OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

Quest for OOT's guitar players..

I've been playing for about 3-4 years and am seriously stuck in at the intermediate levels...

I really want to take solo-ing to the next level, is there anyway to do this without taking lessons or is this possible to self-teach like I have been the whole way so far.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

If you don't want to take lessons (and even if you do), the best thing you can do is transcribe solos. Learn all of your basic scales in every key and transcribe solos from your favorite players. In addition to helping improve your vocabulary, it will improve your ears and help with your improvising skills down the road.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

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If you don't want to take lessons (and even if you do), the best thing you can do is transcribe solos. Learn all of your basic scales in every key and transcribe solos from your favorite players. In addition to helping improve your vocabulary, it will improve your ears and help with your improvising skill down the road.

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and what about finger speed...does this just come with time...

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

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If you don't want to take lessons (and even if you do), the best thing you can do is transcribe solos. Learn all of your basic scales in every key and transcribe solos from your favorite players. In addition to helping improve your vocabulary, it will improve your ears and help with your improvising skill down the road.

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and what about finger speed...does this just come with time...

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Mitch has got some great advice right there.

As for finger speed, just practice your sacles. Keep going up and down the scales, there are also ways to go three notes up back one, three up back one, etc. It's really hard to explain in words.

P.S. I am by no means a great (or even good anymore) guitar player. I just used to play in a band back in the day.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

Finger speed will come with time for the most part. There are excercises you can do to help it along though.

Pick a fret on your high E string (we'll say the fifth fret)
Hold your index finger on that note
Strike the string once and hammer one half step up (the 6th fret) over and over as fast as you can with your middle finger until the sound dies out.
Then strike string again and hammer a whole step up (7th fret) with your ring finger over and over again until the sound dies.
Do it again on the the 8th fret with your pinky
Then repeat the same process on the B string, then your G, D....

Note that all the while you are holding the note on the 5th fret on each string.

This will improve speed, strength, and overall dexterity.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

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and what about finger speed...does this just come with time...

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No, once you listen to some sweet solos your fingers just get really fast!

Sorry, but this should be obvious. Get a scale book, play them a million times. Try to speed it up as you improve.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

Buy a loop station. Play a riff or chord structure. Solo over top of it when no one else is around.

The only way to learn how to solo is to just do it. This is true for all instruments. I learned this in HS Jazz band. No one had any clue how to solo, so our teacher just made people do it on command. First, only try to play basic things like whole notes/half notes. Then, add more as you get comfortable.

Most of the greatest soloists have absolutely no idea what they are doing (or at least aren't thinking about what the are technically doing while soloing). Some know all of their scales. Others don't know any scales. IMO, the best soloists are the people who can "feel" their way through it, without thinking about what they are doing. The best way to get there is to just DO IT! Knowing the scales and all of the technicalities is very helpful, but I know plenty of people who know all that stuff in and out and can't solo for @#%&!

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

You can practice, all the time. Carry the guitar around with you.

Lesson-phobia is dumb, though. I usually take a few lessons every couple of years when I feel stilted. I've played for 18 years and would be considered by many to be good. I'm certainly pretty fast. I recognize that guitar (and music) is not a solo practice and getting insights from people you respect in person is far more useful than, say, asking strangers on a poker board who have no idea what your specific problems are.

The most basic finger exercise I'll do is to go down 4321 then shift up one fret and go 1234 and then go up one fret and go down 4321. (pinky=4, pointer=1). I generally go up to about the 15th fret. Then I come back down (4321 down 1234 down 4321). I do this as fast as I can *cleanly*. CLEANLY is very important. I then do it on the next string, and then the next, etc, all the way through. I pick it using all up strokes going through once, then alternating up and down strokes, then all down strokes. This will improve your speed.

Also, pick up some odd chords you can't hit now. Stretching your hands will help your overall speed.

This is the best I can illustrate that finger exercise in this forum.

fret
finger

4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 6 5
4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1

etc.

-bb.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

Oh, and the best way to get to be a good (not just fast) soloist is to be a music fan, and listen to music all the time. I made my biggest leaps and bounds by being a teenage loser and sitting in front of the computer in middle school with music playing and playing along/on top of it for literally hours at a time. Led Zeppelin is excellent for this purpose, as it's blues-based, stays in 1 key and, well, it's zeppelin.

It's the one upside of being a teenage loser...while other people were being popular and having fun, I was getting good at guitar, reading books and the like. Stuff that pays off in the end because you end up being well-versed in a lot of topics and pick up a skill that a lot of people envy, but at the time you just do it to get by. It is AMAZING how being good at an instrument (particularly guitar) will get you interest from people (girls in particular, but also the "popular kids") who would NEVER, EVER talk to you otherwise. It kind of rules, actually.

-bb.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

there's an excellent analogy metheny made about practicing scales and finger exercises. basically, practicing scales to improve your soloing is like polishing your water faucet and thinking it will make the water taste better.

when you're soloing, you're creating melodies as you go along. the way to learn to make stronger melodies is to learn to play strong melodies (hopefully by ear) and start to identify (in your own way) what makes them strong.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

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If you don't want to take lessons (and even if you do), the best thing you can do is transcribe solos. Learn all of your basic scales in every key and transcribe solos from your favorite players. In addition to helping improve your vocabulary, it will improve your ears and help with your improvising skills down the road.



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Thread over. First off, you should reconsider not taking lessons. They are usually pretty inexepensive and will take your playing far beyond you current state if you practice, and have a GOOD teacher.

But really, all the scales, patterns, and licks in the world won't get you to where you want w/o transcribing. Like the one someone plays? Learn how to do it. And it should noted that attempting to learn from tabs or books is nowhere near as useful as doing the transcribing yourself. The only person who ever got anything out of a book of transcriptions was the guy who made it.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

Listen to songs that contain the types of solos you would like to play. Duplicating fast solos will require a lot of technical practice, but simply duplicating fast solos will not teach you how to create your own work.

I learned how to solo by doing three things:
1. I learned the blues pentatonic scale;
2. I played a lot without listening to music; and
3. I transcribed riffs and built songs around them.

One key thing is to play without a rhythm of any sort behind you; this will allow you to feel where your own music is going. You will be free to change the beat as necessary.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

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Finger speed will come with time for the most part. ....
This will improve speed, strength, and overall dexterity.

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-- Acoustix

Reading this and looking at your avatar made me laugh.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

Learn music theory and scales, and play plenty of good solos (My personal favorite is the Comfortably Numb solo, not too hard but note perfect). The finger speed will come with practise, concentrate on nice melodies.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

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The most basic finger exercise I'll do is to go down 4321 then shift up one fret and go 1234 and then go up one fret and go down 4321. (pinky=4, pointer=1). I generally go up to about the 15th fret. Then I come back down (4321 down 1234 down 4321). I do this as fast as I can *cleanly*. CLEANLY is very important. I then do it on the next string, and then the next, etc, all the way through. I pick it using all up strokes going through once, then alternating up and down strokes, then all down strokes. This will improve your speed.

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Along these lines...If you're looking to pick up speed here's what you do(I had a really great bass teacher and this is what we did.)

Buy this book and do all the exercises. It's a bass book but its all about fret exercises like the one quoted above.

Buy a metronome. Run through all the exercises starting at quarter = 60 (the low tempo helps improve your time), and run up as far as you can on the metronome while preserving good fret and picking technique.

Edit: I forgot about arpeggios. Learn to do all the chord arpeggios up and down the fretboard(same thing quarter = 60 on up). Major, Minor, Major7, Minor 7, Major7b5 are the ones you generally need for popular music...

For learning to solo well you should learn all the diatonic modes and blues scale and be able to run them up and down the fretboard. (Same thing start at quarter = 60 and go up).

After you can do all that stuff that buy the Jamey Abersold blues books with the companion CDs. They provide simple jazz and blues loops(Bass, Drums, Piano) that you can play along to and solo over.

Join a band...get famous...

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

I have dexterity, I was a classical pianist for almost 9 years...

my guitar is all self taught though and I think I've plateued (sp?) at this point

I'm gonna look into some lessons but I am familiar with scales...legato/arpeggios, theory, etc...

my pinkie strength sucks though, it my be partially my guitar, the action is not the best

I think I'm gonna pick up an Ibanez...action is pretty good on most of their guitars

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

Surf,

If you really want to become a good soloist then you have to learn how to play rhythm guitar. The best soloists use rhythm mixed in with their solo part - think Hendrix. Jimi played back-up to Little Richard for years. It taught him how to fit in with a band and how to comp ends. You meet a lot of guitarists who can rattle off a few good solo's, but apart from that technical ability they have no feel. Put them in with a band and ask them to improvise and they're lost.

You don't need to worry about your fingers getting faster. It's the notes that you don't play that make the difference.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

[ QUOTE ]
there's an excellent analogy metheny made about practicing scales and finger exercises. basically, practicing scales to improve your soloing is like polishing your water faucet and thinking it will make the water taste better.

when you're soloing, you're creating melodies as you go along. the way to learn to make stronger melodies is to learn to play strong melodies (hopefully by ear) and start to identify (in your own way) what makes them strong.

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very good advice... knowing scales helps too

i rike spanish phrygian the best... i think playing in that scale makes you like twenty times better automatically

NT

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

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my pinkie strength sucks though, it my be partially my guitar, the action is not the best

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No, that is not the case. Your fingers are weak. Buying another guitar because your fingers are weak is lame. Make your hands do what you want them to do.

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I think I'm gonna pick up an Ibanez...action is pretty good on most of their guitars

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YECCHHH. 1. Ibanez guitars with low action are sine-tone producing pieces of garbage. They are HORRID. They might give you the illusion of being good, but it is an illusion. You could also get a multieffects and pave over your inconsistent picking with compression and distortion, it wouldn't mean you don't suck. 2. You can get a real guitar, likely for cheaper or just as cheap as an ibanez sine-tone machine, and lower the action on it if it's not to your liking.

-bb.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

When I feel that I plateau in my skill, I always will step away for a week or two and really build up the desire to pick my guitar up again and usually end up teaching my self some new tricks. This may or may not work for you, but it helps me take 2 steps forward most of the time.


Diebitter- In looking at my original post and my avatar, I realize it is both disgusting and incredibly funny.

Re: OOT\'s Guitar Players
 

I promise the following works:

If you want to get fast, you must start out very slow; I mean stupid-sounding slow. Play a phrase and set the metronome (a must-have) to such a slow speed that you can play it flawlessly all the way through. Make sure you can play it several times in a row at that speed, in all 12 keys.

Stay at that stupid-sounding tempo for a week, practicing that phrase several times a day, in all 12 keys. Have several different kinds of solo material so it doesn't get boring: scale, arpeggio, lick, complete solo, 3/4 time, metal, blues, alternate picking, picking with hammering, double stops, whatever (mix it up). Keep the tone dry, some distortion is okay but not so much as to hide your mistakes.

Play each phrase several times per day. Since these various practice phrases will have differing levels of difficulty for you, you will be playing them flawlessly at different tempos. So keep a simple list of the phrases (make up names for them) with the corresponding tempo click for each one.

Every week, move the metronome one tick (or if its digital, a couple bpm) for each phrase that you mastered the previous week. If you didn't master a phrase at a certain tempo, you may have to slow it down for a week.

Repeat for many weeks. Introduce new phrases to your practice regimen and phase out old ones once you can play them faster than Van Halen. You will be flying like Steve Vai within a year if you really stick to this system. Okay, that's unlikely, he had some strange devil-talent, but you will be the fastest guitar player around, I guarantee it.

But in addition to this 30 minutes per day, you really need to just let loose and jam along with some tracks or people without thinking so much. Speed is the "easy" part if you are disciplined. Creativity in your soloing is the real shiznit. Put them together and you will get noticed.