The Notes You Should Never Play

The Silence Between Notes

This first bit of advice could quite possibly be the most important and valuable advice for any experience level, hence the reason I’m giving it ahead of my beginner lessons!  This advice was given to me by my friend Chris, who is a justifiably arrogant and amazingly talented guitarist.

"Always remember, the silence between the notes is just as important as the notes themselves.  You can convey more emotion and feeling through appropriately placed silence than you can from any combination of notes.  If you’re not absolutely sure that a note should be played and sure that you can play that note perfectly, then don’t play it.”

This advice is obviously for performing and improvising, not for practice…everyone makes mistakes in practice.  However, keeping this in mind will make you a much more consistent musician at every level.  It also forces you to pay much more attention to the other instruments you are interacting with.  You can play the fanciest lick in the world, but if you do it at the wrong time and  cover up the sacred silence then it still won’t be impressive!

I'll be posting some beginner tips and tricks very soon....

Happy Fiddlin',

-Joe