Tone vs music

[58Bassman]

I’ve been playing guitar for the past 10 years or so. I sort of got cage and minor pentatonic under my belt . I went through acoustic ( for about 4 yrs ) to electrics and i got to where I can really feel them.
But I am bored as hell. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but guitar in the sense of 60’s , 70’s etc means almost nothing to me. I don’t have any guitars heroes and admire no one. No Clapton, Hendrix or Knopfler (I do love their music though) Guitar solos per se put me to sleep or make go away. I like music made with the guitar , but feel no affinity to tone.
I was 18 in 2000 and House was my stuff. I do like all good music of all genres from Tchaikovsky to Michael Jackson to weird oriental.
I see guitar as fairly limited ( and I do own 12 selected electrics covering everything + valve and transistor amps)
I play only improvisation , as experience thought me so.
I want new stuff , not necessarily my own. I wanna feel like that stupid kid I once was, dancing my ass off. I want good music running through my veins again.
But I feel like a dinosaur , with dinosaur claws and teeth , running through the jungle crying out for evolution.
Any more dinosaurs out there ?

I was bored with guitar and when I went into a guitar shop, I saw a fretless bass that seemed interesting. I didn't really need it, but my other bass wasn't playable at the time, so I bought it. That was one of the best things I have done for my playing- it's a whole different world- it forced me to think about what I play and how it relates to the other parts, as well as the song. It's important to think in terms of the intervals and knowing the answer to the question "Where's the 1?".

I recently bought a Squire offset Tele and now, because of the difference in sounds, I'm working on different music- I never learned hybrid picking and I think it's time to learn.

 

[8bit]

Just explore..you will find it. I always keep eye out for both old and new..

Talking about dinosaurs..

One of my all time favorite bands!

 

[vlad paduraru]

I was bored with guitar and when I went into a guitar shop, I saw a fretless bass that seemed interesting. I didn't really need it, but my other bass wasn't playable at the time, so I bought it. That was one of the best things I have done for my playing- it's a whole different world- it forced me to think about what I play and how it relates to the other parts, as well as the song. It's important to think in terms of the intervals and knowing the answer to the question "Where's the 1?".

I recently bought a Squire offset Tele and now, because of the difference in sounds, I'm working on different music- I never learned hybrid picking and I think it's time to learn.

Actually that sounds like a really good idea. I’ll try and trade one of my old acoustics for a bass.
Thanks

 

[Nogoodnamesleft]

Since you mention house, why not introduce guitar to house music? Piano has been a staple (okay often the Korg M1 piano sound) but think of the instrument as independent of the music it is associated with. Are you interested in music production? Innovative things happen when people colour outside the lines.

 

[HaWE]

Since you mention house, why not introduce guitar to house music? Piano has been a staple (okay often the Korg M1 piano sound) but think of the instrument as independent of the music it is associated with. Are you interested in music production? Innovative things happen when people colour outside the lines.

A good idea. Why not play a music genre in a total different ( guitar based ) style ? Heavy metal cajun,
flamenco country , psychodelic old bluegrass or opera music played as a blues ...?

 

[Mjark]

You play only improvisations with the minor pentatonic but you hate guitar solos? I expect you'll either discover that playing a song is satisfying and joyful or you'll give up.

 

[58Bassman]

Actually that sounds like a really good idea. I’ll try and trade one of my old acoustics for a bass.
Thanks

Or, find a cheap bass that can be set up and played, without losing the acoustic.

I have two bad shoulders that didn't like the hand positions needed for playing guitar, so I had stopped for more than two years, almost completely. The shoulders are better now and while I'm trying to regain the abilities I had before, I have found that what I play is different from the old days and I don't rely on the same old patterns because I'm playing intentionally, not just producing a flurry of crap. I lost a lot of right/left hand coordination so playing fast isn't happening now, but it's getting better. However, I think I know the fretboard better than ever and I'm not hitting a lot of wrong notes.

I think the first person I read who mentioned playing intentionally was Robert Fripp- I haven't seen many people say anything about it.

 

[Hodgo88]

Let me preface this by saying my intent here is constructive criticism: your boredom is a lack of attention to detail. If you are 10 years into the instrument and you "sort of" understand CAGED and minor pentatonic, you can't also claim that you know enough to be bored. You're barely scratching the surface of the instrument.


Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

 

[vlad paduraru]

Let me preface this by saying my intent here is constructive criticism: your boredom is a lack of attention to detail. If you are 10 years into the instrument and you "sort of" understand CAGED and minor pentatonic, you can't also claim that you know enough to be bored. You're barely scratching the surface of the instrument.


Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

I don’t just understand Caged or pentatonic. I play them . What I am bored with is the way guitar usually sounds played for the sake of it. I learned and forgot ( for good reason) a lot of “cool” stuff. No offense to anyone, but guitar heroes seem kind of outdated for 21 st century music. I mean .. yeah ! it made a lot of sense back in the day when guitar was new. Nowadays , with so much water passed under the bridge, I think the guitar has to be a lot more responsable, act like a grown up about music , not just try and steal the show.
You are definitely right about the Zen cup. I need to take a break or something.

 

[vlad paduraru]

Or, find a cheap bass that can be set up and played, without losing the acoustic.

I have two bad shoulders that didn't like the hand positions needed for playing guitar, so I had stopped for more than two years, almost completely. The shoulders are better now and while I'm trying to regain the abilities I had before, I have found that what I play is different from the old days and I don't rely on the same old patterns because I'm playing intentionally, not just producing a flurry of crap. I lost a lot of right/left hand coordination so playing fast isn't happening now, but it's getting better. However, I think I know the fretboard better than ever and I'm not hitting a lot of wrong notes.

I think the first person I read who mentioned playing intentionally was Robert Fripp- I haven't seen many people say anything about it.

Yeap ! A flurry of crap! that’s what’s pulling me down. Finding intention…. I only get that when I’m drunk, and not in fair amount.
Sorry to hear you had to go through medical issues to illuminate your playing.
I’ll get the bass , maybe it will straightened me up a bit.

 

[buster poser]

I have a Tele with single coils, a Gretsch with HBs, and a tube amp with a few pedals in front of it (EQ, comp, reverb, trem, drive, delay, univibe), so I understand wanting a specific sound.

Within a range that is; what I don't get and frankly find kind of stupid is the obsession over extremely minute variances in tone, like A/B-ing already similar amps, guitars, pickups, pedals, strings. People are free to go all OCD about whatever they wish, but like... oscilloscopes and placing mics just-so in order to "prove" that guitar A > guitar B? Seems misguided to me; just lost time I could be playing/practicing.

 

[vlad paduraru]

You play only improvisations with the minor pentatonic but you hate guitar solos? I expect you'll either discover that playing a song is satisfying and joyful or you'll give up.

Give up after all this hard work ? You got me wrong.
I don’t hate guitar solos. I just don’t find them fun. But I tottaly get the joy of others while doing it. The guitar is special , and so are people that take the time and pain to learn it.

 

[OldCAT]

Try a different tuning. Don't look for one just crank the tuners until it sounds interesting and see what you find. All the scales, boxes and such don't count now, just explore and see where it takes you.

 

[fenderchamp]

I think you either need to start a new disciplined practice regimen, or you need other people

 

[USian Pie]

Honestly, the surest way for guitar to become irrelevant and uninteresting is for guitarists to not move on from the "guitar god era" players.

Right now, the guitar landscape seems to be divided into the David Gilmour Feelers (those 60s/70s guys), The Technicians (the Rick Beato-endorsed shred/fusion crowd), and the Acoustic One Man Bands (Trace Bundy, Tommy Emmanuel, Joe Robinson).

So, yeah, it wouldn't hurt to have some new ideas and ways to make music with the guitar.

I'll say that anyone doing it is going to have to forge their own path, though. Guitarists as a whole still get entirely too aroused over wood and electronics made 50 years ago.

I recently bought a piece of "modern" equipment in the form of the Boss GP-10 processor. This is a guitar synth-like gadget that works with their hexaphonic pickup. I'm simply blown away at the new sounds I can make with it. I can imagine an impossible guitar (say a 12-string with the low E and A down an octave), build it in the tool, and play it.

But guess what? 3/4 of the preloaded patches are recreations of "classic" guitar sounds. And most of the demos of the product are a shred/fusion guy doing weird but still pretty recognizably guitar sounds.

Why? Because guitarists want to sound like their dead heroes but maybe just a little more modern.

Worse still, the desktop patch designer hasn't been updated in years and relies on software technology that the vendor stopped supporting 3 years ago. I get the sense Boss could drop this from their product line any day. And that sucks because I see huge potential with it. But it's not a 60 year-old luggage-cased amp with a fresh capacitor replacement.

 

[fenderchamp]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19229801-the-advancing-guitarist

there are some interesting things in there too

 

[radtz]

I like a lot of electronic music with guitar. Listen to some Tim Skold and KMFDM. Pretty Hate Machine from Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson all have a bunch guitar.

 

[vlad paduraru]

Erased dumb comment.

 

[Guran]

I was once bored with the music I knew. Then I got introduced to jazz. The introduction was simple; Friday night in America, we were in a kitchen cooking, zipping wine and blasting out Mingus.

Anyway, I dived into jazz. Just as you, I don't care much for guitar as a jazz solo instrument. I listened to a lot of hard bop and a lot of swing. When I was playing guitar that started to influence me. I was starting to play more like the horns.

In a rock band context I found myself more and more thinking about what the brass in Count Basie Orchestra would play. Rhythmic stabs between vocal lines. I noticed the similarities between the kind of brass plaing and Chuck Berry solos. Brass and AC/DC riff syncopated precision. I got into this idea that all music is the same (in a good way), it's just different dialects.

Music that I had been bored with got interesting again. I was hearing it in a different way, I was treating it differently while playing.

I have my guitar heroes, but they are mostly not the regular ones.

As I said, I'm not much into guitar as a jazz solo instrument, but I do love the influence of jazz on, for instance, Rockabilly guitar.

So what am I trying to say? You like jazz horns, so listen to them. A lot, so that it becomes part of your musical language. Let it seep in to what you are playing.

Then start experimenting. What happens if you tweak house music? I believe it usually takes a lot from cool jazz, like cool piano riffs etc. What if you change the energy level by putting an edgy jazz/blues (think Marc Ribot or Robert Quine) guitar there? Or AC/DC riffs? Take this multiple levels, like if Marc Ribot would play AC/DC-ish to house music? What happens?

Allright, I know, I still suggest old music, but most new music is still just a fresh take on old stuff.

 

[suthol]

A bit of slack key guitar perhaps