Guitar Noise

Hello to all!

We’ll continue with our “using the stuff we’ve learned so far” by looking at “Streets of Laredo,” a traditional song that some of you may recognize from Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings IV.”

In this, our sixteenth Guitar Noise Podcast, we’ll start with a basic ”bass / strum” in 3/4 timing and then add some fancier work to both the bass and the strumming.

As always, I’ll be walking you step by step through the lesson. And, as always, please let us know what you think.

Peace

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

We’re continuing the series of lessons that get us started playing guitar by ear. We’re going to begin looking at playing melodies first.

Before we learn a melody by ear, you’ll want to make an observation for yourself about playing by ear on the guitar. As much as I love the guitar, I realize that it is not the best instrument to begin learning to play by ear. The reason is that notes are laid out on the guitar in a way that invites confusion for the player.

Even after you pass the beginner’s stage, you might find yourself spending a lot of time figuring out where to play something on the fretboard, or asking why a chord shape doesn’t look like it logically follows another chord shape, even though it sounds terrific.

If you don’t already know how to play another instrument by ear, learning this skill with the guitar is not your best choice. Learning to play by ear on the guitar is like learning to draw like this: tape the drawing paper to your back; look at mirrors to see what you’re doing; and reach your arm uncomfortably back behind yourself to stab out a couple of hopeful strokes.

I’m not kidding: learning how music works, and how to play by ear is actually pretty easy and super fun - but not if you’re learning how to play the guitar at the same time. If you’ve already moved past the beginner’s stage, you will be able to pick out melodies on the guitar, but you might learn even quicker if you used a piano keyboard to do it - even if you’ve never even had a piano lesson. That’s how intuitive playing the piano is.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - August 1, 2007 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

We continue our exploration of playing guitar by ear. This time out we’re going to look at reasons for playing by ear.

You want to play by ear for this reason above all others: it just feels good. That’s it! That’s why you began playing in the first place, isn’t it? You play because you dig the sounds coming out of your guitar. And that’s the same feeling you’ll get, multiplied by 100 or so, when you first start picking out melodies on the guitar.

When you start figuring out chords and complete songs on the guitar, you get an even bigger rush. When you get to that point you will realize that not only was figuring out chords and tunes not that hard, it was pretty darn fun.

Besides the fun and satisfaction factor, why else would you want to play by ear?

Here’s a good, motivating reason: you’ll save money and time. The next time you hear a tune on the radio or a CD that you’d like to play yourself, instead of spending time digging around for the tab, or spending money to buy the sheet music, you’ll work the tune out for yourself. Besides saving money and time, you’ll also get your fun quota filled for the week. (See the “fun” reason just mentioned.)

Here’s another reason to learn to play by ear: jamming. If you’re getting together with a buddy to make music, you’ll have a much more satisfying time of it if you can hear what he or she is playing and respond to it, whether with chordal accompaniment or a melodic line.

Or, let’s say your jamming buddy is claiming that he’s learned the Stairway to Heaven solo note for note — from tablature. He starts playing, and because you can play by ear, you immediately hear which notes are out of whack. And you diplomatically point out those notes, and again, using your highly attuned ear, point out the right notes to play.

In short, you earn the respect of the musicians you currently play with, when you can play by ear.

Once you begin playing by ear, you’ll be creating a connection between yourself and the great musicians of the past like Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery and others who played only by ear. Wouldn’t it be satisfying to know that, by using your ears, you’re following the same path that some of the most worshiped guitarists before you have followed?

Playing by ear helps you learn new tunes quicker. You’re more able to scope out a tune you’ve never heard before, and learn how to play it and remember it much more easily than if you don’t yet know how to play by ear.

You probably have your own reasons for playing by ear. The list just given is just a sample. Writing down your reasons in a journal is a great way to intensify the feelings those reasons evoke. And doing that will get you to play by ear even more quickly. Now that we know why to play by ear, we’ll begin easing into the how to do it, and what to do with it.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - July 16, 2007 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Hello to all!

Guitar Noise Podcast #15 takes up right on the heels of #14 - we’ll still be using “Handsome Molly” as an exercise to incorporate the various lessons we’ve picked up in our podcasts thus far. The emphasis here will be on combining measures (or half measures) of strumming with measures (or half measures) of crosspicking. Plus, we’ll add a couple of riffs to make the change from our G to D chord a little more interesting.

As always, I’ll be walking you step by step through the lesson. And, as always, please let us know what you think.

Peace

Let’s go into playing guitar by ear. I’ll base the content on the series found on Maximum Musician, but it will be revised here and there as inspiration strikes.

Just what exactly does it mean to play by ear?

When you hear someone say, “He plays by ear” it’s often said with awe, in the same way you might say, “His car has 10-wheel drive and he can parallel park it with his eyes closed while balancing a guitar pick on his nose.”

Unfortunately, when you hear such talk, you think that you, or the average person, can’t play by ear. Talk like this gets you to believe that you can’t hear a simple melody and play it on the guitar or other instrument. And if you believe this, you believe a lie, because everyone with hearing, a bit of desire and a pinch of persistence can play by ear.

To play by ear means to listen to something, and then play it on an instrument - apart from your voice. Recognize first that singing a melody you’ve heard is actually a form of playing by ear. We’re going to focus on playing guitar by ear, but singing will help you do this.

And we need to amend the above statement a bit: playing by ear does mean to translate what you hear into what you play. But, what you hear is affected by what you understand about music. You don’t have to have a music degree or even have read music theory books to build an understanding of how chords fit with melodies, what chords can substitute for each other, and other topics. But, at some level, you can acquire this understanding, just by applying your passion to play, and asking questions like “Why does this sound so cool? How can I make more of this type of sound?” And this understanding comes out when you listen to a tune or piece you want to play by ear. So, the same sound hitting your ears and a novice’s ears can sound very different, because your musical knowledge changes your hearing.

The first thing we’ll learn how to play by ear is a simple, familiar melody. Although the melody is simple, it will still be effective for building the skill of playing by ear. Lots of melodies in popular songs are simple. Some are so simple that they’re not any fun to sing without strumming some chords to accompany them.

We’ll learn more about playing by ear next time. Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - July 1, 2007 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Some quick tips on learning melodies by ear in this issue.

First off, learn scales and play them regularly. Most important: the major scale. Learn at least the five CAGED forms. (Get Fretboard Logic is this term confuses you). But the more forms you know, the more insights you get into how melodies work - when you take the time to learn melodies on those forms.

Also, doodle, noodle, and play. Scat or sing stuff and try to play what you sing. This is easier when you know a melody well.

Make transcribing melodies a habit. Listen, sing, then fret away.

Last tip for this issue: make a game of finding a melody note over the chords you strum to a song. This is a great way of learning how melodies work with chords.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - May 15, 2007 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Hello to all!

For our fourteenth Guitar Noise Podcast, let’s take stock of the many things we’ve learned so far and, over the course of the next number of GN Podcasts, put them to use in song. After all, that’s why we’re practicing, right? For starters, we’ll use the traditional tune, “Handsome Molly” (also known to many as “I Wish I Was in London”), which has a nice, simple chord progression of G, D and C.

We’re going to continue doing what we call “modeling a melody” in this issue. And that just means figuring out some interesting things our favorite melodies do so *we* can do them, to craft our own melodies. We can use this information in improvisation and in composition.

We explored the idea of SAMES and DIFFERENTS last time. Why are those in capital letters? Isn’t there enough shouting in the world without me shouting at you? The reason for the capitals is to stress the idea. SAMES are things that get repeated in a melody, and you can figure out what DIFFERENTS are based on that.

But melodies in solos, in songs old and new and from every country, use lots of SAMES. They repeat notes. And it’s not because the composer is lazy. It’s because we listeners like lots of SAMEs. Just like we usually don’t prefer waking up in a different house every morning, but want to keep to the SAME home day after day. Same goes for jobs and so many other areas of life.

And the same is true of great art. And movies. Why are there so many super hero movies made? Because we want to see the SAME basic ideas of miraculous powers and happy endings over and over, despite there being different characters involved.

Back to melodies. Just where do we search for SAMES in melodies? Here’s a key observation that will hold true for much of the music you here: many parts of music are organized in units of four and two. Four quarter notes to a measure, for example. If you can get some standard notation of one of your favorite melodies, mark off every four bars to start with. If the notation is busted up with one staff having three bars and the next having five, rewrite or cut and paste so you’re looking at rows of four bars each. Then, even if you can’t read the notation, you can still effectively compare the notes, because standard notation is actually pretty intuitive and visual.

As you look from bar 1 to bar 4, then bar 2 and bar 5, ask yourself “what notes are the same here?” Or, what entire groups of notes are the same? Maybe notes are not duplicated exactly, but the overall *shape* of the line is copied.

We’ll explore melodies more next time. Have fun seeing the SAMES in your favorite melodies. And thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - May 2, 2007 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

We’ve already written about that consummate gentleman and guitar great David Gilmour on this blog. (See David Gilmour Signature Guitar Strings). Now there is something else for Gilmour fans and guitar players to get excited about. On September 22, Fender is releasing a David Gilmour Signature ‘Black Strat’. From David Gilmour’s website:

In the two years that the guitar has been in discussion, a number of prototypes have been produced, and the final version was only approved when David was happy that all elements combined to make a sound that was as close as possible to his own guitar’s. The ‘Black Strat’ comes in a hard case (by G&G) stuffed with extras: Phil Taylor’s ‘Black Strat’ book, a set of GHS David Gilmour Boomer strings, a copy of the 3-disc version of Live In Gdańsk, a cable by Evidence Audio, a deluxe Fender leather strap, and a David Gilmour plectrum. The interior of the case is a plush green, including embroidered David Gilmour and Fender Custom Shop logos.

That definitely sounds like something I’d like to see under my Christmas tree this year. Is it even worth dropping hints?

Hello to all!

In our thirteenth Guitar Noise Podcast, we move into the realm of swing. First, we’ll look at the feel of swing and of how “swing eighths” differ from the “straight eighth” notes that we’ve been using in our strumming up to this point.

And, since swing eighths are the basis of blues shuffles and rhythms, we’ll use our new strumming style in the “twelve bar blues” format as a way to get ourselves comfortable with the use of swing eighths in strumming. Then, as we have in past lessons, we’ll explore this rhythm further by combining it with a very cool walking bass line. You’ll be sounding like a Texas blue legend before you’re done!

As always, I’ll be walking you step by step through the lesson. And, as always, please let us know what you think.

Peace

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)