My guitar theory for the easily discouragred:
Lets begin, Well, there are only 7 notes in a scale. (ie: C D E F G A B) But I suppose some have bonus notes. (country, blues, etc) And, of coures you can play them all over the neck. But, you are NEVER more than only one fret away from the CORRECT note. And you can always bend a 1/2 step. And if you miss it, then call it jazz. E Minor is really G Major, C#Minor is actually E Major. So you don't even have to learn minor scales! Just so long as you can count out four 1/2 steps, the difference between your reletive major (Gmaj) down to minor (Emin). I know the "modes" have names. But C'mon, who really uses them. There way to hard to remember, just know which note of the scale your playing first on the E string, and there's your mode number. This is guitar simpified. It's actually the method I use. While Shane Regal (my playing partner) teaches guitar, and knows more theory than I'll ever know, which gives him the ability to construct scales with really cool names, like......well, like.....heck, I don't even know the names. But I think I heard him use the term diminished minor, or something like that. Anyway, the purpose of this post is to encourage those of you who:
One of the following:
1. Haven't had a chance to learn your theory YET.
2. Really don't have time to study theory.
3. Just want to be able to improvize in key.
And want to keep it simple.
I believe knowing all you can about the "why" things work together is great, and important. But I also believe guitar should be rippin fun, and getting bogged down discourages creativity. Also, I think it's easy to sound like your playing modes and scales if your not careful. Which is fine to a degree. But it's good to be able to wander around the
fret board as if there were no structure, just and open playing field of notes waitng to be played. In any order. It's important to learn your scales, then view the relationship between them, then shortly thereafter the notes on the neck just light up for you, and you can go anywhere you like. I used to dream of the day I could just view all the notes in a paticular key just "light up" for me. It came by sitting for hours running scales, the basic major scales. Up and down the neck. Until I could do them blinfolded practically. It's good to do them while watching TV, listening to the radio, ignoring your wife, sitting on the porch, whatever. Unfortunatly, this step must be taken to get fimilar with the fretboard. Unlike piano, then notes on the guitar arent black and white, and playing in key is more difficult to master. But learning your scales in, say the key of G, is a great way to start. Then SIMPLY transpose it up and down the neck. I believe I have alot of limitations with this method. But the cool thing is, I have FUN playing and improvising, which is at the heart of
guitar playing. I admire guys who spend alot of time going behond the mere major/minor scales. It's comitment, practice and dedication. The thing is, I have a wife and kids (I'm buzy) and am satisfied being able to play at this level. And to the untrainded ear, the public. It's all the same anyway. No matter what your goal is, I do know that time on the guitar is of most importance. And one more thing to add. I think it's more important to runs scales and improvinse over different keys than it is to learn other players songs. If you have and limited numbers of hours a day to practice, I think it should be practicing your own riffs. I don't hink our goal it to play covers, it's to write, record, and hopefully trap someone into listening to our songs. Usually a "loving" family member.
Any question?
e-mail me at:
rug_dog@yahoo.com
Rock on, Darin
