mouthing allong

I've been playing the guitar for a while now, and this one bad habbit is annoying the hell out of me. Ever since i could play beyond 80bpm leads i tended to 'mouth along' to my guitar playing. It's quite embarassing when people see me shredding and my face contorting with every fret i hit. And the thing is when i play, i don't notice it until i hear people laughing. I noticed my friend gabe having the same problem when he plays dream theatre leads, but i'm sure alot of muscians out there don't have this problem. Some of my friends say that i end up concentrating too much on what i'm playing and my breathing goes off, they suggested i just have to keep counting in my head to get that sorted. But it didn't work, my breathings fine. And when i tend to clamp down on my lips to stop them from moving, they ...well... still move.

So does anyone have this problem or has anyone once 'had' it? How do i go about conquering this terrible Affliction?

thats a very common musicians desease. alot of instrumentalists tend to do that - especially guitarists. me too. i tend to look pretty stupid when i play guitar. *LOL* but thats just the way it is. i´m not complaining. i mean look at that adam fulera dude - THATS serious parkinson! :D

Aparently it's some sort of disfiguring disease.

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/singlecoil/face.html

i wouldn't worry so much about your problem as me and my friend who is a drummer have the same problem. every time i use my wah pedal i keep looking in the mirror and seeing myself mouthing 'wah wah' which asmuses everyone or i stare quite hard at something. my friend does this so much we nicknamed him 'goldfish' :eek: . all i put it down to is concentration as wen i try not to do this i end up making a mistake so i dont let it bother me.

A friend of mine had this problem so bad when we practiced that me, the bassist, and the drummer would skip beats due to laughing sometimes. What we did was borrow a friend's camcorder and when he closed his eyes and seemed to be getting sexual pleasure from his lead we recorded it and showed him later. He got self-conscious about it and after a while quit. If you do it, record yourself and watch it... you'll get embarassed and (hopefully) stop.

Your mouth is your body's instrument and it wants to play too! I heard a good way to come up with your own phrasings for melody and lead and what not is to scat...you know...scoobity doobity bebop boo...then try to play with your guitar what you scat with your mouth...you'll be surprised

scatting is widely used in jazz...it's improvisation...don't worry if your mouth wants to mimick your playing...it's trying to help you out...

besides...do you really think a guitar player with a straight face is interesting?

:eek:

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Originally Posted by: ehutchYour mouth is your body's instrument and it wants to play too! I heard a good way to come up with your own phrasings for melody and lead and what not is to scat...you know...scoobity doobity bebop boo...then try to play with your guitar what you scat with your mouth...you'll be surprised

scatting is widely used in jazz...it's improvisation...don't worry if your mouth wants to mimick your playing...it's trying to help you out...

besides...do you really think a guitar player with a straight face is interesting?

:eek:

Check out my riffs!

Whoa... first post ever, after 3.5 years... dude, that's self-control.

Originally Posted by: iamthe_eggmanWhoa... first post ever, after 3.5 years... dude, that's self-control.

Yea, no doubt. He's truly the master of his domain..... *SPLAT!*


Back to the post, I have the problem when i use the wah. I make a video of me playing everything i know once a year, and that's one of the things i noticed.

I've got the same problem sometimes when I'm doing something difficult which needs alot of concentration, or if I'm just living myself totally into the music.

I think the first thing is because you - like when you are picking fast you sometimes tense up in the arm or something - just doing it in your mourth ^^.

And i think the other thing is that, you and the music becomes one, and your face is then showing some of those feelings found in the music.

but personally i don't think it's ugly or anything, i only think it's cool when people i so much inside the music that they do things like that.

lol i do that all the time...my gf laughed at me when i play guitar on a chair because everytime i go for the higher frets my legs close in and it looks ridiculous...as far as making funny faces go...i make it a part of the act

you know i think it happens to everyone!! just be glad you don't do what my mate does everytime he bends a note he goes on his tip toes an its the funniest thing ever when you see him do bends in quick succession.
to counter this i found havin a drink before hand and then persing ya lips it stopped me from doin it nearly.

I get serial killer face.
I look at a cute girl in the audience and kinda zone out and forget I'm staring at her. Next thing I know she' looking at me like I'm some kinda pervert. So I try to smile and that's even worse cause it scares the absolute **** out of her.

Back when I was on tour I used to have a habit of staring at the monitor guys backstage to see what they were doing. They'd look back at me and think I was looking at them because something was wrong, so they'd start scampering all over the place trying to fix the mix. I'd be looking back at them trying to figure out what was making them run around so much. They'd look back at me in panic wondering why I was looking so concerned. Finally the tech guy would come up on stage and shout in my ear 'What's wrong??'
"Nothing... why do you keep looking at me"
"You were looking at me"
"No I wasn't"
"Yes you were!!"

in no way is it strange or unusual ive ctually done the same thing when using a wah pedal as metioned on one of the previous repliesive even drooled once or twice

so it looks like i'm not the only one. So should i take up singing or sumthin to counter this? Lol or just accept it and make it part of the routine - lol and thats a great site schmange. ...

Have you ever seen Yngwie on his live videos? He looks like he's trying to make out with the air! Don't worry about it dude..... Just be like, "Well I'm really getting into it.... unlikne you posers who can't play with feeling...." or something like that.

Lol i'm surpised i started a three page post, i think its my first ... lol awrite i'm glad to hear i'm not the only one with muscians mouth. ...