Do you know the notes on your fretboard?

Unlike most musicians, we guitar players don’t need to know notes or theory in order to play our instrument. We can play by fret and string numbers, learn from friends, YouTube, tabs, etc…and never understand any underlying musical concepts.

This is an epidemic that has lead to millions of players that are strangely OK with not knowing what they are playing. You may be one of them. Some players, even good ones, actually advocate not trying to understand!

But in any other form of language this would be inconceivable.

Think of it this way: do you know people who will talk confidently about a topic they know nothing about? Of course you do. You’re probably related to a few of them. And I’m not talking about people reading a speech someone else wrote… I’m talking about people who flat out wing it in conversations with no frame of reference whatsoever.

It only makes perfect sense — You shouldn’t talk about surfing when the conversation is about cats. You shouldn’t pretend to know about calculus when you’ve never learned anything past multiplication and division. You just end up looking dumb.

Like this classic Jimmy Kimmel clip of people pretending to know of bands that don’t exist.

Music is the same. Sure, you may have chops for days, and have a bag of hot licks and nasty phrases that you’ve picked up along the way, but you aren’t adding anything meaningful to the conversation. You’re not even considering the harmonic structure. You aren’t even sure what that means. Everyone knows you’re winging it, not listening to anyone else, and un-prepared.

You’re a great BS artist. I know, I was one for years.

Like James Brown says: “You’re talkin’ loud and sayin’ nothing.”

This is why guitar players as a whole have such a terrible reputation. It’s our stereotype, and it’s largely accurate. To other musicians, we are the white noise in Guitar Center.

For Example:

“Soloing” in A minor pentatonic for 2 minutes, regardless of the other chord changes or melody lines, is the same as saying “grits” over and over again when someone asks you how to make shrimp and grits… Yes, there are grits in there. Ok so you proved you are alive and awake… but that’s about it.

And you know it’s true! It’s so rare to hear a guitarist really outline chord changes in their lead playing, that you almost don’t recognize it. You stop and think “what’s that their doing?” You can hear the chord changes even though they’re not playing the chords… that’s the sound of context.

Here are the 3 main problems with not caring to learn musical concepts:

You don’t know why something sounds the way it does. You can’t accurately describe what it is that you like or don’t like. Ultimately, you can’t take intellectual steps to improve communication.

But what about the exceptions? Jimi, Stevie, Eddie, etc..?

Here’s the deal:

Unless you possess phenomenal musical ears, and can precisely and clearly hear the context of musical landscapes, it is extremely difficult to be an effective improviser because you aren’t crafting your leads and melody lines based on the context or subject matter of the piece. Seems obvious doesn’t it? I don’t have ears like that. You probably don’t either.

Bottom line?

If you want to be a musician — not just a guitar player:

Don’t pretend. Learn what to listen for. Learn how to communicate.

Now notice something: I’m not talking about reading music. Musical concepts like theory, melody, and tonality aren’t limited to the written page. In fact, the page limits them. Music concepts are universal, and aren’t instrument or genre specific. The important thing to understand is that the musical landscape is real. The context is real. Embrace it. It won’t hurt you.

Here’s a free Guitargate lesson on beginner improvisation to get started thinking in terms of context. Also, for those who are more advanced, here is a clip from the great Gary Burton who explains this topic better than just about anyone:

And if you want more, I created a whole school dedicated to providing a quality guitar education — and it’s completely free. Check out guitargate.com and learn how to think contextually and improvise like a musician — not just a guitar player :)

Cheers!

Michael Palmisano

CEO and Founder — Guitargate.com

michael.palmisano@guitargate.com