Five Quick
Tips

DWEEZIL ZAPPA SHARES ADVICE TO HELP IMPROVE YOUR PLAYING

Tip 1:

This first tip is inspired by one of my favorite guitarists, Wayne Krantz [a jazz-fusion guitarist whose credits include Steely Dan and Billy Cobham]. Basically, it involves opening your ears to different tonalities and textures. If you're in a rut with your playing, it might be helpful to take a phrase or lick that you're already familiar with and purposely alter it. For example, randomly move some of the notes a half step up or down. You could even alter all of them. Don't worry about what key you're in. For that matter, it's a good idea to play in a key that's wholly unfamiliar to you. Record yourself playing these phrases to a click for a few minutes. When you hear something you like, analyze the phrase to see what's happening in it. Try to arrange at least three notes from the phrase into a chord. Record the phrase and play the chord along with it. You'll find that no matter how weird the phrase sounded on its own, it will sound "correct" if it's played against a chord that contains at least three notes from the phrase. At that point you may find that, to your surprise, your ears accept more of the notes as "right."

Tip 2:

It's fun to play fast, and many modern guitarists are ridiculously proficient at playing fast. But speed alone can easily become boring, and it's a crutch for most guitarists. I know I rely on it often. Instead of just playing fast, add interest to your solos with contour and rhythmic alterations. For example, try to play ostinato phrases in groups of five notes. First count them aloud like this: 1-2 123, 1-2 123, 123 1-2, 123 1-2. Once you're able to attach notes of your choice to those accented groupings and feel where the accents switch, it will be very easy to create longer phrases using seven and even nine notes per phrase (e.g., 1-2 123 1-2 or 1-2 123 1-2 1-2). Keep in mind that two phrases containing an odd number of notes will add up to an even number of notes; by pairing up phrases this way, you can be assured you will always be in time. The idea is to create accents that sound unusual. Incidentally, these kinds of phrases sound very impressive when played very fast.

Tip 3:

Experiment with different picks. I recently discovered this tip for myself. I found that certain picks can drastically improve your tone and your ability to execute your ideas. For example, a pick with a slightly beveled edge will benefit sweep-picking techniques. I've also found that picks with greater mass impart a noticeable smoothness to the tone, both for electric guitars as well as acoustic guitars. It could be argued that they add more bass or simply take the edge off the highs. It can feel quite significant to the player and be audibly discernible.

Tip 4:

Try using octave displacement as well as rhythmic displacement. Take a phrase and make at least two radical octave jumps in it. Repeat the phrase and change which notes jump the octave. Now play the same phrase starting on the offbeat. Sometimes just taking familiar ideas and shifting their entrances to off beats will reignite your interest in those ideas or spark new ones.

Tip 5:

Listen to drum fills. Find a couple that you like and figure out how the beats are phrased. Attach notes of your choice to those phrases. Try to match the contour of the fills by using low notes for low toms or kick and higher notes for other elements of the drum kit. You might be surprised how much your playing will change after implementing some of these ideas.

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Reader Questions

Your dad wrote some pretty rigorously demanding music. Was it difficult to find musicians who were up to the challenge of performing it for your Zappa Plays Zappa tour? Especially since all the musicians are playing from memory rather than from chart and scores.

-Danny Dombrowski, Muncie, IN

Hey Danny,
Indeed, it was difficult to find the right musicians for this band. First off, I was fortunate that I did not need to look for any drummers. My long-time friend and drummer Joe Travers is the ideal drummer for this job, without question. He is the archivist for the vault, and between the two of us, we know all the aspects of every arrangement. When it came time to form the rest of the band, I was looking for players with the right combination of skill, musical knowledge and personality. I designed impossible auditions to instantly identify the best candidates. For example, the keyboard audition was as follows: transcribe "The Black Page" and "Inca Roads" in three days and come in and play it only with our drummer. Anyone able to do that would be hired on the spot. Only one person was able to get through both arrangements and actually play mostly correct notes. That was the then-25-year-old Aaron Arntz. He has been in the band ever since. Incidentally, he slept only six hours in three days in order to accomplish that task. The music is extremely challenging on every level. The process of learning it is the hardest part. It can be very exhausting. It requires a lot of concentration on multiple elements for extended periods of time. Some people don't do well in that kind of environment. It's like training for the Olympics. Needless to say, keeping things memorized requires a lot of maintenance. It's the hardest-but most fun-job for a musician in the world.

You employ a mix of Frank's vintage gear and new custom gear in your setup. What are the main guitars, amps and effects that are central to your rig? -Ted DeBoer, Grand Rapids, MI

Hello Ted,
I used three main guitars this year: a Gibson SG that has been antiqued by the factory, a Fender Eric Johnson Strat and a Hagstrom semihollow body Viking. The guitar rig is extremely complex and requires a computer for programming. It has enormous flexibility for tone shaping and effects routing. I haven't even scratched the surface of its best attributes yet-I haven't had enough time to dial in every aspect of each device, and the rig was just barely finished before the tour started. Some of the key vintage devices that add character to the sound are two Mic Mix DynaFlangers, an Eventide H949, an ADA Multi EFX 4, a dbx 162 compressor and two Chandler delays. Some of the newer effects include two Digitech GSP 1101 units and a bunch of guitar pedals designed by Andy Fuchs. I also use Fuchs Triple Drive Supreme amps and a '65 reissue Fender Twin. As if that weren't enough, I also have multiple Moogerfooger pedals. All of these devices can be routed anywhere in the signal chain via two matrix devices called Switchblades. You need a pilot's license to operate this stuff.

Frank got the body of the guitar Hendrix burned at the Miami Pop Festival and had the guitar reconstructed as a functioning instrument. Is there anything unique about how it sounds? -Dennis Page, New York, NY

Hello Dennis,
At the point where that reassembled and played the guitar it had many unique features. It had a preamp with two parametric equalizers built into it. He was able to add gain to certain frequency ranges and create beautiful controlled feedback like you hear on songs such as "Zoot Allures." It also had a Barcus-Berry pickup built into the neck at one point. That allowed Frank to get more resonance from the guitar itself and sounded very similar to modern piezo pickups. All of those electronics were stripped out of the guitar at some point, and the guitar vanished. I later found the body under a staircase below the studio and asked Frank if he wanted me to have it rebuilt for him. He said sure. I had it rebuilt to stock vintage Fender specs as a start. He liked it, and later on he decided to give it to me. It remains in the same condition to this day and has a very distinct "Strat" sound.

Of all Frank's equipment-guitars, amps, effects, studio gear-what is the one piece that means the most to you, and why? -Tom Valentino, Brisbane, CA

Hey Tom,
I would have to say Frank's SGs. They are both different. There is the Roxy guitar and the Baby Snakes guitar. Those were the main instruments he played as I was growing up, and they are the ones I most associate him with. He played so many of his most memorable solos on those guitars.

How has playing Frank's music benefitted your sense of him as a musician and composer and as a creative person? -Ezra Hoover, Queens, NY

Hello Ezra,
Learning and playing my Father's music has been extremely beneficial on many levels, both professionally and personally. I always liked his music growing up, but there were elements in it that I knew required a certain amount of knowledge to fully comprehend. It wasn't until I recently took the time to study his music in depth that I truly realized his immense prowess as a composer. My touring show Zappa Plays Zappa is a reflection of that respect. I want more people to have the opportunity to get to know his music. The more I know about the music the more I want to know. It's quite possible others will feel the same.