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[jaydub]

Wasn't Kurt Cobain a bassist?

Nevermind, that was Novoselic.


Oh, a pun.  How painful.

[smick]

Well, since I want to have Frank Black Francis' retarded children, I give you

Frank Black Tabs: http://www.frankblack.net/tabs/

and

Pixies Tabs: http://www.frankblack.net/tabs/pix.asp

If you don't have access to much Frank Black stuff, I imagine it can be arranged to say, fall off the truck somewhere near you.   These and brokenbricks.com are where I've been haunting during my guitar times.   An MP3 on iTunes and the tab in front of me.

Frank's Rhythm work can go from nice and easy, to these weird syncopated rhythms.   It's all a good workout. 

Where is My Mind's Rhythm might be a good place to start.   E,  C#, G#, A.   It's a nice easy one.  Might get you out of the whole step rut!

[Limmo]

yeah. well. Another problem is that I am all over the place in terms of what I want to play.

Alright, well, the good news is: you're interested in bands whose music is fairly easy to learn and play along with.  You're already doing the right thing by getting power tabs of these guys.  One thing you could do: make a list of thirty songs you want to learn how to play, that are in the vein you ultimately want to move in.  Then whittle that list down to the ten songs you're most enamored of.  Find the tabs for them.  Then pick ONE song from your list and beat it to death.  Most people just sort of learn a song a little bit and then get bored and move on to something else.  Learn the song backwards and forwards, till you can play it in perfect time with the recorded version without even looking at the fretboard.  

More later.

[robot_god]

I think the best way to improve is to play along with music, play some tracks and try to improv along with it.  I disagree that improvisation is a different skill set from technical ability.

Just search the fretboard and find notes that work.  And put some vibrato in it.

[linnea]

Well, since I want to have Frank Black Francis' retarded children, I give you

Frank Black Tabs: http://www.frankblack.net/tabs/

and

Pixies Tabs: http://www.frankblack.net/tabs/pix.asp

If you don't have access to much Frank Black stuff, I imagine it can be arranged to say, fall off the truck somewhere near you.   These and brokenbricks.com are where I've been haunting during my guitar times.   An MP3 on iTunes and the tab in front of me.

Frank's Rhythm work can go from nice and easy, to these weird syncopated rhythms.   It's all a good workout. 

Where is My Mind's Rhythm might be a good place to start.   E,  C#, G#, A.   It's a nice easy one.  Might get you out of the whole step rut!

Smick, you are awesome. I fuck*ng love the Pixies and Black Francis. Tiny can for you, good sir.

[Limmo]

Here's the chords for the Replacements.  You'll learn a lot about song construction just by playing along.

Getting your rhythm down - your internal sense of time - is more important than anything else.  Even just hacking through scales becomes beneficial when you do it with a metronome.   You do have a metronome, right?  You do now.

Here's one of the most genius things evah on the Interwebs: GAFF.  If you don't know how to play a particular scale or chord, you just plug it in here and off you go. 

A final note for tonight: I know you and I do not share the same opinion about Hendrix's Axis: Bold As Love album.  Nonetheless, it is a veritable microcosm of all Jimi's guitar techniques shoehorned into a fairly short album.  Guitar World just put out an instructional DVD with a teacher showing how to play the entire album, one chord at a time.  You could do a lot worse for ten bucks.  If you were to get it ( I got my copy at a supermarket newsstand ) and really put in some serious time with it,  you will learn how to operate a fuck*ng guitar. 

[theinevitable]

yeah, I tried to form a band once where the only common thread we had was all knowing how to play "Where Is My Mind?" It didn't last long.

The 10 songs idea sounds awesome. That is a great idea. I will do that.

Also: improvising/jamming along and trying to find notes that work is something that I am a big fan of. That method is actually the technique behind most of the times I have felt like I was doing well at playing guitar.

Thanks for the tips, guys. I realize that my weird rant up there was... weird. I was having a weird night.

[theinevitable]

PS they have a bunch of NoMeansNo powertabs, which I had not dared to even hope for. Wonderful. So right now I am split between that, and The Cure.

[Carlos del Vaca]

This weekend I played and sang semi-publicly for the first time in a long while.  I played about a half-dozen songs at my kid's birthday party, including Laurie Berkner's "Pig On Her Head" and TMBG's "Fibber Island."

Maybe a third of the kids (and parents) sat and listened, sang along, danced around.  The rest of the kids completely ignored me and ran around the yard like maniacs.  So, it was OK, but I don't think I'll start moonlighting as a kids' entertainer or anything.

[jaydub]

That certainly sounds like a normal ratio for that kind of venue.

Truly.  Any more and people would get suspicious that the Pied Piper of Hamelin had returned and would run you out of town before you lead the kids off to a Crusade.

[Nabubrush]

Basically I need to find people who are around my skill level, I guess. Or who are better, but not jerks about it.

If you were near me you could play with me. I'm not around your skill level, because I suck so fiercely. However, I do have a nice basement to play in, including the drum kit we discussed earlier, and my wife is a much more talented musician than I am. She might be around your skill level.

Seriously, every musician I know who isn't a dick says just play and play. I know what you mean, though, because I am really lazy too. I should be playing right now. Instead I'm probably going to play AoE III for about six hours.

[theinevitable]

really? AOE III?

I could never get into it. The guys on my floor and I, however, played AOEII for... ages.

Our longest game was, I think, 3.5 hours. Which means, you know, it ended at around 3 or 4 AM.

Apparently I'm really awesome at age of empires? I can't figure it out. I am not a strategic person, but I always "pwn" them. Possibly because none of them focus on resource gathering enough.

[Alternate]

Truly.  Any more and people would get suspicious that the Pied Piper of Hamelin had returned and would run you out of town before you lead the kids off to a Crusade.

A crusade?  Is that what we think he did with them?  When I was a kid I thought he took them to live in a chocolate mountain paradise.  And as an adult I thought he just, you know... molested them and killed them, all while reassuring them that soon they'd get to the chocolate mountain paradise, soon.

[Nabubrush]

really? AOE III?

I could never get into it. The guys on my floor and I, however, played AOEII for... ages.

Our longest game was, I think, 3.5 hours. Which means, you know, it ended at around 3 or 4 AM.

Apparently I'm really awesome at age of empires? I can't figure it out. I am not a strategic person, but I always "pwn" them. Possibly because none of them focus on resource gathering enough.

I . . . just bought it yesterday. This is how far behind my life is, people. This is why I am never here.

[theinevitable]

oh, no. I was just showing astonishment that you will play it for that long. I found out that my brother had it over spring break and played it for about an hour before I stopped. And uninstalled it.