r/Guitar • u/ShinyZak • 17h ago
NEWBIE Advice for learning to play like David Gilmour?
Hey everyone! I'm fairly new to guitar and I always try to build my fundamentals properly, I usually revisit the basics whenever I pick up something new.
I’ve been listening to David Gilmour for a couple of years now, and his playing really speaks to me. The emotion and phrasing in his solos are just on another level. Now that I’m getting more serious about guitar, I really want to learn how to play with that same kind of feel.
If anyone has tips on what to focus on first, bending, vibrato, phrasing, scales, exercises, or even specific songs, I’d really appreciate the advice. Thanks a lot!
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u/DifferentWindow1436 8h ago
Really work hard on bending and vibrato. Be really, really good at that. And, IMHO, you don't need to use the tremolo bar the way he does in order to do it. But you do have to put a lot into those techniques. Also, use of space. He's not constantly playing a line of notes.
Theory wise, it's not complicated stuff. It's basically minor pentatonic mixed with minor and sometimes blue notes. He just makes it work insanely well and executes so well.
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u/Yulack Seymour Duncan 17h ago
You would benefit more from learning fundamentals right now than trying to learn anything Gilmour.
His playing is very specific. It's not flashy, fast or even remotely close to complex. Most of Gilmour's material is pentatonic, or leans heavily on Major & Minor; these are I guess fundamentals in it of themselves, but his phrasing allowed for a much more nuanced approach that was slow and deliberate.
His focus isn't to lay down a tight pattern or repetitive grooves to lock in with the meter, his guitarwork is texture focused, and arrangement driven. His job was never to drive the groove, he is the ultimate support act.
I don't think anyone benefits from learning Gilmour stuff early on. He's playing around the rhythm, not in it, and I feel like if you learn more traditional guitarwork first, and THEN go back to Gilmour your life will be MUCH easier.
There are songs in the Pink Floyd catalogue that will get you there, some examples:
Pigs, Three Different Ones.
Young Lust
Have a Cigar
Wish You Were Here (this is like, everyone's first song lol)
Another Brick in the Wall
Money
Please do note that, without delays (more than one for sure), a lot of reverb, a fuzz pedal, chorus pedal and modulation effects, you will never be satisfied trying to emulate the guy.
As for technique:
Major/Minor all over the neck, both pentatonic and harmonic and Natural. 3 note per string as well as the box positions.
Vibrato, lots of it.
Bending. Practice primary bends. There are tons of tutorials on this, from a quick Google search, there is "What notes are good to bend in Pentatonic?" as well as "Which notes to bend in Pentatonic Scales"
Haven't seen the videos, but this is so fundamental it's impossible to fuck up. These dudes have an audience, I trust other players to scrutinize their content for these videos to be worth your while.
Vibrato on bends. This is by far the hardest part of his playing. It is so expressive and full of emotion, stale playing can make his material sound stiff and lacking in depth.