Aproach to learning

I'm interested to know how everyone approached there instrument in the early years.
When i started my father is a guitar player so i had a heads up on technique's and was given a few licks to start with.But when it came time to do my own work I would allways get to frustrated trying to copy licks note for note and when i did I found that allot of them only fit over the song they were in.So I found my self basically spending instead hours upon hours jamming allong with tapes trying to closly emulate players styles but never actually stealing licks,I would keep playing solos over songs till I could play what I deemed a professional sounding solo using similar techniques as the guy I was jamming too,sometimes spending hours jamming on one song,stopping the tape to workout licks I had started to comeup with.
In my band years I started to copy licks for covering reasons,but to this day I can't resite licks like,"this is a so and so lick"I can only show you what type of style so and so plays like.

I never took lessons...couldn't afford em.
First thing I did was buy a basic sbook of songs that I knew and learned chords etc...
Then I learned barre chords and a couple of scales and started learning cover tunes.
Basically, I didn't have any formal knowledge, couldn't write music, didn't have a clue what notes I was playing... but I could do Van Halen's first album, any Rush tune and all the best "classics". (Stairway etc...)
People would tell me I was an amazing guitar player...but all I was really doing was doing an imitation of the record. I'd spend months learning a song like Stairyway until I had it down perfectly, but didn't know any of the bands other songs & if I had to come up with my own leads or ideas I was screwed.
Even now (20 years later) I can outplay most guys, but ask me how to play a BbMaJ7Dim chord or something and I don't have a clue what you're talking about.

Digit, your story is a lot like mine. Pretty much to a T, but I stopped doing the covers early, been playing about 4 years.

Im just now getting into the theory aspects and chord composition, but I just like to play and sometimes it sucks getting caught up in all that theory.

I learned everything that I know from the Beatles. I was 7-8 when I first saw this all- Beatles tribute show on TV that sparked it. I immediatley spent the next few months nagging my parents with a guitar. When I did get it, I immediately went to seven eleven to buy this fake Beatles book with lil' chord charts in it. No one in my family is musical- maybe the seventh day adventist ones but I never really got to know them and that they exist until I was an adult because they were the distant strange ones (no offense to seventh day adventists). The moment I held that guitar, I was playing it everyday. I remember sitting/ lying on the street outside my house strumming until I got the chords right. Like you guys, I also spent a huge deal of my time listening to the radio. I never had any tapes or records of any sort. My parents weren't too keen on music so they didn't buy tapes (except xmas tapes and dance tapes). My friends who knew how to play was into music that I didn't like at that time (heavy metal). So, I had no other alternative but to listen to the radio. I remember waking up at 4:30 just to listen to the Beatles station in the radio which plays from 5- 6 am ( then, I get picked by the school bus at 6:15 am). And its from listening everyday and singing mccartney's parts that I developed my very sharp ear and my singing too. It was tough to learn at first though- it can be frustrating because its not like a tape that you can rewind. It's either- you- get- it- or- you- miss- one- time kind of thing. Of course, after a couple of years, I learned that you can record stuff from the radio on a blank tape- but that was like many years later when my hearing and my playing was already pretty good. I never had any type of music lessons. Hell, I didn't even know how to read tabs. Now I do but back then I don't so it was through pure listening that I learned.

As when it comes to lead playing- I didn't have any idea what the freak are the ionian and the dorian, miloxylidian, and all this harmonic, major, minor scales stuff. I only learned about them technically when I started going to this site like 3 months ago. In the old days, maybe I was already playing them- I just didn't know the names. When I went to Canada and found myself playing bass in my highschool band- the teacher was teaching me scales, but scales and notes were so boring to me at that time that I just improvised. I never learned anything at that class so it's really funny how I got a 70 percent :) Basically, I learned how to play lead guitar through pure emotion. When I hear a song, I would try to feel for it and also watch out for the chord progression and the timing used. After that, I would then try to see if I can copy the notes that I hear in my head. I learned how to play bass this way too. It's almost like playing blind...

I learned out of 1 book in my early middle school, late elementary school years. I didn't know how to improve or anything. Finally I convinced my mom to get me guitar lessons, and he set me on the right path.

Yea as far as modes and scales I know of them through books and so on but I'm not a theory guy either.
Back in the day my dad showed me the Box scales major and minor pentatonic,calling them the rock(minor pent) and country rock(major pent)scales.He told me I could add in half steps(notes on the edge and center of the box's notes).I remember figuring out all the sad sounding half steps that were around the scale.
I eventually got a book call "The complete guitarist" by Les Paul,I started learning the major scale and the modes etc...but ound after a few months that all it was was a differant approach to what I was allready doing,not to mention less hand movment with the boxs.I learned a bunch of scales like the half whole the whole tone etc..Never found a use for them and canned em.
I remember discovering what I refer to as the egyptian scale,later finding out through books that its call the Harmonic minor scale and finding a few more notes that fit it.
But as far as chords I know Open chords(A,Am,C,G etc..)Barre chords,a few Blues type chords that I call all of them 9th chords cause I don't have a clue what there really called.OPther than that any other chords I play I call Odd Ball chords cause I don't have a clue what there names are.
Once I started I was Balls to the wall guitar,I ould practioce any chance I could get.I would skip school to play guitar.Me and a close freind would bring our guitars to school break into the spare rooms in school and play all day then catch the bus home from school.Eventually I started playing so much I got booted from school for skipping so much.For my first four or five years I must have practiced 8-12hrs a day religiously.Once I got a car around 17-18 I would get up practice for 3hrs then drive to our little garage band practice then go to the other guitarists house(the close freind form school)who's father was nearly deaf and couldn't hear us down stairs and practice through the night till 7am.I still practice allot but definatly not 10-12hrs a day.

Well, I started when I was about 14. Then I wanted to play GnR, Metallica, and other music that I was into at the time. I spent like a year emulating before I got bored. Before then, I would go to the bookstore and pick up a Metllica songbook with tab. After I got bored, I went to the bookstore again, but instead of going for a songbook, I got a general guitar playing book (I think it was "The Complete Guitarist" as Sam said). That got me beginning to understand basic music theory. I got hooked and have since read a lot of books on music theory and different playing styles. I haven't really learned any songs in I don't know how long, but I can play along with any song within a few seconds of hearing it, and I can write my own music now. Theory is king. And after you've got your theory down, learning songs by other people is easier. Technique and theory are what I practice daily now. I only practice songs a couple days before performances.

iiholy

how was your teacher, iiholly? How did you know he was right for you? You know, I feel the same way. I want to improve my music but I don't know how to get there anymore further. Sometimes, I contemplate on finally having a teacher but I haven't found the right ones. I was actually thinking of Schmange lol. He does a couple of private lessons. He's around Northern TO based from the info I read about him on this site so I guess he's not too far from where I am. I actually emailed him but i never got anything back. i guess he's really busy. But I am looking forward to having a teacher in the comming new year.

Guitar Sam

What did your parents say about this? Sounds like you have a wonderful family. Not only do you have musical parents to teach you stuff, I am guessing, in the end, they also supported you with your music thing even though you get kicked out of school for practicing so much!!! You have really great parents who tolerate you. Man, if I skipped school and get kicked out because of me playing my guitar, its very likely that my dad would have killed and broke my head me with it! lol He's not really violent- he's not strict either but he's only strict about one thing- and it's education. I wouldn't have gotten my first guitar if it wasn't for my mother. My dad never wanted to buy me a guitar because he feared that it might mess up my studies. It was only through my mom that I was able to get one- and even that one was short lived- grandma sat on it lol.

As with the modes, yeah, I noticed that too. Most of the exotic modes are just the same format as some of the scales and modes that we know- either its called by a different name or its only different by either a slightly different note. Up until now I really don't know much about scales and modes- I'm very basic. And if ever I use it, I just practically use it as a guide so that I wouldn't be playing the wrong notes. I always tend to play the melody in my head.

I'm a very shy person when it comes to adults, and people I don't know to well. Sherman, my guitar teacher, made me feel comfortable right away. I stuck with him, and pretty soon I have to go to someone else, because he's taught me everything he can. I'm dreading that day, because he such a good buddy of mine.

Yea man,my parents put up with allot of crap from me when I was young(Almost 25 now).
Eventually I went back to school.
Thing is guitar was all I wanted and still want in life.My father used to playout 3-5 nights a week for 20yrs. so it kinda runs in the blood.I started when I was 14 and at the time I was a the typical depressed teenager tht was getting in allot of trouble.I started playing as kind of a retreat from the BS,and after a short while it became the most important thing in my life,which in a way was good cause my seriousness for the instrument kept me away from allot of the drugs and crap that all my freinds did as kids and the stuff that floats around when your giging(Do love my brew for R&R though lol).

I have been playing for 2 years now and i have learnt on my own quite fast (with alot of help from this site) it started when i was first in music class and the teacher said "you can play piano, guitar bass or sing" and i thougt (as a begginer) bass looks gay nah piano is to wimpy and ill be f****d if im singing so i picked up a guitar

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Posted by Guitar- Sam
I started playing as kind of a retreat from the BS,and after a short while it became the most important thing in my life,which in a way was good cause my seriousness for the instrument kept me away from allot of the drugs and crap that all my freinds did as kids and the stuff that floats around when your giging(Do love my brew for R&R though lol).
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You know, that reminds me- most of the parents that i know wouldn't give their children the opportunity to learn how to play the guitar because they think it might interfere with their studies! (my father for instance was like that at first). But as I always say- atleast those kids would be hooked on to playing guitar (which is something productive)instead of doing something else like doing drugs and ****. Thank you for sharing your story Guitar- Sam. I really think it was a beautiful story. I'm glad that after all those years of hardships, you turned out to be ok. You see, I strongly believe that nowadays, people often take music forgranted. I remember when I was in highschool- the government was putting so many cuts that I thought we wouldn't have any more music classes because the government didn't think music was important enough! Your story provides a beautiful example of how music can be an important aspect of life. Thanks for sharing and keep on rockin!

i got given my first guitar when i was 8. i heard Brian Mays' Brighton Rock Solo on the wembly album and just pestered my parents. it was an acoustic so and i spend 3 years teaching myself to play that. then i got an electric at 11 and started getting lessons with this blues teacher. but i was also listening to stuff and working out new idea for myself. in the end i've developed my own style so different and unique from other peoples. i think that only came about because i was useing my lessons to work out the theory, but actually teaching myself to PLAY the guitar, just through experimentation

WELL

round 2 years ago checked out some basic chords [major/minor] on the net got info by asking some ppl around. and started to learn your basic chords and how to change smoothly between chords progressions..

then on to barre chords [which i still havnt mastered to my likings on an acoustic]

then i started worrying about theory and proper notes as opposed to tab. found a good teacher and started to take lessons.

scales, some modes, now we're gonna start triads soon. hehe
I never wanted to sound like anyone, meaning sure i have loads of musicians i admire [not just guiatrists] but i only use em to listen to their music, and expect mine to be just as good..if i may dare even better.

i can never learn anyone's song and just stick to that, lately ive been trying to express anything, with the basic knowledge i have of guitar and its terrible i am so frustrated i have stopped doing scales and everything else thats gonna help me improve my technique and stamina - whic is bad -

but i just can't get with that feeling great cus i know some scales etc.. i want more improv, more sounds that ive made..u know.

anyway if it gets better ill let you know - i would be writing something hehe. I need a fresh start again to get into the learning thing cus focusing on just sounds made me forget the technical side of playing, you really need a balance of both to be good i think.

now everything's bothering me, the sound of my guitar, mostly the lack of ideas, versatility etc...PLUS i have no idea how to write a solo...or how to make certain sounds certain techniques,

maybe its too early since ive only been doing this for 2 yrs, but still it frustrates me and then i lose the eagerness to get any better, cus i get all negative. blargh
anyone else here feel the same way sort of ?

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originally posted by
barreta_jetstream1

i got given my first guitar when i was 8. i heard Brian Mays' Brighton Rock Solo on the wembly album and just pestered my parents.
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why don't i feel alone all of a sudden anymore after reading this post? out of all the people in this forum, do i see another Queen fan? please say yes, please say yes, please say yes....

Originally posted by the fool ...why don't i feel alone all of a sudden anymore after reading this post? out of all the people in this forum, do i see another Queen fan? please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.... [/B]

"Can Anybody Find Me.... Somebody To Love?" :)

Originally posted by concrete chaos
... maybe its too early since ive only been doing this for 2 yrs, but still it frustrates me and then i lose the eagerness to get any better, cus i get all negative. blargh anyone else here feel the same way sort of ?

I think you need to jam with some people. Not necessarily looking to form a band - just some people to get together with once in a while to inspire each other.

Originally posted by Lordathestrings

Originally posted by the fool ...why don't i feel alone all of a sudden anymore after reading this post? out of all the people in this forum, do i see another Queen fan? please say yes, please say yes, please say yes....

"Can Anybody Find Me.... Somebody To Love?" :)

Originally posted by concrete chaos
... maybe its too early since ive only been doing this for 2 yrs, but still it frustrates me and then i lose the eagerness to get any better, cus i get all negative. blargh anyone else here feel the same way sort of ?

I think you need to jam with some people. Not necessarily looking to form a band - just some people to get together with once in a while to inspire each other. [/B]

yea i know i try to get ppl to get together..but sometimes everyone is a lil busy....but ive managed to do a good riff last nite hahaha and i do get together sometimes with other folk ... i guess i have to be more relaxed and just dont put so much pressure on wanting to write something

when i was about 14 afew of us decided to start a band. i couldnt play anything so decided to play bass. the guitarist had been playing since he could hold a guitar so he gave me pointers on getting started. once i could play a few riffs, and knew the basic notes i was bought a tuition video for slap technique(!!!!) and set about learning that. i learnt what woked mostly from jamming for hours with the band(our parents must have hated us)
after a year or so i got an acoustic guitar and learnt the basic chords so i could help more with the song writing.
im 26 now and didnt really play lead guitar until about 6months ago and have been teaching myself as many techniques/exercises as possible.
i would recommend playing with others as the best way to really learn about developing your own style/sound as the dynamic of how you play relies on your interaction with other musicians as much as learning techniques.

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Originally posted Lordathestrings
"Can Anybody Find Me.... Somebody To Love?"
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No offense but... the first one was a bit of a sarcasm, this one just sounds gay *shrugs*