Guitar Techniques

  Today in my guitar lesson I used a technique that was often used by Jimi Hendrix. Instead of using your index finger to hold a fret, or section divided by the metal rods of a guitar, by using your thumb you have more control and power over the sound of a chord. If you use your index finger, it can be difficult to have a full sound, in the circumstance the top frets of a sixth string are being used. You can also mute and increase sound. In songs like "Purple Haze", "Little Wing", and "Castles Made of Sand". By using this style of guitar playing, the songs he played would have more power and a more announcing presence. 

 The reason I learned this was for an extension of the song, "Californication", and it's guitar solo. Because of this technique, the song became so smooth and simplistic to play when it came to times where a note on the sixth string was a challenge to overcome. 

The other technique I used was bending notes. Every time you hear a guitar play a note that sounds like it is falling or going up and down, the note is being bent. In order to make this noise, you go to the fret and string, and push the string and fret as upward as you can to allow a specific note to emerge. Bending notes is extremely common in rock music. Even in one of the most popular classic rock songs, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zepplin, there is note bending in the solo. 

In "Californication", by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, both techniques can be applied in the solo, are easy to apply, and very important as far as the sounds of rock go, especially Classic, and Alternative.