| Home recording and general music post from the archived Yabb Recording Website Message Board. Some of the info here may be outdated but many of the audio recording and home studio tips are still good. Note: The only tags I made and attempt to convert are italics, bold, center and underline. So if you see some gibberish surrounded by brackets, just ignore it.
Recording Website Archived Yabb board Post
Febuary 2001 Yabb Message Board Archive
Subject: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by Broken_Recor | 04/10/01 at 07:47:05
A question for other guitarists. I need to get out of my box, but I'm having some trouble. Like many of us, when I first started playing lead I learned the pentatonic scale. I absolutely loved that scale, loved it too much. My style is very positive and melodic so almost everything I enjoy is in major keys with simple chord structures and the scale always worked.
Now, several years down the road I'm bored to tears. I have that scale down pat inside out and outside in and I've picked up a few other tricks along the way, but they are all kind of variants on that scale and those tones. Can anyone point me to a good resource to extend my lead patterns and my lick vocabulary? I hear happy melodic playing all the time that I really love, but I just can't peg it cause I'm stuck in this box. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm probably due some structured lessons. My work schedule keeps me from being able to take lessons from a teacher, but a video or a book would be good. I don't need to be a shredder or a virtuoso, but I need some fresh ideas in a bad way!
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by JR#97 | 04/10/01 at 08:55:35
Mixing up your chord voicings can sometimes add some new life to your lead playing by giving you somthing different to play against. One thing that I started doing was more arpegios. That opens things up quite a bit. Or branch out into a different genre.. jazz, flamenco/spanish, etc.
If you're a pentatonic fiend, maybe mix it up ala Eric Johnson. He totally blows up on the pentatonic scale and throws a lot of arpegio phrases.
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by Percy | 04/10/01 at 17:28:56
I have/had the same problem. It comes and goes sorta. What I do is force myself to play a solo all double stops(two notes at a time). Another thing I do is get away from those familiar postions on the neck. Play your solo's in positions not familiar to you. Like G major scale, only from the 6th fret to the 9th or 10th. Frank Gambale wrote a great article on modes in GUITAR PLAYER years ago that helped me alot. Maybe you could find it in their archives. The modal thing he taght was the best thing I learned to get out of the box. When Im tired I fall rite back into the ol familiar box. Go figure.
Later
Percy
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by Broken_Recor | 04/11/01 at 12:47:34
Thanks guys. I tried playing in G between frets 6 and 10 and I can see what you mean. It opened up a couple of new phrasings for me. I'm going to move that around in some other keys and add that to the arsenal.
I've got two double stop scales that I can transpose to different keys that I've been using for a few years. If you have one you really like, I'd be interested in knowing what positions you are using.
Mixing up chord voicings is also a good idea that I intend to try tonight. Unfortunately, the project I'm working on right now has alot of I-IV-V progressions and I think that's what is causing some of my distress.
I got on Amazon.com and listened to some clips of Eric Johnson and really liked it. Come payday I'll probably make my way down to the record store and pick some up.
Thanks again for all your help guys. If you think of anything else let me know!
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by JR#97 | 04/11/01 at 15:48:53
You can still mix up voicings on I-IV-V stuff. A neat little trick I do is use open chord voicings higher up on the neck. For example, take your open C and play it on the 5th fret for nice open D. Or take your open E shape and play it on the 7th and 9th for A and B. Or one of faves, Bbm7b5 at the 8th fret... You can even use those open shapes in a solo for droning and "open ringing" licks. A little tip though.. for electric, I arpegiate the chords instead of strumming because it gets kinda messy. On acoustic, I strum and arpegiate.
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by Silent_Bob | 04/11/01 at 17:41:43
Try learning non pentatonic scales. I don't think I know any pents to this day but I can play several variations of major & minor scales.
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by Broken_Recor | 04/12/01 at 13:05:03
JR#97, you are right about the E shape at 7 and 9, that sound is open string heaven. Could you tell me the fingering for the Bbm7b5? I haven't tried the open C, but I'll definitely check that out.
Hey Silent Bob, what's your favorite scale?
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out! - an update
by Broken_Recor | 05/18/01 at 07:44:48
I wanted to let y'all know that I found a way out of the box without too much work. It actually just involved cleaning up and re-stringing my old Les Paul and putting the acoustic down for a while.
I hadn't really played electric in a couple of years and once those tones came back at me everything opened up.
I'm still actively looking for new licks and scales, but changing instruments did a world of good.
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by JR#97 | 05/18/01 at 09:29:20
I can definitely relates. I'm primarily an acoustic guy, but every now and then I pick up up my electric and it's all fresh again. One of the things I do when I "practice" is to play something in every genre known to man. The last few months I've been working on my country licks and chickin' pickin. Not exactly my bag of tea, but it is fun and it gets a lot of giggles from people when I play it. I'll also crank out a lounge jazz piece or two to get people laughing.
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by Haywire | 05/18/01 at 17:54:56
"It actually just involved cleaning up and re-stringing my old Les Paul and putting the acoustic down for a while."
Yup..I was gonna make the same point. I love playing acoustic fingerstyle. Alternate tunings heaven. Really hadn't played much electric for a while. I went to Memphis a couple of weeks ago for the Beale St. Music Festival. $40 for 3 days worth of music. Some 40 or more bands. Saw Dylan, Willie Nelson, Black Crowes, North Mississippi Allstars (they blew me away) and all kinds of other bands, both known and unknown to me.
Since then, I haven't put down my Gibson ES-335TD. I run into a POD v.2 and into a Fender amp and have found some just killer tones, as well as some blues chops that hadn't had the dust blown off 'em in a good while. I learned guitar playing blues and R&B in the 80's. It's strange how you can drift away from things. Anyway... hearing so many different musicians playing just got my juices flowing.
Something else I did recently was...buying a 5-string banjo. Always wanted one...never got around to it. It's the coolest thing. I doubt I'll ever get used to using fingerpicks, so I play it frailing style. It is so much fun (until I break a fingernail opening the car door or whatever). Much different from a guitar, obviously. But not totally alien to a guitar player. I play around with tunings on it, and play bottleneck on it too. Pretty danged cool. After a couple days of fun with that, the guitar then feels fresh and new in my hands.
For what it's worth......;)
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by JR#97 | 05/18/01 at 22:37:02
Haywire, are you my twin or something? I'm big alternate tuning/fingerstyle guy. When I got a bit burned out on that, I bought a banjo. I even did a film score with it! It's totally diff. than fingerstyle guitar and in fact, I think my fingerstyle technique screws me up banjo wise. Another way to "break out" is to try kicking ass on a nylong string. That was a huge revelation to me. I'm more versatile on my nylon now than I ever was on a steel string! And that's saying quite a bit!
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by Haywire | 05/19/01 at 08:02:54
A Twin? Hmm...well, if there's another one of me walking this planet, that's a scary thought indeed ;)
Several years ago, I lost my nylon string. It involved a beautiful woman in Quebec City, and some blind foolishness on my part in giving it to her. I never saw her again. When the mood hits, I'll get another. My next instrument is probably going to be a pedal steel. Or a top-of-the-line dobro...preferably one of Ted Smith's roundneck Melobros.
Subject: Re: I'm trapped and I can't get out!
by JR#97 | 05/19/01 at 20:01:50
Dobro? We are twins. My SubT V submission was played Dobro style. Jerry Douglas rules. I'm also scoping on the Banjitar and perhaps a Weisenbourn. We oughta collab. sometime.