The piano has “less magic” than the guitar, because “you can’t bend the notes too much”, according to Stephen Malkmus
Many guitarists will attest to the invaluable nature of visualising a piano while learning scales. The piano and guitar can be mapped neatly onto one another, at least from a theoretical perspective.
But where the guitar excels over the piano is in a player’s increased ability to augment the actual notes, at least according to Pavement guitarist Stephen Malkmus.
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In a new interview with Premier Guitar, he mentions watching a YouTube piano tutorial, in which the creator demonstrates inversions of a chord. “He takes the mystery away from things that I do that I think are really clever,” Malkmus says. “At any rate, that’s what we’re doing, too. But pianos somehow have less magic because you can’t bend the notes too much.
“Of course there’s feel and there’s going off the grid, but with the guitar sometimes it feels more magical. Those real simple little moves you make with the bending of the strings. It’s chops and it’s also ideas, creativity. Finding phrases that make it sound not boring is the basic idea: simple things with twists.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Malkmus speaks about his and his co-guitarists’ songwriting philosophies in The Hard Quartet.
“We really connect on things sounding like shit, kind of,” he explains. “I love the sound of the guitar when it sounds like it’s about to die or it’s broken. We love this music that’s fucked up and damaged, like the rawest, most screwed-up thing.”
The Hard Quartet’s self-titled debut album arrived last month.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
