It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
I'm pre-YouTube generation, although I do use it as a resource if I'm learning a song for a particular gig.
TBH, I get more annoyed by music fascists who seem to think that the only way to play a musical instrument well is to be able to use theory. There's far more to life than learning rules! I wouldn't know a major triad if it got up and bit me, but I'm sure that if I needed to play it I could and I would be able to connect it to my *own* way of playing guitar - which so far has been pretty successful.
Tab is useful for those of us who don't equate squiggles on a stave with the guitar. I can hear the rythmn if I listen to the track - I can copy that easily if I hear it. I just need to work out where the notes are and I'm away. What's so wrong with that? However, that said... I totally agree that a lot of it is bollocks that has been transcribed by a tone-deaf chimpanzee with only a working knowledge of the guitar. Its usually far easier for me to do it by ear.
There are more than 15 ways to skin a goldfish, as someone once said. And none of them are wrong...
I understand that there are those who put great importance on learning theory, but to me it's the sound that matters. That's why I prefer the electric to the acoustic and it's why I prefer records/CDs to sheet music.
I have undoubtedly picked up some theory along the way without knowng it, I know that some things sound right and some things sound wrong, but not necessarily why in terms of theory. And that's fine.
I think it depends on your level of experience; when you're learning, thinking in patterns makes it (relatively) easy to play something that will fit - though not necessarily a genius piece of improvisation.
I can 'hear' the note I want when I improvise and 'know' where it is on any string - in other words I've 'learned' the fretboard. This allows me to think far more about phrasing and dynamics, as the 'which fret/string' part of the process occurs without any real conscious thought.
Notes and intervals for me.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
If playing on your own or within your own band I spose it's not a problem
Ha, I had to google LMGTFY to find out what it meant!
Could LMGTFY also be the correct response to every post @thomasross has ever posted¿
True, but sometimes when soloing my fingers say "the note you want is this one here" because my head has gone straight from target sound to finger placement without working the name of the note or where it fits in the harmonic framework.
It isn't mandatory, but when I've worked with people who are a) ignorant of music theory and b) have an attitude problem about it, then it makes the experience less fulfilling and slows down the creative process.
I've never met any schooled musician who thinks there is only one way to play the instrument.
The more you study the more you realise that there are a multitude of techniques and the smart players learn them patiently and methodically, incorporating new techniques into their playing until they get to be really, really good at it.
Out of curiosity how many albums have you played on?
How much professional work have you done as a guitarist?
On the 'none of them are wrong' argument.
I'm speaking English to you.
I don't have to- I could mash the keyboard like this:
ihfrhwiufjkreljhioj eiowjjioeeijoeijoijo hdhdhoiehwoifewjoiefjwoiefw
Hey, I've just invented my own unique language.
Does it mean anything?
Probably not.
Will anyone want me to do it for money?
Definitely not.
I'm not against anyone expressing themselves however they want, but there are loads of guitarists who think because they aren't 'technical' that they have some special passport to awesomehood, and that their incredibly narrow breadth of ability somehow equals individualism.
Schooled musicians mostly see them as lazy ignoramuses.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Exactly.
Being able to transpose music is a necessary skill.
It isn't hard, and if you have the Nashville system down then it is pretty easy.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
I think there's a simple test which can be applied: Better than the Captain off of Anderton's Music; not as good as the Captain off of Anderton's Music. All guitarists fit into one or other category.
So, for me, it's a mixture of knowing where the root notes are, knowing a few skeletal template patterns, then knowing where the intervals lie with respect to the template patterns so I can modify them to create other chords and scales.
https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator
Having said that, what @stratman3142 says about elements of all three, too.
I try to invent scales but they always already have a name....