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Old February 24th, 2005
Kirk Lorange's Avatar
Kirk Lorange Kirk Lorange is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2004
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Location: Tamborine Mountain, Australia
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Hi kjgam1.

You will find, the more you play, that all styles of music keep using those same twelve notes and using underlying structures that fit certain molds ... the difference in style becomes more a question of feel, rhythm etc. So in that sense, just keep plugging away at learning as many tunes as you can and make an effort to analyze them all as you go. Every element of every song you will ever play can be classified according to its relationship to the whole ... that may sound opaque and mysterious to you right now, but it's true.

Practice what you like to play, but always take care to try new things. My dad was a great example of the opposite: I taught him "Forbidden Games" once and he learned it note for note and could play it perfectly, but he only ever learned that one piece. He had no idea about anything else.

As you practice (I prefer to simply see it as 'playing'), make sure you pull yourself up any time you flub something. Any little smudge on the overall sound should be investigated and corrected. There's nothing more harmful than to keep playing the same mistakes over and over. If you can hear something's not working right, fix it, change the whole way you attack it if necessary.


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