick or break-up. All my favourite guitarist in terms of tone just about touch the strings with their picking hand.

Suggested Reading:

Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar Sound

In this video I quickly explain how to take a basic idea and try to develop it to make your solos more interesting and memorable. Remember to leave lots of space!!

Recommended reading:

Hal Crook: An analysis of his core improvisational style: An analysis of trombonist Hal Crooks’ improvisational style from 1994-96, through the examination of core material

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World from Joey Tosi on Vimeo.

Suggested reading:

Guitar Effects Pedals: The Practical Handbook