Practice vs. Writing

[Ryan-ZenGtr-]

BTW, I'd advise learning theory. It is SOOOOOOOo important to knowing what you're doing, what you can and can't do and how to get "exotic".

I'd reccomend ear training (relative pitch practice) and naming the intervals as scale degrees of the root as week 1. After that, the rest is much easier.

C D E F G A B
I II III IV V VI VII
Mj3 7th

Whatever key your in, the root or tonic is I, then so on and so on. I always think of all instruments like this, as once you know the sound of each scale degree or interval (all names for the same thing, a note) you can play anything you can imagine. Awesome!

Say you play C - C, that's the Ionian mode (an ancient Greek name for the seas of the region). If you play C major scale, but start on the D, then you have the dorian mode.,..... and so on and so forth. EASY!!!

No you know everything!!! GO ROCK!

It sounds complex but it is just a language to describe noizez, quite specifically, too.

 

[Lukifer]

Hey Lukifer!!! It's not that bad!!! Come on dude!

Ask yourself:

1.What music do I like?
2.What music would I like to play?
3. What music would I like to write?

If you can work that out, it's harder than it seems sometimes, then you'll find the things you, personally and uniquely would benefit from practicing.... .... to get your songwriting where you want it to be!

I found that learning difficult songs I LIKED helped me a lot.

I know the main theme of the forum is obtaining material possessions, but there is the still beating heart of the cerebral pulsing in this thread and many others. Get shredding!!!

I really need to stop posting late at night when Im drunk. I dont want to quit its just after 13 years Im at a wall. Thanks for the encouragement, Ill get through it and practice and get better!!

 

[SirMyghin]

I really need to stop posting late at night when Im drunk. I dont want to quit its just after 13 years Im at a wall. Thanks for the encouragement, Ill get through it and practice and get better!!

I have hit that wall a few times, on both bass and guitar. What has gotten me past these points has been exploring different musical styles, and approaches. Every genre has something to approach that is worthwhile, some redeeming quality that is worth knowing.

 

[yingmin]

More importantly, no style exists in a vacuum; anything you learn will make you a better guitarist, as long as you're doing it correctly.

 

[SirMyghin]

More importantly, no style exists in a vacuum; anything you learn will make you a better guitarist, as long as you're doing it correctly.

Country playing gave me some bitchin' hybrid picking chops

 

[AliceLG]

I "practice" every day and write something new, can be a riff, a lead or an entire song, at the very least every week. My approach to practice has been mentioned by others, I mainly go through a set of songs I like playing to warm up, then I go through my own songs to tighten the riffs and leads that I might not nail every single time. When it comes to developing technique I've had an approach I like very much and recommend. When trying to get the handle of a new technique, I try to compose something that showcases the technique fully, and incorporate that into a song that needs a solo or as a part for a new one that I could be working on. That way it isn't practice vs writing, but practice through writing xD

 

[Warchest1]

I mainly practice when I play, and standing up that is. The first time I put on my guitar strap and tried doing some alternate picking excercises I simply couldn't play them like I could sitting down. And I figured that if I want to be able to play in a band one day and shred like a ............ I'm gonna have to be able to play standing up. So I usually just work on my right hand playing standing up doing different Gilbert excersises and it seems to be paying off.