Jun 18
Over on Squidoo.com Kyle (aka honestkyle) has a lens called "6 Cool Guitar Noises To Spice Up Your Playing Style". What a cool topic! I wish I had thought of it. You hardly ever hear people talking about or teaching how to use the guitar in unusual ways as a means of musical expression. Kyle covers cools stuff like feedback, whammy bar bends, picks slides, and headstock string bending, and the effect each has on the listener. (I gotta say though, pick slides are a bit 80's in my mind but I guess they can still be pretty cool if done quickly and discretely.) Of course, If your not interested in trying some unusual things with your guitar, this probably isn't for you.
In any case, not to be outdone, here's a few additional cool and useful guitar noise techniques I like but that Kyle didn't cover:
- Whammy Bar Buzzing
- Play a note and then push down on end of your whammy bar with a finger or two just a bit and then let your fingers slide off the end of the bar so that the whammy bar bounces back into place. The tremolo system will vibrate and buzz for a moment producing a very fast buzzing vibrato. Can be cool to add a little spice to a melody line or solo. This may work best on a floating tremolo system, so your mileage will vary depending on your setup.
- Whammy Bar Scoop
- Push your whammy bar all the way down so the strings are nearly flopping, then play a note and just as you pluck the note let the bar come back into position pretty quickly–though don't let go of the bar as we did with the Whammy Bar Buzz, guide it up instead. This will cause the note to sound like it's bouncing into place. It's almost like a wah sounding effect although instead of manipulating tone you're manipulating pitch. You can throw this into a solo or a rhythm for some unusual drama.
- Volume Swells
- I first heard these in the slow section of Metallica's "To Live is to Die". You'll hear them at about 5:10 in to the song. Volume swells on a guitar create the effect of a violin being played. This is one of my favorite special effects. Here you start with your guitar's volume knob completely turned down. Then fret a note to play it. Just as you pluck the note gently use your free fingers on your picking hand to turn the volume knob up and then right back down again. This will cause the note to immediately fade in and out, and it's dramatic sounding. You'll need to practice this a little to pull it off smoothly. Try plucking a 5th chord, 4th, 3rd, for different sounds.
- Knock on Wood
- This works best on an acoustic guitar. You've probably seen this before. It's especally common in Latin or flamenco style music where the guitarist will play the guitar but also rhythmically hit the guitar to create a drumming effect. Try strumming a few chords and in between each chord knock on the guitar with your picking hand just once each time. This will give you a basic feel for the effect. If you want you're mind completely blow away at how cool this can be check out this quick lesson by Rodrigo Y Gabriela. The incredible speed Gabriela plays with here makes me weep. She calls them "hits". And here's the full track at full speed for your viewing pleasure.
- String Scratching
- Here's one I don't hear often, but it's a good rhythmic effect. Essentially you take the side of your pick and scrape one of your wound strings back and forth–like you're itching it. This is like a pick slide except instead of sliding all the way up or down the neck, you'll just be scratching the string in one spot. Throwing this in to a rhythm and using it discretely and in small measure can create an intense and unsettling feel. You can get different textures doing this, playing multiple strings, and doing it higher or lower on the neck, so play around with it.
Well, hope you enjoyed reading these. If you've got any of your own let us know below!
This post was written by
Michael Jae.
Michael is a guitarist of over 18 years and has taught lessons, played in front of live audiences, and wrote and recorded his own acoustic fingerstyle albums. He's especially fond of playing classic rock, heavy metal, classical guitar, and fingerstyle acoustic guitar in the style of Leo Kottke and John Fahey.
