To work as a professional instrumentalist in the music industry I will need to develop, and eventually perfect, several instrumental techniques as this will not only improve how I sound in a live scenario, but also help to create a more professional image of myself as a live performer.
Here is a list of the techniques and skills that I need to work on developing the most at this moment in time:
- Scales – mainly for improvisational work – I already have a good understanding of most scales and modes, and can play them all to a good standard. The main improvement that needs making in regards to scales is knowing when is best to use what scale during improvisational sections, and then advance on this further by developing my knowledge of substitution scales and putting this into practise. It could be worth looking into some jazz pieces or some jazz guitarists such as Joe Pass for example.
- Tone – Generally my judgement of what kind of tone to be using for a song, and how to achieve this tone, is fairly accurate. There is always room for improvement however, and I think I can practice this further by playing in a wider range of genres.
- Timing – My timing when playing live at the moment is really good, and I have a good understanding of several time signatures. I can also develop this further still, by playing in more unorthodox time signatures, for example 7/8. A key innovator in this area would be the band Dream Theater so it could be worth learning a couple of their songs in future.
- Stamina – For me, stamina is my biggest drawback. This is because most of the music that I play regularly is fast and heavy. Currently after playing a few songs of a fast pace my rhythm hand gets tired after 3 or 4 songs, meaning that I need to take a break in between. I combat this mostly by pacing my set lists and throwing in a couple of slower songs to give myself a bit of a break in between more demanding pieces. While I get by fine as I am in regards to stamina, I would like to work on this for personal work. James Hetfield from the band Metallica is a good example of a guitarist with incredibly high stamina, as he plays most of his riffs at really fast speeds with no trouble.
- Phrasing – My phrasing of riffs and rhythmic rudiments at the moment is fairly good, I can improve upon this though by playing more difficult songs, perhaps in several time signatures.
- Sight-reading – While I have done sight reading in the past, even playing as a part of a musical pit band, it is far from my strongest skill. I need to put a lot of practice in to do this, and eventually get myself comfortable with reading and playing as I do so.
- Versatility –
- speed
- tuning
- prescence