How to practice guitar: Advice for busy people | Konstantin Batygin and Lex Fridman

[@DaleFoleyGuitar]

Practice with a metronome. Record yourself, slow down the recording to find defects, isolate that part and practice it over and over again. Also, dont be afraid to change your technique (i.e., wrist angle, how you hold the pick, tension, etc..)

[@William_Stephens]

Start with open chords. Practice strumming . Down strums. Then down and up strumming. And practice transitioning between open chords while strumming. Perfect that and then learn major and minor bar chords. After bar chords learn power chords, which will be simple after learning bar chords. after that you will have most of the tools you need to play rhythm guitar. From there go to scales (for playing solos and lead) and triads .

[@0ooTheMAXXoo0]

The question was not about techniques to practice, but how to fit practice into your daily life. Thanks for the ideas anyways!

[@iamrohit5180]

Thanks man!

[@William_Stephens]

@@0ooTheMAXXoo0yea. I watched the vid. Just giving some advice to the commenters

[@D.Boon1]

I’ve been playing for about a year now and I still can’t transition between cowboy chords and the F bar chord lol

[@William_Stephens]

@@D.Boon1 instead of barring with your pointer finger , put it on the 1st fret of the b string . Then mute the two e strings Or you can do what I like to do and on the low e string (the thicker one) use your thumb to play the first fret . Jimi Hendrix and John Frusciante. Play bar chords like that

[@0ooTheMAXXoo0]

Practicing every day is more important than the amount of time you spend. Hours and hours of practice can even be counterproductive. The habit and the sleep are super important. Even muscle memory and muscle strength and fine motor control get better while you sleep and dream. Most of the learning and actually getting better happens while you sleep. If you do the activity every day then the body will know to keep spending energy and effort in that direction. If you do it less often then the body will focus that energy and effort elsewhere.

[@smoothierip5693]

Interestingly practicing everyday doesn't really apply to playing piano, I can go weeks without playing mine and almost effortlessly come back and play my usual repertoire. However I can definitely see it's emphasis on guitar when I skip a day or 2 or 3 I'm noticeably fumbling around and its probably because guitar demands you to have crazy good technique and dexterity. But I also suck at guitar so might just be me.

[@jimmychoppa1997]

Matthew Walker talks about this on the Joe Rogan podcast

[@travispreble]

I saw a video that explains how when we sleep our brain is doing the same function as while awake but at super speed. Say you practice playing 10 chords, 1 per second. When you dream your brain will light up the exact same way but all 10 chords in a second. My knees are for explanatory purposes only, so don't quote me on that but that is essentially how it works.

[@gracerodgers8952]

Music is water to the thirsty soul ❤❤❤ you are so lovable,Lex, keep just being you ❣️🤗

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Lex. You're amongst the great thinkers of our time in that you humbly pull everything out of them in a considered we thought over manner and you hold your own with all of them and that makes you unique. Now to guitar. Anytime you think of a lick record it on your phone. Drop what you're doing, it only takes a second. Especially as you fall to sleep you'll notice it the most and fight the urge to sleep and record that music in your head because it's easy to forget. I'd love to know more about your hobby robotics projects as I am kind of a maker who tries to code and has an affinity for robotics as well but the gearing trips me up and I always fail when trying to make an arm. I can code decently and read lots of texts books. Anyway, I'm just a little unknown spec of dust on the earth who know one knows but I respect what you do. You live a charmed life. I can't wait to see where it leads as I sit in my house too scared to go outside.

[@PattiMoreno212]

Awesome discussion! I’ve done both methods of practice. When I started learning, I would play everyday at least 20mins. Now I’ll get obsessed and that’s all I do for a period of time or before I’m going to perform, I practice the guitar leading up to it, hours at a time. Thanks for the discussion Lex.

[@MattPowersSoil]

"It's definitely both" - I don't know how many former professional musicians are now farmers in the regenerative or permaculture world, but there are SO MANY. As someone who now is deeply steeped in science (regenerative soil science) in my books and courses, I find I have to go in tandem privately deeper into music: I've been building guitars and pedals and amps with my son the past 3 years more and more. It's a strange balance but it works so well.

[@canadianscraggledog]

Maynard of Tool now makes wine and other ag foods.

[@Sr82.]

Start small and don't get frustrated . As soon as you start feeling annoyed put it down take 5 mins to think over and visualise what you were trying to do and get it locked in your head then go to bed and I promice when you wake up you'll be 20% better at it . I learned to sweep pick in just over a month and now its so natural I can't beleive I used to scream at the guitar for 20 years over bloody sweep picking lol

[@defbear]

If he can play in the correct chords to compliment his vocal fry I think he’s got a successful record ahead of him.

[@cubeincubes]

Part of writing music is exploring the unheard, unknown, unborn. It requires you to always question time signatures and tempos, sharps, flats, keys. I never realized how much it bleeds into the rest of perception but I’m always questioning everything and it drives people nuts. Great questions as always!

[@danwealton3025]

Don’t ever forget lesson #1: hold the guitar high like George Harrison, or low like Deen Ween, but never in between.

[@eschaef71]

Does the vocal fry annoy anyone else?

[@FlopsEgo]

As a guitarist for 20 years I feel like if it speaks to you on a molecular like it does for me, you’ll make time

[@MattPowersSoil]

Would love to chat sometime Lex - about the implications of microbes spanning the soil, inside plants, and inside us or about music or the mind... Hope all is well!!

[@rebornsmith7542]

If he broke out and played "Smelly cats... Smelly cats... whad are they feeding yooo"

[@dannyortega382]

i want lex to interview a real musician and just talk about music for the whole interview lol

[@michaelcorcoran3942]

So 24k people who listen to Lex Play guitar

[@TheChickThatRox]

Hi Lex. :))) Can I hear a Hedgehog in the Fog song please? :)

[@Aegaris42]

Too much vocal fry. Could not listen to this one