Natalie: Welcome to Gigajam, this is lesson five of our ten part course, the essential guitar skills course part one. I'm Natalie Barrass, our tutor is this man, it's David Young
David: Hello
N: David, how are you today?
D: I'm very well, how are you?
N: Feeling good, feeling good, raring to go
D: Fantastic
N: What we need to do first off, it's lesson five…
D: Yes
N: …but we need to say that lesson five kind of links into lesson four
D: Yes it does. Lesson four we introduced palm muting which is a very important technique for playing rock rhythm guitar
N: Mmmhmm
D: But today we're also gonna look at the combinations of note values we've learnt so far, we're gonna put some accents into the palm muting which we haven't…
N: Ahh
D: …really done before
N: No
D: And we're gonna just concentrate on our time keeping a little bit, and just make sure we're playing to the backing tracks nicely in time
N: Alright, so those are our lesson objectives
D: Yes
N: Let's, let's do a little recap on palm muting
D: On palm muting. The thing about the palm muting to get under you belt, as it were, is make sure that you know exactly what it sounds like. So what I'm just gonna quickly do is play it as it should be…
N: Yeah
D: …and play a couple things which may have gone wrong for some people as they've been practising it, and explain what they can do to bring them up to speed and then we can press on
N: Good one
D: The palm muting should be this tight clipped type rhythm guitar sound like this…as opposed to un-muted which is…
N: Mmmhmm
D: Most of the problems people find is that they don't get any muting at all, or one of the problems they find. That's usually because the right hand is too far back, back beyond the bridge so they get a…nothing seems to be happening at all
N: Yeah. It needs to be touching the strings
D: It needs to be touching the guitar strings as they go over the saddles on the bridge. That's the area really you're trying to touch the guitar strings with the palm of your hand
N: Okay
D: If your hand comes too far forward, too near the neck…completely dead
N: That's awful
D: Completely cardboardy. Just now, if I move it back, you'll hear it come into focus…
N: Yeah
D: …so to speak. And we want it about there I think
N: That's where we wanna be
D: That's where we want to be. And make sure that we have a nice even stroke, and that both strings are muted evenly, i.e. one's not ringing and one's muted, make sure they're both muted to the same degree
N: Alright
D: That's what we need to do
N: Good tips
D: Yes, yes indeed. What I'd like to talk about now is accenting the palm muting, although just…
N: Accenting
D: Accenting it yes. Just to give some emphasis and to accent some of the beats that we like to have to create the rhythm and make the int…the rhythm a little bit more interesting
N: Mmmhmm
D: I'm just gonna just play you a few things with some accents just thrown in just so you hear what I mean. Okay?
N: I heard them, it's when they, they were just that slightly bit more prominent
D: Much more prominent. How you achieve that is by un-muting
N: Ah right
D: Un-muting, which is something we've spoken about again in lesson four, but this is slight, slightly different because of the way we read it, and the way it's written on the page. So the accents will try to emphasise a certain element of the rhythm to bring that part out. And we're chugging along on eighth notes
N: Mmmhmm
D: So eighth notes only with accents marked above the eighth notes that are required to be accented. So if we have a nice little look at exercise one here for example, we have to be ever so careful when we're reading this. The rhythm itself looks very straightforward
N: It's just all eighth notes
D: All eighth notes…
N: Yeah
D: …nothing else to worry about at all. Nice and simple, however the accents are written above some of the notes. The accents are the little triangular…
N: Ahhh
D: …markings
N: The little upside down…
D: Yes
N: …v's. There's one there
D: That's right
N: And one almost…
D: And there's…
N: …in the middle of that bar
D: …one there as well
N: And then two more in the second bar
D: And wh…in musical notation anytime you want something accented or stressed, that's how an accent would be written
N: Okay…
D: Okay?
N: …and it's, wherever it's placed above the note, that's…
D: That's the beat or the note…
N: …the note that's to be accented
D: …that you're trying to accent. So in the case of rock rhythm guitar playing, we're playing eighth notes there and we're working on the assumption that they're all muted, unless there's an accent. So when I say you have to be careful when you're counting it, that's because you have to look very carefully at which notes truly are accented
N: Mmmhmm
D: And be quite…you can be careful if you're not really paying attention, just to see that the first accent there is actually above beat one
N: Yeah
D: The first hit on our guitar in exercise one is un-muted
N: And then the second one above beat three, ooh no!
D: Ahah, you see…
N: Ahhhaha
D: …tricky. It's above the 'and' of two
N: So that's one and…
D & N: Two and
D: And then three and, four and, are muted
N: Right
D: Okay? Bar two is exactly the same as bar one, so we've just got a repeating phrase
N: Mmmhmm
D: Two bar phrase. So yes, it's one and, two and. So we've got one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
N: Okay
D: That's where the accents will come
N: Can you demonstrate that on the guitar?
D: I certainly can. I'll do this on a chord of A5?
N: Yeah, that's fine
D: Yes. One, two, three, four
N: One and, two….one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and. It's amazing, the effect that those two, two accents in that first bar…
D: Yes
N: …that they have on the rhythm
D: They completely change the feel of the song or of the groove that you're playing. Very, very important
N: And that's quite a true point, when I was counting along the tendency is to want to really stress it on three
D: Yes
N: I don't know about when you're playing it?
D: You do stress it a bit, I think naturally, because that's part of the music, the reason it's accented is that it, it's stronger…
N: Mmm
D: …at that point. So there is a tendency to actually play it with a bit more, you know, conviction you might say. But in actual fact, all you need to do is un-mute and the accent will come out…
N: Yeah
D: …you haven't really gotta really hit it hard
N: Mmmhmm
D: There's no need to do that. I'd like to speak about the technique required to do that. We did speak along similar lines in lesson four when we were playing notes which were longer than eighth notes that we have to let go
N: Mmmhmm
D: But similarly here it's the same technique, but because it's all eighth notes, we're letting go and then putting our hands back much quicker
N: Yeah
D: And that's what's tricky about it. So you've only got an eighth note in duration to hit, un-mute it, and get your hand back on the guitar. So you've got this movement in and out of the guitar, not letting your arm move too much, not letting your hand have this huge exaggerated motion…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …but literally just lifting your hand far enough off the string, and if it's not touching, that's all we've gotta do
N: Right
D: Again, if I play that exercise, we just watch at how my right hand comes off from the guitar strings, it's simply one, two, three, four
N: Obviously here the movement of your hand has gotta be totally in synch with your rhythm playing
D: Completely, completely in time. And I think it's a valuable thing to think about it musically, almost emotionally if you like, but think about how it sounds like from a, you know, from a rock band…
N: What do you mean?
D: Well what I mean is like, play it from like a rock band standpoint. Don't just, obviously you've got to follow the music to understand what the exercise is asking you to do, but try and get into it a bit, and think about how you like rock music and how it's accented and play it with a bit of feeling
N: Mmmhmm
D: That's what I mean, rather than being just completely obsessed with, is my hand moving right? is it?…
N: (Laughs)
D: …you know, just try and think, 'where are the accents?', bah bum bum, bah bum bum. You know, maybe memorise one of the exercises…
N: Yeah
D: …and then just try and play it how you feel it
N: Mmmhmm
D: Obviously checking that is it the correct exercise…
N: (Laughs)
D: …with the accents in the correct place, obviously
N: Well talking of exercises…
D: Yes
N: …and playing, obviously it's a good thing to play along with music
D: Of course it is yes
N: So I've got the Xtractor here
D: Yes
N: Do you mind if I slow it down?
D: Not at all
N: Cos I thought that might be quite a good idea…
D: Of course
N: …if this is a new thing to you. You know, eighth notes are quick…
D: They are quick
N: …by their very nature
D: Yes
N: Slow it down…
D: Certainly
N: …so it's a bit easier to get into the vibe
D: Okay
N: Alright, so we'll play exercise one, we're doing it at the moment at sixty bpm
D: Okay, fine
N: And then get used to that and maybe take it up a notch
D: Maybe speed it up a little bit, yeah of course, okay?
N: Nice one
D: Fine
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: Okay, so this is just A5, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and….three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: I'm gonna stop you there…
D: Okay
N: …cos I wanna speed it up a bit
D: Fair enough
N: If that's alright with you...
D: That's absolutely fine
N: …how do you fancy going up to seventy?
D: Yes, that's absolutely fine
N: Alright so this is what you would do at home. How many times would you run through it? Is there a figure, or is it just...?
D: Not really, I think you just need to run it until you're comfortable with it, to be perfectly honest with you. One thing I would say is, of course, slow it down to the speed that you're comfortable with, but in some ways with this technique you can end up going a little bit too slowly
N: Ahh
D: You need to have an element of momentum. That actually felt quite difficult to me, to play that exercise that slowly because you need, sometimes with music if it's pushing you along a bit more, you know, your technique falls more into place. Not ridiculously fast…
N: Yeah
D: …clearly but, you know, find a happy medium and see if you can play at maybe seventy, and then start working your way up from that
N: Okay
D: You know I think that's a useful thing to do, definitely
N: Alright we we'll, let's try seventy then
D: Okay
N: And I'll just reset that
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: There's our click count in
D: Okay
N: So one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Alright
D: Okay
N: Before we run out of time…
D: Yes
N: …in part one, I just wanna have a look…
D: Mmmhmm
N: …at the rhythm…
D: Yes
N: …in exercise two that we've got here
D: Okay
N: So here we've got one and, two…
D: Yes
N: …and
D: Yes
N: What's the word for that, when it's on the 'and' not on…?
D: When it's on the offbeat
N: On the offbeat
D: Yes, if it's on the number…
N: Yeah
D: …it's on the onbeat…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and if it's on the 'and' it's on the offbeat which we don't tend to feel quite as naturally. In exercise one we had an accent on the 'and' of two…
N: Yeah
D: …so that one was on the offbeat. And rock music's made up of combinations of, you know, accents on the beat and off the beat
N: Mmm
D: But in this one, in particular, they're just on the offbeat, which I've written in specifically…
N: (Laughs)
D: …because it's quite tricky, and you need to…
N: You've done it to confuse us!
D: Well no, but you, you just need to get used to that feeling and not be frightened when you see it
N: Okay, alright, well in part two we're gonna be developing this further, and we should go through exercise two I reckon
D: Okay, yeah fine
N: Join us back here for part two in just a few moments time
N: Welcome back to part two of lesson five, now before the break we were chatting about exercise two. We were…
D: Yes
N: …running through it, working out where the accents were…
D: Yes
N: …and they were on the offbeat
D: That's correct
N: Alright, how does that sound?
D: How that sounds is, well I'll play it to you and you can hear it I think
N: Why don't you?
D: I'll play it without the Xtractor for a moment. One, two, three, four
N: And, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
D: Okay?
N: It sounds good
D: Yeah, I mean we just need to get used to the, we just need to get used to accenting any beat that we want to accent. That's really where I'm trying to go with this
N: Mmmhmm
D: Eventually anything you hear, cos if you might be playing in a band, you may not be reading music necessarily, and where you hear a bit of emphasis, you've just got to have the technique at your disposal to just drop that straight in
N: Mmmhmm
D: If that's how you want to play, you know
N: And…
D: And that's very important
N: And when we're accenting it, we're not hitting it harder, we're just…
D: Not really hitting it any harder, I mean there's a lit…because it's an accent or an emphasis, there's a tendency to play it a little bit more, in a committed manner, slightly more committed manner. But basically if you un-mute, the accent will come out. That's all you've got to do…
N: And it…
D: …un-mute and it will work
N: And it will shine through
D: It will shine through
N: Alright, talking of playing with the band, let's play with the Gigajam band
D: Okay
N: There's the Xtractor
D: Yeah
N: We'll keep it a bit pacey, cos you were saying it's better, you get more of a feel for it
D: Yeah, you get a little bit more of a momentum, and you're right hand kinda gets into a slightly bouncy, in and out of the muting technique…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …that way
N: Well let's try it at eighty bpm then
D: Let's try it
N: The set rate. This is exercise two then
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: And you're playing this on G5, and….one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, once more and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: Okay. Shall we try it even a little bit quicker? Just for the effect of it
N: Do you want to?
D: Yeah, let's just speed it up a little bit
N: And this is what you were saying about it…
D: I'm keen for people to hear what it would sound like on records that they've listened to
N: Yeah
D: So they can rep…identify this technique and this practise with the CDs and bands that they listen to
N: Yeah
D: Cos it's, it's the most common technique that's employed
N: And we're sounding like a rock guitarist
D: Like a rock guitarist, hopefully
N: I like it. Is it difficult at a hundred and twenty?
D: Ah, it's harder than it was at eighty…
N: (Laughs)
D: …yeah
(laughs)
N: It may be difficult, but it's just…
D: Yeah it should be, it should be okay, hopefully. We'll soon see. I'm sure it'll be fine
N: Fingers crossed. Okay, well I might have the hard job by counting those offbeats
D: Ah, okay
N: So we'll blame it on me
D: Fair enough, sounds fair
N: Okay, here we go
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: Exercise two again, slightly faster.
D & N: One and, two and, three and four and
N: One and, two and, three and four and, one and, two and, three and four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and four and, one more time, one and, two and, three and four and
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Pheeew
D: Okay?
N: Pheew
D: Yeah
N: I'm alright, are you alright?
D: I'm, I'm okay, I'm fine, holding it together yes
N: (Laughs)
D: That was fine
N: It sounds like, I mean, I su…I'm visualising you there on a rock stadium, real playing…
D: Yeah
N: …we're getting now
D: Yeah exactly once you get up to speed, you've got the technique in place, that's exactly the sort of sound you should recognise from bands that you've listened to over the years
N: Absolutely
D: Definitely
N: Okay, well let's move on to exercise three?
D: Exercise three is slightly different in so far as we're working on the chord of C5. That's only relevant in as much as it's a fifth string rooted chord
N: Yeah
D: So the palm muting feels slightly different, only slightly I might add, but slightly different because you're resting on strings five and four, rather than six and five
N: Mmmhmm
D: Again, you just have to move around until you get comfortable with palm muting on each of the chords
N: Yeah
D: The accents in the tr…in the track are on the 'and' of two…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …and the 'and' of three. So again they're on the offbeats
N: Yeah
D: Different offbeats from exercise two, but they're still on the offbeats
N: Mmmhmm
D: Okay? So again this is really creating varying types of rhythms that we can have within a common time, time signature anyway. So we've got varying types of rhythms by putting the accents in different places, which gives us more interesting rhythms to play with
N: Mmmhmm. I mean, it's amazing isn't it, just the addition of that? It's…
D: Yes
N: …to look at it it's the same note structure…
D: I'm just playing eighth…
N: …all be it on a different chord
D: …notes all the time, and just accenting in the slightly different places
N: Alright, well let's have a listen to it. Let's listen to it without the Gigajam band
D: Okay
N: Let's just play it like that…
D: Sure
N: …and then we'll listen to it with the Gigajam band at eighty
D: Okay, this is on a C5. One, two, three, four
N: One and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
D: Okay?
N: This is good, I mean this is tricky I don't know about for you…
D: Mmmhmm
N: …but just for me counting it…
D: Yes
N: …being off the beat
D: It's very, very important, and I think a good thing to look at the exercise for anybody who's practising this, and maybe tap it out and accent verbally where the accents come
N: Mmmhmm
D: So you might say one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and. And just lock in to exactly what you're doing. The biggest danger I would say is guessing what you think it sounds like
N: (Laughs)
D: That really is the biggest danger, because you can put the accents anywhere, and it won't be out of time per say
N: Yeah
D: But they're not where they're written. So you might be playing quite merrily thinking 'yeah it sounds okay'
N: Yeah
D: But you haven't really put them where it's written. So really look at it, figure out first of all where they, where do they actually come?
N: Mmmhmm
D: One and, two, oh it's on the 'and' of two, okay, it's on the 'and' of three. Tap it through, listen to the backing track by all means, watch the video or whatever…
N: Yeah
D: …but make sure you know where they come before you start trying to play them…
N: No
D: …very important
N: Good stuff, good stuff. Alright, and also obviously you need to know when it's happening, cos if you're playing in a band situation…
D: Yes
N: …you could really mess it up
D: Of course you need to know exactly where you're meant to be playing
N: Alright this is exercise three then
D: Okay
N: At eighty bpm
D: Fair enough
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: On the chord of C5. Two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Pheew
D: Okay?
N: Good stuff
D: So that, that get's us into accenting on the offbeats
N: Yeah
D: We've done some accenting on the beats
N: Mmmhmm
D: And that's also practising using the chords which root from the sixth string, as in G5, and chords which root from the fifth string, as in C5
N: Absolutely and, I mean, those are the things we learnt right back at the beginning you know…
D: Yes
N: …in lessons one and two…
D: Of course
N: …but we're still bringing them…
D: Still bringing them back into play all the time…
N: And practising them
D: …yes definitely
N: Okay, exercise four then
D: Yeah, if we…
N: If I scroll down in the notes
D: …look at exercise four here. We're just practising this on a D5 chord
N: Yeah
D: A D5 chord. We've got the accent on beat one
N: Yes that's an easy one
D: And if I look forward, we've got an accent on the 'and' of two
N: Mmmhmm
D: Now we've got three accents in each bar…
N: Yeah
D: …in this particular exercise, so getting slightly trickier again. So again essential to read through and just see where the accents are. So we've got one on beat one
N: Mmmhmm
D: We've got one on the 'and' of two, one and, two…
D & N: And
N: Three…
D: And then we've…
N: …and…
D: ...got one on...
N: …four
D: ...beat four. So we've got one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
N: And luckily bar two is just a repetition of bar one
D: That's exactly what it is
N: (Laughs) Alright, let's try this then…
D: Okay
N: …if I load up the Xtractor again
D: Fine
N: And then we'll do it at eighty bpm and then how about we do it really quick?
D: Yeah sure
N: At a hundred and twenty
D: I'll try
N: Alright pushing play…
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: …there's our intro. This is on D5. One and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and…. two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and. What was tricky there…
D: Yes?
N: …I don't know about from your playing point of view, going from the first bar to the second bar
D: Yes
N: Cos there's a quick change around there, isn't there?
D: Exactly
N: Accent off, back on
D: Exactly, so we've got, we've got an accent on beat four, but then we've got an accent on beat one, which is only one beat later
N: Mmmhmm
D: So that, that was the hardest thing, certainly, from a playing point of view as well
N: Alright
D: As well as a reading point of view
N: Hundred and twenty bpm
D: Aahh! Okay
N: (Laughs) Let's rock
(Xtractor starts playing)
D: Okay
N: One and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and. This sounds, so familiar, I mean is this…
D: Yeah
N: …like a common group?
D: Yeah
(Xtractor stops playing)
D: Oop, we've…
N: David…
D: …stopped
N: …sorry to stop you
D: That's fine
N: But I know that we've got another exercise here on these notes
D: We have
N: And this is, I imagine, being the Gigajam way, is gonna be where we put it all together
D: Exactly, we've gotta put it all together, so exercise five in lesson five effectively combines everything we've learnt so far. We've got all four chords going on…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …we've got the A5, the G5, the C5 and the D5
N: Yeah
D: We've got our eighth notes, palm muted…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …with the accents we've just been discussing. We've also got a half note…
N: There it is
D: …at bar three. Two quarter notes…
N: Mmmhmm
D: …also in bar three and in bar four we've got a half note, which is on the C5 chord, and two quarter notes again on the D5 chord
N: So within that bar we're changing chord
D: We're changing chord in the same bar
N: So we're using….
D: Two chords in one bar
N: …all our chords, A5, C5, G5, D5
D: Yes
N: Lot's of notes that we know here
D: Yes
N: And a heck of a lot of accents
D: A heck of a lot of accents…
N: (Laughs)
D: …and the other thing to remember is any note which is longer than an eighth note is un-muted
N: Okay
D: So as we're doing all this palm muting, we don't want to then get to the G5 at bar three, which is a half note, and go and mute it…
N: Yeah
D: …it should be un-muted because it's longer than an eighth note
N: That's good advice. The Xtractor is here
D: Okay
N: Eighty?
D: Eighty beats per minute, yeah, why not?
N: Alright, here we go…
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: …there's our intro, starting on A5. One and, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Back to A…and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, down to G. Three, four, C…four, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, once more. One and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: I'm gonna stop you there
D: Okay
N: It's the end of the lesson
D: Is it? Okay
N: Coming up in the next lesson…
D: Next lesson…
N: …natural notes
D: …natural notes, and also some sharps and flats, learning where all the notes are on the finger board basically
N: David, thanks a lot…
D: My pleasure
N: …it's been a great lesson. Join us back here for lesson six next time. I can't believe how far we've got