Jack here, jbf music and guitar lessons, back with some quick guitar trick goodness for you!
Question. Do you recognise any of these lines??
I’m guessing the answer is no? I certainly wouldn’t!
Rather than meander for 20 minutes and only briefly address the title we’re jumping right in.
A great way to get the much coveted ‘space’ or sense of fluency in your phrasing is to use
lyrics. I was shown this by a tutor when studying at uni, who in turn nicked if from Guthrie Govan,
although I’m sure I’ve heard Steve Vai talk about this kind of thing as well.
I’m going to use 4 examples of how you could go about doing this and there’ll
be a jam track in this video;; check the timestamps; if you want to put some of this
in to practice and try it out for yourself. The tabs; PDF, PNG and guitar pro files;
are up on Patreon.com/jbfmusic if you want ‘em. If you enjoy this no nonsense; to the point;
approach, feel free to do the old subscribe and do the all notification thing. If you fancy leaving a
like that would be great- it really helps out the channels growth and mean this video will pop up in
searches and be easier for other players to find. But yeah, let’s crack on, eh?
Alright so, I just googeld famous lyrics seeing what would come up. If gave me Famous by Kanye
West; now I’m not sure what the crossover here between guitarists and Kanye West fans are so
let me know in the comments! But I can’t think of this song off the top of my head,
so thought it would make a great first example.
The idea is to play a note on each syllable of the word. Before you start,
have a look over the words any see what themes they have, or the overall vibe.
“Man I can understand how it might be kinda hard to love a girl like me”
Without getting to holistic about this, these lyrics are pretty downbeat, informal,
a bit defeatist and somewhat self-deprecating. Minor key it is then! I’m just going with A minor.
Rather than launch into your usual licks; like the standard rock one in the little I up there;
this will forces us as players to think a bit more vocally.
Ok, so that was a very basic line, with not much going on in terms of note manipulation-
I just picked them all, so I’ll add in some of those things in a way which
should help the emotive-content for lack of a better phrase.
Things like soft vibrato, legato techniques, quick slides in to notes,
quarter tone bends and dynamics- like the quite sort of palm muted bit at the end there;
to me; really help get the theme I’m going for across. As a side note to make this
video streamlined I’ve pre-written these out, which I’d suggest doing to get a feel
for this type of playing, but it’s totally applicable to live improvising as well!
The next example here, I don’t think anyone won’t know!
“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?”
Now I’m really struggling to not think of the original version, so what I’m going
to do is take the rhythm, but change the melody in terms of the notes used. Again,
lets look at the lyrical content. In this isolated context they’re almost dream like, spaced out and
maybe even a bit psychedelic. I like the spaced out theme; maybe make it a bit melancholic;
and a great way of getting that vibe is to use wider intervals; for more of an interval
breakdown and shapes to play them all check out the little I up there; I’m gonna use slides
and stuff from the get go here, because those really facilitated the writing of this phrase.
So, you can hear those far apart notes; especially with the tap! And while it
is the same rhythm, we’ll hopefully see in the comments how many people
clocked it as Boeheim Rhapsody in the comments! I also resolved to the 2nd; a trick I probably
stolen from Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray, more on his tricks and style with the I up there.
Example number 3 here, I’m going with David Bowie’s Moonage Daydreams- the deal here was that
Bowie is supposed to have constructed these lyrics from random snippets or words and sentences;
how true his is, I don’t know so please correct me if I’m wrong! But the principle remains the
same that even arguably meaningless, or at least quite vague sentences can still be utilised.
The lyric is “Keep your mouth shut,
you're squawking like a pink monkey bird and I'm bustin' up my brains for the words”
Now, if I kept with my holsitc approach I’d be tempted to go with an tonal thing, but to outline
more ways of applying this I’m going to go with more of a blues rock route, I’m also using the
lyrical content in a more literal way, hopefully that will make sense when we break it down.
Ok, so keep ‘you’re mouth shut’, I stopped playing; keeping my mouth;
or in this case guitar lines; shut. There’s also s comma a good place to take a rest.
“you're squawking”
I’m hitting pinches, or partial pinches here on “squawking” you could do an unruly vibrato, bend
or whatever, to me I thought a squealing sound would convey this sort of irritation in the lyric.
I took a liberty here, which the eagled eared among us will have noticed! Instead of “I’m”
I broke it in to two syllables so more of and “I-Uhm”. When used by vocalists we call this
“melisma” and while you might think of a Mariah Carrey, or Christiana Agulerra type vocal run,
Bowie does one on the word “shut” saying it “sh-ut”; which is where I got the idea from.
“bustin' up my brains for the words” I wanted some aggression or frustaion here
and a bending double stop seemed the best way to do that- more on the most common double
stops with the little I. this stuff is really subjective and if you’re sitting there going;
nah, you got it wrong mate should have used this technique or this note instead; share it below!
The 4th and final example, I wanted to apply this to a much happier lyric,
the first one to pop in my head was Shiny Happy People by REM
Shiny happy people holding hands, Shiny happy people holding hands, Shiny happy people laughing
Again it as tricky to forget the lyric, but I thought it would suit that sort of upbeat
indie pop, mumford and sons ish car or diy store advert; you know the type!
The easiest way to make it both shiny and happy is to use the major scale,
more specifically a major arpeggio, so that’s what I did!
I added in those little rhythmic hits to make it more indie pop and to highlight that you
can make good use of the guitar’s unique voice and characteristic in conjunction
with this phrasing trick. I’m going up the arpeggio,
to make it more triumphant; check out the little I for a video on useful arpeggios and how to use
them to tell a story. I went
for some double stops, probably thinking about this must be the place by the talking heads,
if I’m perfectly honest! And taking some liberties on Laughing; like the melisma idea
in the last example; while trying to make a cheerful laughing type sound- just like
in that bluesier lick with the squawking! Ok, here’s a basic loop and some lyrics if
you want to give this a go in real time, or want to craft some lines of your own!
If you like this, you might also enjoy this quick start guide to soloing over chord or tonality
changes. This has been signature guitar licks, that’s the playlist there. But yeah, hit subscribe
to keep up to date with the channel, leave me a comment, check out the tabs on my patreon and
enable notifications by ringing that little bell on the side, if you feel so inclined, cheers guys!