Feelin’ Blue

Recently, I bought an album by the band ZZ Top- it’s the one known as “ZZ Top’s First Album”, which I always thought was the absolute best title to give a bands first album (provided of course, that the band in question is named “ZZ Top”- otherwise it’d be a bit weird…). Anyway, while listening to it something occurred to me. This post is about something that is almost totally missing in so many people’s (maybe yours included) minds when it comes to guitar, let alone music! So often I’ve seen guitarists talk about the importance of good technique, “scale shapes” and which modes to learn (all of which are good things to know about music), but they seem to completely miss the whole reason these things exist- for the music!

As a guitarist, I’ve always been interested in the technique side of playing (obviously this interest is amplified by being a teacher aswell) but one of my favourite bands is the complete opposite of that. The blues-rock music of ZZ Top is the complete opposite of technical metal, and it’s not because the band members are any less musicians. Blues music is, and has always been, about feeling and not about complexity or speed. It’s that way on purpose, and that’s why it’s good.

Stepping Back to go Forwards

You’d be right in thinking that amazing speed, or awesome guitar technique is impressive, and I would agree. However, sometimes the most powerful things can be said in only a few words, in fact sometimes only using a few words to describe something makes it all the more powerful. In music, especially in a band situation when you’re playing with other musicians, one of the best things you can do is to step back and play less. Aim to compliment the other musicians rather than compete with them- and when everyone works together like this you will sound much better. The band will appear to be working as a whole- and not just separate, squabbling musicians.

Look at the solos of some blues-based musicians- B.B. King, Slash, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix. Notice how they can produce great solos from a limited amount of notes? Have you ever tried this yourself? If not, I suggest you give it a go. Instead of trying to solo with as many techniques and scales that you know of, try playing a whole solo with only four notes- and I mean four different notes (four frets), not just the same note four times. It’s actually harder than it sounds to get it to sound good- and it forces you to concentrate on how you play each note. If you can get your musical message across using only four notes, you’re starting to understand what “feeling” is.

Soloing Technique

Through all of this, you have to remember why guitar techniques are there. Guitar technique is only a method by which we manipulate a piece of technology (a guitar) into producing the sounds that we hear in our head. It is only a means to an end. Sure, technique is a huge help in being able to play the music that you have running through your head, and having great technique means you should have no problem with that- but the real reason for all of this is the music.

I’m sure that, if in a thousand years time we could invent a machine that can transfer thoughts directly into a set of speakers -such that there was no need for musical instruments- we would do that. Then there would be no “technique”, there wouldn’t even be guitars- just pure music, pure feeling. I don’t see this happening in the near future, but the pure music is still what you should be after- not the technique.

If you like my blog, please don’t forget to subscribe.

December 5, 2009 at 1:50 pm | Music News and Opinions | 3 comments

3 Responses to “Feelin’ Blue”

1. Quick scan of the net - guitar musicians « katenorris says:

   05/12/2009 at 3:55 pm

   [...] http://chainsawguitartuition.net/blog/feeling-blue/This post is about something that is almost totally missing in so many people’s (maybe yours included) minds when it comes to guitar, let alone music! So often I’ve seen guitarists talk about the importance of good technique, … [...]
2. ‘guitar musicians’ on the web « katkay says:

   05/12/2009 at 4:16 pm

   [...] http://chainsawguitartuition.net/blog/feeling-blue/This post is about something that is almost totally missing in so many people’s (maybe yours included) minds when it comes to guitar, let alone music! So often I’ve seen guitarists talk about the importance of good technique, … [...]
3. Chainsaw Guitar Tuition » Guitar Shape Shifter Curse! says:

   11/12/2009 at 1:06 pm

   [...] I could write pages on why I love the pentatonic scale, or why it’s not wrong at all to only play this scale- so [...]