Hi guys,
Sorry to have started posting before I read the rules and before introducing myself. Y'all have put together a great site with lot's of valuable music info and discussion.
I majored in pro-music (voice) for a couple of years at Berklee decades ago. Got married, quit music to support the family and am now getting back into things. I'm concentrating on guitar but really learning it for the first time as a guy that understands a bit about music but precious little about the guitar.
My current focus is fret-board visualization via arpeggi (triads > 7th chords, arpeggi > modes & progressions) etc. I tend to hear vocal-based melodies and harmonized lines (2-3 part soli) in my head and so am working on my technical chops to be able to play what I hear in my head regardless of where my hands are.
I love jazz but am working on more triadic harmony in order to dial-in my fret-board visualization. All of those recapitulations make for a challenging task but I guess it's the price guitarists pay for playing such an expressive instrument. Ultimately the goal is to be comping / re-harmonizing with the speed and sense of a pianist. I'm not a shredder but more of a "less is more" kind of guy so my soloing is more melodic than lick / pattern-based.
Right now I'm more interested in working out lines, re-harm's and voice-leading possibilities for various harmonic progressions in all keys rather than particular songs per-se but it all leads to the same thing anyway. I'm finding that all this work on fundamentals is really opening up my ears and my hands. I'm having a great time translating all of the sounds that have been bouncing around my head all of these years.
I'm old enough to understand how I learn and educated enough to have a sense of a decent place to start. Insight from other musicians with more guitar experience is an invaluable aid in directing my self-study program. The articles here have been great at helping me to focus my guitar studies. At any rate I'll try to keep my feet on the floor and out of my mouth as I try to jam decades of guitar learning into the months and years ahead.
Cheers and thanks for providing and organizing such a great site. Again, sorry to have started posting before I introduced myself.
cheers,
Jed
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