How to play guitar as cleanly as possible 

perfectionism is a good thing to have as a musician

This dudes totally transparent take on mastering guitar skills is gold and super appreciated. Real talk.

that opening riff is probably one of my favorite riffs youve ever written

Josh needs to be on a full Lesson DVD action

Let me sum up this 17 minute video for you guys. Use your ear to determine the quality of your playing. Don't settle for anything less than reputable competence. Practice often.

Technique stuff starts around 10:00

You're a killer guitarist, my friend. Very cool you're taking the time to shed some insight on techniques. And, of course, Sylosis kicks ass.

"Not the cleanest player" - Has never hit a bum note in his life.

Reality of the metal culture: You must disclaim your talents and state or apologize that you're not the best at whatever it is your demonstrating, or someone will come and eviscerate you for not being as good as so and so.

I agree I learned by playing an electric guitar without an amp.

Josh we fucking love you! Can't wait for new stuff,hopefully it's coming soon.

I remember how I discovered Sylosis. I was/am a big fan of Alexiuss's digital paintings, and he did the painting (Neurotic Indisposition) on the Supreme Oppressor album cover. I kind of randomly decided to check out your music and was hooked. Your guitar work is world class.

Great thoughts. A huge problem of mine is that I never finish perfecting songs and just move on to new ones, hence why I'm not really getting better as a guitarist. I really need to tighten up my practice.

Thank you, Josh! You have no idea (probably you do actually) how motivating it is to hear these things from your favorite guitar player. I've always admired the sensible way in which you explain yourself, looking forward to more (specific) videos!

You had a The Sword shirt on so I had to watch

Something that greatly helped me develop clean playing at speed was to spend 5 minutes on a tempo with 30 seconds rest in between, bumping up the tempo by 10bpm each time until I reached full speed. I’d do this 4 times, (20 min play, 2 min rest) and regardless of how clean I got it at full speed, Id stop after 20, do something COMPLETELY different and do another round after a decent break. Each time doing this, Id get smoother and smoother.

This is one of the most useful guitar lessons/tips anyone has ever given me.

Most things covered in this video are exactly what I wanted help on. Great advice!

You’re my favorite guitarist bro... back in the legacy days of Metal it was always Hetfield, Mustaine and Dime but now it’s you🤘🏻 and just my personal opinion I don’t want to hurt some butt hurts fans feelings but Sylosis > Architects

Josh my word! This video has improved my playing like none other....thanks for putting it so straight and simple! ❤

Nice shirt! I love The Sword. They deserve a lot more respect and recognition.

Muting has got to be the most underrated part of guitar playing. Not enough people even irl teachers will go in depth with it

I never thought to use my thumb to mute too! I normally just mute with the karate chop side of my hand. I'm going to take your advice. Can't wait to see more!

I challenge anyone to find a cleaner guitarist than Josh. Roll on tomorrow night 12/4/24, Sylosis LIVE!!!! Yeh baby 🤘

I have the exact same mentality.. no point in putting up covers / recording anything if it's not perfect. Awesome video dude!

Josh Sylosis Now make a video explaining how you learned your vocals :D Haha not even kidding, you have no idea how appreciated that would be.

Thanks Josh for the inspo

I watch this video from time to time just for tips and motivation. Thanks for the practice tips! Much respect!

Awesome video. I learned about getting sweeps to sound clean, with the pick hand fingers muting the strings. Something that I've be struggling with foe awhile. Thanks

Thank you for the tips, I'm going to apply them to my playing now.

Very useful video, I've been playing bass for a long time and apply a lot of the same ideas to my playing and now that I'm becoming more interested in guitar I'd been wondering on the transition in style but these are really helpful tips.

Hey Josh! I don't know if you'll see this, but thanks for posting these lessons. Learning songs like Empyreal and Fear the World has really challenged my guitar playing and helped me improve many of my weaknesses (especially sweeping and speed picking). I love learning songs/riffs from bands I admire because they help me in my own song writing as well; so thanks again and I hope you post more :)

Thanks, you are great my friend'

I like your beginner philosophy about playing songs.

Love the shirt! The Sword is an awesome band!

Thanks Josh a channel with your guitar lessons is just great!

Excellent advice ^^ your videos bring incredible joy in me :D Love that ,,The Sword'' t-shirt!

Just awesome, man. Fantastic videos! I've been playing thrash and death metal for almost 20 years, and just recently began to go back again to actually clean up my rhythm. So thanks! :)

you got a message bro killer lesson though, this man speaks the truth

...."just comes with time"....no truer words have ever been said....

Superb! Great advice Josh, thanks very much

Fantastic video! I have so much admiration for you, ever since I saw your video on how to play 'Conclusion of an Age' I've followed you and the band. I also have the same strings and plecs as you through coincidence :)

Thanks for sharing! Must've been hard to keep all this baggage of skills just for yourself :-)

These videos are a great idea, thanks a lot for these - motivated me to make my lazy ass practice the alternate picking for Kingdom of Solitude

Thanks Josh, really needed this video. Keep posting videos man it's great to watch you play.

thank you i needed this video

I like how we have the same mindset xD perfectionist ftw

is it important to play finger style ?

Really good video! Hope to see more in the future.

There's so much yes in this video

6:38 that was just beautiful does anybody know what song is it?

Holy COW! I gotta BELIEVE I can play like that before I can APPROACH that skill set.

The most Arrogant condescending thing i have ever heard. Talking to myself of course... cool Video man love your playing. :)

1.14 picks are the shit. Great video

0:41 anyooooooone have tabs for that

I like how people take offence by his discipline lol! Amazing guitarist. I wonder if he was taught by Paul Gilbert?

Josh, please make a tutorial how to learn to sweep that would be very nice.

Just wanted to say you're awesome.

awesome lesson pls more !!!!

I’m literally guilty of all the things that’s Josh talks about here, I’m not enough of a perfectionist I’ll just settle and say “that’ll do”, rushing things and getting frustrated, loads of unwanted string noise and bad habits that will probably take years and years to undo now :(

thanks for the info mate

Thanks for the lesson...

Great video, man, useful stuff

how hard to you pick when you sweep? thanks brother!

How about you guitar setup ?

Sword t shirts, just great.

Can a be rough sometimes you can nail everything, play squeaky clean etc, other times yeah you are fighting shit etc, yeah let me get into an altered state of consciousness alright, then I will never miss a beat xD, a lot of fast lead phrases/composition's need played squeaky clean, you can't fuck up, slightest wrong nuance/touch you know fucks it all up etc. And it's easy to teach yourself bad habits technically/with picking etc like anchoring/limiting your range of movement with picking hand, do that shit all the time, break old habits of bad technique etc

Yeeeees Sylosis

Id love to hear a collaboration between josh, ben tovey (former rise to remain) and krimh

Anyone know if a 3mm pick on a 10. strings is bad?

how do you pull off hard enough for it to be clear but without flicking the string right underneath it?

great philosophy

what pickups do you have on that guitar? Is it original? Sick playing \m/

In the recorded version of "Altered States of Consciousness" Do you chug quadruplets or triplets? Dig the quads, start on that upstroke... aggressive as hell. \m/

Very God! The best!

hello man :) what's camera you use for record videos?

What's the name of the song in the intro!?!?!? The riff is epic!

what's the song at 00:40

Josh do you use a noise suppressor pedal ? would would recommend the use of one ??

Your video has been very helpful thanks man.

Clear than my tant.

Humble is key apparently. Can't argue in the slightest

Could anyone point me in the right direction in terms of theory ? Speed, clean playing etc aren't a huge problem for me as I at least know what to practice but theory-wise I pretty much just stick to the pentatonic really!

Great lesson, the time spent in training really shows in your playing. What is your guitar tuned to btw? im guessing with 11-49 its probably D standard.

Killer, still rips 10years later

what's that classical bit called?

Excuse me while I go delete all my cover videos and practice.

Nice shirt.

Где в России такого найти а???????

Fuck, i can't remember the name of the first song he's playing, i wanna learn that riff so badly

Tabs for neoclassical riff at 6:35? Anyone? That's pretty kewl...

name of the song 0:40 ?

thank you guitar Jesus

6:39

This is my most difficult challenge when playing guitar other than laziness. They are my downfall!

i lold at 8:20

I want this dude to say bahumbuggy 🤗😄

Correction, buy a shit steel string acoustic to build finger strength. A good one is a pleasure to play.

video starts at 1:30

Ugh that intro fucked me so hard in the ears