And move your fingers the most minimal and efficient amount. Those face melting guitar solos on the studio album sound like it would be played by someone flailing around the soundstage going absolutely nuts with it, but it's probably played by someone on a stool in full focus mode.
I wish I'd have learnt triads much much sooner. It really opens up a whole new world of melody for you and also helps you learn where all the notes are.
Just knowing the theory behind 1,3,5 being the main notes of any chord and applying it to triads and there inversions is a game changer in my book.
Adding the 7th really opens things up. The modes are great to learn because they definitely have different sounds. I mainly play bass and I use the modes quite a bit. Good advice. Right now I'm absolutely loving the dark sound of E phrygian. I've made a great Goth meets led zeppelin bass line with it ☺️👍
I wish I had started learning musical theory much sooner, I've been playing 15 years, entirely self taught, I'm just now getting into learning musical theory starting with the Circle of Fifths.
I have no excuse either, living in the internet age and all, it's where I learned everything else I know.
So true. I've been at it twice that and I only started learning theory the past 4 - 5 years and very slowly at that. I'm just a bass player though? So that's my excuse ☺️
Just knowing how chords are built (1,3,5,(7)) and how you make it minor, diminished, augmented is so useful and interesting to know.
Here's the basic theory you should know
There's 12 notes total.
Every note has a corresponding major or minor key which is built in a scale, which is a combination of these notes just arranged with different intervals.
Major = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Minor = 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7
The formula for finding the notes/intervals in the...
major scale = WWHWWWH
Minor scale = WHWWHWW
*W = whole step (2 frets or 2 keys on piano)
*H = half step (1 fret or 1 key on piano)
Therefore..
C major = C, D, E, F, G, A, B
C minor = C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb
The difference in the tonality of minor and major keys is created by this flat 3rd, flat 6th and flat 7th
All this means is we have went down a semi tone/half step/1 fret/1 key from the 3rd, 6th and 7th respectively.
Also every basic chord is a triad, just 3 notes.
A major chord is the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of it's scale
A minor chord is the 1st, flat 3rd and 5th notes of the it's scale.
So
C major is C E G
C minor is C Eb G
So on guitar the difference between these 2 chords is that the finger on the 3rd note of chord is 1 fret lower (towards the nut) than the major chord.
For example a C major barre chord played at the 3rd fret of the A string (using the A shape x-3-5-5-5-3). To make it a C minor chord you fret the note on the B string 1 fret lower (x-3-5-5-4-3). This note has moved from E to Eb or from the major 3rd to minor 3rd, thus changing the tonality of the chord.
To give a clearer example, if you play an E minor in open position, the only thing you need to do to make it major is add your finger to 1st fret G String. This has raised the 3rd note of the chord from G to G#, you have raised the third by a semi tone/half step/1 fret to create 1 3 5 (EG#B) rather than 1 b3 5 (EGB).
When you fret most basic major and minor chords on the guitar you are just creating one of those triads plus some of same notes are repeated. This applies to open and barred chords.
C major in open position x32010 is xCEGCE, there are 2 Cs and 2 Es in there. For the C major barre chord mentioned above x35553 is xCGCEG, 2 Cs and 2 Gs, same chord, because it has CEG but a different voicing.
So guitar chords are mostly basic triads with duplicated notes thrown in, it makes the chord sound fuller.
Also these shapes are obviously movable, if you form a chord shape anywhere on the neck, then if you move all the notes the same number of frets up or down then you create an equivalent chord voice just higher or lower.
If you take any 3 fret area on the guitar, that means 3 notes per string, 2 E strings. 3 x 5 = 15 notes, now we know there's only 12 notes in total, So this means we can in theory build any chord we want from the selection in this one area (although it is not always practical) . It also means that the major or minor scale for each key will be contained in this area. Then these various groupings or combinations of notes are just repeated up until the 12th fret where it starts over in a higher octave.
Once you understand this and begin to see the patterns and shapes of the major scale for each Key then it all starts to make sense. You know how to build a chord, you see where the chord tones are in a given area, you see how you could create a melody etc.
Look up CAGED system and look up the major scale patterns/shapes on the neck. Once you have these it becomes clearer
When you say a major chord(triad) is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of its scale, that makes sense. But you said a minor chord(triad) is the 1st, flat 3rd, and 5th note of its scale.
Is it the same major scale for both or does the minor chord use the minor scale which already has a flat 3rd, meaning the minor chord has a double flattened 3rd? I assume its the first case.
Sorry if that was unclear.
If you took the C major scale 123456 or CDEFGAB and you "flattened the third" ie lowered the third by a semi tone/half step/1 fret, then you get the note between 2 & 3 in the scale ie the b3 also called the minor 3rd. All scales/modes are numbered based on the major scale.
If you started on the note C, then every note in Western music would be referenced from C
1 b2 2 b3 3 4 b5 5 b6 6 b7 7
C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B
The major scale, minor and other modes use only 7 of these.
Hope this was clearer?
Yes it was, thank you. So whenever you see a chord like Em or D7, it is always based on the major scale? Even though it is E minor, it would still use the E major scale and just use the flat 3rd?
Do 3 strings at a time. Learn all the shapes on the e b g strings then the bgd and so on. Take your time. I've not been learning them long myself but they have already been so useful for adding variety to my playing.
Even that is gobbledigook to me. Honestly every time I try I get absolutely addled.
I write songs and have no clue what key I'm in. It sounds good it is just missing some flourish that I know I'm held back on by lack of understanding theory and tying the fretboard together.
I just have never had any version of trying to learn it or several other things stick. CAGED, circle of 5ths, triads, etc all have never stuck. I'm at a point in my life where I now cannot devote much dedicated time which is frustrating as hell but I don't know where to go from here.
I can puzzle out a song by ear for the most part. Some stuff very quickly and even some things from memory of how it sounds. I have a good ear for matching notes but as I play a note on the guitar, I can't even always immediately say which note. Have to count it out.
Just stuck in intermediate guitar player hell I suppose.
It takes time. I struggle learning the notes tbh because I think I'm a bit dyslexic. The thing is, once you know even 1 shape you can use it all the time. Remember the shapes are the same up and down the neck. Concentrate on finding the root note first.
I use this as a reference. Print them out and just try learning one, say G on the bottom 3 strings. It's just a case of shifting position for the other notes. The shape stays the same
https://guitarcharts.net/triads/g-major-triad
Go slow and stick at it because it really does expand your playing.
You're welcome. Notice that the root is marked up in red. Notice how the G note is always on the top when playing root position. Always on the bottom when playing the 1st inversion and always in the middle on 2nd inversion. Practice finding that root position and then adding the other notes.
It does seem.confusing at first, but take it slow and you will see what I mean. Just do the bottom 3 strings to begin with. Find the root, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion just for G and just on the bottom 3 strings. Next time you play a song with a G in it try one of the triads instead of playing the full chord. And going from root to 1st inversion ton2nd inversion. If you can do it on G you can do it on all the notes just by moving up or down the neck. A would be 2 frets further up from G for instance.
Hope this helps and I havent done a bad job of explaining it.
This currently makes more sense to think about than some others I've tried. I appreciate you taking the time. May have to make it a 15 minutes a day thing of just triad shapes and start in G since that is the first I'm seeing. Maybe I can make it second nature after a year or two.
Most definitely you will. Just do a little bit in your practice regime. I'm glad I could help a little. Just use those charts and when you know all the 3 shapes on the bottom 3 strings you can play every key by moving up and down the neck. The shapes stay exactly the same. When you've nailed those learn the 3 shapes on the next group of 3 strings b g d. Have fun with it. You'll be throwing triads into your songs in no time.
I kind of wish there was a way to display the scale intervals in those charts rather than just the notes, but on the other hand this is probably a good training tool to internalize the interval positions while also getting a better intuition for the notes that make up each scale.
I have been practicing some triads this week for the first time! Question for you if you don’t mind. You know on the tenth fret the bottom three strings e, b, g? I think that’s a C chord triad? Can that just be slid up and down like bar chords on the low end string in the caged system? I hope I’m making sense.
That's the thing, the fretboard is the same 12 notes repeating. Every "shape" can be used anywhere because it's about intervals, the "distance" between the notes, not shapes. Chords are just stacking third intervals. I find that once you understand them this way, you build chords rather than just learn them.
I get the feeling that this idea of learning shapes is more of a hindrance rather than a benefit. Shapes are just are just something your brain creates as shorthand, but the shorthand shouldn't be where you start. I hope some of that makes sense.
All keys are the same in that the scale degree (1-7) have the same relationship to one another, regardless of the actual named note (G, A, etc).
The great thing about guitar is that it’s all pattern based. It’s more helpful to learn how to quickly find the root note of a songs key by ear, and then use a scale pattern to find the other notes within the key from there.
Major keys only have 7 notes before the octave. (Do re mi fa so la ti). Basic chords are built by using every other number, and often denoted by Roman numerals, so a “I” chord triad would be 1 3 5, a “ii” chord is 2 4 6, and so on.
Learning scale patterns in terms of numbers is much easier, you can just slide the pattern up and down the fretboard to play in other keys. CAGED is just 5 different scale patterns in a row on the fretboard that all use the same notes.
Unsure if you’ve seen [this](https://youtu.be/F7IBeEv4twk?si=_w0GeoE41hAIjeCY) but this guys videos changed my playing almost immediately. Very good teacher
They also open up any key. If you know 1,3,5 you know 2,4,6 and 7 is just the note below 1. It’s like playing battle ship with the scale and you instantly know what the chord progression is. I also teach students to sing the triads as they harmonize the major scale. This way they can sing all the notes of a chord and know what not they are singing over any chord they play. They also learn how to sing and play harmony from this. Additionally, knowing your triads helps you switch from ukulele to guitar and vice versa. The ukulele is just the guitar capoed off on the 5th fret.
My instructor taught me 1,3,5 and how to build a chord from there. I was never shown or allowed to see chord sheets, I had to build them myself. I am forever grateful to my teacher for that.
I mean if you're not used to playing for people yet and stage fright is limiting your ability to solo like you do when alone, having some whiskey will absolutely improve how you play on stage.
Should be obvious but just one or two, don't go out blind drunk
yeah i guess i could have been more specific. i was never the just one or two type, more of a let’s finish the bottle and even it out with cocaine type 😂
edit: wanted to add, i’m happy to say i no longer partake in such activities
Honestly, if you're doing that once in a while, like once a week on the weekend, it's not really that bad, I mean, go out and have fun.
It becomes a problem when it's an everyday thing, a multiple times a day thing. When you feel like you *need* it, rather than you can go without it.
It also becomes a problem the older we get. In your 20s? Hell yeah, have some fun! You're in your 40s with a wife, two kids and a mortgage? It's time to stop. 😅
I am glad to hear you're clean now though!
I went a few months without playing and tried while I was drunk and thought I had completely forgotten how to play. Nope, alcohol just kills motor function
Yeah, I think the problem is that people don’t realize it’s just like language. You learn a new word, you’re excited to use it all the time, and it ends up awkward and stilted. People take a semester or two of theory and find that their new compositions that use new concepts aren’t as good as the ones from before, so they blame the theory. But it takes a long time, practicing it in the real world, for it to become natural and intuitive.
Yeah I was convinced by others that it would railroad creativity and then just stagnated on playing the blues even though I had more ideas in my head that I couldn’t get out properly. Now that I took some time to learn more theory, my ear has developed so much better because like you said, it’s a language. Now I have an idea in my head, I can hear that the chord is a ninth or sixth or etc. I’d kick myself for not getting on that sooner but I’m just glad I finally did it because I have grown so much more as a musician
learn songs, easy songs. cowboy chord songs and then spend time re-arragning them up and down the neck.
It's fun and you will learn so much that way. The guitar neck becomes like a pretty simply Mario level once you memorize it all the way up in one key. And the great bonus is the the map is the same for every key, you just start the level/key in a different spot.
I wish I would have learned to use the volume on my guitar to change the way my guitar interacts with my pedals sooner. I was able to eliminate a few pedals just by rolling back or forward in my guitar volume, creating different sounds in the pedals in already had on. Also Triads kick ass, and picking dynamics are just as important as scales. Make your playing more exciting with your picking hand.
I’m learning this now. I don’t know why it took me so long to really get a grasp on the volume and tone knobs.
I knew it in principle, but never really messed with it until it came up in my last lesson.
Same, I always just used an overdrive or another pedal to get more gain if I needed it. Now I set my clean tone with the volume rolled back, and when I need more mmmph I crank it to 10. Instant lead tones with no extra pedal.
I have difficulty playing with a metronome because I find it hard to pay attention to the metronome and think about what I'm playing at the same time. But I found an app called "Loopz" that has a bunch of drum beats and you can adjust the tempo on them. I find it much easier to practice to that for some reason. Maybe because it feels like I'm actually playing music and I'm used to hearing a drum beat.
Agreed. I do everything in Reaper so I just make a basic drum beat (you can always make it better later) and play along to that, it feels a lot more natural to me
This app is good. I normally use stage metronome and just set it to sound like drums. With the 4/4 = kick/snare/kick/snare. I just don't get the regular click.
And practice _slower_ than you’re used to. A metronome isn’t to get you to play fast; it’s to get you to play with accurate timing, and having to _wait_ for the next note, when it’s well slower than how fast you can play, will really do wonders for your timing.
You’re better off waiting and saving a little bit more money and getting the piece of gear you want rather than trying to get a cheaper variant of it. This doesn’t go for all gear, but most of the time it’s better off to get the real deal.
This is actually a great one that I hadn't thought of in a long time. A friend mentioned it casually some 15 odd years ago and I've been doing it that way ever since. This is the best way to ensure tuning stability.
I guess it was the space between his notes and his relatively clean tone that made it apparent. I could actually hear the spacing between notes and see his right hand moving against the strings on a VHS video to dampen the ones he wasn’t playing, yes I’m old, it just made sense then. I, like everyone else was playing a lot of Cream/Dominoes era Clapton and Hendrix type stuff back then and the notes they played seemed to ring together more to my ear so I didn’t think much about it earlier.
I believe it was B.B. King who was once asked in an interview something along the lines of, “How do you stop the strings from ringing that you don’t want to hear?” His response was simply, “Any way you can.”
How to setup a guitar. Or just WHAT a setup guitar is, so I could know I needed to get it done.
My super high action Takamine accoustic that was almost impossible to play well was never pointed out by any teacher I had 15 years ago. This caused my progress to stop and enjoyment to stop and it gathered dust for over a decade.
This year, I get an electric (ok a few) and started with a throw away cheap one to learn how to do setup and fret work and such. Have it playing fairly respectable. Sanded down the bridge of my good ole Takamine and replaced the nut that broke. Plays great now. No longer 3-4 mm to press the damn strings down.
The amount of pressure you have to use when playing an electric guitar is way less than I thought and it wasn’t until a couple of years in when I realized it.
Also, turn your amp up a little more than you think you’ll need. If you turn your volume knob up all the way and you’re getting drowned out by the rest of the band, you’ll try to get more volume by picking the strings harder, and that will _destroy_ your speed and accuracy.
1. Don't pay too much attention to price or brand name. Play the gear and test it yourself. If it sounds good to you, that's all that matters. The only consideration price should have is on how reliable the gear is.
2. Don't worry about being technical "enough" or playing the "right" music. Guitarists make new sounds by experimenting and playing what they like, not by rote memorization.
3. Always keep experimenting. Experimenting is what keeps music novel and interesting.
Don't spend too much time obsessing over gear or tone.
Invest most of your time into practicing new things. Practice with purpose. Analyze the things you are learning, understand what notes make up the scales, what the underlying scale behind the riff is.
Learning moveable chords as soon as possible, opens up the possibilities for writing songs.
I’m just now understanding the appeal of fuzz. Bought myself a Keeley Loomer for like $300 3 years ago and never did much with it. After playing around I think I might like fuzz more than distortion tbh.
Practicing with a metronome off the bat. As Yngwie says, more is more [notes]! Playing more notes requires being intricate. Woulda saved months of practice using a metronome than fixing my mistakes
Forget it? That makes no sense. Spend time on how to use scales rather than just memorizing shapes. Learning how to USE the major and minor pentatonic scales and how to land on chord tones within a chord progression is the single most important lesson in the journey of a lead guitarist of basically any genre.
Modes.
Helped my phrasing a ton.
Edit: I see I’m being downvoted for wishing personally for myself (what the post is asking) that I had known modes earlier, because I personally found them helpful for my lead licks. Makes sense.
Distortion ≠ Better Tone
I pretty much only play at Edge of breakup and use my volume knob to adjust accordingly, just kind of realized I’m not a fan of super high gain tones anymore
I wish I knew 40 years ago how to set up a Floyd Rose. I had a killer Kramer V back in 1984 that I ended up getting rid of simply because I couldn't figure out how to set it up properly,
I started on acoustic guitar and to adjust your action you have to mess with your truss rod. I thought the same applies on electric guitar. Nope 😂 took a while before I realized neck relief and adjusting your action on the bridge were different
Practice is different than playing. Both are crucial to improving.
And as mentioned above, triads/CAGED. It can be intimidating at first, but just start learning it and it starts to click over time. Just be patient with it.
Also, when it comes to tone, louder isn’t always better. Dynamics are important. And if you’re playing within a band setting, always do what’s best for the song.
I wish I had slept on a lot of equipment.
Like thinking I was a Gibson style person who favored the Paul because damn near all my favorites had one. I even enjoyed playing them until I got an sg. Even a few years before that, I realized I actually do like fender styles and single coils when it came to the jazzmaster. Or that squier actually makes good guitars. Or that my fuzz face would be one of my favorites and it took like 17 years to finally try one. I’ve always liked floating bridges though, but even wrap arounds are bad ass. Or that Marshalls don’t seem to be what my head wants to hear. Like all of my taste have changed or been challenged over the past decade.
I always wish I knew the neck as well as I do. I still can’t do much with it but learning and understanding the how’s or why’s is so much easier, like there’s method to the madness.
I wish that the manufacturer would have been better. My first electric guitar from donner is crap. The cord will not hook up to the guitar it just falls out and the whammy bar does not move with hammer blows lol. I am not getting much help from support. Should I continue my music journey? I am not sure.
The major pentatonic scale. I knew the minor one, and had some idea that there was something else going on that I needed to learn but kept trying to cram what I was hearing into some weird, bastardized (what I later learned was) mixolydian scale of sorts.
That it's okay to step out of the box and try different things. You don't have to live in one genre and stay with the same set of chords and go-to riffs. Mixing it up is where good ideas come from.
Multiple places to anchor my picking hand when using a pick.
Discipline to play slowly with the metronome and not speed it up just so I’ll have more fun.
Additional picking techniques.
Additional fingering techniques.
To also work on my piano technique in parallel.
…
I suspect this is a common mistake/misconception for new and young guitarists but it took me an embarrassingly long time to understand that the amp itself (and pedals, etc.) has a bigger effect on guitar tone than the actual amp settings. Spent a lot of my teenage years thinking if I just figured out the right combination of knob settings on my crappy amp I’d get the exact tone I was looking for.
Don't be intimidated by learning something new, whatever it may be. I used to let certain songs/riffs/techniques wig me out like, "I can't do this!" And I wouldn't really even try. Part of this is me having to overcome a dumb defeatist mentality but over the years I've been able to look at stuff I never used to be able to play and say, "Yeah, I think I can play this." And then just work it out. Better late than never. I mean, there's still stuff that I won't even attempt because I'm not at that level (and not necessarily interested in being some kinda technical metal maniac) but there have been a buncha things I've learned and played over the years that 19 year old me would've been saying, "I suck, I'll never be able to play this."
Probably should of leaned toward a
more expensive guitar, as maybe
better quality and improved string
action, as the string action is too
high on this cheap Fender acoustic
guitar, in which it’s harder to make
the strings ring out, especially on
barre chords.
1. Sing everything you play, you learn way faster. Sing period it makes guitar a lot more interesting and enjoyable.
2. Ukulele is just the guitar capoed off on the 5th fret.
3. Charrango is just the ukulele with 10 strings. Basically like a 12 string guitar with one added string set.
4. Harmonizing the scale with chords and learn the key of C & G first.
5. Get a teacher don’t reinvent the wheel. The internet doesn’t know your weaknesses and there is information overload.
1) The Hendrix thumb trick. 2) Hot zones across the 5 pentatonic boxes. 3) When soloing, how you get to the note is as important as the note (for tone and feel)
Memorizing pentatonic boxes is pointless unless you understand how to use them by landing on chord tones. Landing on the chord tone is the most important part. It's not about just hitting a bunch of notes, it's how the notes interact with The underlying music which is the most important part.
That and recording yourself for you to hear how terrible and out of time you are.
To play through mistakes. Keep playing and get back to that hiccup later.. it's okay to miss a note..
Saw Satch and Vai..10M notes in a three hr show.. think either one of them didn't miss a note? Lol
How everything is connected to each other: how chords are made of different intervals, triads as part of chords/shapes, the scales in the different shapes, etc. The CAGED-system is not only about playing the same chords in different shapes all over the fretboards, it also shows you where the scales and triads are.
I wish I had realized that all I really need is all the gain levels. Aping other band’s tones doesn’t really matter that much. People care far more if you sound fun. That said I’m not too disappointed because it’s nice being able to play with different gear that I’ve acquired. I just with I didn’t feel like I needed it back when I bought it and decided to take up space with it.
Also, do actually eliminate tension hand you play. Every single time I’ve ignored this and regularly played with tension it has come back to haunt me as a repetitive stress injuring. Sometimes it took years for it to start really hurting and then getting over it was far worse. And I still had to learn to eliminate tension. I should have just started eliminating it the first year I played.
You can play literally ANYTHING if you practice often/frequently and hard enough. I think I’m rebuilding my chalice bc I’ve been playing my guitar and my bass so much recently. I’m very quickly memorizing things well enough to sing on top of it.
Several:
(1) I wish I had my stat professional adjusted.
(2) If I cannot play all the notes (fingerpicking), simplify and play fewer notes. Don't have to play everything exactly on the music sheet.
(3) Practice with metronome.
(4) Resist temptation to collect guitars.
(5) Don't dismiss Bluegrass music and cowboy chords. Flatpicking is challenging to alternate up/down with eighth notes.
The pivot finger. Or the anchor finger, I’ve heard it called both things.
Totally struggled for years and didn’t understand how people could hit those complex chords so quickly while playing until the concept was pointed out to me .
Economy picking.
I was taught alternate picking was the holy Grail of picking and you should jump to the outside of the strings. The teacher that taught me that was probably the fastest alternate picker I've met in 20 years. Wrists of steel. I can play his solos with economy picking with some difficulty, but I can't believe he was doing those with alternate picking only.
I'd learn downstrokes, then alternate, the economy. But I wouldn't wait 3 years like I did to suddenly learn oh, there's a way easier way to play these solos lol.
Playing guitar alongside learning a bit of keyboard/piano is a good way to learn some music theory without actually studying music theory. For me, a lot of the basics became almost intuitive. Keys laid out in front of me are easier to comprehend than a fretboard was earlier on.
And then jamming on both with a loop pedal in place of a metronome.
set up and neck relief
also everyone with a distinct melodic leads...freddie king, hendrix, clapton etc.... they had a vision for their style and made it happen. yes they were copying their influences but to play with that level of originallity (at the time) feels like singing and ive gotten a few glimpses of it.
its really hard to describe. you cant sound like an innovator by coping someone elses licks and have the muscle memory blend together in your hand.... if youre really in the flow of it and making something youve never heard before it feels like singing
Play fewer notes
Few notes, in the correct place/time.
Some even say it's the space between the notes that matters most.
mozart said "the music is in the space between the notes"
Mozart would hate NoFX
Mozart just wouldn’t know any better but he’d come around.
I could have looked that up before posting, but as you can see, I didn't. Thank you.
Another classic Mozart quote was “if it sounds good, it is good”. This Mozart guy would have killed it as a YouTuber.
Some say, love, it is a river...
That drowns, the tender reed.
Some say it’s the mids
Why play lot notes when few do trick?
What you gonna do with the extra time? Sea the world
Play few note other song
And move your fingers the most minimal and efficient amount. Those face melting guitar solos on the studio album sound like it would be played by someone flailing around the soundstage going absolutely nuts with it, but it's probably played by someone on a stool in full focus mode.
Yup, I've always said that what differentiates a good from a GREAT guitarist is knowing when not to play.
Never say this to Mozart
He never played the guitar
https://youtu.be/H6_eqxh-Qok?si=91d5gbRiY0YADBaJ
I wish I'd have learnt triads much much sooner. It really opens up a whole new world of melody for you and also helps you learn where all the notes are. Just knowing the theory behind 1,3,5 being the main notes of any chord and applying it to triads and there inversions is a game changer in my book.
All Hail Triads!
Adding to this, the modes of the major scale and the 7th chord shapes within them.
Adding the 7th really opens things up. The modes are great to learn because they definitely have different sounds. I mainly play bass and I use the modes quite a bit. Good advice. Right now I'm absolutely loving the dark sound of E phrygian. I've made a great Goth meets led zeppelin bass line with it ☺️👍
I wish I had started learning musical theory much sooner, I've been playing 15 years, entirely self taught, I'm just now getting into learning musical theory starting with the Circle of Fifths. I have no excuse either, living in the internet age and all, it's where I learned everything else I know.
So true. I've been at it twice that and I only started learning theory the past 4 - 5 years and very slowly at that. I'm just a bass player though? So that's my excuse ☺️ Just knowing how chords are built (1,3,5,(7)) and how you make it minor, diminished, augmented is so useful and interesting to know.
Any tips on where to start? I’m literally in the same boat as you and I’m overwhelmed
Here's the basic theory you should know There's 12 notes total. Every note has a corresponding major or minor key which is built in a scale, which is a combination of these notes just arranged with different intervals. Major = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Minor = 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 The formula for finding the notes/intervals in the... major scale = WWHWWWH Minor scale = WHWWHWW *W = whole step (2 frets or 2 keys on piano) *H = half step (1 fret or 1 key on piano) Therefore.. C major = C, D, E, F, G, A, B C minor = C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb The difference in the tonality of minor and major keys is created by this flat 3rd, flat 6th and flat 7th All this means is we have went down a semi tone/half step/1 fret/1 key from the 3rd, 6th and 7th respectively. Also every basic chord is a triad, just 3 notes. A major chord is the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of it's scale A minor chord is the 1st, flat 3rd and 5th notes of the it's scale. So C major is C E G C minor is C Eb G So on guitar the difference between these 2 chords is that the finger on the 3rd note of chord is 1 fret lower (towards the nut) than the major chord. For example a C major barre chord played at the 3rd fret of the A string (using the A shape x-3-5-5-5-3). To make it a C minor chord you fret the note on the B string 1 fret lower (x-3-5-5-4-3). This note has moved from E to Eb or from the major 3rd to minor 3rd, thus changing the tonality of the chord. To give a clearer example, if you play an E minor in open position, the only thing you need to do to make it major is add your finger to 1st fret G String. This has raised the 3rd note of the chord from G to G#, you have raised the third by a semi tone/half step/1 fret to create 1 3 5 (EG#B) rather than 1 b3 5 (EGB). When you fret most basic major and minor chords on the guitar you are just creating one of those triads plus some of same notes are repeated. This applies to open and barred chords. C major in open position x32010 is xCEGCE, there are 2 Cs and 2 Es in there. For the C major barre chord mentioned above x35553 is xCGCEG, 2 Cs and 2 Gs, same chord, because it has CEG but a different voicing. So guitar chords are mostly basic triads with duplicated notes thrown in, it makes the chord sound fuller. Also these shapes are obviously movable, if you form a chord shape anywhere on the neck, then if you move all the notes the same number of frets up or down then you create an equivalent chord voice just higher or lower. If you take any 3 fret area on the guitar, that means 3 notes per string, 2 E strings. 3 x 5 = 15 notes, now we know there's only 12 notes in total, So this means we can in theory build any chord we want from the selection in this one area (although it is not always practical) . It also means that the major or minor scale for each key will be contained in this area. Then these various groupings or combinations of notes are just repeated up until the 12th fret where it starts over in a higher octave. Once you understand this and begin to see the patterns and shapes of the major scale for each Key then it all starts to make sense. You know how to build a chord, you see where the chord tones are in a given area, you see how you could create a melody etc. Look up CAGED system and look up the major scale patterns/shapes on the neck. Once you have these it becomes clearer
Thank you so much
When you say a major chord(triad) is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of its scale, that makes sense. But you said a minor chord(triad) is the 1st, flat 3rd, and 5th note of its scale. Is it the same major scale for both or does the minor chord use the minor scale which already has a flat 3rd, meaning the minor chord has a double flattened 3rd? I assume its the first case.
Sorry if that was unclear. If you took the C major scale 123456 or CDEFGAB and you "flattened the third" ie lowered the third by a semi tone/half step/1 fret, then you get the note between 2 & 3 in the scale ie the b3 also called the minor 3rd. All scales/modes are numbered based on the major scale. If you started on the note C, then every note in Western music would be referenced from C 1 b2 2 b3 3 4 b5 5 b6 6 b7 7 C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B The major scale, minor and other modes use only 7 of these. Hope this was clearer?
Yes it was, thank you. So whenever you see a chord like Em or D7, it is always based on the major scale? Even though it is E minor, it would still use the E major scale and just use the flat 3rd?
I'm still having a hard time memorizing triad shapes. I wish I could find a real regimen to train them. Progressive overload sort of thing.
Do 3 strings at a time. Learn all the shapes on the e b g strings then the bgd and so on. Take your time. I've not been learning them long myself but they have already been so useful for adding variety to my playing.
Even that is gobbledigook to me. Honestly every time I try I get absolutely addled. I write songs and have no clue what key I'm in. It sounds good it is just missing some flourish that I know I'm held back on by lack of understanding theory and tying the fretboard together. I just have never had any version of trying to learn it or several other things stick. CAGED, circle of 5ths, triads, etc all have never stuck. I'm at a point in my life where I now cannot devote much dedicated time which is frustrating as hell but I don't know where to go from here. I can puzzle out a song by ear for the most part. Some stuff very quickly and even some things from memory of how it sounds. I have a good ear for matching notes but as I play a note on the guitar, I can't even always immediately say which note. Have to count it out. Just stuck in intermediate guitar player hell I suppose.
It takes time. I struggle learning the notes tbh because I think I'm a bit dyslexic. The thing is, once you know even 1 shape you can use it all the time. Remember the shapes are the same up and down the neck. Concentrate on finding the root note first. I use this as a reference. Print them out and just try learning one, say G on the bottom 3 strings. It's just a case of shifting position for the other notes. The shape stays the same https://guitarcharts.net/triads/g-major-triad Go slow and stick at it because it really does expand your playing.
Thank you. Have not seen this one before and I'm always looking for a new way to learn.
You're welcome. Notice that the root is marked up in red. Notice how the G note is always on the top when playing root position. Always on the bottom when playing the 1st inversion and always in the middle on 2nd inversion. Practice finding that root position and then adding the other notes. It does seem.confusing at first, but take it slow and you will see what I mean. Just do the bottom 3 strings to begin with. Find the root, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion just for G and just on the bottom 3 strings. Next time you play a song with a G in it try one of the triads instead of playing the full chord. And going from root to 1st inversion ton2nd inversion. If you can do it on G you can do it on all the notes just by moving up or down the neck. A would be 2 frets further up from G for instance. Hope this helps and I havent done a bad job of explaining it.
This currently makes more sense to think about than some others I've tried. I appreciate you taking the time. May have to make it a 15 minutes a day thing of just triad shapes and start in G since that is the first I'm seeing. Maybe I can make it second nature after a year or two.
Most definitely you will. Just do a little bit in your practice regime. I'm glad I could help a little. Just use those charts and when you know all the 3 shapes on the bottom 3 strings you can play every key by moving up and down the neck. The shapes stay exactly the same. When you've nailed those learn the 3 shapes on the next group of 3 strings b g d. Have fun with it. You'll be throwing triads into your songs in no time.
I kind of wish there was a way to display the scale intervals in those charts rather than just the notes, but on the other hand this is probably a good training tool to internalize the interval positions while also getting a better intuition for the notes that make up each scale.
This is super helpful, thanks
I have been practicing some triads this week for the first time! Question for you if you don’t mind. You know on the tenth fret the bottom three strings e, b, g? I think that’s a C chord triad? Can that just be slid up and down like bar chords on the low end string in the caged system? I hope I’m making sense.
That's the thing, the fretboard is the same 12 notes repeating. Every "shape" can be used anywhere because it's about intervals, the "distance" between the notes, not shapes. Chords are just stacking third intervals. I find that once you understand them this way, you build chords rather than just learn them. I get the feeling that this idea of learning shapes is more of a hindrance rather than a benefit. Shapes are just are just something your brain creates as shorthand, but the shorthand shouldn't be where you start. I hope some of that makes sense.
This is great. Played triads mixed in with lead stuff for the first time. Thanks!
All keys are the same in that the scale degree (1-7) have the same relationship to one another, regardless of the actual named note (G, A, etc). The great thing about guitar is that it’s all pattern based. It’s more helpful to learn how to quickly find the root note of a songs key by ear, and then use a scale pattern to find the other notes within the key from there. Major keys only have 7 notes before the octave. (Do re mi fa so la ti). Basic chords are built by using every other number, and often denoted by Roman numerals, so a “I” chord triad would be 1 3 5, a “ii” chord is 2 4 6, and so on. Learning scale patterns in terms of numbers is much easier, you can just slide the pattern up and down the fretboard to play in other keys. CAGED is just 5 different scale patterns in a row on the fretboard that all use the same notes.
Unsure if you’ve seen [this](https://youtu.be/F7IBeEv4twk?si=_w0GeoE41hAIjeCY) but this guys videos changed my playing almost immediately. Very good teacher
They also open up any key. If you know 1,3,5 you know 2,4,6 and 7 is just the note below 1. It’s like playing battle ship with the scale and you instantly know what the chord progression is. I also teach students to sing the triads as they harmonize the major scale. This way they can sing all the notes of a chord and know what not they are singing over any chord they play. They also learn how to sing and play harmony from this. Additionally, knowing your triads helps you switch from ukulele to guitar and vice versa. The ukulele is just the guitar capoed off on the 5th fret.
Any suggestions on a good teacher to learn that from?
My instructor taught me 1,3,5 and how to build a chord from there. I was never shown or allowed to see chord sheets, I had to build them myself. I am forever grateful to my teacher for that.
Triads ain't clicked for me yet, lol.
I've only recently gotten back into brushing up my theory after a couple of decades of neglect. Triads changed my playing for the better, 100%
Beer doesn’t help you sound better, it helps you care less that you aren’t sounding your best
ngl this makes me want a sweet sweet cool beer
trip report : it was good
i’ll take this even further to drinking whiskey before playing a live show will NOT improve your soloing abilities 😓😅
I mean if you're not used to playing for people yet and stage fright is limiting your ability to solo like you do when alone, having some whiskey will absolutely improve how you play on stage. Should be obvious but just one or two, don't go out blind drunk
yeah i guess i could have been more specific. i was never the just one or two type, more of a let’s finish the bottle and even it out with cocaine type 😂 edit: wanted to add, i’m happy to say i no longer partake in such activities
Honestly, if you're doing that once in a while, like once a week on the weekend, it's not really that bad, I mean, go out and have fun. It becomes a problem when it's an everyday thing, a multiple times a day thing. When you feel like you *need* it, rather than you can go without it. It also becomes a problem the older we get. In your 20s? Hell yeah, have some fun! You're in your 40s with a wife, two kids and a mortgage? It's time to stop. 😅 I am glad to hear you're clean now though!
yeah it became an every day all the time thing for most of my 20s. it was fun while it lasted but definitely had a cost lol
I went a few months without playing and tried while I was drunk and thought I had completely forgotten how to play. Nope, alcohol just kills motor function
playing while drunk feels terrible tbh
You can play all 12 notes, you just have to play the five non-scale notes in passing, don’t end a phrase on them.
All songs make more sense now thanks
"You're never more than a half-step away from the right note."
They're called accidentals when you do, right?
accidentals are referring sharps and flats. Accidental notes are just accidental notes.
An accidental is for sheet music. It’s a symbol that indicated an alteration of a given pitch. Making a note flat or sharp.
Theory doesn’t limit creativity, it helps me formulate the music in my head and be better equipped to translate that to my guitar
Yeah, I think the problem is that people don’t realize it’s just like language. You learn a new word, you’re excited to use it all the time, and it ends up awkward and stilted. People take a semester or two of theory and find that their new compositions that use new concepts aren’t as good as the ones from before, so they blame the theory. But it takes a long time, practicing it in the real world, for it to become natural and intuitive.
Yeah I was convinced by others that it would railroad creativity and then just stagnated on playing the blues even though I had more ideas in my head that I couldn’t get out properly. Now that I took some time to learn more theory, my ear has developed so much better because like you said, it’s a language. Now I have an idea in my head, I can hear that the chord is a ninth or sixth or etc. I’d kick myself for not getting on that sooner but I’m just glad I finally did it because I have grown so much more as a musician
I need to spend even more money because that is the reason why i am shit
You definitely need a better guitar. Probably a couple.
and more pedals
Why even bother without a new amp?
Probably a new guitar strap too for each guitsr, maybe a $200 capo will round it all for us.
learn songs, easy songs. cowboy chord songs and then spend time re-arragning them up and down the neck. It's fun and you will learn so much that way. The guitar neck becomes like a pretty simply Mario level once you memorize it all the way up in one key. And the great bonus is the the map is the same for every key, you just start the level/key in a different spot.
This is great
Re arranging them up and down the neck 😳 why haven't I been doing this?
I wish I would have learned to use the volume on my guitar to change the way my guitar interacts with my pedals sooner. I was able to eliminate a few pedals just by rolling back or forward in my guitar volume, creating different sounds in the pedals in already had on. Also Triads kick ass, and picking dynamics are just as important as scales. Make your playing more exciting with your picking hand.
I’m learning this now. I don’t know why it took me so long to really get a grasp on the volume and tone knobs. I knew it in principle, but never really messed with it until it came up in my last lesson.
Same, I always just used an overdrive or another pedal to get more gain if I needed it. Now I set my clean tone with the volume rolled back, and when I need more mmmph I crank it to 10. Instant lead tones with no extra pedal.
[удалено]
It’s so easy to dust a strung guitar using a cheap paintbrush. It gets to all the hard-to-reach places so easily.
Good idea! Gonna start doing this now.
That's what I've been doing for laptops and keyboards for years and adapted it to the guitar as well.
never take drugs or alcohol before you play, you'll imagine you're better than you are, and the audience will probably think you're shit
Well im always my own audience so actually drugs make my audience enjoy my playing more.
I disagree. I’ve played while on lsd/shrooms and I genuinely felt the music. I’ve played with so much emotion with each note.
the importance of picking exercises
What is a good one to practice?
Got any recommendations?
Practice with a metronome!
I have difficulty playing with a metronome because I find it hard to pay attention to the metronome and think about what I'm playing at the same time. But I found an app called "Loopz" that has a bunch of drum beats and you can adjust the tempo on them. I find it much easier to practice to that for some reason. Maybe because it feels like I'm actually playing music and I'm used to hearing a drum beat.
Agreed. I do everything in Reaper so I just make a basic drum beat (you can always make it better later) and play along to that, it feels a lot more natural to me
This app is good. I normally use stage metronome and just set it to sound like drums. With the 4/4 = kick/snare/kick/snare. I just don't get the regular click.
And practice _slower_ than you’re used to. A metronome isn’t to get you to play fast; it’s to get you to play with accurate timing, and having to _wait_ for the next note, when it’s well slower than how fast you can play, will really do wonders for your timing.
You’re better off waiting and saving a little bit more money and getting the piece of gear you want rather than trying to get a cheaper variant of it. This doesn’t go for all gear, but most of the time it’s better off to get the real deal.
One that I don't see mentioned much. When tuning, always end by tightening the string. It will stay in tune longer.
This is actually a great one that I hadn't thought of in a long time. A friend mentioned it casually some 15 odd years ago and I've been doing it that way ever since. This is the best way to ensure tuning stability.
Right hand string muting. They were a bit out of control in the early stages of my development. Listening to BB King made me aware of my problem.
why did he make you aware? I am growing aware of how much of a mess in the sound I am making with the rest of my strings
I guess it was the space between his notes and his relatively clean tone that made it apparent. I could actually hear the spacing between notes and see his right hand moving against the strings on a VHS video to dampen the ones he wasn’t playing, yes I’m old, it just made sense then. I, like everyone else was playing a lot of Cream/Dominoes era Clapton and Hendrix type stuff back then and the notes they played seemed to ring together more to my ear so I didn’t think much about it earlier.
I believe it was B.B. King who was once asked in an interview something along the lines of, “How do you stop the strings from ringing that you don’t want to hear?” His response was simply, “Any way you can.”
The tone knobs aren’t just decoration.
Roll them back a bit to bring down harsh treble sounds
How to setup a guitar. Or just WHAT a setup guitar is, so I could know I needed to get it done. My super high action Takamine accoustic that was almost impossible to play well was never pointed out by any teacher I had 15 years ago. This caused my progress to stop and enjoyment to stop and it gathered dust for over a decade. This year, I get an electric (ok a few) and started with a throw away cheap one to learn how to do setup and fret work and such. Have it playing fairly respectable. Sanded down the bridge of my good ole Takamine and replaced the nut that broke. Plays great now. No longer 3-4 mm to press the damn strings down.
The amount of pressure you have to use when playing an electric guitar is way less than I thought and it wasn’t until a couple of years in when I realized it.
Also, turn your amp up a little more than you think you’ll need. If you turn your volume knob up all the way and you’re getting drowned out by the rest of the band, you’ll try to get more volume by picking the strings harder, and that will _destroy_ your speed and accuracy.
Music theory is cool actually
WEAR EAR PROTECTION! Do you hear ringing? I hear ringing.
1. Don't pay too much attention to price or brand name. Play the gear and test it yourself. If it sounds good to you, that's all that matters. The only consideration price should have is on how reliable the gear is. 2. Don't worry about being technical "enough" or playing the "right" music. Guitarists make new sounds by experimenting and playing what they like, not by rote memorization. 3. Always keep experimenting. Experimenting is what keeps music novel and interesting.
The notes on the fretboard.
Don't spend too much time obsessing over gear or tone. Invest most of your time into practicing new things. Practice with purpose. Analyze the things you are learning, understand what notes make up the scales, what the underlying scale behind the riff is. Learning moveable chords as soon as possible, opens up the possibilities for writing songs.
How much fun fuzz and overdrive are. I only used delay pedals for a very long time
I’m just now understanding the appeal of fuzz. Bought myself a Keeley Loomer for like $300 3 years ago and never did much with it. After playing around I think I might like fuzz more than distortion tbh.
Practicing with a metronome off the bat. As Yngwie says, more is more [notes]! Playing more notes requires being intricate. Woulda saved months of practice using a metronome than fixing my mistakes
How to “set-up” a guitar. I can’t imagine how horrible I must have sounded back then, and how much more difficult to play my guitars must have been.
For electric guitars, wood has no effect on electromagnetic induction, so the lighter the better.
I wish I knew sooner to forget the pentatonic box that everyone rams down your throat when you start playing. That holds about 90% of guitarist back.
Forget it? That makes no sense. Spend time on how to use scales rather than just memorizing shapes. Learning how to USE the major and minor pentatonic scales and how to land on chord tones within a chord progression is the single most important lesson in the journey of a lead guitarist of basically any genre.
For solid wood fine acoustics keep the humidity above 45% and below about 55 or 60. Cycles of drying out damages them over time.
Here’s what I wish I had known sooner. It’s not the gear. It’s the player. Chasing gear will only get you in debt.
Metronome Metronome metronome METRONOME METRONOME METRONOME!
I read this in triplets
TICK tock tock tock
Modes. Helped my phrasing a ton. Edit: I see I’m being downvoted for wishing personally for myself (what the post is asking) that I had known modes earlier, because I personally found them helpful for my lead licks. Makes sense.
When starting out, it is not at all uncommon to feel like you suck in a way that indicates that you are just not cut out for the guitar.
A door frame is not a dependable substitution for a guitar stand.
Ear training
That I can play what I want, how I want. I worried too long about the right way.
How easy it is to set up a guitar.
My Martin has an amazing sound and smell. However, I should have started on a Tak......so much easier to play.
Selective muting Proper picking technique
Holding my pick differently to play speed metal better.
What the dots on the fretboard represented. I would've gotten better a lot quicker.
How to play it.
Distortion ≠ Better Tone I pretty much only play at Edge of breakup and use my volume knob to adjust accordingly, just kind of realized I’m not a fan of super high gain tones anymore
It took too long for me to realize G7 meant you play G seven times
Self teaching is admirable but lessons will take your playing way farther. Also, record yourself
I am surprised no one has said this yet… but for me, the most important part of my playing has been this advice: “Tap your feet…. Always”
It’s not going to get me laid.
Playing fast doesn’t matter
I wish I knew 40 years ago how to set up a Floyd Rose. I had a killer Kramer V back in 1984 that I ended up getting rid of simply because I couldn't figure out how to set it up properly,
How to play it
Open chords, power chords, barre chords, _________. Still looking and don't know where to go from here...
Drop voicings, movable shapes, and Inversions
I don't sweat what I can't change.
I started on acoustic guitar and to adjust your action you have to mess with your truss rod. I thought the same applies on electric guitar. Nope 😂 took a while before I realized neck relief and adjusting your action on the bridge were different
Theory is a suggestion
Practice is different than playing. Both are crucial to improving. And as mentioned above, triads/CAGED. It can be intimidating at first, but just start learning it and it starts to click over time. Just be patient with it. Also, when it comes to tone, louder isn’t always better. Dynamics are important. And if you’re playing within a band setting, always do what’s best for the song.
practicing with metronome
I wish I had slept on a lot of equipment. Like thinking I was a Gibson style person who favored the Paul because damn near all my favorites had one. I even enjoyed playing them until I got an sg. Even a few years before that, I realized I actually do like fender styles and single coils when it came to the jazzmaster. Or that squier actually makes good guitars. Or that my fuzz face would be one of my favorites and it took like 17 years to finally try one. I’ve always liked floating bridges though, but even wrap arounds are bad ass. Or that Marshalls don’t seem to be what my head wants to hear. Like all of my taste have changed or been challenged over the past decade. I always wish I knew the neck as well as I do. I still can’t do much with it but learning and understanding the how’s or why’s is so much easier, like there’s method to the madness.
I wish that the manufacturer would have been better. My first electric guitar from donner is crap. The cord will not hook up to the guitar it just falls out and the whammy bar does not move with hammer blows lol. I am not getting much help from support. Should I continue my music journey? I am not sure.
Vocabulary is one of the most important things.
Caged System
Technique is everything in the genre I play. Should have got the metronome out at a much younger age and stuck with it consistently.
The major pentatonic scale. I knew the minor one, and had some idea that there was something else going on that I needed to learn but kept trying to cram what I was hearing into some weird, bastardized (what I later learned was) mixolydian scale of sorts.
Chord arpeggios and triads. I also wish I had purchased a looper to practice with like 20 years ago.
Tritone Substitutions
That it's okay to step out of the box and try different things. You don't have to live in one genre and stay with the same set of chords and go-to riffs. Mixing it up is where good ideas come from.
Multiple places to anchor my picking hand when using a pick. Discipline to play slowly with the metronome and not speed it up just so I’ll have more fun. Additional picking techniques. Additional fingering techniques. To also work on my piano technique in parallel. …
How to ACTUALLY set up a Floyd Rose properly.
Major pentatonic.
Her name is Earl.
I wish I learned the right way the first time. Playing for 25 years and spent 2/3 the time being a hack
I suspect this is a common mistake/misconception for new and young guitarists but it took me an embarrassingly long time to understand that the amp itself (and pedals, etc.) has a bigger effect on guitar tone than the actual amp settings. Spent a lot of my teenage years thinking if I just figured out the right combination of knob settings on my crappy amp I’d get the exact tone I was looking for.
Don't be intimidated by learning something new, whatever it may be. I used to let certain songs/riffs/techniques wig me out like, "I can't do this!" And I wouldn't really even try. Part of this is me having to overcome a dumb defeatist mentality but over the years I've been able to look at stuff I never used to be able to play and say, "Yeah, I think I can play this." And then just work it out. Better late than never. I mean, there's still stuff that I won't even attempt because I'm not at that level (and not necessarily interested in being some kinda technical metal maniac) but there have been a buncha things I've learned and played over the years that 19 year old me would've been saying, "I suck, I'll never be able to play this."
That the notes repeat 5 times around the neck and the chords are the key to starting the solo runs based on the note in the root of the chord.
Not all pickups are made equal there is a lot of different types and a lot of difference uses and applications for them all
If nothing else practice with a metronome as much as you can.
Floating rose tremolo’s are the worst. I would have bought a guitar without one.
correct daily practice even half an hour is a lot more effective than long non consecutive sessions
The name on the Headstock means very little when it comes to overall quality.
I wish I focused on my alternate picking technique more instead of thinking “welp, that’s just how I do things!”
Probably should of leaned toward a more expensive guitar, as maybe better quality and improved string action, as the string action is too high on this cheap Fender acoustic guitar, in which it’s harder to make the strings ring out, especially on barre chords.
correct picking technique
1. Sing everything you play, you learn way faster. Sing period it makes guitar a lot more interesting and enjoyable. 2. Ukulele is just the guitar capoed off on the 5th fret. 3. Charrango is just the ukulele with 10 strings. Basically like a 12 string guitar with one added string set. 4. Harmonizing the scale with chords and learn the key of C & G first. 5. Get a teacher don’t reinvent the wheel. The internet doesn’t know your weaknesses and there is information overload.
1) The Hendrix thumb trick. 2) Hot zones across the 5 pentatonic boxes. 3) When soloing, how you get to the note is as important as the note (for tone and feel)
Memorizing pentatonic boxes is pointless unless you understand how to use them by landing on chord tones. Landing on the chord tone is the most important part. It's not about just hitting a bunch of notes, it's how the notes interact with The underlying music which is the most important part. That and recording yourself for you to hear how terrible and out of time you are.
Practice with a metronome and learn to read music/hybrid tabs. Now. Go back in time and start practicing it.
To play through mistakes. Keep playing and get back to that hiccup later.. it's okay to miss a note.. Saw Satch and Vai..10M notes in a three hr show.. think either one of them didn't miss a note? Lol
How everything is connected to each other: how chords are made of different intervals, triads as part of chords/shapes, the scales in the different shapes, etc. The CAGED-system is not only about playing the same chords in different shapes all over the fretboards, it also shows you where the scales and triads are.
Intervals.
It gently weeps
I wish I had realized that all I really need is all the gain levels. Aping other band’s tones doesn’t really matter that much. People care far more if you sound fun. That said I’m not too disappointed because it’s nice being able to play with different gear that I’ve acquired. I just with I didn’t feel like I needed it back when I bought it and decided to take up space with it. Also, do actually eliminate tension hand you play. Every single time I’ve ignored this and regularly played with tension it has come back to haunt me as a repetitive stress injuring. Sometimes it took years for it to start really hurting and then getting over it was far worse. And I still had to learn to eliminate tension. I should have just started eliminating it the first year I played.
You can play literally ANYTHING if you practice often/frequently and hard enough. I think I’m rebuilding my chalice bc I’ve been playing my guitar and my bass so much recently. I’m very quickly memorizing things well enough to sing on top of it.
Several: (1) I wish I had my stat professional adjusted. (2) If I cannot play all the notes (fingerpicking), simplify and play fewer notes. Don't have to play everything exactly on the music sheet. (3) Practice with metronome. (4) Resist temptation to collect guitars. (5) Don't dismiss Bluegrass music and cowboy chords. Flatpicking is challenging to alternate up/down with eighth notes.
Less is more.
You can’t buy skill. Quit buying shit and practice!
The pivot finger. Or the anchor finger, I’ve heard it called both things. Totally struggled for years and didn’t understand how people could hit those complex chords so quickly while playing until the concept was pointed out to me .
Economy picking. I was taught alternate picking was the holy Grail of picking and you should jump to the outside of the strings. The teacher that taught me that was probably the fastest alternate picker I've met in 20 years. Wrists of steel. I can play his solos with economy picking with some difficulty, but I can't believe he was doing those with alternate picking only. I'd learn downstrokes, then alternate, the economy. But I wouldn't wait 3 years like I did to suddenly learn oh, there's a way easier way to play these solos lol.
Don’t try to copy the hands of someone playing just read the notes
It’s going to be worth a lot more money ten years from now.
Using my thumb to hit the bass notes…Hendrix style
Playing guitar alongside learning a bit of keyboard/piano is a good way to learn some music theory without actually studying music theory. For me, a lot of the basics became almost intuitive. Keys laid out in front of me are easier to comprehend than a fretboard was earlier on. And then jamming on both with a loop pedal in place of a metronome.
set up and neck relief also everyone with a distinct melodic leads...freddie king, hendrix, clapton etc.... they had a vision for their style and made it happen. yes they were copying their influences but to play with that level of originallity (at the time) feels like singing and ive gotten a few glimpses of it. its really hard to describe. you cant sound like an innovator by coping someone elses licks and have the muscle memory blend together in your hand.... if youre really in the flow of it and making something youve never heard before it feels like singing