Should I Take Lessons???

Hi. I've been playing for exactly one year on a used Strat I bought fromt the local guitar shop. I've always wanted to play, but never had the resources. Once I started playing, though, I gained an immediate passion for it, and surrounded myself with other guitarists who have helped me along the way. I guess I'm an OK player (I really dont have anyone to compair too...) and have spent my the past year learning how to play the guitar, not learning songs to play with it; so when I listen to my friends brag about learning the latest and great song off of olga.net, I dont get much reaction with the rights to being able to playing an A major scale over chords, or improvising with a penatonic. Yet, as kewl as it is to see people in a state of shock when I play them some tabs I read, its not as kewl as hearing the veterans whail away on a half stack when i walk into a guitar store...and the first thing i ask them is if they took lessons? Usual, its a yes and I wonder if I will need them if i ever wanna understand as much as they do. I could stick with my friends...but they just keep playing other peoples songs...I have no one to compare technique too, so i guess ill keep learning the blue 12 - bar progression, or spend what little money i have on guitar lessons...(did i mention i still need to keep school in focus, as well a play practice and work...) IF ANYONE CAN PROVIDE INSIGHT, I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT!!!

P.S. SORRY SOOOOOOOOOOOOO LONG!

Especially that you have been messing with that thing for the past year, I think lessons will help you alot and bring what you have learned so far into focusa and with the right teacher, you'll progress alot faster.
My more experienced guitar buddies(all self taught) really dig my how my playing has progressed and even more at the theory stuff!
Any questions let us know.

Thanks alot, I appreciate the guidence! I'll be looking for lessons soon then (too bad that D in english diminished my hopes for em though, heh) and I certainly be looking this way whenever I have anymore questions. For some reason, though, I enjoy learning theory, ALOT! I feel more accomplishment understanding what I'm playing and being able to build on it, so I'll certainly will look into lessons soon. Thanks again!

Definatly take lessons if you can. I can't stress enough how important it is to develop good habits and stop bad ones. I used to have tons of badhabits, which at the time, I thought were quite benign. But when I started taking lessons with an incredibly gifted musician, he corrected me (it's a hard process to go back and change bad habits, believe me), and now I'm progressing fabulously. A good teacher can not only teach you the right way to do things, but can also inspire you and widen your musical horizon.

absolutely take lessons and never stop learning.

Right now I have only been playing for three years, and currently I am not taking lessons, but when I take lessons, my skills and learning reach new levels. Not only will a good teacher teach you all that good theory ( like what chords you can play a dorian scale in C over) but he will also teach you some fun songs that can impress your freinds. While im writing this, I would like to say, listen to Acoustic-guitar. He knows what hes talking about, and he plays the hardest type of guitar out there.
Peace out, play on.

Have you started the lessons yet?
It's been over a month dude, whassup?

NOPE STILL NO LESSONS!!! I probably cant take lessons till summer cause of school and im using the money right now to purchase a martin acoustic, but im still learning and working on scales...recently i figured out the entire beginning bass solo to dave matthews cover of all along the watchtower live at woodstock and i figured out paranoid android by radiohead, so in the mean time ill just be using what i have learned to the best of my ability...thanks again everyone!

You don't need any money for guitar lessons.
All these answers are found on the internet.

Lesson 1)

What is an interval? Hint: the space between notes

What intervals make up the major scale?
Hint: 1 1 1/2 1 1 1 1/2 1

What is the note names in the key of C for the major
scale?
Hint: C D E F G A B C

If you were to number these notes, what number would you assign each?
Hint: In order I ii iii IV V vi VII VII in Roman numerals.
the small case have special meaning.

What does the small case roman numerals mean?
Hint: these notes if harmonized would be the minor chords in that key.

What minor chords are there in the key of C?
Hint. Dm Em Am

What are all the chords in the key of C.

Cmajor Dminor Eminor Fmajor Gmajor Aminor B7major Cmajor

Now you know all chords in any given song in the key of C.

What intervals are necessary to make a major chord?
Hint: 1 3 5

What does 1 3 5 mean?
Hint: Starting with the first note C, then adding the third in the major scale E, then adding the fifth in the major scale G you have now spelled the chord Cmajor.
CEG.

Lesson 2)
Spell the chord Dm?
Hint this is a little tricky. First find the intervals necessary for minor chords.

Go to DANSM site on the web, it's free and cool.

Later

I thought that B diminished was the B chord in the key of C.

Thanks a heck of alot acoustic...but in all honestly, i already leanred most of that stuff from the net; i did say i was a theory nut cause i get satisfaction from know what i am actually doing. The major scale interval i learned from a site called http://www.worldguitar.com and the C major scale (and every other major scale) i memorized and/or in the process of memorizing from a book called the complete guitarist. As for the roman numeral progression and blues progression, i took the time to get a basic feel for that through the help of sites like this (most of it makes perfect sense), as well as my own speculation and little past experience from playing the saxamaphone. However, i wanna get more knowledge on the major and minors and such...all in all, i still think an experienced guitar teacher would best be able to bring this all together. I think im overdue for some professional guidence and I'm very pleased with my decision to learn as much as possible on my own. Thanks again!

B7major isn't in the key of C. In fact, there exists no chord called B7major. B7 is a chord, so is B major, B7 major isn't a name commonly used to refer to any chord. Is B dim in the key of C? Yes and no, but it's safer to say know. A B diminished triad exists in the key of C, but often when we say that we have a diminished chord we mean a fully diminished chord (spelled 1, b3, b5, bb7.) Since the B chord in the key of C is only half diminished (or minor 7 b5 chord) i don't like saying that there is a B diminished chord in the key of C, even though if we look at only the triads it's correct.
I think it's more useful to look at the 7th chords in a given key than the triads, because it gives you a more complete understanding of diatonic harmony. I won't list them here but I know that I have listed them in the past on this site, and so have many others. You can scroll through old questions to find them.

Luigi;

Again you corrected me on a miscommunicated topic. Thanks!
In my haste, I didn't do my math correctly. I stand corrected.

Your note points out to me that the harmonized 7th in the key of C which is spelled B D F shows the interval of a minor third + minor third.
or a 1 b3 b5

Thanks for your explaination on the full diminished vs. the half, I had always wondered what half-diminished meant.

So let me ask this:
What are the chord names of:
of the 1 b3 b5 - usually called diminished?
and the 1 b3 b5 7 - half dimininshed?
and the 1 b3 b5 b7 - ?
and the 1 b3 b5 bb7 - full diminished?

"of the 1 b3 b5 - usually called diminished?
and the 1 b3 b5 7 - half dimininshed?
and the 1 b3 b5 b7 - ?
and the 1 b3 b5 bb7 - full diminished?"

1 b3 b5 is a diminished triad. I'm used to jazz, where it almost never comes up (you have some indication of the seventh.) You could call it diminished, but I don't like to because to me that assumes that you have the bb7. I suppose it doesn't technically assume that, (you have to write in the dim7 for it to mean that) so you could just call it diminished.
1 b3 b5 7 isn't a chord you see a lot. I've never come across it. Putting a major7 on top of a diminished triad is a strange sound. I suppose it would be a min/maj7b5 chord? Best name I can think of (the min/maj7 chord is the same chord with a perfect fifth, so if you flat the 5, I suppose that is what it would be called.) Don't worry about this one, you'll probably never see it written out.
1 b3 b5 b7. This is a half diminished chord, more commonly called a m7b5 chord. It is what you get when you put a minor 7th on top of a diminished triad. It is a diatonic chord; it is built from the seventh degree of any major key. Half diminished as in diminished triad, but not a diminished 7th. It comes up most often in jazz when you have a ii V i in a minor key. (i.e. Dm7b5, G7, Cm7.)
1 b3 b5 bb7. This is a diminished 7 chord. While you can think of it in terms of its degrees (as written above, maybe easier to think 1 b3 b5 6) it also makes sense to think of it as a stack of minor thirds. The chord is built by taking minor thirds and stacking them on top of each other. For this reason, A diminished is the same as C diminished is the same as Eb diminished; the notes repeat every minor third. It is diatonic to no key. This one comes up a lot, so you should be used to it. It can be a passing chord, because a diminished chord always wants to resolve upwards a half step, so you can approach any chord with a diminished chord a half step below. (instead of just playing C minor, you might play B dim7, then C minor) It is also sometimes used to connect two chords a whole step apart by placing a dim7 chord between them, even if the movement is descending (instead of Dm7, Cm7, you have Dm7 Dbdim7, Cm7.) You can use it to make your own progressions more interesting, and soloing over it is fun and wierd sounding. It's a good chord to be familiar with.

Luigi;

ii V i in a minor key. (i.e. Dm7b5, G7, Cm7.)

Ahhh! okay, the above is new to me, I'll give it a try.
Typically I'm used to the m7-5 as a passing chord on the way upward for example:

Amaj6 C# m7-5 D7 D#m7-5
Amaj6 F9 Bm7 E9
Amaj6 C# m7-5 D7 D#m7-5
E7 E11 D7-5 Amaj6

I just learned the above progression last week. It gives a Texas jazz swing sound. Very cool. By the way, what modes would you recommend on the above vamp?

In this case as you mentioned the dim7 is approaching the D7 from 1/2 step below. Which when described on the base notes is a minor third movement (from the a to c#) and then a 4th. This gives a really nice bass movement.

I've been listening to Miles Davis (Kind of Blue) with Coltrane. The inside cover has a music critic discussing his knowledge of Miles music. He discusses a Lydian Chromatic scale being used. Have you heard of a Lydian chormatic?

See ya. Got any more jazz hints?

Some of the chords in that progression are a bit strange. I'm not sure what you mean by C# m7-5, D#m7-5, or D7-5. If I interpret all the dashes as flats, then it makes sense, so I assume that's how it was meant. Dash usually means minor, (You often see Cm7 written as C-7) and a fifth can't be minor, so it's kind of wierd to see them written like that.
Anyway, that progression is a bit strange, though interesting. It has a lot of chords, and not a lot of quartal movement. For this reason, I'd say that you should think about each arpeggio when you solo, because the chords don't hang around on any one key signature for any long period of time that would let you sit on one or two modes. It's basically in A major, but with a lot of passing chords. No real tricks I can point out, there's only one ii V I. You can use the same guide tone ideas that apply normally here, though the movement isn't in fourths most of the time so the whole thirds and sevenths connecting won't help you out that much.
If you like soloing with scales, locrian for the m7b5 chords, mixolydian for the dominant chords, dorian for the minor chords, and ionian for those Amaj6 chords will work. Still, with a progression that has a lot of chords like this, I prefer to emphasize chord tones, and think more about arpeggios than chord scales.
As for lydian chromatic, I've never heard of that scale. I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's probably a lydian scale with some extra chromatic notes thrown in. If you're interested in learning scales that come up in jazz and you already know the modes of the major scale, the ones to start with would be the modes of the minor scales. Learn the altered (super locrian) scale, learn the phrygian dominant scale, the lydian dominant scale, the octatonic scales, etc. Don't worry too much about scales though. Scales are easy on guitar, and don't require as much practice as they do on most other instruments. I'd worry more about learning and becoming comfortable with arpeggios. While sweeping them can be fun, it is really impossible to create improvised melodies with it because the arpeggio must be played with all the notes in order from top to bottom or bottom to top. I'd suggest alternate picking each note, and doing excercises like picking every other note, so you always have each chord tone at your fingertips. I find that this helps far more for most jazz than repetetive scalar or sweep patterns.

From the very beginning, I tried my best to develop my own prsonal style, and although I have succeeded, I'm never quite satisfied. I think that its safe to say that every serious musician is always trying to find new and creative ways to spice up their style...If you feel you arent getting anywhere with your own personal experimentations, by all means take some creative insight from others. Guitar lessons are never really a bad idea, its just important not to get too comfortable with someone elses style or way of composing melodies, (to the point where you're afraid to take chances on your own.)

-Joseph, :).