Help please!

[guitar_music]

Hey guys,
I've been playing for 6 months now. I can play most chords doing them very fluently, that includes barre and power chords. I have just recently been learning a couple of scales and been having alot of fun with them. I have a few questions, how do i go about writing a melody (or writing solos to a melody)? Can different scales be mixed together? What sort of standard do i need to get at to play guitar for a living, in a professional band? This is my lifetime goal (I am currently in a band). To give you a rough indication to what standard i'm at now, i can play 'Silverchair- Tomorrow' all the way through.

To anyone who replies: Thank You!!!!!!!!!!

Bye
James

[SixStringMadman]

Well, I suppose the most obvious standard for playing in a band professionally is well, not screwing up while playing. If you are playing songs all the way through and playing in an amateur band at 6-months of practice, you are doing good--keep it up. Also, write your own songs. When you begin writing your own songs, you will begin to see where your music knowledge is lacking. All of a sudden you no longer have a recipe to follow and you are left to make the biscuits from scratch, so to speak.

Learn all the major and minor scales and be able to play them without looking at the fretboard. Memorize the chord clock (sometimes called the 'circle of fifths'), it will help you organize chords in your songs so it sounds good. And most importantly, have fun. If you don't have fun, you lose interest, plain and simple. Also, I assume you are playing on an electric guitar, correct? If so, I recommend getting yourself an acoustic guitar. You will find barre chords and scaling (as well as soloing!) aren't as easy on the acoustic and it will teach you better dexterity and fluidity in your playing, and not to mention an acoustic sounds damn nice. :)

Again, for the electric, you will need a distortion pedal, if you don't already have one. And if you are one of the fortunate, silver spoon in mouth beginners, and have a nice five or six-hundred dollar amp with built in effects, you have it made as far as amateur band playing goes. And, if not, a Boss Metal Zone will do what you need (about 80 or 100 bucks, look for sales!).

I guess that's about it,

SSM

--A drummer and a bassist help, too! :D

[guitar_music]

Thank you very much for replying, i really appreciate it!

[Jessntell]

Other than what has been so rightly suggested, just have fun with what you play :)