suggested guitar technique and theory training

videodrone

New member
I want to take some classes on how to expand my songwriting, Im very happy and confident with my songs, style and approach but I want to learn more and be more versatile,

I know theres alot of people here with alot of knowledge so Im going to explain teh style the I want to learn and hopefully you can make some suggestions on what would be valuable to study than.



I am intrested in learning about Metallica, I was never really a fan of them until recently, just musically really, I think they have alot of beatiful solos and great song strucutres,

Also progressive stuff like Pink Floyd to chord and solo prpgressions like Phish,

So can you recommend any certain areas I should concentrate on studying?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Learn how transcribe music. Get a book on theory. Close the door to your bedrrom and stay there until your done.

Transcribing is how you learn to disect other peoples music.
Theory help you understand why.

SoMm
 
hey thanks for the reply SoMm,

So just learn theory and learn these songs is your suggestion. thanks Ill give that a try,
 
My best advice for learning guitar and theory is shamelessly stolen from Yngwie Malmsteen, who I don't like and never liked, but it's a great piece of advice: learn to play music not written for guitar. Yngwie was big on Bach & Paganini violin stuff, but it doesn't matter what you pick, anything non-guitar will do.

Here's why: you'll notice that most guitar tunes are, well, very guitaristic. Guitarist are lazy and will fall back on the same chords and chord progressions and boxes, and as a result, guitar music tends to not be very distinctive. I mean your average guitarist thinks using a capo with the same ol' chords is a creative use of transposition. This isn't just true of rock music, Sor's etudes are the exact same way.

So find something that wasn't written to be played on guitar, like a meaty piano sonata. You'll quickly learn that it's impossible to play as the guitar has a limited range and a piano has more polyphony than a guitar. In order to play it, you'll have to invert chords, restructure bass lines, omit notes, etc. In the process, you'll learn which notes you can omit and which inversions work, and how melody and harmony and counterpoint work across the different voices of the music.

Now that might all sound very hard 'cause it is. So start with something easy, and keep it intuitive. Learn to read music at least well enough to transcribe into tablature. That exercise alone will teach you a lot about theory even if you can't play what you just transcribed.
 
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