ShortScale.org

i am now uploading a video how to play minor chords exactly like major chords for you.

at the end of the minor chord video i show a little on how to do finger movement within a bar chord. taking a finger off here, adding a finger in a different spot.


tons and tons of famous songs are written around this concept. start with a D, take a finger off, strum that for a bit, then put it somewhere else, then put it back where you started. boom you got a whole song with only moving one finger while keeping the other 3 fingers in the same spot

[youtube][/youtube]

Barre chords and 5 chords are different things. A five chord is made up of the root and the fifth, and maybe the octave too. Power chords are 5 chords. Any chord that is major or minor isn't a 5 chord. 5 chords lack the third, which is the note that decides whether or not the chord is major or minor.

Hokusai wrote:At the age of five years I had the habit of sketching things. At the age of fifty I had produced a large number of pictures, but for all that, none of them had any merit until the age of seventy. At seventy-three finally I learned something about the true nature of things, birds, animals, insects, fish, the grasses and the trees. So at the age of eighty years I will have made some progress, at nienty I will have penetrated the deepest significance of things, at a hundred I will make real wonders and at a hundred and ten, every point, every line, will have a life of its own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsushika_Hokusai

love me some hokusi record alubm covers

so an update on this... I'm still a shit guitarist. But my technical abilities have improved greatly. Chord switching, moving around the fretboard, picking... everything much better. I'd say I've gone from beginner/noob to journeyman guitarist.

The problem I'm facing now is a complete inability to write my own songs. I can't seem to come up with clever strum patterns and mash chords together. I'm not trying to be a stunning guitarist... just good enough to be in a punk/noise rock band or so. How did you guys break through that first level of "ok, now I know how to play" into writing your own stuff? Riffing and "jamming" seem so completely unattainable to me right now.

Wow, that's a pretty tough question to answer... I can't really pinpoint the exact transition step between practicing and writing but I can tell you that my approach to writing almost always works this way: I play a riff. it's almost invariably going to remind me of something I've heard before. If I can name it, I forget it and move on to something else. If I can't name it, I look for ways to make it sound different (replace a chord here, switch up the strumming pattern, mess with the tempo) until it both sounds good to me and has taken a comfortable amount of distance from what I suspected might have been a regurgitated riff, to start with.

There's no escaping it, nearly 100 years of pentatonic scale, six string rock and roll, has left most of the more pleasing patterns explored already.
Luckily, there's still plenty of ways to make interesting music by embracing new contexts and new technologies, dissonance, alternate tunings, e.t.c...

Everything I write ends up just being a rip-off of another band's song, I wouldn't worry it'll come to you eventually. Friends/bandmates are helpful in telling you what's good and what's shit.

i recently read someone saying that you need to try and write 10-20 riffs a day no matter what the quality or if they are "close" to other peoples. Eventually you will start getting some gems. I took from this its basically a case of just doing it repeatedly and then you will finally get enough that stick. Recently I've also been ploughing through loads of classics, learning them, seeing how they are similar and learning how I can take other peoples efforts and turn it in to the music I love

Ends, you're a vocalist as well. I would work on stuff that allows you to sing over the top. Don't just be one dimensional but bring all your talents to the party. Even work on ideas vocally and then transfer them to the guitar. I find it easier if I can sing it and it doesn't sound corny or bland then I will run with it and then maybe over time change it a little. Whether that is tempo, key, switching some alternate chord in or inversion until it feels right. the thing is that I have a gut feeling at the beginning that its right. Trust your instincts. it will click

endsjustifymeans wrote:The problem I'm facing now is a complete inability to write my own songs. I can't seem to come up with clever strum patterns and mash chords together. I'm not trying to be a stunning guitarist... just good enough to be in a punk/noise rock band or so. How did you guys break through that first level of "ok, now I know how to play" into writing your own stuff? Riffing and "jamming" seem so completely unattainable to me right now.

i started doing it as soon as i picked up the guitar, without knowing anything. maybe try not to work too hard at it, just muck about and see what happens. i think half the ability comes from being able to hear something in the midst of loads of shit, then isolate it and refine it into an idea. maybe record yourself strumming around and listen to it the next day if your ear isn't attuned to picking things out. you might be surprised by some of the stuff you play with a little distance.

I will say getting a bass has helped, for some reason I find it easier to come up with bass riffs and then I can mangle a guitar riff out of it.

Sing? and play at the same time? one day at time man... one day at a time. I've been practicing that for months now. Same song over and over... Polly.

But, I did sing/play at the same time (well for most of it) for my track on the halloween comp! I had to overdub some fuckups and I'm pretty out of key because I was so focused on the strum pattern, but I was hella proud to have done it. Only took like 20 takes...

endsjustifymeans wrote: Sing? and play at the same time? one day at time man... one day at a time. I've been practicing that for months now. Same song over and over... Polly.

But, I did sing/play at the same time (well for most of it) for my track on the halloween comp! I had to overdub some fuckups and I'm pretty out of key because I was so focused on the strum pattern, but I was hella proud to have done it. Only took like 20 takes...

sorry i meant, try and vocalise the melody, singing the notes as you intend to play them. i find this works as well with rhythm as well, making noised to what I imagine the song will eventually be like and then use this as a basis to build the song up from. As for singing and playing at the same time, my only advice is make sure you have a 2nd guitarist to fill in for you. I can't do it at all.

stewart wrote:

endsjustifymeans wrote:The problem I'm facing now is a complete inability to write my own songs. I can't seem to come up with clever strum patterns and mash chords together. I'm not trying to be a stunning guitarist... just good enough to be in a punk/noise rock band or so. How did you guys break through that first level of "ok, now I know how to play" into writing your own stuff? Riffing and "jamming" seem so completely unattainable to me right now.

i started doing it as soon as i picked up the guitar, without knowing anything. maybe try not to work too hard at it, just muck about and see what happens. i think half the ability comes from being able to hear something in the midst of loads of shit, then isolate it and refine it into an idea. maybe record yourself strumming around and listen to it the next day if your ear isn't attuned to picking things out. you might be surprised by some of the stuff you play with a little distance.

Seriously, this. If you are looking to write songs then the best time to do it is a soon as you can string 3 or 4 chords together. If you don't, you'll end up getting to the point where you feel like you're better as a guitarist but seem to dwell on everything you come up with. This has happened to me in the past year or so... coming up with an idea that you think is great for a total of 4-5 minutes and then coming back to it later and realising it's shite.

I've found that I've become my own worst enemy when it comes to writing music. I struggle to come up with anything that I think is original or in any way interesting. It's a right fucking pain!!!

But yeah, don't be put off writing songs just because you don't feel that you're good enough to. Just experiment, take chords from other people's songs and re-arrange them until you feel like you've got something... sing random shit over the top of it until lyrics spring into your head. Play with other people and just try to explore different methods of writing. It'll come to you, for sure.

Steal ideas you like . . .


Seriously, all of the stuff that I write and really like is usually ripped off. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. I'll go to band practice and here, "Yeah man, that riff sounds just like this riff that this one band plays in this one song."

portugalwillie wrote:Steal ideas you like . . .


Seriously, all of the stuff that I write and really like is usually ripped off. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. I'll go to band practice and here, "Yeah man, that riff sounds just like this riff that this one band plays in this one song."

Good to know this is ok... as it's primarily what I've been doing lately.

Book gigs!

my mates and I formed a band before we had the instruments, so we were jamming and writing from day one. But what would occasionally happen is we would hear of a house party of a room being booked by other bands at our school (I'm talking when we were sort of 15-17 years old) and we'd say, yeah we'll definitely play that, having no songs. If you've got 5 or 6 weeks before you a due to play things get done.

We often found our selves with no songs because we were school kids who couldn't play and changed genre/drummer/singer every other week.

down side is I find it super hard to learn other peoples songs, from tabs or whatever.

Hey! You're at the exact same spot I'm at! I've been playing for about 3 years now and I'm having some trouble coming up with my own songs and my own sound. A couple little things I've been trying are open chords and mini lessons. Whenever I'd play with my friends, I'd just sit there and be lost on guitar. I'd play drums instead. All I could really manage were barre riffs and power chords. Eventually, I stumbled upon this and it really helped me out. I don't sound good when I'm playing yet but I'm getting closer and closer. http://www.guitarhabits.com/10-ways-to- ... rd-shapes/ The other thing that's really helped were little mini lessons from friends. Formal lessons always sorta seemed like they intruded on my playing - I've been told that it's a bad thing to bend notes on the g string because you supposedly don't do that in jazz. I'm not playing jazz, I'm playing shoegaze and it sounds good. Basically, play some other instrument and watch your friends play. (So sing and maybe play rhythm guitar.) Pay real close attention to how they're getting their sound. Ask them to show you what they did. This has helped me immensely. It's been around a month and I can almost stand on my own with a drummer and jam out.

wow, really neat link. thanks!