Blind Guitarist
Posted on August 2, 2007
Filed Under Blind Guitarist |
(this response was given to a question regarding blind guitarists and various musical concepts. - JDM)
John,
Thanks for your question. I remember answering the question that you referred to but I’m not sure where that answer got posted. I’m not an expert on this subject but I’m glad to give you my thoughts.
I haven’t had the opportunity to work with any blind guitarists, so I have no first-hand knowledge of any kind of special learning method that might be particularly helpful for you. I have done a significant amount of reading over the years and have noticed that there are a number of world class guitarists who were blind. Rev. Gary Davis, Doc Watson, Jose Feliciano and several blues guitarists from the early 1900’s come to mind. Other blind musicians who have had a huge impact on the world include Fanny Crosby who wrote thousands of hymns, Ray Charles who can play the piano and sing like no one else, Stevie Wonder a musical and creative genius and Turlough O’Carolan a 16th Century Irish harpist whose music is still performed and enjoyed today. While the methods through which these people became musicians are probably as varied as the people themselves I would expect that their blindness did much to shape their musical voices.
If the commonly accepted phenomenon of people lacking one of the five major senses gaining an increased ability in the use of their other senses is true, it stands to reason that a heightened sense of hearing and touch would be a huge asset for a musician. In learning the guitar I think it would be worth while to consider how these senses could be used to their fullest advantage.
Touch – a large part of guitar playing has to do with memorizing shapes – chord shapes and scale shapes. These shapes and patterns repeat themselves over the entire fretboard. Once a person knows how to play a barre chord that chord shape can be moved up or down the neck to play the same type of chord (i.e. major, minor, seventh, etc.) The same thing is true of many scale patterns.
Touch – a large part of tone has to do with how we address the strings – with fingers, with a pick, how hard we press the strings against the fretboard, etc. By paying attention to the relationship of touch and tone a person is able to produce some very pleasing sounds.
Touch – strings really are a straight line. Guitarists must learn to touch two places on the straight line at the same time. This may seem obvious but the development of hand to string coordination on both ends of the string is critical to playing well.
Touch – as you learn to play “up the neck” it may be helpful to make some kind of marks at specific locations on the back of the neck to give your thumb fixed reference points.
Hearing – Every note can be played in one, or in some cases, two places on each of the six strings. An “A” played on the 5th fret of the low E string sounds similar, but not the same as an open A string, even though they are in a sense the same note. This will make more sense as you begin to play.
Hearing – a combination of the same notes will sound different when it is played in different areas of the neck.
Hearing – listen to the “beatlessness” that occurs as notes vibrate in sympathy. Listen to the “beat” that results when out of tune notes oppose each other.
Ok, I understand that so far I have been rambling about vague and general musical/guitar concepts. What you are actually looking for is a systematic way to approach actually learning to play the guitar. My short answer to, “How should a blind person learn to play the guitar,” is: in much the same way that a sighted person learns. I’ll give you a Reader’s Digest run through of what you need to know. At some point it would be helpful to track down a good teacher or musical friend who can explain this stuff in detail.
First, learn how to get your guitar in tune. Obtain some type of tuning device that will produce a tone that can be used as a starting point for tuning the guitar. Most metronomes have a function that will produce a concert “A”. Tune your 5th string to that tone. From there you can tune the rest of the strings by ear. If you have a friend who knows how to tune a guitar they can explain it to you. If you don’t know anyone who knows how to tune a guitar send me an e-mail and I will send you detailed instructions regarding tuning by ear.
Second, begin learning the basic major chord forms: E, A, D, G and C. All of the other thousands of possible guitar chords are derived from these forms. When learning the major chords it’s good to learn them in groups of three. There is a good musical reason for this but the explanation is beyond the scope of this e-mail. Let me cut to the chase: Learn G, C, and D. Practice them until you can change from chord to chord smoothly. Next learn A and practice changing from D to G to A. Then learn E and practice changing from A to D to E. There are many songs that can be played with three chords: Your Are My Sunshine, Hang on Sloopy and many folk and pop songs.
Once you learn to play the major chord forms, learn how to change them to minor chords. This is done by lowering one of the notes of the major chord form by one fret. A friend who plays or a teacher would come in handy at this point.
As you are learning to play it is important to consider the concept of rhythm. Music is normally grouped in cycles of 3 or 4 beats. These cycles act as a unifying factor which holds the music together.
Another important skill to develop is finger dexterity. Most of us use all of our fingers at the same time to pick things up, open doors, etc. The guitar requires that we learn to control each finger individually. One simple and effective exercise for doing this is to place your index finger on the 5th fret of the 1st string (the highest sounding string) and play that note. Next place your middle finger on the 6th fret of the same thing and play that note. Repeat this with all four fingers (ring finger on the 7th fret, pinkie on the 8th fret) then move to the second string and do the same thing. Once you’ve done it on all six strings reverse the process - little finger, ring finger, middle finger and index finger moving from string to string back across the neck.
Here’s the bottom line: music is something that is inside of you. The guitar is a tool that can bring that “something” out of you and let others hear and enjoy it. The process will require patience, perseverance, discipline and a helpful teacher or friend. It will be worth the effort.
Wishing you well on your musical adventure,
John
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Hello webmaster…I Googled for world guitarist, but found your page about Guitarist : Play The Guitar…and have to say thanks. nice read.
Benji,
Glad you enjoyed it. Are you the guy from Good Charlotte? If so just wanted to let you know that I’ve written up lead sheets for a couple of your songs for my guitar students.
Best,
John