Just looking for some feedback on my music.

[comradephil]

So this morning I finally got my recording gear set up right and did this improvisation on two tracks with my guitar.

I think it doesn\'t sound half bad for four minutes worth of work, so I thought I\'d post it here and see what the reaction was from other, less biased people.

http://soundcloud.com/tuathal/dad-is-shouting-guitaronly

[Ydoow]

I really really liked that.

I\'m learning guitar myself, do you have any tips/advice on how to learn or what to learn?

I\'ve basically just memorized all the essential chords, and am focusing on smoothing out transitions between chords (switching between D and C chord is a challenge for me :S )

Yeah actually that was really good. Is there a download anywhere? And your voice sounds perfect for this for some reason lol

Edit: And just a shot in the dark, but for the \'solo-ing\' (I guess you\'d call it that), is that just a type of minor pentatonic scale? I only learned the scale of A. Made a quick little bluesy sounding thingy majig of my own. Nothing nearly as nice as what you made though

[comradephil]

Well, that particular piece of music is in A minor, so you can play over the top of it with a scale of A, but also parts of the E minor pentatonic, as well as Major scales. Mostly this is based around A, at 0 and twelfth frets, starting on the A string, foraying into A major and some mixolydian runs thrown in.

It\'s a tricky concept to explain, but suffice to say that you can slide the minor pentatonic scale up and down the fretboard and the root note (in this case, the first note you play at the bottom of the scale) determines the key, so at the fifth fret on the E string that\'s A, at the hypothetical 0 fret, you have E.

Certainly learn the major and minor scales as well, and then go from there and learn to combine and run up the fretboard.

That\'s the simple explanation, and a good intro to guitar and music theory.

I\'ll just link a few resources here.

This is a reverse chord finder, which can certainly be a help. Also on the website is a circle of fifths app, scale finder, reverse scale finder, a metronome, transposer (changing songs to different keys) and various other useful things. Certainly helps to keep

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/chord_name.php

This is a very clear video tutorial series on various technical aspects of guitar playing

Here\'s a little tutorial op open chord shapes

http://www.guitarhabits.com/10-ways-to-play-the-most-beautiful-open-chord-shapes/

And certainly find people to play with as soon as you can, even if all you\'re doing all day is playing the blues in A, you\'ll learn a ton.

[Ydoow]

Wowzers, there\'s a lot more to scales than I thought.

I\'ll definitely have to start learning more about them. I unintentionally started playing guitar with one of my friends (who\'s moving in bass) and immediately realized how much quicker I learned things, and how much more fun it was; so that was an accidental blessing.

Question: Do the pentatonic scales slide up and down the fretboard, or do they change as you move around?

i.e. Would the A Major or A Minor scale fingering look the same further down the fretboard at the root of C?

Or do things change up as you move around?

[comradephil]

Wowzers, there\'s a lot more to scales than I thought.

I\'ll definitely have to start learning more about them. I unintentionally started playing guitar with one of my friends (who\'s moving in bass) and immediately realized how much quicker I learned things, and how much more fun it was; so that was an accidental blessing.

Question: Do the pentatonic scales slide up and down the fretboard, or do they change as you move around?

i.e. Would the A Major or A Minor scale fingering look the same further down the fretboard at the root of C?

Or do things change up as you move around?

Yes and no. You can play the pentatonic scale shape at any fret you like and it will be a pentatonic scale because the intervals are right, but then you can also play a pentatonic scale on one string if you like, or two, or move up and down the whole length of the fretboard, which is what I\'m doing partly in that particular piece of music. Definitely just learn the root notes first and play your scale from there and then start figuring that out though. You can do amazing sounding things by just staying within the same area of fretboard too.