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.
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.
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.
For many guitarists I meet and talk to being able to pick at super speeds through runs and scales seems like an impossible task. Let me assure you right now that it isn’t, it is just a matter of practising often, and practising well. By following a few simple guidelines and exercises you’ll be shredding away like Herman Li in no time. Well maybe not no time, but certainly not as long as you might think.
Many people associate fast alternate picking with terrible 80s hair metal and too many guitarists playing mindless solos just going up and down scales showing off how fast they can play. While this was certainly true for a good number of players, playing fast and controlled is actually a vital part of having good all round technique, and it has been overlooked in recent years.
It seems to have taken nearly 20 years to start to become more acceptable to play fast and there have been a large number of bands rise in popularity recently that have virtuoso guitar performers at their forefront.
So in this article I’d like to point out some steps that can help out with your alternate picking, giving your solos that speed boost just when they need them. Of course, the benefits of learning the technique isn’t only evident in solos as the methods carry across into many other aspects of guitar playing. You’ll be able to play more complex rhythm sections a lot more easily which is especially useful in a lot of heavy metal, jazz and flamenco playing.
First things first, what is alternate picking?
Alternate picking is simply a technique where you pick the notes in a continuous up and down motion with your plectrum. For example; first note is played with a downstroke, second with an upstroke, third is down, fourth is up, and so on. Usually the downbeat is played with a downstroke, and the upbeat with an upstroke. This allows you to synch up your hands to the beat and pick accurately and in time. I usually find it is best to synch up your downstrokes to the beat, if you keep the fluid up and down motion then the rest of the notes will look after themselves.
So where to start?
They key to playing really fast is to start really slow. By repeating the actions very slowly but accurately you’re programming the actions into your hands and eventually they will become part of your muscle memory. Once learnt slow it becomes much easier to take the same licks and build up the speed. The most absolutely necessary thing you must have is a metronome. Without a metronome to synch up your picking it’ll be near impossible to get good technique.
Start off by choosing an exercise or lick that you’d like to learn. Just a simple 1234 chromatic pattern is good, or three notes per string ascending and descending a major scale is also good. Once you’ve found the run that you’d like to play make sure it goes all the way up, and then back down as well. A key mistake many players make, myself included, is to play the run very well one way but to skip out playing the other way. For a long time I could play ascending scales quite well but it took me quite some time to learn to descend to the same standard.
Play your run up and down very very slowly. Make sure you use the metronome to keep time. Synch up your downstrokes to the clicks of the metronome. The easiest way to get started is playing four notes per string and changing string on each beat. Start very slow, around 40-50bpm and just move in small increments as you feel comfortable. Eventually you’ll be flying along at 200bpm, just be patient and never move on until you pick each note cleanly and in time.
I would do these exercises for around an hour each day, focusing on staying clean and keeping the time. Now admittedly playing up and down to a click for an hour isn’t the most interesting thing to be doing on the guitar but it pays huge dividends later. I found it useful to watch some TV or a film whilst practising these kind of exercises. Keep picking through a couple of Simpsons episodes and you’ve done a really useful practise workout, just make sure your metronome is louder than your TV.
The point of this article really is that I want to push home that seemingly difficult techniques are accessible for everyone, you just need to practise the right way.
Think of playing guitar like driving a racing car. The fretting hand is the steering wheel, and the picking hand is the accelerator. The two elements must work together or you’ll crash off the track. In a similar way of looking at things, how many Formula 1 drivers race around a track the first time they go there? The answer is none. They take it very slowly and learn the track inside out before they even think about racing round it. The same applies with guitar and learning alternate picking. Learn it solidly and slowly and the speed will come with time.
Be patient and good luck!
