4 Tips & Guitar Wisdom that MIGHT improve your guitar playing?

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

00:00 Intro
00:55 Washing Up Tips
1:32 Vice Grips
3:29 Bends and thinking about bends
5:03 Chord Transitions
8:58 Dynamics, expression and having somewhere to go
12:00 Outro playing

[jimamsden]

Great points John. Mountain biking has similar rules: look where you want to go not where you don't want to go. If you look at the rocks and roots, that's where your front wheel is going to go every time. I do chord transitions the same way. I try not to think about each individual finger and how it moves - because that will be different for every source to target chord. Rather I try to focus on the hand pattern for the chord and go to it in a single motion, regardless of the chord that preceded it.

[Stringprodigy]

These concepts significantly improved my love life.

[tossedpenny]

So many players blow right on by dynamics and live on "10". Proper dynamics and tasteful fretboard vibrato can make an average player sound like a pro. Good tips.

[Citizen-a]

Really useful tips here. My grip gets tighter and tighter, and its good to remind myself to play with a lighter touch. BTW, my Strat is older than John - which is only troubling because I purchased it new myself.

[johnnytwo-shoes]

This is great stuff. For years I couldn't bend and being self taught pre internet had to work it out most on my own and it took yonks to do it. These days many people are opting for YouTube in place of a face to face teachers so all the immediate foundational correction of technique is kind of lost and this type of video fills that gap. Also it's quite important for string (and aerophones) instruments where learning how to make a sound in the first place can require a learning curve (tone is in the fingers... Said the saxophonist 😁 ) great vid.

I've also found unlike when I place vibrato on a note without bending, where the pitch rises above and back to the original pitch, bending up to a note and then placing vibrato on the up bend sounds more pleasing when applying the vibrato in the opposite pitch direction i.e. bend to pitch and then release to lower pitch and return to pitch. (Maybe you can chime in and give your perspective?)

This is rather than bending to new pitch and then vibrato around the central pitch - when I do it that way, it sounds like I'm bending out of tune.
That's just me and it might not work of others, but that detail and investigation of the Nitty gritty of technique is really useful and the vids you that are like that (popular or not) are useful for those that don't know and for affirmation for those that do.

[dustunferren]

Love all your lessons John, but this was particularly helpful. Thanks so much for all you do!

[blackfeather]

Great bunch of tips there John. Love that bending tip. Cheers

[jakeah]

Love these tips, thanks... they seem obvious now you mention them but I probably would have struggled for a lot longer before realising them for myself.

[TheBoone]

Great information. I was taught these growing up too and they help so much!

[adriancooper]

14 minutes of pure gold, thank you John

[stephaneouimet]

Usually watch you for hx stomp or helix content, but if you have tips for free, I'll take them. I love that content also. Thanks Jonathan

[chrishandley]

Excellent advice, more recently I've been trying to 'not' maintain pressure after I've played a hammered note, or rather just to move my fingers quicker toward the fretboard without applying too much pressure, that's tricky! At least it is for me...

[ksharpe]

This may help me with Rehab. of my Left hand. LIGHTER TOUCH!!!

[desmusik]

important stuff that John.the kung fu death grip can eventually lead to all kinds of grief... tennis elbow carpal tunnel etc.had to do an entire summer 5 x 45 min a night.... high action bad monitoring.had probs with tennis elbow for years after.nice one.

[rawkout]

get the best articulate monster bends by using my pointer finger! obvious probably, but I just realized this after years of playing. :P

[paulcaton]

Excellent tips John & I need to start implementing some of them right away. In this general area of playing improvement, what's your feeling on going down to the crossroads and selling your soul to the Devil - worth it?

[YonathanLeibovich]

Hi Jonathan.. Really love your playing style and vids...
I'm experiencing pain in my hands for some time now.. And I really have to deal with the "vice grip" problem...
Do you have any experience with hand injury/hand pain you're willing to share?
(Not meaning that I've hoped you had any problems or anything hehe)

[theaartzvolta]

What patch are you using here? It sounds great. Do you have a similar patch made for the Pod Go?
Great lesson, too.

[Deep_Jimpact]

Christ, the king of metaphor strikes again

[tnoam]

Where can we find a list of your HXstomp preset list? I wanna buy,