Guitar Fretboard Geometry

[TH]

I think you should learn whatever method fits your style of learning.

Ok I missed this post then, but what are those other ways? I'm curious.

There are lots of ways to learn, and yes there are some ways people learn that are natural but sometimes a method is not the most conducive for learning the skills of an improvisor.
For example, maybe someone has always learned inductively, from exactly what someone has told them to do. I've had students that fear taking the initiative, but they have learned visual/motor skills that have taught them that music is the product of eye to hand coordination. The ear is the distant third element. Their strengths of reading make improvisation very disconcerting.

There are those that believe that music is a matter of efficient kinesthetic training. I've had students that had amazing chops for fast passages but couldn't tell whether they had a relationship with stated or implied harmonic structure. For these students, speed and proficiency eclipses the foresight and global awareness that is essential to spontaneous composition, not to mention the necessary adherence to a song form.

There are those that learn hand patterns specific to a set of particular chord symbols, but when confronted with the possibility of changing to a new area of the fingerboard, or a new key entirely, find it impossible. A chord symbol carries with it an extremely finite but comfortable set of options. These students tend to play a very similar solo each time on pieces in similar keys.

All this is to say that we have styles of learning that we may tend towards, but the process of learning and practicing can be, by nature, one of forcing one's self outside of the native learning style to perceive in a different way or style. When our own styles enable us to construct attitudes of comfort and security that are counter to a different mode of awareness, then sometimes the demands of creative thinking are at times counter to the tendencies of our own "style."

Pattern playing, if it's a habit that precludes the active participation of the aural awareness, and anticipatory intention, can be the means by which one is trapped in an essentially non-musical preoccupation. It goes, but it's not going anywhere.

Yes there are other ways, aural pattern recognition, learning to play and respond by ear. This is a tradition that has always been strong in jazz particularly at its inception. In folk music, in any music where music comes from the response to sound. Sometimes this is called sound before sight.

There are ways music can be learned in association with movement. Folk cultures that have a strong link with dance can effortlessly negotiate very "complex" rhythms, 11/8 , 13/8 etc because it's movement and dance based. People who use Balkan and middle eastern music as influences find a knowledge of dances very helpful.

There are ways that music can be created around a contextual or semantic inspiration. Orchestrating the literary, or a story line. I once watched Kurt Rosenwinkel play in a bar with a TV. Instead of being distracted or annoyed by the visual stimuli, he watched the show and played to the narrative over the changes. The dramatic curve of his playing was uncanny.
Listen to some good lyrical players, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Paul Desmond, and you can hear a sense of architecture that transcends mere notes played in a pattern.

Just some ideas worth considering.
David

[hot ford coupe]

I love threads like this one. This is how I've managed to learn so much from the best of you.

I also agree with those who say that learning the music over visual pattern is the better way to go. I use patterns some times but I use them like I use tab. Personally, I prefer standard notation. I'm working on my sight reading and musical understanding. I use tab only to see where the particular player is on the fretboard and how he/she has voiced certain chords. That helps me avoid many odd, clunky fingering in favor (hopefully) of a more efficiaent way to interpret the notation. By the same token, I use patterns only as a quick "go to" tool. The geometry is only a memory jogger and not my way of learning chords, tunes, etc. The pattern helps but before I use a pattern, I try to understand what's going on musically within it. I think I'm going in the right direction. If I'm not, feel free to push me into another one.

[ottocat]

I feel compelled to write on this subject . Mind you I have a radical approach I've started using . I humbly offer an opinion.
I started messing with altered tunings ,playing slide on my lap. Inspired by the many amazing guitarists in India . I fiddled and fiddled . Pretty soon I started noticing on one string whatever chord I was playing over had the same stacked intervals . Maj. min. dim and have just started fiddling with aug.
So I said to myself , why not pitch the guitar in standard tuning and start playing my regular stuff on my lap ala Thumbs Carlisle ?
I spoke about this on another forum , someone mentioned the Mick Goodrick thing , figuring out chord tones on one string . Hey I invented a wheel that a reputable teacher recommends .
I find I can see the fretboard better on my lap , I can stretch my fingers further covering more and larger intervals on one string , plus use my thumb. Which gives me and extra finger on the fretboard .
I find that I'm not so much playing meaningless patterns . I can see the 1,3,5,7, on each string . Now that I see them ,I am hearing them before I play them . I am starting to see and hear the 2,4,6,9,11,and13's
So I guess what I'm saying is seeing helped me hear . On my lap made me slow down and actually compose my improv , Instead of running scale x over chord y . I feel my rhythm has improved , I'm playing more melodically.
With everything I've done I feel my ears are way better , and there is more nuance to what I play . I'm finally doing and playing something different than the crowd . Even though every player I hear just about is "better" than me . Been at it 8 months .
I'm still questioning my sanity . Thought I add something to think about.