Sight reading?

[Mikeman9412@gma]

Hey guys, I'm doing the William Leavit books for sight reading and learning all the movable scale patterns all that stuff and I came a song in a book that had the key signature for Gb Major, What would you guys do for this? it has like 6 flats I think so how could you remember all of these? Would you use movable scale patterns? Like move up to G flat and use a major scale? Thanks!

[Malcolm]

A song in Gb wow, OK you have several choices:
1) Yes place the pattern and let the pattern put your fingers on the correct notes.
2) As I seldom see a song in Gb, I'd sneak a peek at my handy dandy scale chart and find that only the F is a natural note so you sharp everything else
3) For grins take a look at the circle of 5ths and see how Gb and F# relate.

But, to answer your question, yep, I'd place the pattern and let the pattern bring forth the correct notes.

[Jed]

I don't understand the question. The key sig is 6 flats - so it's either Gb major or Eb minor. Read everything as flats except F.

cheers,

[fingerpikingood]

the beauty of guitar compared to piano is that the number of flats doesn't matter. on piano it matters because that means you have a different number of black notes to play.

on guitar, it doesn't matter.
if you drew a dot on every note of your G scale, and then slid it down to the left one semi tone, you have the G flat scale. same pattern just moved over a notch.

and for reading music, it all looks the same too, that's why it's smart how they did it.

they just write all the right notes that are sharp or flat in the key signature. so then you know what key you're in, so all the notes you play are those notes in that key, unless of course they indicated otherwise with a sharp or flat symbol next to the note.

[Malcolm]

Interesting point brought up by Jed and fingerpickinggood.

Jed relates to notes and knows where each are located on his fretboard.
Fingerpickinggood and I took the pattern route and we relate to the pattern and let the pattern take us where we need to be.

That's a decision you need to make in your journey, will you be a pattern person or a note person? No question Jed's way, in the long run, will lead to more spontaneity, however, this 74 year old guesser took the pattern route and it's too late to change. You on the other hand have time --- your choice.

[bluesking]

Interesting point brought up by Jed and fingerpickinggood.

Jed relates to notes and knows where each are located on his fretboard.
Fingerpickinggood and I took the pattern route and we relate to the pattern and let the pattern take us where we need to be.

That's a decision you need to make in your journey, will you be a pattern person or a note person? No question Jed's way, in the long run, will lead to more spontaneity, however, this 74 year old guesser took the pattern route and it's too late to change. You on the other hand have time --- your choice.

I'm currently in the Malcom & Fingerpkicing camp too... however I am trying to learn Jed's way of doing things aswell. I don't think its too late to learn the note name outlook, Malcom, even if you are 74.

I don't think that being exclusively in either camp is a good idea. For example, I think having a fairly good grasp of both camps is much better than having an extremely good grasp of just one.

So I think there are actually three types of person: the pattern person (well, not really patterns, but intervals), the note person and the person who can use both outlooks at the same time.

[bananaguitarist]

One sentence taught to me by my college tutor to help remember the flats in a scale, in relevance to the cycle of fourths/circle of fifths.

Flats - Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father

and then for those pesky sharps, you just read the sentence backwards:

Sharps -Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle

i.e, Key of Bb - Battle Ends - Bb Eb.
Key of G - Father - F#


Key of Gb - Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' - Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb

[Jed]

D: All of the above.

See patterns? Look for notes.
See notes? Look for patterns.

It's all good.

[fingerpikingood]

It's all good.


indeed. it's all good.


mmmm mmmmm mmusic.

[Mikeman9412@gma]

Thanks guys, I get it much more now! I also have a question that's way off topic but just thought I'd ask it, I've soloed with backing tracks but never with a real band i.e. drummer, rhythm guitar, bass etc... So if I solo with a real band how much is going to change as opposed to the backing track? i.e. How much does the solo rely on other band members? Thanks for all the replies!

[fingerpikingood]

you need to listen alot more. the beauty of a real band is that it can be very organic, meaning what you play affects what the other members play, and vice versa. but this requires that all members are listening. but at the same time sometimes what you need to do is tone it down. you don't want to clash and go all over the place, you want to complement the others. so you really need to listen and try to make the music as a whole be good, not just what you're doing. playing with a backing track you can just do whatever you want and you know the backing track will remain constant, and usually you have it real toned down and simple.

but usually for a full blown solo the rest of the band will really tone it down and play like a backing track except accentuate sometimes what you're doing. this also depends on what kind of music you're playing though also. in jazz they tend to diddle around quite a bit but still they need to make sure not to clash with you. this is actually quite difficult. but usually if you're doing the solo you have more free reign to do what you want and the rest of the band listens to you and follows what you do careful not to cross paths with you. but listening to them in this scenario can be quite good also, because although you're doing the soloing and they are more following you can sort of follow what they do also and that will make your solo that much better imo.

everything is all about "listening" people always want to know how to do. but doing is rarely the best thing, what you should usually be doing is reacting, this is true whether it be music, or martial arts, or sports. most things. listen and allow to occur, react to the situation.

the fact that people are "doing" is misleading. the pros are always reacting. for instance it looks like a pool player is placing the ball wherever he wants. but what he is actually doing is assessing the table, knowing the physics where the ball will go, and reacting to that situation by modifying that situation by putting spin on the ball so that it goes somewhere ideal.

same with stuff like golf. they are not doing whatever they want, they are reacting to their lie, the situation they are in.

it's all reaction.

this less how to do and more allow to happen.

when a thought occurs to you, you did not make it happen, it occurred to you. right? you can;t make ideas happen to you. you can't make an idea for a great novel come to your mind. but you can listen, and be patient and look for one when the opportunity comes where inspiration will come along. but you must be looking for it. "listening".

but with a backing track i'd say go ahead and "do". but also listen. because in this case you are just practicing, stocking up on mistakes that you learn from. so go ahead and act. try a bunch of stuff, random stuff sometimes. go nuts. but pay attention to what you're doing, and listen to what you're doing, because some of those mistakes are going to be sweet accidents that will give you whole new ideas you never thought of before.

but if you're not paying attention you'll just make a mistake, and stop and start again. if you're paying attention that mistake will give you ideas of how that mistake could actually be good and useful and really sweet instead of a mistake.

but the moral of the story is listen, and with a real band this is even more crucial than without one. (also real bands make mistakes, that if you're listening you can fix, and that can sometimes mess you up. backing tracks don't do that.)

[Malcolm]

With backing tracks you would normally play your solo for a longer time than would happen with a band. A solo in my World - Country will last the same measures as a verse or a verse and a chorus then the lead is turned back to the vocalist or another solo instrument. In country the solo is an instrumental rendition of the melody used in a verse and or chorus - so it does lend itself to the same amount of measures (time) found in a verse.

When you give back the lead what do you do then? At that point you play chord accompaniment while the other person is doing the solo. By the very nature of the word solo -- one at a time, i.e. you stop playing melody so you will not compete with whoever is now carrying the solo.

Now if you are real good you could continue playing what I call echo melody. You echo the solo being played - augmenting not competing. Our lead does this, but understand, he's been playing lead for 50 years.

Metal may not follow this structure, and he gives the lead back, by moving from improvisation to THE TUNE. This alerts the other band members to the fact that this solo is coming to an end. Take the lead by playing the tune improvise then give the lead back playing the tune.

[JazzMick]

Hey guys, I'm doing the William Leavit books for sight reading and learning all the movable scale patterns all that stuff and I came a song in a book that had the key signature for Gb Major, What would you guys do for this? it has like 6 flats I think so how could you remember all of these? Would you use movable scale patterns? Like move up to G flat and use a major scale? Thanks!

Leavit books are great if you start from book1 and work through them. It's something that just takes practice. When you have learn't to read in any key properly, you wont even need to think about which notes are flat and which are not. That information will just become active in your subconscious. You have probably already found that is the case when you read in Eb or G or F... It just takes time to get them all down.

Be sure to pay attention to the positions that it tells you to play in for each reading exercise. The use of positions is very important if you want to become a good reader.

Enjoy :)