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Was I correct with my answer?
Poll ended at Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:07 pm
Is there a better way to answer his question (please post) 50%  50%  [ 1 ]
Was my explanation enough for a 15 yr old student? 50%  50%  [ 1 ]
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Post subject: Gain - Volume - Attack - Technique
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 6:07 pm
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One of my students told me that he never understood the interface between gain, volume, attack and actual playing technique with an electric.

I told him that they all contribute to dynamics in your playing.

Gain is a measure of the ability of a circuit to increase the power or amplitude of a signal.

A volume control is to attenuate whichever pickup is selected. Rolling back the guitar's volume control also changes the pickup's equalization or frequency response, which can provide pre-distortion equalization.

Attack allows you to build, to soften, basically to add a whole slew of techniques that make your music more interesting.

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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:16 am
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It sounds good to me. Good enough for a 15 year old? that I'm not so sure about.

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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 12:44 pm
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It's a difficult question to answer.Not just here I mean to the student as well. Tricky!
I think what I would do is introduce him, firstly, to the old classical masters, such as Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony ( I think it's the Pathetique, thats the one I'm thinking of anyway. )
Or maybe Dvorak's New World Symphony.
All of the criteria you mentioned above are encapsulated within these. From aggresion to sheer all out attack, then mellowing to sweet melodic and down to a quiet whisper. Happiness, sadness, anger, desperation, to blinding rage.
The full range of volume, tone colours, emotion and dynamic expression is demonstrated by these composer's.
I listen to these guys quite often, it helps me with my library composing.
Anyway, when he has the general idea of dynamics etc. he can think of how he can translate this to his own thing.
That's my input anyway for what it's worth.


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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:40 pm
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I'm 15 and i understood what you were talking about, but then again guitars and music is what i know most about....

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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:07 pm
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Great explanation, though a bit geared more towards and engineering student - at 15.

A simplified way of explaining it (how I did to a younger student as well) might be something like...

Gain is like taking the amp's volume and blasting it to get that loud, overdriven rock sound. The master volume takes that great tone and keeps the actual volume of it to a more controlled level.

A guitar's volume control doesn't really boost the volume, it just brings the guitar's line level up to the natural pickup level if you had no volume control (rolling it up), or quiets that down (rolling it down). When you roll it off, you'll also notice that the tone changes a bit (less treble) and some of the gain will decrease. This is very useful for different parts of songs, different tones, if you know how to use that.

Attack is how hard you hit or "attack" the string. A softer attack will sound more mellow. A harder attack will sound more aggressive and will give a louder, more ringing tone, and a little more volume in certain situations. For instance, I can keep my guitar on one semi-distorted tone through the amp. If I attack it hard, I can get a loud very distorted sound. If I change my attach to very light and strum, the tone and the overdrive level will change dramatically. This effect can be more noticeable on some amps than other.


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Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:55 am
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Nailed. You folks are GOOD.


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