What Most Teachers Don’t Teach 

“Big tone is heavy and hard to carry. Always will be” - Uncle Larry

“Live…from Brooklyn (fire truck blowing past.) such an important lesson.

This is something I've seen Tomo Fujita talk about. When playing scales, he emphasizes playing slowly, making each note sound beautiful. Then you can begin to speed up, but you must maintain that beautiful sound of each note. It's the sound of the notes that is paramount. That's how you make music rather than just perform some technical exercise.

This is gold. Absolute music teaching gold.

There's an African proverb that says "If you can talk, you can sing, and if you can walk, you can dance."

Wow, really needed this to escape the slump we all go through! Less is more, and sometimes we need to slow down, to go faster. THANK YOU!

Thanks jeff, I am sitting here playing a new telecaster, watching this, the picking, is.pick and it's edges, ive never really cared about how I hold my pick attack, but I hear a big difference using my telecaster rather than my stratocaster, thank you kindly from a genuine Scotsman ❤❤❤❤lang may your lum reek bro🎉

When I first heard the saying ‘It’s all in the hands’ it inspired me to learn guitar and something I have learnt to be the mantra of music. The year was 1980, Sydney Australia, a local band would include a mid set ‘performance’ where the drummer would stand up behind the guitarist reaching over both would play this amazing piece which only could be described as rhythmical musical mastery of the electric guitar. The band is Goldrush, the drummer is Tommy Emmanuel (yes the CGP Tommy), the guitarist his brother Phil. Legendary performances by the Emmanuel brothers. Tommy imbedding a phrase into my being as he started to play Phil’s guitar he said with trademark grin as always knowing…’Ladies and gentleman, it’s all in the hands’.

A really important lesson. I try to do this every few months, especially after learning something new. It’s all too easy learning a new lick and getting faster and faster without thinking about the dynamics of each note.

Thank you sir. I really need to work on this.

Hey Jeff.. Years ago when I decided to advance beyond the few chords and riffs that I knew, I walked into the Herb David Guitar Studio downtown Ann Arbor and took lessons from a fella of Scottish decent. I learned a lot. After my first lesson he said "..dude, you gotta go downstairs and buy a DVD entitled "Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Live at the El Mocambo". Tone, dynamics, pick attack, etc.. Life changing.....

Sweet lesson, thanks Jeff.

Really important point! Tone is everything!

Great channel Jeff. Nice job. I like your conversation style where its like you are hanging out with another player and just shooting the breeze about guitars, tips and tricks. The only thing missing is a cigar and glass of scotch.

From a teacher to a teacher, thank you!!

Brilliant! Glad I saw this video of yours. You are right-intentional playing of even scales will yield benefits in multiple ways. Perhaps even to make practicing them more fun and challenging. I took a cinematography class way back in high school. When the rushes came back from development we would watch them as a class and the instructor would critique them. Once a student commented that a particular shot “would make a great still photo.” Our instructor yelled at us and said that every frame of our movies should make a great still photo. I thought to myself generally that is correct except when you are trying to portray something off kilter or very sad. In that case you might want some dissonance. But it’s not an excuse to be sloppy. You don’t always want a “pretty picture” such as in the movie Sling-Blade where the protagonist is recounting his crime. The framing was off- no doubt on purpose. Hitchcock and Orson Wells used the same technique. (I did not contradict the instructor at the time). But certainly you can use subtleties to convey emotion-same with music. Thanks for posting!

Probably one of the most valuable lessons on UT, or anywhere actually.

This is really great Jeff. Have been really drilling scales and learning the fretboard but this helps it put it all in perspective in the context of actually making music that sounds good. Appreciate what you do.

Love this video Jeff! It definitely speaks to so many things that no one else is teaching. I’m not sure how I missed this from ten months ago but I guess today was my day! Happy New. Year!

Another great insight thanks!

So important!

Super important! I love your playing when you include dynamics and make it beautiful. The shred stuff gets old pretty quick. Great reminder! Thanks

Thank you, Jeff! I love the way you teach music. Very inspiring.

Thanks, Jeff! Always get something out of it!

Thanks Jeff, nicely done.

This is spot on. I've always tried to pursue these sorts of melodic ideas, rather than learning licks (of course I have learned a few of those, but most of my licks have come from developing on these sorts of ideas). Great video 👌😎

What a fantastic lesson! Thank you!

I feel like the thing that taught me pick dynamics the fastest was playing a guitar at a time and/or volume that would be obnoxious to others around me & caring & trying not to be obnoxious. That little bit of courtesy mixed with fear sort of forces you to not smash the strings. And once you learn how to pick the guitar in such a way as to be describable as a whisper, well, then you have range. And any instrument with range can emote.

Great Teaching! Thanks Jeff!

Great stuff, as always. 4:30…lol.

Another GREAT video. Tone was awesome in that opening.

Really great advice, Jeff!

This video had an immediate positive effect on my playing. This stopped me in my tracks. I got me thinking. Thank you very much.

Awesome insights from my favourite tutor!

Totally great to hear ! My goodness and even for extremely limited player this is what makes it enjoyable for sure !!! Thanks Jeff just sound advice.

Lovely stuff Jeff. Nice hat too 😊

This is really great information .

Great lesson!

Good lesson! Rhythm lessons should be taught like this as well. I try to teach my students this, few apply the lesson.

A really great and helpful lesson!!!!

One of your best Jeff. Thank you.

Thank you again. Just an amazing lesson for every level.

Loved this video. Take away all the fluff and distractions and drill down to why we really want to play guitar....To make music. Simple as that..great sentiment and meaning behind this , thanks Jeff.

Thanks Jeff. This is something I've tried to do , and had teachers tell me not to do this. It made learning different scales SO much easier for me, and for whomever was listening to me practice

I just loved the way you explained this👍👍 I totally got it

Killer lesson. I am committed to watch it everyday😂! Thanks Jeff

Jeff, couldn’t agree more about getting emotion and feel into our playing. It’s a big weakness I have so this video will help a lot. Thanks as always and also as always, your playing is full of emotion and feel. Wonderful.

So musical, it compels you to listen. Lovely playing.

Great lesson

Oh wow.....watching it seems so obvious....but that's because your pointing it out....beautiful, soulful, and complex...but its all built on simplicity....this as absolutely freeing!

Very insightful way of looking at practicing scales. It doubles as you mentioned to find "your own" style. Great video. Thank you.

I do something similar when practicing chord inversions. I’ll try to make a melody using just the chord notes interconnecting the inversions up and down the fretboard. Has helped me in being able to differentiate major, minor, and dominant tones.

I was going to come back on the in a rut video. To get out, just start playing a bunch of theory stuff. Your ear will find something you want to explore musically probably. If not, got to the bar and drink heavily. no.. lol

Fantastic lesson. I've been playing for years and NEVER spent the time I should have on this. That has now changed. Thanks.

Holy hell never been explained like this. Thank you.

Jeff i love your playing my friend...we can tell that you worked hard at what you do. you are always very encuraging... and you definitely inspire and make me wanna play better. thank you..

One of the best tutorials I’ve seen in years. Quite an understated one by the many. To listen is to learn. Sadly all too many want to run without learning to walk.

Best video lesson I have seen in a long, long time.

Thank you! Five years since I started learning, this is what I've been thinking about the most lately.

Great video. I usually work at building speed while doing scales by using a metronome, but maybe instead I should slow the tempo down and look at doing the scales more melodically rather than just working on speed and accuracy.

Thats what makes Santana so Great !

More great advice and knowledge your videos and finesse of the guitar is awesome hopefully I will be on this earth long enough to figure it out as most of my guitar playing sounds like the background noise of New York City Thanks Jeff

It's so hard to teach 'feel.' GREAT video, Jeff!

Great lesson and discussion! Chops are important and have their place but, only if that's what you're hearing and feeling. I'm glad you made the distinction between musicians and technicians.

Very cool video and good to see this subject actually talked about. A quick little item. I found that developing melodic exercises around the major scale is super helpful. As an example, I’ll play the scale but make every OTHER note of the scale reached with a bend. This helps me think less about the notes that I’m playing and a lot more about how I’m playing them.

Great teacher! Great inspiration as always! I’ve abandoned my guitar a bit and need to go back to it

Beautiful...well-stated, Jeff...so important. Virtuosity without feel...ugh. THANKS!

Hi Jeff...i like to watch (and more so listen) your channel, because you talk about the things that matter to me.....we all know the basics of guitar and music...but it's points like yours above which make it worth watching you....and i don't watch many others.....cheers and thx...as always and yes..of course we all have our own "handwriting" when playing the instrument....but we live and learn.....😃

What a fantastic video. Thankyou Jeff. If I could play just a ¼ of how well you play & your tone then I'd be an extremely happy guitarist

What a fantastic video have a good weekend also a happy day I feel depressed also

Very Nice lesson Jeff. I’m an amateur blues guitarist and I can really use this 👍

Side note: that gorgeous PRS would be even more incredible with rosewood pickup rings! 😁

I do the same thing and slowly and just create random chord shapes in the scale not thinking about what it is just exploring the sounds and generally it leads to a keeper as far as melody or progression and voicings it is relaxing.

My brother showed me a few complex chords early on, around 1962. Later on I took three or four classical guitar lessons and was shown how to finger pick. We old timers didn't have "guitar teachers" ... heck, I didn't even have a record player most of my life when they were dominant. Learned songs off the radio and later on, off of cassette players. Gorgeous guitar!

Thanks Jeff..! This is maybe one of the most valuable posts I’ve seen on UTube.. The guitar is a powerful instrument in the right hands.. and the hands can be mine..👍🏼❤️

Great video, loved the intro piece, played it 3 times.

As a beginner I noticed that I sounded like crap even though I had all the scale notes correct for pentatonic scales. So I looked at touch and feel along with pick angle and that improved my playing pretty fast. I’m glad I found this lesson because I knew these were things I wanted to work on but didn’t know how.

Great lesson, Jeff. Thanks! I was just recording a track that I wasn't happy with. I might need to slow the whole thing down and play slower more beautiful notes.

I think this is one of the primary differences between electric and acoustic. These same things apply to the acoustic, but the amplifier with the electric really amplifies technique, errors, flubs, etc. Makes the electric almost a different instrument than the acoustic. Also, the light touch needed takes practice and time. I am always amazed watching a great player's hands and the effortless, light touch.

Excellent. So much of what I hear today has no melody. I am a fan of the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia, and it was all about the melody. I have a Roland pickup in one of my guitars and a great part of that was being able to use the GR-55 for sax and flute sounds. Great way to get into the melody.

Thanks Jeff...great explanation of a somewhat more advanced concept that should be worked on from the very start.

Jeff, love your videos. Do you have one on your preferred setup (string height, relief etc…)? Like gear syndrome, I get stuck on tweaking instead of practicing… Love you video on dialing in a Strat sound btw too!

I have to say that you are one of the best teachers I have ever seen online. I have gone through a few of your TrueFire courses and have watched many of your videos over and over. Thank you for going into so many different intricacies of the instrument and for providing such incredible resources for all of us out here trying to improve our skills. All the best to you.

I actually started doing this literally last night when I was recording a progression on my looper. And I realized how much better it sounds when I really focus on the way I play the chords.

Most important lesson ever. Also, try to sing or hum along with the notes you play and copy the vocal emotion over into the fretting hand using pick dynamics.

Nice PRS

Life in Brooklyn. That p90 Les Paul sounds amazing.

dynamics into emotion try a stacked cali76 by origin fx that gels it all

Just the other day my buddy was over at my house and he's trying to get into guitar but is really struggling and I was telling him this exact thing. I really just think of it as "dynamics" I suppose but it's more just about my actual physical approach to playing the instrument itself. I was showing him how in songs like Rude Mood and Pride and Joy Stevie was basically just assaulting his fretboard but then in a song like Lenny or Riviera Paradise his touch was as light as a feather but there would be these little flourishes within each song where he'd bring the intensity of his touch up at certain points and it would add a really emotional dynamic to his playing. All of the greats have that element to their playing. Jimi could do Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary right after it. Clapton could do White Room and then Tears In Heaven and then Change The World. Beck could do Because We've Ended As Lovers and then Goin' Down and all those songs are on opposite ends of the spectrum but just by manipulating the physical touch of the strings he could take you on really dynamic journeys and I feel that element is definitely lacking in most players today.

Thank you for Jeff for telling the TRUTH. It would be nice if many people watched this video because everything you say is very, very important and forms the basis for all genres. They are the seven basic building blocks of music. loud, quiet, fast, slow, high, low and, last but not least, inspiration, you showed all of that in your short video. ....Sorry.. it sounds strange, but I love music.There they are... 🐿🐿🐿...many would like to have them but very few can play 3 squirels,...here they are, I would be happy if you accept them.

And IMHO it's usually a strat that sounds like 'you' the most.

I have to say Jeff and Cory are my two favorite TrueFire instructors. And both say to listen and make it musical.

Man that intro was sweet Jeff! Great lesson once more! And you can definitely say you sound great without feeling bad about it, because you do sound amazing! Thanks a lot for the backing tracks. Are we allowed to post videos of us playing to them on YT or IG? Cheers, Martin

Hi Jeff, I am listening to your album "Now" at this moment. I believe your playing on this album reflects exactly what you have been talking about in this helpful video. My favorite players are the very ones you named as well. Have you ever listened to Mateus Asato? He has a great touch. New York provides a free horn section for you! How nice! ;-) God bless you my friend. You are an inspiration.

Tone is in the fingers, but it doesn’t hurt to have a Core DGT and a Bloomfield Drive!😜 Love your videos.

I think a really good modern example of this is Chris Buck- he's able to just coax spectacular tones with his finger placement and technique...

Tone is just as important as knowing how and what to play, on any instrument.

Thank you excellent reminder of what we are playing for! What thickness of Black Ice Pick do you like use? I have bought many different Daddario Duralin picks, they are amazing, thank you for the recommendation.

Jeff, you should incorporate the sirens outside into a backing track. It can be called "Siren Song."

With the screaming sirens in the background, I hope no one was harmed or injured in the making of this video. hahaha