Alternative techniques

tragictravisty

what do you use?

tapping is my favorite, on a clean setting drenched in reverb/delay. also sounds great with chords, either playing each note in a chord and doing a clean pull off, or hesitating to make a harmonic. doing this, you can also emphasize certain notes that you arent fretting with your left hand, especially the 9th/7th/6th. or you can slap the strings, to produce the chord harmonically (usually the 2nd harmonic - one octave above).

or tremelo picking/feedback, but thats pretty standard... you?

StevieK

Behind the nut bending, string rakes, and volume swells. Thats pretty much my bag of tricks, I also like to hold out notes with a lot of boost and vibrato until they become a harmonic, and then tap the neck in different spots to make different harmonics and partials come out.

I also like trying to play with as little attack as possible (ala Allan Holdsworth). Turning the volume on the guitar down and the volume on the amp up and using the side of the pick to "bow" the strings so that there's very little to no attack when the note sounds.

But that's all pretty normal I guess.

Cymastar

Jam a screw under the 1st or 2nd fret on the e and b strings and chickenpluck...

feedbackismyfriend

lots of feedback, lots of bending, and I hammer on a lot (although I rarely pull off)

JaguarOW

playing behind the nut and feedback

hammer ons and pull offs arent really "alternative" are they? 😕

and occasionally hitting cymbals with the headstock 😛

feedbackismyfriend

JaguarOW said: playing behind the nut and feedback
hammer ons and pull offs arent really "alternative" are they? 😕
and occasionally hitting cymbals with the headstock 😛

no hammer ons and pull offs aren't really alternative. however here's what most people do:

8h9p8

and here's what I do a lot

8h98

It just makes a different sound when you pick instead of pull off I wasn't sure if it was really an alternative technique or not so I decided to just put it down.

Mustang-Pete

I enjoy two hand tapping, Satriani style 😉 Also all the obvious ones; bending, tremolo picking, vibrato, hammer ons, pull offs if you count them. Also harmonics. They are excellent. Oooh and drone-ing strings, especially over power chords (like you leave e and B un-fretted when playing) it gives nice dreamy sounding stuff, when coupled with some reverb and even some delay.

I like fingerpicking too. On acoustic mostly, but on electric also.

tragictravisty

whats sartiani style? wank tapping?

Cymastar

Something I've been experimenting with:

I made an enlarged vibrato arm out of a high hat (MAGIC), well, a high hat stand, and have been using it to play Kevin Shields style glide guitar.

harrison

tuning with doubled strings and 5ths and octaves in the key of a song and banging the neck with overdrive and heavy reverb, soundds like bells and fills the space. a lot of drones, behind the bridge plus hammer ons. tuning so barre chords can be played with one finger, feedback, guitar beating

JaguarOW

Mustang-Pete said: Oooh and drone-ing strings, especially over power chords (like you leave e and B un-fretted when playing)

if you mean chords like this when you basically play the power chord on the A string and leave the top two strings open then thats what i do aswell

E-0--0--0--0

B-0--0--0--0

G-9--6--4--5

D-9--6--4--5

A-7--4--2--3

E-------------

^^^^^^^

Marigold

Mustang-Pete

tragictravisty said: whats sartiani style? wank tapping?

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean, Chris. It sounds cool.

Nah I mean like tapping whole tunes, instead of tapping during a solo or something. That's what I'd call wank tapping 😉

harrison

i always end up with wonky accidental notes when i try tapping, oh well

tragictravisty

so does everybody when they first try

harrison

tragictravisty said: so does everybody when they first try

yeah i never pursued it, i can play "am i evil" and thats just to shut the metal kids up, but thats all 😆

theindianguy

tapping harmonics is kind of cool, and really easy 😁

Disappearer

i must admit i do wank tap a lot... most of my lead technique consists of atonal noise and shredding im afraid to say... i need to learn me some allman brothers methinks

feedbackismyfriend

Disappearer said: i must admit i do wank tap a lot... most of my lead technique consists of atonal noise and shredding im afraid to say... i need to learn me some allman brothers methinks

Allman Bros= 🤮

Besides peanuts are much better than allmans

Disappearer

lol... but how can you dislike the allman bros?

now ive said that though i think i do need to improve my lead technique a lot... any lead players anyone recommends i would be very grateful for... im always up for expanding my musical horizons

jacksonjackass

Disappearer said: now ive said that though i think i do need to improve my lead technique a lot... any lead players anyone recommends i would be very grateful for... im always up for expanding my musical horizons

Marty Friedman

Used to be in megadeth then sort of went really out of metal and now he plays sort of bluesy/jazz fusion and has an amazing ability to solo over stuff. Nowhere near as intense as he used to be, but hey, its all good 😁