General Music Chat

So what have I got to do?

Start when you are 4

Do you need any of this to play guitar in a southern rock band?

No. You only need whiskey for that.

How can I get better?

10,000 hours of practise

I'm working on my personality, but its been a hard life.

you and me, both, brutha!

Been reading Gladwell, Yod?

My boss and I were discussing the 10,000 rule recently. There is some reality in that - even truly talented guys have to learn to use it.

Talbot

That's funny that you say that.

10,000 hours is the standard rating for a veteran pilot as well, unless I miss my guess. (not sure about that one though)

Hey thanks for the comments, and suggestions, I'll try to put some to use. Sounds like it all boils down to effective practice.?

I think u can master music, the universities are putting new musicians out there with MA's in music everyday.

Dead Guitar I agree with your point about the thirds and the fifths, but there's also the 7ths, and 6ths, and 2nds, and really any note in the chromatic scale.

This seems to be a guitar player forum, but are you really good just cause you say you are? Don't you nedd a way to measure your progress,,, ie By increasing the bpms you play the Aeolian scale, or any scale, with the bpm you can directly measure your progress.

I don't know if you can do it in 10,000 hours Yod, I mean there is so much more to music theory then reading pitch, and rhythm. I buy these college level books on music theory, and these guys can write 600 pages, and mean every word they say. Music theory is more about harmonic, and melodic "blending". then just reading pitch and rhythm. You know theory comes from the study of what the past masters have consistently done, and how they broke the rules and made it sound great.

You know I run a set practice schedule, usually 1 hour on piano practicing composition, 1.5 hours on guitar practicing the scales and modes, 2 hours on guitar practicing the songs off our setlist, 1 hour practicing with the bass (with bass it seems like practicing with jam tracks, really helps), and .5 on guitar improvising against backing tracks, then I usually study music theory for a hour or two a day, out of the pile of books I've amassed on the subject., with working out this usually makes for afull day. Going to try to add another hour this week on guitar practicing original songs, it seems I compose more on the piano now then I do on the guitar.

For some of u multi instrumentalists like Planet Dude, do you find it hard to say get your guitar brain and your piano brain and your bass brain all on the same page? I see the music rushing at me from piano, guitar and bass, and it seems I interpret music a little different on each, but it's slowly coming together.

I think you can master anything you want, you are the only thing that stands in your way.

One chunk occurs to you as you write it.

For me, it's either a chunk originally thought of in Piano or Guitar.

If it's in Piano, you write it with the Piano to facilitate ease of writing.
Same for something you heard or thought of in guitar. (if you can play it)

Never make it more complicated than you have to, because you still have to finish it. That, sometimes, is the biggest bite of the hotdog right there...finishing.

Even worse, if I have a phrase that sounds good on Piano or keys and I attempt to play it on Guitar, it will take on a new feel and that's bad.

If it's not set in stone and you get confused about what is and what isn't, you get a mersh of both. A gestalt if you will. Those portions need to remain separate in order to promote whatever it is your brain is desiring you to write..

I hear these guys fingerpicking others' songs in ways I never could (I don't even hold a guitar the right way for fingerpicking!) And everyone oohs and aahs when they play. But when they're done, I think 'where was the feeling?' 'where's the originality?'
Mastering scales is just 'playing notes'.

Mike

I have to disagree about scales. I need to practice them more actually because running through various scales and modes in different patterns a) wakes up my fingers, and b) has me off and running when my playing starts to sound stale.

Try something goofy like playing 1 - (natural minor) 4 (melodic minor and
5) (Harmonic minor - as if you were backing a rhythm guitarist playing A,D,E. Your up front note options are just slightly different at each position and if you rig it right it sounds like you're pushing to a conclusion.

I may have that backwards but the point is using these three very similar scales as a building block for you lead it will be quickly obvious that are some things that work that you might not have tried otherwise.

Talbot

Hey Talbot sounds like your moving ahead. You have to blend scales to become a good lead guitar player. I like to play the pentatonic minor scale, and add in some Aeolian, and Dorian, these 7 note scales give you a lot of choices.

Hey Talbot sounds like your moving ahead. You have to blend scales to become a good lead guitar player. I like to play the pentatonic minor scale, and add in some Aeolian, and Dorian, these 7 note scales give you a lot of choices.

'Scales' are in my ears. I don't need to know the names of the them or practice them to know what sounds right and what sounds wrong when I'm doing a lead - I can HEAR it. Example, typical I-IV-V chord pattern in key of A (A major, D major, E major). Major scale notes are A B C# D E F# G# A. But there are certain songs/patterns (blues, rock) where the 7th (G for A major chord, C for D major chord, D for E major chord) sounds right - and other songs where it doesn't. No one I've ever played with yells out at the start of a new song "hey play an Aeolian major scale in A for this one". Never. So maybe I've only played with amateurs, so be it. Knowing which notes to hit because they SOUND RIGHT is what 'mastering' is all about as far as I'm concerned. Do I do it every time? I wish!

Just going to throw this out there for what it's worth.
Though I am relatively new at the pursuit of music.
I've spent countless thousands of hours in pursuit of the Martial Art.
In the presence of many a greatly talented man & 'master'.
In that I have come to be fully convinced that 'mastery' is in the pursuit itself, not a destination.

and a few karate guys I knew that were black belts were the gentlest people I ever knew.. they could kill quickly with their bare hands but were the most considerate of others feelings.. think of the attitude of a bully and they were 180 degrees the opposite.. back when I was in high school karate and nanchuks were really popular.. it is one of the tantric paths as well as music is..

Guitar Mike, your own response shows why you need to know scales. While in the Key of A G might be the 7th, you have to qualify that is it a major or minor 7th, then just to make it a little harder to understand there's dominant 7ths. The scale is chromatic and contains all the notes, the major scale breaks it down from 12 notes to 7 notes, by using this same info you can apply these 7 notes and make them the root notes to your chords, and the scale will show you which chords are in the key whether they're major minor augumented diminished,

I don't know anything about mastering karate, but in music there has been countless mastewrs, while only the truly great standout, such as Bach and Brahms, and Wagoner, etc......, the list is long, long, long, and you could be on it.

Play an Aeolian scale in A, Mike you could do this, but the Aeolian scale starts on the 6th degree of the major scale its most closely associated with, I could play it in the Key of A, but if your playing in the Key of C the scale the A Aeolian scale originates from, you could drop that Aeolian scale down to C and make it work, you'd get different sounds. Isn't that what it's all about making different sounds?

I'm sick of this mastering music thread, without an ear you will never master music, it's as basic as that, the Muse is a gift from God, and God only, chooses who he gives this gift to..you can learn as many scales, modes, inversions, key signatures to your heart's content and on paper, you might "master" music, but you still won't be a master until your ear has developed, and for some that never comes because God did not bestow onto them the gift.. Burt Bacharach would have been a master even if he had not attained music college degrees in theory.. speaking of which that Dusty Springfield - Burt Bacharach duo performing "A House Is Not A Home" just blows me away, it gives me the chills..

You are right Dane, music is indeed a gift. Many here clearly have it and regularly demonstrate this on their profile page with excellent music they have performed. You can certainly develop this gift through study but if you don't have the gift, weren't born with it, no amount of music theory or practice will change that.

Some born with less natural talent feel compiled to turn to the W. C. Fields method: "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit."