Regarding music theory and guitar tab

[chinesechessplayer]

Firstly, sorry for my long post but i really need help and hope u guys will help me.

i have been playing guitar for close to a year now and learn songs solely through tab. but problem with me its tat i cannot improvise at all. i follow guitar tabs as in i follow every notes. i do not improvise in anyway not that i dont want to, but i really cant improvise and i really need help on that. ive always been learning thru tabs learning songs like sweet child o mine and some bon jovi stuffs.

years down i would like to compose my own stuff too but i know that without music theory eg. learning scale and all these thing i cant compose my own material. and i really need help on where to start off learning theory to improvising and compose songs. im a fairly poor chap so cant afford to go lesson is there any lesson on the internet teaching me scaling,theory like lesson by lesson. video or some website or something?

How did u guys learn theory and compose your own stuff and solos?

 

[Likui]

listen to more music. learn diatonic and pentatonic and blues scales. Check them out on wikipedia.com
alternatively I can teach you some stuff on guitar and then play chinese chess together? haha maybe can teach me some chinese chess stuff.

 

[chinesechessplayer]

that is the way to start learning theory? u mean i just start by learning all this basic from wikipedia first. because i dont have any theory back ground at all and do not know where to start at all.

my nick lol. is that anyway i can change the name? LOL i think because of my nickname chinesechessplayer people might think im asking stupid stuffs and will not bother to reply me at all man. Lol

 

[kimura]

Theory?

I guess you're talking about time signatures, key signatures, adagios, mezzafortes, quavers, semi-quavers, chromatic scales etc?

If writing music scores for example is what you're asking about then there are online lessons that can be found. You gotta do a search though& I'm sure that won't take long.

Improvising....
that comes with self-belief. Take a simple scale, instead of playing say 1 octave up the normal way, maybe you skip a couple of notes here& there or develop a pattern of your own. You could start say, from A to A but in between swtich the notes around Then you try A but end at say C.. always using the octave ( 8notes ).

 

[john_tng123]

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yeah but music score is not what im talking about sorry to get u wronged but . i just need like scaling knowing chord progression and how to come about doing a solo in between of the chord progression how to link like lets say C and Am kind of thing. sorry to confused u

 

[Likui]

the listen to more music that's to learn how to improvise. It's not something that you have a formula that you will use to improvise. Improvisation comes from you. Eg. if you listen to joe satriani music everyday of your life and you don't know any theory at all and someone ask you improvise naturally the way you improvise will sound like joe satriani because that's the only music you listen to and of course it will influence you. So some people say Jazz is sooo hard, but if someone who listens to jazz ever since he is a child all the way when he grows up he can improvise jazz style although he may not know the scale his using, but it will sound jazzy

 

[theunknown]

Learn scales but treat them as guidelines. Listen to more songs. Have you ever listen to someone play some chords and you find yourself humming some notes over it? I know I do that sometimes. Thats where I found I can do some simple soloing, despite having very, very, very little theory knowledge. Trust me, all I know is pentatonic scale, and I can't differentiate between a major and minor one.

And my friend, he is quite good at soloing, and he doesn't even know a scale. It's just "hmm these notes sound nice over these chords!".

A useful website to start/help one's learning journey: www.justinguitar.com

 

[kimura]

yeah but music score is not what im talking about sorry to get u wronged but . i just need like scaling knowing chord progression and how to come about doing a solo in between of the chord progression how to link like lets say C and Am kind of thing. sorry to confused u

No worries brutha.

Here's a tip:
On the E string 5th fret is the A note.
On the A string 3rd fret is the C note.
The C note is known as the relative minor of the A note.
On the same A string 4th fret is the c# note
The C# note is known as the relative major of the A note.

An example in a song:
A guitar would be playing Em, Bmaj, Cmaj
The bass say, plays E, B now instead of playing C, he/she could also play A.
Becos it works. An example is Soundgarden's Fell On Black Days.

Now for solo/shredding:
Notes are arranged as such, say you start from A - A, Bb, B, C, C#, D, Eb, E, F, F#, G, G#, A.

Chords are different becos there are the Min, Maj, 7th, 9th etc.

When you're shredding it will always fall within these notes, it's up to you to improvise on how you wanna go about doing the scales. When you're solo-ing remember the root chord of your song whether it's a minor, major etc. Work your solos around that. This is the simplest way to start. Remember though your song can be say in the key of A minor, your solo can use the scale of Cmajor notes.



As a guitarist/bassist/keyboardist etc in, you can use this when you're thinking about solo-ing and/or chord progressions and the like.

 

[chinesechessplayer]

hey thanks guys at least u all make me know where i can start from

 

[Henzy]

chord tones always help well....

 

[sarge]

A good place to start would be to improvise using the pentatonic scale over a 12 bar blues progression.To improvise well,you need to lear your scales and modes,etc.For some theory lessons check out my website www.masterthefretboard.com -its free.
I lplan to post more lessons and articles in time.Start practicing your scales and internalise it.Some ear training would help a lot.Here is a good video explaining what it takes to improvise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P9-XAnI59U.Hope this helps

 

[CrazyCactusJack]

buy mags?!?

check out my website www.masterthefretboard.com -its free.

Dude..that's your own webbie? Pretty amazing! Good stuff and hope it does well!

To TS: I find that investing a lil bit of money on guitar mags might also help. In those mags, there are some lessons you can follow through, but your learning doesn't stop there. The lessons there are used only like a guideline, then you gotta implement those exercises in different keys, position etc.

 

[Henzy]

Sarge, great site but your theory focus more on certain scales and modes,what about adding chords and such. It's a good site nevertheless.