QUOTE (julz_122 @ Feb 5 2007, 10:37 PM)
i know a few modes
I'm guessing from this statement that you've learned a couple of different box patterns of the major scale under the names:
D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian or something similar.
(Correct me if I'm wrong here, it's an assumption.)
Modes shouldn't just be learned as scale patterns if they are you won't understand how to apply them to music. So if you're going to learn them make sure you learn the theory behind them. If you are having trouble understanding them, gimme a pm and I'll see if I can help.
Your problem sounds like me about a year ago, I'd just mess around and play riffs I already knew all the time on the guitar and it's when I got sick of this that I came across www.freelicks.net. The *only* way to improve your technique is to play new things which you find challenging.
What I did at your stage of playing:
1) I learned all the positions of the pentatonic right down the fret board and made up some little runs that ran across them so I got the hang of piecing the boxes together into music. A cool way to learn the pentatonic is to learn it horizontally in 2 string groups instead of as scale boxes, if you learn it in this way (in addition to the traditional box method) you won't have as many problems trying to "playing out of the box".
e.g.
e---------------------------
b---------------------------
G---------------------------
D---------------------------
A------3-4----4-7-----7-9-
E--3-6----6-7-----7-9 ---- etc
2) I got hold of Guitar Pro and used it to learn some solos from my favourite bands though this was difficult for me since I'm mainly into bands that aren't big on solos. I actually ended up learning a lot of the solos from the section on freelicks; Fade To Black, Sweet Child O' Mine and Sultans of Swing especially were a great help.
3) I started doing a bunch of simple exercises (with a metronome increasing the tempo as I got faster) to improve my dexterity, speed and timing. Things like this worked great for me:
e---------------------------------------------------------------------------
b--------------------------------------------------------------------------- etc!!
G-----------------------------------------------------------0-4-1-4-2-4-3-4
D-------------------------------------0-4-1-4-2-4-3-4------------------
A-------------------0-4-1-4-2-4-3-4------------------------------------------------
E0-4-1-4-2-4-3-4 ---------------------------------------------------------------- (Think this might be one of Vai's)
e----------------------------------1234321---------------------------------------
b----------------------------1234-----------4321------------------------------------ etc!!
G---------------------1234------------------------4321------------------------
D--------------1234-------------------------------------4321------------------
A--------1234-------------------------------------------------4321-----------------
E-1234--------------------------------------------------------------4321--------
4) Self belief; I'm very good at doubting my abilities and judging from your post you sound a lot like me. I used to shy away from learning really difficult stuff 'cause I thought I sucked. Facing things head on and tackling difficult stuff, I bet you will surprise yourself with your ability.
I'm far from being a great guitarist, hence I'm here on GMC trying to learn! So I hope this post didn't come across bigheaded, but I thought I'd share what helped me to bust out of a very similar rut to yourself. Hope this helps!
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