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Composing Secrets 4: Guitar sounds

Topic started by rjay (@ 208.51.40.112) on Tue Sep 5 13:59:00 EDT 2000.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Let us continue our familiarising with the form
and function of instruments. We will now look
at 2 groups Guitars and Basses.

Guitar itself is one of the most important
instrument in western music, classical as
well as pop, rock, etc. It is also one of the
instruments used by lots of artists around
the world, including Africa, India, and
every country in Europe.

It is also one of the most adapted instruments
as you might see electric, muted variations and
pedal effects such as wah wah, compression.

To understand the guitar, learn to listen to
the styles of guitar: it can play
lead melody, strums, complex chord
progressions, and arpeggios.

Here is the list of 8 guitar sounds that
come in MIDI soundset.

24. Acoustic Guitar (Nylon String)
25. Steel String Guitar
26. Electric Jazz Guitar
27. Electric Guitar
28. Muted Electric Guitar
29. Overdriven Guitar
30. Distorted Guitar
31. Guitar Harmonics

24 and 25 are the acoustic (unplugged) versions
of the guitar. Nylon string is by far the
softest sound on the guitar. Steel guitar
is also a sweet sound.

These two are used in classical guitar playing.
Pop slow songs (ballads) use the guitar to
provide the harmonic (chord) backing.

In TFM, the celebrated Ilaya nila is an illustrative
example of guitar usage. In the intro, the singer
sings Ilaya Nila, guitar plays an arpeggio (chord
notes played separately). When he sings, ulappogum
neram, the guitar plays chord strums (all notes
hit at once). In the first interlude, guitar plays
a lead melody, which is called as a solo. You can also
see an electric guitar playing chord accompaniment during
the singing. I will upload the parts individually. You
can also download a midi version of this song from our
MIDI site.

I will also upload some good arpeggios, chord progressions,
and strums which I have created using MIDI. The challenge
of trying to play the guitar on the keyboard is that in
guitar when you play a chord, the notes dont attack at
once like a keyboard. There are both upstrokes and downstrokes,
during upstroke, the bass notes are played first and then the
higher notes. A good midi programmer must imitate this to
bring the effect. I will upload an example where the guitar
solo is played like a keyboard solo, and then improved using
this technique.

A Rahman example, is July madham vandhal. It
uses a flamenco style playing. THirakkadha kaatukullae
is a very nice use of the electric guitar. Prasanna
who played both of these, is a maestro of the guitar
and is amazingly conversant with Jazz, pop and carnatic
styles!

Pachai niramae has a nice arpeggiating guitar, though I
suspect it to be a synthetic guitar!

26 and 27, Jazz guitar and Clean guitar are electric
versions. They are obtained by placing an electric pickup
just beneath the strings and amplifying the sound. These
were first introduced in the early 60's, and immediately
were a big hit in West, because they made the sound so
powerful. The box (which was functioning as the natural
amplifier in the acoustic guitar) was taken off and the
amplification was done by an external amplifier.

Jazz guitar has been used quite a lot in tamil film,
even during MSV's time. I can think of 'varavu ettana
selavu paththana'. MSV later used it heavily in
Ninaithalae inikkum. Raja used the electric guitar a
lot too, Ennadi meenatchi is a good example.

Srinivas's mandolin in its playing style, resembles
the electic jazz guitar, but the way he plays
carnatic gamakams is mindblowing. I was recently
taken aback when I discovered an african artist
called Ali Farka Toure, who plays African
folk tunes on the guitar. His style is
same as Srinivas, Prasanna and Raja in that
the melodies and gamakams are so carnatic! I will
upload a sample piece. The piece I am talking about
is in carnatic classical. I am sure Ali Farka did not
listen to carnatic. It is much more older relationship!


The clean guitar is very effective in providing chord
accompaniments. I will upload good examples.

28, Muted guitar, is when you dont allow the guitar to
resonate, so you get a pulse or a woodblock like
sound dying down immediately. It is used heavily in
techno, house and other styles. I will try to think of
uses in TFM and request others to do that too.

29, 30 and 31 are innovations in the electric guitar.
When first electric guitar users did not know how to
operate their new amplifiers, it distorted their sound
and they somehow liked it and so the sound became a
new instrument on its own! These sounds are the basic
blocks of heavy metal and hard rock style and not easily
appreciated by people who are not under drugs ;)
The first time I heard this sound was in Kalaignan
song. Second time was in Mustafa Mustafa intro solo,
which is a good showcase of the expressiveness of the
sound and for the first time, it provided a mellow
feeling!

A good guitar player can be extremely expressive, because
guitar provides ways of playing slides, dampened sounds,
soft and hard tones and chords or solos and rhythms.

EXERCISE:

Listen to any five TFM songs which use the guitar
and try to point out
guitar by tone(acoustic, electric, distorted) and by style
(solo/lead, chord, arpeggio)

Next, we will look at Bass.

Anbudan
RJAY

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Responses:

• From: rjay (@ 208.51.40.112) on: Tue Sep 5 14:03:33 EDT 2000
  
  Srikanth is a master of guitar playing on the
  keyboard. His "Warrior" is a flamenco style
  composition, available on his
  http://www.mp3.com/jsri
  site.
  By observing a flamenco artist, he can absorbed
  the style and recreated it on the keyboard very
  well.
  
  I invite Sridhar and Ramani to contribute more
  about the guitar. And I am sure there must be
  many more guitar masters in our TFM page readers.
  Please come forward.
  
  rjay
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.22.221) on: Tue Sep 5 17:49:16 EDT 2000
  
  Rjay,
  Please look at my posts in composing secrets 1 and 2 and tell what u feel about my suggestions
  
  
• From: fan (@ 203.197.136.133) on: Sun Sep 10 00:24:15 EDT 2000
  
  Rjay,
  Thanks for the comments on "The Warriors"
  
  IMHO: a keyboard player must think differently. Basically when I play a bass on the keyboards i think myself as a bass player, for eg:while playing a bass the body has to move along to get the proper thump. It like similar to foot work in cricket, to get the proper drive we need to move the foot perfectly.
  
  You also need to know about the guitar frets.
  I first mimic as though I play a guitar. Takes time to get this feel.
  
  Similarly while playing sax, body and hand movements play a vital role to get the feel,
  while play a guitar on the keyboards
  I start to think like a guitarist, however you cannot replace a guitarist,
  I consider any musical instrument as a tool, if played properly we can do wonders. There are well known guitarits who use midi guitars and play sax using guitar., at times sounds better than sax.
  
  
• From: jaigs (@ ) on: Thu Jan 3 20:19:36 EST 2002
  
  Nice work men, unrevealing the mystery, well am
  learning techniques on a yamaha electric guitar although started learning on a givson acoustic
  
  I'm able to play couple of chords for hindi songs, but not the raaja songs...he's using chords
  as he likes ( i'm not telling it as a mistake )
  i meant his knowledge and usage of guitar in the songs like
  
  1.Elamai Edho..
  2.Madhai thirandhu
  3.Pani vizhum Malar vanam
  
  btw raaja uses more rhythm guitar in the songs then the others...
  
  pardon me if i'm wrong
  
  
  
• From: jagan (@ 61.11.73.84) on: Fri Jan 4 03:39:57 EST 2002
  
  Jaigs,
  
  I have a clarification to be made.
  
  It is a fact that it is easier to play hindi songs because the shifting of Chords in the songs are almost under the similar pattern. Foreg : the most heard patterns will be Am-G-D E ... or C G Am F...
  
  FYI,Raja doesnt uses chords as he likes. The pattern is entirely different and only when you start playing his chords you can enjoy the brilliancy.The placement of chords are so perfect and far beyond any body's imagination. The songs quoted by you have excellent chords and only if you have an original score you can enjoy them.
  You can never find a composer who has made the best use of chords on the Guitar as the harmony itself is quite different.
  
  
• From: Don (@ ) on: Thu Nov 21 05:37:55 EST 2002
  
  I just purchased an old Givson (Made in India?) Do you have any history you can share with me on age,quality, etc.
  
  Don Nashville, Tennessee USA
  
  
• From: ram (@ ) on: Wed Jul 28 14:49:36 EDT 2004
  
  i badly want 2 down load the song Pani vizhum Malar vanam, Ninaivellam nithya. pls help me out.
  
  ram
  
  

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