thanks man alive, i'll see if i can't dig some of those out.
― Unheimlich Manouevre (dog latin), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:37 (nine years ago) link
as a lefty who plays drums right-handed, my advice is to develop a style based on having a shitty right hand.
― lil urbane (Jordan), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:40 (nine years ago) link
I'm not the most chop-heavy player, but one thing I can always impress people with is my ability to improvise over pretty much anything, and to learn things easily by ear. I attribute this to having developed my ear and to working on the boring theory stuff that most guitarists skip.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:42 (nine years ago) link
Oh btw I think Single String Studies is all written on staff, so you need to learn how to read notes on a staff before you can use it.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:43 (nine years ago) link
or just get one of these, picking problem solved.
http://www.stick.com/instruments/stick/stick.jpg
― lil urbane (Jordan), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:46 (nine years ago) link
is that a chapman stick?
― Unheimlich Manouevre (dog latin), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:47 (nine years ago) link
oh sweet, my main problem with regular guitars is that they're not quite phallic _enough_ yknow
― adam, Tuesday, 3 March 2015 15:48 (nine years ago) link
have I got a guitar for you
http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/features/outrageous-guitars/penisguitar-630-80.jpg
― DJP, Tuesday, 3 March 2015 16:17 (nine years ago) link
Dan!!!
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 16:17 (nine years ago) link
when HR takes me away, I will shout over my shoulder "IT WAS WORTH IT" as they lead me from the building
― DJP, Tuesday, 3 March 2015 16:19 (nine years ago) link
Mods, seize him!
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 16:23 (nine years ago) link
thanks dan that's exactly what i was looking for!
― adam, Tuesday, 3 March 2015 16:27 (nine years ago) link
Can anyone recommend a book that is a good beginner's tutorial for playing electric guitar? I've read this thread and I'm not really serious enough to start taking lessons at the moment but a good book would be invaluable. Thanks.
― schlep and back trio (anagram), Friday, 22 January 2016 14:08 (eight years ago) link
What would you want such a book to have ideally? (All I wanted from a book was to reveal how to make wheedleywoo sounds, which no one has written a good book for)
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 22 January 2016 14:24 (eight years ago) link
I think that's what I want to be able to do as well. But if there's no book for it...
― schlep and back trio (anagram), Friday, 22 January 2016 14:37 (eight years ago) link
Mel Bay's Shredding for Beginners is somewhere in Borges library
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 22 January 2016 14:44 (eight years ago) link
What sort of wheedleywoo sounds? Like shreddy metal? Noise?
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, 22 January 2016 15:12 (eight years ago) link
All of it -- guitar center hero to Glenn Branca
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 22 January 2016 15:25 (eight years ago) link
Those are two very divergent paths. Guitar Center Hero = learn scales and modes, work on your tapping, bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs, etc. Branca = buy a lot of pedals and spend a lot of time fucking around, and if you learned scales try not to think about them.
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, 22 January 2016 15:48 (eight years ago) link
Just find a song that you love and learn how to play it. Then repeat
― calstars, Friday, 22 January 2016 15:59 (eight years ago) link
^ buy the $5 songsterr app for you phone. It plays through the tab and you can slow it down or loop sections. Pick a favorite section of a favorite song. Set it to slow speed. Play along. Ramp up the speed.
― I expel a minor traveler's flatulence (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 22 January 2016 16:56 (eight years ago) link
the only thing wrong w/ something like this is that it plays all notes at equal volume. So you do eventually need to learn to play it like chet atkins after you learn to play like robot chet atkins.
― I expel a minor traveler's flatulence (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 22 January 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
I want to write an instructional book called "Start Screwing Around and Learn to Play the Guitar"
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, 22 January 2016 17:17 (eight years ago) link
Troy Stetina's books were recommended to me for teaching hard rock/heavy metal guitar technique and I found them to be successful. The metal lead guitar and rhythm guitar books are the core of the method, although Total Rock Guitar works well for students who are not very advanced. That one assumes that you can fret notes and count a beat and starts you out on power chords. (He uses an 80s definition of 'metal', even including Slash and Hendrix.) Like a good snob, I had my reservations about the reliance on tab and the total absence of standard notation in the metal books but I doubt most people would mind. The metal books might be one side of what you're looking for, Philip?
Branca = buy a lot of pedals and spend a lot of time fucking around, and if you learned scales try not to think about them.
I don't think Branca ever used pedals very much, actually. He has worked a lot with customized instruments and alternate tuning systems (particularly just intonation).
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 22 January 2016 21:04 (eight years ago) link
i'll check it out, thanks! (but basically less interested in learning to play all along the watchtower than how to make a guitar sound interesting while it is on fire)
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 22 January 2016 22:35 (eight years ago) link
Well, there's always this: http://users.wfu.edu/breckers/howtoplayguitar.htm
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 22 January 2016 22:45 (eight years ago) link
Still recommend Arnie Berle's Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar for learning, um, chords and progressions. That and Rikky Rooksby's books, particular the Beatle Chord Songbook and How to Write Songs on Guitar.
But really came to post that FB is recommending me to get a Danelectro 12SDC 12-String Electric Guitar Black at Musician's Friend for $399.99, but I don't play electric or with a pick so...
― YOLO Versus Powerball on the Moneygoround, Part One (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 January 2016 17:49 (eight years ago) link
xp or this:Captain Beefheart's 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing
― bored at work (snoball), Sunday, 24 January 2016 17:54 (eight years ago) link
Richard Lloyd had some good lessons on his site, I heard, but I believe he took them down.
― YOLO Versus Powerball on the Moneygoround, Part One (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 January 2016 17:56 (eight years ago) link
What would you want such a book to have ideally? (All I wanted from a book was to reveal how to make wheedleywoo sounds, which no one has written a good book for)― Philip Nunez, Friday, 22 January 2016 14:24 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 22 January 2016 14:24 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
'Play In A Day' by Bert Wheedlon
― canoon fooder (dog latin), Sunday, 24 January 2016 18:54 (eight years ago) link
^Worked for Steve Jones.
― Hang Onto Your Selfie (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 January 2016 18:59 (eight years ago) link
I bought an acoustic a few weeks ago, been playing around with a few random shapes that I like the sound of, including 000220, which apparently is E13sus4. Can I start a song with this chord or do you have to start with the tonic chord?
― Chris, Thursday, 23 March 2017 13:13 (seven years ago) link
Can I start a song with this chord
Yes. You can start a song with any chord you want. Joe Meek said it best: "If it sounds right, then it is right."
― well the bitter comes out better on a stolen Switch cartridge (snoball), Thursday, 23 March 2017 13:31 (seven years ago) link
all songs need to start with a b-minor chord iirc, it's the law
― physicist and christian lambert dolphin (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 23 March 2017 14:05 (seven years ago) link
Chuck Berry to thread.
― And Run Into It And Blecch It (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 April 2017 16:14 (seven years ago) link
Because each one of songs usually started with a particular "fanfare," as somebody said, such as the augmented chord at the beginning of "School Days."
― And Run Into It And Blecch It (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 1 April 2017 16:17 (seven years ago) link
I came across this cheat sheet to help me with chord progressions, and am a bit confused...https://www.adsrsounds.com/music-theory-tutorials/music-theory-cheat-sheet/
Question: My verse is in C Major. It says that I can write my chorus in a different key, and that I can use one of C Majors 'neighbours' in the circle of fifths, so F or G. If I take F, and use the same I - IV - V - V progression, I get F Bb C C. Bb isn't part of the C Major scale is it, so if I use a Bb chord in my chorus, won't that sound 'wrong'?
― Chris, Friday, 21 April 2017 10:25 (seven years ago) link
Sorry this probably should have gone in the music theory thread.
― Chris, Friday, 21 April 2017 11:03 (seven years ago) link
No such thing as wrong though, surely?
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 21 April 2017 11:21 (seven years ago) link
I thought that but then wondered if I was reading the circle incorrectly.
― Chris, Friday, 21 April 2017 11:33 (seven years ago) link
You seem to be over-thinking this guitar playing thing. Are you a keyboard player by any chance?
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 21 April 2017 11:35 (seven years ago) link
Anyway, everyone has their own approach, I don't understand anything about music theory beyond the names of the notes on the fret.
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Friday, 21 April 2017 11:37 (seven years ago) link
Having the chorus in a different key than the verse is not common practice. But hey you can do what you want
― calstars, Friday, 21 April 2017 14:15 (seven years ago) link
Using a Bb chord (or Major VII) does sound weird since you would expect a diminished 7 chord (B-D-F) but I've seen it used like that in pop music for sure. calstars and Tom are both right, basically
― Nhex, Friday, 21 April 2017 16:06 (seven years ago) link
McCartney does this for the middle 8 in Two of Us iirc (altho I guess that's in G?)
― Οὖτις, Friday, 21 April 2017 16:16 (seven years ago) link
That modulates to Bb major from G major, so that's a bit farther. Three of the seven notes are different, whereas in Chris' example - C major modulating to F major - Bb is the only note that's different.
Modulating to a key a fourth away or a fifth away is pretty common, I would say. And as soon as Bb is used, the song will start to suggest that the modulation has occurred, so that is something you can play with.
― timellison, Friday, 21 April 2017 16:56 (seven years ago) link
I should say - once Bb is used, it CAN sound like SOME modulation has taken place. That could be to any key that includes that note.
The other possibility is that Bb can be used as a modal variant. That's also pretty common and can be done without ever really straying from C as the key center.
― timellison, Friday, 21 April 2017 17:07 (seven years ago) link
Like here's a four-chord song in G and they're using F natural all the time. It never sounds like it's in any key other than G.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apGvd765dmk
― timellison, Friday, 21 April 2017 17:18 (seven years ago) link
the F sounds like a power chord w/just two notes (F/C) though which makes it a little easier to get away with
― Nhex, Friday, 21 April 2017 21:27 (seven years ago) link
The Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" is also in G. All kinds of F major chords in that and it's the full triad.
― timellison, Saturday, 22 April 2017 07:48 (seven years ago) link