Song Techniques
Lesson time: (5min 56sec)
KT Tunstall shows how a capo high at the fifth fret brightens her tone, and the low-end you trade away by capoing up.
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This lesson is part of the course Learn guitar and songwriting with KT Tunstall
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Lesson transcript:
Understanding the Capo and Rhythm Guitar
Let's talk about the capo.
Capo Placement
- We're on fret five, which means it's in G, and it's in the key of C.
- I think it doesn't matter what key it's in; it sounds good!
However, putting the capo at fret five is really high. When you shorten the strings, you lose a lot of low-end frequency and the lower notes on your guitar. This means:
- You lose breadth, width, and depth of sound.
- The upside is that you get a hardcore top end because your E string is now five frets higher, shorter and sharper.
Rhythm Establishment
It's a more toppy sound paired with a very syncopated rhythm, which sounds pretty exciting. I am always looking for interesting rhythms.
Establishing the Rhythm
This rhythm establishes itself straight away:
"It sounds complicated, but if you watch my hand."
So, it sounds like I would be going, but it's the smoothness of the groove that comes from keeping that up-and-down rhythm.
Importance of Rhythm Guitar
I want to talk about rhythm guitar for a minute because this is a song that really relies on rhythm playing.
Guitars: Eddie and Vinnie
- This guitar is called Eddie, named after Eddie Cochran. He influenced me greatly as a rhythm guitar player.
- My other guitar is an Elvis Dove, a Gibson Dove that's all black with a white scratch plate, and I called it Vinnie. I don't know why; it just is!
Eddie's name also nods to Thomas Edison, because you need a bit of electricity in your life.
Exploring Musical Pulse
With my third record, which "Fade Like a Shadow" is from, I decided I wanted to explore the pulse and beat that I love in music.
- Coming from Scotland, it's common to have a 4/4 beat:
"A drum kick on every beat... just going."
This is what we call "four to the floor." In contrast, in England, it's more common, even in rock and roll, to have a backbeat.
Musical Influences
Being Scottish, having that constant four-to-the-floor beat felt normal. I also grew up loving dance music and started listening to:
- Orbital
- Chemical Brothers
- Ninja Tune label
One of my favorites is Leftism by Left Field. At that point in my career, I was playing with a full band and wanted to push the boundaries of how exciting and kinetic the gig experience could be.
Clubbing Influence
Playing big venues was a dream for me. Seeing a room full of people lost in the pulse of music was exhilarating.
- I went clubbing throughout my late teens and twenties, which influenced me heavily.
- I wanted to explore this in my album Tiger Suit, calling it Nature Techno, mixing my acoustic, traditional songwriting with the energy of EDM dance music.
Songwriting Collaboration
Me and Jim Abyss, the producer on that record, spent days listening to tunes that made us want to dance.
- Our main meeting point was "Faith" by George Michael, which has the Bo Diddley beat that I use in "Suddenly I See."
- We did the pre-production at Studio 2 at Sarum in London, where George Michael recorded "Faith." It was awesome!
Afterward, we recorded at Hansa in Berlin, an iconic studio where artists like Bowie and U2 recorded.
Energy and Message
Berlin, being a hub of dance music, was perfect. I wanted to harness the tribal rhythm that informed this song. It juxtaposes being an upbeat, positive song with a pretty raw, direct message within it.
About the instructor
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. read more