Due to the very unexpected success of the lesson "New Acoustic Concepts", and lots of e-mail requesting more information, I decided to write "New Acoustic Concepts part 2". Part 1 features examples of playing by Michael Hedges, stylistic examples of Preston Reed, my own piece "D.I.", and a brief interview with Justin King. If you've not read that lesson, you can check it out HERE.In this lesson, we'll look at Paco de Lucia, P.O.M. (with interview below!), early Van Halen, and more. Let's start with Paco, who Steve Stevens called "...the Jimi Hendrix of flamenco...". Paco has been around a while...long enough to have altered what is considered "traditional".
While there are multitudes of techniques we could sample, we'll have to settle for a single excerpt - this one is similar to the lightning fast runs found in songs like "Mediterranean Sundance/Rio Ancho" and "Frevo Rasgado" (both from the 1980 best-selling "Friday Night in San Francisco", which features Paco along with John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola). The muted notes at the end signifies he slapping of the guitar body for percussive effect. Also of note is the blinding speed - 16th note triplets at 180bpm is fast by anybody's standards! Patience and practice is the only way to get near this sort of speed.
Now let's take a look at Eddie Van Halen's twist on the flamenco sound with his solo guitar piece called "Spanish Fly" (from the second Van Halen record, released in 1979). This is all about speed and articulation, which means there is no short-cut to performing this - just start very slowly and patiently increase your speed. Especially unnerving will be the 5-note groupings, so again be patient. Note this is played with a touchstyle technique - the pick-hand tapping (or hammering) out notes in conjunction with the fret-hand.
The next example illustrates the use of multi-finger tapping often associated with Michael Hedges, Preston Reed, Justin King, and others, but in a more linear fashion popularized by electric players like Joe Satriani. This track, my own "Tap Dance (part 1)" - first recorded in 1990, and re-recorded & released on both "An Alien Blue" and with all 3 parts on my solo disc "Hunger" - was my attempt to take some multi-finger tap-style ideas (I'm using either fingers 1&2, or 3&4) and fuse them with tapped harmonics, heavy percussive devices, and a dark overall feel. This is from the "bookend" section of the song. Note the mutes at the end, which denotes the striking of the guitar body in conjunction with the harmonics, as well as the timing on the 32nd notes at the end, which, at 140bpm, require a touch of perseverance to get if you're not used to that sort of thing.
You can view the video for "Tap Dance" at Skinny Devil TV, and you can also see video of Justin King here. You also don't want to miss the amazing performance of "Blind Man" by P.O.M., caught on video HERE. P.O.M. is an exceptionally talented guitarists who wrote and performed the entire soundtrack for the full-length feature film "Lost Contact", and excels at all of the concepts illustrated above. P.O.M. (along with Justin, Muriel, and many others mentioned in both of these lessons) was interviewed for my "Guitar Gods" interview series, but I also spoke a bit more with P.O.M. about his playing for this lesson. He's an uber-cool fellow for taking the time to make this lesson more comprehensive (thanx, bro!), so check it out:
David: There is a video for your song, "Blind Man", from the "Lost Contact" soundtrack, on the web-site. Since that may well be the introduction to your playing for most people, let's talk about that first. I noticed on the video that you begin the rapid tap sequence at 1:16, then continue without significant pause until 3:40, for a total of well over 2 minutes of high-intensity, multi-finger tapping. How on earth do you train for that kind of endurance.
P.O.M.: It’s not really a matter of ‘training’ as such but rather it’s just how the playing came about and evolved. I didn’t just sit down one day and decide to do something different then find out that it sounded great but had to be 3 minutes long. You try a few ideas and eventually think “that sounds kinda cool… how can I incorporate that into something”?
You have to remember that I am an acoustic player… what you hear is what you get and that’s how I have always liked it. I have never played electric so getting sounds out of an acoustic, with no effects, is my thing. I am used to dealing with that. In relation to ‘Blind Man’ I first started to play around with the main ‘lower register’ percussion sound years ago. You hammer a two finger chord with the left hand and really hit the strings twelve frets up with the right (though when you have done this for a while you can hit the strings with the right hand almost anywhere and you instinctively maintain the percussive sound). After a while you can use one of your fingers from the right hand to hit lower register notes (creating a melody perhaps) at the same time as maintaining the percussive rhythm. Of course this can be hard on an acoustic guitar but then I have known no different. One thing… get it good acoustically… don’t compromise… because when you eventually play it through a big sound system, live, it sounds amazing and creates a real wall of sound.
Anyway… when I first started playing it live, it comprised of that section only but continuing in a ‘mantric’ fashion for ages, longer than 3 minutes. In certain circumstances it worked well if people were in the mood for that kind of thing. I played it like this for a while every week in a venue in London. They loved getting me on stage to do a set between bands and filling the place with this unusual sound. After a while though I wanted to add something to it and make it more concise. I added the haunting Flamenco sounding intro and built the tension with some high register tapping before coming in with the lower register percussion.
The higher register tapping in ‘Blind Man’ is another story. It is actually entirely tapped. There is no pulling off of the strings. This gives your fingers a battering but sounds great. Fingers from the right and left hand, only ‘hit’ the note. One note quickly followed by another. To get a note in the high register like that you really have to hit it hard to have an effect. With no ‘pulling off’ of the note you have to do it fast also. If you listen carefully to the beginning of the high register tapping, before I come in with the melody, you can hear me ‘pulling the odd note off’ as well as hitting it. I only do this once or twice. You hear the odd flurry of open notes. That’s the difference in sound.
When I come in with the main melody using fingers from my right hand, the hitting is maintained but more accurately than explained in the lower register as the right notes need to be hit and sounded, all in key.
David: Your personal style seems to rely not just on traditional classical & flamenco styles, but by commanding a wide array of contemporary techniques. Can you talk a little about how you took the Van Halen & Hedges styles of tapping, fused them, and then took it to the next level?
P.O.M.: I have always loved Flamenco and believed strongly in improvisation. After spending years learning how to improvise/solo on the acoustic guitar using fast plectrum techniques I wasn’t about to dismiss it purely in favour of the ability to play solo pieces.
When I heard the sounds made by Eddie Van Halen on a classical guitar with no effects as he played a piece called ‘Spanish Fly’… my head turned. I’ve liked him since. Maybe not all of his music but his playing and attitude. Apart from his playing I found he never really took himself too seriously. He played down his ability and always had interesting anecdotes that you might not expect from him. (like), “Who said songs had to have words man… tell that to Beethoven an’ he’ll kick your ass!”.
A story comes to mind that I heard once. He took part in a radio interview I think it was and said that too much was made of his ability. Playing the guitar wasn’t difficult compared to brain surgery and that he just played rock and roll. The radio station subsequently got a phone call from a brain surgeon saying if Eddie taught him to play guitar like that… he would gladly return the favour with lessons in brain surgery. I thought that was a lovely story.
I never liked ‘eighties Rock’ but someone I knew made me listen to ‘Spanish Fly’. I think every guitarist has heard it and possibly even learnt how to play it… I found the tabs somewhere… I think it was a friend’s guitar magazine.
Once I could play it I had no idea where to go with it but one day years later when I was learning flamenco I realised that flamenco used a lot of left hand Legato techniques. Lead lines and runs hammering and pulling off notes with the left hand. Eddie Van Halen was basically using two handed legato and when I started putting these into a Flamenco context… it sounded great.
By now I was very into the nylon strung Flamenco guitar but loved the clean sound created by Michael Hedges on steel strings. His solo pieces were beautiful and didn’t overdo the tapping aspect of his playing. I don’t listen to him much but I fully realised the influence he had on some of my playing early on. I found myself endlessly hammering a ‘D’ chord one day on my Flamenco guitar and composed ‘Rodeo’. If you know his playing you will hear elements of ‘Arial Boundaries’ in that piece. ‘Rodeo’ was composed with him in mind but long after I stopped listening to him. I knew I didn’t want to go in the direction of other aspects of his playing. I don’t buy guitar magazines or anything like that so funnily enough I didn’t know he had died until recently. I was pretty sad about that.
David: What sort of practice advice do you have?
P.O.M.: Don’t stop… I guess that’s easy to say. Follow your inspirations. If you like what you hear, you will practise more. Sometimes you become blocked and don’t know where to go or you run out of inspiration. Don’t worry… be patient… it will come back and direction will return. Patience is a big thing I have learnt. Importantly… if you hear a technique or style, no matter how hard it sounds, if it really grabs you, go for it. Don’t settle for less than you really want to learn. The down side is if you are trying to learn a very difficult style (Flamenco, Classical, speed picking, tapping, whatever) it would go that it will take you longer to become proficient.
It took me forever to pick up techniques that I use now. The down side is that for years and years I wasn’t playing anything. I wasn’t composing, gigging or recording. I’m sure people around me knew I was a guitarist but wondered why I wasn’t playing live or recording or anything. I wondered myself what I was doing but all of a sudden the techniques came together and I found myself not practising but composing. Don’t get me wrong, you never stop learning or practising but you do eventually start putting practise into a different context. You might spend days working on a composition where new ideas and techniques start to develop but at the end you have a piece of music as well. You find yourself making music and playing it live.
Another big tip. Try and record your playing at an early stage. Even on the most basic of equipment like a Dictaphone or something. You never sound like you expect when you hear yourself back. Like hearing your own voice for the first time. It highlights weaknesses in your basic playing. It’s not nice but I found the more I recorded (once I finally started to) the better I sounded. It’s like your sub-conscience uses it as a reference and your playing improves in a better way. If you sound good on tape, you know you sound all right when you play live. Don’t be put off though if you hear yourself for the first time. It may sound awful but this is normal and it is music’s way of telling you how to go forward…. Remember… “Still waters do not make skilled sailors”. (I like that one)
David: Thanx, P O M!
P.O.M.: Not a problem.
===== David M. McLean is the proprietor of Skinny Devil Music Labs, former guitarist of the avant-garde fusion-metal band Aurora-Sen, guitar instructor, and columnist for TinFoil Music Magazine (where he conducts interviews in the on-going series “Guitar Gods”). His new solo album, “HUNGER”, will be released later this year, as will the acoustic collection, "An Alien Blue".
