Going to combine two of the things I am trying to get better at:
Writing software and playing the guitar.
I am working on some introductory stuff. A lot of the beginner exercises talk about switching between chords so I am going to start there.
I will have a small database of chords and a metronome, that will be the basic program.
my question, for those of you who are experienced and those of you who teach: Is practicing random transitions helpful?
For example, say I throw up the basic major and minor chords and then the program "randomly" chooses two chords and a bpm and you have to keep up (and it would let you rate how you did).
Does that sound like it would be helpful? or are only certain transitions useful to practice.
Thanks for any thoughts.
"I just curse the sun so I can howl at the moon" ~QOTSA
Is practicing random transitions helpful?
Sounds cool
I would think maybe stick mostly to I-IV-V .... Occasional random minor chords that fit
Pat
Hmm not sure how helpful that would be for some maybe. Personally I only work on chord transitions now when they come up in a song I am playing if they are new.
If you just start working on random transitions you may never come across them in anything you play and it would have limited value and even if you did say pick one that eventually comes up in your playing it may have been so long ago that whatever practice you put in you lost and have to start over again.
But then again I am not quite a beginner and don't spend much time on chord transitions.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
If you just start working on random transitions you may never come across them in anything you play
True, but for someone who writes music, this _might_ have value to break them out of the familiar, or perhaps they might like one of the random, probably un-conventional transitions that might come up and decide to use it in their writing.
Of course, computer generated randomness is not often artistically pleasing.
But it might make a powerful finger exercise, I suppose.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
no, you can find almost any transition in music somewhere. it's all in how you play it and set it up as to whether it'll make sense. you need to play music to be able to play music, but some attempt at randomness is definitely something i've done as i've improvised. taking a tune, twisting it into something chromatic or taking a few chords or notes that dosn't fit into my current understanding of theory, and trying to get it to work there. whether true randomness is possible from a non-random system is, you know, up for debate, but there's no harm in it that i see. it might be a little boring if you're just strumming chords you pick out of a hat, but you'll start to find stuff that fits well together.
also, it's the guitar, not school. there are no wrong answers.
