What would be in your ultimate guitar advice book?

[machine]

If you could have the ultimate guitar advice book (that would improve your playing and thinking), what information would you want it to contain?

I.e. song writing advice, gear advice, how to make money, playing tips, recording, exposure etc…?)

I am really interested to see what people really want to know and learn so "tell me what you want" (as the spice girls use to say)

Cheers

Rob

[FU]

I think the perfect book would cover all the aspects of guitar playing and a career playing music. Technique, technical/gear, influences, buisness aspects, media,life on the road.
Would be able to be grasped by beginners and interesting to the most jaded road dog. Should cover the degrees of involvement necessary for success and have the underlying mantra that you should be true to yourself and that no one piece of advice or path is right or wrong for everyone. No sugarcoating. It sounds vast, but you asked.

[Randy Jane]

J had some good advice for drummers that I liked and can see the transfer to guitar. Basically it was that you need to learn how to play the drums and lay off the cymbals. I think I would say the same thing to young guitarists…in tow parts. Learn to play your guitar, once you get to where you play most of the crap on the radio or your cd collection…write your own stuff. No one is that usefull in a band situation (if you are looking to get in a band) if they can only play other peoples tunes (unless of course you’re in a cover band). The second part to this would be, learn the guitar but lay off the scales. Everyone is tired of going into guitar shops and hearing tapping and blistering scales. We don’t care that you can play your guitar really fast…check it out man, so can I..but I have been playing for over 13 years now, so go sit back down and really learn how to play your instrument. It seems like when you get in a band situation with these people who are too sure of themselves and can play guitar super fast aren’t to intelligible when it comes to writing. They sure do love the solo section, but say I want a very slow song with no solo and it wont have distortion. I don’t want scales cluttering up my sound, just nice smooth chords and MAYBE, just maybe a bluesy solo, meaning soulfull, slower and bends. They usually fall short in this area.

R/J

[simmons]

Randy: I understand what you mean about learning all the scales. I’m afraid of killing some of the quality of my playing if I get to involved in theory and patterns. Maybe that’s just bullshit, but I feel that when I get better at playing I kinda analyze old songs I’ve made and maybe think of them as too simple and flat.
But anyhow, it’s interesting how people perceive songs differently. Your simplest song could be the one people find most substance in.

[FU]

Forget theory. I can’t tell you how many people can’t even pound out rudimentary rhythm guitar parts for more than 30 seconds. You’re right about many(not all) blazing technicians.

I used to play in a band w/a guy who had just started playing about 6 months before joining the band.
I wasn’t Vai but could play fairly well in comparison and knew a little a bit scales and theory. Prior to him joining I had taken over writing the band’s songs and we had some success. Suddenly he comes in with these two chord ‘musings’. I though it was a joke. I had come in with sonsg that had beginnings, middles and ends.
But we jammed it out and suddenly, I realized that what he was doing great/unique and that I could lend structure and an arrangement. It worked. But that was a case of taking something and shaping it into something else, ignoring the ‘rules’.

[Randy Jane]

Simmons: The thing that you fear is the thing that I face every time I play guitar. Over analyzation has become something that is taking over my playing. I now can’t just write a Mudhoney type song and be happy with it anymore. I think that it comes from striving to better myself constantly and forgetting to still be myself and where I come from and where I want to end up.

FU: I totally understand what you are saying, I’ve had that happen to me in every band I’ve ever been in. It’s not a bad thing, I can’t always come up with really good things on guitar but when I hear someone playing something they have written I "hear" a lot of things that can make it better. I’ll usually play around with it untill I can get it down and then rebuild off of what comes of it. Usually comes out pretty good.

I don’t believe that guitar is meant to be played in any particular way. You don’t have to play super fast to be "playing guitar." Yngwie is great, no matter what anyone says about the guy…he’s a great guitarist with a lot of talent. Yngwie has a bit of a wrong idea about what music is supposed to be. Sure he plays super fast, but I would much sooner listen to a slower guitarist than him. Vai is amazing and all the rest of the "aliens." Those guys are great, but at the same time so is J., Mark Arm, Kurt Cobain, Curt Kirkwood, Johnny Ramone etc. It’s just one more thing to add to your big book of illusions.

Oh yeah, FU……sorry it’s taken so long…..that’s a nice car man! Check out the Caddy XLR’s, they’re WAY nice for new cars!

Randy Jane

[Author]

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