2 Key Reasons You're Struggling to Convey Deep Emotion in Your Guitar Playing

2 Key Reasons You're Struggling to Convey Deep Emotion in Your Guitar Playing

By Tom Hess

Do you aspire to master the art of making your audience feel a spectrum of emotions through your guitar playing? The ultimate skill for any musician is the ability to consistently create music that resonates emotionally with listeners. However, this skill often remains elusive for many guitarists. Here are two critical reasons why this happens:

Reason #1: Lack of Focus on Emotional Expression

Surprisingly, many guitarists never even attempt to develop the ability to play with deep emotion. This is evident from the data provided by Google's Keyword Planner, which shows the average monthly searches for various guitar-related terms:

As you can see, more people are interested in "playing guitar with teeth" than in learning how to express themselves emotionally on the guitar. This lack of focus is a significant barrier to developing emotional expression in guitar playing.

Reason #2: Overemphasis on Technical Skills

Many guitarists spend countless hours memorizing scale patterns and absorbing theoretical concepts. While these skills are valuable, they are not sufficient for mastering emotional expression.

Consider this scenario: If I asked you to find an "E" note on your guitar, you could probably do it quickly. But if I asked you to find a note that conveys a specific emotion, such as "a sad woman crying over a past love," you might struggle. Most guitarists would resort to trial and error, playing various notes until something sounds right. This approach is not effective for conveying specific emotions.

The Key to Emotional Expression

The secret to expressing emotions through your guitar lies in knowing exactly which notes will evoke a particular feeling before you even touch the guitar. The greatest guitarists can anticipate which notes will best express a certain emotion in any context, allowing them to make their listeners feel the same way.

How to Master Emotional Expression in Guitar Playing

You might think that you need a master's degree in music performance or an in-depth understanding of music theory to become highly expressive. However, this is not the case. Here are two essential steps to help you master emotional expression on the guitar:

1. Prioritize Emotional Expression: Make it your primary goal to express emotions every time you pick up the guitar. Keep this objective in mind during your practice sessions.
2. Shift Your Perspective: Stop viewing guitar playing as a series of numbers, patterns, and riffs. Instead, see the guitar neck as a canvas for expressing emotions.

For a deeper understanding of how to put feeling into your guitar playing, watch this free video on emotional expression in guitar playing.

Conclusion

By adopting the mindset of a highly expressive guitarist and consistently practicing emotional expression, you will see significant improvements in your musicianship. To further enhance your skills, check out this music theory guitar video.

About the Author

Tom Hess is a professional guitarist, composer, and member of the band Rhapsody Of Fire. He also offers online rock guitar lessons to help musicians achieve their playing goals. Visit his website, tomhess.net, for more articles on guitar playing, free guitar tips, and valuable resources.

By rethinking your approach to guitar playing and focusing on emotional expression, you can unlock a new level of musical freedom and connect with your audience on a deeper level.