Uncertain about what a "Woofy" tone is, or what a "Tweedly" is?
Griff put together this glossary for us and A long time member Snarf added to it....
Gear/Sound Related Words
· Action – The height of the strings on your guitar.
· Archtop – traditional jazz type guitars with an arch to the top
· Ax – your guitar
· Bloom – The tendency of a note to ring out without sounding or feeling dampened in any way (almost more of a feel.)
· Bolt-On – a guitar neck that is bolted to the body – most strats and teles, as opposed to Les Pauls which are “set neck.”
· Bright – having a lot of high frequency (high end) content in the sound
· Cans – headphones
· Chime – Similar to “sparkle,” for some reason this tends to apply more to Vox style amps.
· Creamy – A tone that is warm, not too bright, and not super dark, but leans towards the darker side. There will be some overdrive, but not a ton. Fuzz pedals often lend themselves to a creamy tone.
· Crispies - When the high end is beginning to be overdriven.
· Crunch – A tight overdrive/distortion when palm muted. Also can be referring to the overdrive or distorted sound
· Cut – The ability of a guitar tone to “cut” through a mix and be heard. It’s in the high frequencies
· Dark – Lacking high end content in the sound so the notes may be hard to hear
· Dime – turn it up to 10
· Dirt – overdrive, distortion
· Drive – yet another name for overdrive/distortion.
· Fart Out/Flubby – The tendency of an amp with too much low end content going into the preamp to “collapse” in the low end. The notes won’t be clear.
· F-Hole – the holes shaped like a cursive “f” on 335 guitars, for example.
· Fizz – The extreme high end content in a sound that is unpleasant to listen to. One person’s “fizz” is another person’s “cut”.
· Flattop – most acoustic guitars have flat tops.
· Gain – for guitar, usually another term for overdrive or distortion. In recording, simply another name for volume.
· GAS – Gear. Acquisition. Syndrome. We all have this
· Glass – tubes
· Glassy – referring to a tone that has plenty of sparkle and is clean.
· 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.
· Intonation – the ability of the guitar to be in tune throughout its entire range.
· Jazz Box – a jazz guitar, usually a large hollowbody style guitar.
· Klone – either a direct copy or similar version of an original Klon Centaur pedal (unobtanium – meaning, you can’t get one.)
· Lush – A sound that has stereo modulation like chorus or delays, creating a large soundscape beyond what a traditional guitar amp will do. Also “shimmery”
· Mid-Hump – The mid range bump present in Tube Screamer and Klon style overdrive pedals.
· NAD – New Amp Day
· Neck Through – Guitars where the neck is a piece of wood that goes all the way through the body.
· NGD – New Guitar Day
· NOS – New Old Stock
· NPD – New Pedal Day
· Plectrum – a pick
· Pocket player - A musician that is known for playing in the pocket. They're really good at meshing with the rest of the band
· Pot – short for potentiometer, and is the electrical name for your volume and tone controls on your guitar.
· Punchy – that “hit you in the chest” feeling from an amp.
· Pups – the pickups on your guitar
· Quack – Refers to Stratocasters on the 2nd and 4th positions of the 5 way switch. These positions get a certain out-of-phase sound that only Strats can do.
· Sag – the speed at which an amp gets the note out.
· Set Neck - A guitar where the neck is glued into place.
· Sizzle - That sound you hear on the top end of your tone that makes you think you just poured a soft drink.
· 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 – A bright tone, usually coming from a Strat or Tele, that is clean and cuts without being harsh or too bright (icepicky).
· Sparkle – The highest frequencies amps can produce. Traditionally, Fender blackface amps provide plenty of sparkle, while old Tweed amps and Marshalls do not.
· Thick – having more low-mid content in the tone (between about 150 and 500 hz)
· Thin – lacking low-mid content in the tone
· Transparent – A pedal that doesn’t increase or decrease any frequencies.
· Trem/Floating Bridge/Whammy Bar – The bar on most strats and many other modern guitars that changes the pitch of the strings.
· TS – A tube screamer style pedal
· Woman Tone – resembling Clapton’s tone on the early Cream albums. Generally you achieve it using a non master-volume amp turned up all the way, but you roll off (reduce) the tone control to 0 or 1 on the bridge pickup.
· 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 – A tone that has a LOT of low end content, and very little high end
Technique Related Words
· Barre Chord – a chord that requires a barre technique (fretting more than one string with a single finger.)
· Chicks - Quick stabs to a string or strings that are quickly silenced when comping. Often played on the 2 and 4.
· Chicken Picking – Hybrid picking (using pick and fingers) in a country-fied context.
· Chucking – hitting all the strings while muting them
· Comping - Laying back and playing simple accompaniment behind the band. Comping often consists of playing chicks.
· Cowboy Chord – simple, open chords
· Double Stop – playing 2 notes at a time, usually a 3rd apart.
· Flat Picking – using a traditional plectrum instead of fingerpicks (bluegrass.)
· Hammer-On – to play another note, higher than the previous note, with the left hand only “hammering on” to the new note.
· Left/Right Facing – BGU specific, these are scale patterns that either flow to the left of the root, or the right of the root (also known as headstock facing or body facing.)
· Little Chord – a chord that is used in a band setting with only 2 or 3 notes.
· Palm Mute – to mute with the picking hand palm
· PullOff - to play another note, lower than the previous note, with the left hand only “pulling off” to the new note.
· Rake – dragging the pick across other strings than the one you intend to hit.
· Shred – to play a lot of notes very fast
· Slide – to move from one note to another with a slide (this is also a slur, typically)
· Sluffing – BGU specific – letting go of a chord to make the change to a new chord on the last beat of a measure
· Slur – either a hammer-on or pull-off, a note that is not articulated with the pick
· Staccato – a short note
· Sweeping or sweep picking – playing multiple strings, one after the other with the pick falling in one direction (economy picking)
· Tapping/Tap – to tap with the picking hand to fret notes. Usually while holding a chord with the fretting hand.
· Turn – a quick hammer-on, pull-off to an upper note and back.
· Tweedly – same as a turn, but BGU specific
· Vibrato – a rhythmic subtle increase and decrease in pitch (BGU Specific – Sugar)
Musical Words
· Bar – another name for a measure of music, the place I like to hang out when I’m not playing guitar
· BPM – beats per minute, a measure of tempo (speed)
· Chord Function – How a chord functions in the key for a given chord progression or song.
· In the pocket/groove – more than just playing in time with the band, playing the same style with the same subtle nuances
· Lick – a phrase in a solo or song consisting of mostly single notes
· Metric Modulation – A change of meter at the beginning or middle of a piece of music. For example, a change from straight to swing feel.
· Mode – a “mode” of a scale is a new scale, using the same notes as the original scale, but starting on a different note within the original scale. Alternately, a mode can be described as a different, but similar scale, starting on the same root note.
· Nashville Numbering – describing a song based on the chord function and not on actual chords – I V ii IV instead of G D Amin C
· Parallel Scale – two scales are parallel if they share a root note, but have different notes.
· Playing On The Porch – BGU Specific, another name for playing by yourself (acoustic.)
· Playing On/Ahead/Behind the beat – Different musical styles tend to play either right in front of the beat (just before it), right on top (exactly at the same time), or behind (just after the beat.)
· Power Chord – a chord with only a root and 5th
· Relative Scale – two scales are relative if they contain the same notes, but start in a different place (see mode)
· Rhythm Figure – the rhythmic motif of a phrase or chords that gets repeated later, with different notes or chords.
· Riff – a repeating idea that reappears throughout a song
· Scale – a group of notes that go together, and are in order
· Scale/Chord formula – the numerical representation of a scale or chord, using the parallel major scale/chord as a reference.
· Slash Chord – sometimes called a polychord, it is a chord “over” a different bass note than the root.
· Standard Harmony Rule – a music theory rule about which chords are major or minor in a given key.
· Straight Feel – beats are evenly divided into 2 pieces.
· Swing Feel – beats are evenly divided into 3 pieces.
· Tag – to repeat the last few bars of a tune before ending it.
· Tall Chord – a chord with more than just root, 3rd, and 5th. Named because on a staff it looks tall.
· Tonal Center – the “home base” for a song or chord progression.
· Vamp – to play a chord or short chord progression over and over until given the cue to continue
Griff put together this glossary for us and A long time member Snarf added to it....
Gear/Sound Related Words
· Action – The height of the strings on your guitar.
· Archtop – traditional jazz type guitars with an arch to the top
· Ax – your guitar
· Bloom – The tendency of a note to ring out without sounding or feeling dampened in any way (almost more of a feel.)
· Bolt-On – a guitar neck that is bolted to the body – most strats and teles, as opposed to Les Pauls which are “set neck.”
· Bright – having a lot of high frequency (high end) content in the sound
· Cans – headphones
· Chime – Similar to “sparkle,” for some reason this tends to apply more to Vox style amps.
· Creamy – A tone that is warm, not too bright, and not super dark, but leans towards the darker side. There will be some overdrive, but not a ton. Fuzz pedals often lend themselves to a creamy tone.
· Crispies - When the high end is beginning to be overdriven.
· Crunch – A tight overdrive/distortion when palm muted. Also can be referring to the overdrive or distorted sound
· Cut – The ability of a guitar tone to “cut” through a mix and be heard. It’s in the high frequencies
· Dark – Lacking high end content in the sound so the notes may be hard to hear
· Dime – turn it up to 10
· Dirt – overdrive, distortion
· Drive – yet another name for overdrive/distortion.
· Fart Out/Flubby – The tendency of an amp with too much low end content going into the preamp to “collapse” in the low end. The notes won’t be clear.
· F-Hole – the holes shaped like a cursive “f” on 335 guitars, for example.
· Fizz – The extreme high end content in a sound that is unpleasant to listen to. One person’s “fizz” is another person’s “cut”.
· Flattop – most acoustic guitars have flat tops.
· Gain – for guitar, usually another term for overdrive or distortion. In recording, simply another name for volume.
· GAS – Gear. Acquisition. Syndrome. We all have this
· Glass – tubes
· Glassy – referring to a tone that has plenty of sparkle and is clean.
· 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.
· Intonation – the ability of the guitar to be in tune throughout its entire range.
· Jazz Box – a jazz guitar, usually a large hollowbody style guitar.
· Klone – either a direct copy or similar version of an original Klon Centaur pedal (unobtanium – meaning, you can’t get one.)
· Lush – A sound that has stereo modulation like chorus or delays, creating a large soundscape beyond what a traditional guitar amp will do. Also “shimmery”
· Mid-Hump – The mid range bump present in Tube Screamer and Klon style overdrive pedals.
· NAD – New Amp Day
· Neck Through – Guitars where the neck is a piece of wood that goes all the way through the body.
· NGD – New Guitar Day
· NOS – New Old Stock
· NPD – New Pedal Day
· Plectrum – a pick
· Pocket player - A musician that is known for playing in the pocket. They're really good at meshing with the rest of the band
· Pot – short for potentiometer, and is the electrical name for your volume and tone controls on your guitar.
· Punchy – that “hit you in the chest” feeling from an amp.
· Pups – the pickups on your guitar
· Quack – Refers to Stratocasters on the 2nd and 4th positions of the 5 way switch. These positions get a certain out-of-phase sound that only Strats can do.
· Sag – the speed at which an amp gets the note out.
· Set Neck - A guitar where the neck is glued into place.
· Sizzle - That sound you hear on the top end of your tone that makes you think you just poured a soft drink.
· 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 – A bright tone, usually coming from a Strat or Tele, that is clean and cuts without being harsh or too bright (icepicky).
· Sparkle – The highest frequencies amps can produce. Traditionally, Fender blackface amps provide plenty of sparkle, while old Tweed amps and Marshalls do not.
· Thick – having more low-mid content in the tone (between about 150 and 500 hz)
· Thin – lacking low-mid content in the tone
· Transparent – A pedal that doesn’t increase or decrease any frequencies.
· Trem/Floating Bridge/Whammy Bar – The bar on most strats and many other modern guitars that changes the pitch of the strings.
· TS – A tube screamer style pedal
· Woman Tone – resembling Clapton’s tone on the early Cream albums. Generally you achieve it using a non master-volume amp turned up all the way, but you roll off (reduce) the tone control to 0 or 1 on the bridge pickup.
· 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 – A tone that has a LOT of low end content, and very little high end
Technique Related Words
· Barre Chord – a chord that requires a barre technique (fretting more than one string with a single finger.)
· Chicks - Quick stabs to a string or strings that are quickly silenced when comping. Often played on the 2 and 4.
· Chicken Picking – Hybrid picking (using pick and fingers) in a country-fied context.
· Chucking – hitting all the strings while muting them
· Comping - Laying back and playing simple accompaniment behind the band. Comping often consists of playing chicks.
· Cowboy Chord – simple, open chords
· Double Stop – playing 2 notes at a time, usually a 3rd apart.
· Flat Picking – using a traditional plectrum instead of fingerpicks (bluegrass.)
· Hammer-On – to play another note, higher than the previous note, with the left hand only “hammering on” to the new note.
· Left/Right Facing – BGU specific, these are scale patterns that either flow to the left of the root, or the right of the root (also known as headstock facing or body facing.)
· Little Chord – a chord that is used in a band setting with only 2 or 3 notes.
· Palm Mute – to mute with the picking hand palm
· PullOff - to play another note, lower than the previous note, with the left hand only “pulling off” to the new note.
· Rake – dragging the pick across other strings than the one you intend to hit.
· Shred – to play a lot of notes very fast
· Slide – to move from one note to another with a slide (this is also a slur, typically)
· Sluffing – BGU specific – letting go of a chord to make the change to a new chord on the last beat of a measure
· Slur – either a hammer-on or pull-off, a note that is not articulated with the pick
· Staccato – a short note
· Sweeping or sweep picking – playing multiple strings, one after the other with the pick falling in one direction (economy picking)
· Tapping/Tap – to tap with the picking hand to fret notes. Usually while holding a chord with the fretting hand.
· Turn – a quick hammer-on, pull-off to an upper note and back.
· Tweedly – same as a turn, but BGU specific
· Vibrato – a rhythmic subtle increase and decrease in pitch (BGU Specific – Sugar)
Musical Words
· Bar – another name for a measure of music, the place I like to hang out when I’m not playing guitar
· BPM – beats per minute, a measure of tempo (speed)
· Chord Function – How a chord functions in the key for a given chord progression or song.
· In the pocket/groove – more than just playing in time with the band, playing the same style with the same subtle nuances
· Lick – a phrase in a solo or song consisting of mostly single notes
· Metric Modulation – A change of meter at the beginning or middle of a piece of music. For example, a change from straight to swing feel.
· Mode – a “mode” of a scale is a new scale, using the same notes as the original scale, but starting on a different note within the original scale. Alternately, a mode can be described as a different, but similar scale, starting on the same root note.
· Nashville Numbering – describing a song based on the chord function and not on actual chords – I V ii IV instead of G D Amin C
· Parallel Scale – two scales are parallel if they share a root note, but have different notes.
· Playing On The Porch – BGU Specific, another name for playing by yourself (acoustic.)
· Playing On/Ahead/Behind the beat – Different musical styles tend to play either right in front of the beat (just before it), right on top (exactly at the same time), or behind (just after the beat.)
· Power Chord – a chord with only a root and 5th
· Relative Scale – two scales are relative if they contain the same notes, but start in a different place (see mode)
· Rhythm Figure – the rhythmic motif of a phrase or chords that gets repeated later, with different notes or chords.
· Riff – a repeating idea that reappears throughout a song
· Scale – a group of notes that go together, and are in order
· Scale/Chord formula – the numerical representation of a scale or chord, using the parallel major scale/chord as a reference.
· Slash Chord – sometimes called a polychord, it is a chord “over” a different bass note than the root.
· Standard Harmony Rule – a music theory rule about which chords are major or minor in a given key.
· Straight Feel – beats are evenly divided into 2 pieces.
· Swing Feel – beats are evenly divided into 3 pieces.
· Tag – to repeat the last few bars of a tune before ending it.
· Tall Chord – a chord with more than just root, 3rd, and 5th. Named because on a staff it looks tall.
· Tonal Center – the “home base” for a song or chord progression.
· Vamp – to play a chord or short chord progression over and over until given the cue to continue
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