RIFFS:
It’s an amazing time to be a guitarist.
Great gear at affordable prices. More opportunities to watch your heroes than you could possibly view. Unbelievably powerful software tools.
A tutorial or TAB for any song you can think of.
But strengths are weaknesses.
Hard workers choose inefficient methods.
Good debaters defend trash viewpoints.
Clever people reject simple solutions.
It’d be foolish to spurn our modern advantages, but…
Unused muscles atrophy.
Freely available TABs & tutorials are both a blessing and a curse. Convenient, sure. But they rob us of the opportunity to stretch our figure-it-out muscles.
Every badass musician I’ve ever met shares this one habit:
DIY before Google.
I don’t go for the idea that hard times create strong men.
But previous generations were forced to DIY their learning, and that disadvantage worked in their favor. No surprise here: they got really good at figuring things out by ear.
You & I get to have it all.
Before ≠ instead.
I’m not telling you to forsake modern conveniences.
I’m saying that before you google that chord progression… take a few seconds and try to figure it out for yourself. You can figure out the time signature of Tennessee Whiskey. You don’t need TAB to play the melody of Happy Birthday—you can sound it out.
Once you’ve DIY’d it, then use Google to check your work.
DIY first.
Google second.
Next week we’ll look at music’s surprisingly simple “skeleton key.”
See you then,
Josh