10 things that amateur guitarists can do to play more like a pro.
For some reason, I've been getting out more often lately and experiencing live music. It's been a mixed bag. Some have been national acts in large venues, while some have been at the local bar and club level. Most recently, I was a judge in a local guitar competition. After seeing the more polished national acts, I got a little spoiled hearing well put together sets that paced themselves and built up to a peak in the evening. All the musicians' playing was spot on, and they were great experiences.
Coming down to the local level, I witnessed a lot of similarities in players that were quite different from the national level acts. Of course this is to be expected to some degree, but it was overwhelming how many fundamental aspects of playing seemed to be overlooked. Here's what I witnessed on the local level. It's not a representation of everything that's out there, but it hasn't been pretty. Therefore I'm compelled to present my list of 10 things every guitarist should be able to do. It's not too tall of an order, but it is an important list.
1. Stay in Key
Before you get up onstage, it's a not a bad idea to know the notes on the fretboard! Sure, most people at the bar are already drunk and most likely can't tell the difference if you nailed the solo in "Free Bird" note for note, but hey, it's a point of pride to know you understand what you're doing. Would you hire a plumber that didn't know how to use a snake or plunger?
2. Tune Up
We've got tuner pedals, tuners built into guitars, tuners you can attach to the headstock, portable tuners, iPhones, iPads, pitch pipes, tuning forks, and keyboardists. NO excuses on this one! It shouldn't take but a minute to tune up before a set and a few seconds between songs if the guitar has started to slip from climate changes, or got beaten up on that last killer solo. Hey, even if you can't hear that you're out of tune, any of the previously mentioned devices can. Use 'em, and keep your listeners from getting their ears punished for no good reason.
3. Hold Your Notes
Sure it's fun to play fast, but I like to hear a note held out every once in a while. Make it the first or the last note in the solo—or even in the middle if you're crazy—but give us a little something to hang onto and ponder. If you're still speed-crazy, think of it this way: The fast notes will sound so much faster if you've got something slow to compare it to.
4. Incorporate Vibrato
Maybe I came up in a time when this was more of a personality statement, but it seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird. To me, the first mark of a great player and their tonal character is the mighty vibrato. Call me a geezer, but Hendrix, Paul Kossoff, Van Halen, Yngwie, Gilmour…they all had it. You could tell the player from his vibrato alone, and that's a beautiful thing.
5. Pay Attention to Phrasing
Those notes that you play are all part of a story. Are you a good storyteller? My fellow columnist Paul Gilbert has recently talked about this, so if you haven't yet, swing by his area and check out the killer advice. He knows what he's talking about and backs it up with fantastic phrasing on every solo he's recorded.
6. Dial In Great Tone Even If It's Not Your Rig
Guess what? Sometimes you won't have your main rig with you. Maybe it's a backline rental, maybe you're at a jam night, or maybe you need to use a different rig while yours is in the shop. So many guitarists I've met don't even know how to dial in a good tone, regardless of whether it's their own amp or belongs to somebody else. Take the time to understand what those knobs do. Too much treble? Back it off. More power tube saturation? Crank it up. Do you understand how a master volume works? These are all things that should be the most basic of skills mastered as a guitar player and used to your benefit. Amps are built (for the most part) to be inspiring and offer an extension to your hands, not just to make notes louder.
7. Play a Few More Licks
It doesn't take a lot of effort to expand your licks base. We have more than enough places to learn from these days, and while it's easy to get stuck in the comfort zone, there is no reason you couldn't add a dozen new licks each week. Spend some time breaking out of the box and dazzling your listeners and bandmates by sprinkling some newness on them. Oh yeah, don't just string 'em together either. Refer back to #5 and make them part of a story, otherwise they're just a bunch of phrases tied together with no purpose.
8. Nail Your Timing
Play with the band—they are there for a reason. I'm not sure what's going on—perhaps too many people are segmenting themselves off in their bedrooms or something like that—but I've never heard so many players sound like they're not even in the same room as the rest of the band. It's as if they've stopped listening and are just playing in a vacuum! Ahead of the beat, behind the beat, and everywhere in between. You have to listen to each other and play off of each other. This is music folks, not just a platform to show off the new licks out of context. Open your ears and feel the music. Like The Force, it is there to guide you.
9. Balance Your Volume With the Band
Yes, you can do this from the stage. Even if you don't get a soundcheck, it's imperative that you have your volume balanced with the band. Drop the ego and make sure you can hear everything. If you've got a wireless, you're in better shape because you can drop off the stage and listen from the audience's perspective. Yes, the soundman has a job to do but you can help by not making it impossible on him. I know you love your new Dumble, but make an honest assessment of your volume situation and keep it in check. Trust me, no matter how great that new amp sounds, nobody is going to care if you're just blowing doors down to show it off and drowning out the rest of the band in the process. Oddly enough, I've never heard a guitarist that wasn't loud enough in the stage mix, unless his amp wasn't big enough. How strange.
10. And the Granddaddy of Them All: Don't Saw the lady in Half First!
A long time ago, my first guitar teacher told me that a soloist is a lot like a magician—they both have a bag of tricks. The best magicians know how to pace the show. Start with a card trick here, maybe a little cup and ball trick followed by something like a disappearing rabbit. You get the idea. You never see the magician start the show off by sawing the lady in half. That's saved for the finale (unless he's really good and has a better trick up his sleeve). Do the same as a player. If you blow your wad in the first 10 seconds, you'll wow the crowd once, but put them to sleep for the rest of the night when you can't deliver beyond that. By the way, notice how I waited for #10 to saw the lady in half? It's magic!
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Creamsicle
With features like volume and gain controls, sparkle switch, and waveform shape control, these pedals are designed to be a must-have for any guitarist.
The Creamsicle has that low-gain English rock tone you've been looking for. It’ll remind you of that JCM45 that you deeply regret selling during the hair metal years, but it’s a lot lighter and can get that tone at a much lower volume. Gain and Volume controls, along with tone control, sparkle switch, and a three-position pre-amp gain switch. Go from 'creamy' to 'crunchy' with a twist of the dial and the flick of a switch. Try it with your favorite fuzz for even more - just like you did with that half-stack back in 1966.
Terrain
The Terrain is a tremolo with a difference: Its circuitry is designed to be as open and HiFi as possible. It features optical coupling to keep Low-Frequency Oscillator (LFO) noise out of the audio path. In addition to Speed and Depth controls it also features a waveform shape control to fine-tune that throb. It includes a gain control to make up for any perceived volume loss at high Depth settings. But most importantly, it features high input impedance, low distortion, full bandwidth, low noise, and high fidelity circuitry that stays crystal clear. You’re going to love it.
The Creamsicle features:
- Classic 1960’s English rock tone.
- Volume and Gain controls.
- Two-pole tone control.
- Sparkle switch.
- Three way preamp gain switch.
- Full bypass (of course).
- 9VDC, 31mA.
- MAP price: $145
The Terrain features:
- Optical tremolo for perfect LFO / audio isolation.
- High input impedance, full bandwidth, low noise, crystal clear signal path.
- Speed, Depth, and Waveform controls.
- Makeup Gain control.
- Full bypass (naturally).
- 9VDC, 32mA.
- MAP price: $145
Mayfly Creamsicle Overdrive and Terrain Tremolo - YouTube
Baroni Recording Amps: Faithful tone to iconic amps in rock history. High-Voltage Class A tube preamp and analog simulation for direct FOH or DAW use. VARICAB circuit for realistic cab simulations. Perfect for pedal demos and connecting pedalboard to DAW.
Baroni (A Foxgear Brand) Is proud to introduce its first range of Recording Amps with a range of five products designed to replicate five of the most iconic amps in rock history, including Fender, Marshall, Hiwatt, Orange and Vox. Each Baroni Recording amp is made of a High-Voltage Class A tube preamp and a renewed analog simulation that mimics all the chain after the preamp such as the power section, the speaker, the microphone, and preparing the signal in a 100% analog way to go direct to FOH console, or into the Audio Interface of your DAW. Thanks to the VARICAB circuit, introduced last year into Foxgear’s Miniamp series, and recently updated, and thanks to two separate control of Gain (Body) and Volume on the preamp section, you can truly mimic the behavior of the real amplifier, including the grit or bottom-end/punch usually added by the power tubes before to go to the XLR balanced out with a faithful recreation of your favorite sound with a big advantage: Eating Pedals perfectly.
Each Recording Amp also boasts a series fx loop, and a traditional TS Jack out to use as a standard preamp going into the return section of an amp, or into a power amplifier.No dozens of options, just pure tone straight to the point to not compromise the easy to use with pedals. Some YouTubers have already ordered their one to be used as their main interface to do pedal demos.
Baroni Preamps/D.I. Recording Amps Highlights include:
- Faithful tone to the original Amplifier
- 100% Analog signal path and Cab Simulation- Infinite and real-time changing cab simulations with VARICAB
- The definitive device to connect your pedalboard to your DAW without compromises.
For more information, please visit foxgeardistribution.com.
The author’s well-loved Freeze pedals. The original raw-metal chassis seen here has been replaced with a white finish on later editions.
How this simple sustain stomp helped me bring one of my favorite David Lynch scenes to life and took me across oceans.
There’s a scene in David Lynch’sMulholland Drivewhere Naomi Watts and Laura Harring’s characters find themselves in a darkened, mostly empty theater. Against a backdrop of spooky, synthy chords, they breathlessly watch the night’s oddball emcee deliver an intense, cryptic soliloquy on recorded sound. A trumpet player slowly walks onto the stage, the two characters clutching each other. They—and you—get fully drawn into his muted, jazzy lines. Suddenly, he pulls his instrument away from the mic, throwing his hands in the air. But the solo continues. The narrator looks to the audience: “It’s all recorded.”
Like the best Lynch moments, it’s a thoroughly dramatic moment that needs to be experienced with all applicable senses. Words alone won’t do. This scene is meant to stick with you.
I had that scene in mind as I first plugged into an Electro-Harmonix Freeze. I wanted to play a note and have it keep going … and going … until the audience would see that those notes were just lingering in the air, my strings no longer vibrating, unsure what the effect is. The Freeze could do just that.
“This wasn’t some new iteration of some other effect—a crazy fuzz or a weird flanger. This was a new category.”
If you’ve never played one, the Freeze elegantly holds whatever you give it—a note, a chord, a pick scrape, or whatever else. For such an obvious effect to come out when it did felt so refreshingly groundbreaking. It represented new possibilities. This wasn’t some new iteration of some other effect—a crazy fuzz or a weird flanger. This was a new category.
There had already been ways to fake drones and sustained notes with loopers and delay pedals, but those inevitably had their quirks that ruined the illusion. David Cockerell, the designer of the Freeze, explains that loopers capture short bits of sound, apply an amplitude envelope, and play it back repeatedly. This can work to make sustained notes if the passage includes a whole number of cycles of the sound's fundamental pitch, but in most cases, you’ll hear a click when it repeats.
Back in the ’70s, the EHX team had worked on the idea for a sustain pedal. “At that time, the best I could do was intelligent-splice-single-cycle-looping,” recalls Cockerell. “This looked for a waveform match in the same way that guitar tuning meters do, and then endlessly played one cycle. It worked reasonably well for saxophone or other instruments with strictly harmonic overtones, but it was hopeless for guitar.”
”The pedal only requires one knob for volume, one toggle for latching or fast/slow swell modes, and a footswitch.”
Fast-forward to the early ’00s when DSP chips became available that could reproduce more complex sounds and overtones. While he was working on the EHX Hog with John Pisani, the company’s current-day chief engineer, the idea for a sustain pedal reared its head once again. Cockerell used an algorithm with a special provision that avoids freezing on a pluck transient, thus eliminating the risk of that pesky click. And the Freeze was born.
Released in 2010, the Freeze has a simple beauty. The pedal only requires one knob for volume, one toggle for latching or fast/slow swell modes, and a footswitch. Within, there’s such a wide range of subtlety: How you hit the pedal after your attack greatly affects the response. With the level setting, you can create subtle drones, much like an electronic shruti box, meant to subtly fill space. Or you can set it more obviously as you change chords, freeing up your hands. At higher volume settings in fast momentary mode, you can create glitchy stutter effects. And the way it interacts with other pedals opens up entirely new worlds.
I threw myself into the pedal not long after it hit the market, learning its nuances and eventually buying a second one to create a stereo effect. With my retuned 12-string Strat, I blasted my amps with drones, blowing a few speakers with abandon. Soon, the Freeze changed my approach to the guitar, and I released a series of solo drone and noise albums that took me across the U.S. and Europe. When I recognized Bill Frisell using one during a solo set, I’d bonded with the pedal so much that it was like a friend was sitting in with my favorite guitar player.
“I blasted my amps with drones, blowing a few speakers with abandon.”
There are plenty of pedals that have followed, adding more functionality. EHX’s Pico Deep Freeze, most obviously, but also the Gamechanger Plus, TC Electronic Infinite Sample, and the Chase Bliss Onward—enough that guitar sustain pedals have become their own class of effect. As fabulous as those pedals are, I still cherish the simplicity of the Freeze, a rare thing that leaves all the creative decisions on our side of the pedalboard.
PG's host straps on a prototype Tele to unleash the Knife Drop's horror and heft only to dismantle Jack White's Triplecaster in one accidental Bigsby bomb.