Can the internet help improve my playing?

Aug 27, 2008

Can the internet help improve my playing?

Not everyone who reads this website is ready to record or release an album. I’m impressed by the number of emails I get from people who have stumbled across this site shortly after finding themselves in their first band. And not everyone plays everything as well as they’d like to be able to.

The best advice I could give is: log out of Facebook, switch off your computer, go and pick up your instrument and practice it for 8 hours or so. Do the same tomorrow. Repeat until fabulous.

But there are actually some things you can do on the internet that will help your playing – and even expand your musical horizons if you’re already pretty damn good.

Two types of musicianship
I’d argue that there are two kinds of musical competence. One is technical. Kenny G is a great technical musician. He can play a lot of notes very quickly. He can do the circular breathing thing. He understands keys, scales, transpositions, modes and relative chords. He’s a technician.

Personally, I’m not a fan of what Kenny G plays. It is entirely uninteresting to me.

The other kind is what I’d call art (lower case ‘a’). It’s about having something to say. While he may not be the greatest technical musician in the world, I’d argue that Bob Dylan has the art thing down. He has produced a fascinating body of work despite seldom if ever hitting the right notes, and having what seems to be a fairly limited palate of guitar chords to choose from.

Funnily enough, most of my favourite vocalists can’t really sing in a technical sense. But boy, do they have ideas to get out through the medium of song.

The best blend of those two things is what I’d call ‘craft’. Jimi Hendrix had craft. Had a lot to say, and an amazing amount of technical ability with which to say it.

Internet builds craft
The internet is good at both aspects of musicianship. You can learn the technical things from online video tutorial sites, and you can develop your art the best way there is – through exposure to a wide variety of musical ideas, influences and collaborators.

You can use sites like Kompoz, Ninjam, or Kalabo to share and develop works with other players. You can learn to play your instrument using Musician Tutorials, Now Play It – get songwriting tips at places like Muse’s Muse and join one of the many online forums to discuss ideas.

You can even put unfinished works up online for your audiences to critique if you feel you’re up for it.

But nothing can replace the sheer hours of just getting your hands dirty and playing the same riffs over and over again, jamming with your mates, sitting down with the books, scoring, notating, editing, adjusting LFOs, trying new tunings and fingerings, running through the scales – and going out and having experiences and disastrous relationships so that you have something interesting to write about.

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14 Comments. Write a comment or link to this post

Seamus Anthony

Thanks for that – especially interested in those links to sites to help with jamming “over the net” (if that’s what they are). But definitely, web is for promoting, not really for playing (so far).

Aug 27th, 2008
Tom Slatter

I dunno, Seamus, from a guitar players point of view I’ve found the internet really useful for finding out about new techniques and exercises. It’s great for what Mr Dubber refers to as ‘technique’.

I have to disagree about Dubber’s opinion of Bob Dylan though, I don’t think he’s ever had anything to say

Aug 27th, 2008
Ruben Kenig

Spot on!

There is no substitute for the hard hours of woodshedding to gain facility as a musician. I think it’s also important that the practice is mindful. It’s not just hours put in. It’s hours spent stretching your limits. Practice is hard work but it can yield great results.

Playing live and recording are also arts that need practice. The more you do of both, as long as you are thinking about the experience, the better you will get at it.

There are performers who look as comfortable on stage as if they were in their living room. Watching them puts you at ease. Their confidence and comfort rubs off.

In the same vein some musicians, particularly regular session players, know the processes of the studio well enough to make the recording process smooth.

Consistency is the key to good practising. 10 minutes every day is better than 2 hours once a week, and practice is not the same as performance, listen for and correct your mistakes.

I also think it’s important to think in reasonably long time-scales, at least six month blocks, when judging your progress. Progression often comes in leaps and plateaus, but the work always makes a difference. If you record yourself periodically listen back to your old practice recordings now and again and if you’ve put in the hard yards you’ll be shocked at how far you can get in six months.

Aug 27th, 2008
I Have Clones

I think one of the best things about the internet is the abundance of free tab sites – if you play guitar or bass just learning songs by bands you like can help improve your skills.

If like me you dabble in the electronic and you get stuck, a quick google search can help you find other people encountering similar problems and you’re never far from a solution.

I’ve not really ever had to go about figuring things out without the internet – it’s pretty much invaulable to me.

Saying that – I have had lessons from tutors and the such as well, and studied music at School – if you’re really into it studying it properly isn’t that expensive and it really does help speed up the process.

Aug 27th, 2008
fakedjs

Practise makes perfect. And if you’re web savvy, it’s an added plus – nothing more important thatn knowing how to expose your music.

Aug 27th, 2008
Dubber

Okay – so far, it’s been all in the inbox rather than the blog comments – but before any more Dylan fans write to shout at me for dissing their hero (and I thought I’d cop it from the Kenny G fans – anyone?) – I thought I better clarify something I had thought was clear from the body of the text.

I love Dylan. I have 30 or so of his records. My point was not ‘Dylan can’t play the guitar’ – but that he is an artist, rather than a technician. His choice of chords or notes is not under question. My point is that the purity of tone or accuracy of pitch when singing them is not what’s important.

The dude’s a poet not a chorister. He packages bucketloads of truth and beauty into simplicity of form. By contrast, Kenny G’s music is (to me) essentially empty regardless of his immense command of the instrument he plays.

Maybe I could have picked a better example, but I was going for someone that everyone had at least heard and was generally recognised as not a traditionally technically accomplished singer.

And as for his playing – well, what would I know? I’m not a very good good guitarist. Though to be fair, I can knock out a half decent version of Blowing in the Wind.

But I apologise for the ‘limited palate of guitar chords’ line. I was exaggerating and generalising to make a point.

Aug 27th, 2008
TrierMusic

Great post – I’m trying to scale back my internet usage (aren’t we all!) and I’m telling myself to as a musician the internet has two primary usages:

1) Promotion (and your outgoing messages should vastly outnumber your incoming – unless those incoming message are all sales reports, hopefully!)
2) Resources

The internet is a *great* source of resources – for anything! From tabs to more esoteric stuff like avante-garde music. For that, the internet is 101% awesome.

The trick is to remember to turn off the computer at some point and get back to work making music. You’re not making full use of those resources until you’re using them on your instrument and sticking them into your songs!

Aug 27th, 2008
Anthony

Andrew,

Fantastic post.

You’re right. Dylan isn’t considered a great vocalist or instrumentalist but when you can distill the essence of the human experience into twelve notes the way he can you don’t need to be either.

I’ve met Kenny G. Very nice man with obvious command of his instrument. However, he doesn’t like to jam. That notwithstanding, his first single, ‘Songbird’ is a favorite that takes me back to a seminal time in my life;-)

Anthony

Aug 27th, 2008
Lori

I thik kompoz.com is a crap website you can’t delete account stright away when you want to and you don’t have ownship of the music that is created on that site i disagree about that website i hate that website.

Aug 27th, 2008
Jonny

When I first started playing bass guitar my family had just got the internet. At the time I didn’t know anybody who played instruments and reading up on the internet really helped me get into it. It didn’t last long though. My attention span is really short and reading about music became quite boring. I guess that’s what made me post on forums when i was about 16 looking for other people to play with.

I think getting out there, meeting people and playing with others has had more benefit to me than anything. Recently I’ve ended up playing with more tech-heads. Because of the way I’ve learned i can find them quite difficult to work with because I don;t have a clue what they’re talking about so I’ve spent a lot of time recently trying to understand what I already know. Again, reading online has been really great for this and it saves me a lot on buying expensive books that i can’t afford.

For me being a musician is more than just knowing your instrument. Some people will be happy playing in their rooms but I like the idea of being the whole package from playing to getting your music heard by as many people as possible. For that reason I’d be at a loss without the internet. For me it’s about interacting with other people and sharing what you already know. I can do this equally as well offline and online.

So yeah, the internet can definately improve your playing. I think it goes hand in hand with the real world.

Aug 28th, 2008
Seamus Anthony

@Tom – I agree with your first point – well, in theory anyway even though I never do it – about using the internet as resource for techniques, etc. As for your quip about Dylan, I can only shake my head and hope you were joking.

@Dubber – funny that your inbox got slammed by Dylan fans. They should have read what you wrote more carefully as it seemed to clear to me that you were paying the great man a compliment.

Aug 28th, 2008
Neil Costa

I agree with your post and really find myself to be about as far away from a technical musician as I could possibly be. That probably comes from starting in percussion. One thing which is worth noting, I am currently working as the marketing agency for http://www.tunerooms.com which is a great tool in addition to the ones you mentioned above. I enjoy all of them but just wanted to make sure your readers were also aware of Tune Rooms.

Aug 28th, 2008
jermaine

I liked what you said about musicians falling into three categories (well 2 but you later meshed them into a third). Those that are technical have the theory down, have great chops, are studiers and very skilled. The other group has the art down. They are freely led, probably great improvisers, very creative and less likely to play exactly by the rules.

Those that can have both… well, like you said, create a category of their own!

BTW, another great music site, in addition to the great resources you listed above, is http://www.hearandplay.com

JG

Aug 29th, 2008
Yoke Wong

I think you had pointed out an interesting aspect:
Musician and technicality.
Many famous musicians are not technically advanced. Musician with great techniques may not be famous musician.
How well a musician markets himself/herself plays a great role.

http://www.yokewong.net

Dec 29th, 2008