Alright, I remember way back when I was about fourteen years old and I was all fancy and I was all yeah.
Doing everything and I started taking jazz lessons and I remember walking into the first lesson thinking I was going to really impress the teacher.
Ah, watch this, I was doing all this crazy stuff and he just stops and turns on a metronome and sets it down as low as it would go.
As low as it would go to about forty BPM's and said play chord notes.
I was like what, ok.
So it was just going, And I was just going.
And he stopped me and said "No, no, you're doing it wrong."
He had to teach me discipline. I did not have discipline.
I could do a lot of fancy stuff and do a lot of riffing and a lot of shredding and all that stuff but I had no pocket.
Without that it doesn't matter what you do, it's crap if it's not in the right place in the beat
and you're better off playing the wrong notes with good groove than the right notes rushing the beat.
One of the most important lessons you could learn right now is that the drummer is your boss.
The drummer is the boss.
I know you're going to hate hearing that.
Right now all the drummers in your band are smiling like yeah see.
The drummer is the boss the beat is the boss so listen to the beat. The beat is the leader and you have to follow the beat.
Never, ever jump in front of the beat. It's the worst thing you could do.
It doesn't matter how well you're playing, how accurate, if it's in front of the beat in a bad place it's not good.
Let's get a beat going here.
A little, ah, there.
That's brutally slow, as guitar players we just want to jump ahead and our heart is racing and we want to play double that speed and just to do this
it's kind of a, it's painful, it's awkward, it's not right.
This is what we need to learn and we need to become comfortable with it.
So what I want you all to do is listen to this beat.
This is forty BPM's and I want you to play just one whole note to each one of those.
Let's get some volume. There we go.
When you play it, I want you to be behind the beat.
A little bit behind, wait for the beat and then hit it even if you're way behind it is better than being way in front.
You want to get into the practice of waiting for the beat to happen and not jumping ahead and not rushing everything.
So just take a deep breath and just wait for it.
If it's too slow you may not feel the pulse and the groove at that speed.
So one trick you can do is take this slow rhythm that's going
and divide it in your head into two, into four, into something that you can latch on to that has a wave that you can ride.
So we've got boom ,boom, boom, boom. So think of maybe boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four and as you're playing to this, you're feeling this.
You're dividing into something you can grasp a little better.
So try it again and in your head think one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
One and then lay back on it.
One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four...
Just like that.
Out of all the shredding and everything else you do this may be the toughest thing of all, this right here.
As simple as it is because it's about everything else.
It's not about your hands and what you need to remember is that music is not about your hands.
Your hands is where the music ends, not where it begins, not where it's created, it's where the music leaves you.
So don't think about your hands.
Think about your body and your connection to the rhythm that's going on around you and this external beat here.
You got to take it and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom…
and don't rush that just stay behind that groove.
This is the toughest thing to do out of all the crazy shredding stuff, yeah.
So once you're doing this start doing scales and take it slow.
What you're doing, you're not practicing the scale, you're not practicing hand techniques, anything like that.
You're practicing staying behind the beat
and developing that sense, that letting go.
It's all about letting go and not trying to control everything.
Learn to let go and let the beat happen. Don't try and be the beat.
That is probably the most difficult lesson that I've ever taken on and getting that down.
It sounds like nothing but everything that's going on inside you as far as just releasing that urge that we as guitars players just have to jump in front
and just do everything quick and just in the front.
We're not in the front.
The drums, the beat, whatever you're playing to is in the front and you have to respect that and you have to follow that.
Very good, so do that.
So set your metronome, your whatever you have that clicks as slow as it can go to the point to where you almost can't even feel that it's happening
and then divide the rhythm in your head so that you are syncing up to it and then just relax and play behind it.