10 things you gotta do to play like...YOU

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

pick up the guitar. any guitar.

Play it.

[stamplicker]

now now Senior Fingers, I think Jeeps was just farting around

[Fumblyfingers]

He needs to get on the pooper then.....with guitar of course.

[Petie]

This is such a great question! I guess I have a bit of a luxury in that I have an instructional column in a magazine here in Oz so every month I get to tell people how to play like me whether they want to or not, hehe. However, if I were to choose 10 things, not restricted to pure musical examples, they would be:

 

1. Play it like you say it. Sometimes one might speak in a low, sexy Barry White voice, like "Heeeeeeeeey baby how YOU doin'" Other times, it's more like 'ohmygodyoutotallywon'tbelieveitIjustsawagiganticspidereatingachicken" Both are valid forms of communication but you don't wanna be saying "heybabyhowyoudoinletsgobacktomyvanbythewayyougotrealprettyeyes" when "Heeeeeeeeeey baby" would do.

 

2. Play the pick as much as you play the guitar. Experiment with different pick types and grips, and with picking in different areas of the string. Pinch harmonics, percussive clacks, faux-wah sounds, imitation 12-string textures and grinding metal sludge are all yours for the taking.

 

3. Put the pick down. After you've mastered the pick, chuck it into the audience, Yngwie-style, and learn to pick with your fingers. A frequent pick-misplacer in my younger days, I learned to pick with my fingers quite early and developed my own voice that way, much sooner than I developed my 'pick' voice.

 

4. Train your ear by playing along with the TV. Whether it's picking out the melody to the Flintstones, adding chords to the Seinfeld closing credits or breaking out of a rut with the Conan O'Brien theme, this is a great way of learning intervals, melody construction, and transcribing.

 

5. Practice in front of a mirror. No, not guitar hero poses, Johnny Bravo. Watching your hands in a mirror is a great way of checking if your vibrato is smooth and even: if it looks right, it will sound right. Mirrors also help to make the transition from staring at the fretboard to looking out into the audience by reducing reliance on looking directly down at the guitar.

 

6. Steal from singers. If you're just starting out on this technique, Ozzy's phrasing is easy to replicate on guitar, and the way he sings behind the beat and slides between notes is very useful when applied to guitar melodies. After you've done that, try to replicate the vibrato of your favourite singers. Extra points if you can nail that Alanis Morissette squealy thing at the end of each phrase.

 

7. Play with the band, not just at the same time as them. This sounds simple but it can take a while to learn. Lock in with the kick drum, the high hat, the bass player, whatever you need to do to make sure you're fully aware of the song and your place within it. When I was younger, I found this kind of advice to be boring - why should I focus on the drums when I'm enjoying the sound of a raging stack? But it only takes one good rehearsal or gig to realise that stuff like this makes you sound better.

 

8. Play your song with PRIDE (Phrasing, Rhythm, Introduction, Dynamics and Endings). This is a lesson my Aunty Barbi, a music teacher, instills in all her students and it's great advice whether you play guitar, violin, piano or whatever. They're all obvious, and yet it's easy to forget one or even all of them in the heat of the moment. Catch the audience's attention and imagination with the introduction, leave them with a clear sense of finality at the end, and make sure you do everything to keep them there in between.

 

9. Use gadgets as much as you like, but don't NEED to use them. It's all well and good to chain together a dozen pedals and try to replicate the sound of a unicorn belching through a megaphone into the third circle of hell, but a truly well-rounded player should be able to conjur up the same vibe (even though the sound itself might only be attainable through a few feet of transistors) with just their fingers.

 

10. Do. Or do not. There is no try. This immortal advice comes from Yoda, and whether you're a whiny little b***h like Luke Skywalker or a seasoned guitar vetaran like Steve Lukather, Yoda's message is clear, even though his syntax may be a little shaky. If you tell yourself that you can't play something, you're probably right. If you tell yourself you can play it, you're probably right about that too. Check out the book 'The Inner Game Of Music' by Timothy Gallwey and Barry Green for advice on how to locate that little voice inside you that says "I can't," roll him up into a carpet, and throw him into the river.

 

[Billster]

This is such a great question! I guess I have a bit of a luxury in that I have an instructional column in a magazine here in Oz so every month I get to tell people how to play like me whether they want to or not, hehe. However, if I were to choose 10 things, not restricted to pure musical examples, they would be:

 

1. Play it like you say it. Sometimes one might speak in a low, sexy Barry White voice, like "Heeeeeeeeey baby how YOU doin'" Other times, it's more like 'ohmygodyoutotallywon'tbelieveitIjustsawagiganticspidereatingachicken" Both are valid forms of communication but you don't wanna be saying "heybabyhowyoudoinletsgobacktomyvanbythewayyougotrealprettyeyes" when "Heeeeeeeeeey baby" would do.

 

2. Play the pick as much as you play the guitar. Experiment with different pick types and grips, and with picking in different areas of the string. Pinch harmonics, percussive clacks, faux-wah sounds, imitation 12-string textures and grinding metal sludge are all yours for the taking.

 

3. Put the pick down. After you've mastered the pick, chuck it into the audience, Yngwie-style, and learn to pick with your fingers. A frequent pick-misplacer in my younger days, I learned to pick with my fingers quite early and developed my own voice that way, much sooner than I developed my 'pick' voice.

 

4. Train your ear by playing along with the TV. Whether it's picking out the melody to the Flintstones, adding chords to the Seinfeld closing credits or breaking out of a rut with the Conan O'Brien theme, this is a great way of learning intervals, melody construction, and transcribing.

 

5. Practice in front of a mirror. No, not guitar hero poses, Johnny Bravo. Watching your hands in a mirror is a great way of checking if your vibrato is smooth and even: if it looks right, it will sound right. Mirrors also help to make the transition from staring at the fretboard to looking out into the audience by reducing reliance on looking directly down at the guitar.

 

6. Steal from singers. If you're just starting out on this technique, Ozzy's phrasing is easy to replicate on guitar, and the way he sings behind the beat and slides between notes is very useful when applied to guitar melodies. After you've done that, try to replicate the vibrato of your favourite singers. Extra points if you can nail that Alanis Morissette squealy thing at the end of each phrase.

 

7. Play with the band, not just at the same time as them. This sounds simple but it can take a while to learn. Lock in with the kick drum, the high hat, the bass player, whatever you need to do to make sure you're fully aware of the song and your place within it. When I was younger, I found this kind of advice to be boring - why should I focus on the drums when I'm enjoying the sound of a raging stack? But it only takes one good rehearsal or gig to realise that stuff like this makes you sound better.

 

8. Play your song with PRIDE (Phrasing, Rhythm, Introduction, Dynamics and Endings). This is a lesson my Aunty Barbi, a music teacher, instills in all her students and it's great advice whether you play guitar, violin, piano or whatever. They're all obvious, and yet it's easy to forget one or even all of them in the heat of the moment. Catch the audience's attention and imagination with the introduction, leave them with a clear sense of finality at the end, and make sure you do everything to keep them there in between.

 

9. Use gadgets as much as you like, but don't NEED to use them. It's all well and good to chain together a dozen pedals and try to replicate the sound of a unicorn belching through a megaphone into the third circle of hell, but a truly well-rounded player should be able to conjur up the same vibe (even though the sound itself might only be attainable through a few feet of transistors) with just their fingers.

 

10. Do. Or do not. There is no try. This immortal advice comes from Yoda, and whether you're a whiny little b***h like Luke Skywalker or a seasoned guitar vetaran like Steve Lukather, Yoda's message is clear, even though his syntax may be a little shaky. If you tell yourself that you can't play something, you're probably right. If you tell yourself you can play it, you're probably right about that too. Check out the book 'The Inner Game Of Music' by Timothy Gallwey and Barry Green for advice on how to locate that little voice inside you that says "I can't," roll him up into a carpet, and throw him into the river.

 

That's some pretty good ideas.

[p90jr]

Continues to be an interesting and cool thread.

 

In my opinion, it all boils down to two steps ultimately:

 

1) Learn how to play.

 

2) Learn how to think in an "original" way, about the instrument... and everything else.

 

Originality is nothing but judicious plagiarism.

- Voltaire

 

If we listed the most "original" guitarists we could think of we could find someone who could delineate where they stole this from and that from and that from... the thing is the sources wouldn't be obvious and commonplace. Look beyond the type of music you play for influences, and beyond the instrument you play. Hell, look beyond music altogether.

 

There was an article in GP about the "lack of distinctive tones" in modern rock music. There is a cookie-cutter mentality (from looks to gear to sounds) that is rampant these days, and the unprecedented availability of everything due to technology just seems to exasperate that whole thing.

 

There used to be mystery and interpretation involved in rock and roll. The Rolling Stones imagined Gene Autrey, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters as being something from hearing it. The New York Dolls perverted the Stones based on their imaginations and what it was all like. The Replacements then had their screwed up take on what they imagined the New York Dolls were like, being teens getting their hands on what they could by them. Now, every band is as media-saturated, no matter who they are, as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, both of whom always produced the most uninspired and directly slavish impersonators since there was so much material to document everything they did.

 

I'm not a fan of the new commercial-emo-pop-rock whatever you call it... and though I see more of it than I care to for the life of me I can't tell any of the bands apart: slicked down shaggy haircut - check. Skinny jeans and ammo belt - check. Les Paul studio with strap duct taped on and dual rectifier - Check. power chords strummed like an acoustic, then diddly-diddly single note breakdown - check. Boring - check...

[Larryz]

All I have to do is just pick up the guitar and play...and wah lah it sounds just like me...I don't need the crapper acoustics...but I do like the jokes so far...

[Petie]

Thanks Billster! I decided to use it as my column for the next issue of one of the mags I write for!

[soggybomb]

why the hell would anyone want to sound like me?

[trushack]

Thanks for the interest in my thread, folks! Lots of cool/funny responses.

 

So I guess if an article in some guitar magazine in some parallel universe featured a "X things you gotta do to play like Trushack" it would look something like this:

 

1) Switch up your pedals every once in a while - Sometimes I use a bunch of pedals, sometimes I use nothing but a cord, sometimes I only use a boost....re-arranging the junk on the floor (or eliminating it altogether) helps keep the ears fresh, IMO.

 

2) Let those open strings ring - In chording and single-note lines I always like to find an open string to hit and add a little dimension. Sometimes, if I'm not really paying attention, the open string is a note that sounds real sour, in which case I use the "jazz" excuse.

 

3) Make it sound like an organ - One of my favorite tricks for freshening up my approach is to fire up the neck pickup, roll a fair amount of treble off for a darker tone and run the signal through a compressor (usually an MXR Dyna Comp) and rotating speaker/Univibe sim (some light OD helps a bit too). Play way up high on the neck and using your fingers to pluck a few pentatonic lines (heavy on the lfat fifth) and you've got a very poor man's B3.

 

4) Get suspended - I love suspended chords...probably has something to do with the open string thing.

 

5) Play a Fender....

 

6)...through a Vox

 

...and that's all I can think of.

[Petie]

2) Let those open strings ring - In chording and single-note lines I always like to find an open string to hit and add a little dimension. Sometimes, if I'm not really paying attention, the open string is a note that sounds real sour, in which case I use the "jazz" excuse.

 

Many years ago Mike Keneally wrote an excellent column for Guitar Player about the glory of opening strings (using a riff from his song 'Rosemary Girl' as an example). Even when I was purely a Teenage Mutant Metal Guitarist, I found that very very useful.

 

3) Make it sound like an organ - One of my favorite tricks for freshening up my approach is to fire up the neck pickup, roll a fair amount of treble off for a darker tone and run the signal through a compressor (usually an MXR Dyna Comp) and rotating speaker/Univibe sim (some light OD helps a bit too). Play way up high on the neck and using your fingers to pluck a few pentatonic lines (heavy on the lfat fifth) and you've got a very poor man's B3.

 

Great tip! I must try that now that I've got a Dyna Comp. I've dabbled in this style a little after reading a Jimmy Vaughan lesson in another magazine in 1992 (I'm a guitar magazine junkie, sometimes I swear I remember every article I've read since I started collecting them when I was 12 in 1991) but not much recently.

[Gifthorse]

I start with a little self mutilation (claw hammer). Then I cloak myself and a 5 gallon bucket filled with gas and sniff out the cob webs--so to speak.

 

After that I am ready for action and inaction at the same time. I feel I need to meet myself in the middle before the creative force can be tapped. At this juncture I am all ears & noses in my mind and it is time to light the fuse to creative nirvana.

 

Some people call this 'style'. If that is so, I guess I have tons of it..

[The Bear Jew]

This thread is getting such a large gamut of responses...I'm not really sure what the question is or how many people are actually answering the question. :grin:

 

But in a nutshell...if I understand the question correctly...for me to play like me...there is really only one thing I need to do...

...just play.

 

If anything...I usually have to do "10 things" to try and play like other people.

I think most of that comes from years of NOT trying to mimic other players...though I am sure subconsciously we all pick up on things we hear that appeal to us.

And I also believe it is when you spend all your time just trying to play like other people...you will never be able to play like you. You will never find your style/sound.

Sure...you might learn a lot of great licks and tricks, and be able to play them very well and very impressively...but that's not really playing like "you"is it?

 

Was that the question?

 

Yeah... I don't really understand the question, but if you're asking what someone should do to sound like me...

 

First I'd recommend they get a psychological consultation.

 

Then, I'd find out if they've recently experienced a head trauma.

If they haven't, I'd quickly apply blunt force to their cranium.

 

I just play. There's no secret bit of gear or technique. I don't want to sound like anyone else (but I'm sure I do, somewhat), and I hope nobody wants to sound like me.

[Petie]

I decided to repost my 10 things on my blog as well, and it's been picked up by a few other sites. It's the first story mentioned in the latest hitsquad.com mailout, which is pretty exciting as I've been visiting that site since about 1999!