PoiDog
Well-known member
Suddenly it all makes sense.
Up til now, I've been basically just playing first position chords, where I'd never venture below the 4th fret in order to get a shape.
Part of it was comfort, but part of it was also just not being able to remember all the higher shapes. Shootz, just getting the basic 12 chords, plus a handful of 7ths and one or two sus seemed like more than enough.
And then, just about five minutes ago, it clicked. Seriously, like someone just flipped a switch. I was just noodling about, when I just moved a shape up the neck. There I was, playing F, when I just went down one to F#/Gb, and then another to G.
Talk about enlightenment!
And honestly, I think I owe a big debt of this to the owner of Marina Music, in West LA (the shop I mentioned in another thread), because when it finally clicked, I wasn't thinking about the actual notes I was playing, which was the root, which was the fifth, etc. I was just thinking shapes.
See, I met Alex, the owner of Marina Music, by chance. I just stopped in to his shop for a look-see. It's been there for Donks, and I finally decided to see how it compared to other local shops. Anyway, we got to talking, and in only a couple of minutes, he took me to his back room, put a really nice guitar in my hand, and started to teach me about his theory of music, which he calls Echometry.
For him, the rules and regulations are too strict. It's all about shapes. Not on the fretboard, but in some bizarre three-dimensional space he tries to capture in circles. I was there for about 90 min taking it in. I'll admit, some of it was prety out there, but there was also some stuff that just sort of seemed to make sense ... in a total retro 70's free your mind and your ass will follow way.
Anyway, he was going on about how if you understand the shapes of music (not chords), you can take any instrument, and as soon as you learn it's layout, you can play anything. His universal is the circle, but a uke or violin string is just a circle cut and laid out straight. A keyboard is just a series of circles laid end-to-end. Etc. Then he made me play the guitar. I explained I was a four string guy and didn't know the guitar, but he said that if I got what he was talkng about, I could play the six stringer in my hands. So I tried. And while I wouldn't call it playing, I wouldn't say I was strangling any cats, either.
That was on Friday of last week. Today, just before posting this, what he was saying finally percolated into my sub-conscious and made sense.
I feel like I just stepped in to a bigger world. It makes sense, but not in a "root note and fifths and eigths" way. But in a more hippie way.
Too cool, man.
Up til now, I've been basically just playing first position chords, where I'd never venture below the 4th fret in order to get a shape.
Part of it was comfort, but part of it was also just not being able to remember all the higher shapes. Shootz, just getting the basic 12 chords, plus a handful of 7ths and one or two sus seemed like more than enough.
And then, just about five minutes ago, it clicked. Seriously, like someone just flipped a switch. I was just noodling about, when I just moved a shape up the neck. There I was, playing F, when I just went down one to F#/Gb, and then another to G.
Talk about enlightenment!
And honestly, I think I owe a big debt of this to the owner of Marina Music, in West LA (the shop I mentioned in another thread), because when it finally clicked, I wasn't thinking about the actual notes I was playing, which was the root, which was the fifth, etc. I was just thinking shapes.
See, I met Alex, the owner of Marina Music, by chance. I just stopped in to his shop for a look-see. It's been there for Donks, and I finally decided to see how it compared to other local shops. Anyway, we got to talking, and in only a couple of minutes, he took me to his back room, put a really nice guitar in my hand, and started to teach me about his theory of music, which he calls Echometry.
For him, the rules and regulations are too strict. It's all about shapes. Not on the fretboard, but in some bizarre three-dimensional space he tries to capture in circles. I was there for about 90 min taking it in. I'll admit, some of it was prety out there, but there was also some stuff that just sort of seemed to make sense ... in a total retro 70's free your mind and your ass will follow way.
Anyway, he was going on about how if you understand the shapes of music (not chords), you can take any instrument, and as soon as you learn it's layout, you can play anything. His universal is the circle, but a uke or violin string is just a circle cut and laid out straight. A keyboard is just a series of circles laid end-to-end. Etc. Then he made me play the guitar. I explained I was a four string guy and didn't know the guitar, but he said that if I got what he was talkng about, I could play the six stringer in my hands. So I tried. And while I wouldn't call it playing, I wouldn't say I was strangling any cats, either.
That was on Friday of last week. Today, just before posting this, what he was saying finally percolated into my sub-conscious and made sense.
I feel like I just stepped in to a bigger world. It makes sense, but not in a "root note and fifths and eigths" way. But in a more hippie way.
Too cool, man.