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How can i make solo acoustic playing more interesting


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Posted

I just tend to strum chords, how do i learn some little fills and things? i do this one thing on G chord and the Dsus thing and turninc C into Csus but that's all i know.

 

i kind of think if its boring for me to play its probably boring from a listeners point of view too?

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Posted

Been there. This will sound intimidating but my favorite thing about Hendrix is his rhythm playing. I have copped a lot from songs like Little Wing and the Wind Cries Mary. Many Many of the fills are chord shapes and fit nicely into my rhythm playing. You can get a dvd off of ebay that will teach everything on Are You Experienced.

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Posted

I went over to your site briefly and sampled your samples. I'm on dialup so the experience was less than complete. Curious though; what gauge strings are you using ? At your age :D and with your tiny hands, the Phos/Bronze equivalent of Ernie Ball extra super slinkies might be just the thing to set you free.
Also if you have a standard size guitar try switching to one with the thinnest neck possible. :wave:

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Posted
Originally posted by 1001gear

I went over to your site briefly and sampled your samples. I'm on dialup so the experience was less than complete. Curious though; what gauge strings are you using ? At your age
:D
and with your tiny hands, the Phos/Bronze equivalent of Ernie Ball extra super slinkies might be just the thing to set you free.

Also if you have a standard size guitar try switching to one with the thinnest neck possible.
:wave:




yeh i am on dialup too, its torture waitnign for a song to load this way:(.
strings i use on electric are DR tite fit smallest gauge and on acoustic i'm still experimenting with types to find one i like, i'll try out some Ernie Ball extra super slinkies. having small hands is a real pain.

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Posted

Do you play the acoustic with a pick or with fingerpicking?

I agree that a good idea if using the pick would be to check out some Hendrix score, for he used many fills which play around chord shapes.

IMHO, fingerpicking has many more possibilities on the acoustic/classical for playing alone, simply because you have potentially 5 fingers which can either work together or be independent. [The advantage of a pick is speed, but for shredding the electric is the right instrument]

If you're not used to fingerpicking, maybe you could try first to keep playing with the pick but at the same time try to use the right hand's middle-ring-pinky fingers to produce counterpoint when playing chords.

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Posted

Originally posted by Li Shenron

Do you play the acoustic with a pick or with fingerpicking?


I agree that a good idea if using the pick would be to check out some Hendrix score, for he used many fills which play around chord shapes.


IMHO, fingerpicking has many more possibilities on the acoustic/classical for playing alone, simply because you have potentially 5 fingers which can either work together or be independent. [The advantage of a pick is speed, but for shredding the electric is the right instrument]


If you're not used to fingerpicking, maybe you could try first to keep playing with the pick but at the same time try to use the right hand's middle-ring-pinky fingers to produce counterpoint when playing chords.

 

 

 

I've been trying to teach myself to fingerpick on acoustic.

 

also i find the chords i use are the same old basic CAGED open shapes that beginners learn, which are ok for a while but wear thin when used in every song.

 

i have learned some inversions and add9's & other odd things, but i guess i feel i want to go onto the next level with chords and don't really know what to do???

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Posted
Originally posted by raggety

also i find the chords i use are the same old basic CAGED open shapes that beginners learn, which are ok for a while but wear thin when used in every song.


i have learned some inversions and add9's & other odd things, but i guess i feel i want to go onto the next level with chords and don't really know what to do???



At your level, you should greatly benefit from any music score of your favourite music, as long as it shows chord forms and not just names. This way you'll notice tens of ways to play a simple C chord around the fretboard, and then you can substitute your open C in other songs with a different form which you prefer.

Another option is to buy yourself a chord book, then try variants of chords to a song which you already play with the CAGED.

Just don't go too far too soon or you might be overwhelmed by such a book.

As a start: pick up a song you already know, and choose one chord that you want to change because you are tired of it :) Don't try to change other chords for now, just one (but of course throughout the whole song).

As long as the form changes but not the chord itself (same name will tell), the change will be minor but even an inversion could improve your song.

You can also add more notes from the scale to make the chord more interesting (7s, 6s, 9s, 4s). As long as the extra notes belong to the scale under use, you're safe, but this may require a little bit of theory to be error proof. You would definitely need to figure out the song's key.

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Posted
Originally posted by Li Shenron



At your level, you should greatly benefit from any music score of your favourite music, as long as it shows chord forms and not just names. This way you'll notice tens of ways to play a simple C chord around the fretboard, and then you can substitute your open C in other songs with a different form which you prefer.


Another option is to buy yourself a chord book, then try variants of chords to a song which you already play with the CAGED.


Just don't go too far too soon or you might be overwhelmed by such a book.


As a start: pick up a song you already know, and choose one chord that you want to change because you are tired of it
:)
Don't try to change other chords for now, just one (but of course throughout the whole song).


As long as the form changes but not the chord itself (same name will tell), the change will be minor but even an inversion could improve your song.


You can also add more notes from the scale to make the chord more interesting (7s, 6s, 9s, 4s). As long as the extra notes belong to the scale under use, you're safe, but this may require a little bit of theory to be error proof. You would definitely need to figure out the song's key.



\pick up a song you already know, and choose one chord that you want to change because you are tired of it :) Don't try to change other chords for now, just one (but of course throughout the whole song//

thanks thats a very good idea




:thu:

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Posted
Originally posted by red|dragon

inspiration:


and of couse this guy:


smk-git.jpg



Def. watch this guy play. Check out his Hot Licks DVD too if you want some tips on how to spice up your chords.

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Posted

Thanks. Heard the name, just haven't seen the picture. Haven't heard him either, but I'll soon rectify that situation.

Any thoughts on what I should listen to first?

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Posted

Originally posted by JRMoon

Thanks. Heard the name, just haven't seen the picture. Haven't heard him either, but I'll soon rectify that situation.


Any thoughts on what I should listen to first?

 

 

Joe & Ella stuff

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Posted

Joe & Ella stuff

 

 

+1

 

In particular, the second recording they did (out of a total of 4 sessions)

called Joe & Ella, Again. I think it's out of print, but you can get it on Amazon.

 

On that recording, Joe is playing a pure miked acoustic archtop (unlike the others where is is definitly going through an amp). I bet he is playing that old, non-cutaway Super-400 that I've seen him have in pictures. It's a great CD, heavy in my listening rotation.

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Posted

to improve your fingerpicking skills try picking up a classical guitar set. (Brouwer has some interesting stuff). P=thumb, I=index (lol), m=(you guessed it) middle, and A=ring finger.

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Posted
Originally posted by Mercer

to improve your fingerpicking skills try picking up a classical guitar set. (Brouwer has some interesting stuff). P=thumb, I=index (lol), m=(you guessed it) middle, and A=ring finger.




'm trying to learn some PIMA things at the moment, picking is a much nicer way to play than just strumming :)

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Posted

It can certainly add a dimension

It can give you some extra facility to explore a concept that may be kind of core to the things you are running up against

It sounds like you are currently mainly thinking in homophonic terms where you basically have monolithic "chords" supporting a melody.
Another way to think about things is contrapunctually (counter point) where individual melodies combine to "make" the chord

There is a whole spectrum in between

for instance, when you think of extended chords (those with all the extra littlee bits) - you could think of them as another chord with its own harmonic identity or you could think of them as a traid with some extra note on it (and those notes might constitute the melody)

A couple of things to try

1) learn a couple of simple classical pieces. I don't think it's needed for you to embark on a full coure of study , but a couple of simple pieces may illustrate the conecept of thinking outside the strict "chord over melody" mode

2) try a chorded jazz solo piece a'la Warren Nunes book, etc
While the piece may move as big ole jazz chords..it can how you how melodic concepts can "hide" in thoe big jazz chords

3) some folk fingerpicking stuff (maybe Happy Traum) can illustrate how one can "break" (arpeggiate) even simpler chords up..not only in time but as "melody" , "bassline", etc in a quasi-contrapunctual nature


More generally, as you are picking over a couple of chords...try "altering" the chord my moving one of the notes...
Take the bass note and walk it up or down
Take a higher note and move is around making a very simple melody out of it while the other notes stay the same
This will help you see that those alterations can be more than just ornament or "spice", but can actually perform a structural function
(it can make those otherchords less daunting, mysterious too -- "oh that's a Db add 9 multiply by 3 flat dominatrix -- wait! that's just a Cmaj with a G# melody note)

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