My brain is fried atm… but will come back to this later…
This is just a book mark 
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@TorturedZen
Awesome thread man.
It’s amazing the unexpected directions a thread can take sometimes.
Thank you (and @muth and @Raven-Knightly) for the great material thus far! Things like this are both inspiring and extremely helpful (and of course appreciated)! Loving it.
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I love the thunder of a big band. What was your instrument, SO?
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Bass, like the fish.
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And I understand that you have formed a Grouper as well. Do you play, “Brain Salad Sturgery” ?
Have you yet “hit the charts, heading to Number One with a Mullet” ?
For those thinking me merely some Hammerhead who Flounders about on my Perch like some kind of Cloud Puffer, I will simply say this: “I will continue Carping about this, because, quite honestly, something about this ‘Teen Spirit’ fragrance-craze thing Smelt perhaps a bit Crappie to me !”
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Soooooo glad to be “just” a drummer! I do dabble on keys, mandolin, bass and guitar – but I’m fine with finding my own notes and keeping it easy on the chords. You theory folks have my respect. Always been equally impressed and happy I don’t “need” to learn the higher levels.
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(IMO), matters of rhythm and timing are equally as (academically) complicated as music theory. Patterns surrounding Just Intonation of (tone) Intervals have corollaries in (temporal) intervals.
In both cases, how we describe these things is entirely subject to “perceptual efficacy in practice”.
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Rhythm and timing have always been the biggest challenge for all players in every band I have been in. If the note or “voice” isn’t in the proper place in time, you have just accomplished noise.
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It was interesting to learn that while it is typically the rhythm section (drummers’ portion) that most folks dance to - it is the bass-line that leads the rest (including any drummers). No wonder I “can’t dance”. 
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You have your moments. I’m sincerely impressed that you know that. Yes, the bass is responsible for tempo. Drums are responsible for rhythm along with bass within that tempo. The rest of the band is simply responsible for showing up on time.
Classically trained keyboard players make me nuts. They spend much of their practice in the realm of “no bar”. Wonderful to have that parameter open for solo activities but then they join a band and try to play Superstition and all hell breaks loose ending in a premature train wreck.
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Then I offer apologies…and respect. It’s just that (being honest here) when I read some of your replies to various topics I would sometimes think “How the fuck does he know all this stuff”? Then I picture’d you blowing up Google’s servers searching for impressive pearls of wisdom to be later inserted into a given thread or topic. People that know me know I call things as I see them which can serve me well at times 
, but can also have me back peddling other times. 
That said, thanks for this particular thread contribution. Both @muth and you have started to open my eyes a little wider. Now wishing I would have gotten serious about theory 40 years ago when I first started instead of getting by with boring box patterns.
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Someone else said the same thing a long time ago. But then I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to study with a professional rock guitarist and he always hammered theory into me. Being that I suffered from ADHD I was quite overwhelmed. You can’t learn the Circle of Fifths or the CAGED method if your mind wanders all the time LOL!
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Some combination of boredom, tenacity, and esprit de corps causes me to Google-up once in a while. It’s usually not that hard to discover the extent of my own ignorance (on most any given subject) pretty fast. Such humblings may tend to suppress the “bloviation” gene transcription - which sometimes tends to lead in the general direction of “less regurgitation - more insight”. Have “dived-semi-deep” into a few subject areas (musical/visual/sensory perceptual hypotheses being one) in my time. I am an “original”.
For a dude (or dudette) interested in things as (mostly) simple as blues and “rock-n-roll” melody (jazz being an exception), the 4 and 5 are almost always present along with the 1 (in scales as well as most chords), as well as a (maj/min) 3 and a (maj/min) 7. That covers the “Pentatonics”. One can through in a (maj/min) 2 and possibly a (maj/min) 6. Learning to hear and sense the intended “root” (reference tone) being important, the rest is as simple as, say, starting with (a) Pentatonic pattern, and perhaps adding-in a 2 and/or a 6. Spend the rest of the time listening and feeling the sounds. Blues (in particular, IMO) is at least 90% feeling (not academics). The same could be probably said regarding (most) “rock-n-roll”.
I have some graphical images that I once created that I might (possibly) post here - which (just might, possibly) help to enlighten and guide regarding thinking in “circles of 4ths/5ths”. Stay tuned, my friend.
The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.
The believing man is the original man;
whatsoever he believes, he believes it for himself, not for another.
-Thomas Carlyle
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LMAO …I blow up google’s servers all the time, mostly searching for the best deals on vape gear.
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You can’t fault yourself for having ADHD. I’m sure you did the best you could. My experience of people who have ADHD seems to be that they perform better when under pressure or a risky situation. If I was your teacher I’d shove a guitar in your hands and push you on stage to confront a large audience 
I bet you’d play your ass off 
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@TorturedZen in all seriousness, not everyone learns the same way. You might have to find the right way for you and/or a teacher who can instruct you in ways you understand. I applaud you for wanting to learn theory. I’m all for higher education but it shouldn’t get in the way of your learning. Some of the students at Berklee had to leave and further their education elsewhere because the Berklee method just didn’t work for them. I totally get that and I hope you find a way to thoroughly enjoy your guitar. If there’s any way I can help I’m just a tag away. 
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And you win the 2020 Gourami Award.
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Hey, ya never know…
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Nothing wrong with the bars, Tz… I’m learning myself to trust my own ear…
Then again, I do not want to play Mozart or Chopin, much less a ratty version of Stairway to Heaven… 
Theory fascinates me, one of my teachers actually gives lessons in the higher learning. However my attention span is of a gnat when it comes down to it… I enjoy listening… but then I go right back to where I know I am happy, as I wont be playing in any halls or bars… just out on the porch for me…
All depends on your goals and mind set and where you want to take it.
I will say that 6 strings are too many.
Mine
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