ACOUSTIC
Propel Your Parts by Mimicking Drum-Kit Sounds
BY DALE TURNER
PERCUSSIVE EFFECTS
From Power Plucking
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This lesson covers different ways your plucking-hand fingers can add percussive effects—sounds that elevate a passage’s rhythmic intensity—
to your acoustic playing. In some ways, you want to think like a drummer: Hits from a snare could be “popping” sounds plucked on middle
strings, kick-drum thumps could be reproduced via aggressively thumbed bass notes, and the textural wash or syncopation from cymbals and
hi-hats might be mimicked with repeated droning of the upper strings. For example, a basic drum-set groove, as it translates to guitar, could
be the combinations of thumbed bass notes (the kick/bass drum), E notes on beats 2 and 4 (à la the snare), and steady eighth or sixteenth
notes plucked on high strings (the hi-hat), like Figs. 1A–B. (Note: In Fig. 1B, use an alternating open-hand strum with your i, m, and a fingers
for the sixteenth notes, and an upstroke from the thumb in the indicated spots. Tricky!)
The preceding figures are merely highlighting rhythms that are played in a basic rock drumbeat, primarily to get you thinking like a drummer—
a fun approach to try while composing your own fingerstyle figures! It’s no coincidence that some of rock’s greatest riff writers, from Edward
Van Halen to Dave Grohl, played drums before they ever learned guitar. While we won’t devote this entire lesson to mimicking drum-kit
sounds, you’ll find this section contains all sorts of interesting ways to coax “percussion” out of six strings, many of which accentuate the back-beat—rhythmic and repetitive moves you can use to get a groove going. (Note: For many of these figures, consider using the “heel down” or
“heel planting” position; you may find it yields more stability—and hence, accuracy—as well as overall comfort).
