General Music Chat

Okay. So, this guitarist I know learned some pretty tough and 8 minute songs, but has trouble learning easier songs. Sounds crazy to me.
He said he's been playing for bout 2 years and took lessons at first.

Hey Bro,

Being a teacher , if I had to just GUESS from what youve stated thus far I would say # 1 ,he's been spoon feed those 8 min. tunes, either demostratively OR Tab. IMO ,when you learn something visually, you cheat the EAR out of developing the aural muscle memory needed for improvising and/ or just even picking up where "Mary had a little lamb" is in the Key of Eb ..He likely has trouble with easier tunes becuase he's probably using a different method to internalize them, like maybe by ear.
Trouble is, his LH is NOT recieving any muscle memory info from the brain. Thats where Ear training comes in.I have a student that is like that.
He'll play some wicked piece that he got TAB from the net , BUT has trouble hearing the notes available to him in a blues or pentatonic /diatonic scale.OR even a chord formation..Yeah , We heard our Own GA speak of going back and gettin the rhythm structures where melodic and improvise breaks/solos come from.Once those keys are internalized, the skys the limit...NOW, you would think armed with all this knowledge Iwould be a better gtr player.. ..Well, then there comes this thing called "technique"which I LACK..(I dont practice either)...Yeah ,Andragon , elaborate alittle more if ya can..I like talkin this kinda stuff..

John

Lol. Well, I have been playing 2 years and a half years (Some would say longer since I got the guitar in January 2006, but I did not mess with it till March, and even then was slow with it). I can tell you that I can play John Petrucci rhythm stuff now if I concentrate on it, but for a lot of his pieces I need to build up dexterity and muscle memory. My ear is very strong for some reason, I can pick out pitches that fit a spectrum, hence why I write without any real music theory behind me.

I am not going to boast about my abilities, I am far from great, I think I am about average, or at least semi-good for my lack of real lessons. Your friend sounds like he needs to focus more on his ear and leaning chords, because chances are most of the complex pieces he plays are all solos without any real chord progressions. Chords are a very big aspect of a guitar players repertoire of knowledge. The fingers require strong dexterity to be able to handle them properly (Take barre chords, especially F Major - requires strong finger strength due to it being so close to the nut). Other chords are complex because of the stretches, like Esus2, which you hear arppegiated in the beginning of Kirk Hammett's opening solo for Welcome Home Sanitarium.

Your friend really needs to go back to basics and work his way back up, focus more on his ear as KIDD says.

Lately I find that I can play some much harder guitar pieces, which require the use of my ear. For instance, I am learning Megalomaniac, which is a tiny bit tricky, and I use alternative picking when I do it. I had to figure out the rhythm in the intro by ear, I have no access to anywhere I can learn it by video (But then again, I figure out most rhythm without videos, except for And Justice For All).

I dropped soloing because it is not my niche at this time. I work now on rhythm playing mainly and once in awhile just improvise solos over pieces to improve my finger movement and playing.

So tell your friend to step away from the complex pieces and go back to basics for some time, it will make him more well rounded as a player.

Sign, GuitarAnatomy.

haha Justice For All. I appreciate the input, guys.

Yea, well, he learned Master of Puppets perfectly, but for example he can't figure out Battery. And not because of the speed, cause he can shred. He plays Sabbath and AC/DC stuff decently (Relatively easy stuff). I dunno. I've seen him when he practises songs. He listens and tries it out, but he always has to check a tab sometime while he's learning the parts. Then what he does is divide the song into parts and gives them names and how many times they're repeated. Like his own code or something.
I'll see what he thinks bout his 'ear' issues.

I'm pretty sure he knows the common chords: E A D G B and their minors. Maybe not all of the rest though. Thanks again.

Sounds like it's a matter of not knowing the why behind the how.
Someone that learned the 'power chord' (Root and 5th), and the standard open chords maybe, but cant connect them because he's gone the quick and dirty tab route.
Relative pitch is key to learning songs by ear. A person needs to be able to identify what a Root-3rd interval sounds like, etc... so... if it were me, I would start ear training excercises, based of the root note of whatever key you choose.
Root-2nd, Root-3rd, and so on up to the octave. Root-8th.
Thats would be a start. Then move on to flattend and sharpened intervals, like Root-minor3rd, etc.

Battery uses some Root-minor3rd shapes. I'm guessing he isn't famillar with that shape, which is basically an inverted version of your standard power-chord. And if someone hasn't shown him that 'shape' yet, or he hasn't seen it in Tab, then he will be lost. Cuz his ear doesnt know what minor3rd is.

. . . I started singin' in the Church Choir at the age of 8 . . . I became a drummer at 10 . . . I learned guitar at 15, got my first lesson from Chuck Berry, on the "Midnight Special" . . . he was showing how his Grandfather first taught him, . . . needless to say . . . it worked. I play by ear, have never been able to read music. Two months after starting guitar, I could play and sing "Cherry Cherry" by Neil Diamond, and "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf. I soon learned several CCR tunes. Within a year, I was playing and singing enough to front a Band. When Lynyrd Skynyrd's first album came out in the spring of 1973, I learned the entire LP in a week, ("Freebird" was not on the first release, it was added to the LP in July). I started playing Country music in 1979, when I was stationed at Ft. Hood Texas in the Army. A Friend and I used to play local clubs and parties, he was an awesome country singer, he taught me a great deal. There are many songs that I picked up from the radio, over the years. Then, with the advent of videos, I learned even more. Being out of the mainstream for many years, I would like to get back into playing with a band in my area.

Are you saying Chuck Berry taught you or that his song was your first lesson? I'm a bit confused. I think it's the latter

Sounds like a great resume