guitars dream

Beginner's Guide To Guitar Strings

2009-01-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

Introduction

When you last walked into your local guitar store looking for strings, were you completely blown away by the amount of selection they had? With so many manufacturers and so many different labels and numbers, it's easy to get confused. Fear not though, for this article will help you narrow down the selection to something that will suit your needs.

Gauge

String gauge effects the playability and output of the guitar. The heavier gauge the strings are the tighter they must be, therefore making it harder to fret and bend notes. The benefit of heavy gauge strings is that they produce louder tones than light guages strings. If you're a beginner guitarist it's probably best to go with .009's or .010's (which represents the size of the bottom string).

Another thing to consider is the scale length of the guitar. The longer the scale the tighter the strings have to be, so you might be better off with a lighter gauge.

Winding

On electric guitars, the top three strings are wound. Every company is different when it comes to the winding process (core to wind ratio, winding tension), but here's the three main winding types.

Round-Wound

Used by the majority of guitar strings, the wire wrap is round making the string easier to grip. The drawback is that there is more string noise when changing notes and chords (the screech you hear when your finger slides along the string).

Half-Rounds

Half-rounds are polished for a smoother winding. There is less noise when changing notes, and still some grip. Polished strings have less treble to them, but more warmth.

Flat-Wounds

Flat-wounds almost resemble plain, unwound strings. There's almost no noise when changing noise. They create softer, mellow tones.

Core

There are two main types of string cores: round and hex. For round core strings, the core is simply a round wire. For hex, the core is a hexagon-shaped (sixed sided) wire.

Round Core

Round core wires are considered easier to bend, and produce a warmer sound.

Hex Core

Hex core wires have a faster response because of the way they are locked to the winding. They are also more consistent in terms of quality. Most strings use hex cores.

Material

The different combination of elements used affect the way the strings will sound. The type of music you play will usually decide what material you should go with when you buy your strings.

Bronze

Bronze is the brightest sounding strings (for acoustics). They lose their tone quickly though. These may be referred to as 80/20 Bronze (80 percent copper, 20 percent zinc).

Phosphor Bronze

Has a higher amount of copper (92/8, usually) than bronze strings, which makes a warmer tone.

Pure Nickel

Pure nickel strings have a warm, vintage tone to them. The magnetic field is not as strong as nickel plated strings, so volume levels will be slightly lower.

Nickel Plated Or Nickel Wound

May be called by either name. These will create higher volume levels than pure nickel can. Nickel plate strings also have greater sustain and brighter tone.

Stainless Steel

Strings made of stainless steel have a more aggressive sound than nickel or nickel plated. The downside is that they will wear frets down quicker, unless your frets are also stainless.

Coating and Treatments

Coating

Strings that are advertised as being coated have a layer of protectant (every company is different) around them that that keep dirt and corrosives off the strings, making them last longer. Coated strings, however, sound a little duller than uncoated strings. If you're short on cash a don't mind a slight loss in tone, coated strings
are the way to go.

Croyogenic Strings

Strings that are advertised as cryogenic have been exposed to extremely low temperatures, making the molecules bond closer together. This makes the string stronger and the tone brighter.

Outro

This article has hopefully given you the insight you need to narrow down your choices when it comes to buying guitar strings. Remember though that no two companies are the same, and you may have to experiment to find a set that suit your style and playing. Good luck!

Miking The Guitar Amp

2009-01-14T00:20:00.000-08:00

Now that we have the best mic position set and the mic stand and cable is anchored down (read previous part) and the amp baffled if needed, before we EQ the guitar signal, you may ask the guitarist to change amp tone control settings. Of course, if you Before we get the mic's out, a word about amplifier speaker cabinet grill cloth, grill cane, or metal grill covers. These things are passive frequency filters, meaning they hurt frequency response and can actually ring if made of metal. If your's are made of cane, you may hear a buzzing sound that sounds like a blown speaker. This is rare but I discovered this myself on a 1956 Fender 4/10 Bassman amp.

The obvious purpose of the grill cloth is to protect the speaker, especially when transporting the amp. Yes, the trade off is obvious - the speaker will sound better with the grill removed, BUT you risk the chance of damaging the speaker. If the grill cover is removed. If you decide to remove your amp's grill cloth (if you can - and don't do it if it will ruin the look of your amp) it is most important to not let a mic hit the speaker. Be very careful! Sand bag down the mic stand and if using a boom, after positioning, screw it down tight! More on this as things unfold.

Positioning The Mic

We will be miking the speaker from the front. If you have an open back cabinet, you could mic from the rear, but we'll get to that later.

Diagram 1.1

Front view of the speaker. The circle in the center is the speaker cone (or dust cover over the cone). The small circle to the left of the center cone is the mic. The mic distance is about one inch from the left edge of the cone (or dust cover) Note that the mic (small circle) needs to be pointed at a 20 degree angle towards the cone center while remaining about an inch from the cone (or dust cover).

We will use a guitar amp speaker cabinet with one speaker to start. If the speaker bottom has grill cloth and you can't see the center of the speaker clearly, use a flashlight. Look at the speaker and notice the dust cover in the center. Point the mic at the exact center and then move the mic left without changing the height of the plane until you are about an inch left from the edge of the center dust cover. Now place the mic about once inch back from the grill cloth. If you have no grill cloth, imagine where the grill cloth would be in front of the speaker. Now position the mic capsule at a 20-degree angle pointing towards the center of the speaker.

We used the positioning to the left side but you could use the right side, or below or above the center point using the same positioning logic. For some reason, the left position seems to work best in most cases.

If the amp is a combo amp, the amp electronics may create an electronic field the mic may hear. This will be obvious when monitoring the mic over the studio monitors as you will hear a strange hum. In this case, you might need to mic on the low side of the speaker - closer to the floor - instead of to the left, right or above the center of the speaker.

There are a few good reasons to mic in such close proximity to the speaker. The main reason is this gives a "punchy" sound, since the speaker air is not diffused by distance, and the air movement is blasted into the mic diaphragm. There are other reasons that will be covered when we get into recording details.

The key to this mic positioning is to get a blend between the speaker cone (under the dust cover, if a dust cover exists), which produces the upper mid and treble frequencies, and the rest of the speaker, which produces the low mids and low frequencies. The farther the mic is placed away from the center cone in any direction, the more the sound will thicken up with lower frequencies. You will lose the upper-mids and treble information. You want to get the mic placement to sound as good as possible before adding EQ or anything else to the signal path. I'll give you more on this when we get into monitoring the guitar over the studio monitor speakers.

Multiple Speaker Cabinets

If you're using a speaker cabinet with more than one speaker, one of the speakers will sound better than the other(s). When we get to the point of monitoring the guitar amp mic over the control room speakers, it will be best to test all the speakers to find the best sounding speaker.

You'll especially want to run this test If you're using a 4x12 speaker cab, such as a Marshall type cabinet. After years of experience, I have noticed that the slant cabs do not sound as good as straight cabs.

Setting Up The Guitar Mic Chain Within The Mixer And Recorder Signal Path

At this point, we assume the guitarist has set the amp sound to his or her taste for the part that will be played (clean, dirty, crunchy, etc.). These settings may be changed later.

Before we test other amp speakers (if you have more than one) and adjust the mic for the best "sweet spot," we need to get the guitar mic signal up on the mixer and through the recorder path for monitoring.

Whether you are using a stand-alone mixer (analog or digital) that routes to a recorder, or a computer based hard-disk recorder, it is all the same in the long run, since the path is technically the same.

Before we plug the guitar mic into the mixer (or computer-based analog to digital converter), it is very important that the mixer module to be used for the guitar mic is set all the way down, meaning minimum gain/volume setting. Also make sure the master mixer volume control is set all the way down as well.

If you forget to turn these levels down, and plug in a mic while the source module fader is active in the monitor chain, and the control room monitor volume is up, you will hear a loud low-end thump that may blow up the monitor speakers! Further, whenever starting a recording session, it is a good idea to "zero out the mixer" meaning all faders and "auxiliary sends" are down (volume controls off) and set all EQ volume positions to "flat." Any switches should be set to your standard starting positions.

We need a fictitious set up so let's use a mixer with 16 inputs and an 8-track recorder. If you're using a hard-disk recorder with a built in mixer, lets use the same lay out to make things simple. Simply adapt as all should be obvious.

Let's say that we are using mixer module 9 for the guitar mic input and we are recording the guitar on track 7 on the recorder. If you're using a digital recorder with a built in mixer, simply adapt with the same layout.

Plug the guitar mic into mixer module #9's mic input.
Assign mixer module #9 to bus #7 (the recorder track we are using for the guitar). Make sure that module #9 is not sent through the monitor chain and is only routed to record track #7.
Set recorder track #7 into "input mode" so we can monitor through the recorder.
Bring up module #7 (recorder track volume fader) to about half way.
Bring up the studio control room monitor level up to a normal listening level.
On module #9, set the mic pre-amp trim to -20 dB. (If you only have one input trim knob, that is the same as a mic-pre amp control. If you're using a computer hard disk recorder with outboard analog to digital inputs, use the same setting on the input level control).
Ask the guitarist to play the part for the song. While the guitarist is playing, slowly bring up the fader on module #9 (guitar mic fader source) to zero (unity gain). This level setting is typically around 3/4ths up on the fader throw.
If using an analog recorder (yes, hardly used these days, but some artists and producers swear by them) adjust the mic pre-amp trim level to average zero dB on the recorder track meter for now.
If you're using a digital recorder format, adjust the trim level to -6 dB on the recorder track meter for now. Always remember that going "into the red" (zero) on a digital machine peak meter will definitely "clip" the A to D converter (analog to digital converter) which is not advisable.

Regarding #7 above, if you are the guitarist and engineer, if the amp is in a separate room (or closet or some kind of seriously baffled enclosure), you will be monitoring over the control room speakers. If you have no guitar amp isolation, meaning the amp is in the same room (and only partially baffled), you will be using headphones to monitor. In any case, if you're playing chords for the guitar part, play all the open strings when adjusting the level. If you're playing single notes for the part, simply play one string for now, preferably the "D" or "G" string.

OK, you should be hearing the guitar signal. If you have no sound or metering, pull down all the volume controls in the path - as well as the master volume control - and check your routing path. In haste, I still sometimes make stupid mistakes when doing the routing. Take your time and slowly think through the path. It is always best to start at the beginning (the amp).

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If the path is correct and still you have no signal, the mic or mic cable may be bad. Replace the mic. If still no signal, replace the cable. If still no signal, plug the mic cable output into another module and re-route. Eventually you will find the problem. If the problem is a mic, mic cable, or module, get some red marking tape and place a piece of this red tape on the faulty component. Red tape means it needs to be fixed and will remind you to not use the item until repaired. If you do not label bad components, this may cause time-wasting and frustration every time you try to record, because you don't remember or know which piece is broken (broken mics and cables rarely look broken).
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So, when hearing the guitar signal through the path, it is now time to tweak the mic position before we get into EQ'ing and other stuff. Remember we want to get the mic path to sound as good as possible by positioning the mic.

In the above section "Positioning The Mic," We have set the mic up for the standard sweet spot. If you're using a speaker bottom with only one speaker, the odds are good the sound will be very good. Even so, moving the mic by a 16th of an inch will change the sound. You get the drift.

If you are not the guitarist (just the recording engineer) and have a 2nd engineer, have the 2nd engineer put on a set of headphones and go into the recording room to adjust the microphones, but do not have the guitar monitored in the headphones. The reason for the 2nd engineer to use headphones is twofold: If the guitar amp is set loud, the 2nd will not get blasted!!! Also, you'll be able to communicate with the 2nd as the following happens:

To find the best sonic mic position, while the guitarist is playing, the 2nd engineer slowly moves the mic while you listen in the control room. As the mic is being moved, you can communicate with the 2nd engineer via the studio talk back system that is fed into the headphones. While the mic is being moved, when the best spot is found, announce this information and ask the 2nd engineer to stop moving and note the position. If only using one speaker, skip the next paragraph.

If you're using a speaker bottom with multiple speakers, all speakers should be checked using the starting mic position. Have the 2nd engineer set the position and listen to like 10 seconds and then go to the next speaker. It will be obvious which is the best speaker, so after finding it, use the above technique in the above paragraph to really dial it in.

If you are the guitarist and engineer, this is major work since you will need to record about four bars of music for each mic position noting the mic position using a ruler for each recorded pass. Since you might be recording over and over again, it's most important to keep notes and relate them to the recorder time. So record four bars and stop. Now change the mic position ever so slightly and record the next four bars after the first four bars, again noting the recorder time or counter, and making appropriate notes about the mic position during those four bars. Continue the process while listening for the best sonic spot.

Anchoring Down The Mic Stand And Mic Cable

OK, you have the mic placed to your taste so now it's time to so some safety work. Now that the mic is positioned, cable tie the mic cable to the mic stand and duct tape down the mic cable. Here is how to do this:

After positioning the mic, you have tightened up the mic stand hand screw points. If using a mic boom stand, you have tightened those hand screws as well.

Without moving the mic position, wrap the mic cable around the mic stand or "boom stand piping" a few times and leave a little slack at the back of the mic to keep the cord from moving the mic on its swivel mount. If the mic does not have a swivel mount (moveable angle mount), still, you do not want any tension from the cable. To keep the mic cable from moving, we need to "cable tie" down the cord using removable "cable ties." If you're using a boom mic stand, put a few cable ties on the boom and a few on the main mic stand all the way down to the base of the stand. If you're using a standard mic stand, simply put a few cable wraps on the stand and cable tie.

Removable cable ties should be available in most electronic supply stores. DO NOT USE PERMANENT CABLE TIES. Make sure the type you buy are removable or you will have to cut the cable tie and throw it away when putting away the mic and stand. Velcro cable wraps are easy to deal with quickly. Another great product for cable management are the Planet Waves Cable Clamps, which allow you to clamp cables to almost anything, and are reusable. Most recording supply companies will have these.

Now that the cable is secure on the mic stand, we need to anchor the mic stand with sand bags or any stable heavy object that will not slip or rattle. I use fairly heavy sand bags (I guess around 20 pounds) that rest on all sides of the base of the mic stand. Typically, I use three sandbags in a triangular position. The best type of sandbag has a handle in the middle as to carry. Again, a pro recording supply company should have these.

You may be wondering why the paranoia regarding the stability of the mic stand. The following is most important:

If a mic stand falls over with the mic on it, you will get a sinking feeling in your stomach that will be awful! Microphones are sensitive pieces of equipment and not meant to take the abuse of slamming against the floor. Many microphones are expensive, and even if they are inexpensive, a busted mic will cost you time and money one way or another. Also, the microphone and stand can damage amps, instruments, or anything else they hit when they fall. Take precautions against this and you won't have to experience any regrets about unintentional damage to your or the studio's gear.

Most mic stand bases can easily tip. The bigger the mic stand base, the better. Even though we have secured the mic stand and cable, it is very possible for the mic and stand to be knocked over by someone tripping over the mic cable. To avoid this possibility, perform the following:

If you're on a wood floor, duct tape the cable to the floor from the base of the mic stand to the mic input panel or recording console mic input. The best way is to cover all the cable with tape. Start taping down the mic cord from the base of the mic stand and duct tape all the way to the mic patch bay or mixer. There should be a very little amount of mic cable slack at the mic stand base. Since there will typically be cable slack at the other end, "cable tie" the slack in a circle after plugging into the mic patch bay or mixer and tape this down if someone could possibly trip over the mic cable slack.

If you are low on duct tape, cross the cable in one foot strips about every two or three feet. If you have very little duct tape, spread out the strips further. "Artist tape" or any thin easily ripped tape will not do the job. Keep the cable taped down tight, meaning no slack between the spaced out tape strips. In the "cabled areas" where foot traffic will be heavy, do your best to cover the cable totally with duct tape.

If you're on carpet, pass on the duct tape (this leaves glue residue) and put something over the cable, such as throw rugs. Bathroom rugs seem to work in a pinch. Get some carpet remnants and cut them up to suit your needs. If you use carpet on a wood floor, make sure that it won't move if someone walks across it. A rubber type bottom on the carpet is necessary in this situation.

Next we'll get into miking the amp using two mics, as well as dealing with open back speaker cabinets. And in upcoming columns we'll explore dialing in the guitar sound for a variety of clean, distorted, and crunchy applications. Check back in a couple weeks with Guitar.com for more on Recording the Guitar!

Dialing In The Guitar Sound for Chord Melody Solo Electric Guitar Sound

2009-01-14T00:15:00.000-08:00

In the third installment of this column, the article titled "Recording the Guitar - Part 3 Miking the Guitar Amp," I explained the microphone, and the mixer and recorder setup. If you missed that article, click here to read it before proceeding with this article on recording and EQing for chord melody solo electric guitar tracks.

Many Jazz guitarists love to play beautiful standards and typically work out their own arrangements. This is called chord melody playing for obvious reasons.

This category also includes situations such as a guitarist backing up a ballad singer; or an electric guitar and a solo instrument in a duo, possibly with orchestral instruments used in the background, such as strings or woodwinds. A small rhythm section also may be part of this situation, playing very softly in volume. In any case, if other instruments are involved, the solo guitar is still the chordal and probably the rhythmic foundation.

In most cases, this style will be played with a soft touch and incorporate a warm, sweet sound. Avoid using compression, if possible, so as to not hurt dynamics.

The EQ Settings that Work for Chord Melody Solo Electric Guitar

Low frequency filter: Typically a very steep filter that eliminates low frequency information. If the guitar amp is being recorded in a room with other instruments (such as bass and drums) and there is low frequency leakage from other instruments into the guitar mic, it's best to use the low frequency filter. Also, if the guitar amp has a ground hum problem that can't be gotten rid of, the low freq filter should help. The filter may be frequency adjustable or a fixed frequency. If it's adjustable, experiment with the frequency settings to find which works best. In this situation, it's best to not go above 100 cycles. If it's a fixed frequency, the odds are good it is around 100 cycles.

30 to 80 cycles: No need to add here. Basically useless for chord melody style.

80 to 200 cycles: I mentioned that archtop jazz guitars might have frequency build-ups and suck outs. In this case, unless a huge bump or a huge suck out exists, we do not want to mess with that sound since there will be serious dynamics in the playing. If this creates a serious problem, ask the guitarist to play chromatically from the open low string on up, and look (listen) for frequency build-ups and or suck outs. If you find a loud low note, you will need a parametric or graphic equalizer to pull back that frequency. If you're using a parametric equalizer set the "Q" to as small a range as possible. Use the EQ sweep technique to find the offending frequency and roll out to taste to make the guitar sound as "even" as possible. Find the suck outs in the same fashion you would look for a build up and then add in the frequency, but be sure that the addition is very tight, using a parametric or graphic equalizer.

If both buildups and suck outs exist, and if using a digital recorder with a built-in mixer or a digital mixer with many EQ frequency bands that can be used in any frequency area, dial in the build up or suck out and fix it. If you're using analog EQ, and if there are no common frequency bands in this area, using two equalizers in parallel is the way to fix this problem. I will surely do an article on serial and parallel EQ in the future.

Again, unless a serious buildup or suck out is plaguing your recording, it's best not to worry about it, since the odds are good adding a few dB in the 100 to 150 cycle range will fatten up the bottom end. Keep in mind that with no bass instrument, the guitarist will be playing the chord root notes in many cases, so adding in the 100 to 150 cycle area will help support the low frequency spectrum.

200 to 300 cycles: In most cases, the guitar amp sound will be full in this area since the guitarist will typically use an amp that has a big sound for this application. Also, since the odds are good the 100 to 150 cycle area added the lows, and if the amp is big sounding, most likely this area will be fine on its own, unless a bad bump or suck out is in play. If so, use the frequency sweep technique, find the spot, and fix.

300 to 600 cycles: More than likely, there will be no need to do anything in this area unless a bump or suck out exists.

600 to 800 cycles: If the amp sound is dark and you do not want the sound "bright," but need note definition, try adding a few dB at 700 to 800. You may try rolling out if the sound is too "mid-rangy" for your taste, but be careful since this is the note definition "meat" area of the tone!

800 TO 1kHz: Again, if the amp sound is dark and you do not want the sound "bright," but need note definition, try adding a little here. You may try rolling out if the sound is to "mid-rangy" for your taste.

1K to 2 kHz: 1K is the center on the midrange. If the sound is real dark and you want some life, try adding a few dB here. On the other hand, if you want the dark, non-defined tone, try rolling out a few dB here but again, be careful since this is the note definition "meat" area of the tone!

2 kHz to 3.5 kHz: If the sound is dark and you want to make it brighter, add here. A pro jazz guitar player that uses a dark tone may dislike the frequency addition as well as any other upper frequencies. You will find out how the guitar player feels about this on the first playback. Always remember to make the player happy if possible.

3.5 kHz to 5K: This area starts bringing up the "sparkle." In most cases, the chord melody guitar player will not like this area or any of the following high frequency areas. OK, after saying that, since there are no rules, try adding here as long as it does not thin out the sound. If the amp sound is not overly bright and the tone is not thin, adding in this area may sound good to get a slight bit of "air" in the sound. Again, most jazz guitar players like a big, sweet sound, but if you make it too bright, the guitarist will tell you for sure!

8 kHz to 12 kHz: The pristine sheen area. If you have a dark tone, this will not add anything but noise in most cases. This is a spot to roll out a few dB if the amp is noisy.

If recording to analog tape, you may want to do the roll out later, when mixing, to also take down the tape hiss at the same time.

My Wrong Ideas About Guitar Practice

2009-01-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

Be careful when choosing advice regarding guitar practice. Advice that I thought was true when I began playing the guitar actually made improving my guitar technique and skills more difficult than it needed to be. Here’s why:

One of the problems people encounter when practicing is deciding what, when and how much to practice a given technique, solo or song. Much of the confusion comes from the huge amount of guitar information available today—some of it is good, some not so good. Often, there are many conflicting views on the same subject. Nobody wants to waste their time or practice in ways that don’t give maximum results in the shortest time.

When I started getting serious about guitar, I sought out as much information as I could from every source I could: lessons, magazines, books, reading interviews with musicians I liked and trying to learn by ear from recordings and tablature. The problem I had was I couldn’t always tell the good information from the “not so good” information. I had no real way of knowing what worked and what didn’t. Many times, I would work on a technique, song or solo and make little or no progress and wonder what I was doing wrong. I wasted much time, effort and experienced a lot of frustration trying to figure things out. If I had known then what I know now I would have made much faster progress toward my musical goals and eliminated a lot of wasted effort and aggravation along the way.

If I listed all the wrong things I believed back then and all the dead-end practice techniques I tried, I would probably run out of space here! Here are the main guitar technique and practice myths that sidetracked me and slowed my progress along the way:

Myth #1

Always practice slowly if you want to be able to play fast. For a long time, I practiced scales, solos and songs, always playing slowly, and wondered why I didn’t get any faster. I didn’t get any faster because I didn’t push myself to get faster. It is very true that much time must be spent practicing slowly and deliberately, developing and refining the technique you are practicing without ingraining mistakes and sloppiness—especially when the material you are learning is brand new to you. However, as you learn and memorize the lick, song or riff, at some point you need to push yourself to the edge of your ability to play it cleanly. You don’t want to practice at the “edge of ability” speed for long periods of time, but this type of practice is necessary in order to take your technique to the next level. When practicing a scale or technique, some part of your session should include some speed time—just make sure that it is not overdone to the point that sloppy playing and bad technique get ingrained. Immediately after pushing your speed, it is good to go back and practice the same technique at a speed you can play with cleanly and perfectly—it will feel much smoother (and should be much easier) to play after your “speed push” session. Practice slow to play it clean, practice speeding it up to get it faster.

Myth #2

Never practice scales, arpeggios, etc. using distortion. If the primary style of music you play uses overdriven and distorted guitar, it is absolutely necessary to practice using a distorted guitar sound. A long time ago, when I first learned the opening guitar part to “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” by Van Halen, I practiced playing it without an amp—making sure I could finger the notes and pick them cleanly. When I plugged into an amp with distortion and tried it, I didn’t sound very good. I could play the right notes at the right time, but I didn’t yet understand the importance of how to use muting to make everything sound clean. Strings that weren’t supposed to be sounding were ringing out and the whole thing sounded “messy.” I learned that if I was going to play using an overdriven tone, I needed to practice using that tone—it wasn’t enough just to practice the notes using a clean tone or playing without an amp. If your playing is not clean, the distortion will make it sound even worse—you will hear the mistakes that would not be apparent using a clean tone. Your practice needs to use the same amp sound you use when you play.

Myth #3

Always hold your pick, left hand etc.“this way.” Regarding hand positions and pick grip, always be wary of the word “always.” There are no absolutes—there are more efficient techniques, but no one way is always the right way. For example, both Paul Gilbert and Yngwie Malmsteen have monster chops, but if you look at their pick hand technique, they are both very different. Gilbert picks more from the wrist and Malmsteen more from a combination of fingers and wrist. Both ways of picking work well for each player. We all have different hand shapes and sizes, play different styles of music and guitars. If you are having difficulty with a certain technique, the best advice is to find a good teacher who can help you find the best way to develop a solution to your problem. Most technique issues can be resolved in more than one way, and sometimes a little help is needed to find the solution that will work for you.

Myth #4

Learning theory will ruin my creativity and originality. I read more than one interview with famous guitar players (who I won’t name! ) where they said everything they played came from “inspiration.” While they were certainly creative and inspired players, I believe that somewhere along the way, they learned some music theory. At the very least, they learned scale and chord patterns on the guitar and learned how to apply them to get the musical result they wanted. Learning theory is like learning to read and write a language—if you can’t read and write, you are limiting your ability to express yourself and have others understand what you are trying to communicate. Learning theory opens new doors to creative ideas that most of us would not come up with on our own.

Myth #5

You have to practice X amount of hours a day for X number of years to be really good. This one is partially true. Any guitar player with advanced skills had to put some serious practice time in somewhere along the way. However, it is not necessary to lock yourself away in your room for four years and practice twelve hours a day (although you probably would get pretty good at the guitar! ) The key is to find the most efficient and effective ways to use the practice time that you have so that you can do the things you want to be able to do on the guitar. If your goal is to be able to strum some Beatles songs, your practice routine will be much different than if your goal is to be able to play like your favorite shredder. You need to determine the specific skills you will need to develop to play what you want to play. Think about it—what would you really like to be able to do on the guitar? Get out a piece of paper and write down what those goals are. Once you have your goals, then you can develop a plan to reach them. If you are just starting out, a good teacher who can play well in the style you are interested in can be very helpful in helping you reach your goals in the fastest time possible with the least amount of wasted effort. Having clear goals and finding a good teacher who will help you reach them is one of the best ways to maximize your practice time.

Work hard and have fun!

"Technique - Right Hand Style"

2009-01-13T23:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome back all! First of all, a Merry Christmas and a Happy Newyear to all readers! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas as much as I did... After a week of holidays, the Ultimate Guide to Guitar is back, so a fresh new technique chapter is here waiting for you!

In the previous article, we discussed left hand technique, by assessing the most common flaws in left hand playing beginners suffer from... Well, we are going to discuss the right hand today, but not in the same fashion. I'm not going to make a list of flaws today, with exercises to correct them... This week, I'm going to give an overview of all right hand picking styles, with exercises demonstrating the situations in which these styles are most commonly used! That way, you learn how and when each of these picking styles are used in common playing situations... There's lots of different styles, so the description of each of them isn't going to be very much in detail, but you'll get a nice and handy overview from this article! And also, the most important styles will get a separate, in-depth article in the future...

Which picking styles are we going to assess this week?

01. Unidirectional picking: yes, it's important as well, it has its advantages!
02. Alternate picking: as you know, the most important of all these picking techniques...
03. Sweep picking: a very difficult but very impressive technique once you get it down!
04. Economy picking: a combination of the previous two... In some situations, it's an improvement to alternate picking!
05. Fingerpicking: I simply can't overlook it in this Guide!
06. Hybrid picking: the name says it all, it's a "hybrid" of pick and finger style!

So, that's a lot of picking techniques... Let's get going already!

Unidirectional Picking

In each of the following paragraphs, I will start off with an explanation of what the technique is, how it's done, ... Secondly, I will sum up some of the uses of the technique, and some situations in which the technique is most useful. Lastly, I will give you a tabbed example of a situation where the technique in question is useful.

A. What is it?

Everybody probably already knows what this is... Unidirectional picking, the name says it all: picking in the one and the same direction all the time! Most of the time, you can use "unidirectional picking" as a synonym for "strict downpicking". Although some people use strictly upstrokes, it's generally more natural to downpick everything.

B. What's it for?

You probably remember (you should!) that I told you in a previous article to strictly alternate pick everything, so that you could train your alternate picking. Well, I told you this because alternate picking is, and will always be, the most important of all the picking techniques... But that doesn't mean there's no good uses for "inferior" techniques, such as strictly downpicking!

Indeed, strictly downpicking can be put to good use as well... Here's some situations in which it can prove to be the best way to go!

Strict downpicking can be very useful in rhythm guitar, especially in heavy powerchord rhythm lines. Downpicking gives a very distinct sound as opposed to down- and uppicking, because downpicking attacks can be very powerful...

Downpicking is often used in combination with palm muting. This is because it's easy to downpick while resting your palm on the bridge, while it's harder to uppick without lifting your hand off of the bridge... This, together with the power of a downpicking attack, makes strictly downpicking very useful to play powerful, chunky muted metal riffs!

A third use worth mentioning is one I "learned" from a reader who argued with me that I shouldn't have said that you should alternate pick everything, because strictly downpicking can be used to build up strength and stamina in your right hand. Downpicking slow passages instead of alternate picking doubles the work for your right hand, which can actually be a good speed workout! Only, remember that your alternate picking speed will not greatly increase if you don't train your uppicking as well...

C. Example

For each of the techniques, I will provide a tabbed example of a situation in which the technique is useful. Here's one for strict downpicking:

   PM---|  PM---|  PM---|  PM
E|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------|
D|---------------------------------|
A|-2-2-2---2-2-2---2-2-2---2-------|
E|-0-0-0-3-0-0-0-3-0-0-0-3-0-3-5-3-|

This is a pretty basic example of a metal riff combining heavy distortion, power chords, palm muting, and strict downpicking! This could be done with alternating down- and uppicking as well, of course, but like I said, one of the advantages of strict downpicking is the distinctive "powerful" sound of a downpicking attack.

Try it! Play this short riff over and over again, as slow or as fast as you like, but try to keep to strict downpicking, to feel the difference with the usual alternate picking. Riffs like these are usually played with downpicking only, so keep practicing and try to get used to it!

Alternate Picking

Like in the previous paragraph, we start off with an explanation of what this technique is, then a summary of situations in which the technique can be useful, followed by an example.

A. What is it?

Of course, you already know what alternate picking is; I explained the technique in-depth already in a previous article. A short recap for those with bad memory: alternate picking consists of a constant alternation between downstrokes and upstrokes. So, if you downpick a note, the next note should be uppicked, again followed by a downpick, and so on...

B. What's it for?

In the article that I explained alternate picking to you, I also told you that you should alternate pick everything. Well, that's true most of the time, but I'm going to have to make some nuances in this article. Alternate picking is the most useful in most situations, except in the situations where the other techniques mentioned in this article are recommended. Sounds logical, doesn't it?

So, here are some specific situations in which alternate picking is most commonly used!

Alternate picking serves the purpose of picking sequences of single notes as fast and fluently as possible. Some riffs and most solos are sequences of single notes, and can therefore be alternate picked. As you know, alternate picking helps playing these riffs/solos at a high speed, in an easy and comfortable way. See the below example for a demonstration of how alternate picking is useful in solos!

Strumming chords does not really classify as alternate picking, but I think I should mention it because chord strumming also consists of a constant alternation between upward and downward strums. Figuring out the correct strum pattern for a song isn't very hard if you simply alternate downward and upward strums all the time, only passing over the strings if you're not supposed to strum them...

C. Example

Of course, the most important use of alternate picking is the first one of the 2 in the list: speedy and effortless picking of single note sequences, such as riffs and solos. Here's a very obvious example where alternate picking is useful. It's a fragment of a very well known solo, from Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven!

  d     d u d u d u d u d u d
E|-------5-----------------------|     d=downstroke
B|---------8-5-------------------|     u=upstroke
G|-7b----------7-5---7-5---------|
D|-----------------7-----7-5-----|
A|---------------------------8---|
E|-------------------------------|

This is a school example of a solo sequence of single notes, in which alternating down- and upstrokes are used for each consecutive note. Playing this solo using strict downpicking would not only be nearly impossible, your muscles would also most certainly be injured because of the heavy workload you put on them!

I will not elaborate further on alternate picking, since it has been explored in a previous article already, and there's not much left to say about it, really. Just remember that alternate picking is the most important of all these picking techniques, because you're going to need it in more situations than the other techniques.

Sweep Picking

Finally! Some people have been waiting for a sweep picking lesson for a very long time... Well, I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that this short paragraph about sweep picking is going to cover the rough basics only; it's not going to be a really in-depth explanation of the technique. The good news, though, is that there's going to be a separate, full-fledged article on sweep picking in the Intermediate series! All you need is some patience...

A. What is it?

Sweep picking is a technique that is used to play notes on adjacent strings by doing a sequence of downstrokes or upstrokes. So, your hand runs down the strings (or up the strings) as if it's strumming a chord or "sweeping" over the strings, plucking one string at a time. This technique is not easy to master, as it requires very strict coordination between both hands:

The right hand moves in one fluid motion in one direction. For example, if you are going to play one note on each string, starting on the 6th string and going to the 1st string, your right hand is going to do a sequence of 6 downpicks in 1 fluid motion. The tricky part is to time your attacks on each string evenly, and at the same time preserve the fluidity of the movement in your right hand.

The left hand's technique is even more difficult. Usually, when we sweep pick, we play "arpeggios". Arpeggios are in fact "broken chords": you take a chord, and instead of playing all the notes simultaneously, the notes are played sequentially, no notes ringing at the same time... And this is what makes the left hand technique tricky: it's mainly the job of the left hand to make sure that only one note at a time is heard! Your left hand has to follow the picking movement of your right hand, by only fretting down the string that should be ringing at that moment, and muting all other strings.

For more specific, in-depth descriptions of the right hand technique (how to sweep fluently and time your attacks evenly) and left hand technique (how to mute unwanted strings), you will have to wait until the separate chapter on sweep picking... There's so much to explain, and I can't do it all in this chapter! This is only an overview... But don't worry, be patient and I will teach you everything you want to know!

B. What's it for?

Like I said, sweep picking is used to play sequences of single notes on adjacent strings, one at a time, going up or down the 6 strings with a fluent, "sweeping" motion. I also told you already that the notes in question usually are "arpeggios", which are the notes of a chord played in sequence, instead of all at once. Basically, that's the only thing sweep picking is good for... Doing a series of picking attacks in the same direction, e.g. 3 or more downpicks in a row, in one fluent motion with your right hand.

Sweeps are often used in metal. Yngwie Malmsteen often uses sweeping arpeggios in his songs, just to give an example... A more important aspect of sweep picking, however, is the fact that the technique is part of another, more common technique, called "economy picking". I will explain that technique in a moment, after the example for sweep picking!

C. Example

The example that I'm going to give you is a D Minor arpeggio sweep. We're going to start downpicking the 5th string, and then doing a series of downpicks up to the 1st string, and then turn around and do a series of uppicks until we're back at the 5th string. Here's the tab:

   d d d d d h p u u u u
E|---------5-8-5---------|     d=downstroke
B|-------6-------6-------|     u=upstroke
G|-----7-----------7-----|     h=hammer-on
D|---7---------------7---|     p=pull-off
A|-5-------------------5-|
E|-----------------------|

As you can see, the first 5 notes are picked in a series of 5 downstrokes, then we "turn around" by hammering-on and pulling-off, followed by a series of 4 upstrokes to return to the starting point.

Don't practice this sweep picking arpeggio too fast! I know sweeps sound awesome when done really fast (like it's done in metal very often), but it's a very difficult to master technique and it takes a lot of time practicing and building up speed. Start off slowly, use a metronome, and try to get every note as clean and accurate as possible, all evenly timed. Only if you manage to get all this right, you can start building up more and more speed, little bits at a time!

Note: please remember that this short introduction to sweep picking is not very in-depth because a larger, more detailed article on sweep picking will follow later on. Right now, this is all the info that is essential to this overview.

Economy Picking

This is another technique that is also a large topic of discussion. When asked, beginning players often say they don't know what economy picking is, but after explaining it to them, they often say that "they've been doing that all the time without knowing"! Again, good news and bad news... The bad news being that this short paragraph is only going to cover the basics very roughly. The good news is that a future article will cover this technique more in-depth!

A. What is it?

So, what is this mysterious "economy picking" technique? Well, in fact it's a hybrid technique, a combination of alternate and sweep picking. This is how it works:

Economy picking is identical to alternate picking when playing notes on the same string: you play the notes by alternating downstrokes and upstrokes.

When changing strings, however, economy picking is exactly like sweep picking: the direction of the picking attack follows the direction of the string change. For example, you downpick a note on the 2nd string, and the next note is on the 1st string, so you downpick that note as well... Because the movement of your right hand is downwards (from 2nd to 1st string), you play the 2 notes on these 2 strings with 2 consecutive downpicks.

Note: This wordy explanation will maybe not be very clear at first... So, if you have trouble understanding this, take a peek at the tabbed example I gave below, which compares alternate and economy picking! Then return here, for the rest of the explanation...

B. What's it for?

Now, why would you use this more complex "hybrid" technique instead of just alternate picking? Well, the advantage of economy picking in some situations is that it "economises" the movement of your right hand. Take the example I just gave you: if you strictly alternate picked the sequence I explained, your right hand has to downpick the note on the 2nd string, then move towards the 1st string, but "jump over" it first, so that you can uppick it! When you think about it, this doesn't make much sense...

Note: again, look at the tabbed out sequence in the below example if it's not clear enough!

Now, economy picking is only advantageous in some situations. In these situations, alternate picking uses a lot of "unnecessary" right hand movements, while economy picking doesn't. These situations are the "odd number of notes per string" situations. You guessed it right: in sequences where an odd number of notes is played on each string, economy picking is the best technique to use... Why? For a full an in-depth explanation, you will have to wait until the Intermediate chapter about economy picking... But below, I have included a second example that should make it clear for you!

C. Example

I have provided 2 examples this time, to clearly show you the difference between alternate picking and economy picking. In the first example, I'm going to show you a very short sequence of notes, and apply both techniques on that sequence...

 Alternate picking            Economy picking
  d u d u d u d u d u          d u d d u d u u u u
E|-------8-7-5-7---------|   E|-------8-7-5-7---------|  d=downstroke
B|-5-7-5---------7-------|   B|-5-7-5---------7-------|  u=upstroke
G|-----------------5-----|   G|-----------------5-----|
D|-------------------7---|   D|-------------------7---|
A|-----------------------|   A|-----------------------|
E|-----------------------|   E|-----------------------|

The sequence is the same, as you can see, but the picking pattern isn't. I have underlined the differences in the picking patterns... In economy picking, the picking direction follows the movement of the right hand. So, when moving from the 2nd string to the 1st string, a downpick is used instead of an uppick, as you can see in the first underlined part of the picking pattern. Then, the final 4 notes are all on different strings, going from the 1st string to the 4th string. Your hand moves upwards to reach the 4th string, so we are going to "sweep" over these 4 strings and pick them with 4 consecutive uppicks, as you can see in the second underlined part.

In a sequence like this, you can clearly see the advantage that economy picking gives you over alternate picking. In other situations, however, the difference is so minimal that it can be neglected, and you can use alternate picking instead. The situations where economy picking can be most useful are the "odd number of notes per string" situations... I have made an example of this.

   d u  d  d u  d  d u  d  d u  d  d  u  d  d  u  d  u  u
E|------------------------------------------10-12-13-10----|
B|---------------------------------10-12-13-------------13-|
G|-------------------------9-10-12-------------------------|
D|-----------------9-10-12---------------------------------|
A|---------8-10-12-----------------------------------------|
E|-8-10-12-------------------------------------------------|

d=downstroke
u=upstroke

This example shows a C Major scale pattern, running upwards from the 6th string to the 1st. Scale patterns are often good example of "odd number of notes per string" situations... You can see that we play 3 notes on each string, so that the 3rd note is downpicked each time, allowing us to move to the next string with another downpick! On the 1st string, however, we play 4 notes, so that the 4th note is uppicked, allowing us to move to the previous string with another uppick... This shows why economy picking is often used in "odd number of notes per string" situations like this: it allows for economised hand movement when changing strings!

The use of economy picking will be elaborated more in detail in the dedicated Intermediate article about economy picking. For now, this is all the info you need to get a good overview of all the picking techniques that are available! Moving on to the next technique...

Fingerpicking

I simply cannot write an overview of picking styles - not to mention an entire guitar guide - without mentioning fingerpicking at least once! I am no fingerpicking expert, though, so this short paragraph covering the basics of fingerpicking will be the only thing I'll be teaching you about fingerpicking in the entire Guide. This is just to prevent myself from teaching you this technique wrongly, and offending the REAL experts by doing so! It's for the best...

What I can do, though, is give you some pointers on how to fingerpick correctly and efficiently. We're not going to cover "classical" fingerpicking, because this is bound to very strict rules which I don't know very much about. Fingerpicking is also used in other styles, like folk, country, jazz or blues... And in these genres, the fingerpicking technique isn't bound to such strict rules! There are some general guidelines, though, which we are going to cover in this section.

A. What is it?

Fingerpicking obviously means plucking the strings with your fingertips, instead of using a "flat pick" (= plectrum; the picking techniques that use a plectrum are called "flat picking" techniques). Of course, this requires a totally different technique than the flat picking techniques! Here are some basic pointers on how the technique of fingerpicking works:

The thumb is used for plucking the 3 bass strings (the 4th, 5th and 6th string), while the index, middle and ring finger are used for the treble strings (1st, 2nd and 3rd string). In classical guitar, the index is assigned to the 3rd string, the middle finger to the 2nd string, and the ring finger to the 1st string. This is not always the case in other genres.

In notation, the finger that is used to pluck the note is indicated above the notation with a letter. Each letter corresponds with one of the 4 used fingers: P for the thumb ("pollice" in Italian or "pulgar" in Spanish), I for the index ("indice" in Italian and Spanish), M for the middle finger ("medio" in Italian and Spanish) and A for the ring finger ("anulare" in Italian and Spanish). This indication is referred to as the "PIMA" method, and is often used in classical guitar.

Generally, the pinky finger isn't used. It has never been used in classical guitar, which explains why it doesn't have its own PIMA indication... Again, other genres may be less strict in this rule, but in general the pinky is not very commonly used in fingerpicking.

B. What's it for?

Now that you know how to fingerpick, what are you going to play with it? Not every genre of music uses fingerpicking, of course... So, what can you actually play with fingerpicking?

Like I said, fingerpicking is most commonly used in classical guitar, but also in more modern genres like country, jazz, blues and folk. The common thing all these genres share, though, is that fingerpicking is used to play arpeggios most of the time... That's right, you can play arpeggios by sweep picking, but you can also play them by fingerpicking!

So, how does that work? You should now know that arpeggios are chords of which we play the notes sequentially instead of all at the same time... This is what we do when we sweep pick arpeggios, but fingerpicking is a different method of playing arpeggios. The most common fingerpicking patterns consist of a simple bass line (played with the thumb on the 3 bass strings) and a sequence of higher treble notes for the melody (played with the other 3 fingers on the treble strings).

To demonstrate the use of fingerpicking to play arpeggios better, I have provided a small tabbed example below...

C. Example

Below is a short fingerpicking arpeggio I came up with. The first bar is an A Minor arpeggio, and the second bar an G Major arpeggio. The fingerings are indicated above the notes in PIMA indication.

   p i p m p a p m p i p m p a p m
E|-----------0---------------0-----|   p=thumb
B|-------1-------1-------1-------1-|   i=index
G|---2---------------2-------------|   m=middle
D|-----2---2---2-------2---2---2---|   r=ring
A|-0---------------0---------------|
E|---------------------------------|

 p i p m p m p m p i p m p m p m
|---------------------------------|
|-------0---3---0-------0---3---0-|
|---0---------------0-------------|
|-----0---0---0-------0---0---0---|
|-2---------------2---------------|
|---------------------------------|

You can see that this short example is constructed out of a simple bass line (if you look at the lower 3 strings) and a melody line (the higher 3 strings). My example is very simplistic, of course, but it shows the basic outline of most fingerstyle music pieces!

Note: time for some shameless self-advertising! In this video, you can see an example of a fingerpicking song... It's Bron-Yr-Aur by Led Zeppelin, covered by me on the electric guitar: Led Zeppelin - Bron-Yr-Aur (cover)

OK! We've almost got all the techniques down! Only one more to go, another hybrid of 2 techniques you know already...

Hybrid Picking

... and it's aptly named "hybrid picking"! How original guitarists can be... Like I said, hybrid picking is a hybrid of 2 techniques you already know: "flat picking" and fingerpicking. So, hybrid picking is using a pick and your fingertips to pluck strings at the same time! This technique offers some advantages:

String skips are made awfully easy, because you can easily use your pick to pluck the lower strings and your fingertips for the higher strings... It's much easier to hybrid pick notes on strings that are relatively far away from each other, instead of moving your hand up and down all the time like you would if you were strictly flatpicking!

Because string skipping is made so much easier, you can play much faster much easier with hybrid picking! Think of it like this... When you go from strict downpicking to alternate picking, your picking speed greatly increases because of the uppicking attacks you add... Similarly, hybrid picking adds greatly to the speed of alternate picking, because you add extra fingerstyle attacks!

Note that hybrid picking is a very difficult technique to master; not many guitarists can hybrid pick, which makes hybrid picking a fairly uncommon technique. This is why I'm concluding my explanation on hybrid picking here... All you need to know is that hybrid picking is a technique that uses both flatpicking and fingerpicking styles, which makes it a perfect technique for very speedy passages with lots of string skips.

Conclusion

Great! This article should provide you with a good overview of the most important right hand techniques, how they work, and what they're used for... This concludes the last one of the technique chapters, and also the Novice section of the Ultimate Guide to Guitar!

And that means... We're moving on to the Intermediate chapters! In the next article, we will assess some more music theory, followed by even more guitar techniques... We have much to learn and discuss together, so keep practicing and stay tuned for the next article!

Cheers!
ZeG

NAMM 2009

2009-01-13T23:41:00.000-08:00

At Winter NAMM 2009 next week, Carvin Guitars will be unveiling the all-new Steve Vai Legacy II Series amplifiers.

The Legacy II amps represent years of development, design and testing between Carvin engineers and Steve Vai. The 3-channel, all-tube Legacy II features all-new circuit designs that have been reviewed and tweaked by renowned amp designer Benjamin Fargen of Fargen Amps.

According to Fargen, the result is "a powerful blend of high-end boutique sound and rock-solid American manufacturing."

"The Legacy II is a dream amp," says Vai. "It's simple, versatile and the sound is creamy and warm. Finally there is an amplifier that has a Master Volume control that can raise or lower the overall sound coming out of the speakers without changing its saturation or tone. Although the sound has retained the integrity of the original Legacy, there is now an added channel that acts as a boost on the clean channel giving it a bit more hair. No need to keep dreaming, it's here."

The Legacy II Series is available as either a VL2100 100-watt Legacy II head, a VL2412 100-watt single stack cabinet, a VL2812 100-watt double stack cabinet, or a VL2122 100-watt Legacy II combo amp.

A Guitar World Office Visit from Children of Bodom

2009-01-13T23:36:00.001-08:00

It's been more than four years since we started filming lessons and interviews with musicians for our CD-ROM, and one of the very first subjects we had here at GW HQ for an on-camera lesson was Alexi Laiho from Children of Bodom. Alexi's been up here a few times since then, but Oct. 9, 2008, was the first time COB co-guitarist Roope Latvala was on hand as well.

The two guitarists came by for a lesson on how to play "Blooddrunk" with our very own Matt Scharfglass, as well as a new photo shoot with ace photographer Angela Boatright. The band was in town for one of the final dates on their current tour with Between the Buried and Me, Black Dahlia Murder and special guests for this one show, Testament.

Alexi had a bit of a rough start to the day...the 1:00 call time was a little on the early side for such a hard-partying night owl, and he needed a little nappy between the lesson and photo shoot. But with a little rest, some pizza and beer, Alexi was right as rain by mid afternoon.