The Guitar Thread

  On 1/30/2016 at 8:18 PM, delet... said:

 

  Quote

that code is sent to the synthasizer via midi, so the glitching problems inherent in some systems, really don't apply

heh, midi is a glitch and a problem all by itself. (Yes I realise that I'm the only person on the planet that thinks this, I will not however give up my hatred of it, so much of music in the 80's and 90s was ruined by it).

 

That said, this would be fun for a play play.

 

Nah, as much as I use MIDI for almost everything these days I'd be the first to agree, MIDI was already obsolete by the late 80s but it had already become the de facto standard for everything so we got stuck with it. Just like Pro Tools.

OSC is where it's at.

  On 1/22/2016 at 8:36 PM, kinski said:

bass is wildly different from guitar.

This is wildly underrecognized.

Bass isn't even from the same family of instruments.

Bass is bloody fun. You have to approach it totally different to guitar. Get yer bop on.

I really miss having a bass. I've still got a really nice 70s Ampeg fliptop but I sold my bass a few years ago to buy a 12 string. Fretless is great, to, I really miss hving one of those around.

I had a fretless bass but I sold it. It was ok, but I never really played it. I have a fretless guitar still though, my dad de-fretted it and I painted the neck glossy red. I might put my spare Roland pickup on it, should be interesting!

I had the worst fretless imaginable, I think it was one of thos e$99 SX basses with the frets pulled out but I couldn't tell for sure because whoever pulled them also sanded off half the finish including the logo. I actually learned bass by playing out regularly in a band for a year with that thing, doing pretty complex original prog-psych kind of stuff. It was a bit of a trial by fire bass-wise I guess, although having about 12 years of guitar helped a lot. When I finally got an actual cheap MIM fender it seemed like luxury.

nice, yeah I've only ever played relatively cheap basses, but like others have said it is a totally different beast to guitar. I should really have a go on a Fender or a high end Steinberger one of these days.

My ex-girlfriend/current friend gave me her MIM Jazz Bass before she moved to Texas

For a year afterwards I expected her to ask for it back

But no, she straight up gave it to me

Very kind gesture

After playing rubbish basses for so long

It was so fucking refreshing to play a decent bass

(Haven't picked it up in like 3 months lol)

I have an epiphone les paul prophecy, great guitar with great action. I put a combination of ernie ball bottom heavy - top lights and gibson lights, very nice tone for chords. Jazzy chord playing is such a breeze on guitar, one of my favorite things to do music-wise.

Yeah I really need to learn some jazz chords on guitar, my rhythm playing/improvisation skills are terrible.

  On 2/1/2016 at 8:31 PM, modey said:

Yeah I really need to learn some jazz chords on guitar, my rhythm playing/improvisation skills are terrible.

I've offered free lessons to anyone on watmm

On skype or in PM or whatever

Offer still stands

I need to learn to comp over changes, with walking bass. But yeah.

  On 2/2/2016 at 12:46 AM, delet... said:

I need to learn to comp over changes, with walking bass. But yeah.

How are you with 'drop 3' voicings?

I'd say learning to voice-lead 'drop 3' chords would be your best bet there

(I'd be happy to post soundcloud examples for any Standard(s) you're interested in tackling...or I could TAB some examples in a post)

nah it's cool, I know what I've gotta do, just been too lazy. I build my own chords all the time in the process of songwri ting but it's a different thing having an whole bunch of chords with inversions to practise on top of scale practise, which is a constant. I know that I should be doing it and it would help me, and soloing it's chords is cool, but I've been too lazy.

Jeez Louise, I can't even GIVE lessons away.

Maybe if I start offering people money...

Ha, I'd be happy to take some skype lessons, but my problem is more about finding the time to do so!

  On 2/2/2016 at 2:09 AM, modey said:

Ha, I'd be happy to take some skype lessons, but my problem is more about finding the time to do so!

Anytime you want, my friend

What sorta stuff you wanna work on?

(How's your Legato Technique, btw?

I try to recommend Legato to every guitarist I talk to

It's one of those things that should be taught from day one

It's like magic for tone and line fluidity...)

I dunno really, I'll have to have a think about it, heh

Lead-wise, I think I'm ok.. I'm not quite at the level of sweep-picking or elaborate metal arpeggios, but I can play a decent amount of the solos I write for my tracks!

Nice

Yeah I dig your playing from what little I've heard

What sorta players you into?

Lately: Adrian Belew, Allan Holdsworth, Fredrik Thordendal

..but my style will always have remnants of the guitarists I grew up listening to like Hank Marvin and Mark Knopfler, particularly when it comes to clean playing.

Man, I was late to the Holdsworth party

Wish I'd discovered him in high school

(Ironically, I think if a guitarist wants to play lines like a tenor player

studying Holdsworth seems to offer the best technical solutions

As far as playing legato lines with a single 'breath'

Not to mention the seamless stringing together of disparate triads a la Coltrane)

yeah, I only discovered him through Thordendal, really. I haven't heard nearly enough of his catalogue (only really Sand and Metal Fatigue) but really loved his work in UK (the band). I got drawn in by the upbends and liquid style of his playing, but I really need to learn to use scales (/modes?) in the way he does. A lot of that fusion-y stuff sounds super alien; I'm still a bit of a noob when it comes to scale theory so don't tend to stray away from 'safe' note choices very often.

One way to approach "chord scales" and weird hybrid modes

Is to simply fill in the gaps between chord tones however you feel like

(In other words, you don't have to learn the hundreds of scales and modes)

So like for an Eminor chord

You have your chord tones E G B

And then perhaps E (f#) G (a#) B © (d#)

Or if it's a minor7 chord E G B D

Something like E (f#) G (a#) B (c#) D

If there's one thing I learned from Slonimsky's and Yusef Lateef's scale books

There's too many fucking scales/modes/raags to memorize

So you're better off learning the little fragments (e.g. E f# G)

And piecing them together to your liking

But beyond that, Holdsworth likes to use Messiaen scales/modes

(Aka "modes of limited transposition")

So for instance for an ominous sound over E7

He often uses the half/whole "symmetrical diminished" scale

E-F-G-G#-A#-B-C#-D

And for an ominous sound over an Emaj7 chord

He often uses the "augmented scale" (not to be confused with "whole-tone scale")

E-G-G#-B-C-D#

But I think the biggest aspect of his sound scale/mode-wise

Is using 'alternate' pentatonic scales

For instance 'B minor pentatonic' over Eminor (or even E7)

Or 'F# major pentatonic' over Emaj7 for a Lydian sound

But yeah, the pentatonic stuff is the biggest part of his sound, note-wise

Interesting. Yeah, I've recently discovered using 'wrong' pentatonic scales, after hearing it in some other fusion stuff—and even, to an extent, some of Kirk Hammett's playing in Metallica (cf. the solo at 4:57 in The Shortest Straw and some other parts from Justice). I fkn love that stuff.

Kirk Hammet is an underated guitarist I think, he wasn't the most technical and speedy but every solo had a feel and singable melody which is way better in my book than insane tech speed.

There isn't many people who combine the two. marty Friedman and Alex Skolnick are one from my era that could do it well from time to time. And of course Dimebag, but he was in a class of his own stylewise.

Chris Poland and Dave Mustaine nail that thing, too.