Playing With Feeling Options

[carminemarotta]

Hi all,
I have a question about "playing with feeling". Usually slow tempo solo like Gilmour (see some of the David Walliman on GMC) must be played with feeling. I know what is, I can hear how it sounds. But how do you translate your feeling to the fretboard?

Carmine

[thefireball]

I'm kinda with you on this one. I would be interested to hear some instructors and students advice on this.

[Alex Feather]

Hi all,
I have a question about "playing with feeling". Usually slow tempo solo like Gilmour (see some of the David Walliman on GMC) must be played with feeling. I know what is, I can hear how it sounds. But how do you translate your feeling to the fretboard?

Carmine

This is the hardest task! It's called getting in the zone and it is something you can actually practice! When you will get in the "Zone" you just feeling it and don't really think about what you are playing the notes just coming out naturally and everything sounds perfect! I will write a post about it tomorrow on my instruction board!

[Cosmin Lupu]

Well, I would compare it with making a statement when you are in love with a girl and you are talking to her, you are not thinking of what you're going to tell her - honest words, truthful, sincere and backed up by a storm of butterflies coming out of your stomach - that's what's going on, without you even knowing it. That's the exact thing which happens when you are playing with feeling the guitar is no longer a piece of wood on which you are practicing scales. It becomes a means of expression - it helps you say what you need to say - it's that simple. But, in order to get there you need how to learn and let go.

Playing with feeling is not about making funny faces it's about telling a story and captivating your listeners from one end to another. In how many ways can you play a note?

Try this:

- pick a note - any note
- try to imagine how that note would sound if it were furious, in love, sad, quiet, loud, confused, happy, disappointed and what other sort of feeling comes to your mind.
- play all these in ONE note and see what happens.

Expression is a powerful weapon and it can trigger incredible emotions in us humans if wielded properly.

enjoy

Cosmin

[Sinisa Cekic]

CODE

Try this:
- pick a note - any note
- try to imagine how that note would sound if it were furious, in love, sad, quiet, loud, confused, happy, disappointed and what other sort of feeling comes to your mind.
- play all these in ONE note smile.gif and see what happens.

Expression is a powerful weapon and it can trigger incredible emotions in us humans if wielded properly.

That's superb explanation Cosmin !!!

[Ben Higgins]

Great advice from the C-Maestro and Alex

Yes, feeling is one of those things that cannot be taught or bought, only cultivated by time served with the instrument.

This is maybe a little off topic but this relates to stopping yourself repeating the same, tired phrases over and over: A good way to avoid noodling without thought is to check yourself when you pick up the guitar. If you find you're just noodling away and playing the same licks all the time, then you're on autopilot. Just before your're about to play a phrase, stop yourself and make a conscious desicion to play something different to what you were about to play. It's quite hard to do it but try it.

[Andrew Cockburn]

Well, I would compare it with making a statement when you are in love with a girl and you are talking to her, you are not thinking of what you're going to tell her -

Heh, I love that metaphor so much that I feel compelled to push it to an extreme!

Imagine that the girl you love is Russian, or Swedish, or French or German, just pick a language you have never learned and don't understand. How are you going to tell her how you feel? She is the love of your life, so just picking up a dictionary and learning 3 words "I Love You" in her language is not going to cut it - it doesn't convey the vastness of how you feel and she deserves so much more.

So, you go to classes, you learn the language properly. You spend some time learning words, phrases, vocabulary. Then you study the poets of that language in their native tongue, you read extensively. Next, you have a go at writing some love poetry yourself. At the end of this, you are so well versed in the language that it ceases to be the barrier it once was, and you are able to tell the girl the way you feel straight form your heart using all the words and phrases at your command, both learned from great poets, and also that you have written yourself. The result? Of course she falls in love with you!

OK, I am sure you see where this is going - the foreign language is the language of music. Words are notes, phrases are riffs, and those other poets? All the other guitarists you have admired over the years. When you have all of this inside you, it becomes easy to take the music straight form your heart to the guitar - not as a 3 word phrase you learned form a book, but as a living breathing thing that shows your true emotions.

This is the true reason we practice so hard, not so that we can consciously play those notes and scales but so that we have them inside us unconsciously, ready to pull out when we need them in response to a particular thought or feeling.

OK, I think I kicked that metaphor to death, I'll be quiet now!

[Ben Higgins]

Well, I don't mind how long the metaphor was, that was a great post, Andrew !

[Dinaga]

Well, I would compare it with making a statement when you are in love with a girl and you are talking to her, you are not thinking of what you're going to tell her - honest words, truthful, sincere and backed up by a storm of butterflies coming out of your stomach - that's what's going on, without you even knowing it. That's the exact thing which happens when you are playing with feeling the guitar is no longer a piece of wood on which you are practicing scales. It becomes a means of expression - it helps you say what you need to say - it's that simple. But, in order to get there you need how to learn and let go.

Playing with feeling is not about making funny faces it's about telling a story and captivating your listeners from one end to another. In how many ways can you play a note?

Try this:

- pick a note - any note
- try to imagine how that note would sound if it were furious, in love, sad, quiet, loud, confused, happy, disappointed and what other sort of feeling comes to your mind.
- play all these in ONE note and see what happens.

Expression is a powerful weapon and it can trigger incredible emotions in us humans if wielded properly.

enjoy

Cosmin

Man, I always enjoy your metaphores! Great explanation, makes me really think. Agree with every single part of it, absolutely NOTHING to add!

This post has been edited by Dinaga: Feb 6 2012, 09:16 PM

[Andrew Cockburn]

Well, I don't mind how long the metaphor was, that was a great post, Andrew !

Thanks Ben - you are obviously a very discerning individual!

[Cosmin Lupu]

CODE

Try this:
- pick a note - any note
- try to imagine how that note would sound if it were furious, in love, sad, quiet, loud, confused, happy, disappointed and what other sort of feeling comes to your mind.
- play all these in ONE note smile.gif and see what happens.

Expression is a powerful weapon and it can trigger incredible emotions in us humans if wielded properly.

That's superb explanation Cosmin !!!

Thank you Sinisa

Man, I always enjoy your metaphores! Great explanation, makes me really think. Agree with every single part of it, absolutely NOTHING to add!

Thanks mate I love putting things in a way which is easy to imagine