mr dave

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.

__________________
i am the universe

Antonio

.....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




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.

__________________
Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

add me on Steam!
http://steamcommunity.com/id/commandercool

lieasleep

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?

Antonio

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.

__________________
Been making some new music lately, check it out

My MB Journal-I talk about music and stuff!

add me on Steam!
http://steamcommunity.com/id/commandercool

JKSmith

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

__________________
"HATE, although an overrated concept, is just one of the basic building blocks of society, and although it does not cause PROGRESS, it does cause society to change, be it for the better or for the worse.

LOVE, on the other hand, does cause PROGRESS. Or, at least some type of MORAL MOTIVATION does. Without one of these, there would be no WARS, no REVOLUTIONS, no RISE or FALL of societies, groups or belief systems." --JK Smith

mr dave

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)

__________________
i am the universe

Luby

I will have to disagree with you, strongly at that.

Tabs:

1. Spoil you.

2. Usually give you the wrong information unless you've got an official tab book for a given record.

The best way to go, for both amateur/self-taught musicians AND professional musicians is transcribing (by ear that is). It trains you on so many levels. Together with transcribing you'll need some theory to help you figure out stuff quickly. Knowing the major and minor-pentatonic scales, knowing that most songs nowadays are played in the keys of A, E, Eb and D, and knowing the basic major/minor chord shapes is enough for you to be able to transcribe most modern songs and understand how most songs work in general.

PS. Official tabs are a good way to check how close your transcribing is to the original material, so yes, in that way they are very helpful.

mr dave

i have to assume you've never read a guitar magazine.

1 - tabs 'spoil' a musician about as much as a teacher who just shows them how to play a song without explaining the theory behind it.

2 - see my first comment. you really think guitar world would be asking for the better part of $10 per issue so it could publish tabs it lifted off ultimate-guitar.com? you think it would still publish a monthly print magazine if it ran incorrect tabs?

how do you propose for someone who has no formal training to transcribe by ear? how do you learn scales and chord shapes without taking a lesson or learning them from a magazine / online article first? how are tabs (the magazine version) not a worthwhile method of learning these basic elements?

like i've said a few times already in this thread. not everyone wants to understand the fundamentals of the instrument, some people just want to play along and tabs are more than effective at getting you started to that point. if you want more than that, then yeah you'll obviously need to start learning some theory, how one chooses to do that is up to the individual. even if you chose to ignore the theory that does NOT mean you have not taught yourself how to play the instrument.


i think you're definition of self-taught runs counter to how most people on here consider it. self-taught = learning to play without a teacher. the idea that being self-taught means you transcribed songs by ear is just weird.

__________________
i am the universe

Luby

first of all, i don't remember saying that you need a teacher, i said you need your ears. second, i don't care about the specifics of where you get your tabs. I already told you, I'm cool with someone using legit tabs, as long as they're not the first thing you grab. Even if you want to play music just for fun and nothing else, transcribing will help you get the song right much better than a tab will (tabs don't include timing/meter, they don't tell you how loud/quiet to play a note, etc. and those things are essential to playing a song properly). How is my definition counter to what most people consider here? I said exactly what you said, which is that self-taught = no teacher. When did I ever say you need a teacher? Transcribing is among the most essential elements of being a self-taught musician. Every successful/good self-taught musician transcribes music, a lot. Every good musician in general does so. Read up on transcribing, understand what it is and how important it is.


Yo do not need any training whatsoever to transcribe by ear. Like I said, a basic knowledge of theory helps, but if that is not necessary. You train yourself to transcribe.

Kamikazi Kat

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.