Ever since I saw Him at G3 video and youtube he became my #1 idol. I just wanted to play the guitar like him. I even ordered his signature guitar Fender maple (2tone sunburst). Honestly when it comes to lead playing I would say I'm a beginner. Can anybody help me how or atleast start on something . By the way I'm also getting a G-Dec 30.

Only thing I can think of is, listen to alot of his tracks and then try to improvise something simular to his style. When you get pretty good, download a Eric Johnson Backing track and try to improvise to the track!

great, thanks men can't wait to get my hands on that EJ Strat.

Back to basics. First 3 things I can think of.

Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. Forget speed. Put it away for a very long time. lol

Variety, variety, variety. Force yourself not to play things that are familiar. (i.e. Favorte licks, habits, etc.)

Explore, explore, explore. Expose yourself to similar players. A good trick is to look at who he would call his heroes.

If you want to play like John Mayer who has a great style on top of the styles of players he emulates, look at those guys, not him. Look at the originals and add YOUR unique take and tastes on top of that. Same applies to EJ.

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-Kc
"Payin' dues."

He's bang on...this is all very good advice.

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CREDO ELVEM IPSUM ETAIM VIVERE

Another thing to avoid is overt lick stealing. While it's fun to play the same licks as (insert guitar wizard), the fact of the matter is that no one can play (guitar wizard)'s licks like (guitar wizard). The best thing is to attempt to discern the feeling and style and the common positions used by your hero. Then try and achieve that same feeling while playing in a style all your own.

+1 to both of these, great advice and all very true.

I totally dig the not stealing licks.

I read an interview with Nuno Bettencourt and he said that youtube has killed guitar players. People don't play by ear anymore. You can just see a video and copy it. Back in their day, you had to hear a guitar solo and somehow in your own way get those notes out. Guitarists had their own identities then, now they're all just copy-cats.

Those aren't his exact words, but I think thats the jist of what he was saying.

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-Kc
"Payin' dues."

That's good to hear.

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-Classic 50's Strat.
-Std. Telecaster.
-Mike Dirnt P-bass.
-Custody of SE Strat.
-Peavey Predator/Dean Evo/Epiphone DR150/Gibson Slide (much older than me).

Rellik Productions Inc.

I venture to guess that you are of the 'old school' technique. I wish I could roll like that, I'm in between. A hybrid of both. I try to make video my last resort if there something I'm just not getting.

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-Kc
"Payin' dues."

Well, I'm only 23, but I've been playing for 13+ year, and I took lessons for a long time and practiced constantly, but developed my own style that way. All I hear nowadays is "I got it from this thing on youtube dude." It's great for picking up ideas, but not basing your technique on.

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-Classic 50's Strat.
-Std. Telecaster.
-Mike Dirnt P-bass.
-Custody of SE Strat.
-Peavey Predator/Dean Evo/Epiphone DR150/Gibson Slide (much older than me).

Rellik Productions Inc.

Exactly. I'm 23 with 11 years self taught.

I find that most melodic and rhythmic ideas don't come from rock and guitar music...odd, but you would probably agree.

_________________
-Kc
"Payin' dues."

Well, I'm not really "old." I'm only 21, and I've been playing guitar for ten years or so. I taught myself to play out of an ancient chord chart and the first songs I learned I did the old fashioned way: by ear.

On the other hand, the internet can be an extremely useful tool for guitar players and I use it all the time. Take for example, a relatively complex song that you hear -- it doesn't use a I IV V and it has some strange chords. I'll typically use the net to find a chord chart for that song and then play it in my own style. Quite frankly, the internet is easy to use for that sort of thing.

On the other hand, I rarely use YouTube. Not because the players on there are bad or use poor technique or use too much reverb, but because I'd rather listen to the original, figure out the chords (either by ear or from UltimateGuitar or similar) and then play it my way.




+1. I listen to all sorts of music that my friends constantly disparage. Although I consider myself a rock'n'roll player, I derive a lot of my inspiration from old country records, soul, pop, and a bit of jazz. Classical music is also underrated amongst the rock crowd. You'd be surprised how often Bach comes up in heavy metal.

True that. Youtube Rob Marcello, and you'll see how its hard to separate most shred from classical.

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-Kc
"Payin' dues."

I guess at 38 I am getting to be an old-ish player... been some time since I tried to work something out (I'm still trying to digest the stuff I was learning when I was in my early twenties!), but I'd probably go back to what I'm used to for that... an old tape deck. My old pause/rewind/play reflexes seem attuned to that method. With digital gear I always wind up in the wrong place.

I do make use of youtube every so often, though. The quality is generally too poor to get precise information, so I usually just look at the left hand position on the neck. That way, I can keep it in mind if I'm working on a phrase... I can say to myself "this player usually bases themselves around the fifth fret when playing this chord/run/whatever, so everything I'm hearing has to be accessible from there". It helps narrow things down a bit.

To take EJ as an example... if I wanted to learn how to play "Friends," I'd want to hit youtube up and just see how contorted his hand is for that first nightmare chord (even though it sounds like a laid-back sweet little thing) to get some idea of what I was in for.

Most often, though, my time at the computer with guitar in hand goes something like this: Search for clip, (let's say SRV's "Little Wing"), say to self "oh, he shifts his whole hand up two frets to play that couple of notes I was trying to reach from a barre further down the neck," start noodling with that a bit... an hour later, my monitor's gone to sleep and I'm still noodling.