Standard Tuning / My Tuning / Straight Bar Chords / Finger Position 2 / Finger Position 3 / Finger Position 4 / Hammer-ons
Playing Guitar....My Way
As a child I was
inspired by music and taught myself to play a variety of instruments, including
drums, bass, lead and rhythm guitar (electric and acoustic) and keyboards. I
never had any formal instruction and I can't read or write a note of music.
I don't know an 'A' from a 'B' to a 'Z'. I play what's in my heart, purely
by intuition. I could never follow sheet music. It's too rigid and I am
a free spirit by nature, especially when I play.
I started playing guitar at age 13. My birthday gift that year was a Japanese
knockoff of a Fender Strat and a small amplifier. It was no accident the
amplifier was tiny. No doubt my parents were concerned about music volume,
especially with someone who was just learning how to play. A year later
I bought a much bigger and more powerful amplifier and started playing bass,
which could not only penetrate solid concrete, but if loud enough, shatter
it as well!
I
started playing bass guitar before advancing to rock guitar. My early bass
playing days helped teach me the basics of scale and simple note relationships.
I rarely played more than one string at a time, usually the 6th string with
the bass cranked up on the amp. It was just enough bass to rattle the neighbor's
walls and drive my family crazy!
By age 15, I started playing rock guitar after learning a couple
of key finger positions and relationships (as described in detail below).
I have been playing this way ever since and have greatly sharpened my skills
in both rhythm and lead guitar, particularly in fingering techniques, string
bending and various guitar effects. I have never played in a band, except
of course a few casual (drunken) jamm sessions with my cousins and a small
New Years Eve bash at a local pub. I prefer instead, to put on a set of
headphones, program my favorite artists on CD or computer and play along.
I enjoy all kinds of music, but enjoy rock most of all. My taste in music
spans mostly from the late sixties to the early nineties. Strangely, I have
a strong emotional connection to Billie Holiday and the 1940's big-band
era. I sometimes wonder if the connection I have to that era comes from
a past life that ended during or shortly after WW2.
I can't get into the current music scene at all. I don't like rap,
hip hop and most of the current pop music, which seems very shallow and
repetitive (thanks in part to drum machines), compared to the vast innovations
in music that took place during the 1970's and 80's. Some of the bands that
have influenced me the most are; The Doobie Brothers, Boston, Fleetwood
Mac, Bryan Adams, The Fixx, Pink Floyd, Journey, Tom Petty, Heart, Pat Benatar
and The Eagles. I regularly play along with some of the greatest
guitarists of all time; Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Lindsey Buckingham,
Joe Satriani, Neal Schon, Eric Johnson, David Gilmour and Stevie Ray Vaughan
to name just a few. Playing with the greats teaches you a lot and forces
you to play well, or at least well enough to blend in. Thanks to years of
practice, I can now harmonize with solo guitar leads and play along as another
unofficial member of the band.
I pipe everything through a professional mixer board and listen on headphones
for that pure stereo sound. Years ago I sold off all my noisy effects pedals
and bought a Boss GT-6 guitar effects processor, arguably one of the best
ever made. 25+ years ago, I retired my first guitar and replaced it with
my guitar of choice, a Yamaha SBG500, popularized by Carlos
Santana during the 1970's. The guitar is beautifully crafted and
has the warm rich sound of a vintage classic. I customized the guitar and
added two additional switches many years ago for selecting between each
of the dual-coil Humbucker pickups. A few years later, I purchased a B.C.
Rich Bronze Series (Warlock) guitar at a pawn shop, which for the
price, has the quality, sound and feel of a high-end guitar.
When my daughter expressed her interest in learning how to play guitar,
I responded with an important question... does she want to learn the traditional
way using the traditional tuning method?...or does she want to learn
my way? I explained to her that I tune my guitar differently than the
norm, but I still get all of the same chords - just by using different finger
positions. I also explained that if she learned how to play my way, she
would never be able to pick up someone else's guitar and start playing without
first re-tuning as described below, then re-tuning it back as a courtesy.
Although, I must admit I enjoy watching a friend pickup his guitar after
I discreetly re-tuned it my way, ready to rock out, only to get completely
tripped up, confused and flustered (especially after he's had a few too
many beers). The look of confusion is priceless and is usually followed
by "What the FUC*&^%$#@K!!"
How
I play guitar - the mystery revealed !
First, we begin by
looking at the standard tuning approach:
Standard
Tuning
The standard tuning
is E B G D A E played open from the 1st string to the 6th string. Now
let's look at my tuning arrangement:
My
Tuning
I tune the strings
D G D G D G played open from the 1st string to the 6th string. Unlike
the standard method, which requires complex finger positions and extreme finger
dexterity, my method requires only two basic finger position relationships:
Straight
Bar Chords / Power Chords
The first finger position
is a simple straight bar chord played by pressing down on the first four strings
as shown in orange and green above. Using the same straight finger position
I can play at every fret position on the neck for major and minor power chords,
usually skipping a fret in between for whole note changes. I could also press
on the 5th and 6th string in the same lineup but rarely do as I have more
than enough bass from the 4th string. In other words, playing an open G on
my 4th string is equivalent to playing the 3rd fret on the 6th string using
the standard method - I literally have the tonal range of almost 6 strings
compressed into the first four! Power chords are the main rock chords and
I play them by using either my index (pointer) finger or a combination of
my ring finger placed on strings 1 and 2, and my middle finger placed on strings
3 and 4. Power chords work most of the time, but you need the half notes to
bridge in between the whole notes, that's where finger arrangement 2 comes
in:
Finger
Position 2 For Half Notes
Finger position 2 requires placing
the index finger on string 3 (as shown in orange) while simultaneously pressing
the 4th string with the middle finger and the 2nd string with the ring finger
(orange dots). While continuing to press the 2nd and 4th strings, I may alternately
move my index finger up to the 1st string on the same fret (green dot) and
play only the 1st and 2nd string. The combination of the straight bar chords
and finger position 2 allows me to play virtually anything. I have two other
finger positions to add more complex chords:
Finger
Position 3
Finger position 3
requires placing the index finger across strings 1 - 4 (as shown on 3rd fret
above) while simultaneously pressing the 1st and 2nd string with the pinkie
finger (as shown on the 6th fret above) maintaining a 2-fret spacing relationship.
This relationship gives me a new range of chords common with blues and classical
guitar. As a final variation, I added finger position 4 to the mix:
Finger
Position 4
I play a lot of lead guitar mixed with rhythm. One of the most common finger patterns for me during lead solos is a super fast hammer-on/trill technique, alternating fingers between two whole note frets (one fret space separation) as shown below:
Hammer-ons / Trills
That's about it as far as finger positions and tuning go. Of course, how you do it is not as important as how you sound doing it. I'm inspired by legendary guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, who was also a self-taught musician. Hendrix, who was left-handed, played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster guitar turned upside down and re-strung to suit him. My alternate playing technique may be somewhat intriguing to fellow guitarists who are amazed that I can play a completely different way. I sometimes have to correct them when they say I play "out of tune." For the record, I don't play out of tune, I tune differently. Out of tune implies that I am off-key with the music.
If any guitarists out there would like to shed more light on this subject or if you would like to share your own unique playing technique, please send me an email. I would love to hear from you!
Steve
Lantz