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Hey! How ya doing?

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Justin here with another quick tip for you,

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and today it is practice breaking strings.

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Now, I don't mean actually to practice breaking your strings

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cuz that would be kinda crazy,

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but breaking strings is kind of inevitable.

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It's gonna happen if you're out playing gigs and stuff.

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Sooner or later you're gonna bust a string on stage, it happens.

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Even often times I've restrung a guitar just before a show,

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and I've still managed to snap a string.

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Perhaps I've been getting into it particularly hard one day and it,

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you know, one of the strings popped.

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So, what I would recommend is that you kind of get ready for the emergency,

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and practice it a bit beforehand so you're not into a complete panic when it happens to you on stage.

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So, the way I used to practice it was to imagine a string had broken.

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If you wanted to, you could actually take different strings off.

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That wouldn't be a bad plan cuz it does feel a little different when there's a string gone,

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actually taken off the guitar.

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It kinda feels weird, but you don't have to go that far.

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The thing that I'd recommend that you practice,

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it's kinda fun as well, it'll help you explore the instrument,

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is just to pretend a string is missing.

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So, put on a backing track for 12 bar blues and do a 12 bar blues solo,

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but don't touch the second string.

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It's really interesting what happens, cuz so many of our licks go over that second string,

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Right?

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There's loads of them.

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All of your position changing stuff

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Loads of things are involved around that

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So suddenly when you take it away,

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or you can't use it,

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all of, well most of your licks don't work.

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So you have to kind of find new licks,

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and that can be kind of cool,

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cuz it forces you to explore things in a slightly different way.

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Now if you're a real beginner, it's just gonna be kinda be difficult right?

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Cuz you won't have enough vocabulary,

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enough licks to try and kind of get your way around.

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But if you're able to do a solo, you know,

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and you've got a little bit of vocabulary with your licks and stuff,

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it's a really, really fun exercise.

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You think about just the minor pentatonic scale,

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suddenly you've got that gap

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where you're not gonna play that second string.

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So all of like,

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you can't do those licks anymore.

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It would be,

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cuz all of the second string's gone.

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So it'll really make you explore.

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One of the things that's kinda interesting is

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to think along the strings instead of up and down.

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Most people think in terms of positions.

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But if you've got a kind of a groove,

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you could,

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That was all just the thinner string.

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So, trying to avoid the second string

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meant that I just stayed on the 1 string.

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Which is really good cuz you're kind of exploring it.

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I would never have played that particular line

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had I had access to the second string.

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Just because my fingers wouldn't have done that.

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So I've just found a new little thing.

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And also, when you skip a string,

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it sounds pretty interesting,

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particularly in blues. It's kinda more common

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to do string skippy stuff in rock and metal.

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But in a blues context,

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it's just a different kind of flavor that you get

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when suddenly the second string's taken away.

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It's really weird, but it's a great experience

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and a really good learning curve

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cuz it is gonna happen sooner or later in your

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guitar playing life you're gonna bust a string.

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So, much better to be prepare a little bit,

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I'm not saying you practice this all the time,

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just as a fun thing, you know, you're in a bit of a rut,

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not sure what to practice,

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this is the kind of thing that can open up a few doors,

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make you think just a little bit more different.

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"More different," terrible English.

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If anyone's learning English, forget that phrase.

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That's just really bad.

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You can see things differently is what I meant to say.

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And it's a really cool, fun thing you know.

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So, go off and have an explore.

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Either take the string off or just ban one string

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from a particular improvisation.

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Second string's kind of one of the hardest ones actually,

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but it's a good one to start off with just because

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it'll teach you straight away.

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Thinner string is a bit weird

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because a lot of guys rely on the thinner string

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for moving around, and the thick strings,

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for your chord playing, could be interesting too.

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Go off and have a check out of that idea,

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and I'll see you for many more quick tips and lessons

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and stuff very soon.

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Take care of yourselves, bye bye.