A few questions about elec guitar?

samkim646 · 06-14-2011, 02:53 PM

Hey guys, i just started guitar in my praise team, and have a few questions. Im playing mostly rhythm guitar right now, but i want to get into more lead, can you guys tell me a few practices or theory's to accomplish this. Also im getting pretty sick of always playing power chords, is there any new chords that you guys can teach me, that is also moveable?

bobthecockroach · 06-14-2011, 03:28 PM

All chords are moveable. Some are just easier to move than others. Theoretically you could move even G, played as 320033, and play A as 542255. I don't know that anyone can actually play that, but it's theoretically possible. Typically these are called barre chords, but it's a silly distinction since, as I said, all chords can be moved. Jazz guitarists are typically the masters of interesting chords.

jeepnstein · 06-14-2011, 03:29 PM

Bar chords help greatly. Since they're movable you can use them to fill out the sound if another guitar player is on the same chord chart.

You should also learn your plain old "cowboy" chords because P&W music is chock full of that. Knowing the cowboy chords and the Nashville system will allow you to change keys on the fly as well. You'll find times when your singers and congregation just can't handle a song in it's original key.

Soloing is basically built around scales. I hate playing scales. Consequently my teacher is going to put me through a year of nothing but scales and soloing. He's a sadist.

Amazon.com: Mel Bay Gig Savers: Barre Chords a Basic Guide (9780786662623): Corey Christiansen: Books

Amazon.com: Mel Bay Gig Savers: Chord Substitutions for Serious Players (Gig Savers) (9780786661244): Corey Christiansen: Books

Both of these books are very brief and quite informative.

samkim646 · 06-14-2011, 05:10 PM

what are scales exactly?

gtrdave · 06-14-2011, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by samkim646

what are scales exactly?

Scales are particular notes put in an order that makes some kind of musical sense.
Scales are also the basis for all chords, melody and harmony.
Scales are not "solos", per se, but the notes from scales are used to compose solos and leads and licks and fills and so on.

1/2-Fast Player · 06-14-2011, 07:34 PM

To elaborate a bit on Dave's response, scales are composed of a series of notes following a defined pattern of harmonic intervals. We break intervals into whole steps and half steps. Each fret on your guitar is a half step, and there are (obviously) two half steps for every whole step.

For example, a major scale is a series of whole and half steps in the following sequence: W W H W W W H.

Put into notes, we see that a C major scale is CwDwEhFwGwAwBhC.

Similarly, we can follow the same intervals to write a D major scale, D E F# G A B C# D

Now, a minor scale follows the pattern W H W W H W W. An A minor scale would therefore be A B C D E F G A. Notice that these are the same notes as in a C major scale, but we start and end with the A. C major and A minor thus have the same "key signature" and we say that Am is the relative minor key of C major.

There are many scales using a variety of interval patterns, but the major and minor scales are by far the most common. You'll also find that the pentatonic scale consisting of 5 notes is very common in pop music, as is the blues scale which adds one note to the pentatonic.

Does that help?

AudioAUnderdog · 06-14-2011, 10:00 PM

Learn how chords and scales relate to each other. Nothing is more important to playing good leads. I've been playing five years and it's still something I'm learning.

When I get back to my computer I'll give the links to a few books which helped me immensely when I started getting into the sort of things you're asking about.

bobthecockroach · 06-15-2011, 06:48 AM

What you should take away from this thread most of all is that you aren't going to learn music theory from a message board. You really need to set aside some time to study it.

gtrdave · 06-15-2011, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobthecockroach

What you should take away from this thread most of all is that you aren't going to learn music theory from a message board. You really need to set aside some time to study it.

QFT.
Study it, practice it, apply it, repeat, enjoy.

jeepnstein · 06-15-2011, 08:17 AM

A really good place to start is with this workbook...Amazon.com: Guitar Fretboard Workbook (9780634049019): Barrett Tagliarino: Books

I was totally baffled by what other guitarists were saying about theory until I worked through the first few chapters. It all makes sense now even though I have many miles to go before I'm really a "solid" guitarist. Knowing theory is the difference between playing by rote and being a musician.

Bushman · 06-15-2011, 09:51 AM

Explaining the steps from rythm to lead can be complicated.
Here is a free .pdf file from Ben Gowell's website: http://www.bengowell.com/pdf/electricguitar.pdf
Ben Gowell is the lead guitarist for Paul Baloche, and I've seen him play for Chris Tomlin as well. There is a lot of info there pertaining to lead guitar used in worship. I would suggest taking it one song at a time. Find a song you want to learn some lead ideas about and post about it, we'll see if we can help.

**Dwight Schrute** · 06-15-2011, 11:06 AM

with a kaiser capo, every chord is moveable! woo hoo! though I know that's cheating, it feels so right to knock a D chord out while capo'd on the 9th fret... and I can practically hear all the music geeks calculating in their heads to see what actual chord that would be without the capo...

1/2-Fast Player · 06-15-2011, 11:34 AM

The Guitar Handbook by Denyer is an excellent resource. Good info on theory as it relates to the guitar, chapters on guitar maintenance and electronics, a chord dictionary, etc.

Amazon.com: The Guitar Handbook (0029156960907): Ralph Denyer: Books

heymelbs · 06-15-2011, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bushman

Explaining the steps from rythm to lead can be complicated.
Here is a free .pdf file from Ben Gowell's website: http://www.bengowell.com/pdf/electricguitar.pdf
Ben Gowell is the lead guitarist for Paul Baloche...

This is a great resource, thanks for the link!

Bushman · 06-15-2011, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterDominator

with a kaiser capo, every chord is moveable! woo hoo! though I know that's cheating, it feels so right to knock a D chord out while capo'd on the 9th fret... and I can practically hear all the music geeks calculating in their heads to see what actual chord that would be without the capo...

B....

For every fret you capo up - drop the chord 1/2 step. Now you're a musical geek..