Mattias Eklundh Masterclass

Guitar virtuoso Mattias Eklundh gives you a gread lesson on understanding non-western scales, legato/tapping techniques, harmonics and sweep-picked arpeggios.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mattias
• Eklundh
• guitar
• legato
• sweep
• picked
• arpeggios
• tapping

[bizzipajaro]

He's using the Floyd Rose to dive into "Semi-tones", which are found on instruments not native to Western culture, as somebody has stated below. Think about the "sound" of the space between frets. If you had approximately "44 frets", you would have a "semi tone" guitar and more possibilities to shape sound. Is it practical? That's the debate.

We should all appreciate these tones. They are there, but most ignore them.

Some talentless rookie guitarists use them a lot...because of tuning probs.

[scottbaron]

Sounds like a game boy game.

[Cranio76]

@bizzipajaro @bizzipajaro Actually, they're not defined as semi-tones but as microtones. A microtone is generally a subdivision of pitch finer than the semi-tone (or half-tone), the common lowest subdivision in western music. Could be 1/4 tone or similar.

Your accent on non-Western culture is very correct, but note that microtonal bendings are also very, very common in the blues language (and a very used device in blues guitar soloing).

[jshearsmith]

@bizzipajaro You mean quarter tones, semi tones are the distance from fret to fret.

[Raumanmusiikkikoulu]

Many guitarists have problems with tuning because an octave should not be divided into 12 equal measures. If you tune e6 and e1 to octave, tune e6, a5, d4 and g3 to perfect fourths and e1 and b2 to perfect fourth, the harmonic on b2 5th fret should be same note as the harmonic on g3 4th fret. They are not. Adjusting fine tuning won't help. That can be fixed with curved frets or compensated nut. (Or a fretless fingerboard...)

[dav24642]

@bizzipajaro eum.. actually those are quarter tone! The semi tone are already fretted on a guitar. Between C and D you have a C sharp which IS a semi tone. All the music since Middle Age is build on those. You are talking about Quarter tone not semi tone.

[Ragnarockalypse]

@bizzipajaro Hopefully you've heard about the band MAN, they use custom-build guitars with 44 frets to get to those quarter notes, and use them often in their music :) Check out Logocide by them for a good example!

[AJtheGuitarist38]

@moneymoney220666 The brand is Caparison, but I'm not sure on model. It's not a Horus though.

[ILikeToColourRed]

@bizzipajaro semi tones are found in western instruments aswell - its the gap, for example, between c and c#. i think you may be referring to quarter-tones which would be c to C(half)#

[moneymoney220666]

what guitar is that??

[jan1080]

@MrRuggo A lot of blues tends to use quarter tones, by e.g. bending up to a quarter tone between the minor and major third. That _really slight_ "out" sound sounds helluva bluesy.

Holdsworth does this a lot too, as do gypsy jazz guitarists.

[MrRuggo]

@bizzipajaro I dont get this. There are 12 semitones in western music. If you go up or down these 12 semitones, you go up or down an octave. What you are thinking of are quarter tones, most commonly used in Indian music. And with bending strings or whammy bar one could play 1/8 tones, but if it would be practical to use them, I dont know. Anyway, your comment is misleading.