Don't the guys that just rock out with powerchords get most of the chicks?
How important are scales and theory in your guitar playing?
- Thread starter Victory Pete
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Don't the guys that just rock out with powerchords get most of the chicks?
ocnor
Lord Of The Thighs
When I go to the beach I don't contemplate why the sun is hot,the sky is blue, or the composite of the sand. I just know that it feels good,and everyone is running around half naked having a good time. I don't question why a green bikini looks good on a redhead because "why" just doesn't matter.
in every instance.
So, if we extrapolate this further, we can deduce that theory = gay.
there's a chorizo thread at A&A that gave me an idea. I know how to make an incredible chorizo and egg burrito. i cook the chorizo, dump some eggs in there and cook to perfection. then i put a pile of it in a flour tortilla with some shredded cheese and hot sauce.
I don't need to know how to rasie a pig, slaughter it and add just the right parts of it along with just the right ingrediants into a sausage. i don't need to know how to raise a chicken that will give me eggs or a cow that will give me cheese, yet i can still make a great chorizo and egg burrito.
these guys are the non-producing farmers that are stuck on which feed to give the pigs.
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
One, but are you REALLY limited for a four note spread? Even based on the first fret, depending on what my other fingers are doing I can reach a bit more than that. A 1-8 trill is about my limit, though a stretch like that is the sort of think I'd be hard pressed to work into a solo musically, since it's so awkward to fret. Further up the next, a 6 or so fret spread is pretty plausible, without really killing yourself. And anyway, I play a seven string.
Two, you're also ignoring open strings, which can open up the possible range of a chord voicing quite a bit.
EZ - it's not even breakfast and you're making me hungry.
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
Anyway, long story short, I don't know anyone who's ever been hurt by learning a bit of theory.
The way I see it, writing music isn't much different from writing in text. It's important to have something to say, and if you don't have something worth saying than you're wasting your time. But, it's also a lot easier to write something that can move others if you also have a good understanding of how words fit together, and you understand your tenses, how verbs work, how nouns work, whatever. Yeah, you can pick up a fair amount of stuff just listening to other people talk or reading what others have written, and maybe you can even get the cadences of language more or less right even if you don't understand them. But, you're just flying blind. If you know how language works, then you can work that much more quickly or efficiently.
Music's no different. You can write great music without knowing any music theory, and if you don't have something worth writing in your head when you sit down to compose, then no amount of theory is going to save you. But, knowing how notes fit together musically is never a bad thing, and can help you get from point A to point B with that many fewer false starts.
The way I see it, writing music isn't much different from writing in text. It's important to have something to say, and if you don't have something worth saying than you're wasting your time. But, it's also a lot easier to write something that can move others if you also have a good understanding of how words fit together, and you understand your tenses, how verbs work, how nouns work, whatever. Yeah, you can pick up a fair amount of stuff just listening to other people talk or reading what others have written, and maybe you can even get the cadences of language more or less right even if you don't understand them. But, you're just flying blind. If you know how language works, then you can work that much more quickly or efficiently.
Music's no different. You can write great music without knowing any music theory, and if you don't have something worth writing in your head when you sit down to compose, then no amount of theory is going to save you. But, knowing how notes fit together musically is never a bad thing, and can help you get from point A to point B with that many fewer false starts.
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.
kcearl
I see deaf people
in that case i love me some theory..
DrewPeterson7
I could write an album in the time you take to construct a post
i
I could write an album in the time you take to construct a post
You better go heavy on the theory so it will be awesome.
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
Oh, I don't even sit down with staff paper and a quill pen or something when I'm writing. I just pick up a guitar and go with it.
But, as I think Charlie Parker once quipped, the idea is to learn all the music theory you can, and then forget it. Not like you never knew it to begin with, but just so it's unconscious and at the back of your mind. When I'm writing I'll be thinking about tension and resolution in broad terms, however, even if I'm not paying attention to step or half step shifts. It's all in there, though, even if I never sit down and say, "Ok, and now let's apply music theory to this situation."
About the only time I really do sit down and consciously think about theory is when I'm trying to figure out what the hell to do in a solo section. Even then 9 times out of 10 it's pretty subconscious - I'll play a riff and I won't even have to stop and think that the mixolydian mode is the most natural collection of notes to play over it, even if I'll occasionally break away from it here or there. But if I'm dealing with something a little more exotic, sometimes it does help to sit down, think about what sort of modulation is going on, and then think about what scales and modes I could use to bridge the modulation and play up their similarities, or what scales and modes I could use to intentionally play up the differences between them. I rarely write stuff that's super harmonically complex, but I've got a couple solo sections in songs I'm working on that do move around a fair bit, and that's the kind of stuff where it really does help to know what you can get away with, when it comes time to start improvising.
And whatever, Greg, seven strings kick ass.
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
I had no idea you played math metal. Your love of needless theory all makes perfect sense now.
:lol: I would if I could. I LIKE Meshuggah and their ilk, but what they do is just enirely alien to me. I play sort of bluesy instrumental prog metal (think somewhere between Satriani, Gilmour, and Petrucci), but I suspect you're going to retort that that makes just as much sense.
What do you write, mostly? More specific than just "awesome," please.
:lol: I would if I could. I LIKE Meshuggah and their ilk, but what they do is just enirely alien to me. I play sort of bluesy instrumental prog metal (think somewhere between Satriani, Gilmour, and Petrucci), but I suspect you're going to retort that that makes just as much sense.
What do you write, mostly? More specific than just "awesome," please.
Well if I can't use "awesome", I'll go with kick ass.
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
Well if I can't use "awesome", I'll go with kick ass.
That's a total copout.
Kidding aside, though, I think that's a valid point. There's a whole slew of styles of music where doing anything theoretically complex either isn't necessary, or would just sound weird. AC/DC style rock and roll, for example, or punk rock, or arguably quite a lot of country. Or even, much as it pains me to admit this, a fair amount of blues (though here at least chord theory helps, though you'd never guess it by watching a lot of wanker "bluesmen" in dive bars :/). There are others where by convention it's just a little more acceptable to push the limits a little - math metal, prog, jazz, classical, etc.
It really depends on what you're into.