Author Topic: Playing outside the box... (Read 12111 times)

Bainzy · « **Reply #30 on:** May 25, 2006, 08:21:19 PM »

As long as you know what it's gonna sound like when you play the notes before you actually play them, you should be able to play anything and sound great. That's the big mental barrier you need to break that can't easily be taught by conventional methods (tabs, internet etc).

That's why you need to learn the scales, but learn them in a way that you feel really really comfortable with them. Not so you can play them fast up and down the fretboard (although that helps if you're into shred), but so you dont have to think about what you're playing - you know what its gonna sound like. That's all guitarists do when they improvise - play what they already know, just in a random way. That's why perfect pitch is a fantastic tool to develop.

Johnny Mac · « **Reply #31 on:** May 25, 2006, 08:30:38 PM »

Quote from: Bainzy

As long as you know what it's gonna sound like when you play the notes before you actually play them, you should be able to play anything and sound great. That's the big mental barrier you need to break that can't easily be taught by conventional methods (tabs, internet etc).

That's why you need to learn the scales, but learn them in a way that you feel really really comfortable with them. Not so you can play them fast up and down the fretboard (although that helps if you're into shred), but so you dont have to think about what you're playing - you know what its gonna sound like. That's all guitarists do when they improvise - play what they already know, just in a random way. That's why perfect pitch is a fantastic tool to develop.

I don't know about perfect pitch as all the notes on a guitar are in the frets like the piano keys. That would be more for fretless stringed instruments or wind instruments ect where you have to identify the note with your ear as you cant see where your playing them. However saying that it must have it's advantages but i'm not going down that road though!

Bainzy · « **Reply #32 on:** May 25, 2006, 08:54:32 PM »

Perfect pitch isn't just about that though - it can be used not just for recognising the name of the note, but by knowing what your note will sound like before you play it, you'll be able to spontaneously play great stuff all the time. If you can develop perfect pitch, it'd really help that aspect of your playing.

38thBeatle · « **Reply #33 on:** May 25, 2006, 09:02:33 PM »

My son has perfect pitch- lucky lad.

Searcher · « **Reply #34 on:** May 25, 2006, 09:39:07 PM »

My wife does, too. She can tell the name of the note the microwave beeps, for goodness sake. And the spa bath hums a Bm chord, would you believe?

Underground_Player · « **Reply #35 on:** May 25, 2006, 10:54:36 PM »

To be fair Bainzy I think knowing what notes will sound like before you play them has more to do with developing relative pitch. Plus a lot of plain old practise, partly to enhance your relative pitch but also so you recognise what notes will sound like by actually seeing (or feeling) how they're spread on the fretboard.
Hendrix used to sometimes sing the notes he was playing as he played them, and as far as I know he didn't have perfect pitch.
I'll add that when I started listening to Charlie Parker I thought he must have total control to play exactly as he wants....now, a year or so later, I've realised that he sometimes falls back on set licks and finger patterns just like the rest of us do. Still awesome though!

Johnny Mac · « **Reply #36 on:** May 25, 2006, 10:56:30 PM »

I remember watching Pulp Fiction after a few smoking a few dodgy woodbines and the scene when Bruce Willis goes back to his apartment to get his fathers watch. John Travolta is taking a dump and the toaster is on and it burns the toast and sets off the smoke alarm just as Bruce fills Travolta full of holes with the machine gun. The smoke alarms pitch is exactly the same as the metal gate squeak as Bruce runs out of the apartments car park. Seemed really cool at the time. I don't know if it was deliberate or an accident. :roll:

sambo · « **Reply #37 on:** May 25, 2006, 10:56:31 PM »

yer i think knowing what a note is gonna sound like comes from just knowing what sound you get when you play a certain fret... i mean... i have that skill to a degree... obviously not good AT ALL.. but i can guess the rough area of fretboard a sound i want to hear will be

plastercaster · « **Reply #38 on:** May 27, 2006, 08:44:25 PM »

completely of the subject of modes, you could try retuning one of your guitars (and i dont just mean drop D) so when your 'noodling' when you fall into a regular pattern, either it will sound awful (so you'll learn not to do it) or (hopefully) it will sound completely different. and then try different retunings. it might annoy you for a time before you get used to it, but stick with it, at the very least you'll get some new riffs. and then when you go to a standard tune guitar, try getting that same riff. I had to because a friend retuned my only guitar, and shortly after that the battery in my tuner ran out.