Hey Friend,
One of the greatest mysteries to solve for every musician is their personal quest for tone.
Finding the perfect balance of touch to hardware, the perfect ratio of flesh and steel and wood and circuitry.
Transferring and translating heart to sound.
Tone: The musician’s quest
I did a search on “how to develop your guitar tone” to see what would come up. 309 million search results!
Wow, a lot of people have an opinion on how to you’re supposed to make your playing sound good!
As I checked out titles and snippets of the contents for various web pages, it’s clear the general consensus is that gear is the key to your tone.
But the underlying fact is that your hands are the first point of contact in the signal chain, and if you want your playing to be memorable, you must start with your actual execution.
What does that mean?
I think first and foremost is you must own your notes.
When you place a finger on a string, you’re making a commitment to that note.
So do it like it is a commitment. Like you mean for this note to be heard.
The connection must be solid and firm so that the note rings out clearly.
By creating a solid connection between your finger and the string, you’ll have a much easier time with the sustain of the note.
Sustain is the length of time the string vibrates and produces sound. A weak commitment to the note means a weak, dead sounding note.
But placing your finger at the fret in the right spot with the right amount of pressure produces that solid, clear note - that’s commitment.
How do you develop your tone?
There’s no way around it… practice is the only way to develop the skill to commit to each note.
It’s an intentional approach to practice, that you intentionally focus in on the various aspects of the element you’re working on.
Playing a note or riff and analyzing the finger placement and pressure, the quality of the tone, the consistency of the note or phrase.
Your tone comes from placing your fingers on the fingerboard tens of thousands of times, making imperceptible changes over time to improve how each note sounds.
It’s that muscle memory I love to talk about so much. Your muscles learn exactly how much pressure YOU (Friend) must use in order to produce the perfect tone. It only happens by repeating the same movement, over and over again.
Sure, some people have an inherent talent and find their tone quickly. For the rest of us, it takes that little four letter word…
Work.
Hammering at it for weeks or months until it sounds good.
I wish there were some intervention from the Divine, like some light above me shining down and a booming voice exclaiming “Thou art now a Guitar Master. Go forth and melt faces!”
Alas, I am but a mere mortal and must gain my guitar skills like the rest of the masses - through repetition. C’est la vie…
Fortunately, once you’ve dialed in your tone, it’s yours forever.
But Wait, There’s More...
There are certainly other execution factors to consider when it comes to developing your tone… - Hand strength
- Calluses
- Fingernail length
- Pick selection
- Hand placement on the neck
- Guitar position
As you can see, there’s a lot more that goes into playing guitar well than just picking it up and slapping the strings.
And fortunately, you don’t HAVE to know any of it.
You can just pick it up and start strumming without a bunch of thought. You don’t have to be a freak like me thinking about all the little details.
That’s what makes guitar a great instrument for everyone! Be a freak, or don’t and just enjoy playing whenever.
What do you think?
Do you want to explore this idea of developing your individual tone more?
Are there any other physical control points you can think of that affect how your notes get from your mind to your fingers to the world?
Let me know.
Peace~
Dave
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