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How to Suck a Little Less at Guitar

So, I've recently been lacking on playing guitar and haven't touched it for about a week or two just because I have been busy with finals, especially because I have to write so much; including my blog, but this is more fun than writing a jazz history essay. I figured that since I've been out of a week or so's practice, I would want to share tips, tricks and techniques that really helped me develop some skills early on. So, if you're a beginner guitarist with big aspirations, this blog is for YOU; however, if you are a more skilled musician and would like to learn more about music theory on guitar (that is the only instrument I play unfortunately), please let me know! I would love to nerd out and help people discover new ways to write and play music! As for now, I'll just stick to some of the basics.


[From national Guitar Academy]
[From national Guitar Academy]

General Advice:

The absolute best advice that I can give to anyone who wants to play guitar or really any instrument in general is that you need to USE A METRONOME PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! I am being so serious when I say this because this is probably the most important piece of advice out of this entire blog post that will drastically improve your playing almost instantaneously. You may think to yourself, "well I just want to play covers of songs I like and I know the melody to this song by heart, so using a metronome is just too tedious and pointless." Yes, that may get you by as an amateur musician or hobbyist, but as soon as you start playing in a band and try writing your own music, you'll realize that there are serious levels to this sh*t.

[From LinkedIn]
[From LinkedIn]

Not only does playing with a metronome allow you to keep better time in your head, it makes your playing sound more fluid and less choppy, especially when transitioning in between different techniques or styles. If you've also got a taste for odd time signatures like me, then it's even more important that you use a metronome so that these unconventional rhythms are ingrained in your head for you to write music over. The more you use a metronome, the more you won't need to use one when playing and the better you'll sound.

This is fact-checked and verified information. #truth

[From Instagram]
[From Instagram]

One last bit of general advice that I have for people who want to be lead guitarists or at least start to write/work on solos, is about your hand placement particularly on the back of the neck of the guitar. What I personally recommend for placement is to anchor your thumb on middle part of the neck as opposed to using your palm to grab the whole neck itself. This allows for your fingers to hover over the fretboard of the guitar, which is particularly useful for fast legato type playing in solos or improvisation. There is a bit of a caveat to this trick, as its largely biased toward what feels best for the player, and also what they want to play on their guitar. For example: Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi-Hendrix both played extremely fast with a classic blues grip on the neck, meaning their thumb was over the neck and the palm was used as an anchor. However, I'd argue that that style can only get you so far when playing more modern technical music. If you've never thought about these small things when playing, try each of them out and see what works best for you!


Techniques:


For some of these basic techniques I've take the liberty of filming a little demonstration video to go along with the explanation to help visualize what they actually look like and how they sound when being played. In the grand scheme of things, I would like to consider myself an intermediate guitarist, so forgive me if the demo vids may be a little sloppy at times. I've only been playing for a little over 2 years., coming up on three this October.


1) Palm Muting

This is a fundamental skill that anyone who plays a guitar should know particularly if you want to play with higher gain as to not get feedback from the strings when playing. In the video I first start out playing with no amp just to show how when you hit an open not it rings out and goes quiet, so on acoustic, it may be a little easier to palm mute because there isn't a lot of feedback. As soon as you turn the amp on and especially if you are playing anything metal or metal adjacent with high gain, then you'll quickly realize that the only way to stop the string from ringing out, giving an unpleasant feedback, is to mute the string. You can do this by either using your fretting hand (left) to stop it from ringing on the neck or you can use your picking hand (right) to mute it at the bridge. Since the pickups amplify the vibrations of the strings, you can move your palm up and down the strings from the bridge to have a heavier muted sound or a less muted, more muffled chug. Doing this adds more variety and texture to the notes that you're playing and can accentuate other notes that you want to stand out.


2) Hammer-Ons / Pull-Offs


These two techniques are another very basic guitar trick that is in a lot of songs featuring guitar and in almost any or every solo. Hammer-ons are slightly easier to do because it's just when you hit a note with your finger without actually picking the string. In order for this to ring out better, it's easier if you hit a note beforehand with your pick so that the string is already vibrating so that when you put your finger down on a fret on the same string and keep it there, the note rings out cleanly. However a pull-off requires a bit more technique involved where you have to have your fingers in a line on the same string on different frets and then you have to pull them off starting from the highest fret, but instead of just pulling off of the string, you kind of have to pluck it with your finger so that the string rings out the next note as you pull your finger off. It is honestly easier to look at the video for explaining this but I think that its pretty self explanatory. In the last part I show how you can alternate between these two techniques, hammering-on and pulling-off the strings, being used in tandem with individually picking a section of notes. It involves hammering-on the first three notes then picking the next three notes on the next string then repeating the same notes that you picked individually, but instead hammer on the strings, then repeat the process. This was one of the ways that Eddie Van Halen used to solo and move around certain scales.


3) Bending and Vibrato


First I'll start off by explaining vibrato if you did not already know what that is or how its incorporated into guitar playing. Vibrato is by definition a musical pulsating change in pitch, kind of like a consistent wobble on an note or chord. It changes the feel of an otherwise boring or flat sounding note to have more texture and rhythm because you can also change the type of vibrato you put on certain notes to fit the context of the song you're playing. You can use vibrato in many different ways but the most important thing that you need to make sure that you are moving the string very slightly up and down in a consistent manner. A tip for using vibrato that I have heard is that you want to make sure that you're vibrato is in sequence with the drums or rhythm, so it has more of a complimentary affect. However, bending is when you bend the string up or down increasing the tension of the strings, raising the pitch of the note that you're hitting. Usually most people bend a whole or half step (1 fret or 2 frets) up from the note their finger is on, but you can go higher, of course at risk of breaking a string, but that never stopped anyone. One thing that I recommend you do is bend the note just high enough to make it sound like you just moved up one or two frets, and then play the note 1 or 2 frets higher to compare your bend, to the actual note itself; this is a form of ear training. Lastly is something that a lot of guitarists have incorporated into their bends which is raking, that adds a unique feel to a bend. How you rake is that you palm mute the first three strings and rake your pick across them before you hit the string you want to bend and stand out. A song that really helped me improve my vibrato and bends was specifically the Bohemian Rhapsody solo, because really anything written by Brian May has excellent vibrato, bends and technique. One last thing that I forgot to mention was that you can also do something called a "pre-bend", where you mute the strings and bend the note to your desired pitch before you pick it, allowing you to release the bend and lower the tension--decreasing the pitch--to give the note a descending or dropping feeling without the need for a whammy bar or a Floyd-Rose bridge. Those types of bridges allow for you to decrease the tension in the strings without actually touching them by altering the angle position of the bridge--the point where the strings connect at the body of the guitar.



4) Tapping


*Just to preface I feel like I could have taken a better demo video for tapping by muting better and making it cleaner but alas I am left with this, so sorry *

Tapping is a technique on guitar that many people who don't play the guitar find really impressive but is actually quite simple. The hardest thing about tapping on the guitar is transitioning from tapping a certain note on the fret board with your right hand and going back to picking near the bridge of the guitar. Many people, including myself, have found it hard to tap the right note on the fret board when transitioning, but after playing around with it and seeing some other people do it, I can say that there are a few tricks to it that people don't really tell you. Firstly, one of the things that many people who want to institutionally do when trying to tap is to use their pointer finger, however this is just not the way to do it if you're trying to play efficiently. When holding the pick, you are doing it with your thumb and pointer finger so trying to tap a note higher on the fret board with your finger adds the additional step of switching the fingers holding your pick in order to tap the note cleanly. Instead you should use your middle finger, not only because it is takes less steps in order to tap the note but you can still hold your pick while tapping and also the middle finger has more strength when tapping as opposed to your index finger due to it being longer and its positioning on your hand. Trust me even if it feels weird at first it is the best way to do it.

Next is how you actually get the note to ring out and sound clean. Essentially what you are doing is just a hammer on and pull off combination with your right hand, so you'll want to take the same approach, especially with the pull off part. Make sure that you are kind of lightly plucking the string with your right hand when you are pulling off of the note to get the notes that you're holding on the lower end of the fret board to ring out as well. When you see people tapping on a guitar during a solo you may hear a really fast repetitive sound and wonder how the hell they're doing this; it's a lot simpler than it looks. All it is just repeatedly hammering on three notes in a rhythmic succession--which is why you should use a metronome, it'll just sound better--where one of them being the note that your tapping and the other two is just your index finger anchored on a fret and your either middle or ring finger hammering on a few frets higher. When you get into the rhythm of it and understand the fundamentals, this technique appears much simpler than people make it out to be. You can of course write much more challenging music that involves different variations of patterns when tapping or add an accent note to a song by tapping a note that is otherwise much t0o high to play with just your fretting hand. The song that really made me keep good time of my tapping was the intro to "Bite The Pain" by Death off their album The Sound of Perseverance, which has such a cool tapping part that has some more difficult transitions between picking and tapping.


5) Pinch Harmonics



Okay For this technique it is a little harder and there is so much that you can do with this as harmonics are largely based on feel when you are deciding where to place them and how they should sound to you BUT REST ASSURED THERE IS A SCIENCE TO THIS! A science that I will share with all of you beautiful people.

So what is a pinch harmonic??? If you are an avid listener of metal, rock or any music where there is a high distortion guitar, you may notice that there are part of the song where the guitarist is playing a note and then, without moving their fretting hand to a higher note, producing a piercing squeal that is just electrifying; that right there, is a pinch harmonic. Here's the science behind it; when a note on a string is being played, it oscillates at a certain frequency, producing a sound and how you produce a pinch harmonic is where you inch your thumb closer to the base of the pick, allowing your thumb to hit the string in sync with your pick. It makes this sound because when you hit the string again with your thumb, you're not actually hitting it at the same time as your pick. What actually happens is that the pick hits the string first and your thumb hits it again, just before it can make a full period of oscillation; therefore, doubling the frequency of the note, otherwise known as an octave.

Okay enough nerding out on the science, I'm assuming that you all just want to know how to do this on command, and yes there are some things that make it easier for you to hit them consistently, but beware, it will take practice. It does take varying levels of force/finesse/ pressure to produce a pinch harmonic depending on the string that you want to make a PH (Pinch Harmonic). The lightest and heaviest gauge strings, I've found, were the hardest to get an accurate PH at first, so if you're just starting out you'll likely want to start somewhere on the middle strings; the D or G strings. The heavier the string the more pressure you'll need to apply in order for you to get that double vibration to ring out a squeal, and the lighter the string the lighter the pressure you will have to apply to hit a PH, or you run the risk of breaking a string or muting the note entirely. After you've played around with that for a bit and gotten consistent with them, you'll find that depending on the fret you're trying to make a PH changes where near the bridge of the string you need to hit, in order to make it sound clean.

This brings me into my last part about pinch harmonics that is a little more advanced; you can alter the pitch of the PH (lower or higher) depending where on the string you decide to pick from. That and there are spots that produce a cleaner PH that also depends on which note on the fret board you are hitting; whether its higher or lower, these clean spots change and its honestly up to you to just feel them out by practicing what sounds you like. Don't let this discourage you though as the small steps matter first and it will slowly get easier as your brain marks these spots though muscle memory. Just remember to have fun playing around with it and you'll get good over time!



6) Sweep Picking


Where do I start with this bs...

The one thing that I absolutely hate about sweep picking is that so many people who know how to sweep pick consistently say that it is one of the easiest techniques out there, BUT ITS ALL LIES!!! Not to say that it is the hardest thing in the world, but I fear that many people on social media downplay how hard or impressive it actually is; there are also those who think that sweeping is the pinnacle of guitar playing and put it in EVERY DAMN THING THEY MAKE. Thus, people make content showing how easy it is to sweep pick even though it is definitely one of the harder techniques out there to achieve. I'll just leave it at technicality doesn't mean the music is good, but there is technically mind-blowing music that is also really damn good. It's mostly up to if the musician is a good composer than anything else because you can have all the technical ability in the world and still make a nothing burger if you have no imagination.

Now to get into the technique itself! Sweep picking is when you rake your pick over the strings at an angle in a sweeping motion, hence the name sweep picking, while moving your fingers to individual notes in synchronization with whatever string you happen to be picking. This technique requires you to have precise control over your picking hand, knowing how to mute other strings with both your right and left hand simultaneously, AND synchronized fretting to picking hand coordination; this is no easy task, but I will share my knowledge so far.

For this demo video I used some of the sweep picking parts from Overactive Imagination by Death off their album Individual Thought Patterns, if you couldnt tell their music is very fun to play. One of the key tricks in making sure that you're picking correctly in a fluid sweep is how you angle the pick when you are picking. You want to have it angled down the direction that your fingers are moving across the strings and trust me, it will be a lot easier starting slowly and making sure you are keeping a consistent time. If it works better for you to get comfortable with the pattern you choose (I suggest looking up arpeggios on guitar), start out individually picking them and then when you've got the muscle memory for the pattern down, you can then try to start playing with the angle of the pick. It also matters how you start picking the string, as every bit of movement effects the fluidity of how you sound. If you're starting with a hammer on or pull off like how I am, you'll notice that I start the sweep with an upwards pick to individually pick the first note then on the same string where I've lifted my finger to then sweep the rest across the strings. This is how you set yourself up to do a continuous back and fourth sweep, but I am still a little choppy working on sweeping towards me, but I'll get it soon enough. With the palm muting its a good idea to have the meat of your palm to mute the strings that you have already hit after they ring out so you can isolate the next note. This way it will sound more clean even when using higher gain. When you are sweeping from lower strings to higher strings, it requires you to palm mute the previous notes, but when you go from high strings to low strings, you need to use your left hand to mute the already vibrating strings. This is a little harder to do because you're mutli-tasking with both hitting the correct notes and muting the previous ones that have already rung out and for this you want to make sure that your fingers are just close enough to mute the strings but not make them ring out or turn into harmonics, which I am having difficulty with currently. Yet again, dont let this discourage you as I am having loads of fun trying to figure this stuff out and if you're passionate enough about guitar then you too can achieve this along with me!

- also, dont be afraid to reach out, I'd love to talk to anyone who is interested in learning or wanting to have another person to talk about guitar with!


I also wanted for this blog in particular to be a bit more friendly to beginners or even people who don't play any instruments which is why, for those who are more experienced, it may seem like I over-explained some small details.


If any guitar gurus are reading and I got anything wrong, please tell me, I'd love to learn more!




I have been kind of lacking on my blogs but rest assured I am back for good! They cant get rid of me that easily

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