[Metal Ken]

Originally Posted by desertdweller

Did you write lyrics for the late 80s christian metal band Tourniquet? They had an album once called "Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance".

Figure that one out.

Virus/Bacteria related eye infection.

I am a fan of older carcass,btw ...
"Excised and anatomised, deviscerated disarray
The torso diverged with pride
Deftly amputated, evulsed limbs now defunct" \m/

[Vince]

Well, that's as close a guess as any

What's with that time period? A lot of bands were trying to use terminology and language that was way over the heads of not just their audiences, but the bandmembers themselves (it seems).

[dpm]

Late '80's, early '90s.
You're not familiar with Carcass, Vince? Purchase "Necrotocism : Descanting the Insalubrious" and "Heartwork" immediately. That's an order!

[Metal Ken]

Originally Posted by desertdweller

Well, that's as close a guess as any

What's with that time period? A lot of bands were trying to use terminology and language that was way over the heads of not just their audiences, but the bandmembers themselves (it seems).

Death metal bands used it as opposed to straight out gore lyrics to be a bit more intelligent ;p

[Ken]

Originally Posted by HateBreeder

Pf, your abstraction of abtruse words and their circumscribed applicability is erroneous ;p
Superflous colloquy is gratifying.

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by WayneCustom7

Thanks DesertDweller and FatherB! Currently I am working on JP's Rock Discipline, I will seek out said book and I'll send you an email to FB soon...

That's a great instructional video.

[Ancestor]

Theory is great. My playing exploded, once I started to really understand what was going on. And, it really isn't all that complicated, when you have a good teacher.

I know all that stuff you mentioned, but I mainly practice what I use. The cool thing about guitar is that once you know one mode in every position, you know them all in every position.

[Shawn]

My brother went to GIT back in '91 with his friend. Aside from hating Hollywood, he had fun out there. When he came back, he had shitloads of books and theory. I learned what I could from those books. It's good to know theory.

[Shannon]

Over the course of 20 years of playing, I've been exposed to plenty of theory. I learned a lot from books, magazines, & college. Here's the clincher though...I didn't spend hours memorizing fingering patterns in every position or every name to every existing scale or chord. When I find some new theory, I'll have my 15-20 minutes of study with it because it's just something new & cool to play. After that, that snippet of info just NATURALLY becomes part of my bag of tricks & I'll use it when the time is right.

The important thing is EAR TRAINING!!! All of this theory doesn't mean a damn thing if you have to think about it too hard. Where's the fun in that? Eventually, you'll get to a point where you're fingers will just know where to go & how to get the desired sound. When I'm composing a solo, I don't say to myself "I'll start with an Eb harmonic minor & then modulate up to a C# Locrian with a raised 7th & a flatted 3rd! Woohoo! Watch me go!" This isn't rocket science we're talking about! It's MUSIC! It's expression! At this point, my ear tells me that this particular fingering pattern or chord shape works well with the rest of the music. Even if I flub a note, I know that making a 1/2 step correction will get me back on track 99.9% of the time. Just let your ears guide you.

I think theory actually intimidates most musicians because it's taking something small & making it way bigger than it really is. There's only 12 notes to work with. I've seen books that say "This book has 20,000 scales & chords for guitar! Learn them all here!" My response to that is, "Who the fuck needs to learn 20,000 scales & chords? And not to mention, who's gonna remember all that?"

So in essence, learn SOME theory, but don't get too caught up in it. Between your ears & muscle memory, the two will eventually take over & your fingers will know where to go. It's good to have the basics down, but in the end, it's all about just playing your guitar & having FUN.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Shannon

I've seen books that say "This book has 20,000 scales & chords for guitar! Learn them all here!" My response to that is, "Who the fuck needs to learn 20,000 scales & chords? And not to mention, who's gonna remember all that?"

Yeah, I hate that shit too, shannon. It's a reductionist approach to music theory as opposed to a holistic one - when you get right down to it, your major diatonic scale and all the related modes aren't 8 different scales, each in turn arranged in 15 or so different ways for a total of like 300 scales you need to learn - it's one scale. It's just how you choose to put the notes together and which ones you choose to emphasize. Saying that there are 20,000 scales in a certain book totally loses sight of the big picture, that a good 60% of those "scales" can be treated as one, and for me that's really the fundamental concept in music theory, that is' not the concepts but the application thereof that's really the basis of an intelligent theoretical approach to music...