what do you need to be great?

[skilly]

see the problem i have with this is that i know sme unbelievably talented people who probly didn't even know the names of the strings that based thier whole playing on tabs, and really there is no need to know how to read sheet music when you play guitar because they are essentally the same thing. I even know how to read music for several instruments, and for guitar i still always go back to tabs.

And for writing, i have a few great originals, and i rarely work at it, but to me it comes easy because i know so many different types of guitar, that putting cool riffs together, and the lead over that, is just a prosses of trial and error, and it is WAY easier if you have good lyrics to work with.

well aren't you "great..."

every single person I've talked to that's actually made it in music has given me two pieces of advice universally...

1) stay away from drugs and booze

2) learn to read sheet

so yeah, it's your gig...

he seems to disagree

[grock]

having an ear is very important. it makes it easy to find what key and to anticipate changes in music.

if you have a natural gift, sure you don't need theory or notation. but to the 99% of us who aren't musical genius born with an innate sense of theory in our blood learning theory and notation can give that extra push to be great.

there is no reason not to learn theory. none at all. some might say it takes away creativity but Trey anastasio has an amazing understanding of theory and that's what makes it so easy for him to do non conventional riffs and to be so creative. i downloaded a couple lectures he did at some music college and wow that stuff was enlightening. look at stash. that song is a mess of bad theory but it works cuz trey knows which rules to break and when to do it.

basically theory and notation takes your ability at guitar and multiplies it by like at least 100.

[skilly]

cool your from chicago! nice are you in the city? have you heard of aurora? or naperville?

but back to the thread, i got to go to a thing in chicago where richie sambora was talking about he and johns songwriting process and he said they just made up like 20 or 30 riffs over a period of time and put lyrics to them, then combined some of the riffs and that it was as basic as that (for them at least).

[fatjack]

having an ear is very important. it makes it easy to find what key and to anticipate changes in music.

if you have a natural gift, sure you don't need theory or notation. but to the 99% of us who aren't musical genius born with an innate sense of theory in our blood learning theory and notation can give that extra push to be great.

there is no reason not to learn theory. none at all. some might say it takes away creativity but Trey anastasio has an amazing understanding of theory and that's what makes it so easy for him to do non conventional riffs and to be so creative. i downloaded a couple lectures he did at some music college and wow that stuff was enlightening. look at stash. that song is a mess of bad theory but it works cuz trey knows which rules to break and when to do it.

basically theory and notation takes your ability at guitar and multiplies it by like at least 100.

your absolutely. i've had to develop my ear from nothing (and its still not too great). i had to learn theory or i would have been completely lost. you find keys with your ear, i find keys by looking at what chords are being played

i wish i had a natural ear.....