Electric Guitar: Imitation & Call and Response

I am writing this article while sitting at a picnic table in front of a vacant concession stand surrounded by four empty baseball fields. A large blackbird is perched on a telephone wire above me and we are engaged in a sort of "call and response." First, the blackbird makes a noise: "Squawk-eech-eech-eech." Then I try to echo the same sounds back to him. I can see the bird listening to my response, then he pauses for a moment and changes his call to a different one, "Thwack-tee-too tee-too, thwack-tee-too tee-too." The blackbirds in this area of Texas can make a wide range of bizarre calls and sound effects, some of them quite surprising and even a little scary.

(Call and response is usually a type of interaction between a person and a group in which a statement is made and any type of response, verbal or nonverbal, can be sounded back as a kind of "answer" to the initial call. It doesn't have to be an exact echoing of the caller's original words.)

This encounter with the musical blackbird reminds me of an unusual yet effective practice method whereby one tries to imitate noises or sounds with one's guitar - sounds one would normally not even attempt to play. Bird calls, elephant blasts, loud sirens, industrial noises, robotic or computer sounds from old sci-fi movies, death rattles, powerful engines, thumps or clicks, chainsaws rumbling, women or old men screaming, any kind of sound at all can be fruitful for you to imitate on your guitar. Not only will this improve your technique considerably, it may also prod you on to start thinking outside the limited, guitar-based mindset. Many guitarists get wrapped up and pigeonholed into playing only what they have heard other guitar players perform. You should avoid that.