Curses be!(Guitar Discussion inside!)

[Fire Phoenix]

Just because the music is simple doesn't mean it's bad music -.-

I play harder songs such as eruption. I don't like to play disturbed because it's easy, I like to play it because I like the tune.

But I agree with SaiyanPride.

It has to be hard for it to be good in today's age of music. I can play challenging music if i practice enough sure. But I like to play songs from bands I like. I'm in more of a Disturbed phase right now. A couple months ago I was playing nothing but Van Halen and AC/DC, granted AC/DC's music is really easy to play, i like the tune. Or as you may call it: the rhythem.

I don't like Metallica too too much, some of their songs are good though. (imo)

Lately I've been listening to more Dream Theater too, I really like New Millennium
You Not Me
Peruvian Skies
Burning My Soul
Hell's Kitchen
Lines In The Sand
These are all on the same CD seeing as it's the only CD i have of them thus far (That's going to change quite soon)

And I don't mean this to be mean, offending or anything but I don't know how to say it with out sounding mean, so as Gir would say: I'm just going to say it- I can't stand it when other musicians say people "suck" just because they play easy music. I never judge musicians. I've seen people play Ode to Joy on a guitar with only 2 strings and a couple frets and it sounded great. I'm sick of constantly having to "prove" myself to people as a musician by playing some insanely fast, insanely hard lick from a famous band to be recognized. I don't play guitar to be critisized and called "nublet" i play guitar (and every other insturment i play for that matter) for the fun, love and sound of music.

 

[Jesus]

once again, you misread, and misinterperated what i said. i said that people who rate guitar work such as that, suck. which is true, because i meant it and worded it in the way of "if people think that stuff is complex". so, on that note, id like it if you dont point fingers and chastise, because simply you are wrong. if you enjoy it, then play it, thats cool. but anyone who thinks its challenging, is either new to guitar, or an idiot.

J.S.Bach - Toccata and Fugue <<< nuff said bishes >_>

 

[DaRkOwNs]

Lately I've been listening to more Dream Theater too

ah petrucci, thats a good guitarist to listen to

It has to be hard for it to be good in today's age of music. I can play challenging music if i practice enough sure. But I like to play songs from bands I like. I'm in more of a Disturbed phase right now. A couple months ago I was playing nothing but Van Halen and AC/DC, granted AC/DC's music is really easy to play, i like the tune. Or as you may call it: the rhythem.

it all depends on what title you put your songs into, for me i have a map of songs worked out for occasions.

heres what i have worked out:
back in black/you shook me all night long/fade to black - a few of my concert selections (such as playing alone for a group of people like your family)

Summer Song - Joe satriani/Cliffs of dover - Eric Johnson = those are great songs to practice with although a little tough at times

to show off i would have:
Mr. Crowley/Crazy Train/Bark at the Moon - Ozzy Osbourne
Eruption/Panama - Van Halen

if i had more time i would name more but...

anyway point is it may be a good idea to have a battle plan on how you play

 

[Fire Phoenix]

once again, you misread, and misinterperated what i said. i said that people who rate guitar work such as that, suck. which is true, because i meant it and worded it in the way of "if people think that stuff is complex". so, on that note, id like it if you dont point fingers and chastise, because simply you are wrong. if you enjoy it, then play it, thats cool. but anyone who thinks its challenging, is either new to guitar, or an idiot.

J.S.Bach - Toccata and Fugue <<< nuff said bishes >_>

I didn't mean to point fingers or chastise you in anyway. Now my question is this: Who said Disturbed is hard to play?

 

[Hash]

Kinda shifting topics, but what kinda gear do all you guys own? Any of you got some sweet axe's that will totally make me envious?

I myself got pretty much the lowest of the low-grade equipment. A Squier Strat (bought it practically new from my buddy for 50 bucks canadian) running through a piddly Peavey Rage, as well as some Jay Turser acoustic. For xmas i'm probably getting Zoom's new G2 multi-effects pedal. It sounds surprisingly good for the price, you guys should check it out.

 

[Wolf Devil]

if you want to learn to be a good rythm guitarrist, get out a metronome, and practice your crotchets, quavors, semi-quavors, triplets, sixths, and the quavor-semi-semi rythm style.

Would you like fries with that?

And Pride, don't worry, I don't give a rat's ass about theory. :yes:

@ Hash: I have a pretty nice guitar. It's not exactly ubah s3ckz, but I like it... Got be at least 10 years old, though...

 

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

The original poster on the subject of Disturbed never said they were good or brilliant just that he liked playing their songs. But it is impossible for a highly skilled guitarist to sit idly by and believe that somebody would like or credit Disturbed for any reason other than their own ignorance toward "the truth" about relative guitar talent levels.

Nobody misread anything, I don't think. You are just doing what all young hotshot fret flyers do; you hate that somebody came along and got recognition with a handful of powerchords and no solos while you meanwhile have devoted your life to learning every scale, mode, and chord figure known throughout history. So it chafes your ass a little. I know this because I used to be the same way.

Some of the best guitar players I know write the worst music; strange but true. Or at least have the hardest time writing music (songs, that is). That's what happens when you lose sight of what it was like when you were a listener, as opposed to being a player. I hear songs and they deconstruct in my mind as they play, same as any musician; but who am I to pass judgment? Most modern fret flyer guitarists of the cloth that Lee is cut from make music not for the listener, but for the musician--things that would impress another guitar player to hell and back, but mean little to the average ear.

I learned about this stuff the hard way when I myself was caught up in the elitist mentality. I used to go to the Guitar Center in my town (both of them, actually) and proudly jam on my favored rigs, being sure to gloat to my friends that I'd yet to meet someone who was as good as I was in those stores. But one day I got a wake up call, when I heard a guitarist for a band that I thought were an ignorant bunch of morons, play all kinds of insane stuff alone at his house one day. It made me realize that, wow, some really great guitar players sometimes just choose to play simple stuff (or in some cases, REAL crap, as in, 'unmelodic pile of mess sounding' crap).

It changed when I caught myself telling my best friends of then 12 years to go **** themselves because they weren't as musically inclined as I was and thus were of no use to my band. Right about then was when I got the wakeup call. A few weeks later, the guys who WERE good, decided I was not good enough for them, and kicked me to the curb. I tried to tell them no band was worth ruining good friendships over; they did not agree (one of these people is the same guy who later joined that band that ripped off my song for their CD, if any of you remember me talking about that).

For the record I have been in 13 (yes, THIRTEEN) bands. Almost all of them met premature demises or roadblocks because of the presence of similar elite guitarist archetypes. These guys who get lessons and books and videos, and have a rack of no less than 4 guitars, sporting the Mesa/Marshall/Line 6, telling you that "Oh you should do this and you should do that, do these finger exercises and learn Cliffs of Dover and listen to Satriani because he's a GOD and don't forget Yngwie." They'll recommend their favorite (and coincidentally most impressive) scales and modes, and will spend about 12,000x more effort and time on a solo then they will the song the solo goes in--or hell, make the whole song a solo. In my experiences, these proud elites are often jarred by the idea of playing with another, and in many of my past situations, I found that they are usually compounded by a deep need to prove oneself, to the point where it ruins the good comraderie of being able to jam with others.

The most memorable of these is a guy named Mark Raimondi--the best guitar player I've ever heard, as well as the worst song writer. He's berklee educated, so don't kid yourself about it. Our band self destructed majorly because of his desire to be the top dog. First he would proudly lead us in 'blowing other bands off the stage,' bands who were always supposed to be our friends in fact. Before long he turned his attention to me, since I wrote a lot of music in the band, he felt like I was trying to 'take over' his spot. He started trying to 'blow me away' on stage night after night. And I was supposedly his partner. Before long the band dissolved when, while working on music, he would try to add parts he thought were too difficult for me to play, just so the rest of the band would have to wait around and watch me struggle. I seldom struggled; I think it surprised him how much of what he could do, I could also do, but did not always choose to do. There are times and places for every technique; he did not understand this.

Regardless. For someone asking people not to point fingers and chastise, you were rather quick to do it yourself. Playing guitar is not about being the best, and we shouldn't criticize each other's taste when it is of no consequence to each of us here.

In fact, I've often found that most guitar players who think the way you seem to, Lee, do not even enjoy playing guitar 1/10th as much as they enjoy being the untouchable best at something. It works out really well with guitar, because half the people you'd be playing to 'compete' against aren't even aware that there is a competition, making it a shark's romp in a shallow pond. It is the equivalent of being proud of being the best lv 60 rogue on a server full of lv10 warriors in World of Warcraft.

Unfortunately playing guitar in 2005 is seen as a competition. Well, it's not. I say as long as your good enough to make music that is coherent, more power to you--and in this case, Disturbed is quite capable of that much.

We all have different tastes. Why can't people just accept that?

 

[frsrblch]

Lately I've been listening to more Dream Theater too

Dream Theater, excellent band. Falling Into Infinity was a pretty good album, but my favorite would have to be Train of Thought. Its less melodic than some of their other albums, but definitely worth checking out.

Gir, about those books. What topics does that primer book cover? Im going to see if I can find a copy somewhere. Im willing to trust your recommendation, but Id like to know whats in it before I go trekking through the city at Christmas, what with the malls as they are.

Any of you got some sweet axe's that will totally make me envious?

The ESP F-2005. It may not be envy inciting, but its my baby. I have a Behringer amp that gives me a pretty nice metal sound, and a ton of other sounds I havent bothered to check out. Im willing to wager that some of the people here have guitars that would rip your tounge out through your nose with envy. Pics, por favor.

 

[Wolf Devil]

Is not as schweet as Black frisbee's, but I like it.

 

[Fire Phoenix]

I don't have a scanner or digital camera so I can't take a pic of my guitar. But it's a Squire Stratocaster by Fender. I love it to death, it was $300 dollars. I got a 15G amp and a bunch of other stuff for free becasue the people at Daddy's Junkie Music are nice.

I'll look into Train of Thought. Thanks

Might as well ask while I'm at it seeing as this is the only music thread I have seen thus far: do you play anything else other than guitar? I also play the piano and the violin. The violin is my favorite instrument.

 

[frsrblch]

My grandpa gave me a violin 3 years ago and told me to learn to play it. I took lessons on that for two years before I discovered guitar. I can still play most the songs I had learned, if poorly, but the problem with violin is that I couldnt learn to play the songs I wanted to learn. Never really cared for fiddle music either.

 

[Fire Phoenix]

My grandpa gave me a violin 3 years ago and told me to learn to play it. I took lessons on that for two years before I discovered guitar. I can still play most the songs I had learned, if poorly, but the problem with violin is that I couldnt learn to play the songs I wanted to learn. Never really cared for fiddle music either.

I play a lot of Yellow Card with the violin, that and E.L.O (electric light orchestra)

Piano I play a lot of classical (fure elise,canon, etc) I also play Evanescence, Linkin Park, and a lot of christmas carols. Jingle Bells, We wish you a merry Christmas, that sorta thing.

 

[Hash]

I used to play piano, my aunt was a teacher and she showed me stuff. But I only played for like 3 years and stopped when I was like 11 or 12. I can't really play anything on it anymore.

I played Recorder in elementary school! Does that count?

 

[Galst Vic]

 

[Hash]

Just stopped being lazy and took some pics of my guitars and amp.

My electric:


My acoustic:


My amp:


All of them:

 

[Wolf Devil]

Wewt, less than 2 weeks old, I can revive!

Is there such a thing as a makeshift guitar pick, or do I have to get specially designed pieces of plastic to pick my strings?

 

[frsrblch]

You dont need a bought guitar pick at all. I rounded a bread clip into the proper shape because the pick I had was too flimsy. It made a different sound than a regular pick, and I imagine you can find materials that would make different sounds determined by how stiff they are.

 

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

Picks usually come in packs of at least ten, and come in gauges so wildly different I don't see why you'd ever need to make some special one. There are picks made of stainless steel, picks made of nylon, picks made of cardbord, and even wood. I use bass picks on my guitar because of how much better their attack is.

 

[Wolf Devil]

Picks usually come in packs of at least ten, and come in gauges so wildly different I don't see why you'd ever need to make some special one.

I don't mean custom designed or anything I just mean like, do I need to get pieces of plastic that are "officially" guitar picks.

I generally use the outside corner (as in away from the middle finger) of my thumb to pick my strings, but I don't think that's very effective for hitting multiple strings...

 

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

They make a pick that wraps around your thumb and has a point right at the spot your talking about for just that reason, actually. You can use just about anything to pick the strings, really.