The piano is a really powerful instrument. With ten fingers, you can play ten notes at once, or more if you use the sustain pedal or you mash two keys with one finger. It can play both higher and lower than a guitar - at the same time! Unplugged, a piano is louder. And there is tons and tons of music for the piano - a lot of it classical, but going through ragtime, jazz, some blues, and even some rock.

That got me thinking. Why is the guitar the indisputable queen of instruments in today's popular music? Folk, blues, and especially rock and roll? What is so special about the guitar that makes it so perfect for rock? I love Billy Joel's music, and Jerry Lee Lewis kicked ass, but numbers-wise, guitarists leave pianist in the dust. Why is that?

Well, first of all, we have the practical considerations. Pianos are big, heavy, and expensive. Guitars are cheap and portable. That's obvious, but I think there's a lot more to it than that. After all, ragtime was not a rich-man's music. It's not too hard to find a piano to play, even if you can't afford your own. No, there has to be something about the sound of the guitar, something about what you can do with it.

And here it is

This is my list of things a guitar can do that a piano can't. This is not intended to diss pianos, or to even say one instrument is better than another. No, it's more of a thought-experiment, a reminder of just what it is that makes the guitar such a special instrument. A good guitarist should be aware of all these techniques and take advantage of them whenever it fits the song. Otherwise, you might as well be playing piano.

Note that I'm limiting this discussion to acoustic guitars and pianos. Once we start getting into the electronic keyboards and electric guitars, it becomes a whole different ball game, with all the special effects and so on. I'm keeping this just to the basic, primitive instruments.

String bends

When you hit a piano key, once the key is down there is nothing you can do to change the sound. The note sounds the same pitch until you let up the key or the pedal. With a guitar, you can bend up to a note, you can unbend down to a note, you can hit a note a quarter step up, you can bend up then down, or down then up.
Because of this, a guitar can actually play more notes than a piano, even if a piano has a larger range. Bending gives us the infinity of "notes between the notes."
It also can give a great wailing sound. Listen to any solo by Kirk Hammett of Metallica or David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, and I guarantee at least half of the notes are played with a string bend of one sort or another. It's the sound of the blues, and by extension, the sound of rock'n'roll.

Vibrato

This is related to string bends, but more subtle. The vibrato is where a guitarist really shows his personality. Think of B.B. King, the quintessence of distinctive vibrato. You can tell after one note that you're listening to the King when you here his trademark "bee-sting" sound.

It also brings the sound of the guitar closer to that of the human voice. Studies have shown that we are psychologically hard-wired to respond emotionally to the sound of another person's voice. That's why, historically, the most popular instruments are the ones that come closest to singing. (That's also why I can't stand the recent Auto-Tune craze. But that's for another post.) If you can make your guitar sing, my friend, then you have truly mastered your instrument.

Varying string attacks

Hitting a piano key, you can hit it hard, you can hit it soft. You can hit it very hard, or very soft, or somewhere in between.

When you pluck a guitar string, you can do all that, plus a whole lot more. When you play with a pick, it sounds different than when you play with your fingers. A string plucked with your thumb will have a different sound than one plucked with your index finger. An upstroke sounds different from a downstroke. You can use different styles of pick. You can play with the side of your pick. You can play with the edge of your pick. You can play with your fingernail. You can play with the fleshy part of your finger. You can play near the bridge, you can play near the soundhole, you can play way up on the fingerboard.

The possibilities are literally endless. Beginning guitarists don't think too much about these aspects, but they can make a huge difference in the sound. Especially in acoustic fingerpicking, they can show the difference between an amateur and a real pro.

Snapping the strings

This technically belongs in the last category, but I decided to list it separately because it doesn't get enough attention. What I'm referring to is when you pull the string away from the body of the guitar, then let it snap back against the fretboard. This produces a loud percussive sound, but with pitch. It can be the perfect thing to liven up some playing, especially when you do it on the low E string. And don't be afraid to put some oomph into it. Trust me, you won't break the string, but you'll definitely attract some attention.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs

When you want that smooth, legato, sound, nothing is quite like a hammer-on or a pull off. Just take the sound of the pick right out of the equation.

Slides

Slide up. Slide down. Slide fast. Slide slow. Slide one note at the beginning of a solo. Slide a whole chord at the end. The possibilities are endless.

Percussion

Mute your strings with your left hand and strum a bit, and all of a sudden you're your own rhythm section! Dave Matthews uses this technique a ton.

Harmonics

There's nothing like the sweet sound of pure overtones. Just lay your finger lightly on a string at the fifth, seventh, or 12th fret, pluck, and you're on your way to harmonic bliss.

Well, the list goes on, but that ought to stoke some creativity. It's a pretty cool instrument we've taken up. But only if you take advantage of everything that makes it unique.

I am not a jazz musician. I prefer to stick to rock or folk, and I see a lot of what modern jazz musicians do as showing off or needless complication of what should be simple. And so, for a long time, I resisted learning many ideas and techniques that I thought of as "jazz techniques," or "jazz theory," or even "jazz chords."

I was, of course, being silly. There is no such thing as a "jazz technique," just as there is no such thing as a "jazz chord." Jazz musicians (most of them, anyway) are trying to do the same thing the rest of us are trying to do: make music that sounds good. So, while you may not want to bust out the augmented seventh chords in your next Woody Guthrie cover, a lot of the tips and tricks that jazz musicians use can be applied in other contexts. One of these tricks is the concept of "chord substitutions."

Wait, don't run away!

Chord substitutions sound scary, because we hear people talk about things like "ah yes, the quintessential tritone substitution with the dominant seventh over a flat fifth blah blah blah." It really doesn't have to be that way. A substitution is just replacing one thing with another thing. In this case, it's replacing one chord with another chord.

You can really substitute any chord for any other chord, but just plugging in chords willy nilly doesn't work so well. For one thing, it can end up sounding like a completely different song. For another thing, your band-mates will get mad at you.

What goes in for what?

There are usually at least two parts to any song performance: the melody, meaning the singer or the soloist; and the harmony, meaning the long-haired dude strumming the guitar and making faces. Chord substitution is for the harmony dude (or dudette). For now, let's assume the melody is going to stay the same.

So say the original song calls for a C chord, with a certain melody over it. You're bored with C chords, so you want to plug something else in, but you don't want the song to sound like a train wreck. How can you pick a good substitute?

Keep as many notes the same as possible

There's your answer: pick a chord that has a lot of the same notes as the original chord. That still gives a lot of options, so let's keep things simple, and limit ourselves to chords that are in the song's original key (let's say key of C for this example), and limit ourselves to three-note chords.

Here is a table listing all the three-note chords in the key of C major, laid out so you can compare which chords have similar notes. The notes in the C chord are highlighted

This chart makes it really obvious that the Em and Am chords each share two notes with the C chord. The Em has E and G, while the Am has C and E. You can feel comfortable substituting either of these chords for the C major, and the melody will still usually sound good.

This is as simple a substitution scenario as you can get. When you get into chords with four or more notes, the possibilities increase exponentially. I will address that in a future lesson. For now, let's analyze these results.

Generalizing

As usual, we can turn the chord names into Roman numerals to get a general rule. In this case, the ii chord and the vi chord can substitute for the I chord in a major key. This applies no matter what key we're in. Plugging in the vi for the I is very common in both improvising and songwriting. Remember the sixth chord in the major scale is the relative minor, so it has a very close relationship. (I discussed the concept of relative minor previously.)

Some substitutions are better than others

Looking at these results, the initial impression might be that the Am and the Em are equally good chords to substitute for the C. However, that is not really the case. For one thing, when replacing the C chord, it is nice to have a C note in the new chord, so the Am (A, C, E) is better than the Em (E, G, B). The other reason is that B note in the Em chord. If the melody has a C note in it (which is likely since it called for a C chord), you get a minor-second interval (a.k.a., half-step) between the B and the C. This can often be an unpleasant sounding interval. (If you don't believe me, try playing the second string, fourth fret along with the open first string on your guitar. Bleah!) For these reasons, Am is often a better choice than Em here.

You can even play the Am as Am/C. (Read about slash chords.) This keeps the C note in the bass line and makes the substituted chord even closer to the original. Even looking at the chord shapes, you can see how similar they are:

C major chord

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x

C E G C E

Am/C chord

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x

C E A C E

Doing it again

Here's the same chart, but highlighting the notes in the G chord instead of the C.

Here we can see that Em and Bdim each share two notes with G. Em is the relative minor of G, so that shouldn't surprise us. The Bdim you probably won't use much, since we're not really big into diminished chords around here. Feel free to give it a try, though. If you like the sound, go for it.

I encourage you to try this exercise with some of the other chords. There are certain rules of thumb, like the relative-minor one, that pop up over and over. I'll summarize these in a future lesson. And of course, remember that the subs can go both ways. That is, if you can plug in an Am for a C, you can plug in a C for an Am, and so on.

When to do it

There are two main occasions when chord substitution comes in handy: improvisation and composing. When jamming with some friends and you're sick of playing the same four chords over and over, why not try a substitution for one or more of them? The worst that can happen is the song sounds a little off for a measure or two. But you can also discover a brilliant new sound and keep your interest more focused.

Likewise, when composing a song, chord substitution can really come in handy. For example, in one of my songs, I have a chorus that follows the chord progression A, Em, A, D a couple times, then I switch it up for one iteration to A, G, A, Bm. I just plugged in a G for the Em (the relative major) and plugged in an Bm for the D (the relative minor). Then I go back to the original progression to finish up. It gives the song a nice sense of variety and built up tension.

It's also a great technique when stealing -- I mean taking inspiration from -- other songs. Taking a cliched chord progression and changing out one or two chords can lead you to something new and surprisingly different.

To fix this, I've completely redone the generated sounds. I think they sound a lot better now. You should also notice a difference in my ear training tools: the Interval Quiz and the Chord Recognition Quiz.

The Chorderator is my free online application that shows you how to play any chord you can think of, in any tuning. In standard tuning, you can also hear what the generated chord shapes sound like. (If you want to listen to chords in other tunings, including bass guitar and banjo [along with a ton more features], you can purchase my Guitarator Toolbox downloadable application.)

The Chord Designer is a sort-of "reverse Chorderator," which lets you place notes on a virtual fretboard to design a new chord, listen to it, and see what it's called.

Here are the gory technical details: The chord audio files are generated on the fly using a back-end python script. The script creates a MIDI file to feed to the TiMidity++ softsynth application which converts the audio to a WAV file, which is then fed to the LAME MP3 encoder to convert it to MP3 format. This is then played in your web browser using Jeroen Wijering's Flash Media Player. Phew!

I hope you enjoy the new sounds.

As promised, here is another easy fingerpicking song: the old children's song, Skip to My Lou. It's a melody almost everyone knows, and in terms of chord progression, you can't get much simpler than this. This arrangement is in the key of D, and it's composed of only two chords: D and A7. In addition to making it easy to focus on the fingerpicking technique without worrying about a complex arrangement, the simplicity of the chord progression leaves a whole lot of room for improvisation around the basic melody, if you so desire.

Dropped D tuning

The one little twist I've added is that the song is in an alternate guitar tuning called dropped-D tuning. Don't let that scare you off, though, as this is one of the easiest alternate tunings to use and one that all guitarists should familiarize themselves with.

Dropped-D tuning (also sometimes spelled "drop D") is the same as standard guitar tuning except that the low E string is "dropped" down a whole step to D. The easiest way to get there from standard tuning is to pluck the D on the open fourth string, then pluck the E on the open sixth string and loosen the sixth string until the sound is one octave below the fourth string. If you're not used to recognizing octaves by ear, it may take a little practice. You can check yourself by fingering the seventh fret on the sixth string, and it should sound the same as the open fifth string. The first few times you may want to also check yourself with an electronic tuner, but it's good to be able to do this by ear, so keep practicing that. (There are also some ear training exercises on this site.)

Dropped D tuning is great for playing songs in the key of D, because it gives you that great low low looow D on the bottom string. When playing in the fingerpicking style, you can just alternate between the open sixth and fourth strings, which are both D but an octave apart. This creates a wonderful droning sound, while leaving all your fingers free to play the melody line.

Here's how to play an open D chord in dropped D tuning. Notice you can use all the strings, giving the chord a really full sound. Use your index finger to form a bar across the three highest strings (the G, B, and high E strings) at the second fret. Then use your middle finger to play the second (B) string, third fret. This way of playing a D is slightly different from what most people learn, but it is important to use your index finger to form the bar because it frees up your pinky to reach down to the fifth fret on the first string, which we need to do for this song's melody line.

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D A D A D F#

• See more ways to play a D on guitar in dropped D tuning, using the Chorderator.

The open A7 chord is typically played the same in dropped D tuning as it is in standard tuning, since the low sixth string is not involved.

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A E G C# E

• See more ways to play an A7 on guitar in dropped D tuning, using the Chorderator.

The lazy man's dropped D

If you have a quick-change capo, you can acheive a similar effect to dropped-D tuning without actually turning any pegs. By placing the capo in such a way that it holds down the first five strings at the second fret but leaves the low E string open, you are in effect raising all except the low E string by a whole step. This will be the same as dropped-D tuning except everything will be a whole step higher.

The song

You can hear me playing this easy arrangement of Skip to my Lou, along with some simple variations. Don't be afraid to play around with the melody line and the rhythm.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Download as mp3 file

And now, the tablature

  D                                                                 A7
+--------------------------------+-----------------2==============+-0==============----------------+
|-3==============----------------|-3======-3==-3==----------------|-----------------2==============|
|-----------------2==============|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------0======---------0======|--------------------------------|---------0======---------0======|
|--------------------------------|---------0======---------0======|-2======---------2======--------|
+-0======---------0======--------+-0======---------0======--------+--------------------------------+

                                   D
+-0======-0==-0==-3==============+-2==============----------------+-2======-2==-2==-5==============+
|--------------------------------|-----------------3==============|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------0======---------0======|---------0======---------0======|---------0======---------0======|
|-2======---------2======--------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
+--------------------------------+-0======---------0======--------+-0======---------0======--------+

  A7                               D
+-0======-2==-3==-2======-0======+--------------------------------+
|--------------------------------|-3==============-3==============|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------0======---------0======|---------0======---------0======|
|-2======---------2======--------|--------------------------------|
+--------------------------------+-0======---------0======--------+

The beta test period has been completed for the Guitarator Toolbox application software. For $17.99, you can download it today at store.guitarator.com.

The Guitarator Toolbox is an application for Microsoft Windows that allows you to look up any chord or scale you can dream up, find the proper fingerings in any tuning, and hear what they sound like.

• View a video screencast
• Find out more

I'm seeking beta testers for my new Guitarator Toolbox application software. The Guitarator Toolbox is an application for Microsoft Windows that allows you to look up any chord or scale you can dream up, find the proper fingerings in any tuning, and hear what they sound like.

For a limited time, I am offering a free download of the Guitarator Toolbox. All you need to do is register. After the initial testing phase, the software will be available for sale.

• Find out more

This is a topic that seems to come up quite often, both in online forums and in talking to people. Does learning music theory take away from the ability to simply "play what sounds good?" Can learning proper vocal technique remove the raw emotion from singing? Does learning more about the established techniques in a field (like songwriting) remove true creativity and make us all sound alike?

I've thought about this a lot, and I'm going to say no. And here's why.

The musical toolbox

In my opinion and experience, learning more about any topic can only help. The right approach is to view every lesson, book, or piece of advice as a tray in a buffet steam table, or as a tool in a toolbox. It's there for you to use when you need it, but there is nothing forcing you to use it (or eat it). But the more items you have to choose from, the better your building or dining experience will be.

To stick with the tool metaphor, a builder can make a lot of great things with a hammer and nails and a cross-cut saw. But what if one day he gets a Skil-Saw and a screwdriver as a gift? Now all of a sudden he can make a lot more things, and some of the things he used to make he can now make faster. Will he still have a use for the hammer? Of course he will. He just doesn't have to frame every building problem in terms of how it can be done with just a hammer. Getting the new tools doesn't take away the old tools. That's the key point.

Learning is an additive process, it's not a replacement process. Even if it's true that, as Homer Simpson said, "Every time I learn something new, it pushes something old out of my brain," we all have enough useless nonsense floating around in our heads that we don't have to worry about running out of room for the really good stuff.

In particular, learning technique does not cause emotion or instinct to go away. On the contrary, by learning the technique well, it becomes automatic and allows even more freedom for emotional expression. When we're speaking, we don't want to take the time to worry about constructing words and phrases. That part has become automatic, and we can focus on the ideas we want to express. In the same way, when we learn well the mechanics of singing or the technical process of songwriting, it becomes automatic and frees us to create better than we would ever have expected.

Learning From The Masters

Michelangelo did it: he spent the first part of his life as an apprentice to the painter Ghirlandaio. The Beatles took a lot of their initial sound from the Everly Brothers. Heck, even Luke Skywalker had to learn from Obi-Wan Kenobi. This certainly didn't hinder any of their progress.

Copying

Now this sounds strange, but I believe it to be true: copying another artist can make you a better artist and help you find your own style. There is much concern about a passing on of an established style, as a cookie cutter makes a plate of nearly identical ginger bread men. But doesn't this passing along of established technique happen anyway? Everyone starts out sounding like their influences at some point, before finding their own style and branching out. Why not learn to really sound like them, so the differences you forge will be based on moving forward rather than making up for technical deficiencies.

Pablo Picasso spent an entire year of his life doing studies of just one Velazquez painting, yet nobody would say Picasso's work is derivative of Velazquez, or even that there is a resemblance. He learned from the master, then became a master himself, without sacrificing his personal style.

These are my thoughts. I'm curious to see who agrees or disagrees.

» Check out Eddy's Metronome Machine

One of my favorite ways of playing acoustic guitar is country-blues fingerpickin'. Also known as Cotten pickin' (after Elizabeth Cotten) or Travis pickin' (after Merle Travis). The style consists of a steady bass line played with the thumb, accompanied by a synchopated melody line played with the fingers. The combination of the driving bass and the melody that seems to float in space over it creates a sense of movement and lets a solo guitar sound like more than a solo guitar.

The best way to learn a technique is to learn songs in that technique, so that's what this lesson is for. A good song to start with is Oh When the Saints, because it has a simple melody that we all recognize, but still has a lot of room for elaboration. That way, we can start simple and add embellishments as we go along.

The alternating bass

The most important part of playing the fingerpickin' style is to maintain the steady alternating bass with the thumb. To start, try holding down a C chord with your left hand and just play the fifth and fourth strings alternately in rhythm. Back and forth, fifth string, fourth string, THUMP-thump, THUMP-thump. With your right palm, you can dampen the strings a little bit to give it a more forceful sound. And don't hold back; make sure that thumb-playing is forceful. Remember, this has to provide both the rhythm and bass line.

Now switch to a G chord. Play the sixth string and the fourth string, or the sixth and fifth, or mix it up, as in the example below. Remember to finger the whole chord, not just the bass strings. This will come in handy when you start adding the melody line.

Here you can listen to my alternating bass audio lesson.

Download as mp3 file

  C
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------2======---------2======|---------2======---------2======|
|-3======---------3======--------|-3======---------3======--------|
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+


  G
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------0======---------0======|---------0======---------0======|
|-----------------2======--------|-----------------2======--------|
+-3======------------------------+-3======------------------------+

Oh When the Saints Go Marching In

Got that steady bass-line down? It's not rocket science, but you should practice it until you can do it without thinking about it. Now comes the tricky part, though. It's time to add a melody line on top of it. It's time for the saints to come marching in!

I love this song. It just reminds me of good times. This arrangement is about as simple as it can get. A basic chord progression and minimal synchopation. It still sounds good, though, and we can use it as a base for more complicated versions.

Some important points to remember:

• Keep that steady bass.
• Keep the chords fingered. Play the melody line by adding your left hand's pinky finger or moving your index finger.
• Start slow. As you become more comfortable, increase the speed.
• Keep the steady bass.
• And last but not least... keep that steady bass.

You can hear me playing the easy arrangement of Oh When the Saints.

Download as mp3 file

And now, the tablature

  C
+--------------------------------+-0======-1======-3======--------+--------------------------------+
|-------------------------1======|--------------------------------|-------------------------1======|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------2======---------2======|---------2======---------2======|---------2======---------2======|
|-3======---------3======--------|-3======---------3======--------|-3======---------3======--------|
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+


+-0======-1======-3======--------+--------------------------------+-0======-1======-3======--------+
|--------------------------------|-------------------------1======|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------2======---------2======|---------2======---------2======|---------2======---------2======|
|-3======---------3======--------|-3======---------3======--------|-3======---------3======--------|
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+

                                                   G
+-0==============----------------+-0==============----------------+-------------------------0======+
|-----------------1==============|-----------------3==============|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------2======---------2======|---------2======---------0======|---------0======---------0======|
|-3======---------3======--------|-3======------------------------|--------------------------------|
+--------------------------------+-----------------3======--------+-3======---------3======--------+

                  C                                                                 G
+-0======------------------------+--------------------------------+-0==============-3==============+
|---------3======-1======--------|-------------------------1======|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------0======---------2======|---------2======---------2======|---------2======---------0======|
|-----------------3======--------|-3======---------3======--------|-3======------------------------|
+-3======------------------------+--------------------------------+-----------------3======--------+

          G7
+-3======-1======----------------+---------1======-0======-1======+-3==============-0==============+
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|---------0======---------0======|---------0======---------0======|---------0======---------0======|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
+-3======---------3======--------+-3======---------3======--------+-3======---------3======--------+

                                   C
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+-0==============================+
|-1==============-3==============|-1==============================|-1==============================|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|-0==============================|
|---------0======----------------|---------2======---------2======|-2==============================|
|--------------------------------|-3======---------3======--------|-3==============================|
+-3======---------3======--------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+

What's next

Next, we will start expanding on the points covered in this lesson. We can add synchopation, maybe a more complicated chord progression, a more varied bass line, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and so on. That's one of the amazing things about playing guitar: there is always another thing to learn. I hope you had fun this lesson, and I look forward to lots more.

Reference

There are a lot of great books about fingerpicking guitar out there. Here are a couple of my favorites.

• Fingerpicking Styles for Guitar by Happy Traum - a classic and the first fingerpicking book I ever bought. I found mine at a yard sale, and it changed my life forever.
• Folk and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar by Dave Van Ronk, or anything from Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. A great series.