Have you ever heard a guitar that creates such a incomparable sound, that it makes you sit up and take note of it? How and what does the guitarist do (ie:place something physical on the strings or do it through electrical means) to achieve new sounds? Well it could be anything at his/her disposal.

Some call this guitar styleNoise music (think new age or abstract/avant-garde jazz). Noise music is an acquired taste to most lovers of music. Now for a bit of background information.

It took me many, many years to understand abstract jazz, but in the end it was really eye opening and definitely worth it. Finally one day it hit me like a ton of brinks!

When listening to it, you have to unlearn everything you know about modern music making with all of conventional chord progressions. You have to force you mind to disregard familiar melody lines and watch out for rhythm patterns instead, at least that is how I came to this understanding of it. To me it was like holding back raging lion with a spool of knitting thread.

Imagine an radical poet/lyricists trying to make sense of a modern day song. If the sound of music itself infuriates them, they would have to put on musical sound plugs, in order to get what they would be naturally interested in (words/lyrics)! They would have to filter out all the sounds in their mind and then concentrate completely on the words being brought forth to them. This would tax their sanity to the max.

Yes, to most of us beauty is in the eyes of the beholder … but at least give it a try!

There are many levels of this music. First there is the just kinda having fun with it guitar player. Then there is the extreme lover of Prepared Guitar performing! I tend to lean towards the first.

I just had my subscription to Acoustic Guitar arrive in the mail the other day and I saw a piece titled Prepared Guitar. While reading it, all the above came to mind. Near the beginning of the article, I thought how in the hell can you do this technique on an acoustic? Well you are only limited by the number of things around you.

When goofing around on your axe (or watching someone play guitar) just pick up the closet thing to you and try you best to alter the sound in anyway you can.

You could place a chop stick under some strings, but not all, and strum the unaffected strings? You might want to lay some paper over all the strings and proceed playing a simple song, let the vibrating strings bounce the paper up and down? Hey, whats that I see? A paper clip … here … through it over! For all you song writers out there, this might be that missing bridge in a song your currently working on … your welcome!

A Prepared Guitar is simply one that has had a foreign object of some sort added, usually to the strings, to alter the sound
Bill Horvitz Acoustic Guitar Magazine

So kidz, here is today’s lesson. Go out there and start experimenting with any object at your disposal and get back to us with what you came up with! Then, get back to us right away and tell us all here of your results … we’ll be waiting for your response!

Keep on Jammin’