Chords for Little Things That Make a BIG Difference in Your Guitar Playing

Welcome back to another Sensei series.
[F#] Today we're looking at [E] five subtle
aspects of guitar playing [C#] that make a big difference.
And I've got links for
you to each individual [Am] tip down in the description if you'd like to jump around.
So here we go.
Five [F#m] subtle things that make a big difference in your guitar
playing.
Number [C#m] one, touch.
A musician's [Am] touch greatly influences their sound.
Imagine Zach [E] Wilde and Chuck Berry playing the same lick through the same
rig.
It would sound [F#] totally [E] different because both of them manipulate the
guitar [Em] strings very differently.
The idea of personal [Am] touch is a broad term [F#] that
encapsulates a lot of subtle [E] stylistic nuances.
The way you place your finger on
a fret, [G#] finding that [E] sweet spot where it rings out just perfectly.
How fast, [C#] slow,
wide, or narrow your vibrato is.
Where your pick hits the guitar strings.
How hard
you hit the strings.
[A] Do you mute the other notes?
All these [G#m] things among
others really define our individual style.
Everyone has natural tendencies
and I'm not here to tell you to do one thing or the other.
But I would encourage
you to be aware of these little [F#m] things and experiment.
Do you prefer the sound
[F#] of a wide, slow, Clapton-esque vibrato?
Or do you prefer the [F#m] fast vibrato like
B.B. King?
Try different things out, see what you like, and let your own style
evolve.
Tip number [F#] two, cutoffs.
The concept is that the point at which you
cut a note off is [G] nearly as important as the point at which you start playing a
note.
Let's look at an example.
[E] First I'm going to play you a riff without caring
much about cutoff [B] points.
_ [G] _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
Let's listen to that same riff with attention to the
cutoffs.
[B] _ [G] _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
[E] It's [C#] a subtle difference but it really tightens up that passage.
And this
will become substantially more important the more musicians that you're playing
with.
If [E] everybody in the band is cutting off a note at a different time, it's
going to sound sloppy and we want it to sound as tight as possible.
[Em] Tip number
three, using musical [Am] space.
This ties into the last point and it'll tie into [D] the
next point as well.
[E] Musical silence can be equally as powerful as sound.
Let's
check out two short solo [Bm] passages. _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ There wasn't much space there and to me it
sounded like musical diarrhea.
Let's see what adding some space sounds like.
[Bm] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C#m] _ [D] _ _ [D#]
Much
better in my opinion.
[G] Because when you play less notes, the [E] notes that you do
play carry much more weight.
Everything [F#m] you play should serve a purpose which is
connected [Em] to the idea [C#m] of musical phrasing.
Which I've gone [Am] into in another
video that I'll link to right there.
Now musical space doesn't just apply to
playing lead.
[F#] When you're playing rhythm you should be very conscious [Am] of this as
well.
Say you're [E] playing with another [Em] player and they play a lead riff like
[F#] this.
_ _ _ _ [D] If you're accompanying [A] that and you start taking up a lot of sonic
landscape, you're going to be taking away from what they're playing which should
be the focal point.
Let's look at two examples.
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
[Am] In my opinion the second
example [F#m] puts the spotlight where it should [Am] be on the lead part.
First and
foremost as musicians our role above everything else is to [G] serve the song.
Which brings me to point four.
[E] Know your musical [G] role.
Like I said when playing
music you're serving a higher purpose.
Now calm down I'm not about to get
[C#m] religious on you.
The higher purpose is the song.
[G] Now this is why a guy like
Ringo Starr is one of the [E] greatest musicians of all time.
His drumming
always fit those Beatles songs perfectly.
A song that come [C#] together might not have
the most intricate drum part [Am] but can you [Em] imagine how it would have sounded if
somebody was [Am] shredding drums all over top of it.
The best [F#] musicians always put
the [E] greater musical good over their own ego.
[Em] You may want to show off your chops
but sometimes [Am] if you're playing folk music you [F#] just got to strum open chords.
So how can we [A] think about this practically?
Think about what [C#] your
purpose is in a musical setting.
[E] If I'm playing in a blues rock trio I might
fill up a lot of musical space like this. _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ [E] I'm trying to fill up a lot of sonic
space because I'm taking on the role of a lead [B] player as well as a rhythm player.
If I'm in a [G] band where there's a guitar player strumming open chords I might try
to do something that complements that.
Maybe play some arpeggios higher up the
neck.
And say there's a piano already filling that role well I might want to
do something like this.
Because if somebody else is already filling that
musical [E] role what's the point in doing the same thing?
The [F] greater idea is to
always be thinking what can I [G] be playing now that best serves the song.
[Am] Okay last
and not least bend intonation.
A very obvious way to identify yourself [E] as a
quality guitar player is to make sure all your bends are in tune.
[Bm] If you're
bending those notes too [C#] sharp or too flat it's gonna sound pretty abrasive.
You can cheat a little bit by adding some vibrato.
[E] This makes your tonal
center slightly ambiguous so you can get away with me a little bit out of tune.
But I would also [C#] encourage you to get those bends perfectly in tune regardless
of vibrato.
You can do that [F#] by using some bending exercises.
[E] Here's one I like
you've got a major scale on one string.
_ _ _ I'm gonna take every note and practice
bending it up to the next scale tone. _ _ _ _ _ _
[C#] There's countless variations on this you
can use different strings, different keys, [Am] whatever.
But use your ear and try to
[G#m] make sure that it sounds right.
[F#m] You could also practice some unison bending
exercises like this.
[D] _ _ [B] _ _ [Dm] [F#m] And just like the last exercise there's lots of ways to
[F#] change that up.
Alright that's it for today I hope you found this information
useful.
To let me know you've watched this far why don't you leave me a
comment telling me what aspect of your favorite [G] guitar player style do you
[D#] really enjoy.
I'm SamuraiGuitarist and I want to give a [E] massive shout out to
everybody who supports me on Patreon.
It's because of you the videos like
these are [A] possible.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you again soon. Bye!