There comes a point in every guitarist’s journey when he hits a wall. They can play, no doubt, there are skills, a vocabulary to lick, but something is missing that separates the beginner-intermediate player from the professional. Tom Bukovac has been thinking about this a lot lately and has boiled it down to four things that all mid-level players get wrong, and addressing these issues in your game can take you to the next level.
In the latest episode of his YouTube series Homeskoolin’, Bukovac laid out four telltale signs of the middle gamer. “These are things that I noticed guys doing that are just starting out and I noticed it right away,” he says. “I can’t help but notice it. These are things that everyone must overcome.”
Bukovac, one of Nashville’s best session players, can relate. He was no different. As for timing, it took him years to get it right and land in the stock market without rushing.
“Don’t feel alone,” he says. “That’s a really hard thing to overcome in your playing. “I struggled with that for many years.” And that’s probably the best place to start. Bukovac says the best players don’t rush and you need to learn to relax a play in the pocket.
“Intermediate guitarists tend to rush everything,” he says. “They can’t wait to play the next note. They are so worried about getting to the phrase that they just can’t stop… You have to learn to get in your pocket and play something intensely, but don’t rush it. Really difficult to do. “Everyone struggles with that.”
When the stage lights come on, or the red light comes on in the studio, that’s when things can get really bad. The key is to relax, but that’s easier said than done. Long sessions, playing with a metronome, playing with records, recording and listening to yourself can improve your rhythm and help you relax while you play. Because that’s another big thing on Bukovac’s list…
Don’t take the life out of the guitar. This is not jiu-jitsu.
“When you’re not playing fluidly and relaxed, your timing is… urgh! Urgh! Urgh! Urgh! It doesn’t flow,” says Bukovac. “You are detuning the neck. You’re pulling the notes out of the tone. Tone killer. It’s like a drummer hitting his cymbals too hard or a snare drum too hard. He just kills the whole tone.”
The problem is too much tension in the body. There’s nothing wrong with aggression, he says, but there’s an efficiency in the way professional players play hard that gets the message across perfectly.
“The trick is to play with intensity and passion, but without squeezing the raw shit out of your neck or tensing your entire body,” he says. Again. This is a stage that Bukovac has overcome. It is a natural stage in a player’s development when he finds a level of control over that emotion, a refinement of technique.
You look at these guys like Mike Landau, all these guys who have done incredible things with the guitar, they’re putting out tons of intensity and aggression but they barely play the guitar.
“I think a lot of guys, beginners and intermediates, struggle with that,” he says. “I’ve struggled with that in the past, when you get so excited, when so much energy flows through your body. You’re going to play the solo and you’re just squeezing the shit out of the neck. Kills the tuning. It kills everything. You look at the big guys, man, and they barely play the guitar. You look at these guys like Mike Landau, all these guys who have done incredible things with the guitar, they’re putting out tons of intensity and aggression but they barely play the guitar. “That’s some pro-level shit.”
How to work to achieve this? Once again, it’s a matter of being able to relax with the instrument, developing an economy of movement, and learning how and when to dig deeper. And that doesn’t mean you don’t have to make it look easy; Just remember that you have a C-shaped piece of maple in your hands. This is not a fight with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Bukovac’s other two observations? The use of involuntary vibrato, that is, vibrato with everything, all the time, and playing too much. The good news is that all of these beginner and intermediate player mistakes arise from the same problems: being too anxious, too tense on the instrument, and feeling the need to play all the time.
Bukovac advises us to think of playing guitar as a conversation, like telling a story and giving the audience time to pause and think about what you have said. Go at your pace.
Double the note into a solo and let that shit play, uncomfortably long. Let people feel that. You’re in no hurry to get anywhere. That’s what I love about great players.
“I see guys playing and it’s almost as if they are afraid of silence and space,” he says. “You have to think of the game as a conversation. He doubles the note into a solo and lets that shit play, uncomfortably long. Let people feel that. You’re in no hurry to get anywhere. That’s what I love about great players. You can see that wisdom there. They are not afraid to leave something hanging for too long. It is not necessary to be playing constantly.”
The same goes for vibrato. In fact, sometimes what the phrase calls for is not vibrato. Just like holding a note and letting it hang there, Bukovac says it can be just as effective to let the note settle, using vibrato only when you really need it to say something. He calls it “nervous vibrato” and it is a dead giveaway.
“They don’t choose their vibrato,” he says. “They’re not doing it intentionally.” Of all the things Bukovac thinks about when he plays on stage, it’s vibrato. You don’t notice them. Those that he has learned and kept deep down. It’s when and when not to apply vibrato.
“You look at great musicians, great musicians choose very carefully when to vibrato, how much vibrato, the speed of the vibrato, the intensity of the vibrato,” he says. “It’s constantly changing… I love bending a damn note and just holding it, no vibrato. And while he’s dying, shake him.”
If you’re looking for personalized, no-frills feedback from a seasoned professional, you’re in luck, because this is a service Bukovac now offers “for a small fee.” Watch the video above and definitely subscribe to his YouTube channel because, as we’ve said before on this site, Bukovac’s Homeskoolin’ series is one of the best guitar lessons you can get for free.
