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Cool Sounds
Cool Sounds you can get in your guitar from the master of innovative guitar playing... Mr. Steve Vai!!!
Striving to be a flashy rock guitar player will demand a certain amount of
unexpected “squeaks” and pops from your instrument. This can be effective,
but if overused, can be OH NO! When playing outside of flash-oriented
activities, weird noises can still be useful in a constructive manner.
Some of these sounds will require a certain type of amp and guitar set-up,
basically a loud guitar with a whammy bar.
1) With a vibrato bar, bend the low E string down to the point where the
strings are flapping. Try to play the low E string.
2) Same as above, but this time let the E string get magnetically stuck
to the pickup. With the movement of the bar, raise the string and lower it so it
gets stuck, then free, then stuck, then free. Sort of “the burp syndrome”.
3) Bring the bar very low. Hit a harmonic on the G string, 5th fret (or
any that will sound). Move the bar really fast in the lowered position. Then
release it to normal. Whee Wheeeee!
4) Turn the bar 180 degrees from where you would normally use it. With
your fist, bang the base of the guitar as hard as you can. All this time, you
are to fret a note. This causes the bar to “traumatize” and vibrate at a
very fast rate. It’s probably not too good for your guitar, but it sure sounds
cool.
5) With the nail of the second finger on your left hand, pull the B
string off the neck towards the floor. Now oull it around the neck. You should
get a pretty funny “squeak”. This is caused by the string fretting out on
the frets and the pickups. This effect also works well with the G string. It’s
not hard to ruin your nail, though.
6) With the second finger on your right hand, fret a note on the G
string. Now raise the note up the neck (towards the tail piece) until you’d go
off of the fretboard. Keep pushing on the string very hard until it “squeaks
out” on the pickups. Oh what fun. Sounds like little animals are flying out of
your guitar.
7) Strum the strings behind the nut. If you have a clamping system or
locking nut that is closed, this effect won’t work.
8) If you have springs on your guitar’s vibrato system, strum them with
your pick.
9) Scream into your pickups.
10) Take out your guitar cable and touch it to your tongue. ZAP!
11) Beat your strings with the guitar cable. WAP!
12) Stretch the highest note on your guitar until the string breaks.
13) Slide your pick down the string for that standard “big rock tone”
pick screech.
14) If you perform the previous example enough times, your pick will be
pretty rough on the edges. This will lend itself to a host of other
“concoction extravaganzas” such as:
a) Rub the rough end of your pick strings as
you fret a note. This will give a “glassy” effect.
b) Try fretting a C on the G string. With the
worn and rough edge of the pick, rub really fast on the D fret. Bend G up to an
A, or higher, by pushing the string behind the nut.
15) If you don’t have a locking tremolo system, bend notes from behind
the nut. Bend G up to A, or higher, by pushing the string behind the nut.
There are a million more “demonstrations of frequencies” possible. With each
one of these examples, you can elaborate endlessly. Knock yourselves out,
Knuckleheads!
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Most of you out there with vibrato
bars have probably been through all the basic maneuvers (you know, the “dive
bombs” when you hit the low E string and bottom it out). Then there’s the
basic wide vibrato on any given note; and, of course, the one where you hit a
harmonic and the bar down or go “whee whee whee”. Here I will discuss a few
tricks you may not have been through yet.
First, I will talk briefly about vibrato bar systems. There are many different
ones out on the market. If you’re serious about your bar work, you’re
looking for one that won’t put you out of tune or go sharp when you rest your
wrist on it. And you don’t want it to alter the string tension if you break a
string or stretch a note. But you do want it to go sharp (up to a 4th) when you
pull on it. Good luck! There are modifications you can make to the standard
systems to help solve some of these problems. I use Floyd Rose tremolo systems.
I have mine set up so that I can pull up on the bar and the strings will go
sharp as much as a 4th.
In this area of vibrato bar exploration, we will look at using the bar to play
melodies. This is like learning how to play a fretless guitar. It takes great
intonation and a lot of patience.
Pick a key and hit a note. With the bar, bend the note down to the next note in
the key. Then, bend it down again to the next lower note. Go in between these
three notes to create a melody. Here’s an example: In the key of F# minor,
play an F# on the 11th fret of the G string. With the bar, bend that note down
to an E; then depress it down to a D or a C#. Release it backto F#, then pull
the bar so the note sounds G#. Be sure your intonation is happening. Now use
these notes to construct melodies.
In this fashion, practice playing a melody you already know. Record a melody
using four or five notes. Learn it back using the bar.
Another bar trick involves bringing it around 180 degrees from where you would
normally use it and tapping on it. This causes the note to go sharp. If you chop
at the bar in this position, every time you hit a note it will sound like little
grace notes from India.
Bend the bar down and slide up the neck on the G string. As you slide your
finger up the neck, raise the bar slowly. Boy, what fun!
Now, do the opposite. As you slide up the string, bend the bar down so your
finger is sliding, but the pitch is the same. It can sound like a purring cat.
Growwlll!