playing the music in my mind....

[LukeGilmour]

can any of you guys recommend an exercise, book, or anything useful that would help me achieve this?

i frequently have a tune in my mind that gives me a lot of trouble translating it to the guitar

theres also many many solos i can remember perfectly, but when i want to play them i take a lot of time to find the notes (IF i find them) its not a technique problem, but a "knowing where to play" one.


id be grateful for any help
thanks!

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

Tough question. It's a very frustrating problem that happens to everyone at some point. Can you hum the tune in your head, or do you have difficulty getting that right too?

 

[LukeGilmour]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

i can hum the tune in my head, no problem.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

That's good news.

I know this is totally lame, but I think the best thing you can do is practice tons of scales while humming along to them. Play the major and minor scale for every key while humming or singing along with the notes you're playing. Don't play too fast - this isn't a technique exercise. The goal is to train your brain to recognize notes and intervals.

Once you're bored of this exercise (which will probably be pretty soon), try playing the song you want while humming along. Go note by note if you have to: hum a note, then find it on the fretboard. Once you've got that note right, hum the next one and so on. Once you've got all the notes, try it again a bit faster, and so on.

If you keep doing this every day, your brain will eventually be able to pick up notes and intervals a lot faster.

 

[Ocifer]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

I find it's a matter being able to identify intervals. I would learn basic theory of diatonic modes: the major scale, building chords in thirds, etc.

With this knowledge, you should be able to identify the interval between two notes. After that it becomes a practice of identifying what note you're on, and where you want to go. Up in pitch? Down in pitch? How far?

Start by humming a little lick or phrase, and see if you can translate it onto the guitar. Do this for 20 minutes a day, and your soloing will improve without a doubt.

Suppose you develop a melody in your head: you sing the first note (OUT LOUD, nice and clear), and then your next note. Find them both on the guitar. Note to yourself (on a sheet of paper is best) the interval between the two notes, and how they are related on the neck. Minor third? Perfect fourth? How many frets away from the last note is that? That kind of thing.

Eventually, through this kind of practice and repetition you are able to tell when one note is a minor third down, or a major sixth up. It helps to take famous riffs or tidbits from songs, and use them to remember the sound of certain intervals. You might think of the intro to Another One Bites the Dust for a minor third up, for example. Or the Crazy Train intro riff to remember a perfect and an augmented fifth.

This all takes deliberate practice and focus at first, though it does seem to sink in. When practicing this stuff, you really want to turn off the TV and get off the forum.

 

[edsmith]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

That's good advice they posted for you. I don't think anyone ever doesn't have that problem with that from time to time. Sometimes even when you find the notes you're looking for, the song just comes out quite different because it sounds better that way in reality than in your head.

Pentatonic scales are easiest to identify mentally, so try your solos in pentatonic for a while and then move on to scales. Like Ocifier said, intervals are important to understand. Chord inversions are too. Take CEG, then EGC, etc... You have to learn how to arpeggiate and build chords to get good. One thing I learned the hard way over the years is to stay away from the dreaded box positions! For a long time all I could do is identify notes in box positions, so I was limited from moving left, right, or diagonally on the fretboard.

I think if you get a grip on a few of these things, you will be on your way. Probably most important though is if you end up with something different and it sounds great, then keep it because it sounds great and move on. Don't get caught up too much because it's more important to keep the music flowing I think.

 

[Ocifer]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

To threadstarter: This is a stumbling block for many guitarists, and it's an exercise that all musicians should do more often. Out of curiosity, how much theory do you know?

 

[LukeGilmour]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

well the basics and some intermediate... (how chords are made, then some harmony rules about degrees, dominant sub dominant blah blah, how notes relate to each other.. maybe im missing something...) when it got into complicated structures, substitutions i thought i could deal without that, but hell, who knows.

i think once you can do what im asking for in this thread, you dont need anything else

 

[Ocifer]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

That should be fine, but I found that when I studied my triads a lot that my soloing got better. I got better at following chords, and at breaking down songs into their elements more. I will see if I can find any of my old exercises that my teacher gave me.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

I developed to "think it - play it" and "hear it - play it" by playing along with anything,and becoming familiar with musical styles and their relative patterns.The same goes for the solo work in the relative styes.the more familiar you become with all these,the easier it is to "hear - it " "play - it" and even pr-empt the next part/ the rest of the song/ musical piece.
That all made it much esier to "think it - play it"

 

[LukeGilmour]

Re: playing the music in my mind....

That should be fine, but I found that when I studied my triads a lot that my soloing got better. I got better at following chords, and at breaking down songs into their elements more. I will see if I can find any of my old exercises that my teacher gave me.

that would be nice, thanks!