Imagine someone playing a lead riff as fast as they can. They focus on the narrow spread of single notes. Now imagine someone who can play two different shredding melodies at the same time. And all the more fantastic if they are interweaved, right? But why stop there? Imagine someone who can play a different melody for each of the six guitar strings simultaneously. And if they can interweave them all as well? Now, THAT's fast! And that is effectively what you are doing when you are playing in your extra-dimensional form. The parts that are perceived as rhythm by those unable to see, are actually the simultaneous expression of multiple guitar parts that brings the highest and fastest back around, full circle, into a perfect, synchronized rhythm. From there, you can go anywhere, and your style is defined by the forms of expression that you define as you flow with the energy across and through your guitar.
There is absolutely nothing wrong in using chords in your expressions. Shredders might consider it sacrilege to use chords because their focus lies in techniques rather than self-expression. In reality, chords are simply familiar fingering of notes that are played simultaneously or nearly so. You could think of them as being an "economy of motion" while simultaneously playing several distinct melodies. The key concept to maintain here is "motion". I used full chords when I first started composing my music, and flavored them with intense picking/strumming. As I learned to relax and trust the flow of energy, the full chords became greatly abbreviated, and the picking/strumming far more expressive. Though you may use a chord structure or part of one in an expression, it should never be strummed in a lifeless and repetitious way. It should be part of a group of sounds that form an expression which radiates movement. And that movement is the line of energy that you ride in your expression of the state of being that is you in the song.
Do not think of a chord as a singular sound. Each and every note played in the chord has it's own life, and radiates as an individual (as in a specific, individual state of being of one of your selves) simultaneously with other notes with their own lives. They should be played together as necessary components of an expression to give it life. An observer can feel a sense of motion when you play them, because you are not fixating on a position on the guitar neck. They stand firmly, where needed, but more often are played like transitional notes, which provides a sense of motion. It is best to feel them as radiating life and always in motion. Move your vibrating intensity thru your guitar pick, in the form of energy, across the strings, and know that you can narrow that energy to a single string for its notes or spread it out across multiple strings, or all. You can add a fuller dimensional sound if you place periodic hard chord anchors emphasizing the bass sound, or the treble, mid-range, or all. More often than not, these are partial chords rather than full chords, because they are merely emphasis placed within another structure. Where you place them is part of the construct of your "style" - the construct of you - of self. Of course, this not something that is planned ahead of time in the composition of the structure of the song. "Style" evolves from the real time expression of BEing. It is derived from the "variations" that appear in each unique performance of the song.
Though I do use full chords at times, I tend to use rather simple melodic notes and partial chords - usually two or three strings rather than a whole chord - just the dominant part at any given moment in relation to the other guitar parts that I play simultaneously. I refer to the two and three note partial chords as diads and triads. In some of my songs, my vocals may sound strained. I play my songs in keys that make me reach for a reason. It lends itself well to the expression of emotional strain when singing a song. Consequently, it feels like a more natural key to express the song in. But honestly, sometimes I just really enjoy the guitar part so much in that key that I will suffer the strain of reaching with my vocals as long as I can balance it against my guitar work.
Now the actual playing of the guitar should originate from your state of being that is reflected in your flutter or quiver on the strings. That is to say, that you always play at top speed and you are always in motion. This in no way means that you simply play incessantly for the sake of striking notes. I used to have to get a kind of running start when I was first performing publicly. It's kind of like getting a carousel to spin as fast as you can and then jumping on. Then once on board, I started to move in ways that accentuated the speed and gave emotional depth to the sound. Let's say that your maximum speed is 100 notes per second. This is by no means intended to infer any limit, minimum or maximum. It is simply an easy number to use as an example. And let's further say that the sounds that you are playing contain only ten notes in a particular span of a second. The notes should not be summarized into ten notes at a tenth of a second each. You would be operating at a tenth of your capacity then, and the expression would take on aspects different from the origin of the sound. You will lose momentum and drop out of gear, losing your state of being which is so all-important to expressing yourself on the guitar. So don't think in terms of quarter notes, but rather 100th notes (just an example). Even the rests (pauses) are measured at top speed. Do not be intimidated by the seeming complexity. You really won't be thinking in terms of notes at all. They are merely representative of the mechanics involved in the process of expressing yourself with the guitar. To clarify, in order to maintain a high-level of energy, one must always be emanating that high-level of energy. In my videos, I play songs that seem to have a rhythm that does not sound like 100th notes (using the previous example). I am however, still thinking, feeling, and playing in 100th notes. You can even see the sudden high-speed flurries at various points. I am not "kicking into high gear" at those points. I have been in high-gear from the start. These high-speed accentuations are typically the points where multiple sounds need to be produced simultaneously (as in multiple guitar parts) - like a meshing of the gears. I have discovered that different sounds can accomplish the same goal when merging emotional content from multiple guitar parts. The way that the energy is forced out is different and unique each and every time and the same mix of emotional content can sound different, yet feel the same.
The very first step each time you begin to play is to wind yourself up to your top speed. Get that flutter going across the strings. I find Fender's Thin Picks excellent for maximizing the effect of this motion. Even though you will immediately temper the strikes on the strings with intervals perceived as slower, it is important to establish your self "full force" so to speak, and also to maintain that maximum level, even when not expressing at that speed and intensity. It will give you a finer cut on the accentuations that you make to your melodic expression. Yes, that means more style in the expression that you are performing.
When contemplating tempo, consider your energy level. After all, the driving force of the emotions being expressed, must be of adequate intensity to raise your energy level to such a high degree, that you radiate the expression. You cannot artificially "amplify" the emotional experience to raise your energy level. It must be genuine and sincere or you will not be expressing your "self". You may be an extra-dimensional being, but that does not negate the life experiences that one experiences at this level of self. All aspects of you exist and are connected. It is your responsibility to your self to "BE" in each and every one, including what you would call "this one" (it is actually a continuum of states of being, or selves). You must perceive yourself as standing naked, alone against overwhelming opposition to your individuality and reject it with your whole being. You must refuse to live a subjugated existence and truly be willing to fight to the death against it. There are plenty of individual oppressions, but the most dangerous to the individual are the institutions that control the masses - governments and religions. These are both repressive by nature. Their sole reason for being is to make everyone conform to their particular ideology. Their very design is to prevent real individualism. Your struggle to "BE" will provide you with all the genuine emotional experience to generate the necessary energy levels for self-expression. The more extra-dimensional you become, the more you will refuse to accept external attempts to control you. Since it is an attack on your right to BE, you should take it most personally. That will generate genuine rage that you can use and channel.
Like everyone else, every variation of every cool version of you exists and is connected to you, just as every variation of every uncool version. So you must dedicate yourself to yourself. Be loyal to yourself. You are what you radiate, so, radiate that truly cool (and most importantly, unique) persona of you that you are. That is what it takes to be. Just be it, moment to moment. But being is about radiation. You are radiating yourself into all else in reality. And radiation is a constant emission of energy - energy of the core self. When you can feel the energy flowing through you and your guitar, you will want to expand on it, and expand on it, you will. You will be drawing energy from your core self, and also from nearby parallel continuums of self.
Do not get locked into sounds that you think are cool. You came upon them as natural expressions of your being without focusing on them to begin with. If you lock yourself in to a specific sound, it is at the expense of all other sounds that you might use to express yourself. Do not intentionally limit yourself in this way.
When playing the guitar, do not see notes. Do not play notes. Instead, see the layer of strings on this instrument as a surface across which to glide in expression of yourself. You may choose patterns of notes to strike as you move across the surface of the strings, but the note patterns should not be the focus, but rather, accentuations of the flow of energy that defines the state of being in the music. You will find infinite variations of ways to express yourself by moving energy across the strings as you play. The energy can be given form which you can use to ride along as you play. Kind of like a surfer on a wave. The difference is that the wave comes from you. You use this form of energy to facilitate expressing yourself.
Feel the point of contact with the strings. Not the skin on the strings, but the energy that you generate upon contact with the strings. Each note that you play burns in intensity, regardless of the volume. You are pushing the energy of your self into the guitar, and drawing upon the energy of other selves of yours, and building in intensity. Feel that energy flow through you. In this state of being, you are your real self. You are supremely confident and calm because you are the perfect self that expresses the songs. You are being what you are. You feel the flow of the energy as you play, moving it along and through the guitar.
Concentrate on the sweeping motions that you make as your picking hand moves the energy through the guitar with your personal style. The places where the fingers of your other hand drop onto the strings (the notes) is almost incidental. The only precision required is in moving that energy, which comes naturally. The places where your fingers do land on the strings will always be synchronized with the flow of the energy. Do notice that I keep referring to the fingering as "landing on the strings". This should illustrate that not only are you always in motion, but the music itself is also always in motion, because it is carried by the energy that you are flowing through the guitar.
The basic construct in my songs is usually the same or similar for all sets of verses. How it is played for each set of verses is what differentiates them. It may build in intensity to a climax for the last set. It may change in the expression of emotional content, or in any number of ways that express an evolving state of being, In other words, motion. It is all a spontaneous performance of a simply-structured composition.
You will be tempted to re-use some of the expressions. But you will quickly discover that it is at the expense of the spontaneity that made you so expressive in the first place. The focus on single forms of expressions will always bog you down like an anchor. Flow free. Exercise the mastery of self through the guitar with the appropriate mix of style, grace, and presence.
Learn to use your vocals interactively with the guitar. Your vocals are the prime malleable instrument to dance with the guitar. Your vocals can build on the guitar intensity and give rise to higher dimensions of expression from you. Both guitar and vocals are part of a single dynamic expression of you. You can modulate the intensity between the two (vocals & guitar) to affect the singular sound with extra-dimensional effects that enhance the sound by adding overtones that give form to the added dimensions. Hence, a fuller, richer sound that infers additional instruments and musicians to produce.
Technically adept musicians will turn the way that a "natural" guitarist plays into a set of techniques. They will practice them and get them down cold. And dry. And emotionless. They will lose that quality that created them in the first place. They will have no extra-dimensional qualities about them. The "natural" guitarist applies several additional layers of energy flow that a music-theory-oriented player cannot comprehend, because it is beyond their focus. To clarify, playing the guitar for the sake of music, or wealth or fame, or any reason other than self-expression, will not produce the same results, regardless of how perfectly they believe that they "copied" the "techniques". They simply cannot see and it will come across really lame to those who can. Wealth and fame could follow for a "natural" guitarist due to appreciation of their self-expression by the public. But it cannot be the motivation. Only genuine self-expression can produce the extra-dimensional qualities of sound that make the music what it is.
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