Last month’s article focused on the fingers. This month let's focus on the heart. Feeling. How important is feeling in your playing? Well, I'd invite you to look at it this way: music is a vehicle to communication of ideas and feelings: emotion, direction, intensity, pleasure, pain.
What do you want to say? Who do you want to connect with? What emotions do you want to communicate?
What I'd like to do in this article is step through some of the options that you have to increase the expression of feeling. I'm assuming that you, the reader, know key techniques.
Music in most contexts makes better sense when it is played with feeling, and delivered in such a way that it engages emotion. What would it be like if you find a way to play with feeling so as to convey emotion both to yourself and others?
Phrasing
So what is phrasing? If we look at language, phrasing isn't just about the words you say but how you say them, the tone, the timing when you say them, the volume you use when you speak. This in turn affects what the listener hears and the way in which you communicate your thoughts and ideas.
In terms of playing the guitar, other than note / scale / chord choice, what other aspects come under the guise of phrasing?
Timbre
For example, fret a note and pick the string near the bridge - you will notice that the sound is sharper with less sustain. Pick closer to the fingerboard and you will notice the timbre mellows and the note 'blooms' more with more sustain.
Other things that affect timbre are whether you choose to use a pick or your fingers, or finger picks, or a coin. Even your choice of plectrum can affect the timbre of the note you strike - aspects such as material, thickness, size of the plectrum all have a bearing on timbre.
Tone
The subject of tone would merit an article on its own. Let’s just say here it's the choice of electric or acoustic, the specific guitar and any sound modification, such as effects, amp, leads, pick-ups and the like.
I'll leave you to make your own decision as to what tone you use where, but all of these elements can change the feel of a piece of music.
Oh, and if you play electric guitar, see the knob marked “tone”? Give it a tweak and see what possibilities you can unlock.
Playing Dynamics
How hard you hit each note, or the volume of the notes you play.
If any one aspect of playing will emote feeling (other than timing) it is your playing dynamics.
Try it: Play a simple three note phrase. Hit the string softly and see what this says to you. Then play the same phrase again and hit the strings harder. Now experiment with combinations: hit the string harder and harder; or start by striking the string hard then backing off. A great exercise in dynamics is to practice a whole scale increasing and decreasing how hard you strike the notes. Try increasing how hard you strike the string as you ascend and decrease when you descend the scale. How will using dynamics like this affect your playing?
Now as homework, go and investigate the knob on your guitar marked "Volume" and see what that "effect" alone can do for your playing dynamics.
Timing
Not only what order you play notes in, but when you play them will have an effect on what your audience hear and perceive from your playing.
This is one of the most fundamental areas of phrasing.
Another option when it comes to phrasing is playing nothing at all. Never underestimate the power of leaving space between phrases to let the music breathe. Listen to Jeff Beck or Dave Gilmour for great examples of using space to its best advantage. Great phrasing is not just about what you play, but what you don’t play.
Timing and gaps make your playing more like a real human conversation, and help you better describe feelings and emotion to the listener. Think how easily bored you get of listening to people who only talk in really long sentences!
Imagine what it would be like to read this article at a constant pace, not pausing or taking a breath – it would be tiring, boring and uninteresting for the listener, and would It hold the listener’s attention?
Technique
What technique do you choose? Slide, pick, hammer- on, pull-off, tap, sweep - there are a myriad. They all depend on what you want to say and how you want to say it.
The amount that can be conveyed by how a piece of music is phrased should not be underestimated. The multitude of options you have as a guitarist (no other instrument can compete with the options by the way) are huge
Experiment with each of the options and see what they can do for you...
Exercise
As an exercise, take three notes -
- 9th fret on G string (E),
- 8th fret on the B string (G)
- 10th fret on the B string (A)
- Play the three notes, straight, one after another. How does that feel? What does that say to you?
- Now play the same but slide from the G to A
- How about Bend from G to A?
- Try playing E, letting it ring out as you hammer on from G to A.
- What about adding vibrato? To one note, just G? All three? Just A?
- What about changing the timing?
- What about changing the order of the notes?
- You could try changing the dynamics?
- What about picking close to the bridge and increasing how hard you hit the notes?
- What about varying how many times you play each? The rhythm?
What would it be like if you do nothing else but explore all the different ways you can find to play these three notes? Think about what feelings you want to convey and what you play makes you feel.
Then please use think about this article when you are playing and try to incorporate what you feel into everything you play.
Thanks
Thanks for reading this article. I'd welcome your feedback on these articles. All the best#
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