Playing with Emotion

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Hello everyone! Hope your day is a great one.

Question, I am trying to turn what a lot of my attention has been on, from less theory and to more expression. Having trouble turning my academic mind off and playing more freely. I am sure there is a happy middle ground out there.

Curious if any of our more soulful layers have any advice apart from adding bends, vibrato, dynamics etc. Those are more physical things. I am more interested in silencing the … ´is it correct´ chatter and letting my passions run more loosely.

Maybe it just takes time. Any direction would be gladly appreciated. Thanks!!

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Hi James,
Maybe this can be of use to you, we know little about you so good help is a bit difficult, what do you play now and at what level… a video would give many people insight into how and where to send you… but playing songs and play a lot …really a lot of songs and playing along with songs is a very good way to learn…

Ps : play and learn songs

Hi, I actually read over this a bit, but this is what puts the feeling in
and you develop that by practicing a lot and playing a lot of songs :blush:

Greetings,Rogier

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Hey there @Pickin1,

I think that’s a super good and interesting question! Also (as you suggest yourself) a bit hard to answer in a very exact manner, BUT I’ll offer my own advice as best I can. Again, by nature of the question, these will just be my own opinions - take from them what you will :wink:

The first thing to say is that “playing with emotion” is everything! It’s the most important thing/skill you can learn on the instrument. A soulful player that plays simple stuff will always sound 1000 times better than an amateur playing some fast/technical stuff but sounding stiff and soulless.

So the first advice I can give for learning to play more soulful - when practicing this, you should play something a lot simpler than your current maximum technical ability. You can only sound soulful when you’re playing from the heart, which means you must be free from any technical struggles and also not have to think too much about playing the actual notes.

So, to be concrete, I would suggest you find a super simple and melodic lead line / solo that you really enjoy the sound off. Depending on your skill level and tastes, perhaps:

  • First solo from Guns’N’Roses - Knocking on Heavens Door
  • First solo from Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
  • Solo from Claptons - Wonderful Tonight
  • Solo in Robbie Williams - Angels

You get the idea…

First step - learn the notes of the solo, until you can play it on auto pilot. Ideally find a backing track for the solo, set up a loop and play over it again and again.

Now you can start to “play” with the solo, modifying it from the original and applying your own ideas and small changes to it. This is where a lot of the soulfulness will come from. Really listen while you play, and pay attention to how you like the sound when you:

  • Play with the timing of bends (subtly or more radically). Start the bend a bit early? Bend slower? Bend faster? Pick a couple of times to make the bend more staccato?
  • Play with vibrato. Speed. Intensity. Using a trem bar, using fingers.
  • Experiment with your picking: where exactly on the string (it affects tone a lot if you pick near the neck, or near the bridge). How hard do you pick?
  • Experiment with rhythm in the phrasings.
  • Experiment with tone. Can you make a note really “sing”?

Next level - you can also modify the solo a lot, until you’re playing your own melodic phrases, perhaps your own entire solo. Just get into it, enjoy the sound of the track and your own playing. Personally, I can sometimes loose myself for an hour, playing over the same solo or backing track.

A few example from myself that you may or may not find useful. These are solos that - for my skill level - doesn’t require any technical straining and where I can focus 100% on my own version of “soulful playing”. For example, this solo - I’m playing the notes close to the recording… but I never sat down and studies “the little things”. Like exactly how fast/slow the bends are, the “slide off” on strings, small noises, small rhythmic scratches with my picking hand, speed or type of vibrato etc. That all came from the performance:

Here is another one where the tone, the bends, the “wailing” quality of some phrases, the attack on picking etc makes the whole thing:

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Oh this is so great!! Really wonderful advice. Thank you so much.

So re-capping:

  1. Listen, wait
  2. Choose a simple line. Something that can be played without thought.
  3. And put all of my attention/energy towards drenching that with taste, style, feeling, delivery, timing, dynamics … meaning.

I am going to totally add this to my practice routine right now. I need to sort of change my outlook also. Somewhere I have adopted this idea that if it isn’t hard it isn’t valuable. I love your point that a soulful passage is better than a perfect sweep. I also realized recently my Purpose for playing is a bit unhealthy. Wanting to impress someone vs sharing with them what I enjoy listening to. Thank you so much!!

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I think this is totally normal for most guitarists. I sometimes fall into this trap myself, being frustrated with myself about the technical stuff I cannot do instead of being happy about what I can do and milk that for all it’s worth.
I think there is room for both - it’s fine to keep pushing for more technique, but (as you say) perhaps it’s healthy to separate that from playing simpler and more soulful stuff. Separate practice sessions, separate attentions…

I come from a background of playing a lot of live shows, and the reality is that most people don’t enjoy the “impressive” (read: technical) stuff as much as a well-delivered soulful passage. I’ve been playing cover shows where I felt I delivered some pretty cool and technical stuff, yet got all the applause after playing the melody line in “Angels” :rofl:
Most “ordinary” music isn’t that technical - it’s about a solid sense of rhythm, a good tone, being in tune … and delivering the parts soulful and confidently.

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I am so excited. Thank you man.

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Great question and fantastic answer, thank you @Kasper, really helpful! I am in general very analytic and thinking a lot about my playing. It was really limiting and frustrating. I started playing with other people on a regular basis approx. a year ago. You quickly understand that errors are normal, not easy even to spot with few guitars playing at the same time and the most importantly, noone will stop and start again because you made an error. So, you learn to recover and continue, and then to relax and enjoy, which is the closest I got to that soulful playing. I also learnt that choosing the version of the song that you can actually play is great help to relaxing. So, my advice would be play with other people. :slight_smile:

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That is the plan as well. Thank you my friend! This site is great :slight_smile:

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@Pickin1 , do you sing?

I’m new to this too, but I find if I sing with emotion, my guitar playing becomes more emotional too…without really thinking about it.

This might be a different way to break out of the left brain, analytical, perfectionistic mindset…as long as you don’t apply the same mindset to your singing! :slight_smile:

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VERY WELL SAID! Wow. thanks

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Interesting question there. I think it takes time to get familiar with and proficient at bending, whammy bar usage and other techniques that are used for colouring. If I approach this topic with my audience hat on, I think that first and foremost the people you play to have to be moved in a way to feel your playing to be “soulful” or “emotional” instead of yourself. These techniques will have a more powerful effect if you don’t use them all the time but only in the right circumstances. You don’t necessarily want to sound like Whitney Houston or other singers who sang each and every syllable with a melisma, or become a shredder who has to play a hundred notes per second no matter what.

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This is a great topic and I enjoyed reading all the questions and replies. I’m a beginner working my way through grade 1, but have been a lifelong music fan with a very wide range in music I enjoy. Kasper’s videos were great. I can’t see myself ever becoming a shredder, but would be thrilled to play lead guitar in a style such as David Gilmour where feel and emotion are so much more important than speed and technicality. I have tremendous respect for players of all types, but am thinking realistically about the level of dexterity and technique I’m hoping to achieve.

Thanks for the inspiration.

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I think that one of the best solos to learn about emotional playing is the solo from Peter Green Need your love so bad. Justin actually has a lesson for it and I did a cover of it and added a bit of improvisation to it. I played the backing track as a loop and played over it until I thought it was right and then recorded it.

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Darrell

Played with such feeling for the mood and shape of the music: I can sense the emotion in your performance; awesome!

Brian

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It’s short and sweet but it’s really difficult to get the emotion into it; it took me a while to understand what it needed. First I learned the notes and got it down like it was second nature playing it and then came the hard part, and all I can say really is to just be in the right frame of mind and relax and just get on with it. It’s the same for anything Blues really you need to feel it to play it well!

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That sounds great man, really well played!

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What a treat, thank you for sharing Darrell!

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This is great man. Sitting outside on the deck online. Pulled up your response and my girlfriend was sitting nearby on her phone. She stopped what she was doing after a minute and asked … who is that? That is a great compliment! I love that you guys stay so true to the music. All of this is very inspiring. I love it. Thanks!!

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Tell her ‘thank you so much’ from me, my wife was a bit emotional about it too but hey she’s my wife :laughing:.

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Darrell, that’s absolutely beautiful!

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