The Well-Tempered Instrumentalist

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by funkapus

what best moves me toward the goal of all of this -- to be able to play the music in my head without thinking about it.

Originally Posted by funkapus

To improve my ability to play music in my head immediately, the main thing I've been trying up to this point is just sitting with the guitar and playing simple melodies as much as I can

There are two parts to what you are wanting to accomplish. The first part is to hear in you head what you want to play. What is probably the most traditional approach to doing so is referred to as "ear training". Ear training begins with being able to identify the distance in pitch - or "interval" - between two notes. A common way of learning/training that ability is to associate a common song with each interval. For example, the popular song Here Comes the Bride, begins with Here ... Comes... an interval of a perfect fourth. The act of identifying and singing - or playing on your instrument - that interval allows you to recognize it whenever you hear it - or, if sight reading, to see it. These days, there are many smart phone apps that will help with and test your abilities to identify intervals.

As one progresses in one's ear training, one includes identification of harmonies, chords and, eventually, progressions of chords. The ear training is a skill that is independent of any instrument - it goes on in your head.

The second part of what you are trying to do is being able to find/play what you hear in your head on your instrument. That is a separate learned skill that requires knowledge of the layout of the fingerboard. There are numerous ways to gain that ability. One often starts off with single, successive notes. Scales are one possible way. Playing common melodies, as you are doing, is another. Playing arpeggios is another still. One can then add in multiple notes, starting with two notes, then three, then more: one learns to be able to play various types of chords - 7ths, 6ths, 9ths, diminished, augmented, and so on, and recognize them by sound. Later still, one can add in progressions of chords, things such as the cycles of fifths, which one learns to recognize by sound.

One can also approach it from the opposite direction by playing the thing to be identified on one's instrument and listening to it to identify it. For example, play two notes a perfect fourth apart and then listen to and learn that sound.

There are other aspects to the ear training, such as identifying rhythms.

The ability to recognize and label what you hear can be a very effective tool in speeding one's skill development. It can also help expand what one hears into more complex/more interesting melodies, harmonies and rhythms.

[3notes]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I get what you mean, but I think there's value in how different people explain things, different insights. There are so many ways of slicing and dicing music, thinking about "theory", which is pretty amazing when you consider there's only 12 notes. So even if you know 20 different ways thru whatever it is, someone's probably thought of a 21st way to look at it (or explain it). I find that useful, sometimes inspiring, etc. Also, as someone who tries to teach a lot of this stuff, I'm always interested in how others present the information, and if there's an approach that's clearer than the approach I use.

I'm a book addict :-) I ordered this one just to see what it's like. Thanks to the OP for the tip.

Please help me understand this..... I come up with only 7 notes. Whole notes... A, B, C.... up to G. What are the 12 notes you mention in your post.??

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by 3notes

Please help me understand this..... I come up with only 7 notes. Whole notes... A, B, C.... up to G. What are the 12 notes you mention in your post.??

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B

Western music is based on a 12-note system. You're talking about one pattern within those 12 notes - the 7 note major scale. There are other patterns, the 5-note pentatonic scale, the 8 note whole/half note jazz scale, etc. But the basis of modern western music is 12 notes, the equally-tempered chromatic scale.

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Western music is based on a 12-note system.

Kudos, Doug, you are a better man than am I. More patient and more optimistic is seems.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by funkapus

For me, the issue isn't so much the polyphony of the guitar, as the -- not sure of the correct word -- duplication (?) of the fretboard. The fact that there's more than one place to sound a particular note; and when playing a musical phrase, the choice of location to play a particular note is probably determined by where on the fretboard you were just before, and what notes you're going to need shortly after. But that's further down the road than where I am now. I can imagine that I'd get better at making such choices as my unconscious familiarity with the fretboard improves.

But for example, the very beginning of the book, before you've started on any exercises, indicates that to get started, one should practice playing through the Circle of Fourths/Fifths in all octaves within the instrument's playing range, until one can play the circle without thinking about it. OK. Now imagine I'm starting on the lowest E in standard tuning, string 6 fret 0, and want to move up a fourth. I can move up to the fifth fret, OR I can move up a string. If I moved up to the fifth fret, if I move up a fourth after that, I can move up to the 10th fret OR I can move up a string. And then a string after that. And five frets up/seven frets back after that. Or one string and two frets down. There seems an endless number of ways to do this -- so much so that I'm no longer sure that what I'm doing is what the author had in mind, or what best moves me toward the goal of all of this -- to be able to play the music in my head without thinking about it.

It might seem like endless ways of finding the same notes, but it fairly quickly works itself out.

For me, learning how to play a phrase and then learning to play it up a fourth is learning how to play your instrument. It's just one exercise of many to figure things out. I wouldn't worry too much about all the ways of locating the same notes, or the notes up a forth. Just find one and then later another. Pretty soon it will be up a string or up 5 frets, whatever works better given the conditions.

But I think cycling through the fourths might be a useful exercise.

[3notes]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B

Western music is based on a 12-note system. You're talking about one pattern within those 12 notes - the 7 note major scale. There are other patterns, the 5-note pentatonic scale, the 8 note whole/half note jazz scale, etc. But the basis of modern western music is 12 notes, the equally-tempered chromatic scale.

Thank you for that reply. I've never heard or seen it layed out that way. But hey, I know you're right. After all, you play with Teja Gerken.!! I like his guitar reviews and the music he chooses. You sound great too. Congrats on being dedicated to the music.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by 3notes

Thank you for that reply. I've never heard or seen it layed out that way. But hey, I know you're right. After all, you play with Teja Gerken.!! I like his guitar reviews and the music he chooses. You sound great too. Congrats on being dedicated to the music.

If you think about it your guitar's fretboard is based on a 12 tone system, with 12 frets per octave. You don't typically use all of them in one tune, but play enough tunes in enough keys and eventually you will use them all.