Learning Methods, What's working and what isn't?

[hardyharrharr]

when/if i learn to write proper songs, songs that will always have guitar parts in it, i will just use a talblature software to learn the guitar part(s) and play it myself

tablature is the easy way to learn any guitar parts?

Tab is great but if you are learning to read. It doesn't teach you to write. You need to get acquainted with chord charts to see the big picture. Learning how progressions work and then playing your own rhythm and melody work.

Chord Charts look like this in fake books
chordchart.jpg
Figurative chord progressions are expressed by roman numerals This allows for easy transposition to different keysRoman Numerals.jpg

Chord progressions are usually displayed in Roman Numerals. You should know your scale degrees and know that a iim in the key of C is Dm or D minor. etc
When progressions are taught they are usually done via roman numerals. Which means if you know the scale degrees you can easily transpose to other keys


Let's talk about what we see from big picture to little one.
A song has a form. A form is a collection of progressions.
Basic Blues is AAA The progression does not change through out the song
Jazz Standards are usually AABA (repeated three times"
Most complex forms are ABCAB

So that's the big picture. Progressions can be four measures, eight measures, 12 measures (such as 12 bar blues and even 16 measures. With the exception of a vamp which is one chord throughout.
This has a slight turnaround but mostly it's a vamp


This is another vamp.


Vamp no chord changes.

So you have a progression. See the chord play the chord. Hopefully you've worked out some basic strumming techniques. The song is what you make it when you are writing it. Not what someone else did.

You should know all your basic major and minor chords and be able to move from one to another without seeing a chord diagram. See the chord play the chord. If you feel it's best played using open chords or barred that's on you. It's your song.






Here are some more chord progressions


In summary.
Tablature is literal. You play exactly what is their to copy exactly what they are doing. It's not about being you or writing. It's about covering.

Chord progressions are figurative.
Tones of songs use the same chord progression though may be in a different key or use different rhythms to achieve an end goal. How you use the progression is you writing and trying different variations of rhythms to get a feel. It's your song. It's not about you learning someone else's song.
Although if you do have a good grasp of rhythm and can read a chord chart you'll prolly find that you can learn songs more quickly.
https://guitarchordslibrary.org/learn/song-examples

there are many ways to make music or songs. i may have already found a method. i'm just tweaking it and stuff. i mostly work with huge amounts of midi data. i use reaper's piano editor to put midi data in. i don't want to just export the completed song out from reaper as mp3 or wav.

i want to play each track and record it. that was initially what reaper was designed for by justin frankel. an audio recorder.

anyways, i can read music but mostly only in the key of C. and i have not bother learning the bass cleft. i can read the c cleft from middle c to high a. but the thing is i use the chromatic scale when i am working with huge amount of midi data and so the songs i am trying to make are all over the place in terms of key.

with tablature you don't need to learn all the keys. you just play whatever the tablature software spits out when you input the guitar part of your song there.

[tapper mike]

What do you want me to tell you. Part of me says if it works for you and you complete the process I'm happy for you.

On the otherhand there is a lot more going on beyond the treble clef and the key of C. If you ever expect to play with other musicians you will be expected to play in different keys,

Here is a major difference between standard notation and tablature
In standard notation a note is "figurative"
In tab a specific note is literal.
In notation the middle C which is an octave higher than middle C.

A guitar has five middle C's in standard tuning. It's the exact same note but has a different character due to string gauge and distance to the bridge. Tablature tells you which middle C to use.

[mystran]

Been working lately on changing pick movement to more sideways wrist, less up/down, and let pinky anchor on pickguard, sliding with it more.
- can also be fully relaxed doing that for minutes without tension

Sideways wrist is wrong. The efficient motions ("dart thrower" and "reverse dart thrower" as Troy Grady calls them, but I'd call them "violin bow grip" and "bass bow grip" respectively, 'cos that just kinda is the same thing) are slightly angled relative to side-ways wrist.

The difference between purely side-ways wrist motion and either of the correct, efficient motionsfor me is something like 2-3x the speed, so this isn't some trivial nitpick thing.

Some people (myself included) find it helpful in the case of the "regular dart thrower" (which is what you use with most "normal" pick grips) to think about pushing and pulling with the thumb and index, or perhaps thinking that the pick is a pen your writing with. The important thing though is that this is NOT a side-ways wrist movement, 'cos purely side-ways wrist movement is slow.

ps. I'm not really the best picker or anything (far from it), but basically figuring out the "correct" motion for me was the sort of thing where everything just started to make sense almost overnight.

[lfm]

Been working lately on changing pick movement to more sideways wrist, less up/down, and let pinky anchor on pickguard, sliding with it more.
- can also be fully relaxed doing that for minutes without tension

Sideways wrist is wrong. The efficient motions ("dart thrower" and "reverse dart thrower" as Troy Grady calls them, but I'd call them "violin bow grip" and "bass bow grip" respectively, 'cos that just kinda is the same thing) are slightly angled relative to side-ways wrist.

Thanks always interesting to hear what people prefer. Having Troy Grady Primer I looked at "Doing reverse dart motion.mov" which is close to what I aim at.
- though a bit too much wrist motion with anchor
- he mentions the pea bone anchor, but that become too much wrist in my taste.
- so I life palm that hover over bridge and let forearm move a bit too
- and pinky slides a bit as well over pick guard
- so wrist move just to move pick over string, just about, almost stiff

I see Grady as a whole bunch research papers how various players do it, and to help you what works best for you. I never heard him say "right way".

So doing single string tremolo and finding the most effortless, pick rather loose, and no tension.
- and gain real good sync left and right hand too
- so seing how I can do that at slower speed without going string hopping.
- the also playing over more strings, like a scale




Some video with Troy Stetina also had this approach.

[mystran]

I see Grady as a whole bunch research papers how various players do it, and to help you what works best for you. I never heard him say "right way".

Well, there is not necessarily a "right way" but there are motions that work and motions that do not work... and the purely side-ways motion that's the "traditional wisdom" is in fact something very few (if any) good players actually use. The efficient motions look like sideways if you're watching from the front, but ... Troy actually has some videos with some researcher or something somewhere that explains how a lot of human motions actually use one of the more efficient axis (from throwing darts to hitting with a hammer to .. whatever).

ps. I think the "regular dart thrower" is kinda more popular overall, because it's arguably a bit more flexible, although the "reverse dart thrower" supposedly might have slightly higher max speed potential. Either way, my point is that it really pays to experiment with what angle of motion actually feels good, 'cos .. it's sorta weird how much a slight difference in motion angle actually makes.

[lfm]

it's sorta weird how much a slight difference in motion angle actually makes.

That's true.
And it's fascinating how smooth and easy it can look when doing it right

a video used to be open domain, now locked.

[mystran]

a video used to be open domain, now locked.

That video still shows perfectly fine for me, so might be just Youtube being weird (which it sometimes does). Or are you talking about some other video?

Anyway, the important stuff I think can still be found on Grady's Youtube, it's just ... that there's a lot of videos. On the bright side, these days a lot of other people will also explain what works for them, often citing Grady for putting them on the right track.