Help out a beginner please

[Bruce Weaver]

I think this new playing forum is a great idea. I'd like to test it, and see if you guys can help me out. I've been taking lessons for about 6 months, and I've kind of hit a plateau that's kind of frustrating. For soloing/leading, I've got my scale patterns down fairly fast and accurate. While playing over a rhythym track, it sounds pretty good or at least not incorrect. If I practice long enough I'll start to hit the good notes on chord changes by a combination of luck and ear. My teacher says that the best soloing is done with arpeggios. Makes perfect sense to me. This is where I start to bog down. In order to learn the arps, I've got to know where all the notes are. I've been taking each chord and mapping out the notes on each string. This is helpful, but it's painfully slow. I can't spend a couple of seconds just looking around for the note I want! (He's got me working on Satriani's "Rubina" and Santana "Europa")

Anybody have any advice or tips with this stuff? Sometimes it's good to get a different perspective on things. Is this one of those situations where it's "practice, practice, practice"?

Getting serious about music and guitar had been one of my better decisions of late. This is truly big fun. I wish I started 25 years ago, but WTF, better late than never.

Thanks -

Bruce

[pro-fusion]

Re: Help out a beginner please

Technically, you should do the hard work of figuring out all the notes on the neck--it will pay dividends down the road when you don't have to struggle to find the notes.

But not being a paragon of virtue in that regard myself, I will tell you that you can also learn the arpeggios by intervals. In other words, you figure out where the root note of the arpeggio is and then work out the other notes to play based on the number of scale steps from the root note. For example, the arpeggio of the basic Am chord is just the 1-3-5-8-5-3-1 steps of the Am scale. That works out to A-C-E-A(+1 octave)-E-C-A. But if you've learned the fingering for the Am scale, you can do it by the 1-3-5 intervals, rather than having to figure out where the E and C notes are in relation to the A, or even that you should use E and C. As long as you know to start on A, and you know the other scale steps to play to form the correct arpeggiated chord, you're in business. Does that make any sense?

Still, to be a good schoolmaster, I would say "learn your notes!"

[Bruce Weaver]

Re: Help out a beginner please

Thanks for the help, guys. I knew this was going to take some hard work. I think I've been getting used to coming home after my lesson each week really pumped up about what I had just learned. Now, it's time just to get to work.

I'm curious...does anyone here play classical guitar? Do you think it's worthwhile? My teacher encourages it. Just last month, I got to talk to my personal guitar hero, Carlos Cavazo, after the Quiet Riot show in Baltimore. I told him what I was up to, and we talked for a couple of minutes. As I turned around to leave, he said "You know, if you really want to be good, you need to learn to play classical guitar and learn to read music." Sounds like good advice. I'm hoping Santa will help out with this - otherwise it's out with the credit card. Well, I guess I've decided what I'm going to do, but I'm wondering what you JCFers think about classical guitar.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Lev]

Re: Help out a beginner please

i've basically memorized most of the notes on the fretboard and what to play in what key. It kind of just came to me overtime.. now when I play arpeggio's I just kind of know where to go without even thinking about it. Just keep messing around with notes, and eventually you'll build a good base of 'what goes where in what key'.
You could also do it the theoretical way like pro-fusion mentioned above. I'm actually studying tons of theory right now and its really helpful.. but can be confusing too. It really depends on how you want to tackle the whole thing:
-Trial and Error.. go by ear, figure out what sounds good over what key, etc. AND/OR
-Theory and Memorization.. also a good way depending on how motivated and interested you are.

Both take time and practice.. well you know how it is on guitar.. you always end up playing **** you never knew you could eventually [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[ November 27, 2002, 12:32 PM: Message edited by: Lev ]

[JacksonShredder]

Re: Help out a beginner please

Learn Some Classical stuff if is worth it

also know all the notes on the fretboard

[Alexi7]

Re: Help out a beginner please

it was quite the opposite for me...i started out with electric guitar, picked up a classical and found it not hard at all...classical guitar is cool if that's what you wanna do, but i dont see how you'd benefit from it significantly, its completely different compared to electric guitar..its not like you'll be playing solos fingerpicking...try it, see how you like it..i started out a few months ago with mason william's 'classical gas', give it a go
cheers

[pro-fusion]

Re: Help out a beginner please

As an electric guitarist, I look at studying/playing classical nylon-string guitar as a good form of discipline. You can't fake anything in classical guitar, and it is a very good way of learning music theory and score-reading. But it really is a different instrument, in my opinion. It may help your fingering hand discipline on electric, but obviously fingerpicking and flatpicking are different worlds and require vastly different techniques.

I would say that you should pick up a cd or two of classical guitar and see if it piques your interest. If you find the music boring, you won't be very motivated to study it. I studied classical for a few months after I had taken electric guitar lessons for about two years. Classical wasn't my thing, but I still refer back to the things I learned in those few months--and that was 18 years ago!