Language and music have many similarities: speaking (playing), writing, listening and reading. Even things like spelling and grammar have their equivalents in music theory. But it’s just a metaphor and it runs out pretty quickly or goes off into weird tangents. If, from a very young age, you had to use your guitar to communicate to others your wants and needs, you would have learned a lot faster. I like to think in terms of words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters and the finished work. You can misspell some words or use obscure vernacular, but you’d better be a good storyteller. You can forego structural coherency, but you have to have a good story to tell, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fatfinger McGee
Is there a way to learn guitar that's more like learning to speak, and less like learning to read?
|
Join a band and play live music? I guess that’s not going to be a solution, for now. At the very least, play to some kind of accompaniment (recordings, rhythm track, etc.) as Andyrondack has just suggested. When I was into playing “lead” guitar with a pick, I always liked playing along with the radio. Once in a while, something would be a quarter-tone off or in a weird key for the guitar like E flat, but it always boosted my confidence to see that I could roll with the changes, and it exposed me to different situations and styles of music.