Best practice techniques for general technique and ZW?

[Miracle Man Matt]

Hi, Im finding my practice is fairly limited at the mo, but I want to become a better musician as well as a better guitarist.  I was just wondering what the best practices and things to know are.  At the mo I have no theory idea, and I would like to know the fretboard like the back of my hand... I just find Im stuck to running up the same-old major scale and hae very little sense of key and modes. I was wondering if there are any decent sites with good lessons on.  I would mind one with fretboard notation for all the scales.

Thanks guys


Matt

[Davey]

Paul Gilbert:
Intense rock 1, 2
Guitars from Mars 1, 2
Terrifying Guitar Trip

Marty Friedman:
Melodic Control


best ones out there.. though only intense rock 1 has in-video tabs

[Sifu Ben]

I subscribe to www.licklibrary.com and I find it pretty good. They're all video based lessons, but their technique tutorials are great (although Jamie Humphries' Guitar Giants videos make me want to by more guitars for altered tunings. Open D5 anyone?)
 If you've got enough time and dedication you could try enrolling on George Lynch's guitar Dojo, which gives online lessons and feedback from the man himself. It's not cheap, but if you're willing to put the hours in it's a pretty unique service.
www.georgelynch.com
 The problem with a lot of the free sites is that while they've got some great stuff on them, they're too high level for people who aren't at the level of being able to play in a Megadeth tribute band anyway, and they don't have much in the way of linked theoretical progression.

[chrisola]

i find it hard to stay focused on the theory side.

a good place to start is with 'Play Guitar Like...' books and 'Best xxx band Riffs'.

In these you get a tab, learn to play a song, and the author picks apart the songs and breaks them down into scales, keys and explains the theory behind them... so you know how and why the music works.

Total Guitar magazine \ Licklibrary is good for this also.

My personal view is this: not every one has the years (or learning capacity) to put into learning everything and getting a great understanding of theory, so as long as you know enough to make you happy in your playing, thats all you need :)

[Kilby]

If you have a PC try looking here http://www.riffinteractive.com/catalog/catalog.htm

try the understanding modes tutorial (or indeed any of the others that look interesting the Improvisation 101 or Guitarists of Ozzy may help)

[Muzzzz]

You HAVE to know pentatonics - I'll bet that 99.5% of rock songs use them. I reckon guitar is a bad instrument to learn all your theory on anyway. I've done 3 and a half years of piano, and it just makes all of the theory so much easier, coz it's such a linear instrument. It's really good for ear training too

[38thBeatle]

I recently discovered the lick library site mainly because Mike Casswell is on them and I have known Mike since he was 9. Pretty good site-there is both a free and a subscription version.

[Sekhmet]

http://www.wholenote.com

Thats probably my favourite site for online learning.

Absolutly loads of information on scales, choards, arrpegios and adifferent styles of music. Plus it has a little midi player(i think it's midi) with a metronome so you can slow right down or speed up what ever it is your playing along to.

Also i don't know if this has been mentioned on here befor but...

http://www.ronimusic.com/

Its the amazing slow downer, it makes learning songs unbeleivably easy.
If you download the free version (i'm asuming you can still do that) you can slow down (and speed up (-:) the first to tracks on a cd, or the first 3rd of a track on your pc (a tip, just burn off the song you want to learn on a re-writable disk)

[Elliot]

If you know the major scale your half way there!  Learn the difference between the major scale and the modes and the pentatonics in terms of their 'spelling' - eg for a mixolydian you just flat the 7th note of the major scale by going down a fret.  Once you have the formula and the major scale down pat you have any scale at your finger tip.

Also play over the chords that go with the scale - then you learn to hear how the notes work over their chords (eventually you can imply the chords) and you get a better sense of how to play the scale notes in improvising.

[Miracle Man Matt]

cheers guys much appreciated!!