The Wildhearts

just a few questions 4 all the guitarists out there i`m just wondering how many of u were self taught and how many had lessons and those who did teach yourselves how did u go about it? i`ve been playing about 18 months now and i started off just getting tabs off the net and playing all the simple 3 chord stuff but more recentley i`ve been taking it a bit more serious and learner "proper" chords but i`m totally lost on the scales side of it. i mean i can learn them but don`t know how to convert them into solos .did any of u guys teach yourselves scales 4 soloing or would you recommend getting some lessons

I'm self taught (though I did have some keyboard lessons when I was younger - not that I can remember much of it!).

When I started there was no internet and not many books of stuff I wanted to play (i.e. The Wildhearts!) so much of what I learned was picked up by ear. Looking back I think that was really important training for writing music and being in a band.

As far as scales go, I mostly bastardise the pentatonic scale. Most of time I couldn't even tell you what key I'm in and I know fuck all about modes etc. I just know if it sounds "right" (I think!). I guess it all depends on the kinda music you wanna play though.

Takes me back the first guitar I had it could only play songs with certain chords as the frets were all so worn. It was a strat copy and if I plugged it into an amp it just made a god awfull noise. But never had a lesson in my life, picked things up by ear. I got soloing by songs like the Only Ones, AnotherGirl Another Planet and stole parts of the solo. I found brian May was great for moving on in learning.