General Music Chat

Wegman,

That is a good solo. I have to say I wouldnt expect to hear you playing in that genre of music. Where are your principles man? Just kidding.

I would like to add that when putting together a solo think in vocal terms, when people sing they have to stop and breath. I am as big a fen of guitar gymnastics as anyone, but some of those solos bore me to death. Not to pick on someone, but listen to Malmsteen. I know he is talented but a lot of his stuff just gets boring to me, I dont feel emotion unless there are some stops in there. Peoples minds are ultimately geared toward speech, so keep that in mind when you solo. Wegmans solo on this song has that vocal quality to it that kind of draws you in. On a side note the solo is a little too far back in the mix for me.

On the other hand every now and then a hard quick burst of notes feels good in a song. Let your emotions come out.

Wegman,

That is a good solo. I have to say I wouldnt expect to hear you playing in that genre of music. Where are your principles man? Just kidding.

Thanks man.

I am more then just a one trick pony.

As far as the mix the guy I used to play with always had to be the star. I am lucky to be heard at all. LOL

The first take on that solo was much better and had far better tone. Of course he didn't record it.

Nice solo Wegman, thank you for posting it for me to hear. You are very talented. It was actually a fairly good song. *Thumbs up*

As for the rest, thanks to all of you guys for your comments. I will take in mind all you said. Strangely enough, I do write off the top of my head most of my pieces. Either that or I play around with a couple of notes till I hear what I want. Everyone always talks about using the scales to play solos, I do not usually like to do that. I mean, I can see why, because it may help to know what mode you could use over what chord, but still. I usually can hear fairly well what fits and what does not. But I will leave that to you guys to decide when I get a chance to upload some audio.

Soloing is important to me and I constantly try and solo. A ton of my pieces have a blues feel. For instance, I can solo over any Metallica song you give me and for the most part stay in the right key.

Lately I have been working on a ballad piece. It is sounding pretty good, the intro that is. I am still working on following through the rest of it. The beginning is completely finger picked, no picks allowed! Lol. I recently realized (Being the beginner that I am) that my guitars intonation was out of whack. I cannot seem to get it right, probably something to do with the cheap neck of this guitar (May be a bit warped).

At any rate, I will be back to this part of the board to analyze all the advice I have been given. Thanks guys a lot, it helps so much you do not know. I get so lost sometimes in this music world, but I love it so much I do not want to quit (Thank God for drive!).

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Hey, I was thinking, do you guys having any tips on stage fright? Every time I play in front of people I get very nervous. I mess up every note. I really only play in front of my family at times, but I still get nervous, and I know that I will never be able to play in a band if I screw everything up. When I play alone, I sound actually very good. When I play in front of people, I sound like crap. So any tips you guys could offer I would be grateful for.

Thanks, peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Hey, I was thinking, do you guys having any tips on stage fright? Every time I play in front of people I get very nervous. I mess up every note. I really only play in front of my family at times, but I still get nervous, and I know that I will never be able to play in a band if I screw everything up. When I play alone, I sound actually very good. When I play in front of people, I sound like crap. So any tips you guys could offer I would be grateful for.

Thanks, peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Confidence confidence confidence.

This is where you will be tempted by the dark side.

You must practice to the point where you know on your worst day your awesome.

The dark side is not allowing yourself to become arrogant. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.

Me and confidence do not go in the same room together at times. I just learnt the song "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" by the Smashing Pumpkins. I play it to myself and it is good, in front of people, bleh. I just learnt it today, took me about a half hour to an hour, I think, to memorize it properly. I had to also change some things around that were wrong in the tab. But yeah, I am not the most confident.

I would never become arrogant, it is not in my character. But it would be nice to show some confidence in myself when playing guitar once in a while.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

One of the simplest things I can tell you is to breath.

So often we get in stressful situations and forget to breath.

One of my chief rules for years has been to never, ever try to play something in public that I havent mastered by myself first. I wish I had a video of myself years ago in one of those Guitar Contest where I decided at the last moment to play Eruption instead of vamping over a I-IV-V progression. It was probably one of the ugliest things in musical history. On the other hand Im glad I dont have a video. As Wegman says know your stuff before you perform. Your family and friends are a lot more forgiving than an innocent audience. Always play your best stuff even if its simple. I have a New Years Eve gig with my old band that origianlly was going to be one long set, the other groups have pulled out so I am going to have to play for 4-5 hours. A discerning listener will probably hear the same solo over and over in different keys all night long.

Good Luck, the only way to conquer a fear is to face it head on.

Wegman,

Dont you think a lead guitar player has to have a little arrogance?

I mean its a little like being a gun slinger, when I used to play all the time every night there was some young gun in the house who wanted to shoot me down. We used to let people sit in all the time, some of these guys knew more tricks than I did but we used to cover 4-500 songs so after a few songs that would ussually get left behind.

That brings up another thing guitaranatomy. If you ever go out and sit in with a band make sure you know a couple of songs all the way thru, make sure you know them backwards and forwards. Once you play the song or two you know get off the stage. If you stay too long they will throw something at you that you will suck at. Better to leave them wondering and thinking you are brilliant.

GA, if you mess up in front of people, then possibly you haven't practiced the songs enough.
Practice, practice, practice . . . .
To play without screwing-up means that you don't have to even think about what you're doing, that your hands will automatically do the right things, in the right places, at the right times . . . .
If you have to consciously think about what you're doing, then any little distaction from that flow of conscious-attention will derail your playing.
.
If you find yourself saying, "Ahh, no; I know these songs REAL good," then try this, to find out:
For your next practice,
> turn the TV on as loud as your guitar. Tune it to a really annoying station.
> Turn the radio on. Tune it to a different and annoying station. Turn it up as loud as you.
> Put on a CD that you really like. Turn it up as loud as you are playing.
> add one more, really good distraction, of your own choosing.
.
NOW, practice. If you can play 4 -5 songs without stopping or screwing up, then you're probably ready to play in front of people.
.
Let me know how practice goes.

Lmao. I get it, RhythmMan is trying to make me go deaf. This place is evil. Neh, just kidding. I will try something similar to that, lol. I might have a bad headache afterwards though. When I know I know a song well is when I can play it without looking down at my guitar. Like Fade to Black, I once played that months back without looking. *Shrug*

jw123, that is very good advice, thanks man. I will take that into consideration. Maybe I am forgetting to just take a deep breath every so often, I am getting too nervous. Like Wegman said, I need confidence. I will do what all of you said, just practice these songs till I know them in and out, it is a good idea. That way I make no errors.

Thanks for the tips guys, very much appreciated.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Playing in front of people, now that's a different story, but oddly I've never been really nervous about it, I guess because my uncles had me playing in front of people when I was 7 or 8. Played in a talent contest in 6th grade, (2nd place, 1st went to a piano player, we had kicked around the idea of trying it together too) 1st actual live performance about age 10 with a band and an audience of about 200.

Best advice I can offer is the more you play in public the less it will bother you. Nothing makes you work harder at playing better than falling on your face in front of 20 or 30 people though, it's that or give it up.

also try practicing in total darkness. Can't see your hand a foot away dark. If you can play it literally blindfolded, you should be able to do ok in public, since you have to prove it to yourself before you can prove it to anyone else. Therefore you'll have more confidence and won't have to look for where the next note is.

When I do solos, sometimes I try to duplicate what's on the original recording (for cover tunes anyway) and sometimes I improvise. If I improvise I usually have only a basic lead in or lead out I use, often both, and the rest comes right off the top of my head. I don't think about it, I don't "see it" as a pattern or numbers, or notes, or scales, I just pretty much let my fingers have their way and it usually works. Whatever pops into my head I play it, or try to.

But I spent 10 years copying leads note by note or trying to from rock bands - Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, Duane Allman, Joe Walsh, David Gilmour, Jimmy Page and so on...and over 2 years practicing in complete darkness, unplugged electric guitar, tons of practice on acoustic guitars and an old, cheap classical guitar (on which I learned Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing) and after playing in the dark for a good while I finally got to the point I could play what I thought of as decent leads, fairly smooth, and eventually ended up playing fill in gigs for 3 years, getting onstage every week or two with a band I'd just met an hour before.

Since then I've been in a dozen bands, played quite a few sit ins or open mic nights and only have problems on a bad night when I'm just not on top of things. Went to an audition one night and recorded both guitar and sax parts on a song I'd never heard before that night. Third time I heard it I was recording a guitar part. Then recorded three harmonized sax parts. Unfortunately it ended up mixed too far to the background and the saxes are barely heard, and that was the part that really gave the song character.

The only way to do it is keep on playing in front of people, you'll be better off if you don't have to constantly look at the guitar and consciously think about each and every note or chord. Your fingers need to be there automagically. The guitar became an extension of my hands long ago, it's not something I think about...I start to play a lead and it's just there...my fingers go there as my head hears it...not before, not after, I don't "tell them" what notes to play...it's impossible to really explain...it's just there.

Paleopete,

I must say, when I play solos over pieces, I do not quite think about it either. I am no master of music theory, that is for sure. But when I play, I do not contemplate the key, the notes, nothing. I just begin soloing, and as you said, "let my fingers take me along." It usually, strangely enough, sounds very good.

Tonight I went and tried out in a used guitar shop an amplifier. It was a Line 6 Spider 2, now, I was not keen on this because it was only a 30 watt, but it did sound good. I was playing in front of my family and some of the clerks there, did not really mess up either. I did not play anything major, but yeah. I played some of my own stuff, put a bit of flanger and chorus on it, and loved how it sounded. I cannot wait to get a new guitar and amplifier. I think the first guitar I tried had a pair of Seymour Duncan pickups, it sounded very good, it was an Ibanez (But it was like a purple and violet marble coloring, not too nice). Then I switched to another guitar (I did not look at what brand, I was mainly there for the amps, not the guitar. Ths second guitar had a pair of EMG pickups (Which I did not realize till I looked down, lmao). It sounded very good, in fact, I played just messed around and wrote a tune from the top of my head and my mother asked "What song is that?" She thought it was some real song and not something I made up, which is good, lol.

Anyhow, yeah, it rocked to try out a new amplifier and guitar. Tomorrow, I hope to go to another guitar store and try out a stronger amplifier.

Funny thing though, I had a discussion with the techinician at this place. He was explaining to me how I should really go for a tube amplifier. He said that the solid state amps are not the smartest because repairing them is very hard (Particulary Line 6 since it is so computerized). He said also that a tube amplifier can be brought up to a higher octave and keep its sound, as well a solid state has an edge and just cuts off and sounds like sh*t. I have heard this before around these boards. He may be right. His recommendations to me (Although too expensive at this time) was to buy a tube amplifier (A Marshall for instance) and buy a multieffect pedal (Since I am looking to mess with effects). He said I would be better off. He also was explaining to me how I need a stronger watt amplifier in case I ever want to play in a band on stage. He was telling me how the drummer would not be able to hear it (Especially if he is banging away at the drums like metal drummers do). He said the only way I could use a cheap 30 watt like that on stage was to "plug it into a board." Which by board I think he was talking about a sound board that would amplify it through the speaker system setup.

At any rate, it was fascinating to talk to him. But what he said was almost completely reminiscent of what I have heard on here from everyone else.

I was happy when I was talking to him that he did not lose me completely. Back a while ago when I would talk to these guys I had no idea what they were talking about, now at least I have a slight idea. He was explaining wah pedals to me, and I got lost, lol. He was talking about how they work and stuff and it was a bit strange to me. I have to go study those. *Shrug* He seemed to know what he was talking about, he did not strike me as someone who has not been around this field for a long time. If I had to guess, from how he talked, he probably played drums, bass, guitar, and maybe something else. He seemed to know way too much for just a random guy, unless that is normal just from playing all these years, I would not know, you guys might.

Well, this is a bit too long already, I am cutting off here, not making too many corrections right now. So if there are any errors in my grammar, sorry.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Guitaranatomy,

Im fortunate enough to have a few amps, and most are large. But honestly I have a Mesa Subway Rocket that is 20 watts tube. It gets a great sound at what I call bedroom levels and it will crank and cut thru at a 200 seat club. They dont make these anymore but they pop up on e-bay occasionally for 350-500 dollars. Salesmen are going to try to sell you the big stuff cause most of them get paid on commission. A lot of these little digital amps sound great at bedroom level, but if you need to crank them they lose something. A nice smaller tube amp could last a lifetime and get great tone, you can always front load an amp with pedals or an effect board. I would recomend not getting into effects since you are starting out, learn to play the guitar and get your sound by using the controls on the guitar and your hands. These smaller amps are way more mobile to get around if you start gigging. A nice tube amp can be manipulated to get the sound you want and should hold its value for the long haul. I think Peavey makes some nice ones, Vox. One Ive been trying to find is a Soldano 16(20 watts all tube hand wired).

Anyway good luck, find a nice guitar and amp to start building the foundation of your sound.

Guitaranatomy,

Im fortunate enough to have a few amps, and most are large. But honestly I have a Mesa Subway Rocket that is 20 watts tube. It gets a great sound at what I call bedroom levels and it will crank and cut thru at a 200 seat club. They dont make these anymore but they pop up on e-bay occasionally for 350-500 dollars. Salesmen are going to try to sell you the big stuff cause most of them get paid on commission. A lot of these little digital amps sound great at bedroom level, but if you need to crank them they lose something. A nice smaller tube amp could last a lifetime and get great tone, you can always front load an amp with pedals or an effect board. I would recomend not getting into effects since you are starting out, learn to play the guitar and get your sound by using the controls on the guitar and your hands. These smaller amps are way more mobile to get around if you start gigging. A nice tube amp can be manipulated to get the sound you want and should hold its value for the long haul. I think Peavey makes some nice ones, Vox. One Ive been trying to find is a Soldano 16(20 watts all tube hand wired).

Anyway good luck, find a nice guitar and amp to start building the foundation of your sound.

Lol. I have been playing for almost 2 years, man. I have had two small amplifiers, I have messed with gain, clean tone, distortion from my Boss DS-1. I am done. I want some chorus, flanger, sweep echo, wah, etc... Getting too bored with just having a pure distortion, cheap gain, and no effects whatsoever. Time to move on.

Yeah, you are right, they do work on commission. But here is the funny thing (May be just a trick, let's see what you think), he told me to go to Guitar Center and try out all of those amplifiers. *Shrug*

So yeah, thanks for the recommendations man, well appreciated.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

I started on an electric, 16 years ago... I learned alot, but the biggest improvement to my playing ability, especially singing and playing at the same time, was when I bought an accoustic and put the electric away for awhile.