Recently I’ve heard two or three records (one of which I’ve posted below) which contain that fantastic “peeeoww” noise a guitarist makes by running a finger rapidly along one of their lower, coiled strings. It’s only a little thing, but it is such an exciting sound. Does anyone have any other good examples? And are there any other sounds in music that have the same effect as this?
Peeeeeeeoowwwwww!
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It’s called a string scrape. You scrape the plectrum rather than a finger. Sounds brilliant doesn’t it! Only downside is it wrecks your plectrum. Several examples at the beginning of this cracker.
Bloody hairy arsed plectrum vandals.
The EU should put a stop to this sort of thing.
They are probably planning it right now.
Ah – cheers @Twang. Might try it when I get home. Thought of one of the other examples – probably a song you either love or hate:
Small world time… my pal Andrew, with whom I do gigs in his rural Cambs local, had professional links to Then Jerico. All of Andrew’s flight cases proudly have the Then Jerico logo stencilled on them.
Roadrunner – The Animals
I prefer this to the Bo Diddley original.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsTQXHmqi20
Can’t agree with you there, aging. Too fast, bit too much of a rave-up.
Similarly, running a finger down the piano keys (there’s probably a musical term for it). See “Great Balls Of Fire” for a fine example.
Is that a glissando? I’d look it up, but I’m sure one of our resident pianists will be able to confirm.
I wondered that, so I looked it up. If I have understood correctly, glissando is a slide between two notes.
Portamento (or continuous glissando) is what I was on about.
I think doing a Jerry Lee is a glissando.
I particularly like the mighty rim shot, beloved of many a rock/soul band. Until literally a few months ago I was confusing them with side stick – till a drummer put me straight. Admirably explained here.
I’m not a drummer and I don’t plan on being one. And yet I find these little short videos of drummers explaining how they do things fascinating.
Here is The Greatest Rock Drummer Who Has Ever Lived (Ian Paice) showing us his rudeys.
Sigh
That is so brilliant. Here it is in action…
https://youtu.be/q88koeaqrEgc
I imagine you’ve seen the Purdie Shuffle?
Marvellous. Makes it seem effortless.
I wish I had ti ming
Fuck,that’s the weakest sounding rim shot I’ve ever heard!
You may find this useful, then. Press the big red button.
http://instantrimshot.com/
Steve Hackett does a good string scrape on quite a few tracks, like ‘Please Don’t Touch’.
I love a good bit of tapping me, like the intro on ‘Return Of The Giant Hogweed’. Steve Hackett with Transatlantic, from 1 minute. I think there’s a good case for saying that he invented tapping (OOAA).
I also like really sustained notes. King Crimson ‘Heroes’. Warning; contains some Adrian Belew, and a Stick-like instrument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcuXYlzxmF4
Weller used to do it a lot and I think he got it from Townshend – it’s a great noisemaker. It’s on several tracks on The Jam’s first two albums.
But Weller also does the hitting the strings hard then dropping the finger placing down the neck. The plectrum scrape always reminds me of a plane going overhead at a regular speed, the hit then slide is more like a comet/rocket sound. Both are in my noisemaking armoury, both I got from listening to Weller play way too much.
Suede used it a lot too. Particularly Butler
The absolute maestro of making funny noises with a guitar was Rory Gallagher, who helpfully uses a whole bunch of them here:
The solo starts around 4.49 with an extended trill. Them:
5.02 – palm muting – you mute the strings with the heel of your right hand. Hard to do anything musical with…
5.34 – violining – you turn down the volume control, hit the string and then gradually turn it back up as the sound fades, to give an extended smooth note
6.00 – pinched harmonics – you hit the string with the pick and also the edge of your thumb, effectively hitting a pure, and very high, harmonic rather than the fundamental note
6.50 – good old feedback, perfectly controlled
9.15 and also 10.20 – not entirely sure what you call this. Sort of funky chicken picking with and order of pinched harmonics.
9.57 – a Roy Buchanan trick (as are pinched harmonics actually) – using the tone control to sound like a way way pedal. Because Rory is superhuman he is also using the volume control to combine it with violating.
A monster picker.
Dozy git. You forgot the clip.
It is 1960. Bo Diddley’s guitar doesn’t look or sound like anyone else’s. Only an indie label like Chess would have allowed such a bizarre noise to be used on a 45.
If you want to take it up a notch, there’s always the guitar neck and mic stand trick, as practised by ALvin Lee
https://youtu.be/m5rM16Q7Rgg
Let me try again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5rM16Q7Rgg
I give in….
https://youtu.be/m5rM16Q7Rgg
Give up
That magical (elbow/knuckle/full palm – arm) weeshoosh swirl vam swouch that only keyboard players channelling divine Energies can do.
Still gnaws at me, that one.
How can this thread have lasted this long without a mention of the ultimate string scrape, the ur-string scrape, the mother of all string scrapes?
And now you can see it happen before your eyes, at 0:20 in!
Or the always excellent Mike Campbell doing string scrapes with an eBow and an Echoplex. Fab.
In a similar vein, the single bass note sliding down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOt2uggLJhM
The rattling of the strings against the fretboard and the sliding of the fingers on the strings
Ramones – The KKK Took My Baby Away
(see also We Will Rock You)