Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zeppelin
Hey, i've been playing for almost 2 years now, Id say im ok. But I dont really know anything about Music Theory or any of that type of stuff? I dont know any scales or whatever. I think im going to start getting lessons soon, but where should I go to start learning about this stuff?
|
If you're old enough, go to your community college and take a guitar class, if they offer one there. It'll introduce you to all the basics and everything you need to know. Youv'e already been playing for two years, so you probably know a lot more than you realize.
I don't know about other people, but I just have a easier time learning new songs when someone shows me rather than through tablature. Plus, the stuff on the internet can be rather confusing sometimes, as you'll find lessons that contradict each other left and right. There's also a lot of bad tablature online, which makes learning new songs that much more difficult and can often be quite discouraging. A lot of stuff you'll find online was written by people who don't know shit about theory, but think they know it all, and often tend to overcomplicate the simplest of things.
The first step in the right direction for you, if you haven't already done this, would be to learn the notes on your fretboard. By this I mean learning the chromatic scale which is just your notes: A, B flat, C, C sharp, D, E flat, E, F, F sharp, G, and G sharp. Once you learn where the scale begins and ends on each string, thereby learning what note is located on which fret, you'll be able to figure stuff out a lot quicker, ie songs that aren't transcribed in the best way possible. Some tablature out there will have you stretching like an idiot, when you can fret that same note on a closer fret on the next string. I've encountered this problem a lot, but fortunately for me, I am friends with a guy who's been playing guitar for about ten years now, is very good, and has a good knowledge of basic music theory. He's helped me avoid and/or correct a lot of mistakes in my playing.
Which brings me to my next point. Seek out other musicians to jam with. They don't have to be guitarists either, playing along with any other instrument will help you improve, as it forces you to stay in tune and on beat. I know that doesn't have a lot to do with theory, but if these musicians are more experienced than yourself, chances are they will know a thing or two about music theory, and will be able to help you out.
I have only been playing for a little more than a year, and dont' even practice every day. I don't practice nearly as much as I should and would like to. Sometimes I'm too busy, other times I'm just too lazy. However, I have found some pretty good online resources for guitar.
http://www.powertabs.net
here you can download the PowerTab program, which utilizes tablature and standard notation and has MIDI playback so you can hear how the tabbed version of the particular song sounds, before you start working on it. Great function for discovering faulty tablature. You can also download tablature in the PowerTab format, as well as various lessons and excercises off of this web site. It's very useful and has a lot of really neat stuff.
http://www.mxtabs.net
Regular Internet tablature. You can either print it directly from the site or you can copy and paste it into Notepad and print it from there. Has guitar, drum, and bass tabs, as well as a forum. I haven't checked out the forum yet, but it doesn't hurt to check it out, chances are you can find good advice there.
http://www.tabcrawler.com
One of the largest tab archives I have ever seen. The web site isn't exactly the most user friendly page I've ever been to, and the search function doesn't work, but it has loads of tablature from many different artists and styles of music. Definitely worth checking out.
http://www.olga.net
Great online resource for tabs, lessons, shit like that.
Also, just do a search on Google for musician forums, music theory, or something along those lines. You should be able to get some good stuff that way, too. And, of course, there's always the Theory forum
I hope this helps.
BURY YOUR FUCKING DEAD 
