Need some (semi) beginner recording tips.

[RABid]

I want to record some rhythm parts and create some loops. I played guitar in my first band, years and years ago, but now I am primarily a keyboardist and drummer.

 

So here is the deal. I have a decent Yamaha guitar and a Pod which will serve my needs. The parts I want will be either clean funky rhythms, or distorted sustained rhythms. Background stuff that will give my songs some life and keep me from the limitations of purchased loops. What worries me is staying in tune. I don't have to worry much about those instruments going out of tune. Well, not now that I use digital keyboards. But with guitar I do remember having a bit of problem staying in tune years ago. I think the biggest problem was mashing too hard behind the frets. Or when playing a difficult chord I might mash one string harder than the others.

 

So, any tips keeping my rhythms in tune when I record? Could I just be obsessing about it?

 

Robert

[guitar god lol]

as long as you have newer and properly stretched strings there shouldn't be a problem staying in tune.

[guitar god lol]

did i mention that i'm a guitar god lol?

[doug osborne]

Could I just be obsessing about it?

Probably

 

Don't play too hard. We guitarists often mistake passion for brute-force, and we go out of tune.

 

And yes, accept the little inconsistencies as part of the wonderful charm of a real physical instrument, providing the soul to contrast with the cool of the perfectly-tuned keyboard.

 

Or learn how to tuna guitar.

[Afro_Man]

This may seem like strange advice but you could try a thinner pick? Go and buy a huge selection of types and thicknesses and see what you like. This may improve your technique but then again it may not.

Nic

[musicalhair]

Well, if you've got too much tension in your hands you'll squeeze the strings out of tune or bend them out and that would really be noticable when you record. I think you'll find that recording guitar is tougher than playing it live because problems get magnified to an extent.

 

If you stretch your hands gently before practicing, warm up and really figure out what is causing the problem you can solve it and record great sounding parts.

 

I show students (when I have them) an exercise that Robert Fripp published in Guitar Player back in the like late 80's or early 90's where you gently push a string down to the fretboard and barely touch it with the string. Once you get used to the short distance and how little pressure it takes, you then gently pluck the string and see just how little effort it takes to produce a clean note. Then as you pluck harder and start to hear fret noises (because you're still barely touching the fretboard with the string) you just apply a bit more pressure to clean up the note.

 

Do that as part of your warm-ups and then apply the same trick to the chord shapes.

 

Another thing is look at which fingers move from chord to chord and practice the various finger movements in isolation then with other fingers to really get the motions down flawlessly.

[RABid]

Thanks for the good tips.

 

When I was a young lad I told my mother that I wanted to learn how to play guitar. One day she brought home an acoustic guitar that someone sold her for $5. The wire strings were at least 3/8" above the frets and I had to mash as hard as I could to play a chord. I told her it was impossible to play. She told me I had to learn how to play it before I could get a better guitar. So I learned how to play on a piece of crap. A few years later I got a job and bought myself a nice Gibson electric. (Wish I still had it.) That is when I first noticed tuning problems.

 

Bad habits and technique in the beginning always come back to bite you in the but.

 

Robert

[musicalhair]

Originally posted by Rabid:

Bad habits and technique in the beginning always come back to bite you in the but.

Yes, and your experience with a bad guitar is really common. My first instrument had really high action and problems too.

 

But, it isn't like you had a choice in developing the "bad habit", in fact I'd not call it a bad habit as much as an adaptation to an imperfect situation.

 

Just learn to relax the hands and play the nots up on the finger tips as much as you can-- the Fripp thing really reinforces that.

 

Also, since your recording it is also that muc more important to make sure instrument is set up correctly. You might otherwise be torturing the strings to compensate for intonation problems.