Quote:
Originally Posted by Andyrondack
I don't agree with this, on another instrument perhaps yes but I believe the design of the guitar inhibits any easy understanding of how music works and how to create it.
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Hi Andyrondack. I read your post with interest. Our approaches appear to be opposites.
My approach, my way into arranging and composing, was made up from three distinct activities. Firstly imagining sounds. I would hear in my mind a melody or some harmonies. Second was liking or not liking what I imagined and heard and finally remembering what I liked or not remembering what I did not like.
I could do this before I could play any instrument. Technical or theoretical knowledge was not required.
I'm not saying that it wasn't there but at the time I wasn't aware of it. It was all just 'sounds'. In retrospect it was simple enough stuff, what I now would call I, IV, V sequences with perhaps the occasional ii and vi thrown in for good luck. It was what I was hearing on the radio. I just came up with my own combinations. When I first started to play guitar these were the chords I learned and used.
It would have been some years later that I could combine fingerpicking with adding notes to chords to get instrumentals. I was listening to the Beatles, folk guitarists, old blues players and others and getting ideas from all of them. I can now talk about what I did then in theory terms but back then they were all just sounds that I could juggle and reconfigure. Suspensions and 'add' chords were just sound tools that went into the box as I went along. Intervals were already in the chords and it didn't take long to extend chords and added notes into scales.
As for keyboards being easier this is a discussion I've had on this forum before. I find the piano to be strangely complex. Compare the difference between a scale of C and a scale of C#. On a piano they are completely different, and there are still another ten major keys to go, all different again. On a guitar you just do the same pattern one fret higher. To me the guitar is much simpler.
Anyway my way worked nicely for me. Your way seems to work for you. Maybe there are other ways as well. Good luck.