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Hi, how you doing?
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Justin here with another quick tip for you
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and this week it is why
you should record yourself.
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Now, it's pretty easy these days
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to get some sort of recording equipment.
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I'm not suggesting that you go out
and buy a full recording studio,
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but anyone with a Mac has probably
got GarageBand installed,
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and that's perfect for recording yourself.
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If you haven't got access to that
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even using like a little dictaphone or whatever.
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Anything that you can in order to record
you guitar and listen back to it,
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particularly being able to record
it against some sort of time
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whether it's a metronome or
a drum groove or whatever.
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Now, it's one of the things that
I think changes most guitar players
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when you can hear yourself back,
'cause all of us, when you're
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actually playing, you kinda got
a lot of stuff to think about,
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getting your chords nice
and clean, your rhythm tight,
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listening to the click track or
to the drums or whatever,
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there's a lot
lot of things going on
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so it's easy to lose
the proper perspective and
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when you record yourself and
listen back, you will notice stuff.
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You'll notice stuff that you might
never have picked up on.
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I remember one of my earliest
experiences recording myself
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I was recording some classical guitar
pieces and I had no idea
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that I was breathing really
loud and it was really funny
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listening to this stuff and hearing
(inhales, exhales)
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going on over the background, you know
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and I never would have noticed,
I never would have known
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while I was playing by myself
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but recording it, made me go
"oh wow that's something
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I gotta fix, right?" I've got to start
breathing through my mouth
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And just being aware of keeping
that quiet.
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Other things that really, really
help is rhythm guitar
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Listening to yourself playing rhythm
guitar, particularly if you can do it
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against a groove.
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Now, those of you with GarageBand will know
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that it's really easy to just
drag and drop drum loops
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into the kind of arrange window,
set it up on a continuous loop
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and play some rhythm guitar along with it.
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Now, just doing that a few times,
playing rhythm guitar
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for two or three minutes and
listening back to yourself and hearing
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how well you lock in with the groove
is an incredible teaching tool
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and it's the one that you can teach
yourself, you know, because
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you'll notice stuff, you'll hear when
you're slightly drifting and your time's
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not so good. You might hear good things
about yourself.
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So, you know, if what you hear is not
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so great, then it gives
you a chance to fix it 'cause
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if you don't know it's wrong,
you ain't never going to fix it, right?
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So, it's kind of a big deal.
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But if you hear that it's right,
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It's good cause it gives you
a bit of confidence as well.
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So, like yeah, I'm kind of doing this,
my rhythm's pretty solid.
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So it's such a great thing.
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For lead guitar, a lot of guys get really
worried about the fact that they're
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not playing enough, you know?
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I'm always preaching about how important
it is to leave space in your solos
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and not try and overplay stuff
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but a lot of people don't really believe
it until you do it.
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So, if you try to do one and leave
loads of space and then listen back to it
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You'll probably listen back and go,
you know what, that sounds right
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that's not too much space
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It feels like ages when you're doing it
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but when you're listening back,
it's alright
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it's really incredible
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Pitching, like string bends, when
you're doing all your string bends
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sometimes if you're
in the flow of stuff
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you might not notice that
your bends are out of tune.
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Happens to me still, sometimes,
if I'm doing a lesson or whatever and
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I'm thinking about doing the
teaching thing or whatever, then
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sometimes, you know, that little part of
my ear that's dealing with that goes awol
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and it goes a little bit wonky.
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So, listening back to yourself
will fix that sort of stuff.
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"Yeah, really gotta concentrate on
on getting those string bend in time."
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String noise, you know, having strings
ringing out when they shouldn't be.
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When you're doing your scales and stuff
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If you put your amp on and practice
playing scales with a metronome
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you're hearing whether your timing's good
and whether you've got extra string noise
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that you shouldn't have.
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There are so many, so many
more examples
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You know, it really is a
big deal recording yourself
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So, no matter what it is you got access to
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Whether it's a little dictaphone
you know, put a metronome on there
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near to the dictaphone,
play along with that stuff
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and listen back
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If you can, it's a great thing
to get into recording yourself generally.
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It's a lot of fun, recording yourself
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with GarageBand or Logic or ProTools
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or whatever you can get your hands on.
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It's fun to create something,
being able to record yourself and
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listen back and do different layers, you know?
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You can't really learn about layering
yourself unless you can record a part.
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You can kind of do it with a looper
but it's quite different
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when you're doing it for real.
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I'm just thinking of all
these different little things flooding in
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Red light fever, the fact that when you
start recording yourself things change
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I still don't really understand
why it works like that
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it even works for me, you know,
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If I'm recording myself or
doing a lesson or whatever
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as soon as the red light's on,
you're recording, things change
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There's something a little bit different
in your body that makes you play different
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Sometimes better, sometimes worse, but
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Getting used to recording yourself will
kind of open up that door a little bit more
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So if you ever get a chance to
record yourself for real
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with a band or whatever,
it's not quite so freaky.
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So I think that's probably like
fifty reasons off the bat.
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If you just think about
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All of the different things that
you'll learn and try it
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So, when you actually try
recording yourself,
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you're going to find loads
of different things, that,
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things that I haven't mentioned
that you notice in your playing,
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Your sound, what is your sound like, is
your sound good, is it breaking up a bit?
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There's all sorts of things going on with this.
It's a real big deal so,
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If you can, find a way to record yourself
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Doesn't matter what it is,
don't get all hung up on, you know,
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getting a posh microphone and
posh preamps and all that sort of stuff, you know?
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It's cool to do that, if you can
afford it and you want to,
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But you don't have to.
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For the lesson part, for the learning
how you play part, just recording yourself
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is a fantastic way to improve
your guitar playing. So, uh,
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Hope that helps you on your journey.
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I'll see you for plenty more
lessons and songs and more tips
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and all sorts of stuff very soon
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Take care of yourselves,
bye-bye!