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How to get better at guitar

jakeworth.com

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Re: How to get better at guitar

#51

Post by RomanPushkin »

bityard wrote: post #31
RomanPushkin wrote: post #19

I am playing for quite a while... Had private lessons with a coach to practice solo guitar, and general understanding for a couple of years. Before that around 10 years or more as amateur, now it's been 3 years since I spoke to a guitar coach last time. I play every day, I do my solos, I play blues, I don't need chords. But it's hard. Just don't underestimate how hard it is - to be able to play any solo by ear. I gue…

I mean, it kind of sounds like you hated the whole process and didn't care about the result either. What was your reason for taking up the guitar as a hobby in the first place? I suspect it's actually impossible to get reasonably good at something without some amount of passion for it, to some degree or another. Most musicians are in it for the thrill of learning something that most people find hard to do, or because…

I can't imagine you can do it for many years without a passion. I'm saying that when it comes to playing an insrument, there is definitely a concept of a talent involved. If you're not talented, you ain't gonna reach stars even if you spend 10-15 years doing it with passion.

Loving musing doesn't mean you can play it.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#52

Post by NetOpWibby »

1bpp wrote: post #45
LiquidSky wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of an interview I heard with comicbook artist Chip Zdarsky. He was talking about how we all love to draw as kids, but eventually around 10 years old or so we start to become aware that what we see in our heads isn't anywhere near what's appearing on the page in our drawings, and that gap acts as a powerful filter discouraging most people from pursuing art any further.

[flagged]

You know you're gonna get banned/deleted, right?

Re: How to get better at guitar

#54

Post by RomanPushkin »

emil-lp wrote: post #25
RomanPushkin wrote: post #19

I am playing for quite a while... Had private lessons with a coach to practice solo guitar, and general understanding for a couple of years. Before that around 10 years or more as amateur, now it's been 3 years since I spoke to a guitar coach last time. I play every day, I do my solos, I play blues, I don't need chords. But it's hard. Just don't underestimate how hard it is - to be able to play any solo by ear. I gue…

Why did you continue playing for over a decade?

I was always pretty curious about what's gonna happen next :) Like one year more into that - will it make me fundamentally better or not? If you understand fretboard - will it make you better or not? If you learn the scales, if you practice them, etc... I was (and still am) looking for something that would hopefully glue all of that together.

Don't get me wrong, I produced a couple of songs, some people say they're pretty good. But honestly, it's a crap.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#55

Post by drivebyhooting »

1bpp wrote: post #45
LiquidSky wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of an interview I heard with comicbook artist Chip Zdarsky. He was talking about how we all love to draw as kids, but eventually around 10 years old or so we start to become aware that what we see in our heads isn't anywhere near what's appearing on the page in our drawings, and that gap acts as a powerful filter discouraging most people from pursuing art any further.

[flagged]

I don’t understand this non-sequitur

Re: How to get better at guitar

#56

Post by __fst__ »

I started learning guitar using tabs. It's good for easily picking up a song, but I found it painful to learn new songs. Everything I played I simply memorized and learning a new song was always a start from scratch.

I mostly play classical guitar and now force myself to get better at sight reading standard music notation. I find it extremely hard but very rewarding because I'm now able to simply pick up a sheet of music and with a couple of tries figure out the basics of a piece. It opens up a whole library of beautiful pieces.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#57

Post by bluGill »

H1Supreme wrote: post #47

Recognizing melodies by ear is a hugely useful skill, but I can't help but think it's going to be nearly impossible to do without a sound foundation in music theory. Tabs are, in large part, paint-by-number. Lots of guitarists out there are only interested in learning a song. Regardless of key, mode, or what the notes actually are. And, tabs satisfy that group by saying: "Play this fret on this string". To write tabs…

You can figure it out by ear with music theory. You use different terms but who cares. Theory is useful of course but not required.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#60

Post by RAM-bunctious »

H1Supreme wrote: post #47

Recognizing melodies by ear is a hugely useful skill, but I can't help but think it's going to be nearly impossible to do without a sound foundation in music theory. Tabs are, in large part, paint-by-number. Lots of guitarists out there are only interested in learning a song. Regardless of key, mode, or what the notes actually are. And, tabs satisfy that group by saying: "Play this fret on this string". To write tabs…

Having learned guitar in a way that's somewhat similar to what's outlined in this article, I will say that someone doing this transcription-based method will likely naturally consolidate their "making tabs" into "making chords" pretty quickly, because the patterns occur often enough. I'd also say that producing your own tabs is very far away from a being a mere tab-consumer, it's just a natural introductory medium because tabs are very easily digestible to a beginner and, as you say, satisfy the craving.

I think that starting off with easy songs, and with enough brute force as you scale up, you can become organically familiar with these concepts to make the educated guesses you're talking about.

Many renowned musicians were able to effectively create music utilising these concepts despite never formally learning music theory, and by just learning by ear.

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