I cant play what I want to! Help!!!

[Jonno]

Hey guys, I think this is the right place for this thread :)

Ive been playing axe nearly 4 years, im probably about average for that time but really getting into it hard lately.. My new guitar teacher says I have the technique and the physical playing worked out really well, I just dont know anywhere near enough theory.

In other words, I can hear a solo in my head when I hear music, but when I actually play, I just play random notes in scales and yeah, you get the idea.

So how do I get started? I think my problem is only basic knowledge of the fretboard etc... What theory and daily things I can do to help this problem. Some detailed answers would be very helpful!!

Thanks!!

[k1ckthecat]

Start with the penatonic scale, it's the most popular. Work your way up through the minor and major scales and you'll get it. I'd say theory is the suckiest thing about playing guitar, but it really helps a lot.

[bradc1988]

I know little theory so I just try to make the most of what I know. Using the pentatonic scale all over the fret board is quite useful so just learn that to start. Then go on to major and minor scales and do the same thing. Make a simple chord progression, say in GuitarPro, in a certain simple key and try soloing over it.

Next thing to learn is all those modes and harmony and such which, although I'd like to know about, I know very little about. It really limits you as a player if you stop at pentatonic/major/minor but at least you'll know the basics.

[Jarrah]

G'day Jonno,

I'd agree with what the others said. The way I treat scales though is by noodling around with them. That's to say I choose an area of the neck to work with, play a scale up and back a couple of times in note order, then I start hopping around the pattern to see what I can find. And, I don't stick just to one octave of the scale either - I'll extend it a bit in either direction to suit what's in comfortable reach of the area I'm working on.

Then I'll just noodle around and see what pops out of the woodwork - using different notes lengths, different orders and so on. If I find a good sound I'll see if I can do it again, and then see if I can figure out how the effect was created. In other words, which spaces, or intervals, between notes give what sort of effect. After a while I seem to get a "feel" for what works how.

I'm not sure if this is a recommended method or not, but I soon get bored just plugging up and down with scales (useful and worthwhile though that is) but I really enjoy the bit where I get to just play around within the framework of the scale, and see what I can find.

I watched a BB KIng vidoe the other night and he seemed to use one fairly small section of the neck for most of the concert - but he sure knew that section well!! :D

Good luck. :)

[Pom-Bear]

im learning theory at the moment ive been playing almost 1 year and a half but im wondering

Ive learn Pentaonic Minor In A and have practiced improvising over it and im currently working on Pentatonic Minor E

but should i Practice any scale i learn in ANY key

so basically ill learn minor Pentatonic in all Keys

but i havnt heard many songs play in anything but E and A or D in pentatonic

also

For Paranoid (Black Sabbath) can u improvise over that song in Minor Pentatonic E? instead of blues scale since there is only one note that makes the entire solo in blues scale which is the slide for A# and since the blues scale is just an added 5th will it make much of a difference?

[Jonno]

Thanks for the replys guys!

Firstly you havnt heard of something you can use D pentatonic on? I dare say you need to listen to more Oasis...

I do know a lot of scales, pentatonic, major, all the modes fairly well, my problem is knowing what note sounds what, like if i hear something in my head and want to just play it out on the guitar, if you get what mean?

I can noodle around with the scales for hours (hehe, 'noodle') which is lots of fun but I still feel like I am just making interesting patterns on the fretboard instead of saying right, i want to play these notes.

Thanks for the help!

[Alive]

Thanks for the replys guys!

Firstly you havnt heard of something you can use D pentatonic on? I dare say you need to listen to more Oasis...

I do know a lot of scales, pentatonic, major, all the modes fairly well, my problem is knowing what note sounds what, like if i hear something in my head and want to just play it out on the guitar, if you get what mean?

I can noodle around with the scales for hours (hehe, 'noodle') which is lots of fun but I still feel like I am just making interesting patterns on the fretboard instead of saying right, i want to play these notes.

Thanks for the help!

The most important thing to do is learn the actual notes, and where they are on the fretboard.

http://www.francoisbrisson.com/fretboardwarrior/ for that.

Then, you need to learn intervals, both melodic and harmonic, perhaps this can help you:

http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html

Then, once you've mastered both of those (which should take some time), you need to practice. Lots. Lots and lots. There's no easy way to get round this, you just have to put the work in. I don't have the time and patience to do this enough, but really I should. Take some simple melodies, you like Oasis? Try them, and slow down a song (make sure you have a device that keeps it the same pitch) and first off find what key it's in. You probably know how to do this, but if not, just ask. Then you need to find out how the melody goes. You need to find the statring note, which you'll need to play some notes to find, start with the root note of the scale then move up through 3rd, 5th and then all the other notes. Then youneed to use your interval recognicion to see where it goes from there. If you hear a major second after the root in the key of C, then the next note is D. Then you carry on, finding the next interval and so on until you've done the whole melody. It helps (IMO) if you can write it down in standard notation, ut don't worry if you can't.

It's a long and time consuming process, I can't do it properly (at least not yet) but there are a couple of people who normally float round here who can and they should be able to help you if I cant answer any of your questions.

[jam9383]

tabbing important but try to recognize intervals and tab out an idea from your head or a song that you havent heard in a long time without listening to it ie just from memory.

[Jonno]

thanks for help the fretboard warrior is really helpful!

Im slowly getting better lol cheers everyone :thumb:

[Alive]

Oh, i forgot to mention the critical thing :lulz:

The point of doing this is so that when you hear the melodies in your head you can transcribe them out, so you can actually formulate whole songs in your mind.

[Brewer14]

The most important thing to do is learn the actual notes, and where they are on the fretboard.

http://www.francoisbrisson.com/fretboardwarrior/ for that.

Then, you need to learn intervals, both melodic and harmonic, perhaps this can help you:

http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html



Both of those links are extremely useful, Fretboard Warrior is exactly what I've been looking for. If I could rep you, I would.

[jspr]

Here's another link: http://www.miles.be/, you can download a program called 'Functional Eartrainer' from that site, with which you can practice relative pitch within a key. It's not that easy but the guy who wrote it says you can get pretty good at it within a month or two.

Other than that I can't help you out, Alive said most of the things I wanted to say.

[pacointaco2010]

penatonic then blues then major then minor then harmonic minor etc