Student Questions - Episode Five - Lessons Learned Over 20 Years of Playing
Student Questions Episode 5: Lessons Learned Over 20 Years of Playing Video Transcript
▍Dave Dougherty
So, all right. Hello. Um, Chris, thanks for jumping on. I think for time's sake, I will just ask you this question that came through on Instagram. Um, and then I will record my response later.
▍Christopher Becknell
Excellent.
▍Dave Dougherty
Um, but yeah. I was looking through our BGO Instagram account. Find that link below here. And, um, Somebody out in LA asked... He saw one of the videos of me performing a Gojira tune. Uh, just for fun and then started asking about. You know, how long have you been playing? What are you doing? Blah, blah, blah. So we started up a conversation. And one of the questions that popped up, I thought it would be interesting to get your take.
What are the two main issues that are you're currently facing in your 20 years of guitar playing?
So. First off. Sh** it’s been 20 years. Secondly. That means you and I have been friends for like 17. That’s kinda nuts.
▍Christopher Becknell
That’s pretty good.
Yeah, well, I mean, two issues, there could be lots of issues or there could be one issue. I think there's really just one issue. And that's, uh, making sure you know, that you have your, your time for your music every day. I mean, making sure you're getting your playtime in, you know, if you don't have your instrument in your hand, are you really a musician?
And. Uh, you know, as, just as life gets busy and other things happen, unforeseen things happen, you just. You gotta get that practice time in and, you know, practice can be lots of different things. It can be working on a technical point or, uh, reviewing some past repertoire. Your own pieces you've written or other people's compositions you've worked up. Um, You know, but just getting some playtime in every day.
There are ways to make it work, you know, get the guitar set in a spot where you're going to get to it while you're waiting for the coffee to brew up. And get that 10 minutes in or tell yourself I'm going to, you know, get 10 minutes of technical practice in, and then I'm going to do my 20 minutes on the treadmill. And then, you know, clean up and do another 30 minutes. That's your time for the day.
I mean, lots of ways to approach it, but. Um, it's just making sure that you don't let your busy life get in the way of the musical goals you set for yourself. And, you know, there's that idea of setting a SMART goal, right? Uh, so set a SMART goal for your practice and make it manageable. Um, that's, you know, that's my biggest advice to everybody is. You know, that funny, older saying inch by inch, life is a cinch.
We all look at those old colloquia… or those old phrases and anyways, It really makes a difference. You know, just the same as putting in five bucks in the savings account every week after a year it adds up and five minutes a day adds up, then 10 minutes a day adds up and just a connection with your instrument. Got to get your instrument in your hands and make time for it. So prioritize it.
I'm just shocked at it, I just continue to read studies about, uh, the use of screen time. And now it said the average American… One I just read last week said the average American spends 10.5 hours a day in front of a screen. And, you know, granted, a lot of people are in front of computers for eight hours a day for work, but, you know, most jobs are eight hours a day.
So if you're adding another two and a half hours of screen time, yourself. Like that's coming from something coming from someplace in your life that could be invested elsewhere, whether it's exercise or, you know, playing music.
▍Dave Dougherty
Along those lines too, is just the other studies of how many. Um, how many people are double-dipping. Right. So like you're, you're watching a Timberwolves game and surfing the web. On your phone. Right. So not only is it 10 hours of screen time, but it might be 10 hours of multiple screens.
But yeah, I think, and one thing to shout out. You know, we just did a, a video on setting goals and managing goals as a new player. So we'll put. The link in the description and link. Um, you know, one of those cards.
My response to him... And I guess just because you brought it up, I'll add onto it. My response to him was similar. It was, you know, at some point my playing had to plateau because I was focused on other aspects of being a musician. Right?
Whether it was marketing and how do you get your music out there? What does it look like to try to get, you know, your, your band, or yourself a gig? ‘Cause, that's a whole separate skill set from just performing.
And then, you know, the normal day job, family responsibilities, and now I have a little kid. So as much as I love that Mesa you see in the background that can't be fired up at 9:00 PM. You know, my son sleeping is more important than loud amps to the face.
▍Christopher Becknell
Which is why you invested in your, uh, your Helix. So you can just put your headphones on and still get your practice time in.
▍Dave Dougherty
Yeah, the [Line 6] Helix and then the Neural DSP plugins. Those are so good.
▍Christopher Becknell
The ability to practice, whether you're playing an acoustic guitar or, you know, an electric guitar, just the accessibility of quiet practice. Is not what it was 20 years ago. You know, it was really hard to find an amplifier with a headphone out on it 20 years ago.
And now the, just the fact that you can plug it literally into your laptop and, you know, plug into any number of audio recording programs that will give you a signal back that sounds like you're playing a pretty realistic amplifier. You can get that practice time in if you're just set for it. So just map out the time.
▍Dave Dougherty [48:11]
Well, and even just like Garage Band with the drum loops that they have. You pick a, a So. Cal kit or something if you want that kind of surfer, chill, rock vibe. Um, and that's kind of perfect for sitting in strumming.
You know, if anybody's interested in walkthroughs of the different software and stuff, we've talked about, let us know. Drop a comment. Hit us up online and we'll be happy to look into making something along those lines.
I remember when I started out playing, it was: “Grab one of those notation books. Put it up. Play play, play, play, play.” And that was it. That's all you had. Or you'd take the VHS or the DVD and put that in. Of course now any of the new [generations of] students would be like, “What? What tech are you even talking about?”
▍Christopher Becknell
Yeah.
▍Dave Dougherty
It was the best we had!
So that was thing one. Is there a second thing that kind of pops to your mind? Along those lines.
▍Christopher Becknell
No, just, uh, just, you know, keeping yourself progressing enough to, to start to...
You know, so two difficult things, I guess the second one. That nowadays, just with the affordability of things, isn't as much of an issue, but it used to be just, you know, getting your hands on better equipment. You know you had such a drastic price jump between, you know, a student-level amplifier and a professional level amplifier and a student-level guitar and a professional level guitar. And, you know, gosh, the student-level stuff now sounds fantastic. And for the price, I mean, you couldn't get a guitar that played that well, 20 years ago for the price. It was just unheard of.
▍Dave Dougherty
Yeah, you know, it ends up being the fine details of things. In terms of like material choice or they actually took the time to sand off an edge.
▍Dave Dougherty
The last guitar I bought, I think was in that like $700-$800 price range. It is an Ernie Ball Music Man seven-string and it is probably one of the better guitars I own. And as you know, most Ernie Ball guitars are like three grand. So, this is definitely one of their import ones, but it's fantastic. Yeah, it's a great instrument.
▍Christopher Becknell
Quality for affordability is just through the roof these days. We're living in the golden age of guitar folks. There's never been a time ever where there's, you know, more affordable instruments available at such a high quality and so many, so many choices. And such a progression in just the tech skills of instrument production with CNC machines. These days they've dialed in this kind of craftsmanship that used to be only attainable at the custom shop level.
Now you get an instrument that plays great, feels great, and literally comes off of the belt set up. Practically, you know, talking about a little minutia that you only start to notice as you become a more advancing player. But for the beginner gone are the days of getting a crummy guitar that you can barely push the strings down and you're still practicing through that. It's over. I mean, everything is playable these days, so.
▍Dave Dougherty
Yeah. Yeah, I think that's. It's a good place to end. That's a good thought too because there are a lot of options, not just the starter kits, but even a brand like Ernie Ball they have some, some entry-level stuff that is really surprising in terms of quality. And even ESP or Ibanez those guys make some really quality stuff. Depending on the style you're looking to play.
▍Christopher Becknell
Totally. But that's the other thing with the affordability of software and most people have a laptop. And, you know, there's free software that you can plug into. And then there are programs like Garage Band built into the Macintosh platform.
But yeah, I mean, just the sounds you can get as a beginner right away. It used to be if you wanted to work on Van Halen licks you not only needed a guitar, but you needed an amp that could get a sizable amount of gain on it to provide the, you know, necessary distortion for working on those, those van Halen licks.
And then you often needed the supplement of some effects pedals that had to be purchased separately and all connected together. And that adds up, you know, all that equipment adds up and now you can plug a guitar…
You know, a moderately priced beginner guitar that plays well into a software program and gets a pretty convincing Eddie Van Halen tone to start working on some of those licks. You know, if Van Halen's your idol. And, uh, you know, he’s a lot of people's idol. I mean, so many of us looked up to his playing. May he rest in peace.
You know the ability to just dive right into getting that sound that helps you play that style is incredible. Or if you want to work on jazz, the ability to get that really warm fat, tube sound, created through a digital environment is incredible.
▍Dave Dougherty
Yeah. I mean, there are some challenges for sure, especially on the software side, because you have to learn signal paths way before you used to have. Because it's not as simple as just a guitar, a plug, an amp.
I have this little 15 watt Fender bass amp. That I got because I started out on bass in sixth grade. And it was the starter kit or whatever. This amp won't die. It is fantastic. I changed the speaker out of it. But yeah, I mean, it's one of the clearest, best-sounding things ever. And for a really long time, it was just that single 1x12 or I think it's the 1x10 actually, with a Boss distortion pedal and that was, that was my sound. Forever and ever and ever until it was like, “Oh, I'm a good enough player. I might be able to convince my parents to help me buy something, like a big boy amp.”
▍Christopher Becknell
Oh, And learning the signal paths that brings back so many great memories. I remember being a, you know, a young high school student and one of my friends who, you know, went out to Guitar Center and he bought a bunch of pedals that he'd been wanting to get.
He's hooking them up and I remember hanging out with him, jamming at his house, and I just had like my guitar and the distortion pedal and my amp. And that's it. And he bought a delay pedal and a reverb pedal and a flanger pedal and a wah-wah pedal.
You know, he plugged them all in, but his, I remember his set up, he was running his guitar into his delay…And then that will. Yeah, right, right. I know. Learning about this, just, you know, great, to watch the awareness of that develop as a young player, he goes into the delay and the delays going into the distortion. Then the distortion was going into the flange. Then all of that was going into the wah. And then right at the end was his tuner pedal.
▍Dave Dougherty
It’s definitely a sound. I mean, if you're going for interesting sounds, that's for sure. But.
▍Christopher Becknell
Oh, it was just great. Man having so much fun, you know, with that and then you start to. You're like, this is just, something's not sounding right.
It's like, you're going, you're going weeks before getting it in the proper order because you're trying to find people who can help you figure out why it doesn't sound good. Moving stuff around yourself.
And I remember hearing one of my favorite stories about the Beatles was. Uh, in an interview, I read George Harrison was talking about when he was a young guitar player when he was like 14 years old. He rode a bus one hour, each way, to visit this guy who was the friend of a friend who could play guitar really well. And George Harrison wanted to learn how to play a B7 chord. And, and a couple of other chords, but he really wanted to learn how to play a B7 chord.
▍Dave Dougherty
That's a turnaround chord. Yeah.
▍Christopher Becknell
Yeah, and he took a bus an hour each way, you know, to go get the information from this guy. And I just think to myself, man, that's dedication, you know, you got. George Harrison. Well, look what he accomplished! Look at the incredible guitar player he became and he wanted it. He just went to, you know, after the knowledge and he never stopped growing and, you know, spent his whole Saturday probably just to go learn a chord progression.
▍Dave Dougherty
Right, and it would be interesting…I don't know, maybe somebody has done this. But it would be interesting to find out if he, uh, Use the B7 the majority of the time. Because if you put in a two-hour bus ride for one chord, you'd think you'd want to get usage out of it.
▍Christopher Becknell
I'm going to make sure this makes it into every song.
▍Dave Dougherty
Exactly. I'm starting on the dang thing!
▍Christopher Becknell
Get the five right off the bat.
▍Dave Dougherty
Yeah. Well, cool. All right, man. Well, I appreciate the time.
▍Christopher Becknell
You bet.
▍Dave Dougherty
We're going to end here and, um, you know, thanks. Uh, thanks for doing that. Thank you to anybody who's reached out to us on our Instagram channel, our Facebook page. Anybody who's left a comment o the YouTube stuff. We greatly appreciate that. And you know, feel free. This is a spot for everybody to share and learn. So I'm looking forward to doing more of this. So have a good rest of your day and see down the pipe.
▍Christopher Becknell
Yeah, it sounds good.
▍Dave Dougherty
Later man.