lol i said that. and yeah it helps with that stuff but its not nessecary. learn your chords, start learning songs, and off you go. also learning ear training or how to read music is much more of a bitch to teach yourself than just learning chords and following tabs. plu learning sheet music is only REALLY helpful if you plan on picking up classical guitar at some point.

i know what you mean with sheet music, i wouldn't be in a rush to learn it myself. so you can disregard that point.

but tbh, if you really want to make your own music/be able to really jam and play with people and not just play other people's songs, music theory is something that can help you alot. even people who just play chords use it when they want to know where to go next when they're making a song.

trust me, i've played with people who knew that kind of stuff as well as people who only knew how to play other people's songs, and the latter is alot more of a bitch to deal with. it's best, in my experience at least, to learn some theory, so that you could be on the same page with other musicians. not saying you have to know every piece of it, at least know the basic stuff.

and yeah, it's hard to really train your ear, but learning guitar is hard too. you can look up ear training things online that can help you in identifying different notes. it might be hard to learn, but it'll help you out in the longrun.

but hell, that doesn't mean you're necessarily not gonna go anywhere sans theory, there have been plenty of artists who made great music without it, really more from creativity/vision. so imo, i say it's best if you try to do both, try being creative as well as try to learn the fundamentals of music.

dude trust me, i know alla that. i play with people A LOT and the fact that i took lesson and got trained in music theory is inifinitely useful, i'm just speaking to those people that feel like picking up a guitar and feel like just playing some tunes y'know?

ok, i was saying that too, if you just want to play some tunes and stuff, that's fine. i was also saying if you want to do more to learn all the fundamental ****. but yeah, i know what you mean.

I'm self taught, I just look up the tabs, play, repeat. You'll eventually get the hang of it.

or if you want to learn to play just about any other instrument out there besides a bass guitar.

personally i don't see the need to 'learn theory' aside from barre chords on a guitar. which is really just a way of learning how to move chord shapes up and down the neck.

is this really because they didn't know theory? how much experience did they have playing with other people before jamming with you? if all you've ever done is learn to play other people's songs odds are you've never jammed with much more than this month's guitar world magazine and your stereo (not that i spent the first 5 years of playing guitar doing exactly this hahaha)

it's far less about what you know and way more about how you use it.

.....well, i really wanted to get to my calc homework, but i guess now i'll have to forget about it and drop the class to argue with you!




nah j/k, haha :p:




anyway........

while i do admit that some of the people i've played with haven't had much experience, what do you expect in your high school years? for me, it's rare to find experienced musicians at that age level

even so, most times i jammed i've tried aiming it towards more than just playing along to songs and actually playing with other musicians and sharing musical ideas. tbh, i hardly ever learn songs, unless it's something i really like or if someone asks me to.


but definately, it's how you do it moreso than what you know. the thing is, some people i've played with in the past didn't really try to grasp the concept of either; they were just concerned about doing covers without even wanting to learn the methods behind it or wanting to actually make music of their own. i'm in a band right now, and while pop punk may not be the most free flowing genre, my bandmates and i will still have spontaneous jam sessions, where we just play what comes to mind and not just what's on our setlist.


oh and btw, i've never owned any guitar magazines.

no worries dude. at this point we're venturing off into personal philosophies on playing music though.

as far as teaching yourself to play the guitar, tabs are where it's at. period.

everything else at that point in the game is superfluous.

you just happen to be well ahead of the curve in relation to your peers. don't swear it, they'll either have lighting bolt moments later on in life or stick to being bedroom shredders. there's nothing wrong with being in a cover band either, successfully imitating professional level entertainers DOES require a certain kind of skill, especially if you cover a wide range of material and styles. not everyone wants to be the next big thing, some people just like playing along and leave the creativity to other people.



oh yeah, my stack of guitar magazines went taller than my knee (i'm 6'3" at that) :p:

I self-taught myself the basics of the drums, took lessons for awhile and then stopped. I moved into a lot of the more advanced stuff on my own. I'd say I learned most of what I learned on my own, although the lessons helped me get a strong foundation on the basics so it was easy to go from their on my own and learn whatever I wanted.

I highly agree with this as well. I've had a few moments where somebody might hear me play and they come up to me and say that I'm good and then ask if I take lessons. When I tell them I've taken lessons, they suddenly feel less impressed, like I wouldn't be able to get where I am now without a teacher. Lessons help, but its really up to the musician whether he/she wants to be great or not.