“The six-string system never hooked my brain. With this guitar, none of the shapes work, so you have to think differently”: Jacob Collier taught me how to play his 5-string guitar – but I learned much more than just new shapes and tunings

Jacob Collier is fast becoming a guitar hero for the modern age. That’s not because he can shred faster than the speed of light, nor is it because he’s taking progressive techniques to new heights.

It is, quite simply, because he is inspiring players to approach the instrument in an entirely new way – and, when it comes to the future and longevity of the guitar, that is what matters. With his unique five-string guitars and carefully devised symmetrical open tuning – a symmetrical fourths/fifths tuning of D, A, E, A, D – Collier is unlocking an entirely new language on the instrument. And it’s making a mark.

It’s a language that opens all-new avenues for songwriting and creativity. One that’s making people rethink what they know about playing guitar. One that prompted his five-string Strandberg signature to sell out faster than his six-string.

When something so new comes along, it can be hard to fully grasp the concept. One of the perks of this job though is the opportunity to go straight to the source. Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Collier himself for an one-to-one lesson on how to use his new five-string Taylor signature guitar – alongside a chat about his new guitar-centric album, The Light For Days.

Jacob Collier Gave Me a 5-String Guitar Lesson - YouTube

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What followed was a mind-warping crash course in how to navigate Collier’s quirky tuning and anarchic approach to (guitar) string theory. It was also an eye-opening introduction to his philosophy as a guitarist that has given me new perspective on the instrument.

By the time our allotted time was up, it's fair to say I came away with much more than simply how to play a major chord on a five-string guitar…

Don’t worry about the rules, write your own

Jacob Collier - Witness Me (Roof of The O2, London) - YouTube

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The guitar can be technically intimidating, but its always been intrinsically linked to the word ‘feel’ – and it can pay dividends to take that approach seriously.

Collier never learned on a six-string. Instead, he cut his teeth on a four-string tenor guitar. Then he had the audacity to imagine the existence of a five-string that could facilitate the sound he had in his head. Years later, he made it a reality.

He didn’t try to compromise with an orthodox guitar. Collier broke the ‘rules’ and came up with his own.

“For some reason, the six-string system never really hooked my brain,” he reflected. “With a six-string, you have to know the shapes to be able to access it. I was a bit averse to learning shapes that sound like things I’ve heard before. I wanted to immediately find something that was different.

“Starting with something as opaque as a six-string and trying to find the way is fine, but I always feel like I’m sounding like something else, [something] that’s familiar enough to not guide my ear into a new place.”

What does that mean for musical mortals? Well, the minor pentatonic might not be the best way to unlock that song you have in your head. Cycling around the same chord shapes with no end in sight isn't the most inspiring endeavor. Instead, in Collier’s own words, “forget everything you know” and take a few risks.

You don’t need to invent a new language – or a new instrument. But, you can still let your curiosity take your playing to new places if you let it, regardless of whether it’s the ‘right’ thing to do. Experiment with open tunings. Flatten a string to hit a unique inversion. See what happens.

Collier’s enthusiasm for playing guitar ‘differently’ is infectious. It’s not just the chords or theory, either. Even the way he strums is interesting to watch, up-close: one minute his hands are plucking like a bass guitar and feathering with each digit, the next he’s flapping his hand for a more percussive attack.

It's an approach no conventional tutor would recommend. It might not be ‘proper’, but it sure as hell works.

Let your ear do the work – and trust your instincts

Jacob Collier - Thom Thumb [Live from Paris] - YouTube

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Abandoning the rulebook comes with some occupational hazards. For instance, how do you know where to put your fingers if you’ve fudged the tuning and your safety net shapes are all jumbled? The short answer is: you don’t, and you just have to roll with it.

“The thing with the six-string guitar is, tab culture [is so rigid]. It's so, ‘Oh, G and then C and then E,’” Collier says. “The thing that's cool with this guitar is, none of the shapes work, so you have to think differently.

“I think that most people underestimate their ear – you usually have a relationship with things that you hear that is somewhat un-tapped into.”

Giving your ear the credit it deserves can genuinely level up your playing and Collier isn’t alone in thinking this. Tim Henson said his biggest piece of advice for beginners was to learn everything by ear. Steve Vai has a course for ear training. Rick Beato says it so much that it’s pretty much meme territory.

Sitting across from Collier, with his own five-string guitar in my arms, I found trying to keep up with new chord shapes certainly forced me to tune-in into my own ear. Training your ear to react in different contexts and relying on your instincts is a huge asset to have in your toolbox.

It doesn’t matter if you over- or under-reach. While Jacob was watching me as I tried to process moving around new shapes, I certainly tripped up a few times. I was overthinking it too much at the start. Once I started trusting my ear (somewhat hard to do in the circumstances) and got Jacob’s generous reassurance (he was a very patient teacher) I started to ‘get it’.

So, try to learn that song by ear. Have a favorite solo? Don’t rush to find tabs, see if you can decipher it yourself. If you have a melody in mind, sing it and let your ears do the work. That’s how Jacob writes, and he used just one guitar to write an entire album.

Finesse is overrated

Jacob Collier - Norwegian Wood [Official Visualiser] - YouTube

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Today, technique is all the rage. You need only open Instagram to see any number of players churning out a stomach-flipping flurry of notes. It creates a strange external pressure to prioritise things that, in reality, aren’t important.

It’s been said before many times, but technique is never the measure of a good guitar song. What really counts isn’t how much you’re playing, but what you’re playing. That’s at the heart of Collier’s guitar style.

Yes, his chops are impressive – and watching him rip through a kaleidoscope of notes was awe-inspiring as I fumbled around major and minor chord shapes – but it all comes from his head. It’s music first, then technique. Not the other way around.

“Having this new access point means that players have to forget technique and focus on the thing that's underneath the technique, which is always more interesting than the technique,” Collier muses.

“Technique doesn't really make anything. It doesn't. It's not real. It's a way of getting to the thing that's beneath it, which is your taste and your intuitions and all of that. I always enjoy ways of learning and then forgetting technique.”

His nonchalant approach to the guitar comes through in everything he plays. At times Collier would see-saw on a simple passing phrase, the early idea of a song already present. Sometimes the simplest things can be the most creatively inspiring. Don't rush to be the best or the fastest. Be sloppy. Play what's in your head.

You don't need a 5-string guitar

After our interview, I felt a bit disappointed that my time with the five-string – and playing with Jacob Collier – was up. It had been the first time in a while I'd felt like a complete novice on the guitar, like I was treading new ground. At times I felt like I had forgotten how to hold a guitar, how to strum. But I was actually happy about that.

As guitarists, sometimes we need to be jolted out of our comfort zones in order to get better. I came away from my lesson with Jacob with a new sense of appreciation and desire to veer off the beaten track.

It's encouraged me to think how I play a little differently. Of course, I did have my acoustic tuned to the Collier tuning for a while, but I was able to put the biggest takeaways into practice when I moved back to my six-string.

In the aftermath of the lesson, I spent some time going down the alternate tuning rabbit hole, though I did so through a slightly more experimental lens. I didn't quite have the vision Collier had for his symmetrical fourths/fifths language, but I found there was great merit in improvising as I went.

For example, as an extension of Collier's 'drone' philosophy – which is another reason he likes his particular tuning so much, as explored in the full video – I often found myself dropping a string (usually either the D or G strings) a note or two to unlock chord voices that I could intuitively write and improvise around.

From a practical perspective, I also spent time playing without a guitar pick – something I admit I've become far too reliant on. Sure, I can fingerpick, and I often cycle between the two, but never have I taken the time to truly explore what timbres and tones can be tapped into when 'proper' technique is shelved.

Strumming further up the fretboard, fanning the strings with the pads of my fingertips, using the length of one digit to produce cascading strums... all techniques and sounds I hadn't explored before.

So, I might not have a five-string, but I arguably have gained something more important: the desire to play differently, and be a bit more adventurous.