Guitar Quick Tip #11: Practice Breaking Strings (Guitar Lesson QT-011)

In this guitar lesson quick tip video we'll look at how and why you should practice improvising as if you have a broken string!

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

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Hey! How ya doing?

Justin here with another quick tip for you,

and today it is practice breaking strings.

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

cuz that would be kinda crazy,

but breaking strings is kind of inevitable.

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

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

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

and I've still managed to snap a string.

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

you know, one of the strings popped.

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

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

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

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

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

actually taken off the guitar.

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

The thing that I'd recommend that you practice,

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

is just to pretend a string is missing.

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

but don't touch the second string.

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

Right?

There's loads of them.

All of your position changing stuff

Loads of things are involved around that

So suddenly when you take it away,

or you can't use it,

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

So you have to kind of find new licks,

and that can be kind of cool,

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

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

Cuz you won't have enough vocabulary,

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

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

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

it's a really, really fun exercise.

You think about just the minor pentatonic scale,

suddenly you've got that gap

where you're not gonna play that second string.

So all of like,

you can't do those licks anymore.

It would be,

cuz all of the second string's gone.

So it'll really make you explore.

One of the things that's kinda interesting is

to think along the strings instead of up and down.

Most people think in terms of positions.

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

you could,

That was all just the thinner string.

So, trying to avoid the second string

meant that I just stayed on the 1 string.

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

I would never have played that particular line

had I had access to the second string.

Just because my fingers wouldn't have done that.

And also, when you skip a string,

it sounds pretty interesting,

particularly in blues, it's kinda more common

to do string skippy stuff in rock and metal.

But in a blues context,

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

when suddenly the second string's taken away.

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

and a really good learning curve

cuz it is gonna happen sooner or later in your

guitar playing life you're gonna bust a string.

So, much better to be prepare a little bit,

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

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

not sure what to practice,

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

make you think just a little bit more different.

"More different," terrible English.

If anyone's learning English, forget that phrase.

That's just really bad.

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

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

So, go off and have an explore.

Either take the string off or just ban one string

from a particular improvisation.

Second string's actually one of the hardest ones

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

it'll teach you straight away.

Thinner string is a bit weird

because a lot of guys rely on the thinner string

for moving around, and the thick strings,

for your chord playing, could be interesting too.

Go off and have a check out of that idea,

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

and stuff very soon.

Take care of yourselves, bye bye.