Photo: ashley.adcox
Have you ever had a conversation with someone who habitually slurs their words, skips over syllables, or is otherwise hard to follow because of their lack of articulation? Did you find it took quite a bit of effort to try and understand this person? Was it an enjoyable experience? It very likely wasn’t!
It’s the same story with some guitar players. Their playing can be very good, but there’s something missing — their playing is sloppy. They are not articulating properly.
The anecdote
A couple of years ago, my girlfriend and I went to a local acoustic night. The venue was a small and intimate basement underneath an equally cosy pub/restaurant. The music was good, and it was generally an entertaining night.
There was one performer that stood out to me. It was a woman in her 40′s who sang her own tunes as well as some covers, and accompanied her singing with playing the guitar. There was something missing with her playing, and it wasn’t until about halfway through her set that I realised what it was:
She didn’t fret her notes properly!
Her picking hand timing wasn’t in sync with her fretting hand; she picked a note before her finger had fully fretted it, creating a percussion-like effect. It wasn’t pleasant to listen to. My girlfriend noticed it too, and she doesn’t play the guitar, so this sloppiness was actually ruining the performance.
As a guitarist you should remember the importance of proper articulation. Without out, you will lose your audience, or at the very least you are doing your playing a great disservice. Music should flow, it should capture your audience, not make them work for it!
There are a couple of things that you should keep in mind here.
1. Synchronise your picking hand and your fretting hand
When you pick a note, make sure it’s properly fretted first. This may sound obvious, but it isn’t always easy to do. It’s easy to get caught out when you’re playing a fast passage, particularly one that requires alternate picking.
You can practise this by doing alternated picking drills. Here’s a simple exercise: Start on the lower E string, alternate pick the first, second, third and fourth fret in turn (in tab: E –1-2-3-4–). Repeat this on the A string, the D string, etc. Once you’ve reached the high E string, go down and pick the fourth, third, second and first fret (in tab: –4-3-2-1–), until you reach the lower E string.
Remember to tap your foot, start slow, and increase the speed only once you can play it at a slower speed, without making mistakes and without thinking about it.
2. Make a point to sound out passing notes
The essence of articulation is sounding out every note. Some people refer to this as playing clean. Playing clean should be high on your list.
In particular, really make a point to sound out notes that are hammered-on or pulled-off. These are the notes that will easily get missed or come out way too soft, especially when you play something fast.
As an exercise, you can try the one above, but instead of alternate picking, you hammer-on all the notes on the way up (towards the high E string), and pull-off all the notes on the way down. Try to sound out each and every note, and only speed up once you can play it perfectly and without thinking about it (letting your fingers do the playing) at a slower speed.
Articulation is a corner stone of guitar mastery
Along with staying in rhythm, and dynamics, articulation is one of the corner stones of guitar mastery and together they will keep the audience glued to their seats, salivating for more. There is one other corner stone: expression. I will talk about that in the near future!
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1 year ago
hello there thanks for your grat post, as usual ((o:
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1 year ago
What a great info, thank you for sharing. this will help me so much in my learning.