Home Guitar Articles Musical Terminology

Musical Terms for Guitar: Guitar Terminology You May Have Overlooked!

Follow

Share

Musical terms for guitar is the musical terms dictionary you have been missing! This unique list specializes in aspects of playing guitar for a living you may NOT have considered, giving you a humorous approach to music terms and guitar technique.

To learn these special "music terms", you won't have to know extensive music theory (WHEW!). Music theory should be taken cum grano salis anyway (with a little salt in your pumpkin, that is!)

These guitar technique explications and guitar terminology morsels are for the average musician who plays guitar professionally. So take a load off, sit back, and PAY ATTENTION!

Musical Terms for Guitar #1: The "Metal Riff"

Dionysus in the days of old,
holding his primitive vine guitar
and chalice of rock.

To write a good metal riff, you should tune down and use "chromatics". Let bands like Pantera school you on the "swamp" vibe. Metal riffs can be FAST, double time, tuned LOW, and in odd time signatures.

It's perfectly OK to look towards metal BANDS for inspiration, but any mention of summoning Dionysus as a vehicle for unleashing the caged music god inside of you is completely out of the question. I mean, it's completely cool if you DO this, just don't MENTION it to anyone until you get famous! Remember: they don't allow electric guitars is padded rooms!

Moore Metal says

"To play a GOOD metal riff, pretend you are trudging through a muddy swamp with a giant fish hook buried in your guts. Attached to the fish hook is a corpse, which you are dragging behind you through the hellish swamp. THAT is what a good "METAL RIFF" should sound like!"

So don't leave home without learning the top metal riffs!

Musical Terms for Guitar #2: "Stage Left"

Stage left is where the LEAD guitarist should stand. You should only compromise this rule if you are showcasing for a bunch of dyslexic A&R reps for Sony Records. Examples of really awesome lead guitarists who shred from stage left are:

• Kirk Hammett
• Dimebag Darrell
• Synyster Gates
• David Gilmour
• Nathan McDonald

Are you a Guitar Guru?

HOWEVER, there ARE legitimate exceptions. In the progressive metal band Protest The Hero, Luke Hoskin takes stage right. Although BOTH guitarists in this band are really good, Luke Hoskin takes more of a "lead guitar" role.

Musical Terms for Guitar #3: "The Guitar Solo"

The guitar solo is the exemplary epitome of your status as a lead guitarist. It should be played from three places: your guts, your soul, and your brain. During a guitar solo, you have the chance to be YOU by letting your own personal voice shine through and putting your very own essence into every note and showing off your guitar technique.

Just make sure you are LOUD enough. Unless you suck, then you should play SO-LOw no one can hear you! Pun intended...but fortunately for you if you follow every last word on this site, then you WON'T SUCK!

Musical Terms for Guitar #4: "The Pentatonic Blues Scale"

No musical terms dictionary is complete without SCALES! This famous pentatonic guitar scale is simple, yet very effective, thanks to its characteristic "blue" note. You can implement this famous guitar scale to play almost ANY solo from the classic rock period!

Here is the scale in the key of 'A' Minor:

Musical Terms for Guitar #5: "Neck Pickup"

If you want FEEL, you should completely favor the neck pickup over any other! It has the FATTEST tone of all, and is perfect for heavy riffing and "warm" soloing. Eric Clapton popularized using the neck pickup exclusively combined with your tone knob rolled all the way down. The resulting tone was classified as the "woman tone" and can be heard in "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream.

Although the neck pickup is tasteful, you can get a variety of tones by using various pickup combinations. The middle pickup will give you a mellow tone and is great for strumming soft chords, while the bridge pickup will produce a very sharp, bitter tone. It was once described by an old man with a beard as "the devil's tail scraping across the asphalt like a rusty shovel." Take this outlandish sentiment for whatever it's worth.

Learn all about guitar pickups here!

Musical Terms for Guitar #6: "Palm Mute"

Learning how to palm mute like a pro is essential to successful riffing. Just look at any Metallica riff and see if it would be the same without open 'E' palm mutes...NO! Here is an example of a riff using palm mutes, a la Metallica:

Click tablature to enlarge:

Musical Terms for Guitar #7: "Octave Bends"

Octave bends are the "unofficial" name for unison bends, but you should pick at least one music theory term to intentionally pronounce incorrectly. This is a precautionary measure against sounding like a know-it-all. Know-it-alls don't make great musicians, and every great musician I know has exactly one term he or she pronounces incorrectly.

Other suggestions include, but are not limited to:

• Metro-NOAN
• Timber, instead of timbre, which is pronounced tam-ber. Don't ask me what the heck it means.
• Every now and then, call a chord by a completely different name, or even PLAY the wrong chord. You'll be surprised at how many times a know-it-all will try and "correct" you.

No matter which music term you choose to say wrong, don't EVER say "bass" like the fish or "lead" like the elemental metal. There IS some confusion here because Lead the Elemental Metal is in fact a heavy metal, but in heavy metal music you play lead guitar...ahhhh!

Musical Terms for Guitar #8: "Floating Bridge"

It's all fun and games till you lose an eye, or break a string! Cuz with a floating bridge, a single unexpected string snap will redistribute the neck's tension and throw off the tuning on the guitar, ending your fun with abrupt dissonance.

The floating bridge is not something you will find on a Les Paul, but something you will probably get with a Parker Fly and certain Ibanez guitars. It allows you to pull your whammy bar in both directions for psychedelic inflections, surf guitar, and dive bombs.

Visit Whammy Bar Basics: 5 Simple Tricks Every Guitarist Who Is New To The Vibrato Bar Should Know for complete details, as it covers more than we have room for here!

Guitar Terminology #9: "Dynamics"

Dynamics, or as it is known by its scientific representation, DyNa-MX, is like DYNAMITE! Without the up and down movement of dynamics, music wouldn't "move" you! Think like the calm before then storm, then the STORM! Any such climax is built with change in volume, intensity, and tone.

In classical music, you will see dynamic symbols such as pp, p, mp, mf, f, and ff. These symbols indicate degrees of intensity and volume. The funniest ones are 'pp' and 'mf'. You hardly ever use 'pp' in rock or metal, and 'mf' is one of those music terms reserved for lead singers who don't play guitar!

Now get all 4 lesson eBooks for the price of a single guitar lesson!

...do your fingers a favor and collect them all!

Buy safely with a 30 day money back guarantee!

The ultimate lead guitar essentials package is here: Four complete lead guitar lesson eBooks covering all your guitar soloing needs.

We cover everything a lead guitarist needs, from just starting out playing guitar solos all the way to advanced lead guitar technique...

• 9 Complete Guitar Solos
• All The Right Exercises For Building Speed and Strength
• Learn To Improvise Your Own Professional Solos On The Spot
• Master Every Mode

Get real tab books from Amazon.com.

To Top Of Page