Today I was at the Fender website and accidentally found a nice little tool there: the online guitar tuner.

When you click on one of the six tuners of the peghead, the software will play a sample of the corresponding note, played with a clean Fender sound.

There are some very useful options: loop on or off (the note will be played again and again in loop mode), and you can select the tuning - standard or all different kinds of open or special tunings. You can even create your own tuning.

The only thing that is missing is the option to fine tune to another root pitch than 440Hz – but to be honest, not something many of us really need.

I like the idea to tune the guitar using your ears instead of a tuner device – helps to keep your ears fit

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As many of you might already have noticed, I recently added a forum to this site.

We have the comment function below each blog post which has been used to discuss everything that is related to the post subject, but many times completely new threads emerged within the comments which became easily off-topic in a way. For this reason – and to make it possible for readers to start a new thread any time – I added a proper forum. The forum plug-in I found for this purpose is really great and offers a lot of cool functions. Almost every feature you know of other forums is here, too (like directly embedding youtube videos or pictures, PM’ing other members, and so on.

You can get to the forum via the link under ‘Pages’ at the top of the left sidebar. And there is a list of the latest forum posts a bit below in the sidebar, you can also get to the forum by clicking on one of the list entries.

You need to register to post but don’t be afraid, you will not be pestered with many newsletters or such. This is mainly to avoid spammers.

So after the last few days of testing I officially announce the new forum with this post. I hope there will be many interesting discussions, looking forward to it

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With this article,  I want to feature my good old acoustic guitar: a Gibson MK-81 from 1976.

I got this guitar more than 20 years ago. I was looking for an acoustic guitar and was trying out all the guitars in that shop. After a while the shop owner brought one more from some room in the back,  saying I should try out this one, it was special. This was the Gibson MK-81, and in fact it sounded different from all the other guitars, it sounded more ‘expensive’ in a way, with a warm bass and brilliant treble, like a great HIFI speaker compared with a cheap one. He told me that this guitar had been damaged damage and was not professionally repaired (the bridge had solved from the top and had been glued back to its position, additionally fixed with two screws), and that it normally costs more than 3 times the money I wanted to spend.
Well, we agreed on a deal (I had to part from a nice Tokai Telecaster copy I had back then) and I took this guitar home with me. The damage could be repaired professionally for about 100,- € by the way.

The MK series

I had never heard about these guitars before, and there was not much information available. Remember, this was before the Internet, so you had to look through guitar books at the shop when searching for a particular information. Today it is so much easier. The story behind the Mark series seems to be like this:

In May of `73 Gibson began the Mark story by contacting Dr. Adrian Houtsma, Professor of Acoustic Physics at MIT, to confirm some research Gibson itself had initiated. Receiving a favorable review, Gibson then went to Dr. Kasha, who was at the time, a chemical physicist working as Director of the Institute of Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University. Combining the findings from Gibson` R&D department and Drs. Houtsma and Kasha, the company finally landed on the doorstep of well known luthier Richard Schneider, who was charged with making the scientific information practical, designing a guitar that fit with Gibson`s aesthetics and capable of being put into production. The Mark series was born…

The Mark series was no commercial success, rather the contrary as it seems. It turned out that science alone was not capable of building perfect guitars made of wood, a material that is unpredictable  because each piece of wood has individual features. After only 3 or 4 years Gibson dropped the Mark series again.

But these guitars were not really bad, and I heard from many owners how much they love their MK’s. The complete series consisted of 5 models, the MK 35, the MK 53, the MK 72, the MK 81, and the MK 99 (the higher the model number, the better the materials, and the higher the price).

Here is a page from a Gibson catalogue from that time that shows the different features of the different models:

The MK-81

Both the rim and back of my MK-81 are made of solid (!) rosewood (possibly Brazilian, but not sure), the top is solid spruce. The neck is curly maple, the fingerboard is ebony with mother-of-pearl inlays. There are some fancy details that make sure that this was the top-model of the production range (in fact, the MK-99 seems to be custom-made by luthier Richard Schneider himself only) like  the gold plated hardware or the black and red bindings.

It is a special guitar in fact. It is very deep, and the body and headstock shape looks somewhat unusual. The sound is warm and bright, a bit bell-like. With the heavy Gibson jumbo frets and the “fast” neck shape it plays almost like an electric.

Pictures of my MK 81

Youtube videos

Two of my latest youtube videos feature this guitar.

If you want the full story and more details of the Mark series, see this article in vintage guitar magazine.

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Quarter note triplets are notes of a certain duration, or in other words they produce a certain rhythimcal effect. Such a note is shorter than a quarter note but longer than an eighth note. They do not “fit” into the normal grid of half, quarter, eighth or sixteenth notes; they break out of the normal rhythm scheme, thus highlighting a melody or a phrase.

However, they have nothing to do with a “free timing”, they follow a precise logic and have a certain length and rhythm.

With the help of licks based on these quarter note triplets you will increase your vocabulary on the guitar. Whenever you are in danger of running out of ideas or feel chained to a standard rhythm, even a very short lick of quarter note triplets will break up your normal rhythm and give a distinctive gleam to your solo.

Examples of these licks can be found in a great number of Mark Knopfler / Dire Straits tunes, surely to many to name them all (it is probably easier to name those who do not feature them) . Some nice examples which are mentioned later in this article are:

Sultans of Swing, Down to the Waterline,  Lions, Tunnel of Love, Single Handed Sailor, Private Dancer, I believe in you (Bob Dylan featuring Mark Knopfler)

How do quarter note triplets work?

To start with, let`s have a look at the basics of note duration. A standard (= 4/4) bar consists of four beats of the same length (counting: one – two – three – four). This duration – as long as one beat – is called a quarter note.

A note that lasts as long as one bar is called a whole note, and the one that is one half of this length is a half note, of course.

Consequently, a whole note is as long as two half notes, or as four quarter notes. A half note is as long as two quarter notes, and so on.

If you divide a quarter note into two halfs, you will get an eigth note, if you divide an eight note into two, you will get a sixteenth note, while one sixteenth note is as long as two thirty-second notes. This means you can fill up a bar with four quarter notes, or with eight eighth notes, or with sixteen sixteenth notes, and so on.

If you combine notes with different duration, you will get a particular rhythm, just like in the following example.

Note that all these notes are a multiple of the shortest appearing note length. In the previous example this shortest length is a sixteenth note. If you imagine the bar being divided into sixteen beats of this length, you will get a sixteenth note grid (grey notes). All other notes of this example perfectly fit into this grid, which means they all start on a grid position, while other grid positions are simply left free. The next picture shows the previous example, now over such a grid.

Triplets

The idea behind a triplet is that a note is not divided into two notes of the same length (e.g. a half note into two quarter notes) but is divided into three notes of the same length. A half note will then be divided into three notes – and these are called quarter note triplets – as indicated by the bracket labelled with “3″.

duration of three quarter note triplets = duration of one half note

If you play such quarter note triplets over a normal (= straight) rhythm, they will not fit into a standard grid of shorter note length. Quarter note triplets played over a grid of eighth notes will look like this:

The first of the three quarter note triplets falls together with the eighth note, but the next two “sit somewhere between” the grid lines (no matter if you have an eighth or sixteenth note grid). This is the reason why quarter note triplets are more difficult to play, but also why they cause a feeling of breaking out of the normal rhtythm scheme – they simply do.

If you want to play quarter note triplets, you should be aware of the following two rules:

A) They are regular, in other words each of the three notes has the same length.
B) The first of the three notes starts on the beat, the next two are somewhere between the beats (however not in the middle between two beats).

Some example licks

After so much theoretical background, now is probably the right time for some concrete examples so that you have something “in your ear”.

Our first lick appears in the intro of Sultans of Swing (0:09). Here the quarter note triplet consists of three notes on the high E-string (an A, C and A again).

Note that the first of the three notes (5th fret on E-string) starts exactly at the 3rd beat of the bar, the next two notes are between the beats, and the last note (6th fret B-string) starts at the first beat of the second bar.

A second example lick is from the middle part of Down to the Waterline (2:45).

Note that it is rhythmically identical to the example before. The quarter note triplet again starts on the third beat of the bar.

Practising quarter note triplets

As you probably see, the only difficult aspect about quarter note triplets is the right timing – regular but not on or directly between the beats like “normal” notes.

You should start to practise the rhythmical aspect first, so forget about note names and simply play a muted string over a metronome counting the beats (= playing quarter notes).

Think like this:

• Start on the third beat
• All three notes of the triplet have the same duration
• The last tone (= first note after the triplet) starts on the first beat of the next bar, so try to end on the “one”.

In other words, don`t try to play the second and third note at their correct position (this is very difficult because the metronome does not help you), but instead try to start and to end on a beat with a constant speed  (start: “three” of bar one, end: “one” of bar two)

The exercise looks like this:

The fourth beat of the metronome – “the “four” – falls between the second and the third of those triplet notes. Try not to be confused by this.

Mind to play it regularly, all three notes of the triplet have the same length. If the last note (the one on beat “one”) starts too early, try to play the triplet slower. If it comes too late, play the triple slightly faster.

Remember:

· You should practise this with a metronome (or a drum track).
· Practise at different speeds (be aware that a slower speed might be more difficult than a high speed).
· Practise thorougly, it is the precision that make it sound good.
· Finally you should develop a feeling for quarter note triplets and play them without thinking too much about what are are just reading.

Building quarter note licks / More examples

Note: You should practise the rhythm first (previous exercise) and only start with this next step if you perfectly manage the previous exercise. As you probably will not really listen to this advice, you should try to do the exercise later again, until you can play all notes precisely.

Basically you can play any notes that you would normally play. However, often it sounds good to start and to end with a note that belongs to the respective chord. Note that this is the case with the two Knopfler licks discussed so far.

The following examples include quarter note triplets over a C chord, so the first and the fourth notes are notes of a C chord.

The next examples run over a chord change from C to G.

The next example can be found in Six Blade Knife (start of the first solo) on many live versions (on the studio version he plays eighth notes):

… or another one from Down to the Waterline which opens the solos:

Of course the quarter note triplets do not necessarily have to start on the third beat. Theoretically they can start at any position in the bar. However, in Mark Knopfler`s music you find them normally to start on the third or on the first beat.

In the following example (from Once Upon a Time in the West, 2:48) the first triplet starts at the first beat. Note that there are two quarter note triplets ( = six notes) in each of the next three bars. These bars are “filled up” completely with quarter note triplets.

Here is another example in which two quarter note triplets (6 notes) fill up a complete bar (from Bob Dylan -  Slow Train Coming/ I believe in You, 4:33) . Note how you can “pinch” the strings to create an effect similar to staccato.

Or this one from Lions (2:11):

The following example can be be found in some early live versions of Water of Love. Note how a two-string scale lick makes use of quarter note triplets.

Common mistakes

The following is a mistake that is typical when learning quarter note triplets. If you try to make the notes match to a grid of eighth notes, you might play something like in the second bar of the following example. In this bar, the second note is too early and the third too late. The rule “all have the same length” is violated. Compare the “wrong” version of the second bar with the correct one of the first bar.

Leaving out notes

One thing you can do to make these quarter note triplets even more interesting is to leave out some of the notes. You should “think” the left out notes (to keep a steady feel when playing) but not actually play them. The following example shows two ways to leave out a note (first bar: the third note, second bar: the second note):

In the following example – similar to the the first solo of Sultans of Swing, 3:27 – the first note of a quarter note triplet is left out.

Examples from other artists

Of course quarter note triplets are something that is not limited to the electric guitar. You can find them in all kind of music, among all instruments, or in vocal parts.

One example is the refrain of The Right Time by the Corrs (quarter note triplets: “This – is – the” (right time) or “Once – in – a ” (life time).

Or the Mark Knopfler song Private Dancer from Tina Turner: I’m your private dancer, a (now the triplet) dan-cer-for-money…

Summary

You have learned that quarter note triplets do not fit into a straight grid of smaller note length. For this reason they are more difficult to play but reward you with a nice rhythmical effect. They are useful to set highlights to your solo.

They should be aware of their nature and practise them until you have internalized them and can play them without thinking about.

Often they start at the first or third beat of a bar. Likewise, you can play them one after the other, filling up a bar with 6 notes of the same length.

Interesting effects are created when some of these notes are simply left out.

Why not use the comment function to add more examples of quarter note triplets and discuss these here?

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Recently my son started to practice Tai Chi – an internal Chinese martial art that is often practiced for health reasons. Tai Chi is originally a sophisticated martial art in which you learn to control and relax your mind and your body and to win over the hard with softness this way. It is not really about fighting these days but rather about practicing ultimate principles that enable you to reach a certain state of body and mind in which you can do unbelievable things, fighting is just one of these.

I find that applying the very same techniques and principles to guitar playing makes a lot of sense. Maybe it is not ideal for all music styles but surely for the Mark Knopfler style. It even seems to me that it is not possible to play this way without these principles. So what are these principles in detail and how do they refer to playing the guitar for this style?

Relaxation

One key element is relaxation. The whole body should be as relaxed as possible. And the mind, too. Your muscles become loose which allows extremely fast movements. If you want to play fast guitar licks this will not work with hard and cramped muscles – at least it will not sound the way you want it to, and playing with a lot of muscle tension will get you in trouble like becoming RSI.

Concentration

A relaxed mind allows you to concentrate. In return, keeping up a high level of concentration will reduce your muscle tension. After some time doing so the mind becomes extremely calm and clear. It should be no question how this will benefit for playing ultra-accurate, percussive rhythms or super-fluid casual licks like Mark Knopfler is famous for.

Yin and yang

You might have heard about these: the contrast behind all aspects of life that is the cause of all changes and all movements. It is an easy but at the same time very complex philosophy. In short: nothing can exist without its counterpart, without the opposite. Applying to music and guitar playing would mean for example to leave adequate pauses between the notes you play, or contrasting loud notes  with very soft,  low  notes  (just listen to the legendary first solo of Sultans of Swing). Everything in a perfect guitar solo must be in harmony with everything else, everything must be balanced. Bass notes require a contrast of treble notes,  short staccato licks should be contrasted with sustaining singing notes, and so on. I think you get the idea.

While these were really ultimate principles, the next ones are rather concrete details:

Body posture

The body can only reach its full potential when all parts of the body are exactly in the position they are really meant to be. Only this way relaxation is possible. This means the spine should be almost straight with only minimal pressure on your intervertebral discs. The shoulder must be relaxed. If you keep them slightly lifted (like we almost all do most of the time), your arm muscles cannot operate properly. All false positions of any body parts will block the flow of energy through your body.

Breathing

The breath should be deep and even. Try to “breathe into your belly”, not into your chest. Especially try to avoid holding the breath while playing, and to inhale quickly in breaks between licks. Ideally breathing should be natural and not be interrupted when trying to do something comlicated, like playing a special riff or lick. Probably you never payed attention to this aspect. Watch yourself and find out what you do under which circumstances.

Practicing slowly

In Tai Chi complex movements (which are normally whole-body movements) are practised extremly slow – like in slow motion. This way you will become aware of any wrong details like a too high muscle tension, lifted shoulders, or anything else that does not feel perfect. Do the same when practicing guitar: slow it down extremely and try to pay attention to **all details at the same time** – something you are noromally not able to when doing the same thing at a higher speed.

I am convinced that applying these rules will help you a lot to become a better guitar playing – it is not possible to overcome certain limits without them. And what seems to work for fighting or guitar playing also will work for nearly all things in our lives. So applying these principles for all things in life makes a lot of sense – you will not only be able to do things you cannot do otherwise, you will also feel much better and happier. And what can be more important than this?

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