FREE GUITAR TIPS
By Scott Beckwith
Designer / builder / teacher
FREE GUITAR TIPS
By Scott Beckwith
Designer / builder / teacher
Wipe the strings down after
every use. It's a sure fire way to keep your strings alive a bit longer! I like the
sound of older, mellowed strings, and this helps me keep the finger cheese
from accumulating along them like so many tiny gross stalactites.
Know the Chromatic Scale
and how it lays out on the different strings of your instrument. This will
help you build chords, play leads out of scales in the right key, and hook it
all together. As a bass player, this knowledge is crucial - you'll then be
able to play through new songs just by knowing what the chord progression of
the song is. Play the root notes and form your part from there.
Learn about your guitar. As
a musician, you choose an instrument to serve as your voice - it should be a
deep process, not just "Well, Johnny Meathead from Weensack plays one, so
I'll go buy one!" Once you find an instrument that speaks to you, learn
what all the controls do. Learn about the woods its made of. Learn how it was
built. Learn why it sounds like it does. Admire the grain in the wood. This is
your voice, a tool of creation. Create with it and do not be afraid of a ding
or scratch - like you, it should spend itself on what it creates. Get into it.
Live it & breathe it. Love it.
Quest for the "sweet spot."
Every guitar & amp combo, no matter how humble, has a point when everything is
"dialed in" - the guitar's pickups and controls are set just right and the
amplifier is too. What could best be described as Tone Alchemy happens, where
suddenly certain chords grind a certain way or sustain floats into feedback...
and all is right. Subtle changes when layered on top of other subtle changes
add up to exponential results. Spend some time getting to know your combo and
dialing it in. You'll know when the magic happens!
Think "outside the box."
Use notes a half-step out of scale like they were spices in a soup; a spice
soup would be inedible. But a little blast of seasoning here and there is
great. Take a familiar chord shape and modify it by using additional fingers
or lifting something up... what is it called? Who cares. Figure that out
later. Don't use the presets on your effects. Painting by numbers and coloring
in the lines is highly overrated and should only be considered beginning
approaches while you learn how to use the tools and tonal colors. After that
invent new colors of tone, new textural approaches to playing, and do your own
thing. Find some wierd guitar everyone else isn't playing; a good guitar is
one that speaks to you. It has nothing to do with what it says on the
headstock or whether Rich Lather from Spastic 151 endorses it or not. Remember
this, no matter HOW many times you find yourself going "whole-whole-half,
whole-whole-whole-half", it is ART not SCIENCE. There are no rules and if it
sounds good to you it's valid whether it sounds appealing to me (or anyone
else) or not.
Play with people who are better
than you are. I don't care how much of a pro you are or how great you
think you may be. Unless you're Johnny Hyland, Red Volkaert or Yngwie
Malmsteen, there's always somebody that can hand your ass back to you on a
platter - go find that person and jam with them. Learn something. The day
you're "too good" to learn something more is the day your creative soul begins
to die. You become what you surround yourself with. That goes whether you're 5
or 50. So surround yourself with good, alive people and try to get in where
you'll have to rise to the challenge. If you find people seeking YOU out then
share what you know in bite-sized morsels and assume the role of teacher that
the universe has blessed you with.
Invest yourself into what you
do. Don't do it half-assed or half-heartedly and wonder why it isn't
working. Do what you feel and feel what you do; if our actions are our
footprints then our creations are our planted seed.
Separate the art from the
craft; then balance them. More on this thought shortly...
Hot rod your stock Fender-style
guitar. More on this tidbit shortly...
View scales as vocabulary
lists. We learn how to speak through memorization and use of words in
patterns. Learning to speak through your instrument is no different. Moveable
forms, in other words scale patterns on the fretboard that have no "open"
(unfretted) notes are great - if you know the Chromatic scale and know a
"form", you can put that form in any key. It's a great start. Now, how well do
you want to speak? Conversational players like myself know probably a handful
of basic scales in a variety of positions. We work in, out and around them, at
any given moment following the chordal movement underneath us or staying in
the main key. If you choose to be more studied and fluent in your new
language, learn more scales but by the notes and intervals that make them.
When playing, don't recite your vocabulary list in order - treat the notes as
individual words. Mix and match them - make sentences and phrases. Speak to
me.
Fix stripped screw holes.
More on this pearl shortly...
Tweak the Les Paul wiring.
LPs, when both pickups are on, won't blend the pickups. If you turn one down,
they both go down. To be able to blend the pickups together in varying colors,
look at the volume pots. There are three lugs. One grounds the pot to itself.
The other two are the "in" lug (from the pickup) and the
"out" lug (to the switch). Swap these wires (do it on both volume
pots) and it changes the signal path through the pot, giving you individual
control of each pickup's vol. and tone when they're both on. While you're in
there, replace the tone caps with .01s and see what cool stuff that does -
neck p/u with the tone rolled back gets jazzy, bridge p/u gets a half-wah
"Santana" tone. No more mud. Nifty. Thank me by moving people
with your music.
Play from the heart. MUCH
more on this nugget shortly...
Don't Worry if People Don't
Like Your Style. If you stick your neck out higher than the herd, you're
bound to take a few spitballs in the head. It's the way of the world... not
everyone plays fair. Sometimes if you're a little different or coloring
outside society's lines, or God forbid bucking a few traditions,
someone will come along and try to put you back in your place. But spit washes
off easy - so you gotta go with your gut and soul - and if it means your stuff
has no commercial potential, there are worse stigmas to bear. Create, create
what you feel, create because you are called to, create for the ones that get
it, create for art's sake... do your own thing, and don't ever
let the critics piss away your rainbow. If you're not causing ripples, you're
not getting anywhere. They can all line up behind you and pucker up.
The Birdsong Hand Built Guitar Co.
12111 Ranch Road 12 Suite 203B
Wimberley, TX 78676
512.847.6014
All content of this site is property of and
copyright 2004 Birdsong Guitars.
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