Marty Friedman’s advice to guitarists: “Everything that I always say about this can be related to sex in some way: if you practice at home, you’re going to get good at practicing at home”
There are some things more important than “practising” the guitar for those who want to master it, according to guitar legend Marty Friedman.
The guitarist, whose US tour kicks off in Las Vegas later this week, speaks in a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, where he reveals that he hasn’t actually practiced the guitar in a long while.
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Asked about his current practice routine, Friedman explains, “I haven’t practiced in probably three decades because I’m playing guitar so incredibly much, all of the time: either performing, writing, rehearsing, recording.”
For Friedman, the constant immersion in the real-world aspects of music is “so much more beneficial” than any kind of traditional practice: “As soon as we get off the phone here, I’m going to be doing a video for a guitar magazine in Japan, where I’m playing a bunch of stuff from my Drama album,” he says.
“Everything that I always say about this can be related to sex in some way: if you practice at home, you’re going to get good at practicing at home. If you go out and do the real thing, you’re going to get good at doing the real thing.”
“But I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been playing live since I was 14-15, so all I’ve been doing since then is creating music and performing it, and oftentimes having to explain it, whether it be guitar seminars or music videos for instructional things. So, I have to know exactly what it is I’m doing.”
In music videos, for instance, “when they’re showing your fingers, you [have] got to know exactly what it is you’re playing on that record,” says Friedman, who recently completed a music video for the song Tearful Confession.
“And my music is very, very nuanced, so it took quite a bit of work to get my fingers exactly the same as what’s on the record. And so doing that is far more beneficial to my end goal than practicing. I wouldn’t even know what to practice. So I recommend this to people.”
He continues: “A lot of people [will say], ‘Well, I’m not in a band, and I don’t get to play in front of people, and I’m not recording.’ So what I say to them is you have to make the top priority not the practicing of your licks or whatever you’re practicing. Your top priority has got to be creating opportunities to play in front of people.”
“And on the course of doing that, you will develop, believe me, the things that your hands need to do because when you have a gig in front of people, whether it be a guitar seminar or a guitar clinic or a concert or a music video or anything, you’re going to work on the material for that so much harder than you would sitting at home with no goals.”
“So, therefore, the work that you put in gets you more results. So, instead of practicing, don’t practice,” Friedman concludes. “Practice networking. Practice putting together a band. Practice putting together gigs for yourself. That’s going to really be a very beneficial thing I recommend.”
The post Marty Friedman’s advice to guitarists: “Everything that I always say about this can be related to sex in some way: if you practice at home, you’re going to get good at practicing at home” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
