learning to be really really really good

im not going to sugar coat it. i want to learn to be so good at guitar that every note i think of gets instantly transformed to the guitar. but its important that i not waste any time. iv been doing accoustic since i started a couple years ago, and am gonna switch to electric in a few weeks. the only scale i know is the pentatonic. what other scales should i learn?

should i just learn scales, or should i learn lead parts in songs? like, iv ben trying to learn this phish solo http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/p/phish/wading_in_the_velvet_sea_tab.htm. good start? I WANNA BE REALLY REALLY GOOD. i wanna be able to play like santana or trey from phish, or just be able to be in a real good jam band and just imporvise on the spot. i have the energy for practice. i just dont want to waste any time! any help would be great

 

Great musicianship comes with one thing: PRACTICE.

You don't become a good guitar player overnight. You learn GRADUALLY and develop different techiques over time. And you should try and set your own goals based on your own playing style, not on anyone elses. You just gotta take it as it flows, you can just instantly say that 'Oh! I want to be real good guitarist!!!' you just gotta go with it At least from what I've experienced... It's best just to explore what you enjoy doing on your own instead of trying to force yourself to learn scales and such. Scales help some people keep focused on key signatures. For some it doesnt. Do scales come easy to you? i've known some people who haven't been able to memorize and play scales worth a damn but they've been some of hte best musicians I've ever heard. So once again, it's however it works for you.
I'm sorry if that wasn't much help and sounded nagging... But I hope that at least helps you a little, just to go off and explore your own talent and style. I speak mainly from a wind players point of view, but also from the view of someone who's been playing bass almost her entire life

Also, one last word - NEVER trust tabs off the internet. It's worth the cash to go out and buy the published books with official tabs approved by the musicians, and most of them are actual music, too, along with tabs. Net tabs are 99% WAY off base, posted by some cocky teenager who *thinks* he has an ear and knows what he's doing. Yeah, of course some do, but it's SO rare to find good tabs around in cyberspace that it's just not worth it either way. If you're looking for accuracy that's the way to go. Good luck on your own musical journey

 

yeah, i gotta agree, there is no substitute for practise. And one doesnt wake up and be really good one day. Fortunately, as george burns put it "everyone is allowed to suck before they are good".
Also, no matter how good you are, there is always going to be someone else better, or quicker, or both. So you just have to be happy with what you can do as you can do it, even if you are really really good. Theres no scales that help overcome that, but spending extra time playing sure does!

 

well, i understand practice is the key. im just wondering WHAT i should practice, since iv never had a teacher

 

Go to a music store and experiment a little. Ask for some lesson books, ask for some song books. pick up some cheap and see what fits your playing style. different songs and scales and such fit differnet people... No one can just throw a book of scales and lessons at you and say "Play these and you'll be the greatest in the land" It's all about what fits YOU.

 

pick up a chord guide, that shows all the chords and how they are fretted. It will be a tool you keep all your playing days, no matter how long that may be. Then learn a few and start working on changing between them and using them to play songs you know.

 

i think the best way to pick up a style is to listen to heaps of their music in the dark, and then play along. really get into it so you feel the tune and the rythym. it gets easier if you can just relax and jam along.

and if you can find someone whose into the same stuff, get together and jam!

 

if you dont want to waste time and want to learn to improv. magically... Id suggest foregoing any lesson books, or sheet music. Play along by ear, its hard, but thats how you will develop improv. skills. Next try to play scales or riffs and sing the notes as you play.... then try singing your own melodies or riffs and then playing them on the guitar, once you can do that... you are free... move the singing into your head, and think a measure ahead of what your playing.... volia! improv.


and yes... play with others, it will help anyone tremendously

 

If you wanna be good at improvising like the phish or the allman brothers than why focus on learning songs. Just learn a shit load of theory and play 6 hours a day. If oyu wanna be good and you only know the pentatonic than thats not good at all. Youll want to learn the major and minor scales and some blues scales andf the pentanoic major and minor and all the modes. not only that but be able to recognize what scale someone is playing in so you can jam better with them.

 

Pssh why would you want to know where all the chords are fretted. KNow where all the notes omn the guitar are and memorize what chords are made of.

Such as a major is made of a tonic, 3rd and 5th so if you find those three notes you can platy that certain chords many different ways.

And if you going to learn how to fret any chord than learn bar chords. bar chords are mucyh better to learn if your goign to learn chords like that.

 

Yeah and if you decide to be that way and play tabs anyways, play tabliiture. "Tabs" just show you what the order of notes are. "Tabliture" is like the sheet music of tabs. It shows you where to ply them but also the note length. A great example of this is Guitar Source.

But the best thing to play is sheet music. You can find great jazz/blues sheet music in the real books and fake books. You can now buy these or you can try to find a teacher or someone who has all of them on cd. If you can get all the real, fake new books and so on youll have access to almost every jazz song on sheet music.