GuitarFilter: Unsatisfied
May 31, 2017 8:17 AM Subscribe
I'd like to go from a decade-long intermediate guitar slump to playing crisp, fast, exciting punk in the vein of the Replacements/Television/Martha. Help?
I've read similar Asks here on moving out of an intermediate guitar slump, but I'd love to hear your thoughts about strategies specific to the kind of music I'd like to play.
Where I'm at now: I've been playing guitar since 2002 (yeesh). After selling my last electric guitar several years ago, I now practice on an old acoustic and play a mix of indie/folk/punk stuff (mostly the Mountain Goats, Gillian Welch, Against Me!, etc.) and improvised things. I never really play with a pick and enjoy a kind of expressive rough sound with palm mutes and stuff, but I'm feeling very stuck. I understand how modes and keys and scales work and can pick up the chords to a song by ear, but don't have the fret board memorized or scale shapes. My sense of tempo and rhythm is pretty good but not great. I really only know simple voicings/fingerings chords, and so I doubt how I'm playing would be effective on electric guitar supporting other musicians.
Where I'd like to be: I'd like to get to the point where I can play fast, precise backing guitar with good voicings for chords and sparkly little riffs. I love this so much. Also this. I think my priorities right now, to start, are learning how to take up the appropriate amount of space in the overall sound of the song (as opposed to just barre or open chord all the time), vastly improving my picking, understanding how to write little riffs, etc. -- I'd love as a goal to play punk with friends as a backup guitarist.
Ideally I'd like to not take lessons and mostly train by ear or a combination of working songs out with some self-study material. But I'm open to the suggestion of forcing myself to prioritize lessons if need be.
Thank you!
I've read similar Asks here on moving out of an intermediate guitar slump, but I'd love to hear your thoughts about strategies specific to the kind of music I'd like to play.
Where I'm at now: I've been playing guitar since 2002 (yeesh). After selling my last electric guitar several years ago, I now practice on an old acoustic and play a mix of indie/folk/punk stuff (mostly the Mountain Goats, Gillian Welch, Against Me!, etc.) and improvised things. I never really play with a pick and enjoy a kind of expressive rough sound with palm mutes and stuff, but I'm feeling very stuck. I understand how modes and keys and scales work and can pick up the chords to a song by ear, but don't have the fret board memorized or scale shapes. My sense of tempo and rhythm is pretty good but not great. I really only know simple voicings/fingerings chords, and so I doubt how I'm playing would be effective on electric guitar supporting other musicians.
Where I'd like to be: I'd like to get to the point where I can play fast, precise backing guitar with good voicings for chords and sparkly little riffs. I love this so much. Also this. I think my priorities right now, to start, are learning how to take up the appropriate amount of space in the overall sound of the song (as opposed to just barre or open chord all the time), vastly improving my picking, understanding how to write little riffs, etc. -- I'd love as a goal to play punk with friends as a backup guitarist.
Ideally I'd like to not take lessons and mostly train by ear or a combination of working songs out with some self-study material. But I'm open to the suggestion of forcing myself to prioritize lessons if need be.
Thank you!
If you can afford some lessons with a good teacher that is often a way forward. I also suggest learning within a few building block historical music styles before doing contemporary music, so really digging in on country or blues or jazz techniques... this is more about basic techniques than repertoire. Like working out different muscle groups.
Make sure your guitars are properly set up and you are getting your best tone. Nothing makes progress harder than a setup that fights you back.
posted by spitbull at 8:46 AM on May 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Make sure your guitars are properly set up and you are getting your best tone. Nothing makes progress harder than a setup that fights you back.
posted by spitbull at 8:46 AM on May 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Mmmmm . . . .
Speaking for myself, when I was trying to pick up similar material back in the 90's, I spent a LOT of time listening to songs again and again and again and thinking about how the guitar parts sounded and fumbling around on the fretboard in order to match the sound. So the process was something like:
*Listen to song 10 times while fumbling around just finding the chords in any position*
"OK, well, the verse is G A B minor D. But it's clearly not open first-position chords, gotta be some kind of barre chord."
*Tries 3rd-fret standard G barre chord*
"Nope, that's not it, the pitches are too low, gotta be something higher up the fretboard."
*painstakingly counts frets, maybe checks a guitar chord reference book/chart to figure out a different way to play G*
"OK, that position G sounds better. Now, how to get to A and B minor and D without flinging my arm all over the guitar neck, because I ain't got time for that."
*more fret counting and checking charts*
*repeat process on the chorus. then on the bridge. then play along with the whole song one million times.*
IOW, clearly my "repeat one track" button on my CD player got a LOT of use. And the point was to learn the song for real, not just what the basic chords and rhythm were but the actual positions and fingering and strumming patterns and etc etc etc to get my guitar playing to sound exactly like the original. Then play along again and again and again, because repetition is a huge element in learning to play anything. I do that now even for stuff I wrote, it's what you have to do to develop the muscle memory to play the part correctly consistently. Do that a bunch of times with a bunch of songs and you start to learn different chord positions and the fretboard in general, so that eventually when coming up with your own parts for your own songs you don't automatically gravitate to a small handful of basic chord positions.
TL:DR - if you're gonna learn by ear you have to actually use your ear for more than basic chords. Then play along with the songs you've learned ad infinitum to build muscular familiarity with the style, and over time you'll develop more extensive vocabulary on the guitar.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:20 AM on May 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
Speaking for myself, when I was trying to pick up similar material back in the 90's, I spent a LOT of time listening to songs again and again and again and thinking about how the guitar parts sounded and fumbling around on the fretboard in order to match the sound. So the process was something like:
*Listen to song 10 times while fumbling around just finding the chords in any position*
"OK, well, the verse is G A B minor D. But it's clearly not open first-position chords, gotta be some kind of barre chord."
*Tries 3rd-fret standard G barre chord*
"Nope, that's not it, the pitches are too low, gotta be something higher up the fretboard."
*painstakingly counts frets, maybe checks a guitar chord reference book/chart to figure out a different way to play G*
"OK, that position G sounds better. Now, how to get to A and B minor and D without flinging my arm all over the guitar neck, because I ain't got time for that."
*more fret counting and checking charts*
*repeat process on the chorus. then on the bridge. then play along with the whole song one million times.*
IOW, clearly my "repeat one track" button on my CD player got a LOT of use. And the point was to learn the song for real, not just what the basic chords and rhythm were but the actual positions and fingering and strumming patterns and etc etc etc to get my guitar playing to sound exactly like the original. Then play along again and again and again, because repetition is a huge element in learning to play anything. I do that now even for stuff I wrote, it's what you have to do to develop the muscle memory to play the part correctly consistently. Do that a bunch of times with a bunch of songs and you start to learn different chord positions and the fretboard in general, so that eventually when coming up with your own parts for your own songs you don't automatically gravitate to a small handful of basic chord positions.
TL:DR - if you're gonna learn by ear you have to actually use your ear for more than basic chords. Then play along with the songs you've learned ad infinitum to build muscular familiarity with the style, and over time you'll develop more extensive vocabulary on the guitar.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:20 AM on May 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Also you can use your eyes. I watch tons of videos of my favorite players and pay close attention to their hands.
posted by spitbull at 12:17 PM on May 31, 2017
posted by spitbull at 12:17 PM on May 31, 2017
I debated whether or not to post this, because it doesn't directly answer your question. But to me, punk (in the broad sense) is the sound of musicians trying to emulate other musicians, not being able to, and coming up with something original in the process. Think of the Ranones and the Bay City Rollers, or, to use one of your own examples, Westerberg and Big Star. Personally, I think you'd make better music putting your own spin on it than just mimicking others. There's an anecdote in classical music from when George Gerschwin asked to study with Maurice Ravel. Ravel declined by saying something like "why would you want to be a second-rate Ravel when you're a first-rate Gerschwin?"
To answer your question more directly, guitar magazines (used to) have detailed features on how to approximate the tone on certain songs. They also have a lot of interviews with guitarists about technique. If you can get access to some back issues of Guitar World or Guitar Player, that might be helpful. In the 90s especially they expanded beyond the Steve Vai crap to feature alternative bands. I remember specifically Guitar World running a feature on Bob Stinson my freshman year of high school, 94-95.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:12 PM on May 31, 2017
To answer your question more directly, guitar magazines (used to) have detailed features on how to approximate the tone on certain songs. They also have a lot of interviews with guitarists about technique. If you can get access to some back issues of Guitar World or Guitar Player, that might be helpful. In the 90s especially they expanded beyond the Steve Vai crap to feature alternative bands. I remember specifically Guitar World running a feature on Bob Stinson my freshman year of high school, 94-95.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:12 PM on May 31, 2017
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posted by General Malaise at 8:21 AM on May 31, 2017 [3 favorites]