Scales

I totally agree with you their,picking a hardly used internet explorer seems a bit too much.IE 8 is just is a much better choice now and the difference that mozilla is not worth the trouble.
 
Kristian Niemann said:
What and why do you want to study at these places?
Click to expand...
Well I plan on making a career out of music, and I figured that attending one of these schools would not only assist my playing, but also help me make some connections in the industry (which, unfortunately, I have heard is more important than talent :( ) But mainly I just want to be the best I possibly can be
Also, I want to improve on my knowledge of theory, which is rather lacking. I know my intervals and how to construct basic chords and scales, but beyond that I am pretty clueless. A few things you said in the posts in the therion threads (what I could read anyway lol) I didn't fully understand...such as
The diatonic triad arpeggios/chords in Amin/Cmaj:
Cmaj Dmin E min Fmaj Gmaj Amin Bdim

The diatonic 7th arpeggios/chords in Amin/Cmaj:
Cmaj7 Dm7 Em7 Fmaj7 G7 Am7 Bmi7b5
Click to expand...

I would say that my main problem is a lack of creativity, which is why I'm afraid that I won't be able to make a living as a musician (along with a dayjob of course lol, I don't harbor any delusions of making tons of money off of playing guitar.) I can never seem to make scales into music, and whenever I go to write a riff or solo it comes out pretty bland and boring.
I know I have said it a thousand times already, but thank you for taking the time to answer all of my questions, I really appreciate it!
Edit: Ok, changing my username lol
 
Thor Arise said:
Well I plan on making a career out of music, and I figured that attending one of these schools would not only assist my playing, but also help me make some connections in the industry (which, unfortunately, I have heard is more important than talent :( ) But mainly I just want to be the best I possibly can be
Also, I want to improve on my knowledge of theory, which is rather lacking. I know my intervals and how to construct basic chords and scales, but beyond that I am pretty clueless. A few things you said in the posts in the therion threads (what I could read anyway lol) I didn't fully understand...such as


I would say that my main problem is a lack of creativity, which is why I'm afraid that I won't be able to make a living as a musician (along with a dayjob of course lol, I don't harbor any delusions of making tons of money off of playing guitar.) I can never seem to make scales into music, and whenever I go to write a riff or solo it comes out pretty bland and boring.
I know I have said it a thousand times already, but thank you for taking the time to answer all of my questions, I really appreciate it!
Edit: Ok, changing my username lol
Click to expand...

Ok, cool.

I dont know where you live but if I were you I´d do the following things:
1) Hook up with a good teacher, preferably a jazzplayer. Work on theory, scales, arpeggios, improvisation, sight reading, harmony and all that good stuff AND, most importantly, eartraining. I´ll say it again: eartraining. Thats THE most important thing. Study with him every week or two for a few years and you will have a really solid grounding on which to build your style.

If you then choose to go to one of those schools, especially MI (or the one I´d probably choose...LAMA) you can bypass most of the drudgery and just concentrate on the fun shit.

2) Start transcribing EVERYTHING. Everything you think is cool, figure out WHY you like, where it is on the guitar, what it is theoretically, learn to play it. Licks, songs, chords, whatever little small or big piece of music it is, learn it!!! This will help you immensely with you own creativity and knowledge of you instrument. Cuz if you want a real career in music you will be competing against the best, guys who´s been doing this type of practice for years and years. So start transcribing now! I know its difficult in the beginning but thats part of the learning process. Besides, you´re taking eartraining lessons arent you? :D

3) Start listening to jazz. You dont have to love it but understanding how the music is constructed and how the soloists are thinking, what scales/arps they are using, will give you all the theory you´ll ever need. I´ll PM you a list of some good shit to listen to.

4) Start listening to blues. A lot!!!! Being able to play the blues convincingly is probably the one thing that will help you the most. It will help you with you tone, vibrato, timing, phrasing...everything. If you aim for a professional career, meaning as a hired sideman or session guy, 99,4% of the time you´ll get by soloing-wise with just a good command of the blues.
I´ll just mention a few guys you should check out: Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford, Joe Bonamassa, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Albert King, BB King, Eric Gales, Freddie King.

Now, if you want a career writing and playing and performing just your own music then you can pretty much ignore all this stuff except the transcribing. Just work on your own songs 24/7.

Good luck!
 
1) I had a teacher for a few weeks but she was some country player who thought anchoring your pinky was the most important aspect of technique. Honestly, all it did was hinder my technique, especially sweeps and such. The best teacher in the area (who went to Berklee for a short amount of time) quit teaching and joined a nationally touring rush cover band, so that leaves me with the local music shop I suppose lol they have some great guys there so I am sure it will be highly beneficial.

2) I would say the hardest part of that is figuring out it's exact location on the guitar, but I am pretty sure I get it close enough. Thus far I have been able to tab only the Adams Family theme song and a few Nox Arcana intros (A Dream Within a Dream and Lenore form the Shadow of the Raven album) and I don't know that they are all that accurate, but hell, it's a start.

3) For some reason I had always ignored the genre, not sure why. I just listened to Pat Metheny's Naked Moon and it blew me away!

4) I am familiar with a few of those guys (Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, BB King, and Stevie Ray Vaughn), and judging by what I have heard they are incredible. I think I'm going to attempt tabbing out the solo from Sunshine of Your Love, seems like a good place to start.

I can't thank you enough Kristian. Up until now I have been focused almost entirely on technique (but yesterday I learned that I was sweeping wrong, so I need to go back and correct 6 months of practice >_<).
Just one final question: When I start practicing all of this stuff, is it best to have a structured practice schedule, or just make a list of things I want to cover and make sure I practice them all in the time I have?
 
Thor Arise said:
Just one final question: When I start practicing all of this stuff, is it best to have a structured practice schedule, or just make a list of things I want to cover and make sure I practice them all in the time I have?
Click to expand...

Im the kind of person who benefits greatly from having strict schedule but thats up to you. Just make sure you get to everything every (or every other) day. Divide things into different areas: technique, transcribing/learning new stuff, scales/chords/arpeggios, improvising, theory/eartraining/sight reading etc etc.
Do whatever works for you.
 
Ok, thanks

Typically I lose focus and get off track if I am running on any kind of strict schedule, so I suppose I will try just nailing all the key points without being too structured about it. I appreciate your patience with me lol thanks for all of your advice it's helped me a lot already. Also, I checked out most of the music you recommended and it is phenomenal! And to think I used to believe that jazz was boring...:rolleyes:
Edit: Fixed the million typos I made
 
Any blues recommendations? I love the last minute of this video, would be very happy to find something similar:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsrQXkiMMr8&fmt=18[/ame]
 
Yeah, I know, but I was looking for something more specific. Checked out BB King more seriously, though, and he's god damn good :)
 
Holy shit that was great...not quite as good as pat metheny (but I don't believe he is fusion) but still...that was incredible
 
Not really, but you should definitely learn to tune by ear anyway. Part of the eartraining thingy.

I think that even without a guitar in your hands you should be able to hear the sound of the open strings in your head. Just pluck the strings one at a time a few times in the morning the first thing you do, and repeat it just before you go to bed. It shouldnt take long before you can sing a "G" note just from memory.
 
I noticed recently that I can sing D and A without thinking much about it. D because I have been playing a lot of droning stuff with an open D, and A because it's the most common note in every AC/DC song. When I think about A, I think about the beginning of "Whole Lot of Rosie" (or however they smell it). That riff goes A, C, A, D, A, C, A, so it's also easy to extrapolate C from it :)

Oh, and now that I think about it, F is memorable as the first not in "Far Beyond The Sun" by You-Know-Who.

And B is the first note in the second solo on Opeth's Windowpane. C# is the first note in the first.

And so on. I've had most of the songs mentioned above running on repeat in my head for ages, so I can very easily recall the sounds.
 
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