The WORST Advice That EVERYONE Gives Musicians
Is ‘just feeling it’ a good way to make music?
Nope, not really. Thanks for reading!
(I love when I can get to the point immediately - it really cuts down my weekly email-writing time, so I have more time for barbecueing the perfect pork ribs in my backyard - secret recipe!)
... But waaaait. If this isn’t a good strategy for making music, why is it such common advice?
Why do so many people say that you should play by feel, or that the "Best Musicians (TM)" all play by feel?
Uh-oh, I guess I have to explain that. Those pork ribs will have to wait...
Ok, so let’s think about it this way:
Telling an amateur musician to make music by ‘just feeling it’ is like telling an average person that to do a 100 foot high dive, all you need to do is ‘just jump’.
Hey, it is technically true. (And "technically" is the best kind of true!)
... but the people that can actually do 100 foot high dives without shattering all the 206 bones in their body can do it because they’ve trained and mastered every detail of the required technique, to the point where all they need to do is ‘just jump’.
Let me stress this: the subjective experience of the expert is that they "just jump". They are not lying!
But if anybody else were to follow that advice... they'd be in for 2.5 terrifying seconds before a very fast splat... and a lot of groan for the rest of their life.
It’s the same with professional musicians. Those who truly make music "just by feel" have spent enough time learning the language inside and out that they no longer need to think about it...
... and now their subjective experience is that they make music just by feel. They are, once again, not lying!
But if you want to play by feel like the pros, you have to learn the language and the theory first (or at least spend a lot of time with trial-and-error, with the most of the time spent on "error", BTW)
Want to learn more about this ‘play by feel’ nonsense... and how to actually get there? Watch the video linked below!
If you really want to understand how to make music that sounds good, it's very important that you understand chords and harmony. If you want to understand chords better and make better music, check out my Complete Chord Mastery guitar course
Video Transcription
Hello Internet, so nice to see you. I have a question about doing it by feeling.
It's our players and masters making excuses for not practicing. Do it by feel, they say. Translation, I don't know what I'm doing.
Exactly, okay. Musicians do it by feeling, okay? When people say I did it by feeling, they mean one of those three different things. And it's important to know why. So, it's important for you to know, so you don't get caught in the lie, in a sense, okay?
And you know what they actually mean when they say it by feel. And you also don't start doing it yourself. So, let me explain. If somebody who does not know how to play or is not really confident say I do it by feel, what they mean is that it was an accident, okay?
It went well. I'm not sure if I can reproduce it. I am not sure exactly what am I doing. But of course, it's always cool to say, yes, I meant to do that whenever you have some kind of happy accident, okay?
So, that's the first meaning of doing it by feel, okay? There's also, by the way, a close meaning to that. They were having a conversation right now here about how some musicians are divorced, and they don't listen to the song before the gig, okay?
So, you have a band, send the songs to everybody to learn, then you get to the gig, and then at the last possible minute your drummer goes like, can you hum that song again? Can you just play the intro so I know what is the
No, you should know the song before you get to the gig, okay? Stop doing it by feeling actually learning the song. That's one thing. But sometimes you have competent musicians telling you I did it by feel.
What do they mean? Well, it depends if you're asking them an explanation or not. If you were asking them an explanation, I do it by feel means I know exactly what I'm doing. I could write it down on a score with my eyes closed, okay?
But I cannot be bothered explaining this to you right now, so the excuse is just I did it by field, okay? Makes sense, even the explanation is too long, that's what they're gonna tell you. I mean, imagine, suppose you are a famous musician, you just released an album, you did this interview and you're on television or something and they ask you who, how did you play that?
Are you really gonna launch in a 20 minute explanation of music theory on why exactly you play that? Or you're gonna just say, I did it by field and everybody, oh it's so nice, I did it by field, it's so talented, of course you're gonna say it, I did it by field, what else are you gonna say?
Okay, so that meaning, then there is one last meaning of I did it by field, that's the only positive meaning and it means death. I studied a lot and I practiced a lot, I studied my music theory and I learned it, I practiced a lot, I played in a lot of situations, I improvised, I connected, with my instrument.
I learned when I do some gestures, some sound came out and I integrated this and I practiced this until it became natural. Then I just wanted to do it and I did it, okay? That's what it means. I do it by feel.
So, I mean, you could be sincere. I did it by feel. That's just what I wanted to play, but it doesn't mean that this comes naturally to everybody before they practice, okay? You need to practice. Nobody is born knowing how to play this instrument, okay?
And you can prove this easily by just give this to a one -year -old and see what kind of music they play. They are not born with that, okay? We are not born with that. We have to learn everything. We have to learn, even to learn how to follow rhythm, okay?
That's not natural. Indeed, there have been lots of studies that kids more exposed to music learn to follow rhythm faster. Kids who learn to follow rhythm faster speak earlier. Music comes before language, okay?
So, that's that. So, we learn this stuff. It's not natural. We have the capacity, but it's not natural. We need to learn it. This instrument has an interface. You need to put fingers in specific place, hit other thing, and maybe you possibly need to know what you're playing, what are the notes, how those notes relate with each other and all this kind of thing.
Once you know all that, and you practice, and you know, and you've connected the knowledge in your brain, the movement in your hand, the sound in your ear, and the feeling in your heart. So, you have four things to connect, okay?
Okay? Ear, brain, heart, and fingers. Once you've connected all those things, and of course you're doing it by feet. Now, everything is connected. Whenever you want a sound, you just play it. When people say I do it by feel, usually it's an excuse.
At best, the explanation is just do like me, practice your ass off, okay? For as long as you can, as hard as you can. can and you'll be able to play whatever you want on the guitar. This is what is meant when a musician tells you, I did it by feel.
The feel comes from all the practice. Now if you need some help in getting there, I have free resources, I have courses, send me an email, go to my website, see what I have, or go somewhere else, not a problem, but find somebody to help you and learn those things so that you too can finally say, I did it by feel and mean it.
This is Tommaso Zillio of musichteoryforguitar.com, and until next time, enjoy!