The sus4 chord is one of those chords which pops up regularly in all kind of songs. “Pinball Wizard” of the Who is a well-known example which uses sus4 chords in many parts of the song.
Most people who play guitar have used this chord many times, probably without realising what kind of chord it is.

Thinking of chords, a major chord contains a Rootnote, a Third and a Fifth.  Take the chord of C and you get C as Root, E as Third and G as Fifth.
A sus4 chord replaces the Third for a Fourth. The nature of the chord is it wants to release to a major (or a minor) chord.

Going back to the example of C and we get: C as Root, F as Fourth and the G as Fifth.

Here a few chordshapes of Sus4 chords you may like and their resolution to the major chord:

   About the Chordshapes:
On the far left names of strings, for first example only used three strings because chord is only played over three strings.
For each chord I have also given the names of the notes.

          Csus4                             C

     E  ——-1–        F        ——-0——-    E         The sus4 is the F in the C chord, it falls down to E
                                                                                to give you back the standard C chord
     B ——–1-         C        ——-1——-   C

     G ——–0-         G       ——-0——–  G

           Dsus4                           D                                     The G forms the Sus4, it falls down to F# to give
                                                                                        you the standard D chord. You may like this D chord shape,
    E  —5—-            A       —–5———–    A                   which uses the A note at the high E string. Mute the B and G
                                                                                        string to get a nice, clean and ringy sound out of the chord.
    B  ——–                   ——————

    G  ——–                   ——————

    D —-5—-            G      —–4————   F#

    A  —5—-             D      —–5————  D

    E  ——–                   ——————–

            Asus4                          A                                Sus4 is formed by the D it falls down to C# to give you
                                                                                    the chord of A.
    E  —-0—        E         ——-0————  E

    B  —-5—        E        ——-5————   E

    G  —-7—        D       ——-6————   C#

    D —-7–           A        ——-7———–   A

    A  —0–            A       ——–0———-    A

    E   ——-                  ——————–

Next time you listen to some music see if you can spot the sus4 chords.
Experiment with your new chord shapes and hope to see you soon again,
Eddie

For this article some short ideas how to kickstart a song.

A song contains of a lyric, melody, harmony and rhythm.
It is possible to start a song with each of those elements on their own.

Before we break down each of those four elements let us have a quick look at style to see what kind of impact style has on those four elements: 

Dance music: typically reduces lyric to a very short idea, harmony is usually reduced to a short riff or a few chords. 
Rock and Soul music: Strong on rhythm without compromising lyric, harmony and melody.
Folk music: Think of early Bob Dylan: Harmony is often simplistic, while lyric may be more important, think of the story the song tries to tell.

          Lyric: 

To start a song with a lyric can give you a sense of where you want to go with a song lyrically. You can write down some ideas, or even a short story, or a poem, which can serve as lyric lines for your melody.
Instead of having a clear idea of the words you can also work with “nonsense lyrics”: just use anything which come into your mind to serve you as a melodic idea. Once a song is happening work on your lyric to replace the nonsense words. Sometimes it may be quicker to use nonsense words, it can also give a sense of “non-commitment” Too much commitment at the start of a song may make it harder to get going. The fun element of the nonsense words may help you to open up your creative potential.

         Melody:

Start out with a melody before you even have an idea of harmony. Sing (or play) the melody to yourself. A strong melody can stand on its own. Having a strong melody may improve the nature of your song. Older songs of the past (1930s up to early 1960s) used to be stronger in melody.

        Harmony:

The “guitarist way” of writing songs? Typically mess about with chords, riffs or a handful of notes to see what comes about. It is a very satisfying way to write songs but does have a few downfalls: If you use no other methods you may end up writing the same kind of songs over and over again.  Having chords first may reduce your melody, you may just create melodies to fit your chords instead of the other way around. Ideally you should try to get chords which support your melody and at the same time sound interesting when played on their own without a melody.

         Rhythm:

Work with a bassline and beats first to kick start a song idea. A bassline may open up the harmony, since the bassnotes can be harmonised in different ways. You could start with this method and once you have a groove happening with some chords you could add chords and start thinking about song structure.  The drum/bass method is not just for people who work in the dance field of music, it is just another way to open up your creativity and to get you to think in another way to get a song going.

Try any of the above methods, use them when you get stuck with your own writing, think where you want to go with a song and try various ways of writing.
Songwriting is diverse, and you do not have to plan before hand. Sometimes it helps, the overal process is chaotic, the endresults are neat and, usually, end up with a finished song.

Have fun and hope to catch you soon again,
Eddie

Reflective areas are those places in your rehearsal room where the sound bounces off. Hard sufaces such as tiles and stone walls are typically very reflective materials.
It is possible to deaden some of the reflective areas in your rehearsal room. If you have ever been to a recording studio, or dedicated rehearsal room, you may have noticed that the walls were covered in some kind of material to eliminate the relection of the sound.

Too much relection of the sound will make the room echoy and it may be less enjoyable to play in a room as such. Deading all the refective sounds in your rehearsal room will result in a dead sound, but when you are using electronic reverbs this may not be such a problem. Ideally you should strive to keep some of the reflection to keep the sound from being natural.

There are many dedicated products on market for you to choose from to create the ideal rehearsal room, however, when you think about what you are trying to achieve, you may able to improvise a bit with various materials and get similar results in a simpler (and often cheaper) way.

               Using Carpet,Cardboard and Wood:

Observe the walls or your rehearsal space and put some carpet on the wall. You can get the carpet onto the wall by using screws or glue and any method which will keep the carpet firmly fitted to the wall. Carpet will absorb the sound and lessen the refection. Cardboard does have similar characteristics as carpet, it may not absorb the sound completely but it will lessen the reflection of the sound, which is part of your goal. You may be able to find large carboard boxes, fold them into one and use them as a panel. Use double sided cardboard, which makes it easy for it to stand up against the wall.
Using wood is also a good idea, wood will aborb the sound as well. You may be able to find pieces of wood and use them as panels (similar as with the cardboard) and arrrange them around some of the walls of your rehearsal space.
As you do some of the the above, keep some areas free for the sound to bouce off, to remain some refection, which will give you a more natural sound.

             Sound Levels and Treated Rooms:

You may find, after you have treated your room, that your band does not have to play that loud for each instrument to be heard. Working with the sound (and size)  the room is always a good habit, try it. If you use different rooms for rehearsing, try to tread the rooms differently so you can observe the differences in sound.

Hope to catch you soon again,
Eddie

Using a different gauge of strings may be an eye opener for those of you who have been using the same gauge for a while: Going up in gauge you may find your sound will be tighter and fuller bodied. Going down in gauge may get you a more twangier and less stiffer sound.

When you change the gauge of your strings do you need to set-up the guitar accordingly to this new set of strings? Ideally yes, but if you are going up just one number in gauge, for example from 0.10s to 0.11s, you can just try changing the strings, see what it sounds like and leave it like that. Readjust set-up only if you are experiencing very different action and intonation.
If your guitar was set up correctly, going up one gauge will not change it that drastically. Just try to see how it feels.

Enjoy, and hope to catch you soon again.
Eddie

The sound of your guitaramp comes from various aspects: The design of the amp, the type of valves being used and the speaker. Changing the speaker of the amp can have some interesting results: A stiff amp may now sound more responsive, the amp may break up in a different way, the brightness of the amp may have been tamed. These are just a few aspects I mention, difficult to predict how your amp will sound, just giving you a general overview of how the sound of your amp may have changed.

In case you use amphead and separate speakers, changing the kind of speaker you use will be very easy: Just plug amphead into different speakcabinet and listen to the results.
Using a combo? Some combo amps have a jackplug on the lead of the speaker, this jack plug is then connected to the speaker socket of the amp which lets you connect speaker to the amp. If your combo does have a jack plug connected to the speakerlead connect this jack to a different amp: You are now using the speaker of your combo to connect to a different amp. Often the speaker lead found on the exhisting speaker of your comboamp will be short. You may be able to plug your speaker into a connnectorbox which will let you plug speaker into box and then let you connect this box to a larger speakerlead which may be able to reach your amp. In case you are not really sure how to get this connection done, speak to an engineer or a friend who is well-versed in technical details as such.

                     Using Speakers You Know:

Trying different speaker onto various amps may work best if you use speakers you know, since you know their character and will be able to notice the differences in sound straight away. Working in this manner also avoids you having to buy new speakers, speakers you are not sure what they sound like.

Overal, this experiment will open up your ears to particular characteristics of your amps, observations which will make you understand your amps better.

Have fun and hope to catch you soon again,
Eddie

There are those moments you love to use a small amp during your gig or rehearsal. Smaller amp may sometimes be more practical, or maybe a particular amp does have a sound you would like to use.
Smaller amps do not have the body bigger amps have. In the context of bass and drums they may loose their presence and character. Use them in the context of a larger P.A and monitor speakers and there may not be such a problem.
All of this will depend on the band set-up: If you are playing with another guitarplayer and this person uses a much bigger amp, you may find yourself competing on the volume level.

If you are the only guitarplayer you may get away with it: Use the monitorspeakers as part of your amp: Get your guitarsound coming from the monitor as well, try to blend in the level of the monitor with the level of your guitar amp. Once you have the right level you may like the sound, and it may be big enough for the band to work with.

Once your guitarlevel comes through the main P.A the levels can be set in such a way that noone will notice that you are playing through a small amp. Needless to say that you will need to match your level with the rest of the band, once that is in place your guitarsignal can go anywhere.

Happy Playing.
See you soon again,
Eddie

Playing melodic guitar solos may not be a natural instinct for some of you. Most people start of playing pentatonic ideas in various keys and areas of the fretboard. Playing pentatonic ideas is certainly a good idea to enhance your solos but what about playing parts of the vocal melody?
Usually the melody of the song is the strong part which most people seem to remember. Why not play parts of this as you solo, it will add a bit of variation to the song and it may also get you focused on playing melodic ideas instead of finger pattern ideas.

Once you can play a complete vocal melody, why not take this melody up to a different part of the fretboard. Find the part when you like playing most, try to add some bends to melody. By doing so you may make the melody more suitable for guitar, all depending on your style and approach of playing.
Experiment for now and see what works for you.

Happy Playing and hope to catch you soon again.
Eddie

For this article a rough guide on soundchecks mainly aimed for those of you who need to set up the sound of their own band during gigs (and rehearsals) without the help of an additional soundengineer.

Start off with your vocals, get the lead vocalist the sing on their own. Once sound is there, get the lead vocalist to sing along with the drums (either whole kit of just the parts you are miking up) Because all the various sounds need to be in balance with the drumkit’s volume level, it is important to spend the time on getting the levels of the kit right, next to all the other sounds.

Once vocals and drums are in balance, get the bass to play along with the vocals and drums.
Once these three are in balance add guitars. Guitars are the easiest, you will always hear them, because they sound bright, regardless how loud the guitar player plays. Try to match the guitars with all the other sounds. Check for the moments when guitar will play solos usings single notes, this level may need to be a bit higher compared to playing chords. The guitarist should get a good, balanced sound from his/her amp, once this is in place, the overal sound of guitars through the P.A should be fairly easy.

Once all instruments are in the mix, play a few songs, or just parts of songs, look for the loudest parts to get the levels of the P.A in place. Every song does have different dynamics, and you need to set the master volume of the P.A in such a way that it can handle the different dynamics, since you cannot correct once you start playing during the gig.

All of this can be rehearsed during rehearsals, the sound may not be the same, as the rehearsal room is probably smaller than the gig venue. The procedure will be the same, and once people get into the routine it will make life easier, and you will get your sound much quicker.

Happy Sound Checking.
Hope to catch you soon again,
Eddie

One of the common problems people experience during gigs (and rehearsals) is not being able to hear each instrument, instruments may be too loud (or quiet) in the mix,  sometimes the vocals may not be clear enough.
Thinking about where you place each amplifier and monitor speaker can help you to overcome this problem. Instruments should not be competing with each other for volume, each instrument should sit comfortable in the mix to create a well-balanced sound for the whole band.

               Vocals:

Most people like the vocals to be a bit higher in the mix compared to the other instruments. Often a touch of reverb can help you achieve this ideal. It may be a good idea not to make the vocals to lound to start with, add reverb to make the vocals breath and go from there. Try various reverb settings. What you will find is that each song may require a different reverb setting. This may be good if the band does have a sound engineer who can monitor what is going on durnig the gig. Most of us will have to find a compromise in a reverb setting which works for most songs.  Make sure you know your equipment well enough to make small adjustments during the gig. Keep it simple for yourself with the adjustments you make, often you will not have much time to make adjustments, the better you know your equipment the less change you will make a mess of the sound.

              Guitar Amps and their Speakers:

Guitaramps do not project very well: Stand close to your amp and you may not be able to hear the details of your sound, even though your volume may be quite high. You can overcome this problem by angeling your speakercabinet a bit, if your are using a combo, just place the amp on something which will lift the amp a bit. Personally I like to angle my combo against something, the speaker will face up with the result you can hear the amp much better, and you can also hear the details in the sound. If possible, move a bit away from your amp, you will hear the sound much better, you may even like to turn down your volume a bit.

For all the different amps you are using with your band, try to set the amps up in a circle. Each person (hopefully) will be able to hear each individual amp. Try to match the volume of each amp, think about how someone plays. Some guitarplayers dig in hard in their strings, their volume may be a little less compared to the guitarists who play naturally quieter. Another piont is thickness of strings: thicker strings produce more volume compared to slinky strings. All of these deteils matter when you trying to get a good balance for each indidviual instrument.

             Monitors:

You can treat the monitors as little amps which contain the whole mix of the band. Most people in small bands will only use a handful of them, which means different bandmembers should share a monitor. Bassplayer and drummer may be able to share one monitor, while the guitarist and vocalist may be able to use the other one. Make sure each bandmember is happy with the monitor mix, do not start the gig (or rehearsal) before each bandmember is happy with the sound. Once everyone can hear what is going on your gig will be much better (and enjoyable).

            Size of the Room:

Work with the size of the room. A typical problem people encouter is: Turn amps up too loud, the sound cannot go anywhere because it does not match the room. The result is a deafening sound where no one can really hear anything at all.
Do not set the levels of your amp (and P.A) with your eyes, listen to the sound and work from there onwards.
When you play in a small room your amps can be quieter as when you play in a much larger room.
Listen to the acoustics of the room, any echo when you snap your fingers? Again, when you play in a echoy room you do not need to be too loud as the sound will reverbrate. Try to deaden some of the echo, but if not possible, try to work with the volume of the amps. Try to keep the volume as low as possible and let the echo of the room amplify the sound.

    
      Personal Taste:

A lot of what I mentioned before does not only depend on facts, there is also a lot of personal taste involved. When playing with others you need to check on how other people would like the sound to be: Some people like it to be loud, while others prefer a more quiter sound. Hopefully you can come to a happy balance where everyone can enjoy their own sound and the sound you all make together as a band.

Hope to catch you soon again,
Eddie

When it comes to finding out who did what on almost any Rolling Stones album you have to use your ears: Get familiar with the sound of the voices and guitar playing styles of each individual member.
Most people will be aware that Brian never sang a lead vocal with the Stones, but he did sing some backing, most of it can be heard on the first album: “Walking the Dog” may be the best, noticable example: Listen to Brian voice in the chorus, it is raspy with a slight growl, not like Keith’s who had a very smooth voice in the early days.

The next example where you can hear Brian’s backing is “Tell Me”  In this case his singing is much further down in the mix, but you can hear it, along with Keith’s smoother voice. Observe the guitarsound, very similar to “Satisfaction” minus the fuzzbox, perhaps same guitar? Most of Keiths guitars were lost during the stay at Nell Cotes, during the “Exhile on Main Street ” period. The guitars you hear on later albums do sound different, the Strats and Teles became more mainstay instead of the Gibsons.

The last example where I believe you can hear Brian’s backing vocals is “Can I Get a Witness” Again listen to the backing, there are the “Aaaaghs” and the phrase in the chorus. Like before, Brian voice is lower in mix than Keith’s but just listen carefully and you can hear it.

Why do we not hear Brian’s voice on any more songs later on? Maybe due to what happened to the Stones and Brain, it is hard to tell, you need to read between the lines and the facts which are out there.
Personally I think, his voice does have character and it is a pitty that we do not hear it clearer on any more songs, but then again, the Stones changed their music and Brain changed and things became very different.
That first album is very special, great recording, great feel and, even though, many of those first songs were covers, they still sound like they had made them their own with their own feel and style.

Hope to see you soon again,
Eddie