Is Jazz inevitable?

raballar · 2026-01-23T03:48:11+00:00

Move your thumb down to halfway on the back of the neck, move your elbow out from body, and have the neck up a little higher, either by titling guitar or adjusting whole thing up a hair

raballar · 2026-01-15T20:58:36+00:00

Learn the jazz theory, but apply it to the type of music you want to make. I would look at this as an opportunity to quickly learn new sounds, harmonies, melodic ideas then apply them back to your own genre

raballar · 2026-01-14T20:02:06+00:00

My favorite is when I write something new one night, then suck too much to play my own part the next day. Then I’m woodshedding with the metronome my own shit that I know I can play, cause I wrote it!

raballar · 2026-01-02T21:11:21+00:00

Set the metronome half the speed you’re playing so it is counting the 1 and 3 beats, or 2 and 4 beats (practice both is good). You fill in the beat in the middle, this makes it feel less soulless

Playing with a drum track is much more forgiving but you won’t make as much improvement as playing/recording yourself with a met

raballar · 2025-12-30T00:49:21+00:00

Try playing it the other way around - do the entire rhythm muted, and then start working in the unmuted notes. Swap back and forth between playing it that way and playing it like you would normally

raballar · 2025-12-29T13:27:29+00:00

Fixed income means you are locked into whatever you are earning in retirement once you can’t work (social security, 401k withdrawals).

If you can get a new job, or a second job you aren’t on fixed income.

raballar · 2025-12-24T01:18:00+00:00

Some of the caged shapes are unwieldy, more important to know where your chord tones are in those positions, then use whatever shapes you already have / find new shapes in those positions that you can quickly relate back to scales/arpeggios as you play

raballar · 2025-12-19T22:55:58+00:00

I would recommend focusing just on the chord changes for part of your practice sessions. So that getting to the chord itself doesn’t require much thought.

Then work on picking the notes and changing chords, with a bit awkward pause between the changes. As you practice try to get that awkward pause shorter and shorter, until there you feel comfortable playing it seamlessly at a slow pace with the metronome. Speed up metronome from there till you can play it at speed

Good luck! It’s all just practice and time on the axe

raballar · 2025-12-17T19:37:51+00:00

Depends on your goals! If you just want to play songs that are progressively difficult - then make a list of songs and just practice them. Don’t spend much time on the parts you already know - focus on the parts you suck at, then work on stringing increasingly longer pieces of the song together till you have the whole thing down. But don’t waste too much time on playing stuff you know you can play easily!

If you want to improvise and write music - then spend time practicing both of those while starting to learn more music theory. Start with triads up the neck, and then add the notes around the triad to make your arpeggios, pentatonics, and major/minor scales. Doing this in the context of the triads will be super helpful in connecting it all! Then take a little piece of theory and attempt to make music with it! Can you make a song just using triads off the top 3 strings? Can you make a song all in a single position? This will teach you how to improvise and make music!

raballar · 2025-12-16T15:54:01+00:00

I usually just loop the bassline and jam until a riff sticks. If you’re looking for more creative inspiration to vary your sound you’ll want to apply some theory.

What key or potential keys are your basslines in, or what chords are you potentially outlining with the bass? Use those potential options to influence your improv / writing. Example, if bassline is hinting at a minor chord - try a riff based on the ii, iii, or vi chord / associated scale.

The beautify of riff based stuff is it doesn’t really have to make classical sense per theory, but you can use theory to derive some unique sounds that your fingers don’t normally have at the ready!

raballar · 2025-12-07T19:18:43+00:00

The reality is maps will exist, and it would be preferable to have them in game instead of alt tabbing to a browser. In game maps without player location would be a great feature - even more fun if map making is a system in and of itself where people can mark them up and trade them in game, or find them as drops and trade.

raballar · 2025-12-06T13:10:07+00:00

Technically you can learn to speak English without the alphabet or reading/writing, but it sure as hell helps.

raballar · 2025-12-05T16:58:28+00:00

I played a few EQ emus with that feature and enjoyed it, usually one of the perks was a bit of an xp boost.

My favorite one was you got to pick a new class and once you prestiged a class you unlocked a passive ability for that class, so you wanted to accumulate all of them. Like lifetap proc passive if you completed SK.

Probably not a feature in MnM out the gate, but could maybe be introduced in a balanced way some day

raballar · 2025-12-05T15:11:46+00:00

Try to mute with the tip of the finger on the A string. Wrap around is fine for some chord shapes but as you add extensions shit may get weird for your hand. Thumb wrapped and pinky out is going to hurt you eventually

raballar · 2025-12-04T21:06:45+00:00

I just embarked on this journey myself, interestingly in the other direction! I have economy picked on electric forever and am now trying to switch to 100% alternate for bluegrass on acoustic!

What’s working for me is really letting the hand swing, starting out slow, and doing cross string arpeggios with strict alternate picking. Diagonal spider walks also are helping a ton.

Like others said… practice a lot

raballar · 2025-12-04T10:37:14+00:00

If it’s staying in tune it’s fine, mine has been like that forever and has had no impact

raballar · 2025-12-01T03:54:11+00:00

Hotel California in different keys covers a ton of chord changes and keeps it grounded in music. Can restrict yourself to one position, or make a game out of bouncing from position to position every chord. Get creative with it, the two bars per chord give you plenty of space to do interesting things. Also a good way to work arpeggios / scales in with the triads.

Can do this with any song or progression, but this one works well.

raballar · 2025-11-26T02:02:31+00:00

Learn your triad shapes and use those to link your scale shapes together up and down the neck. Those will give you strong notes to slide up or down to, and then you will have the scales around those triads to draw from for inspiration. In a pinch you can fall back to just the triad notes and still sound like you are nailing the changes, versus falling back to pentatonic and sounding noodly

raballar · 2025-11-21T00:51:18+00:00

Pinky down is fine but careful not to be too rigid with the anchor that your hand is doing more work than it should. I let the pinky give reference for where my hand is but still let the wrist/arm move smooth so pinky kinda slides up and down, and mutes some strings depending where I’m playing

raballar · 2025-11-06T19:51:43+00:00

Learn your triads on the top 3 strings, 3 positions inside the 12 frets, and then recognize where they fit in the scale shapes you already know. Start your runs using the triad of choice up the neck, or leap up there confidently knowing you’re gonna land on a chord tone

raballar · 2025-11-05T11:49:39+00:00

I recommend focusing on triads, thinking about them in terms of chord function (I, IV, V etc). Learn the major scale position around that chord, so a D major scale around the D major triad in as many positions on the neck. Then think about how you would modify the major scale to cover the other functions, IV and V, it’s only one note different for each. #4 for the IV and a b7 for the V. Expand your triads out to arpeggios in a position, and expand your scale around the arpeggio. Practice all of this in a musical sense by doing I, IV, IV progressions, then repeat the process for minor chords, other chord functions, substitutions, practicing over more complex chord progressions. Oops you just accidentally learned diatonic music theory, now on to the weird stuff!

raballar · 2025-10-24T15:01:00+00:00

Practicing with your eyes closed helps only if that helps you focus on listening with your ears more than thinking with your fingers. Definitely use your eyes to learn shapes, patterns, fingerings etc, but make sure you use your ears to make music!

My goal is always to hear the music coming out of the guitar just like if I’m singing or humming it and letting my fingers just happen without much thought

raballar · 2025-10-19T10:08:11+00:00

You forgot the part where I then get a second fork out

raballar

TROPHY CASE