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Andrew6
howdy, the question is when you play do you know what note that it is you are playing at all times? Like are you aware in a fast run of every note that your playing?
Matt23
When I play fast I can just about hear every note but I can't feel my fingers play every note, they just move in a pattern.
Andrew6
QUOTE (Matt23 @ Feb 27 2009, 06:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
When I play fast I can just about hear every note but I can't feel my fingers play every note, they just move in a pattern.

What I mean was do you know the names of the notes you are playing like in fast run i.e Bb, E, F# etc. Like do you always know what the name of the note you are playing is
Ivan Milenkovic
If you practiced everything properly and with metronome you should be able to know every note nicely. On really high speeds you can't exactly concentrate on every note, but before doing a properly practiced run you should be a aware of all the notes coming. Runs are often done in some forms of triplets, so groups of three notes is what you can always stay focused on so you don't get lost
Andrew6
QUOTE (Ivan Milenkovic @ Feb 27 2009, 07:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
If you practiced everything properly and with metronome you should be able to know every note nicely. On really high speeds you can't exactly concentrate on every note, but before doing a properly practiced run you should be a aware of all the notes coming. Runs are often done in some forms of triplets, so groups of three notes is what you can always stay focused on so you don't get lost

Uh oh looks like i've been practicing wrong ohmy.gif laugh.gif
berko
QUOTE (Andrew6 @ Feb 28 2009, 12:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Uh oh looks like i've been practicing wrong ohmy.gif laugh.gif


But this knowledge will come in time. If you're practicing scales with the metronome or if you play some of your licks a bit slower and revised (to memorize the note names as well) then you will actually "see" the note on each fret. And when doing faster runs, you'll be able keep up with those notes. It's a matter of practice. scale shapes, interval knowledge between strings and all that stuff can help you a lot in memorizing all the notes all over the fretboard.
MickeM
I've been playing for many years and I don't know the notes I'm playing. I will know if I get a couple seconds to think and then I figure it out from a chord I'd take with that note included rather than knowing all positions by heart.

I know the expected sound on different intervals i.e playing one note I have the sound in my head from any surrounding note. That's something useful to practice imo, pick a note in the pentatonic and then pick another close by in the same scale. Do this for different patterns of two notes in many different positions.
Answer and reply if you have a buddy to practice will be easy if you know this. Meaning your bud plays a riff and then you repeat it to the note.
Andrew6
Well yeah I know if I get a couple seconds but like in improv shouldnt I know what notes are which? I just cant seem to process it fast enough laugh.gif
Muris Varajic
Funny tho since student of mine asked me the same question few days ago. biggrin.gif

Yes, you must be aware of all notes that you're playing
but you just can't really THINK of each note separately when
doing some fast runs, it's almost the same as pronouncing each note on loud,
there is no time for that when playing 32ths at 100 bpm per example.
But you need to know which notes you will play or you just played, no doubt. smile.gif
Pedja Simovic
Here is what I suggest you should do :

1) Everything you play, try to sing using DO RE MI system or A B C system. If that sounds to complicated HUM each note but make sure you do some sort of sound producing with your voice.

2) Try to play a note then sing back that note; you can also sing then play a note, or try to do it at the same time (sing + play). This is most useful thing out there for ear training.

3) Take scale runs, arpeggios, chord tones, chromatic approaches, pentatonics, solos you love and sing each note before you play it. That will make your voice chords and inner ear stronger which will later translate to your composing and improvising skills.


Regarding fast playing... Yes you can sing fast passages ! I don't use Do re mi nor A B C system when I am thinking of fast passage but rather things like Ti ru ra ri as it is much easier to sing that way when singing fast lines.
You should at all times know the note you are playing but once things get too fast technically speaking then its all a matter of sequences, patterns and licks that you practiced slowly for million times before hand and just speed them up in that given moment. Even then, you still know the notes since you practiced those ideas before wink.gif

Hope that helps man smile.gif
Andrew6
Thanks everyone for you responses, I have a much clearer idea now of what I should already know laugh.gif I will have to work on this a lot that is for sure
Ramiro Delforte
You can achive to be aware of the notes but in a fast run I think you just go for the sound of the notes, it's more easy to think the sound of a major scale going up or down than think the names when you are in a tune where the tempo is quarter = 240 for example, like in a Charlie Parker tune.
Also some runs are just in our ears because we've practiced slow a long long time and we know each of the notes inside that pattern so we know what's comming but maybe when don't think in notes.
There's the possibility, as Al DiMeola says, that when you're improvising you think "oh, now I want the flat 9th" so then, you think about the key you're in (let's say A major) and you search for the added tension b9 = Bb. So I think always is about the sound because music is about that, then it comes the name and the theory behind. By that I mean that maybe if you improvise and you say "oh, I'll arrive in the flat 9th" it doesn't mean a thing if you're not listening that in your head first. You have to be able to recognice the sounds in order to name them and using them properly.
steve25
Are you basing this on knowing the exact sound of a note or the name of a note or both? I think you should at least know what kind of run you are doing and what scale you are playing and what the key of the track is. Without this, it doesn't necessarily mean you can't make good music but you may struggle otherwise.

Also when playing arpegios i think it is a good idea to know which one you are playing and to be aware of the relationship between that and the key of the track
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