How'd you do that?" is a question I am frequently asked by my guitar students. It is rarely asked about an esoteric chord shape I'm playing or a blazing solo I just took -- I'm not that kind of guitar player. It's usually asked about a funky sound I created despite my pedestrian chord shapes or the unimaginative scale I just employed. Done, I might add, on an acoustic guitar, without any electronic assistance.
I figured out pretty early in my in my acoustic blues journey that what you say with the guitar is far less important than how you say it. In blues, or any other musical expression that sprang from oppressed people, the quality that evokes an audience response (whether the audience is yourself or a crowd of thousands), is "dirtiness." When I tell students this they often giggle. They think I'm referring to the lyrical content of blues songs which, admittedly, can range from slightly salacious to downright raunchy!
What I actually mean is that in blues and other roots music, the best way to get your point across is to "dirty up" the sounds you make. Most academics would tell you that a blues "sound" is created by flatting the third, fifth and seventh degrees of a major scale. That is somewhat misleading. These tones are certainly employed in blues, but they are also employed in jazz, rock and classical music. The blues is more of a sensibility than a sound. It's determined not so much by what notes you play (or flat), than by how you play (or flat), them.
On the guitar right hand muting, picking triplets against duple meter and varying your picking attack are some ways to create evocative sounds. But the left hand has more tools to employ in the pursuit of passionate playing. Notes can be hammered on or pulled off or both in succession. Thirds, fifths, sevenths or any other note can also be slurred by bending strings or sliding toward or away from them. A glass, brass, steel, ceramic or bone slide can be employed evoking reactions similar to a "foreign object" being brought into a wrestling ring. Vibrato can be employed and often determines a guitar player's "signature," their defining sound.
As a teacher, I find the hardest thing to get across to students is not how to describe or demonstrate these techniques. When you teach as many lessons every day as I do, you learn to get your point across efficiently. Tastefulness is the difficult point to get across to guitar novices. When you're playing the guitar, especially blues guitar, the hardest thing to learn is not how or when to employ all these devices, but how or when NOT to employ these devices!
I often warn the significant other of my students that they might want to invest in some earplugs after I've taught their husband or wife (or whatever other temporary or life partner they may be), a few slide licks because they are going to hear them with disturbing frequency! The “Dust My Broom” lick is exciting to hear the first two or three dozen times the beginner slide enthusiasts hears himself play it, but your “audience” is sick of it by the third or fourth time! Remember, not even Elmore James got away with playing that lick all night!
