For this article a handful of simple hints to improve your guitar tone.

Tone is in your fingers, you all may have heard this comment before but it is so true: how you use your fingers translates directly to the sound you make with your guitar. The gear you use will only enhance the initial trigger of your fingers. In other words, if your technique is poor you will never achieve the results you could get.

Your tone will improve over time as when your guitar technique will improve. There are three simple things you can do to speed up the process:

Gauge of Your Strings:
Using a thicker gauge of strings will help you to achieve a thicker tone, it will also give you more power and volume. Once you start playing with thicker strings you may feel you may need to adapt your technique a little to get the best out of your sound. All of this will happen over time as long as you are aware of  this. Playing your strings with a heavier attack will help to improve your tone as well. When using thinner strings, a heavier attack will make your strings go out of tune. This is very noticeable on your low E. Once you have gone up a few gauges you will no longer experience this problem!

Use Heavier Picks:
Plectrums, like strings, come in all kind of gauges. Most guitar players will start out with thin, light picks. Once your technique gets better you may want to go up in gauge with your picks. Using heavier picks will give you naturally more attack on your strings, more attack means more sound and more volume. Try various picks to see what you like. You may even want to use different picks for different playing situations.

  Raising the Actions of Your Strings:
Playing with a higher action will also improve your guitar tone: The further the strings have to travel to the fret board the more sound they will produce. Once you have raised your action you may feel that you can hit those strings harder compared to when your action was lower ( and you were using thinner gauge strings)

When you check the tree points I mentioned above you will see that they are all related to each other: Thicker strings beg for heavier attack, thicker picks will help you achiever heavier attack and higher string action will allow you to play harder without the strings fretting out and causing too much fret buzz.

If you are not happy with your tone, try any of the above and adapt your playing to the new situation. You will love it after a while.

Happy playing time and hope to catch you all soon again for more guitar, and tone inspiration.
Eddie

Leeds based band the Sillie Billies are a band which plays a mix of vintage 50s style Rock ‘n’ Roll, Irish Songs and some Fun-type songs which get the audience going. The band are keen on playing classic songs while treating these songs with their own backing vocal arrangements.
An experience with the Sillie Billies as audience means a night of laughter and fun. The band are guaranteed to make  you move your feet while you sing along with some of your favourite classic songs . Basically a good night out!
The instrumentation of the band contains: Drums, Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Vocals and Backing Vocals.
Rock ‘n’ Roll is served up with a vintage 50s style Guitar sound, while it is augmented with the authentic feel of  Keyboards,Bass and Drums. The band is not just happy with playing you their music, no they like to entertain you as well. There may even be those moments when you are asked to join them on stage to sing one of the songs.
True, there may be many bands in the Yorkshire region which play in a Rock ‘n’ Roll style but how many of those bands really play with  a sense of sheer fun and entertainment? Next time the Sillie Billies visit your local pub why not come and check out for yourself to see if they move your jaw muscles with laughter?

For this article a handful of ideas of how you can fit in your chords to sound smooth with the overall rhythm of the song.  Check out the video for more details, the song Mustang Sally is only given as a suggestion and should be taken loosely as a point of reference.
Playing rhythm is a skill and a art form but at the same token, it is something which can be learned. You need to listen to a lot of songs which apply the rhythm in a similar way. A handful of more recent songs apply the rhythm in a similar way as some of the great songs of the 60s. A song like “Valerie” is a great example. The Zutons version does have a more Rock/Soul kind of feel whereas Amy Whinehouse’s version is more based on Soul and Funk. The drum and how the bass fits into the rhythmic pattern are a giveaway. As a guitar player you need to know how to fit into the rhythmic pattern. Once you start experimenting with it you will find out what works.
Bands with a great rhythmic feel all have great, individual rhythm players, together they all form part of the groove.
Of all the various aspects of guitar playing, developing a strong sense of rhythm is one of the hardest things to teach. Some people have a natural gift for rhythm while others need to work hard on this. It is my strong believe that anyone, with the right direction and hard work, can develop a strong sense of good rhythm playing. Work on yours and keep at it.
Hope to see you soon again for more Guitar, Bass and Ukulele inspiration.
Eddie

 

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Eddie

For this article the melody and chords for “Silent Night”
A —–0—    ————-   ——-0—-    ————-
E  –3—-3-   —0——–   -3——-3–   –0———
C   ———-   ———–    ————-   ————-
G  ———-  ————   ————–   ————-
A —5—5—  –2——-     –3—3—    ————–
E  ———–  ———–    ————   –3———–
C ————  ———–    ———–    —————
G ———— ————   ————  —————-
A –0—0–   —3–2–0-  ——-0—-  —————
E ———–  ————  —3——3-  —-0———-
C ———-  ————-  ————-   —————
G ———-   ————  ————–   —————

The chords are as follows:

C    C   C   C
G   G7  C   C
F    F    C   C

Enjoy and hope to see you soon again,
Eddie

For this article  a few bass intros you may enjoy playing.
Listen to the song before you play the intro, familiarise yourself with the feel.
Once you have the idea underneath your finger tips, experiment with any ideas to enhance the intro. Another idea is to take the intro and use it as a spring board for any of your own intros.

The first intro is from KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See”
G   ——————-    —————————
D  —-0————–    —-0———————
A  ————3——-   ————3–3–3——
E  ——————–    ————————3–

The next intro is from Roger Clover’s Classic 70s Hit  “Love is All”   The idea is based on a descending
bass line. It is a typical 70s approach to introduce a song. Listen to Slade’s Christmas Song to hear a similar idea being used to introduce this all time X-mas classic.

G  ————–       ———————     ———————     ——————-
D  ————–       ——0————-      ———————-   —-0————–
A  —2–0——      ————4—-2—    —-0—————–   ——————-
E  ———-4–2-    –0——————    ———-3—2–0—   ——————-

 

Next example is from Tony Chisties’s   “This is the Way to Amarillo”  The bass line follows the vocal line, again, a typical 70s approach to introduce a song.

G ———-6—   —7—7–7–7–    ——————-   ——————–
D –7-7-7——   ——————   –7–7–7–6-4—   ——————–
A  ————-    —————–   ———————   –7—7–7——–
E ————–    —————-    ———————  ——————–

G ————–   —————–   ———————-   ——————
D ———–4–  -7-7-7–6-4—    ———————      —————–
A -5-5-5–7—-   —————    –7–7–7———–        —7————
E ————— —————-   ———————-       —————–

Experiment with where you play the notes. If you use a 5-string bass you can play the notes in a lower register, experiment with where you want to play those notes.

Enjoy playing and hope to catch you soon again.
Eddie

Bass guitar is all about tone. Of course is it not just about tone, it is also about what notes you play and what rhythm you play those notes with. Having a good tone is important for any instrument but for bass guitar in particular.
You may think that tone comes from your pick-ups and your amp. Well that is only partly true, your fingers and how you use them play a big part in your tone as well.

Like on a guitar, you can experiment where you play your strings: Play near the bridge and you get a very bright tone. The tone will not be a strong compared to when you play in between neck and bridge, just above the pick-ups. Play in between the pick-ups and you get a neutral and full sound.
Play anywhere above the fretboard with the fingers of your right hand and you get a more, woody tone. It is that tone which sounds a bit like the sound out of an acoustic, upright bass.

The woody tone may not be for every bass player. It may be a very suitable sound for anyone of you who like playing Blues, Jazz, folk or Rock ‘n’ Roll. If you feel the tone is not strong enough to cut through  the mix of drums and guitar simply put your volume of your amp up. True, once you start playing louder some of the finer nuances of your tone do get lost. Just keep working on your technique to overcome this problem.

In the near few weeks I will create more blogs for bass.
Stay tuned and hope to see you soon again,
Eddie

A medley is simply a mix of short songs, or song parts, to create a longer song which can stand on its own.
You may wonder why musicians decide to create a medley? Why not play a full song instead? Sometimes the full song may be too long, sometimes the song may contain a lot of filler parts and only the chorus may be the best sounding part. For this article I will give you a handful of ideas of what you can do to create a more effective medley which will keep your listeners on their tows.

To keep your medley smooth it is a good idea to keep your song ideas all in the same key. It will make it easier to change from one song idea to the next one. Simply choose a handful of songs which are in the same key and sound alike and experiment how you can move from one song to the other without having any gaps in your playing.
Instead of playing the full song, go for parts of the song which sound similar to the other song you want to add to your medley. Instead of having full song parts you can also look for instrumental hook lines or riffs.
A lot of 70s songs contain great riffs and most of them lend themselves very well to be put into one medley.

Once you have your medley of a handful of songs, experiment with any possible key changes to add a bit more interest to your medley. You may even want to add some tempo changes, this will make your medley stand out from the rest.

Enjoy your experiments and hope to see you soon again,
Eddie

For this article a handful of ideas of what you can do to create a 12 bar blues.
Blues has been, throughout the years, a great vehicle to experiment with: You can change the feel of the idea, you can make changes to the melody you play, you can add any riffs you like to enhance the chords with. Best of all, a blues is easy to adapt to your own style of playing, that is one of the main reasons why blues has been so popular throughout the years.

To get started you need to set up a chord sequence which has the sound and feel of a blues. The most popular device is the 12 bar blues: You take any three chords and divide them across 12 bars. Not sure how to do this?
Okay here is an example in the key of C:
C     C      C    C7
F     F      F    F7
C     C      C    C7
G7   F7    C    G7

Have a listen to some popular blues songs to get an idea of how you can strum those chords. Experiment with different strums. An effective way to get the right feel is to use a shuffle, it is not the only possibility but it works well. Another way is to have a listen to some Rock ‘n’ Roll and try to strum the chords with an energetic 50s vibe.

Once your chord sequence starts to sound like a real blues you may want to add some more spice to those chords. One way to do this is to add some riffs in between the chords. Again, have a listen to some of your favourite blues players to see what kind of melodies and riffs they play and see if you can copy some of their ideas. Once you have a simple riff just put it in between those chords. The main thing is to keep the feel of your strums smooth  while you add in those notes of the riff.
Being able to play melodic ideas in between your chords is a real challenge but it will help push your playing up to the next level. Just keep at it.

Over the next few weeks I will create more  blogs with  specific ideas for Ukulele.
Stay tuned and hope to catch you soon again.
Cheers,

Eddie

Playing along with music will improve your feel as you play along with experienced players. All you need to do is sit right in there with the recording. How do you do this? Just sit down and play you may say? Yes but there are a few things to think about if you are fairly new to this game.
For this article a handful of tips how you can get a better experience out of your “playing along” sessions.

Make Sure Your Are In Tune with the Recording:
In the days before the internet most guitar players actually learned to play the guitar by sitting down and working things out from records. This method of learning is a bit like sitting down with a master who will show you some of their playing tricks.  Okay, but now there is internet so what is your point? Yes, well now you have all those chord sheets (and lyrics–heh check ’em again will you?—) in front of you, you still need to develop a feel for how to play the guitar. One way to pick up different feels is by playing along with recorded music.
Make sure you are in tune before you play along. Should not be much of a problem but older recordings are in strange keys such as Eb or C#. Most of this is because of the recording process, or simply because the guitarists preferred to tune down (as so many did during the 60s and 70s) Be aware of this before you play along and make sure your guitar is at the same pitch. All of this makes playing so much more fun.

  Get the right Balance between your Guitar and the Recorded Sound:
What I really mean is: Do not turn your guitar (in case you play and electric) up too loud so you can no longer hear the details of the recording. Just get your guitar to sit in the mix of the record. Once you get it to sound as like you are playing on the actually recording you are in the ball park. The next step is to get your playing skills to a higher level so you can play from top to bottom along with the recording without making any mistakes.

Playing Your Own Solos Over the Recording:
Playing guitar solos is hard. You have hear this being mentioned before? Well, what about creating your own solos and to play them over existing recordings? This will guarantee you will enjoy playing that guitar night and day since all those lovely notes have found a place to live in.
The truth about guitar solos is: The better the backing is the better the solos will sound.
Get started by just playing a handful of notes and see how they fit in with your favourite recordings.
If you are an experienced player, copy the existing solos of the record and try playing them with a different feel. By doing so you will develop a better rhythmic feel for your single note playing.

Once you will get started with some of the above ideas you will soon get hooked, it will improve your playing very quickly, yes it will. All you need to do is to make sure you are playing the right thing which fits into the recording.

Have fun and hope to catch you soon again,
Eddie

Rhythm guitar is all about playing chords, it is about how you play your chords ( what kind of fingerings you use—voicing is the correct term here—-) and what kind of rhythm you use for playing those chords. Simple eh? Most beginners need to work first on getting their chords clean. As they work on this they may ignore the rhythm of the chords. Okay I understand, as there are so many things to think about in the beginning. The key is, being aware, being aware of the songs you listen to, What goes on music wise? What makes those songs sound the way they do? In most cases it is the rhythm, it is the way how the chords move from one chord to the next one and how those chords gel with the bass line, melody and the drums. All of this is called the groove, most beginners need to work on this, even  more experienced players will often benefit from concentrating more on the how the groove is being played in a particular song.
A good way to get into the zone of what a good groove can sound like is to listen to some old Stax and Motown songs. A lot of the recordings  from this period were played by the same group of backing musicians such as Booker T and the MG’s. If you are not familiar with some of the music from this period (late 50s till early 70s) check it out as you will pick up a lot of ideas from what you hear.

Rhythm guitar is often overlooked, some people may even think it is a simpler form of playing guitar since playing single note solos is a more exciting sound. The truth is: Rhythm guitar is the start of your playing, the better you understand it the better your future solos will be.

Once you start playing with other people it is useful if every player can hold the rhythm. In a band (or any collective form of musicians) any instrument should support the rhythm, if this is not the case the band will not be as strong as it could be.

I mention all of this to support the idea that playing rhythm guitar is as much fun as playing guitar solos. Listen to a lot of different music to get a good idea of what is possible and experiment with your own playing to get some of those sounds under your finger tips.

Happy playing and hope to see you soon again,
Eddie