Guitar players?

[freewait]

Just wondering amongst all you weight lifters if anyone plays guitar?

Me, I've played about 27 years and was in a bunch of bands back in the day, now just play out from time to time for fun or for my son. Mostly electric guitar, but some acoustic. I teach guitar on Monday nights for fun.

Sold a lot of gear years ago when I got married, but I currently play a custom 22 and custom 24 PRS and a Clapton Strat. Taylor 312CE acoustic. Marshall and Fender amps.

yada yada.

Anyone else?

[BobDaNob]

There are a few of us.

I've even noticed that it's helped my technique. Your hands have muscles, too. lol


I only play for fun, too. I'm not at all concerned about being in a band.

[drvillain]

There's actually a sticky in this section. I just started playing the electric last week. I can't wait til I get some real skill, but I'm just learning the basic for now.

[BobDaNob]

There's actually a sticky in this section. I just started playing the electric last week. I can't wait til I get some real skill, but I'm just learning the basic for now.

It's never as fun as those first couple years...all the discovery.

[heat63]

im learning scales on the guitar currently (major, minor pentatonic, blues, etc). how can i learn to play scales all the way up the neck of the guitar? any good tips or resources. havent found anything specific enough.

[softchicken]

im learning scales on the guitar currently (major, minor pentatonic, blues, etc). how can i learn to play scales all the way up the neck of the guitar? any good tips or resources. havent found anything specific enough.

sounds like you already know what you're doing? what exactly are you looking for

[ilovejunkfood]

It's never as fun as those first couple years...all the discovery.

How many hours have I spent trying to play a damn F chord cleanly, makes me want to smash my guitar into 10,000 pieces and chop off my hands so Im never tempted to pick up a guitar again. This is fun??

yes mad as hell why cant I play it fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[Ventura41]

im learning scales on the guitar currently (major, minor pentatonic, blues, etc). how can i learn to play scales all the way up the neck of the guitar? any good tips or resources. havent found anything specific enough.

My problem as well, although learning the solos of my favorite artists has helped me a lot

[freewait]

There's actually a sticky in this section. I just started playing the electric last week. I can't wait til I get some real skill, but I'm just learning the basic for now.

ah, sorry my search didn't reveal that sticky!

[freewait]

im learning scales on the guitar currently (major, minor pentatonic, blues, etc). how can i learn to play scales all the way up the neck of the guitar? any good tips or resources. havent found anything specific enough.

I have tons of tips and techniques, just not easy to detail here. Easier sitting in front of someone! The two most talked about scales are the major scale and minor scale (blues is just a hybrid of the minor scale adding the blue notes). major is often used in country, jazz, etc but not always. Minor scale is used most frequently in rock, blues, any song in a minor key... But note, even Slash uses the major and minor scales for example in Paradise City.

Just remember that scales are only 7 notes in reality. Just 7 notes. There is only the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G repeated all over the guitar. Of course there are flats and sharps (the notes in between except there are not flats/sharps b/w B&C and E&F).

Pick a scale for example C: the notes in the major scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Now go find those all over the fretboard and as long as you are playing in C, those notes will be in key for a major scale solo. same with minor scale; find the minor scale notes.

What I get students to do is know how to find notes first of all. Open strings on a standard tuned guitar are E, A, D, G, B, E. Be able to go up each string and name all notes as you go. And remember, its like saying the alphabet only A through G and it starts over again! And everything starts over again at the 12th fret. 12th fret is E, A, D, G, B, E just like the open strings (only an octave higher).

I'm amazed at how many people get stumped on notes cause they don't know what comes next (think alphabet!). Only trick as I mentioned earlier is that there is no flat/sharp between B/C and E/F. So on the 6th string (low e), the notes would be E (open), F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E. (usually you speak in sharps going up the neck, flats going down)

i also recommend learning how to read basic tab. that will help in learning songs and someone else's solo which will in turn give you ideas of your own solos. Just be smart enough to know what key you are playing so you can apply it later to another song. The key is most often the first chord played. If you start with a G chord, mostly likely the song is in the key of G.

Ok, I'm sure I bored you. Cheers!

[freewait]

How many hours have I spent trying to play a damn F chord cleanly, makes me want to smash my guitar into 10,000 pieces and chop off my hands so Im never tempted to pick up a guitar again. This is fun??

yes mad as hell why cant I play it fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Common, very common problem. My recommendation, play F chord somewhere else on the guitar. There are MANY F chords on the guitar. Look it up on google and see if another version works better.

Or if on the classic F chord you can't hold down the 1st and 2nd strings on the first fret, just play with the index finger on the 2nd string first fret and leave the first string open, but try not to play the first string (that would make it a Fmaj7th chord).

[freewait]

It's never as fun as those first couple years...all the discovery.

I see where you are coming from, but I disagree. I discover something all the time and I think I enjoy it more now than when I started for sure. I'd say make sure to play with someone who is always better than you; that probably helped me the most.

Plus now I'm into tone a lot more so its fun getting into researching new amps, pedals and such beyond just basic playing.

[Sevenstrings]

My username is a reference to the fact I'm a 7 string guitarist.
Funnily enough, for all its association to heavy music, I actually play less metal now that I play 7 strings than I did back in my purely 6 string days.

[AnnieOlson]

I played guitar before I started weightlifting, too bad I suck at it. Right now trying to learn how to play Hangar 18 by Megadeth O_O

[stonewall59]

Bass player here.

5-string Traben Array Limited with low B.

Playing with a band right now.

Love my bass!!!

[An hero]

Yeah I play guitar. I don't lift though.

[freewait]

My username is a reference to the fact I'm a 7 string guitarist.
Funnily enough, for all its association to heavy music, I actually play less metal now that I play 7 strings than I did back in my purely 6 string days.

Kewlio! I have enough trouble with six!

[freewait]

There's actually a sticky in this section. I just started playing the electric last week. I can't wait til I get some real skill, but I'm just learning the basic for now.

I just read through a few recent pages. Looks like it went from being a tips and tricks about playing guitar, to who is the best guitar player of all time thread.

[heat63]

sounds like you already know what you're doing? what exactly are you looking for

yeah, i have been messing around for a while but what i really want to do is learn how to improvise/jam. i dont really want to be an amazing guitarist, but i want to be good and i think i may switch to bass eventually. i just want to be able to listen to music or others play and jam along with them using notes/scales properly. i know basic chords but am not as interested in that as learning the fretboard and how to run scales up and down and improvise and all that ****.

I have tons of tips and techniques, just not easy to detail here. Easier sitting in front of someone! The two most talked about scales are the major scale and minor scale (blues is just a hybrid of the minor scale adding the blue notes). major is often used in country, jazz, etc but not always. Minor scale is used most frequently in rock, blues, any song in a minor key... But note, even Slash uses the major and minor scales for example in Paradise City.

Just remember that scales are only 7 notes in reality. Just 7 notes. There is only the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G repeated all over the guitar. Of course there are flats and sharps (the notes in between except there are not flats/sharps b/w B&C and E&F).

Pick a scale for example C: the notes in the major scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Now go find those all over the fretboard and as long as you are playing in C, those notes will be in key for a major scale solo. same with minor scale; find the minor scale notes.

What I get students to do is know how to find notes first of all. Open strings on a standard tuned guitar are E, A, D, G, B, E. Be able to go up each string and name all notes as you go. And remember, its like saying the alphabet only A through G and it starts over again! And everything starts over again at the 12th fret. 12th fret is E, A, D, G, B, E just like the open strings (only an octave higher).

I'm amazed at how many people get stumped on notes cause they don't know what comes next (think alphabet!). Only trick as I mentioned earlier is that there is no flat/sharp between B/C and E/F. So on the 6th string (low e), the notes would be E (open), F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E. (usually you speak in sharps going up the neck, flats going down)

i also recommend learning how to read basic tab. that will help in learning songs and someone else's solo which will in turn give you ideas of your own solos. Just be smart enough to know what key you are playing so you can apply it later to another song. The key is most often the first chord played. If you start with a G chord, mostly likely the song is in the key of G.

Ok, I'm sure I bored you. Cheers!

thanks! not boring. definitely good information that helps me in the right direction!

[BobDaNob]

How many hours have I spent trying to play a damn F chord cleanly, makes me want to smash my guitar into 10,000 pieces and chop off my hands so Im never tempted to pick up a guitar again. This is fun??

lol

The work is hard - the fun is when you finally get it and it sounds GREAT. It's like finally saving up a bunch of money to spend it on that one cool thing.

I see where you are coming from, but I disagree. I discover something all the time and I think I enjoy it more now than when I started for sure. I'd say make sure to play with someone who is always better than you; that probably helped me the most.

Plus now I'm into tone a lot more so its fun getting into researching new amps, pedals and such beyond just basic playing.

I'm thinking of things like the grueling task of learning those Steve Vai Crossroads arpeggios or some insanely off-beat song like 'Metropolis' or a multi-finger tapping piece like Satriani's 'Midnight', even learning how to fingerpick...after I learned how to do it the first time it never had that same effect. I used to stop and just be amazed at how cool I sounded playing these awesome things. lol

It's like the discovery of new and exciting music coming from MY hands...alas, it's been about a decade since then, though.

My username is a reference to the fact I'm a 7 string guitarist.
Funnily enough, for all its association to heavy music, I actually play less metal now that I play 7 strings than I did back in my purely 6 string days.

I LOVE sevenstrings!

I had an avi with a sevenstring my baby was playing but the mods took it down because genetically similar isn't good enough.

And I agree - sevens are great for clean playing, just look at Dream Theater's 'A Change of Seasons'. It's one of their best songs and so many people don't even realize that they can't play it because their guitar is a string short.

That low B really fills up some sonic space.

[DarthQueef]

lol


I'm thinking of things like the grueling task of learning those Steve Vai Crossroads arpeggios or some insanely off-beat song like 'Metropolis' or a multi-finger tapping piece like Satriani's 'Midnight', even learning how to fingerpick...after I learned how to do it the first time it never had that same effect. I used to stop and just be amazed at how cool I sounded playing these awesome things. lol

Shouldn't be too hard. You can play anything remember? Surprised these aren't part of your repertoire already.


How is Metropolis "off-beat"?

[BobDaNob]

Shouldn't be too hard. You can play anything remember? Surprised these aren't part of your repertoire already.


How is Metropolis "off-beat"?

They aren't to hard, noob - this was back in like '99 and '01...or is reading beneath you because no one has a video to show you how to do it?


And the beginning of Metropolis' instrumental section in 13/8, broken down as 6/8 + 7/8, and later as 4/4 + 5/8.

OFF-BEAT.

Flippin' 'tard.

[freewait]

lol

The work is hard - the fun is when you finally get it and it sounds GREAT. It's like finally saving up a bunch of money to spend it on that one cool thing.

I'm thinking of things like the grueling task of learning those Steve Vai Crossroads arpeggios or some insanely off-beat song like 'Metropolis' or a multi-finger tapping piece like Satriani's 'Midnight', even learning how to fingerpick...after I learned how to do it the first time it never had that same effect. I used to stop and just be amazed at how cool I sounded playing these awesome things. lol

It's like the discovery of new and exciting music coming from MY hands...alas, it's been about a decade since then, though.



I LOVE sevenstrings!

I had an avi with a sevenstring my baby was playing but the mods took it down because genetically similar isn't good enough.

And I agree - sevens are great for clean playing, just look at Dream Theater's 'A Change of Seasons'. It's one of their best songs and so many people don't even realize that they can't play it because their guitar is a string short.

That low B really fills up some sonic space.

gotcha.

I think more people should also try alternate tunings on a 6 string for cleans. You can get some really crisp sounds with things like open d tunings and even drop d tuning which is more well known in the modern rock world. I recently played a clean song with drop C on a coil tapped humbucker. Just happened to be in Drop C after teaching a 3 Days Grace song. Sounded really cool.
I also like to tune up for something different. Try A tuning - A-D-G-C-E-A. (2.5 steps up from standard tuning)

And I know capos are a 'no no' for most electric players, but experiment with one once in a while. I've written several songs that way and later converted it back to barre (aka bar) chords.

[bmontgomery87]

I used to play a lot. Not nearly as much now but I still pick it up from time to time.

[BobDaNob]

gotcha.

I think more people should also try alternate tunings on a 6 string for cleans. You can get some really crisp sounds with things like open d tunings and even drop d tuning which is more well known in the modern rock world. I recently played a clean song with drop C on a coil tapped humbucker. Just happened to be in Drop C after teaching a 3 Days Grace song. Sounded really cool.
I also like to tune up for something different. Try A tuning - A-D-G-C-E-A. (2.5 steps up from standard tuning)

And I know capos are a 'no no' for most electric players, but experiment with one once in a while. I've written several songs that way and later converted it back to barre (aka bar) chords.

I like using a capo, but not for it's normal purpose - I like using it to shorten the neck drastically (like the 12th fret) because it can bring out some amazingly seamless tapping lines. It's like having a third hand.

Something I've always wanted to try: rearranging the strings while still keeping them in tune. Instead of low E to high E, just have them scattered around.

Sometimes you should break the box to think outside of it.

How would the unpredictability of the string's placement affect the creativity of your music?

[DarthQueef]

They aren't to hard, noob - this was back in like '99 and '01...or is reading beneath you because no one has a video to show you how to do it?


And the beginning of Metropolis' instrumental section in 13/8, broken down as 6/8 + 7/8, and later as 4/4 + 5/8.

OFF-BEAT.

Flippin' 'tard.

This one is going to sting because now you're really going to find out how little you know. This is the section you're talking about:



That motif never appears again, so I don't get where your "later as 4/4 + 5/8" is coming from. But that's irrelevant. Here's the important part:

Time signatures don't determine whether or not a song (or section) is off-beat. LOL, I don't even know why you would think that or how you would have come to that conclusion. I mean, it doesn't make any sense at all. "4/4 every note is played on the down beat...13/8 well now everything is played on the off-beat!" lol. Even when you look at the section I cut out and posted above you can see very clearly that there is a note occurring on every down beat. You're a complete buffoon.
Furthermore, an entire song can't be "off-beat" which is why I called you out in the first place. It makes no sense to describe an entire song as "off-beat". Sections of a song can be off-beat, but educated people refer to those as "syncopated rhythms". Some songs can be entirely syncopated, but those are fairly rare, and they're not worth mentioning anyway because they all follow the old ABABCAB/pop formula. There is a section later on in the song, not the one you're referring to and in a different time signature (which doesn't matter anyway) that could be considered syncopated, but that has eluded you.

lol man, odd time signatures meaning off-beat rhythms...just lol dude, you've got no idea what you're talking about at all.

[An hero]

[freewait]

I like using a capo, but not for it's normal purpose - I like using it to shorten the neck drastically (like the 12th fret) because it can bring out some amazingly seamless tapping lines. It's like having a third hand.

Something I've always wanted to try: rearranging the strings while still keeping them in tune. Instead of low E to high E, just have them scattered around.

Sometimes you should break the box to think outside of it.

How would the unpredictability of the string's placement affect the creativity of your music?

Kewl. I recently saw a guy playing at a coffee shop and he was using capos all over the neck of the guitar (the ones that capo one string at a time). Had a super sound and he could really play.

[samtkay]

in. Been playing for 2 months so far but really keen to learn and improve. Been getting guitar lessons for past 5 weeks and teacher is already said he is excited about teaching me because he can tell im rly interested and im progressing fast, and apparently i have the right mind set lol, feltgoodman.

Feel like i started a little late tho Im 18 atm wish i started playing earlier.

[freewait]

in. Been playing for 2 months so far but really keen to learn and improve. Been getting guitar lessons for past 5 weeks and teacher is already said he is excited about teaching me because he can tell im rly interested and im progressing fast, and apparently i have the right mind set lol, feltgoodman.

Feel like i started a little late tho Im 18 atm wish i started playing earlier.

that's cool man. Never too late. I played a little when I was probably 11-12 but put it down and never tried anything again seriously until about 18 years old. I've played seriously ever since now an old fart at 47.

After you get a little further down the road, try and find some guys to jam with, especially some that are better. A lot of people learning get used to stopping and starting to 'get it right'. Playing with someone else makes you go and stay on time. Have fun!