Been playin Guitar for about 5 or 6 years. AC/DC is what really inspired me to get into it. Now more into Skynyrd and southern rock, thats all me and my buddies play when we jam.
[quote]boyscout wrote:
dg401 wrote:
I started playing guitar 3.5 years ago. I started with classical training but gave that up after two years. Looking back on it, huge mistake.
You’re right, it was a huge mistake. Especially if you’re into playing fingerstyle acoustic now. Classical technique is a lot more efficient (watch michael hedges play vs. andy mckee, etc.)–hedges had a lot of training a classical guitarist.
But hedges was also looked upon as a sort of slacker student while he did his undergrad music with some now famous classical guitarists like Manuel Barrueco.
Anyway, I play guitar. I did my undergrad in music business and classical guitar performance. I just started grad school yesterday to do my masters in guitar performance. I also play some jazz (poorly).
It’s a good time. I didn’t really start play classical until I started undergrad. I was hooked after I heard Leo Brouwer. I did start guitar because I got my first black sabbath and metallica albums–I knew after I heard metallica I wanted to play. [/quote]
For sure. I’m well aware of the mistake… When I started playing was in the middle of my frosh year in HS though. So at that time my musical tastes hadn’t really “matured.” I guess I just got bored with classical music because I was in a few bands and that was a lot of fun.
I didn’t even start playing Hedge’s stuff until I moved during my junior year of HS. Nobody at my new school played music and I heard that youtube hit by Andy Mckee (Drifting). I learned how to play that and was hooked on how all those musicians make their guitars into a “band.”
Plus I just love acoustic. Just the wood, steel, and me.
And here’s the song I wrote. It’s kind of sloppily played, but whatever.
[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
bassists unite.[/quote]
w3rd.
Anybody have a recommendation on an inexpensive first electric? I want to be Zakk Wylde.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NJRUSMC
These are my videos on youtube. They are short, but demonstrate some of the techniques I like most.
Guitar hero is gay.
@ boyscout
“That said, if a teacher/someone states that you MUST learn 80 different scales and modes, punch them in the face. It’s unnecessary and essentially busy work. Get really good at the 4 or 5 major scale patterns, and learn to relate things to them.”
I know you are a guitar teacher, but I disagree with this. Simply learning the 7 modal scales in 2 and 3 octave versions (14 total scales) is enough to cover all 12 keys given horizontal translations up and down the fretboard. I agree 100% that it is imperative to understand how scales relate, but I personally don’t like to say “I don’t want to play B minor, I will play D major instead because that is all I know”. Seems like shortchanging yourself if you ask me.
Edit: For a new guitar, I suggest ESP LTD guitars. The best guitars for the money, hands down. You can spend 900 USD on an Ibanez Prestige and get low quality hardware and pay for the brand, or a 60 USD ESP LTD MH400NT (which I play in my videos) and get excellent quality everything. Best guitar for the money, hands down. Even if you cannot afford a 400 level, even a 250 would be good for 400 bucks. $400 would buy you a really shitty Ibanez.
What I wish I had been told when I started playing 16 years ago:
All music style can be characterized by a particular rhythm, harmonic structure, and melody.
Theory is important but not as important as keeping your love for the music; don’t let theory cloud your playing.
Learn all the notes on the fretboard and how they are related to each other by intervals.
Learn how to play in every position on the fretboard with the entire left hand.
Don’t forget the right hand – it is responsible for rhythm and the other undefinable qualities that make individual playing unique.
Learn how to REALLY listen to the music you love keeping the three components rhythm, harmony, and melody in mind. Pay attention to phrasing especially the structure of call and response and tension and release.
Always practice with a metronome.
Learn to read music so that it can be picked apart and analyzed not necessarily to sight read while playing. If you really want to understand the workings of a musical piece you need to be able to analyze it with respect to rhythm, harmony, and melody.
Virtuosos are rare. Most people need to practice everyday hours on end to get to stage performance quality. Set the bar low and settle for being able to impress a few chicks.
Some inspiration:
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Theory is important but not as important as keeping your love for the music; don’t let theory cloud your playing.
[/quote]
I have and do still occasionally play professionally and I have never heard anyone say that “theory clouded their playing”. People who do not want the work of learning what they are playing always say things like that, but the truth is that when you are playing with a group of other musicians, that you just met, you need to know what they are doing. And the best way to do that is to know yourself so you can communicate it to them.
Sure, some people are musically gifted, but most working stiffs get it done through hard work and knowledge (theory).
If you are performing and someone says to solo or improvise on Em7, you had damn well better know what that is and what will and will not work ahead of time. You can’t figure that out by playing by ear during a performance.
So the bottom line fact is that the more theory you know, and can apply, the better you will be. Period!
[quote]njrusmc wrote:
@ boyscout
“That said, if a teacher/someone states that you MUST learn 80 different scales and modes, punch them in the face. It’s unnecessary and essentially busy work. Get really good at the 4 or 5 major scale patterns, and learn to relate things to them.”
I know you are a guitar teacher, but I disagree with this. Simply learning the 7 modal scales in 2 and 3 octave versions (14 total scales) is enough to cover all 12 keys given horizontal translations up and down the fretboard. I agree 100% that it is imperative to understand how scales relate, but I personally don’t like to say “I don’t want to play B minor, I will play D major instead because that is all I know”. Seems like shortchanging yourself if you ask me.
[/quote]
I think you misunderstood me. Really, there’s about 4 one position patterns of the major scale. There’s a fifth pattern that does three notes per string. Each pattern spans 2+ octaves. Scales with position shifting (ala segovia scales) are ok, but more of a technical exercise than useful for soloing.
What is a scale? Simply put it’s a collection of pitches.
I don’t teach all the modes because it’s irrelevant. Why?
Check it out: the 7 modes:
Ionian(major)
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian(minor)
Locrian
Each is, essentially, starting the major scale on a different scale degree. so in c major:
Ionian: cdefgab
Dorian: defgabc
Phrygian: efgabcd
Lydian: fgabcde
Mixolydian: gabcdef
Aeolian (minor): abcdefg
locrian: bcdefga
Now, how much sense does it really make to learn a major scale seven different ways? It doesn’t. As a technical exercise, yes, as a practical way to solo on the fly or play with modes it does not. Not only that, but learning modal patterns can lead to a very root oriented sound while soloing, which is not necessarily desirable.
To go back to your example, if something is in B minor, saying that I’ll play D major is the same thing as saying i’ll be a b minor scale. It’s the same collection of pitches.
So, I doubt I’m short changing myself at all.
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Theory is important but not as important as keeping your love for the music; don’t let theory cloud your playing.
[/quote]
Classical musicians will do in depth analysis to get deeper into the pieces they’re playing.
Theory, used wisely, can only make you a better musician.
[quote]Lorisco wrote:
If you are performing and someone says to solo or improvise on Em7, you had damn well better know what that is and what will and will not work ahead of time. You can’t figure that out by playing by ear during a performance.
[/quote]
Quite right, but I didn’t mean to imply that one didn’t need to know theory. There is a difference between knowing why one might want to play an A dominant arpeggio over an Em7 and knowing what sounds good for the moment.
Virtually any note can be played over anything it’s just a matter of why one would want to. That is what I meant about theory clouding ones playing.
[quote]boyscout wrote:
Theory, used wisely, can only make you a better musician. [/quote]
Yes. That is not what I meant. Not all players are aiming to be Yngwie Malmstein.
My favorite player of all time is Django Reinhardt. If you had told him he was playing a E mixolydian over an Am6 during a rendition of Dark Eyes he wouldn’t know what your are talking about. He would laugh, take a drag of his smoke and make us all look like a bunch of silly amateurs.
[quote]Steel Nation wrote:
Anybody have a recommendation on an inexpensive first electric? I want to be Zakk Wylde.[/quote]
Is it my imagination, or do these “who plays guitar here” threads pop up every 6 months or so?..There are a ton of Fret Freaks here, OP…
You wanna be like Zakk on a budget? Then get an Epiphone Les Paul clone, or a real Gibson used in good condition…
alright! another real life KSE fan! the only stuff folks listen to around here is rap and that shit.
i’m actually very excited because one of my buddies offered to teach me to play and it’s something i’ve always wanted to do.
I’ve got a 7 string Ibanez. I’ve been known to rip a mean axe. Not too many shredders I can listen to too much, it gets so redundant. I like the last guitar player from Jag Panzer a lot and Michael Romeo from Symphony X.
@ boyscout
I see your argument, I am familiar with the collection of pitches being the same and all that stuff. I also see your point about “root-oriented” soloing.
I think its hard to mix the “4-5 positions” and the “7 modes” approach. They are two different ways to think about scalar playing, and different people respond better to different versions. The modal philosophy seemed to sit better with me, and after all, 7 different fingerings is really not too hard to remember.
I have found it personally very useful as a technical exercise AND as on-the-fly soloing. My friend is more position-oriented and our experience and skill is about the same, but most of his solo’s sound EXACTLY the same because he plays the same major scale no matter what we are jamming to. Maybe it just sounds that way to me. To each his own, I guess. Did you like the clips, btw?
About the scales argument…
If you’re a beginner, learning 4 or 5 fingering patterns and shifting them up and down will allow you to play with someone else. Great job. You can now run up and down scales while you’re friend plays an endlessly monotonous vamp.
If you’re advanced and you don’t want to know your stuff that’s fine. Just don’t start moaning about how you’re “stuck in a rut”. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the following statement…
“I feel like I’m going nowhere on the guitar. I’ve been practicing really hard for months, running up and down scales I already know, learning songs that pose no technical challenge, playing uninventive solos to annoying chord progressions… I just don’t know what to do…”
Why would you want to limit yourself as a guitarist? Why wouldn’t you want to know every scale, every note, everywhere? Why wouldn’t you want to play with absolute fluency all over the neck? And why wouldn’t you want to be able to construct ONE solo that somebody would find vaguely interesting?
[quote]boyscout wrote:
Check it out: the 7 modes:
Ionian(major)
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian(minor)
Locrian
[/quote]
I felt my soloing abilities really open up when I learned all 7 modes…if I know what key the song is in that we’re playing, I can fly all over the fretboard…knowing the patterns for each mode means I’m not stuck in any one position…
As far as sounding the same…the different modes naturally emphasize different tones than each other…so…if I’m playing in the key of E…I might start out in E Ionian and then move up to F#Dorian…the phrases I play in each mode will sound much different…
The 7 modes can be played 3 notes per string over all six strings so you only really need to memorize 7 patterns…
I have seen teachers though that ram this stuff down students throats whether or not they’re ready/interested in it…
I also like the modal theory because when you deal with the harmonic minor “set” of scales, you just learn another 7 fingers for those, much like you did for the diatonic modes. The same is true for the melodic set.