Yeah right, but it’s sometimes very difficult to judge the exact way a note was aproached. Furthermore it’s very often some very slight shift off the exact timing of the note that makes a huge difference in the sound you hear. If it’s played a wee bit too early it sounds somewhat anxious and if it’s just a little bit too late it seems somewhat lazy.. But this is very tough to get this into one’s fingers, one has to find into the right feeling in advance to be able to play such parts in a way that sounds natural.
Hi Griff, I’ve seen this lesson previously, but today in the email message with the link to this lesson, you mentioned recommending that we RECORD ourselves from time to time to hear what we sound like. I recently took advantage of the discount price deal that you set up with Song Surgeon and I can now record myself with SS and play back the recording – that’s a HUGE step for me. At last I can hear “what I played”, separately from when I’m playing. In just one week it’s opened my ears to a) what I do well and b) what I need to work on.
Chris G in Australia, March 2020.
Articulation for me is another word for playing with feeling. You can play the right notes at the right time but if there is no articulation the sound is mechanical, hollow or lifeless. Beethoven’s fifth is a timeless classic. A symphony can play it and everyone will recognize it. Pat Travers does a version that he calls The Fifth. I’m sure Beethoven rolls over when he hears it ( pun intended) but it’s a great example of how articulation can completely change your concept of an arrangement.
Definitely a lot of comments on this one. As to put my 1.5 cents in. the pick thickness and shape is another very important tonal change in sound.string gauge, type, ETC, ETC.Good brake down of how too in striking the string.
I agree with the comment about thickness. I use the heaviest gauge strings I can find on electric and acoustic. You get a fuller and richer tone that projects out into the room. Lighter strings tend to sound a bit tinny. A little more difficult to play with fat strings at first but you get used to it.
Hello Griff As far as I’m concerned you are the one & only guitar player I have any interest in.All your music via email I love ESPECIALLY THE BLUES Can never get enough of them Thanks for everything you send Very much appreciated. Judu
Thanks Griff, another great presentation of something we often take for granted. I recently started to learn to use a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and there are all sorts of ways to modify a frequency with that software. This is kind of the same, as the way you strike/attack a note affects the sound, in a real way, not a virtual one. Maybe someone has mentioned this already, but, the kind of pick you use makes a big difference too. Thanks again.
LISTEN TOO THE CD, ON THE ROAD. BB KING AND ERIC CLAPTON DID THIS TOGETHER
JUST LISTENING TO ERIC ARTICULATE FROM WHAT BB KING WAS PLAYING IS A GOOD EXSAMPEL OF THIS. I CALL IT COMPING THE LEAD GUITAR PLAYER
LOVE THAT 4 NOTE SOLO, GETS USED A LOT. THANKS AGAIN GRIFF.
WISH I COULD EMAIL YOU ON E OF MANY SONGS THAT I WROTE AND COMPOSED AND RECORDED. THE LEAD COINCEIDES WITH THE TUNE ON MOST.
Articulation works really good in my gospel playing especially working in Black gospel. Of course it really helps with tone deaf members of the praise team and a solo singer that can’t quite reach the range required. Of course you have to make sure you get the quality of notes right before you delve into articulation hut it really helps
Articulation is SO important! There are SO many different things one can do! Different pick volumes, pick or thumb or fingers, pinch harmonics, hammer-ons, pull-offs, rakes, vibrato, and even which part of the pick you use. I am constantly rotating my pick in my fingers, sometimes using the pointy end, sometimes the more rounded shoulder. And I have taken to using a steel finger pick on my ring finger for when I want an extra “zingy” tone.
Hi folks Listening ears ? I find mine are a little undependable (going a little deaf too) I can hear a lick/riff but come up with something that is the same but not, maybe a note or two missing or added, timing changed, bends slides HO/PO added or missed.
Note for note solos are hard work I can work on one for weeks and still play it different 10 times on the trot.
I think what I’m trying to say is what I hear and what I comprehend are usually 2 different things, it was different when I was younger (now 73) I could hear a lick play the lick.
Hi Tele,
I can sympathise with you 100 percent, I cant play full cords anymore due to arthites in my hands so I have been studying lead blues for three years. I play all the right notes but not nessesarily in the right order, sorry about the spelling. I`m 70 this year and have been playing since I was 9.
Every time I hear that start off on A on the tenth, I instantly think “Strange Brew”.
Mr. Clapton certainly did articulate that note in a very memorable fashion.
Always good.
Thanks Griff,
Dave in the Adirondacks
David, yes, when I heard the A on the 10th fret I was also reminded of the lead-in to “Strange Brew,” but I was also immediately reminded as well of Albert King playing “Oh Pretty Woman,” from which Clapton borrowed from King. (Eric acknowledges this, even admiting to lifting substantially from Albert’s solo in that song). Here’s a video of Albert King, where that articulation is featured: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7tvCB3JYts
Thank you so much! I am not a guitar player, but I love it so much and I follow intensively your teachings. You give a so passionate teaching of that instrument and the sound of it is irristable… Thank you very much! I continue to follow you …
Thank you Griff. This makes sense to me but I have a question relative to the boxes. Can each box be played anywhere up and down the neck? Maybe I missed this but none the less it’s a question that I have.
Thanks again. Your method of teaching fits how I learn.
Larry B
Larry, it depends on what you want to do.
Yes, you can play box one anywhere on the neck, but as you move around the neck, you are changing key. 5th fret = Am (or C Major) 6th fret = Bm (or D Major)
There are 5 pentatonic/blues boxes. They connect to each other like pieces of a puzzle. So the “top” of Box 1 is the “bottom” of Box 2. And the “top” of Box 2 is the “bottom” of Box 3. So all 5 boxes together are a kind of “Super Pattern”.
Just as you move a box up or down the neck, you move the entire Super Pattern with that one box. So just as MikeS says, you can play a box anywhere on the neck, but you’re changing keys as you move the box (unless you move the box exactly 12 frets–the guitar neck repeats itself every 12 frets).
So if you play box 1 on the 5th fret and then play box 3 on the 5th fret you changed keys. You can play a different box on the same fret but you change keys when you do it. If you want to stay in the same key you have to move up (or down) the neck the correct number of frets to play a different box in the same key.
It would be helpful to a lot of your viewers if you could take one lick (preferably a slightly extended one) and demonstrate it using a half dozen different articulations so that they can hear exactly what you’re describing in actual practice.
Great lesson! Thanks!…to the carpenter with arthritis. After 30 years of hanging drywall my shoulders are shot! Just the act of moving my pick hand to the bridge to mute sends sharp pains thru my shoulder. All pain is different for everybody! Degrees of pain are different! I found a way you can too! Even if you have to change instruments, do it!(listen to the people’s in this forum and keep rocking!)
Mark. I too am old and rickety..lol I’ve tried many things but a lil aspercream with lidocaine on my shoulder and on the back of my hands and I’m rolling again! I hate getting old!!
Cannabis. Works wonders for pain…so I’ve heard. It might not help your guitar playing, but you might think your guitar sounds better after you’ve taken your medicine.
Good advice Griff. When I learnt the 5 easy blues solos, I learnt them in chunks then counted out loud until it became second nature when playing over the jam track, then I identified and practised the special techniques needed to make the piece sound professional.
For some reason, when I played this video, I got Closed Captioning. I had never seen that before. I don’t know who provides the text, but there are some pretty funny mistakes/mis-hearings in the captions.
YouTube has closed captioning. You can turn it on or off. On the YouTube screen on the lower right hand side left of the Settings icon you will see a rectangle that has a CC inside of it. Click to turn off/on close caption.
YouTube automatically transcribes talk-to-text and it isn’t perfect. It can be edited by whoever uploads it, but I’m sure Griff doesn’t have the time to mess with it.
as always, some good advise…I’d add that the type of pick used and the location of the actual picking can give even more options…but I liked the idea of keep it simple…first learn the notes and then embellish them…later.
I just have to join the long queue of folk, many of whom are over 60 (like my good self), in expressing my thanks for the quality of the lessons and advice given. Everything is done in such a professional, yet friendly and encouraging, manner…inspirational.
But I find your other students are also inspirational; and what a fine example today. Paul there states he is on the brink of giving up because of arthritis and suddenly the others are falling over themselves to encourage him to continue. I raise my hat to the lot of you and am more than comfortable that I have come to the right school and the right community in my belated efforts to get to grips with this musical instrument which seems to have ideas different to my own…..
Not to worry,I have been follower for some time,and the lessons are always pretty useful at some point I have found.
I often think I have shoes older then most here in the forums.
Uh I came late to the party, but 74 here. Griff should give a senior discount! Lol!
Another great lesson because it pulled a lot of helpful bits from others into one place. This Griff kid is a fine young man and instructor. Super products and good stuff in between in my inbox each day. Thanks Griff.
You’ve been a true help to a whole lot of us who are following the gift of music. These video has been so helpful, thou its free but God will richly repay you. Thanks Mentor
Thank you, Griff. I like the introduction you played sounds very good, upbeat. Is this something you just came up with? Please consider composing a song from it . Would be a good sell .Now are there any artistS out there who play straight blues, meaning without bells and whistles?
Thanks for the lesson. I need to start working on my touch. Read an interview with Neil Young about a solo of his that only had one note. Can’t remember the song but the interviewer called him on it & his reply was, “yeah, it’s the same note played 35(?) different ways.” Yeah, I need to start working on my articulation.
Also there’s the difference between picking near the bridge and the neck, bends up and down into a note, using fingers rather than picks, pushing or pulling the beat, etc. —— as an exercise you can try taking one simple lick and using combinations of all these see how many distinct ways you can play it —— this can be quite surprising…
Thanks for the good advice! Going through BGU lessons, I catch myself trying to do all the hammer-ons, pull-offs, and bends before I even have the tune down. It makes it much easier to learn if you “play it straight” FIRST, then add the “sugar” later.
I HAVE LEARNED A LOT FROM YOU IN THE PAST 2 YEARS THE BAD NEWS IS MY GUITAR PLAYING DAYS ARE OVER. MY ARTRITIST IN MY HANDS HAVE GOTTEN VERY BAD. MY LEFT HAND IS LOCKED UP EVERY MORNING. I TRY AND PLAY AND IT’S LIKE MY FINGERS ARE SO STIFF THEY CRACK WHEN I TRY AND EVEN PLAY A CHORD. IT’S PAINFUL. WORKING WITH MY HANDS FOR 40 YEARS CAUSED THIS. MY DAD WAS A CARPENTER AND CONSTRUCTION WORKER AND HE FEEL INTO THE SAME THING. THANKS GRIFF FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND LESSONS. I’M 63 AND IT SUCKS. PLAYING GUITAR WAS ONE OF MY LIFES DRIVE.
No way are your guitar laying days over! You can still make totally amazing music. Yes, you can’t do what you used to do….but not many of us over 60 can. But I’ve seen and hea d guitar players with deformed hands and missing fingers that make great music. Slide players can make amazing music with just a slide and as few as zero other fingers.
I often get discouraged rather than inspired when I see/hear truly great players. But I come back to the soul of music and realize I can please myself (isn’t that what’s important at this stage of your playing) with the little bit of talent and ability I have. Does Bob Dylan have a good singing voice….uh, no…but did he make incredible music…duh, yes. Can a 3 string cigar box make the same sounds as a six string Martin? No. Can a 3 string cigar box guitar make amazing, soul moving music? Absolutely!
So don’t quit. Change to focus on what you can do and you will enjoy playing for many years to come.
A fellow elderly player,
Gary
Don’t give up. Playing slide guitar has been a great joy to me. Griff’s slide guitar course is a great way to get started. Also, the suggestion of trying a cigar box guitar (3 or 4 string) is an excellent one. Not only are they easy to play but they honor the great roots traditions that have become today’s blues. You can and should use the exact, same, minor pentatonic Blues notes and ideas with a CBG. Now, get over feeling sorry for yourself and get back to doing what we all love.
Hey Paul, I’m so sorry to hear that. Guitar drives me too. And I’m a carpenter. For what it’s worth, your love of music won’t ever hurt. Keep on rockin, bro.
I also suffer from arthritis but, please, please don’t give up! Django Reinhardt would never have been famous and inspired countless guitarists if he had. So, when you have doubts, listen to Django and keep in mind he only played with two fingers!
Paul, I found a DVD called Healthy Hands, Wrists & Forearms by Martin Gray and it helped me with severe left hand tendinitis. He broke his hands and arms in a climbing accident and is good as new now. I bet ya you can find relief there.
Hey Griff, don’t know how much time it took you to set up and produce that video lesson, but from a cold and wet West Midlands, in the UK, I just want you to know, it was well worth it. Kinda obvious when you spell it out, but I needed tellin’ and showin’ to make it so.
If anyone has heard the Neil Diamond song “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime” you can hear many of the guitar licks being demonstrated here. Especially hear the intro.
Hey hipster You demoed a vibrato but it could also be a tickle or a half bend what the heck is a stagotto ? spaces in between maybe . Your lic had a early Eric Clapton sound like the tune strange brew . I always see You go to the a in that scale for demo . Like you said us old players take that stuff for granted but this opens up to be important not just to copy but create some thing to .
Tony, Staccato is the antithesis of Legato. Whereas legato ties the sounds together, staccato separates them, detaches, has abrupt ending, short, distinct, separate…etc. (Dotted notes). Rock On!
In standard notation, a dot ABOVE the note indicates staccato. Not be confused with dot next to the note, like “dotted quarter” note, where the dot means to add an additional half of the dotted note. So a dotted qurter note has a duration of a quarter note plus an eighth.
thanks for explaining Greg . I am seeing the end of a huge loop in the lessons . I have saved around 200 of them . I just hang in here and now an then there is a session i have not seen. too bad there couldnt be one for every day . Well if that were so then it could get really crammed up and that more difficult to learn.
Thanks Griff. I find that I have varying sounds throughout any given tune/solo and struggle to get some sort of consistency. I’m uncertain as to what notes to attack, bend, etc etc. I guess ” listening” more will help to improve. Thanks again for all you do to help us become better blues guitarist.
Graeme
87 replies to "How To Attack A Note"
When you have arrived you will hear to solo in your head before you are even playing it.
Yeah right, but it’s sometimes very difficult to judge the exact way a note was aproached. Furthermore it’s very often some very slight shift off the exact timing of the note that makes a huge difference in the sound you hear. If it’s played a wee bit too early it sounds somewhat anxious and if it’s just a little bit too late it seems somewhat lazy.. But this is very tough to get this into one’s fingers, one has to find into the right feeling in advance to be able to play such parts in a way that sounds natural.
Hi Griff, I’ve seen this lesson previously, but today in the email message with the link to this lesson, you mentioned recommending that we RECORD ourselves from time to time to hear what we sound like. I recently took advantage of the discount price deal that you set up with Song Surgeon and I can now record myself with SS and play back the recording – that’s a HUGE step for me. At last I can hear “what I played”, separately from when I’m playing. In just one week it’s opened my ears to a) what I do well and b) what I need to work on.
Chris G in Australia, March 2020.
Articulation for me is another word for playing with feeling. You can play the right notes at the right time but if there is no articulation the sound is mechanical, hollow or lifeless. Beethoven’s fifth is a timeless classic. A symphony can play it and everyone will recognize it. Pat Travers does a version that he calls The Fifth. I’m sure Beethoven rolls over when he hears it ( pun intended) but it’s a great example of how articulation can completely change your concept of an arrangement.
Definitely a lot of comments on this one. As to put my 1.5 cents in. the pick thickness and shape is another very important tonal change in sound.string gauge, type, ETC, ETC.Good brake down of how too in striking the string.
I agree with the comment about thickness. I use the heaviest gauge strings I can find on electric and acoustic. You get a fuller and richer tone that projects out into the room. Lighter strings tend to sound a bit tinny. A little more difficult to play with fat strings at first but you get used to it.
Good lesson
I will listen closer and enjoy the sound
Thanks Griff,
Would love a tab of the opening solo riff
Hello Griff As far as I’m concerned you are the one & only guitar player I have any interest in.All your music via email I love ESPECIALLY THE BLUES Can never get enough of them Thanks for everything you send Very much appreciated. Judu
great lesson
Thanks Griff, another great presentation of something we often take for granted. I recently started to learn to use a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and there are all sorts of ways to modify a frequency with that software. This is kind of the same, as the way you strike/attack a note affects the sound, in a real way, not a virtual one. Maybe someone has mentioned this already, but, the kind of pick you use makes a big difference too. Thanks again.
That was very INTERESTING….trying to get the BB SOUND IN THE ZONE…..
LISTEN TOO THE CD, ON THE ROAD. BB KING AND ERIC CLAPTON DID THIS TOGETHER
JUST LISTENING TO ERIC ARTICULATE FROM WHAT BB KING WAS PLAYING IS A GOOD EXSAMPEL OF THIS. I CALL IT COMPING THE LEAD GUITAR PLAYER
LOVE THAT 4 NOTE SOLO, GETS USED A LOT. THANKS AGAIN GRIFF.
WISH I COULD EMAIL YOU ON E OF MANY SONGS THAT I WROTE AND COMPOSED AND RECORDED. THE LEAD COINCEIDES WITH THE TUNE ON MOST.
Articulation works really good in my gospel playing especially working in Black gospel. Of course it really helps with tone deaf members of the praise team and a solo singer that can’t quite reach the range required. Of course you have to make sure you get the quality of notes right before you delve into articulation hut it really helps
Articulation is SO important! There are SO many different things one can do! Different pick volumes, pick or thumb or fingers, pinch harmonics, hammer-ons, pull-offs, rakes, vibrato, and even which part of the pick you use. I am constantly rotating my pick in my fingers, sometimes using the pointy end, sometimes the more rounded shoulder. And I have taken to using a steel finger pick on my ring finger for when I want an extra “zingy” tone.
Hi folks Listening ears ? I find mine are a little undependable (going a little deaf too) I can hear a lick/riff but come up with something that is the same but not, maybe a note or two missing or added, timing changed, bends slides HO/PO added or missed.
Note for note solos are hard work I can work on one for weeks and still play it different 10 times on the trot.
I think what I’m trying to say is what I hear and what I comprehend are usually 2 different things, it was different when I was younger (now 73) I could hear a lick play the lick.
If you want make sure you play a riff exactly the same way count it out. Works every time.
Hi Tele,
I can sympathise with you 100 percent, I cant play full cords anymore due to arthites in my hands so I have been studying lead blues for three years. I play all the right notes but not nessesarily in the right order, sorry about the spelling. I`m 70 this year and have been playing since I was 9.
JOHN I AM 73 AND WHEN I WAS 25 I HAD ARTHITIS TOO.
I TOOK BETAMINE BUT EVERY YEAR IN THE WINTERTIME IT CAME BACK.
AFTHER 5 YEARS IT DID’NT WORK ANYMORE.
SO I TOOK HARPAGO OR DEVELSCLAUW A PLANT FROM AFRICA.
SINDS I TOOK THAT IT NEVER CAME BACK.
SO ENJOY YOUR GUITAR PLAYING LIKE ME.
Hey Griff. I love your lessons to “use listening ears”. I’ve found them to really help me when I work on playing. Keep em coming!
Hey Griff
Great Tips here as usual..
Thanks
Michael-Sydney-Australia 13 th June 2017.
Hey Griff,
Every time I hear that start off on A on the tenth, I instantly think “Strange Brew”.
Mr. Clapton certainly did articulate that note in a very memorable fashion.
Always good.
Thanks Griff,
Dave in the Adirondacks
David, yes, when I heard the A on the 10th fret I was also reminded of the lead-in to “Strange Brew,” but I was also immediately reminded as well of Albert King playing “Oh Pretty Woman,” from which Clapton borrowed from King. (Eric acknowledges this, even admiting to lifting substantially from Albert’s solo in that song). Here’s a video of Albert King, where that articulation is featured: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7tvCB3JYts
That’s what I heard too, Strange Brew
Thank you so much! I am not a guitar player, but I love it so much and I follow intensively your teachings. You give a so passionate teaching of that instrument and the sound of it is irristable… Thank you very much! I continue to follow you …
Thank you Griff. This makes sense to me but I have a question relative to the boxes. Can each box be played anywhere up and down the neck? Maybe I missed this but none the less it’s a question that I have.
Thanks again. Your method of teaching fits how I learn.
Larry B
Larry, it depends on what you want to do.
Yes, you can play box one anywhere on the neck, but as you move around the neck, you are changing key. 5th fret = Am (or C Major) 6th fret = Bm (or D Major)
There are 5 pentatonic/blues boxes. They connect to each other like pieces of a puzzle. So the “top” of Box 1 is the “bottom” of Box 2. And the “top” of Box 2 is the “bottom” of Box 3. So all 5 boxes together are a kind of “Super Pattern”.
Just as you move a box up or down the neck, you move the entire Super Pattern with that one box. So just as MikeS says, you can play a box anywhere on the neck, but you’re changing keys as you move the box (unless you move the box exactly 12 frets–the guitar neck repeats itself every 12 frets).
So if you play box 1 on the 5th fret and then play box 3 on the 5th fret you changed keys. You can play a different box on the same fret but you change keys when you do it. If you want to stay in the same key you have to move up (or down) the neck the correct number of frets to play a different box in the same key.
THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG REMINDS ME OF an old Herb Alpert song “Ro-Ta-Tion” from about 1980.
It would be helpful to a lot of your viewers if you could take one lick (preferably a slightly extended one) and demonstrate it using a half dozen different articulations so that they can hear exactly what you’re describing in actual practice.
I agree. It would be helpful to apply this articulation lesson to the same lick.
I’d like to see the solo tabbed out. That was pretty cool.
Cheers Griff
For the lesson
I’ve been trying out different picks plastics, woods , and metals
Still not there 😎🎶
Great lesson! Thanks!…to the carpenter with arthritis. After 30 years of hanging drywall my shoulders are shot! Just the act of moving my pick hand to the bridge to mute sends sharp pains thru my shoulder. All pain is different for everybody! Degrees of pain are different! I found a way you can too! Even if you have to change instruments, do it!(listen to the people’s in this forum and keep rocking!)
Mark. I too am old and rickety..lol I’ve tried many things but a lil aspercream with lidocaine on my shoulder and on the back of my hands and I’m rolling again! I hate getting old!!
I’ve heard that getting old is not for sissies!😁
Getting old for sure is not for sissies. But the alternative is not very appealing either.
Cannabis. Works wonders for pain…so I’ve heard. It might not help your guitar playing, but you might think your guitar sounds better after you’ve taken your medicine.
So true Jeff, Weed is going to be legal in Canada next October 17th. Should be interesting.
Good advice Griff. When I learnt the 5 easy blues solos, I learnt them in chunks then counted out loud until it became second nature when playing over the jam track, then I identified and practised the special techniques needed to make the piece sound professional.
For some reason, when I played this video, I got Closed Captioning. I had never seen that before. I don’t know who provides the text, but there are some pretty funny mistakes/mis-hearings in the captions.
David, as you get older you may find this to be an ongoing problem. Go with the flow dude. you will be okay.
Dave Sorry. It might be the device you viewed it from. Mine didn’t do that.
YouTube has closed captioning. You can turn it on or off. On the YouTube screen on the lower right hand side left of the Settings icon you will see a rectangle that has a CC inside of it. Click to turn off/on close caption.
YouTube automatically transcribes talk-to-text and it isn’t perfect. It can be edited by whoever uploads it, but I’m sure Griff doesn’t have the time to mess with it.
Hi Griff,Thanks again very helpful,Len.
My listening ears seem to get expanded each time I rehear one of these videos.
Great explanation of articulation and ways to put it all together. Thanks Griff.
Hi Griff. Great lesson!!! Would mind sharing a tab of the notes you were playing. It would illustrate the movement between patterns. Thank you.
as always, some good advise…I’d add that the type of pick used and the location of the actual picking can give even more options…but I liked the idea of keep it simple…first learn the notes and then embellish them…later.
cowboy
I just have to join the long queue of folk, many of whom are over 60 (like my good self), in expressing my thanks for the quality of the lessons and advice given. Everything is done in such a professional, yet friendly and encouraging, manner…inspirational.
But I find your other students are also inspirational; and what a fine example today. Paul there states he is on the brink of giving up because of arthritis and suddenly the others are falling over themselves to encourage him to continue. I raise my hat to the lot of you and am more than comfortable that I have come to the right school and the right community in my belated efforts to get to grips with this musical instrument which seems to have ideas different to my own…..
Not to worry,I have been follower for some time,and the lessons are always pretty useful at some point I have found.
I often think I have shoes older then most here in the forums.
Unless your shoes are more than 73 years old, Cartgate, probably not. 😉
Griff you continue to amaze! Thanks.
Uh I came late to the party, but 74 here. Griff should give a senior discount! Lol!
Another great lesson because it pulled a lot of helpful bits from others into one place. This Griff kid is a fine young man and instructor. Super products and good stuff in between in my inbox each day. Thanks Griff.
With so many seniors here, if Griff gave a Senior Discount, he’d probably break the bank.
You’ve been a true help to a whole lot of us who are following the gift of music. These video has been so helpful, thou its free but God will richly repay you. Thanks Mentor
Thanks*you are a great help. Billy ray
Thanks Griff,that was really helpful
Thank you Griff for all your lessons, they are a great help
Hi Griff,
Thanks for the lesson and just want you to know that I also learn from the input provided by what I will refer to as fellow students of Griff.
Old School & Still Rockin’
Thank you, Griff. I like the introduction you played sounds very good, upbeat. Is this something you just came up with? Please consider composing a song from it . Would be a good sell .Now are there any artistS out there who play straight blues, meaning without bells and whistles?
Thanks for the lesson. I need to start working on my touch. Read an interview with Neil Young about a solo of his that only had one note. Can’t remember the song but the interviewer called him on it & his reply was, “yeah, it’s the same note played 35(?) different ways.” Yeah, I need to start working on my articulation.
I think it was Cinnamon Girl.
Also there’s the difference between picking near the bridge and the neck, bends up and down into a note, using fingers rather than picks, pushing or pulling the beat, etc. —— as an exercise you can try taking one simple lick and using combinations of all these see how many distinct ways you can play it —— this can be quite surprising…
Thanks for the good advice! Going through BGU lessons, I catch myself trying to do all the hammer-ons, pull-offs, and bends before I even have the tune down. It makes it much easier to learn if you “play it straight” FIRST, then add the “sugar” later.
I HAVE LEARNED A LOT FROM YOU IN THE PAST 2 YEARS THE BAD NEWS IS MY GUITAR PLAYING DAYS ARE OVER. MY ARTRITIST IN MY HANDS HAVE GOTTEN VERY BAD. MY LEFT HAND IS LOCKED UP EVERY MORNING. I TRY AND PLAY AND IT’S LIKE MY FINGERS ARE SO STIFF THEY CRACK WHEN I TRY AND EVEN PLAY A CHORD. IT’S PAINFUL. WORKING WITH MY HANDS FOR 40 YEARS CAUSED THIS. MY DAD WAS A CARPENTER AND CONSTRUCTION WORKER AND HE FEEL INTO THE SAME THING. THANKS GRIFF FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND LESSONS. I’M 63 AND IT SUCKS. PLAYING GUITAR WAS ONE OF MY LIFES DRIVE.
No way are your guitar laying days over! You can still make totally amazing music. Yes, you can’t do what you used to do….but not many of us over 60 can. But I’ve seen and hea d guitar players with deformed hands and missing fingers that make great music. Slide players can make amazing music with just a slide and as few as zero other fingers.
I often get discouraged rather than inspired when I see/hear truly great players. But I come back to the soul of music and realize I can please myself (isn’t that what’s important at this stage of your playing) with the little bit of talent and ability I have. Does Bob Dylan have a good singing voice….uh, no…but did he make incredible music…duh, yes. Can a 3 string cigar box make the same sounds as a six string Martin? No. Can a 3 string cigar box guitar make amazing, soul moving music? Absolutely!
So don’t quit. Change to focus on what you can do and you will enjoy playing for many years to come.
A fellow elderly player,
Gary
Don’t give up. Playing slide guitar has been a great joy to me. Griff’s slide guitar course is a great way to get started. Also, the suggestion of trying a cigar box guitar (3 or 4 string) is an excellent one. Not only are they easy to play but they honor the great roots traditions that have become today’s blues. You can and should use the exact, same, minor pentatonic Blues notes and ideas with a CBG. Now, get over feeling sorry for yourself and get back to doing what we all love.
Hey Paul, I’m so sorry to hear that. Guitar drives me too. And I’m a carpenter. For what it’s worth, your love of music won’t ever hurt. Keep on rockin, bro.
I also suffer from arthritis but, please, please don’t give up! Django Reinhardt would never have been famous and inspired countless guitarists if he had. So, when you have doubts, listen to Django and keep in mind he only played with two fingers!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt
When listening to Django, you will also enjoy a huge violin player called Stephane Grappelli who played with him in his most famous recording.
Paul, I found a DVD called Healthy Hands, Wrists & Forearms by Martin Gray and it helped me with severe left hand tendinitis. He broke his hands and arms in a climbing accident and is good as new now. I bet ya you can find relief there.
Thank you, Griff! Every time i watch one of your videos I learn something new, usually several things. You are an excellent teacher.
Thanks Griff
Thanks Griff great lesson.
Thanks again Griff I’m a string skipping and raking kinda guy also love those pinch harmonics liked the slide into the rake good stuff !!!
Hey Griff, don’t know how much time it took you to set up and produce that video lesson, but from a cold and wet West Midlands, in the UK, I just want you to know, it was well worth it. Kinda obvious when you spell it out, but I needed tellin’ and showin’ to make it so.
Thanks.
Thanks, ‘Judge Judy’. That was very informative, as usual. Can I take my listening ears off yet? 🙂
Thanks Griff
Very useful tips. Looking forward to trying this when I get home tonight.
Slowly it is all making sence to me. and your making it happen for me. Thanx
Frank
If anyone has heard the Neil Diamond song “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime” you can hear many of the guitar licks being demonstrated here. Especially hear the intro.
Thanks Griff. A couple of things I’d never thought of there.
Hey hipster You demoed a vibrato but it could also be a tickle or a half bend what the heck is a stagotto ? spaces in between maybe . Your lic had a early Eric Clapton sound like the tune strange brew . I always see You go to the a in that scale for demo . Like you said us old players take that stuff for granted but this opens up to be important not just to copy but create some thing to .
Tony, Staccato is the antithesis of Legato. Whereas legato ties the sounds together, staccato separates them, detaches, has abrupt ending, short, distinct, separate…etc. (Dotted notes). Rock On!
In standard notation, a dot ABOVE the note indicates staccato. Not be confused with dot next to the note, like “dotted quarter” note, where the dot means to add an additional half of the dotted note. So a dotted qurter note has a duration of a quarter note plus an eighth.
thanks for explaining Greg . I am seeing the end of a huge loop in the lessons . I have saved around 200 of them . I just hang in here and now an then there is a session i have not seen. too bad there couldnt be one for every day . Well if that were so then it could get really crammed up and that more difficult to learn.
Thanks Griff. I find that I have varying sounds throughout any given tune/solo and struggle to get some sort of consistency. I’m uncertain as to what notes to attack, bend, etc etc. I guess ” listening” more will help to improve. Thanks again for all you do to help us become better blues guitarist.
Graeme
Thanks Griff! This is great advice and technique!
Hey Griff – what you call a “tweedley” is (in musical terms), a trill!
Keep ’em coming!
Thanks for the easy to follow videos. Very helpful .