An Ethereal Guitarist's Path

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Patterns. I have always been good with identifying patterns in a given subject. I feel this is largely how I view the guitar, well more specifically, the fretboard. Perhaps this is why I have had a lot of trouble learning theory. I do not identify with the patterns so easily. One way I tend to improvise is by keeping a certain key as the center and then adding patterns with my fingers/frets/strings/picking hand to it. Sometimes I go out of key, sometimes I don't. This is also how I tend to form chords. I start with a base finger and then figure out patterns to go along with it. Or I already know a pre-determined chord. I don't usually see chords on the guitar in intervals, but patterns, how the location of one finger relates to another. I have also realized this is how I like to draw, in patterns. I noticed this whenever I scribbled stuff onto my notebooks and what have you. Shapes and patterns. I like to draw that way, I like to see things in that way. I am not sure where to go from here or what more to say. May be I will try to explain why I see things in patterns so much, but that will take lots of brainstorming.

On a side note, I recently bought a sketchbook and am studying the human figure right now. It is pretty hard but it's something I can definitely catch on to. Drawing has a lot to do with observation and noticing relationships between two points, as well as angles and shapes etc. So far I have done two figure forms and I did an abstract improvised piece today while listening to Esoteric....the end product was...rather esoteric.

3 comments:

Mike Lunapiena said...

Two thoughts:

1. You are having trouble learning theory because you are trying to teach yourself theory ... this is problematic, because you don't know theory (meaning you don't have the knowledge base to teach it well)

In short, you need someone else (who is very experienced) to teach it to you (and no I'm not a good person to do this, as much as I'd love to help) ... beyond that you need a lot of time ... In college, you study basic theory for 2 years & people often still aren't good at it after that...

2. The best thing you can do for figure drawing is to do live figure drawing ... if/when you ever get a car, I know Manhattanville has free figure drawing sessions on Tuesdays ... but yeah, drawing is all about relationships/proportions ... it's really cool

Mike Lunapiena said...

Oh, another thought ... if you don't know the answer to the question why demo, then the answer is that you have no reason to.

There's no set-in-stone rule that you have to demo.

Steve said...

Well, I have tried teaching it to myself as well as learning it in school, both were challenging. The main difference was that I understood things a little faster in school, but it was still a challenge.

People have told me about drawing actual people, but so far I dont have anyone to pose for me, so internet pictures will have to do.

And just because I don't know the answer to "why demo?" doesn't mean there is no reason to. There are reasons why other artists do it and there is a huge chance that I am missing or overlooking a benefit to it. I decided I am going to demo because it will help with producing the actual songs. I know the songs myself and structurally they are fine.