PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS BY RICH TOZZOLI
One of the great things about playing guitar is that we
all have our own “thing.” As we
continue to study and (
hopefully) improve, our sense of style
develops. But with those years of
experience also comes the realiza-tion of what we’re good at—and
not so good at. It’s worth taking
a moment to think about, and
what it means to play to our individual strengths and the strengths
of our selected instruments.
I learned long ago that I’m
not a fast player. Working with
Al Di Meola for many years also
helped me realize that! While I
never had the ability to burn up
the fretboard, that didn’t mean I
couldn’t handle my instrument at
a high level. One of my primary
strengths is the ability to play
super tight and funky rhythms.
That doesn’t mean I can’t play
leads, it’s just that rhythm guitar
became my niche. That particular skill I developed by practicing
for years with drum machines
instead of a metronome. I would
always try to time my hits to the
snare and overall flow of the hi-hat patterns. Now when I play
with drummers who don’t have
good time, I go crazy.
That type of rhythm playing
also led me to study flatpicking. Realizing that it takes a
quick wrist action to flatpick,
I’ve developed that as one of my
skills. Again, I’m not the best
flatpicker around, but I can blow
out a few cool licks when need
be. That in turn led to some
country-blues lessons, and with
my early background in Kiss,
Aerosmith, Rush, and Zep, my
style has become a hybrid of
rock, blues, funk, and country.
It all comes in handy because in
the world of TV music, I sometimes have to call on every style
within a single day’s work.
What I’m getting at is this:
Be proud of what you’ve got. We
all know guitarists who make us
want to put down our instrument
when we hear them play, but they
have their style, and you have
yours. Everyone can do something
good, even if it’s simple. I have
one friend who’s a mid-level play-
er, but his barre chords are amaz-
ingly clean and strong. I notice it
every time I hear him play. The
bottom line is simple: There are
infinite forms of expression on
the guitar, and we all have certain
skills we do better than others.
Through experience, I’ve learned
which are the best guitars to play
for certain styles of music or particular techniques. For example,
the scale length and frets on my
Les Paul Custom encourage me
to bend notes and rip chunky
chords. But its neck is wider than
my Les Paul Standard, so I’ll use
the latter for blues and country
licks that require crosspicking or
faster runs.
The same principle applies to
acoustics. My Martin 000-18 has
a much wider neck than my Guild
D- 66. So, in addition to each
instrument sounding quite different, each one excels in different
styles. For example, when finger-picking, I might gravitate toward
the wider neck, yet for strumming
Townshend-style chords, I’m
likely to choose the slimmer neck
because it lets me move up and
down the fretboard quickly.
Taking this a step further, I
play a modified Tele when I gig.
One reason is the weight of a
Les Paul is not pleasant after the
first 45 minutes, and the other is
that for me, Teles are more versatile when covering a lot of sonic
ground. I can also groove hard
when playing rhythm guitar on a
Tele and if I do, it sings.
But—and it’s a big but—Teles
tend to fight you. They’re harder
to play, especially compared to
a Les Paul, so you have to work
them. Also, because Teles don’t
deliver as much sustain on single
notes as a Les Paul, I find lead
lines don’t have nearly the same
impact. Over the years, I’ve
developed a way of using fourths
and octaves when playing leads
on my Tele that compensates for
the missing tonality and fills up
more sonic space. On the plus
side, Teles have a certain clarity
other guitars don’t offer.
It’s important to know your
strengths and focus on developing them, and along with that,
it’s good to learn how to play
to the strength of the particular
instrument in your hands. Don’t
get frustrated by comparing
yourself to others. Take the time
to learn what guitars work well
for your particular style, and
then do what you do best.
In the studio, selecting the right guitar for the part is more than half
the battle. Having a palette of sounds to choose from helps you play
to your particular strengths, and the marriage of creative ideas to appropriate instruments is hard to beat. Photos by Rich Tozzoli
RICH TOZZOLI is a
Grammy-nominated engineer and mixer who has
worked with artists ranging
from Al Di Meola to Ace
Frehley. A life-long guitarist, he’s also the author of
Pro Tools Surround Sound Mixing and The
Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook, as well as
a composer for shows such as Fox NFL,
Pawn Stars, American Restoration, and
Gene Simmons Family Jewels.
