In my
experience most of the guitarists tend to fight against the difficulty of new
chops, phrases, licks, riffs, etc. for a simple reason, they want to play them
with speed as soon as possible (perhaps in the same moment in which they are
reading them for the first time).
The problem is, if you don’t understand why
those licks, phrases, etc. exist in a contextual manner you’ll be losing the
starting point to develop speed on those chops, licks, etc.
Why?
Because sometimes the writer of those chops, licks, phrases, etc. is thinking
on several and different things at the same time that will affect in the speed
or your speed to play such music.
Like what?
-The meter
-The tone of a certain string
-The facility to play certain notes
-The harmony
-The tempo
-The picking hand
-The effects
-Etc.
These
points influence to the writer of chops to play in certain ways, and sometimes these
ways are “obstacles”. I’m referring to “obstacles” to those
things playable in a different way, being unnecessarily complicated just
for the fun of the writer of such music.
So you have
to understand and separate these points in the chops, phrases, licks, etc. as obstacles
or as a necessary matter of expression; after doing this you’ll reach a better visualization
of the speed and your speed will be developed in a faster way, because those
“obstacles” could be played in a different way while you keep the expression or
feeling.
Here I give
you some points to bear in mind:
-The meter
It seems
that many guitar players forget the value of the notes of a lick, phrase, etc.
and just play the notes as fast as they can and just kill the original feeling,
so when a band covers a song and for example the meter of the solo changes,
most of the times the result is a bad version of the original.
So, if
you’re planning to cover a song and you’re changing the meter of a portion of
the song, you have to really improve or keep the feeling.
-The tone of a certain string
If you have
noticed, only the 1st with the 6th string (in a guitar
with at least 23 frets) include all the notes possible in the range of a guitar
with 6 strings in standard tuning, so, why are there those other 4 strings?
Well, the
reason is TONE, if you play the same note in a different string you’ll get a thinner
or a thicker note (this means in physics terms that the frequencies of the
waves are the same but the amplitude of the waves are different).
Ok now, why
is important choose certain tone?
Well, when
you play a certain note in one of the strings, this string gives you certain feelings.
For example
play the 19th fret of the 6th string and at the same time
the 19th fret of the 1st string. Now play the 2nd
string open and at the same time the 19th fret of the 1st
string. You’ve played the same notes but the feeling is different, and the difference
of feeling will be more subtle while you choose closer strings to play the same
notes.
-The facility to play certain notes
Let’s take
the last example again, play the 19th fret of the 6th
string and at the same time the 19th fret of the 1st string.
Now play the 2nd string open and at the same time the 19th
fret of the 1st string. You’ve played the same notes but the
facility to play them has changed.
So here is
why some writers choose certain strings to play certain notes, and you must understand
if you are going to play the same notes but in different strings, you are changing
the feeling, perhaps subtly but there’s a change that many people can hear.
Ok, now
I’ve given you a very basic introduction to know why a chop, lick, phrase,
riff, etc. is written in certain manner, with this you can start learning new
chops faster, because you know some important points to keep in mind and you’ll
reach your goal with confidence just changing what is not important. And
remember always begin learning something new slowly.
See you
next time!
Angel
Zamora
angel@angel-zamora.com
www.shred-metal.com
www.angel-zamora.com
©2006 Angel Zamora All Rights Reserved. Used
by Permission
