# What would GC like to see in terms of new guitar articles from me?



## Phlegethon (Dec 18, 2009)

I mentioned in another thread that I've got what can best be described as a writer's block. I'm having trouble finding worthwhile things to write about to put up for lesson articles. so I'm starting a thread to get some raw information to stir up my thought process and get working/typing again. 

I do have a general direction I try to go with the things that I do and have done. I prefer to do things that improve the guitar playing community's overall skill in all areas from basic playing skills to music theory. I refuse to perpetuate attitudes and myths about guitar playing such as relying on "mojo" or doing anything related to guitars in a specified manner due to tradition. It prevents true growth in individual players and the community by shutting out options that may not be readily apparent due to not being born of tradition.

The most important thing would be to give back and improve the community in as many useful ways as possible. It's also very important for me to make these improvements as far reaching as possible. 

with all that being said, I'll keep on this thread and take note of everything to see if I can't do something with it (and my lack of activity as of late). Thanks in advance for the suggestions


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## wayne_h (Oct 28, 2009)

> I refuse to perpetuate attitudes and myths about guitar playing such as relying on "mojo" or doing anything related to guitars in a specified manner due to tradition.


Could you explain a bit more what you mean by this please.


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## Wiser (Jan 6, 2010)

You don't know what to teach and I don't know what to learn.

I have been learning bits of songs for years. I know my chords, how to strum, and finger pick. When I look for lessons online I see just that, bits of songs, and chords. I've learned the five positions of the pentatonic scale because I've seen a lot of people stressing that. I don't know what to do with it, lol.

It's like learning another language. I've got some words but I can only fit them in the phrases I know. What I could use is something like, "If you want to play the blues google these six things: ". Right now all I've got is the twelve bar blues and 1 4 5 progression. Unless that's all you need for the blues and I'm just an idiot... >.>

I guess I need theory, but in pieces small enough to digest. Unless that's been done to death and I just missed it.

I know nothing!


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

any short cuts to make theory easier would be helpful.
- I tend to memorize what patterns are useful for lead playing, but don't really know why what works works.
- when running through chords that work in the key of C for example, I know what majors and minors and that the 7th (B) needs to be a flat 5. I don't know why that chord is diminished in that was... how do you figure out how to alter the 7th chord in the progression in different keys? 
- I don't know appropriate times to use a 7th chord. they all kind of seem to fit in the place of a major, but I don't know why.


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## dodgechargerfan (Mar 22, 2006)

I'm in line with the last two posts.
I can DO a lot of stuff and not really know what I'm doing.
I've figured out lots of little bits here and there of songs and of things that just sound good to me.
What I think I am missing is the theory that glues it all together and tells me why certain stuff works together....

....and I just signed up for lessons today. :rockon2:


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## Phlegethon (Dec 18, 2009)

Excellent ... thanks for the suggestions. seems that chord theory is the way to go here as it has the most votes. will suss out everything and hopefully get something up sooner rather than later. would like to give a timeline but being a full time engineering student after being out of school for a cummulative total of ten years means I do things a little slower than the "uppity punks" (read: just out of high school and far better equipped than me to deal with school life) 

the other thing I got from the suggestions posted is that I should keep on doing what I'm doing in terms of lesson articles (explaining how to do a major task that is a universal skill like reading music, as opposed to getting a particular tone out of the guitar for a particular song) 

Wiser: I recall some things written in a guitar world article where kirk hammett goes over some VERY useful things for lead guitar playing that would help you learn. I'll attempt to sum up what he said really quickly as it was bulletproof yet simple. 

1. keep it simple: play to whatever chord you're playing over. if you're doing a blues in E, then use the notes that make up various E chords. throw notes that aren't a part of an E chord in there but don't do it very much. 

2. to get variations in phrasing to make things more interesting, try changing only one thing about a phrase you know/like/use. make one note in a 4/4 phrase and make it three notes long, then play the rest of them in the last beat. or bend a different note than what you normally do. don't bend a note that you normally do and use another way to sound the note you want. 

Puckhead: would need a specific version of 7th chord before I comment on where to use them ... there's a few varieties of 7th chords so it would depend heavily on what kind of 7th chord as well as what kind of genre you're playing. as far as why you can use a 7th chord in place of a regular major (easiest to give a quick and dirty explination) would be this:

if you're playing a CMaj7 instead of a C (in the key of C major) then it works because all of the notes for both the C and CMaj7 are in the C major scale. also, CMaj7 is identical to regular C save for the added note, which is the one that makes it a CMaj7. this extra note is also in the key of C major as well so it is possible to use it in place of a regular C chord as you mentioned. it certainly changes the vibe of things, but it can still be used without issues. 

wayne_h: alright ... time to mention some of the myths that I refuse to believe or endorse. hopefully I won't put my foot in my mouth here ... lol ... would like to lay a disclaimer to this section as this deals with actual measureable facts, and NOT personal preference (ie: I won't be commenting on a les paul vs. strat as that's subject to personal taste, but if someone thinks a gibson les paul is better than an agile AL series because the agile isn't a gibson then I've got some bad news for them ... ). although the internet helps get rid of a lot of these myths, for which I'm grateful. 

1. an electric guitar needs "x" feature for "tone" or it's a hunk of firewood: set neck vs. bolt on debate. anybody says that one is better than the other that doesn't use personal reasons such as "bolt ons give me better fret access to shred" or "set necks usually have shorter scale lengths so it's better for my jazz voice" 

2. a guitar/amp HAS to have "x" part to get a particular tone, even though the only way to notice the difference "x" part makes is to test it under labratory style conditions. "you have to be trained to hear the difference because it's so subtle" usually means to me that it's snake oil. best example would be "having" to have a certain op amp in an OD/dist pedal. visual sound did a youtube vid where they put a video op amp for computers into one of their pedals and it sounded basically identical to a bone stock one used as a control sample

3. "that guitar looks like a jazzbox/shredder/blues/rock/country guitar. it can't play jazz/metal/blues/rock/country". psychoacoustics are not the way one should go about playing guitar. we use our ears and hands, not our eyes to play guitar. yes, there's a few cases where a certain guitar can't be used for something but these situations are very few and far between. you won't be able to use an archtop or guitar with true single coils for modern metal, and that's about the only real limitation I can think of. and this is something that can easily be tested by a wide number of guitarists. it's not "that guitar looks like it's only good for ... ", which I find a rather unamusing argument


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## Wiser (Jan 6, 2010)

*Zero knowledge*

I just started looking at some basic theory. You said,


Phlegethon said:


> play to whatever chord you're playing over. if you're doing a blues in E, then use the notes that make up various E chords.


 That gave my brain a poke to get started.

The only thing I remember from music class was the C major scale, CDEFGABC. Nice, simple, easy. I found out chords use the first, third and fifth notes. So the C major chord is:
--E--
--C--
--G--
--E--
--C--
--E--

Life is good, then I wanted to check some other chords. For A, the 1, 3, and 5, or A, C#, and E. Then my brain got jammed in neutral. That C# was staring at me. "Where did you come from?", I wondered. So I took a look. I was so naive. The C major scale had fooled me into thinking the major scales were made of natural notes and gumdrops. On further investigation I noticed there was no such thing as B# and E#. "Madness!", I cried, "How can this be?!". I came accross the major scale pattern of, "whole whole half whole whole whole half", which explains how the C major scale worked out so nicely, as B# and E# eloped or something.

Anyway just wanted to update you since you took the time to respond to me. As you can see I know nothing about music theory. I would like to know what the deal with B# and E# is, but only try to explain if you have unlimited patience because I will not understand.

Cheers


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## dodgechargerfan (Mar 22, 2006)

I just remember that as the bcef rule: which makes my brain say "What is that?" my memory responds with, "there are no sharps between bc and ef."

That's not really an explanation. Rather, it is a memorization technique because it is what it is and you just need to remember it.


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