Chris and others -- In no particular order: some things to keep in mind, but no one applies in all cases/songs/styles:
1. Talk less and say more: Play less on electric. Many times you will not let chords ring out -- but some "ringing" will sound very good. Juxtapostion of ringing and chopped chords makes the music interesting. Use muting (palm and other) to help define this chop/ringing rhythm. I would go as far as saying a muted strum on an electric is somewhat like the open-string inter-chord change strum that many acoustic guitarists play. Either technique can be overused, but used tastefully add to the rhythm quite effectively. Treat the spaces between notes/chords as importantly as the notes/chords.
2. Play fewer strings, if it sounds better. And it often will.
3. Practice using a clean setting and not too much reverb. Face the amp toward you. This is a much more critical set-up than dirty (unless you are out of tune-- ouch) and/or awash in 'verb or echo. The latter EFX smear the sound enough to hide a lot of timing and note articulation defects. Make your clean playing sound good, and all the other will come easier.
4. Practice argeggios. This is another way to play less and sound like more. To start, work on evenly timed, evenly attacked arpeggiated chord notes and lines. Learn to emphasize certain notes with dynamics and timing changes later on. Eventually, you should learn to play these with pick, fingers and maybe even hybrid. To start, choose one method and master it, then move on to the others. Don't mix it up too much in the beginning. You need to be able to do this well at least one way (pick or fingers). Add the others later.
5. Do not believe that barre chords are the pinnacle of guitar chording. They are useful, quickly accessible fingerings, and are great as the basis of power chords and their variants. But many of the most interesting chords and intervals are NOT barre chords, which will rarely sound as sweet and chimey as chords containing open strings. I think it takes many guitar players years of playing barre rock (bad pun!) to realize there is a bigger, and often better sounding world out there.
5. If playing with another guitar(ist), almost never play the same thing. Play in a different octave. Use different inversions of the chords (you may call this a position or form). Use a single line or interval instead of a full chord. This is really on-the-fly orchestration.
6. Work on those bass runs between chords. These are easier on acoustic than electric. Electric requires more control to achieve well attacked notes and good note-note-chord dynamics and balance. Acoustic guitars have sort of a "built in compression" that helps level dynamics. Unless you are actually playing with a compressor, or operating your amp or EFX in saturation of some sort, an electric is much more dynamically sensitive.
7. This will be controversial: Learn to use a thick pick on an electric. It will give you control and punch when you need it. A thin pick is tempting. It is easier to make a guitar+thin pick sound good in the hands of a newbie. But the flex and control should be in your fingers and wrist. Flex in the pick leads to uncertainty, as it is contantly on the rebound. Your fingers need to "know" where the pick is at all times to really nail the notes with proper rhythm and dynamics.
and there is so much more ...
-=tension & release=-
7. This will be controversial: Learn to use a thick pick on an electric. It will give you control and punch when you need it. A thin pick is tempting. It is easier to make a guitar+thin pick sound good in the hands of a newbie. But the flex and control should be in your fingers and wrist. Flex in the pick leads to uncertainty, as it is contantly on the rebound. Your fingers need to "know" where the pick is at all times to really nail the notes with proper rhythm and dynamics.
Yay for playing electric with 3mm bass picks! :mrgreen:
Gnease,
Thanks so much for taking the trouble to type all that out. Much appreciated. I'll print it out in the morning and start trying out your suggestions.
I think it was on Tommy Emmanuel's site that I saw "Here's some advice about thin picks....... burn them.." so you're not alone there. :D
Cheers
Chris
PS
Geez, it's a good job I proof read my posts! I'd written:
"Here's some advice about thing picks"....
Now that could be misintrepreted. :oops: There'd be some comments about which brand you play with those... :roll:
