Well, I was playing guitar the other day, and I stuck in a Metallica dvd which i had just recently bought a few days ago. And i noticed as kirk was soloing, he didn't even have to take a glimpse at his guitar to see where he was on the strings.

My question is how do you play without have to look at where you are on the fretboard???

I watch a lot of people in concerts and notice that they don't have to look much at their hands or whatever either, like i saw eric clapton on snl and he was amazing moving his hands all over the place with his eyes closed!!

I practice a lot and play lots of metallica and still whatever i do i cannot play without looking. even the rythm parts can mess me up. Can anyone tell me how to do it??!!?!

if your the smartest, you wouldn't need our help .

its like a reflex, i can do it sorta, but usually choose not to, i guess thats how my posture works.

sort of like how BB king can't sing and play guitar at the same time...

After a while you just stop thinking about it. Also, practicing with your eyes closed will probably help.

If you practise your licks so many times you have to puke, you'll be able to (almost) do em blindfolded...

In time, you will be able to play without looking.
I dont like looking at my fingers when I play,
if I do I think to much.
And if I constantly think "ok now Im gonna play this",
I get confused.

OK, I may possibly be the slowest player in the world anyway, but I'll give you my tip all the same.

As an intermediate step between looking and not not at your hands when playing, practice playing stuff while looking at you hands in a mirror.

I find this help me to be able to play with my eyes having to be fixed on the neck, and you start to be able to picture where your hands are and what they are doing in your head.

Does this help?

JE

It's funny, being a lefty player that learned on a flipped rightie SG, i had to learn to play without looking since there were no dots on my side of the fretboard.

One of the things I did to help me out was I put a big, obnoxious chunk of masking tape on the 5th, 9th, and 12th frets, and then greased them over with FingerEase (a freboard/neck spray lube) so that I could still play without obtrusion, but would be able to tell where those spots were. And I'd just look down at the 3rd/7th/6th etc frets if I was unsure, but eventually I learned where they were just by reflex/feeling.

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