ShortScale.org

very nice link indeed, I've been messing about a lot more with different chord shapes around the neck recently to try out some different textures and sounds when playing with my mate

Keep at it matey

My advice is to learn the major scale first, then it's modes. From there you can move onto pentatonics, diminished, etc. Even if you only use pentatonic scales, theres sooooo much you can do.
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I'm trying both of those dvd's right now, the zakk wylde one is a lot of fun and pretty easy too!

JJLipton wrote:My advice is to learn the major scale first, then it's modes. From there you can move onto pentatonics, diminished, etc. Even if you only use pentatonic scales, theres sooooo much you can do.

I wouldn't try to learn to modes until you've learnt all the major and minor scales in their most common positions, pentatonics would be the best scales to start with though as they're easiest. Arpeggios are something you should work on too.

Modes aren't all that useful until you're playing jazz, a common mistake people make is trying to apply them to solos and they'll just be playing another position of the major scale.

So I was teaching myself some makeway songs the other night, and just started jamming afterwards... Out of nowhere it was the best playing I've ever done, actual riffs were coming out of me.

I think I'm on my way to being a real guitarist.

good luck dude, i'm still playing riffs i made up 10 or 11 years ago when i first started playing.

i have the discipline of a heretic.

glad to hear it!

i'll need someone to play some lead riffs over my acoustic punk.

Jesus fuking Christ how the fuck do you write a fucking noise rock song fuck

How hard can it be... It's fucking noise rock.

1 song in the vein of unsane, jesus lizard, tar, janitor Joe, fuck even early nirvana.
Just 1 song, 1 to get me started... Why can't I fucking write it.

Fuck.

There's a million and 1 pieces of advice for "how to write a metal song" but not one for the type of music I want to create...

Can you tell I'm frustrated...

I'd recommend learning a bunch of existing songs as groundwork; you can't expect to make a song/riff/chord sequence in the vein of Band X without seeing how Band X stick a song/riff/chord sequence together themselves.

Watch some live videos, I find that's a really great way to figure out someone's style/approach.

I'm quite a visual learner though. I don't mind reading to absorb facts, but technique I need to see.

Doog wrote:I'd recommend learning a bunch of existing songs as groundwork; you can't expect to make a song/riff/chord sequence in the vein of Band X without seeing how Band X stick a song/riff/chord sequence together themselves.

This has been my approach, I've been failing miserably. I've taught myself every unsane and tar tab I can find, I've at sone point taught myself every track on bleach... Yet as soon as I grab the guitar I get these happy go punky strum patterns. It's weird, it's like I'm specifically trying to play music I won't like. I can't seem tO make the things I learn from other songs sink in outside of the context of those songs.

This might seem counter-intuitive, but when I want to come up with unusual strumming patterns, I make big sweeping passes at the strings pivoting from my elbow.

I don't know how high or low you have your guitar, but if you plant your elbow on the top of the guitar behind the strings and just make passes at unusual times, it sometimes helps to come up with herky-jerky rhythms.

And also! A wicked riff can be as simple as two weird chords, or even a single chord with a variation!

See that's helpful... I always try to jam 3 chords minimum in. I feel like I'm not trying hard enough with less.

I think I get the strum thing, essentially just strum randomly and let a tempo develop rather than coming at it with a pattern?

Ends, I hit a rut like this recently and I then switched my approach and worked on words first, sung a melody or riff that fitted them and then worked on the chords/riffs for the verse/chorus parts. I would then just try and work some bits that fitted them together.

Also, do you play or write with anyone else? I find that can get me thinking differently. Get some input or work yourself on the rhythm and then this can help with how to fill the sound out with your strumming and the bass and drums.

lorez wrote:Ends, I hit a rut like this recently and I then switched my approach and worked on words first, sung a melody or riff that fitted them and then worked on the chords/riffs for the verse/chorus parts. I would then just try and work some bits that fitted them together.

Also, do you play or write with anyone else? I find that can get me thinking differently. Get some input or work yourself on the rhythm and then this can help with how to fill the sound out with your strumming and the bass and drums.

The only people I play with is lately my old band MakeWay which is really a type of music I don't actually listen to much. There aren't any musicians that I know of that are into the same shit that I'm into around, at least not guitarists. I definitely feel like if I could play with folks who already play the type of music I'm into it I could learn alot more. But as it is I just play with street punk guys, and end up playing street punk on my own.

May sound silly, but I just ordered Page Hamilton's Sonic Shapes instructional DVD. I figure if I want to learn how to play noise rock, learning directly from the guitarists of one of my favorite noise rock/metal bands is a good place to start...

i'd say that is a good call..


you could also say down load this, and record some guitar over what is there... http://noise.serfx.net/album/serfx-is-dead

or just play it in the background, see if it effects a non 4/4 pattern.

teaching myself finger picking, starting with everybody hurts because it's easy as pie...

Taught myself fast car today. went pretty smooth, it's a little choppy but progress is progress mang.

Also tried to learn John Wayne Gacey Jr... that did not go well. Gave up immediately. Besides the last thing the internet needs is one more asshole covering that song.

As a side note...

I've been doing alot of studying on Justinguitar lately... I've come to find my 6 string education is inconsistent at best. I've never learned to do a proper F chord. Been practicing back and forth between a G and an F for about 45 minutes now just to train my fingers to shape it.

I also need to re-analyze bar chords. I worked on them a year ago and haven't touched them since, and now their uncomfortable as fuck.

I've been powerchording too much trying to write my first song, I should have stuck on the mechanics longer. Fucking rushed it I did, no wonder I got so fucking fed up with it.

Back to basics, maybe once my finger are better taught the songs will start writing themselves...

john wayne gacy jr, is that the sufjan song?

fucking chilling. i know how to play it, but i won't, for fear of hiring some neighborhood kid to dig a 6 foot hole in my basement.