In my old age I seem to be forgetting chords! Basic Major and minor are mostly all in my mind somewhere, but everything else - gone!
It hadn't particularly occurred to me until recently, but I rarely seem to play chords on guitar. For many years now my playing has either been endless terrible widdling over backing tracks, or learning a melody line to play over a song backing track. On the occasions that I knock up my own backing tracks I tend to do all the chords stuff on keyboards. Acoustic guitar has been on the backburner for years, but with that I was usually working out fingerpicking arrangements for songs rather than strumming away with chords.
For some reason at the weekend I dug out a music book and I found myself stumbling terribly over anything but basic chords. I think I maybe need to go back to basics, but it feels like it will be a bit of a chore. To be honest, that kind of playing hasn't been necessary, nor interested me for many years. Not sure whether to bother or not.
Anyone else play mostly single notes instead of chords? I get the feeling it's probably just me!
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is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
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There's a lovely film interview with BB King where he says he never learned to play chords and then he plays some amazing Quintette de Hotclub style rhythm 'yep, never learned any of that kind of thing.' Played piano and drums, could sing like an angel - not great with money though. I think he certainly understood at least a reasonable amount of theory, he could play over chord changes other than standard blues ones. If you listen to Freddie King, for example, he clearly struggled live over anything other than standard blues changes.
So, in sound bite terms you could say “Roland doesn’t use chords much”. In reality I’m constantly thinking in diads and triads, and asking myself if I should use a different inversion. I even do this when playing riffs. Even when playing lead I’m thinking about how what I’m playing harmonises or counterpoints what the rest of the band are playing. So it’s all chordal, and I only use single note lines for fills.
Feedback : https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/58125/
I'm a fan of using different tunings to get my brain into a different space - it can be really inspirational.