The Art Of Guitar-In Depth Study (Entry #7)
The month of April has been quite busy for me as I have track & field practices 4 times a week, morning basketball training 3 times a week and in the midst of that I also have to catch-up with my homework afterwards. One of the obstacles I had to overcome lately is the lack of practice time. From “day one”, I understood that to improve you have to keep practicing. Additionally, to achieve a certain goal, you must make sacrifices along the journey! Another obstacle is about my mentor. Quite frankly, I was disappointed because one of my other mentors was not able to commit to the learning sessions due to the time conflict with his schedule. Nevertheless, I anticipated that I would encounter problems “here and there” throughout my in-depth study. Now it’s up to me to tackle them and find the solutions. Luckily, Mason, my second mentor is always able to help me and with the Pro-D days and Easter holiday, this will allow me to catch up with some practice.
I met with Mason last Sunday once again. This was our 6th session together and he brought up some new guitar techniques and exercises that I could work on. Technique I learned during this session included:
Muting-executed in the picking hand, used to muffle the strings slightly, while simultaneously hitting the strings with the pick
Sliding-motion of the slide against the strings, creates continuous transitions in pitch
Hammer-Ons-bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound
Pull-Offs-plucking a string by “pulling” the string off the fingerboard with one of the fingers being used to fret the note.
Bending-used when playing single note riffs and solos, to give the guitar a more “vocal” quality
Muting is basically using the side of your hand where you will gently place on the strings or rest a finger on the string. This is frequently used in rock songs and primarily on electric guitar. Getting a proper feel for how much pressure to apply with the heel of your picking hand is the key. You should try not to apply too much pressure or the notes won’t ring at all. When using the sliding technique, strum and slide your fingers at the same time. The finger should stay on the string at all times. Hammer-ons are sort of like sliding and the opposite of Pull-offs. You use a different finger to press the fret and it must be on the same string. It is important to let the sound ring to have an effective effect. In Pull-offs, you let go of the finger instead which is the exact opposite of a Hammer-on. In Bending, you push strings up and down while you strum notes to create an effect. Finally, the 3 types of bending include: quarter, half, and full.
Do you remember the surprise I talked about in my last in-depth post? Here’s a hint, read some of my novel study 2011 posts. In the meantime, if you are looking for guitar tutorials to certain songs, you should check out martysongz YouTube Channel. He covers a variety of rock, pop, and many mainstream music. I’m excited about the In-depth finale and hope I can share the great deal of learning I got throughout the months.
-chowster24
