Mind Over Guitar . . .

One of the greatest things about the guitar is that, if you put in the time, you can play the guitar, and play it well, without ever knowing that scales exist.  A minimal amount of knowledge of music, as it pertains to this instrument, allows you to mimic songs, riffs, and licks you like through memorization.  A good memory will build a wide repertoire of chords and songs, and, with a little experimentation thrown into the mix, you find yourself inventing "new" ways of playing the songs you have memorized.  You may or may not be able to dazzle an audience, but you will be able to answer "yes" to the question: Do you play?

I know this type of playing all too well, and through the years, I have learned that you get out of  the guitar what you put in, and I'm not just talking about those long lost picks that magically reappear out of the sound hole.  The time spent memorizing chords is time well spent, but the time experimenting without scales is unfortunately, more often than not, a waste. Experimentation is not something to completely frown upon, it is the creative genius, but without guidance along the neck it is like finding try to find a needle in a haystack.

This unfortunately is how I started to learn to use the notes along the neck.  I would start by placing a finger here, then another there and just one more finger for good measure, cross my toes and strum.  If it sounded good, I memorized the position, if it did not, I chucked it and tried to reconfigure my fingers to find that lucky spot. Though this is not the way I would wish anyone to learn, it was not all bad.  In a way, it gave me my style of playing, but learning by trial and error was a completely ineffective way to decode the neck, and, to say the least, it was time consuming. 

Looking back it was the thrill of the hunt that kept me experimenting, but with just a little knowledge of scales, I would have been able to progress faster and become a more guided player.  I wrote many songs by trial and error so all is not lost in this way of learning, but with the added knowledge of scales and chord building, I have grown more confident in my playing. 

 

Scales allow us to systematically experiment successfully with our guitars, and instead of reinventing the wheel, we can dig into the steps already built in to music that allow us to have playability.  What the audience doesn't see while we are playing keeps them guessing and asking, "How do they do that?"  This happens I believe because playing is made up of about 40% of what is seen and 60% of what I call "smoke and mirrors."   Mind over guitar is the way to success!