238658923659

Chapter 10
Express Yourself: Making the
Guitar Sing, Cry, and Wail
In This Chapter
Grasping articulation and putting the pieces together
Discovering the dynamic sounds of your guitar
Adding musical flair to your playing
If all that were required to play the blues was knowing the right notes and
scales, anybody — or even a non-body, like a robot — could do it. So
what’s the difference between the execution of right-sounding notes and
music that can change your life? Expression. Soul. Playing from the heart.
These phrases describe what happens when thinking, feeling, red-blooded
humans get a hold of some good musical material, make it their own, and
communicate that message through an inspired performance. The blues, like
any great music, takes a creative interpreter to make it come to life. You have
to know the moves — the chords, scales, and notes — but you also have to
play coherently and persuasively and with feeling.
In this chapter, I cover articulation and expression, and these expressive
techniques help you to connect notes in different ways, shape phrases, and
add nuance to your playing. Armed with your note knowledge and some
articulation technique, you choose not only what notes to play but also how
to play them — as soulfully as your aching heart allows.
Appreciating the Art of Articulation
Articulation is the class of techniques that deals with how notes are sounded.
This includes the way you attack the notes as well as the way you produce
notes through non-attacks, such as slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and bends.
TEAM LinG