|
|
#1
09-29-2013, 04:39 PM
|
|||
|
|||
I need a 'magic decoder ring' for the fretboard...HELP!
Hi, and HELP! I'm pretty new to guitar. I bought my first guitar about 2 years ago and tried to teach myself. Gave that up after 6 months and got myself a teacher. That lasted about 6 months. His method was to teach chords and sing. I was clear: no singing! I want to learn fingerstyle. So I was on my own again for another 6 months, then found another teacher. One who is helping me learn techniques along with fingerstyle. No singing!
 I've already learned hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, vibrato, string bending, etc. (not saying I'm good at 'em yet, but I'm trying!) I know the basic chords, and I love playing arpeggios. So, for example, just 'picking apart' a simple chord progression, chord by chord, note by note, is beautiful to my newbie ears. BUT... I want to improvise, and my teacher encourages it. However I have not been able to figure out how to know what notes to play that go well with what I'm already playing. It seems that I just "hunt and pick" until I find a note that kinda sounds ok. But there must be a better way! All of you who are skilled players know automatically where to go on the fretboard to improvise. What's the secret? I thought it would help to learn the notes on the fretboard (still working on that), or perhaps scales. But that's not it. Just because I know where to find a C on the fretboard doesn't mean that I know it will sound nice with what I'm playing. Any tips? Is it just one of those things that comes with time? Or is there truly a 'magic decoder ring' that I need to get to help it all make sense. Oh, and I play lefty, so all of the books and diagrams out there that show things on the fretboard are not entirely helpful for me, because they are backwards to my world (just to make it even MORE challenging!). Thanks for any input/advice you can share. EM 
|
|
#2
09-29-2013, 05:02 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
*TONS* of people will claim they can show/sell you the secret trick but there is none.
Its just a matter of practice and rote memorization. Understanding scale patterns will help but there is no shortcut, no matter what anyone tries to sell you.
__________________
Fazool "The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter" Taylor GC7, GA3-12, SB2-C, SB2-Cp...... Ibanez AVC-11MHx , AC-240
|
|
#3
09-29-2013, 05:16 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Put like that it sounds simple but for some of us it's a lifetime project.
|
|
#4
09-29-2013, 05:33 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Stanron, I actually do hear what I want to do with a basic melody....how I would embellish it. I've done that for years, in fact, well before starting with guitar. Interesting! The thing is finding WHERE the notes are that I hear in my head. Example: Amazing Grace. My teacher showed me a very basic, bare-bones arrangement to start from. Slowly but surely I've found notes to "dress it up" beyond the bare bones. One 'found' note at a time! It's such a slow process, it seems, when I see accomplished players just zoom around on the frets finding all kinds of impromptu additions.
EM
|
|
#5
09-29-2013, 06:04 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
No secret. And none of it is automatic. I spent the early years of my music education learning notation, and chord building, and how to figure out melodies (and I even figured out how to write them down). Nobody made me - I just wanted to. I wasn't good at it, and I didn't care, I just wanted to play music. I had friends with guitars who would come over and we's pound out (quite literally) folk songs, rock songs, Beatles tunes, and other popular tunes of the day. We weren't that good, and WE DIDN'T CARE! We'd mess around and figure out melodies, and chord progressions etc. And we had a great time doing all that messing around. All of this was going into the gray-matter, and it began leaking out at appropriate times. I learned to take free lessons… Any time somebody better than me played something cool, I'd say 'That is so cool. Can you show me how to play that?' And they would!! And I'd write it down and remember it and start using it. I still take free lessons, and when they are getting ready to show me the 'cool thing' I asked them to show me, I pull out the iPhone and flip it in movie mode and record them playing the cool things for me! I think my solid improvising is a result of soaking things up, and then learning them so well, that playing them is like telling stories (I come from a family of story tellers - and none of us took lessons to learn how to tell great stories). If you stop me when talking and ask me to spell words I've used, I can. But I don't spell the words in my head when I'm telling stories...I just tell stories. Likewise, when I'm telling musical stories, I don't think about chords, inversions, notes when I'm improvising…I'm just telling stories!! If you stopped me and asked me notes, or chords, etc. I can spell them out, but I don't think about them while playing. In similar fashion to the way telling verbal stories requires a good knowledge of English (or other languages), and the people you are telling them to, telling musical stories requires a good working knowledge of music (chords, scales, intervals and inversions) and who you are playing for. Our four sons learned 80% of their English skills playing in the yard together before they ever went to school and learned how to spell anything. This is why I don't think guitarists need to wait till you know scales, or intervals, or chords/inversions, before you start learning to improvise. Hope this helps...
__________________
Baby #1.1 Baby #1.2 Baby #02 Baby #03 Baby #04 Baby #05 Larry's songs... …Just because you've argued someone into silence doesn't mean you have convinced them…
|
|
#6
09-29-2013, 06:57 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Larry, thanks so much. That does help. A lot! Interestingly, I am a writer by profession (not fiction....I write for a university). So storytelling I can totally relate to!
This past hour I have been noodling around with chord progressions, switching keys and going thru progressions such as I-IV-I-V and then I-vi-IV-V, vi-IV-I-V. Just doing that has been helpful. And then I "shake it up" (for me at least) by substituting a minor or 7th chord for the major....just to see what it sounds like. One tool that I do have is The Chord Wheel. It greatly helps me visualize not only these chord progressions, but how, for example, in the key of C, C is "I", but when I rotate the wheel one key over, to G, then C becomes the "IV" in G. And so on.... No, it's not the fretboard, but it is helping me digest how notes are related to one another as I move from one key to the next. Yes, I did take music, as a kid....piano. About 5 years, from 3 teachers (average age of 112 years! HAHA). As much as I hated those lessons ("March of the Wee Folk" ... "Tarantella" ... etc.), they have served me well. I can read music and knew basic chords when I picked up my first guitar. (Thanks Mom, for the lessons!) EM
|
|
#7
09-29-2013, 07:30 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
"BUT... I want to improvise, and my teacher encourages it. However I have not been able to figure out how to know what notes to play that go well with what I'm already playing. It seems that I just 'hunt and pick' until I find a note that kinda sounds ok. But there must be a better way!"
OK, Ms. Mom, you have just joined the "I want to play good" newbies club. Please don't take that wrong, it's just that most new players want something that will take time and they aren't patient enough to wait until they develop the skills required. And your goal is rather outsized and too generalized to allow for easy answers to get you up and going. "improvising" is often not what it seems. The "improv" you hear on a recording is probably a well thought out and rehearsed bit of playing and not something which just came into the performer's head while the tape was rolling. The practiced skill of playing a true improvisation takes most players several years to develop. And, even then, how one player thinks about the structure of an improv is not how another player thinks. BB King doesn't play like Clapton who sounds different than Vaughan who sounds different than Guy. It seems unusual that your instructor encourages your improvisations but hasn't given you the tools to encourage your development. If you are fond of arpeggios and your instructor has given you the material to work with, well, you've been given the materials to use in an improv. Place "how to solo with arpeggios" in a search engine and you'll see what you can do with your present knowledge. The most common way to look at solos and improvs is through fretboard boxes. And the most common boxes are those which define the pentatonic scales; http://www.bing.com/search?q=pentato...39ee50ff5fc444 Boxes are repeating patterns across and up and down the fretboard. Learn one and you'll have, say, an A minor pentatonic scale laid out across the fretboard and normally positioned at the fifth fret (fifth position). Once you have this "penta"tonic, five note pattern under your fingers you can move the pattern up and down the neck to play in other keys or against other chord sounds. http://www.bing.com/search?q=pentato...39ee50ff5fc444 Using just those few notes you can create a reasonable solo as shown in the now famous four note blues; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84cEzgO4Qwk Makes it look easy, doesn't he? You see, the fretbord of the guitar is laid out in repeating patterns. The CAGED system is based on the same idea as the boxes; http://justinguitar.com/en/TB-031-CAGEDsystem1.php In this instance, if you know how to form a C Major chord in the first position (at the first fret), you can also move that same form or chord shape up the neck and, if you know the note on the fifth string where your third finger lays, then you know what tonic or root note you're playing and, therefore, what chord you're playing. Knowing the position and name of all the fifth and sixth string notes is probably one of the most important things for any guitarist to learn. These two strings are were most of the root notes exist for the vast majority of chords and scales you'll want to play. If your instructor hasn't encouraged you to learn those notes up the neck, surprise him one day by showing him what you found on your own. Doing so on the fifth and sixth strings should be enough to get you thinking in terms of repeating patterns. From the open string up to the twelfth fret where everything begins to repeat on each string you should be able to put your finger on a fret and name the note. There are various tricks and programs which you can use to assist your learning process. Ask your instructor about them. That amount of knowledge will give you the name of the chords, scales and, of course, the arpeggios you would use in your improv. From there the repeating patterns of the fretboard make it a relatively simple task to move your scales, chords and boxes around while still sounding very cool. A little trick I learned long ago was how to find the I-IV-V chord names when all else fails you. If you know your root note is, say, C on the fifth string, third fret, you know you are playing in the key of C Major. Or you could say the same thing backwards; if you're in the key of C Major, you can put your finger on the C of the fifth string. That's your "I" chord. Move over one string to form an upside down "L" pattern. In other words, move to the "F" on the fourth string, third fret. That's your "IV" chord. Now move up the neck two frets to the fifth fret "G" of the fourth string. Your upside down "L" pattern has just given you the "V" chord in a I-IV-V progression. And it works the same for any starting position on the fifth or sixth string. It works because the patterns repeat across the neck. If your instructor has yet to teach you the patterns and boxes which fall across the neck, ask about them. Possibly, your instructor feels you need a bit more work before you get into these things but IMO it's never too early to discuss the things about guitar which make it easier for a student to progress. Understand though, every instructor and every student is unique and will reach their time to learn new material in their own way. Personally, I find that if you know the structure of a scale - which means you also know the way a scale is used to create a chord - your best way to go about learning what sounds fit into your embellishments would be to begin with your pentatonic scale and use those extra notes to add to your chords. Listen to the sound those notes make and you'll begin to hear how other notes from the larger Major, minor and blues scale might fit. In other words, once you begin to eliminate the notes which won't fit, you have the notes which do fit. That sounds so stupid but it's true. Why? because the guitar repeats patterns and music theory repeats those same patterns. If your instructor hasn't mentioned any music theory to this point, you might want to ask about "The Circle of Fifths". And remember all of this takes time to absorb. Just showing you a single pentatonic pattern isn't going to turn you into a world class improviser. However, if your instructor is encouraging you to embellish your playing, your instructor should also, IMO, be giving you some tools to work with. Now don't get all flustered about the lefty thing. You can find most of the information required already set for a left handed player. What you can't find, you can move to a paper yourself. http://www.justinguitar.com/en/PA-000-BlankPaper.php No big deal, just a little more time. For most of us none of this came easily. It takes time and it takes some dedication. IMO you do best when you set a manageable goal and stick to recording your progress in a journal. "I want to improvise" is not a manageable goal other than saying you want to become a better guitar player. You need to break things down to what you can do this week or this month which will lead you in the direction of being a better player. This has been discussed in other threads so cruise the archive and gather the information which fits your situation. Be patient and set your goals to be achieved this week then work at that goal. Eventually each goal will bring you a bit closer to being able to improvise. You just have to be patient and work at it. We all did it pretty much the same way. Last edited by JanVigne; 09-29-2013 at 07:45 PM.
|
|
#8
09-29-2013, 08:06 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Wow JanV. This is really REALLY helpful. I've been reading a bit about the pentatonic scale. I've watched JustinGuitar on this very subject. What I wasn't getting was WHY I need to know the pentatonic scale. There's still a 'disconnect' in my brain that I'm sure will come with time. And yes, Justin also recommended learning all notes on all frets of the 5th and 6th strings. I've been trying to do that. I sometimes put myself to sleep working my way along the neck of an imagined guitar (better than counting sheep!!).
My teacher has shown me the circle of 5th...again, still a bit of a 'disconnect' on that, too. I know there is a logic to the neck layout. I know it in theory, but have not yet had that A-HA! moment when it all comes together. In place of that, it's all by rote. I have printed out the blank sheets from Justin's website. And, in fact, drawing in my own chords and such is actually helpful. Thanks for reminding me of that. I truly appreciate the time and thought you put into your reply, and the added links. This is just what I needed. I knew you all would come thru on this awesome forum! EM
|
|
#9
09-30-2013, 03:58 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Use the notes in the other chords. I'm assuming that what you're "already playing" is a chord sequence of some kind, maybe 2 or 3 chords. For each chord you're playing on, the first other notes to try adding are any from the neighbouring chords. You don't need any theory knowledge for this, and you don't even need to know the names of the notes; you just need to know your chord shapes. So, let's say your chords are C F and G (normal open position cowboy chords): On the C chord: start with the notes in that chord. (As you know, you're already "picking apart" the chord with fingerstyle patterns, playing one or two notes at a time.) Notes you can add as passing notes, between the chord tones are: open D and B strings (because they're in the G chord); string 4 fret 3, string 3 fret 2, and string 1 fret 1, because they're all in the F chord. (And there are more, all of them part of one of those two chords.) On the F chord: again start with the notes in that chord. Passing notes: open 3rd string (from C and G chords), string 4 fret 2 (from C chord), open B string (from G chord)... etc. You get the idea, I hope. All together, these notes make up the "C major scale", but you don't need to know that (it can help if you do, but you don't need to). You can probably add one or two of these notes while playing your usual patterns, because you generally have a spare finger for an extra fretted note, or can add an open string now and then. In a sense, you're breaking down the chords even more, opening them up and allowing notes from other chords in - but not taking that process so far that the chords disappear into a random noodle on the C major scale. Begin (and end) with notes in the chords, which keeps the sequence and structure audible. There is obviously a lot more to be said (in particular the use of chromatics to spice things up and make it more bluesy or jazzy), but this is the way to begin. Never lose sight of the chords, that's critical: everything is founded on them. In many songs you'll have chromatic chords (such as an E or E7 in key of C sometimes), which makes things complicated if you have to think from scales all the time; but it stays easy and obvious if you think from the chords. Obviously this basic method limits you to the position you're playing the chords in, but there's plenty you can do there to start to get a feeling for the process. (Remember open position, the first 3 frets, covers just over 2 octaves. The entire fretboard only adds a little over one more octave to that.) If you want to roam higher on the neck, it's easier if you learn the chord shapes up there first, so you still have your basic templates to to work from. (TIP: CAGED system... )The other crucial thing that needs to be said is a less technical issue: thinking in melodic phrases. This is about imagination. Having the technical tools at your disposal (chord tones, scales, chromatics, whatever) is just the foundation. You have to be able to think melodically to know how to use those tools. That doesn't come from nowhere, by magic; you're not born with it. It comes from listening to melody and playing it. Getting used to how certain sequences of notes sound - how some lines sound dull, while others grab your attention, as "hooks". Trial and error - experimentation, "hunting and picking" - is an important exercise, but so is playing as many existing tunes as you can (lliterally!) get your hands on. If you don't want to be a singer (and I know how you feel ), then you need to "sing" with your guitar: and that's all about melody.
__________________
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen. Last edited by JonPR; 09-30-2013 at 04:06 AM.
|
|
#11
09-30-2013, 08:43 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Lots of ideas here; http://www.thegearpage.net/board/arc...t-1214866.html
Probably too much for your needs. But you can see there are multiple methods and techniques which have been used by other players to get the guitar fretboard and interval/note relationships in their head and under their fingers. There is no "magic decoder ring" for this. It is mentioned in this linked thread that we learn by different means. Some learn through spatial and pattern based techniques. Scales form boxes and linking this to the CAGED chord shapes will likely aid their assimilation first and foremost. I don't think most guitarists who aim higher than playing first position cowboy chords can escape learning about scales and their construction. Many players rely on the CAGED system to give them the foundation of five basic chord shapes seen as five patterns. From there they can use the shape of, say, the C Major chord to add embellishments such as a minor tone or a Dominant 7 tone. Moving the same chord shape up the neck yields a new chord sound with each move; C to C#, C# to D, D# to E, etc.. Pattern players also see the boxes of the pentatonic scale as fitting together to cover the entire fretboard; http://www.thegearpage.net/board/arc...t-1214866.html Looking at the bottom line of shape #1 will give you the top line of shape #2. Bottom of #2 gives you the top of #3. Etc, etc, etc. Knowing where the root note exists in each shape is the key to this type of pattern thinking so you need to know the notes on (at least) the fifth and sixth strings. Playing patterns in this way will quickly teach you that the minor and Major pentatonic scales are identical in their shape - and therefore in their note to note positions - therefore, knowing one automatically provides the other. What distinguishes the Major and minor scales are the root notes which begin the pattern. Once again, knowing your 5 & 6 strings yields the difference here. Knowing the pentatonic shapes are continuous over the neck - pattern one's bottom is pattern two's top - you can connect the patterns to play from the open sixth string to the twelfth fret first string by moving diagonally from one pattern part to another; http://deftdigits.com/2013/08/20/diagonal-pentatonics/ Learning the diagonal patterns for the pentatonic scale in several keys sounds like a big project and it is nothing to sneeze at. But it is quite workable with minimal effort due to the repeating patterns of the fretboard and the repeating patterns of scales on that fretboard. Moving from the root note on the sixth string to the (octave) root note on another string by way of the pentatonic scale should begin to establish the patterns of the guitar fretboard in your head. So remember, if you know the C Major pentatonic scale, you automatically know the A minor scale. The root notes are different and so the position of the root note is different - but the patterns are identical! Grab your guitar and find the "A" note on the sixth string. Now find the "C" on the same string. How many frets have you moved between the two notes? OK, that same distance exists between all Major scales and their related (relative) minor scales. Repetitous patterns allow us to draw that conclusion. We can also conclude from this exercise the #1 (pentatonic scale) pattern moves easily up and down the neck. So what we play for the C Major #1 scale pattern is the same pattern we would play for, say, a G minor #1 scale. The difference between the two scales is what? The position of the root note as it sits on the sixth string, right? Now you know the position from which to begin the G minor scale which means you can also play the related Major scale by shifting the position of the first note (the root) accordingly. Can you see how repeating patterns begin to teach us how to play well in any key simply by applying a little bit of knowledge and a good dose of memorization of the 5 and 6 string? If not, look at the #1 pattern in one of those links and play the same pattern up and down the neck by shifting your first note position upwards by one fret each time. Once you hear the same pattern produce different sounds you should be on your way to learning the fretboard and, therefore, learning how to connect notes at any point on the fretboard. That's not all there is to it, of course, but it is a huge leg up to hear the sounds in your head. Which brings us to the second technique you might use to learn your scales which in turn, teaches you to play guitar. Listen to the sound of each scale as you play it. We learn by audible clues, which, of course, is what music is all about. Playing "music" is using the sound of a scale to establish "tension" and release" or, if you prefer, "expectations" and "resolution". Play your #1 pattern starting with any note on the sixth string and play from root to root - try G to the nexy highest G. What you will hear is the expectation the rising scale tones set up and then the resolution of those expectations when you play the next highest root. Try that, root to root. Hear the sound of a "finished" scale? Now play the same pattern but do not play the higher root note. Do you hear how the scale sounds unfinished without that root note at the end? In its most basic form, that is "music". As you learn to play more sophisticated sounds, you will quickly learn the effect of "finishing" or "resolving" the expectations you've established. Now you need to try your hand at hearing the musical intervals which establish those expectations. Scales are built in intervals; whole step, whole step, half step stuff. If you can develop a sense of the next note should be a whole step away or a half step away, then you can use your patterns and always be in the right place on your neck. Try using the sounds of the intervals to see the next note in your scale then check your pattern against the pattern of the pentatonic scale. You'll see you can have both your pattern based playing and your sound based playing forming a basis for all your playing. Some people begin to learn these sounds and patterns by way of the mathematics of the scale or the number of frets between this note and that note. If this is what appeals to you, by all means learn with what works. But you will quickly find you cannot live only by this amount of knowledge. Most players will find they eventually combine patterns with sounds and fret jumps. Find the type of learning process which most appeals to your brain. Once you become comfortable with the basics of how to play, you can move onto the basics of how to make sounds which resemble music. Is your instructor providing some music theory in your lesson plan? In other words, is it being explained to you why you are playing what is in the lesson? Last edited by JanVigne; 09-30-2013 at 10:06 AM.
|
|
#12
09-30-2013, 09:22 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Hi EM...
Since you posted this thread, I've thought about it some. If I were determined to learn all the notes on the fretboard, I'd need/want goals to implement that know-how beyond just saying "Hey, I'm playing an Eb on the 1st string 11th fret!" First the question I pondered was… If a player memorizes the fretboard and knows note names and nothing else, of what benefit is it? I concluded very little benefit at all. One could name the notes within chords they are playing, but that wouldn't make them a chord builder, and he/she could figure out where to locate barre chords - if one understands which chord the barre is based on. My next question was… What would I need to add to knowing the notes to make that useful information? And I concluded a list of essentials would be:
And as a teacher, that is what I try to convey to students as to why we are learning all those things. Hope this helps contribute to the discussion... A reason pentatonic scales are taught to beginners is that one can play any note within a pentatonic scale with any chord from the key being played in and it will never sound wrong. There are no half-steps to clash. Pentatonic scales are built with scale degrees 1-2-3-5-6 with no 4 or 7. There are whole genres (some forms of blues) which specialize in using pentatonic scales. A lot of beginning pentatonic scale play is patterned play without thought for the notes involved (which can be a freeing thing). This can fall into boring patterned play if one doesn't increase their knowledge of and use of more creative usage. That is part of musical maturation at about every level (rote play - becoming bored & seeking inspiration - growing in use and knowledge).
__________________
Baby #1.1 Baby #1.2 Baby #02 Baby #03 Baby #04 Baby #05 Larry's songs... …Just because you've argued someone into silence doesn't mean you have convinced them…
|
|
#13
09-30-2013, 09:57 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
"Is your instructor providing some music theory in your lesson plan? In other words, is it being explained to you why you are playing what is in the lesson?"
Can you tell us what lesson book or plan you are using? Most fingerstyle lesson books don't go into detail about the "why" of music. The author of the book tends to assume the reader already has a certain familiarity with playing guitar and the lessons are more about learning specific picking patterns or specific songs which utilize certain picking patterns. Coming to this style of play without sufficient background in the basics of playing guitar will leave the average student with many of the same questions you seem to have about the workings of the guitar itself. It's not impossible to accomplish, but most fingerstyle players don't even play pentatonic scales or scales of any sort. They use the scales and harmonized notes taken from chords (those found within a scale) as the basis for the embellishments they will insert into their fingerings. This in no way excludes learning the scales, but you'll likely have to go elsewhere than a fingerstyle book or lesson plan to find the knowledge. Really the good ol' standard Mel Bay lesson books cover far more theory and explain far better the "why" of playing guitar than any fingerstyle lesson book I've encountered. Same for many "improv" courses I've seen, the student is assumed to have already seen and picked up the many basics of playing before you begin with such a course. If your instructor is simply teaching picking patterns and songs, you're missing a lot of basic information which is the foundation of playing music and certainly of playing the guitar without confusion over where a note falls or why it falls there. Without giving a list of all the songs you've learned, what exactly is it your instructor has been giving you to work on? Is it a course as found in a book? Which book? Or, are you simply being handed songs to play? Last edited by JanVigne; 09-30-2013 at 10:08 AM.
|
|
#14
09-30-2013, 04:06 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I'm a beginner, but I can improvise if someone is playing chords slow enough, well enough...
Look at this for a starting point http://www.essentialguitar.com/ I have since found out that it is pretty basic, but it is a start none the less... It shows you how to find the major scale. You should also learn other scales (pentatonic) as able. Don't limit yourself to the pattern in this e-book, but just use it as a jumping point. Learn to recognize the key of the song, then start improvising over the scale.
|
|
#15
09-30-2013, 04:45 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Jan, I'm not working from any book. But I have several (Mel what's his name, Troy Stetsina (sp?), Guitar for Dummies, basic fingerstyle books, flatpicking, even some songbooks (Beatles easy tab, for example).
What my teacher has covered with me includes (in no particular order): Keeping time (toe tapping...something I'd never done) Strumming technique Circle of Fifths (which he was very patient about explaining but I still don't entirely understand) I-IV-V chord progression as a starting point 12 bar blues Simple embellishments, i.e. adding a bit of "tinsel" to basic chord progressions(that I can play after recording him do it slowly, using my iPad....and which I can't really explain...don't know how) Smooth chord changes Basic fingerstyle patterns Slides "songs" include basic 12-bar blues, a couple of songs we've made up together to teach certain techniques, and right now I'm learning Amazing Grace. He has me play, for example, a basic 12-bar blues progression in the key of E, and in so doing I am the rhythm guitar and he plays lead on top of that. What he has told me is how well I keep focused on what I'm doing and don't get lost when he is playing lead with me. He tells me I have a great sense of rhythm, and that even tho we've been working together only 6 months, I have moved from beginner to intermediate. My teacher used to teach full time years ago; has a degree in music, and has several CDs, and plays several benefit events in town each year (he's fairly well known here, both as a musician and writer). He'sa newspaper columnist full time so only has two students, one of which is me. When he retires he will return to teaching more students, tho not @ 40/week like he used to. I share that so you know that he's not just some guitarist who's never taught before. But he's not a regimented teacher, and ours is a pretty organic process. And fun! I invariably come with questions and other things I have found from lesson to lesson (i.e. something on JustinGuitar, or a new fingerstyle progression I "made up") and so we talk about the theory behind why my new little ditty sounds so nice, or I will ask about ways to improve technique on certain chords (like the eff'n F chord!) or alternate fingering on G, A, E, etc. So, in short, there is some music theory in there, but it's a learning curve, for sure, even tho I took piano as a kid! Thanks for the link, Pualee. Appreciate it greatly! EM
|
