Help! any one who helps will be remembered when Im famous

[riffmaster]

No seriously, Im a new member, and not very good at typing, but i have a question, well a thousand questions. Im new to practicing guitar, ive played since I was about 16 but on and off ,and I am now 31 and in that time i have learned 5 cowboy chords and downstroked eveything. Recently i have had new neighbors move in , both play drums one also plays base the other keyboard. It rekindled my love for music that layed dormant for so long. so i brought back out my guitar for the last six months have spent 6 hours a day practicing and have acomplished so much. My problem I do everything by ear and will not play covers, i have tought myself using my own system , may be backwards but my own, i thought i should start by just concentrating on shapes and patterns to build up my finger independance, i figured how do you play anything if you physicaly cant perform the movments , now im ready to learn where to play, my dilemma is i have come to the conclusion after years of slow progress with learning the fret board i may be highly adhd or add . So this is where i beg of your help. There are so many publications out there it can be overwheling for some one like me. Right now my question is i want to learn a scale in all its positions across the neck,and want to know what key i should learn it in C or E or ?? my influences are JP, Joe s., Steve M., Paul G and ect. I love progressive music., If you were to concentrate on one and knowing what my interest are what would you suggest. Thanks for your time.

 

[Meedleyx10]

As a professional musician/music student/teacher....I'd say your question is a bit difficult to answer given the limitations you are placing on yourself.

I'll put it this way....I would reccomend starting with C. You need to follow through with a lot of other stuff though for that to really amount to much. What I would reccomend, irrespective of the info you've given, is:

-get a teacher. Don't think it's too late for lessons or that you can't teach an old dog new tricks (figuratively I mean...31 is not old). You're going to want to get a grasp on some basic theory (very basic that is....just basic chord and scale construction so that you, on your own accord, can begin to apply these things)
-Pick up the instructional material available from the players you mentioned. Petrucci's Rock Discipline is full of great, simple excersises that are highly beneficial whether you are starting from day one or are a seasoned pro. Gilbert's videos (the "intense rock" series I believe they are called) are very similar. I don't think he teaches it as well as Petrucci does, but it's good stuff nonetheless. Morse's stuff has some more challenging material in there, but it'd be something to work up to. Seeing your favorite players doing and teaching what they do best can be quite inspiring and is a huge practice-enforcing tool.
-Pick up the "guitar grimoire: scales and modes" book. What this book does is layout every scale you'd ever need in every key all over the fretboard using diagrams, so it's very accessible. What it doesn't do is offer much in the way of how to apply them. I'm VERY big on things being applied to practical playing situations...but given what you've told us, I think it would be a big step just to get the information to you in an available and accessible manner. Your ear will do a lot of the guiding anyway.

 

[riffmaster]

gri

As a professional musician/music student/teacher....I'd say your question is a bit difficult to answer given the limitations you are placing on yourself.

I'll put it this way....I would reccomend starting with C. You need to follow through with a lot of other stuff though for that to really amount to much. What I would reccomend, irrespective of the info you've given, is:

-get a teacher. Don't think it's too late for lessons or that you can't teach an old dog new tricks (figuratively I mean...31 is not old). You're going to want to get a grasp on some basic theory (very basic that is....just basic chord and scale construction so that you, on your own accord, can begin to apply these things)
-Pick up the instructional material available from the players you mentioned. Petrucci's Rock Discipline is full of great, simple excersises that are highly beneficial whether you are starting from day one or are a seasoned pro. Gilbert's videos (the "intense rock" series I believe they are called) are very similar. I don't think he teaches it as well as Petrucci does, but it's good stuff nonetheless. Morse's stuff has some more challenging material in there, but it'd be something to work up to. Seeing your favorite players doing and teaching what they do best can be quite inspiring and is a huge practice-enforcing tool.
-Pick up the "guitar grimoire: scales and modes" book. What this book does is layout every scale you'd ever need in every key all over the fretboard using diagrams, so it's very accessible. What it doesn't do is offer much in the way of how to apply them. I'm VERY big on things being applied to practical playing situations...but given what you've told us, I think it would be a big step just to get the information to you in an available and accessible manner. Your ear will do a lot of the guiding anyway.

 

[Jack FFR1846]

You don't have to "perform" covers of songs, but playing other people's stuff will expose you to different ways of playing. You can then take those techniques and use them as you will for your own stuff.

What should you learn to play? Go look around youtube for songs you like and add the words "guitar lesson" at the end of the song name. Chances are pretty good that you'll find stuff you would have fun playing. Like you....I played very little for a long time. My son taking guitar lessons starting in January sparked me to start and seeing a youtube lesson had me really going once again. I play maybe 3 hours a day and have picked up far more than back when I was in High School gigging at block parties and playing all the time.

jack