What makes you sound unique?

[weepingminotaur]

I also think that both camps (theory and no theory) idealize the extent to which their playing is "free" of whatever it is they're trying to get away from.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

There are phenomenal guitar players who are masters of theory, and phenomenal guitar players who wouldn't know theory if it walked up to them and smacked them upside the head. There are many approaches to uniqueness, but also many different personal backgrounds that inform said approach, as well as a wholly personal set of goals for each player. As long as you are playing and happy with what you're doing and trying to improve, you're OK.

Exactly. Like I wrote further upthread, there's many different ways up to the top of the mountain.

Another thing about theory is that often we pick it up subliminally and transfer it to what we do without thinking about it.

 

[Securb]

trying to improve, you're OK.

Love everything you said man. The fastest, easiest and lost logical way to improve is though music education be it private lessons, ear training or God forbid theory. I don't get the argument of I got here without theory so I will shun theory for the rest of my musical career. I use every tool possible to get better. Especially tools so many others have had success using.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

IMO metaphors are not particularly helpful in this discussion, in that you can bring too many variables from whatever metaphoric scenario you're sketching out to either disprove the other person or prove your point, since it's all just general metaphor and not localized in any specific and concrete.

There are phenomenal guitar players who are masters of theory, and phenomenal guitar players who wouldn't know theory if it walked up to them and smacked them upside the head. There are many approaches to uniqueness, but also many different personal backgrounds that inform said approach, as well as a wholly personal set of goals for each player. As long as you are playing and happy with what you're doing and trying to improve, you're OK.

Ya descriptions & metaphors and stuff don't cut it. That's why I post my playing.

Not saying it's amazing. but it's definitely unique (what this thread is about).

And certainly, you have great players in both camps

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Another player may not need theory to be the best guitarist they can be. I sure as hell need every little edge I can grab.

 

[Mincer]

I do tend to get a lot of people who tell me that they knew it was me playing just hearing the music, but before they saw me at the show. I hope they mean that in a good way.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I know this is hurtful for some people to hear but I find "thinking" about what I want to play while I'm actually playing to in fact be detrimental to my playing. Not saying that's the case for others, but it is for me ....and Mateo Mancuso says the same thing all the time in interviews too. The best things come to me when I just relax & let it all flow from within ...I've heard other players mention this as well.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I know this is hurtful for some people to hear but I find "thinking" about what I want to play while I'm actually playing to in fact be detrimental to my playing. Not saying that's the case for others, but it is for me ....and Mateo Mancuso says the same thing all the time in interviews too. The best things come to me when I just relax & let it all flow from within ...I've heard other players mention this as well.

I don't think anyone is arguing that thinking their way through a solo is the optimal way.

Getting out of my own way is the prime directive. I remember reading a GW interview with Santana back in the 80s, and one thing he said struck me: "My job is not to play the song. My job is to let the song play me."

That doesn't mean that knowing what I'm doing is hampering my ability to be inside the moment.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I don't think anyone is arguing that thinking their way through a solo is the optimal way.

Getting out of my own way is the prime directive. I remember reading a GW interview with Santana back in the 80s, and one thing he said struck me: "My job is not to play the song. My job is to let the song play me."

That doesn't mean that knowing what I'm doing is hampering my ability to be inside the moment.

Well that's an argument I've definitely heard a lot myself in the past. My saying I did'nt think about theory (or anything else really) when I played certainly ruffled some feathers & caused a fair bit of outrage

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Well that's an argument I've definitely heard a lot myself in the past. My saying I did'nt think about theory (or anything else really) when I played certainly ruffled some feathers & caused a fair bit of outrage

Meh, I don't see outrage, I see discussion. Go back to the Wild West days of MyLesPaul for butthurt, or outrage -- or as we called it, "buttrage". This is a few oldsters sitting around the bar, quibbling, nothing more.

 

[Cynical]

If you say so

Dude was a pothead who was tripping balls all day long, so hardly Yoda ..and he'd started playing himself a week or two earlier....not exactly a fount of musical theory knowledge

Besides I already said I'd learned the barest basics early on. Just never looked at a theory book (or even a pamphlet ) ever.

Mozart was a sexual pervert who was rebuffed by the instructors that he wanted to learn from. A pothead tripping balls ain't got shit on the father of modern melodic theory.

That good pothead taught you some good theory, and gave you a cloud of good smoke with it.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Mozart was a sexual pervert who was rebuffed by the instructors that he wanted to learn from. A pothead tripping balls ain't got shit on the father of modern melodic theory.

That good pothead taught you some good theory, and gave you a cloud of good smoke with it.

Sure, I'm eternally in his debt

Whenever I'm stumbling around the stage drunk at a gig (that's another quirk of mine. I never hit the stage sober...always sozzled-lite.) , my thoughts go out to him


We're still in touch though he gave up guitar playing many moons ago. Last I heard he'd got on the straight and narrow & found religion..

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Meh, I don't see outrage, I see discussion. Go back to the Wild West days of MyLesPaul for butthurt, or outrage -- or as we called it, "buttrage". This is a few oldsters sitting around the bar, quibbling, nothing more.

haha...you missed all the fun we used to have around here

 

[Chistopher]

I know this is hurtful for some people to hear but I find "thinking" about what I want to play while I'm actually playing to in fact be detrimental to my playing. Not saying that's the case for others, but it is for me ....and Mateo Mancuso says the same thing all the time in interviews too. The best things come to me when I just relax & let it all flow from within ...I've heard other players mention this as well.

One of my core tenants of playing guitar is muscle memory. If you have to think about your playing, whether theory intensive or not, you don't have enough muscle memory

 

[Chistopher]

I've been playing for almost 20 years (it'll be 20 years in August), and I don't know how to play an open D chord.

(Open chords don't really come up with the noise I make).

Open E, A, and D chords are just the same chord with a root on a different string

 

[GuitarStv]

Open E, A, and D chords are just the same chord with a root on a different string

All chord voicings of the same type (be it major, minor, maj7, dom7 m7, maj6, m6, dim, aug, etc.) are the same chord with the root on different strings. : P

 

[Chistopher]

All chord voicings of the same type (be it major, minor, maj7, dom7 m7, maj6, m6, dim, aug, etc.) are the same chord with the root on different strings. : P

Yeah if you're a nerd. But if you want to learn music through experimentation you don't need all that.

 

[GuitarStv]

Yeah if you're a nerd. But if you want to learn music through experimentation you don't need all that.

I've found that knowing some basic music theory helps my experimentation an awful lot.

Like I find a chord progression that I like, but there's something a little off about part of it. I could spend a couple hours getting increasingly frustrated randomly guessing what other notes on the fretboard will give me different voicings . . . or I can use a tiny amount of music theory to run through a couple different chord voicings to fine tune the progression to flow better. The former tends to take hours and will often result in failure and return to the progression that I wasn't a hundred percent satisfied with. The latter is quicker, simpler, and lets me do experimentation without as much frustration.

 

[Chistopher]

I've found that knowing some basic music theory helps my experimentation an awful lot.

Like I find a chord progression that I like, but there's something a little off about part of it. I could spend a couple hours getting increasingly frustrated randomly guessing what other notes on the fretboard will give me different voicings . . . or I can use a tiny amount of music theory to run through a couple different chord voicings to fine tune the progression to flow better. The former tends to take hours and will often result in failure and return to the progression that I wasn't a hundred percent satisfied with. The latter is quicker, simpler, and lets me do experimentation without as much frustration.

Exactly, like you don't need to know the names of the modes, but if you know the Phyrgian mode and think "I want to slip into something more Latin sounding" it's right there, you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time you write a song.

But if you know the pentatonic scale shapes and you experiment enough, you discover that the major scale and minor are the same notes, but with emphasis on a different note. Then you wonder what happens if you pick a new note? Then without any textbook or teacher, you now understand the modes.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Exactly, like you don't need to know the names of the modes, but if you know the Phyrgian mode and think "I want to slip into something more Latin sounding" it's right there, you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time you write a song.

Exactly. By internalizing the sounds and intervals of scales/chords/etc, I've actually reduced the amount of thinking I need to do. That's because through practice I get my fingers wired into the various tonalities.