Thinkin' about taking some lessons.

  • Thread starter Thread starter getuhgrip
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TexRoadkill said:
I've been thinking about taking some guitar lessons too. I played piano for 20yrs and studied theory but guitar is still pretty new for me.

The intervals on guitar actually taught me a lot about music that I never really picked up on piano. The way the patterns work on guitar it frees you up a little more than piano. Piano also seems to have a very different feel on different key signatures but guitar liberates you from some of that to a certain degree. But I would still recomend anybody who is studying music to learn theory on piano. It does make it easier to see the big picture.

I'll have to check out some of those books. I hate it when you get stuck playing the same riffs over and over.
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The Logic Series of books don't really go into riffs or styles... well, vol III sort of goes into styles.. They mainly just logically link chords, scales, and patterns to the guitar fretboard. The main thing is that they help you look at chords and scales in relation to each other.

For example, Vol. I takes the 5 major chord forms and moves them up and down the neck linking them all together. C-A-G-E-D.. (open chord shapes, not chord names per se) You then take those 5 major chords forms and for each chord shape, you have a pentatonic scale form. And then from the pentatonic scale forms, it's just a matter of filling in the blanks to make the pentatonic scale diatonic.
 
I always thought John Frusciante to be an exceptionally gifted guitarist... mainly because I had trouble picking out songs like "Under the Bridge" on my own.

Literally 15 minutes after learning "C-A-G-E-D", I picked out UTB with ease, even with all the little trills. It never occured to me, before FL, to use the C chord shape anywhere but next to the nut...

Popular guitar is so dominated by the E and A chord shapes, and something like "C-A-G-E-D" really frees you up. (ironic, considering it spells "caged" ;))


Chad
 
Marc Seal, a very gifted guitarist used to give free video lessons thru Digevent.com and i enjoyed that thoroughly.....

he has just partnered with Guitar Center so look for lessons soon under the Guitar School Network name (i think)........
 
i learned to play guitar by watching players that were better than me and locking myself in my room and playing along with records. (16 speed is one octave lower and half speed of 33).
Now days with music videos that you can record and "pause" on the chord you want to figure out....i don't see why anyone would want to take a lesson.

it depend on what style you want to learn i guess...classical can be learned, rock can be learned......blues can't be learned...you either have a feel for blues or you don't...country can be learned.

you can learn it on your own...give yourself lessons. you have to pay you dues and put in the hours on the instrument
 
I'm going to compile the Guitar Terminology Glossary right here, starting with....


Is a Trill like a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs?
 
answer to Grip question.... essentially, yes.

Response to Jimistone: with all due respect, I think that anyone who claims to be self-taught and is even half-assed okay is, at the very least, a bit of an exaggerator. Consider this.... the most basic chords - even in the blues - A, D, E.... where did you learn those?? How the hell did you even learn to tune the guitar???!! Oh, let me guess.... you're a prodigy who isoloated yourself from the whole rest of the world and just happened to make a brilliant discovery that lead to tuning the guitar in fourths (whatever that is....) and.... you get the idea....

EVERYONE learns from somewhere. NOBODY is self-taught. Maybe it's not formal lessons. That's fine. The blues in particular is like any other fine form of story telling and oral tradition - it is passed on from one person to another fairly informally. "Here... let me show you this lick...." is one person giving a lesson to another.

Chris
 
getuhgrip said:
I'm going to compile the Guitar Terminology Glossary right here, starting with....

Is a Trill like a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs?
Click to expand...

As Chris said, yeah... but I've also heard them called "ornaments".
 
participant said:


As Chris said, yeah... but I've also heard them called "ornaments".
Click to expand...

Yes.... that is also true. The word "ornaments" refers to a "family of devices", if you will, that effectively "ornament" a melody. This includes trills, grace notes, etc.

Chris
 
in responce to cris tondreau:

where did i say that i didn't learn from someone else? i said that i learned from records....maybe you thought that i cut some records before i learned to play guitar then learned from my own recordings. the records were by artists other than me. i can't remember where i learned how to tune a guitar...who cares.

i said to watch and learn from players that are better than you are and put in the hours of practice that it takes to develope as a guitar player.

(maybe you should re-read my post, better yet comprehend it the 1st time before you go popping off half cocked)

the point i was making is that you don't have to take formal lessons to learn to play guitar.

oh,,,,and i do claim to be at least half assed...maybe its a bit of an exageration but the band i play guitar with (3 peice guitar rock) seems to like my playing, the crowd seems to like it, and the clubowners pay me and want me to come back.
 
jimistone said:
it depend on what style you want to learn i guess...classical can be learned, rock can be learned......blues can't be learned...you either have a feel for blues or you don't...country can be learned.
Click to expand...
So, you learned from records, but you could play the blues all along??

What part didn't chris understand? With his self-taught comment I guess he meant that nobody learns everything from records only. And I can't really imagine you sitting in front of a video trying to figure out how the guy tunes his guitar with no experience. :rolleyes:

You can learn the blues, you can even teach it. And why not? What difference is there between blues and classical, or jazz, or rock? That you didn't listen enough or don't like it enough to realize that there is a feel to other genres as well??

You don't need formal lessons to learn play any instrument, but it helps. And it helps ALOT. Believe me. I had a formal music education on piano. Started on guitar with the only lesson from a friend who told me how to read tablature. That's it. But the formal education I already HAD helped me understand most of what I read in books. I already had a good ear, could play most of what I heard, and even learned to play classical guitar on my own. Result; when I finally got some classical guitar lessons after playing for 5 years, in a year I was way beyond any student that was there (some had been following lessons over 8 years!).

So, formal education is not a must, but it helps. Believe me.
 
yeah the blues can't be learned... if you aint black then forget about it... uhhuh... i suppose if you haven't been poor the blues is out of the question either?

Guhlenn "proud white middle-class music school tought (sp?) blues player"
 
you're laughing now Roel, but wait untill i unleash all that suburb frustration onto ya !!!

;)
 
Lessons will never hurt your playing and it's good to challenge your mind as well as your hands especially when you get older I've been playing for twenty years and still study with a guy who's been teaching for over thirty.
People go to college to study music on a four year program there is always something new to learn.
Don't make the mistake that a few lessons will teach you how to play like magic there are many areas that have to be addressed before you can play even half ass as you describe it.
Ear training - how's your ear can you hear a note and find it on the guitar (or any instrument for that matter) this is something that no matter how bad you are at it with practice will become better.
chops- your ability to form chords play licks etc there are muscles in your fingers and hands that are not developed unless you play just a like going to the gym and working out you have to do your time on the neck to develop the strength in your hand to play something.
Theory- I"m not familiar with fretboard logic as mentioned but I'm sure it's great, knowing your way around the fretboard what intervals are why they work chord progressions scales etc is part of playing many people with a great natural ears develop chops and can play without knowing what the hell they are doing but they are in the minority if your not one of these people figure out what your doing otherwise your just doodling on the fretboard.

Despite all that music is for entertainment and playing it should be your own entertainment first, so it doesn't matter how well you can play as long as you are having fun doing it.

if you think you would enjoy taking lessons take them and have fun!
 
you can't learn to play the blue?!
you gotta be kidding me there is no way someone can be that ignorant.
I don't care what color you are everyone has gone thru hard times in their life in one form or another.
I really doubt that because someone has been poor and happens to be black that they may have some special gift to paly a certain style of music.
 
hold on there pally-boy!

i was being sarcastic... i need to use those smileys more... however, if you had actually red the WHOLE thread you would have understood...

Guhlenn
 
lessons are a good thing...if you already know how to play

time for another fresh perspective???

What I recommend is not all specifically geared towards you Grip, but pertinent nonetheless.

I always advise people to learn to play guitar on their own before they take any lessons UNLESS they already play another instrument. This may sound like somewhat of a time-waster but hear me out.

If you don't know what you're doing and lack the dexterity to play certain chords on a fretboard, you won't have the patience to understand why you're doing the things you're doing.

I tried to learn four different instruments when I was young. I was repeatedly frustrated and quit each time because I couldn't understand the logic of reading music. I honestly believe I didn't understand it because I couldn't play my instrument well enough to reinforce sonically what I was trying to learn logically.

In any event, I picked up the guitar when I was 13, thinking I wouldn't get anywhere, but I did get somewhere. I started learning beatles songs and just did my own thing up until I got to college. I would say I was a functional rhythm guitarist and could sit in on the one-four-five blues as a rhythm player only but I got bored not doing the crazy stuff I saw the lead players do. Then, I started learning riffs from tab and got to be very good at hearing records, taking the tab and playing it right.

After a while though, I got to where you probably are in that I needed to understand more of the "why" aspect as opposed to knowing "what" I was playing.

That's when I turned to jazz. I had to try out to get into the major level music classes at my college (after skipping the four prereq courses!) but the teacher said my fingers were quick enough that I would be able to keep up. and I did...I'm actually not that big a fan of jazz guitar but two years of college jazz performance and theory has taught me enough to write and perform pop/folk/rock for a lifetime.

so, I repeat, lessons are a good thing...if you already know how to play. :D

miles maxwell
 
sorry guhlenn I was really responding to jimistones thread guess I overreacted I'm a big blues fan and I'm white so I guess I took that to heart, I've heard other people say similiar things which I never agreed with...
quote from earlier response

"it depend on what style you want to learn i guess...classical can be learned, rock can be learned......blues can't be learned...you either have a feel for blues or you don't...country can be learned. "

this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard
 
i most definately agree with both...

first; i did learn guitar and theory that exact way; i came to a point where i wanted to know WHY things sounded good when played a certain way... then it'[s easy to learn...

and 'm bass dude, ofcourse it's crap. music is music no matter what religion race sexual preference well you knoiw what i mean...

Guhlenn "blues isn't music, blues is a feeling!" (and that feeling is ONLY in black skin HA! ;) )
 
to start with, i didn't say you had to be black to play blues...I don't agree with that.

you have to have a feel for the blues. the "feel" is something that can't be learned....some have it and some don't (black and white musicians included)

i have heard outstanding guitar players that suck at playing blues and i've heard half assed guitar players that sound real good on blues

you can learn blues licks...but most blues guitar solos are 90% string bending, vibrado, and knowing when not to play.

there are alot of guys that are very knoledgeable of scales, chops, and music theory in general.....but give them a 12 bar blues progression and they go all over the fretboard noodling their ass off and it dosen't sound right cause the "feel" isn't there.
technically the lines they are playing are very impressive and complicated....but dosen't nessesarilysound worth a shit in a blues format.

this is just my opinion and everyones got one
 
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