What can guitar players adopt...

[Bern]

...from other instrumentalists besides guitar players ?
Have you adopted some interesting techniques or sounds form which you incorporate in your playing now ?
Is there anything another type instrument can offer which you would wish would be applicable for the guitar ?

[rick-slo]

I use banjo techniques in all my guitar adventures.

[HHP]

Get a lot of ideas from fiddle players. Some from dobro players.

[DupleMeter]

I've taken techniques & ideas from mandolin, piano & trumpet. I also like to think of a voice when I take a solo...what would someone sing? In fact, I often "sing along" with my solos. It forces me to play something lyrical/singable.

[JonPR]

^ I agree. Vocals and horns have the best lessons, IMO.
For melody, that is (breathing and phrasing, as well as shape and interval patterns).
For rhythm: drums and bass. (Bass for pulse, drums more for accents, percussive effects.)

I do play banjo, mandolin, keyboards, and uke too, but I've brought more guitar ideas to them than vice versa .

As for what I "wish would be applicable for the guitar" - very little, maybe more range at the bass end. But I've never been tempted by 7-strings; the occasional downtuning is enough for me.

[Bob Womack]

For a long time I have been using violin melody techniques and approaches on lead guitar to break myself out of typical guitar blather.

Bob

[RevGeo]

One thing that guitarists can 'adopt' from other instruments approach-wise is to learn to play actual melodies, instead of just learning scales and modes and then trying come up with something musical. All scales and modes are good for is to play melodies. If more guitarists actually learned some tunes they would be amazed at how scales and modes actually relate to music.
Fiddle tunes are an obvious example, and fingerpicking piano melodies is a wonderful way of learning chords - their voicings, inversions and the way they flow together.
Instead of just practicing scales why not learn a melody that utilizes those scales? It's just as easy and you can actually learn some music while doing it.
Instead of just practicing the E Natural minor scale, for example, why not learn the the main theme from Albeniz's Leyenda? It shows how the aolian mode actually applies to a tune. And it's really fun to play.
Pianists, violinists, cellists and horn players, to name a few, utilize these methods constantly.
There is nothing wrong with improvising, but learning actual melodies and then embellishing on them is a great way to learn the art of improvisation. So maybe adopting an approach that players of other instruments use instead of their techniques could be of help to us all.

Rev George

[mr. beaumont]

Chord voicings from piano was a huge revelation for me.

[Earwitness]

Originally Posted by RevGeo

One thing that guitarists can 'adopt' from other instruments approach-wise is to learn to play actual melodies, instead of just learning scales and modes and then trying come up with something musical. All scales and modes are good for is to play melodies. If more guitarists actually learned some tunes they would be amazed at how scales and modes actually relate to music.
Fiddle tunes are an obvious example, and fingerpicking piano melodies is a wonderful way of learning chords - their voicings, inversions and the way they flow together.
Instead of just practicing scales why not learn a melody that utilizes those scales? It's just as easy and you can actually learn some music while doing it.
Instead of just practicing the E Natural minor scale, for example, why not learn the the main theme from Albeniz's Leyenda? It shows how the aolian mode actually applies to a tune. And it's really fun to play.
Pianists, violinists, cellists and horn players, to name a few, utilize these methods constantly.
There is nothing wrong with improvising, but learning actual melodies and then embellishing on them is a great way to learn the art of improvisation. So maybe adopting an approach that players of other instruments use instead of their techniques could be of help to us all.

Rev George

I am going to begin applying this advice right away!

On a much more "pedestrian" level, I have applied (only recently, however) the simple technique my kids are taught by their truly amazing piano teacher, which is just to play something to a metronome as painfully slowly as necessary until perfect, and only then speed it up. Now I know why my kids resist this! When I try to achieve perfection, I find I cannot dependably even do the simplest chord changes and picking patterns--things I would have said I could do without a problem. Slow reveals more than fast!

[RodB]

Mainly piano (chords, harmonies), sometimes pipes (uilleann, etc.) (grace-notes, drones) , but even calliope...