My Music And Song's

Archive for October, 2009

The near-constant presence of a drum kit (real or electronic) in popular music can make us forget that a song could approach rhythm in a different manner. From time to time consider not having a continuous beat. In an orchestral setting tympani rolls, snare rolls and cymbal crashes occur only to mark special moments in the music, such as a crescendo or climax.

Marking the beat percussively all the time would be considered vulgar in classical music –that’s what the conductor is doing by waving his arms. If you compare the 1947 revision of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Petrouchka with the 1911 version, you will notice that he took out much of the percussion – presumably on the mature judgement that he had been over-emphatic in the original score. The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album offers a fine example of percussion used in a less obvious way.

Even in a rock song, dramatic effects can be generated by taking out the beat for a few bars. Good examples are ‘Summertime Blues’, ‘Something Else’, ‘Lucille’, ‘My Generation’, Ash’s ‘Goldfinger’, Dodgy’s ‘In A Room’, Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’, Led Zeppelin’s ‘What Is And What Should Never Be’ and The Bluetones’ ‘Slight Return’. There’s a wonderful pull-out and re-entry of the drums in ‘Tumbling Dice’. The obvious place to delay the entry of the drums is on the intro, as in ‘There She Goes’, ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’. ‘In The Air Tonight’ has a long-delayed entry which was the probable inspiration for Preston Hayman’s spectacular snare-drum entry on Kate Bush’s ‘Leave It Open’. You can even bring in the drums on what sounds like a ”wrong” beat, as on ‘Start Me Up’ and ‘Marquee Moon’.

Some blues players don’t use a pick, but the majority of electric guitarists who play lead do. A pick provides force, precision, and speed that fingers can’t muster as easily and efficiently. If you’ve never played with a pick, try following the suggestions in this section.

Hold the pick in your right hand between the index finger and thumb. The point of the pick sticks out perpendicularly from your thumbnail, and only the top third of the pick shows. Don’t grip the pick too hard when playing lead, but don’t let the string push it loose from your fingers either. Play the notes lightly at first to get the hang of playing notes with a pick.

Picks come in different gauges or thicknesses, so if playing with a pick is awkward for you at first, play around with different gauges until you get a feel
that doesn’t fight back as much (thinner or medium gauge picks are more flexible). As your playing develops, try to play with a stiffer (heavier gauge) pick for the fastest response from the string and for the strongest sound.

When starting out with a pick for single-string playing, many people wonder whether they’re exerting too much effort, going too far past the string, or not going far enough. Really, these problems work themselves out without  thinking about them too much.

Generally, as long as you don’t accidentally hit the adjacent string in your single-string picking, you’re not going too far. And after you clear the string and it rings out clearly, you’ve gone far enough. However, your pick strokes do become smaller and your wrist motions more efficient the more you play. Also, the tempo dictates how closely you need to restrict your strokes: Fast songs require a small range, but slow songs don’t require you to turn-aroundon- a-dime, so you can be a little more expansive.

To know where to place your fingers, remember that the thin metal bars  running horizontally on the fingerboard are the frets, and you place your fingers between the frets to make a note. To make the definition more complicated,in music notation, fret refers to the space between the frets, where you place your fingers.

To fret a string, press it to the fingerboard with the tip of a left-hand finger. Place your finger in the space between the two fret bars, but a little closer to the higher-numbered fret. Playing chords requires multiple fingers fretting simultaneously. Keep your knuckles bent and your fingers rounded as you apply pressure, making sure to press straight down on the string rather than from the side. This produces maximum pressure and ensures that you don’t prevent adjacent strings from ringing.

When you first start playing, your left hand will have trouble keeping up. You
may find it takes considerable strength and concentration to play notes and chords that ring out clearly and that don’t buzz. Your hand may hurt after  only a few minutes of playing, and you may wonder how you can ever play one song, let alone a whole evening of songs.

Left-hand strength develops over time, and you gain the endurance you need just by playing the guitar a lot. Don’t worry about trying to build up the strength of your left hand through independent exercises. Just playing the guitar is enough to develop the appropriate and necessary muscles in your left hand. Playing the blues is physical. As with any physical activity, don’t push it, especially in the beginning. Keep at it, but take frequent breaks. When something starts to hurt, stop for a few minutes — or for the day — and rest.