How to Play Alternative Guitar Music
- 1). Use a distortion pedal to achieve the correct Alternative Rock tone. A distortion pedal is an effect that, when added to the electric guitar, morphs the signal sent through the amplifier to give it a distorted or fuzzy sound. Each individual band uses different effects pedals, but the distortion pedal is generally one that they all have in common.
- 2). Learn the guitar concept of "intervals," or the distance between notes, in order to understand the name of the chords you will learn to play in step 3. The standard guitar is tuned so that, from left to right, the guitar strings are EADGBe when note strings are fretted. Intervals then tell you what note each string in each fret represents. All notes are two fret away from each other, or a "whole step," except when moving from the e-note to the f-note, or from the b-note to the c-note; these notes are only one fret, or a "half step," away from each other. Since we know that the 6th string is an e-note when it is open, using intervals you can go up the entire 6th string and know each note on the fretboard. The 1st fret would be an f-note because it is only one fret away from the e-note. Then, to find the next g-note, you would move up the neck two frets to the 3rd fret and so fourth. The chords in step 3 will then be named based on which fret the root note is.
- 3). Learn to play "power chords." Power chords are a guitar concept that allows guitarists to finger one chord shape and then move that one shape around the neck to play many different chords. For example, to play a F-Power Chord, place your index finger on the 6th string above the first fret to finger the root note, then place your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 5th string and your pinkie on the 3rd fret of the 4th string. This shape is a power chord. While keeping this shape, you can slide your fingers up the neck to make more chords. You can also keep this same shape but move it down one string to open up more chords possibilities. For this power chord, your index finger would be on the 5th string, your ring finger would be on the 4th string, and your pinkie would be on the 3rd string. Power chords are probably the most distinct guitar concept that characterizes the genre of Alternative Music.
- 4). Make up riffs and solos by using the guitar scales. Alternative music generally contains riffs, or a pattern of individually picked notes, which are combined with the rhythm of the song made from a set of power chords in step 3. To know which notes to make a riff out of, you will need to create scales. To make a guitar scale you need to once again use the intervals concept from step 2. Start with the root note of the first power chord you used in step 3, this will be the name of the scale you are creating, so for the f-major scale you would start on the 6th string of the 1st fret since you now know this is an f-note. Starting from this fret, the pattern to create a major scale is then adding notes a whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, and then a half step away. So the f-major scale would be made of a f-note, g-note, a-note, a-sharp note, c-note, d-note, and an e-note. Use this method to create scales for any note you need so that you can make your own alternative music riffs.
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