5 Things We Wish We’d Known When Starting Out With Guitar [Volume 1] – That Pedal Show

We share a handful of ideas and practical tips that may help accelerate your playing and tonal progress – some of the things we wish we’d known when starting out!

Life too short for long YouTube videos? Please see the ‘Interesting bits and go-to sections’ information below.

Welcome to the show. Dan and I were discussing the kind of episodes we could do as the Covid-19 lockdown continues. Maybe it’s the increased alone time; maybe it’s the extra brain activity as we contemplate what’s next… but whatever it is, we’re all thinking a bit more; indulging in a little cerebral leg-stretching around how we might change, evolve and improve as guitarists. And as humans for that matter.
Anyhoo, we started to talk about some of the realisations that would have been oh-so helpful had they come along just a bit sooner in our playing lives. The list was long and deep, so we decided to choose five at random and get going. No doubt there will be more – we’d love to hear yours in the comments!

A note on minor and major pentatonic scales, just in case you need it…
To work out the minor and major pentatonic scales, first play the major scale in the key of your choice. The notes are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ,7, 8: In G or example, that’s G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, C
From there…
Minor pentatonic intervals: 1, b3, 4, 5, b7 (1) (we call the b3 and b7 the minor 3 and minor 7)
Major pentatonic intervals: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (1)
We’re deliberately not giving you the actual notes because working out and understanding the intervals is what it’s ALL about.

Enjoy the episode!

Interesting bits and go-to sections…
• Split-screen non-sadness: 0:00
• What are we doing today? 1:45
1. Time Is Everything (Except The Notes) 2:30
Discussion of Thing 1: 7:08
2. Don’t Break Out Of Your Boxes, Just Learn More Boxes: 13:22
Discussion of Thing 2: 25:50
3. A Low Action May Not Be Helping You: 30:08
Discussion of Thing 3: 33:40
4. You Don’t Have To Hit The Guitar Hard All The Time: 38:00
Discussion of Thing 4: 46:15
5. Be Open Minded About What You Listen To And Play: 49:50

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[gbk]

“Don’t have one box, have lots of boxes”. The same motto I use for pedals.

[BenOastler]

The "learn more boxes" thing just completely changed my mindset. When I was studying music in Australia (Dan, you'll know the teacher, and the reputation that went along with them), I was told I can't keep playing pentatonic based solos. I've never been able to break out, but learnt other boxes without realising, I had that hang up for 20 years. You guys just lifted that guilt. Thank you!!!!

Also, can I suggestion some other "things I wish I'd known"
Switch between playing with your fingers and your pick
Use a heavy pick, but experiment with different shapes - this was a huge game changer for me when I found the Jazz III
Sing along with your solos (even if you can't sing, you'll focus on the rhythm)
Rhythm is more important than the notes
Don't listen to yourself when you're playing live, listen to the band
Write on an acoustic guitar, then take it to the electric
Practise going up an arpeggio and back down the scale and vice verse (another huge game changer)
An octave is up 2 frets and down 2 strings (except when you land on the B string)
Practice playing a solo on a single string
Repeat an idea to build tension, repeat it until it's uncomfortable
Transcribe horn solos
Don't start playing right at the beginning of your solo, wait for the 4 chord in a blues to build tension
Flirt with playing a semi-tone up in a blues when you're on the 1 chord
Stand up when you practise
Practise in front of a mirror to judge your technique
Try bends with different fingers (eg bending with my middle finger gives a different effect to my 3rd)
Learn some right hand classical guitar techniques.
Keep a guitar out and available all the time.

Great episode guys, you lifted my curse!!!!

[bobtaylor]

LOVE the comment about playing to AC/DC records. Story time:

When my instructor first started introducing scales, modes, and playing blues/rock licks, there was basically no mention of timing, rhythm, or anything particularly musical. Quite frankly, I didn't enjoy it and nearly gave up. Then I put the new (at the time) AC/DC album "Black Ice" into my brother's stereo CD player, and instead of the Angus solo blaring through the speakers, I turned up my amp just a bit and started to play a groove that I thought was cool, but not quite spot on with the record.

Fast forward about a week or two, and my father comes barging into my room with his head rocking to some AC/DC, but he is shocked when he sees me playing guitar over the blaring stereo with my amp absolutely DIMED. I turn it down quickly and prepared myself to be berated for my "loud" behavior. He asked me, ".... that was you?" I nod my head and reply, "Just practicing and having some fun. Sorry it was too loud." He laughed and said, "I literally thought that was my man Angus playing that solo!"

Whether he was just being encouraging when I really sucked is besides the point. That moment proved how influential other musicians can be, and how I can greatly improve my playing by simply jamming along and feel the groove.

Thanks Dan and Mick!

[declanmurphy]

Hello men ..I have learned so much from watching you both over the years.. today you have freed my mind....thank you so very much for your channel.. on a serious note.. I lost my 19 year old Daughter two years ago.. and honestly between Dan and Mick and Josh Smith.. You have kept me sane .. thank you for the entertainment....education and the laughs....Declan :)....I am Currently building a pedal board that runs off drill batteries....so all good :) :)

[CoenBijpost]

12:40 One other thing that’s crazy handy to know when it comes to timing is, that we measure time by our heartbeat. That’s why time seems to speed up when you’re excited, and slow down when you’re bored. So when you’re in the studio or practice space, you have one sense of time, yet when you’re on stage, you start playing crazy fast all of a sudden. If you’re aware of this fact, you can start playing agonisingly slow when you feel your heart rate/breath rate speed up to compensate for it. This also works for speeches. Speak so slow that it feels awkward when in front of a group, so they can at least follow what you’re saying.

[kgriff]

Point 5 was my father's best advice, " son, if you want to be a professional musician, you can't afford to be a musical elitist." At the time, all I listened to or played was hard rock and heavy metal, and I thought at 18 that was the only music worth listening to! What a difference 40 years of playing made to that attitude!!

[johnchadwick]

That was like a great chat down at the pub with two old mates. Just missing the pints. Don’t go changing.

[OriginalBlueFrankie]

Dan's right about the action. The sustain is pretty obvious, but what is most surprising is the tonal difference in the midrange. The chords sounded fuller and chunkier. Great demonstration!

[MuadDib]

Don't try to learn the stuff that everyone else plays, learn the stuff you love.

If you believed YouTube demos you'd think that to be a proper guitarist you'd have to be a master of blues noodling. It's absolutely fine not to know a single lick if that makes you happy.

The TPS episode with Ed OBrian reinforced this 100% for me :-)

[simongjose]

As a guy who has noodled his whole life, I really appreciate these tips.The one addition I have recently found to get me out of the just box mode is this:
DOT DOT DOT down a string DOT DOT. Major pentatonic easily accessed up and down the neck. To reiterate a G MAJOR
G A B D E Easily gets me back on track if I want to move around and jump to a major box vs minor box. Love you guys, ROCK!! 🤘

[FranklinD]

Two things:
1) I purposely switched to a short scale guitar for several years to force myself to have a more delicate touch. It was my observation when playing Les Pauls that when I dig in it would push the string(s) out of tune. I guess a lot of the heavier gain players who play short scale guitars use super thin pics. I recently am now 100% all about Telecasters and will never go back to a short scale, but what I learned makes a HUGE impact on my playing. I can now play "softly" most of the time, and then when I hit a note or phrase hard it really feels right dynamically. Same with chords.


2) I loved the #2 "Find more boxes" segment. As always you do a great job in explaining something that is complicated and abstract.

First learn all the root note positions like you said. In G learn where all the G notes are on the neck. Then learn where all the 5ths are, in this case D. Then learn the minor/major third positions. Use those triads as the "home box" areas.

In a Blues progression what you describe is good advice for an introduction to this philosophy; Minor scale over the I chord, Major over the IV chord and Minor of over the V chord. That is a good jumping off point.

So here is what you were playing I believe; over a G major Blues progression. Please correct me if I am wrong! These are all pentatonic
G minor over the G
C major over the C
D minor over the D

You can change it all up too, of course! Try this over a G7 Blues progression:
G mixolydian (major with b7) over the G
G minor over the C
G minor Blues over the D in the turnaround & then
G mixyolodian over the G


Of course not all notes will work. The key is to use the key chord tones of each chord as a base and the others as passing tones. Same G7 progression:

G mixolydian (major with b7) over the G
- Focus on the 3rd, (B by bending up to it from the A note), the 7th (F) and also the G (I) and D (IV) notes. The rest of the notes are for passing notes to bridge phrases to the other chord tones.


G minor pent over the C
- This is usually also a C7 chord. So you have G, A#, C, D, & F as the G minor pent notes that have to mix with the key C7 chord tones; C, E, G & A#. If for the purpose of learning you mix them together and you get G, A#, C, D, E & F. So the only "weak" note from the G minor over the C is the D; which is still very useful.


G minor Blues over the D in the turnaround
-just to add the flat 4 if you want to walk down to the C & then


G mixyolodian over the G

[Glicksman]

Great show. I think every guitarist looking back to the beginning wishes that they knew things then that they later learned. That is not only so with guitar playing but also, if you’ll forgive me for waxing philosophic for a mo’, life itself.
As for higher action, yeah, I was a “low action is better” guy for a long time and only learned the truth of the thing by accident, the way a lot of good things are learned. Higher action does lots of good things for the sound. The obvious thing, which you guys mentioned, is that the strings aren’t flopping about against the frets above where we are playing so much.

However, there is another benefit to higher action. First, we must understand that the string becomes magnetized when it is in proximity to the magnet in the pickup. In order to get the maximum from that now magnetized string, nothing must interfere with its vibration above the pickup, including the pickup itself.

Moving the string ever so much farther away from the pickup lessens the pickup’s magnetic pull on the magnetized string and, accordingly, permits the string to vibrate with less or little magnetic pull. Thus, the sting’s vibrational pattern becomes more readily and clearly sensed by the pickup’s magnetic field and the pickup can send a greater quantity (no, not louder, but richer) of both the fundamental and harmonics to the amp. Lowering the pickup is one way to help this along, but raising the strings does it as well. This is true for humbuckers but even more so for single coils which typically magnetically pull the string much harder. The greater the magnetic pull on the string, the more the sound is being masked and diminished.

Jeff Beck, whose tone has always been of the best said that he sets his Strat pickups nearly flush to the pickguard and sets his action fairly high. Think he’s on to something?

I figured out a way to “measure” the magnetic pull of any pickup to determine if it is too close to the string. I take a paper clip and lay it on top of the string where the pickup is. If I feel a strong resistance when I lift it off the string, then that is how much the pickup is pulling that string. No, it’s not scientific, but it is a useful aid to help me determine whether I need to lower the pickup or raise the string a bit.

Cheers.

[mabecka]

Any idiot could sound good if all it took was practice! Buying pedals is where real talent comes in;)

[JustSomeGuy]

Nile Rodgers (of Chic) produced Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' album, and played guitar on the album. The man is a phenomenal guitarist, very sneaky with his stripped down, jazz-influenced chord progressions, and an amazing producer.

[RobinTrevorPike]

If you guys haven’t already, I’d love to see a video where you guys discuss your background a bit more. I really enjoy the show! You’re both great players and great personalities. Keep up the great work!

[captainstackpeelum]

Thank u guys. Best college college class ever for me was history of American music. We sat and listened to “Alabama” by john Coltrane. I cried and was amazed!! It changed my life. I didn’t listen to rock for years after that. Except if you consider zappa rock ;). Only bad it did at the time was to show me how how behind I was for all the years I played. New love for music but I didn’t pick up guitar for years after that. The expression of tenor sax and cello was amazing and never thought I would come close. Anyway luckily I rediscovered my love of hard rock and started again. Thank you again guys for the great shows. Come to Texas!! ;). Oh you probably know your jazz. But Yusef lateef live at peps is always mind blowing to me. I always ask my guitar virtuoso friends to do a high gain version of “sister Maine”. Anyways. Later

[BerniM]

With regard to playing hard/soft; I actually had to learn the value of hitting the strings on my Tele. It was the most expensive guitar I’d ever bought and I wasn’t enjoying it at all. I thought I had to treat it “properly” in case I broke it. I mentioned this to a mate of mine who is actually a guitarist. He asked me to play it while he listened, to see if he could pick up on anything to do with set-up. Almost immediately, he said “Ah. I think I can see your problem. Give it here.” So I did, whereupon he ripped out some breathtaking country and country rock licks. It sounded majestic. As he gave it back, he said, “Sometimes - not always - you’ve just got to spank the f****r”. Big lesson.

[sowhulljnr]

Had to laugh at Dan when he said, "well that must be rubbish, because Mum listens to it" comment, hilarious! Recently on a visit to my wife's family in Finland (first trip since covid restrictions have been lifted) to introduce her parents to their new grandson, I had a look through my wife's mum's old vinyl collection and there were some real gems in there. I had my son in my arms listening to some stuff and I could help but laugh at the thought of him rocking out to Grandma's Deep Purple "Live in Japan" LP 😀. Its hard to believe but that is the older generation

[timesacharm]

About the timing thing: I see myself as a beginner. And lately I've been playing along to songs. But not with the guitars of the song, but with the lead vocals. Huge revelation!

[kristofferhjelmaassivertse]

One of the most valuable lessons i learned from my Uni teacher was, always play with confidence! no matter the dynamic or how many notes, always play with confidence! it will sound much better just from that!