Guitar for Beginners

Written by flux

Well, I got some nice feedback to my drums article in the previous issue, so I thought it would be nice to do the same about guitars. Here it is. This time I will be talking about several things:

1. What a guitar is;
2. how it is played in real life, it's limitations;
3. how to do it in a tracker.

If you feel you are quite experienced with guitars and tracking guitar and none of the topics above are interesting to you, feel free to skip the article and pass to the next one.

In many tracked songs people use guitars. It especially goes for 'live' music, like metal, rock, jazz and such, so if you are a techno-maniac, you'll hardly find anything interesting here. Very often guitars in modules don't sound too realistic and you can easily distinguish a real guitar and a tracked one. I hope your guitars will sound better after you read this text.

One more thing I'd like to say before I start the article itself is that you can do really many different things with guitars and only the most common ones are included in the article. So if you don't see your favourite trick here or see some kind of mistake or something, don't start running and jumping around your computer in delight, screaming "Yeah-yeah! I've found a mistake!". If I tried to explain everything you can do with a guitar it would take really a lot of space and time, both yours and mine.

Well, let's get to the topic.

1. And what is a guitar?

A guitar is originally a wooden string instrument, originally Spanish, originally played by fingers. Nowadays there are really many kinds of guitars. Most common are acoustic guitars, electric guitars and bass guitars.

Acoustic

The first one is an instrument with a wooden (or sometimes plastic or half-plastic) top, sides and bottom and an empty space inside. A wooden neck, often wider than on electric guitars and often covered by some kind of wood, different from neck material, for example mahogany or rosewood, which changes the sound. Ususally acoustics have 19 to 22 frets on the neck. Acoustic guitars can have metal and nylon strings installed. Nylon is mostly used in classical music and sounds not as clean and sharp as metal. Nylon itself is softer and more flexible, and so is the sound.

Metal strings are different as well, their thickness, which is measured by the thickness of the first (the thinnest) string, varies from 0.13 (well, the thickest I've seen in my life) to 0.07 (the thinnest I've had a chance to play with). The thicker your string is, the more solid sound you get, and the thinner the strings the easier it gets to play fast leads.

One more thing that can be different in acoustic guitars is the depth of the case. It makes the sound different as well. The deeper the case is, the richer is the sound you get. Acoustics usually have 6, 7 or 12 strings. The most common ones are with 6 and 12 strings. A 12-string guitar is actually a 6-string one with an additional first (the thinnest) string installed very close to all the others. It sounds much richer than 6-string, but it's not good for playing solos, because it's much harder to press two strings instead of one and therefore harder to play fast leads. Ususally 6- and 12-string guitars are tuned in the manner "E-A-D-G-B-e" (from the top), but there are really many alternative tunings, like the Irish one, for example. Acoustic guitars are played in many different ways, you can play it solely by fingers (i.e flamenco), you can play using pick. Each one gives a special sound. OK, let's move on to the next one.

Electric

Electric guitars are solid body instruments with pickups (single or hambacker ones) and a neck, just like acoustics, but usually not that wide. Electric guitar necks usually have 22 to 26 frets. The Sound of an electric guitar depends on the materials of body, neck, type of pickups, quality of wiring, strings thickness... and effect processors. You can actually make your guitar sound any way you like with all the modern effect processors. You can even make it sound like acoustic. But there are some differences from acoustic guitars as well. First, you can't use nylon, because magnetic pickups just don't get nylon vibrations. I've hardly remember seeing electric guitar with more than 6 strings (but I've seen less, some use just 4 strings, like Max Cavalera, ex-Sepultura). You can make some sounds out of pickups and using pickups, which can't be made on acoustic because it just doesn't have pickups. Ususally classic ways of playing are not used on electric, unless it is used instead of acoustic, which happens sometimes. Often electric guitars have bending lever, which is absent on acoustic guitars.

One more thing to say, there are half-acoustic guitars. Those ones look like acoustics, sound like them, when unplugged or used without effects, but have built-in pickups and line out, so it can be used as an electric one with all the effects you want. Those guitars are mostly used by non classic musicians while recording acoustic guitar parts. Professional musicians hardly ever record a real acoustic through a mic, unless it's classic or flamenco.

Bass

And the bass. It's a guitar as well and I've decided to put it in one article with acoustics and electrics. Standard bass has 4 strings, though there are 5-, 6- and even 8-string (Joey DeMaio form Manowar had one) basses. Basses have solid bodies as well, but their neck is longer than the guitar one, their frets are wider and the distance between the strings is bigger. Bass has pickups as well. Bass strings are much thicker than guitar ones. Basses can be fretless, such basses sound 'floating'. Usually bass players don't use much effects, but some use. Most popular are overdrive, wah and distortion.

There are also acoustic and half-acoustic bass guitars, which look like ususal acoustics, but with four bass strings and longer fret.

2. How are they played in real life? What are the limitations?

We'll talk about basses and guitars separately, but we won't separate acoustics from electros this time.

Guitars

Guitars can be played in really many different ways. The classical guitar is played just with fingers, as well as flamenco and other folk techniques, but guitars in rock, metal and jazz are mostly played with a pick. So strings are plucked and they vibrate while they sound. The sound can't last forever (well, clean guitar sound). It fades, the speed of the process depends on several things - string thickness, guitar wood, strength of your picking and string thickness and material. If you are playing with a effect processor, you can make the guitar last forever, but actually, it is rarely done, so take care about fades in your guitar part of the module. Guitar can play solos, rhythm and slow passes.

One more limitation is that it's impossible to make more than 6 notes sound at one time. Another limitation related to this one is that you can't make sound two different notes on one string. So that you know, how neck looks and how notes are situated, here is a small diagram:

     XII    XI    X     IX   VIII  VII    VI    V     IV   III    II    I
    --E--|--D#-|--D--|--C#-|--C--|--B--|--A#-|--A--|--G#-|--G--|--F#-|--F--|
    --A--|--G#-|--G--|--F#-|--F--|--E--|--D#-|--D--|--C#-|--C--|--B--|--A#-|
    --D--|--C#-|--C--|--B--|--A#-|--A--|--G#-|--G--|--F#-|--F--|--E--|--D#-|
    --g--|--f#-|--f--|--e--|--D#-|--D--|--C#-|--C--|--B--|--A#-|--A--|--G#-|
    --b--|--a#-|--a--|--g#-|--g--|--f#-|--f--|--e--|--D#-|--D--|--C#-|--C--|
    --e--|--d#-|--d--|--c#-|--c--|--b--|--a#-|--a--|--g#-|--g--|--f#-|--f--|

Note: It's a 'usual' tuning! Most used by musicians nowadays.

After XII fret sequence goes on. So, to continue the limitations theme, if I try I can at one time hold my fingers on the 1st and the 6th fret on my Gibson Xplorer. So I can play F and D# at once. Though I won't reach the 7th fret to play F and E, I can press the 3rd string on the 2nd fret and get the very same E. So, looking at this diagram you can see what is possible to play and what is not. Oh, yeah, I can reach 5 frets far not only for the next string, but for any I want. Usually guitarists only reach out not more than 4 frets to feel comfortable and play fast. So, it's one more thing to care about. Playing solos, guitarists do not just pick one note after another. Very many slides, vibratos, hammer ons and offs, bends, etc. are used. So you have to remember about those to make your guitar sound real.

You can also make some noise and weird sounds using guitar pickups. Like when you put your distorted guitar close to the speaker it produces quite a widely used noise. By tapping with a pick on a string, making it touch the pickup, you get another high tone sound. Sliding the pick over upper strings gives one more kind of commonly used guitar noise.

Basses

Basses are played in many ways as well. You can just play a bass by your fingers, which sounds quite soft and most widely used. You can play it using a pick. This way is usually used in Rock/metal music. And sure you can use a slap technique, which I like most. Bass strings are tuned exactly like the four thickest (upper) strings of a usual guitar. Bass frets are wider, so if I try, I can reach three frets away, i.e. the 1st and the 4th. Bass is usually played by one note at a time, but sometimes, especially in metal and guitar hardcore, bass is played by so called 'power chords', like "E-B-e". Or just "E-B". It gives more bass to the song and sounds more 'powerful'. Chords are mostly played with a pick, though The Mighty Steve Harris from The Iron maiden plays everything with his fingers. If overdrive or distortion is used on bass, it can be played just as a muted guitar and even replace the rhythm guitar (Manowar do it. Joey DeMaio is the best!).

Slap technique is as complicated as good sounding. When slapping, upper two strings are hit( slap) by the players thumb and the rest are plucked by rest of the fingers. Playing slap you can make muted sounds, putting your hand on the string and hitting or plucking it, you can also tap the string with your hand at 'high' frets (like 15th or 19th), which are also widely used in slapping. While slapping some notes, bass players often play in a usual finger manner as well. Just listen to bands like Red Hot Chilly Peppers and Primus to hear how slapped and tapped bass really sounds.

Bass players, just like guitarists, use a lot of sliding, bending and vibrato. You'll hardly hear a live bass guitarist play one note through the whole song. Bass players are creative. They vary their parts a lot.

3. And how the hell I use all that in my tracking?

This time we will talk about guitars and basses separately again.

Guitars

We will have three parts in our guitar tracking section:

a) Rhythm Playing

Rhythm can be acoustic or clean sound and the only way to do it is sample the whole thing. Absolutely no way to imitate this one well enough.

Don't ever insert 'raw', unprocessed guitar sound into your module. Especially if you sample acoustic through the mic. Use some EQ, NoiseGate, light distorion, reverb - anything, just don't let sound be 'homemade'. Play around with SoundForge or CoolEdit.

You can have 'metal' rhythm, the one based on distorted guitar power chords and muted guitar sounds. The best way is of course to sample the whole riff and put it into your module. Another way is to make a multisample instrument with a powerchord and muted guitar sampled on every fret. And the worst way is to have one sample for muted and one for open and play it with different speed. This one really sucks.

If using multisample or one sample, you should use offsets on open chords and muted notes. Guitarist plays it, moving pick up and down, so the sound pick produces, when it goes up is different from the one it makes going down. Use something like O05 or O10, depending on the sample lenght, to make sound more realistic. And never use the same volume throught the whole part. When the pick goes up, the sound is not as loud as when the pick goes down.

b) Solos

The hardest thing in making a guitar are solos. And again, the best way is to sample the whole solo, if it's possible. It will sound much better than anything you can track.

The next way is to sample, say, every string and make a multisample instrument. And another way is to use one sample. It won't be too realistic, but if your solo doesn't leave the 'boundaries' of the sampled strign too much it will sound good enough, though no guitarist ever plays on one string.

If you use not a whole sampled part, you should take care of solo realism. Use slides,

                              note|volume|effect

                              | C-5............ |
                              | E-5.........G20 |
                              | ............... |

bends,

                              | C-5............ |
                              | E-5.........G20 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | E-6............ |

vibrato,

                              | C-5............ |
                              | E-5.........G20 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | E-6............ |
                              | ............H92 |
                              | ............H93 |
                              | ............H94 |

volume decays,

                              | C-5............ |
                              | E-5.........G20 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | E-6............ |
                              | ............H92 |
                              | ............H93 |
                              | ............H94 |
                              | ......D1....... |
                              | ......D0....... |
                              | ......D0....... |
                              | ......D0....E01 |
                              | ......D0....E00 |
                              | ===............ |

and offsets.

                              | C-5............ |
                              | E-5.........G20 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | E-6.........O03 |
                              | ............H92 |
                              | ............H93 |
                              | ............H94 |
                              | ......D1....... |
                              | ......D0....... |
                              | ......D0....... |
                              | ......D0....E01 |
                              | ......D0....E00 |
                              | ===............ |

Also take care of volumes.

                              | C-5...48....... |
                              | E-5...64....G20 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | ............F03 |
                              | E-6...36....... |
                              | ............H92 |
                              | ............H93 |
                              | ............H94 |
                              | ......D1....... |
                              | ......D0....... |
                              | ......D0....... |
                              | ......D0....E01 |
                              | ......D0....E00 |
                              | ===............ |

Remember all the limitations and think how you would play if you were a guitarist.

c) Slow passes

This one is the easiest. Usually played on acoustics or clean sound. There is no need to sample the whole thing, unless it's something complicated and just can't be done by tracking.

The best way to do it is to have a multi-sample guitar instrument, with every string sampled. You can even do it with one sample, though it won't sound that good.

In this case you have to remember that only 6 notes can sound at once, that guitarist has only 5 fingers or even just one pick on his right hand. And don't forget about our neck diagram and how far guitarist can reach out.

Again, don't forget about volume and offsets. But don't do too much slides, bends and vibrato. Think as you were playing. It's not that easy to bend or vibrate while pressing the whole chord.

You can do this in multiple channels, putting each string on separate channel or do everything in one channel, but setting some options in Volume Envelope section of Impulse Tracker instrument screen. In "Duplicate check Type & Action" choose "Sample" and "note off" and set a proper volume envelope.

All right, seems we are done with guitars. Let's move on to bass.

Bass

Ok, bass is one of the main parts of most songs. So we have to make it sound good.

For bass you can use just one sample. Usually people do so. But if you want your bassline to be interesting to listen to, try using several samples, not just one bass sampled octave higher, but a different bass sample. Your bass sample should be clean and preferably 16bit 44Khz, because if the bass sample is bad, the whole song sucks. Even if the song itself is good. Try to make the bass stand out of the music, but don't let it go very high and shut up the rest of the instruments. Pseudosurround and some processing with EQ do exactly what you want. Be careful with the bass volume. If you don't hear the bass, you don't feel the song with your stomach and if it's too loud, it can make listener lower the general volume and he won't hear other instruments at all.

One of my favourite things in tracking is writing basslines. I like bass a lot. To make a good bassline, just think like a bass player. Try to imagine how you would play the bass.

First of all, don't forget about volumes. Bass players are alive and they make some notes sound louder and others softer. And don't forget about offsets. Yes, again. Volume and offsets are really useful in tracking.

                              | C-5............ |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | E-5...32....... |
                              | ............... |
                              | C-6.........O07 |
                              | ............... |
                              | C-5...48....O12 |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | B-5............ |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |

Also use slides,

                              | A#5...32....... |
                              | C-5.........G20 |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | E-5...32....... |
                              | ............... |
                              | C-6.........O07 |
                              | ............... |
                              | C-5...48....O12 |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | B-5............ |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............E01 |
                              | ............E01 |

breaks and volumes,

                              | A#5...32....... |
                              | C-5.........G20 |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | ......D3....... |
                              | E-5...32....... |
                              | ......05....... |
                              | C-6.........O07 |
                              | ............... |
                              | C-5...48....O12 |
                              | ......05....... |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | B-5............ |
                              | ............... |
                              | ......D2....E02 |
                              | ......D0....E03 |

and some light vibrato.

                              | A#5...32....... |
                              | C-5.........G20 |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............H91 |
                              | ......D3....H92 |
                              | E-5...32....... |
                              | ......05....... |
                              | C-6.........O07 |
                              | ............... |
                              | C-5...48....O12 |
                              | ......05....... |
                              | ............... |
                              | ............... |
                              | B-5............ |
                              | ............H91 |
                              | ......D2....E02 |
                              | ......D0....E03 |

And sure vary your bassline. Make different parts in pattern endings, at breaks, in solos, etc. Be creative.

Well, looks like all I wanted to tell you about guitars. If you have any further questions or just see some kind of mistake here, contact me at flux@mail.ru. All mail is answered.

I hope this little article helps you somehow with your tracking.

See ya, folks.

flux/t-rex