The Guitar Resource Thread

[Martian]

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.

[settie]

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

[Punk.of.Ages]

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.

[Baraka_Guru]

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.

[Punk.of.Ages]

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.

[SSJTWIZTA]

i need no help. hendrix has nothing on this!



(ego-free translation: HELP! I FUCKING SUCK!)

[Martian]

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.

[Daniel_]

The three Kings being Albert, BB and...?

Pretty sure you don't mean Carol. :/

[Baraka_Guru]

Originally Posted by Daniel_

The three Kings being Albert, BB and...?

Freddie

[Derwood]

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).

[shakran]

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.

[kutulu]

Originally Posted by Martian

Kurt Cobain was perhaps one of the best rhythm guitarists who ever lived.

????? Look, I won't pretend to like Nirvana but Cobain wasn't that great of a guitarist. None of the stuff he did with Nirvana was all that unique.

[Derwood]

I'd put James Hetfield near the top of the list for best rhythm guitar players

[kutulu]

Originally Posted by Derwood

I'd put James Hetfield near the top of the list for best rhythm guitar players

Definitely. Toni Iomi is up there as well.

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.

[Martian]

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.

[SSJTWIZTA]

any sweep picking exercises from the members?

[Fly]

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.......

Originally Posted by settie

Practice practice practice... :P

[Baraka_Guru]

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?

[Punk.of.Ages]

I'm liking Baraka's idea. Hopefully somebody can provide this for us.

[gboz]

How about an example of a really great rhythm and lead player: Stevie Ray Vaughn

[SSJTWIZTA]

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.

[Martian]

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.

[SSJTWIZTA]

pulled this off of here



finding the key is usually easy from here. start naming some songs.

[Fly]

soon as i dialed in no sharps between E/F or B/C it made it easier too........

[gonadman]

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

[thespian86]

I'm gonna quote myself from another thread:

Originally Posted by thespian86

Okay, since you already played a musical instrument, and a difficult one at that, I won't give you the "playing a musical instrument is a serious investment" but don't assume that because a lot of people play the guitar, that it'll be a simple instrument to play; that is because a lot of people who play the guitar actually can't.

So here we go:

First of all, realize that picking up the guitar will be difficult; Hendrix won't be your boy for a long time. As soon as you come to terms with that, which I figure you can, here are a few tips I give to my beginner students.

There are branches of beginner guitar that students should focus on to become well rounded players (in my opinion): 1) Playing Technique, 2) Music Theory, 3) Rhythm.

1) This is the simplest to "pick up" but the hardest to master. My three basic "playing hands" techniques that I teach my kids are:

i) Elevator Button Fingers (Play with the tips of your fingers, not the pads; playing with pads lessons the strength and movement of the finger; it'll be painful but worth it)/Playing with arched fingers (this allows better movement and along with the first part will stop you from devoloping one of the worst "self taught" habits; blocking and muting strings. By keeping those fingers arched and playing with the tips, you'll avoid blocking other stings)

ii) Playing Close to the fret. I'm assuming you know what the fret is but if you don't, they are the small metal bars separating the spaces where you play. By developing the habit of playing close to the frets when you begin, you'll be hounded less by buzzing (which happens when you don't apply enough finger strength and/or your positioning is flawed). It just saves you a lot of trouble and once you become a little more comfortable with playing around the fret board then you can change it up.

iii) (this is for your right hand; or your "strumming/picking" hand) Pick control. Beginners usually do two things when they begin which you should pay attention to mastering right away. First of all, play with control in respect to the movement of your strumming; or, rather, don't move too far from the strings. Moving excessively far from the strings will cause you to slow or overcompensate when it comes to timing. Over the top speed and strength when strumming doesn't need to equal a louder sound; just play with precision and it'll sound like you want it. The second is most beginners either dig or skim their pick. Digging is kind of like digging with a spade in a garden; you dip your pick far into the strings and receive a lot of resistance. Skimming is the opposite; you aren't hitting the strings enough, often missing strings completely, or playing without any power or sound.

All three things are tips on how to optimize your effort into playing with a lazer focus. It makes development that much easier.

Tips: For 1) Try (I can't think of the word right now; drumming your fingers one by one, over and over??) with them arched and only hitting the tips. When you lift up to hit again, make sure not to extend your fingers out. Another great tip for finger strength is to take your index with thumb and press with all of your strength for about ten seconds and repeat with all of your fingers; do this about 15 times a day and you'll be a god in no time.

Also when it comes to actually "playing the guitar" try mock scales to become more comfortable with the fret board. Mock scales are simply playing every playing position (1st fret, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th with the corresponding fingers index (1), middle (2), ring (3), and pinky (4)) all the way down the guitar from 6th string to first (Low E to High e) in a 1-4 order. When you get to the bottom, move over a fret (so you are now playing 2-3-4-5) and playing up the guitar only backwards, playing 4-1. Do this as a warm up and you'll find you're playing will get better quickly.

2) Basic music theory is simple to learn; refer to the book section of my comment.

3) My favorite! Rhythm! Rhythm is a very difficult thing to learn, but I would suggest the following two things:

i) When you're playing tap your foot to a basic 4/4 rhythm, and also count aloud while doing it. This means using every part of your body in playing and will help you develop faster (saying it, playing it, tapping it). PLAY WITH YOUR WHOLE BODY.

ii) When you get to point where you can comfortably learn songs within a specific genre try keeping the same chord progression but change the rhythm and playing style to a different genre. For instance: playing a folk song with a bluesy romp, playing blues like a pop song, etc. It'll help you explore different genres and playing styles too!



For this I'd recommend two books:

1) Hal Lenord's Guitar Book 1: It's so simplistic and kind of silly for an adult but it explains things VERY WELL and also gives you simple drills that you can develop over time as warm ups.

2) Guitar Playing For Dummies. GREAT adult playing book. Very accurate and indepth playing drills and songs. Forces you to build on everything you learn better then any other book I've ever seen, and forces you to play every style. Also has tips on everything guitar related. It's kind of a big purchase for a book (30-40 bucks) but I think it's worth every penny.



If you just want a clunker and aren't looking for a solid beginner guitar pick one up from a pawn shop but it'll be harder to play. Instruments are like wands in Harry Potter; they kind of choose you. If you're serious about trying though, and don't mid spending 400-500 bucks, look into Seagulls. Great playing guitar, relatively cheap, and durable.

Oh yeah; LEARN ON ACOUSTIC! Do not learn on electric, even though it sounds neato. It is forgiving and sloppy. Force yourself to be better then you think you can be and you will be.



I hope all of this helps; I'm sure it will. Either way, and I don't know you but I tell this to everyone, don't give up because it will hurt, and it will get hard fast, and you've just got to push through it. I love the story of Joplin; she almost gave up playing guitar because she couldn't play the F maj chord. Imagine what would of happened if she had.

Good luck.

-Taylor

[Baraka_Guru]

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

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.

I came across something that might help in this regard. I'd like to know what you guys think.

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?

[Martian]

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.

[Baraka_Guru]

Originally Posted by Martian

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.

Thanks for the info so far. I have some things I'd like to try. I've been listening to the Hip more lately, and have been noodling a bit on some riffs. I'd like to expand on a few songs though. Could you enlighten me a bit on Blow at High Dough, Courage (for Hugh MacLennan), and Little Bones as well?

[squeeeb]

this is a great thread. thank you.

[fast1]

Originally Posted by shakran

check out wholenote.com . . 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.

this is pretty cool, thanks

[Martian]

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

Thanks for the info so far. I have some things I'd like to try. I've been listening to the Hip more lately, and have been noodling a bit on some riffs. I'd like to expand on a few songs though. Could you enlighten me a bit on Blow at High Dough, Courage (for Hugh MacLennan), and Little Bones as well?

I had a look/listen/jam to Little Bones and decided that it's a good one.

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.

[Baraka_Guru]

Originally Posted by Martian

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 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.

Holy shit, thanks a lot. Yeah, I had occasionally noodled around on that riff but never took it any further than that. Between my last post and now I've been listening to the song to see where I could add in some things, and you're right, there are some good spots in there. Plus, hey, it's one damn cool song.

I'll tackle Blow At High Dough either tonight or tomorrow, as time permits.

Thanks again. Again, with this one I have noodled with the main riff. I could see myself having a lot of fun with it as well.

[noahfor]

Originally Posted by Martian

Soloing.

end up around 32nds at maybe 150

this seems unbelievable, do you mean 16ths?

[Martian]

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.

[Zodijackyl]

Originally Posted by SSJTWIZTA

any sweep picking exercises from the members?

I loved this section of Kris Norris' instructional DVD

YouTube - Sweeping Section DVD 002

YouTube - Sweeping Section DVD 002

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: