A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I'm really no better of a guitar player now as I turn 44 than I was when I was 19 really. Intermediate as far as what sounds I can sometimes make, yet not even really that when I consider my limited understanding of music theory terminology etc as I play by feel and by ear and can't always explain the logic I use to hear something in mind I'd like to try playing. I play in mostly an improvised way and recognize sounds via their relation to the sounds before and after. I'll reach for a note or strike a chord yet rarely am I identifying the note or chord or scale or arpeggio by name. So I have a good ear and I understand what sounds right via what's not logical noise.

Every sibling in my family could play some basic open chords by like age 8 as my Dad wanted a bunch of little musicians. Past that everything I became able to do just came from my experimenting fueled somewhat by musical influence and inspiration. Wanting to become unstuck and proceed with new momentum I've recently been reading and watching videos online to try and advance my understanding and abilities. I don't want to be mindlessly flailing my fingers around what is just merely in key. And I don't want to be placing my fingers just where they are inclined to go, because that could just be called lazy. No paid subscriptions or anything, just whatever is free that may help me a bit.

Wondering if anyone here is familiar with YouTube channels, charts, websites or anything else online that legitimately helps them some as a guitar player.

Thanks.

The two websites that helped me the most:

www.justinguitar.com

Griff Hamlin's www.bluesguitarunleashed.com




Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

I never had any real training, and there are big holes in my grasp of music theory, but it's not obvious to anyone who hears my stuff. I've worked with a lot of formally educated musicians and composers, and more often than not they appreciated the differences in how we came to work the way we do. And of course, I was always thinking "if I only had all that conventional knowledge they got in school...". But I can sit through lessons on just about anything and it's a coin-toss as to how well I understand. It's not intentional, but I have blinders (or ear plugs) for some music theory and I just can't absorb it no matter who is teaching it. And I've had friends try to help, starting out like "Look, you're overcomplicating it, this is really very simple..." and usually I don't get it. The way I've come to view the issue is that I can't learn something technical unless I'm ready to apply it. If I have a reason to apply it, I learn it much better and it sticks because I started using it. Bottom line, I think everyone learns in their own way, and what works for many may not work for others. I noodle a lot. Some of us just have to find our own way. But I hope you're one that can just get it no matter who's teaching it.

Let's start your journey with theory using something everyone clearly understands, which is "time."

What is time? Primordially speaking, the sense of the passage of that moment we refer to as "now" from the past tense, to the present, to an anticipated future. In Kant's transcendental analytic he asserted that this was apriori to human consciousness. A more artistic, empathetic, emotional examination of this same phenomenon was made by Proust in Remembrance of Things Past.

But this in not the time I am thinking of. Consider the division of these lived moments, mathematically partitioned into 12 hours. This is readily accepted as the reality of time in the Modern, technocratic world in which we live. It governs our every action. It is recorded on the time register of this very post.

Western music theory is the same thing, only applied to another amorphous phenomena, which is sound. Time, just as much as sound, is a felt thing; it is lived , rhythmic, tied in with the cycles and measure of nature, biology, and mathematics. In Western music theory sound, just like time, is a divided into 12 equally spaced portions.

Root, minor 2nd, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Major 3rd, 4th, Flat 5th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, Major 6th, minor 7th, Major 7th

Expressed in time, this would be:

12 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock

Everything you need to know about theory, for playing blues, rock, county, jazz, is constructed upon this foundation.