Poetry Night - Guitar Performance

On April 25th, the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha, Epsilon Mu chapter, organized a Poetry Night event. Using their contacts, they were able to have established speakers perform original poems and spoken word. However, in order to elicit more participation from the student body, they also allowed people to perform any kind of talent they posses. I was approached by Junior Fagmabilla, who suggested that I perform something for the poetry audience. At first I was reluctant because I felt a musical performance would be out of place at a Poetry Night. However, as Junior explained, "Music is a form of poetry." Other folks were performing songs on the piano, and another planned to play a saxophone song. I decided to give it a go, since I haven't had the opportunity to play in front of an audience in a really long time.

I wanted to play an original piece that I had been working on. However, given the time constraints, I wasn't able to finish it to my liking. Junior suggested we have a jam session to get the creative juices flowing. He spit some lines over my guitar playing, and we fed off each others energy. The only downside was that we practiced only twice before the show. It was mostly improvisational, with myself playing circles of notes, but it was still pretty solid. I used the main riff from Metallica's "Sanitarium," and adjusted to give a more relaxed, groovy feel. It went over pretty well.

After our joint performance, Junior asked that I play a song to close the show. I was the last act of the night. I was put on the spot, and didn't have anything prepared. I asked the crowd if anyone knew Spanish. After two or three people raised their hands, I started playing a rendition of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba." I even sang a little bit! Don't look that up on YouTube though; I made sure I erased any evidence of my singing from the Internet!

Hammer-ons and Pull-offs

I always say that it is better to work smart rather than hard. Why do things the "regular" way when there are shortcuts that make life a whole lot easier. Hammer-on and pull-offs are perfect examples of shortcuts that allow guitar players to play various notes in a fast manner, without having to burn out the strumming hand. Normally, every note that you want to be play must be held down with one hand, while the other strums the string. However, if the notes are close enough, then the strumming action may be less crucial, and in some cases completely obsolete.

Hammer-ons are note successions that go higher up in scale. For example, if my finger is on the 5th fret of the high E string, and I want to play the 7th and then 8th fret on the same string, it is possible to play those three notes by strumming the string only one time. After strumming the 5th fret, the next finger "hammers-on" the 7th fret, while another finger hammers-on the 8th afterward. If the fingers are accurate and apply enough pressure, the contact with the the next fret will create a new wave of vibration, allowing that note to play. If done in quick succession, then it is possible to play all three notes by simply strumming once on the original note.

Similarly, the pull-off method can be used to minimize excessive strumming. However, when learning how to use hammer-ons and pull-offs, I remember having more difficulty with pull-offs. This is because the pull-off method requires the fretboard hand to do all the work in terms of hitting notes and creating vibration. When pulling-off, it is basically a mirror image of a hammer-on. The difference is that when the first note is struck, the finger on the highest fret has to pull-off and to one side. The pulling off to the side is important because it allows the string to continue ringing.Otherwise, the lower note is softer than the original, and it does not sound as clean. It is easier said than done.

Once a guitarist gets the hang of hammer-ons and pull-offs, faster solos can be achieved. The strumming hand can only go so fast, but the fingers have way more speed. If done correctly, HO and PO's are an invaluable asset to any guitarist's arsenal.

Bends and Pinch Harmonics

The funnest part about playing guitar is striving toward the next goal. There is always something yet to be mastered, and the everlasting journey is itself the most rewarding part of the experience. Once a person has a grasp on the fundamentals, then it is on to the next level. Time to put on your monocles and top hats, because we are about to get fancy.

A neat trick that can add variety to songs or melodies is the incorporation of bends. This is an artificial manipulation of regular notes that can produce varying sounds depending on the intensity of the bending action. As seen to the left, the string is bent upward from its original resting place. When bending upward, the note becomes higher. The farther you bend, the higher it goes. So an original note can be played once, followed by the same note once again but incorporating a bend. Most bends end up either one note or two notes higher from the original fret, depending on how far the bend goes. A personal favorite is what I call the "full circle." I play a note, followed by a full bend and a second strike on the string when the bend reaches its peak. Then, I let the note ring as I slowly return to the original note, striking it one last time back at its original position.

The other fancy technique is the use of pinch harmonics. This is a bit difficult to explain without a slo-mo video showing exactly what is happening. Essentially, a note is held like any regular note, but the strumming method is unique. After strumming a string, the flesh of the thumb makes immediate brief contact with the vibrating note. If the guitar is fed through a distorted amplifier, we get a pinch harmonic. This is also known as a "squeelie." Whenever you hear of a guitarist that can make a guitar cry or weep, figuratively of course, they are usually referring to this technique. For reference, I suggest listening to Pantera's "Cemetery Gates." The guitarist, Dimebag Darrell, relies heavily on this technique to achieve an eerie and powerful theme. The pinch harmonics are

These techniques are not replacements for basic guitar handling. They are mostly used as supplements in order to enhance melodies, chord progressions, or maintaining diversity while soloing. Keep it fancy folks!

Palm-muting and Power Chords

Although I love playing my acoustic guitar, there is something other-worldly about playing heavy metal on an electric guitar. The raw aggressiveness and fast-paced tempos make me feel like I am carrying a deadly weapon instead of an instrument. There are two things that characterize this kind of sound for me: The use of palm-muting and power chords.

Palm-muting is found throughout heavy metal and hard rock. It is actually relatively easy to learn. The main mechanism is the placing of the strumming hand at the base of the strings. The underside of the strumming hand rests on top of the strings, mildly muting the strings when they are struck. Normally, a player wants to avoid touching any strings that are not being played, but palm muting is sort of an exception. The string that you want to play is still struck the same way, but the only difference is that the string is not allowed to ring completely. The note is still heard, but the ring is minimized and the sound is muffled.

A favorite staple of Metallica songs, the low E string is palm muted heavily throughout many songs. It provides the "chugga chugga" sound that gives the songs their ferociousness. It makes the stringed-instrument partly percussion. Thanks to the distortion, the notes sound like a small drum, giving it an extra layer of heaviness.

Power chords are another staple of heavy metal. These chords are very easy to play compared to other chords. Most other chords require some contortion of the hand so that certain fingers are able to hold down different notes. With power chords, the stress on the hand is minimal. My friend Joaquin, who got a head start on playing guitar in high school, taught me how easy power chords are. All you need is the selection of one note on a string. Then, on the next higher string, you move down the neck two frets and hold that note down with another finger. Two fingers are all you really need. The best part is that this chord can be played virtually anywhere on the neck without changing hand positioning. This makes it very easy to play multiple chords in a fast progression. 

Different Sounds

What I love most about the guitar are the endless possibilities. What I mean, is that a guitar can make a huge range of sounds depending on certain aspects. That is how we can have genres like country, blues, rock, metal, and many more all coming out of the same instrument.

This is especially true for electric guitars. Electric guitars, which are hooked up to amplifiers, have more possibilities and range than acoustic guitars. This is because of the nature of the electric guitar. In order for an amplifier to produce the sounds from the instrument, it captures the vibrations of the strings through the pick-ups. The pick-ups are located at the base of the strings, underneath the strings themselves. The vibrations are sent to the amplifier, which converts the vibration to amplified awesomeness. Most amplifiers come equipped with settings that are adjustable. These include gain, mid, treble, bass, and sometimes reverb. By adjusting these settings, a single guitar can make completely different sounds.

In order to obtain a "clean" sound, for example, you need to remove all of the gain and distortion from your guitar's sound. This kind of sound is akin to what an acoustic guitar would be capable of producing. However, even within the "clean" sound, the player is also able to adjust how much bass or treble the guitar should have. You can go full bass and no treble for certain songs, but you won't be able to clearly hear the higher notes. Or you can go the opposite way and go full treble with no bass. The notes are accentuated and crisp, but they lack the "throng" of the bass. I usually play around with the settings until it sounds right to my ear. The sound that I desire usually lies somewhere in between.

The sound that I most prefer is the fuzzy, aggressive crunch thanks to heavy distortion. This is the type of sound that I require when playing things like Metallica, Iron Maiden, or other heavy metal music. This also has ranges of variability. Some songs might require a lot of distortion because it happens to fit with the song's content or the overall theme of the music. Other times, only a bit of distortion is needed. Classic rock songs usually have some distortion in their sound, but it is minuscule compared  to death metal which usually employs very heavy distortion.

Strumming

Playing the guitar requires a lot of coordination. While one hand is pinching down the strings and different points on the neck of the guitar, the other hand is responsible for making sure the note is played. This can be very tricky, because you cannot keep yours eyes on both hands at the same time. Although you may want to focus on the neck where your hand is fumbling to hit the right notes, you also feel the need to look at the other hand which is trying to maintain tempo and accuracy.

The act of plucking the strings proves to be a lot more complex that it seems. Whenever I see a cartoon rendition of a guitar player, they seem to be striking the strings without much concern for accuracy. Broad sweeps up and down the strings miraculously produce singular notes and melodies, which doesn't really make sense. Melodies and singular notes require the player to hit a string with one hand in conjunction with pressing down the same string with the other hand. If one insists on broad strokes that hit all six strings, you will be hearing six different notes playing at the same time. If the objective was to hear a single note, then it becomes buried underneath unnecessary noise. Therefore, it is important that the hand plucking the strings is selective in which strings they strike, and making sure the unwanted strings do not ring.

Usually, broad strums are useful when playing chords, as opposed to notes. Chords are simultaneous notes played together on the different strings at the same time. There are numerous combinations of notes that, when played together on different strings, compliment each other. This provides a fuller sound, with the multiple strings vibrating together in harmony. The hand that is responsible for hitting the strings needs to be selective when playing specific notes or melodies, but also be able to hit multiple strings when called upon as well.

The other aspect of strumming is the maintaining of tempo. While one hand prepares the string for the correct  note, the other hand is needed to provide the proper vibration. Only when the string is struck, will the note be heard. Therefore, in the context of a complex song, the strumming hand must be able to not only hit the correct string(s), but also hit them at the right time. If the strumming hand is late or early, the song loses its pace and throws it off track. Both hands need to be able to work at the same time, which takes weeks if not months to fully achieve.

Guitar Fundamentals

The best way to learn to play an instrument is to KNOW your instrument. And for those who are not interested in learning how to play, it is insightful to learn about how a guitar works, in order to appreciate how a wooden structure with strings can produce music.

The most important part of the guitar is arguably the stringing. Most guitars have six strings, and they must be tuned to certain notes in order to properly play songs. For the sake of simplicity, I'll only be discussing standard tuning on a six string guitar. Each of the six string is ordered from thickest to the thinnest. Starting with the thickest string, the progression goes E, A, D, G, B, and e. If you are having trouble remembering the order of strings, here is a sentence I was taught that will remind you of the proper order: "Eating Apples Daily Gives Big Ears."

Each string is stretched over the fretboard, also known as the neck of the guitar, where one can find the frets.  The frets are the metal pieces that cross the neck of the guitar at certain intervals. This is what allows guitar player to select different notes per string. The player places finger on the string, in between two frets. If enough pressure is applied, the fret "pinches" the string at the frets location. When a string is stuck without any fingers pressing on the fretboard, it is referred to as an open note. However, when the string is pinched at a specific point, the string plays a different note. In case you forgot your high school physics, the longer a string is, the lower the frequency of its movements up and down when struck. A shorter string will have a higher frequency, therefore producing a higher note. When a string is pinched by a fret, the string is only allowed to vibrate from wherever the fret is located, down to the base of the string. The lower on the neck the fret is, the higher the note. This is why those crazy solos that rock stars are known to play are situated near the bottom of the guitar, because that is where you can play high pitched melodies and scales. 

There exists overlapping of notes across the neck of the guitar. A note on one string can also be played on the next string over, but the fret that is pressed down will be different. As such, one can play a riff or melody in the mid section of the fretboard/neck, and also be able to play the exact same riff (same notes) on a different section of the neck. The fret numbers will be different, but if the strings are tuned correctly, notes can be played in parallel sections of the guitar.