neat guitar (or anything else) tip

[Nemoguitt@aol.com]

i never heard this one before.....might make a good CT-COLLECTIVE cd.....:)m


<<Alphabet Study 

The tone color scale we will use is a simple one: the alphabet. Observe as you speak the alphabet, "A, B, C. . . ." Note the twenty-six tone colors your mouth produces, how they are produced, and the movement of your lips, tongue, and teeth. Incredible! 

Now, with your pick hand (using a pick or your fingers), try to produce these twenty-six sounds -- or at least some facsimile of them -- on your guitar.

Choose a single note for your fingerboard hand to hold during this exploration. Imagine the sound of the letter A. Then with your pick hand, play the note until you find an articulation that sounds similar. Try varying the angle of the pick or your fingernail, or the location on the string that you are playing (between bridge and fingerboard), to find the sound. When you have your first tone color for the letter A, move on to the letter B. Just as your mouth changes to speak these letters, your pick hand should change to play them. How does your hand feel when you play the letter B, relative to how you played the letter A? More angle? Nearer to the fingerboard? Continue through the rest of the alphabet.

If this seems crazy, that's because it is! But! If you try it, I promise you will find some interesting sounds. 

This is a subjective study. Everyone will play their tone color alphabet differently. It is simply a study to explore an array of tone color possibilities.>>