This week's Truefire lesson is now posted! "Solo Structures for 12 Bar Blues"

Pretty ballsy, I'll say, just putting it out there a cappella to show your point about the vocals. Nicely done!
Thanks! :)

honestly, singing is just another way to play a melody. If your singing or your playing can't make sense without a band going on over the top of it you're doing something wrong. Thats always part of the point I'm trying to make is that your playing SHOULD be able to stand on its own...
 
Thanks! :)

honestly, singing is just another way to play a melody. If your singing or your playing can't make sense without a band going on over the top of it you're doing something wrong. Thats always part of the point I'm trying to make is that your playing SHOULD be able to stand on its own...

I have always thought that, and been very influenced by my childhood being raised by a pretty decent sax player. Horn lines (at least Dad's) can also be very vocal and melodic. The trick for me is finding out how to make that happen. If I work out a melody in advance and memorize it (for a solo in a song with a known melody), all is good. But improvising on the spot can be a bit trickier without some guidelines and ideas like this.
 
I have always thought that, and been very influenced by my childhood being raised by a pretty decent sax player. Horn lines (at least Dad's) can also be very vocal and melodic. The trick for me is finding out how to make that happen. If I work out a melody in advance and memorize it (for a solo in a song with a known melody), all is good. But improvising on the spot can be a bit trickier without some guidelines and ideas like this.
This I think it one of the biggest drawbacks to guitarists not learning to read music from the beginning. If you were like a horn player and everything had to be a melody that is in time it becomes a lot easier to make your playing more musical. Since we usually come from a place of finger patters and rote memorization that element is usually lost for quite a while for most electric/rock guitar players.
 
This I think it one of the biggest drawbacks to guitarists not learning to read music from the beginning. If you were like a horn player and everything had to be a melody that is in time it becomes a lot easier to make your playing more musical. Since we usually come from a place of finger patters and rote memorization that element is usually lost for quite a while for most electric/rock guitar players.

I try to bring my old piano student knowledge in that regard over to guitar, and can still read music, albeit slowly. But can definitely read the right hand for piano melody lines. It is making things happen mechanically on the guitar so the note is clean and in tune, and finding that correct note on the fretboard rather than lined out in black and white on a piano, that has been a challenge over the years of guitar learning. Also, learning to think in terms of notes relative to the root, and relative to the chord being played, rather than as written on a sheet of paper.
 
I try to bring my old piano student knowledge in that regard over to guitar, and can still read music, albeit slowly. But can definitely read the right hand for piano melody lines. It is making things happen mechanically on the guitar so the note is clean and in tune, and finding that correct note on the fretboard rather than lined out in black and white on a piano, that has been a challenge over the years of guitar learning. Also, learning to think in terms of notes relative to the root, and relative to the chord being played, rather than as written on a sheet of paper.
A lot of people tell me that since they learned to read on another instrument that they don't need to learn on guitar but the reality is that almost none of them can read music in time on the guitar and that shows that their ability to make music happen in a actual "in real time" fashion is very limited. Are there great players out there who are not readers? Of course. But to shortchange your potential abilities because you can get around music reading on the guitar and play some simple stuff by rote is what really kills so many guitarists right out of the gate.
 
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