The Guitar Scale (Part One)
As you’ll soon find out, these posts are designed to push you to the next level. So what level are you on? Let’s take a look at where you stand in your guitar expertise or, ahem, lack thereof. For your amusement, I’ve created a scale that you can use to establish where your skill level lies. Whether you’re a guitar novice or a seasoned shredder, the great thing about the Guitar Scale (pun intended) is that all of us, no matter what style of music we play, started out at the same stage and moved our way slowly up the food chain. Before I go spitting out any more truisms, here’s the Guitar Scale:
Stage One: These are the newbies. The members of this stage have more in common in their playing ability and in their common goals than any other members of any of the following stages. If you’re at a party and you find a member of stage one with a guitar in hand, you can recognize them immediately because nothing musical is coming out of the instrument they are holding. If a member of this stage made an album, there would be one song which wouldn’t sound like a song at all. It would be entirely unrecognizable, it would probably begin at the one-minute mark, and it would contain nothing but a few string-buzzing chords or constipated notes. Most prominent of all, you would hear an unnatural amount of silence. Stage Onesies are just starting their musical journey, and they are making leaps and bounds with the application of every new technique, however painful to the fingers (and ears).
Stage Two: If a member of stage two made an album, it would sound strikingly similar to a song or riff you’ve heard before. Although it seems as though the song is playing time to that of a metronome on crack, it sounds vaguely familiar, but you just can’t place it. When you get to track two, the same buzzing strings and indecisive tempo are there, but a light bulb sometimes goes off and you recognize the tune. Because it sounds just like the song before.
Stage Three: The members of stage three can be personified by that guy from your freshman year in college who sat around campus using his guitar mostly as an aphrodisiac. The members of stage three can play a handful of songs, or should I say that they are capable of playing recognizable portions of songs and (perhaps) they have begun branching out and writing songs of their own, these songs sounding remarkably like one of the few in their repertoire. Although the songs aren’t played fluently from start to finish, the riffs or chord progressions are recognizable, even if they’re in the wrong order.
More to come . . .
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