Guitar Groove of the Month becomes Guitar Mode library

Hello everybody,

more than three years ago the idea of developing a feature that allows an easy access of Guitar Playing Techniques to every Keyboard Player came up.

First let me give you some technical and musical background:
The task has been to create an interface between the 6 Strings on the Guitar and the Keyboard in a way that:

a. Guitar Picking and Guitar Strumming can be played Live without the necessity of studying typical Guitar Chord Voicings or the Playing Techniques of Guitar Strumming where the 6 notes have to be played one after another rather than all 6 at the time as a Keyboard or a Piano Player normally would do.
b. Sound selection and Effect adjustment will be done automatically by just switching on the Guitar Mode
c. Guitar Pickings and Guitar Strumming can be recorded into Standard Midi Files or into Styles
d. Natural Playability, such as Downstroke and Upstroke will be guaranteed.
e. All this will have to be done by the Software of the Keyboard, without the player having to worry about it.

With the famous upgrade of the G-70 to Version 2.0 ROLAND Europe introduced the first “Keyboard to Guitar Playing” Interface on a Midi Note base.
Today you will find the Guitar Mode in the G-70, the E-80 and also in the E-50 and E-60.
The advantage of the Midi Note base clearly is, that everything can be recorded and edited in the On-Board-Sequencer of the Keyboard or in the Software Sequencer that runs on a computer.

Download the guitar mode POP

POP.pdf

As you can see on this picture above there are several playing techniques incorporated.
With your left hand you will play the chords, so you do what you always do, without having to study a different way of playing.
Now let’s have a look to what you will do with your right hand.
On the red part of the picture you see the 6 Guitar Strings 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and for example 5th, ROOT, Low. With Root and 5th you can play the Root Note and the 5th of the Chord. These 2 notes are the essential Notes for Bass Lines. The LOW Key enables you to always play the lowest note of the chord played with your left hand. Like this you can reproduce all kinds of inversions but also all various kinds of bass lines required by the song you wish to play. Also you can see a fat arrow Ó and a small arrow ↓.
The fat arrow represents 6 String Strumming, the small arrow 4 String Strumming.
The use of 4 String Strumming allows you to freely use the 2 low Strings for playing Bass Notes.  

On the black part of the picture you can see several different Guitar Strumming techniques, such as Upstroke ↑, Downstroke ↓, combination of Up- and Downstroke ↑↓ on 1 Key and the whole thing being played with 6 and with 4 Strings depending on the Octave where you hit the keys with your right hand.
Especially the various combinations of Up- and Downstroke on one Key will give you a very natural touch to the Guitar Sound, because it simulates the movement of the Guitar Player’s hand when strumming the Guitar.

After switching ON the Guitar Mode on your Keyboard you will see the following Screen:

You have a selection between several Acoustic Guitars, such as Nylon String Guitars, or Steel String Guitars by simply using the Data Entry Wheel on the Panel of the Keyboard.

Also you have the choice between Acoustic Guitars and Electric Guitars

The correct Effects, for example Guitar Amp Simulation etc are automatically added to the Sounds.

By pressing the Options Button you will find access to parameters like “V” Noises that creates the typical sliding sound when the Guitar Player changes the chords.
Also you will find the Doubling Button, which automatically brings a second Guitar Player to the field.

Now, that I have introduced the technical and musical background to you, we can start talking about the more practical part, the playing.

Just by trying you will already understand the easiness and the fun of the Guitar Mode and I am sure that you will find a lot of great Guitar Grooves and Guitar Picking Lines in an instant.

Anyhow, I started creating the “Guitar Groove of the Month” as a special chapter on the Tips&Tricks section of the ROLAND Keyboardclub Pages in November 2005.
One task has been to present Audio Data to you, so that you can listen to the different Guitar Grooves. The second, and even more important task has been to let you see, how these Guitar Grooves are being played.
To be able to do this I had to think about a special type of notation for the release of the key. Usually the release of the key is defined by the length of the note in the score. However, I felt that for playing the Guitar Mode I need to clearly point out that you will hear a sound when you release the key. A sound that we call “Note-Off-Sound”.
The timing of releasing the Key has become as important as the timing for pressing the key.
As a result of this research the combination of Up- and Downstroke ↑↓ on 1 Key can now be represented by the following two symbols:

Now we have the possibility of scoring all different kinds of Guitar Grooves including Guitar Picking, Guitar Strumming with Up- and Downstrokes and Bass Lines.

After developing 14 different Guitar Grooves of all various kinds we decided that it is time to open the Guitar Mode Library.

Please browse around and enjoy listening to the various kinds of Guitar Grooves and enjoy playing them on your Keyboard.

Yours Sincerely
Ralf Schink  

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Here following you can find a series of “Guitar Groove”.
In each of them you will find a short description of how to create some Guitar Grooves, Audio Example and the Musical Score for playing the Guitar Groove.

Let's have fun!

GUITAR GROOVE LIBRARY