If you’re doing it right, the journey to becoming a better guitarist should never end, whether you’re just starting to play or have a decades-long career like Warren Haynes. The longtime guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band and founding member of Gov’t Mule has dedicated his entire career to his instrument, and the payoff shows in his playing.
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But off stage and in rehearsal, Haynes isn’t necessarily thinking about the guitar while playing the guitar. He revealed his paradoxical technique to becoming a better guitarist in a December 2024 interview with Rick Beato, and these handy tricks could lift you off your current plateau of guitar playing and into another level of virtuosity.
Warren Haynes First Trick For Guitarists: Be A Vocalist Instead
Warren Haynes might have established his career as a guitarist. But in his late 2024 interview with Rick Beato, he explained that he likes to approach his instrument like a vocalist instead. Voice was Haynes’ first instrument, which certainly helps ease this process along. But you don’t necessarily need to be a powerhouse vocalist to play the guitar better. You just have to think like a powerhouse vocalist in terms of two critical factors: breath and tone.
“Some people take offense to it, but every musician should listen to singers and drummers,” Haynes told Beato. “Every musician should learn how to play drums and to sing at least some. It’s only going to help with your musicality. You can learn how to phrase better by listening to the greatest singers in the world and translating that into how you play guitar.”
Vocalists, Haynes argued, have a natural—and necessary—grasp on the breath of a song. Even the greatest vocalists of all time have to take a breath at some point, and this natural rise and fall of the vocal line is what makes the difference between ear-catching phrasing and busy noise. By pretending like your guitar also needs to “breathe,” you can increase your musicality for a more natural and pleasing guitar part.
Haynes said tone is another crucial element of the voice that a player can easily translate to their guitar. “The great singers have tone. They sing one note, and it sounds unbelievable. That’s the most valuable lesson. You should be able to play one note and have it sound really good. If not, you don’t have the right tone.”
The Gov’t Mule Founder’s Second Trick: Play Less
Once you’ve mastered the art of playing your guitar as if it were a human voice (and even if you haven’t mastered it), the next trick in Warren Haynes’ guitarist arsenal is to play less. Although it might seem counterintuitive to get better by playing fewer notes, countless musicians have touted this same musical approach to increase musicality, creativity, and style. Haynes admitted to Rick Beato that he didn’t understand the irony of this technique when he first heard it, either. “I used to hear people saying, ‘It’s what you don’t play,’ and I thought, ‘What the hell does that even mean?’”
“Miles [Davis] supposedly once said, ‘Listen to what’s in your head and then don’t play it. Play in the spaces.’ I thought, ‘Whether that’s true or not, it’s a cool concept,’” Haynes added. After demonstrating this technique while singing a standard blues riff, he said, “It opens up a whole other door, and they open less frequently when we get older. So, it’s important to run with it.”
Photo by Steve Eichner/Getty Images
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