How to know if youre good...

[VitaminG]

Re: How to know if youre good...

I guess by this definition, following your own musical vision (whatever it is) is less important than writing something that the most people are going to enjoy?

[RattleHead]

Re: How to know if youre good...

This quote is basically my philosohpy on guitar.

"I can't read music, and if I write a song I have to ask someone what key it's in. I don't know what's the wrong way to do something, but it's really liberating to not know you can't do something." - Stevie Ray Vaughn

I personally can't read music, and I don't know any scales, I only know 2 chords; E and E Minor, and I don't even want to learn any music theory. To me music is an expression and to do it within boundaries hinders that expression, so to me if I can pick up my guitar and play what I feel, I think I'm doing alright, and if people enjoy it, well that is a nice bonus.

[OklaStrat]

Re: How to know if youre good...

I guess my bottom line (my opinion only) is that if YOU can express what you want to on your instrument, whether it be guitar, zamfir flute or ukelele, then you're "good". Good is subjective, and many people worry too damned much about what others are going to think. I play what I like, and hey, if other people like it, it's a bonus. But I'm not going to let other people's tastes predicate what I play. If you do that, you've damned yourself into just trying to duplicate whatever the 'flavor of the month is' or whatever is popular. Be yourself! If you're an 80s shred guitarist, do that. If you're into sensitive acoustic stuff, do that. I played for years in a band that did folk music, but with me playing guitar, yes, like my sound clips. Some of the solo breaks were pretty wild, but hey - it was me, and I played what I felt.

I'm not so sure about "If other people dig it" then you're good... let's see Jimi Hendrix play live for a group of 9 year olds. Now Barney comes out and plays an "I love you/you love me" song.

Wow, Barney just kicked Jimi's ass, didn't he?

Pete

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Jimi was just freaked out because he just saw a purple dinosaur... [img]graemlins/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[RattleHead]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Originally posted by OklaStrat:
I guess my bottom line (my opinion only) is that if YOU can express what you want to on your instrument, whether it be guitar, zamfir flute or ukelele, then you're "good". Good is subjective, and many people worry too damned much about what others are going to think. I play what I like, and hey, if other people like it, it's a bonus. But I'm not going to let other people's tastes predicate what I play. If you do that, you've damned yourself into just trying to duplicate whatever the 'flavor of the month is' or whatever is popular. Be yourself! If you're an 80s shred guitarist, do that. If you're into sensitive acoustic stuff, do that. I played for years in a band that did folk music, but with me playing guitar, yes, like my sound clips. Some of the solo breaks were pretty wild, but hey - it was me, and I played what I felt.

I'm not so sure about "If other people dig it" then you're good... let's see Jimi Hendrix play live for a group of 9 year olds. Now Barney comes out and plays an "I love you/you love me" song.

Wow, Barney just kicked Jimi's ass, didn't he?

Pete

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I totally agree.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Originally posted by OklaStrat:
If you can express yourself through your guitar, you're good. To worry about it past that is pretty much pointless... there's always going to be someone else with more/better chops, so why worry about it?

Pete

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">exactly! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[RacerX]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Originally posted by RattleHead:
I personally can't read music, and I don't know any scales, I only know 2 chords; E and E Minor... can pick up my guitar and play what I feel, I think I'm doing alright, and if people enjoy it, well that is a nice bonus.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Aren't you limiting yourself with just those 2 chords? [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Cloud Strife]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Only 2 chords [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] man if you can satisfy people with only 2 chords learn more and everyone will love youre music !!! [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Just kiddin' dude [img]graemlins/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[ December 20, 2002, 02:27 AM: Message edited by: Shakeel ]

[Deadnight]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Eh? What do you need to learn chords for? Why not just experiment with different note combinations to get the sound that you want. If you learn a bunch of chords then stick with those chords then you're limiting yourself to those chords that you know. I'm sick of hearing music that is nothing but chord progressions. Why not throw in some single notes between the chords, mix it up a bit. Every possible chord progression has been used a million times. It's time to start getting creative. [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[RattleHead]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Originally posted by Deadnight:
Eh? What do you need to learn chords for? Why not just experiment with different note combinations to get the sound that you want. If you learn a bunch of chords then stick with those chords then you're limiting yourself to those chords that you know. I'm sick of hearing music that is nothing but chord progressions. Why not throw in some single notes between the chords, mix it up a bit. Every possible chord progression has been used a million times. It's time to start getting creative. [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Exactly, and I'm not limiting myself, it isn't like those are the only chords I play, they are the only chords I know I'm playing, if that makes any sense.

[777SteveVai777]

Re: How to know if youre good...

You know the chords, just not the names. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[skidd]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Learn as much as you can, whether it be technique,theory, chops etc. Then just play!Then you will know your good!

[ROCKPRO]

Re: How to know if youre good...

Originally posted by Hotrodder:
Your good when you play songs you wrote, and people enjoy them.

It's as simple as that. [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here! Here! You are as good as you think you are.

Take all the stuff you know and combine the phrases into something you like to hear.

If others like to hear you play it. In my opinion thats good.

[LinaV]

Re: How to know if youre good...

that's better than me ^.^ my first 2 years of playing, all i could play was One, and Enter Sandman. Then i switched to bass, and Andrea flew past me on guitar. Needless to say, i got jelous, and started trying to get better than her in skill on my bass. Sooooooo now we're pretty much equal when it comes to guitar and bass.

A way to tell if you're better than everyone else is by dueling. Have someone play something, and if you think u can play something better, then do it. If they're impressed by everything you do, then you're better than them. Keep going around doing that stuff, and eventually, you'll be the best ^.^ Oh ya, and everyone will think ur a showoff and hate you lol. Soooooo ya don't take my advice lol.

Ryann

[cryoprison]

Re: How to know if youre good...

What OklaStrat posted earlier w/ the whole Barney / Jimi situation... same thing happened to me the other day in Physics. I play some of my own stuff [edge of Slayer, precision and speed of Cacophony, rhythm of Megadeth sorta' speak] and the class sat there... this kid goes, "pff, watch this." and rants some powerchords out mindlessly... the kid was wearing purple and is more or less, a hefty cinch sack... [img]graemlins/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] i got trashed by Barney damnit!!