I wake up this morning, Blues on the side of my bed
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12bar.de - the free Blues guitar tutorial I wake up this morning, Blues on the side of my bed |
"I thought it would be in a key, and it would have a tempo - I didn't realize the the detail was important. [...] And that's what I learnt very quickly with him."
- EC about playing with Sonny Boy williamson, interview by P. Guralnick [1]"I am very limited in my technique, really, so what matters in my playing is the simplicity of it and that it gets to the point. Rather than playing around everything. (...) It's not what is said but how it's said. Not how much is said, but the way it's said."
- A conversation with Eric Clapton (1990) by P. Guralnick [1]
To play Blues guitar solos, you need some more or less Blues specific guitar techniques like string bending, slides and vibrato. Hammer-ons, pull-offs and other techniques are also quite useful.
When you play Blues guitar, especially electric guitar, you have to leave the "classical" way of playing your guitar. Classical and flamenco guitar players play a lot of barre chords even while soloing. They play acoustic nylon string guitars with wide fretboards, there is much space between the strings. They usually don't bend a string very much, and they use mostly only one kind of vibrato, moving the finger parallel to the fretboard. So the classical way, where the thumb stays in the middle of the neck backside, is the best solution for them.
If you play Blues on steel string guitars, things are different. The fretboard is narrower, there is not much space between the strings. Intense vibrato and full-tone bendings can't be played with a fixed thumb on the backside of the neck. You need your thumb as a kind of counterbalance if you bend the string. So don't worry if a "guitar expert" is telling you that you play a wrong technique. Have you ever seen Jeff Healey? He even doesn't need a guitar strap! And he definitely can play guitar...
This is an essential Blues technique, it can make a short solo ("fill") with only one note (just listen to BB King, "the kind of vibrato you would die for" in the words of EC ). Vibrato means that the pitch (not the volume) of a note is slightly changed to a higher pitch and then back to its original pitch (with a classical vibrato even slightly below the original pitch) by changing the tension of the string. There are different methods to get a vibrato. Pick a note, pressed with your index finger (at first, later try your other fingers) and then:
Note that the vibrato must be in time with the music. If you have some routine with bending and vibrato, than go to the master class: bend the string and than put a wrist vibrato on it. It's not easy, but you can practice it when driving a car: Hold the steering-wheel in a normal way, lift up all fingers except the thumb and the index finger. Now turn the wrist back and forth and listen to some good Blues music... (don't crash).
If you like to put some vibrato on open strings: press and release the string at the headstock of your guitar, just before the tuning pegs.
This is "the" technique for Blues guitar, especially for electric Blues guitar. String bending means that you bend the string up (G-B-E) or down (bass strings) to get another tone pitch (for those who play the guitar upside down it's the opposite direction...). It's something a piano or most other instruments can't do. There are different stories (more or less true) how it became a guitar technique.
For example, B.B. King tried to get the sound of the slide guitar players from the Mississippi Delta.
There are quarter tone, half tone, full tone, etc. bendings and bendings "between". The problem is to get the right tone pitch, otherwise it sounds like you hit the tail of a cat. Let's start with the A-scale (5th fret). Press down the B-string at the 5th fret with your index finger and pick it. Use the thumb on top of the neck as an anchor, forget the classic guitar school (no flames please). Then strike the G-string pressed down at the 7th fret with your ring finger and bend it slowly up until you reach the tone of the B-string. This a full-tone bend (a full-tone = 2 frets). Bend the string with a small turn of your hand and support the bending finger with the other fingers - it's easier. If you start with this, two things may help you make it easier: use extra light gauge (0,08", e.g. super slinky) strings and play around the 12th fret. Use your fingers or the palm of your picking hand to mute unwanted strings.
A I----------I I--5-------I I----7b(9)-I I----------I I----------I I----------I
Audio example (MP3): Full-tone bending
With this method you can control your bending, you can also do a half-tone bend (strike the B-string pressed down at the 4th fret and bend the G-string at the 7th fret).
A typical Blues bend is a quarter tone (small) bend. You bend the
string and reach the tone "between the frets". A bend into a blue
note as done in the following example sounds also great and is played very
often in Blues music.
The "standard Blues lick" in tab (key A):
I-----------------I I-----------------I I--7b(8)rb7p5-----I I-------------7~~-I I-----------------I I-----------------I
You play a half note bend into a blue note, then release the bend, pull off and close it with a vibrato on the root note. You need to pick only the first and the last note.
If you combine bend and release bend and repeat it, it will generate a vibrato, usually a slow, intense vibrato.
The second way to get another tone without picking the string is a slide. You press down the string, pick a tone an then move your finger up or down while still pressing the string down. Don't use too large steps, one or two frets are enough. Sliding into a tone picked before on another string sounds very good.
Example:
I-5--------I I---/10----I I----------I I----------I I----------I I----------I
pick for example the open G-string and then press down the string at the 1st fret without picking it twice. You have to press down fast and powerful, then you get a tone without picking! The problem is to get the same volume and sound as the picked string.
H I-----0---0-I B I-------3---I G I-0h1-------I D I-----------I A I-----------I E I-----------I
Audio example (MP3): Hammer-on
In this example the hammer-on changes from the minor to the major scale in the key of E. (You get also get a nice sound if you bend a little bit the note (3) on the B string, which belongs to the E7 chord.)
Video example: snippet with hammer-on and vibrato from Nobody Knows You
If you pick for example the G-string at the 1st fret and then move up your finger quickly, you get the tone of the open string. It works better if you move your your finger slightly downwards.
Combining hammer-on and pull-off with the same pair of notes will get a
triller. You can use these techniques also for a faster
playing, you can even play ("legato") without your right hand (sorry,
lefthanders...).
But - that's no more Blues.
(Also called snapping) Well known from bass players and funk music, this technique is also used in Blues guitar, especially in acoustic Blues guitar. Listen to John Lee Hooker! Just lift up the string (best done with thumb or thumb/index finger, but also a pick works) and let it slap upon the fretboard. You get a very percussive sound.
EC Examples from Unplugged:
Intro of "Hey, Hey"
Ending of "Malted Milk".
This is important for both rhythm and solo guitar. If you let all picked strings ring, the sound can be horrible. With muting you can determine the length of a note (for solo guitar) and change the sound (for rhythm guitar). If you play electric guitar, this technique is especially important: due to feedback with the amp the strings can ring even without being picked. (Never put your guitar with full volume next to an amp and leave it alone - you can kill it!) There are several ways to mute a string:
If you play the notes of a chord one note at a time you get an "arpeggio" (arp). When you start soloing and jamming around, arpeggios have two advantages: they sound good (just play the I-IV-V Blues progression as arps) and chord notes are easier to learn than scales. Using only the notes of a chord is a sure method to start improvisation.
If you play an arpeggio very hard and mute the strings, you get a strong percussive sound. Works especially good with bar-chords.
Let's combine the techniques and play the intro of Steppin' Out, one of my personal EC favourite (as done on the "Beano"-record):
I----------------------------------------------I I----------------------------------------------I I----3---3-5p3h5br-p3h5p3----------------------I I-/5---5------------------5p3h5-5---3---3-5-5\-I I---------------------------------5---5--------I I----------------------------------------------I
It's played in G Blues scale, first fingering pattern. You begin with sliding into the 5th fret of the D-string (root note G!), play with hammer-ons and pull-offs until you reach the 5br. Here you bend the string and release the bend immediately. The following run can also be played with many hammer-ons and pull-offs. It end with a slide down, again from the foot note G.
Video Example: A first test combining the techniques above.
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Some closer looks at EC's guitar playing...
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Obviously you don't find EC's style in a classical guitar textbook. Look at the pictures to see some examples of his technique: playing with mostly straight fingers, using the thumb on the neck as an anchor for string bending and playing almost without the use of his pinky (except chord and slide playing), like many of the self taught guitar players from that era. A short summary: Besides his very exact rhythm feeling there are two techniques he plays very effective: string bending and vibrato. Even when bending until the strings nearly rip up he can hold the tone and put a clean vibrato on it. He uses different kinds of vibrato, a fast one created by the index or ring finger and turning the wrist (like B.B. King), a slow one by bending the string up and down in different ways. He often plays hammer-ons and pull-offs, but he doesn't use tapping or legato playing. His right hand mostly uses a pick when playing electric guitar, although there are songs (i.e. reconsider baby, sinners prayer and most acoustics) where he plays fingerstyle (for example on "unplugged"). |
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