Anyone? Anyone? Voodoo Economics.

I equate dynamics with emotions, or perhaps better stated, inflection. Just as much as you wouldn’t give a speech in a monotone voice (unless you’re Ben Stein) you probably shouldn’t make a musical statement in a monotone voice, either.

In today’s technology-happy world, much of the loss of dynamics in music has to do with engineering and production. The non-profit organization Turn Me Up! advocates for a set of standards that will allow musicians to bring back more dynamics in recorded music. I’m a huge fan, personally. If any of you might have some doubts I have two words for you – Death Magnetic.

But putting production aside, adding dynamics to our own playing not only gives you more control over what you say and how you say it, but it can also open up a whole new world of exploration into your own style.

Duane Allman

Every time I hear Derek Trucks or Duane Allman play I’m completely overwhelmed and inspired by how well they have mastered dynamics. They know exactly how to get the sound they want, and it’s usually more with the hands or a very subtle tweak to the volume pot on their guitar. More importantly, their dynamics change with what they’re playing at that moment. A typical solo would go through a whole range of emotive content. You can literally feel what they are playing, so one can only imagine how powerful it must feel to them!

Time To Exercise

Don’t worry, you can keep your gym shorts in the closet. I’m talking about a little exercise to try and get some dynamics back into your playing and stop being a slave to your distortion and delay. Here’s what I want you to do:

• Turn off your compressor (if you use one).
• If the gain setting on your amp is higher than 6, turn it down to 5 or 6.
• Turn the volume pot on your guitar to 75%.
• If you have a tube amp, use it instead of a solid-state amp.

Now, I want you to play your guitar for a while, concentrating on the attack of your notes. Don’t play 800 notes a second; play slowly and listen. Hit some notes hard, some notes soft. Use your fingers to pluck some notes. Try different picks, too. Listen to each note carefully. Try to really hear and internalize how each note sounds depending on the way you play it. Play the same note on a few different strings and see how they differ depending on what picking technique you use.

What are you hearing? More importantly, how are you feeling? I’m hoping that after a few minutes you’re starting to feel like you are more in control over your sound, that your fingers and picking technique are more responsible for the sound coming out of your gear than your gear is. Control… that’s the key. You’re playing your guitar and amp rather than having to fight them for control.

To finish out this exercise, try playing with the volume and tone knobs on your guitar – subtly. We’re not looking for extremes here, we’re looking for incremental changes and how they affect your playing and sound. We’re looking for the ability to master your personal sound.

If you don’t typically play with distortion and/or effects, that’s okay, too! You can still experiment with dynamics using the pick and finger techniques I described above. Especially if you are playing an acoustic or hollowbody guitar, you can experiment with picking in different places (closer to the bridge or neck) to see what happens. Joe Pass would often pick very close to the neck – in many cases on top of it – in order to get the dynamics and tone he wanted.

I think it really comes down to whether or not you want to be in charge, or if you want to spend tons of money on gear that probably won’t satisfy the quest for your sound anyway. As many of the greats have said, the tone is in your fingers. I think that’s true, but I also think a big component of that is having your gear be the conduit for your tone and not the tone itself.

Good luck!

Put Dynamics In Your Music is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Hear The Difference.

Never have truer words been spoken when it comes to amplifiers. Almost as long-standing as the Fender vs. Gibson debate, the endless pursuit for that perfect amp has plagued guitar players for 50 years. So when the guys at Sommatone Amplification decided to use that phrase as the tag line for their company, the proverbial gauntlet was thrown down, almost as if to say, “I dare you to try out one of our amps and not want one.”

The irony lies in the fact that the Sommatone folks couldn’t be more friendly, down-to-earth, or cool. I had the opportunity to visit them recently, and was totally blown away. Their knowledge of tube amps and what it takes to make something of such high quality is hard to beat. Now, I have a confession to make; playing guitar for as long as I have, I never really paid that much attention to tone. I was always more of a “plug it in and crank it up” kind of player. Sure, there are a ton of players whose tone I admire, but when it came to my own pursuits, it was always to be a better technical player.

That is, up until recently.

For the past year I’ve undergone a transformation, with the pursuit of capturing my sound and my tone becoming just as important as being a great technical player. When I heard the Sommatone amps in person, it was both a blessing and a curse. First, their sound sucker-punched me right in the junk – hard! I have never heard amps sound that good; NEVER! Second, I now have to convince my wife that if I don’t buy one, I’m going to die a miserable death.

The Interview

A Day With Sommatone Amplification is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

GAS – Gear Acquisition Syndrome – is just as much a medical mystery among musicians as it is a desire to “keep up with the Joneses.” I don’t know of any guitar player that doesn’t have at least one guitar, amp, and effect pedal that they want to buy. (If any of you do know such a person, please tell me so I can interview him.) And so we are forever cursed with wanting… nay, NEEDING more and more gear to keep us happy and believing that our muse lies in the piles of equipment stacked throughout our house.

Not one to buck the trend, I certainly have my list of must-have items, which I’ll share with you now in the hopes of some crazy millionaire deciding to grant my wishes and give me all the stuff I want because he enjoys my blog oh so much.

First, the Guitars…

I’m currently up to about 13 guitars, so there aren’t too many more that I want. I don’t need to have a $4,000 classical guitar as my Ibanez one does the job perfectly. There are a few more, however, that I absolutely must have:

Sadowsky Semi-Hollow
Simply the best jazz box I’ve ever played. I had the opportunity to play Jimmy Bruno‘s personal guitar, and I could not put it down. Great craftsmanship, beautiful tone, and plays like butter.

Gibson ES-335

Fender Telecaster

Amplifiers

Mesa Boogie (or comparable) 20-watt tube power amp

Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 100 TSC

Effects

MXR DynaComp  compressor pedal

Line 6 DL4 (I have the rack version, but want the pedal as well)

Line 6 MM4 (same as the )

Other Gear

Sadowsky guitar straps (without a doubt the most comfortable I’ve ever used)

Tell me your GAS list. I’m always interested in knowing what other players want.

I Have GAS! is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.