Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

Think/ play not in terms of scale, but chords. So the notes you play must be based on the respective chords to emphasize the character of the chords. If you are fluent with this, you don't even need to play the root yet the listeners are able to recognize the chord you play.

Rock and blues players essentially think in terms of scale and tonal center. They are spend hours studying and memorizing modes and scales. But you know what? Screw all those Ionian, Locrian, Aeolian, what else...Babylonian, Draconian? Whatever. Thinking in terms of scales/ modes limits your creativity, like "Let's see, right now I am playing in D Dorian...hmm...does this note belong to D Dorian? Nope, take it out."

Chords are in general major or minor. Even diminished is closer to minor. So, you only need to think in terms of whether it's major or minor, and then throw in some 'outside' notes that don't belong in the chords, and voila! You sound completely different from average. It's that simple.

Fusion in essence is jazz with distortion pedal and keyboards thrown in.

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

Obsessive compulsive - No need to get all conceited mr fusion man. I am simply trying to help the OP given his situation (not just, DO WHAT I DO). Part of his problem (in my opinion) is he is already thinking too much about trying to integrate advanced theory stuff when he should be developing his ear and getting comfortable developing what he already knows.

Plus listen to the music he's playing, do you really think throwing in dissonant tones is key here? You need to think of the context of the song, not just what off notes you can throw in to sound 'different'

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

I am simply trying to help the OP given his situation (not just, DO WHAT I DO).

Then you should've cared less about my advice to him, and instead adhered to your noble intention...mon ami.

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

I was, by letting him know that I think your approach isn't the best way for him to get where he needs to go

[El Dunco]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

Obsessive, Kamanda. Stop. Please. Doesn't help in any way and there are no wrong answers in music.

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

Obsessive, Kamanda. Stop. Please. Doesn't help in any way and there are no wrong answers in music.

Ok Officer.

OP - have you found anything that you think is going to work for you? / identified what you want to work on?

[Matt42]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

Absolutely. Number one is getting my bends in tune, that's just unacceptable. Number two is to get more clips that are a better representation of my diverse style, I'm much more versatile than these clips imply; and displaying that is going to be necessary if I want to be able to provide a good sample set to potential bands. Three is to keep attacking phrasing and fluidity using a variety of things mentioned here and some things I've already been doing.

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

I listened to parts of all the souncloud clips and watched the video.

Most everyone can improve their playing in the area of note selection, but I think the greatest need for improvement lies in your phrasing. You play predominantly quarter notes and eighth notes and, with the exception of a few bends, pick every single note. The effect is a very staccato presentation that sounds like you are punching notes rather than playing them. Try tying more notes together with hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides and then further break up the somewhat mechanical feel by adding some triplets or evn blast out a few 16th notes. It's really not about speed. It is about adding interest with some fluidity and variety. I think someone mentioned before ... listen to some songs with melodic vocal lines and learn to play what the singer is singing. Listen to stuff you wouldn't necessarily want to play. I mean, listen to an Adele song, for example. Also, there's absolutely nothing wrong with "stealing" a lick or phrase from another guitar player and adapting it to your genre and specific style. Remember too that the time set aside for a lead does not have to be filled with notes. Someone mentioned letting it breathe. I agree 100%. Think of a well placed silence as a valuable component of any musical arrangement.

By the way, I like your rhythm playing a lot.

[Power Stack \m/]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

Yeah I like your note choices and you can improv over chords very well which is a virtue. However I did feel there was a lot of going up and down scales which can sound very boring. Try learn some solos of various songs and you'll see how people avoid that.

[Matt42]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

I listened to parts of all the souncloud clips and watched the video.

Most everyone can improve their playing in the area of note selection, but I think the greatest need for improvement lies in your phrasing. You play predominantly quarter notes and eighth notes and, with the exception of a few bends, pick every single note. The effect is a very staccato presentation that sounds like you are punching notes rather than playing them. Try tying more notes together with hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides and then further break up the somewhat mechanical feel by adding some triplets or evn blast out a few 16th notes. It's really not about speed. It is about adding interest with some fluidity and variety. I think someone mentioned before ... listen to some songs with melodic vocal lines and learn to play what the singer is singing. Listen to stuff you wouldn't necessarily want to play. I mean, listen to an Adele song, for example. Also, there's absolutely nothing wrong with "stealing" a lick or phrase from another guitar player and adapting it to your genre and specific style. Remember too that the time set aside for a lead does not have to be filled with notes. Someone mentioned letting it breathe. I agree 100%. Think of a well placed silence as a valuable component of any musical arrangement.

By the way, I like your rhythm playing a lot.

It's funny, a lot of what you are saying was stuff my ex used to tell me I needed to improve upon in my playing, especially the quarter and eighth notes thing. For all her other faults, she's a hell of a musician, I should have listened to her. I know exactly where that comes from in my playing. For about 5 years I played almost nothing but bluegrass, and most bluegrass is straight quarter and eighth notes. You get frowned at if you play triplets (or even a minor chord in some circles, forget a 7th).

That's clearly a habit I didn't rid myself of as thoroughly as I thought, I'll work on that some more.

I've worked on my rhythm playing quite a bit over the years. I've never thought of myself as a rhythm only guitarist, but I've also always felt that a strong basis in rhythm playing essential for good lead playing.


This thread has been incredibly enlightening to me over all. I now have a direction to focus on for the next few months. I had been planning on picking up the Dobro this fall, but maybe I'll wait until I can smooth out a few of my problem areas on guitar first.

[Myaccount876]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

Try to make leads like vocal melodies/phrases. If there's no vibrato, and you can't imagine someone singing it, the lead probably isn't going to be that great. Give the song a sense of direction with your note choices - are you building tension or relieving it? Are you going to speed up or slow down? Make your note choices convey the tonality of the song - is the song sad? Happy? Sappy? Clappy? Convey it with the leads, and make it sound like an actual melody - something memorable - that wasn't played on auto-pilot. Bends/Vibrato make or break a lead: imagine all of the classic/most memorable solos if they just played the straight notes instead of bending up to them, and if they just held a constant note without any vibrato. I guarantee those changes will make one of the best solos on record sound like some of the worst solos on record.

[guitfiddle]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

One way to gain a bit more space and looseness in your solos would be to emulate a horn player. Literally, only play notes while you breathe out, and when you have to breathe in, stop. That forces you into saying phrases instead of a constant run of notes. As you get more into this idea, you'll start to see how long a phrase needs to be before-hand, so you can plan them out a bit more. That, plus having clearly defined starting and finishing notes will make the phrase more fitting to the chord it's going to land on.

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

I've heard lots of guys talking about playing like a horn player...especially in terms of legato and mode choices. But that 'breathe out' line just hit me like a ton of bricks. 10/10

[Matt42]

Re: Looking for some honest opinion and some advice

Seriously, A+ tip right there!