General Music Chat

Geeze Crip.

I practice by listening, and then listening some more. Yes you need the physical ability to get your fingers to move.... But you also need concentrate on making playing challenging but fun.

All scale patterns on the guitar fretboard are necessary but also lead to EXTREME limitations. I'm at a point where all I do is reach for the note I hear in my ear. Complete fretboard freedom. Can't get that from scales.

The only thing I love more than laying down a great rhythm is doing play back with another live player. Or just going deep into a solo over a boring backup track.

I know where you are coming from, and I'm not knocking it, but you are ready to advance to the next level, total creative freedom. That's where the practice comes in that requires more thought than skill. Listen to some of the tracks that Cisco (Chaeya) puts down. Simple but brilliant.

Now let me go, I only play about 8 hours a week on guit, to stop me from ripping my tips up, but I've been having a blast learning how to play drums.

I know...I know Glen... I started out doing original years ago... got very disillusioned when I played clubs for 2 years and barely made a cent and forked out tons of money i don't have for recordings and advertising!

WhenI picked up the axe again a few years ago, it was for fun and trying to make an extra buck in the local dives.... Try doing that with originals by us....ain't happening... just wanna wail on stage and have fun with my friends and get paid...nothing more, nothing less. As you know I now don't make much so forget about investing $$ for recording, promoing, advertising, etc.. again...ain't happening. The reason I get to practice so much is my job gets me home by 10:30 AM and I refuse to be an old man and just plop on the couch.. I LOVE doing all those exercises on my acoustic and then wailing on the electric.. I do it for MY pleasure just like I tear up the roads here on my many motorcycles... If it makes you happy, then do it. I practice intensely because I WANT to....not because I have to. I get nothing but positive critique by many when I play out and the best is when I get them from real musicians who are very well known. So...again, I must be doing something right and I'm doing it because I want to....not because I have to.. 2 - 4 hours a day..depends on my other appointments!

I know , I know.
You were asking how we practice, and I was just crossing some of the blurred lines of that.

Honestly I don't practice anymore, I just play.

Like I said I don't knock anything you are doing, jest don' get youselve kilt on that motorbike, people krazy drivers round here.


Hey you need a drummer? I got 2 months experience. I can probably TAP with the best. ( personal joke about drummers and tappers)!

Shut the fukkup...

Yeah

I'm still on hiatus till Sept. and already have a drummer from Voodoo Rhythms (Very well known here on the island).... Bassist from Zeitgeist and Roxy( Well known touring acts) and vocalist from Amythest Rocks and Thunderbox(Well known LI female bands) prepared for a first rehearsal with my own specially picked tunes (every one of the with seriously wailing guitars ) If I see that there's potential with this project, I will start with the bookings again and make that desperately needed extra income again starting the Fall!

If I don't see potential, I'll just put up an ad for an established band loking for a guitarist.... Not desperate or in any rush at this stage of my life but I want a solid band so we can command our salary as opposed to getting paid by the door!

Crip

My barber is a guy named Vinnie and plays in an Italian wedding bands. I know his guys fairly well. A new guy asked me last week if I was the guy that writes songs and plays too loud. "Yeah. But during the day i'm a coporate puke..."

It's about keeping our word in the end. When I bet it all on the music I was young, single and just crazy enough to do it. I miss it but things are as they are.

good luck with your new outfit.

Talbot

I'm not anal about practicing.

I'm 'AM' anal about learning cover tunes. Especially the leads.
If I'm the one to play the lead in the song, it has to be 'exactly' as it was recorded, even if it's initally over my head.
I'll sit there for hours on that lead that's over my head.
Even if it takes days and days... I'm compelled to practice it until I can do it.

That's always the best way that I've gotten better. Learning to play stuff thats beyond my ability when I start on it.

That's exactly what I do AFTER I do all my excercises... I go over and over each tune I'm supposed to learn and replicate leads note for note.. Some can be a real pain (With Zak Wylde tuning his bottom 2 strings differentely or trying to slow down Slash's or Van Halens leads) but, like I said before, I go to work at 2AM and am home by 10:30 due to the fact I have to be there for my son and my job is allowing these hours. What else is there to do from going insane? I do whatever needs to get done with the house and the kid and break out the acoustic, do my routine and the get on over to the computer with the electric and perfect the covers.

Lot's of severe competition to play the clubs over here so you better be somewhat good not only in the playing dept. but the show dept. No one wants to see a guitarist who just stands there concentrating and looking at his fret board...you have to make it look effortless and fun. That's what gets you fans....that's what gets you call backs....I see it as a sport to fight for the next good stime slot as opposed to the beginners that get booked with 6 other bands on a Tuesday night!

I’ve bookmarked this because I found it interesting. I would be very interested to hear more news on this. Thanks!

|^^^^^^^^^^^^^| |___
|------Crip's Ride------- | ||'|";,__.
|_..._...____________| ||_|_|...,]
"(@)'(@)""""*|(@)(@)******(@)

Crip,

Is this a coded message from deep space warning of an imminent invasion or something I should be concerned about? Should I store up 30 days of food and seek shelter?
I'm one of those uneducated hacks that play by ear so I have no idea what this signifies. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Explain, please.


"|^^^^^^^^^^^^^| |___
|------Crip's Ride------- | ||'|";,__.
|_..._...____________| ||_|_|...,]
"(@)'(@)""""*|(@)(@)******(@)"


I never try to do a song exactly as written. Not that I can't, but if I want to hear a song exactly as performed originally, I would just put a coin in the juke box. Now that isn't to bash someone who works hard to do a note by note rendition, I used to do some of that, and I can admire the discipline that takes. It's just my creative choice as a musician to exercise my personal creativity when doing covers. My inspiration is not to copy someone else's inspiration or creativity. After all, someone else has already made a hit out of it. I'm not a duplicating device.
It wouldn't be the first time for me to to hear someone else's rendition of a hit and prefer it to the original... not that I would consider any of my renditions "better" then someone else's.
I still play covers, but they never sound like covers if I can help it. I usually play my ride with the original melody going on in my head but purposely stay as far from it as I can. When in a tribute band you would need to copy licks, but as a musician I want to influence a song with my own personal interpretation, as long as it works out for everyone. I could never make it in a cover band as I would feel caged in.
Being a finger picker I sometimes I use both thumbs and all four fingers at the same time, so I get a lot of finger exercise just working out most songs. I can't always put what I hear in my head into a song, and sometimes I have to change directions a good many times to make it work, but it's a different way to approach a cover song.
It is a given that all of us do a lot of our own material, and that is inspirational. But I also want to influence a song to reflect my personal taste. But isn't the bottom line that any way you do it, it is practice, and whatever works for you is good?

I'm not anal about practicing.

I'm 'AM' anal about learning cover tunes. Especially the leads.
If I'm the one to play the lead in the song, it has to be 'exactly' as it was recorded, even if it's initally over my head.

Different strokes for different folks. I am old skool and follow the bluesmen: " Take what you need and make it your own."

If it is a guitar theme or melody I usually play it verbatim. If it is a true solo, I write my own. I will sprinkle in a few signature licks from the original tracks for good measure. I prefer to cover songs the way Hendrix covered Dylan, The Beatles covered Elvis, Clapton covered Robert Johnson, Van Halen covered Roy Orbison, SRV covered Hendrix, Brian Setzer covered everybody. As a live player it is far more interesting for me to create my own solos and arrangements of great songs than to knock off their solos note for note.

Different strokes for different folks. I guess I will never be in great demand as a tribute guitarist. I am totally ok with that.

My routine LOL!

First I drink a 6 pack, cause when I play in my band thats ussually what happens I play about half drunk.

We are doing fewer and fewer gigs, I do have one in Sept, Oct and Dec so I guess I should get the ole guitar out and start running thru things.

We have a pretty large songlist, 300 or so songs so I just run thru intros, I dont really focus on leads, I kinda wing them when we play live, keeps it interesting for me.

I have gone thru phases where I practiced an hour or two a day, but Ive kinda gotten lazy, beofre the next run of gigs I will put in 20-30 hours to get back in shape, I guess Im at a point where Im not really doing anything new and the ad lib nature of my playing allows me to stumble onto things by mistake that I kinda of adopt into my style if I like it.


Hell man it aint nothing but rock n roll anyway, all I need to do is look good playing and be loud, thats what its always been about for me, its the attitude nothing to do with licks and styles!

I practice first thing in the morning, after lunch and before bed.
Of course there's a bizarre aspect to this . . . I perform an Egyptian ritual before each practice!

This is a practice that began for me in 1985 with my introduction to Guitar Craft and to the life of Robert Fripp.

I needed to develop a personal practice for guitar that would not only bring myself closer to my Higher-Self, introduce discipline, but also continue my relationship with instrument though at a higher spiritual level.


– From Zen & the Art of Fripp's Guitar: The Fripp Philosophy of Guitar Craft By John Diliberto Jan 19, 2006

“If you said what is guitar craft, I'd say one, it's a way of coming into a relationship with the guitar. Obviously. We're playing guitars.
Two, it's a way of coming into a relationship with music. So that implies that music is something of itself that you can come into a relationship with. And I'd say that's quite true. As we would express it here, music is a benevolent presence which is constantly available to us. It never goes away. Never. We do, but the music never. So when we sit in there and we thrash our way through these different tunes, sometimes the music is there despite what we're doing. That's remarkable when you know it's there despite all these clanging sounds, these bum notes.
And three, it's a way of practicing the person because to come into a relationship with one's instrument and music implies also that you're someone to come into relationship with. Guitar craft is a discipline; the discipline is the way of craft. There are other approaches. This is just one of them.”

I'm not anal about practicing.

I'm 'AM' anal about learning cover tunes. Especially the leads.
If I'm the one to play the lead in the song, it has to be 'exactly' as it was recorded, even if it's initally over my head.

Different strokes for different folks. I am old skool and follow the bluesmen: " Take what you need and make it your own."

If it is a guitar theme or melody I usually play it verbatim. If it is a true solo, I write my own. I will sprinkle in a few signature licks from the original tracks for good measure. I prefer to cover songs the way Hendrix covered Dylan, The Beatles covered Elvis, Clapton covered Robert Johnson, Van Halen covered Roy Orbison, SRV covered Hendrix, Brian Setzer covered everybody. As a live player it is far more interesting for me to create my own solos and arrangements of great songs than to knock off their solos note for note.

Different strokes for different folks. I guess I will never be in great demand as a tribute guitarist. I am totally ok with that.

Totally agree with this approach. I'm proud to say that back in the 70's when I was teaching myself how to play Clapton's "Layla". Of course, my novice fingers got exhausted...so I resorted to approaching the chords and the general Rythym, more like a jazzy blues... Which i thought sounded really cool... I put it down tho and never looked back...

Fast forward to the 90's and wouldn't ya know, even the master himself had taken his own song, and put it down as a jazzy blues (Remember MTV Un-Plugged?)

I call that situation a "logical and due course" of a song's evolution. Anybody with musical sense can ultimately arrive to a rendition, that is commonly shared; one that makes sense.

What's really awesome is when that 'anybody happens to be a kick-ass artist (like Hendrix Or Halen, etc) and they arrive upon their renditions.. . of other Kick-ass artists works.

I practice first thing in the morning, after lunch and before bed.
Of course there's a bizarre aspect to this . . . I perform an Egyptian ritual before each practice!

This is a practice that began for me in 1985 with my introduction to Guitar Craft and to the life of Robert Fripp.

I needed to develop a personal practice for guitar that would not only bring myself closer to my Higher-Self, introduce discipline, but also continue my relationship with instrument though at a higher spiritual level.


– From Zen & the Art of Fripp's Guitar: The Fripp Philosophy of Guitar Craft By John Diliberto Jan 19, 2006

“If you said what is guitar craft, I'd say one, it's a way of coming into a relationship with the guitar. Obviously. We're playing guitars.
Two, it's a way of coming into a relationship with music. So that implies that music is something of itself that you can come into a relationship with. And I'd say that's quite true. As we would express it here, music is a benevolent presence which is constantly available to us. It never goes away. Never. We do, but the music never. So when we sit in there and we thrash our way through these different tunes, sometimes the music is there despite what we're doing. That's remarkable when you know it's there despite all these clanging sounds, these bum notes.
And three, it's a way of practicing the person because to come into a relationship with one's instrument and music implies also that you're someone to come into relationship with. Guitar craft is a discipline; the discipline is the way of craft. There are other approaches. This is just one of them.”

Well, I did not read this until after I posted another response. This quote by Diliberto reinforces my earlier post about Logical and Due course. If we can arrive upon it, are we not in essence entering into that relationship with the real article called music?