The Space Between The Notes...
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| That 'Space' Thingy... |
Evolved musicians, like Miles Davis, are emotionally aware of the elusive space that exists between musical notes. I say emotionally because they feel it within. This isn’t something one can touch. It’s more of a sonic feeling because music is this wonderful enigma that beams us up into that eclectic vortex of the brain where dopamine is released in pleasurable quantities. For most of us, this is a time to momentarily stop whatever we’re doing and tune in, completely absorbed in the melody, the words, the rhythm, the feel of the song and sometimes, recall sublime memory reflections. With our feet tapping away and head bobbing rhythmically, we slide into that pleasurable, lazy mental zone. Hectic Beta brainwaves are replaced by slower Alfa brainwaves. Our busy, active left brain effortlessly slips over into our dreamy, creative right brain mode and we simply let go, all life problems are gently released until the music slides to a close. It’s paradise - earphones are such a blessing…!
However, for musicians, they’re listening, they’re involved and grooving with the particular song but they’re listening with far deeper intent. They go into analytical mode, focusing on the independent instruments, the chord structure, the scale mode, the key, the arrangement and the intricate way in which the producer has blended the mix. Musicians are always intrigued by what contributes to a particular song because they want to know how to play the song, get that solo or funky lick down. They like to try and crawl into the songwriter’s headspace. Even if they have to check it out (How To) on YouTube, the magnetic pull to get to know the respective song intimately, warts and all, is interminably strong.
Guitarists are also sometimes faced with the conundrum of whether the guitar used in the particular song is either a single coil or a double coil pickup guitar because there are two distinctive guitar forces in this creative music world and most guitarists are rather obsessive about their unique sound. Single coil guitars (i.e. Fender Guitars) are used more for blues and clean sounds whereas double coil guitars (i.e. Gibson Guitars) are more suited to Rock, Metal and some blues.
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| Fender Single Coil Alnico V Pickup |
As music progressed, most guitar sounds were cloaked, enhanced with a bunch of pedals on steroids. It became difficult to tell the difference between single and double coil sounds. Hendrix’s unique sound came partly from a Cheese Wedge Octavio Fuzz. This pedal provided the classic octave up effect that Hendrix utilised so potently on songs such as ‘Purple Haze’. The pedal’s amazingly touch-sensitive response could easily transport you into uncharted sonic territory. Other guitarists like David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, introduced a huge mesmeric sound, challenging the sound boundaries with elaborate, soaring and mostly evocative guitar solos. If you Google Gilmour’s pedal rack, it’s extensive, in fact, it’s beyond. Pink Floyd may use simple chord progressions in their songs but it’s the way Gilmour plays that blows you away. His subtle timing, his inimitable panache and effortless finger control, all contribute to Floyd’s overall distinctive sound. This made Gilmour’s style unique and it’s all single coil Fender.
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| Gilmour's impressive pedal line-up... |
A Stevie Ray blues sound, which is explosive, also works with a single coil Fender Strat. Even a slow bender like Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing’ is unique to Fender. However, Blackmore in his Deep Purple days used a Fender Stratocaster playing hard rock and it also worked. Catch his world-famous riff - ‘Smoke On The Water’. Clapton is another Fender virtuoso who defined his sound on a Stratocaster. So many great guitarists play a Strat or a Tele. A Fender needs to be played with affection, with feeling, to get that unique sound, utilising that single coil pickup to its full potential with the selector switch played out in all five positions. A Strat is a very personal guitar with a definitive, precise sound. You either love it or you’re in awe of it.
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| Gibson Double Coil Humbucker Pickups |
When it comes to double coil pickups, then it’s all about Gibson guitars for that very distinctive big sound. Guitarists who prefer the deep cutting sound of Gibson’s double coil Humbucker pickups are on another sound path altogether. When playing a Les Paul, there’s a huge comfort zone because the guitar speaks volumes. Listen to Jimmy Page’s full sound. It’s kick-ass...! Page also uses a labyrinth range of varying pedals.
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| BB and his Lucille... |
Alternatively, listen to the late BB King, surely the master of the blues. Using short, staccato licks in his solos, he played each note with critical, priceless definition on his Gibson ES 335 (which he affectionately named Lucille). Those double coil pickups produced emotive sounds that took you away and then left you wanting, waiting for more. This was BB’s thing, tease you, suck you in and then keep you in his zone. You felt every note; the solo was always explicit. It talked to you. This just speaks Gibson and that full round double coil sound. How about Page on ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ from the third Zeppelin album. He put his authoritative stamp on the blues with this one song, a resonating sound that elevated his respect as a bluesman amongst the entire guitar eminence of the time.
Most musicians prefer to seek a definitive sound, a sound we all want to claim as our own. You just know within, when you work a particular scale into a solo and it instantly rocks your boat, the sound is uniquely you. It becomes your signature sound, a sound that enhances your style or genre. Take Santana for example. You can hear that man’s double coil PRS sound anywhere and he favours the Dorian scale mode so his licks are easily recognisable.
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| Santana Exploding...! |
A lot of guitarists often use a mix of Pentatonic and one of the seven modal scales to create their own melodic sound, easily blending the two with merging patterns they’ve discovered on their musical journey, a journey that never really ends because additional notes, riffs and runs are continually added. Some guitarists like Hendrix, Page and even Blackmore tended to shy away from modal structures, preferring their own unique patterns. It’s all about whatever works for you.
For the single coil versus double coil pickup conundrum though, it’s easily settled when it comes to playing the blues and a simple twelve bar defines the line. Set up a shuffle backing track and solo over it with a Tele or Strat and then do the same with a 335 or a Les Paul. The playback will be so far apart it’ll sound like a different song.
This is where the ‘Space Between The Notes’ has specific meaning because it doesn’t really matter what guitar you play – it’s more about how you play it that counts. The ‘Space Between The Notes’ paradigm, originally claimed by both Claude Debussy and Arthur Rubenstein back in the day, is now used liberally from Miles Davis to Maya Angelou. A tangentially similar scenario to what meditation gurus refer to as focusing on the ‘Space Between The Breaths’ to reach a meditative state of being. It’s an esoteric issue but actually, reality because it’s all about feel and timing, some have it from birth, born with it, others have to work at it, some sadly never get it.
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| Feeling The Notes... |
We feel the notes on a fretboard or a keyboard or a sax or whatever but we use the space between the notes to create the timing. Let’s take a sax, for example, if you blow a series of notes, they’re just notes but when you play them in a melodic scale pattern and insert the right spaces between the notes, you produce beautiful music.
When guitarists play a solo ‘by ear’, they mentally only hear that specific space between the notes. Their fingers touch the fretboard but that’s only to feel and play the right note. What they’re mentally hearing is the space between the notes because that micro space is all about perfect timing and perfect timing is what creates a meaningful solo. Listen to the greats playing the blues, you’ll get it. They feel every note. Their continual flawless delivery is an expression of their passion for the blues, a passion for that distinctive sound that resonates deep within all of us.
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| Slowhand - Jus' Walkin' Da Blues... |
Clapton was affectionately referred to as ‘Slow Hand’, not because he couldn’t shred with the best, it was because he had an instinctive ability to stretch a specific note past the time period. When Clapton bent a string an octave up, he held it there for at least a semiquaver past the bar, tickling it with a slight vibrato before slowly releasing the note and effortlessly sliding back down the scale with those nimble fingers to fall into time with the next bar and he did it without thinking about it because it was all about that intangible space between the notes that held his attention. In these situations, he’d obviously completely slid over into his creative and automated right brain mode because he didn’t need to think, he just did it. To him, it felt right and that’s what it’s really all about; when you start feeling it - when you start feeling the spaces.
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| G3 - Cranking Up The Volume... |
Technical shredders like Vai; Satriani; Malmsteen and so on, play incredible guitar, absolute gurus, which is visually very exciting and entertaining to watch but after a while, there is a boredom factor that creeps in. The problem is: they play too many notes. Sometimes music is about ‘Less is More’. We’ve all done it, trying to emulate these guitar gods but we usually come back to the blues because it can be more difficult to play a slow meaningful melodic solo with specific spaces between the notes than a shredding solo with no direction home.
This is the brilliance of the guitar gurus though who have the ability to shred with the best and yet slow it right down and play intensely evocative blues licks and then change to an acoustic guitar and produce warm and rhythmic wooden music.
Live the moment…feel the space…it’s real…!
Robin Morris
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