How important are scales and theory in your guitar playing?

Do you use theory and scales in your guitar playing?

  • Total voters
    110
I think theory is a short cut to increasing our vocabulary, which should increase our creativity and which should make it a shorter road to becoming more advanced.
 
I've got nothing against theory but I've always played by ear (self-taught). I do practice my scales though. 15 mins a day. That's all it takes!!

-Jagg
 
I've been practising scales. I was serious earlier in this thread. I've been hammering the major and minor pentatonics both vertically and horizontally, and the major scale in three positions and a climbing run up the neck. It's going to be a long job, because as I once said - for a supposed guitarist I suck on guitar. And I'm tired of sucking on guitar.
 
A lot of my friends play guitar very well but do not know much theory at all.

They can get technical parts down and can do lots of things, but their timing, articulation are bad and they seem to not notice when something sounds wrong in a musical way.

IMHO, theory should be the first thing that you learn. This way it will be much easier to play more instruments in the future :)
 
Greg_L said:
Lol @ 7 strings.

It doesn't even matter. 7 string, 12 string, bass - all the notes you need are right there easily within reach, and only a select few will work for any given chord. I mean seriously, who actually sits down and literally "writes" music on a staff? Anyone? I'd be shocked if more than 1% of the people in here actually sit and write their music. I'd be shocked if more than 25% actually consciously used any theory. I more expect that most people write from the gut and by ear. Your ears tell you when notes fit together. Not a book or scale chart.
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While I don't use pen and staff paper to write, I do use an old version of Cakewalk notation software to write with. I use this when I write guitar ensemble pieces for three guitars. I don't even pick up the guitar until the song is fully scored for all three guitar parts. I can do that because I have a decent understanding of music theory. I often use multiple time signatures and keys within a piece which again requires a knowledge of theory when composing a song on paper and not on an instrument. Even though I am composing on a staff, I am still writing from my gut reaching down into my soul to express what is in my imagination. Now if I am writing a folk or rock song or whatever, I just sit there with my guitar a plug away at it not thinking of rules or theory or anything else but how the song sounds and feels. So what I am saying is music theory has its place and is not a bad or limiting thing. And by the way, if you are writing and performing good music, you know theory, you know it in your heart and soul if not in you head.
 
240v said:
A their timing, articulation are bad and they seem to not notice when something sounds wrong in a musical way.
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^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^ that's why i don't ooh and ah over every vid someone posts where a kid blazes away. I've seen a zillion players that sound great by themselves but only sound great by themselves while being totally unable to play with anyone else.
 
Lt. Bob said:
^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^ that's why i don't ooh and ah over every vid someone posts where a kid blazes away. I've seen a zillion players that sound great by themselves but only sound great by themselves while being totally unable to play with anyone else.
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Amen. I can't hum one song that Yngwie Malmsteen/Rising Force ever wrote or recorded and I've heard enough of them that I should. I remember his sweep picking, though, and that's about it. And usually a singer that sounded like Rob Halford on crack, no offense to RH. Not one solid song melody enters my mind, though.
 
Seeker of Rock said:
Amen. I can't hum one song that Yngwie Malmsteen/Rising Force ever wrote or recorded and I've heard enough of them that I should. I remember his sweep picking, though, and that's about it. And usually a singer that sounded like Rob Halford on crack, no offense to RH. Not one solid song melody enters my mind, though.
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Yeah ....... really , all the songs I've liked in the past because they featured someone blazing away don't stand out in my mind as songs i want to listen to.
 
I think I memorized most of the notes on my fretboard after reading this thread a couple months ago.

I figured I already knew the first five frets for 45 years, and if I'm going to call myself a guitar player that
I really should be able to point to any fret position and be able to say what note it is.

It has helped me to think through a few different and interesting chord voicings that I never would have even thought of otherwise.

As far as the rest goes, working scales and such, I do it, just not in an assiduous manner, it's more to refine my dexterity than anything else.
 
Telegram Sam said:
I figured I already knew the first five frets for 45 years, and if I'm going to call myself a guitar player that
I really should be able to point to any fret position and be able to say what note it is..
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Lol, I think you have me beat by far. I know patterns (pentatonic minor I think it's called) on where to play and how I want it to sound, but my biggest complaint is that it sucks having to transpose it to different keys. I mainly know in the pattern scale where important notes I use a lot in solos like the root, minor 3rds, 5ths are, but to be honest every time I play solos to this day I'm still kind of winging it. But it feels good, and sometimes sounds alright.:o
 
Oh, yeah, I'm strictly a pattern guy when I'm actually playing.
And a so-so one at best. :o

You know, this guitar area is clicking right along at the moment...
 
I have in the past and still do occasionally practice scales, but not to learn scales. I use scale exercises in a sad attempt to develop a half decent picking technique and in 45 years I still haven't developed one. I watch all these great guitarists play these great riffs, pick in their right, or left, hands a blur as they attack the guitar strings creating crisp, bright and articulate notes and I die a little inside. No matter what I do I just can't seem to get the fingers of my left hand to cooperate with the pick in my right hand. When I do play a lead part I rely very heavily on legatos, picking every 3rd, 4th or 5th note. After all this time I am beginning to think that you either have it or you don't. But take the pick out of my right hand and let my fingers do the walking and everything changes, even playing scale. From the time I was learning my first guitar chords I have always been a finger picker. Maybe that is because I learned to play guitar playing along with Peter, Paul and Mary records. Still I continue to occasionally play scales, guitar pick firmly in hand hoping that some day something will click into place and I will say "Oh, now I get it."
 
Seeker of Rock said:
Lol, I think you have me beat by far. I know patterns (pentatonic minor I think it's called) on where to play and how I want it to sound, but my biggest complaint is that it sucks having to transpose it to different keys. I mainly know in the pattern scale where important notes I use a lot in solos like the root, minor 3rds, 5ths are, but to be honest every time I play solos to this day I'm still kind of winging it. But it feels good, and sometimes sounds alright.:o
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see, now transposing is nothing to me. Maybe because I play all the different instruments but I don't even care about keys at all. If I play with someone who's tuned down half a step, for instance, I don't bother and simply transpose all night.
It's actually a problem when people play with me because I'm so casual about it and they usually can't very easily.

Dunno what to tell you about how to do it though.
 
I use a lot of scales, I just don't know what they are. I hear it in my head and then play it. I'm an idiot savant. :)
 
I think scales are more important if you are into jazz or blues. I see it as being mostly useful for improvisation. I do a few scales, but very seldom use them for compositions.
 
Greg_L said:
I use a lot of scales, I just don't know what they are. I hear it in my head and then play it. I'm an idiot savant. :)
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nah ..... that's how you're supposed to play. When guys really learn all that stuff and get it down, it no longer consciously enters their thinking as they play.
I, for instance, majored in composition playing bassoon in symphony and no one is more chaotic and indifferent to process and theory than me.
I simply don't think about theory anymore at all.

You had the good fortune to somehow bypass actually learning the theory but you know what things should sound like and that's basically theory.
Really . knowing what note should come next is what scales and such teach us ..... you know it intuitively and that's what people who learn theory for their playing are actually trying to get to ..... to not need to think of it.
Different paths to the same end.
 
240v said:
I think scales are more important if you are into jazz or blues. I see it as being mostly useful for improvisation. I do a few scales, but very seldom use them for compositions.
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sure you do ..... knowing those scales affects your understanding of how notes relate to each other which affects the musical decisions you make as you compose.
Knowing scales isn't a matter of actually playing the scale as a useful musical idea. It's not ..... in fact, I'd say none of the good jazz players actually play scales per se in their improvisations. I sure don't and I play with some fairly high level cats.
If I hear someone playing scales I'd pretty much dismiss them as not being able to improvise.

Scales are more about helping you learn to 'hear' the intervals and relationships between the notes.
 
Lt. Bob said:
You had the good fortune to somehow bypass actually learning the theory but you know what things should sound like and that's basically theory.
.
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Thanks for all that. I never really put much thought into it before, but you're right. I have a knack for hearing something in my head or having an idea and being able to get it down to tape or live exactly how I want it to be. It only works for me in my own little musical world, but it works. It's like I'm playing covers of my own songs. I hear it clearly in my head and just play it, or I fiddle with it until I can play it. I guess I'm lucky like that. I don't dare learn any actual theory though. It might screw me up. :D
 
Lol. I would like to play better though. Guitar anyway. I'm good enough on drums and bass. I'd like to do better leads. Not necessarily faster, although that would be good, but more diverse. All of my leads sound basically the same.
 
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