You start being able to strum correctly with speed by looking up song's chords and practicing them
Tabs are great, if you want to mimic other guitarists and never develop your own style of playing...

Just because you learn from tabs doesn't mean you get stuck at a singular point and can't develop your own style or even more on from tabs to sheet music or other forms of music theory.

yap

but i wouldnt suggest staying with the penthatonic scales

get into some scales you hear from songs you know and copy them by ear

makes great effort

ear playing = hard.

www.ultimate-guitar.com

That place has everything, and if you can't find it then go to the forums.

I'm absolutely sick of reading this over-used oppinion on creativity.

Bottom line is that if learning someone elses song renders you incapable of writing anything else but what you've just heard and you absolutely can't distinguish between something that is original and something that is not......you probably wouldn't be that creative in the first place.

For all but those few who just pick an instrument up and have an uncanny way around playing it without having to follow a learning curve.......tabs are an excellent resource...as is learning chords music theory...classical technique and all the things you psuedo-intellectuals who can't appreciate the value of tabs rave on about.

Honestly, if you have to shut yourself off to the influence of other peoples music then that's fine but don't try to lead aspiring musicians down with you, what do you think all the greatest jazz musicians never covered a few tunes, because you're an idiot if you can't see past your own arrogance.

"pseudo-intellectuals" - learn to spell before you use a word too big for you buddy.
Classical technique and music theory means... DUN DUN DUN... you can learn ANY song without listening to it over and over again. I'm a fan of converting scub rock tabs into rhymed music just so we can become independent from ... DUN DUN DUN listening to music and learning incorrectly. Get past your own arrogance before you even comment on either methods. Sheet music > tabs in every way, and they're especially powerful together. Play for a few more years before you post.

This post was edited by onepagememory on Dec 1 2008 07:47pm

I don't disregard the value of sheet music, and i agree it is way more valuable than tablature, but you can't even seem to see the value in tablature which is evident from you picking out an insignificant typo amongst all the things you know i'm right about.

Learning music theory might help you somewhat with recognising chords and intervals....but really what you're going to need to learn or transpose anything beyond the most simple, thin-textured music by ear.....is just that...an ear. (Let's be clear...i myself love learning more about music theory, but learning it alone won't make you a good musician.)

You don't develop a good ear through classical technique, you have to train it......and hey lets think of a hypothetical situation in which a majority of aspiring musicians might do that.

Learning other peoples music.

Unless you feel like writing out aural excercises with minimal actual experience with recognising intervals, harmonies and chords....studying and transposing someone elses music is probably the best way to get adept at this, then not only are you training your ear to recognise these things, but seeing the context in which they are used......it does not mean you have to immediately go and copy exactly what you heard because the I - VI7 - II7 - V7 progression sounded way too snazzy to pass up....no...you have some common sense and use it as learning material......if you were a creative writer and just finished reading a classic novel you wouldn't run straight to the nearest notepad and start retelling it, unless you're incapable of using the one thing my whole post was about...

Creativity.

I don't care how valuable you think music theory and classical technique are, they won't make you a creative artist on their own any more than learning tab after tab after tab......they will certainly help combined with the aforementioned, but they won't do it on their own. Stop acting like to be influenced is to taint the inner creativity that was otherwise flawless with the tailoring of some music theory and classical guitar technique lessons.

ok. you seem to be lacking a musical education. If you know what you're doing, then you can write decent, self-proclaimed creative music. like i said, its useless to become inspired and make a sick tune, countless of complex progressions, and catchy as hell, if you can't play it. You learn to play with proper technique, you learn the theory and use what you've learned to make your own music. Tell me the number of people who are not studied who can impress a professional guitarist - I can tell you many more that are studied and can impress with their original stuff. If you want an example:
"I learned to read, but I don't want to read stories like little red riding hood because i don't want it to influence my creaaativity and passion when I try writing my own story!"
Same damn thing. Learn the basics, learn what others have done, make things that are better than what others are done. Simple.
Same damn thing. Besides, an idiot with no talent or new ideas will not make anything worthy anyway, regardless of studies or not.

This post was edited by onepagememory on Dec 2 2008 10:09am

You're just not getting it though.

I'm not talking about whether you're capable of playing the stuff you write. Musicianship is a multi-faceted career/activity and you usually need to learn and become adept at several different things.

Classical training and learning music theory.....personally i think if you don't use these two exceptionally useful learning tools then you are quite silly, the prospective gain for any budding musician is huge for both of them. However they are not going to help you write a creative song, and that's what i'm talking about, not your ability to play something complex.


I really can't understand why so many of you on this forum believe that to be influenced by somethign means you HAVE to use it. Be selective in what you absorb and don't just mimick what you hear......it's not hard to get an idea of what kind of sound you want to make just from some other influence.......it doesn't even have to be an audible influence to spark an idea....it's what's called a train of thought, you start with an idea and it evolves until you have something you want....or often something you don't want that you keep working on and moulding into something you do.

We are not born with inherent amazing creativity, not most of us anyway.....we have our own views on things and our own ideas and that is the beginning of your creative ability....but like any ability you need to train it and find an efficient way to get what you want out of it....knowing the theory of how notes work together will help you become more efficient at this yes, you will spend less time noodling around trying to figure out how to play that lick you just heard in your head.

But i think it's beneficial to get as wide of an array of influences as you can, why not? If you're worried it will taint your creativity and turn you into a cover artist...then just listen to an exceptionally large amount of influences, the more you listen to the less mimicky you will be, you can't mimick the whole collection but you can take selective ideas from the collection as a whole and form your own ideas from them, i guarantee you will stop listening for that one lick you want to steal and start getting your own ideas from what you're hearing.

OHNOES LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD STOLED MY PASHUN

This post was edited by JoShoeWah on Dec 2 2008 09:10pm