It isn't just about playing the right notes at the right time with the right timbre

[Bryan T]

At the risk of stating the obvious: A lot of the great players also put a lot of effort into stopping notes and cutting down noises.

Stopping notes: You can use either hand to stop notes that are ringing or to prevent unwanted notes from ringing. For fingerstyle players, this can mean using the fingers on the right hand to cut off the duration of notes, instead of letting them all ring together all the time.

An exercise to try:

Play an open position C chord: x3x010 with your thumb on the A string and index/middle/ring on the G/B/E string. Play the chord for a whole note. Now, play the thumbed note for a whole note, but the finger notes for a dotted half note. Now, play the thumbed note for a whole note, but mute the fingered noted after a half note. Now, do the same but for a whole note and a quarter note and then for a whole note and an eighth note. This is an example of the right hand fingers controlling the muting.

Now, reverse the exercise and let the fingered notes ring, but mute the bass note at different times.


Cutting down noises: For me, a big noise to avoid (except when wanted for effect) is string squeak. You can pay a lot of attention to how the left hand moves during position changes. Some strings squeak more than others, so you don't necessarily have to take your fingers off of all of the strings.

An exercise to try:

Play an open C chord (x32010) and then move to play this F chord (x87060). Concentrate on the noise during the transition. You might find you can keep a finger on the B string for placement. You might find that lifting off of the chord, moving, and then planting on the new chord (3 separate motions that will become seamless with practice) is the best way to reduce noise.

[Tone Gopher]

Too funny - I just brought that issue as a suggestion to someone in the Open Mic section and got slammed for it.

I agree. "Space" is an important component of the music.

[BULLSPRIG]

Space is everything. I'd agree with that. Not sure if you're speaking of the same space as I am. What I mean by space is to intentionally rest, pause, lag in areas. Mostly in a lead solo. Especially in blues. I've always had trouble with this, personally. My gears are set up to spin constantly. To me, the most gifted are those who can pace these lags in the right spots to create more feel and emotion. An example of what I'm talking about would be in Elvin Bishop's lead solo in Fooled Around and Fell in Love. Think about the lead-in to that solo. 1234....(lag).......1..234...1...234......(lag)... .

that solo is one of my favorites of all time. but boy is he ever a drunken mess today.

[Bryan T]

Space is definitely important. A path to that (for fingerstyle playing, at least) is to get control of when the notes end through better muting control.

I love the sound of a sustaining/ringing/rich guitar (kind of like a piano with the sustain pedal held down), but it is even more powerful when there is contrast with less sustained sections.

[Bryan T]

I had hoped this would inspire more discussion than it did. I've noticed that the top tier players (like Michael Hedges, Pierre Bensusan, Scott Tennant, etc.) put a lot of effort into stopping notes and cutting down on noises.

[BULLSPRIG]

Its a good thread. I was speaking of a related, but different spacing obviously.

Its actually a great thread. Probably one where people just nod in agreement though.

[Brian W.]

Yep, muting unwanted string noise is especially important with slide playing. I'm big into to palm muting too—I like the low thump that can be pulled out with muted staccato notes.

[Bryan T]

For those who are interested in diving into this further, I think I remember that Scott Tennant's "Pumping Nylon" has some good exercises on this. I also seem to recall that the Michael Hedges book, "Rhythm, Sonority, Silence" goes into it quite a bit. Brian Gore's "Fingerstyle Guitar" book has some great right hand exercises for stopping strings.

Anyhow, off of my soapbox.