How Do I Get It To Sound Like Music?

Well, I'm a baby compared to you but could it be just the fact that you are playing along. Assuming that is the case? Have you tried putting parts together and seeing if that makes it feel more "right" or maybe playing with some others?

Bet that doesnt help ya much, but it was an attempt. :)

Good luck
Geoo

Pearlthekat are you teaching yourself, because if you are, a good teacher could help you paste it all together. Also I think it is hard to just improvise a song by just playing notes and fooling around no matter what type of music a person plays. I used to find myself trying to improvise songs which didn't come out sounding like music, and I ended up wasting my time. Sometimes you can be the worst critic of you own music, so let some else listen also. Try sitting down and working out the song; write your lyrics, riffs, and etc. but take your time with it, keep what you like about your songs, and change what you dislike. Anybody who can improvise original great songs and music on the spot without changing anything is a guitar genius. You learned some great theory to get you started.

I've been playing for just about as long as you have, and I know the feeling that you're talking about. I've been trying to work through it, and I have to agree with geoo: the thing that I have found most helpful so far is playing along with others. Sometimes that's not an option though (believe me, I know :smile:), but if it's not, then maybe try playing along with some of your favorite CDs...or better yet, play along and record yourself to make a backing track, then you can play lead over top of that recording. This simulates playing with others, to some degree at least. It has worked for me...might not work for you, but I hope it does...best of luck!

I agree with the above. Get a teacher, they really help a lot. Just make sure you find someone qualified who knows what they are talking about.

Jamming is good too. I had trouble finding people as well in some cases, so I dropped $150 on a Boss Loop Sampler. Digitech makes one too. Worth every penny, seriously.

In terms of making it sound like music, there is a lot you can do. Take a minor pentatonic scale in the "standard box" ( Do you know what this means? I.E. rooted on the sixth string?) And play it up and down to hear what it sounds like just as the scale. Next, add some chromatic passing tones. Then play to notes on a single string (ie the G and A on the D string, if we are in A minor pent) individually, then try bending the G to the A versus playing them separately. Notice a difference? This is "phrasing," or how something is played. Bending and vibrato are key in this, so its important to practice those techniques. Vibrato can be especially tricky, but stick with it. This is the "hard part," but you can do to speed things up by learning songs and solos. Learn licks off records! There are easily dozens of blues licks in that root box position alone. Learning these will take care of some of the trial and error in learning how to make things musical, and from this framework you can more easily make things up on your own, since you now have a basic understanding of "if I bend this note, it sounds like this," etc. Try taking licks out of context and playing them over different songs. Learn how to alter them so they work if they don't (ie theory).

I recommend starting with the blues and working from there. Since the intervals are relatively consistent (I IV V), you can transpose to all keys pretty easily.

Again: get a teacher, and learn songs. The latter is especially important in my experience (well, both are equally important).

Hope this helped out a little! :)
Matt

Sounds like you need to get thy self into a band :D Also I find backing tracks helpful and you can download audacity and get a cheap mixer and a mic (around $100 or less) and experiment with that also. The Idea is to play along with other people, live is best, but backing tracks will work too :D --the dog

I had this problem too.

My issue was, I got caught up that inorder to make music; the song had to have at least x amount of chords, with x number of techniques. So now, even if it's something simple, maybe 3 chords, or power chords in drop tunings, it's still music.

It is good that you CAN play all those chords and you CAN do all those techniques. But you don't HAVE to do them to make music.

It's probably kind of weird coming from someone that's still kind of new to the instrument. But it sounds like you need to change your perceptions more than your playing.

When I was 12 years young( 1971) and had my first guitar and was trying to figure out how to HOLD the dang thing I happened to live across the street from the local community center. They had a "TEEN NIGHT" every Thursday night with a live band :D So I sat in the front row every Thursday night at 7pm in front of the guitar player and watched his every move and then generally made a pest of myself between sets :lol: Most of the guitar players were VERY helpful and gladly gave advice freely. This was long be for the net so I learned largely from watching those guys and gals play, I would run home after the show and try to play what they did. BTW I had a single mom who got me a Rickenbacker 360 ( $405 in 1971 dollars) She had to work a lot of hours to get that 8) Any way I guess what I.m trying to say is the best way to learn is though interaction with other players :D --the dog

ROTFL Dog - we have Top Of The Pops on telly in the UK and I was lucky enough to be a teenager during Glam Rock so I learned how to pose and gurn long before I ever picked up an axe.

I'm with the guys who reckon you need to play with other people. You'll be amazed how much better things sound when you've exchanged a few ideas and played them through.

Best,

A :-)

My father-in-law says he learned the same way be standing at the front to watch local bands in the early 60s so he and his friends could watch the guitarist's fingers :)
OWA, try reading Guitar Man by Will Hodgkinson, it is about a guy trying to learn the guitar, but he gets help from famous musicians and a lot of them make the point about music being simple

Sometimes i do face this problem.But i guess , that's because i have only one guitar and i want to play different sounds.

Well i think , an electric and a good book would help me play better , if not anything else.

wow.

thanks for all the responses. I've been working on finding someone to play with by answering and making ads on craigslist. people poop out on me but i now have one person who i thinks is a sure thing and one person who is a maybe.

i take lessons but off and on and right now i'm off. that could be a part of the problem. lessons are great you learn a lot fastger but in the past lessons haven't helped me to integrate what i know which is what i'm looking for.

i also like the idea of backing tracks which is something i haven't though of. so now i'm off to google some up!

again, thanks.

oh and i know that music can and maybe should, be simple. i was just trying to convey that i've learned a lot of things but can't really apply them. didn't mean to suggest that you HAVE to use everything you got all the time...

easy. play songs.

the techniques you have will apply themselves.
so many players are technos.
it does no good noddling technique.
so play songs.

Check this out... ya gotta feel music. If you dont feel a note, its just a note. Ya cant squeeze music out of a rock, ya gotta squeeze it out of a heart. And technicality probably isint your problem... try this... me and a a friend of mine recorded 2 tracks. on one I was just playing a funky rhythem track with one chord, and he just played lead in that pent box, then we switched. It was amazing how good it sounded just goofing around... goof around a lot. its good for you.

oh and i know that music can and maybe should, be simple. i was just trying to convey that i've learned a lot of things but can't really apply them. didn't mean to suggest that you HAVE to use everything you got all the time...

I was agreeing with you and mentioning that lots of artists claim they keep it simple, in the book a couple of guys are playing normal chords but adding or removing 1 finger to make completely different sounds that appear much harder to do than in reality.

and Manitou, the 'feel the music' idea is mentioned in the book, but as the writer says, it's hard to feel music if you don't know how to make chords! ;)