Feel like I just cant play the guitar

population

This is actually starting to bug me a little.

Have been playing for 17 years and the first few years I really wanted to play lead and in my hastiness just sat down with guitar and cd's and tried to copy without really learning how to play first.

Next prob came when I started singing in bands and just playing rythm. Now the singing took off in fairness and I still gig covers singing for me supper which is grand and all but I just never got to pay the attention to my playing (particularly lead) that I would have liked. I mean yeah I can play but I just feel like I nearly need to start again to get moving y'know?

Can anyone recommend some good dvd's or anything. Have been watching a few youtube things but that way of doing it is a bit haphazard me thinks. I am more into rock and a little blues. I like playing styles of Thin Lizzy, GNR, Led Zeppelin AC/DC etc.

fourmations

i found youtube lessons great (and free)

i bought one of those 50 rock licks type dvd
and found it very useful but no better that the youtube ones

rgds

4

Malice

So... you feel like you can't play the guitar yet from reading your post you seem to get regular paying gigs to do just that? I thinking you're downplaying your ability!

It sounds like you're just stuck in a playing rut. Have you thought about taking a step back and thinking about exactly what you want to be able to do on the guitar? You mention playing lead guitar so how are you on scales and modes and general music theory?

You might also benefit from listening to or playing different music than normal e.g. have a listen to some classical or some jazz.

NoQuarter

Op all you need to do is learn scales and the fretboard will just open up for you!!

You will literally know where to go on it to make the sound of whatever mood your feeling, im a big zepp fan and i love the style of jimmy page's playing and thats how id love to play the guitar so thats what im teaching myself.

So...by learning the Pentatonic minor scale ( http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/One_on_one_pentatonic_scale2.htm ) and ( http://12bar.de/soloscal.php )

as a skeleton on which to be able to play flawlessly in key anywhere on the fretboard but not limiting yourself to it, there are plenty of other notes on the fretboard not in that scale which will add colour to your sound, then you will feel like your starting to master the fretboard.

Just focus on learning the pentatonic minor and youll see what i mean. Theres only 5 patterns to learn to know it all so give it a try!

I find magazines like 'Guitar Techniques' help my playing no end. They have excercises for technique, a few obscure transcriptions, and lots of diverse playing styles. If you try to play everything within your ability in the magazine, you should get a lot of fresh ideas.

+1 to _malice's post.
Playing different styles is great for your playing.

population

malice_ wrote: »

So... you feel like you can't play the guitar yet from reading your post you seem to get regular paying gigs to do just that? I thinking you're downplaying your ability!

It sounds like you're just stuck in a playing rut. Have you thought about taking a step back and thinking about exactly what you want to be able to do on the guitar? You mention playing lead guitar so how are you on scales and modes and general music theory?

You might also benefit from listening to or playing different music than normal e.g. have a listen to some classical or some jazz.

Major scales and Pentatonic and thats my lot Im afraid!!!
My problem is not helped by my basic lack of understanding when reading tab, possibly because I always learnt by ear and self taught, when I look at notes on a page I kinda panic y'know? Also I just wish I was faster sometimes, there are tricks I know since I was 15 and all these years later they still sound sluggish and sloppy to me.

population

Cheers to all the replies btw

fourmations

i think someone need to go to a population gig
and give him a a pat on the back

seriously though, i agree with listening to something new!
its the most envigorating thing for a musician i feel!

a workmate put me on to a complete genre
that i never knew existed and it completely refreshed
my whole outlook on music and guitar playing

ciao

4

fobster

fourmations wrote: »

a workmate put me on to a complete genre
that i never knew existed and it completely refreshed
my whole outlook on music and guitar playing

ciao

4

What was this complete genre?

Malice

population wrote: »

Major scales and Pentatonic and thats my lot Im afraid!!!
My problem is not helped by my basic lack of understanding when reading tab, possibly because I always learnt by ear and self taught, when I look at notes on a page I kinda panic y'know? Also I just wish I was faster sometimes, there are tricks I know since I was 15 and all these years later they still sound sluggish and sloppy to me.

Well if you know your major scales, the minor scales are quite similar. The major scale goes "Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half" and the minor scale goes
"Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole"

For example here's D Major followed by D Minor:
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B||

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D||

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A||

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2--4--5--|

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3--5--||
E||

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2--3--5

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3--5--6

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B||--3--5

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[/PHP]

What do you find difficult about reading tab? I found it a little difficult initially to get my head around it but I persevered because I think the alternative (reading music notation) is worse!

When it comes to building up speed I have found that paradoxically, you sometimes need to slow down before you can rip out a riff really fast. I find that starting a metronome off at a nice slow pace and building the speed up slowly once your fingers have got the motions down is a lot more beneficial (and a lot less frustrating) than simply trying to go as fast as you can. It also helps to not try to play along with the song for the same reason .

rcaz

population wrote: »

reading tab

There's your problem

My opinion on this (and I know I'll probably get a bit of flaming over this, but from my experience, this is what I found), is that tab completely takes all the music out of playing the guitar. When you learn from tab (or at least when I tried tab), you don't learn how to play music, you just learn whereabouts to put your fingers on the strings. It's reading numbers, putting your fingers in the right place, repeat, repeat. Now I'd prefer to learn something by finding out the key signature and time signature and what sort of scale pattern it's based on and what intervals you're going between, which has really improved my musical abilities.
If someone can do paint-by-numbers kits perfectly, you wouldn't call them a great painter; you won't become a great guitar player by reading tab.

While proper music notation is kinda complicated and takes a bit more learning, it makes musical sense. If you go up, the pitch goes up, if you go down the pitch goes down. If you have more space (relative to how you're spacing out your bars and stuff), the note lasts longer, if you have lots of notes squashed close together, they're fast.
Stuff like key signatures and accidentals is probably the most complicated stuff, but tab doesn't even tell you what key you're playing in!! It's just numbers on a page (or more usually on a screen). Sheet music puts things in a musical context.
I don't think there's any excuse for a musician to shy away from theory.

Stratocaster

Ive been messing about with a guitar for about 4 years now and only been concentrating on solos etc over last two years and I feel Ive come on a long way. I remember listening to SRV and thinking no way in earth could I play like that and now I can play it.

Been through all the various tabs, youtube, blues forums etc..all of them! I found they got me nowhere you would sit for hours and repeating licks over and over. Spent great deal of time doing this and still couldn't manage a solo, also tended to forget them after a while. Decided to try a different approach.

I decided to play along with some of the songs I liked. I record the song onto a digital multitrack. By doing this I can loop each section of the song and go over it until I have it sussed. Its much better to do it this way as your doing it by ear and it gives you more of a feel.

I could go on about this forever but to keep it simple all you got to do is, learn some of the common minor blues scales E G A D in a few different positions over the neck. Then pick out a few songs you like and start to play along. You will see how everything adds up and over time your skills will develop and you will move onto more advanced stuff naturally.

I don't use internet tabs 99.9% of them are wrong. If you have to the only way to go is to actually buy the legitimate tab which has been worked out professionally and correctly by soloing the guitar track in the studio. I go onto youtube from time to time only to see where the guitar players hand is on the neck etc.

You only get out what you put into something so you got to practice a lot. The more time you spend practicing the quicker you will be able to play.

Forgot to mention, heard this quote a while back thought it was funny and true.

When was the last time you seen a "Lead Guitar" for sale?

Best of Luck.

Stratocaster

malice_ wrote: »

Well if you know your major scales, the minor scales are quite similar. The major scale goes "Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half" and the minor scale goes
"Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole"

For example here's D Major followed by D Minor:
[php]E||

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B||

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---

||
G||

---

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---

||
D||

---

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---

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A||

---

2--4--5--|

---

3--5--||
E||

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2--3--5

---

|

---

3--5--6

---

||
B||--3--5

---

|--3--5--6

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[/php]What do you find difficult about reading tab? I found it a little difficult initially to get my head around it but I persevered because I think the alternative (reading music notation) is worse!

When it comes to building up speed I have found that paradoxically, you sometimes need to slow down before you can rip out a riff really fast. I find that starting a metronome off at a nice slow pace and building the speed up slowly once your fingers have got the motions down is a lot more beneficial (and a lot less frustrating) than simply trying to go as fast as you can. It also helps to not try to play along with the song for the same reason .

What do I find difficult about reading that tab? B E A D G B E? My guitars only got six strings

Malice

Stratocaster wrote: »

What do I find difficult about reading that tab? B E A D G B E? My guitars only got six strings

I play seven string guitars so that's where the low B comes from on the tab I posted. You could just play it on the low E string on a six string guitar and instead of D major and D minor you'd be playing G major and G minor.

stevejazzx

malice_ wrote: »

I play seven string guitars so that's where the low B comes from on the tab I posted. You could just play it on the low E string on a six string guitar and instead of D major and D minor you'd be playing G major and G minor.

ahhhh
easier to post six guitar tab...99.9% of us play six string guitrs.

Stratocaster

malice_ wrote: »

I play seven string guitars so that's where the low B comes from on the tab I posted. You could just play it on the low E string on a six string guitar and instead of D major and D minor you'd be playing G major and G minor.

I kind of figured that one out but its just an example of how misleading guitar tabs can be. A person who has just picked up a guitar could have stumbled across your post and straight away could be put of learning the scale due to misleading information.

All the pros have stated they would watch there heroes playing and listen to there songs and try to learn it off by ear, they would steal the licks and turn them into there own. Eventually there own unique style would be created.

Before Youtube became popular people would write out tabs in a bid to prove they could play the songs, just like showing off. Every Tom Dick and Harry was writing out tabs. This seems to happen a lot now on Youtube.

For me the best and only way is to listen to the songs you like and try to figure them out and play along, its way more fun.

Malice

stevejazzx wrote: »

ahhhh
easier to post six guitar tab...99.9% of us play six string guitrs.

Easier for who? I use Guitar Pro to create tabs and I've it set up to output 5 string bass and 7 string guitar tabs in the project template that I use so it's not easier for me to post 6 string guitar tabs.

Stratocaster wrote: »

I kind of figured that one out but its just an example of how misleading guitar tabs can be. A person who has just picked up a guitar could have stumbled across your post and straight away could be put of learning the scale due to misleading information.

The tab clearly shows the extra string labelled 'B'. The tab itself isn't misleading at all. What if they are a beginning 7, 8 or even 9 string guitar player? Then they have to continually remember that the low E present as the bottom string on most tabs isn't the lowest string on their guitar.

Stratocaster wrote:

I don't use internet tabs 99.9% of them are wrong. If you have to the only way to go is to actually buy the legitimate tab which has been worked out professionally and correctly by soloing the guitar track in the studio. I go onto youtube from time to time only to see where the guitar players hand is on the neck etc.

I think I have to stick up for tabs a bit here. There are plenty of badly written tabs out there but nowhere near 99.9%. if you use something like Guitar Pro then you can see (and hear) the parts that are wrong and edit them yourself. Maybe it's because there's a higher barrier to entry but I find Guitar Pro tabs are generally pretty close to the song. It's good ear training to fix up any slight mistakes anyway. I'd also be wary about buying tab books. You're still only getting someone's interpretation of the song. You don't actually have a guarantee that it's correct. For example I bought the official tab book for Papa Roach's album Infest and it was littered with mistakes that I was able to spot as a beginning guitar player. That was a nice waste of £15 at the time!

Stratocaster wrote:

For me the best and only way is to listen to the songs you like and try to figure them out and play along, its way more fun.

I wouldn't say it's the best or the only way but it certainly is fun .