By his early 20s, Oz Noy was already an in-demand session and live guitarist. Upon his arrival in New York City in the mid ’90s, he won acclaim on the scene and before long was sitting in on jams and maintaining a busy recording and performing schedule. His success was at least partly due to his impeccable chops and versatility: Rock, jazz, blues, funk and R&B — he does it all. As a result, Noy has worked with an impressive range of artists, including Cyndi Lauper, Harry Belafonte, Sting, Nile Rodgers, Gov’t Mule, Natasha Bedingfield, Don Henley and Mike Stern. And that’s when he’s not releasing his own music, which has filled more than a dozen solo albums to date.
Oz isn’t sure why he’s so popular, but he knows what he brings to every session and gig. “Nobody’s ever told me what they like about my playing or why they hire me,” he says. “I think they know that I can play a lot of different styles of music, and they figure that I’ll do what’s right for them. I try to go to each job with the same attitude: Know what to play and what not to play.”
Elaborating on that point, he says, “I’m not going to bring my jazz stuff into the pop world, and vice versa. You have to be able to draw the line somewhere and give the artist what they want, unless they specifically ask for something a little different, and then you change gears. But I enjoy it all. If somebody wants me, I’m there.”
The iconoclastic guitarist — whose main electric guitar is a Fender Custom Shop 1968 Heavy Relic Stratocaster — has some insightful pieces of wisdom for fellow guitarists, but as he notes, “There are some things that I think can help any guitarist, no matter what they want to play. But on the other hand, playing the guitar is something that’s highly personal and you should always do what’s right for you.”
1. Tune Your Guitar By Ear
“I’ve noticed a lot of younger players, and quite a few players in general, can’t tune a guitar without a guitar tuner. It’s an unfortunate trend, as people should know how to tune by ear. Not only does it help ensure your guitar’s intonation is accurate but it also helps develop your hearing.
“It’s really not hard. You start with an A-440 tone — you can get it on a piano or another guitar, or maybe even Google it to get the tone, because a piano or another guitar might not be in tune. Once you get your tone, you’ll be set. You can look up how exactly to tune one string to the next, but the point is, this is the way to do it — with your own ears.
“And what’s funny is that, while you’re playing, your guitar’s tuning will change a little bit as it adjusts to how you play. But if you start from a proper tuning, you’ll be fine. You’ll know this when you play an E chord and then a C chord. If both chords sound good, you’re okay. If there’s something a little off with the C chord, you need to make adjustments. Again, do it by ear.”
2. Practice Scales
“Here’s the truth about playing the guitar, and music in general: You must, must, must practice scales. Melodies, harmonies, chords, intervals — everything comes from scales, so you must learn them and practice them.
“A lot of people say, ‘I don’t want to get bogged down with that stuff. I just want to play.’ But your playing will improve in every way because of your knowledge of scales. You’ll know your way around the entire neck of the guitar, which will open up all sorts of possibilities.
“Start out with major and pentatonic scales. If you master the major scale all over the neck in all keys and the relative minor pentatonic scale all over the neck in all keys, you’ll already be in good shape. If you play the blues and you practice in a pentatonic scale, you’ll have at your fingertips everything that Clapton and Hendrix played. It doesn’t come from anywhere else.
"You’ll have at your fingertips everything that Clapton and Hendrix played. It doesn’t come from anywhere else."
— Oz Noy
“Once you’ve gotten those scales down, you can do more advanced stuff, like jumping thirds or different kinds of intervals. And then the next advanced move will be playing triads from each degree of the scale, or seventh arpeggio melodies. That’s when you can get some really cool stuff, because you’ll be playing the harmonies within the scales. All the music is in the scales.
“A lot of people don’t find practicing scales to be fun, but you can make it entertaining. Put on a backing track in the key you’re playing and do your exercise. Before you know it, it will sound like music.”
3. Practice Voice Leading
“Voice leading is when you have the voice moving over a scale to smoothly connect chord tones. The voice is the melodic line that’s part of a harmonic progression, such as when you’re in the C major scale and you move the melody one note at a time. But you don’t have to move it by one note — you can do multiple notes at a time. You can take two notes, which we call double-stops, and voice lead symmetrically to the next notes in the scale. I can do that all over the neck. You can do this with any interval: thirds, whatever you like. You can play sevenths all over the neck in the same scale. If you know how to connect the dots, you’re going to be playing music.
"If you know where something comes from, you can do more with it, and there won’t be any mystery."
— Oz Noy
“You can play one note, two, three or four. Mix them all up and get fancy. This is how you get into cool chords and a lot of deep stuff. Some players might not even know they’re voice leading, but I think it’s important to understand the relationship between the notes and why you’re going to each one. If you know where something comes from, you can do more with it, and there won’t be any mystery. Once again, it all comes out of scales. That’s the basis for everything.”
4. Play Horizontally on the Guitar
“When most people start playing, they learn things vertically on the neck in relation to how their eye sees things. Their fingers are locked in these boxes and they only stay within a few frets at a time. It’s very limiting; they’re not opening up all the possibilities on the neck. If you learn to play horizontally, you can easily move from the top of the neck to the bottom, or the other way around.
“One good exercise is to limit yourself to two strings at a time. You can practice this over jazz standards. ‘Autumn Leaves’ is a good one, although you can do it with anything, really. You take the E and the B strings, say, and by limiting yourself to two strings while playing the melody, you’re going to have to play horizontally. You’re going to move from one end of the neck to the other. I guarantee you’ll be surprised how easy it is once you get the hang of it, and it’ll really open things up for you.
“You can mix this up and do two, three or four notes per string. You’ll be all over the neck instead of being locked into this fixed position all the time.”
5. Make Sure Your Body Is Relaxed
“It’s very important that you don’t put any undue stress on your body when you play. Make sure your body is relaxed and that you have good posture, and remember to breathe.
“Keep your hands loose, not tight. You don’t want to put too much tension on your tendons, because your hands and fingers won’t respond well. There shouldn’t be too much pressure in your fingers when they hit the notes. Don’t grind them down. They should move around softly and fluently. Once you feel tension or pain, give yourself a break, whether it’s for five minutes or an hour or a whole day. If you think you can push through the pain, you’re going to mess yourself up and you’ll be in sad shape.
“Next, keep your arms and shoulders relaxed. That’s the whole point to everything here: You don’t want to feel any stiffness when you play. Finally, breathe. A lot of players seem to hold their breath when they play. I think it’s because they’re locked in this overall tension. Breathe. Relax. Let the music flow.”
6. Don’t Obsess Over Your Picking Hand
“Picking technique should happen naturally. There is no proper way to hold a pick. Everybody is different, so do what feels right for you. Your hand knows how it wants to play.
“Also, don’t stress out about playing up- and downstrokes. I’ve seen people try to play down-down, up-up — maybe it works for some people, but it won’t work for everybody. Just try to play music naturally and let it flow. If the music sounds good, and you feel no pain when you play, you’re doing it right.”
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