Phrasing

[JeffB]

No this isn't a question about my fave pedal type in an Engrish format

IME, Phrasing is prolly the toughest part to playing guitar really well. No matter how much I work on picking and practicing scales and whatnot, I always find my lead playing pretty much sucks cos I just am NOT a good "phraser". Up the scale, back down the scale. No soul. No vocal quality, except I feel I have a decent vibrato which helps.

If you are familiar with the "faves" in my sig you'll notice all of them are GREAT "phrasers"..even Yngwie when he slows down a bit has some incredible phrasing. Frampton? Schenker? Moore? Robertson? Sykes? I mean these guys can pull off all kinds of great things...fast..slow..melodic...bluesy, cut your head off...many times within the same solo.

I've been out of practice for a long time, and getting really frustrated with this. How have you all specifically worked on improving your phrasing?

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Phrasing

Rhythm..forget about "right" notes...listen to Dann Huff on the Giant records, wonderful phrasings....he has rhythm chops all over it.
Or Edward, he too has that pulsing feel, and the master of cool phrasings Gilmour.
It is all in the beat and accent of it.

 

[Cazmarzak]

Re: Phrasing

Listening to other players to me, really just lets you hear and copy what they are doing. If you are tryig to work on your phrasing for original type stuff, the nI found this idea to have been the most helpful, yet easy to understand.

Take what ever scale you are playing, and find 3 or 4 different notes within the scale that you like. Then work on different ways of connectin one note to the other, You know like get from point A to B like this, then from B to C like that and so forth.

Pretty soon you won't have to think about point A or B or whatever and you will start flowing smoothly, and not just picking straight through the scale.

Some technique, that are used to make playing through the scale smoothly are, Hammer on's and pull off's trills etc. I'm not trying to insult you by mentioning these common thecniques, I just dont know what your level of playing is.

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: Phrasing

Sing along with what you are playing, see if it's something that has a nice vocal flow. Play along with CDs and try to play on your guitar exactly what the singer is singing (follow the melody line, try to hit all the nuances). Get transcriptions of songs you like and analyze them to see exactly what the player was thinking and how he constructed his leads. Don't feel that you have to constantly play, sometimes a nice sustained note or even a moment of rest can make leads more interesting. At the risk of sounding abstract or cheesey, don't think so much about scales, think of the notes in a particular scale as colors on a palette, and blend them in a way that's pleasing to you. Move past the technical side of just playing the correct notes and into the artistic side of arranging those notes into something that sounds good to you. You don't have to play every note in a scale, play a solo using only three notes, vary the rhythm, feel, and speed, and try to come up with something that you like. Then add another note. I hope some of this helps!

 

[DirrtyCraig]

Re: Phrasing

I used to be the same way years ago. All chops no feel, no phrasing. Theres no subsititute for playing live I think. All my phrasing and vibrato was built up over the years playing live. It doesn't matter whether you play covers or originals or both. Just play, play, play and that phrasing will come and get better and better. You cannot force it.

 

[sooperunkn]

Re: Phrasing

I listen to a lot of J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr) and he is absolutely one of my favorite guitarists and it's his phrasing that does it. Everyone above has given great pointers. I myself am not the greatest lead player either but I've made HUGE improvements recently.

Here's a method that I use. First I come up with a simple chord structure... pick something that sounds good with your favorite scale and record it. It helps to have something that will allow you to create a loop (computer software, guitar pedal, etc.) The idea is to have this rhythm playing repetitively so you can solo for a long time w/out having to restart the recording. Work on your lead... a specific lead that you can remember.... learn it and memorize it no matter how simple or bland you think it is. Approaching it this way will "force" you to compose something memorable.

Now here's the trick... make another recording of the rhythm part using the same chords but now do it at a different tempo. I would suggest slowing it down at first, maybe by half. Consider changing your strumming pattern too. Create your new loop. Now try to play your first solo with the new rhythm... chances are it will sound like ass. That's because the "mood" of the song has changed and your "phrasing" from your first solo was influenced (naturally) by the first rhythm and feel. So now you have to compose a new solo... again something you can memorize and it will again fit the mood of the rhythm.

What you're doing is using the same scale over the same chords but your guitar is "singing" something different each time. Repitition. Repitition. Repitition will get you better.

If it weren't for the help of my Boss RC-20 Loop Station pedal I would probably be too lazy to do this via the tape cassette route. Save your money and buy this pedal!!! It is a must have... especially if you don't have a friend that is willing to play the same 4 chords for hours at a time!! This pedal (the original) can record over 5 minutes!! There's a newer version that holds even more!! There's 10 memory banks... so you can basically record 10 different rhythm parts and play them back whenever you want! The coolest part is that you can change the tempo of whatever you recorded on the fly!! So to do the above exercise is a piece of cake!!

IM me if you want to know more about the pedal... and good luck!

 

[sooperunkn]

Re: Phrasing

... speaking of the Boss RC-20... does anyone have (or used) the new one, the RC-20 XL?

 

[JimiHWannaBe]

Re: Phrasing

i just record some rythm tracks, put em on loop and sit down and solo. try hitting notes outside of the normal scale patterns you use, mess around with different intervals. it just takes time. not many players myself included are where they want to be when it comes to phrasing it just takes practice.