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Lesson time: (3min 31sec)
This unit is all about amplifying and augmenting your stringed instruments. Something that will be important when playing groove music. Zach talks about how he uses effects intended for guitar on his violin.
We'd love to hear what you do with effects on your string instrument. Post a video of yourself playing in this course's exclusive facebook group - Improvise & Groove on Strings
This lesson is part of the course Learn Improvisation on Violin with Zach Brock & Snarky Puppy
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
All right, let's have some fun and talk about effects!
You might have noticed that this is just a plain old violin. In fact, it's an old regular violin, but I have a pickup installed in the bridge. This wonderful pickup, made by a guy named Eric Aceto, allows me to play my nice acoustic violin in electric settings.
There are all kinds of electric string instruments you can try:
I guess that's a bit out of the purview of this course, but it's always fun to explore!
Talking about effects, I started messing around with them when I had a mandolin at my house. I used a little Barcus Berry contact pickup that went on the mandolin along with a small effects box that I could attach to my belt.
This effects box included:
I could also plug in headphones, and I would walk around my backyard, listening to my super spacey mandolin sounds. That experience is what eventually got me into using effects on the violin.
The first pickup that I used was a very basic, low-quality one. I won't mention the name of the maker, but you probably know this pickup. It's just a little chunk of metal that you wedge into your bridge, and it sounds somewhat like "an electric ham sandwich." It's tough to deal with!
Since then, I've progressed to better and better equipment. I'm really excited about my current setup, which I'm using on the road with Snarky Puppy. This is what I consider my latest creation.
The board you're looking at has been specifically chosen because it fits in my suitcase, allowing me to avoid checking an additional bag. We all know that there are usually charges for that second bag these days, and I got sick of it!
Before we dive deeper, I want to make a general note about amplifying string instruments.
Many great string players transition from sounding good with acoustic instruments to producing less desirable sounds when they start using electronics. Just because you're a skilled violinist, cellist, or violist doesn't mean you will automatically sound good with amplification.
It's essential to understand that using effects is like playing a parallel instrument. There are certainly things I wish I had known early on, which would have saved me a lot of money and spared other people from hearing some unpleasant sounds!
Heralded as "the pre-eminent improvising violinist of his generation," Zach Brock is a violinist and composer whose music draws on the traditions of jazz, classical, world and popular music. Zach received his first Grammy Award in 2017 for his work on Snarky Puppy's album Culcha Vulcha. His acclaim as a bandleader has grown through appearances at venues such as Carnegie Hall and festivals like "Tudo e Jazz" in Brazil, while his reputation as a sideman has spread through his work with legendary bassist Stanley Clarke, contemporary instrumental super-group Snarky Puppy, and jazz masters Phil Markowitz and Dave Liebman. Zach has made ten recordings as a leader or co-leader and is the first violinist to record for the venerable Dutch jazz label Criss Cross. He has also represented the U.S. Department of State as a Musical Ambassador in the Solomon Islands, performed as a featured soloist for two Sundance Festival feature film scores, and is currently an Artist In Residence at Temple University in Philadelphia. In his course you will learn to improvise on the violin straight from the source: how Zach approaches melody, rhythm and harmony, and how to start finding your own voice the way he has alongside Snarky Puppy and beyond. read more
