Musical Ability

Former Member

Yes,another music/guitar related question.:cool:

Basicallly,Ive been working on my guitar technique a lot lately but my main issue is I havent really got any idea how to improve on my musical ability,i.e. writing songs,solos or learning them.

I have no real idea about chord progressions,keys,what scale to use for what solo over what chords etc.

I havent really got anyone to jam with (although thats being worked on) so I was thinking of just putting on my cd`s and jamming with them,trying to pick things up by ear and making my own solo sounds up and trying to play along with the chords.

Is this a decent idea and is there anything else I can try?

Former Member

Hey there, I'm going to move this thread over to creative - seems the best place for it I'm not a guitar player myself but I know my brother used to play along to cds when he was learning, might be a good way to get used to different chord progressions as you say - good place to start! I'm sure there must be some other musicians who can give you some advice too :chin:

Former Member

Chord progressions are easy to find on the internet, I've got a book of chords that shows me which go with which in a certain key, though I don't really use it that much, but its still useful!

Learning songs, download the tab, learn it bit by bit! some songs are more complicated and it takes practise to be able to have the skills needed to play them

Jamming defintly helps if you have someone of a similar level as you, if your playing with someone thats not at the same level as you then it can become you attempting to teach them skills, and the reverse if your playing with someone better! but that said it is useful for me

All of it takes practise at it, its never an immediate thing, writting songs for me is alot of trial and error and there are songs that will never see the light of day because their utterly shite and others that I'm really proud of!
just practise all of it and over time you'll see an improvement

Former Member

Thanks for the help.
Yeah,it all comes with practice and patience but what Ive done now is I wrote the major keys out for A,D and E (mixolydian mode) and have been playing through and making my own progressions up with chords and steps from that.

Its going pretty good and Im seeing some similarities and recognising certain sounds from songs Ive heard.