Angel Zamora is a guitarist and composer in several different music genres, but is noticeably influenced by shred and metal styles. He has studied with virtuoso neo-classical guitarist Tom Hess. Angel is also a music / guitar instructor, and he currently resides in Mexico City. Recently he co-authored a book called, “Serious Improvement for the Developing Guitarist”, which is availble now from The Next Step Guitar.
Angel Zamora's "Speed Vs. Speed" Advice Article
In my experience, most guitarists tend to fight against the difficulty of new material for a simple reason - they try to play the new piece as fast as possible right after they’ve just read it for the first time.
One of the problems with that approach is that if you don’t understand how the piece you’re practicing exists within the context of music, then you’re missing the starting point to develop from. We often forget that the musician who invented the phrase was probably considering many different things when they wrote it, such as:
- The value of the notes
Many guitarists forget about the value of each individual note in a given phrase, and just play every note as fast as possible, which kills the original feel of the phrase. If you play a song and decide to change the timing of certain parts, then you must at least attempt to keep the feeling, and hopefully even improve upon it. Sadly, this isn’t the case with most cover songs. The band doesn't give the notes their proper value, and the result is a bad version of the original.
- The unique tone produced by each string
Only the first and the sixth strings (on a guitar with at least 23 frets) include all the notes possible in the range of a six-string guitar in standard tuning. So why are there four other strings? Well, one reason is tone. If you play the same note on a different string you’ll get a noticeably thinner or thicker sound (in physical terms the frequencies of the waves are the same, but the amplitude of the waves are different).
For example, if you play the 19th fret on the 6th string, and then the 19th fret on the 1st string, both notes are the same, but the different strings you play them on produce their own unique feel. The difference in sound and feel will become more subtle when the strings you choose to play the same notes on are closer together. Simply meaning that an E note played on the 1st string will have a more similar feel to an E note on the 2nd string than it will on the 6th.
So always keep in mind that your decisions regarding which string to play a note on will affect how the phrase ultimately sounds and how easy it is to play. Sometimes the difference may be very subtle, but the unique feeling produced by playing a certain note on a certain string will have a bigger effect on the listener than you might think.
Some other musical factors to consider when practicing are:
- The harmony
- The tempo
- The picking hand
- The effects
… and so on.
Now I’ve given you a very basic introduction into why an exercise, lick, or phrase is written in certain manner, and how it takes many things coming together for the phrase to feel right in a musical context. With this understanding you can actually learn new material faster because you have an improved concept about all that goes into a piece of music feeling right. You can reach your goals with greater confidence, and adapt the way things are played to better fit your sound and style.
Oh, and always remember to begin slowly and take your time when developing speed with a new lick. That way you don’t lose focus of all the factors I just mentioned, and your playing stays smooth and synchronized, instead of sounding like you’re trying to play something faster than you’re comfortable and capable of.
See you next time,
Angel Zamora
Essential Angel Zamora links:
www.angel-zamora.com
angel@angel-zamora.com
-- Dave B.
©2006 Angel Zamora. Used with permission.