Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 All my tutors flew the coop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 What could possibly be more important than Alex and his guitar? :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleMoon Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 A lot of people here talk about "riffs". Is that something specific? Or just a fancy thing to say instead of chords?It's a definitive set of notes. Like the intro to Limelight, or the hard rock part of TSoR. To me a riff is a melody played on guitar. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tas7 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Lorraine, an arpeggio is where you fret a chord and play the individual strings back and forth. My favourite of Alex's is at the beginning of La Villa Strangiato after the classical guitar bit, a full six string arpeggio. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 La Villa is a good place to illustrate some of those terms. After the classical guitar into, the electric guitar comes in playing that looping, fluid pattern. Alex is holding down a single chord shape, but he's picking the individual notes found in that chord shape. An arpeggio is when you play the constituent notes of a chord rather than sounding them all at once. There you go, Lorraine. For example, an E chord is one that involves all six strings- to 'arpeggiate' that chord would be to play each strung individually in succession, rather than strumming all six at once. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Lorraine, an arpeggio is where you fret a chord and play the individual strings back and forth. My favourite of Alex's is at the beginning of La Villa Strangiato after the classical guitar bit, a full six string arpeggio. Ha! Beat me to it. I never type quickly enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tas7 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 (edited) And the beautiful thing about the arpeggio in La Villa is letting the open D and G strings ring subtley. Edited January 7, 2015 by tas7 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Lorraine, an arpeggio is where you fret a chord and play the individual strings back and forth. My favourite of Alex's is at the beginning of La Villa Strangiato after the classical guitar bit, a full six string arpeggio.It sounds like they are going down in notes after he sounds the first two. Am I listening to the right thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tas7 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Lorraine, in tab an arpeggio looks like a wave of notes with the chord being written above it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 And to think he was a kid when he wrote La Villa. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tas7 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Another beautiful use of arpeggios is Different Strings. Another thing I learnt from Alex is the use of suspended/augmented chords; Discovery off 2112, Fountain of Llamneth, Witch Hunt. A friend of mine who plays keyboard and is classically trained used to ask me in amazement what chord I was playing, 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Another beautiful use of arpeggios is Different Strings. Another thing I learnt from Alex is the use of suspended/augmented chords; Discovery off 2112, Fountain of Llamneth, Witch Hunt. A friend of mine who plays keyboard and is classically trained used to ask me in amazement what chord I was playing,I love Different Strings. Are you talking about the very beginning of the song? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tas7 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 (edited) No, the immediate intro is chordal using thirds but the verse is an arpeggio with a moving bass line. Jacob's Ladder is arpeggio laden at the beginning. Edited January 7, 2015 by tas7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 When I think of riffs I mainly think of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and the like. Songs like "Whole Lotta Love" or "T.N.T." Are based on extremely prominent riffs which are the main theme of the songs. I suppose that's not the definition of riffage, but I don't think those examples in particular are debateable on whether or not they're riffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 How did Alex learn all of this without ever having a guitar lesson or studying music? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleMoon Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 How did Alex learn all of this without ever having a guitar lesson or studying music? I thought he said he did study classical music at one point. A lot of rock musicians are self taught. One of the running jokes about guitarists is that one way to scare one off is the place a piece of music in front of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bathory Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Geddy said he is a very emotional person, and his playing shows that. Is that why his playing is able to touch others on an emotional level? Or would he be able to do that even if he wasn't putting himself into his playing? That's hard to say for sure, since different people like different things. Guitarists like Yngwie, John Petrucci or Nuno Bettencourt throw a bunch of notes out there and impress people with their speed but I don't think that's the same kind of emotional level that Alex brings out in people.Whoever Yngwie, Petrucci and Bettencourt are, I have no idea. I'm trying to remember if I ever encountered a guitarist who had the same affect on me but I do not recall any. Does Pink Floyd's guitarist do anything for you? He's like Alex in some ways.No. If you want to know the truth, I dislike Pink Floyd intensely. Always did. Even back when they first appeared. I always felt they were a rip-off of earlier bands. I don't care that you dislike floyd, a lot of their stuff puts me to sleep if I'm not in the mood for it or just plain sucks (I still love a great deal of their work), but who exactly do you think floyd ripped off? they were putting out records before any of the other prog groups 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 How did Alex learn all of this without ever having a guitar lesson or studying music? It's entirely possible, tons of musicians do it that way in all sorts of genres. Music has existed much longer than the study and notation of it after all. Generally the way to do that would be to spend lots and lots and lots of time listening to a variety of other players, whether they play your instrument or not, and learn to sound like they do. By picking up different ways of playing from a variety of other players one can then (hopefully) craft his or her own sound from pieces of others' sounds as well as one's own creative and innovative ideas and habits. Also, by learning to imitate other players, one's own skill level should increase greatly until one reaches the point where they feel a sense of freedom on the instrument to create and play whatever they like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 I genuinely appreciate the time and patience that everyone here took in answering my questions. It must be exasperating having to explain something intricate like music to someone who doesn't even know the very basics. :cheers: :cheers: :cheers: :hug2: 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 How did Alex learn all of this without ever having a guitar lesson or studying music? It's entirely possible, tons of musicians do it that way in all sorts of genres. Music has existed much longer than the study and notation of it after all. Generally the way to do that would be to spend lots and lots and lots of time listening to a variety of other players, whether they play your instrument or not, and learn to sound like they do. By picking up different ways of playing from a variety of other players one can then (hopefully) craft his or her own sound from pieces of others' sounds as well as one's own creative and innovative ideas and habits. Also, by learning to imitate other players, one's own skill level should increase greatly until one reaches the point where they feel a sense of freedom on the instrument to create and play whatever they like.But if they don't know scales or notes, how do they write it down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILSnwdog Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 What's an arpeggio?It's a delicious italian dish. I had it last week at the Olive Garden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 How did Alex learn all of this without ever having a guitar lesson or studying music? It's entirely possible, tons of musicians do it that way in all sorts of genres. Music has existed much longer than the study and notation of it after all. Generally the way to do that would be to spend lots and lots and lots of time listening to a variety of other players, whether they play your instrument or not, and learn to sound like they do. By picking up different ways of playing from a variety of other players one can then (hopefully) craft his or her own sound from pieces of others' sounds as well as one's own creative and innovative ideas and habits. Also, by learning to imitate other players, one's own skill level should increase greatly until one reaches the point where they feel a sense of freedom on the instrument to create and play whatever they like.But if they don't know scales or notes, how do they write it down? Simple. They don't! Self-taught players pretty much have to have a great ear. In other words they can hear a musical idea and play it back on their own instrument (or sing it back, which is generally easier and most people can do) with little hesitation, few mistakes (and when they do make a mistake they can instantly recognize it), and no sheet music to look off of. Written music is a great tool for sharing musical ideas, especially complex and confusing ones, but it's not nor has it ever been the only way. Also, not having much musical training doesn't necessarily mean one can't recognize scales or possibly even the basic note names. Really, what they don't know terminology-wise, they understand in musical language (not words, literally music). All art is a form of expression, and expression is a form of communication. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILSnwdog Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 I think what sets Alex apart is the fact that he doesn't have a ego. His goal is to craft an amazing song instead of trying to impress with shredding. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleMoon Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 (edited) How did Alex learn all of this without ever having a guitar lesson or studying music? It's entirely possible, tons of musicians do it that way in all sorts of genres. Music has existed much longer than the study and notation of it after all. Generally the way to do that would be to spend lots and lots and lots of time listening to a variety of other players, whether they play your instrument or not, and learn to sound like they do. By picking up different ways of playing from a variety of other players one can then (hopefully) craft his or her own sound from pieces of others' sounds as well as one's own creative and innovative ideas and habits. Also, by learning to imitate other players, one's own skill level should increase greatly until one reaches the point where they feel a sense of freedom on the instrument to create and play whatever they like.But if they don't know scales or notes, how do they write it down? Generally they just memorize the places on the fingerboard. It's pretty obvious that all of the guys have more than a rudimentary knowledge of theory. Even their older songs were crafted in a way that the bass line would be in harmony with the guitar line rather than just playing the root notes. That was probably more Geddy than Alex but the way they intertwined would've been amazing for someone who knew nothing about music. So I have to believe they had more than a basic knowledge of what they were doing even back at the beginning. It's part of what made them better players than say someone like the guys in AC/DC for example. Not to cut AC/DC down, but they play more of a root-based bass line driven kind of music. (oh and Lorraine, the root note of a chord represents the name of the chord-C,D,E...etc) Edited January 8, 2015 by EagleMoon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson90 Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 What a stupid thread who started this sh*t Honestly this forum is going SO downhill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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