Jethro Rocker
Ambassador of Live & Loud Action
OK here it is.
Dreams of being a rock star and seeing all the cool pictures in Hit Parader.
I started p[laying at 15 in 1978 and I had no desire whatsoever to learn a bunch of crap I didn't want to. My bro already had a drum kit so we could jam once I learned some songs.
They used to have music books of albums back then with chord diagrams above where applicable. Rather than learning random chords and random strumming, I wanted to learn chords in relation to songs I wanted to play. I had to learn the strings (tuned with a pitch pipe) and notes from frets 1 through 3 on all the strings.
I recall starting with KISS (simple enough) Dr, Love partly because each chord STOPPED before the next started making it easier to move from 1 chord to the next on time. It took around 4 days to get the chords down ( no notey runs at all) after school. Remember I had to learn how to place my fingers on the frets and hold down notes without deadening other strings or not pressing hard enough on my uncle's old Supro with flat wound strings.
Here I played along to give it some context and sorta noodled on a solo similar to original. At the time it was just chords.
I cannot recall what the next few songs were, at all. Likely something else off Rock n Roll Over. Did some Cheap Trick and other KISS
Eventually I learned some theory on my own based off piano which I had a small smattering of and when Bar chords hit? Opened up a new world. I never started with power bar chords at all, no one to show them to me. I learned scales and started noodling on solos. Again, I wanted to fasttracj to songs I wanted to play and nothing superfluous.
I think it paid off ultimately.
Dreams of being a rock star and seeing all the cool pictures in Hit Parader.
I started p[laying at 15 in 1978 and I had no desire whatsoever to learn a bunch of crap I didn't want to. My bro already had a drum kit so we could jam once I learned some songs.
They used to have music books of albums back then with chord diagrams above where applicable. Rather than learning random chords and random strumming, I wanted to learn chords in relation to songs I wanted to play. I had to learn the strings (tuned with a pitch pipe) and notes from frets 1 through 3 on all the strings.
I recall starting with KISS (simple enough) Dr, Love partly because each chord STOPPED before the next started making it easier to move from 1 chord to the next on time. It took around 4 days to get the chords down ( no notey runs at all) after school. Remember I had to learn how to place my fingers on the frets and hold down notes without deadening other strings or not pressing hard enough on my uncle's old Supro with flat wound strings.
Here I played along to give it some context and sorta noodled on a solo similar to original. At the time it was just chords.
I cannot recall what the next few songs were, at all. Likely something else off Rock n Roll Over. Did some Cheap Trick and other KISS
Eventually I learned some theory on my own based off piano which I had a small smattering of and when Bar chords hit? Opened up a new world. I never started with power bar chords at all, no one to show them to me. I learned scales and started noodling on solos. Again, I wanted to fasttracj to songs I wanted to play and nothing superfluous.
I think it paid off ultimately.
