Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher

Category: Music

Tags: learn guitarriffpercussivelessonsecret guitar teacherlead guitarfunky guitarmutingnick minnionstevie wonderfunky sounding guitarsuperstitionfunky soundsecretguitarteacherleft hand mutingtutorialfunk guitarstaccato

Description: Learn to play a guitar version of the great opening riff to Stevie Wonder's Superstition. Understand how to use fretting hand muting technique to help emulate the funky sound Stevie Wonder got from the clavinet. This is the fourth episode of the Mastering the Art of Muting mini-series, catch up with the rest of the series here: youtu.be/4cBWMK1QxAM -- Find the tab and many more lessons at secretguitarteacher.com -- Abridged Script: So far in this mini-series we have been looking at how muting is used to modify the sound of chords. Now let’s take a closer look at some of the ways muting techniques are employed when we are playing single note riffs and licks. To help demonstrate I am going to steal the riff that Stevie Wonder played on his great hit tune – Superstition. I want to show how a combination of four different muting techniques helps us play a pretty good guitar version of this riff which Stevie Wonder originally played on a keyboard instrument, a Hohner clavinet. To understand how the layers of muting technique each affect the sound, let’s start by playing it without any muting at all. Notice that my fretting hand is completely static – just holding each note down whilst my picking hand …is being sure to contact the strings cleanly with the pick – there is no contact with any part of my hand or fingers. Rhythmically, I think you will agree that the effect is pretty flat and the sound is nowhere near what we are trying to emulate. However, if you would like to learn this riff, it is not a bad idea to start off playing it just like this. The first layer of muting technique we want to apply to this is often called ‘staccato’ muting. Executed purely with the fretting hand by simply relaxing each finger immediately after playing the note …allowing the string to come off the fret (but keeping the finger in contact with the string) so as to kill the sound of the note and separate it rhythmically from the next note. The next layer of muting technique we need to add is much subtler in its effect. It is what I call ‘percussive’ muting. Without it, we sound like this …but by adding it in …I hope you can hear how it adds a bit of rhythmic flow by helping to space out the sounded notes very precisely in the context of the underlying 16-beat rhythmic feel that gives this song such a funky sound. I’ll slow this right down so you can better hear what’s happening. So, on those little percussive sounds between the sounded notes I just keep the fingers touching the strings but not pressing the strings against the frets you can see that this allows my picking hand to move with that sixteen beat 1 e & a 2 e & a feel. As simple as this may look at first glance, I know that it often takes quite a bit of practice to get these techniques integrated into your natural way of playing. My best general tip for this is to concentrate on moving away from using a ‘picking action’…and try to develop an action that we could describe as ‘strumming a single note’. Be prepared for the results to sound a little messy while you make this transition and understand that it is the application of muting technique that will enable you to play with this level of freedom and sound nice and crisp as well. I’ll leave you to practice that and in the next video in this series I’ll show you how to add a couple of right hand muting techniques to this riff to get the final result we are looking for. See you then!