Finally, you are ready to form your own band and start playing shows, but there is a lot you must do before you start playing shows and hopefully making money. Here's the dilemma, do you play with your friend because they are your friends, or go find people who love the same music as you? It might seem like an idiotic question, but you'll be lucky to have close friends who are musicians with the same musical outlook as you with the same goals and motivation as you to play for living. If you have friends who have all that in common with you, then start your band with them and find others to fill out the band to your liking.
Let me take you through my first band experience and what I have learned from it. It was high school and my first band was surprisingly enough was a band consisting of 3 friends and myself. The lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist was my friend Mike who starting taking lessons with me during junior high. The drummer was my oldest friend Ryan. The bass guitarist was my friend Brian who joined us because we needed a bass guitarist and he said yes. I played lead guitar. At first I did not contribute to the writing or arranging, all I did was come up with a lead riff and take the guitar solo. Ryan played whatever he wanted on the drums and Brian basically followed Mike with the bassline. The major thing that would be the root of all of our problems as a band was the fact that we all had different influences musically. Mike was in love with the Goo Goo Doll, Ryan loved grunge, Brian liked punk, and I pretended like I was Eric Clapton. That being so, we were still fairly successful. We played some big name places, such as the North Star Bar and the Trocadero in Philly and the Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA. We all had some talent, but Brian lacked the drive to go for it all. Later down the road Ryan would reveal to me that he didn't like any of the music Mike wrote, but he played it anyway. We had our ups and downs. I find it sad that I really only remember the bad times than the good times we had as a band, but after 3 years of constant struggling and little direction I called the band to an end because I felt as if I was doing all the outside work without any help.
What I learned is that you have to find people that have the same goals, influences and motivation as you. If you want to just play in a bar band with your friends for fun, than that's fine because playing music is supposed to be fun. However, if music is not a hobby, but your LIFE, than make sure you find the right people to play with and don't be afraid to leave a band of your friends if you think it is not working as it should. I did that and I am still friends with everyone in the band. Not only that, I still play lead guitar in Mike's new band sometimes and Ryan and I are working on forming our own band. In addition to those bands, I've started playing with several other people in search of direction for my own band.
Figure out what you are in it for, then find people who will be in for it with you.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Exploring other instruments.
So you can play guitar, but so can everyone else. I encourage you to explore playing other instruments, even if it lasts for only a month or two. You may not know this, but if you can play guitar that means you basically know how to play the bass guitar as well. A regular 4 string bass guitar has the same low 4 strings of a guitar, E-A-D-G. The bass strings are much thicker which makes the more difficult to play, but they are the same notes as a guitar. Playing the bass is much different than guitar though. The bass is the foundation and the drive of a song. The bass keeps the song together amongst the drums, guitars and whatever other instruments there are.
Along with the bass guitar, I suggest learning some piano/keyboard. Once you learn the notes on a piano/keyboard you can transcribe the chords from guitar to learn the chords on the piano/keyboard. In my opinion, the piano is one of the most difficult instruments to learn because it contains all the notes in the musical scale while most other instrument only contains a fraction of all the notes.
The most important instrument to explore is your voice. I highly regret not learning how to sing at an earlier age, but it is better late than never. Even if you think your voice is terrible, swallow your pride and try singing out. John Lennon thought he had a horrible voice and look how memorable his melodies are. Imagine John Lennon being to afraid to sing in front of people? Thank god he wasn't to afraid because I honestly don't want to know what the would be like with his music. That said, I recently starting to sing and I still think I am pretty bad, but the important thing is that I'm still trying and I encourage you to do that same.
Remember, it is better to have tried and failed than to have never have tried.
Along with the bass guitar, I suggest learning some piano/keyboard. Once you learn the notes on a piano/keyboard you can transcribe the chords from guitar to learn the chords on the piano/keyboard. In my opinion, the piano is one of the most difficult instruments to learn because it contains all the notes in the musical scale while most other instrument only contains a fraction of all the notes.
The most important instrument to explore is your voice. I highly regret not learning how to sing at an earlier age, but it is better late than never. Even if you think your voice is terrible, swallow your pride and try singing out. John Lennon thought he had a horrible voice and look how memorable his melodies are. Imagine John Lennon being to afraid to sing in front of people? Thank god he wasn't to afraid because I honestly don't want to know what the would be like with his music. That said, I recently starting to sing and I still think I am pretty bad, but the important thing is that I'm still trying and I encourage you to do that same.
Remember, it is better to have tried and failed than to have never have tried.
More Tabs.
Tabs are great, but sometimes difficult to read.
A few things to know when reading tabs are some of the symbols. A 'b' on a note means that you bend the string up or down, and there will be an 'r' for when to release the note. A slash, ' / ', means you must slide up or down the note. An 'h' may be used to hammer-on from one note to another, a 'p' may be used pull-off from one note to another, or a '^' could be used to signify and hammer-on or a pull-off.
There are a bunch of great sites that have archives of tabs of almost any artist you can think of.
Check out these sites and look up songs by the artists you wrote down as your influences.
http://www.rockmagic.net/
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
http://www.guitaretab.com/
http://www.guitartabs.net/
http://www.guitartabs.cc/
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/
A few things to know when reading tabs are some of the symbols. A 'b' on a note means that you bend the string up or down, and there will be an 'r' for when to release the note. A slash, ' / ', means you must slide up or down the note. An 'h' may be used to hammer-on from one note to another, a 'p' may be used pull-off from one note to another, or a '^' could be used to signify and hammer-on or a pull-off.
There are a bunch of great sites that have archives of tabs of almost any artist you can think of.
Check out these sites and look up songs by the artists you wrote down as your influences.
http://www.rockmagic.net/
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
http://www.guitaretab.com/
http://www.guitartabs.net/
http://www.guitartabs.cc/
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/
Influences and Style
Why did you want to start playing music? What band or artist was it that inspired you so much that you wanted to play like them? Are you a punk? Metalhead? Jazz enthusiast? Blues rocker? Establishing what your musical influences are and what style you want to play is a critical step in progressing toward writing your own music and forming a band. Figuring out which style is your motivation will give you direction along with the passion to play and create that style whatever that may be. To each is own right?
My influence have grown and developed as I have. This is a natural evolution and it will happen with you as well. Early on, I loved playing hard rock and metal like Metallica, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple. So, I started learning a bunch of their songs and started trying to play heavier and faster. As I learned more, I began idolizing lead guitar heros such as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and my personal favorite Eric Clapton. Now, as I have matured and started writing my own music, I have been looking back and learning from Blues legends like Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Quite a difference from where I started, the pure blues of B.B. King couldn't be any further away from the heavy distortion of Metallica.
Here's what I recommend. Make a list of your favorite bands and artists. Listen to as much of their music as you can. Go out and buy all their albums. If you are broke or lazy, look up their songs on youtube.com, grooveshark.com or pandora.com. If you still can not find all of their music, then steal it using the many illegal downloading sites there are out there. You can pay them back later. Anyway, after you have a collection of their music and you've listened to them start learning their songs. Be sure to pay close attention to the songs that were not singles or extremely popular because those songs are more true to the artist's true style. After that, look up all the bands and artist who influenced your favorite bands and repeat the same thing. This will give you a well rounded knowledge of your particular style of music.
My influence have grown and developed as I have. This is a natural evolution and it will happen with you as well. Early on, I loved playing hard rock and metal like Metallica, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple. So, I started learning a bunch of their songs and started trying to play heavier and faster. As I learned more, I began idolizing lead guitar heros such as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and my personal favorite Eric Clapton. Now, as I have matured and started writing my own music, I have been looking back and learning from Blues legends like Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Quite a difference from where I started, the pure blues of B.B. King couldn't be any further away from the heavy distortion of Metallica.
Here's what I recommend. Make a list of your favorite bands and artists. Listen to as much of their music as you can. Go out and buy all their albums. If you are broke or lazy, look up their songs on youtube.com, grooveshark.com or pandora.com. If you still can not find all of their music, then steal it using the many illegal downloading sites there are out there. You can pay them back later. Anyway, after you have a collection of their music and you've listened to them start learning their songs. Be sure to pay close attention to the songs that were not singles or extremely popular because those songs are more true to the artist's true style. After that, look up all the bands and artist who influenced your favorite bands and repeat the same thing. This will give you a well rounded knowledge of your particular style of music.
Learning from others.
Some of the best advice I can give is to find other musicians to play with and learn from those that are better than you. Do not be intimidated. They were learning the basics at one point too. Find friends to play with, not only is it fun, you will learn things as you play. They might show you a song that you did not know or how to play a chord that you have never heard of. Not to sound preachy, but trust me because I've been through this experience.
I started taking lessons around 6th grade when I found out a friend in my class played guitar too. I thought he was a million times better than because he knew all these songs and how to play things that seemed impossible. So, I began taking lessons from his teacher El. El taught me the basics that I have showed you. About a year later, El started giving me lessons with my friend. My goal at the time was to get better than my friend and it was a real confidence boost when started having lessons together. That was one of the points where I really felt I was getting better. So, go out and find people to play with because eventually you are going to know enough and want to start a band of your own.
A few simple songs you are already able to play.
Now that you have learned Major Chords, Minor Chords, Power Chords and you are comfortable with playing individual notes, you are able to play a wide array of many songs.
For example: Heart of Gold by Neil Young
The chords used in this song are Em, C, D and G.
Take a listen to the song.
The intro is an Em strum with a brief D:
Repeat twice:(each / represents a beat)
Em Em Em Em Em D D Em
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / /
E --------0---0---0---0---0---0-|-2-------2-----0--------------------|
B --------0---0---0---0---0---0-|-3-------3----0---------------------|
G --------0---0---0---0---0---0-|-2-------2----0---------------------|
D --------2---2---2---2---2---2-|-0-------0----2--------------0-----|
A --------2---2---2---2---2---2-|----------------2------0---2----2--|
E --------0---0---0---0---0---0-|----------------0--------------------|
[Harmonica intro]
----You play the chord above the words as he sings---- Em C D G I want to live, I want to give Em C D G I've been a miner for a heart of gold Em C D G It's these expressions I never give Em G D That keep me searching for a heart of gold C G And I'm getting old Em G D Keep me searching for a heart of gold C (riff) G And I'm getting old Riff -----------3------------------ -----------0------------------ -----------0------------------ -----------0------------------ 3--2--0--2------------------ -----------3------------------ [Harmonica solo] Repeat Intro Em C D G I've been to Hollywood, I've been to Redwood Em C D G I've crossed the ocean for a heart of gold Em C D G I've been in my mind, it's such a fine line Em G D That keeps me searching for a heart of gold C riff G And I'm getting old [Harmonica solo] Em D Em Keep me searching for a heart of gold Em D Em You keep me searching and I'm getting old Em D Em Keep me searching for a heart of gold Em G D I've been a miner for a heart of gold
C G
Another example: The classic riff from Iron Man by Black Sabbath
The riff in this song is playing using power chords.
You use Root 6 B, Root 5 D, E, F# and G. | B | D | D | E | E | G | F#| G | F#| G| F#| D | D | E | E | - Then repeat
- The hard part about this riff is you must slide back and forth between the G and F# Watch it played on youtube to get the rhythm right
Other examples:Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, Turn the Page by Bob Seger, Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty.
Power Chords.
Power chords are the hard rock chords. Classic guitar riffs such as Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man', Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water', and Cream's 'Sunshine of Your Love' are played using power chords. These chords have a distinct sound and are what made classic rock, hard rock and metal what they are. These chords are used in other styles of music, but when they are played on an electric guitar with distortion through a marshall double stack amplifier it literally screams rock 'n' roll.
Power chords played on only 2 strings at a time. Root 6 power chords are played on the E and A strings, Root 5 are played on the A and D strings and Root 4 are played on the D and G strings.
They all have the same form or shape.
Take a look at some in tab form.
Power Chords
'F' Root 6 'G' Root 6 'A' Root 6
Power chords played on only 2 strings at a time. Root 6 power chords are played on the E and A strings, Root 5 are played on the A and D strings and Root 4 are played on the D and G strings.
They all have the same form or shape.
Take a look at some in tab form.
Power Chords
'F' Root 6 'G' Root 6 'A' Root 6
E-----------------------------------------------------------
B-----------------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------------------------
A------3-----------------------5-----------------7--------
E------1-----------------------3-----------------5--------
- NOTE: You play the lower note on the lower fret with your 1st finger
and the higher note with your 3rd finger.
Notice the pattern. The shape is always the same. In all power chords your 1st finger lower and your 3rd finger is always 2 frets higher up than your 1st finger.
So here are all the power chords tabbed out:
Root 6
A---2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9---10---11---12----13----14-----------------------------------------------
E---0----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10----11----12------------------------------------------------
E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E
Root 5
D---2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9---10---11---12----13----14-----------------------------------------------
A---0----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10----11----12------------------------------------------------
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A
Root 4
G---2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9---10---11---12----13----14-----------------------------------------------
D---0----1----2----3----4----5----6----7----8----9----10----11----12------------------------------------------------
D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D
For these, make sure you are only playing those two strings. Practice playing each of these chords, strum them 4 times each, then slide up to the next chord. Go up and back down for all Root 6, Root 5 and Root 4 power chords. Then, as we did for the major chords in open position, practice moving around from chord to chord. Go from A to B, A to C, A to D, ect. Make sure you go through all the chords like we did with the major and minor chords. This will get you familiar with not only playing the power chords, but their sound as well.
Remember to practice everyday. Go through the major and minor chord exercises, along with the note exercises and these new power chord exercises. Soon enough you will know enough to play a lot of songs very easily because you will know how to play the chords from those songs.
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