Choosing a band name is the most difficult decision that any group has to make. A name will define you and is the first impression that most people will get of your band. People will often hear the name before they hear any music, pick the wrong one and it’ll put people off before they even listen to you. Of course, your name absolutely must be original as well. Choose something that someone else is using and at some point down the line you’ll have to change it. This article will steer you on the right track for choosing a band name.
The first thing to do is think about what kind of music you play and how you’d like your band name to reflect it. If you’re in a swing band it’s no use calling yourself Death Face or Hatebreed as everyone will think you’re going to be a death metal band. An extreme example, but it illustrates the point that the name must be synonymous with your genre. Death Face and Hatebreed would be good names for black metal bands, as people will get what they are expecting.
Make sure your band name is original. There’s no use in marketing and promoting a name that you’ll end up having to change once you gain a following, it’s wasted time and will just cause you more work down the road. This part is probably the most difficult thing about choosing a name, with more and more bands being created the list of available names gets shorter and shorter. Also with the Internet giving us the world’s information in an instant there’s no excuse for picking someone else’s name anymore. People will be searching for their bands and if they find you then they won’t be happy.
Speaking of the Internet, it’s a vital tool for promoting your band and will prove to be your greatest ally in your search for fans. With this in mind it’s best to choose a name that’s going to be easy to push to number one in Google as well as having the dot com web address free. If people can easily find your band online then you’re guaranteed to get more hits and downloads and hopefully more people to gigs and more merchandise sold. Make sure that the MySpace address is free too, it’s vitally important that people can find you easily on the web. Most people will just search Google or MySpace when searching for a band so make sure that if all they have to go on is your name then they’ll find you, and not a local carpet cleaning company.
A band name does not necessarily have to have a deep hidden meaning, it just needs to sound good. People need to want to wear your t-shirts and tell people about your band. If they feel stupid with your name on their chest or feel like an idiot saying the name then it’s probably not a good sign. Try to pick something that people will speak about. Make sure that you really read your proposed name in as many different ways as you can as well. Make sure you spot any double entendres or innuendoes before anyone else does, might save some embarrassment later on.
It’s not easy, my band is still unnamed after a three month long search for a moniker. Try to pick something you’re really happy with as once it’s set then you’ll be stuck with it.
It’s easy for your guitar playing to get stuck in a rut. It’s inevitable that when you really work on a style and sound of your own you can find yourself repeating the same things over and over, eventually boring yourself with your own playing. It can be hard to break out of this feeling, and it’s a major contributor to the dreaded writer’s block.
The beauty of playing rock music is that the electric guitar is such an expressive instrument and can offer you so many different sounds that with a little creativity you should be able to work in something new to your playing on a weekly basis. Thinking outside the box is vital and sometimes trying something completely crazy and different with the guitar can really spur your creativity. In this article I’m going to look at a few of the tricks and strange sounds you can make with the electric guitar. While some aren’t the most musical they’re definitely fun to play and may even inspire you to write a new song.
Harmonics are perhaps the greatest source of unusual sounds from a guitar. Played by lightly touching the string without pushing the fret, harmonics can be twisted and bent into all kinds of new shapes to give you new sounds. Try playing harmonics around the fifth and seventh fret before pressing down on the tremolo arm. You can try pulling up or wildly shaking the bar to create some really strange sounds. A locking tremolo is a fantastic tool when manipulating harmonics as it allows some really crazy dive bombs and flutter effects.
Another way to play harmonics is to tap them. Just like playing them on open strings, a fretted note will have a harmonic 12 frets, seven frets and five frets above it. Try tapping the higher fret with your right hand to produce the harmonic. Combined with some arpeggios this can make a normally straight-foward piece come alive. Try playing tapped harmonics with heavy delay and chorus effects, it is great for giving a large, dreamy sound.
One of my favourite ways to play the guitar in a different way is to use an Ebow. Short for electronic bow, an Ebow is a handheld device that produces a magnetic field around the string, causing it to vibrate. What this gives you is infinite sustain, making your guitar sound more like a violin or a cello. Combining this sound with heavy amounts of delay and the harmonic mode on the Ebow can produce really haunting effects and is great for atmospheric playing. A similar effect can be achieved with feedback or the more modern Fernandes Sustainer pickup.
If you’re still stuck for ideas and new sounds one of the most basic ways to kick-start innovation is just to try a different tuning. With my current band I tuned my guitars to a drop-C tuning, the change in sound of the guitar led me to write a whole load of songs and has really helped to carve out our sound. Tuning down can make those same boring chords suddenly seem much deeper and richer. In a similar vein using a capo can brighten up your playing and make everything seem fresh again.
Hopefully you don’t get stuck being bored of your own guitar playing, but if you do just try to think outside the box a little and learn some crazy new tricks. Even if you never end up using them in a song they may spark an idea that does get used. And failing that, you can just make some cool sounds, which is what the electric guitar is all about.
For any band trying to gain more exposure and better gigs a great demo CD is absolutely vital. If you have a set of songs that can really catch a listener and you record them well then it’ll make all the difference and could really push your band into areas where you could never go before. Unfortunately many bands don’t realise just how important their CD is and end up rushing it or doing a bad job and ultimately sell themselves short. I’ve seen many local bands live who I’ve been impressed with and bought their CD only to be disappointed when I listen to it.
The first thing to get right when deciding to record your music is to choose the right songs. Remember it’s not about what songs you think are best, but what songs everyone else thinks are best. When you give your recording to a record company representative or a club owner they won’t give you much time and so you need to get their attention right away. Generally you’ll get 20-30 seconds to make an impression. If they don’t like it beyond that then your CD will just get stopped and they’ll move on. It seems harsh but that’s the simple reality of it when a person has hundreds of bands to listen to, they just don’t have time to listen to the whole recording.
With this in mind the first song on your CD is absolutely vital. Don’t put any intro tracks on there, and don’t pick a song that starts slowly and takes a while to build up. Record company people just won’t have the patience to sit through it so it’s a waste of time to put it on there. Those kind of things are much better suited to full length albums and live shows. The purpose of this recording is to say, hey this is us and we rock. Make sure that first song is your most catchy and accessible, and get to the singing and the chorus quickly. You’ll need to show why your band is unique and great in the first thirty seconds of the first song.
As a guitarist it may pain me to say it but the singing is far and away the most important part of your music. There is no disguise for a poor singer while average guitar work can be overlooked if the singing is really great. Above all else, on the recording make sure you get the singing just right. Mix it loud enough so that it’s clearly audible over the music, I’ve heard too many bands bury their vocals in a wall of guitars so make sure it isn’t a mistake that you repeat.
I would generally recommend three songs for a demo CD, it feels about the right length and should give you enough time to show people what you can do and what you’re about. Making sure that the first song is really accessible and your best one, it’s important and so is making sure that the second matches the quality of the first. If you’ve managed to keep someone listening through the first song then the second must establish your sound and show that you aren’t just one hit wonders. These two first tracks must sum up your general sound and give a club owner a good idea of what to expect when they book you to play.
For the third track I would maybe experiment a little and try a song that is slightly different. For example if you’re a heavy rock band I’d maybe put a quieter track as the final one to show that you aren’t just one trick ponies. The third can show your depth as musicians and that your band has more than just one dimension.
Recording a demo CD can be difficult and many fail before a note has been played. Make sure that you know what your intention is with yours and who you intend to give it to. Recording the right songs will make all the difference, as will arranging them correctly on the CD. Good luck with recording and hopefully people will sit up and take notice of your next demo CD.
The guitar solo is something that is synonymous with rock music. There have been countless rock guitarists come and go over the years, all with a unique take on what makes a great solo. For as many guitarists as there are playing solos there are far more people listening and forming opinions on them. No one will ever agree on what their favourite guitar solos are, but here are ten of mine in no particular order.
1. For the Love of God by Steve Vai. The seventh song on his breakthrough 1991 album, Passion and Warfare, For the Love of God is often held up to be Steve Vai’s best work. The song is essentially one long guitar solo and covers almost all aspects of Vai’s playing. An inspiration when I first heard it, it was the piece that really showed me the depth of emotion that was possible to convey while playing guitar.
2. Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. Often revered as having one of the best guitar solos of all time, the guitar playing in Comfortably Numb is outstanding. Pages and pages have been written about this solo, but for me it showed how effective blues phrasing could be in a rock setting. The big draw for me here was the tone as well, Dave Gilmour uses compression wonderfully well to give a warm and punchy tone that fits the song absolutely perfectly.
3. Beat It, solo by Eddie Van Halen. A great song that really comes to life with Van Halen’s guitar solo mid way through. Eddie Van Halen was the defining guitarist of the 1980s and opened up so many techniques and ideas that would be copied endlessly. He has recorded countless amazing solos across his career but I feel that the one in Beat It is among his best. It’s only short but is a pure explosion of his style showcasing breathtaking technique, style, tone and phrasing. If you ever want to discover why Van Halen is such a great guitarist then just listening to this solo should be enough.
4. Always With Me, Always With You by Joe Satriani (live version). I’m picking the extended live version from the Satriani Live! DVD rather than the studio version for this, mainly for Satriani’s wonderful improvisation section at the end of the track. This song showcases just why Joe Satriani is such a good guitar player. I’ve heard several different live versions of this song, as well as having seen him live a few times in person and he plays just as well every single time. The song is a masterclass in how to solo melodically and tastefully. Satch never makes a mistake either, and everything he plays is done to absolute perfection. You won’t find a better played guitar solo, and I doubt you’ll find a better player either.
5. Nottingham Lace by Buckethead. I only recently started listening to Buckethead, so it’s hard for me to pick out one solo in particular given that he excels in so many different styles. I picked Nottingham Lace out because it is a marvelous display of his technique as well as his melodic playing. Well worth a try and I’m looking forward to discovering the rest of his back catalogue.
6. Wonderful Slippery Thing by Guthrie Govan. Guthrie Govan is nowhere near as famous as he should be. An English guitar player, he is absolutely phenomenal, with a complete mastery of his instrument and a remarkable ability to play across a huge range of styles. I picked this song as it has been his strongest for many years, and the version on his recent album, Erotic Cakes, showcases his fluid style. A great player, hopefully soon he’ll get the recognition he deserves.
7. Goodnight Kiss by John Petrucci. While John Petrucci is most widely known for his lightning fast alternate picking this solo shows that he can pick out some beautiful phrases when playing in a more restrained style. The solo plays smoothly over changes and changes the style of the song superbly to blend into the next track, Solitary Shell. Petrucci is a great guitarist who has managed to blend blues and metal into a unique style, and I feel that this solo is one of his best.
8. Bliss by Paul Gilbert. Again with a player like Paul Gilbert I found it hard to narrow it down to one solo. I knew I wanted something from him in here, but was unsure what exactly. In the end I just picked my favourite song, which also happens to have some fantastic guitar playing in it as well. On Bliss Gilbert shows his Hendrix influence as well as considerable restraint, playing fast just where it is needed for maximum impact. A great player with a fantastic attitude to music.
9. Soma by Billy Corgan. This is pretty much the guitar solo that really started me playing. My biggest early influence was the Smashing Pumpkins, and in particular the album Siamese Dream. The solo in Soma stands out as one of Corgan’s best and is played to perfection as the song reaches its peak.
10. Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix. A little cliched to include Hendrix perhaps, but his influence on guitar playing is unquestionable. In a similar situation to Paul Gilbert I was unsure of which to pick so in the end just picked my favourite song. Often overlooked for some of his more famous songs I actually feel that Bold as Love displays Hendrix’ songwriting at its strongest, of course it helps that is also has the fantastic guitar work you’d expect from him too.
Have you ever seen a local, unsigned band and thought to yourself, why aren’t these guys huge? Conversely have you ever heard a band on the radio and thought, these guys are terrible, I hear better than this at my local. All too often great musical talent goes unnoticed, and it isn’t down to a lack of good songs or live performances. The main thing holding back independent bands is a lack of good self promotion.
With the huge wealth of outlets for promoting your music online there really is no excuse for poor self promotion these days. The Internet has completely opened up underground music and made it much easier for bands to reach their audiences and build up a relationship with their fans. Through this article I will give you some useful tips for starting out when marketing your band online. I am in the process of starting up a new band myself, and this is what I’ll be doing once we get moving along.
The first thing you must do is without doubt the most difficult. Define your sound and write some killer songs and work on an amazing live show. Sounds hard right? Well it is. This is the stage that my band is at right now, we’re just writing a load of songs and trying to find the style that fits us best. Once we’ve written ninety minutes worth of material we’ll start work on our live show and then start gigging.
What you must do when writing your music is work out who you want your target audience to be. You may like all kinds of genres of music but generally when people turn to your band they will expect your sound and you’ve got to deliver it to them. There’s nothing wrong with being able to put your band into a category that people will look for. If you class yourself as heavy rock then that’s good as people that like heavy rock music will be more likely to find you.
As you start to finish up writing your songs and start working on your live set I believe it is a great time to start working on your band website. I would absolutely recommend purchasing the .co.uk or .com domain of your band’s name. I would even go as far as to name the band specifically so you can get the web address you want. If someone tries to find your band online they’re bound to type in yourbandname.com and so ideally you want them to find you.
Once you’ve bought your domain there are a few different ways to get a good band website together. One is to hand build it yourself. It can be quite difficult to do, but gives you complete creative control over the look and content of the site. If none of you can build your site then ask around your friends, maybe one is a budding web designer and wants to add to their portfolio.
Failing this you can choose one of the free blog software sites such as WordPress or Blogger and build your band website as a blog. The advantage of this is that you can post news as new blog posts and you can have the band all contribute here and there. It requires no real knowledge of web design and there are a bunch of great templates for you to use. You can integrate band pictures and add extra pages to your blog site to make it into a great website. Your fans can comment on news posts and you can build a great rapport with them this way. I would actually recommend starting a site like this for your band, if only for the community aspect of it.
If you choose to use blogging software then make sure you write regular updates for your site. You can even write articles about music that is similar to your own. By doing this you will gain a reader base quite quickly, and they’re much more likely to try your music if they like your articles. By writing regularly you’re helping your page ranking in Google. It is quite important for you to rank highly for your band name in Google, as that is the first place people will go when trying to find you. You can litter your posts with keywords so that when people search for you, they get you and not anyone else.
For tips on writing for Google then try searching the web for search engine optimisation (SEO) tips. It is quite a complex topic and you probably won’t need to fully understand it, but certainly a grip on keywords and page ranking will help you when promoting your band online.
So you’ve got your band website up, you’ve got some articles written, maybe about favourite bands or gigs and you’ve started to attract some visitors. Hopefully you’re highly ranked in Google for your band name as well. You’ll want to put up some of your music so people can actually hear you. You can upload mp3s of your songs to your own site as well as many others. When uploading I would honestly recommend giving away your music for free. With the huge wealth of quality music available online if you charge for your music then people just won’t give it a try. At this stage you’re trying to create a following and a fanbase so free music really is the key.
Once you’ve uploaded your mp3s to your own site then it’s best to get moving onto social networking to really help push your band. Social networking has taken the net by storm and now almost everyone is a member of at least one social networking site. They’re fantastic tools to promote your music and can really help you reach people you never would have otherwise. The first stop you should make is MySpace. Set up your profile there and upload some songs for people to listen to. There are fantastic tools there to help push new music so make sure you make the most of them.
Facebook is the most widely used social networking site and there are actually some really neat things you can do with it to help your band out. There is a great application available on Facebook called Facebook Flyers. What this does is enable you to place and ad for your band at the side of people’s profiles. The key here is that you can tailor the ad to your sound so it will only appear on people whose taste matches your band. It is a great tool for your band. You should also set up a Facebook group for your band and add everyone you know to it. This way people can discuss your band and will get notification of when you’re playing and access to all kinds of pictures and information.
Your band should also take the time to record a video and upload it to YouTube. It is just another place you can go to promote your music online. There are a couple of ways to go about making a classic YouTube video. One is to do a fairly serious music video like you would see on MTV. Another is to try to create a video that will generate it’s own buzz and get loads and loads of views purely based on the content of the video. Aussie rock band Sick Puppies used this method of viral marketing to great effect with their ‘Free Hugs’ video. They filmed a guy going round town giving out free hugs with their song playing in the background. The video has been viewed over 19 million times and the band are now signed and on tour with Evanescence.
This just goes to show the power that great Internet marketing can have for your band, and the great thing is that you can do it all yourself easily. The web really has opened up marketing opportunities for emerging musicians but always remember that you’ll only get out of it what you put in. No-one is interested in you to start with, you have to make them interested. Good luck, and above all remember to write great songs. Without great songs all the marketing in the world can’t help you!
Change. It is a word that frightens many. The advent of change in our lives is often greeted with hostility and mistrust, as a species we are creatures of habit and our greatest fears often lie in the unknown.
Musicians must constantly grapple with change. The world of music is an interesting case with regards to change in that you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Often a band will attempt to change their sound to remain fresh and exciting only to be shot down in flames. However if you stay the same you’re accused of being stale and past your best.
It is a difficult medium to maintain, and few artists manage it. It would appear to be getting harder as well as we see less career bands come through, and more one hit wonders and fad acts gain popularity very quickly before fading into obscurity.
One of the best examples I can think of where a band was affected drastically by changing their sound is the Smashing Pumpkins. The band released their debut album, Gish in 1991 on a wave of new grunge acts and early 90s alt-rock popularity. Although the album was well received, the Pumpkins didn’t really hit the big time until their second album, Siamese Dream.
Siamese Dream was in all respects a continuation of the sound that the band had established on Gish. Much more ambitious than many of their peers at the time, the album featured a lot of overdubs, studio tricks and guitar solos, all of which were unfashionable at the time. Despite this, the lead single, Today, was a hit on MTV and the band were acclaimed as one of rocks leading acts.
Their next album saw another shift in sound, this time they went into epic rock territory, employing even more instruments and much more expressive ideas. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was a huge double album that seemed to explore every side of Billy Corgans musical personality. Although a change in style the root of their sound was still there. The album was littered with hard rock classics that anyone that loved Siamese Dream instantly connected to. Songs such as Bullet With Butterfly Wings and Zero became mid 90s alt rock classics alongside the more introspective 1979 and Thirty-Three.
Here was an example of a band that had managed to change their sound, remain fresh and gain fans and momentum on the way. It was a brave move to release such a huge body of work at a time when nu-metal was just beginning to gain popularity but it shows the power that changing your style can have in winning new fans and yet staying interesting.
It is important for a musician to progress and change, otherwise you become bored with what you’re playing. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to tour an album for a couple of years and then go back and write a follow up that is almost exactly the same. I’m sure that the Pumpkins felt the same and that changing it up with each release was really the only way that they could keep the band going.
Their next release, Adore, was their boldest step yet. After the bombastic might of Mellon Collie, Adore was a quiet, introspective album that showed a darker, mellower side of the band. Written after several tragic events in the lives of the band, it would seem a natural place to go. However with the world expecting another typical Smashing Pumpkins album full of epic rock songs with heavy guitars Adore was released with songs driven by piano melodies and electronic beats.
In short, the album was not well received by the press or the public. Instead of taking the album as it was as a brilliant piece of music it was lambasted for not adhering to the formula that the public had made for the band. Adore sold substantially less copies than the previous albums and the band haven’t reached the same height of popularity since.
The release of Adore was an example of where artists needs to be brave if they feel that they have to change. Having poured everything into making Mellon Collie I’m sure that Billy Corgan felt that he had exhausted that genre entirely and needed a new musical challenge. Had the band released Mellon Collie part two it would have inevitably been worse than the original and the band would have been picked apart in any case.
The key point for needing to progress is that if you really put your heart and soul into making the best possible album you can in a particular style, how can you be expected to repeat that without making something inferior? The answer is that you can’t. I think this is why we see a lot of flash-in-the-pan bands today who seem to be massive for six months and then disappear entirely. They make a fantastic debut, try to replicate it and fail.
So if you’re a musician my advice would be to never shy away from learning a new style, or taking a new influence, as you never know where your song writing may end up. Always try new things and push your boundaries and you’ll end up as a much better musician because of it. I’m glad that the Smashing Pumpkins took that brave step releasing Adore as I personally think it is a brilliant and highly underrated album. Ironically the style would come into fashion several years later with Radiohead producing a similar album with Kid A.
It is only by changing what is commonly expected as the norm that new styles of music will be discovered. True music fans aren’t interested in listening to the same regurgitated music over and over. At your next band practise, instead of thinking how you can sound like your idols, stop for a moment and think about how you can sound like you instead. Your music will be better off for it.
The dictionary defines a chord as; A combination of usually three or more musical tones sounded simultaneously.
On a guitar the most commonly used chords are probably power chords, a chord simply consisting of the root note and the fifth. They sound great with loads of gain, and most modern rock songs are build around them. I’m sure every beginner out there has has learnt some classics using power chords, and they form the basis of much of what any guitarist will do. Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit is one of the most memorable power chord sequences that I’m sure every teenager post-1991 has learnt at some stage in their guitar playing career, myself included.
What happens when you wish to go beyond power chords and start to add more voicing, depth and dynamics to your chord playing? In this article I will explain how you can add a few notes to the basic power chord to drastically change the sound, and the theory behind those extra notes and how they may be applied to other chords.
For this article I will assume you know how to play an A minor power chord. The chord is made from an A, played on the 5th fret of the low E string and an E played on the 7th fret of the A string. Most players usually add the octave to the root note and play the A on the 7th fret of the D string. A pretty basic rock power chord, and a basis for many songs over the years.
You can take this power chord and change the key and sound quite easily. At the moment the chord has quite a neutral sound, it could be major or minor as we haven’t added the third note yet that would make it into a ‘true’ chord. To make the minor you must simply add the minor third of the A minor scale, which is C. So a chord made of A, E and C is an A minor. You’re playing the root, the fifth and the third. If you raise the third one semitone to a D flat you’re playing the major third and so the chord will change from an A minor to an A major. Try playing the two different versions, you should hear the chord go from a sad sound to a happier sound.
These simple three note chords are known as major and minor triads.
This theory can be applied to all chords. If someone asks you to play a minor chord, you know that you must play the root note, the fifth note and the minor third. If you know your scales then this shouldn’t be too hard to work out. Don’t worry if it sounds too complex, after a while it’ll become second nature and you’ll begin to recognise and memorise the chord shapes. The advantage of learning chords on the guitar is that once you’ve learnt the shape then it can be moved up and down the neck to different root notes really easily.
For now that is the main basic theory behind major and minor chords. It is possible to add flavour to these chords by adding extra notes. I’ll run you through some of the ones I use the most and how you can play them as well. All these chords are based around that power chord start point of root, fifth and octave.
A common extension I use while playing guitar is the add9 chord. As the name suggest you’re adding the 9th note of the scale to the triad. You might ask how do you add the 9th note when there are only 8 notes in the scale? Well the 9th is really a relative term to your root note. Take the note nine intervals up from your root, which is an octave higher than the second. So in our A minor example you would play a B. Typically this note is played instead of the fifth, and is common in a lot of blues rhythm playing.
Another type of chord is a suspended chord. I use a lot of suspended second chords, written as Asus2. When playing a suspended second you remove the third and play a second instead. So an Asus2 consists of the notes A, E and B. These chords can give a lighter, dreamy sound and sound great through the clean channel with loads of chorus.
Seventh chords are also commonly used in many forms of music. Here you aren’t replacing any note from your triad, but you are adding another note to create a four note chord, called a tetrad. As the name suggests, you add the 7th note from the scale. In our example an A minor 7th would be played using A, E, C and G, where G is the 7th note of the A minor scale. It is worth noting that there are many different kinds of seventh chord, depending on the scale you’re using. To start with I would recommend getting comfortable using the natural minor and the major sevenths. A major seventh is played using a major triad and then adding the 7th from the major scale. To play an A major 7th you would play your A major triad consisting of A, E and Db before adding the major 7th, which is a B.
Hopefully that has given you more of an insight into how some basic chords are constructed and why they are named the way they are. Ultimately you want to make it your goal to be able to play any chord by just hearing the name and working out which notes you need to play. It can all seem a little technical and difficult at first, but trust me, it gets easier over time. Remember to take everything slowly and learn one thing at a time and get comfortable with it before moving on to something more complex. Good luck and I hope this article can be of some help to anyone struggling with their chords.
To a beginner the world of music theory can seem a daunting one. There are a lot of terms, phrases and ideas that can seem so foreign that they may as well be a different language. Understandably this puts a lot of new players off from starting to learn music theory and apply it to their playing.
I was the same until I’d been playing for three years or so and decided start learning some theory to help take my playing up a notch. It has been many years since and I’d like to share some things that I used to get started, and to guide you through the first basic steps of learning to apply music theory to your guitar playing.
For the purposes of this article I’m going to assume you’ve taken the first step towards learning theory and learnt where all the notes are across the neck. If not, then go do that now! Knowing the notes is extremely important to start applying theory.
The first thing I did was learn scales and how they are put together starting with the major key, I used C major.
The major scale is made from seven different notes. The first note is called the root note, the note that you start the scale with. The root note is where the scale gets its name from. In this case the root note is C, and so the scale is C major. Each fret on a guitar is a half note, or a semitone. To play a major scale go up the neck in the following increments;
Root, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, and then a half back to your root one octave higher. The third note in the scale is the note that decides whether it is a major or a minor scale. In a minor scale the third note is one semitone lower in pitch than in a major scale. Try playing it to hear the difference.
The notes in a C major scale you should notice are; C, D, E, F, G, A, B. See a pattern? There are no flats or sharps in the C major scale, which is why I decided to start there when I began learning.
The next step takes a lot of time and a lot of practise. Take these notes and find them all over the neck. Try to learn the scale in as many places as you can, make sure you get really comfortable with it.
You’ll find that once you’re totally at home with the C major scale it should be quite easy to move the shape and patterns around to find other scales. Try moving every note you know from C major up two frets on the guitar. You’re now playing the D major scale. Move one half step down from C major and you’re playing the B major scale. This is how I learnt my scales. I took shapes and patterns I knew and simply moved them round the neck, learning each key one at a time. Over time I learnt which notes were the fourth note, the third note, etc. As you play more you’ll get a feel of what notes are good to start and end phrases on, where you can bend to and just generally what notes will sound better over each chord.
The next thing that I did is what really made music theory click for me. I started to learn the minor keys. I started with A minor, the notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Notice anything familiar? The notes of A minor are just the same as C major. In fact, if you take the 6th note of any major scale and play the notes up to the 6th one octave higher you’re playing the minor scale. So after learning the major scales I came to realise I knew all the notes for the minor scales as well. Obviously they share the same notes but of course, you need to phrase them differently when you play. The only way I can really recommend this is with experimentation. If you’re looking to learn a minor scale then the increments are;
Root note, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step and then whole again to the root note one octave higher.
There should be plenty to get you going here, it took me months to get my scales and notes to where I needed them to be. Ideally after some practise you should feel comfortable jamming in any key. If I shout that we’re playing in B flat minor then you should be able to play there! Good luck practising and remember to take everything slow to start with.
If you’ve just joined your first band or are thinking of starting a band up then there is certainly a lot to consider. What kind of music will you play? What instruments do you want in the band? Who do you want to play in your band? These are some of the most important things you’ll need to think of and decide for sure.
I’m going to assume you’ve worked all these things out, so I thought with this article I would point out some of the things you can do during band practise to help the process go much more smoothly and make you a better musician when playing with other people.
It is certainly a skill to play music with other people. Some people are great at it and others like to have complete creative control over their musical output. Inevitably when playing in a band the music will end up as a collective effort, as opposed to a single composer. Neither approach is wrong or right, they’re just different ways of going about achieving the same goal. When playing in a band you’ll need to be considerate of the other members.
To be successful in a band is much the same as being a success in any other small social situation, the golden rule is to treat others as you wish to be treated yourself. If you’re easy to get on with and don’t mind the odd compromise then your band will start putting out great music much more easily.
Here are my top tips for playing in a band.
Turn up on time. I would perhaps go as far to say this is the most important thing you can do. I’ve played with some great musicians in the past that couldn’t get to practises on time. There is nothing worse than paying to hire a practise room and to have someone turn up half an hour late.
Remember that if you’re late you’re keeping three or four other people waiting for you. No-one minds the odd one-off if you’re stuck in traffic but consistent lateness will hurt the band’s progress. Even if you’re the best musician ever people won’t want to play with you if you’re always late.
Keep your practises focused. I’m sure everyone is very impressed at your latest Van Halen lick but band practise isn’t the time to show it off.
I’ve been in countless bands where people play whatever is in their heads while we’re trying to talk about the song. It slows everything down and distracts you from your real goal, which is to write and perform your own tunes. It may sound a bit authoritarian but by only playing what you’re working on you’ll find it much more productive, and in the end, more enjoyable.
Bring everything you need, including spares. I’ve been guilty of this in the past, having broken guitar strings during practise and not had any spare on me. Before you leave for practise just double check you have everything. Nothing worse than having to go back home for spare picks or drum sticks.
If you can, record your practise. In the band I’m playing in at the moment we record what we’ve worked on at the end of each practise. It gives us a week to listen over to the songs and come up with any new ideas for where it should go. It also helps you remember everything you’ve done as sometimes remembering structures to new songs can be tricky.
I really recommend recording it if you can, as it means that each band member can turn up to practise with the material fresh in their mind so you can get stuck right in. Even if it is only a cheap mic in the middle of the room it is still worth doing.
Be willing to try ideas. If someone suggest an idea for a song then try it. The worst thing that can happen is that you come full circle and end up back where you started, but at least that way you know that you’re playing the song as best as you can. There is nothing to be lost by giving an idea a quick try, even if you don’t end up using the idea it can lead to a different direction that you wouldn’t have thought of before.
All in all playing in a band is a really fun and rewarding experience. Hopefully I’ve highlighted some things that can help you get the most out of your experience. Remember to have fun with it and good luck writing some great music.
The rise in popularity of guitar bands and the phenomenal success of the Guitar Hero video game franchise has lead to more and more people picking up the guitar recently. Sales of guitars in the UK has hit an all time high in the past three years and as more and more people are starting to play, the guitar has surpassed the piano as the most widely learned instrument in schools.
With all these people learning I thought I’d pass on some tips from my 10 years of experience playing guitar and help point people in the right direction as they start learning their technique. In this article I’ve listed some things that I feel are very important to playing well but are often overlooked by those just starting out. If you’re a seasoned player then there won’t be much here for you, but if you’re new to playing guitar then hopefully I can help out and perhaps shed some light on things you maybe hadn’t thought about before.
1. Theory
The one factor that has improved my guitar playing beyond any other was taking the time out to learn the basics of music theory. Once you manage to break out of the pentatonic scales so overly used by rock guitarists you’ll find that your song-writing and improvisation will come on in leaps and bounds. Believe it or not, by learning the scales you’ll actually become far more free than when you didn’t know them. Ironically, learning the rules of music has left me much more open to play expressively than before. Don’t forget that once you know them, you can break them, and this is where your playing can really start to become interesting.
So how did I go about learning the theory I needed for playing rock guitar, and how might you learn it too?
Well, it hasn’t been a fast process and I’m certainly not finished yet, I learn something new all the time and there is a massive amount I simply don’t know yet. I started by learning a couple of major scale shapes, E major, C major and D major are good ones to start out with. Try finding a song you know in one of these keys and play over it, picking out the notes that sound good, and the notes that don’t sound good. A good way to learn scales is by checking out some of the free guides floating around the Internet.
I started out by learning a couple of positions for each scale, taking one or two at a time. Once you’ve done that a great method to help your soloing is to learn each scale on each single string. Take it slow at first, one or two strings at a time and just move on when you feel comfortable. The advantage of doing this is that before you know it, you will know every note you can hit on every string to stay in key and switching positions becomes a breeze. Once you’re happy with the major scales you can start to pick up the minor keys, which is actually a lot easier than you might think.
As well as learning scales I looked at chords and how they’re built and how they work together. I would recommend learning the scales first, as once you have those down, constructing chords becomes much easier. The key factor when learning is not just knowing them parrot fashion like “this is a Cmin7″, but rather learning why it is a C minor seventh. Once you know why the chords are then you can build them anywhere you need and you’ll find it that bit easier to write great melodies over the top.
A detailed guide to learning music theory is beyond the scope of this article but hopefully I’ve highlighted an area that may be lacking in your guitar playing. Remember even the most basic major and minor scales can make a world of difference when writing that next song, or improvising with your band. There are a huge range of free lessons available on the web, and some great tutorials on YouTube, so make sure you check them out.
2. Bending
Something I feel is crucial to being able to play rock guitar well is being able to bend the string accurately. String bending is what makes the electric guitar the instrument it is, having been used by countless guitarists to convey every kind of emotion you can imagine. When it is done well a big bend sounds amazing, but done badly it can sound terrible. If you have a great ear for music then you shouldn’t have much trouble bending and keeping in key. If however you’re like me and aren’t blessed with a natural ear then you’ll need to train yourself to bend accurately.
For the best results when bending strings always try to use three fingers on your fretting hand. I find when playing rock the best method is to fret the start note with the ring finger and use your middle and index fingers to help control the string as you bend it. I generally bring my thumb over the neck and ’squeeze’ the fretboard to bend the note. Some guitarists might argue that bringing the thumb round is bad technique but I find it helps your control and is useful for muting the strings you’re not playing.
Once you have a solid technique the first thing you need to do is make sure you’re bending in key. Pick any note on your guitar. Then pick a note two frets up and play that. Play the two notes one after another getting used to the sound of the interval. Once you have the sound in your head, play the first note and then bend up to the second. This whole tone bend is the most commonly used in rock guitar playing and you should make sure you’re comfortable with it. Once you’ve mastered that you can try single fret (semitone) bends and even three fret bends. Remember to always bend up to a note that is in key with the song you’re playing, nothing sounds worse than an out of key bend!
To hear some fantastic string bending listen to any guitar solo from Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd. You should be able to hear a lot of blues style bends as well as really controlled bends across wide intervals.
3. Vibrato
Your vibrato can be defined as your touch or feel as you play. How you vibrato the notes you play can often define you as a guitarist and help to differentiate you from everyone else. For example take Yngwie Malmsteen with his super wide vibrato and then Steve Vai with a much more smooth and controlled sound. You can tell the two apart instantly. In fact I’d go as far as to say you could have them both play the same passage of music and you’d be able to tell the difference, even when playing the same notes.
Vibrato is varying the pitch of a note as you hold it to give a vocal like quality and expression to your playing. The amount and the speed at which you vibrato the note is entirely down to personal preference, so really just experiment with everything you can think of. Try everything and see what you think sounds best. As a test, try playing a melody with some light vibrato. Then play again but don’t vibrato a single note. The time without vibrato will often sound rather lifeless and uninteresting. It is an important technique to work on as once you have it down you’ll sound like a real guitarist and not a beginner anymore.
When I vibrato notes the motion generally comes from the wrist. I try not to overdo it and generally let the mood of the music decide how aggressively I vibrato the note. There isn’t really a steadfast way to teach vibrato, I found the best method was to simply watch my favourite guitar players as they played and pick up techniques as I went along until I settled on a sound I felt comfortable with.
Try some songs from Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and BB King to get a good idea of some different vibrato sounds.
4. Timing
Timing is everything. It doesn’t have to as complex as Dream Theater but one thing is for sure, if you play out of time you’ll sound rubbish. The issue of timing applies to lead and rhythm playing but of course is ten times more important for playing rhythm, after all, that’s why you’re playing it.
A great way to make sure you play in time is to always practise with a metronome. They’re cheap and available from every music shop, and failing that there are several free software metronomes floating round on the web. By always playing with a beat you’ll be used to hitting your notes in time and sticking to a regular rhythm. Before I joined a band I never played to a beat and so for the first few practises my timing was quite out on places as I was just used to jamming around on my own.
Remember that even the most simple of passages must be in time and that you need to be able to play your rhythm parts consistently.
5. Picking
An aspect that is often overlooked by new guitarists is their picking hand. I was the same, generally all the focus goes onto the fretting hand to make sure those chords stick and the bends sound good. However the picking hand is just as important and will have a big impact on your sound. There are a whole host of approaches when picking your notes while you play, you can play fast and precise or loose and slower and everything in-between. If you ignore your picking technique you’ll have to go back and learn it again, which is what I had to do after three years of playing.
A solid picking technique is vital for rhythm playing as you’ll need to be able to reproduce the same thing every time you play the song. You’ll need to make sure that your picking hand is synched up well with your fretting hand, you don’t want to hit dead notes, especially on clean sections.
The technique of picking properly is enough for a separate article, but just remember not to overlook it. Try searching YouTube for some videos from Paul Gilbert and John Petrucci on picking technique. For a looser feel you can always turn to Jimi Hendrix, Wind Cries Mary and Castles Made of Sand have some great sections in them for getting some new picking ideas.
In conclusion.
While I haven’t covered anything groundbreaking here I certainly hope I may have uncovered some weaknesses in your playing that you can keep in mind as you work on your technique. These are often things I see new guitarists overlook in favour of playing some loud power chords or trying to shred away from the start. Remember that the key with learning anything new on the guitar is to start slow and make sure you can play it cleanly before moving up to speed. By taking things slow and learning the best techniques you’ll become a much better and more versatile guitarist in the future.
