Is this something best learned from a teacher? I am mostly self taught on guitar with a few lessons here and there; plus the 5 or so years of lessons and 3 other instruments I used to play as a kid.
ringtones free
I'm more specifically talking about guitarists such as SRV and Santana. Tabs and sheet music can only get me so far. I am having trouble finding information on their unique styles and how to go about learning/practicing.
Chords bore me and I mostly stick to a lead style when I play. I'm pretty good at the pentatonic scales but when improving I feel like my styles are not evolving and my sound stays the same.
Any advice?
Comments
It's probably because chords bore you. Lead guitar uses them as a jumping off point, and if you don't understand the structure of what you're playing over and your interaction with it then you will just end up in a rut.
Get the chords right, learn the inversions, how different chords work (and resolve), etc. THEN start worrying about how, where, and why solos and fills fit in.
By pentatonics, I’m guessing you mean minor pentatonics. Learn the major pentatonics too, and learn to mix the two together. I once heard someone describe pentatonics as scales with the ‘awkward’ notes left out. That might be the case when you’re starting out - later on you’ll realise they’re actually scales with the interesting notes left out. If you know your pentatonics then you’ve always got something to fall back on if a solo starts to go tits up, but they’re certainly not the be all and end all.
ii play almost all my “rhythm” parts between the 5 and 12th fret, and there isn’t a barre to be seen. So I suppose you are right about inversions, although I found the notes up there that “fitted” rather than played a chord inversion, I just got there the other way round, and I found that fun
Regarding lead playing - try to spell out what you play - find the root and then the intervals that create the solo around the root. Like root-fifth-second and so on.
If that boring too, try soloing over changes - change the root of the solo as the chords change.
Actually, this applies to all band instruments.
Without wishing to appear patronising, you kinda just answered your own question.
SRV and Santana have unique, personal touches that make their performances instantly and unmistakeably recognisable.
Nobody will ever cop exactly what they do down to the finest detail. That goal is unachievable.
Set yourself achievable goals.
For the kind of style you`re after tabs are probably the wrong way to start. When SRV and Santana started and developed their styles, they would have done it by ear. If you have a basic grasp of playing, personally i`d go back and just listen through speakers and headphones (you`ll hear different things both ways) and then try and cop it.......... that way you get to learn the nuances you`re after that really can`t be conveyed through tab.
As several people have said, you won’t get very far without learning the background. That means chords, arpeggios and scales. A lot of the time SRV plays a mixture of chords and single note fills. This means that he uses a lot of chord tones. To play like him you need to know what chords he’s playing over, rather than what scales/modes you can get away with.
A good example of what this learning contributes to your playing can be seen and heard in this video https://youtu.be/D-GpiMgq-EU where Justin Sandercoe introduces the major pentatonic, and then shows how it adds flavour to blues playing.
Getting a teacher will help you apply use it quicker as you get to jam with them and learn all the theory behind it.
Youtube doesn’t affect pitch if you slow it down.
However, to understand properly what the Dorian mode is and how and why you use it, you really need to go back to first principles and really understand the Major scale first, as @fastonebaz suggests. Justinguitar and a guy called Desi Serna, who does podcasts and books on theory for guitarists are great places to start.
Chordal theory may sound boring but it'll give you an insight as to why you can play a particular scale or mode over a given chord.
To master inversions , suspensions , substitutions and partial chords over other chords with commonality is a skilled art.
I.E. -A Tune has 12 continuous bars of E7
Basic player simply plays 12 bars of a root position E7
Skilled player can fit in 8 chords in that space that all suggest E7 but sound interesting and textured by using the above or a suspension like Bm9 etc etc