words guitar players use

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
wow @Griff could actually almost have a full video lesson for people on this...................haven't really thought about it in a long time, yeah, we use terminology that I sued to scratch my head on and pretend I understood
 

snarf

making guitars wish they were still trees
Sorry. Can't help myself. Here's a few terms new guitarists will run into that go beyond a basic understanding of music theory. Especially when studying with Griff.
Not ignoring this one. Just ended up having a day at work yesterday, and am just not getting back to it today. Also, the theory section may take a bit longer since I've never been accused of having more than a rudimentary understanding of it. So feel free to chime in on any of these that you'd like. lol

Also, I just noticed that I can't edit my definitions-post. So I'll split them out into a separate one as required. Once it gets a little further down the road, maybe petition the mods to consolidate them somewhere for me.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Not ignoring this one. Just ended up having a day at work yesterday, and am just not getting back to it today. Also, the theory section may take a bit longer since I've never been accused of having more than a rudimentary understanding of it. So feel free to chime in on any of these that you'd like. lol

Also, I just noticed that I can't edit my definitions-post. So I'll split them out into a separate one as required. Once it gets a little further down the road, maybe petition the mods to consolidate them somewhere for me.

When you have gathered all your definitions and are ready to "Publish" your book, get it all together and let me know. I'll create a sticky for it. I'd rather not do it one-sy and two-sy.
 

snarf

making guitars wish they were still trees
Before I give it to Mike to post, would anyone care to vet what I've got below? I opted to skip the theory section because, although I'm getting better at theory, I don't at all feel qualified to come up with some of those definitions. So I figure, for now, I'll go with what I know.

  • Gear
    • Action - How your guitar is setup. Are your strings really low on the fretboard? Then you have a low action.
    • Ax - Another name for your guitar.
    • Bolt-on - They type of guitar where the neck is bolted to the body instead of glued. A Strat is a bolt-on. A Les Paul is not.
    • Chime - Often used to refer to that bell-like higher tone of a Vox amp.
    • Creamy - Not too clean, but not really distorted. That driven tone that gives the perfect amount of sustain for what's being played.
    • Crispies - When the high end is beginning to be overdriven.
    • Crunchy - Guitar tone with overdrive or distortion but isn't completely distorted. Think classic rock.
    • Dime - Turning all the knobs to 10.
    • Dive Bomb - Really cranking down on the whammy bar to drop the pitch of a string. Think Eddie Van Halen.
    • Farty/flubby - Very similar to woofy, only a little looser sounding.
    • Fizzy - see Sizzle.
    • G string - The 3rd string on your guitar. Tuned to G in standard tuning.
    • GAS - Gear/Guitar Acquisition Syndrome
    • Icepicky - That sound you get sometimes when you're standing directly in front of a really loud amp. Or when you have way too much treble in your tone. Feels like an icepick in your ear making your brain bleed. The opposite end of the not-recommended-guitar-tone-spectrum from woofy.
    • In the groove/In the pocket - Being in sync and on the beat with the bass and drums and playing that perfect part that goes perfectly with what the band is playing.
    • Klone - a clone of the Klon Centaur pedal. The Klon Centaur pedal was apparently sprinkled with fairy dust, sneezed on by unicorns, and hidden in the Leprechaun's pot at the end of the rainbow. To engage one and play a chord causes celestial choirs to begin singing. Due to their high cost, we mere mortals play klones.
    • Lush - Often used to describe a chorus pedal that is dialed-in really well.
    • Mid-hump - The sound a Tube Screamer is really good at. It accentuates the middle frequencies to make the guitar a little more punchy.
    • NGD - New Guitar Day
    • NAD - New Amp Day
    • NPD - New Pedal Day
    • Pocket bass - A bass player that is known for playing in the pocket. They're really good at meshing with the rest of the band and holding the song together. Can also be used for other members of the band, ex, pocket drummer.
    • Pot - Potentiometers. What the knobs on your guitar are attached to. You turn them and the Volume or Tone changes.
    • Punchy - Cutting through the mix.
    • Pups - Pickups on your guitar.
    • Quack - The sound a Strat makes when using selector positions 2 and 4 (the in-betweens). Some say that God only intended a Strat to be played on the neck pickup. Others say that a Strat just isn't a Strat unless it quacks.
    • Sizzle - That sound you hear on the top end of your tone that makes you think you just poured a glass of Coke.
    • Slide - A porcelain/glass/acrylic/metal/etc tube worn on the finger or bar held in the hand that is used to play slide guitar.
    • Spank - Another Strat sound. Think of the guitar sounds you hear in some old school funk. That's spanky.
    • Sparkle - Often used to refer to the smooth high end on a Fender amp.
    • Transparent - Referring to pedals that don't really color your sound. Tube Screamers give a definite mid-hump bump. Part of the mythos about a Klon is that it is supposed to be transparent. It drives your amp without really adding anything to the sound.
    • Trem - Short for the tremolo system on a guitar. A bridge on some sort of pivot that can be used to manipulate the pitch of the strings.
    • TS - Tube Screamer
    • Wanker - Someone who tries to demonstrate their guitar prowess by diming an amp and shredding when, not always but most often, it's pretty obvious that they really should be in the woodshed with the rest of us. Wankers can often be found at your local guitar shop.
    • Whammy Bar - The arm that one uses to manipulate the trem of a guitar. Depending on the player, it can be used for everything from subtle vibrato to dive bombs.
    • Wiggle Stick - see Whammy Bar
    • Woman Tone - The creamy tone that Clapton made famous during his days with Cream (which has nothing to do with his tone being creamy).
    • Wood pile - A collection of guitars.
    • Woodshed - Whether used as a noun or verb, this is practice. You need to woodshed or you going to the woodshed translates to time practicing.
    • Woofy - Bass-y. Lots of bass. The woofer in your speakers is happy. In fixing a woofy sound, you want to start by backing off the bass and not just immediately adding a lot of treble. Otherwise you risk going from woofy to icepicky.
  • Technique
    • Barre Chord - A chord played using a barre, which is when one finger covers more than one string. The barred F chord is often a beginning player's nemesis.
    • BPM - Beats per minute.
    • Chicks - Quick stabs to a string or strings that are quickly silenced when comping. Often played on the 2 and 4.
    • Chucking - A percussive technique where all the strings are muted but hit while strumming.
    • Comping - Laying back and playing simple accompaniment behind the band. Comping often consists of playing chicks.
    • Cowboy Chord - A chord that is played down by the nut and typically has ringing, open strings. These are a staple for campfire singalongs.
    • Hammer-on - A note played in conjunction to another. The first note is played (open or fretted), and then the second note is sounded by hammering a finger onto the appropriate fret.
    • Lick - A short, melodic idea. A lick is the basis for a solo. String together 4 or 5 compatible licks, and you have enough to fill a 12-bar solo.
    • Little Chord - A chord played while accompanying someone else that consists of just 2, 3, or 4 notes. Often played on the treble side of the fretboard so that what is being played stays out of the tonal spectrum of the bass and singer.
    • Power Chord - A chord played using only the root and fifth. Often used in rock and pop music.
    • Pull-off - A note played in conjunction to another. The first note is played (fretted) and then the second note is sounded by pulling the finger off of the fretboard so that the second note is heard (fretted or open).
    • Riff - A lick or two that are used as a theme throughout a song to give it continuity and lock in a groove. Think of the song Play That Funky Music. That opening line that everyone knows and that repeats for the first 45 seconds or so of that song is a great riff.
    • Shredding - Playing lots of notes really fast and incorporating tapping and sweeps and other ornamentation in a virtuosic level of playing. Think Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani.
    • Slide (v) - Playing a note and then, without lifting your finger off the fretboard, moving it to the next note while letting the string continue to ring giving it a glissando sound.
    • Small Chord - A chord that doesn't require a lot of notes like a major chord where 1,3,5 are all that are required for its voicing.
    • Tall Chord - A chord with lots of notes that would be tall if stacked on a staff. Ex, a 7#9 chord has a 1,3,5,b7,#9.
    • Tweedly - A quick, ornamental combination of a hammer-on and pull-off
    • Vamping - Comping over a chord or simple chord sequence for a period of time, often used while waiting on a singer or instrumentalist to come in. Also, vamping is often used in instruction. For instance Griff uses a one chord vamp in SBS for students to practice the left and right facing patterns.
 
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dvs

Green Mountain Blues
Nice work! I think your description of Vamping is actually a better definition of Comping, though. Vamping would be comping over a chord or a simple chord sequence played over and over, usually for an indefinite amount of time until some cue to move on (e.g., vamping on the I chord while the singer tells a story; for the intro we vamp on I and IV until the piano starts playing the melody).
 

snarf

making guitars wish they were still trees
Nice work! I think your description of Vamping is actually a better definition of Comping...
Thanks for this! Not sure how I missed it. I didn't even have comping on the list, so I got it added, and then got the definitions for those corrected.

Anybody else want to vet it for me?
 
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MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Thanks for this! Not sure how I missed it. I didn't even have comping on the list, so I got it added, and then got the definitions for those corrected.

Anybody else want to vet it for me?

I just read it over and it looks great to me. I like dough's example of Vamping too.
vamping on the I chord while the singer tells a story
 
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snarf

making guitars wish they were still trees
OK - It's been the weekend and a couple of you have vetted it with no one saying I screwed something up terribly. So, @MikeS I think this is as good as it's going to get for now. Here's the latest version. I may try to do some basic theory terms as I think Paleo suggested at some point in the future, but, if I do, it'll be a bulk add, and I can just add it to whatever thread where this ends up.

  • Gear
    • Action - How your guitar is setup. Are your strings really low on the fretboard? Then you have a low action.
    • Ax - Another name for your guitar.
    • Bolt-on - They type of guitar where the neck is bolted to the body instead of glued. A Strat is a bolt-on. A Les Paul is not.
    • Chime - Often used to refer to that bell-like higher tone of a Vox amp.
    • Creamy - Not too clean, but not really distorted. That driven tone that gives the perfect amount of sustain for what's being played.
    • Crispies - When the high end is beginning to be overdriven.
    • Crunchy - Guitar tone with overdrive or distortion but isn't completely distorted. Think classic rock.
    • Dime - Turning all the knobs to 10.
    • Dive Bomb - Really cranking down on the whammy bar to drop the pitch of a string. Think Eddie Van Halen.
    • Farty/flubby - Very similar to woofy, only a little looser sounding.
    • Fizzy - see Sizzle.
    • G string - The 3rd string on your guitar. Tuned to G in standard tuning.
    • GAS - Gear/Guitar Acquisition Syndrome
    • Icepicky - That sound you get sometimes when you're standing directly in front of a really loud amp. Or when you have way too much treble in your tone. Feels like an icepick in your ear making your brain bleed. The opposite end of the not-recommended-guitar-tone-spectrum from woofy.
    • In the groove/In the pocket - Being in sync and on the beat with the bass and drums and playing that perfect part that goes perfectly with what the band is playing.
    • Klone - a clone of the Klon Centaur pedal. The Klon Centaur pedal was apparently sprinkled with fairy dust, sneezed on by unicorns, and hidden in the Leprechaun's pot at the end of the rainbow. To engage one and play a chord causes celestial choirs to begin singing. Due to their high cost, we mere mortals play klones.
    • Lush - Often used to describe a chorus pedal that is dialed-in really well.
    • Mid-hump - The sound a Tube Screamer is really good at. It accentuates the middle frequencies to make the guitar a little more punchy.
    • NGD - New Guitar Day
    • NAD - New Amp Day
    • NPD - New Pedal Day
    • Pocket bass - A bass player that is known for playing in the pocket. They're really good at meshing with the rest of the band and holding the song together. Can also be used for other members of the band, ex, pocket drummer.
    • Pot - Potentiometers. What the knobs on your guitar are attached to. You turn them and the Volume or Tone changes.
    • Punchy - Cutting through the mix.
    • Pups - Pickups on your guitar.
    • Quack - The sound a Strat makes when using selector positions 2 and 4 (the in-betweens). Some say that God only intended a Strat to be played on the neck pickup. Others say that a Strat just isn't a Strat unless it quacks.
    • Set Neck - A guitar where the neck is glued into place. A Les Paul is a set neck guitar. A Strat is a bolt on.
    • Sizzle - That sound you hear on the top end of your tone that makes you think you just poured a glass of Coke.
    • Slide (noun) - A porcelain/glass/acrylic/metal/etc tube worn on the finger or bar held in the hand that is used to play slide guitar.
    • Spank - Another Strat sound. Think of the guitar sounds you hear in some old school funk. That's spanky.
    • Sparkle - Often used to refer to the smooth high end on a Fender amp.
    • Transparent - Referring to pedals that don't really color your sound. Tube Screamers give a definite mid-hump bump. Part of the mythos about a Klon is that it is supposed to be transparent. It drives your amp without really adding anything to the sound.
    • Trem - Short for the tremolo system on a guitar. A bridge on some sort of pivot that can be used to manipulate the pitch of the strings.
    • TS - Tube Screamer
    • Wanker - Someone who tries to demonstrate their guitar prowess by diming an amp and shredding when, not always but most often, it's pretty obvious that they really should be in the woodshed with the rest of us. Wankers can often be found at your local guitar shop.
    • Whammy Bar - The arm that one uses to manipulate the trem of a guitar. Depending on the player, it can be used for everything from subtle vibrato to dive bombs.
    • Wiggle Stick - see Whammy Bar
    • Woman Tone - The creamy tone that Clapton made famous during his days with Cream (which has nothing to do with his tone being creamy).
    • Wood pile - A collection of guitars.
    • Woodshed - Whether used as a noun or verb, this is practice. You need to woodshed or you going to the woodshed translates to time practicing.
    • Woofy - Bass-y. Lots of bass. The woofer in your speakers is happy. In fixing a woofy sound, you want to start by backing off the bass and not just immediately adding a lot of treble. Otherwise you risk going from woofy to icepicky.
  • Technique
    • Barre Chord - A chord played using a barre, which is when one finger covers more than one string. The barred F chord is often a beginning player's nemesis.
    • BPM - Beats per minute.
    • Chicks - Quick stabs to a string or strings that are quickly silenced when comping. Often played on the 2 and 4.
    • Chucking - A percussive technique where all the strings are muted but hit while strumming.
    • Comping - Laying back and playing simple accompaniment behind the band. Comping often consists of playing chicks.
    • Cowboy Chord - A chord that is played down by the nut and typically has ringing, open strings. These are a staple for campfire singalongs.
    • Hammer-on - A note played in conjunction to another. The first note is played (open or fretted), and then the second note is sounded by hammering a finger onto the appropriate fret.
    • Lick - A short, melodic idea. A lick is the basis for a solo. String together 4 or 5 compatible licks, and you have enough to fill a 12-bar solo.
    • Little Chord - A chord played while accompanying someone else that consists of just 2, 3, or 4 notes. Often played on the treble side of the fretboard so that what is being played stays out of the tonal spectrum of the bass and singer.
    • Power Chord - A chord played using only the root and fifth. Often used in rock and pop music.
    • Pull-off - A note played in conjunction to another. The first note is played (fretted) and then the second note is sounded by pulling the finger off of the fretboard so that the second note is heard (fretted or open).
    • Riff - A lick or two that are used as a theme throughout a song to give it continuity and lock in a groove. Think of the song Play That Funky Music. That opening line that everyone knows and that repeats for the first 45 seconds or so of that song is a great riff.
    • Shredding - Playing lots of notes really fast and incorporating tapping and sweeps and other ornamentation in a virtuosic level of playing. Think Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani.
    • Slide (verb) - Playing a note and then, without lifting your finger off the fretboard, moving it to the next note while letting the string continue to ring giving it a glissando sound.
    • Small Chord - A chord that doesn't require a lot of notes. Think a major chord where 1,3,5 are all that are required for its voicing.
    • Tall Chord - A chord with lots of notes that would be tall if stacked on a staff. Ex, a 7#9 chord has a 1,3,5,b7,#9.
    • Tweedly - A quick, ornamental combination of a hammer-on and pull-off
    • Vamping - Comping over a chord or simple chord sequence for a period of time, often used while waiting on a singer or instrumentalist to come in, as an example, the band may vamp on the I chord while the singer is telling a story before or during a song. Also, vamping is often used in instruction. For instance Griff uses a one chord vamp in SBS for students to practice the left and right facing patterns.
 
Last edited:
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