Electric Guitar - Playing Techniques

Playing Techniques

The sound of a guitar is not only adapted by electronic sound effects, but also heavily by all kinds of new techniques developed or becoming possible in combination with the electric amplification. This is called extended technique.

Extended techniques include:-

• String bending. This is not quite unique to the electric instrument, but is greatly facilitated by the light strings typically used on solid body guitars.
• Neck bending, by holding the upper arm on the guitar body and bending the neck either to the front or pulling it back. This is used as a substitute for a tremolo bar, although not as effective and too powerful of force use could snap the guitar neck.
• The use of the whammy bar or "tremolo" arm, including the extreme technique of dive bombing.
• Tapping, in which both hands are applied to the fretboard.
• Pinch harmonics, sometimes called "squealies". This technique involves adding the edge of the thumb or the tip of the index finger on the picking hand to the regular picking action, resulting in a high pitched sound.
• Volume swells, in which the volume knob is repeatedly rolled to create a violin-like sound. Note that the same result can also be accomplished through the use of an external swell pedal, although the knob technique can enhance showmanship and conveniently eliminate the need for another pedal.
• Use of audio feedback to enhance sustain and change timbre.
• Substitution of another device for the plectrum, for instance the cello bow (as famously used by Jimmy Page) and the e-bow, (a device using electromagnetic feedback to vibrate strings without direct contact). Like feedback, these techniques increase sustain, bring out harmonics and change the acoustic envelope.
• Sustainers built into the guitar itself.
• Use of slide or bottlenecks.
• Sometimes guitars are even adapted with extra modifications to alter the sound, such as Prepared guitar and 3rd bridge.

Other techniques such as axial finger vibrato, pull-offs, hammer-ons, palm muting, harmonics and altered tunings are also used on the classical and acoustic guitar. Shred guitar is a genre involving a number of extended techniques.