i recorded some backing tracks sunday since practice was cancelled. i used a little tascam and a keyboard. did 3 tunes we play often. i practiced my solos. when i listened to the playback i got depressed. i really sounded awful. what i took from this is that i need to practice alot more on phrasing. sure, every once in awhile i got close to sounding decent. over all, it sucked.
any advice from any of you would be appreciated.

unfortuantley no one can sound amazing at every technique straight away. Everything takes practice, patience and time. Getting whatever you want to learn, learn it slow then speed it up if you want to, for example tremlo picking.
As you've probably heard a million times the best way is to use a mettronome. You can learn slow then when your used to playing every note on the beat you can use quavers and then quintuplets and so on to help with speed.
If speed isnt something your to bothered about then a metronome is still good to help your technique and timing.
Hope this helps.

Met a drummer named Alan Dawson back in the 70's. Our drummer was a huge fan...he told us to try and record all of our rehearsals and gigs and listen back together and critique.

He was right...it's amazing what your bandmate can pick up that will make you change the way you play or sing something!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

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thanx. i've got the weekend off so i'll be practicing alot. problem is, my bandmates say i sound very good. i really think i've got my amp turned down too low. they are not hearing what i hear. maybe i play differn't in a live situation? i never want to be the guitar guy who is blaring everyone else out.
i know i need to do the metronome thingy. i've read that so many times and i still don't do it. good advice.
our band is mostly family and very hard-headed. i wish we would record and listen to it. also, great advice.

I had a very similar experience about a year ago when I heard a playback of myself. I had very little phrasing, it just sounded like a bunch of OK guitar licks thrown out as fast as I could play them.

So I've really been working on phrasing ever since. I listened to a lot of my favorite guitar players and realized that none of them play random guitar licks, what they play makes sense and fits together into one cohesive solo. I tried forcing myself to stop and pause instead of constantly playing. Then I tried to think of a musical phrase and play it between the pauses. At first it just sounded like a guitar lick machine stopping and starting, but it really helped me get better at phrasing and it doesn't sound that bad anymore. Now I have to start working up chops since I'm not the fastest guitar player in the world by any means. Time to break out the Buddy Guy!

For phrasing I'd recommend listening to all three Kings (B.B., Freddie and Albert) along with some Jimmie Vaughan ( < I was never really aware of phrasing until I heard him) and Eric Clapton too among others. If you don't like blues then listen to whoever your favorites are and listen specifically for phrasing. They wouldn't be your favorites if they weren't good at it.

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