KW Guitar Tip #18 How To Play Like Eric Johnson

I apologize for the infrequent guitar tips of late.  But there have been a lot of advanced ideas swirling around in my teaching and I thought I would share one of them.

Eric Johnson is an amazing guitarist and when I analyze his music with a student,  interesting concepts always come out.

So we know that he uses a lot of pentatonic scales.  But why do they sound fresh all the time?

1.  He plays wide spacing intervals, instead of pentatonic scales in box patterns.

2. He will play series of arpeggios across the fretboard.

3. He mixes the lydian mode with the pentatonic scales

4. He uses chord substitutions.  For example he will play a G arpeggio on top of a C chord.

Of course there are the usual answers on how to play like Eric Johnson:

1. He is a feel player

2. He has a brilliant ear for string bending

3. He plays really fast.

But Lately I think I have stumbled upon why he really sounds the way he does and it might be hard to explain, but I will try.

Take a simple pentatonic scale and play two octaves of it in a medium to fast tempo.  This is your sound.  Now do the same thing but as you play tap your finger down at the same time.  You are still picking the note.  But there is an extra tap from your left hand finger to the fretboard.  You can’t really hear it when you play slowly, only at faster speeds.  But the weight of your finger creates an extra preciseness and clarity to the note, as well as a popping sound.  That is why his fast notes sound so clear and brilliant.

Try it and let me know how it goes.  Any helpful suggestions will help us all learn more:)

Stay Tuned,

Stephen Zurakowsky

Artistic Director