Who plays music?

[BengalsRocker]

(05-30-2021, 12:16 AM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: I do feel somewhat lucky to have learned how to play by ear from the start, because the internet and tabs just weren't strong back then.  The tab books at the stores cost a fortune at that time when I started (for my budget) so it was all ear learning, chords and solos, all of it.  What's funny is that it was embarrassingly not until within the past few years that I really started to understand scales and modes (beyond the first scale positions of major, minor and pentatonic) and realized how it all connects.  If I'd made that breakthrough 20 years ago, my playing would have grown even more rapidly, because of the way most popular music fits into a fairly standard knowledge base.  I tried the original Mel Bay approach when I first got my guitar and I couldn't hack it.  In fact, I hated it.  The book I DID get that made things start to click was "Guitar for the Absolute Beginner".  There were two in the series, with CDs and a video as I recall as well.  I got it right after it came out (late 90s, I guess).  I lent those out to someone years later in college and never got them back.  

There are some great people on YT now, though, and I'm so glad they're there.  Trying to think who my regular subs are...

Robert Baker
Rhett Shull
Rick Beato
Tim Pierce
Paul Davids
Ben Eller
MusicIsWin
Late Night Lessons

I watch other people as well, but those are the channels I'll always check out when a new video drops.  MusicIsWin started a new series a few months back interviewing guitar "villains" and he had Paul Gilbert on there, who is one of my favorite guys to learn from.  Always re-inventing himself and just drops so many nuggets in any interview or video he does.  I can't play anything he does, but he makes me approach the guitar differently, which I love.  I also found some inspiration from the Cracking the Code videos, realizing there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Funny that it seems like we kinda walked the same path in learning.

Like you, it was kind of embarrassing that I could play really well but in terms of theory I wasn't there.

Of course knowing the key you're playing in and being able to recognize the chords immediately is really important.

I knew how to do that.  That is extremely necessary when playing with other musicians.

I have kind of a funny snippet about tabs.

One of my guitar buddies ordered some tabs of Steve Vai's music back in the late 80s-early 90s from a guitar magazine ad.

They sent him a blank book and an audio tape that told him what to write on the tab sheet!

Apparently they didn't have rights to print it but could record themselves reading the tab.

What a scam.  

I can't imagine learning Steve Vai time consuming stuff from tab in the first place, let alone have to write it all down first.

I don't have that kind of patience!!

Paul Gilbert is great.  Even with all of his talent and knowledge he's always try to push himself to be better.

I just love to hear him talk about guitar and his past experiences.

I suggest anyone in this thread to watch the Hire Guns documentary movie as well.  Great watch.