(if it is indeed a technique)
This question came to mind when recently listening to the Blue Oyster Cult’s “Burnin’ for You”. During this refrain:
Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I can’t see no reason to put up a fight
I’m living for giving the devil his due
At this point in the song, you can hear Buck Dharma scraping the guitar strings fairly prominently as he’s playing. It’s only during that refrain, though, whenever it appears in the song.
If that scraping was pure sloppiness, I’d expect Dharma to do it throughout the song. But he doesn’t. That leads me to believe it’s a specific playing technique.
What’s this technique called, and why might an experienced player/songwriter choose scraping over playing it cleanly (not to say that scraping is inferior)? How is this scraping accounted for in musical notation – does the sheet music indicate that scraping is called for? Or is it really just a stylistic nuance?
The technique when playing with a pick is called “scratching” or “pick scratching” depending on who you are talking to. If what you here are slide whistles, that is just an indicator of bad technique.
Thanks, dorkusmalorkusmafia.
I just listened to it. What you’re hearing is finger noise that comes from the ridges on your fingers scraping on the windings of the bass strings. The reason you only hear it during the chorus is that the verse section uses chords on the treble strings, which aren’t wound. It’s not sloppy technique, just something that happens when you’re changing chords or notes quickly on the wound strings.
It doesn’t happen if your technique is flawless. Any noise that is made other than the pure tone of the instrument is an indicator of bad technique. 15 years of playing and a degree in the instrument gives me authority to say this.
Is it ever an intentional part of a song’s guitar part? I’ve heard of songs being played “sloppily” to effect a certain “feel”, though usually such commentary refers to “sloppy” percussion, not guitar.
It can be intentional. I don’t know the song you are referring to very well but if the left hand is making whistling sounds out of context of the music it is bad technique. Sade has a song with a classical guitar in it. The song would sound pretty nice if the guitar ever stopped whistling. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the song’s name. If on the other hand he is making the whistling sounds (not the scratching sounds from pick scrapes) with some type of rhythm that fits the context of the music it could be intentional; however, it would be viewed as extremely avant garde especially for the time frame of Blue Oyster Cult. The left hand whistles ™ sounds similar to record scratching that old time rap artists used to do. If it isn’t pick scratching, going ion the context of rock music, it is bad technique. That doesn’t say that the musicians and songs are bad, just that they are likely untrained and don’t know how to fix their problems.
I just crank the volume and gain until you can’t hear any “left hand whistling” (or anything else for that matter).
You can hear a sample here. It’s the second track (scroll to bottom). Not sure if the sample is long enough to get to the first refrain.
It stops before it gets to the “I’m burnin’, I’m burnin’, I’m burnin’ for you” part. I know the song but I don’t know it very well at all.
However, to give examples of the bad technique. You can go Here and listen to the song Flow which is the Sade song I mentioned earlier. Very very bad. It is like listening to a lovely classical piece and suddenly have someone scratching records in the background. It is out of place and gross. I am guessing that Blue Oyster Cult was actually doing some pick scratching rather than string whistling.
I just listened to it, it’s definitely a squeak on the bass strings.