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Is this a bad sign?

#41
I absolutely would not worry about it YET. As long as they are able to effectively communicate what they are doing to me I don't worry about what they know and what they don't know. Who knows they may have thought they were dumbing it down for you. Even if they don't know much about music theory it is not necessarily a deal breaker. I would argue that there are probably a lot of famous musicians that didn't know much about music theory. They just knew what sounded good and what didn't. One of the main reasons music theory even exists is so musicians can communicate with each other.
 
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#42
46and2 said:
So I am joining my first band. A metal originals band. At 41 years old. So obviously, we already have record contracts and 5,000-seat gigs booked. I went and jammed for the first time with them, and they want me to come back. I was nervous and screwed up a couple times, but I was able to jam along and even make a couple of seemingly well-received suggestions regarding some of the riffs/songs they were writing. +1 for me, yay.

The thing that caught my attention is that every time one of the guitar players showed me or the other guitar player a riff, it was usually phrased as "I'm on the 3rd fret, 5th string, slide to the 5th, then <whatever>". It was not described "I play C, slide to D, then <whatever>". Only one time when I asked for a chord progression was I given letters. I didn't get minor or major, either. The thing is, I'm not versed enough to know when certain chords are minor or major in any given key. I am versed enough to know to play a b3 in minor triads, a b3 and b5 in diminished triads, etc. Would this be concerning to anyone? Or should I just roll with it and see where it goes? I'm obviously not in it for money, and playing out is a long shot from my vantage point right now. I just want to get better and eventually play in front of people, either with this group or another one.
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First band? Get earplugs. Like yesterday.
 
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#45
kalanb said:
It always amazes me when guitarists don’t know the names of the notes. I wouldn’t even call that theory just having taken the time to learn the basics.
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I know it's not necessary for many of these musicians but it's just weird to me. I always want to know which notes I'm playing. And I'm no music theory master or anything. I think downtuning is a big contributor to this phenomenon.
 
#48
kalanb said:
It always amazes me when guitarists don’t know the names of the notes. I wouldn’t even call that theory just having taken the time to learn the basics.

Rant: I played with a guy last year and didn’t have much time to prep all the songs (long story). We ran through a song I hadn’t learned off a chart he had written. It sounded like crap. A week or two later he called out my ear, saying how bad the song sounded. It wasn’t until I learned the song, by ear, that I realized his chart was completely FUBAR...in the wrong key and the changes were all wrong. I wished I had learned the song when he made that comment cause I would have loved to thrown that one back in his face.
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I have seen You Tube lessons where the guy doing the lesson is calling out things like B sting 10th fret and the like. More like "B-10" (you sunk my battleship). Though TBH, even calling out the note names, I'd have to transcribe from the video...some things I pick up well from these videos, this wasn't a good one.

Regarding your story....hmmm, sounds like you didn't learn the song and are upset by his bad chart? A guy I play with does that often, we pull charts off the internet mostly for the lyrics, cause we already know how the songs sound. He never listens in advance and if the changes are slightly off complains about it. Dude, you had all week to listen to this.
 
#52
46and2 said:
Sorry, I mean I can tell the difference when I HEAR a minor vs major chord. What I cannot do is if you say "Key of Dmaj", I cannot tell you from memory which chords are major, minor, diminished, etc.
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You just have to memorize it once

1 Major
2 Minor
3 Minor
4 Major
5 Major
6 Minor
7 Diminished (But nobody plays this chord, they'll do a dominant 7th instead)
 
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#53
fretter said:
You're concerned about their lack of terminology, yet you can't figure out their songs just by listening to them. It's all relative.
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Valid. Ear training has always been a weakness of mine and something I am working on. I always like to blame it on my deaf ear. :D Unless the songs are played very clean with prominent vocals, I cannot understand the lyrics to most songs. Same with conversations in a loud, crowded area. But that's something I am trying to improve.
 
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#54
46and2 said:
Valid. Ear training has always been a weakness of mine and something I am working on. I always like to blame it on my deaf ear. :D Unless the songs are played very clean with prominent vocals, I cannot understand the lyrics to most songs. Same with conversations in a loud, crowded area. But that's something I am trying to improve.
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Same here :smug:

Edit: Both ears work but identifying the pitch is a challenge. Practice has helped somewhat.
 
#55
46and2 said:
So I am joining my first band. A metal originals band. At 41 years old. So obviously, we already have record contracts and 5,000-seat gigs booked. I went and jammed for the first time with them, and they want me to come back. I was nervous and screwed up a couple times, but I was able to jam along and even make a couple of seemingly well-received suggestions regarding some of the riffs/songs they were writing. +1 for me, yay.

The thing that caught my attention is that every time one of the guitar players showed me or the other guitar player a riff, it was usually phrased as "I'm on the 3rd fret, 5th string, slide to the 5th, then <whatever>". It was not described "I play C, slide to D, then <whatever>". Only one time when I asked for a chord progression was I given letters. I didn't get minor or major, either. The thing is, I'm not versed enough to know when certain chords are minor or major in any given key. I am versed enough to know to play a b3 in minor triads, a b3 and b5 in diminished triads, etc. Would this be concerning to anyone? Or should I just roll with it and see where it goes? I'm obviously not in it for money, and playing out is a long shot from my vantage point right now. I just want to get better and eventually play in front of people, either with this group or another one.
Click to expand...
Roll.

Oh, and its metal. It's almost all minors. Happiness is so not metal.
 
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#56
No. There are some amazing players who play only by ear and only know patterns on a fretboard, but they can hear where they are in an instant and describe it to you with the vocabulary that works for them. There are also amazing players who know all the theory and will give you all of that. And there are amazing players everywhere in between.

Does the music work? Do the descriptions lead you to where you need to be? Those are the things that matter.
 
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#58
51PRI said:
No offense, but, yes that probably is a bad sign. Any musician should be able to easily hear the difference between major and minor chords in ANY key. Think of it as something to work on.
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Think you missed the point. No one said they cant hear the difference. Said they cant read music amd dont know chord/note names.

Who cares, if the music is good?
Its an originals band. They can do what they want and what sounds good.

Too many are caught up in theory.
If it sounds good, it is right. Call it whatever you want.

Thats my theory anyways
 
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