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I Aint Happy With My Playing


Curtis P

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well I love both lead and rythm!

The best thing to improve your lead skill is to learn scales!

The first time I heard of it I didn't knew how they worked, its very importend not to give up (like i did) about 2 months later I really started studieng them (not hard at all) and now i can see how scales work in solo's and even improvise!

and tapping is also a cool thing to try at first its seems soo difficult, now i can play tapping from am I evil, eruption and one...

If there is something just way too difficult i let it wait ,if there's something difficult I just try very hard and later you'll see youve progressed so the way too difficult things get easier and easier!!

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C'mon over here and I'll sprinkle you with some magic pixie dust, :D . You keep thinking you will wake up one morning and things will be different, Curtis. Just keep practicing, its going to take years. Once you understand that concept it will be much less frustrating. Its good that you aren't happy with your playing. If you were there would definitely be something wrong.

Like the lost pedestrian asking a street busker, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Reply: "PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!" B)

Edited by Southpa
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Do you take lessons? I only took a couple of years (maybe 1 1/2?) but they helped me get started. I was kind of lost before that. It's been about 18 or 17 years since I've taken lessons but I still find myself basing a lot of what I do on what I learned back then. They give you a solid foundation to build around and explore. You also get a person to ask questions and observe what you are doing.

I was lucky enough to find a very skilled player to teach me though. I don't know if you'd make out as well by going to a super-guitar center - maybe? I don't know.

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I am 100% self taught. My greatest tool for learning was a 4-track recorder. I could play stuff and then record a track over that and see how it sounded. Was a great tool. Now I use a multi-track recorder as a compositional tool.

If you're getting frustrated, go onto something else. It just makes you more frustrated if you keep trying to get it when you're already frustrated.

Know your limits. I don't know your level of playing, but I can't figure out stuff all the time, either. In fact probably 50% of the time. But, I am also tryiing to figure out stuff by Frank Gambale, Scott Henderson, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola and others. And just try to duplicate some sax lines sometime, they make it sound deceptively simple. Well, not for guitar! Sometimes setting your goal high is good, but only after you've conquered stuff that is easier than your goal.

And some other things, the time that you practice is important. For me, the best time is 4:30-6:00AM. It's the only uninterrupted time that I have - got a 1 and 3 year old and a wife. If I try to do it at night, I am too toasted after work, can't concentrate, etc.

And this might sound corny, but eat right, take care of yourself and get some sleep. Your mind will be sharper. Ear training takes time for most people. Don't let the process blow you out, bud. :D

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try the first 2 solos to fade to black they are really easy, that and the middle solo to one, once you get those down try the intro solo to sanatarium that should get you started

MzI

Ok, I will try them

I really meant (i was late this morning, bus was pretty much at my drive way when i logged off the computer) about my own personal playing, my own music, I like to play other music though, and thats how i devolop my skills and such, thats why I want to learn a few simple leads now, gradually work my way up, then i should be able to make up my own leads fairly easily

Thanks for all the help!!!

By the way, I have took lessons, but he only wanted to teach me REALLY simple stuff, extreme simple chords, and such

I know some scales, pentatonic, blues, and chromatic, but thats about it, I pretty much stopped studing scales when i started to make up my own stuff, and got really into my own music

Curtis

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I know some scales, pentatonic, blues, and chromatic, but thats about it, I pretty much stopped studing scales when i started to make up my own stuff, and got really into my own music

Well that doesn't seem very smart :D

You can't build a house on quicksand.... if learning the scales and using them as your framework for soloing is the path you want to tread, you should make sure you learn them properly and make sure you understand them so you can move around freely.

Deliberately ceasing to learn your scales and all that because you wanted to concentrate on your own work isn't very sensible B)

When I started with that sort of stuff the only thing I knew was the first postition of the minor pentatonic. For AGES thats all I knew, and I would just stuff around with that to backing tracks or other songs and stuff I could find on the net

maybe try getting your hands on some good instructional dvds or something? If you dont mind letting your ears adjust to listening to monotone for an hour or so marty friedmans dvd is quite good for a method thats a little different.

:D

- Dan

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Scales are what pretty much all music is based on. Knowing what scales to use over what chords is important if you really want to come up with some tasty stuff. And knowledge of scales will help you play in any key, Minor, Major, too.

Just for the record, I never really wanted to learn other people's music as a rule. But, certain tunes will intrigue me enough to want to figure them out.

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Scales are what pretty much all music is based on.

sort of...remember,music came first,theory came later.so really...music is what all theory is based on.you kind of had it backwards.

some of the most innovative musicians i have heard don't know jack about theory,except for the music theory that you have a natural grasp of in your heart,ears,and soul.

if you use theory to write all of your music...rather than your heart and soul,i think it will be quite boring

curtis.leads are not as important as a solid foundation of rythm.you still need to work on the rythm,and when you have time,just practice lead fingering and picking exercises to build up your coordination so that when you are ready,your muscles will be too.

plus you get alot of ideas from practice exercises as well.if i get a chance i will post some clips of some warm ups i use

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sort of...remember,music came first,theory came later.so really...music is what all theory is based on.you kind of had it backwards.

I'm not talking about medieval times... :D

All music today is based on some kind of scale. A 1-4-5 progression wouldn't exist if there wasn't a scale to base it on. (OK, maybe it would, but people wouldn't know what to call it)

if you use theory to write all of your music...rather than your heart and soul,i think it will be quite boring

I agree. I never said or meant to infer that that is the way to write. I don't write that way. But it helps me personally to know what I am playing and why I am playing it. There are quite a few scales that one could play over any one chord progression, all with a different feel. I think people that don't want to learn theory are only hurting themselves. I'm not saying that music is all academic, just that is important, IMO, that you know some theory. How would you know how to make a minor chord without theory? Or even why a minor chord is called a minor. Or even what composes the basic triad. Memorizing 5000 chord shapes is not the way I like to do things...

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ok, this aint really lead work, but in Metallica's Ronnie, I cant seem to get the right chords

It goes like this

Eb|-------------------------------|

Bb|-------------------------------|

Gb|---------9----7----9-----------|

Db|-------------------------------|

Ab|---------7----5----9-----------|

Eb|-------------------------------|

How would you suggest doing those chords? as I seem to get a buzz in the D string

Curtis

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