How to practice guitar: Play very slow | Tal Wilkenfeld and Lex Fridman

you think every instrument is its own journey is you play guitar you play bass you sing just the the Mastery of an instrument or let's avoid the word Mastery the understanding of an instrument is its own thing or they somehow like physical manifestations of the same thing it's both you know like every instrument has its strengths Beauty limitations range like possible range that can you know be extended to some degree or another depending on who you are like trumpet or something you know like some people can hit higher notes than others blah blah blah but um that being said we're all playing the same 12 or 24 or however you divide the octave that many notes you know we're all playing the same notes so in that sense it's all the same thing it's just music or better yet it's just OD or expression but yeah every instrument has you know you got to go through the the physical the physical aspect of it the motor skills and all of that and hopefully you get through that really quickly so you can get to the expression quickly because if you get stuck in just that first phase that's be really boring yeah but that's a that's a pretty long phase the technical the the the technical skill required to really play an instrument for some people it's a long thing and some people it's short it very very much varies it might have to do with like how you learn um and getting to know like your strengths in learning like more oral or more like is it more like K like what's what's your strength and playing off of those strengths so for me like it was like like I was saying earlier it was just an intuitive thing that I knew I can feel when my brain is full like that it needs processing time and so I listen to that I don't push past it uh even if it's like one minute and I do something I'm like okay silence and then I come back and it and on I trust that it's going to be there and is there so just trusting yourself I think is really important trusting that you know you better than anybody else is going to know you so that's the kind of thing with with teachers that can be either really really helpful and great or really not great like I'm primarily self-taught I've had amazing mentors of all walks of life and I think I'm unbelievably blessed that my mentors are some of my favorite musicians on Earth whether it's Leonard Cohen or Jeff Beck or Wayne shter whoever these people are like they are my favorite musicians so not everyone has that opportunity but what the opportunity that we have now that I didn't have when I was starting is that everything's on YouTube like every interview with every genius like you you don't need to necessarily have these people in person now I mean it and and then I'll say to that yes and no I I agree with myself and then I don't agree with myself and and the reason is I do believe that there is something that happens when you're in person with master um in some cases that there is something transferred that is not intellectual it's not spoken as something else that happens that can happen and that I've experienced and um I really value that and I think that applies to specific disciplines and also generally like I've been around Olympic gold medalists just to hang out with them for several days and there's something there's something about greatness there's a way about them that kind of uh permeates the space around them and you kind of learn something from it even if you don't practice that particular discipline yeah there's something to it if you're if you're able to see it I also like what you said about the playing stuff in your head that it forces you to not be um lost in the in the physical learning of the instrument I think that's one of the things I probably regret a little bit so I play both piano and guitar and I've become quite over the years technically proficient at the instruments but I think my mind is underdeveloped because of that meaning like I can't really like um I can feel the music when it's created but I can't create out of the feeling I haven't practiced the U project projecting the feeling onto the music you know what I mean and I'm not like a musician but I'm just it it's it's a different muscle that I think is if you really want to create beautiful things you have to the creation happens here not with your hand I think it's more here or what whichever it's some part of the body but it's not with your fingers yeah cuz I think the fingers is more this sure and then yes is here yeah right it's just nice that you said that cuz it it um it's probably really it's really good advice if you want to create yeah slowing down is really great too what do you mean slowing down slowing everything down it could be you know I can play something really fast but I may want to like practice it yeah [Music] like go slow as possible cuz there's all these micro movements and that are happening that if you just go like you you can't pay as close attention to the exact tone that you're pulling from each note and there's a lot to pay attention to to how my fingers are touching the string here like I can change my tone A Million Ways just by the direction of this finger and same with how this lands and how hard I'm attacking the string and with what intention am I hitting the string emotionally physically and so even if you can go play that so slow see how locked into a pocket you can be see how you like feel every aspect of that cuz then when it gets sped up is still there with you mhm yeah that's brilliant it's kind of like the transcended and included thing that Ken wber talks about like it's like and I guess that's what meditation can do for you is to like really listen to like observe every aspect of your body the breath and all this here you're observing every element like every super detailed element of playing a single note yeah that's it's cool that if you speed it up it's still there with you it is I I yeah it is cuz I hear there are certain people it's like they play really fast but I don't hear the fullness of tone always and it's like well it's probably because maybe they didn't maybe it's cuz they didn't slow it down and really sit with each note and let it like resonate through their whole being it's spiritual it's like a spiritual expression it's not just like like you know it's not it's not a sport a lot of people treat music like a sport yeah since starting to learn more like Steve yon versus Jimmy Hendricks I I would spend a quite a long time on single notes of just bending just like just listening to what you can do with Ben's spending just thinking like people like BB King and all these Blues musicians like spent a career just making a a single note cry yeah there's like anart form to that yeah and I think you putting it like taking it really slow which I never really thought of it's really good idea like really slow it down it's the same with like sitting with your own emotions it's like we when emotions are overwhelming to us we get real busy or we move real fast because it's like we don't want to feel our feelings and those are the moments to slow yourself down and observe it anger jealousy and just be with just be with it be like be cool with it like love it love the anger

Channel: Lex Clips

Views: 331,447

Keywords: ai, ai clips, ai podcast, ai podcast clips, artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence podcast, computer science, consciousness, deep learning, einstein, elon musk, engineering, friedman, joe rogan, lex ai, lex clips, lex fridman, lex fridman podcast, lex friedman, lex mit, lex podcast, machine learning, math, math podcast, mathematics, mit ai, philosophy, physics, physics podcast, science, tal wilkenfeld, tech, tech podcast, technology, turing

Id: iYlDDTgTnEg

Length: 9min 28sec (568 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2024