Article By Joel Wanasek.doc

Hop, Skip, and a Jump by: Joel Wanasek Well, this month I thought I would cover something a little different. Instead of increasing you're chops, I thought I would actually teach you something important. WHOA! Imagine that? Well, since I know for a fact that most of you never leave you're rooms and practice all day ( haha kidding), I'm going to help teach you some key elements to being a performer, not just a bedroom bad ass. Yes... you heard me, I'm going to tell you how to play in from of other people! Performing is an art and too few people know how to do it. Especially technical players. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to concerts and the guitar player who just rips it up is just sitting in one spot picking his nose looking like a loser. I feel like I should get on stage and slap the guy in the face and show him how to perform. The idea to cover this topic came from listening to a very talented friend of mine, talk about how he freezes up when he has to play in front of people. Face it.. everyone gets nervous and unless you know how to control it, you are just going to be an all talk hack that's got nothing to back that sharp tongue. There are several factors that must be over come when playing live. A good combination of preparation in each area will make you one heck of a monster on stage. So, here we go: 1) Gear Having played out many many many times now, the first thing I can tell you is to MAKE SURE that you have all you're gear! I can't tell you how many times the drummer forgets his sticks, or I forget to bring enough cables, batteries, ect.... It happens! It sucks. Always make a check list for things that you need to bring with you. What happens if you break a string on stage? Got you're back up guitar? You better! Do you have a set of wrenches? Did you bring a string winder and extra strings? Got a screwdriver in case you need to take apart that faulty speaker cabinet? There are so many things that get broken, damaged, lost, stolen, ect... The best thing to do is have coverage for everything like that. You don't want to forget any of you're important essential items. 2) Know you're role I can't even begin to tell you how important it is to know your music hands down. Be able to play it blindfolded. Closed eyes, what ever it takes. Practice the hardest spots in you're music on repeat until they aren't hard anymore. 3) Converting Butterflies into Adrenaline Here is a really key thing. So you have all you're gear, and you're prepped good on you're part.. You're all set up, about to take the stage...then... all the sudden you feel sick to you're stomach. You start to shake. Yes, EVERYONE gets a little jittery before they go out. How you handle it will mean the difference between locking up and sucking or stealing the crowds heart with you're daring stage antics. The first thing to always do is take a few really deep breaths and relax you're self. If possible, have you're girlfriend massage you before you go on. BE RELAXED! No reason to get tense. Now what the hell do I do with these butterflies you ask? It's actually really simple. Most people dwell on them. That's the biggest mistake ever. The key is thrive off of them and let them give you adrenaline. Let them get you pumped up. Jump up and down picture yourself mentally making everyone in the crowd's jaw's drop with you're insane guitar playing. Let them little butterflies pump you up, not scare you. Tell you're self that you are going to kick ass and you will. Go over and get you're band mates pumped up. The more psyched up you get, the more you'll not be nervous. Once you do this, you are ready to perform. If you need to practice converting butterflies to adrenaline, go to the local music store and turn up and play in front of people. 4) Accuracy vs. Presence No matter how good you are, someone is going to say you suck. Don't be afraid that someone out in that crowd is going to talk smack about you. I've seen people say that John Petrucci SUCKS because he can't hit the end sweep in his "Fatal Tragedy" solo every time he plays it live. That is the lamest thing I've ever heard (besides, I saw him nail it perfectly when I saw him live!!!)... so what, who cares! J.P. should be called a GOD nothing less. ;0) So, in other words, what I'm saying is, get over the fact that someone is going to criticize what you do on stage. Forget them. Are they on stage? Hell no. Nothing but hacks. Simple

as that. Now... both accuracy and stage presence are equally as important. A good rule of thumb is don't get so wild that you're sacrificing accuracy, but don't get so technical that you're standing guitar masturbating in one spot all night. Remember that adrenaline we built up? O yea. lets use it! That that enormous bust of energy and channel it into you're playing. DON'T be afraid to make mistakes, just go for it! DON'T be afraid to do something crazy on stage because you don't want to look stupid! Take chances, slide on you're knees, stage dive, play behind the head, play with you're teeth, jump up and down.... JUST GET DOWN AND ROCK! The harder get into you're playing and more energy you channel into you're presence, the more the crowd will get into it. They will get louder and you'll play better. It's a positive correlation. 5) Hitting That Ungodly Hard Run O yes.. It's coming, the lick you miss every time! Are you going to miss it or make everyone in the audience go "WOW!" Well, you've practiced it a billion times. The key to nailing them hard spots is to go for it all out. A soon as you think that you are going to make a mistake, you will already have. Say to you're self, I AM GOING TO NAIL THIS and you most likely will. Never be afraid to make a mistake, it happens to everyone. Just got for it! Don't look back even if you do mess up. Focus yourself, concentrate and keep thinking that you're going to nail that run and you shall be victorious. 6) After Show So you were great on stage. The fans went crazy. The shows over. Well, what the hell are you waiting for, go shake everyone's hand and thank them for coming! Don't be a prick, show you're fans and friends that you love them! Well, I hope that you've picked up some pointers on live playing. Just remember to stay calm and focus you're self. Don't you dare stand in one spot either! Be an animal! Good luck to you all, I'll check in with you in august ;0) Peace out, Joel Wanasek

Breaking out of playing ruts by : Joel Wanasek Playing ruts really suck. You can go weeks and months with out feeling like you have progressed. That can lead to frustration and discouragement. There are two kinds of playing ruts. The first is "I can play any song that I choose, but I'm not getting any better." There are a lot of people who play guitar just to learn songs for there own enjoyment. That's fine. Just because someone doesn't spend hours practicing technique, doesn't mean that they are a not a good guitar player. A lot of people ran into this problem when I used to teach. A student would learn a bunch of songs. Then come to me saying " I can play anything I want pretty much, but I'm just not getting any better." The answer is simple. Its time to sit down and spend the time to learn the scales, modes, and all that good stuff. Taking the time to practice difficult passages and licks and learn some basic theory, will help you progress as a musician. Before you as a player can move on to the next level of playing, you must first ask your self how serious you want to be. If you aren't willing to spend the tedious time it takes to learn advanced techniques, you won't progress far past where you currently are. I ran into this problem when I was a sophomore in high school. I could play a lot of songs, but that's all I could do. So I went out and got some guitar lessons and started to work on technique. Over the next few months, my playing exploded to levels I couldn't of ever imagined. This type of rut I like to call the "Beginner's Rut." The only true way to break it is to get serious. Simple as that. The second type of rut is the one that advanced players run into. This is usually a technical rut. "I'm not getting any faster or cleaner." "I keep playing the same licks and its getting boring." "I can't write any good songs anymore." Any of those sound familiar. It happens to all of us. You can practice your butt off all day everyday and then one day you just stop progressing. IT SUCKS! Breaking out of this kind of rut is really hard. There is one way to do it. TRY SOMETHING NEW. Stop doing the same exercises over and over again. Start trying to play really awkward shapes. Try really unorthodox scales. Give your ear something

new and wild. If you keep playing the same stuff, you will get bored of it. That's not any fun. Isn't the reason you started playing guitar? To have fun? Get chicks? Be a rock star? ect...whatever..... Yup, that's right. What you need to do is is try a different approach. May be take the time to learn some different styles of music. Learn a few walking bass lines. Learn some funk vamps. Be open to new ideas. Maybe you should learn some popular music like Metallica and Dave Mathews Band. Yea, I know in shredder terms its looked down on and considered "Newbie stuff." But hey, those guys are making a heck of a lot more money than you probably are. They must be doing something right. Did you ever realize that you can learn something from everyone? No matter how much more skilled you are than them. If you take the time to be creative and try out different things, you will break the rut fast. Another great way to break a technical rut is learn a new technique. Maybe your the fastest picker and your sweeping is flawless, but did you ever think that maybe you legato and taping isn't that great? Or maybe you are the meanest legato player and your sweeping is great, but you can't alternate pick to save your life. That's how I used to be. As soon as I finally sat down for a month and tackled alternate picking, I finally got it. As soon as you take the time to rigorously learn a technique that gives you a lot of problems, you will break you rut. Well, I hope this helps you out with your problem. Good luck.