What else is there?

tTz · #1 10-15-2005, 03:45 PM

This will probably sound stupid to most of you, but it's probably better to ask the stupid question that to let it stand in my way for the rest of my life.

I'm stuck for what to do now. I've been playing accoustic for over a year, electric for 3 or 4 months. I've had to stop due to a hand injury, which will probably prevent me from playing any crazy shred etc.

Even before I got this injury though, I've been wondering what else there is. I feel like I'm missing a huge chunk of playing vocabulary. I've been learning from tab notation, and I've been playing stuff like Green Day and Linkin Park (at first), and moving on to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai as I discovered their music.

Shred doesn't worry me, I'm sure that skill will develop as I become a better player. It's not a priority, it's a skill I'll evolve sooner or later. I can play a fair bit of Satriani stuff, not tried much Vai (guitar is in hiding atm). I can play some riffs a la Linkin Park too, but there seems to be a huge gap in the middle of these two styles that I can't fill. Theory is something I keep trying to learn, but lack the motivation to do so...I don't know where to start, and it all seems so confusing. I think I need more structure to the way I play.

Guitar is an RG550, incidentally, so anything drop tuned will be difficult.

Any constructive comments welcome, recommendations etc. Thanks in advance, and I hope you can help.

vette6600 · #2 10-15-2005, 04:11 PM

in terms of theory, buy Harmony and Theory from the MI Press. it starts very simple and later gets into some cool stuff. the thing is though, you need to use what you learn. for example, when i took music theory in school, i never played what i learned in class, so after a year of not looking through notes, i forgot everything. recently, i 've been going through the book i reccomended above, and ive been playing through all the ideas on my guitar. that really ties everything together. after that, you'll understand a lot about whats going on in all those songs you dig. also, i suggest learning to read standard notation. berklee guitar method book one is great for that (they skip all the lame "mary had a little lamb" stuff and develop their own songs, so its interesting). and finally, learn a really simple oldies tune as often as possible. this is good for chord vocabulary and hearing harmony, as opposed to just chugga-chugga power chords all the time. and of course, go nuts on all those fun chromatic excercises and what not. its a lot to do, but then you'll be a musician, not just a guitar player.

note: i'm not trying to sound like a pro or anything. i'm still working through all these things too and i definitely don't consider myself to be amazing or anything

this is just what i've gathered from teachers, books, etc.

tTz · #3 10-16-2005, 09:48 AM

I'll have a go at the stuff you mentioned.

I forgot to mention, I also play a lot of Oasis/Travis style open chorded stuff, mainly on the accoustic with the mile high action.

Andelusion · #4 10-16-2005, 10:44 AM

I think it'd be cool for you if you worked on how to improvise.

To do this, you'd have to improve on your theory a little bit, you'd be able to play in whatever style you want as you're already into quite a wide range of music and you'd also improve your playing technique doing so, but seriously remember to be careful with your hand buddy

If you learn what a pentatonic scale is, then learn the 5 shapes which can be used off the scale, then you'll have the first scale that every guitarist should know under their belt and you'll be using it for a long time

With knowledge of your pentatonic scale you can start looking at 12-bar blues progressions, i've got some great backing tracks that i could send you over msn some time, you can play some great stuff over these backing tracks with the pentatonics.

What i'm trying to say is that by doing this you'll hopefully learn the basics of guitar theory and improvisation, then you can start looking at other scales to use such as the Major/Minors, Harmonic Minors (Yngwie-ness!) then all your Modes, after you get to grips with the first Major/Minor ones mentioned then with your knowlege of that you can start getting to know more about chords and how they're built.

This long (and confusing i bet lol) post should give you some sort of order about how to go about things.

Don't do something if your hand's hurting and/or if you're not enjoying it as guitar'll become a chore then, learn what you find interesting and don't bother with what you don't if you never think it'll be important for how/what you want to play.

*Goes back to eating salami sandwich*

damo7v · #5 10-16-2005, 12:25 PM

assuming i understand your question, my advice would be to learn different styles of guitar music regardless of whether they are necessarily your own taste.

although i don't claim to have mastered it, i went through a big eric clapton unplugged phase. elements of which now appear in the more shred-y stuff that i play.

the beauty of that style is that there is a strong connection between the rhythm and melody guitar parts, i.e standards like nobody knows you, etc.

good country players are worth learning from, too. generally speaking, they have a strong sense of phrasing.

just a thought...

tTz · #6 10-17-2005, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andelusion

What i'm trying to say is that by doing this you'll hopefully learn the basics of guitar theory and improvisation, then you can start looking at other scales to use such as the Major/Minors, Harmonic Minors (Yngwie-ness!) then all your Modes, after you get to grips with the first Major/Minor ones mentioned then with your knowlege of that you can start getting to know more about chords and how they're built.

I think vital parts of my brain have just melted.

Andelusion · #7 10-17-2005, 01:13 PM

lol, don't worry it's really not as complicated as it sounds, and besides, all you have to do to begin with is look for information on how Major and Minor scales are constructed.

Once you get your head around how Major and Minor scales work (which basically contain every other mode) everything will come easily as you will have got the building blocks of scale theory down from looking at your Major and Minors.

Just put 'major and minor scales' or something into google and look for a decent looking site, if you've got any questions then message me

Btw i've been suspended on OcUK lol :'(

tTz · #8 10-17-2005, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andelusion

Btw i've been suspended on OcUK lol :'(

I'll take a look on Google and see what I find.

Bluenote Soul · #9 10-28-2005, 04:15 AM

Sounds like you're ready for jazz. It's inevitable for any serious guitar player. Check out John Scofield, Vic Juris, Rodney Jones, John Stowell, Allan Holdsworth, George Benson. Start listening to other instrumentation. Like Jimi Hendrix? Of course you do, so check out Miles Davis' work from 1970-1975. Listen to the album "Dark Magus" to get an idea.

toma · #10 10-28-2005, 06:44 PM

there is sooooooo much info on the net.
ive learnt almost everything from the net.

Mike7771 · #11 10-29-2005, 07:23 PM

Try my site http://www.guitarknowledgenet.com. There are a lot of helpful resources there.

Hope it helps.

pawel · #12 10-29-2005, 07:39 PM

I think that once you figure out to improvise, and come up with your own stuff you would see a new world opening up, so to say. Follow what Andelusion said, learn some blues, it will feel pretty good when you can sit down and jam with a BB King record.

Once you are confortable with blues and want some challenge, you can try to get in to some jazz and fusion.

tTz · #13 11-05-2005, 05:45 PM

I forgot about this thread again, sorry for bumping it. I really have a bad memory when it comes to internet posts.

Since I have no access to my electric atm (hidden it away to stop me playing it) all I've got is my accoustic. Since I can't play any Vai or Satriani on it, I've been doing some wierd messing about with it, improvising random things. No chord theory involved or anything, but I like it.

It's in a wierd tuning atm, tuned by ear to what I think is (lowest to highest) BADGBe. Wierd, but definitely usable.

I really want to learn blues, and how to play with a bit more soul than mechanical precision (both of which I'm lacking). I just don't know where to start for most of these things.

Can anyone recommend any books I can read for this? I prefer learning this sort of stuff off the computer. I don't like staring at the screen for ages.