Day 1 With Captain Lee

In this first video with Captain Lee (of the good ship Anderton’s) we explore the language of music and how understanding it makes us better guitarists!

What Is Rut Busters?

Lee is an intermediate guitar player who’s stuck in a rut and seeing little progress. Anderton’s and I decided to collaborate for some YouTube videos, and we came up with the idea of Rut Busters! That way, we can help players like Lee take their playing to the next level and unlock their guitar potential. :)

I reminded Lee that all guitarists fall into ruts, no matter our level. I have ruts in my playing. But on my guitar journey, I’ve found lots of solutions that help me get out of them! We’ll explore them in this series.

Lee’s Guitar Journey

Lee started playing when he was around 15 years old. He only had a few structured lessons right at the beginning of his journey. But he grew up around music stores, meeting lots of great players and picking up ideas along the way.

When he started doing videos for Anderton’s, it was a new start for him. He committed to taking guitar seriously for the first time in 20 years. In meeting guest guitarists who are fantastic players, Lee realized he’d been playing the same old music for years!

Exploring The Blues

Lee told me he could play blues, switch keys, and use the minor and major pentatonic scales, but doesn’t know which chords to use those scales with. He tended to guess at the start of a lick, hoping it sounded good.

This led to a valuable lesson: scales are like the alphabet. They’re the letters we use to make words. We don’t speak using the alphabet – we use words. In the same way, when we play guitar, we communicate through licks, not scales. If we use scales, we don’t communicate anything! We want our licks to be our comfort zone, not scales. On the other hand, if we randomly jump between licks, our playing lacks structure. We communicate more, but it still sounds strange.

💡Quick Playing Tip! Playing scales is like repeating the alphabet. Playing licks is like using words.

Make Cool Solos By Expanding On Licks

The key to expanding our solo playing is to find licks we love and use them. From those licks, we can form solos and lead lines.
Try this exercise: put on a backing track, choose one of your favorite licks, then solo using only that lick, expanding on it by adding notes, changing the rhythm, and so on. Lee’s playing sounded wicked with this exercise! One of Paul Gilbert's tricks is to imagine that you’re playing a kick drum as you solo. This helps you create great rhythms in your solo playing.

Where Do Licks Come From?

Sounds silly, but really, where do they come from? When I was younger, I used to think licks came from books, so I bought a ton of them! Then I realized I was wrong.

In truth, licks come from other guitarists. That is, you steal licks from records. Look at all the greats, and that’s how they learned the trade. They transcribed the songs they loved, learning the licks along with it.

Choose a song from your favorite guitarist and find a few licks to figure out. Eric Clapton is a great player to steal licks from – he’s pretty traditional and uses old licks from Albert King, B.B. King, and Robert Johnson.

Playing What You Hear

Lee commented that he found it tricky to hear music in his mind and then find the right notes on the guitar. I'm not surprised! This skill requires an excellent ear and knowledge of the fretboard.

Getting good at this is a lifelong journey. I’ve met a few guitarists who can do it, but most people can’t, even great guitarists.
Here’s a little trick: try to play Happy Birthday, starting on fret 5 of string 3. And make sure you stay in that area of the neck. Not so easy, is it? This gives you an idea of how tricky it is to play what you hear.

The Biggest Lesson From Today

💡Guitar Wisdom – You can play your way to a new way of thinking, but you can’t think your way to a new way of playing!

If you only know licks in your mind, do you think you’ll be able to play them in a real situation? Will they sound good when you play them? The answer is no. You need to practice these licks – and all guitar ideas – over and over again until they become second nature for you. Spend five minutes a day, five days a week, practicing a new idea. Within a few weeks, you’ll be a different guitar player. Guaranteed.

Stick around for more Rut Busters and take your playing to the next level! See you in the next one. :)

💙 Move into Advanced guitar territory with my Advanced Grade 7 course.

This video lives on the Anderton's YouTube Channel – this series alternates between that channel and my main one.

Anderton's Music
Anderton's is my local music store in Guildford (UK) and I got in touch with Lee to explore some ideas for collaboration. It's a cool store and I buy most of my stuff there :) Big thanks also to Danish Pete for his editing expertise and fun hangs!