# Understanding Guitar from a Pianist Perspective



## NormkbPlayer (Nov 9, 2019)

I couldn't get my Head around as to how the pitch range and Section work. 

Since we have a " Middle C on the keyboard it's easy to Navigate " 
My goal is to use Strummed Acoustics from NI and SCARBEE from NI also. 

Can anyone help me. 
Thanks again. 
Regards Norman.


----------



## Land of Missing Parts (Nov 9, 2019)

NormkbPlayer said:


> Can anyone help me.


Here's how I'd approach piano like a guitar.

Use open voicing. The nearest equivalent to Middle C is--for me at least--E1, which is the lowest note. The lowest notes in chords will often be E1 to E2.

Spread out the notes so that every other one will be roughly an octave apart. Guitarist will repeat octaves, fourths, and fifths in the lower notes, then add something like a third or sixth or whatever distinguishing intervals a little higher in the chord. I am grossly generalizing here, but it seems like a good way to start.

Use five or six notes, never more than six. Fewer if you are playing with heavier distortion like metal.


----------



## NormkbPlayer (Nov 9, 2019)

> Here's how I'd approach piano like a guitar.


I'm looking for a Approach to Guitar like a Piano.


----------



## d.healey (Nov 9, 2019)

NormkbPlayer said:


> I'm looking for a Approach to Guitar like a Piano.


As I'm currently writing a guitar VST I've been trying to solve this question too.

The piano has one set of notes, the keyboard. A guitar has 6 sets, the strings. So we need to find a configuration of guitar strings and frets that is representative of the keyboard's range.

A simple approach is to limit yourself to the first 4 frets of the guitar. Working in this box you get 2 octaves of piano. Anything above that will require you to go beyond 4 frets on the high E string. If you decide to start at a higher fret position then limit yourself to 4 frets above that new position and you'll get the same 2 octave range, starting on a different note of course. When you get to the 12th fret the cycle repeats one octave higher.

That all works great for single notes, but what about multiple notes at once... Make sure each string is only playing one note at a time. I've seen some guitar VIs that allow you to play multiple notes on a single string which is unrealistic.

As far as chords go you need to look up a guitar chord chart to find the most common voicings. Guitarists are quite efficient and generally we'll pick the closest fret to the nut that we can on each string and play open strings when possible. The 5th and 6th strings (A, and low E) are often not strummed during a chord, unless they are being fretted - but sometimes they are, it's up to the musician to choose which strings they want to strum.

Here's a screenshot from the development of my guitar plugin which shows a fretboard with the MIDI note numbers (60 = middle C) mapped to each fret.


----------



## dzilizzi (Nov 9, 2019)

Watch this video:





How to Play Guitar Parts on Keyboard | Sweetwater


Check out the How to Play Guitar Parts on Keyboard page at Sweetwater — the world's leading music technology and instrument retailer!




www.sweetwater.com





It's the one I go to. That said, some guitar VIs don't work this way, they are more phrase libraries. So you have to work with the way they work. Change the pattern slightly but often. Guitarists rarely play exactly the same strum each time. Experiment until it sounds good, then hide it in the mix. Rhythm guitar is easier to fake with a strumming VI. Lead guitar on a keyboard is much more difficult because it is harder to control all the effects at the same time.


----------



## NekujaK (Nov 9, 2019)

I learned piano as a child, and then in my teens, picked up guitar on my own. Consequently, the musical thinking in my head has always been from the piano perspective, so wrapping my head around the guitar was a bit of a two-step process: first understand in piano terms, then translate to the guitar fretboard. This got me by, and I was able to play in rock bands and and later as a singer-songwriter for many years, but ultimately, I never really felt like I fully grasped the guitar.

A few decades later, I decided I should finally get some formal guitar schooling, and started taking lessons with a jazz guitarist. In the very first lesson he told me, "You have to approach the guitar like it's six individual pianos", which was a consciousness-expanding revelation for me! Like many guitar players, I was accustomed to thinking "across the fretboard", particularly since chord and scale shapes are typically thought of in terms of a fixed position while playing across the strings, which is fine and certainly effective. But it's also counter-intuitive from a piano player's perspective, and quickly becomes limiting when you try to expand to larger musical ideas.

Approaching the guitar "along the fretboard" and treating each string like its own separate piano keyboard provides a more effective view of the fretboard and a better understanding of what's musically possible. The difficult part is internalizing each of the 6 "pianos" to instantly identify a note for any string at any given fret, and understand the positional note relationships between each of the "pianos". Unlike a piano, each guitar string is monophonic, so to form dyads and triads, neighboring strings need to considered, as well.

Don't know if this helps with your question, but hopefully it provides some measure of insight. Good luck!


----------

