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Immaculate Bends, Intonation, and Vibrato
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:32 am    Post subject: Immaculate Bends, Intonation, and Vibrato Reply with quote

Aha, yet another aspect of Guthrie's playing that needs to be discussed more in-depth and is not mentioned often. Wink

The way a player bends with proper intonation and the way the player expresses through vibrato are like the face of one's playing. It's like looking at one's eyes. The way Guthrie bends and the way he uses vibrato are probably the most immediately distinct traits of his style and playing. It is very individualistic now and us fans should be able to pick out Guthrie's playing in a blindfold teset.

Guthrie can sure bend with the best of 'em - from subtle blues type of bend-phrasing to the extreme bends of players like Jeff Beck and Jimi to SRV to Satch and Vai. His intonation is absolutely spot-on during all those wild bends, slides, wiggles and wide vibratos. And he even does the microtonal kind of stuff with the bends and slides that never sound out of tune.

Did you notice that sometimes Guthrie likes to just squeeze the string and the note really hard downwards towards the floor? It's a pretty interesting effect that adds tension to the lines he's playing. He also jumps across the fingerboard for a big bend at the end of a particular run that looks rather easy in his hands, but man, to nail the intonation on something like that has got to be really, really hard. Shocked Yngwie is really good at this, too, but I think Guthrie takes the approach even further.

Well, I thought I'd bring up another aspect of Guthrie's playing that tends to get overlooked, so please discuss! Very Happy
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kabuki



Joined: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 105
Location: Verona, NJ

PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:50 am    Post subject: Re: Immaculate Bends, Intonation, and Vibrato Reply with quote

alexkhan wrote:
Did you notice that sometimes Guthrie likes to just squeeze the string and the note really hard downwards towards the floor?


Absolutely. That's his patented "throw note at floor" technique Very Happy

GG's intonation is dead on. That means his ears are in perfect alignment with his fingers. Very few players can make that claim.
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shredfusion



Joined: 19 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah his intonation is pretty much perfect. He never makes a bend and uses vibrato which makes the listener cringe.
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

shredfusion wrote:
Yeah his intonation is pretty much perfect. He never makes a bend and uses vibrato which makes the listener cringe.


Ouch! I do a lot of cringing around here. Mad Laughing Wink
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shredfusion



Joined: 19 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

HAHAHA!!!

What is your avatar Ed? For me, its just a box with an x in it. Am
I correct by assuming its a photo of Mr. Govan?
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 6:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

shredfusion wrote:
HAHAHA!!!

What is your avatar Ed? For me, its just a box with an x in it. Am
I correct by assuming its a photo of Mr. Govan?


Hmmm... I wonder what the problem is. Yeah, it's a live pic of Guthrie from the Jan 20 show with his hair down. The avatar shows up fine on my Safari browser but it also shows up as a box on the Explorer. Confused
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shredrulez
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

guthrie's control of intonation is absolutely insane. he does some extreme bends, slurs, slides and stuff and is always spot-on. Shocked another very good subject to bring up, ed. the more you watch what he's doing, the more amazed you get by all the things he does so incredibly well...
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frankus



Joined: 13 Sep 2004
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Location: Chelmsford/Arachnipus

PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

shredfusion wrote:
HAHAHA!!!

What is your avatar Ed? For me, its just a box with an x in it. Am
I correct by assuming its a photo of Mr. Govan?


like this?


credits to minky_monkey for that one Wink
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James W



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah Guthrie has a near perfect sense of intonation.

I've heard an interview of Shawn Lane where Lane says that it is ridiculous calling some one like a Hendrix a 'feel' player when the way Hendrix 'shaped' a note; i.e quater-tone, semi-tone bends; was very technical. Jeff Beck is probably the best at this type of playing.


I think it is comparable to what violinists are forced to play like due to their instrument.


... Love James XXX
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Carlo



Joined: 13 Sep 2004
Posts: 408

PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yup, the dood bends a mean string Smile
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Alun



Joined: 19 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the performance that really demonstrated this best is the unaccompanied piece towards the end of the Clinic DVD where he does all those Jeff Beck-ish slide impersonations just using bends.

He also manages to squeeze bends into really unusual places like that bent tap in the WST run from Hell ( bar 34 in the transcription).


Alun
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M@



Joined: 12 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 4:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey Frankus, that's a really groovy pic/gif man...

That bending to towards the floor get's a great Hendrix sound (I think Eric Johnson is partial to this as well).


Cheers
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

He does great vibrato while holding a bent note. A lot of guys fall apart when trying something like that or they'll just grab the whammy. Another thing he does a lot is bend a step up to hit a note and then bend that string up another half-step up smoothly and in perfect intonation. Lot easier said than done...
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James W



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 4:47 pm    Post subject: Has anyone... Reply with quote

Has anyone got any good exercises for bending?


... Love James XXX
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Alun



Joined: 19 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The best exercise I know is also pretty basic. First, play any note and then the note a fret higher. Then bend the first note to match the pitch EXACTLY of the second note. Once you can bend a semitone perfectly and consistently, move onto whole tones and beyond. The challenge is to have the same precision and control on all strings and in any position.

Cheers,
Alun
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