Whats Important to You...Yes...YOU!

[bassmanjazz]

Hey all,

Due to discussions in another thread I thought it would be very helpful and beneficial to all us guitar toting/loving/playing maniacs if we shared a great big group hug. ER...no, I mean...shared ideas surrounding what is important to YOU as a guitarist. What are the techniques, styles, scales tones etc that are important to your sound and your musical ambitions. What you believe to be important. NO right or wrong, just your opinion, which after all, is what a forum is for

Let me state mine to get the ball rolling (in no particular order)

• Style (playing nuances that really add the 'flavor' to your playing)
• Tone (this can be totally effected by style, i would say even drives it)
• Phrasing, how you play a series of 2 or more notes together and pass between them to voice the passage
• I'm Working on melodic minor scale right now (started in D but will transpose when I'm comfortable) and will learn it over the whole of the neck of the guitar in all positions
• physical feel, the guitar has to be a comfortable guitar to hold and play
• musical feel, regardless of the physical axe, i think a great guitar player can pick up any guitar and do something note worthy on it.
• I'm working hard on song writing, melody and chord structure, which really is instrument independent. I do this by learning a scale, the modes and typical chord progressions that have traditionally worked best for it, and try to write a flavor rich melody line over top

That is a great start, and I hope, with all the fantastic talent we have in this forum, that your all willing to post some of yours and help us all perhaps enjoy our own musical adventures a little more

[Muzza_Boogie]

Style - im a blues based prog rock- 80s metal with a bit of love for trad jazz up to fusionish outside stuff ( not that i can do it very well.. go Schofield!!)
Tone - well I used to be a die hard humbucker man... still got a soft spot for rhythm HB on my Jem. Must be getting old as now I use my strat clone as much as the Jem.. and its cheap! love singing tones i suppose.
Phrasing - hmmmm i like ... this is a hard one.. really depends on the rhythm i guess
I'm Working on blending my blues base in with chromatic modal stuff I guess whilst developing a feel for venturing outside (slow progress there)
physical feel - i have reasonable small hands and still enjoying grabbing the neck for aggressive bends so too wide and flat can hamper my natural style, tho saying that I have my Jem which isnt that narrow! Nice action and dry feel neck.
musical feel - personal.. i like trying to say something... trying to touch the listeners ear.
I'm working on speed and articulation on the pick as im very legato based. Dabbling with a bit of simple sweep picking. Building progressions and grooves/riffs trying to move away from diatonic chord stuff - Love Rush!!
well thats about me

[udamann88]

What a great & helpful topic........U go B......woof....woof....woof......

There's a million places to go & go real deep on this, but I will just start w/ this...........

We are all at differnt points in our musical journey through life..........But we all share one thing.......A love for guitar......

It may be blues, jazz or a heavy metal prog bluegrass hybrid....but all and all it's the sound of 6-strings thru an amp.....(aka the 11-Rack)

I'm not a begginer, but I'm not a pro either..........I need help to move forward out of ruts & stale moments......It's never to late to learn or get better.....

I've seen a way where I'm making more progress in a faster time period then I ever thought possible before........& in the end I'm making music along the way.......& more of it then ever before........

The key is to just start w/ an idea.......My ideas come away from the guitar & on the guitar..........Where I start & where I end up always make me laugh.....Then follow that idea through until it's complete.........add to it, change it, develope it.........& build on it.......Then when it's done start a new one.........Each time you will grow as a player, learn new things & appreciate other instruments as well.........

Hearing yourself puts things into focus too.........& playing over chords, backing tracks or your own tune is key......& then play with other people who are better or more advanced then you......You can do this now from around the globe w/ technology ......Well that's what this guy told me anyways.....Lol

Hey & don't be too hard on yourself either...........You're doing this because you love the guitar right.......So put in the time find people to guide & help you......

Good luck all & make some music today.........(More on this later)

[mikefont]

To me, a great riff that gets me excited to create a song! I'm sure that all of us sit down with a guitar from time to time just noodling around on it, and stumble upon a great riff or idea...that moment when inspiration hits!

Style is another big one to me. One's own style is what makes us different from everyone else....even if you might have a similar style to someone else, it's what you do with it that makes you individually unique.

And having a guitar that is comfortable to play is always important to me! If it doesn't feel or sound right, it REALLY takes away from the mojo!

.

[Mister_Riff]

What's important to me:

1) having fun:
- Playing songs
- Jamming to backing tracks or with friends
- having awesome tone
- getting that "hell yeah, I did it" feeling

2) Practise:
- getting parts of songs down
- coming up with nice phrases, riffs, licks
- practising scales, techniques (sweeps, tapping, legato, ...)

Since I've gotten the Eleven Rack I've really begun to practise and look at myself as a guitarplayer. I like many styles of music (most of them insanely difficult to play ), so I'm working towards being a better player and being able to play the songs I'd like to play.

I think almost all guitarists want to improve on something so for me it's important to have fun along the way of becoming who you want to be as a guitarplayer.

[bassmanjazz]

I find it hard to believe only a couple of people replied to this?!?

We all have elements that we are currently working on to better ourselves musically and we are all at different stages in our development.

I would love to hear what techniques and styles you all are currently working on, what songs your learning etc.

I think this info would inspire us all!!

[TieDyedDevil]

OK, I'll bite.

I like to work on chord voicings and to discover cool progressions that fall out of experiments with voice leading.

I'm trying to learn more about rhythmic variations.

I'm trying to learn about composition.

I'm trying to improve my listening skills, mainly as they apply to free-form improvisation.

I'm slowly learning to improve my recording skills. I wish I had the patience to learn drum programming.

"Tone", per se, is not a thing I worry about. Not any more... I cringe to think about all the money I spent chasing "tone". OTOH, I learned a lot (as one often does from unpleasant experiences).

I love the musicality of my ER, in the sense that it offers a lot of good interaction to the nuances of my playing. But I've been known to record and perform through "lesser" devices; even through a simple DI box when the occasion suits.

[Mister_Riff]

I already posted my general "idea" but am gonna post a more in depth one now:

I've been working on:

- Working with Pro Tools and recording in general: I've watched a TON of vids, read a lot of how to's and fooled around to get a better understanding. (E.g. how to open up multiple plugins). I've also recorded a guitartrack where I did 10 seperate guitartracks and basically tried to apply all of my new gained knowledge of plugins, working with tracks, comping ... A LOT of things. In the end the track was pretty much ruined but I really learned from it.

- What I've also done and what I recommend to everyone who has not done it: create "standard" Pro Tools sessions that are fully prepped to go! I have 3: a full session, a practise session (guitar and click track) and an in between one ... When I want to practise I open my practise session and have everything ready to go. When I want to record something or create a song I open my full session or my in between one and have most if not all of the tracks I need including all of my regular plugins, levels and favorite settings.

- Learning solo-licks and playing them over backing tracks: my soloing is pretty bad (understatement of the year) so I've been going over some of my favorite music and taking bits and pieces out of the solo's that are cool idea's. Then I'd try to play them over backing tracks (which I bought here: guitarplayback.com, or backingtracks of contests that have ended on youtube)

- Also some trivial information: I changed the room where I now play guitar ... I used to play in a separate room but because it was a really bad room soundwise and also terribly small, I've now relocated to my bedroom. This room is bigger in size and sounds better. Downsize: I've now got less desk space but I'm working around it by adding a table for my laptop. It's also nice to wake up and the first thing you see in the morning is the 11 Rack glistening in the morning light

Lastly: I agree with Bassmanjazz that this thread deserves more posts ...

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by bassmanjazz

Hey all,

Due to discussions in another thread I thought it would be very helpful and beneficial to all us guitar toting/loving/playing maniacs if we shared a great big group hug. ER...no, I mean...shared ideas surrounding what is important to YOU as a guitarist. What are the techniques, styles, scales tones etc that are important to your sound and your musical ambitions. What you believe to be important. NO right or wrong, just your opinion, which after all, is what a forum is for

Let me state mine to get the ball rolling (in no particular order)

• Style (playing nuances that really add the 'flavor' to your playing)
• Tone (this can be totally effected by style, i would say even drives it)
• Phrasing, how you play a series of 2 or more notes together and pass between them to voice the passage
• I'm Working on melodic minor scale right now (started in D but will transpose when I'm comfortable) and will learn it over the whole of the neck of the guitar in all positions
• physical feel, the guitar has to be a comfortable guitar to hold and play
• musical feel, regardless of the physical axe, i think a great guitar player can pick up any guitar and do something note worthy on it.
• I'm working hard on song writing, melody and chord structure, which really is instrument independent. I do this by learning a scale, the modes and typical chord progressions that have traditionally worked best for it, and try to write a flavor rich melody line over top

That is a great start, and I hope, with all the fantastic talent we have in this forum, that your all willing to post some of yours and help us all perhaps enjoy our own musical adventures a little more

actually a very cool topic, though it can easily get long winded since so many variables of subject matter!! i also find it rather interesting as my band just finished tracking our album and i am about to begin the mixing stage in the next couple weeks, so i just got finished with months of focus on my playing in many different areas depending on what i was working on at that time.

i did co write, produce, track, and will mix. if bored take a listen. they are fairly long songs, but i promise the playing isnt to shabby i created a generic soundclick page w a few of the songs, hopefully it will work comments good or bad would rock!

* feel of the guitar, its about #1 for me. if i dont like the guitar its about hopeless on every front for me. a bit vain i think, but its just one of those odd things for me. i have 2 ibanez's and a les paul custom i play about everything on, though i did use a tele in a few parts of the album. the rest of my guitars dont see much daylight.

* tone for inspiration!! i am a mesa boogie guy. i like my eleven rack, but my mark v is my tone and what sounds like me, so i default to it by the end of the album via reamping but a lot of times track my parts or write w the mark iic+ sim.

* interesting scales. i am pretty fluent on getting around the neck and coming up with parts for leads and melodys, but i typically find it easier to learn a particular scale or pattern on a song to song basis on what my needs might be for the song and take it somewhere a bit different than expected. its a long ugly process, but works for me. i sometimes find it pointless to just learn a scale and not do anything worthwhile with it. in this mode i live w guitar grimoire books in front of me!

*speed. sounds cheezy, but the faster i can move, the cleaner i can move when brought down to normal speeds. i am a bit of a solo junky though, i love them. petrucci is by far my biggest influence in this aspect. but this has taken a bad rap over the years, but is the best way to find out what you really know in phrasing, thinking ahead, and overall flow.

* phrasing is terribly important but it comes down to learning and connecting passages. then in comes things like passing tones, coming in and out of parts. a never ending learning process. but learning little passages to impliment is a blast.

* technique. has to be part of phrasing, but arpeggio sweeping (3-4-5-6 string), tapping, chromatics, string skipping, hybrid picking, all part of a healthy breakfast!

* songwriting. what good is any of this w/o a song?? i love arranging and going off from the norm and getting away from the expected. a definite byproduct of loving prog, as well as songs that go on a bit further than needed!!

* pushing myself further than what i think i am capable of. this has yeilded me better results than i ever thought possible. takes time and the proper mindset, but is how i function best.

* working in odd time signatures. why??? its fun

*not much of a guitar fx guy and have lost much of my interest in the tremelo/whammy bar. might be time to revisit some of this stuff, its been quite a few years.

[Idisagree]

My mommy says I'm perfect just the way I am