Firstly hi people :]
Right. i've been playing guitar for a few months now and i was just a little board after practising today and didnt want to put the guitar down so i was looking around at some tabs. and one of them said to "scratch" a string. now i have never come accross this term before - any ideas what it might mean?
tia
alec
It's like you have an itch, you scratch it by rubbing a nail across the itchy part. Now do the same on a string, either with a nail, or if you ain't a woman or metrosexual, a pick. Try it, it makes a noise. You can scratch up and the picth goes up, and down and the sound goes down. Pretty cool and easy. :D
Welcome btw!
Can you post the tab?
I'd use the edge of the pick - drag it along the string. It should make a rather hard to listen to sound thats popular in heavy rock, metal, etc.
Edit: he beat me to it :P, Arjen's got it ^
Hold the pick at 90 degrees to one of your wound strings, and slide, or grind the edge of the pick along the length of the string.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Cool. thank you for quick replys guys!. haha, now only problem is it wants me to sractch the high e string. which isnt going to happen with these stupidly slinkey strings. :lol: thanks nevertheless
That's weird, the high strings don't really have the texture neccesary, I don't think?
It'd be easier to scratch the 3 highest strings all at the same time. Or just the low E string maybe.
odd isnt it. o well not important - was asking out of curiousness really.
thanks again
:)
I use the strings when my hands itch. Very relieving. Guitar has multi uses... :lol: (cannot name the more bad ones).
my take on all this -
the method you guys are describing is a scrape, not a scratch
scratch, as far as i know, means playing the string while muting it with the fretting hand but not fretting a note
eg:
--x--
--x--
--x--
--x--
--x--
--x--
this is a scratch chord, just lay your hand across the string and strum away
same idea on a single string
This is my signature. Fear it.
Exactly. Listen to "funk" music. Full of scratching.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
you can emulate a record DJ scratch by feathering a wound string. if you go against the wind it sounds scratchier.
it's duration is controlled by damping and muting. a lot of fast pick ation.
I like the classic rock n roll long pick slide.
most of my picks have grooves on the edges. 8)
Don't you kiddies remember Isaac Hayes' SHAFT?
Lots of scratching going on behind those lyrics. With lots of wah action.
"That cat Shaft is one ba-aa-aad mother- hush yo' mouth!"
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Exactly, that would either be a muted strum or a rake, if one note actually is fretted. Or atleast in the books I have. What's in a name eh?
The repeating 'tak tak' in 'Every breath you take' by The Police is a classic example of muting the strings.
An advice - Use the fleshy part of your hand to mute the strings and don't get too close to the bridge or you will end up muting the sound completely. That takes a lot of practice.
The idea behind palm muting or scratching your strings is to provide a percussive effect to the sound which imo gives more colour and variety to the song.
Rahul
