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The Guitar Resource Thread
This and The Piano Resource Thread are an idea that popped into my head.
I am, as some of you are aware, a guitarist. I have been playing for several years, and have picked up a thing or two in that time. Not so long ago, Baraka_Guru and I had a sit-down where we discussed guitar. Things like technique, practice schedules, all the sundry details of the craft. I have before and since considered creating a series of online lessons, but am stymied by how to effectively implement such a thing. So. This thread exists for those with experience to share their knowledge, and for those gaining experience to ask their questions. I'm going to start with some warm-up exercises. Proper warm-up and cool-down is essential to good play. I'm guilty of skipping it once in a while, but as a rule I try to always put in at least 5 minutes, preferably 10 or 15. A few simple exercises: First of all is scales. They're simple, but can be made to be complex. A favourite of mine is to run the scales through the circle of fifths. Start with C Major, then G Major, D Major, A Major and so on and so on. Here's some tab for all of the majors through two octaves, which is an excellent start. Ignore the arpeggios. Run a scale up, then back down. If you're feeling bold, you can move on to doing it in thirds, which is something I do; it's a holdout from when I was a wind instrumentalist and needed exercises to improve the strength and dexterity of my embouchure. It involves reorganizing the notes using different intervals, and can break the routine. It looks like this: C E D F E G F A G B A C B D C I will tab that on request. And of course, you can also do chromatic scales, pentatonic scales, blues scales, minor scales and if you're really adventurous you can get into some of the more obscure modes. And the other exercise is variously known as the caterpillar or the crawl. It looks like this: ----------------------------------------1-3-4-4-6-7----------------------------------------- --------------------------------1-3-4-----------------4-6-7--------------------------------- ------------------------1-3-4---------------------------------4-6-7------------------------- ----------------1-3-4--------------------------------------------------4-6-7---------------- --------1-3-4------------------------------------------------------------------4-6-7-------- 1-3-4----------------------------------------------------------------------------------4-6-7 And so on, up the fretboard. Start it slow, and then add speed. Don't go faster than you can manage accurately. Precision is always more important than speed. And a simple tip, something that I harp endlessly: Learn standard notation. It's crucial. I cannot this enough. Understanding theory allows us to understand how the notes fit together. This, in turn, allows us to assemble them in new and interesting ways. Being able to read standard notation is the first step to understanding theory. |
Man, I have a lot of work ahead of me.
I just bought a beautiful fender strat. I've been working on piano theory and playing since I was 8 or so, almost 15 years now... so while I know the scales and chords, and understand the fretboard, my fingers need strengthening to work on playing the guitar with ease. I also played the violin for ten years, and the cello for 3. But its been awhile, and my fingers didn't have to stretch quite like they need to on the guitar. Practice practice practice... :P |
So, up to this point, I'm strictly a rhythm guitarist, but I'm trying to extend my skills into lead guitar. You know, solos and stuff.
Any advice on where to get started with this would be much appreciated. |
P.o.A, I'm pretty much where you are in terms of going from a familiarity with rhythm to wanting to learn what soloing is about.
Take my advice with a grain of salt because I'm still learning everything much like a novice....but.... Master the scales. Start with the pentatonic and then branch out to the others...moving onto the the major and minor scales. Soloing is mainly understanding scales and how they fit in over top of chord progressions. This means that also knowing a bit of theory will go a long way. Martian will back me up on that one! ;) So if you aren't already doing it, bring in some serious scale drills into your practice. It will both get your fingers up to speed and nail into your head the patterns you can use to solo, even as improvisations! All you would need to know is the chord progression and then off you go. This advice also applies to picking up intros, riffs, turnarounds, outros, etc.... It's all related somewhat. |
Yeah, I'm getting pretty proficient with the pentatonic scale and moving into others. I think the "how they fit in over chord progression" part is what I'm having the most trouble with.
I've also been learning some easy lead heavy songs so that I can get a feel for how others do it. This has always helped me out. |
i need no help. hendrix has nothing on this!
(ego-free translation: HELP! I FUCKING SUCK!) |
Soloing.
The first thing to wrap your head around (which again, Baraka_Guru and I have spoken about previously) is that rhythm guitar and lead guitar are two very very different techniques. Get it out of your head that rhythm guitar is easier. It's not true. Both styles can be challenging, and both styles have their masters. BB King is an awesome lead guitarist. Literally cannot play rhythm. At all. Ed Robertson has what I consider to be one of (if not the) best picking hand in the business. Capable to mediocre as a lead, but he's a great rhythm guitarist. Kurt Cobain was perhaps one of the best rhythm guitarists who ever lived. Moving on. Soloing consists of two parts. The first is understanding what notes to play. The second is knowing how to play them. Sound simple? It's about to get complicated. You must must must must must have at least a basic knowledge of theory to understand this. Some few players are able to grasp how this works intuitively, but they're few and far between. If you're here asking for help now, you're not one of those players. Okay. So step one. Learn scales. Don't worry about speed; precision is the key. The speed comes on it's own. As part of my warm ups, I start my scales in half notes at about 120 bpm, and usually end up around 32nds at maybe 150. At first it was half notes at 85, and I concentrated on getting those notes exactly on the beat. Your picking hand goes up and down like a metronome. BG's approach isn't bad, but I'd actually start with the major scales. They're a good foundation, because they're going to help you understand key signatures. Once you get the patterns for major scales down, you can move to minors. Then move to pentatonics, then add the blue note. That's where you're going to stay for a while. Some tab, in the key of A: A Major: --------------------------------------5---- --------------------------------7-9-------- ------------------------6-7-9-------------- ----------------6-7-9---------------------- ---------5-7-9----------------------------- --5-7-9------------------------------------ A B C# D E F# G# A B C# D E F# G# A A Minor: -----------------------------------5----- ----------------------------5-6-8-------- ---------------------4-5-7--------------- ----------------5-7---------------------- ---------5-7-8--------------------------- --5-7-8---------------------------------- A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A A Minor Pentatonic (form 1): ---------------------------5---- ----------------------5-8------- -----------------5-7------------ ------------5-7----------------- -------5-7---------------------- --5-8--------------------------- A C D E G A C D E G A This is the beginning. Practice these. Take it slow to start. Once you have these scales down (and the blues scale as well), you have the building blocks. You still need to learn how to make something out of them. Here's an analogy Baraka's going to appreciate: Picture the notes as letters. They are the base component of the language of solo. We first need to learn how to turn these letters into words. That's where licks come in. I could tab some stuff out, but I'm not going to. Good licks are what separate good soloists from mediocre ones. Listen to the best: the three Kings, Mike McCready, Clapton, Santana to name a few. I suggest starting with blues, because it's structurally more straightforward and most modern styles at least have some roots there. Pay attention to how they structure the notes. Try to pick out the words. These are the licks, and it's not at all uncommon for a musician to use three or four to construct an entire solo. The key is learning how to change the inflection; different accents, dynamics, timing, reversing, restructuring. Pick a lick, emulate it. Take it, and build a solo out of it. One lick. Warp it, distort it, find as many ways to use it as possible. Stretch your creativity to the absolute limit. Then find another lick, and do it again. These are your words. Once you understand the words, and how they fit into the structure (a la key signature), you can start building sentences. The Edge once said that notes are expensive. This is something I strongly believe and try to adhere to. Beginners often try to cram as many notes in as possible, as if their very existence depends on saying as much as possible in as short a time as possible. BG has the advantage over the rest of you, because he's spoken to me in person regarding these things, so he knows that I'm quick to say that it's not what you say but how you say it. The spaces are every bit as important as the sounds. This is the beginning. This represents hours of practice. It ought to be enough for you to start. Good luck. |
The three Kings being Albert, BB and...?
Pretty sure you don't mean Carol. :/ |
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I found early on in my guitar playing that the most helpful way to learn about song structure was to learn other people's songs. At the time, OLGA was the place to go for tabs and chords, but now it's a little more spread around. 911Tabs - tabs search engine // 3,500,000 tabs. Guitar, bass, drums, guitar pro and power tabs! is a pretty good clearing house for multiple tab sites (though make sure you have Ad-Block turned on as it's pop-up hell).
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check out WholeNote . . You can write up lessons there, with both commentary and tabulature, which also get translated into midi so the learner can hear what he's supposed to be playing. It'd be a good platform for the technical side of this thread. Oh, and it's free.
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I'd put James Hetfield near the top of the list for best rhythm guitar players
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I played for a few years but I never immersed myself into guitar playing because I didn't have the time for it. I haven't touched my guitars in at least five years but I can't bring myself to sell them. If I had started around 15 instead of 18, things could have been much different. |
Cobain as an overall guitarist was a bit lackluster, yeah. There were a lot of little intricacies to his playing style that tend to be missed by casual and/or occasional listeners. Approached as another player, it becomes a bit more apparent.
For proof, look at all the garage bands who do shitty Nirvana covers. Structurally the songs are simple, but the actual execution was not. Kurt's lead work was horrendous, however. There you'll get no argument for me. James Hetfield is also a good candidate, but Tony Iommi isn't a rhythm player at all, really. Think of what Sabbath is famous for; it's all licks and solos. Tony is an amazing player (and carries some jazz/flamenco roots that contribute greatly to his overall sound). He may be a good rhythm guitarist, although I suspect his hand injuries would hamper him somewhat. Regardless, it's not really what he does. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Being a good guitarist doesn't automatically make one good at rhythm guitar (although the ideal musician should be well rounded). These are two very different play styles, with different techniques and approaches. Being a rhythm guitarist is pretty thankless, relatively speaking. They don't get the spotlight. I'd be happy to discuss individuals further in another thread. |
any sweep picking exercises from the members?
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great thread Martian..........learning stuff allready.
nice. just learning to wrap the scales into all the chords right now.........solo to me is a lot of feel.......just go with it.......and i find playing along with some music,be it your own(which i do,i try to play off of my guitar players takes)or other tunes you dig........helps major. and this....... Quote:
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You know what would help novices like me? Coming up with a list of popular songs along with what key they're in. That way we could try soloing over top of them.
Maybe even a little primer on how to choose the right scales to do that. Any takers? :) |
I'm liking Baraka's idea. Hopefully somebody can provide this for us.
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How about an example of a really great rhythm and lead player: Stevie Ray Vaughn
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fuck examples of really great players, i want some tips!
finding out what key they;re in is easy, just learn the notes along the fret board. its not as hard as it sounds, seeing how the 5th fret is usually the same as the next string down. |
I can do something like that. I was sort of hoping someone else would take on the challenge, because my time is a bit short right now.
I don't know when I'll have it together, but I will do my best to come up with the chart you desire. |
pulled this off of here
http://www.guitartips.addr.com/tip143.jpg finding the key is usually easy from here. start naming some songs. |
soon as i dialed in no sharps between E/F or B/C it made it easier too........
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This thread has been helpful to me so far Martian. I hope you find the time to continue it. Like so many others, I have progressed to a certain point in my lead playing and stopped advancing- stuck in a rut. Haven't felt I have improved for a long time, and not where I want to be now. Maybe going back over the fundamentals will make a difference instead of the "free association" type of unstructured way I tried to teach myself over the years.
Thanks |
I'm gonna quote myself from another thread:
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Guitar Jam Tracks | JamTracksForGuitar.com This is a series of backing tracks in various music styles that you can play over. There are a bunch of similar resources on the Web, but most of the others are synthetic backing tracks of popular songs. They don't give you any information otherwise. Here, they offer popular sounds (some even styled after popular songs) along with tempo and key—this, to me, is the important part. The other thing is that the tracks are with real instrumentation from what I can tell, so the quality is much higher. (Even if it is synthetic, the quality is much, much higher.) But you do pay for it. It's about $2 a song, and they can be purchased through more online music channels than I've heard of, including iTunes, Amazon, and Napster. I just confirmed that you can buy them for $0.99 each on iTunes, but only 4 of the "albums" are available (the two others are drums only). There are some samples you can listen to for free. Have a look and listen, and tell me what you think. Also, any recommendations on any of the products to get started? |
I feel kind of bad about neglecting this thread.
I'm looking at some of the Youtube videos -- those jam tracks don't look too bad, but I honestly don't know that I'd bother to pay for them. YMMV, I guess. I'm just as happy to put on some tunes and jam along to what I'm hearing. Sussing out key signatures isn't too difficult, and you can look up tab to help. Some examples: Hootie and the Blowfish - Let Her Cry (GMaj, I - V - IV progression, quite simple) Cream - Crossroads Blues (12 bar blues in A, a bit quick for beginners maybe) The Tragically Hip - New Orleans is Sinking (E minor, lots of good spaces to riff over, chord progression's a bit more involved -- follow it here) Bands like AC/DC or Aerosmith are good to explore different styles and such, because they have nice big open spaces for guitar. Anything guitar heavy is nice to jam to. Santana, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, etc. John Mayer, even. Look for the spaces, fill in the blanks. Start by trying to imitate what you hear, and then branch out into your own sounds. Pay attention to the different licks you hear through various permutations. I was going to make a list, but found that a lot of my music naturally reflects my interests and doesn't provide the variety that I feel is worth providing in this thread. So I want to turn it around: if you have a song you'd like to jam to and need to know the salient details (key, tempo etc) throw it down in here. I'll have a look/listen and provide the information. |
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this is a great thread. thank you.
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It's fairly up-tempo, key is F# minor. I like the descending riff that repeats through it, which is built mostly around an F#5 -- I'm not going to tab it out here, Google serves the purpose. I also like that there's a couple of good wide open spaces, or you can riff behind the verses if you want to. Use an F# blues scale and you'll find it very difficult to fuck it up. I'll tackle Blow At High Dough either tonight or tomorrow, as time permits. |
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Ack! I've confused myself. 32nds at 150 would be more of a glissando than anything. Perhaps some folks can do such things, but I'm not really a speed player and would most likely end up with my fingers in knots if I tried.
That should really read 'end up at 150.' The whole thing wasn't clear and I attempted to rephrase it to make it more understandable several times. The basic premise is to start slow and then increment faster, which one can naturally do either by decreasing note duration or increasing tempo (or a combination of both). I don't break out the metronome as much as I maybe should these days, so found myself estimating tempos and note values to get an approximation of what I actually play. The whole thing ended up being a bit of a mess. Thanks for the catch. EDIT - In fact, now that I think of it I seem to recall one of the shredding guys doing speeds comparable to that -- it might've been Vai, my memory's a bit fuzzy on that. Couldn't even tell you for sure where I saw the video, although I suspect it was on one of those freebie CD ROMS they send out with Guitar World magazine. As I recall, it pretty much was just a glissando through the scale. I remember wondering why someone would spend the obvious amount of time and effort drilling to get to that speed -- it seems to be beyond functionality, but maybe that's why he (whoever it was) is world renowned and I'm, well, not. |
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He is tuned to drop C, the exercise works fine in any tuning of course. I use this for practice/warmup, shifted up/down the neck sometimes, and it works great. This, of course, works well in conjunction with the basics that any guide will give you - emphasize the rolling motion of your left hand, don't pick each note individually. I think this one worked best for me by linking three different sweeps and playing them in triplets, they never sounded right when I played them until I worked with triplets, and it works quite nicely. Basic 3-4 finger exercises across 3-4 strings also help to start, simple 12-13-14-15 things. My tab of the exercise, just to put the notes to a metronome in Power Tab to play along with: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...e/sweepexc.png |
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