How to be a good player

[devreaux]

Hello, I wonder, if I have good timing/groove and a hell of a technique, and I know all the basic theory, does it matter HOW i learn new things that I can use when I improvise?

I don't have a bad ear but I just think it's so much faster and easier to just learn all the patterns and licks from guitar pro.

A good guitarist in my opinion should be very wide in the different genres. You should be able to play anything.

Timing/Groove
Technique
Very wide improvisation skill
Theory
and a good ear and the ability to play after that you hear.

So should I keep learning from guitar pro and text tabs and achieve all the points that I've mentioned above and having my ear developing slower, or should i spend hours taking every single note out by ear?

After all, the important thing is to know the lick and play it in a good way?

[jdr94]

well your ear learns by hearing. the only way to get your ear developed is to listen to what you're playing while knowing what those notes are so that when they're heard again your hand will know where its at. i think you're doing fine w guitar pro. as long as you listen as you play instead of just memorize positions then you'll find they both are developed together. my 2cents

[Endrik]

All great musicians have good ears, that's more important than any kind of physical technique.
Cheating.. I mean looking at tabs wont develop your relative pitch at all

[devreaux]

well it's HOW I play when I play after all isn't it?

[Endrik]

To be able to adequately judge your playing your ears have to be good. People with good ears are a lot more critical about their playing and therefore their playing comes better and more filled with nuances. And after all music is for the ears. It's all about the music. People with good ears can put every idea they have in their head into the music.

[Trem]

i would mix a little of both - back when some of us were starting there was no guitar pro - there were tab books, but i learned almost everything by ear as i found it easier than drolling thru tab.
plus the fact that i felt a bit more accomplishment that i didn't have to use tab to learn stuff, but it's not bad of course - i know a lot of pro's are doing it now days , but i would mix a bit of both.

you will really learn more about the Why some of those licks work, and discover extra stuff and different ways to play stuff by using you ears more than just following numbers, in the long run doing it by ear will make you a better player more than using tabs for everything. For example you want to try out for a band, they hand you a demo tape and say learn these songs and these solos, what are you going to do say "can i get that in tab?"

[Grandturk]

The one thing I wish I developed better is my ear. My ears are terrible.

[Musician78]

I learned lots of stuff by ear, both on bass and guitar... and still do... and having to decipher what is going on at times when the music is busy has helped me inadvertantly acquire great ears.

[horns666]

To be a superior musician..ya gotta have TRUE passion!!! For example, during foreplay..do you eat ass?

Forget about pitch, theory, technique...Mozart, Paganini, Hendrix, Uli Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Jason Becker, Malmsteen, ..all worship a beautiful woman's balloon knot. Most of their work was dedicated to it.

These are facts!

Bill Z Bub

[Trem]

See how we are blessed, you just cannot get that kind of insight anywhere else.
All hailz to the infinite wizdom of zBub

[Grim]

[Hellbat]

You need to FEEL the music in your nether regions. Like Billz or Murderface...

[Endrik]

ballon knot is nice but I have a fetish for underarms, I want to lick sweat off of them, so I'm not gonna be a good guitar player but I'm probably gonna be a good sandwich maker, what do you think?

[Shawn Lutz]

learn by however means that work for you. If Guitar pro is working for ya (I find I have to adapt a lot of those cover song tabs to my own technique). If you have the theory, technique, are versatile and can learn any new material you want with tab that should be fine. Your ear will improve with time as long as you keep practicing and learning...