read this man-

This thread might be a long one. I hope. Now, here's the story ( of billy joe and bobby sue- nah ha- only steve miller fans will get that one). Yeah yeah yeah im 14, blahblahblah, now, im an obsessive at the guitar. OBSESSIVE. just about. getting there. Today my mom threatened to ground me from my guitar, i got really upset, grabbed my Guild, got in my room, slammed the door, locked it, so she wouldnt take my precious guitar away from me. now, chords are relatively easy for me to both learn and play, even like 7th and 9th chords and stuff like that. im at the stage where (hmm...what stage could i call it) its at LEAST intermediate. but definitely not pro or near pro. Most kids my age just wanna **** around on the guitar, while at school 7 hours a day 'in my head' im playing my guitar, when i get home i grab a pepsi and play...im constantly thinking of guitar, have played for less than a year, a little less, but have the hugest craving. so where am i getting at? Well, I want to know how to fill the gaps between where i am at now and say, where Jerry Garcia was. No no no im not asking for 'there is no shortcut' or 'hahahaha!' im completely serious here, i can memorize one scale a day or so ( all across the fretboard) if nessecary, I know the A and G major scales so far. But i just learned G today...A is nice, on a few songs, im not bad at improvising and solo-ing for a 14 year old. But 'solo-ing' isnt really everything in my opinion. To many bands and groups, the solo is when the guitar player is like "yea thats right bitch this is my time" well im not like that, but im for improvisation all the way. I may be thinking too much, but i NEED a goal, a nice goal that might take a while, something for me to be like "yeah i gotta get to this point, gotta do it! you can do it!" its all motivational ( some might think ' is this kid nuts? how much does he think/play/listen/talk/etc about guitar! jeez does he have a life!? the answer is nearly no for the life one, i'd rather sit in my room playing guitar for 5 hours than kill time with friends...). anyways, back on track ( if there was a track on this thread), i'll set this up as a step-solution problem thing. this is for experienced guitar players and semi's alike. hell i want everybody's opinion because this is a community.

what are the best things to learn/master/do REAL good on the guitar?-
1. Chords
2. Solo-ing
3. improvisational lead ( well i know this is important for me but its more of 'how' to get there for this one, and the rest)
4. jamming with others
5. theory
6. fingerpicking ( fun, sounds good too, but bein a dead phan and a phishphan i wonder how important it is...)
7.learnin to read, write, etc.
8. dexterity
9. speed ( kinda goes with dexterity...)
10. rhythm
11. other...

after this, give ways i can improve on this...i posted about this last month, and since last month i have DRASTICLY improved. like, holy ****. i got some words of advice that helped, but more just encouragement. like "Way to go kid your 14 you can play chords." this is the knowledge station right here, i bet llamicofolle (sp?) is gonna have a good answer for this one.

:)... Why are you learning the major scales sepratly? They're exactly the same just moved up and down the fret board accordingly!! Do you understand what I'm saying? Basically Cmaj can be played from open strings to the 12 fret, if you want to play Dmaj you just move Cmaj up to start from 2 to 14 (moved up 1step ie the different between the notes), fret 0 (the open strings) and 1 are not a problem as the pattern repeats it self, so they would have the same pattern as frets 12 and 13 respectivly...
Hope this save you time...

Originally posted by Incidents Happen



4. jamming with others
10. rhythm
11. other...

llamicofolle (sp?) is gonna have a good answer for this one.

What a cool way to spell my name!!! And here's my answer!!

Everything in your list counts. Technical things are a must have (chords, speed, soloing...) Theory too (helps you improve your playing faster AND communicate with other schooled musicians).
But the ones I left in the quote are WAY more important. Get out of your room when your mom stops threatening you and communicate with better musicians, or with a bassist, or a drummer (hell, both!) and try to fit in the rhythm, or the "groove"...I'm not telling you to form a band, just try and see other musicians, and share your knowledge, and steal from theirs...
I see all those tremendous youngsters that play Malmsteem's licks but they can't strum along to 'happy birthday'...See what I mean?

The 'other' is: if you want to get serious about music, it's not musical stuff that will make you the one that will get the gig.
In any given city, 250 guys can play better than you or I do... Why am I a pro, and they aren't? Well, people like working with me! It's like your English or math teachers. All of them master the same knowledge, but some of them you enjoy going to their class and others you hate... It's just the way they work with you. Some guys are just dedicated to their craft, and others just want their day to be over... Get the idea?

Also, don't think you can live thanks to music, secure yourself a 'normal' job, then maybe you might be lucky! Don't lose your dreams, but work so that you can make them come true, having a day job doesn't mean you can play gigs every week ends...

Originally posted by lalimacefolle

Originally posted by Incidents Happen



4. jamming with others
10. rhythm
11. other...

llamicofolle (sp?) is gonna have a good answer for this one.

What a cool way to spell my name!!! And here's my answer!!

Everything in your list counts. Technical things are a must have (chords, speed, soloing...) Theory too (helps you improve your playing faster AND communicate with other schooled musicians).
But the ones I left in the quote are WAY more important. Get out of your room when your mom stops threatening you and communicate with better musicians, or with a bassist, or a drummer (hell, both!) and try to fit in the rhythm, or the "groove"...I'm not telling you to form a band, just try and see other musicians, and share your knowledge, and steal from theirs...
I see all those tremendous youngsters that play Malmsteem's licks but they can't strum along to 'happy birthday'...See what I mean?

The 'other' is: if you want to get serious about music, it's not musical stuff that will make you the one that will get the gig.
In any given city, 250 guys can play better than you or I do... Why am I a pro, and they aren't? Well, people like working with me! It's like your English or math teachers. All of them master the same knowledge, but some of them you enjoy going to their class and others you hate... It's just the way they work with you. Some guys are just dedicated to their craft, and others just want their day to be over... Get the idea?

Also, don't think you can live thanks to music, secure yourself a 'normal' job, then maybe you might be lucky! Don't lose your dreams, but work so that you can make them come true, having a day job doesn't mean you can play gigs every week ends...

Listen to the man.
NOTHING you will learn won't relate to music. That's as important a lesson as any.

yeah i know a few guitar players, and one of my friends is gettin african drums and another has a saxaphone. should be interesting. We're gonna start jammin this summer, like right when school gets out, in a few months, there are a few things i wanna get 'down' so the jams wont be completely retarded.

educated film- what i meant when i said i know "A" completely all throughout the fretboard, is that i memorized it and am 'working it out', and after i get it 'down real good' i will move into G then C then D etc, til i get everyone 'down'. i just dont want to confuse myself with "is this A or G???" so i figure i'll take it one step at a time.

im starting to do long improvisational lead guitar playing, and i believe my playing has improved because of it. there is a guitar player that lives up the street, but me, if i get together and jam, im likely to do a few songs, than break into a jam , a long long jam. now the kid up the street plays the SAME THING OVER AND OVER, never changes.We also do not really like each other at all, so that takes jamming away. now there is this other kid who hasnt been playing 'too' long, about 7 or 8 months, and i guess he's alright, im thinkin about jammin with him. then add the drums in there, then sometimes a sax, i think i see improvement comin.

OK, ten-four good buddy...:D
I just jam with who ever I have chance to... If you dont like someone doesn't nescissairly mean you wont mix creatively... Infact i've become freinds with some poeple just by jamming...

well, its like, he'll like what he hears when i play it, then go around and tell everybody he knows that it 'sucked' just to feed his ego.

Then just kill him and hide his body, go sell his saxophone and take lessons....



Just Kidding...

pfffft!!! That's just a plain silly Idea lalimacefolle!!!

You dont hide the body!! YOU DISSOLVE IT IN INDUSTRAIL STRENGTH SULPHURIC ACID IN THE BATH TUB!:D

(This is a note to all dim wits: THIS IS A JOKE! I REPEAT! IT IS A J-O-K-E!!!)

Originally posted by educatedfilm
YOU DISSOLVE IT IN INDUSTRAIL STRENGTH SULPHURIC ACID IN THE BATH TUB!:D

Doesn't it stink that way?

not really... not as much as you would expect... there would be no smell from the flesh (cos bateria/ fungi dont survie at such low pHs), but you may get a erally horrible chocking smell of the sulphur oxide when the acid breaks down.. WHich is a small percentage, but when your dealing with a couple of hundred liters the AMOUNT is pretty big...
I mean none of this is a problem if you live in a fairly remote area... but you face the major problems of getting the acid in the first place... diluting to something near resonable (if you've seen what concentrated sulphric acid does you'll know what I mean... It sucks the water out ANYTING, including you, and that's not what you want... I've seen what it does to sugar!! you get this huge honey comb of carbon just from like a tea spoon full of sugar!! and plus concentrated sulphuric acid isn't actaully an acid!! It needs water to disassocaite giving you Hplus ions, making it an acid.), and that's not easy, the stuff touches water and it BOILS!!... So really it's very dificult...

Personally I'd just ignore the person in the first place :D!

I'd just jam with anyone he might go and brag to... That way, he might just get an answer 'huh? I thought he played pretty good!'
If everyone just turns their back on you, go to the first solution I told you, except this time you've got more places to find to hide everybody... Now that's getting complicated...

Lol, ed, a very Godfather-esque idea. That's actually been known to happen in Sicily, I just hope they were kind enough to kill the poor guys before putting them in the tub.

lol.

but i dont like the people he hangs out with so i say **** that.

****ing pepsi rules man i always drink that stuff before i play ehe reeves me up

yeah me too! one week my parents didnt replenish the supply of pepsi, so i wetn a week without pepsi, and i didnt practice as much. but whenever pepsi is around, my guitar is in my lap and im playin her away

AHAHA i have been drinking pepsi for years and its my soul source of everything if i aint drinking it i find a cant play as fast as i can while drinking it

"Red Bull gives me wings"

OK, so I kinda levitate about half an inch off the ground and talk rapidly about sliding harmonics.

coke doesnt do the job though...

coke is crap (my opinion)