Learning to play?? Inspiration...

[BloodRose]

Ive been messing with guitars for years and know a handful of chords and scales, and have even made up a couple of my own tunes. BUT.. Im far from a player. Im about to turn 45 and I KNOW Ill never be a shred hero as Id liked, but dammit, I want to be a decent player. On new years eve, when I got home from work, my girls were still up and my 11 yr old (who has made her first CD already) told me she wanted to read me some quotes. I almost brushed her off. (im tired etc) But one she read REALLY REALLY hit me.

You are Never to old to be who you were meant to be.

This has lit a fire under my keister boys and girls. I got the tele out the next night and made up a simple tune and I really want to get decent.
What do you feel is more important in learning? learning to play the tunes of others, or making up your own?

Any advice for learning to strum better for a rythym and coordinationally challenged half deaf guy? Yeah, I have 3 strikes against me there, plus a non supportive wife and little time to play. BUT.. play, I will!
I cant listen to songs and just start strumming them out.

As I said, I know basic chords, blues scales. Ive got 2 of my girls playing and one boy I got started a few years ago was in a band, so I know enough to be dangerous, but cant put it together.. Any tips on how to build on that?
Ive got NO gear excuses, I KNOW its ALL me...

Any of you use Metal method? I bought the course on vhs a dozen years ago, but dont have a VHS player any longer. If its a real good idea, Ill reorder on cd..
Thanks!

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Learning to play?? Inspiration...

regardless of what you play, you need to get a feel for playing and identifying chord sounds across the fretboard until it's second nature. This way you add those colors to your repertoire, and you recognize them when you hear em, AND you can play them and mix them around as you please for any genre. It's like learning a universal language, guitar players, esp blues/rockers tend to learn music very loosely and can be very unaware of what they're playing (despite being excellent players).

Many people think getting educated includes losing the 'soul' in your chops, IMO that's just the other cats getting worried that you'll take strides and leaps ahead of them and make them seem musically irrelevant. Check this format out for chord/scale relationships...

The color is- C7
.....you got
8 note bebop scales>C7 bebop scale (Cmixolydian+a B natural leading tone)
7 note scales-modes/mel.minor/harm.minor>(Cmixolydian/Fmelodic minor)
5 note pentatonics/arpeggios>(Cmajor pentatonic/C7add#5 arpeggio is nice as well)
4 note 7th arpeggios (good old C dominant arpeggio)
3 note (obviously) triads> (MANY!)
2 note interval- most potent interval here being the 3rd and 7th

http://www.prismnet.com/~beckerdo/guitars/charts.html
you can find very nice charts on Dan Becker's site. I keep these in my room, on my music stand, on my desk, so whenever I pick up my guitar I can start refreshing some of the patterns.

The next step once you get a little familiar is just going through the chords of a song, and doing the arpeggio for each individual chord in EVERY POSITION from first fret to last. It can take a while, once you've gone over all the chord tones of a tune and you're aware of the key options/melodic minor options/pentatonics, you will feel at home much more often than before! I just started taking this seriously a few months ago, but it's very rewarding.

Get familiar with these, be able to identify as you play them. It seems daunting, but first thing you can do is just get your major7,dom7,minor7 arpeggios down from his 7th arpeggios link, THAT will open up your fingers more than any style specific workout especially if you can already play the major scale across the fretboard. Another quick trick that you can apply for soloing- start a line with an ascending arpeggio, then descend using the proper scale with your choice of 8th notes, triplets, etc. This keeps you from just doodling up and down scales, arpeggios sound good ascending then followed by a little run. GOOD LUCK!

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Learning to play?? Inspiration...

If motivation is a problem there is nothing like "paying" a teacher to get you going. I can recommend Guitar Guru for learning songs but that doesn't sound like what you need.

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Learning to play?? Inspiration...

what I just threw down will help connect the dots for you. Another thing that helps is choosing a guitar idol that has what you want in their chops/brain. Browse youtube for some greats, look into other styles than what you're used to. For improv and fundamentals, jazz is fantastic and can be applied infinitely to all other genres, especially metal.

I chose wes montgomery, so whenever I break apart a tune and start understanding the chord changes/keys and melody, I check to see WHAT WOULD WES DO? and that will inspire me to come up with some stuff using the arpeggio/scale foundation. If I still want to take it further for a given song, I start to transcribe lines from Wes in sections that I have trouble coming up with improv for and that helps me fill in those questionable moments until I understand it better.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Learning to play?? Inspiration...

Quench is on it. Get familiar with all the arpeggios all over the neck. It all goes around in circles after a while and youll see the interconnectedness of everything.
Music is all patterns.

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Learning to play?? Inspiration...

I never got the whole "buy my 12-book set where you'll learn over 9 million chords, arpeggios, inversions, scales including flat 9 this and sharp 11 that and augment that and diminish this..."

The great players never learned that way so why should you? Learn MUSIC first. Solos, riffs, melodies, basslines - anything that you like to listen to, but especially SONGS (you never heard people playing scales by themselves on the radio). This will develop your ears, technique, time-feel, vocabulary etc. all at once. Plus, at the end of the day, you'll be able to sit down and play music with your daughters. It's all about having THAT conversation.

I go to a music school where people are taught to plug in your scales over these chords because they have all the right notes and at the end of the day, it's not music. Sit down with some of your favorite musicians (guitarists, songwriters, whatever really speaks you) and do anything in your power to copy what is happening. THEN learn the theory and what is going on. Music dictates theory, not vice versa. You'll feel more satisfied this way than if you learned a bunch of technical exercises first.

Just my .02/opinion - hope this helps!

 

[Bludave]

Re: Learning to play?? Inspiration...

Find a teacher that will teach you what you want to learn & most importantly play with other people. Practice with a Metronome and most importantly is if you are going to take lessons you have to practice what your teacher is teaching you. Even if it is for only 15 minutes a day playing scales or chord changes.... practice... then play whatever you want but you must practice your lesson first!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Learning to play?? Inspiration...

id like to second what bludave said also