learning a new style of music

10-16-2004, 10:04 PM

I've been playing the guitar for almost 8 years. I haven't learned any scales and I've never taken an actual guitar lesson. I have always just played the blues and i've been lucky enough to jam and learn from some great blues musicians. I really feel like I need to start studying some other styles of music though and I recently found this site. It seems like most of the people here listen to people like Vai and satriani. I had never really listened to them, but since finding this site i've started listening to it a lot and realized that I can't play this style of music at all. What's a good way to get started with this type of music? Also, what are some good songs to listen to/start with?

mab8485 · 10-16-2004, 10:07 PM

You definitely need to listen to:

Van Halen - Eruption
Steve Vai - for the love of god

10-16-2004, 10:24 PM

I just listened to For the Love of God. I have heard a few Steve Vai songs and new he was good, but this song was amazing. I guess I have a new guitarist to add to my "list of favorite guitarists".

mab8485 · 10-16-2004, 10:31 PM

I saw Steve Vai in concert 2-3 months back. He manages to pull off everything live (and more). His backing band is amazing as well.

10-16-2004, 10:54 PM

Next time he plays in California I'll have to check him out. I read an interview of his a while back, he seems to be an incredibly educated musician. I need to start actually "learning" how to play the guitar. Got any advice on a good book for learning scales and techniques?

vanhalenrock · 10-17-2004, 12:56 AM

Definetly check out

Van Halen - Eruption

& Get into more Vai.

!

ShredMaster · 10-17-2004, 01:25 AM

if you like blues hers a good blues tune:

Paul gilbert - Son of the Son of the Son of Screaming Blues O'mania

Stiglar · 10-17-2004, 02:29 AM

or vai's jibboom . that's a blues .. but steve vai style .. might help ease your way into his music a bit more [img]images/smilies/icon_thumb.gif[/img]

phil28uk · 10-17-2004, 03:49 AM

learn some theory and modes. This will help you to break out of the pentatonic scale. Also listen to some kick as guitar players such as:

Vai
VH
Satch/Sadge
Paul Gilbert
John Petrucci
Guthrie Govan
Greg Howe
Richie Kotzen

andrewtheshreddr · 10-17-2004, 07:38 AM

OOoo. also check out these players

Marty friedman
Jason becker
Chris Poland

**ricklepotamous** · 10-17-2004, 09:48 AM

dude i know exacrly where you are coming from with this one,
im pretty sure that the guys on here will explain this better than i ever could so hopefully one of them will fill in the holes.
i'm just at this stage myself, i've been playing for 5 years and the blues thing fitted me quite well, i could play a few tunez and jam along with some other guys etc, but all blues based.
this had made me lazy. when a guy i know came over for a jam about 3 weeks back (we had never played together before) i dropped into my usual bluesy style while he seriously ripped into all these modes, it left me feeling lost so i asked him the deal with this stuff. it's difficult to explain really considering he only had about 1 hour but here we go.
do you remember all that doh ray me far so stuff at school well that by all accounts is a major scale and modes it seems are made from this.
he said to make it easier use the c major scale and start from there so that would be the Thick 'E' string starting at the 8th fret of course and play doh ray me far so lah and so on.
that would be the c major scale or "ionian" remember the shape you played.
now shift up to d on the same string and play the same notes
that would be the dorian mode. this repeats.
now this still meant jack shit to me however i remembered the shapes and tried to play them else where and found that they work not only across the frets but up and down the strings as well so if you are playing the correct key in virtually any position you just need to remember the next shape and bingo.
a whole new world opens up. i still play blues scales but now i add notes from other scales and it works.
http://www.ocmusic.com/main.html this helps explain it better.
if anybody else can explain this better please feel free as i am totally not a music techie at all
good luck with the stuff. another guy to listen to with this stuff is paul gilbert some guy has done a wicked version of technical difficulties in the mp3 section this song to me just oozes scales (even though i can't get near it)

10-17-2004, 01:59 PM

thanks for all the recommendations. phil28uk is right, i need to learn some theory and modes, can anyone recommend a good book to do this? Thanks for the link rickle, that's a great site, lots of stuff to keep me busy.

mab8485 · 10-18-2004, 12:31 AM

I own the 'guitar handbook' which is pretty good for theory. It also has alot of general guitar information in it eg. guitar setup.

10-19-2004, 12:08 PM

I picked up guitar handbook today. It seems like a pretty good book to start with. Eventually I want to get something that goes into the theory a little more specifically but for the level i'm at now this book is perfect. I've been listening to a lot of Steve Vai lately, I can't believe how much i've been missing. I was always listening to Hendrix, Buddy Guy, SRV, Robert Cray, and people like that, but listening to Vai and Satriani lately is starting to make my guitar playing more diverse.