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Having the ability to
develop your own unique style is one of the most attractive elements in
choosing the guitar as your instrument. No other instrument allows it's
player to have more unique options for individual nuance at their immediate
disposal. The difference between an 'average' guitarist, and an
'exceptional' guitarist is not related at all to 'what' an individual can
play, but rather 'how' and individual can play.
The First step in
developing your own sound is the equipment you chose to arm your sonic arsenal
with. Tube versus solid-state versus digital amplification, guitar type,
string type, effect types, etc. all play a major role in developing your own
'tone.' Tone is the word which people use to describe a certain sound.
While it is true that a large majority of a person's sound comes from
their fingers, the equipment a person chooses also plays a major role.
To find your own sound, you must do a lot research. Start by choosing
artists and/or songs that you find to have a desirable tone. Find out
what gear was used to create this sound and then test this gear yourself.
You may find that although one amplifier sounds great in your favorite
song...when you go to the store and plug into it, it just isn't quite 'your'
sound. The quest for individual tone is a process that may take many
years. You will probably find yourself going through many different
amps, effects combinations/arrangements, and guitars before you become truly
happy with your sound....but you will get there, be patient. Don't rush yourself,
or else you'll end up with a lot of equipment that sits in your closet.....or
you sell back to the store for 1/50th of what you paid for it.
But the battle for
sonic self-dominance has just begun.
Now comes the 'how'
an individual can play part, and it is the single most important and
single most overlooked aspect to playing guitar well. Most
guitar players go through their entire playing career without paying much or
any attention to the most critical aspects in developing individual style.
These steps encompass the 'how' aspect of playing. One could chose a
difficult piece of music, and play it through with perfection and still have
the piece sound sterile and bland. How do the accomplish this?
Simple- lack of dynamics, passion, and variable note attack. What is
variable attack? It is HOW you sound a note.
For example, take your
pick and hit an 'e' anywhere on your fretboard....listen to how the note
initially sounds and rings. Feel that sound in your soul. Now,
take the SAME note and pick the 'd' right below it on the same string, then
slide quickly up to the 'e'. This 'slide' creates a completely different
sound and feel for that 'e' than simple picking the note does.
Next, go back to the 'd' with your index finger, pick it and hammer on to the
'e' with your ring or middle finger. This 'hammer' technique creates yet
another completely different feel than the previous two methods of attack.
Now try hitting the 'd' note again and then bend the string until you
hit the 'e' pitch...again you have discovered another new feel and new sound by
hitting that note in a different way. Pluck the note once with
your right hand finger instead of a pick- a very different
sound and feel there! These different 'feels' and methods for
deploying a note add soul and dimension to your sound....and help develop
your own 'signature' style.
Choosing which attacks to
sound a note with is critical to making your tone sound 'professional' as
opposed to 'amateur'. Listen to any song by Joe Satriani, or any other
accomplished guitarist and try to hear where they are hammering notes, bending
notes, sliding to notes, playing notes 'legato' (all hammer-ons with the left
hand- no pick attack). Paying attention to this you will see that notes
are rarely just 'picked' but there is usually a variable combination of
various 'attacks' to produce music with a certain feel, that also allows
you to immediately identify the guitarist simply by hearing the music.
The final aspect of
individual style that I will cover (although by no means the final element) is
the single most important technique to a professional sound. This is vibrato.
Vibrato is the bending or 'wiggling' of a string after you have attacked a
certain note, pushing the note slightly out of tune, then back into tune,
over and over again at variable rates determined by the player,
often times in rhythm with the music, although this is not always necessarily
so. Many accomplished guitarists believe that one can immediately
identify a guitarist's level of development simply by listening to their
vibrato. Listen again to your Satriani (or other guitarist) song(s).
Listen to how certain notes seem to lie there flat....when other notes seem to
'move' with energy. These notes sound ALIVE....these notes have
excellent vibrato. Good vibrato can make an entire stadium roar with the
sounding of ONE NOTE from a guitar. To develop your vibrato....use
a metronome...set the metronome for any BPM you want then pick a note.....bend
the note with your fretting hand up to the note 1/2 step above the note you
played....then bend it back down...then go a full step up. Do this over
and over again, varying your BPM occasionally and your subdivision of each
beat as well. For a good example of vibrato- pay attention to Zakk
Wylde's playing....his is one of the most signature vibratos in modern music-
one can immediately hear a note plucked and moved by Zakk and know
that it's Zakk behind the sound. That, is what we are all aiming for-
unique, individual style that people only need to hear and then they know
who's behind that axe.
Remember....playing guitar
with adept proficiency is not determinable by 'what' a person can
play.....it's 'how' a person plays. Vary how you attack notes...practice
wide vibrato, narrow vibrato, slow and fast vibrato....practice slides,
hammers and bends, legato playing.....these things are the techniques that
allow you to speak to the guitar playing world and tell it: "I am an
accomplished guitar player." Learning and developing these skills
will greatly help you create your own sonic signature and will enable you to
put your very soul in your music. Keep rockin' my friends.
Brad Gottlieb
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