General Music Chat

I'm with Paul. I've never taken a single lesson. I play by ear and just make sh*t up as I go.

I would have put a lot of money in a bet saying you were schooled. Wow I can't believe you are that good and have never taken a lesson. Wow.

Paul, I started to take classes a couple of different times. The first time with a great classical guitarist but I thought I was better than him when it came to playing rock. He was to mechanical and he was trying to break me of my bad habits. I like my bad habits just fine. The second time I was contacted by a producer about doing some studio work but I needed to be able to read music. I signed up at the community college but kept falling asleep in class. Boring! Probably could have made a few bucks but It probably wouldn't have lasted long anyway because of ( see above ) my bad habits. I call it crazy fingers. They have a mind of their own sometimes.

Your crazy fingers have a great mind! Let them run free!

Black, I do think it's good but once learned you need to go outside the box. Having that knowledge is a good thing but tuck it away and develop your own style. Improvise and let your fingers go. Don't worry about being perfect. Play what is natural to you. I love playing blues but my blues don't follow the norm. I noodle everything but it seems natural to me and it just happens. If you spend all your time trying to sound exactly like Steve Vai note for note you will never truly enjoy the music. My older brother who was one of the best guitarists I've ever heard never had a lesson either but he encouraged me to audition for Berkeley School Of Music when their scouts came to Seattle. I put a Southern/Rock type song together called Texas Boogie which I have a sample of on my profile. I auditioned and received a full four year scholarship. I was pretty excited about going but things fell apart in my life when my older brother died suddenly. I never did go. I regret not going but I don't know if it would have made me a better musician or not because I play what comes natural to me anyway.

Sorry to hear about your brother. Losing a loved one, especially suddenly, makes it hard to live by the old adage "life goes on". Because, realistically, lifes does not go on as you once knew it.

I agree, you gotta get outside of the box. Hey, this music began on the outside of the box in the first place. The more you learn, the less you need the box. There is only 1 norm for the blues and that's the amount of bars that it takes to make a blues phrase. Even if someone can't read music or have never had a lesson, they can expand their horizons by adding lessons to the rep. You get outside support and ideas by working with other musicians. Honestly, I regret that you didn't get to take advantage of that scholarship. There are teachers that teach what comes naturally and it seems like that is where you were headed with this scholarship. The only thing that can make you a better musician is...you. But don't negate the value of every street in your journey. If you desire to explore the possibility of going to college...do it.

Ok, I get it Mary. Now that I am clear on the subject matter.
I am familiar with that particular tactic, though I have not employed it myself.
I will keep it in mind.

speaking from my position of being a work in progress I have to point out a few things-

Before I started learning scales and modes:

I learned leads to covers note-for-note, learned a few cool licks, but the notes seemed alien to me, I could never figure out how they came up with the progressions. I know the general ideas of the solo, the heart of it, so to speak, are all from within, but doing solo after solo, I did notice that there was a hint of structured progressions to most of them.

When composing my own solos, I struggled. I would find all the notes that seemed to work and structured solos around them, but it all fell apart when the rhythm chords changed (like Bm to G to D to A), the same notes that worked when playing over the D/A didn't all work over the Bm/G. So I had to spend even more time trying to figure out what did work and generally the solos ended up being very constricted and almost wrote themselves just from the lack of knowledge.

Now:

While I'm still learning how to apply all the stuff mentioned in this thread (BTW GREAT stuff in this thread, I've been growing by leaps and bounds), I have found already that it's been helping greatly in my ability to improvise, my ability to write solos that are more expanded and wider range, and also my ability to come up with this expanded stuff at a far faster pace than previously.

As an example, I did an open mic a couple of nights ago with a local singer. She picked two songs for me to see what I could come up with. Both were upbeat rhythmic songs with slightly different feels. I immediately thought Ionian on one and applied it and came up with a really groovy solo that was far beyond what I could have come up with two months ago. For the other song, I thought Mixolydian and while I was slightly off, a small adjustment (Dorian? maybe) and found a great scale that worked.

The real factor is that I found scales through knowing modes that worked for the "feel" of the songs, without having to use 'the force' like I did before. In this case I had little prep time and having tried to do the same thing a couple of months ago, I would say that I failed miserably before I learned all this, and succeeded after.

Knowing all this stuff couldn't possibly hurt the creative feel.

Just thought I'd add all this as a testament to those who avoid this stuff, it's really worth knowing.

Peace.

Cool Kramer! Nice testimonial.

as always... wise words kramer... well spoken..

It's the "musical theory" that allows you to connect "the voice in your head" to your "fingers/physical skill" of what your playing.

I hope that isn't a duplicate..

Maybe just common sense..

If you can already play "that voice inside your head", the need for "theory" is diminished but, it can never hurt you.

This is my point. Most theory that I know, I don't even use. Lots of theory I learned in the legit world is never used by legit players. But, that stuff is used in jazz and can be used in rock. What gives me freedom is knowing the theory. I can jam with pretty much anyone regardless of style, be it jazz, funk, classical, celtic or world music...I can hang. And to me, that is so much fun. I don't try sounding like anyone but me and I have a ball. Like that old Ellington hit, "It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing". So all the knowledge in the world is useless if you can't swing with it. Theory is good when used to accentuate the positive.

Ok, I get it Mary. Now that I am clear on the subject matter.
I am familiar with that particular tactic, though I have not employed it myself.
I will keep it in mind.

I know nothing about the guitar except that I like it. Pat Matheny, a jazzer who really gets outside of the box, does do straight ahead jazz as well as his own fusion creations. He also rocks on the Jimi Hendrix Tribute CD. He is a good example of what I am getting at although not sure about any examples of quotes in these CDs.

I really like theory to give me an idea when I am writing and I am fresh out of good stuff.

I'll go back and take a hard look at where it's been and where it could go, then I try to make an educated or emotional decision. (sometimes I flip a coin)