how the fuck did this guy know how to play songs or even play any music at all if he didn't even know how to read music or recite notes and chords back to you? how the hell would he know what he is playing?
>>60731958
Just memorize what you did. How hard is that?
Thats because music theory kills your creativity.
>>60731978
truuuu
>>60731958
He actually communicated with his band live using a series of facial gestures; you can look it up right now
i mean he's considered one of the best for a reason...............
Such a cool clothing style.
western music theory is one way of understanding music, not the only way
he likely understood many of the concepts practised in western music theory, just not by the names they have been given there
>>60731973
>>60731978
but how was he able to play a song without not ever learning to play any chords, scales, notes, etc? how was he able to take a song and make play it in his own version? ie: killing floor, like a rolling stone, all along the watch tower, etc? were all the chords he played all made up by himself?
>>60732033
not any of those people, but most likely
>>60732006
its shite and cringy
>>60731958
I don't either, it's called playing by ear.
>>60731978
>>60731989
To an extent yes, it does. When you become aware of the rules of music it can lead to a paint-by-numbers approach to it, which kills the art involved in it.
I don't think that people should be ignorant of theory. They should learn it, and then learn how to throw it away when they need to.
>>60732056
how was he able to learn to play certain chords though just by hearing someone play it in a song?
>>60731958
>this is how theorywankers actually think
i almost feel bad, but mostly i feel good not to be you
Your dont need music theory to be a good musician. Its a good thing to have knowledge of, but you can play by ear and by "feeling it" and be great, like Hendrix did.
>>60732069
>how was he able to learn to play certain chords though just by hearing someone play it in a song?
It doesn't come to people who are unlearned. And in general it takes a lot of playing around while listening to the music to get what the musician is doing.
I've done it before with easy songs and stuff I've found by accident.
>>60732069
you're a musical robot
>>60732069
His version of All Along The Watchtower doesn't even use the same chords...
>>60732084
okay, but without someone showing you where to place your fingers or reading in a book where to place them to play the e chord, how are you supposed to just "learn it" by ear?
>>60732131
>how are you supposed to just "learn it" by ear?
By listening to it and playing along to it. Eventually when playing and writing a lot of music you will learn the ability to pick up on things intuitively.
>>60732131
by, like, listening with your ear and experimenting
>>60732155
I can understand hearing a few chords being played slowly right after each other and eventually finding the finger placements to repeat it, but how do you learn to play it when an entire song is being played at normal speed?
>>60732131
some people just have it, man.
>>60732033
you got a source saying he didn't know any chords, scales or notes? that sounds impossible
>>60732191
Hendrix was that good. There's a reason he's considered one of the greatest guitar players ever.
>>60732191
>how do people learn scales and chords without knowing what they are?
They're mathematical patterns. Every musician knows them or is at least, able to understand them.
There are entire genres founded on people that did not know any theory and "played by ear" because they were untrained.
>>60731958
jimi's music is theorethically very simple.
you can play most of the songs structurally after 30 mins of practice.
he just knew which notes he could use in any of them, knew a couple of scales extremely well all across the neck. he wasnt that good in improvising over complicated chord progressions, at least, he never did it. He was just so amazingly good expressively.
he wouldve learned much more and wouldve gone way beyond the simple structures of his songs up until then if he hadnt died. baka.
>>60732191
>>60732131
>>60732069
>>60732033
>>60731958
>I've never played an instrument
>I don't have a basic understanding of what it's like to play music
>I'm totally musically incompetent
>>60732226
he didn't say chords actually, but he said he couldnt play any notes thats why he always messed up
>http://youtu.be/6gwLQAuHJv8
>>60732276
correct actually
>>60732291
Oh boy you're in deep water, you know that?
>>60732302
just trying to learn how to play some guitar, m8
>>60732311
When you get out of covers and start writing music you'll pretty much move past theory.
I don't even know what the hell I'm playing most of the time since I write lots of stuff in atypical tunings and there's no documentation on which chords or notes I'm playing, I just know they sound good.
>>60732356
so jimi without having someone show him, or reading in a book, how to play any chords, scales, notes, riffs, etc. was able to find a way to play them by listening to someone on stage play them or hearing it on the radio/record and just testing out different finger placements all over the neck (probably thousands of different ways) until he finally found out how to do it? also, he was then able to play them back by memorizing them and his finger placement without knowing the name of the chord he was actually playing?
>>60732277
what he actually says is that it's hard for him to remember notes, so your thread is really based on nothing
>>60732390
Yes.
It gets a lot easier with practice too.
I've had times where I've written some words down on a piece of paper, picked up a guitar, and almost instantly had some sort of melody that fit it.
If you play along to stuff and have learned enough chords or scales you'll soon develop the skills to look for the sort of ratios they're using and match that.
It might not be exact either, Jimi's version of All Along The Watchtower doesn't use the same chord positions as Dylan's, but then again neither does Ritchie Haven's.
>>60732390
you're making a pretty big leap in assuming he didn't ever read a book or observe someone else playing the instrument.
I'm sure Hendrix knew plenty of practical music theory even if he never took lessons and I'm pretty sure he knew shit like names of notes and basic chords and scales.
This just sounds a lot like "This guy never took grammar lessons, how the fuck is he able to speak a language." to me. It's perfectly possible to intuitively learn to play music without formal theory studies.
>>60732291
>>60732311
You have no future in music if you have this much of a problem understanding it.
>>60732441
ya, but he was never taught how to play any chords or scales, so how was he able to know how to play them if someone asked him to?
>>60732446
He might have known it and wanted to play it his way instead.
Its not that hard to know what notes sound good without any concept of theory.
You can sing a melody to any 5 year old and they can add a part to it in key.
>>60732425
yeah, he's basically just saying that he approaches music by jamming and improvising instead of composing passages that he can replicate note for note
>>60731958
nah he knew his shit
You can hear on the Live At Monterey album he makes a joke about performing Can You See Me in f-sharp. He realized he was out by a semitone. a musically inept person wouldn't know that
>>60732702
so he probably knew all his tabs and chords, right?
>>60732702
but he says here that he doesn't remember notes
>http://youtu.be/6gwLQAuHJv8
>>60733487
which obviously in that context doesn't mean he wouldn't know what an f-sharp is
>>60733543
how would it not?
For the first 5 years of my guitar playing life i wrote songs without knowing any theory. I deleted most of the stuff but some things i liked were kept on my hard drive. Then i learnt about scaley, keys, progressions, harmony and stuff. Then i went back to check the chord progressions and melodies in my old stuff and all of them were right in terms of theory. (they were in-key, using well known progressions, simple chords and simple scales etc.)
So i guess you can "feel" theory without knowing it. The only thing that is changed since then is that now i don't have to jam for hours to find the next good sounding chord or melody because nowadays i can easiliy limit myself to the few good sounding choices via knowing theory, also i don't even need an instrument anymore to write music, i would say guitar can be even harmful in some ways (some chords and scales are easier to reach or play than others so it kinda limits you in the wrong way while knowing theory limits you in the right way)
>>60733415
well, say you wanted to hire a studio guitarist to perform your composition by the book; you'd probably be better off hiring a classically trained player rather than someone like hendrix.
>>60733487
Isn't he just saying he can't repeat his music note for note. I don't think remembering chord sequences was an issue
This thread is embarrassing. Seriously.
>>60733841
isn't that horrible, then? if he can't play the exact same song chord for chord and scale for scale?
>>60731993
do u got a link for that bro i cant find shit idk what to search
>>60732475
he wouldnt be able to.
>>60732069
If you spend enough time with your instrument and have a good ear you can start to figure this stuff out. Some people, like Hendrix, are/were naturally good at understanding music and the guitar.
one of the worst threads i've ever seen.
hendrix wasn't untutored- he just wasn't classically trained. he was shown how to play by other guitarists and played as a backing musician on the blues and r&b circuit before he became famous. he didn't know how to read music, but he definitely knew theory- he understood the relationships between notes and chords.
i would say that the vast majority of pop and rock musicians can't read music, but they understand theory. even if they can't articulate it in a sophisticated way, they know it, much in the same way that an illiterate person can still talk even if they don't totally understand the rules that govern speech.
>>60737077
but how would he forget how to play notes if that was the case?
>>60737077
so what do you think he was taught by others, and what was self taught?
>>60732056
did the beatles know theory?
>>60731958
Black magic
>>60732118
Right. He knew the intervals and picked a key that fit his voice/ sounded good to jam in.
>>60737734
Though I'm no Beatles historian, they had to have known theory much more than hendrix's instinctual playing. Their sound is much more classical and refined.
>>60731978
yes, people who didn't know music theory like The Ramones were way more creative than someone like Frank Zappa
hendrix understood the caged system, that's like... his thing. he used it everywhere.
other than that most of his lead playing is pentatonic/blues memery, so it's not like anything he did was extremely complicated.
>>60738291
>single-handedly introduces tapping into rock
>nothing complicated
you gotta put it in context son
>>60731958
he had lots of pedals
>>60731958
"Musically, "freak out" (psychedelic) is almost like playing wrong notes. It's playing the opposite notes to what you think the notes should be. If you hit it right with the right amount of feedback, it can come up very nice. It's like playing the wrong notes seriously, dig? It's a lot of Fun."
-Hendrix
I agree with him, it is really fun OP, you should try it some time. But seriously that's how you do that because of music theory things like Polychords or Polytonality you can play anything you want to and still have it work with music theory.
>>60737734
yes, it's pretty obvious just from the progressions they used in their early career that they had at least a basic understanding of how they work, they most certainly understood how to structure a pop song.
>>60738361
are you trying to ruse me or something
>>60737876
they had George Martin
>>60738361
That's a Yardbirds thing, it's on Rodger the Engineer, I forget which track.
>>60732291
Why are you asking these questions then? I never learned how to read musical notation but I know 400 songs and have made up dozens. I've gotten paid for playing music and I couldn't tell you how long a half note is.
>>60738497
george martin mostly did the arrangements for all the strings and horns they put in songs
ITT: non-musicians
