satch
07-31-2003, 06:48 AM
Ive been playing by ear for the last 20yrs and studying music theory for 8yrs and have finally found a way of studying and practicing that i think works.At least for me,anyways heres the story
I know its very frustrating when your good enough to play all the neat little tricks of van halen/malmsteen and can whip up chords and blues licks ala SRV and then not be able to make sense of it all and or stay in key and not be able to write your own stuff.
There came a point where 64th notes,dive bombs and tenonitus wernt enough to keep me happy playing guitar,so i decided to delve into music theory.I would study,study and study some more sometimes for 6hrs ea. day.I studied intervals/keys/chord construction/scale formulas etc....but nothing was really making me a better player because my ear was so used to doing all the work.
I think most of my problem was wanting perfection from theory by using little memorization tricks and whatnot to play anything and everything on the guitar at a drop off a hat.NOT!!!!!!!!
For me the best method ive tried is so simple its scary but has worked
a million times better than scale patterns or letters.
Basically play little segments of songs you already know how to play and have memorized.Then disect the song to find all its notes;;;;;
ie. A# C etc....
then find the key its in.....I use major only(less to remember)
Now by stringing together different song peices together in the same key or transposing those that arent I have came up w/ some neat phrases and cool interval jumps all IN KEY.
The beauty of it is i didnt have to remember some boring scale pattern
and as long as i keep my song list up to snuff and know the diffence in sound between a minor and major i should be good enough to impress most people and most importantly myself.And most important dont use a phrase from a song for a reference that contains any "OUT" notes.
I know what all of you will say>>>>>
Im limiting myself to only the 7 modes and the maj/minor pentatonic.
Your right but..........isnt 80% of most music in those scales.
I figure if i need to throw in an out note that wont be hard ive been doing that for 20yrs.......lol
seriously if i need to add an odd note i will just decide which one
ie.flat 3rd and then find it on e string and triangulate it by octaves
to where ever i want to play it on the neck.
Trust me, if your ears and fingers have already been trained to your style then this method is probably your best freind.
Its probably not useful to people just starting tho simply because they wont be able to know which combinations of notes to keep and which ones to throw away.
I know its very frustrating when your good enough to play all the neat little tricks of van halen/malmsteen and can whip up chords and blues licks ala SRV and then not be able to make sense of it all and or stay in key and not be able to write your own stuff.
There came a point where 64th notes,dive bombs and tenonitus wernt enough to keep me happy playing guitar,so i decided to delve into music theory.I would study,study and study some more sometimes for 6hrs ea. day.I studied intervals/keys/chord construction/scale formulas etc....but nothing was really making me a better player because my ear was so used to doing all the work.
I think most of my problem was wanting perfection from theory by using little memorization tricks and whatnot to play anything and everything on the guitar at a drop off a hat.NOT!!!!!!!!
For me the best method ive tried is so simple its scary but has worked
a million times better than scale patterns or letters.
Basically play little segments of songs you already know how to play and have memorized.Then disect the song to find all its notes;;;;;
ie. A# C etc....
then find the key its in.....I use major only(less to remember)
Now by stringing together different song peices together in the same key or transposing those that arent I have came up w/ some neat phrases and cool interval jumps all IN KEY.
The beauty of it is i didnt have to remember some boring scale pattern
and as long as i keep my song list up to snuff and know the diffence in sound between a minor and major i should be good enough to impress most people and most importantly myself.And most important dont use a phrase from a song for a reference that contains any "OUT" notes.
I know what all of you will say>>>>>
Im limiting myself to only the 7 modes and the maj/minor pentatonic.
Your right but..........isnt 80% of most music in those scales.
I figure if i need to throw in an out note that wont be hard ive been doing that for 20yrs.......lol
seriously if i need to add an odd note i will just decide which one
ie.flat 3rd and then find it on e string and triangulate it by octaves
to where ever i want to play it on the neck.
Trust me, if your ears and fingers have already been trained to your style then this method is probably your best freind.
Its probably not useful to people just starting tho simply because they wont be able to know which combinations of notes to keep and which ones to throw away.