Playing On One String
KT Tunstall shows how she uses a single string to play the guitar like a bass, building the punchy one-string line for the song's middle eight.
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Lesson transcript
Music Lesson: Exploring One String Techniques
Introduction to the Bridge
In the bridge or middle eight of this song, I do something that I love doing, and I do it quite a lot. That is, I revert to only using one string. I love playing on one string. It's basically using the guitar as a bass, really.
My Passion for Bass Lines
- I love playing bass.
- I adore melodic bass lines.
- Super punchy distorted bass lines are one of my favorites.
One of my favorite songs, "Push that Knot Away," has the best punchy bass line.
Playing Technique
This is something I do all the time, and it's all about your left hand playing with one string.
Damping Strings
It takes some getting used to because you have to dampen everything that you're not playing. This can be quite difficult, especially when you're playing a string that's in the middle of the guitar. You'll need to start using your thumb as well.
Middle Eight on Single String
Here's what I do for the middle eight on the single string:
- You've got that nice melody line.
- The thumb is doing quite a lot of work. Some people do use their thumb a lot when they're playing.
- I use it for an F chord because I'm not great at doing bar chords.
Thumb Technique
The thumb comes into play to dampen the bottom strings so they don't ring out when you're playing that melody on single strings.
- I'm actually only playing the A string.
- Nothing's coming out of that low E because my thumb is muting it.
- You're not pressing down; you need to rest your thumb so nothing comes out, just getting percussive sound.
This takes a bit of practice.
Moving Through Strings
I'm also using the thumb to stop and then, if you can see, that sounds really cool.
- When I move to the D string, my thumb is covering the two bottom strings.
- I'm hitting the whole array of strings on the guitar, but only hearing the D string.
Not only are you getting the D string, but also a really nice chunk of percussion out of the pick hitting the other strings.
Open String Technique
- The only open string is here; everything else is muted.
- You're just getting one string.
The really nice thing about using single string stuff live is that it allows you to really bring it all in.
The Excitement of Stripping Back
It's very exciting on a song when it strips back because then it gives you the opportunity to slam back in, which is great.
The Unique Guitar
I have a guitar that I used for a song called "Umanak Song." It's a really nice, quite cheap Gretsch guitar. They released a few guitars that had paintings of cows being abducted by aliens; not quite sure what was going on that day in the Gretsch office!
- Very inexpensive, small-bodied, and lightweight guitars.
- I took all but two strings off, just left the A string and the D string and tuned them both to B.
This created a sound similar to some weird African instrument because it was two strings on the same note, causing some frequency friction.
Playing Umanak Song
"Umanak Song" was played on this two-string guitar, which is just one note. What I love about the middle eight of this song is it really plugs into that dance music vibe that I mentioned earlier.
Vocal Techniques
Let me sing a bit for you:
"Gotcha hips swinging your snake
Gotcha snip hips swinging
your snake hips swinging
Gotcha hips swinging
snake hips swinging again."
I wanted to take it even further and emulate a dance track sample in the way that I was singing. This became really fun playing live, as the sound guy would play with effects.
Repetitive Phrasing
So, I would do this:
"Hip swinging snake.
You gotta take a really big breath before you do it, though."
"Hips swinging snake
hips swing and again and again and again."
If you're doing that on a big PA with some great reverb, it sounds wicked!
Building to the Chorus
Towards the end of the bridge, instead of ramping up on the guitar, I ramp it up with the vocals:
"Hips swinging, snake hips swinging.
Gotcha hip swinging, snake hip swinging."
Keep repeating:
"Gotcha hip swing it, snake hips swing it again and again."
And then it opens up to prepare for that chorus.
Conclusion
So, choose your weapon, choose your way. See, this is saying nothing... just coming up and opening out for that chorus.
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Photo credit: Tom Oxley
Since scoring a worldwide smash with her debut album 'Eye To The Telescope' in 2004, which went on to sell over 5 million copies, KT Tunstall has remained at the forefront of UK singer-songwriter talent.
KT followed up that early success with the albums 'Drastic Fantastic', 'Tiger Suit' and 'Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon' in 2007, 2010 and 2013 respectively, keeping the platinum sales rolling and cementing the Scottish singer-songwriter's reputation as a major recording talent, as well as a mesmerising live artist.
2012 and the years that followed saw a seismic shift in outlook - the loss of her father, a divorce, and a relocation to Venice Beach, California.
After a period of healing, soul-searching, and a change of scenery, 2016 hailed the arrival of the first of a trilogy of KT Tunstall's albums, the critically acclaimed UK top 10 album 'KIN'. The trilogy evokes, separately and in sequence, spirit, body and mind. With 'KIN' being her phoenix-from-the-ashes 'spirit' album, 2018 marked the second offering of that trilogy, the 'body' album 'WAX'.
KT Tunstall has toured the world many times over. She outsold every other female artist in the UK in 2005, won the 2006 Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist, won the Ivor Novello Best Song award for her huge, self-penned hit 'Suddenly I See', and a Q award for Track of the Year.
She also landed a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance with 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' and lent her tunes to a host of movies and TV shows ('Suddenly I See' being used in the iconic opening scene of the modern classic Meryl Streep film 'The Devil Wears Prada').
The first single from her latest release, 'The River', was named one of Rolling Stone's 'Songs You Need To Know'.
The last few years have seen something of a creative rebirth for KT Tunstall. Upon relocating to the west coast of the USA, she was accepted as one of six annual fellows for the Sundance Film Institute's Composers Lab (hosted by George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Northern California) and has since scored music for short and feature films.
She has also been awarded the Inspirational Artist gong at the Women In Music Awards and was chosen as the first ever female Grand Marshal (following the likes of Sir Sean Connery) to lead April 2018's annual New York Tartan Week parade. In May 2018 she and Mike McCready, of legendary multi-million selling Pearl Jam, released a cover of Tom Petty's huge hit single 'I Won't Back Down' with proceeds going to Pearl Jam's Vitalogy Foundation.
In 2018, KT performed sold-out intimate headline shows across the UK and US and toured worldwide supporting acclaimed artists including Simple Minds, The Pretenders, and Barenaked Ladies.
2019 saw KT perform a large headline tour across the UK and Europe with her all-female band, playing festivals all over the UK (including a headline set at Glastonbury Festival). She toured the US & Canada, Japan, China, the Netherlands, Mexico and Brazil, as well as supporting Hall & Oates on their UK arena tour.
Touring continued for KT in early 2020 with headline shows in the US, performing with Jools Holland across Europe, and playing New York's legendary Madison Square Garden, supporting Hall & Oates.
In her Song Studies course, KT pulls back the curtain on the guitar parts and songwriting craft behind her biggest hits - a rare chance to learn how a Brit Award-winning, Grammy-nominated songwriter actually builds a song.
