5 Tips For Being A Smarter Acoustic Guitar Player

wow, that was good. I was complete shite minutes ago, now I'm only partially so.

seriously, good stuff.

p.s. I'm never going to Nashville (at least with a guitar).
 
I generally disagree with everything he's saying. Different people play different ways to achieve different means. It's all about what you like and/or what others like. I like acoustic guitar solos that explore all the available notes, be they Paco, Tony Rice, Django, Clapton, McLaughlin, Garcia, Fisk, etc. I've heard loved listening to Lindsey Buckingham and others beat the shit of guitar they were strumming it so hard. There are some pretty damned good recordings with folks using various pups in acoustics and amazing live performances with someone using a mic'd acoustic. A good guitarist doesn't need a capo to avoid playing only bar chords...I'm not in that category, but I play open chord shapes all over the neck. That said, a capo is a great tool for any guitarist.

I get that these are his ideas and practical for him, but they are subjective as all hell. Play an acoustic like an electric, play an electric like an acoustic, play a steel string like a nylon string, play slide on a nylon...whatever the fuck floats your boat and gets sounds that you like. Definitely learn all about nuance and dynamics and incorporate them like mad, but get over any idea of what you should or shouldn't do...unless it's that you present your dogmatic near nonsense off as gospel.

But he's got every right to his perspective.
 
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Thank God I've never cared about the right way to do anything. :hippie:

How sad would it be if Richie Havens gave in when someone told him, "You can't play guitar that way."
 
I generally disagree with everything he's saying. Different people play different ways to achieve different means. It's all about what you like and/or what others like. I like acoustic guitar solos that explore all the available notes, be they Paco, Tony Rice, Django, Clapton, McLaughlin, Garcia, Fisk, etc. I've heard loved listening to Lindsey Buckingham and others beat the shit of guitar they were strumming it so hard. There are some pretty damned good recordings with folks using various pups in acoustics and amazing live performances with someone using a mic'd acoustic. A good guitarist doesn't need a capo to avoid playing only bar chords...I'm not in that category, but I play open chord shapes all over the neck. That said, a capo is a great tool for any guitarist.

I get that these are his ideas and practical for him, but they are subjective as all hell. Play an acoustic like an electric, play an electric like an acoustic, play a steel string like a nylon string, play slide on a nylon...whatever the fuck floats your boat and gets sounds that you like. Definitely learn all about nuance and dynamics and incorporate them like mad, but get over any idea of what you should or shouldn't do...unless it's that you present your dogmatic near nonsense off as gospel.

But he's got every right to his perspective.

I think where his advice falls short is that he frames it in absolute terms: "never" and "always"

His video would be better had he suggested that players be thoughtful about certain techniques and habits, particularly as they relate to the song being performed. As for the strumming too hard, I understand his point. I frequently see players at open mics strumming in a ham-fisted way with no sense of dynamics for the song. But to Gary's point (re: Richie), to say one should never strum hard seems silly and unnecessarily restrictive.

Similarly with chord voicings. Power chords may work for a particular arrangement of a song, but they probably shouldn't be the default setting when playing a song.
 
Thank God I've never cared about the right way to do anything. :hippie:

How sad would it be if Richie Havens gave in when someone told him, "You can't play guitar that way."


Guitar mic...guitar mic.

Totally, partially open tuned, most fretting done with his thumb (and some ring finger), literally beating the hell out of the guitar...and it all sounds fucking awesome!
 
I think where his advice falls short is that he frames it in absolute terms: "never" and "always"

His video would be better had he suggested that players be thoughtful about certain techniques and habits, particularly as they relate to the song being performed. As for the strumming too hard, I understand his point. I frequently see players at open mics strumming in a ham-fisted way with no sense of dynamics for the song. But to Gary's point (re: Richie), to say one should never strum hard seems silly and unnecessarily restrictive.

Similarly with chord voicings. Power chords may work for a particular arrangement of a song, but they probably shouldn't be the default setting when playing a song.

He more specifically goes after barre chords...I barre the open G and C shapes up and down the neck, solo all over the place, strum and pluck with ferocity or as gentle as a feather. Do I sounds good? Not particularly, but the folks that I love that do the same sure as hell do. It's just a rather myopic view of how to approach things...definitely presented in a finite manner.
 
That guy's advice is great if you're looking to do slick sounding Nashville-aligned approachable song-based stuff.

Some of his "interesting" chord voicings sound like pure Velveeta to me.
 
Yeah, the always and never stuff is probably too strict. But there's some seriously good advice here.
I played solely acoustic for five years before picking up an electric, so there's nothing new here for me.
 
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