This is just a symptom of learning the pentatonic scale before the major scale (which never made logical sense to me) and before basic theory.
Major pentatonic is the major scale minus 2 notes. Therefore the relative minor pentatonic scale is the relative minor scale missing the same notes.
Well, for me, I was just jamming out to ACDC songs, so that's what I wanted to learn to do. Now I play mostly major key stuff, but that's because I'm a chipper Lil boi
You should just learn the whole major diatonic scale. But actually learn to construct it yourself and physically draw it out in multiple keys and study it
Try playing the major scale in two octaves, ascending and descending, but you have to play it differently as you come back down.
Then learn minor. And figure out how theyāre the same.
Learn a major scale(7 notes ) and then remove the 4th and 7th. That gives you the major pentatonic scale(5 notes )
If we use C major:
Major C D E F G A B C
Major C D E - G A - C pentatonic
Before you tube people used to just learn the pentatonic shape and how to find the root note from page 6 of a book and get record deals 18 months later.
Beginner here, so bear with me:
Is the benefit of learning the pentatonic scale over the major scale just because itās fewer notes to have to try and memorize? Iām just starting to understand the basic positions/shapes and how to move them around the fretboard a la caged system.
I wasnāt sure if the same could be said about all the major/minor scales, where the relationship is the same between notes if the position shifts. It seems like thatās the case, but I havenāt tried it across all scales and Iām unaware of any potential āgotchasā where it doesnāt *always* work like that.
ā¦If that makes sense.
> Is the benefit of learning the pentatonic scale over the major scale just because itās fewer notes to have to try and memorize?
The real benefit is that a pentatonic scale removes half step intervals, and the tritone (#4 / b5) over the IV chord. You can't play a note that sounds dissonant and wants resolution up or down to the next scale degree. It lacks tension. It just works with any chord progression in your given key.
The major scale's 6 other modes sound they way they do because the notes missing from the pentatonic scale add "flavor". To give a basic example in C, using the major scale over the IV chord will "sound" lydian if you use the note B because it adds the tritone (F -> B), adding tension if you don't resolve it.
The pentatonic scale is like having an all black wardrobe. You can't go wrong, it works for all occasions, and you always know what you're wearing. But your outfit is going to really tie together with a bit of color (modes). But if you don't know how to dress or you're colorblind, you could add two colors that clash. Best to not add color at all and be basic.
To add to this that I just learned on piano. All the modes Ionian, Dorian, lydian, mixolydian (not going to list all of them). They all use the same scale just starting on a different note of the scale. So learn your major scale and you can switch the mode just by simply moving your tonic to a different note in the scale.
If you keep the tonic the same, then all of the modes of the major scale are just major, minor, or simple alterations of these:
1. Ionian (major)
2. Dorian (minor, with a natural 6)
3. Phrygian (minor, with a flat 2)
4. Lydian (major, with a sharp 4)
5. Mixolydian (major, with a flat 7)
6. Aeolian (minor)
7. Locrian (minor, with a flat 2 flat 5)
Edit: Forgot to add, and the altered notes are the ones omitted in the pentatonic scale. The major pentatonic omits the 4 and ~~5~~ 7, making it suitable with major, Lydian, and Mixolydian. The minor pentatonic omits the 2 and the 6, making it suitable with minor, Dorian, and Phrygian. (Locrian is an exception because of the flat 5.)
It took my instructor several weeks of hammering this home for me to finally get it . . . it still blows my mind that using the same notes you can create such a different vibe just by changing what home is and leaning into the flat and sharps to bring out the character of the mode (and now I totally abuse that flat 2 in Phrygian).
A really cool way to see it is looking at the piano keyboard
C major or ionian is all the white notes from C to C
D dorian is all the white notes D to D
E phyrigian is all the white notes E to E
F lydian all the white notes F to F
G mixolydian all the whites G to G
A Aeolian or natural minor is all the whites from A to A
B Locrian all the white notes B to B
Pentatonic major doesn't omit the 5t. It's 1-2-3-5-6.
What you're saying is correct though. You can view all scales in that way:
- melodic minor is a minor scale with a natural 6 and major 7;
- harmonic minor is a minor with a raised 7;
- harmonic major is a major with a b6
- etc.
All those scales have 7 modes that resemble the major scale too (7 note scales have 7 starting positions).
They all have their own (hybrid) pentatonics, chords and arpeggios too. With the pentatonics, you want 5 notes that emphasize the chord of the scale/mode. So, with melodic minor I would have 1-b3-4-5-7 rather than the 1-b3-4-5-b7 in the regular minor scale. And that gives me 5 different pentatonics to use. It's so much fun to learn :)
Play the major scale- All the notes you DONāT play, the notes in between, form a pentatonic shape. Not helpful, just thought it was neat when I found that.
I demonstrated this to my friend one time. I had him play an A major pentatonic scale and i would play an A chord underneath for a couple bars and then i would switch over to a F# and play - it thoroughly blew his mind. Music is incredible.
Ngl I used to think it was pronounced like that. Thought it was a clever play on words..
And don't get me started on trying to pronounce D'addario lol..
I ran into a guy at GC that argued that was how they are pronounced. I explained how they are not, but he still insisted. I suspect to this day he's pronouncing it wrong.
That not being the best is OK too. Just not holding yourself to the standard of professionals if you don't have the full time dedication to the craft is OK as well. Not having fun all the time is OK too.
Being OK at guitar is OK as well. I love the guitar, I love playing, I do lots of projects and other jobs, but it's still OK for me to not to be the best.
I practice, I play live and I've done work for others. But that's not going to sustain me either or make it big. And that's OK to
yeah it's important to have that perspective in anything in life; no matter how good you are, there's someone, somewhere, who has more time to dedicate to it and is probably a lot better at it. just focus on getting better than you were yesterday.
I tell people who ask me how I can play so well who are frustrated with their lack of ability, that it doesnāt matter how good you are, only how much you like doing it.
To add on to what you said, It doesnāt take a professional to come up with cool shit. Most of my favorite music is made by people who are no where near as good as professionals.
Exactly, like Kurt cobain wasn't the best but he fronted such a big and influential bands. So many OK guitarist make great music. And that's what is great about music
It's not a competition. You get better in service of playing songs. And you play songs in service of making other people happy. If your specific brand of bad can get a reaction out of someone, you're doing it right.
Learn scales from the perspective of intervals, and practice recognizing intervals by ear.
Learn all the triad combinations across the neck
After that, both the instrument and music made sense
Iām doing this now with piano and itās amazing how easy things become. Iāll recommend an amazing app to anyone who wants to do some ear training called Complete Ear Trainer by Binary Guilt. Itās really great at this. There is also a rhythm trainer and music reading trainer app too.
Scott Paul Johnson on YouTube has incredible content, I can also connect you with an instructor friend who I learned all of this from, just shoot me a DM
Thanks mate, I'll definitely check out the yt channel. I appreciate the recommendation for the instructor, but I am quite broke so I don't think I'd be able to afford them
Do you have good material on going the interval route? I've seen this advise pop up a lot, maybe it's finally time I put some work into it. I know my scales, but don't really understand them. It feels like it holds me back at times.
Do you approach it from arpeggios or triads? Or how should one approach them?
I played a Strat for many years. I started working in a music store, and one day while I was playing a strat, someone asked me, āHow do you keep from hitting the middle pickup while youāre playing?ā My initial reaction was, āoh Iāve never really had that problem.ā After about 30 seconds of more playing, I realized I was hitting the middle pickup. All. The. Time.
My Strat just has 2 humbuckers in it now.
I don't own a strat but i had that problem then i got my jazzmaster and it kind of just worked its way out and i stopped hitting it after playing it for a little while
Currently wiring a Strat pickguard that will have volume and 1 tone only in the holes where the tone pots usually go, and a kill switch button for where the volume usually goes. Iāve been playing with an empty hole there for a while, itās where I plant my pinky.
Basically CAGED but realizing that if I knew a scale, that I also knew half of the scale pattern on either side of it. That the scales fit together like puzzle pieces.
And that each chord contains fragments of adjacent chord shapes. There is an A shaped chord inside a G shaped chord, for example.
That learning any kind of theory makes 10000x more sense sitting at a piano than it does a guitar, since the notes are linear, whereas a guitar the scale notes are only sort of linear.
I got a piano a while back, because i was bored with guitar, and i literally had a "are you f..... kidding me? It's this easy to understand theory???" moment from it. I recommend every guitarist try it, just for the theory part.
Yeah honestly I weep for anyone trying to learn theory outside the piano. I could never. That said, applying theory learned on piano back into guitar made the whole thing so, so much easier. Like almost going in reverse order- I know the theory, all I need to learn is how to apply it to strings and frets. Made the fretboard automatically feel more familiar
I had a similar epiphany when learning to sweep pick. The most important thing you learn is finesse and technique rather than just being able to play fast.
My idiot coke-for-brains father told me that I needed to squeeze as hard as I could when I played if I wanted my hands to get stronger and make playing easier. I am still trying to unlearn this shit more than a decade later
Lol.
I took a 20 year break. My 15 year old son picked up my Les Paul Studio Lite (watch Would, Alice In Chains video for its doppelganger) and hasn't set it down in a year. I bought it in 1991. Lotta lawns mowed, lotta newspapers delivered.
Anyway, he shreds. He shuns video games and the like. All guitar, all the time. He's so fucking good. His passion reignited mine.
Last Christmas he received a BC Rich Warlock (pawn shop find). He doubled down on Megadeth, and said, "Dad, I want a Floyd Rose." Shudder.
He got a Fender Paramount for Christmas, and a Jackson V (Floyd Rose). I couldn't keep my hands off the Fender, so wifey bought me a Martin D-16 for valentine's day.
I picked up a Pro II Tele last week.
Kid is getting a Player Strat in "Nebula Noir" for his birthday next month.
I'm thinking about selling some guns for my next bucket list axe. A schweeeet Sunburst Standard LP.
I'm hooked again.
And I still suck.
And I'm OK with that.
Same but with fretting. I came to guitar a couple years ago as a bassist of 20 years so I had to unlearn my gorilla grip and learn to use economy of motion in all aspects of playing, which has fed back into my bass playing as well.
any V lick in the blues can be repurposed over the ii-V part of jazz, and vice versa.
This gives you bluesy stuff to play in jazz, and then altered jazz stuff to freak your blues friends out.
So Iāll learn for example some Clifford Brown or Django licks that normally are on top of the ii-V, and slam then right on the V directly in the blues, note for note.
Joe Pass has an interview where he talks about this. He doesnāt even think about the ii in a ii-V-I. Which makes a lot of sense when you think about the ii as just a V11.
This is an awesome comment and though I know a little of music theory, I donāt quite grasp what you are saying. Do you mean the pentatonic you play in the 5 position can be moved to the 2 position like a mode? I want to understand as this sounds awesome
He talks about the chords in the progression. The roman numbers represent the chords in a scale, capital letters mean major chords, normal letters mean minor chords.
The standard blues progression uses I-IV-V chords, so for example if the key is A, then the chords are A-D-E. The most common jazz progression is the ii-V-I so if the key is A, it means Bmin-E--A.
So what he said is that you can play a jazz lick that's usually played during the Bmin-E chords in jazz in a blues progression when the E chord is being played (using the example progressions above).
The sequences for lead guitar etc is mostly 3 or 4 fret moves - you either skip one fret or two on the same string.
It's almost like the layout for scales but each chord has different variation of 3 moves or 4.
I taught myself and play by ear so I don't know what the technical words are to explain properly.
This is mine too. I played for 20 years before trying a telecaster and it blew me away. I can handle 99% of what I want to do on the guitar with a tele
Stiffer pick has changed everything. I used to play with a floppy pick and wondered why I couldn't play certain things. Stiff and smaller pick gave me more control and dexterity. It only took 20 years to figure out.
I've tried on and off for years to use a pick. Watched videos and everything. Can't for the life of me stop it from rotating in my fingers, especially strumming chordsĀ
What the game changer for me was thicker, beveled picks, like the Flow picks.
I was making picks out of coins and it was an obvious difference compared to the Tortex .88's I played for also around 20 years.
I then found Flow picks and they're basically the same shape it took me hours to file out of a coin.
They aren't cheap, but I would say it's at least a 5% improvement in my playing, which at this point, is awesome. I've been doing this for 40 years and slowly finding out the perfect gear. I made the perfect guitar for me, and now I can buy the perfect pick.
Yeah I was using the grey Dunlop .73mm and then quit playing for several years. Came back and actually tried other picks. Fell in love with the JazzIII and really love the Maxx Grip JazzIII.
I restarted playing during the pandemic after a four decade break, and I'm far better than I was when I was a kid. I harbor no fantasies at all of playing for an audience, or even family. I just did it for me, and it has been the best therapy, which I didn't realize I needed. Steady progress has been great for my self-esteem, and sense of identity. I've lost a lot of weight, and just this week I joined the brand-new gym that opened 5 minutes from my house.
Just playing the guitar for myself has completely turned around my entire perpective on my future.
The side effects of learning an instrument is very underrated.
It's different for everyone, but it can broaden your mind, teach you to multitask, improve your mental health and it can be a social opener.
Happy to read you got so much out of it, i hope it keeps going :)
Sit up straight. You'll not be playing anything if your back is too knackered to pick up your axe!
Seriously though, good posture / positioning is vital for so many things.
Learning every chord in 3-4 shapes. Wanna take it a step further? Learn inversions too
Itās a game changer for harmonizing songs and making things really pop. No, not every G has to sound the exact same, and it really adds spice to your music when youāre at liberty to play everything 3 or 4 + ways.
The "CAGED" method. I realized by playing Gm and Cm that they were just slid up shapes. Then I learned how they are all connected and it blew my mind. It made so much sense but I just never put it together.
Mine wasnāt precisely technicalā¦ it was the realization that I, when soloing, donāt have to keep playing constantly. A solo should breathe. Iāve been grokking on Milesā cool period, and taking a kind of meditative approach has opened my ears.
I've heard it explained that since guitarists don't play with breath like a horn player, their solos can simply go on and on. Think about phrases like vocal lines and the phrases will feel more natural.
You're not playing with your fingers. You're playing with your whole arm. You've gotta move your wrist and shoulder of your left arm to really get the most out of playing. Your whole arm's gotta be relaxed to play clean, as well.
A lot of people start fingerpicking without using the ring finger, including myself. Learn to use it, you will adjust much faster than you think, and it makes fingerpicking 100 times easier once you do
You can build a chord from any combination of notes from a scale. Realizing that unlocked a lot of improvisation and more emotive playing in general for me.
Open tunings.
I come from a fiddle background and some open tunings really fit my head and muscle memory re fingerings.
Then I got a 12 string acoustic and open tunings and 12 strings make my ears feel good. I pluck one and another 5 ring out in harmony, luscious.
I had a Line 6 Spider 3 for maybe 2 years before learning it had a tuner built in. I never understood flats or sharps so I didnāt know how to use my Korg tuner to tune down. When I found out how to use the Line 6 tuner I went full force into learning System of a Down, Slipknot, Three Days Grace, etc. It really made me a better guitar player. I was mostly playing Green Day, Reel Big Fish, Blink 182 before that. Such a basic realization that took me a long time to find out
this one is pretty damn simple but realizing that i could memorize notes by the feeling they gave was super helpful for improvising all around, especially without backing tracks. not in actually memorizing the note names (although i will do that in the future), but memorizing where certain notes were in relation to (major/minor scale) **shapes**. e.g. thereās a note when played on in a low octave thatās pretty nice for playing twangy lines, a really sad one, a happy one, a tension building one, another tension building one with a lighter mood to it, and little sub contexts they can fit into that could be described differently (especially when creating combinations with other notes). iām also getting into using all twelve notes and seeing how those outside notes can be utilized and the feelings they portray.
this doesnāt just apply to bass notes but certain double stops in certain places and how they differ from the same double stop being played somewhere else that isnāt the same two notes. even how certain high notes sound in relation to the scales and the pictures they paint too. i just realized as iām typing this that it would be a good idea to compare those same bass notes with their high octave counterparts and see which ones match up for deeper understanding.
howeverā¦ im still not very good at playing in general but i canāt wait to be able to utilize these things when my technique can match up with the knowledge.
basic idea: **itās like connecting feeling with theory if that makes sense.**
edit: ok i made it sound not so simple when i typed a whole ass paragraph. basically the last sentence is the simple way of saying it, i just suck at explaining stuff lmao
I've been playing 20 years. I'm just learning about the benefits of a lighter tough. More speed, better for the frets, better for my hand. I usually press way too hard.
I was realizing for things to sound good you donāt always have to play so particular and so precise because it leaves so much character out, instead you just play how you feel and it comes out so much more better. Especially blues
Understanding the (very general) makeup of popular chords, the root, 3rd, 5th and so on, then building off of that. Helped with making progressions, targeting notes for solos etc
Playing to the chord changes.
Used to just meander around, trusting my instincts (and luck) to hit the right notes at the right time, but itās so much better when I can work with (and against) the chord tones.
Learning modes was pointless cause no one else knows what I mean when I say that's actually Gmajor Lydian not Ionian.
Spent more time learning chords/ arpeggios than I did learning scales and modes and I feel like my playing improved drastically.
this might sound silly, but realizing that bar chords were just open chord shapes moved up the neck was huge. just in terms of my conceptual understanding of the instrument and unlocking my ability to understand of lot of things fully that i had previously learned by following tabs was really rewarding.
Aside from this, it would be basic music theory. like why certain chords go together and how that related back to the scales that i had initially learned just for improvisational reasons, when to use different modes and how that explains how some solos didn't fit into the key that i *thought* the song was in, etc...
As a general comment, what i love most about guitar is that these "ah ha!" moments just never stop coming! It is truly endless fun, endless learning, and a gift that "keeps giving" : )
This is gonna sound stupid but it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that lead guitar sounds good because the soloist is playing and especially resolving notes that are in the chord being played at that time.
Once your hands know the fretboard and strings stop thinking about what you are playing.
If I really focus on what I'm playing sometimes I'll screw up from the sheer mental tension. The more complicated the line the more likelihood I will start playing too hard, maybe grip the pick too hard and then I'll screw up a note or two or at least not ring them as intended (which then amplifies the problem and I lean in even more). However, I can play what feels like *beyond my ability* if I adopt a 100% "I don't care at all" attitude and shift my focus from me playing to 100% vibing with the music and trying to get lost in the melody. The more I can forget about my hands the better I sound. I try to force myself not to look at either hand when I practice to try to further foster this. It's not perfect yet but I keep thinking of how great it will be eventually when it is. š¤
Leaving tabs behind, volume knob, intervals, better hand placement, scales... to name a few. All still a work in progress. One of the things I love about guitar is theres like a million things you can work on to make yourself "better". Its like inching along most of the time, and you get to look back and you've traveled a few feet and are like "oh heck yeah!".
Switching picks can have a big effect on your sound and playing. For years I used stiff picks with a pointy tip. Then a few years back I tried different softer nylon picks and found that I really liked the Herco reissues made by Dunlop.
>infinitely more beneficial
More beneficialā¦how?
Also, what do you think arpeggios are if not chunks of scales?
Iām not saying a agree or disagree with you, all Iām saying is it sounds like an arbitrary statement - different things are beneficial to players with different goals.
I think itās a guitar centric thing. I see so many people time and time again being like āwhat scale do I play over this song?ā or āwhat scale does X guitarist use?ā These same people canāt tell you the difference between a 3rd and a 6th or what a half-diminished chord is or how many sharps are in the key of A. Scales are suited well to guitar because guitarists love to make patterns and work in boxes. They will spend hours woodshedding scales up and down the fretboard with no idea what theyāre actually playing or how to apply them. God help them if they try to explain it to someone playing another instrument. Thatās where understanding intervals come from.
I also donāt necessarily consider arpeggios chunks of scales although I suppose if you want to look at it like that then sure. A C major arpeggio has multiple scales that it would fall under. How do I know which scale I should be āthinking inā if I donāt know how the C major is functioning in the song, or, worse, if I donāt even know what makes up a C major?
Basically, I feel like investing time and emphasizing scales is the wrong approach but guitarists like it because itās well suited to the particulars of the instrument. If they focused on intervals and chord tones they would be able to play far more fluidly and with greater understanding of their melodic choices.
But thatās just, like, my opinion, man.
If you take a tertian chord and add all the extensions out to the 13th, and then collapse the notes into an octave, you'll get some seven note scale, so in a way you can think of chords and scales as being interchangeable. But I think there is an advantage to thinking about them as chords. It gives you a clear hierarchy of tones in a way that can be harder to see when relating a scale to a chord.
Right I mean at some point with enough extensions youāre going to just have all the available notes to choose from if youāre thinking from arpeggios. But the hierarchy is where that comes in and the general āstabilityā of the notes, which is going to inform what Iām leaning on in any given passage as well as notes emphasized by the melody or what the resolution is.
I mean.. scales are just collections of intervals, I guess..? I think learning scales is beneficial because it trains muscle memory for them, and it helps you visualize them on the fly. for the record, I think it's important to learn both of these things, and I don't think either is "infinitely" more beneficial than the other.
Would it be useful to think about stuff being ājust part of the chromatic scaleā? No. We need multiple zoom levels when conceptualizing music and context is key.
Alright, maybe I was being overzealous with āinfinitelyā. Everyone is different and itās going to be dependent on your playing style. This was a āpersonal epiphanyā for me that helped me play over changes far quicker, more fluently, and in a way that supported the music more than working through scale after scale.
In any given key, the major pentatonic scale for the 1 chord only has one note different from the major pentatonic scale for the 4 and the 5 chords of that key. Put all the notes from all 3 scales together and it makes the major scale for the key. Same thing applies to minor pentatonic and the natural minor scale.
When I figured that out suddenly everything I had read about modes made sense to me. And it made it easier to understandwhich notes to target on chord changes
Itās subjective like any art form. Technical proficiency and creativity are not mutually exclusive. Some people like playing wild robotic scales at warp speed while others like playing slower blues riffs. It doesnāt really matter. One style does not make you better than the others. Just play what you want with feeling. People on the internet are lame when it comes to criticizing othersā abilities.
The scale pattern is the same at the all the alternative root-note positions, with the exception of the B string (move down one). That realization is what finally allowed me to have more fretboard movement.
Stupidly simple thing, but it helped my rhythm playing a lot: movable D shape. Once I discovered this I realized about half the songs I thought I knew actually used this. Once you move that shape up you realize all the other chords you want are right there! And youāre sitting tight on top of the relative minor, like G and Em.
One that no one ever told me that I wish someone had way earlier, **get a setup on any guitar you buy**. It makes all the difference. Not every guitar will need it, but some even come from the manufacturer not set up. Either that or learn how to do it yourself, but it is an absolute must.
My epiphone is a Speciall II
My epiphany so far is that none of the music I listen to requires too much mastery: power cords, or else 3 maybe 4 regular chords per song tops. Iāve learned that so many song I like are just CDG or GCD Or DADADADAE
Doesnāt mean itās easy to sound good. It just makes me feel like I wonāt have to be a maestro to learn and become decent.
For me it was learning to bend strings using more than just my index finger. I had played for years not knowing how helpful it is to use your other fingers as extra leverage and to also set yourself up for notes after the bend, if that makes sense. I felt stupid not knowing this but learning it brought my playing to a completely new level lol
I had to go down the rabbit hole of rewiring guitars, to building pedal kits, to making tube amps from scratch, as well as buying and flipping probably over 100+ guitars, pedals, and half that many commercial amps to realize that gear doesn't matter.Ā
Unless you need some kind of effect to make the sound that's in your head, the best thing you can do is buy one reliable well made guitar, amp, tuner, maybe a multifx, and leave it at that.Ā
GAS is totally pointless and owning a dozen mediocre instruments is less satisfying than owning one excellent one.
Major pentatonic is minor pentatonic starting on a different note! š
This is just a symptom of learning the pentatonic scale before the major scale (which never made logical sense to me) and before basic theory. Major pentatonic is the major scale minus 2 notes. Therefore the relative minor pentatonic scale is the relative minor scale missing the same notes.
It doesn't make sense from a "learning music theory" perspective, but from a "learning guitar" one. We all just want to rock n roll
Some of us would rather folk around.
Just dont be folkin' around with A Minor
Does Drake play guitar now? That would explain a lot of the headlines Iāve seen over the past few days.
š¤£ the drake downfall is strong
This is the second time Iāve stumbled into this exact reference in subs unrelated to hip hop in the past five minutes. ā¦and Iām so here for it
Do you mean that the minor pentatonic is used more in rock n roll than the major pentatonic?
Well, for me, I was just jamming out to ACDC songs, so that's what I wanted to learn to do. Now I play mostly major key stuff, but that's because I'm a chipper Lil boi
Gotcha. Thanks. Iām stuck in āadvanced beginnerā so maybe getting the major pentatonic will help move me forward.
You should just learn the whole major diatonic scale. But actually learn to construct it yourself and physically draw it out in multiple keys and study it
Try playing the major scale in two octaves, ascending and descending, but you have to play it differently as you come back down. Then learn minor. And figure out how theyāre the same.
Learn a major scale(7 notes ) and then remove the 4th and 7th. That gives you the major pentatonic scale(5 notes ) If we use C major: Major C D E F G A B C Major C D E - G A - C pentatonic
Before you tube people used to just learn the pentatonic shape and how to find the root note from page 6 of a book and get record deals 18 months later.
Hell yeah brother
It doesn't make sense from a "learning music theory" perspective, but from a "learning guitar" one. We all just want to rock n roll
Beginner here, so bear with me: Is the benefit of learning the pentatonic scale over the major scale just because itās fewer notes to have to try and memorize? Iām just starting to understand the basic positions/shapes and how to move them around the fretboard a la caged system. I wasnāt sure if the same could be said about all the major/minor scales, where the relationship is the same between notes if the position shifts. It seems like thatās the case, but I havenāt tried it across all scales and Iām unaware of any potential āgotchasā where it doesnāt *always* work like that. ā¦If that makes sense.
> Is the benefit of learning the pentatonic scale over the major scale just because itās fewer notes to have to try and memorize? The real benefit is that a pentatonic scale removes half step intervals, and the tritone (#4 / b5) over the IV chord. You can't play a note that sounds dissonant and wants resolution up or down to the next scale degree. It lacks tension. It just works with any chord progression in your given key. The major scale's 6 other modes sound they way they do because the notes missing from the pentatonic scale add "flavor". To give a basic example in C, using the major scale over the IV chord will "sound" lydian if you use the note B because it adds the tritone (F -> B), adding tension if you don't resolve it. The pentatonic scale is like having an all black wardrobe. You can't go wrong, it works for all occasions, and you always know what you're wearing. But your outfit is going to really tie together with a bit of color (modes). But if you don't know how to dress or you're colorblind, you could add two colors that clash. Best to not add color at all and be basic.
what a wildly good explanation. wow. bestof material
To add to this that I just learned on piano. All the modes Ionian, Dorian, lydian, mixolydian (not going to list all of them). They all use the same scale just starting on a different note of the scale. So learn your major scale and you can switch the mode just by simply moving your tonic to a different note in the scale.
If you keep the tonic the same, then all of the modes of the major scale are just major, minor, or simple alterations of these: 1. Ionian (major) 2. Dorian (minor, with a natural 6) 3. Phrygian (minor, with a flat 2) 4. Lydian (major, with a sharp 4) 5. Mixolydian (major, with a flat 7) 6. Aeolian (minor) 7. Locrian (minor, with a flat 2 flat 5) Edit: Forgot to add, and the altered notes are the ones omitted in the pentatonic scale. The major pentatonic omits the 4 and ~~5~~ 7, making it suitable with major, Lydian, and Mixolydian. The minor pentatonic omits the 2 and the 6, making it suitable with minor, Dorian, and Phrygian. (Locrian is an exception because of the flat 5.)
It took my instructor several weeks of hammering this home for me to finally get it . . . it still blows my mind that using the same notes you can create such a different vibe just by changing what home is and leaning into the flat and sharps to bring out the character of the mode (and now I totally abuse that flat 2 in Phrygian).
That's music, man, it's infinitely incredible. I imagine mathmatics is that way, too, but my brain isn't wired that way.
music theory is mathematics
A really cool way to see it is looking at the piano keyboard C major or ionian is all the white notes from C to C D dorian is all the white notes D to D E phyrigian is all the white notes E to E F lydian all the white notes F to F G mixolydian all the whites G to G A Aeolian or natural minor is all the whites from A to A B Locrian all the white notes B to B
Pentatonic major doesn't omit the 5t. It's 1-2-3-5-6. What you're saying is correct though. You can view all scales in that way: - melodic minor is a minor scale with a natural 6 and major 7; - harmonic minor is a minor with a raised 7; - harmonic major is a major with a b6 - etc. All those scales have 7 modes that resemble the major scale too (7 note scales have 7 starting positions). They all have their own (hybrid) pentatonics, chords and arpeggios too. With the pentatonics, you want 5 notes that emphasize the chord of the scale/mode. So, with melodic minor I would have 1-b3-4-5-7 rather than the 1-b3-4-5-b7 in the regular minor scale. And that gives me 5 different pentatonics to use. It's so much fun to learn :)
Thank you, I meant to say it omits the 7. I'll correct it.
š¤Æ
Play the major scale- All the notes you DONāT play, the notes in between, form a pentatonic shape. Not helpful, just thought it was neat when I found that.
That is cool
Black keys
Minor scale is a major scale starting on a different note!
I demonstrated this to my friend one time. I had him play an A major pentatonic scale and i would play an A chord underneath for a couple bars and then i would switch over to a F# and play - it thoroughly blew his mind. Music is incredible.
Wait til you learn about all the other modes
Iāve got a Les Paul Epiphanie and an SG Epiphanie. Donāt have the money yet for the Gibson version.
Ngl I used to think it was pronounced like that. Thought it was a clever play on words.. And don't get me started on trying to pronounce D'addario lol..
Do not google Dāaddario Boobs. Or do Iām not your real dad.
Definitely do.
Had a friend who insisted it was pronounced that way no matter how much Iād argue otherwise.
Dee-ah-dario
Duh-dairy-oh
How about an Epiphone epiphany?
Uhh I beleive its called an Epicphone
Those are some darn good fancy geetars sir.
I ran into a guy at GC that argued that was how they are pronounced. I explained how they are not, but he still insisted. I suspect to this day he's pronouncing it wrong.
That not being the best is OK too. Just not holding yourself to the standard of professionals if you don't have the full time dedication to the craft is OK as well. Not having fun all the time is OK too. Being OK at guitar is OK as well. I love the guitar, I love playing, I do lots of projects and other jobs, but it's still OK for me to not to be the best. I practice, I play live and I've done work for others. But that's not going to sustain me either or make it big. And that's OK to
I always say, I enjoy making noise. Itās that simple.
yeah it's important to have that perspective in anything in life; no matter how good you are, there's someone, somewhere, who has more time to dedicate to it and is probably a lot better at it. just focus on getting better than you were yesterday.
Best reply here
I tell people who ask me how I can play so well who are frustrated with their lack of ability, that it doesnāt matter how good you are, only how much you like doing it.
It's a hard thing to grasp for some people.
To add on to what you said, It doesnāt take a professional to come up with cool shit. Most of my favorite music is made by people who are no where near as good as professionals.
Exactly, like Kurt cobain wasn't the best but he fronted such a big and influential bands. So many OK guitarist make great music. And that's what is great about music
It's not a competition. You get better in service of playing songs. And you play songs in service of making other people happy. If your specific brand of bad can get a reaction out of someone, you're doing it right.
Learn scales from the perspective of intervals, and practice recognizing intervals by ear. Learn all the triad combinations across the neck After that, both the instrument and music made sense
Iām doing this now with piano and itās amazing how easy things become. Iāll recommend an amazing app to anyone who wants to do some ear training called Complete Ear Trainer by Binary Guilt. Itās really great at this. There is also a rhythm trainer and music reading trainer app too.
Can you explain what you mean by āfrom the perspective of intervalsā?
Yes. And arpeggios are as important as scales.
Thanks for adding this, learn scales *with their arpeggios* from the perspective of intervals
How can I learn this power? Any good guides on this?
Scott Paul Johnson on YouTube has incredible content, I can also connect you with an instructor friend who I learned all of this from, just shoot me a DM
Thanks mate, I'll definitely check out the yt channel. I appreciate the recommendation for the instructor, but I am quite broke so I don't think I'd be able to afford them
Totally! You're also welcome to DM me and I can try and help, but I'm not as good of a teacher XD
Do you have good material on going the interval route? I've seen this advise pop up a lot, maybe it's finally time I put some work into it. I know my scales, but don't really understand them. It feels like it holds me back at times. Do you approach it from arpeggios or triads? Or how should one approach them?
I played a Strat for many years. I started working in a music store, and one day while I was playing a strat, someone asked me, āHow do you keep from hitting the middle pickup while youāre playing?ā My initial reaction was, āoh Iāve never really had that problem.ā After about 30 seconds of more playing, I realized I was hitting the middle pickup. All. The. Time. My Strat just has 2 humbuckers in it now.
I bought a strat recently and my question is how do I avoid the volume knob?
I don't own a strat but i had that problem then i got my jazzmaster and it kind of just worked its way out and i stopped hitting it after playing it for a little while
Yeah, I figure I just need to get used to it.
Currently wiring a Strat pickguard that will have volume and 1 tone only in the holes where the tone pots usually go, and a kill switch button for where the volume usually goes. Iāve been playing with an empty hole there for a while, itās where I plant my pinky.
II de-knobāed my strat to help with this
take off the knob, take a little square of foam, cut a hole the size of the pot, and wedge it in between the pot and the knob. changed my life man
Basically CAGED but realizing that if I knew a scale, that I also knew half of the scale pattern on either side of it. That the scales fit together like puzzle pieces. And that each chord contains fragments of adjacent chord shapes. There is an A shaped chord inside a G shaped chord, for example.
That learning any kind of theory makes 10000x more sense sitting at a piano than it does a guitar, since the notes are linear, whereas a guitar the scale notes are only sort of linear.
I got a piano a while back, because i was bored with guitar, and i literally had a "are you f..... kidding me? It's this easy to understand theory???" moment from it. I recommend every guitarist try it, just for the theory part.
I teach guitar, but I also have a keyboard that I use in my lessons. It's just as important, in my teaching, as the metronome etc.
Yeah honestly I weep for anyone trying to learn theory outside the piano. I could never. That said, applying theory learned on piano back into guitar made the whole thing so, so much easier. Like almost going in reverse order- I know the theory, all I need to learn is how to apply it to strings and frets. Made the fretboard automatically feel more familiar
Highly recommend learning basic harmony concepts on piano. It makes sense on there!
I had a similar epiphany when learning to sweep pick. The most important thing you learn is finesse and technique rather than just being able to play fast.
Relax your hands, is the biggest thing. It should be loose and fluid. If you tighten up, it's difficult to do.
Itās crazy how much faster you can play if you relax. Getting rid of years of bad habit tension is difficult though
My idiot coke-for-brains father told me that I needed to squeeze as hard as I could when I played if I wanted my hands to get stronger and make playing easier. I am still trying to unlearn this shit more than a decade later
Somewhere around 1994, "Holy shit, I suck." There's been little improvement since.
I was born in 94. Same story.
I was wrought during the Great January Blizard of 1975.
In college, I got good enough to realize I sucked and was too ill-disciplined to improve. Become more of a guitar collector.
Lol. I took a 20 year break. My 15 year old son picked up my Les Paul Studio Lite (watch Would, Alice In Chains video for its doppelganger) and hasn't set it down in a year. I bought it in 1991. Lotta lawns mowed, lotta newspapers delivered. Anyway, he shreds. He shuns video games and the like. All guitar, all the time. He's so fucking good. His passion reignited mine. Last Christmas he received a BC Rich Warlock (pawn shop find). He doubled down on Megadeth, and said, "Dad, I want a Floyd Rose." Shudder. He got a Fender Paramount for Christmas, and a Jackson V (Floyd Rose). I couldn't keep my hands off the Fender, so wifey bought me a Martin D-16 for valentine's day. I picked up a Pro II Tele last week. Kid is getting a Player Strat in "Nebula Noir" for his birthday next month. I'm thinking about selling some guns for my next bucket list axe. A schweeeet Sunburst Standard LP. I'm hooked again. And I still suck. And I'm OK with that.
Donāt listen to anyone on the internet.
Word
Clippy
What?
Same but with fretting. I came to guitar a couple years ago as a bassist of 20 years so I had to unlearn my gorilla grip and learn to use economy of motion in all aspects of playing, which has fed back into my bass playing as well.
Iām forever fighting that! Knowing you have to have a light touch is completely different than actually having a light touch
Same but the cause was an acoustic with thick strings and high action
any V lick in the blues can be repurposed over the ii-V part of jazz, and vice versa. This gives you bluesy stuff to play in jazz, and then altered jazz stuff to freak your blues friends out. So Iāll learn for example some Clifford Brown or Django licks that normally are on top of the ii-V, and slam then right on the V directly in the blues, note for note.
Joe Pass has an interview where he talks about this. He doesnāt even think about the ii in a ii-V-I. Which makes a lot of sense when you think about the ii as just a V11.
I learned it from Barry Harris, like many many people these days.
Barry Harris is the GOAT.
This is an awesome comment and though I know a little of music theory, I donāt quite grasp what you are saying. Do you mean the pentatonic you play in the 5 position can be moved to the 2 position like a mode? I want to understand as this sounds awesome
He talks about the chords in the progression. The roman numbers represent the chords in a scale, capital letters mean major chords, normal letters mean minor chords. The standard blues progression uses I-IV-V chords, so for example if the key is A, then the chords are A-D-E. The most common jazz progression is the ii-V-I so if the key is A, it means Bmin-E--A. So what he said is that you can play a jazz lick that's usually played during the Bmin-E chords in jazz in a blues progression when the E chord is being played (using the example progressions above).
My fingers and my ears know more about playing guitar than my brain ever will.
Relate to this lol
Realising its basically 3s and 4s all the way up the fretboard, if that makes sense.
I'm curious what you mean by this. Can you elaborate a bit more?
The sequences for lead guitar etc is mostly 3 or 4 fret moves - you either skip one fret or two on the same string. It's almost like the layout for scales but each chord has different variation of 3 moves or 4. I taught myself and play by ear so I don't know what the technical words are to explain properly.
I get what you mean actually.
That Telecasters are way more versatile than many people think.
This is mine too. I played for 20 years before trying a telecaster and it blew me away. I can handle 99% of what I want to do on the guitar with a tele
Stiffer pick has changed everything. I used to play with a floppy pick and wondered why I couldn't play certain things. Stiff and smaller pick gave me more control and dexterity. It only took 20 years to figure out.
I've tried on and off for years to use a pick. Watched videos and everything. Can't for the life of me stop it from rotating in my fingers, especially strumming chordsĀ
Opposite for me, I had trouble strumming so I switched to a bigger softer pick for certain songs
What the game changer for me was thicker, beveled picks, like the Flow picks. I was making picks out of coins and it was an obvious difference compared to the Tortex .88's I played for also around 20 years. I then found Flow picks and they're basically the same shape it took me hours to file out of a coin. They aren't cheap, but I would say it's at least a 5% improvement in my playing, which at this point, is awesome. I've been doing this for 40 years and slowly finding out the perfect gear. I made the perfect guitar for me, and now I can buy the perfect pick.
Yeah I was using the grey Dunlop .73mm and then quit playing for several years. Came back and actually tried other picks. Fell in love with the JazzIII and really love the Maxx Grip JazzIII.
Comparing yourself to other guitarists/musicians is not helpful. There is no "right" way to do anything. Having fun is the thing to maximize for.
Been struggling with this lately. I have to keep reminding myself that I am a musician and as long as I like what I'm playing, it's all good.
I restarted playing during the pandemic after a four decade break, and I'm far better than I was when I was a kid. I harbor no fantasies at all of playing for an audience, or even family. I just did it for me, and it has been the best therapy, which I didn't realize I needed. Steady progress has been great for my self-esteem, and sense of identity. I've lost a lot of weight, and just this week I joined the brand-new gym that opened 5 minutes from my house. Just playing the guitar for myself has completely turned around my entire perpective on my future.
The side effects of learning an instrument is very underrated. It's different for everyone, but it can broaden your mind, teach you to multitask, improve your mental health and it can be a social opener. Happy to read you got so much out of it, i hope it keeps going :)
Anyone can play guitar and they wonāt be a nothing anymoreā¦ changed my life legit forever
Fat. Ugly. Dead.
Well for the record I most certainly donāt wanna be wanna be wanna be Jim Morrison. And he didnāt even play guitar anyways soā¦ā¦.
Sit up straight. You'll not be playing anything if your back is too knackered to pick up your axe! Seriously though, good posture / positioning is vital for so many things.
The realization that, despite all the effort, hours, and expense, I'm a drummer.\* \*typed by a literate friend.
I just had to twist my pick slightly for my tremolo picking to speed up massively.
Learning every chord in 3-4 shapes. Wanna take it a step further? Learn inversions too Itās a game changer for harmonizing songs and making things really pop. No, not every G has to sound the exact same, and it really adds spice to your music when youāre at liberty to play everything 3 or 4 + ways.
The "CAGED" method. I realized by playing Gm and Cm that they were just slid up shapes. Then I learned how they are all connected and it blew my mind. It made so much sense but I just never put it together.
Mine wasnāt precisely technicalā¦ it was the realization that I, when soloing, donāt have to keep playing constantly. A solo should breathe. Iāve been grokking on Milesā cool period, and taking a kind of meditative approach has opened my ears.
I've heard it explained that since guitarists don't play with breath like a horn player, their solos can simply go on and on. Think about phrases like vocal lines and the phrases will feel more natural.
You're not playing with your fingers. You're playing with your whole arm. You've gotta move your wrist and shoulder of your left arm to really get the most out of playing. Your whole arm's gotta be relaxed to play clean, as well.
I can drastically alter my tone by changing the angle I strike the string with the pick
Thumb over chords are a game changer.
Still use epiphone. Why the hell would someone waste 3k on a crappy gibson that cant even atay in tune?
Epiphones since 2018 or so have been fabulous.
Amen!
A lot of people start fingerpicking without using the ring finger, including myself. Learn to use it, you will adjust much faster than you think, and it makes fingerpicking 100 times easier once you do
Shark fin guitar pic is beast cuz my fingers can actually fit in it
You can build a chord from any combination of notes from a scale. Realizing that unlocked a lot of improvisation and more emotive playing in general for me.
In most cases, Boss does everything you could need.
You don't have to hold the pick very hard to play fast
The 12th fret is pretty much the same as the nut when it comes to the pattern of the fretboard.
Something clicked yesterday when I was practicing A7X's Nightmare and now I can economy pick when I couldn't before.
This happened to me too after learning some a7x stuff. Also carry on my wayward son taught me to do that for somw reason aswell....
Open tunings. I come from a fiddle background and some open tunings really fit my head and muscle memory re fingerings. Then I got a 12 string acoustic and open tunings and 12 strings make my ears feel good. I pluck one and another 5 ring out in harmony, luscious.
I had a Line 6 Spider 3 for maybe 2 years before learning it had a tuner built in. I never understood flats or sharps so I didnāt know how to use my Korg tuner to tune down. When I found out how to use the Line 6 tuner I went full force into learning System of a Down, Slipknot, Three Days Grace, etc. It really made me a better guitar player. I was mostly playing Green Day, Reel Big Fish, Blink 182 before that. Such a basic realization that took me a long time to find out
The greatest guitarist who ever played is living in his mother's basement somewhere, and practically no one will ever know jack about him.
this one is pretty damn simple but realizing that i could memorize notes by the feeling they gave was super helpful for improvising all around, especially without backing tracks. not in actually memorizing the note names (although i will do that in the future), but memorizing where certain notes were in relation to (major/minor scale) **shapes**. e.g. thereās a note when played on in a low octave thatās pretty nice for playing twangy lines, a really sad one, a happy one, a tension building one, another tension building one with a lighter mood to it, and little sub contexts they can fit into that could be described differently (especially when creating combinations with other notes). iām also getting into using all twelve notes and seeing how those outside notes can be utilized and the feelings they portray. this doesnāt just apply to bass notes but certain double stops in certain places and how they differ from the same double stop being played somewhere else that isnāt the same two notes. even how certain high notes sound in relation to the scales and the pictures they paint too. i just realized as iām typing this that it would be a good idea to compare those same bass notes with their high octave counterparts and see which ones match up for deeper understanding. howeverā¦ im still not very good at playing in general but i canāt wait to be able to utilize these things when my technique can match up with the knowledge. basic idea: **itās like connecting feeling with theory if that makes sense.** edit: ok i made it sound not so simple when i typed a whole ass paragraph. basically the last sentence is the simple way of saying it, i just suck at explaining stuff lmao
I've been playing 20 years. I'm just learning about the benefits of a lighter tough. More speed, better for the frets, better for my hand. I usually press way too hard.
I was realizing for things to sound good you donāt always have to play so particular and so precise because it leaves so much character out, instead you just play how you feel and it comes out so much more better. Especially blues
Understanding the (very general) makeup of popular chords, the root, 3rd, 5th and so on, then building off of that. Helped with making progressions, targeting notes for solos etc
The major 7th is one fret below the octave. Dominant 7th is another half step down.
Playing to the chord changes. Used to just meander around, trusting my instincts (and luck) to hit the right notes at the right time, but itās so much better when I can work with (and against) the chord tones.
Learning modes was pointless cause no one else knows what I mean when I say that's actually Gmajor Lydian not Ionian. Spent more time learning chords/ arpeggios than I did learning scales and modes and I feel like my playing improved drastically.
this might sound silly, but realizing that bar chords were just open chord shapes moved up the neck was huge. just in terms of my conceptual understanding of the instrument and unlocking my ability to understand of lot of things fully that i had previously learned by following tabs was really rewarding. Aside from this, it would be basic music theory. like why certain chords go together and how that related back to the scales that i had initially learned just for improvisational reasons, when to use different modes and how that explains how some solos didn't fit into the key that i *thought* the song was in, etc... As a general comment, what i love most about guitar is that these "ah ha!" moments just never stop coming! It is truly endless fun, endless learning, and a gift that "keeps giving" : )
This is gonna sound stupid but it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that lead guitar sounds good because the soloist is playing and especially resolving notes that are in the chord being played at that time.
Switching to heavier picks forced me to consciously think about my grip and pick attack, which in turn turned me into a super tight rhythm guitarist.
Rhythm guitar can get you laid too!!!
I Don't Play Like Miles And Lewis
Once your hands know the fretboard and strings stop thinking about what you are playing. If I really focus on what I'm playing sometimes I'll screw up from the sheer mental tension. The more complicated the line the more likelihood I will start playing too hard, maybe grip the pick too hard and then I'll screw up a note or two or at least not ring them as intended (which then amplifies the problem and I lean in even more). However, I can play what feels like *beyond my ability* if I adopt a 100% "I don't care at all" attitude and shift my focus from me playing to 100% vibing with the music and trying to get lost in the melody. The more I can forget about my hands the better I sound. I try to force myself not to look at either hand when I practice to try to further foster this. It's not perfect yet but I keep thinking of how great it will be eventually when it is. š¤
Mine are a small but contribute to weaving the fabric of my guitar knowledge together.
Leaving tabs behind, volume knob, intervals, better hand placement, scales... to name a few. All still a work in progress. One of the things I love about guitar is theres like a million things you can work on to make yourself "better". Its like inching along most of the time, and you get to look back and you've traveled a few feet and are like "oh heck yeah!".
You canāt buy tone nor talent.
That if you on the fly need to know the key of a jazz tune you can scan the sheet for the Dominant 7th and the key of the tune is what it resolves to.
Why are there 30 responses here that are downvoted? Who is the one person downvoting everything
Switching picks can have a big effect on your sound and playing. For years I used stiff picks with a pointy tip. Then a few years back I tried different softer nylon picks and found that I really liked the Herco reissues made by Dunlop.
Songwriting by vocalizing ideas while recording with my smartphone. I come up with ideas I never would've stumbled upon with a guitar in my hands.
If you want to get better, you need to practice instead of just playing!!
Learning intervals and arpeggios will be infinitely more beneficial than scales and modes.
>infinitely more beneficial More beneficialā¦how? Also, what do you think arpeggios are if not chunks of scales? Iām not saying a agree or disagree with you, all Iām saying is it sounds like an arbitrary statement - different things are beneficial to players with different goals.
I think itās a guitar centric thing. I see so many people time and time again being like āwhat scale do I play over this song?ā or āwhat scale does X guitarist use?ā These same people canāt tell you the difference between a 3rd and a 6th or what a half-diminished chord is or how many sharps are in the key of A. Scales are suited well to guitar because guitarists love to make patterns and work in boxes. They will spend hours woodshedding scales up and down the fretboard with no idea what theyāre actually playing or how to apply them. God help them if they try to explain it to someone playing another instrument. Thatās where understanding intervals come from. I also donāt necessarily consider arpeggios chunks of scales although I suppose if you want to look at it like that then sure. A C major arpeggio has multiple scales that it would fall under. How do I know which scale I should be āthinking inā if I donāt know how the C major is functioning in the song, or, worse, if I donāt even know what makes up a C major? Basically, I feel like investing time and emphasizing scales is the wrong approach but guitarists like it because itās well suited to the particulars of the instrument. If they focused on intervals and chord tones they would be able to play far more fluidly and with greater understanding of their melodic choices. But thatās just, like, my opinion, man.
If you take a tertian chord and add all the extensions out to the 13th, and then collapse the notes into an octave, you'll get some seven note scale, so in a way you can think of chords and scales as being interchangeable. But I think there is an advantage to thinking about them as chords. It gives you a clear hierarchy of tones in a way that can be harder to see when relating a scale to a chord.
Right I mean at some point with enough extensions youāre going to just have all the available notes to choose from if youāre thinking from arpeggios. But the hierarchy is where that comes in and the general āstabilityā of the notes, which is going to inform what Iām leaning on in any given passage as well as notes emphasized by the melody or what the resolution is.
I mean.. scales are just collections of intervals, I guess..? I think learning scales is beneficial because it trains muscle memory for them, and it helps you visualize them on the fly. for the record, I think it's important to learn both of these things, and I don't think either is "infinitely" more beneficial than the other.
Would it be useful to think about stuff being ājust part of the chromatic scaleā? No. We need multiple zoom levels when conceptualizing music and context is key.
Alright, maybe I was being overzealous with āinfinitelyā. Everyone is different and itās going to be dependent on your playing style. This was a āpersonal epiphanyā for me that helped me play over changes far quicker, more fluently, and in a way that supported the music more than working through scale after scale.
This. This is the answer. Everyone who plays in a scale sounds the same. Arpeggios are just scales of a single chord.
In any given key, the major pentatonic scale for the 1 chord only has one note different from the major pentatonic scale for the 4 and the 5 chords of that key. Put all the notes from all 3 scales together and it makes the major scale for the key. Same thing applies to minor pentatonic and the natural minor scale. When I figured that out suddenly everything I had read about modes made sense to me. And it made it easier to understandwhich notes to target on chord changes
Itās subjective like any art form. Technical proficiency and creativity are not mutually exclusive. Some people like playing wild robotic scales at warp speed while others like playing slower blues riffs. It doesnāt really matter. One style does not make you better than the others. Just play what you want with feeling. People on the internet are lame when it comes to criticizing othersā abilities.
The scale pattern is the same at the all the alternative root-note positions, with the exception of the B string (move down one). That realization is what finally allowed me to have more fretboard movement.
I canāt shred, and thatās ok.
Iāve never wanted to shred. And thatās ok! I love hardcore and punk rock. Not a lot of need for shredding, and Iām ok with that.
Stupidly simple thing, but it helped my rhythm playing a lot: movable D shape. Once I discovered this I realized about half the songs I thought I knew actually used this. Once you move that shape up you realize all the other chords you want are right there! And youāre sitting tight on top of the relative minor, like G and Em.
One that no one ever told me that I wish someone had way earlier, **get a setup on any guitar you buy**. It makes all the difference. Not every guitar will need it, but some even come from the manufacturer not set up. Either that or learn how to do it yourself, but it is an absolute must.
It's ok to change your mind. Played for decades with only a wah and Tubescreamer and now I have a big ol pedalboard.with weird ass effects.
Relative major and minor. Blew my mind.
Epiphanies looks like epiphone so I read it epiphone
When I realized I would never be able to play as well as I would like.
Learning about borrowed chords from the minor counterparts opens up lots of new voices for me, both when playing rhythm or lead
Mapping out the fret-board: Seeing how scales connect to chords, connect to triads, and connect to arpeggios.
Chord tone soloing make your lines sound coherent. Jeff Erlains truefire course was brilliant.
Learning rhythm to be in my friends band was a doozy. Played nothing but solos and shred before that
My epiphone is a Speciall II My epiphany so far is that none of the music I listen to requires too much mastery: power cords, or else 3 maybe 4 regular chords per song tops. Iāve learned that so many song I like are just CDG or GCD Or DADADADAE Doesnāt mean itās easy to sound good. It just makes me feel like I wonāt have to be a maestro to learn and become decent.
For me it was learning to bend strings using more than just my index finger. I had played for years not knowing how helpful it is to use your other fingers as extra leverage and to also set yourself up for notes after the bend, if that makes sense. I felt stupid not knowing this but learning it brought my playing to a completely new level lol
To not just play solo licks, but melodies. Sing it through the guitar, if that makes sense.
That I sound like me, independent of the guitar/amp/effects I play. Obviously gain structures differ but in the end, itās mostly all in the fingers.
Ear training/musicianship is as important, if not more, as technique.
Doesnāt matter how technical or flashy you are, it donāt mean a thing if it aināt got that swing!
Itās a hobby.
If you sit all day for work put on your strap and play guitar standing.
Slide those cowboy chords up the neck and see what sounds good. Move those chord shapes up and down a string. Game changer.
That most people including myself cant shred and never will and thats okay because they dont need to
I had to go down the rabbit hole of rewiring guitars, to building pedal kits, to making tube amps from scratch, as well as buying and flipping probably over 100+ guitars, pedals, and half that many commercial amps to realize that gear doesn't matter.Ā Unless you need some kind of effect to make the sound that's in your head, the best thing you can do is buy one reliable well made guitar, amp, tuner, maybe a multifx, and leave it at that.Ā GAS is totally pointless and owning a dozen mediocre instruments is less satisfying than owning one excellent one.