Hello there! Long time lurker, first time poster. I have been learning to play this instrument we call the guitar for a couple of months now. I plucked strings and did a couple of lessons on this site for about 3 weeks before I finally bucked up and found myself an instructor. I've been with Brian for about 8 weeks now and everything is going prety well. I've learned a lot of the open chords, I can pluck out a couple of bluegrass tunes (anyone know Blackberry Blossom?), I've mastered the 5 positions of the A pentatonic scale, and am just starting to learn the major scale. Anyways, to get to the point of this post; I am a huge fan of the band Phish. I Was reading an interview with Trey Anastasio (who is a GREAT guitarist) and he stated something like "the best advice I can give is learning to play the melodies that are in your head". I assume he's talking about songwriting to an extent. Well, last week during my lesson my instructor said almost the exact same thing: "Don't get stuck just playing scales. Experiment with them, learn to play what sounds good to you." After that he just started playing random notes from the pentatonic scale that happened to sound great together. Finally, this weekend I was up at my friends cabin. They were all playing guitar and I got into a discussion with my roomate about this and he was telling me that when he started playing the guitar, his head was bursting with songs. He came up with about 10 songs a month and would even wake up in the middle of the night to play a melody he dreamt about. He was 18 when he learned and I am 27 just starting to learn. I don't feel like I have any melodies in my head. When I try to play "random" notes from the pentatonic scales it doesn't sound good. When I try to think of a new song, I just don't seem to be able to come up with anything. One night I was sitting at home and I had something going on in my head but it was gone before I could even think about plucking it down. Does this kind of stuff get easier the more you learn? Should I be worried that I don't have songs running through my head?
Yes, it will get easier. You've probably got melodies running around in your head now, you just don't know how to find them :)
Get a jam track off the internet, and listen to the rhythm section. Just close your eyes and listen - it helps to remove the sense of sight and just rely on your ears. Let your mind wander, and think about a lead line that would sound good over the progression.
Listen to as much music as you can, as often as you can. It's a language, and you're just not used to listening for the vocabulary yet.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Great advice from NoteBoat!
I agree that everyone (living) has music in their head; it's just a matter of tuning into it, or focusing on it. And I think that most of the times this music, this 'inner music,' is best heard when NOT trying to play it. It's sorta like a train of thought, or when you're going to say something aloud: your mind has the sentence and then you speak it. Sometimes you're thinking a few words ahead (or actually, a concept or two ahead, like roadsigns), and it comes out pretty smooth. But, like when I'm typing this, I have an idea of where I'm heading, but...the words might come in little groups or bunches, but with the main thing being, they're there before they come out of my mouth or fingers.
A melody or the music is like that. There's a note maybe you imagine you hear in your mind, and then just stop and listen to it. And then it'll go up or down or repeat, but there's a form starting to make itself apparent. Just listen to it at first and enjoy it. There's no rule that says we have to write down or play everything we hear. Sometimes it's just for our own personal enjoyment.
Like when you're doing something like making a sandwich (which happens to me), and you're busy doing it and then you realize you're humming a tune softly. It's usually soft because your mind is normally 'soft' in a way. It's sometimes really crowded in there, but it's normally quiet. Like a hushed whisper coming through a still room. But it's there. A little melody. And then, when you stop and focus on it, you might see (actually hear) where it's going. Just follow it along. Sometimes, most times I think, the music of the mind doesn't ever repeat itself because, well, it doesn't have to. The repetition part, the desire to write it down or bring it out, is ours alone - the inner music doesn't have to 'prove' anything or feel like it has to be shared either for others' enjoyment or any sort of musical or monetary gain. It just simply is.
There's lots of stuff I imagine in my head that I don't bother or ever worry about writing down. I used to worry about it. I used to think it was too important to 'waste' - which is the main reason I went to college and studied music. BUT, years on, I realized that it's just for me, that it doesn't have to come out, but that if I hear something I like I can at least hum it into a tape recorder or something, and then write it down or learn it later.
Humming is actually a highly over-looked aid to song writing. Just hum. Hum without your guitar or any sort of instrument, but the main thing is, don't feel any sort of pressure that you 'have' to bring it out in any way except humming.
This goes for simple elegant little melodies (that sometimes sound almost childish - which is another value judgement imposed by our own preconceptions) - as well as songs or complete symphonic pieces. Hum it or sing it wordlessly and don't worry or bother about whether it's in key or on pitch or anything else. IT is the most important thing and the cool thing about it is, everyone has it.
What's cooler is that, as musicians, 'we' are the ones who might bring that inner music out into the outer world.
So you know, just go make a sandwich and let your mind drift and hum something maybe; even the dum-dee-dee-dum-dum stuff - it actually gets the channels of inner-to-outer cleaned out and working properly. And afterwards, pick up the guitar and strum a chord - just one, over and over - and see if you can't imagine a melody floating over and through the notes of the chord. Start humming. Pick a note of the chord if you have to and just hum that, but then also listen to what you might be imagining - the next note is sure to be there. Hum that, then go to the next and the next.
It's really incredibly fun!
This morning I was humming waltzes in fact. :)
Take care.
"the best advice I can give is learning to play the melodies that are in your head"
I maybe doing something whatever and a riff or melody will pop into my head and I'll play it over and over in my mind until I have it memorized to the point that when I do pick a guitar it just seems to play itself. Speaking for myself this has always been then norm, for others it my take more practice to accomplish. Think positive and practice as much as you can.
joe
