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we're going to talk a little bit about
things you can do when you think about
your tone and your sound on the
instrument if you're playing an electric
guitar you might be tempted to think
that you could plug into a great amp or
different pedals or use your tone knobs
and the volume knobs to get any sound
you want but the truth is is that the
real sound comes from your hands and i
want to get a little more into detail
about three things that will really help
your sound one is dynamics one we call
timbre or color and the other one we
call envelope
so we're going to start with dynamics
we're talking about playing loud or soft
or right in the middle and establishing
clarity of those sounds we're talking
about weight on the instrument a lot of
people have this idea that you get
louder by hitting the string harder and
that's not true that's a different type
of tone technique but dynamics is all
about weight on the string so when you
want a loud sound
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you're going to depress the string more
so i'm pushing in with my thumb and then
i'll go
if i want a softer sound i'll just push
in a little less
the same is true with your pick push in
more with more weight on the string
you'll get a louder sound
less weight on the string
gives you a quieter sound if i want
something in the middle i use the middle
amount of weight
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so
loud
middle
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soft the more you can practice that on
open strings with every scale you play
with everything that you improvise you
say to yourself i'm going to play three
notes in this pentatonic pattern
and i'm gonna put them at about a five
dynamic range
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now i'm going to play them at a 2 out of
10.
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now i'm going to go all the way to the
top as loud as i can
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and when you want a louder sound you
just push more into the string like
you're pushing the sound out but nice
and gentle being able to do that gives a
lot of depth to your playing
the second thing is timbre and that
means color so i'm getting what we call
a normal sound a kind of a warm sound
playing over the sound hole or if you
played over the pickups on your electric
guitar that's what you get if you want
something really bright you go way
towards the bridge of your instrument
and you play there
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as far as you can go to the bridge
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and i'm going to do this with my pick
now
you hear that metallic bright sound
that's what you get there if you play
over the neck of your instrument where
the strings come over the neck you get
really warm sounds
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i'll do it with my fingers
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that kind of control coupled with
dynamics can give you some really
beautiful sounds especially when you're
improvising it'll make everybody pull in
and listen to you because they'll think
oh that's so interesting what they're
doing because it sounds unexpected
envelope is kind of the most interesting
one in a way because it's about the
shape of the note if i'm going to hit a
note really hard it means i'm going to
attack it and that's the speed that i
move through the string so if i want to
play this g right here on the 5th fret
of the fourth string and i hit it i move
through the string really hard
and fast it gives you the shot of a note
if i move through slowly and i push
through
you hear how the note becomes like a
little ball and it comes out this
beautiful note that could connect to
another one so i could play g and then a
or i could go
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and being able to control with my
picking hand how fast i move through the
string gives the note itself a pointy
shape
or round shape and that is a technique
that i think is really cool so here's
your pointy shape
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and here's your round shape
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and it's all done with how
slowly you move through the string after
you play it with your pick so those are
the three things to really think about
your dynamics how much weight you use on
the string gives you your volume
can you be consistent at a loud volume
at a medium volume at a soft volume
practice that with every scale you play
and every time you practice your notes
on the instrument timbre
experiment with playing really close to
the bridge to get a metallic sound
or over the neck to get a really warm
sound and then over your pickups or your
sound hole
to get
a full
sound and then envelope how sharp is
your note how round is your note a lot
of things we're gonna get to later in
the chorus like sliding and hammering on
and pulling off and muting that also
changes the envelope of the note right
changes its shape and so it's going to
get more and more your list of things
will get longer of what you can do to a
note to make it sound interesting but
this is what makes your improvisation
sound really cool and it's what grabs
everyone's attention in your playing
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you