CAA's Guitar Center: Discussion and Help For All Players

[Strafe]

Thread purposes (added and updated by LadyRushia):
This is a thread for guitarists of any kind (that includes bass players) to come together to talk about instruments, music, playing styles, and give/receive helpful tips to improve our skills. If this is your first time posting in this thread, please include information such as what brand of instrument you play, how long you've been playing, what type of music you like playing/listening to, etc. Whether you're a beginner or someone who's been playing for many years, this thread is a great place to talk with other players on CAA.

Tutorial Videos and Covers:
This is simply a list of videos that people in this thread have made. Some are lessons and some are songs. Feel free to make your own videos and post a link in this thread. As more videos are made, I'll update this post so that we have a nice list of them in one place.

Videos by Strafe:
Intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUrjgcl7nvE

Exercises:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iwKB...eature=channel

Pentatonic Scales:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaSuy...eature=channel

Blues Scale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcqzU...eature=channel

Applications for Blues Scale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzH4R...eature=channel

Moon on the Water Cover:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMj7MHGkZKE

Legato Scales
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEn4W60jQBE

Stolen Licks For Your Lick Repertoire Library
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyg1uKqPWQ8

Uso by SID (Electric):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGY-t...eature=channel

Uso by SID (Acoustic):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xg8jy41Hqs
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Welcome to the not so official guitar club of CAA!!! Because Strafe has next to zero authority on CAA, he thought it would be over-pretentious to assume that he could make an official club, so he smartly inserted "not so" into the title. Isn't he such a clever little fellow?

Well that aside, this is where you can talk about anything related to guitars. History, Maintenance, Brands, and of course Playing. Want to know what "PAF" stands for? Stumped trying to adjust pickup heights? Want a comparison between a Gibson and PRS? Got a new Guitar and want to show it off? Want to learn how to play like Joe Satriani? Then look no further! You have found the NSOGCOCAA!!! Yes. If it has any strand of relation to guitars, it can go in this thread.

Bass players are Welcome too!

Anyone who has any shred of interest in the guitar is welcome. Beginners to veterans. Unfortunately, this club has no president, or little graphic tag you can put in your sig. Sorry. Maybe if anyone joins, these things will show up. Who knows?

So, first order of business, introduce yourself:

Username: Your Username
Guitar Experience: How long you've been playing and if any formal study
Style: Electric and/or Acoustic and what type of music you usually play, in order of prominence. What you play most goes first.
Gear: What model guitar(s) you play, and amp(s) if electric.
Future gear: What equipment you might realistically play in the future.
Favorite Guitarist(s): Who you look up to. Some people don't have any, and that's ok too.
Dream Gear: What gear you would really want. Could be impossible to obtain.
Last thing you were playing: Before Posting on this thread, what were you playing?
Other/ About me: Any other background that we might want to know

Here's me:

Username: Strafe
Guitar Experience: 2 years without lessons
Style: Rock, Alternative, Blues, Indie, Shred, Jazz.
Gear: I own: Fender American Strat into Vox AC15 Custom, a Nameless Fretless Bass, and a nameless hippie-owned acoustic guitar. Dad owns and lets me play: Rickenbacker 360, Taylor 710CE, Peavey Bass.
Future Gear: PRS Custom 24 and Martin HD-28v are on my to buy in future list.
Favorite Guitarists: Jimi Hendrix, The Edge, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, Eddie Van Halen, Django Reinhardt.
Dream Gear: PRS Private Stock Singlecut Trem into 1964 Vox AC30 Top boost.
Last played: Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson... sort of...
About me: Guitar is my newest instrument, but is by far my favorite. My Dad has been playing since he was my age, so he handed down his first guitar to me and helped me out with learning. I still have a really long way to go before I call myself a good guitarist, though. I think Guitar is the easiest instrument to pick up and play, and am looking forward to anyone else joining this "club."

So, again, welcome to The NSOGCOCAA

[TGJesusfreak]

Username: TGJesusfreak
Guitar Experience: 11 months with only youtube lessons
Style: at this point, any. But I' like kindof a Kutless type pf thing, both acoustic worship and hard rock.
Gear: I only have a hand me down 120$ Yamaha guitar that I've been laerning on.
Future gear: A good electric guitar, and a good acoustic guitar. Not sure what brand or kind just yet.
Favorite Guitarist(s): I don't really have any yet. Though Santana is pretty nice.
Dream Gear: Not sure. Something awesome. but mainly I just want to make music. Not worry about my gear.
Last thing you were playing: My Yamaha guitar, lol
Other/ About me: I want to please God with my guitar. simple as that.

[Strafe]

Yay! Welcome to the club, TGJesusfreak. It's probably best not to worry too much about gear like I do. Because you start knowing too much useless information and get really weird about it like me. I know alot about guitars, but I kind of suck at actually playing. Heh. And that just looks bad. Sort of like knowing every football play, but not being able to even throw a football.

And hey, youtube is the best teacher I've ever had. Don't knock it. If it makes you practice, its good. better than having private lessons but never practicing. The best way to get better is by... playing guitar. It's genius. lol. XD

Very funny about what you were playing. I guess you were just noodling around aimlessly? It's my favorite thing to do when I have assignments due for school and it's 3 in the morning. <_< not a good thing. Haha.

[TGJesusfreak]

Yeah YT is a pretty awesome teacher. You can learn what you want when you want It's genius! lol

Yeah, I had been considering starting guitar for years now but I only actually started learning in novemeber of last year. I started trying to learn the intro to "Stairway to Heaven" on my 2nd month. I only mastered that about 4 months ago.

[Htom Sirveaux]

[color="Blue"]Username[/color]: Htom Sirveaux
[color="blue"]Guitar Experience[/color]: Since age 14, so about 15 years now. Mostly self-taught. Lessons never did much for me.
[color="blue"]Style[/color]: Generally acoustic, laid-back rock style. The songs I write are all faith/worship-oriented.
[color="blue"]Gear[/color]: Takamine acoustic, Hamer "PRS-body" electric. Oh, and a crappy little Peavey practice amp.
[color="blue"]Future gear[/color]: A decent tube amp.
[color="blue"]Favorite Guitarist(s)[/color]: My biggest musical influence is my dad. Probably a significant amount of my style borrows from his own faith/worship folk rock thing, with enough of my own flavor not to be ripping him off completely. I also like Mike Doughty, Frank Zappa, Phil Keaggy and Mike Campbell.
[color="blue"]Dream Gear[/color]: I dunno. I'm just glad to have what I do now, though as stated before, I need a decent amp.
[color="blue"]Last thing you were playing[/color]: Behind Blue Eyes, by The Who.
[color="blue"]Other/ About me[/color]: I play rhythm guitar in my church's worship band. When they can fit me in. Each Sunday there's a sort of rotating cast from the nigh on thirty musicians and singers. The worship leader puts a quarterly schedule together, so we know who's playing or singing on what week.

Also, I can play the bassline to the Doctor Who theme.

[Strafe]

Yay! An experienced guy, and a fellow worship songwriter to boot. Welcome to the NSOGCOCAA!!! Since you are the most veteran guitarist, you are instantly nominated for the role of president. You don't have to accept, but if you want to, its open.

That's so neat. Your Dad inspired you like mine did me. Well... he inspired my songwriting, not as much guitar, but still that's a cool coincidence.

Ooh. Hamer. That's pretty expensive. So it's like a PRS Santana body shape, not like the custom shape? And the pretty flame top and everything?

That's awesome about you in the worship band. I'm being sort of trained to lead worship when I get out of high school. But I'm learning that it really has a lot less to do with musicality. Its almost entirely about the heart of worshipping in a way that others can worship too. And ultimately about glorifying God in the end. So that I think Leading worship is a much greater thing then doing self glorifying gigs, and probably more difficult to get out of ourselves. But right now I'm learning to worship in private, where there is no temptation to show off.

And while you're thinking about amps, why don't we talk about them here. So, what kind of tubes are you looking for? EL84? 6L6? EL34? Any others I don't know about?

I always recommend, though know that I'm just a kid, a low wattage EL84 amp, since I love the way EL84s break up. The low wattage is so that you can drive the tubes at a safe volume. Usually, you can mic your amp if it's not loud enough for worship. And the drive you get from an EL84 is sufficient for leading worship too. Slight break up to nice biting overdrive, since I don't really see many rhythm guitarists cranking marshall stacks for worship. What are you looking for exactly?

I started trying to learn the intro to "Stairway to Heaven" on my 2nd month. I only mastered that about 4 months ago.

That's great! Its a good song to know for an intro to fingerpicking, and the solo is really fun to rip. But the general rule of thumb is after learning the song, never play it in front of other people. lol. As said by Wayne's world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhlwR8qbYg0

JK. Nobody really cares. You can play it if you want.

[LadyRushia]

This is the part where I'm probably the only girl who will post in this thread. Oh well.

Username: LadyRushia

Guitar Experience: Seven years with lessons, although the past couple years I've only had lessons in the summer since I'm at school all year. I'm an advocate of private lessons, but that's probably because I got lucky and ended up with a teacher who knows music theory. Not that I know a whole lot of theory, but yeah. My teacher's really awesome, XD.

Style: It really depends on what I feel like playing. If I pick up my acoustic guitar, I want to play pretty things like progressions involving open chords and suspended chords. If I'm on my electric, I want to play anything from blues to rock to anything involving speed picking (which I've been working on this summer).

Gear: PRS SE Custom electric guitar with a Line 6 pedal and amp, Ibanez acoustic/electric, and then my first guitar which is a cheap Epiphone. Good instrument, but cheap, XD.

Future Gear: Eh, I don't pay that much attention to gear. I know next to nothing about anything, which is slightly embarrassing. I should probably get a loop pedal soon because I play by myself a lot.

Favorite Guitarists: I should listen to the classic rock guys more than I do. I know Pink Floyd and Queen the best from that era, but I don't know them well. I really go for bands as a whole instead of just looking at the guitarists. I mean, when I play their songs I'm playing the guitar parts, but what makes anything a favorite is a combination of guitar work, lyrics, and overall sound. All of that together makes me either want to learn a song really badly, or just leave it alone. That being said, my top three bands are Showbread, Thrice, and mewithoutYou. Also, any Japanese song that has awesome guitarness in it. The whole reason why I picked up speed picking in the first place was because I want to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI_wWlz2Rck&feature=related Specifically, the solo in the middle, although the riff at the beginning and the whole song in general is awesome, XD. I am lame (or awesome), XD. Also, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSNDRgs4KCc&feature=related

Dream Gear: Well, like I said I really don't pay attention to gear. I just play. I picked out my two electric guitars because they were pretty and they felt good to play. Turns out I pick well because people are like "HOMG U HAS A PRS? WOOOWWW" whenever I show them my guitar. I knew PRS was awesome 'cause my dad knows more about this stuff than I do and he was with me when I got it, but people's immense surprise at the fact that I have one still amuses me. I guess they don't expect a girl to just whip out a PRS or something. I dunno, XD. Although, I've never met another girl who plays electric guitar.

Last thing you were playing: I started the process of learning this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21oVmZ_8d1E I'm learning it by ear 'cause it's not hard and I have the patience to sit through and pay attention to all the little parts going on. I have the ability to pick things out by ear, but I don't always do it because I like instant gratification and sometimes things just don't register with me, so I look it up. Before that, I learned this song by mewithoutYou with my guitar teacher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aes0L0rRt5U It has a lot of interesting chords and multiple tracks and stuff, so there was pretty much no way I could've figured it out on my own, XD.

Other: I'm left-handed, but I don't play a left-handed guitar. Having my dominant hand make chords and play leads and basically do all the work is more comfortable, XD. Also, left-handed instruments look scary to me for some reason.

[Rusty Claymore]

Oh, so Bass isn't considered a guitar?!? XP
Son...

...I need to get a photobucket...

*ahem*

...I am disappoint.

XD

[Strafe]

Oh, so Bass isn't considered a guitar?!? XP

Nonono. I said bass players welcome too since most bass players might shy away when they see that most of the people play a six string guitar of some sort. Alot of bass players I know feel like they're two different instruments, so I just wanted to clear up the gap. Jeez. Misunderstandings abound. lol.

Go ahead and fill up a profile. You're absolutely welcome in the NSOGCOCAA.

---

Woo Yes! I got a Mod! Heheh. I was secretly hoping you would join, since I heard that you played guitar. But yes.

PRSs ARE AWESOME AREN'T THEY? I've been saving up for a custom 24 since last year and I'm almost there... which would be really weird since I've only been playing 2 years and I would own a $3000 guitar... well let's hope I get to the point where I deserve it... <_< probably not, but atleast I saved my own money. Anyways, the SE line is also probably the best value korean made guitar on the market at the moment. I've never played a really bad one before, opposed to Epiphone, which is really hit or miss.

And don't worry, there's hope in the guitar world for women. Orianthi's incredible. She's pretty mainstream now so I'm sure alot of people know her. But when I first heard her a couple years ago, she was shredding the face off of every person in the room. There is no such thing as gender gap.

Yeah... J pop/rock. That's crazy in the Haruhi songs. Crazy. You must be insane to play that. Forget Orianthi. You know, you could probably make a name for yourself with that alone. Become the next youtube star or something because Chauvinistic guys would be so surprised to find that a girl is shredding circles around them. Wow. I like J rock too, but not that crazy. You'll find me jamming to Nightmare and The Gazette when no one's looking. lol. It's embarassing when my Mom walks into the basement because I really don't like acting Korean, but I do Japanese stuff.

---

Actually, that brings up an interesting point of discussion: How does everyone practice Guitar? Like what do you do to get better? And now I'm really curious as to what you did, LadyRushia, to get that good. Maybe I should take lessons.

I do three things: I do boring legato drills until my left hand cramps up, then switch to picking while my left hand recuperates so that I can get arthritis when I'm 20. I do that a lot less now since my piano teacher told be about arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome... yeah.

Then I sit around just fooling around, maybe come up with some licks for my songs, maybe run random blues licks over and over again. Just wasting time, not really practicing. Ever since I got my delay pedal yesterday, I've been doing nothing but writing songs with it. Its probably the coolest thing ever.

Then my favorite thing to do is put my ipod on shuffle and blast it over the surround sound and crank my amp to it. I only do this when my parents aren't home, but they're never home, so its the best thing ever. Really helps with learning how to go deaf and get Tinnitus when you're a kid... I mean playing in rhythm with a backing band. I'll play whatever comes up, Switchfoot, Joe Satriani, U2, Van Halen, Arcade Fire, Hendrix, AC/DC, Dir En Grey. I don't know how to actually play the song, but I improvise along. Helps with Key recognition and typical chord progressions, also picking up stuff by ear. I recommend doing it if you don't care about hearing sounds when you're thirty and you don't live within 100 feet of other houses.

What do you do usually?

And so far we have, me, an acoustic worship rocker, another acoustic worship rocker, and a ridiculously insane girl who shreds faster than Orianthi. I think the NSOGCOCAA is a success so far.

[LadyRushia]

LOL well, I can't shred like that yet. I just want to. In the couple months since I've started working on it with my teacher, I've come a long way, though. Speed picking is quite the animal, though, and practicing it is tedious. It's one of those things you just have to build up over time, so I probably won't be able to play like that for awhile. I started out just picking each open string as fast as possible while in time to a metronome. The way you hold the pic is different for speed picking. You want to play on the side of the pic more than the tip. Making that small adjustment makes a HUGE difference. After I got comfortable with speed picking open strings, I started going up one octive of the major scale, which was really hard at first but I'm better at it now. I can go up one octive really fast, pause for a couple beats, and do it again, and I can do the same coming down one octive, but going up and down one octive without a break throws me off completely.

Let's see, when I practice, I usually just do the same things I like doing over and over again, and then I'll hook my iPod up and just play/learn different songs. That's pretty much it. If there are people in the house, I plug in my headphones 'cause I don't like people hearing me or my music and possibly making comments about it (not that they'd have anything negative to say) or breaking my focus. When I have the house to myself, though, I turn everything up really loudly, XD.

Oh, here's something I like doing with my acoustic guitar. If you haven't played around with alternate tunings before, do it because there are some really pretty ones out there. I like tuning my acoustic to an open F major chord, so from the low E string to the high E string it goes FACFAF. No chord forms you learn in standard tuning will work with that, but it's very easy to get really pretty melodies from it. I recorded myself playing two songs in that tuning, which you can listen to here:
http://taylorramage.blogspot.com/2010/06/acoustic-guitar-songs.html
You can tell my guitar is out of tune, and the quality sucks but oh well. I'll record a better version of the anime medley thing one day. Half the time when I listen to it I feel like I rushed it. Oh well. This is just an example of what that tuning sounds like.

EDIT: Oh, and the second one on that link is a result of improv and it's actually three separate tracks. I was messing around for a couple hours and ended up with a little song, so yeah.

[Rusty Claymore]

Haha, I was just pulling your leg. n.n

Username: Rusty Claymore
Guitar Experience: 4-5 years, no formal study
Style: Bass, 4-string, I usually play for the worship group so contemporary Christian, anything(I love just about every style of Bass playing...)
Gear: I don't personally own anything yet, but I use an Ibanez Bass, with a Fender Amp.
Future gear: Unknown. But the Guitar will be Ibanez... XP
Favorite Guitarist(s): None, really... At least, I can't remember any names... >.<
Dream Gear: Ibanez Blue Moon 6-string
Last thing you were playing: Hmm, most likely the SSB Brawl DK stage theme.
Other/ About me: I play because I love it. Even though I'm not very good. XP

To get better, I play hard things. XD I lack people to back up, so I'm stuck trying to feel out the bass for my Anime songs.

Now I really want to get my own Bass... but my room is really tiny and I wouldn't have any place to walk. Maybe if I mount it on my wall? XD

[Strafe]

Huh. Well you're still probably ridiculously good. Alternate/ Speed picking is really hard. I'm pretty bad at it. I don't know about the side of the pick thing though. The tip works fine for me. But Alternate picking, legato, and tapping are the only shred things I let myself do. Maybe a sweep once and a while when I get lucky. It's pretty bad when I try to shred. I guess I'm just a rhythm guy after all. My friend said I play Rhead guitar. Maybe that's it.

I've tried doing alternate tunings while I was fooling around with Rylynn by Andy McKee. He's a great guitarist... but its elevator music... Rylynn had the most convoluted tuning ever, and had a capo on only four strings. I eventually gave up when it got too hard though. And these days I tend not to get into alternate tunings since I couldn't gig songs without a different guitar tuned differently. I hate tuning live, since it makes me look bad and holds up the rest of the band.

That's some good stuff, LadyRushia. Nice and chill. I love the atmosphere. I guess since you showed us some of your stuff, I'll show mine:

This is my little myspace page with some stuff I recorded a while ago:

http://www.myspace.com/mattkimdemos

I guess looking back at the stuff, I should clarify what I mean by two years experience on guitar, so I'm not really cheating when I say two. I first picked up a guitar in 6th grade, and learned some basic stuff, then stopped until sometime in 8th grade, so I wasn't a complete beginner I guess, but the cumulative time would be... 3 and a half years then, if I'm just entering 11th grade in a few weeks. So correction, I've been playing for 3 and a half years... thought I was in 10th grade for a second lol. Most of the recording is acoustic stuff or rock stuff recorded in 9th and 10th grade.

This is me the other day, excited about my new pedals, pretending that I can play guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb44BIE1H-I

Its pretty thumbs down. Especially when I botch Cliffs of Dover pretty bad and end up improvising and trying to act cool when I stop. LOL. But its me trying to: Be Jazzy, Be Funky, Be The Edge, Be Eric Johnson, Be a Shredder, and failing at all of the above.

---

Awesome! We now have a bassist in the NSOGCOCAA (Should we vote on a name change eventually?) Welcome to the NSOGCOCAA, Rusty Claymore!

[LadyRushia]

Singing and playing at the same time. That is something I've been trying to do for the past year and I need to work on it more.

And yeah, tuning can take up some time, but the more you do it the fast you get at it and the less time it wastes. Although it's true that people will just use a different guitar that's already tuned the way they want if they're not just tuning down a half step or something typical like that. Of course, there are probably some people who are like "Nope. This is my one guitar and I do not use any other guitar except this one." lol.

[Strafe]

They have this new pedal that I'm looking to get, the TC Electronics Polytune (Loving their stuff so far). So you can apparently tune by strumming, which is really cool, and six times faster than string my string. You tune every string at once. It won some kind of award, and it does alternate tunings. I'm broke at the moment, so I'll have to wait on it, but you might want to check it out. It looks yummy... for a tuner pedal.

But some people go crazy about different guitars for different tunings, different sounds. Like Jon Schneck of Relient K had like 5 guitars, The Newsboys guy had like 6... Family Force 5, Kutless. The Edge of U2 has... 19 or so live... and over 200 in the studio... They all have guitar techs in the back tuning it up for them. I understand about different tunings, but I think most guitarists don't realize that to people who don't play guitar, or the majority of the audience, every electric guitar sounds the same. They can't tell the difference between like a White Falcon and a Tele other than that they look different. I would probably just get 2 PRSs and have my tech change tunings while he has the one I'm not playing and switch it off when I need to. You just need 2 guitars ever, and maybe an acoustic if your band does that sound. But when you're the Edge... really. That's not necessary.

[Dr.Faust]

Username: Dr.Faust
Guitar 2 and 1/2 years lessons for 1 and 1/2 years.
Style: Metal,Hardrock,Goth,Neo-Classical,every thing but pop,emo,scremo,NSBM, and SDBM
Gear:Some spanish gutiar
Future gear:Telecasters, PRS, ESP,Line 6
Favorite Guitarist(s): Akeboshif(piano/guitar/haramonica) Skwisgaar Skwigelf,Toki Wartooth, more I can't remember
Dream Gear: PRS, Yellow American Tele, Luna Gutiar, Line 6 amp, EMG pickups,ESPs
Last thing you were playing: Picking on Me- Skunk Anansie
Other/ About me: Been playing for 2 years and serous for 7mounts. I wish I had payed attion when I had classes I might have been better than I am now:(. Looking for help. I seem to never have the time to play any more thought. I can pick stuff up quick but I just lost on theroy and scales and playing by ear( i can't even tune my gutiar with out help from a tuner or a nother guitar) I also play flute and piano and looking for help in thoughts too. I'm also left handed but play right becuase were broke and can't buy left handed gutiars

Place help here on my youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSrrs1cs2e0

[Strafe]

Hey man welcome to the NSOGCOCAA! You came to the right place to find help... at least within CAA lol. I might make some tutorial vids some time just for some basic things. I guess they might be helpful like some of the drills I do or maybe some tricks I use for note recognition. But you could go look up Mark Tremonti or Joe Satriani since I just do the same drills they do. Just not as much. I'm sure Lady Rushia will have some things to say to help too.

I think that if you just do drills and scales, you tend to pick up notes naturally. It's just about playing. But I tend to play without knowing what key I'm in. I just use relative pitch to go to fret number x, and then the song is in the key that fret x is. I could tell you what the note is if you asked, but I don't play by notes, but frets. I have all the theory there, but I don't necessarily use it. Time signature becomes a natural feel with time, chord changes become instantly recognizable, notes are heard rather than known.

Thus music becomes more like an action than putting words to it. Its much more natural to play a C major scale than talk about it, since it becomes so easily understandable as music instead of musical theory. Makes sense? The theory is good to know, so that you can talk about what you're playing, but when you play, the theory tends to not even get thought about. I still recommend knowing it, since you obviously do need to talk about what you're playing, but knowing theory isn't quite as useful as putting that theory into practice.

Otherwise, nice choice of future gear... except for line 6 amps. If you want a real heavy sound, you'd be better off with a Mesa or Marshall. Like get the real thing, not the thing that models it. Even though I hear that the Vetta II is really good, it costs about $1700, where you could get a nice Mesa (Insert double, triple) rectifier at a similar price point. Just think about it.

[Dr.Faust]

Hey man welcome to the NSOGCOCAA! You came to the right place to find help... at least within CAA lol. I might make some tutorial vids some time just for some basic things. I guess they might be helpful like some of the drills I do or maybe some tricks I use for note recognition. But you could go look up Mark Tremonti or Joe Satriani since I just do the same drills they do. Just not as much. I'm sure Lady Rushia will have some things to say to help too.

I think that if you just do drills and scales, you tend to pick up notes naturally. It's just about playing. But I tend to play without knowing what key I'm in. I just use relative pitch to go to fret number x, and then the song is in the key that fret x is. I could tell you what the note is if you asked, but I don't play by notes, but frets. I have all the theory there, but I don't necessarily use it. Time signature becomes a natural feel with time, chord changes become instantly recognizable, notes are heard rather than known.

Thus music becomes more like an action than putting words to it. Its much more natural to play a C major scale than talk about it, since it becomes so easily understandable as music instead of musical theory. Makes sense? The theory is good to know, so that you can talk about what you're playing, but when you play, the theory tends to not even get thought about. I still recommend knowing it, since you obviously do need to talk about what you're playing, but knowing theory isn't quite as useful as putting that theory into practice.

Otherwise, nice choice of future gear... except for line 6 amps. If you want a real heavy sound, you'd be better off with a Mesa or Marshall. Like get the real thing, not the thing that models it. Even though I hear that the Vetta II is really good, it costs about $1700, where you could get a nice Mesa (Insert double, triple) rectifier at a similar price point. Just think about it.

Yeah I tend to focus on trying to find out the key and cords(which i need to learn how to memorize all of them) in stead of just listing. I know the C scale and the first part of the A minor pentatonic scale but that's it. I really want help for guitar. Guitar theory is vary hard for me to learn as there is 6 strings, which is odd becuase piano theory is easy for me and it has 88 keys. As far as the amp goes I wanted to try to mix stuff up to see how it feels. Like us an Orange amp for Metal instead of Indie music.

[Strafe]

"A" minor pentatonic is a movable scale, so if you know A minor pentatonic, you know every minor pentatonic. I think Guitar scales in practice are much easier than Piano scales, since the fingering is exactly the same no matter where you go. While say F# Major has 5 black keys, which you cannot use your thumb on, thus requiring a new fingering. Its less tedious than that on guitar. Same goes with Major Pentatonic, which is essentially exactly the same fingering as minor pentatonic, but starting a minor third up as the tonic note. Major and Minor scales have the same shape in Legato Form, or three notes per string, there are other ways to play it, but legato is a very memorable form. The beauty is that if you know one scale, you know all 12 for that pattern. Then you can improvise to any song instantly.

Chords act the same way. You get to the point that you hear one chord, and instantly can guess a number of possibilities for the next chord based on common chord progressions. Knowing all the open chords is pretty simple after a little bit of practice. And Barre Chords, while harder to play, are similar to movable scales in that if you know one chord, you know all 12. Pretty easy, right? Just get the first one down is all.

I'll make a vid soon on movable scales and some tricks you can use then. Hope it will help.

[LadyRushia]

The majority of scales and chords on the guitar follow the whole one fingering/pattern for all keys thing. The only exceptions, really, are open chords or chords that involve open strings. If you have a chord where an open E string is played, you can't move up one fret, keep the same fingering, and have that same chord in a new key because the open E wouldn't fit anymore. Not many chords have that kind of situation aside from your basic open chords, and there are also multiple ways to play just about every chord there is.

Scales are the same way. The patterns only change when you end up having open strings in the scale. For example, the fingering for the major scale changes for E major and F major (the lower ones, not the ones starting on the 12th and 13th frets) because you have those open notes in there. From F# major all the way up the neck, the major scale pattern (the one that's played across all strings and begins on the root note, that is) is exactly the same. You can also play scales on one string, and you can even start it on different notes besides the root note. That gets you into modes, which have fancy sounding names like dorian and phrygian. I forget what all the other ones are called.

No matter how complicated or fancy sounding something is on the guitar, chances are it's gonna be the same for all keys. You already know some A minor pentatonic? Congratulations, you can now play the pentatonic scale in any key. When you learn how to play an F major barre chord, you will also know how to play a major barre chord in every other key.

On a different note, I'm getting a loop pedal soon. I'm getting a Boss RC-20XL. It will help me tremendously with my lead playing because I still have confidence issues and the fact that I don't have anyone to play with isn't helping. At first, I was stoked about Boss's Slicer, but then I realized that slicing up your input into cool rhythms is the only thing it does. It's cool, but I don't always want to play that kind of feel all the time.

[Warrior4Christ]

Username: Warrior4Christ
Guitar Experience: 5.75 years, and I had lessons for maybe the first 2.5?
Style: Electric bass. I play mainly church worship music, then rock, acoustic, alternative-ish, a slight amount of slap..
Gear: Warwick Rockbass Corvette 5-string, tiny practice amp.
Future gear: T-Rex Bass Juice distortion pedal (mmm.. distortion!), a small proper amp (probably 60W+).
Favorite Guitarist(s): There was a guy who used to play a Warwick at my church.. he was pretty awesome. I haven't got heaps into bass soloists... however Victor Wooten of course deserves respect. And that Mario Theme Song guy.
Dream Gear: Those $3000+ amps I see at the shops... or the custom build-your-own modular amps. Warwick Double Buck 5-string. Maybe a Musicman Stingray too, to mix things up a bit. Endless array of effects pedals on a compact pedal board.
Last thing you were playing: The Time Has Come by Hillsong United.
Other/ About me: I used to learn keyboard before I picked up the bass. I wish I could play a 6-string guitar. I've recorded about 5 tracks on a church originals compilation CD (yet to be released) - that was a pretty good project. I particularly like the "string noise" sound, most prominent when using a pick on fresh strings... mmm... I like playing along (by ear) with random familiar songs that I've never played before.


Oh yeah, and my brother has one of those Korean PRSes..

[Strafe]

YAY another bassist! Welcome to the club!

Ahaha... LadyRushia said the exact same thing, just more clearly. So that means we're both right. Or maybe we're both wrong lol. I'm pretty sure that we're right though.

I was looking at the Digitech Jamman, but that's because I just have an overall dislike of boss pedals. But the Jamman Stereo has an SD card slot so that you can store like 6 hours of loops and 99 loops, while the boss has 16 minutes and 11 loops. It apparently also has less sound degradation when you overdub etc. It also has two loop select buttons, where the RC-20xl needs an added footswitch that is sold separately. Overall, I think the opinion is that the Digitech wins by alot, according to forums. But all of these features are great for live shows, since you could have full prerecorded songs on it... You don't need all of that for just jamming to yourself. But if you're going to spend money on the boss, just get the Digitech, since they're pretty close in price. The Jamman Stereo is $250 while the RC-20xl is $220 on Amazon. They also have a Jamman solo for 100 less, about $150, than both the RC-20xl and the Jamman Stereo, but with alot of the same features as the Stereo. Just a suggestion.

But if you want lead help, jam tracks, and your ipod are probably the best thing there is. Just play along to that. Play along to your Haruhi songs and improvise over the chords. You don't have to play the shred stuff. Though you might be able to eventuallyh pick it up by ear. You get to the point when you could play a Van Halen riff by ear... not solo though. You can also sing along to the song while jamming to it.

These are some of the most helpful guitar soloing help things I've come across:

http://gc.guitarcenter.com/kingoftheblues/tracks/

http://www.jamcenter.com/

Your Ipod.

The king of the blues tracks are just great practice tracks for... blues. The Jamcenter isn't as good quality, and you have to have it on your computer, but it does a variety of genres and keys. But your Ipod is your trump, since you basically jam to real fleshed out music that acts like a typical song would.

So unless you're playing some ridiculously avant garde stuff with really really strange chords, you can just play along to those to get better They're all free too. The looper is geared towards performing solo musicians, not as much home jammers.

[LadyRushia]

Thing is, I don't need six hours and 99 loops. I don't even need the 16 minutes and 11 loops I'm getting with the Boss. I'm not gonna get something as my first loop pedal that has a bunch of stuff I'm not gonna use. If I end up hating the pedal, then I'll get something else. My dad's the one paying for it, so no big deal. He's gung-ho about anything music related that I do because we're both musicians.

I already play to my iPod. I've been doing that for years. The thing is, all songs end. What I need is something that can go on and on for 20 minutes or however long I want it to be. Plus, I have a tendency to want to learn whatever song is playing or just play it if I already know it instead of doing my own thing on top.

Despite my earlier statements, I'm actually a very competent lead player. The problem is that I don't believe I am because I almost never have the chance to have 20 minute jams. Right now, it takes me a few minutes to find my groove for lead playing, so that's why I need a continuous rhythm pattern playing behind me. Songs on my iPod don't give me that because just when I'm getting into it, the song ends. Another problem I come across with playing to my iPod is that even if I do start playing my own leads over stuff, it sounds completely off not because what I'm playing is in the wrong key, but because it's not meshing with the rest of the music going on around me. I pay strong attention to that stuff without even realizing it. It shows in my playing and people notice it and point it out to me. Most of what I end up playing over songs, then, ends up not being lead stuff unless I know the lead parts that are already in the songs. Instead, they're just little things that go along with the feel of the song. There's nothing wrong with that at all. I love doing that and I will continue to do that, but I need more than just that. I know the scales, I know all the tricks I can do within the scales, I just need ways to put it all together over a period of time that's longer than the typical song on my iPod. With a loop pedal, I can make my own rhythms in whatever key I want. Rhythm is my strong area, so what I can create on my own will work just fine for now.

[Strafe]

Oops. I apologize if I offended you. My Bad. I was just... no nevermind. Sorry. Do what you feel is best then. lol. You know your own situation better than I do.

[LadyRushia]

It's okay. Each player has different things that are important to them and different strengths and weaknesses that they need to work on, so not everyone will need or even like the same thing.

Speaking of these kinds of differences, has anyone done any teaching? I've dabbled in it a little bit and I just find it interesting how things that I was able to pick up very easily don't come quite as naturally to others and vice versa. I have a friend at school who's been playing guitar for a couple years with no lessons. She can't play barre chords, but she can sing and play like it's nothing. It's funny because I always want to play with her, but she's like "I can't play with you because you're so good and then I get sad because you're so good!" She gets intimidated by my playing and I always tell her not to. :\

I also taught some neighborhood kids for a few weeks last summer. Three of them at the same time. That was interesting because one or two of them would experiment while the other just did whatever I said. One girl got really good at playing the E major chord really quickly while it took the others a bit longer.

[Strafe]

While it seems like this thread is picking up... I'm basically the only person replying to you... Or rather... I'm replying so fast that I don't give other people a chance to reply... whoops. hrm. Maybe I should PM everybody to tell them that there are discussions going on the thread that they are welcome to contribute to... It's not just a one and done thread. It's like an actual club, but it's not official. That's what makes it the NSOGCOCAA. heh. heh. -_-; Otherwise I should slow down and stop being so overzealous.

You have quite the detailed non professional teaching resume. I was about to record a vid for Dr. Faust Just now... but my Mom walked in on me and went NO. So that's basically the end of my teaching career. But nobody quite understands things the way I do anyways because my brain is weird, so Dr. Faust got lucky. I would have given him either a bunch of bad habits, or not helped him at all. Or both.

But I think teaching music is really quite the gift to have. I'm sure it's a wonderful feeling to watch your students get better, knowing that you really helped them out. Making things universally understandable is probably really difficult, and requires a sort of empathy and selflessness. I've been blessed with a great piano teacher, and... 5... sax teachers that were each pretty good but moved to a different state a year after I started with them... Go figure.

[TGJesusfreak]

yeah sorry! Haven't had enough time to post recently!

Since I'm here for a minute I'll name a few or my favorite guitar players. Santana, Eric Clapton, and Mike Kopfner (I hope I spelled that right XD) are a few of my favs

[LadyRushia]

I wasn't with them long enough to really see any of that sort of progress, but it was fun while it lasted. They were younger kids, too, so it was different from working with people my age. The fact that I'm an English major and a writing person in general probably helps with the whole explaining thing 'cause if you can't explain how your brain interprets poetry and prose, then no one knows what you're talking about, XD.

Hmm, things to get people talking. . .Oh. Do you guys have favorite chords or keys? I like suspended chords because they sound pretty with major chords. I like pretty much every major chord, but G, D, and C are my favorites. For some reason, I can tell if my guitar is out of tune if I play G. My favorite keys are G major, F major, C major, and D major, but I also like minor sounds and bluesy stuff. It all depends on which guitar I'm playing and how I'm feeling at the moment.

[Htom Sirveaux]

Sorry, Strafe. Hadn't checked up in here for a while. Also, online I'm more or less like I am in real life, in that I'm just not inclined to talk very much.

To answer your questions:
My dad says he has an amp in mind that I'd like, but I forget the name of it.
Here's a guitar like my electric: http://www.axinhand.com/estore/images/P/Used2006HamerSunburstQTHoneyburst_lg.jpg

And thanks, but I'd rather not lead the thread. You seem to be doing a fine job.

Interesting question, Rushia. For some reason I seem to do a lot of stuff in Am. I feel like I should get out of that habit.

[TGJesusfreak]

As far as chord progressions I like the Worship guitar style a lot. The G, C(add9 sometimes), E(m7 sometimes), and D(sus on occasion) progressions (in any order). Are very nice.

Also. Bar Chords with root an A and E are nice. You can do quick and Easy changes. Like in Aric Clapton's "Layla" You can go from the F#m Bar chord with root on E to the Bmajor chord by just laying you ring finger flat on the D, G, & B strings.

Also, I'm not familiar with using scales just yet, I'm not sure when or how to use them. Anyone got any tips or songs that I could learn?

I know the Am Pentatonic, Blues scales, etc... but I'm not sure WHERE to use them in music. Any tips?

[Strafe]

Yay! people coming back!

Like I said, I might record some vids with some tips... If my Mom thinks about it...

No problem Htom, though its too bad about President. Next in line is, LadyRushia then. She's played second longest, might be the best player out of all of us, if she does say so herself, and to top it all off, is a mod. TG and I were saying that if LadyRushia becomes the president, we can't get shut down, and we might even get our own section... lol. Though she might not have enough time to be the leader, since she has her own life. But so far she has been pretty active here and has alot to say musically.

My fave chord at the moment are 7 and major 7 chords, which is alot of what I use in the little Jazz comping thing I do at the beginning of the vid, like Gmaj7, B7, Cmaj7, Am7, Bm7 etc. And some diminished chords descending chromatically which sound nice as well. I felt a little bit Gypsy Jazz with the comping there.

I also like Fmaj7 add 6 because Its in this really pretty jazz piece I play on guitar. Took some of this song I heard on youtube, and added to it to make it my own. Would have put it in the vid if I had time. Jazz chords get really interesting.

Then of course, the most over played funk blues chord in the history of funk blues chords... E9, and the little add 6 thing that I do is also in the vid right after the first jazz comping in G.