Ramblings on playing the guitar

20 Responses to “Ramblings on playing the guitar”

1. Jon
   July 1st, 2008 at 9:41 am

   

   I just uploaded an attempt at “For the love of God” just wanted to record something and it was a challenge:

   http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/guitarnoize/music/all/play345614

   did ok but my playing is still very rusty, just don’t have the time these days!

2. Ovidiu
   July 1st, 2008 at 10:41 am

   

   Nice, you are really a fan, I see! First Satriani, now Vai! I see you go for the solo thing

3. Ovidiu
   July 1st, 2008 at 10:42 am

   

   What did you use to record it? Sounds nice.

4. Jon
   July 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am

   

   I know I can’t help myself, once a shredding fan always a shredding fan!
   I just used my Patrick Eggle berlin into a Jim Dunlop Crybaby into my Vox AD50VT and then direct out (haven’t got a mic!) into my Tapco audio interface and finally into my macbook pro! You have to play around to get a decent direct out tone because the 12AX7 tube doesn’t come into play.

5. IG
   July 1st, 2008 at 3:54 pm

   

   Thanks for the highlight Ovidiu!

   You know, I fall into the same way of thinking “solo” a lot, although I do in my head appreciate rhythm and know that it takes the same amount of mastery to develop a tasteful approach to rhythm as it takes to develop solo chops. I think the concept of improvsiation actually takes both “solo” guitar and rhythm guitar creativity.

   The funny thing is that over the weekend I started with my usual thing. Which is to turn on my drum machine, find some beat that makes sense, and then see if the beat comes with a good bass loop, and then record both as background for something to “solo” over and so on and so forth.

   So, I did that and nothing really clicked. So I turned the drum machine off and just started “noodling,” and then the 3 chords just came (Am, G, F) and I just recorded about 4 minutes of those chords. Then I played them back and just allowed myself to play over the chords whatever came to me, with no thought about what I wanted to do, but just allowing myself to play. And, as you can hear from the recording, it’s not a master lead by any means, but, just a pattern with leads here and there. And when I played it back I thought it needed a bit more “rhythm,” so I added the strings.

   So, to go back to your point. We all have the same “ideal” picture in our minds of “solo” guitar because that’s what the culture dictates. That’s what media portrays as the “ideal” image of a guitar player. And it’s true to some extent, but not all. And you just have to allow your mind to do away with the “ideal” picture and just play what you feel and what comes out of you naturally. Even if you’re not happy with the result at first, you have to know what “you” sound like and go through the exercise of just recording what comes out of you.

   IG

6. Ovidiu
   July 1st, 2008 at 4:12 pm

   

   @IG: I think it is because the media always highlights the solo guitar and less the rhythms guitar, but indeed, a good rhythm player may change the song much more than a solo guitar player.But I think that, with most guitar players, rhythm is just a stage to the big stage lights where you come in front of everybody and shred that high difficulty solo you have come up with, right?

   Jack Pribeck(pribek.net) had an interesting post about Freddie Green, naming him the Rhythm king. I must confess I was not that familiar with him, in the beginning, but I did a bit of research in the meantime. You can read the post here http://pribek.net/2008/03/26/rhythm-king/ if you want.

   @Jon: The sound is nice,but no pedal?

7. Ovidiu
   July 1st, 2008 at 4:12 pm

   

   @Jon: I meant the overdrive pedal. Do you use I guess the amp overdrive, right?

8. Jon
   July 1st, 2008 at 11:41 pm

   

   Hi again, yes just the amp overdrive. I did add delay and reverb as well in Abelton Live 7 once I had finished recording as the original settings on my amp seemed to dry.

9. Pribek
   July 2nd, 2008 at 12:32 am

   

   Jon, that certainly doesn’t sound “rusty”. It sounds to me like you are on top of your chops and you got a bunch of them, I might add.

   IG-I listened to yours the other day and again a few minutes ago. I like that kind of interplay. You have the knack. Part two sounds like it’s listening to part one, not just throwing licks. Very nice and good tone too.

   I often equate playing music to the art of conversation. The ability to play supportive rhythm parts is like being a person who furthers the conversation rather than dominating it. To do that, requires a high level of concentration. I don’t see it as one skill versus the other but, if you are good at rhythm stuff, you will be welcome in a larger number of musical conversations.

   “Now, if I would ask you to record and upload something, what would you go for?” I just don’t know.

10. Jon
    July 2nd, 2008 at 2:36 am

    

    Haha thanks Pribek, I’ve never been happy with my playing I guess thats what keeps us practicing!! I think I need to record something a bit more mellow next like IG’s

11. IG
    July 2nd, 2008 at 5:10 am

    

    Thanks Pribek! You rock… and roll…

    IG

12. Pribek
    July 2nd, 2008 at 7:09 am

    

    You are welcome guys, you’re both talented cats and I enjoy listening. It’s funny but, I feel like there is a growing community happening around these various blogs and, you feel like you get to know people a little bit but, it’s backwards from normal because usually when I meet musicians, I’ve heard them play beforehand.

13. Jon
    July 2nd, 2008 at 7:19 am

    

    So are we going to hear a Pribek and Ovidiu recording? Maybe we should all do a mass guitar blog collaboration! That could be fun

14. Ovidiu
    July 2nd, 2008 at 8:35 am

    

    Jack, the community is there, no doubt about it, I feel it too. The very fact that we speak here together makes us a community and this is great. But indeed, you are right, the direction is reversed

    Jon, Jack has his music on his website, I suggest you listen to it, if you haven’t done it already! And if you really want to lower your self esteem, try improvising on Munk and come back with impressions

    Regarding me recording something for the site, I plan since a long while but I haven’t done it yet. But I will, for sure. as for a collaboration, I have this idea since 5 months but again, I am a bit slow with this, a lot of ideas, so little time…

15. Jon
    July 2nd, 2008 at 9:12 am

    

    “a lot of ideas, so little time…” – I know what you mean!
    I will check out Jack’s recordings, thanks

16. Jon
    July 2nd, 2008 at 9:18 am

    

    Oooh just listened to Munk, nice! I might have to do try and do a jazzy number soon… although I’m a crap jazz guitarist!

17. Ovidiu
    July 2nd, 2008 at 9:27 am

    

    Me too

    I like Jack’s recordings very much, I have his CD in the car and at home I had the time of my life improvising on his music until I reached Munk where I put my guitar aside…

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    July 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    

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19. FX
    July 3rd, 2008 at 9:39 am

    

    I think rhythm is very important within a track but the solo and rhythm generally have a different function in music so I would say that it is impossible to gauge them against one another

20. Guitar Forum
    April 25th, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    

    Rythm guitar rocks. More difficult than lead!