Author: Richard Bates

I love gigging! To perform live in front of an appreciative crowd with my band mates is where I feel most at home. Whether it be at a rock concert or an intimate wedding, it’s what I was born to do. As a teacher I actively encourage students to seek other, like-minded musicians at their level to start performing amongst a group with the pressures and stresses of a live performance. The benefits of performing as a growing musician are endless including a better musical awareness and getting used to those pre-match nerves. Musicians come to appreciate and understand what it takes to play other instruments too as they rehearse with a varied arrangement of instruments. This, intern, develops songwriting too as they come to understand an instruments limitations regarding timbre and note range.

I started performing at a young age at school with some performances best left forgotten. But, as I developed a love for the guitar so did the urge to play more and more live. Yeah, sure it was nerve-racking when I first sat in front of the kids and parents of the whole school year I was in at the time. And sure, I may have almost fell off my seat but half way through the first verse I forgot where I was and I was casually jogging through the song I had rehearsed for months. Now I have been playing for 19 years or so (is it really that long… ehem… OLD!) Performing is a breeze whether it be a concert full of paying fans, supporting a mega band, or playing a happy couple down the isle.

My advice to any guitarist is to put yourself out there for all to see, mistakes and all. It’s great to record a video for youtube a million times over to get it perfect but nowhere near as satisfying as doing it live where you can get instant audience feedback. In this day and age it’s becoming easier and easier to do with the emergence of “going live” on Facebook and other such functions on social medias. I don’t believe in spending all that time and effort to become good at something to not show the world. Show yourself off you “never to leave the bedroom player”… Oh and do it live!

R.

At the beginning of my guitar playing, theory took a backseat to playing riffs as I worked solely on the physical side of playing the guitar. Being a young, naive sort of dude I never wanted to learn that namby-pamby scale theory. Now, with the wonders of hindsight in mind, I wonder what I would understand now if I had given a Monkeys about theory back then. Even though I was oblivious to it, or just plain idle, I believe students at the earliest stages of learning any instrument should give it a go. My dad once said “Do as I say, not as I do”. So learn from my errors in judgment and familiarise ones self with a bit of theory to help with the maze of learning music. Here’s the basic structure of a Major scale to get you going.

Forgive me for assuming you understand that notes are named after the first 7 letters of the alphabet A B C D E F G. The distance between these notes vary from note to note and are measured by things called Tones (2 frets on the guitar) and Semitones (1 fret). If we begin with the letter C (A3 on the guitar) and ascend by a tone we should arrive at a D (A5). Say if we wanted to ascend by a semitone from the same C note we should arrive at a C# (A4). See Figure 1.

A major scale is constructed with a finite combination of Tones and Semitones to create the familiar ‘happy’ feel. That combination goes T-T-S-T-T-T-S. Beginning with C again, ascend a Tone to D, and again a Tone to E, a Semitone to F, a Tone to G, a Tone to A, a Tone to B and finally a Semitone back to C. See Figure 2.

There you have it, the construction of a major scale that can start on any note you like to create any major scale. It’s funny to think the melodies, chords & harmonies that make the world of music as diverse and as beautifully formed as it is can start with such simple beginnings such as a major scale. Keep learning and experimenting.

I consider myself a very lucky man to have a job in the field I am in. What started as a hobby as a young boy has taken over my world and without it, I wonder what I would be doing or where I would be now without music. As I recall from my university days, and even school too, not many have had the drive to stick it out and really do something they love as a career. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been an easy journey and still isn’t now as my career takes new paths through the musical world. I wanted to share with students and developing musicians alike my experience (and maybe a couple of words of wisdom) to inspire and hopefully keep you all heading in the right direction towards your dreams.

One of the most important things I have learnt over the years of performing, teaching and other such things us musicians do (and thats not just getting up late in the afternoon) is to be a Chameleon. We all have our favourite musical styles and techniques we like to play and listen to, mine are too embarrassing to mention. But learning other, maybe not quite desirable styles and exploring different musical ventures can really benefit you in a big way. I have many students at the moment going through the motions of GCSE and A level music and the attitude is – If its not metal, it’s not music! It’s great to be able to smash sweep arpeggios out at 300bpm, or play every Metallica song under the sun but all I see that achieving is a million views on youtube and eventually a Metallica tribute band. To a professional working band looking for a new guitarist, this stuff is futile. They’re probably going to be after a musician to sit in the pervertible pocket as it were. A guitarist that understands that sometimes it’s what you choose not to play that counts. I suggest, along-side your Metallica studies (if that’s what makes you happy) try something totally out of your comfort zone to really stretch your musical abilities. Maybe in doing so you might find something you like within a different genre and I guarantee you’ll discover something new for your technical ability bag of tricks.

If, at all, you’re into watching youtube videos of guitarists doing there ‘thang’ then you may have well come across some of these names before but if not try checking out players such as Derek Trucks, John Patrucci and my man Guthrie Govan. They have majorly different styles but equally as impressive in their fields.

So why not grab that technicolour dream coat of musical versatility and stretch your abilities. Thats it from me, back to my Metallica studies. R.