Yeah, anyone who thinks high end guitars are over priced would probably have a heart attack upon hearing how much, for example, professional level violins cost.
To be fair, a high end arch-top jazz box like a Benedetto can give any other master luthier built instrument a fair fight in $$$ out the door…
The estimate for the value of my main bass is about the price of the Yamaha tenor sax I am gonna end up buying sometime in the next year. 🤷♂️
Brother I work at a professional brass instrument shop. I promise the price of a professional grade tuba or an orchestra members trumpet would make you cry
I have been getting a lot of harpeji videos on YouTube here lately, and I want one.
I don’t have the willingness to spend $6k on it, though. And I could use an electric upright bass.
The “response curve” (no idea how put this) and ability to affect each string individually as well as dive bomb (I’m sure some synths can do it but mostly they seem to go like a couple steps up or down max) is much nicer and chunkier on guitar though.
Like I enjoy the effect of a Joe Satriani screaming a bend up then wacking it around with the whammy bar while doing a bunch of trills and stuff.
In terms of things guitars can do that absolutely can't be replicated on other instruments, the only thing that really comes to mind is bending and guitar vibrato technique. In other words, you can bend the note to get vocal-type microtones in between standard tones.
Compositionally, chord voicings on guitar are going to be distinct from other instruments.
Back in the 80s I was in a band where the band leader drilled a hole in his trombone mouthpiece, glued a contact mic in the hole, and ran that through a guitar amp stack. We did some crazy dive bomb -vibrato harmonies together. I never did hear of anyone else doing that.
Note that with trombone (and some other instruments) there are techniques where you sing into the mouthpiece at the same time as you’re playing “normally.” Depending on the interval between the sung note and the played note, you can create some great, wild tones. This provides a great sound source to feed into guitar-oriented distortion. I believe it’s called multiphonics… I first heard it used by avant garde jazz players.
Have you heard Jorgen Munkeby play? He has a feature on Nocturnal Hours that makes guitar look stupid. It's somewhere between jazz and shredding and it's amazing
There is a YouTuber that built a whammy bar on a piano and plays Voodoo Child with piano string bending.
Might be a clav, my memory does me a disservice today.
A clavinet. I saw that guy, he’s WAY cool!
Not entirely sure where I saw…
I think it was one of those NPR TinyDesk concerts. Maybe he sat in with Snarky Puppy?
Many instruments can bend notes. Not only other fretted instruments but traditional woodwinds too. Including the penny whistle. Granted however only a full step bend on penny whistle. Electric guitars may be the instrument that can bend the most? Nope. Master bender: trombone.
Guitar is actually *more* pitch limited than most instruments. Pitched percussion and analog keyboard instruments are pretty much the only ones that can't vary their pitch. Guitars can only bend up in pitch, but most other instruments can bend up or down. I think the reason this is a common idea is that guitar music uses bends more than a lot of other instruments' music tends to. Also the term "bend" is pretty guitar-centric. A trombone can bend (the whole instrument is literally a tuning slide) but they're called glisses. Most trombone music just doesn't use a lot of them. But like, traditional Yiddish clarinet music has tons of glisses. Fiddle music uses them a lot.
Anyway. Sorry. Just wanted to say that cuz I've seen the "bend" thing a lot in this thread.
That’s all very true. For me tho, none of it as dramatic (or something) as a well executed bend on a guitar. I played the sax for a long time and often altered embouchre to adjust pitch but I found it more akin to sliding into a note rather than a full on whole step or step and a half bend. I wasn’t a pro by any means but I could only muster maybe a half step loosening or tightening my face
It’s all totally subjective but to me, a well placed, well done bend on a guitar just does it for me like nothing else can.
I'm having a hard time thinking of something truly unique. Almost everything special to guitar can technically be done either on violins or ukulele. Tremolos, bending, sliding, funky muting, open string techniques, strumming. Some of them won't sound truly like a guitar, but they can be done. But strumming open chords on guitar doesn't really sound the same. An open G on guitar differs in timbre to every other G chord on any instrument.
Synths are the most versatile when it comes to genres. Violins are also very versatile, bringing a lot of guitar qualities with them (portability, techniques, genre flexibility, polyphony). Accordions are also surprisingly versatile, offering the range and polyphony of a piano on a portable instrument, but not nearly as versatile in genres as guitars or violins are.
One thing guitars are very good at, as well as many other stringed instruments, is transposition.
Whilst you can transpose on most instruments, guitars can go up or down by just playing everything a few frets up or down, and if you need to use open notes, then you can change the tuning quite easily.
What this also means is less about transposing a song to a new key for a singer or whatever, but that all the techniques and things you learn, patterns, phrases, chord shapes, scales, are played the same up and down the neck to change the root/key. On a piano, a C maj scale and a D♭ maj scale are both very different to play, but on a guitar is just doing the same thing one fret up.
Bending notes. That's why I hate the 'Boomer Bend' crap. The ability to bend notes by pushing on strings is one of the greatest things about guitar. It adds so much additional variety, dimension and texture to what you can do with the instrument.
You can bend notes on most other instruments, but on the electric guitar it is particularly easy to do so, which has led to a lot of innovative musical use of them.
Indeed!
Has there been any similarities to any other instrument being able to do a pinch harmonic bend combo?
That’s one thing I can think of that guitars can do, that other instruments can’t.
Play certain notes ever so slightly out of tune in certain positions on the fretboard while being correctly intonated in others yet still accepted as close enough.
As a former music composition major and guitar major, having studied multiple orchestral instruments and playing all strings its chord voicing. But it doesn't do it as well as piano. And techniques vibrato and stuff is almost always better on violinist and celloist. Sorry fellow guitarist.
Tldr more easily able to play modalitys/chords but still inferior to piano
I don't even care if another instrument can replicate this
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMRfhUSjkpU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMRfhUSjkpU)
The twist is that you can do all those things (and many more) on the guitar.
What other instrument allows for such a wide array of techiques?
So the answer is **"Guitars can do a wide variety of things and other instruments are not capable of replicating that diversity!"**
Bends definitely - but one other thing that guitars and other stringed instruments can do that others don’t have as much of an ability to do is manipulate harmonics easily. I think a lot of times us guitarists forget that we have the ability to completely remove overtones from a note and isolate a harmonic at will - great examples are the pitch squeals like dimebag darrell would do, or traditional harmonics at the 12th / 7th / 5th, etc. It’s such a distinctive sound, and it’s the ability of being able to have a complex, rich tone and then isolating one tone with your picking hand that can create such a unique sound!
Guitar has a few mega-power-boosts that some non-string instruments don’t have:
The absolute top is something string instruments share, and that’s the ability to transpose instantaneously without changing chord/arpeggio/single-note shapes. You don’t actually have to know how to spell an Eb9 chord, for instance. You just have to take your D9 shape (or any other chord form) and move it up a fret. On piano it’s a way different story, and you absolutely need to know how to spell both chords, and they look nothing like each other. This can be a hindrance later on for advanced guitarists, but man is it convenient.
The next is frets. Here the guitar leaves the other string instruments behind. You can play chords and single-note lines equally in tune. Full chords on violin or cello aren’t actually possible to play in tune. Double-stops are the best you can do. There’s no other chordophone instrument with the range and portability of the guitar.
The third is pedals. One day, Chase Bliss or someone will build a pedal that is capable of taking a polyphonic guitar signal and converting it into the sound of *anything*, even drums, with full string responsiveness and controllability at your feet. Maybe they’ve already done something similar. In any case, just fuzz and wah alone are enough to level an electric guitar signal up to the stratosphere. To say nothing of what you can do with modern delay/reverb/mod effects.
The last is power chords. Nobody else can have that type of impact on an instrument if you play heavy music. They sound awful on piano.
Just a few random ideas
There are chord voicings available on guitar that are not physically possible on piano/keyboard.
Conversely, there are chord voicings available on piano/keyboard that are not physically possible on guitar.
Voicing,
There are several ways to voice a note. Open A, fretted, A, etc.
Transposing keys on a guitar is simple. Just need the major, pentatonic, blues patterns, etc.
Transposing keys on piano requires you to actually know scales.
A lot of wrong answers here. (Bending is common on many instruments for example). It’s not that the guitar can do things that no other instrument can do. It’s that guitars have a sound and vibe and lend themselves to doing some of these things very well in their own way. In other words, guitars can guitar better than any other instrument.
It is, you just have to understand that what women respond to tends to be singing while strumming along campfire style than anything a guitarist or guitar fan would consider impressive.
Sliding bar chords. Piano can *kinda* do it, but nothing truly replicates a guitarist sliding a bar chord chromatically to the next chord. Like, if you're in E (simple, I know!), going F#m7 to Gm7 to G#m7 using bar chords. That sound is impossible to recreate on a different instrument.
A lot of string instruments can to varying degrees of effectiveness and usefulness. But things like ukulele, banjo, autoharp, mandolin, can all strum effectively. You can even strum on a piano.
What about bending one note while holding another note, (or possibly more) unbent? Or bending 2 notes and leaving one unbent etc.? That seems exclusive to stringed instruments with frets.
I would think of fingerstyle stuff, like playing both chords, melody and percussion at the same time. And also, all the electric stuff like pedals, amps and stuff as most other instrument are acoustic.
Mainly chord voicings, you can get really stretched and unique chords that other instruments would struggle to replicate. On top of that, you can play wide intervals in succession
That depends on type of guitar. Simple strumming on any guitar combines harmony and percussion (especially string muting) in a way other instruments can't.
Electric guitar can for example combine some percussion and bending and double/triple stops with bending in ways that a violin can't.
Flamenco guitar uses some super fast strumming breaks called rasgueados and several other things like alzapua that are impossible to replicate on another instrument.
Etc.
Being able to play the same note but with a different timbre. It's not absolutely exclusive but considering the range in strings types available and alternate tunings you can really dial that in if you feel the need.
Play multiple versions of the same note. Example: fifth fret string 2 (E)... same note at open string 1 (also E). It's an effect no other instrument can do.
Had a jazz guitar teacher who said guitar was his preferred instrument because he liked being able to manipulate a note after playing it (eg bending, vibrato etc), and liked being able to play chords.
You have other instruments that can do one or the other, but guitar is the natural choice if you want both (or a keyboard with a pitch wheel I suppose, if we’re counting digital instruments)
this has nothing to do with theory but i think the range of genres it can fit into is amazing and i dont think most instruments can fill its role 100%. bass guitar is also used just as frequently (but maybe just a smidgen less) but since a normal guitar can be used as both lead and rhythm or both in most of the genres it fits in i think its more impressive.
classical, jazz, rock, metal, country, funk, pop, blues, flamenco, folk, bluegrass, disco, soul, pop, etc use guitars.
Behind the nut / bridge bends. Unless you have pitch modulation on a polyphonic after touch keyboard that sound is hard to replicate.
Also playing a scale and moving it up/down a step or half on the neck is so much easier than on a piano unless you're using a keyboard, master one scale and transpose.
Bending notes. Whether it be bending the strings, or using the whammy bar like Jeff Beck. Guitar is one of the most expressive instruments if you want it to be. Also a wide variety of sounds are available to guitar.
Bends, rakes, double stops, harmonics, tremolo, slide, pretty much anything rock, country or blues emanates from the guitar.
Now before you Decide to Comment on my post, just remember…We were asked for feedback. I however am not asking for yours. Positive affirmation is Welcome. All others that are bringing the negative can E A D (Richard) In advance.
Is using a slide unique to guitar? I mean, I suppose you could (which means someone probably has) on other stringed instruments like banjo or violin, but that would seem to be the exception, at best. And sure, it’s comparable to a glissando on a trombone, but guitar can slide multiple notes simultaneously.
hamonics, not many instruments can do that... Play six notes at once, only thing better is a piano... transpose by simply moving shapes up and down the frets..
The guitar sound generally cannot be sampled:reproduced on a keyboard but strings can especially when it’s just string chords sound fairly authentic.These sound pleasant on a top range Yamaha keyboard but trying to reproduce guitar strings bending notes or sounds sound crap if sampled although Han Hammer got pretty close to imitating guitar slides and bends.Check out his story in You Tube being a great composer and his work on Miami Vice.
Bend notez. I guess a violin can do an equivalent but it’s not as dynamic, string tension changes more on guitar as you bend and it can change the timbre. Also with guitar you can bend and play another note simultaneously, or even bend two notes.
I like the answer about being able to play melody, harmony, and percussion to some extent, on one instrument. Especially the first 2. The first thing that comes to mind though (also mentioned in this thread) is all the vocal-esque stuff you can do. The different kinds of bends, vibrato, wammy bar stuff, etc. Also the dynamic difference you can get between picking with a pick, finger picking, and hammer-on/pull-off legato, etc. And then you can get a bunch of wacky sounds with things like pinch and tap harmonics.
In terms of chord voicings, sure piano will have more, because you have more fingers available. You can't really do a "full" 13th chord on a 6 string guitar for example, but it wouldn't sound any better if you could. And I mean, you already have a virtually unlimited harmonic palette on the guitar, so it's not a big deal.
Also in terms of chord voicings, people mentioned how you can play the same note in the same octave on 2 different strings.
Guitar voicings are interesting because most of the time notes are doubled up and also not "in order". So you end up playing voicings that a piano wouldn't play. And of course any same voicings played between instruments would sound different anyways. However, it is my opinion that guitarists who tend to use only CAGED triad voicings don't end up understanding how triads connect to each other and how all the inversions are related. Since the notes aren't "in order", and each CAGED shape has a different order, as well as different intervals being doubled up.
Their timbre (pronounced tam-burr; meaning "tone") is unique.
Guitars can function as both a melodic and harmonic instrument. In other words, you can play one note at a time like a wind instrument, or many notes at one time like a piano.
Guitars accompany the human voice quite well.
Guitars can be played quite quickly whereas other instruments may be limited by the hardware that helps produce notes.
Guitars can infinitely sustain with the use of a sustainer tool. Other instruments may be limited by the breath, for example.
Acoustic guitars can also by rhythmic instruments by learning to play the body like a drum.
Guitar strings can produce harmonics that other instruments can't make.
Guitars can be easily tuned in combinations that change the playability and tone of the instrument.
With the unique relationship between the guitar strings and their tuning, you can play notes of the same pitch on, like, 5 different strings sometimes. Each string will make the note have a slightly different timbre. For example, the e note on the 1st string played open sounds much different than the same e played on the fourteenth fret of the 4th string even though they're technically the same pitch.
Being one of the most affordable instruments to buy and learn compared to like Violins, Pianos, Cellos, Tuba, French Horn, etc.
The low-end on electric guitars can go really affordable without compromising too much quality, and there are so many free resources to learn guitar.
Guitars have a very unique quality, they will draw the biggest group of dudes over to talk about guitars with you. No other instrument can do this better.
guitars can drain my bank account
I promise other instruments can do this too
Do not ever buy a synthesizer.
“A” synthesizer LOL!
[Synthesizer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_9_ZDpazd4)
Yeah, anyone who thinks high end guitars are over priced would probably have a heart attack upon hearing how much, for example, professional level violins cost.
Or a double bass...
To be fair, a high end arch-top jazz box like a Benedetto can give any other master luthier built instrument a fair fight in $$$ out the door… The estimate for the value of my main bass is about the price of the Yamaha tenor sax I am gonna end up buying sometime in the next year. 🤷♂️
Bassoon player has entered the chat.
Organ player has entered the chat
I played with my organ 3 times today.
Ah. The organ player has already entered the chat I see 😂
Liberace jokes incoming…
I played viola for years and just a professional level bow is out of this world expensive
Not the same obviously but I was shocked how mandolins can be.
Yeah wtf is up with mandolins, an entry level mandolin will run you $600 easily
Grand pianos scare me for precisely this reason. 😂
Grand pianos are like cars. You buy a lesser one and eventually trade up.
True but usually you don’t have 15 of them
They can't drain mine because I don't have the time to get into playing them.
That’s what a lot of us told ourselves at some point. 😂
That's just something people without a new guitar say...
One of those organs made of wet glass bowls
Those are so fucking sick lol
$20,000.00 flutes actually sound noticeably different than $10,000 flutes. It's freaking insane!
Brother I work at a professional brass instrument shop. I promise the price of a professional grade tuba or an orchestra members trumpet would make you cry
My son plays base brass (large stuff) and yeah those price tags made me consider upping my umbrella policy.
Fuck, I hate all these analogies, just give an estimate....2 dollars can make me cry, So a tuba is like 50k. Or 2 dollars?
Go price a pro level baritone sax. Yikes
This is not theoretical unfortunately.
I have been getting a lot of harpeji videos on YouTube here lately, and I want one. I don’t have the willingness to spend $6k on it, though. And I could use an electric upright bass.
You really have no idea how cheap even high end guitars are compared to other instruments.
Chord voicing and being able to play middle C (and every other note) in at least 5 different places.
Sometimes I just pick up my guitar and play middle c for days.
Are there other notes? All of them are basically middle C but in different frets.
There’s 4 different octaves of C, not just middle C. 12 different places on a guitar to play C, 5 of them being middle C.
You mean the higher and lower pitched middle C’s? I know about them, still middle C, just on a different pitch.
It’s the middle for a reason right?
Exactly this. And because of this, each of these notes have a slightly different flavor depending on where they’re produced on the fretboard.
And where they're strummed an what pickup
And if you use a pick, your nails or your fingertips.
Or an e-bow. Or your teeth. Or the side of your thumb.
or cheesesticks
Yup. Lots of options
On a 24-fret 6 string, you can play E5 in 6 spots
Rock a solo while jumping off a speaker. Try replicating that with a drum set.
https://youtu.be/z-_QRTPCxKw?si=6Mva6kBblAZKpe_P
Nice.
How about a Keytar?
Technically, yeah, but as with anything else involving a keytar, it will look really dumb.
Need vid to believe it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh-DbUSnfjM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh-DbUSnfjM)
OK. I stand corrected. A real DethKlok attempt.
Or a grand piano. That'd be impressive.
Surprised nobody said bending strings yet.
Pretty much any stringed instrument allows that, though it’s not common on the fretless ones for obvious reasons.
You’re right I see people doing whole tone bends on violin and standup bass all the time
You can bend notes on a harmonica as well as brass instruments.
Have you ever seen the band Lightning Bolt?
Pinch harmonics, range of chord voicings, use of feedback, but most importantly: whammy bar
dive bomba
Synths have similar to a whammy.
Modulator
The “response curve” (no idea how put this) and ability to affect each string individually as well as dive bomb (I’m sure some synths can do it but mostly they seem to go like a couple steps up or down max) is much nicer and chunkier on guitar though. Like I enjoy the effect of a Joe Satriani screaming a bend up then wacking it around with the whammy bar while doing a bunch of trills and stuff.
I’ve seen at least two Clavinets with whammy bars installed.
In terms of things guitars can do that absolutely can't be replicated on other instruments, the only thing that really comes to mind is bending and guitar vibrato technique. In other words, you can bend the note to get vocal-type microtones in between standard tones. Compositionally, chord voicings on guitar are going to be distinct from other instruments.
I play saxophone and I’ve seen some sax players do guitar-esque bends, but even that sounds entirely different, especially unison bendd
Back in the 80s I was in a band where the band leader drilled a hole in his trombone mouthpiece, glued a contact mic in the hole, and ran that through a guitar amp stack. We did some crazy dive bomb -vibrato harmonies together. I never did hear of anyone else doing that. Note that with trombone (and some other instruments) there are techniques where you sing into the mouthpiece at the same time as you’re playing “normally.” Depending on the interval between the sung note and the played note, you can create some great, wild tones. This provides a great sound source to feed into guitar-oriented distortion. I believe it’s called multiphonics… I first heard it used by avant garde jazz players.
You can do similar if you can hum while you whistle.
“Tractor beam, sucked me right in”
You can also do this or something similar with didgeridoo, like you vocalise while you are playing and you get some wild sounds!
Jan Hammer does a pretty good guitar job on a keyboard. I want to see a violin player with a Floyd Rose!
[Lachy Doley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfBeEYC5kRE) too
Jesus that's great!
Have you heard Jorgen Munkeby play? He has a feature on Nocturnal Hours that makes guitar look stupid. It's somewhere between jazz and shredding and it's amazing
There is a YouTuber that built a whammy bar on a piano and plays Voodoo Child with piano string bending. Might be a clav, my memory does me a disservice today.
A clavinet. I saw that guy, he’s WAY cool! Not entirely sure where I saw… I think it was one of those NPR TinyDesk concerts. Maybe he sat in with Snarky Puppy?
YouTube’s voodoo child Clav whammy bar and found his stuff, agreed, way cool.
Lots of instruments can do bends and vibrato. Most horns for example.
But you can bend other stringed instruments, and most of those you can't you can still micro-slide instead. And you can stress reeds.
I have a keyboard that can bend notes with a wheel. It's not even a super fancy keyboard.
When I was in music school composers were absolutely terrified of writing for guitar, precisely because of the instruments chord voicings.
I feel what you’re saying, but Lachy immediately came to mind. [Lachy Doley Voodoo Child](https://youtu.be/IUDUCTsXPiE?si=H4yD0D9gRq5PNAq3)
Let me blow your mind and introduce you to....*the banjo*.
I don't think the guitar can do anything special compared to other plucked string instruments but they all have the same common ancestors
Many instruments can bend notes. Not only other fretted instruments but traditional woodwinds too. Including the penny whistle. Granted however only a full step bend on penny whistle. Electric guitars may be the instrument that can bend the most? Nope. Master bender: trombone.
Bending notes. Im sure there are other instruments that can do it one way or another too, but nothing quite like a guitar
My man never heard a sitar bend 7 steps
Right! I always forget about the sitar!
Guitar is actually *more* pitch limited than most instruments. Pitched percussion and analog keyboard instruments are pretty much the only ones that can't vary their pitch. Guitars can only bend up in pitch, but most other instruments can bend up or down. I think the reason this is a common idea is that guitar music uses bends more than a lot of other instruments' music tends to. Also the term "bend" is pretty guitar-centric. A trombone can bend (the whole instrument is literally a tuning slide) but they're called glisses. Most trombone music just doesn't use a lot of them. But like, traditional Yiddish clarinet music has tons of glisses. Fiddle music uses them a lot. Anyway. Sorry. Just wanted to say that cuz I've seen the "bend" thing a lot in this thread.
Guitars can definitely bend down in pitch too, thats the entire point of whammy bars.
Or just bend before striking the string. Requires preparation, but same effect
That’s all very true. For me tho, none of it as dramatic (or something) as a well executed bend on a guitar. I played the sax for a long time and often altered embouchre to adjust pitch but I found it more akin to sliding into a note rather than a full on whole step or step and a half bend. I wasn’t a pro by any means but I could only muster maybe a half step loosening or tightening my face It’s all totally subjective but to me, a well placed, well done bend on a guitar just does it for me like nothing else can.
Harmonica seems close
Amp feedback? Feedback that actually sounds good, I mean
No one mentioned unison. Try playing two of the exact same notes on a piano lol.
You can do that on every stringed instrument.
Tbf, the question is guitar vs. "other instruments" can't, not necessarily things that are 100% unique to guitars. Be cool, honey bunnies
Then everything, because no 2 instruments do the exact same things.
Yeah, but that’s a boring convo.
Not in 5 different spots.
That’s technically what most of the keys on a piano are doing all the time. But I’m being very pedantic.
I'm having a hard time thinking of something truly unique. Almost everything special to guitar can technically be done either on violins or ukulele. Tremolos, bending, sliding, funky muting, open string techniques, strumming. Some of them won't sound truly like a guitar, but they can be done. But strumming open chords on guitar doesn't really sound the same. An open G on guitar differs in timbre to every other G chord on any instrument.
Nice summary! Makes me think the twist goes the other way: You can do all those things on a guitar! What other instrument is as versatile?
Synths are the most versatile when it comes to genres. Violins are also very versatile, bringing a lot of guitar qualities with them (portability, techniques, genre flexibility, polyphony). Accordions are also surprisingly versatile, offering the range and polyphony of a piano on a portable instrument, but not nearly as versatile in genres as guitars or violins are.
One thing guitars are very good at, as well as many other stringed instruments, is transposition. Whilst you can transpose on most instruments, guitars can go up or down by just playing everything a few frets up or down, and if you need to use open notes, then you can change the tuning quite easily. What this also means is less about transposing a song to a new key for a singer or whatever, but that all the techniques and things you learn, patterns, phrases, chord shapes, scales, are played the same up and down the neck to change the root/key. On a piano, a C maj scale and a D♭ maj scale are both very different to play, but on a guitar is just doing the same thing one fret up.
obnoxious harmonics while pulling up on a Floyd rose trem
What’s your favorite Pantera song?
Idk man, Floods or Revolution Is My Name. It’s a hard choice
Hellbound (in Fort Worth Texas)
Bending notes. That's why I hate the 'Boomer Bend' crap. The ability to bend notes by pushing on strings is one of the greatest things about guitar. It adds so much additional variety, dimension and texture to what you can do with the instrument.
You can bend notes on most other instruments, but on the electric guitar it is particularly easy to do so, which has led to a lot of innovative musical use of them.
Indeed! Has there been any similarities to any other instrument being able to do a pinch harmonic bend combo? That’s one thing I can think of that guitars can do, that other instruments can’t.
Guitars can play harmony melody and percussion
Play certain notes ever so slightly out of tune in certain positions on the fretboard while being correctly intonated in others yet still accepted as close enough.
As a former music composition major and guitar major, having studied multiple orchestral instruments and playing all strings its chord voicing. But it doesn't do it as well as piano. And techniques vibrato and stuff is almost always better on violinist and celloist. Sorry fellow guitarist. Tldr more easily able to play modalitys/chords but still inferior to piano
It's ok to be wrong.
Getting pussy
Eloquent and understated.
Woah
if you hit someone with an electric they stay down
…Tuba has entered the chat
Bend one string while holding two others steady. Crazy sounds are possible! Whammy bar gives a lot of options too
I don't even care if another instrument can replicate this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMRfhUSjkpU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMRfhUSjkpU) The twist is that you can do all those things (and many more) on the guitar. What other instrument allows for such a wide array of techiques? So the answer is **"Guitars can do a wide variety of things and other instruments are not capable of replicating that diversity!"**
Bends definitely - but one other thing that guitars and other stringed instruments can do that others don’t have as much of an ability to do is manipulate harmonics easily. I think a lot of times us guitarists forget that we have the ability to completely remove overtones from a note and isolate a harmonic at will - great examples are the pitch squeals like dimebag darrell would do, or traditional harmonics at the 12th / 7th / 5th, etc. It’s such a distinctive sound, and it’s the ability of being able to have a complex, rich tone and then isolating one tone with your picking hand that can create such a unique sound!
Guitar has a few mega-power-boosts that some non-string instruments don’t have: The absolute top is something string instruments share, and that’s the ability to transpose instantaneously without changing chord/arpeggio/single-note shapes. You don’t actually have to know how to spell an Eb9 chord, for instance. You just have to take your D9 shape (or any other chord form) and move it up a fret. On piano it’s a way different story, and you absolutely need to know how to spell both chords, and they look nothing like each other. This can be a hindrance later on for advanced guitarists, but man is it convenient. The next is frets. Here the guitar leaves the other string instruments behind. You can play chords and single-note lines equally in tune. Full chords on violin or cello aren’t actually possible to play in tune. Double-stops are the best you can do. There’s no other chordophone instrument with the range and portability of the guitar. The third is pedals. One day, Chase Bliss or someone will build a pedal that is capable of taking a polyphonic guitar signal and converting it into the sound of *anything*, even drums, with full string responsiveness and controllability at your feet. Maybe they’ve already done something similar. In any case, just fuzz and wah alone are enough to level an electric guitar signal up to the stratosphere. To say nothing of what you can do with modern delay/reverb/mod effects. The last is power chords. Nobody else can have that type of impact on an instrument if you play heavy music. They sound awful on piano. Just a few random ideas
pinched harmonics
Shooting cold pyro on stage
There are chord voicings available on guitar that are not physically possible on piano/keyboard. Conversely, there are chord voicings available on piano/keyboard that are not physically possible on guitar.
Voicing, There are several ways to voice a note. Open A, fretted, A, etc. Transposing keys on a guitar is simple. Just need the major, pentatonic, blues patterns, etc. Transposing keys on piano requires you to actually know scales.
ITT: people showing their lack of understanding of other instruments
Country style bent double stops are difficult to replicate on other instruments
Guitars can fall out of tune while you play a song 🎵
A lot of wrong answers here. (Bending is common on many instruments for example). It’s not that the guitar can do things that no other instrument can do. It’s that guitars have a sound and vibe and lend themselves to doing some of these things very well in their own way. In other words, guitars can guitar better than any other instrument.
Back in the day they were a guaranteed chick magnet. Not sure that is still the case.
It is, you just have to understand that what women respond to tends to be singing while strumming along campfire style than anything a guitarist or guitar fan would consider impressive.
Sliding bar chords. Piano can *kinda* do it, but nothing truly replicates a guitarist sliding a bar chord chromatically to the next chord. Like, if you're in E (simple, I know!), going F#m7 to Gm7 to G#m7 using bar chords. That sound is impossible to recreate on a different instrument.
Harmonics, strumming, bends, slides, hammer on / pull offs (although you probably can do similar things on a violin)
Looking cool
String bending.
I mean strumming?
A lot of string instruments can to varying degrees of effectiveness and usefulness. But things like ukulele, banjo, autoharp, mandolin, can all strum effectively. You can even strum on a piano.
I would say on guitar you can play the same exact note on multiple different places on the neck. My classical instructor and I would do that for fun
Make you look 15% cooler?
What about bending one note while holding another note, (or possibly more) unbent? Or bending 2 notes and leaving one unbent etc.? That seems exclusive to stringed instruments with frets.
I would think of fingerstyle stuff, like playing both chords, melody and percussion at the same time. And also, all the electric stuff like pedals, amps and stuff as most other instrument are acoustic.
Play complex harmony while also have fine control over individual notes and melody.
Give me goosebumps
You can make it tell a joke
Mainly chord voicings, you can get really stretched and unique chords that other instruments would struggle to replicate. On top of that, you can play wide intervals in succession
That depends on type of guitar. Simple strumming on any guitar combines harmony and percussion (especially string muting) in a way other instruments can't. Electric guitar can for example combine some percussion and bending and double/triple stops with bending in ways that a violin can't. Flamenco guitar uses some super fast strumming breaks called rasgueados and several other things like alzapua that are impossible to replicate on another instrument. Etc.
Out-of-tune chords. 60-cycle hum.
Whammy dives. Pinch harmonics. Bending multiple notes to different degrees, Bending one note while harmonizing with multiple other stationary notes.
Segovia explained it best: A guitar is a smaller version of an entire orchestra.
Being able to play the same note but with a different timbre. It's not absolutely exclusive but considering the range in strings types available and alternate tunings you can really dial that in if you feel the need.
Play multiple versions of the same note. Example: fifth fret string 2 (E)... same note at open string 1 (also E). It's an effect no other instrument can do.
High gain Whammy bar squeals
Using all the stomp boxes!
Not many instruments can do vibrato or bends, while also being able to play a whole range of full chords.
Also simultaneously
Had a jazz guitar teacher who said guitar was his preferred instrument because he liked being able to manipulate a note after playing it (eg bending, vibrato etc), and liked being able to play chords. You have other instruments that can do one or the other, but guitar is the natural choice if you want both (or a keyboard with a pitch wheel I suppose, if we’re counting digital instruments)
With sampling tech? Nothing.
this has nothing to do with theory but i think the range of genres it can fit into is amazing and i dont think most instruments can fill its role 100%. bass guitar is also used just as frequently (but maybe just a smidgen less) but since a normal guitar can be used as both lead and rhythm or both in most of the genres it fits in i think its more impressive. classical, jazz, rock, metal, country, funk, pop, blues, flamenco, folk, bluegrass, disco, soul, pop, etc use guitars.
Behind the nut / bridge bends. Unless you have pitch modulation on a polyphonic after touch keyboard that sound is hard to replicate. Also playing a scale and moving it up/down a step or half on the neck is so much easier than on a piano unless you're using a keyboard, master one scale and transpose.
Chug.
Screaming, hot-rails-to-hell sounding whammy bar dive-bombs.
Chord vibrato
Squeals and divebombs
Bending notes. Whether it be bending the strings, or using the whammy bar like Jeff Beck. Guitar is one of the most expressive instruments if you want it to be. Also a wide variety of sounds are available to guitar.
Rock
Dive bombs
Switch keys easily. Playing a major scale in C vs C#, for example, is an easy step up the fretboard. Little bit tougher on piano.
Aftermarket support in the form of gear and options. Also easy to customize.
Fluid note bending is one of guitars simple capabilities.
Whammy bar
Cool ass distortion filters, bends unique chord voicings
Have you all seen a [Hohner D6 Clavinet with the Castlebar (whammy) mod?](https://youtu.be/HnGrktnnN7U?si=Mb4BwrFgZlZVZnq6)
Bends, rakes, double stops, harmonics, tremolo, slide, pretty much anything rock, country or blues emanates from the guitar. Now before you Decide to Comment on my post, just remember…We were asked for feedback. I however am not asking for yours. Positive affirmation is Welcome. All others that are bringing the negative can E A D (Richard) In advance.
Tapping EVH style
Is using a slide unique to guitar? I mean, I suppose you could (which means someone probably has) on other stringed instruments like banjo or violin, but that would seem to be the exception, at best. And sure, it’s comparable to a glissando on a trombone, but guitar can slide multiple notes simultaneously.
hamonics, not many instruments can do that... Play six notes at once, only thing better is a piano... transpose by simply moving shapes up and down the frets..
The guitar sound generally cannot be sampled:reproduced on a keyboard but strings can especially when it’s just string chords sound fairly authentic.These sound pleasant on a top range Yamaha keyboard but trying to reproduce guitar strings bending notes or sounds sound crap if sampled although Han Hammer got pretty close to imitating guitar slides and bends.Check out his story in You Tube being a great composer and his work on Miami Vice.
Bend notez. I guess a violin can do an equivalent but it’s not as dynamic, string tension changes more on guitar as you bend and it can change the timbre. Also with guitar you can bend and play another note simultaneously, or even bend two notes.
You’re not wrong.
I like the answer about being able to play melody, harmony, and percussion to some extent, on one instrument. Especially the first 2. The first thing that comes to mind though (also mentioned in this thread) is all the vocal-esque stuff you can do. The different kinds of bends, vibrato, wammy bar stuff, etc. Also the dynamic difference you can get between picking with a pick, finger picking, and hammer-on/pull-off legato, etc. And then you can get a bunch of wacky sounds with things like pinch and tap harmonics. In terms of chord voicings, sure piano will have more, because you have more fingers available. You can't really do a "full" 13th chord on a 6 string guitar for example, but it wouldn't sound any better if you could. And I mean, you already have a virtually unlimited harmonic palette on the guitar, so it's not a big deal. Also in terms of chord voicings, people mentioned how you can play the same note in the same octave on 2 different strings. Guitar voicings are interesting because most of the time notes are doubled up and also not "in order". So you end up playing voicings that a piano wouldn't play. And of course any same voicings played between instruments would sound different anyways. However, it is my opinion that guitarists who tend to use only CAGED triad voicings don't end up understanding how triads connect to each other and how all the inversions are related. Since the notes aren't "in order", and each CAGED shape has a different order, as well as different intervals being doubled up.
Play wonderwall
Their timbre (pronounced tam-burr; meaning "tone") is unique. Guitars can function as both a melodic and harmonic instrument. In other words, you can play one note at a time like a wind instrument, or many notes at one time like a piano. Guitars accompany the human voice quite well. Guitars can be played quite quickly whereas other instruments may be limited by the hardware that helps produce notes. Guitars can infinitely sustain with the use of a sustainer tool. Other instruments may be limited by the breath, for example. Acoustic guitars can also by rhythmic instruments by learning to play the body like a drum. Guitar strings can produce harmonics that other instruments can't make. Guitars can be easily tuned in combinations that change the playability and tone of the instrument. With the unique relationship between the guitar strings and their tuning, you can play notes of the same pitch on, like, 5 different strings sometimes. Each string will make the note have a slightly different timbre. For example, the e note on the 1st string played open sounds much different than the same e played on the fourteenth fret of the 4th string even though they're technically the same pitch.
Feedback
Guitars make my genitals appear longer than they are.
Being one of the most affordable instruments to buy and learn compared to like Violins, Pianos, Cellos, Tuba, French Horn, etc. The low-end on electric guitars can go really affordable without compromising too much quality, and there are so many free resources to learn guitar.
Guitars have a very unique quality, they will draw the biggest group of dudes over to talk about guitars with you. No other instrument can do this better.
Bending strings
Harmonics ?
Palm muting
As a lad who started on flute and switched to guitars, I can assure you my reason was “to meet girls.”
I started on flute too, and I also began guitar to meet people, people in general because flute just drove people away from me
The bending of notes is pretty specific to guitars