What song or songs are you learning or writing?

[John Lee Pettimore]

I get motivated by learning to play a song I've never played.

I've got four original compositions in development with an abundance of arpeggiated chords, and today I finally acted on learning the Doobie Brothers' Blackwater because I think it will help me with skills and creativity for my developing songs.

Titles of my four OC's:
You Loved Me First (key; A minor)
Lost in the Wild (A Prodigal's Cry) (literally; A,D,C,G,B,G,A)
Defiance Blues (key; D minor)
Three Minors (A B E) I know not really a title, yet...

What are you focused on lately?

[Queequeg]

Kelly Joe Phelps.
I tried learning his songs years ago with little success.
But I returned to it recently with much better results.
My current challenge:

[jazzereh]

I'll start by saying that I don't consider myself a great player by any means but I have posted a short version of a recent tune I composed and this is the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-tz5csBLIU  Continue to work on getting it sounding better.

Currently working on a new tune that is giving me issues on how to put various 'segments' together but is a bit more introspective in tone.  I like to work with the sound of notes / chords and this one will sound somewhat meditative, I think. 

Other than my own compositions I work on other tunes, finger style mostly, in order to have stuff that other people will know - Beatles etc.

[John Lee Pettimore]

Kelly Joe Phelps.
I tried learning his songs years ago with little success.
But I returned to it recently with much better results.
My current challenge:

That sounds like two hands full.  Congrats on your progress!

 

I think there is nothing quite like the reward of playing a piece of music to one's own satisfaction. 

[John Lee Pettimore]

I'll start by saying that I don't consider myself a great player by any means but I have posted a short version of a recent tune I composed and this is the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-tz5csBLIU  Continue to work on getting it sounding better.

Currently working on a new tune that is giving me issues on how to put various 'segments' together but is a bit more introspective in tone.  I like to work with the sound of notes / chords and this one will sound somewhat meditative, I think. 

Other than my own compositions I work on other tunes, finger style mostly, in order to have stuff that other people will know - Beatles etc.

Wow!  Sounds like an Appalachia Beauty. Or closer to my home an Ozark Beauty. 

  too....

[fantex]

I've been working through Brooks Robertson's Fingerstyle Rolls course and David Hamburger's Steady Bass, both purchased from True Fire.

[John Lee Pettimore]

I've been working through Brooks Robertson's Fingerstyle Rolls course and David Hamburger's Steady Bass, both purchased from True Fire.

Are you finding it helpful for you?

[B0WIE]

I've decided to go back to music theory, again. I had completed 2 courses of theory in college, but didn't care to use much of it in practice so it faded. Then, I picked it up again for a time but again went back to using my ear instead. I really don't like relying on theory when I write as it kills my creativity/emotion.

However, for a while now, I've really wanted to be able to play jazz freely around the neck and I'm coming to terms with the fact that ear alone is too limiting. So, I'm working with apps and watching a lot of videos. My mind is being really stubborn about it and I get bored within minutes. But, I'm excited to eventually be able to play freestyle jazz. The one thing that was always out of reach.

[William2]

I went through the theory courses in college also. As a classical performance major, I just never really used it as everything I played was composed although I found it interesting. The jazz guitar students were more adept at it because they were using it all the time in their ensemble playing. In class we would have to have to harmonically analyzed a piece of music and the class would go over it together. It was funny how the jazz students would give an alternative name or explanation for a chord or passage compared with the explanation the teacher who had classical training. I didn't think the jazz students were that proficient technically on guitar at least, but they were working at something different more ensemble and interacting with others. In the jazz ensembles I never heard them perform a jazz standard but always tome insipid original composition that sounded like a formula. So, I never got attracted to studying in those classes. And when I listen to all the great music that has been written I don't feel I could really write anything that compares with it. I just prefer to play something that is good music classical or a great arrangement of a standard tune well arranged by someone good at arranging. Jimmy Bruno is now offering some online courses to learn jazz. I guess my feeling on this is that jazz is lifelong journey and even on my college days I would have started too late. Add to that that I hear a lot of players that play jazz but don't really have much to say although they can fit in. I'd probably be in that don't have a lot to say also LOL. 

[John Lee Pettimore]

Music theory makes me sleepy and disinterested.  I truly wish I had an appetite for it. 

[BlueBowman]

I'm always kicking around compositions that I need to finish. That's probably the most gratifying thing I get out of the guitar, even though I also enjoy performing. 

Lately I've gone back to Bach. So much of our music from the last three hundred years stems from him, and there's always new things to discover. I have a new found level of appreciation every time I learn a new piece of his. I also take the occasional u-turn back into bebop and gypsy jazz (not quite to freestyle jazz yet, Bowie; I still need that repeating melody to sink the hook in!  ).


Find something that moves you, and then learn it end to end, note for note. I've found that's the best way to move forward on guitar.

Music theory makes me sleepy and disinterested.  I truly wish I had an appetite for it. 

Some people seem to get it instinctively (they can "hear" where things are going or "should" go). Outside of that, learning the foundational stuff (circle of fifths, diatonic scales, typical progressions (the power of the  I-IV-V)), for example, can really move a player forward.

[fantex]

Are you finding it helpful for you?

Yes, lots of techniques, exercises and complete songs.

I'm now a monthly subscriber to Brooks Robertson's Fingerstyle Toolbox on True Fire. Tons of good info, tab/notation, videos and a weekly live stream lesson. I've been getting into Jerry Reed's style picking... lots of info on that style.