Play Better Guitar
“My question is, how much about sound lies in the ability of the player?”
In this article I have decided to talk about the journey of sound, and the reason I call it a journey is because the pursuit of sound never ends.I think there is a huge lesson to be learnt from using gear that is not perhaps the best. I have seen buskers playing with really old guitars and yet they make the instrument sound amazing!My question is how much about sound lies in the ability of the player? So even before we get to playing guitar how do you sound as a player and how are you developing your sound?I have seen too many awesome players playing gear that is not classed as professional gear and wow, so let us begin with how can I articulate sound with my hands?If you look at players like Mark Knopfler he has developed his sound by using his fingers instead of a plectrum; the flesh part of the finger sounds very warm compared to the sound of the plectrum. He also uses a pop technique where he picks the string really hard to get a popping like sound. This kind of technique and sound generation would be difficult if not impossible with a plectrum.
Mark Knopfler
There are also local musicians that I have seen that use the nail on their index finger of their strumming hand and once again it has a very specific sound and I would assume they do it because that’s how they were taught. So your Guitar teacher will also have a huge influence on your sound whether you realize it or not.Then there are people who can articulate these different ideas very well and go from using plectrum to fingers and they can do it seamlessly. A player to check out would be Eric Johnson; he manages to use his hands very well to articulate sounds. Okay so that’s the first place to start… a teacher once said that I should go to a music shop and try playing a bunch of plectrums until I find something that I really like or that suits my playing style.
Moving on to the controls of the guitar and the guitar itself… Strumming or playing the strings back towards the bridge has a very different sound to strumming up along the neck; you will find that the closer you go to the bridge, your sound will become thin and trebly which works sometimes depending on the musical situation you in.Then you have volume and tone pot controls on the guitar; the volume pot can also control gain which will have a direct effect on your sound overall.Then the tone pots… have you tried to roll them off? Sometimes that can give you the smooth sound you are looking for on your lead breaks. So before you buy the next pedal look at articulating your guitar and your hands or plectrum to create different sounds and also remember that you will begin to sound like the music you listen to so try and listen to as much music and different players as you can.Next we look at Amps. There is so much to be said about amps and I remember watching Brett Garsed in 2007.
Brett Garsed
He was doing a tour with ESP guitars and he also used Hughes and Kettner amps. On that day he went directly into the amp; no pedals, no plectrum and completely owned his gig. Wow what a player! I think in this country ESP guitars have always been associated with the metal bands but on that day here was a guy that just knew how he sounded and what he was doing with that guitar and it was totally mind blowing. What a player, and off course he had no help from any pedals and the amp sounded really good on its own so I think in closing I would like to say that no matter how burning a player you are it still needs to sound good and usually that’s gonna make all the difference. This part of music should never be overlooked and is probably more important than learning your next sweeping technique or another scale. I am writing this article from Bali and the other night I saw a band on the beach busking. The guitarist had an old acoustic and in the sound hole he placed a speaker and behind the bridge there was another speaker. Somehow he managed to get a delay between the two and he was backed by a percussionist, bassist and rhythm guitarist. They sounded so good, these guys took instruments that weren’t great and made them sound amazing so it can be done. I suggest you spend some time on your sound and it might change the way you play so until next time enjoy and please email me questions or some ideas you would like me to look at for future articles.
Copyright Kurt Slabbert
Bluenoise Productions
kurt_slabbert@hotmail.com
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