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Guitar - Overcoming Parrot-fashion Learning

In this fast paced modern world, people rarely have time to make themselves a proper meal, let alone delve into a 500 page book on guitar theory. It's understandable, then, that the majority of beginner guitarists turn to the tab sites and jamming along to their favourite bands as their quick-fix source of learning. People are naturally comfortable with what they know and love.

This in itself is not a negative thing, and should indeed be encouraged from time to time, as it's important to extract some creative ideas externally. However, too many guitarists take it too far, sacrificing any personal creative development, bent on becoming the next Steve Vai or Kirk Hammett.

Now, I'm not exactly an inverted snob when it comes to guitar, but I do strongly believe in unique talent, and that we all have it in us, somewhere.

There are two types of learning when it comes to guitar:

1) Being told what to play and how to play it

2) Knowing what you CAN play, and how you CAN play it

The two need clearly distinguishing.

When one listens to a track, or reads a tab, they are essentially being told what to play. There is potentially no creativity involved in this process whatsoever, as the guitarist merely "copies" what they see and hear, including the actual techniques used (bends, hammer ons, slides etc.). In fact, a guitarist is often congratulated all the more if they can replicate their favourite songs as close to the original as possible.

It's time to be honest - with enough time and practice, ANYONE can learn to merely replicate. If the score is written down, and you have an ear for music, you can be your guitar heroes, minus their individual style (we'll get onto this in a minute). However, if you're aim is purely to replicate as accurately as possible, where do you fit into the creative expression of the music?

You see, if you shy away from creating your own music, the part of the brain associated with this cognitive process becomes redundant, and it becomes more and more difficult to really apply that creative instinct as the ideas form in your head.

Knowing what you CAN play, and how you CAN play it is about having knowledge of the specific playing techniques in their raw form, so then you can decide when and how to incorporate a certain type of bend, pull-off, vibrato, tapping phrase etc.

It's also about knowing how to create and build chords and scale patterns based around the type of phrasing you want to express. Specifics.

At the end of the day, in my opinion, it is far more rewarding to spend a week really getting to grips with the "hammer-on" technique, rather than spending two weeks learning X guitar solo from X song. If you arm yourself with enough knowledge of all the playing techniques and foundation theory out there, you will be ready to build solos and phrases how you want... Naturally, without any other guide to obstruct or distract you, you'll be free to explore the raw techniques you've learned in the context of your own unique creativity.

So, instead of "I need to bend X string up a whole step", it'll be "what options do I have to link this note to the next note in the sequence" - you may choose a bend, or you may feel the need to express it in a completely different way! Let you make the creative decisions based on the raw techniques you're armed with!

Once you start dropping yourself in a little more at the deep end, you start to pick up the theory almost automatically, in your own way. Without being told, you begin to see relationships between certain strings and fret positions on your guitar. You begin to expand out of your "boxed in" scales because you want more breathing space to apply your own creativity. You finally begin to realise that there is no "right" or "wrong" answer when it comes to creative guitar writing and playing... there is only your expression Vs someone else's expression.

People may say "I just want to learn a song so I have something to play on guitar that everyone knows" - nothing wrong with that at all, but do not by any means let that take up the majority of your playing time.

Spend more time getting to know and exploring your guitar's fretboard. Get to know the countless options you have to make your scales sound more alive and dynamic. Get to know how chords and scales work together so you'll never have to blindly guess where to plonk your fingers.

These are your foundations. As raw techniques and theory, they don't teach you WHAT to play - they simply give you the foundations on which to build your own musical expression. Master this concept, and you will never want to "parrot" your guitar heros again. Who knows, one day, people will want to replicate you, and hopefully you'll give them some sound advice

Enjoy it... it's your music.

About the Author

Mike Beatham runs a free, easy to follow guitar lessons site with backing tracks and audio exercises to really help you develop your own unique playing style. Visit http://www.Audio-Guitar-Lessons.com and begin learning today!

How to bring natural guitar harmonics one octave higher?

Hi guys. I'm trying to figure out the beginning of a song on electric guitar. In the halo 2 mjolnir mix, steve vai's very first note (I believe) is a natural harmonic on the 12th fret of the low E string. He uses the tremolo bar to lower the tone, then brings it back up. When he brings it back up, however, it sounds like it's one octave higher than what he originally played. Anyone have any ideas how to do that?

Even with a pretty extreme setup, the best that a whammy bar is going to do is raise a note up a forth...I can't imagine raising an octave with a bar.

He has been know to use a Digitech Whammy pedal from time to time. That's most likely what he used to do this.

Greetings from Austin, TX

Ken

steve vai guitar solo

Fire Garden By Vai, Steve $30.84 Author: Vai, Steve Subtitle: Guitar Recorded Versions Publication Date: 1996/12/01 Binding Type: Paperback Language: English Depth: 0.75 Width: 8.75 Height: 11.75

Alfred 3500660137 Steve Vai Passion and Warfare Music Book $37.34 Alfred Music Publishing is the world s largest educational music publisher. Alfred produces educational' reference' pop' and performance materials for teachers' students' professionals' and hobbyists spanning every musical instrument' style' and difficulty level. This solo record from Vai was many years in the making but it captures completely the style and panache of this guitar virtuoso. Play like a rock legend if you dare This volume contains guitar transcriptions' an introduction about the making of the record and artwork from the album. Composer: Vai' Steve. Format: sheet music. Category: guitar. Instrumentation: guitar. Type: transcription. Series: Guitar Recorded Version. Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation. Difficulty level: 6 (schwer). Contents:. Alien Water Kiss. The Animal. Answers. The Audience Is Listening. Ballerina 12/24. Blue Powder. Erotic Nightmares. For The Love Of God. Greasy Kids Stuff. I Would Love To. Liberty. Love Secrets. The Riddle. Sisters.

Steve Vai By Vai, Steve (CRT) $30.84 Author: Vai, Steve (CRT) Subtitle: Alien Love Secrets Publication Date: 1995/07/01 Number of Pages: 80 Binding Type: Paperback Language: English Depth: 0.25 Width: 8.75 Height: 11.50

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