daveinspain Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Dynamics; play soft, play loud, play sweet, play mean, play with a gental touch, play with a heavy hand, play with you fingers, play with a pic, play an arpeggio, then strum a chord, play clean as a bell, play with overdriven distortion, play fast, play slow but play with feeling. Do all of that in the same song... Playing with dynamics will take you to the next level. You don't have to learn any new scales or chords Just use what you already got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmis Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 After turning 50, i´ve noticed that the most important factor to improve my playing is to find cirkumstances were i have fun! If it´s not fun i find myself doing something else, such meaningless activities as watch TV or fiddling on the computer, just as right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Sometimes it's hard enough to simply maintain what I've learned, and I have to keep it running day by day. Anyway, the status quo is my starting point whenever I try to play a song I recently composed for the first time. Compared to my ideas my playing abilities are fairly limited, and so there's always something new to learn. I often have to think about an outcry of Franz Schubert when he tried himself to play his technically challenging piano composition "Fantasie in C-Dur", commonly known as "Wanderer-Fantasie" (Wanderer Fantasy in C Major), opus 15 (D 760): "Der Teufel soll dieses Zeug spielen!" - "The devil may play this stuff!" However, I never tried to hire the devil to play my things... DISCLAIMER: The following link does not mean Alfred Brendel, KBE, would be the devil or in league with him: ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WIVTKXb8RI Perhaps the devil is responsible for the glitch at 12'21" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btoth76 Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Hello Dave! As far as those technical aspects You have mentioned are concerned, I think, looking at sophisticated players and stealing little tricks from them is very fruitful. Gary Moore was a grand master of these things. I often watch videos of His live performances. Best wishes... Bence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btoth76 Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Hello Capmaster! Schubert was living in the village of Zseliz in 1818. He wrote the Symphony in C major there, while teaching the Eszterházy baroness's. My great-grandfather was the organ player of the church there at that time. The Eszterhazy's were the neighboring landlords to our family back then. My granddad often talked to me about that. 😊 Cheers... Bence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Hello Capmaster! Schubert was living in the village of Zseliz in 1818. He wrote the Symphony in C major there, while teaching the Eszterházy baroness's. My great-grandfather was the organ player of the church there at that time. The Eszterhazy's were the neighboring landlords to our family back then. My granddad often talked to me about that. �� Cheers... Bence Perhaps Schubert did his tricky works as a challenge for your ancestor. No surprise you are looking for challenges in music, too! When Schubert composed something in C Major, it could have been for misleading potential players. Due to his fairly chromatic attitude, he next to never left out any black key, so C Major or A minor are just belittlements feeding false hopes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 I often have to think about an outcry of Franz Schubert when he tried himself to play his technically challenging piano composition "Fantasie in C-Dur", commonly known as "Wanderer-Fantasie" (Wanderer Fantasy in C Major), opus 15 (D 760): "Der Teufel soll dieses Zeug spielen!" - "The devil may play this stuff!" However, I never tried to hire the devil to play my things... DISCLAIMER: The following link does not mean Alfred Brendel, KBE, would be the devil or in league with him: ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WIVTKXb8RI Perhaps the devil is responsible for the glitch at 12'21" This is incredible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayinLA Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Sometimes I take riffs and melodies I have already done with other bands or whatever, then turn em around (play em backwards), play with time signature, and then a door will open up and I will come up with something completely brand new. That has been my latest creative process. One thing about rock n roll that's hard IMO is when to decide a song is finished? When you record it? Because then everyone expects to hear the song performed the way it was recorded that day or whatever, and songs grow. It's almosts impossible for me to say when a song is done and to take it out of the oven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 The 2 things that are most important to me at the moment are melody and timing. I've (just about) got enough chops to be able to work out most melodies I can hum or think of, though I may mistake some of the fine details if it's at all complex.....I'm not talking Parker bebop heads here. Timing is part of the above - if you don't time it right it doesn't sound right. Working out and practicing melody is something I ignored for years, like many guitarists do. Now I realise it's crucial and the key to all of it. I have worked VERY hard on my timing though and still do; metronome is my friend, music software with its machine-accurate timing is my friend. And I can play in time now. @DaveinSpain - I know I've gone on about this before, but you really should get Band-In-a-Box. It's perfect for you. Best practice tool I have by a million miles. Best wishes JohnM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Question? I would love to learn how to play Blues. I'm signed up on Guitar Tricks and clicked on, scales, or Blues Scales. It came up and as I scrolled down, there must have been a years worth of Scales to learn and go through. No Way could I remember all that stuff. How many scales does one need to learn to play some simple or easy Blues songs. On a scale of #1 - #5, 1 being easy and 5 being difficult or advanced, I can play #3 songs. Example: Guitar Tricks has Dueling Banjos rated #4 and I can play the entire song, my speed still needs improving though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 @Retired - You need to start with the minor pentatonic in 'E' shape/box. The blues scale adds one note. You can probably do this already so I apologize if so but: Start immediately to learn to bend the notes on frets you would play with your 3rd or 4th finger, on the 3 lightest strings. To do this use your 3rd finger to fret the note/string backed up by your 2nd (and 1st if necessary). Hit, let ring for an instant, bend the note up a tone (2 frets) until you hear it is in tune. Get it right then reverse it. Never mind about all the other stuff. There is a minor blues scale and a major blues scale and that IS all you need to know, except knowing how to use them is the big part! I can go on into specific licks and phrases if you want me to (not in the lounge though). I taught guitar for a decade. Go for the bedrock stuff - the simple phrases first. Core language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Thanks so much for your reply and help JDGM. I wrote your reply down in my notebook. I've been practicing the A miner scale with flat 5th added for that Blues sound. I've got it memorized in my head now and almost hand memory, I screw up sometimes. And I've got more speed and do bends pretty good with that one. I've been trying various ways of making a song out of that one scale and once in a while get a catchy tune out of that. That's about all I knew for now. Thanks again, I'll work on what you gave me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quapman Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 dy·nam·ics dīˈnamiks noun 1. What every musician should learn after they master holding an instrument. 2. The kinder gentler way to tell your band mates they are too damn loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Thanks so much for your reply and help JDGM. I wrote your reply down in my notebook. I've been practicing the A miner scale with flat 5th added for that Blues sound. I've got it memorized in my head now and almost hand memory, I screw up sometimes. And I've got more speed and do bends pretty good with that one. I've been trying various ways of making a song out of that one scale and once in a while get a catchy tune out of that. That's about all I knew for now. Thanks again, I'll work on what you gave me. You are welcome; I don't want to hijack the thread or come over all patronising - I know I have done that before inadvertently! By all means pm me if you like, or better still post in the 'techniques' section of the forum. These days there are more aids to learning than we could have dreamt of when we were young, but actually acquiring the manual skills is still down to hours of hard, repetitive work and that'll never change! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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