This week on the GuitarBlog I discuss performing solos on only one string.
Guitar players can get too involved with playing scales vertically and neglect spending time thinking about scales in a more horizontal manner. In this lesson, I will take a look at how to approach playing guitar solos along just one string. Learning to take advantage of the unique sound of playing a scale along one guitar string can open up some pretty cool ideas for your lead playing.
Breaking away from the all too common "in-position" patterns will end up offering a number of unique sounds into your playing. The guitar offers us the ability to play vertically and horizontally, but very few students of the instrument spend much time learning to play solos in a linear way.
Too many guitarists get hooked on playing only in the box shapes. When a more linear approach is introduced, a shift in the way scales and solos end up sounding will occur. Enjoy the lesson.
Welcome to, "Figure it Out Fridays: Lesson 003 - Part Two," Ear Training Guitar Lesson.
Here's the Answer Key for, "Figure it Out Fridays," Ear Training Lesson 003.
In this series, we study how to transcribe a new guitar melody or chord progression every week. Musical ideas are released on Tuesday, with the Music and TAB's released that same week on Fridays. Do your best on the days "in between" to learn the different guitar parts.
Up-Load your guess of Tuesdays guitar idea (from the part one lesson) to your YouTube channel. Share your examples on; GooglePlus, Twitter and on FaceBook.
Be sure to check-out the "Part Two" video released every Friday to learn exactly how Tuesdays guitar part looks charted to TAB and in Music Notation. Enjoy the series!
Guitar players are a different breed of human. The love they have for strumming the 6- string cannot be matched. When their guitar is in their hands... nothing matters to them - Nothing...
The guitar player is part of an entire sub-culture of cool and when someone picks up a guitar, and starts getting a few ideas together on it, chances are they’ll never put it down; it’s more addicting and pleasing than the strongest of opiates.
There’s something utterly captivating about this infamous instrument – it represents freedom, peace, and a whole other level of cool; other instruments simply can’t compare. The esthetic of the guitar - as a piece of art - is also difficult to ignore. Even as a piece of art there’s something utterly mystifying about this glorious instrument.
Here is a list of ten things you need to know about guitar players:
1. They can never have enough picks
You’ll see them scattered everywhere in a guitarist’s lair. They’ll also have one exclusive favorite type of pick, maybe even a collection of picks that hold sentimental value which will be kept in a special (sometimes secret) spot. Be careful if you try to take one; even though you may think that the guitarist won’t notice – they will. Picks to a guitarist are like a lighter to smoker…they will always notice if one goes missing.
2. They’re obsessed with a certain brand of guitar
Most guitarists have a favorite brand – Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Epiphone, Jackson, etc. Each one of these guitars fits a certain genre of music. For example: (this is a generalization), those who are fans of blues often gravitate to a Fender Stratocaster and those who are into the Metal scene prefer the Ibanez and Jackson brands. They admire guitar brands the same way vehicle aficionados obsess about cars.
3. Guitarists get upset when non-guitarists critique the way they play
Only other guitarists are the ones who are "allowed" to offer constructive criticism… and as far as other musicians in general, except drummers. Well, ummmm, let’s not go there. But, if you don't play any instrument and you think you're going to criticize a guitarist, you'd better look out - you're not going to like what's comin'.
4. There is NO stereotype of the "typical" guitarist!
There is no one way to define a guitar player, how they look, dress or act, or even to be able to spot one in a crowd. Playing guitar is a feeling when we play. It’s hard to explain if you’re not infatuated with a guitar but it’s sort of like those euphoric emotions you get when you’re petting your dog or cat - except multiply that love by about 100,000.
5. Guitarists always think about "who" is the world’s best player
There will be those who say it’s Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Slash, Tom Morello, Joe Satriani, or Steve Vai. etc. The truth is we will never get to the answer – ever. If you don’t play guitar, please don’t voice your opinion or say that Kurt Cobain was the best. Really, really BAD idea... You’ll get chewed up and spit out alive. Trust me, it's a really, really bad idea!
6. You paid how much?
Guitarists don’t mind shelling out crazy amounts of money on their equipment and we can never ever have enough guitars. Whether it’s on the instrument or the boat-loads of other technological necessities (pedals, cables, strings, amps, effects, etc) we love to buy more and more things to get our fill. Our homes are scattered with guitar related paraphernalia and we love every part of it, even it means tripping over stuff on a daily basis to support our addiction. PS: A quick note to all romantic partners of the guitarist, there’s no cure for our gear addiction, so please give up on ever trying to figure this one out.
7. If a guitarist is in a band, his/her fellow band members become family
This applies to most people in a band, no matter the instrument. We end up spending so many hours hanging out and jamming that it’s hard not to become brutally attached to these people on a much deeper level than anybody else in our social circle. It’s because we all get it – that trance one enters when they’re playing their instrument cannot be compared to any other craft.
8. Guitarists get very angry at non-guitarist’s stupidity I can’t tell you how many times I’ve face-palmed because of other people’s incredible ignorance and lack of knowledge. For example, I’ve been asked if one my guitars is a lead and if the other is a rhythm guitar… I’ve also been asked if I play acoustic or electric. The best one: “do you get shocked from the strings on an electric guitar? That’s why you need a pick right?” Mind blown. Yeah that actually happened. 9. Guitarists are insanely protective of their gear NEWS-FLASH: We don’t find it "cute" when your four-year-old kid picks up our vintage 1960’s strat and starts slamming on the strings. If we do let you touch or hold our guitar(s), take off all of the jewelry on your hands and fingers and place it back in the case/stand gently. And PLEASE don’t bang our guitars on anything, hold it and admire it like its a new-born a baby… and remember - our guitars are NOT a “toy."
10. Once a guitarist, always a guitarist Tread lightly if you’re considering this instrument. It will mesmerize your senses the moment you learn your first chord, the moment you successfully learn scales, the moment you’re finally able to play a song ...you will fall in love. Guitar is unique in how it grabs a hold of you just by relying on your very own ability to shape sound around what you hear. You’ll become so attached to this instrument and the guitar-hobby, many of you will change your life around it – you’ll dream about playing on stage, you’ll start to make friends with other guitar enthusiasts, and you’ll certainly never look back. Iris Milanova...
A 20-something guitar enthusiast and an aspiring journalist /writer dealing with the tough realities of; music, art and life. "Humor is my drug of choice."
“No one in the industry is going to give you their cost-plus pricing,” said everyone in the industry... But someone did...
An executive at a guitar manufacturer recently spoke with Reverb magazine about the manufacturing and cost realities of the guitar industry. For the sake of consistency, he selected a base-level, generic slab-body, two-pickup T-Style guitar with a bolt on neck for his reference point.
Labor Costs and Quality
The cost of the core materials, meaning necks, bodies and components, such as tuners, pickups, wiring and switches, are not significantly different from one place to the other, he says, though they do vary significantly at various levels of quality. The bulk of a guitar’s cost, and the source of much of the cost variability, is in the labor, which is largely a function of geography, our exec says.
At this point, essentially all of the major factories now use the same CNC machines to carve out parts, whether they are in China, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico or the United States, and the person running the CNC machine is not one who adds the biggest labor cost.
“The amount of hand work that goes into sanding, fitting and finishing every nook and cranny on a body and a neck is way more than everybody thinks,” he says, and the cost is not the only concern. Quality, which manifests in the attention to detail on the fit and finish, including the paint and fret work and everything else associated with assembling and setting up the guitar, is a determining factor in the retail value of the product.
To illustrate the out-sized impact that labor costs have on the cost of goods, he offered an even more simple illustration: hard-shell cases, which his company sources from a builder in North America.
“For a guitar case that we sell for $99, our cost on that case is about $45 or $50; it’s maybe $2 less for a mandolin case, which is a quarter of the size,” he says. “95% of the cost is the labor. It’s just plywood wrapped in black Tolex, but the labor is the same in either case. People ask me why we sell a bass case for $100 and mando case for $100; it’s the labor.”
Comparison of Basic Build Costs by Country:
And the cost of labor doubles when production is moved from China to Indonesia then doubles from Indonesia to Korea, then doubles again as compared to the cost of labor in the United States, he explains.
The other big variable is volume
“I visited a factory in China; they were spitting out 2,000 right-handed sunburst Beatle basses. It’s way easier to make 2,000 of something than 24 in blue and 24 in red, and having to change the assembly setup.”
For the Beatle basses, everything down to the packaging was identical, and the cumulative impact on pricing is dramatic. “That’s why those things sell for $299 at Musician’s Friend,” he says. “They make a ton of them.”
For smaller builders, because the production runs are so much shorter and smaller, it’s impossible to get the price point that a larger-volume producer does, he explains, which is true for any consumer item. “If people wonder why they are paying $600 for [a smaller brand] guitar made in China, it’s because they don’t scale like the Beatle bass,” the guitar executive says.
Cost of Sales, Marketing and Operations
While the cost of components is flat across geographies, and labor is a big differentiator, the cost of sales and marketing has the most impact on the final cost to the consumer.
“Let’s say I buy $200 T-Styles out of Indonesia, what do you think the price of that guitar should be?” he asks. “It’s going to have a manufacturer’s suggested price of at least four to five times that,” he says. “Then you have the street price, which is probably 15% or 20% off of that.”
The reason for the markup is the many hands a guitar has to pass through before it gets to the consumer. Obviously, a guitar’s maker, distributor and dealer each need to make money on every guitar, and at each step in that process, the cost increases by a minimum of 50%, and more likely: 100%.
“This is basic economics,” he says. For any consumer product, 50% to 75% of the cost is not the product and includes the costs associated with transportation, warehousing, personnel, benefits and computers. “That’s why we don’t make Nike running shoes in California. They’d cost $600 per pair. They probably cost less than $30 to make.” And it’s the same reason that guitars built in China very seldom include boutique pickups.
The High Cost of Upgrading Components “We have this debate often. We build our own version of an ES-335 and put our Chinese-made version of [boutique brand pickup] in there. If I’m street pricing that guitar for $500, that means I have to sell it to the dealer for $320, so there’s enough profit in it for them. I need to be making it for $150, and certainly under $200, to make it profitable for me,” he says.
“If I put actual USA-made boutique pickups in, they cost almost as much as the guitar itself. Even if they give me those pickups for $100, that brings my cost from $150 to $250, and I have to almost double my price to the dealer,” he explains. “Then the dealer has to sell it for almost $900, just because I added $100 pickups. It’s just the distribution model. That’s why you rarely see guitars with boutique pickups for less than $1,500. There has to be enough profit for the manufacturer, the pickup maker, the distributor and the dealer.”
What Actually Costs to Build a Guitar
“If you want to build a generic slab-body, two-pickup with a bolt on neck — a T-Style — in China, it’s going to cost the manufacturer $50 to $100,” he says, if you use the bare-bones quality necks, tuners and components.
“If you use better-quality components, you can hit $100; you end up in the $200 range in Indonesia; the $400 range in Korea. If you carry those same components to the U.S., it’s likely $1,000 to $1,400.”
His final word of advice was to buy high-quality woods and build / fit and finish but basic electronics, (this is when looking at both electric and acoustic) then upgrade to better high-quality pickups later on yourself.
Welcome to, "Figure it Out Fridays - Lesson 003," the unique Ear Training Guitar Lesson on YouTube.
The focus of these lessons will be to study how to transcribe, (learn by ear), a new guitar melody or a chord progression every week...
Musical ideas are released on Tuesday's, with the Music and TAB's released that same week on Friday. Do your best on the days in between to learn the musical parts. Then, be sure to check out the "Part Two" video to learn exactly how the musical idea operates. Enjoy, and good luck transcribing!
Author /Recording Artist Jesse Sterling Harrison came up with this fun "Guitar Players Levels" concept and is sharing it with folks online. Which level are you?
It’s said that the game of chess takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master, but isn’t that true of almost everything? When we talk about technique and facility on an instrument, the guitar is generally the first instrument we discuss. The basic idea is simple: put your left hand here, grab the pick with your right, and make some noise.
The beauty of the guitar is that it’s not too difficult to reach level one. In fact, plenty of good music is made by folks who lack great facility. But those of us who really get into it, usually aspire to constantly get better and better and we hope to one day blow people's minds. Here’s my basic summary of the 10 levels so you can gauge your own progress. Who occupies the top levels, and where do you think you fall?
LEVEL 1). Three-chord strummer: You can strum a three-chord song, more or less on the beat, without making any major mistakes. LEVEL 2). Campfire guitarist: You know most of your root-position chords and can play through them at moderate tempo without mistakes.
LEVEL 3). Second guitarist in a folk band: You can strum your chords well at any tempo, can read a lead sheet (playing the chords to an unknown piece in real time), and can play simple single-note melodies and chord arpeggiations. You're starting to write your own chord progressions to create original music. LEVEL 4). Garage-rock guitarist: You can play arpeggiations and rhythmic figures. You know most commonly used chords. You can play at different tempos and in different styles. You have some ability to improvise lead lines and are writing music regularly. LEVEL 5). Rock 'n' roll guitarist: You can cover most classic rock songs, playing practiced rhythm and lead parts with flair and attitude. You're capable of locking in with a rhythm section to create the unforgettable sound of a tight, practiced band. At this point, you can carry the guitar section in a band and consider yourself a lead guitarist.
LEVEL 6). Progressive-rock guitarist: You're comfortable with difficult meters, unusual chord voicings, and can play chords, riffs, and single-note runs at high speed. You can improvise lead lines over all of this material. You're comfortable sight-reading chords and single-note parts. LEVEL 7). Rock-star guitarist: You're such a strong soloist that you're happy taking an improvised lead at a live show while your entire band goes for drinks. Your lead work is tasteful, appropriate, and fluid. You can both play and write in odd time signatures. You're so comfortable with your playing that you can focus on performance, showmanship, and feeling. LEVEL 8). Virtuoso guitarist: You can handle anything that any band throws at you and have developed a recognizable style that's fully your own. You write high-quality, interesting music in your own style and consistently impress listeners with your technique and facility. You're a very strong improviser in different styles.
LEVEL 9). Stunt guitarist (this term was coined by the great Frank Zappa, who used it to describe Steve Vai): You're capable of playing music specifically written to impress listeners with your amazing speed, fluidity, and technique. But you're also an outstanding musician and only deploy this form of showmanship when appropriate. You're an excellent songwriter with a strong, unique voice. LEVEL 10). Monster: You have a powerful, influential style and can play effortlessly in different genres. You learn music almost instantly, both by ear and with sheet music. You can solo with fluency and soul in many scales, time signatures, and keys. Your playing is consistently excellent and tasteful within the style you’re working with, and you’re capable of making jaws drop at any time. But you remain a student of guitar, still learning and striving to improve.
Jesse Sterling Harrison is an author, recording artist, and part-time farmer. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, three daughters, and a herd of ducks.
The world of "altered pentatonic scales" can offer us a lot of really cool sounds. But, at the same time, these additional altered intervals added to the Major Pentatonic can be a rather odd addition into a piece, (since their use promotes more dissonance musically and winds-up throwing musicians slightly off balance).
Over the years, this is probably the main reason why I've noticed that a lot of the guitarists I've met, and who I've studied from, will gravitate to using just a few altered interval patterns in their playing with their focus being more on a specific altered idea when composing or improvising.
Phrygian Dominant Pentatonic shares a very close resemblance to the slightly more common Dominant (b9) Pentatonic, (which has a perfect 5th rather than a lowered 6th). NOTE: The Dominant (b9) Pentatonic is generally referred to as the, "Dominant 7 (b9)," arpeggio.
In this lesson, I will demonstrate the scale pattern for Phrygian Dominant Pentatonic and I will include a melody line so viewers can hear it's unique sound in some type of musical context. Enjoy the lesson plan!
