Things to know about pedals, stamp box and multieffects

Every Great guitarist have their distinct sound. They achieve this unique sound with a combination of signature guitar, carefully selected amp and a very unique combination of pedals and stamp boxes. One cannot use high gain distortion pedal to get the sound of great B B King.

First one thing a guitar player can do is to study guitar gear used by his most favorite guitar heroes. But one should also have his own sound and for this it is better to visit shop and try out different pedals first hand. But one should also know how to connect one pedal over other and how a pedal sound if its run through another pedal. Let us discuss some basic pedals which are mostly used.

1)  Distortion or Over Drive Pedals: Without going to technicality here I will discuss about different sound these padels produce.
Distortion: This pedal gives a crunchy, edgy type of gritty sound with plenty of sustain. It is the basic sound of the classic rock bands as well as heavy rock bands all the way to metal bands. It give a guitar player instant ability to create legendary Rock sound instantly.


Overdrive pedal: This pedal has a more hollow sound, usually less sustain and a more "bluesy" sound. There are many overdrive pedals out there, but the one with the most fame attached to it would probably be the Tube Screamer, by Ibanez. Now a days many companies are making a Tube Screamer type overdrive pedal which are also good in their own rights. Stevie Ray Vaughan used Tube Screamers throughout his career, and made this pedal legendary. If you pludge a Tube screamer directly to a clean Amp and tune the guitar in Eb then one can achieve the legendary sound of Stevie Ray Voughan sound instantly.



2) Compressor: Next I would like to discuss about compressor pedal now. This compress the signal send by your guitar to reduce the dynamic value to the level set by a you (guitarist).
The best use of compressor is to produce country electric guitar sound. You Take a telecaster and plug it through a compressor pedal to a vintage fender Amp and enjoy the evergreen sound of counter guitar.

It is also used extensively in rock music. It take the distortion sound to a new level. It just help to decorate the sound of a distortion pedal.

3) Wah Wah Pedal: I think any serious guitarist know the function and use of wah wah pedal. It take the guitar signal up and down to create a unique human voice like sound. If use properly then wah wah sound  is the most decorative sound for a guitarist. One should know when and in which song this sound is appropriate and be expert in using this pedal by foot. One of the best use of wah wah pedal is found in classic instrumental song by Joe Satrianis Summer Song

4) \ Delays: This pedal keep the sound of a signal for sometime. Now a days degital delay pedals are also available in the market. It is a must have pedal for every serious guitarist. It can make the sound of a guitar lead soulful.

6) Flanger, chorus reverb: This a add on effects, may not be proper for every song,
Chorus is an effect that copies the input signal passed to it, modulates the pitch of it by some configured parameters, and stacks it back on top of the original signal. It was basically developed to emulate the sound of two singer singing together.

Flanger effects are "Comb Filters".  A comb filter combines a wave with a very slightly delayed version of itself, causing both constructive and destructive interference. The result is that some frequencies are boosted, and some are cut. A graph of the frequency response has evenly spaced spikes, hence the "comb".

 Reverb is the effect of playing a sound in an enclosed space, or a simulation of that effect. Every room have its own reverb so in live performance one can create same effect by using a reverb pedal. There are many reverb pedal like Chamber reverb, Plate reverb,  spring reverb and degital reverb.

There are other pedals like Booster, Octive, phaser etc. All are very useful and one should have complete knowledge about this.

Now a days Multieffect processor is also used extensively and are good and also getting better. Though some argue that it give a digital sound which is not desirable to many guitar lover. Though it can produce almost all kind of sound.
But pluging all the pedals is also a time taking and need considerable knowledge. Now which one is better Multieffect or pedal-board, the case is still pending in judges court.

Vocabulary for guitar player

Playing others cover song make atbest a good player but not a complete guitar player. For that you must know all scales, phrasing, composing and improvising. It is also required that one player must know different techniques that help him to keeps the listener in the edge of their seat.

Like speaking a language every person have his own vocabulary means all the words known and used by a particular person. More words a person knows more beautiful phrasing he can do while expressing his thinking. Same in the case of playing guitar, more techniques a person knows better will be his Vocabulary. 


Different type of techniques one guitar player should know are:


1) Playing fast with alternative picking: Playing fast run always give the impression that the person is a master in guitar playing. A person who can play fast can also play slow.


Fast playing must be accompanied with alternative picking, alternative picking is like walking, so if ones leg dont have harmony between two leg then there is a great chance of falling. 


2) String Skipping: String Skipping gives a great sound and can be played in place of arpeggios. One should get some videos of Paul Gilberrt to become a expert in this technique.


3) Tapping: Tapping is the most easy and effective way to make the playing sound fast. 


4) Vibrato: Every guitarist must have a good vibrato, this personifies his playing. If you dont have good virato then you must develop it immediately.


5) Legato: Its used in the place of alternative picking. Thumb rule in playing legato is there must distortion plugged with your electric guitar. Legato sound great if used properly. Joe Satriani is the master of the legato playing.


6) Arpeggios: Knowing arpeggios tread always always is a advantage in live improvisation in stage.


There are many other techniques which I will discuss later. First master all this techniques


Things to know before purchasing a Guitar

Becoming a guitar player is still still needs a comprehensive knowledge. One have to know different sound of different guitar, different sounds of different Amp and combination of which pedals can create a certain sound. Basically one have to play different guitar by going to a guitar shop and find out the sound which shouts his or her style of playing. One can even buy a guitar of his favorite guitar player and if one cannot effort it then atleast buy a lower range of the same family of that guitar company.

Regarding guitar there are broadly two types of guitar of two company, namely Fender and Gibson. Any other guitar are just either replica or a hi-bread of this two companies guitar. 

First take Fender: The signature sound of Fender is obtained from its single coil pick-ups. Fender basically use single coil pick-ups in all of its famous guitar model, which gives somewhat open sound. Two famous model of fender are:

Stratocaster and Telecaster: Some of the greats like Eric clapton, Eric Johnson, Riche Blackmore, Jeff Back use Stratocaster for their whole life. This guitar is being used for different type of music, starting from blues to Rock n Roll. If some ones hero is playing Stratocaster then he can go for any moder of stratocaster guitar right away. 

Telecaster on the other hand also use single coil pick-up and is famous for its legendary sound in Country and Bluegrass guitar. Using a vintage fender amp and a compressor pedal along with Telecaster can give the legendary Albert Lee sound right away.

Now Gibson, as fender single coil gives a hum sound which the owner of Gibson Company Les Paul want to avoid. So he introduced Humbucker Pickup. This is a two single coil wired together so that each pickup cancel the hum of other coil.

Guitar Greats like Slash, Jimi page, Joe bonamasa are few among many legendary guitarist who love this guitar and made it their life partner. Due to Humbucker pickups it give a tight sound which distinguish it from fender. Like Stratocaster Gibson's Les Paul standard is also a very versatile guitar used in all most all type of music.
Now a days both Fender and Gibson due to intense competition use both single and humbucker pickups in their products.

Super Guitars: As time passes by guitar manufacturer like Ibanez, Jackson and many other started making so called super guitar where they started using combination of both single coil and humbucker pickups in a single guitar. It made the guitar more versatile. One should follow his instinct in buying a Guitar. 

If you have any question please email me: ramendra25@gmail.com




Music composition

Music composition


This is the most comprehensive subject as every nation every culture have their own music, sound and scale preferences. So it totally depends on every persons inner instinct and expertise to determine a music composition. As I am interested in Rock, Blues and country music and playing this for sometime, so I will give my perspective about music composition. These are some factors one should know and follow while composition:

1)  Melody or harmony or lyrics : No one in the world knows while composing a some which should come first. For me lyrics and melody must go hand in hand while composing a song. Because if harmony come first it bind the melody of the song in rules like it must follow 1 IV V chord progression. One a person make a composition roughly with lyrics then only one should move to rhythm and harmony(Chord) section.

2) Motive : One should determine the motive of the song, like if some one wants a happy song but filled the song with minor chord or scales then it may sound unpleasant. Here one should know music theory properly to do justice with the song. Motives are also determined by intervals. Bigger the intervals happier will the song and vice verse.

3) Tension and resolve: As music is like giving a speech and in a speech the are high point and low point to capture the imagination of the audience. Same a song must have tension part and after creating tension one must resolve it by proper note. Tension can be created if one have proper knowledge of intervals. Smaller intervals create higher tension and bigger intervel create low tension. 4th 5th and 7th note of a scale creats most tension. And 1st note of the scale called tonic is the most relaxed note among all the notes of the scale. Again 2nd 3rd and 6th note of the scale are need to be resolved but didnot create too much tension.

4) Sound : Sound is very important. Guitarist spend good amount of time with their padel and Amp to get a good sound. One cannot give high gain distortion in a country ballad music and one will not use DJ sound in a contemporary Rock song. Every instrument in a composition must have a proper sound to shute the mood of the song.


This is in nutshell I discussed about composition. One have to study indebth to compose better and for that one have to study a lot.. Try to compose some tune today and enjoy

Guitar Modes made easy

Modes in music is like the fundamental grammar need to learn a language. To understand Modes one have to understand intervals.

Intervals: Intervals means distance between two notes. Two basic intervals in music are whole note and half note intervals. Whole note intervals means when one note is there between two notes, say the interval between C and D note is whole note as C# is there between them (C  C# D).
Again Half note means when two note played subsequently, one note after another the distance between C and C# is known as half note.

Now again we come back to modes. A scale have 7 degree or note. Mode means playing the same scale but starts from different degrees of that scale. And as we start from different degree of scale the intervals also change.
Let us take C Major scale as in this scale there is no sharp or flats. Let us see below
Here we can see in every subsequent mode the starting point and octive change and so does the interval.
Here I used symbol of whole-note=   ͜         and Half-note= ˽

C Ionian:   C  ͜    D  ͜   E ˽ F  ͜   G   ͜  A  ͜  B˽ C

D Dorian:            D  ͜   E ˽ F ͜   G  ͜   A  ͜   B ˽ C   ͜  D


E Phrygian:                 ˽ F ͜   G  ͜   A  ͜   B ˽ C   ͜  D   ͜  E


F Lydian :                           F ͜   G  ͜   A  ͜   B ˽ C   ͜  D   ͜  E ˽F 

G Mixilydian:                                ͜  A  ͜   B ˽ C   ͜  D   ͜  E ˽F  ͜  G 


 A Aeolian:                                         A  ͜   B ˽ C   ͜  D   ͜  E ˽F  ͜   G   ͜  A


B Locrian:                                               B ˽ C   ͜  D   ͜  E ˽F  ͜   G    ͜  A  ͜  B

Hasnohana by fossils intro tab

Hasnohana


|--------13-15-15/17----------------------------------------------------------------------
|--13-15---------------------------------------------------------------------13-13/15--15\13--
|-----------------------14\12--10---------------------------10-12-12b14---------------------
|-----------------------------------12---10\8--10-12---12------------------------------------
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


|-------------------------------------------------------------------------13-16-14-|-
|--13\11--11\10-----------------------------------------------10-13---------------|-
|--------------------10-10h12--10---------------10-10h12------------------------|-
|--------------------------------------10h12----------------------------------------|-
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-


The song is played in the key of F....