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Me and my Larrivee L-03

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I am in love with my new acoustic guitar! This baby plays like a dream and sounds great. The neck is a bit wider then most put I chose it that way.

Larrivee L-03

Truth be told, I got this puppy for a final gig with some greats guys that I played in a band with. A couple of yrs. ago another dear friend of mine called, ago out of the blue, and asked me if I wanted to get the old band back together for one last gig. This was the band that i played in, in high school. These guys were the best bunch of musicians that I had EVER PLAYED WITH period!

I was at my parents house in Brantford while renovating my aunts house when I got the call. I was in total shock when Tony, the best keyboard player I’ve heard, called and asked me about it. While talking to him I drifted in my mind about the greatest high that I ever got from playing live with. Ohhhh …. what times they were.

He and his wife Laurie had an idea to get all of the bands that Tony played with together for one night at a bar in Milton Ontario called “The Hard Ball”

It was a 80’s style theme night. He called everyone up and they all pretty much confirmed they’d be there. They had the main stage rented and had made tons of food for everyone and a cash bar. The original drummer, Steve Negus, of Saga even showed up. Too bad the rest didn’t.

Anyways, we talked on the phone and decided that we would play a song an appropriate song called “On the Road” by Max Webster. So needing a acoustic guitar while knowing that some heavy weight guitar players would show up, I decided to buy one at the legendary “The 12th Fret“.

I had been to it at their last location around 20 yrs. previous and now that their newer location was down the st., I told my wife what i was going to do. To my relief she was VERY SUPPORTIVE of the idea. We had wanted to get an acoustic that I was worthy of with the working budget of around $5,000.00 can. So I went in and played guitars for around 8 days straight, 5-6 hrs. a day.

The staff was unreal to me. I told them right from the start what I was looking for and said “don’t be afraid to ask anything about anything that you want to know”. They told me to come in early and stay till whenever, they even gave me a great sound both to play in. If you ever are looking for an axe, this is honestly the only place to go. They sell very high end gear so there is no pressure by any stretch of the imagination.

I played many, many, many guitars that week. The staff didn’t even bother me once, they looked at me once in a while through the glass and nodded their head, that’s it, NO SALES PITCHES. The one that I chose was not that expensive and in my opinion, the best sounding one plugged in or not! i won’t bore you with any of the particulars unless you ask so here is the link and check it out for yourself.

Anyone else have one of these babies?

Keep on Jammin’




Gemini, the band that should have been …

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This is a band that played in my back yard for my little sister Anne-Marie’s 16 birthday party.

The band consisted of Steve B (bass), John E (lead/rhythm guitar) Danny T (keyboards) and Eddie C (drums). These guys were very modest in their ability to play. They played a lot of the Cars to a “T”. They took a the simple and direct approach to their playing and it was a pure joy to listen to them.

They were my childhood friends that I jammed with them here and there, we mostly partied! The guitar player John is the person who I have known the longest. I knew Johnny since I was 4 yrs. old, really! his nick name was “e nhoj”, that’s John E spelled backwards, not a lot to do in Brantford during those formative years.

Anyways, he had made his own guitar in tech class and it was HUGE! The guy was a ladder with legs! He was the one who helped me learn how to ride a bike, he was the only one of my friends who was tall enough to hold me and the bike steady to push me off and hope like hell I went a couple of feet down the driveway, really! His hands were massive, he found that playing other guitars were too small and uncomfortable to play for long periods of time. So he decided to make his own guitar. His guitar neck was around 1-2 inches thick. When I played it, it made me fell like I had the hands of a 3 yr. old. I wish that back in 1975 we had the internet because the blog called “Building The Ergonomic Guitar” would have been valuable for him.

Then there was Stevie B, now that guy is a colourful character. The bass player. He still hangs around BIG JOHNNIE in the big city of Brantford or “droftnarb”, please try this out @ home with your name or someone else’s, it’s best played while heavily intoxicated! Steve is now a recording artist and transplanted bass player to guitarist. When I get the link to his site I will update it so you can hear his GREAT CHOPS!

The drummer Eddie was the drummer in that KISS tribute band that I played in. He took lessons and was in a polka band as well.

Dannie, on keys, played his faithful Farfisa keyboard, just loved that sound honestly I did!

Johnnie and Steve are coming up to our place on the Danforth to help install a “Tin Ceiling” in our living room on the weekend and HOPEFULLY will bring their axes! I might even attempt to record us in “intoxicated slur-round sound” and let you all get a laugh!

Sing-cerley
Chris P (sirhc p)

Upkeep of your finger nails

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I am the type of guitar player who uses a combination of playing with a pick, pick with finger nails and nails exclusively.

My style of playing is that of a aggressive one. This is not to be confused with a THRASHING technique. I also playing with a lot of a dynamics’s. I mean having the ability to play any song very quietly/soft (PPP, triple piano) or very LOUD (FFF, triple forte). I find that being able to do this allows me to change the mood of the piece at any given time.

I love the straight forward playing with a pick style but having the tools to be able to incorporate all the fingers is useful as well. But my new re-found love is to get back to my roots and just use my nails. I played classical guitar for a while and did not play ANY ROCK at all.

I wasn’t a BRUCE COCKBURN fan until 1986, this when I was living in a dorm/frat house in Toronto (Bloor and Spadina). Here I would be able to play acoustic guitar for hours straight, but I sure as hell wasn’t! I started to finally listen to HOW he was playing. I had thought that he was using a pick because the only player in the world at that time, so I thought, that used his fingers was Mark Knopfler, boy was I wrong!

So listening to his music I found this thing called ” Open Tuning “. The first open tuning song I did was “Tokyo” by BRUCE COCKBURN. I played this tune for days on end! It was new, refreshing and something that I had never done before. So, one day I got out the phone book and looked up his name, found his number and called him. Sure enough, it was his number and his wife at the time answered and she told him “that he would not be home for some time.” Well at least I tried! True story.

Anyways, when I first started to take my nails seriously (this was in grade 9 remember),I had used MANY products to strengthen my nails. I had gotten use to shaping them to fit my attack. The long nails held out not bad but I was always pissed when they broke!!! This was just something that I had to get use to. After I had had enough of this style after 2 yrs., I went off to different ones. I loved to try different styles that I could bring to my playing.

So fast forward to July 8th 2005, my birthday. My wife was working as a ER nurse in a Toronto Hospital and I had just dropped her off at work, it takes literally 1 minute, we live just down the street, and I had a finally got up the nerve to try this fake nail thing, YES FAKE NAILS! When I was done I just had to go back to work and show her. She just laughed and laughed, not to mention her buddies as well, I work with them all so that was fine.

I just love them! I can play at any time without having to worry about them braking and not having them when I want to play. The only thing that I don’t like is the fact that when they grow out they look weird. They look like I have jaundice of the finger nails, they have a yellow hue to them. Women are lucky because they can just throw some nail polish on them. If I do first would be divorced or placed on the H6 Ward of our hospital.

The cost is around $10.00 and that’s not bad. Does anyone have any other ideas that they use for their nails other then the fakies that I use and please tell me how durable they are and be honest!

Keep on jammin’

G-Force Media Productions

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As you may or may not know but I am a 40 yr old guitar player living in Toronto Canada, who is continually upgrading my genre of music and sometimes wanting to record or just screw around in a recording studio. I, as well as every guitar player/musician on the planet, know how pricey it can be to just walk into a recording studio (not to mention the mixing time, which can add up to a great down payment for a house in Toronto) makes you feel like your a 3rd rate citizen.

But this place is run by a dear friends of mine. They are younger then I am but have quite the unbridled enthusiasm of seasoned professionals anywhere in the business. THESE GUYS HAVE THEIR CHOPS ON THEIR BOARD DOWN RIGHT!!!!!!

RICHARDO JONES, the true driving force behind this venture, has worked with me at a local hospital for 5 years. He is quite the accomplished keyboard player, greater in years then he looks. I’ve been in G-Force studio many times before, even helping out fixing up their new unique Shang-gra-la like recording location when they first got the keys for the joint. It’s also very difficult not to get along with this guy, really!

It’s a professional but very relaxing studio, this is the kind of place that any man would give his left nut to have in his basement.
They even have a beer dispensing machine in it, which is reasonably priced I might add!

The sound that he can pull out of his board is UNREAL! The equipment is old school looking, but the software and the versatility he has with it (most importantly), is TOP SHELF!!!

They also do video shooting editing and pic’s as well, done by a fine young man named Sye, for New York City. I’ve been fortunate to have known this guy, as well as Steve, for the same amount of time as Rick. This is VERY interesting as well, trust me. When you go down just to see what they have, ask them to show you some things they’ve done in the past, it’s a scream!

If your like me, or you just want to have had a experience just like, then JUST GET OFF YOUR ASS AND CALL THEM! Their NOT SALESMEN!!!! They love their craft and you’ll find that abundantly clear when you meet them, no more no less, that’s it.

Check them out at G-Force Media Productions.

Neon

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This is the most challenging song that I have come across in years! It also sounds great in the acoustic or electric version of the tune. Below is the link that I felt that best showed me how to approach playing the song. If you are going to attempt this tune then take your time on it.

I’m a perfectionist and I have been known to stop a song and start it up again to the annoyance of many an audience. I love the high you naturally get from pulling off a master piece live and people REALLY lovin’ it! Perfecting this song at this time in my life will have to be put on hold for now.

So I set my sights on another tune that is similar in difficulty but more achievable now. This is John Mayer’s acoustic version of Neon. I just got my hands on a couple versions of this and my favorite is from a show from Chicago (on a PBS network)that is acoustic. Buddy guy plays with him in this show but not on this tune.

When I first came across this tune I was instantly captured! It was very challenging from a physical stand point too. Truth is, my thumbs have problems approaching/playing the low E on the neck. I have never ever thought that this is a technique that I would ever have to use.

When I was really playing a lot I was always keeping my ears out for songs that were very challenging to play because that is what interested me the most. I never paid attention to the words because I was not a song writer. This type of playing was pure cheating I thought so I would never have anything to do with it! I guess I was very short sighted as a 14 yr old.

Is anyone trying this tune out?

John Mayer, love him or … at least try to learn something from him!

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Boy, John Mayer, who seems to everyone else on the planet except me; to be the best guitar player from an technical/artistic aspect, is a girlie guitar player? For me, this is the biggest crock of shit coming from these musically challenged people who happen to listen to him, even if it just in casual listening!

My guitar playing approach, is to (1) listen and see how difficult and unique the playing approach is and (2) well … that’s it!

I live to be able to pick guitar players brains and incorporate them into my own distinct style of performing! After all, there is no suck, in my thinking anyways, performer that has come up with a definitive original style that is completely theirs and theirs alone! Everyone has certain influences that help them create their own style.

When I listen to John Mayer, I see different colours of sounds. I am aware that basic chords are … just chords, in the primary position. But what John does is, rip them apart and put them back together in a refreshing way that helps cut through the different direction/genres that are out there right now.

I had the chance to see/copy a show that John Mayer did in Chicago (my brother lives there and what a place to see, if you have not been there then don’t just surf there, go there!). Buddy Guy was playing with him for 2 songs and wow, what a treat for the uninitiated. John Mayer was ripping these chords off and Buddy Guy was blasting away these solos and then trading off with John. Man, if that guy, John Mayer or Buddy Guy for that matter, walked into a music store and I was there playing guitar, I might just put mine down.

I am currently figuring out a song of John Mayer’s called “Neon” in the acoustic version. This is a song that I can play technically but the fine nuances will take me a while. It’s like the time I was figuring out how to play Lady Madonna”, the piano part that is, on the guitar. It was the first time that I attempted to use a pick (Jim Dunlop, 1 MM) and every other finger on my right hand to play the song. It took me around 1 whole year practicing it until I felt comfortable to play it on stage.

The thumb slapping on “Neon” is fun, as usual! The best album to listen/figure out this on is “Inside wants out”. I have become accustom to this technique by playing “Who put that bullet hole in Peggy’s kitchen Wall” by Bruce Cockburn. I also put in a bit of a bass thing in there to really create the big sound!

So, who is the young girl or soccer mom, who listens to John Mayer Now?

My first Rock Bands Concert … a KISS tribute one at that!

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I mercifully skipped grade 7 for you all and went right to the good stuff.

Well I just have to let the cat out of the bag and swallow my pride on this one! Yes I was playing in a KISS tribute band and was Ace Frehley. Well in all honesty, the majority of the tunes were KISS tunes. I was the only one in the band who did not belong to the KISS Army though.

I was into more challenging music but the only guys I knew that could play were these guys! Don’t get me wrong, these guys were my best friends for the longest time! Eddie, was the drummer and had extensive gigging with a “Polka Band” and Brian, the guy in my previous posts was the other guitar player. We didn’t have a bass player at the time due to the fact that no one we knew played the bass.

When I was in grade 7, I remember playing with the Muroz brothers. It was fun because they had taken lessons and could play their instruments well. I think we played some Queen, Led Zeppelin and some pop tunes of the day. I forget why we broke up but I guess that is how it goes. Sorry, I just had to write a bit about the grade 7 thing!

Anyways, we would practice and practice for hours on end. I keep trying to get these guys to slow down and take apart the songs that we were playing and it did sink in to some degree. I’m sure that they would tell ya differently but it’s my blog so there!

As we grew older we found that other schools had band and that they were playing live at their schools so we had no choice, let’s do a live show. Our first and only show was to be played at “St. Bernard’s” school. This was what we thought was our big break!

During this time I had been introduced to another band in the making. They were both in high school and they were just who I was looking to play with. They were Tony, the keyboard player who sounded like a god on that thing, and Harry the guitar player who could play quit well technically but lacked the feel that you need!

Anyways, when we played the show, I had a blast! My soon to be band mates where in attendance and the show went on. Brian, who was like Gene did this wild guitar solo in the audience with the help of MANY GUITAR EXTENSION CHORDS while i was lying on the stage moving these knobs on my old ” BOSS BF-1 FLANGER”. Our band was named “Duce” and when we played it to start off the show, the words go something like this, “Get up and get the hell on out of here!” and there goes Brian singing it directly to a nun, I almost blew a nut laughing so hard on stage!

So, how was that?

My first Rock concert I’ve ever played in … in grade 6 that is.

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Well I remember that being in grade 6 was quite a musical experiment to me.

A new kid named Brian came into our school that year. He seemed very cool but different from the rest of us. He spoke with a funny sound in his voice (that’s how I explained it when I was in grade 6 anyways). He was smart and a good soccer player. He also had a older brother who started hanging out with my older brother.

His brother liked and had all of the same music that all of us listened to, as well as some UK sounding style bands that we never had hear of. The guitar playing and singing was quite interesting. They also lived besides my brothers girl friend at the time. Soon we would start going over there to see them as well as her.

Brain and I got along great from the start. One day while in class, the teacher gave us all this assignment that was a report on what we liked and had to do a report on it in front of the class by years end. So, being off the wall as we were back then, we both thought that we should do a report on “Alice Cooper’s” new album, that everyone had, called “Schools Out”. We both thought that the best way to do a report was, not just to bore our fellow class mates by talking about it but, to sing it to them! This was also appropriate because it was almost the end of our school year.

We talked our teacher into letting us both do the same topic and that we would do it together in front of the class as well!

This was very exciting! So we listened to the words on it and sang it over and over again. We also knew that we had to give out information to the class for their own notes and asked my mother if she could do something for us. She was working on this thing called a “computer” at her work. I remember her bringing home papers that she read so, I asked her if she could go to work and do what ever she did with that computer thing and print these words out so we could give out to the class for the assignment. So, she did!

The day finally came for our report to be recited to our class and boy I was just bouncing off the wall with excitement! We had told our older brothers what we had in plan and they just laughed at the idea and said that it wouldn’t fly. By them laughing at our idea, it drove us with even more determination to make this the best report ever!

So when it was time for us to go up, we then gave out the copies of the song and walked up to the front of the class!
We had the teacher sign out the record player from the library so we could have the song playing while we sang it, in front of them. She then put the record in it and put the needle down! We had chosen ” Schools Out ” and sang our little hearts out! We even moved around like rock stars and ended our first rock concert, so we thought, with an screaming grade 6 class so much so that the principle came down just to see what the hell was going on.

Ahhhh, the simple things in life!

What was your first concert that you gave and how did it turn out!

Keep on Jammin’

Oh my God, what the hell, it’s got 2 necks

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Now that I was in grade 6 and my brother was in grade 8, other musical influences came into view for me. My brother Tim was the popular guy in school that everyone wanted to hang out with. He was an unreal defencemen in hockey, good looking and a very likable link of guy.

I too played defense and was quite talented. He had won more valuable defense men awards then I did but I had to try harder because I was much smaller then him. He was a rushing type of defense men and I was the crazy stay at home and take no prisoners type. As usual, I tried to be like my older brother, like most people in the pecking order of life. I always strived to catch up to him as much as I could. I even played on his team one time and that was really some so I thought.

jimmy-page.jpg

Anyways, he started out listening to music that did not get much airplay. Bands like early Zeppelin and bands of that era. I thought that if it was good enough for my older brother then I got to listen to this stuff!

At first, I was a bit of a pain asking him to replay some songs so I could think of them in my head and for the most part he did because some of the girls in his class thought that I was cute and that I was a good guitar player and in those days guitar players were someone who they liked to hang out with. So I ever so slightly gravitated towards hanging out with my brother and his circle of friends.

sgdblnek.jpg

One day one of my brothers friends, whose uncle happened to live on the same cul-de-sac as we did, had heard that I played guitar. As luck would have it, my life long friend John E., lived right beside him. We were playing soccer in his parents back yard when I fired one into the back yard of this guy.

When I went over to get the ball I met this guy, real skinny and with long black hair. He said “you must be Tim’s little brother?” I never met this guy so I said ya? He said that people on the street say your player too? I thought for a second and then said “oh ya, guitar”. He just laughed and said do you want to see something that I just bought, and I said sure! So off he went, inside his home, he lived with his parents and they of course knew my parents VERY WELL through the church.

It was a very warm summer day with a bit of a breeze, honestly I really do remember it, no shit! He came outside with this big black skinny box. I thought that it was one of those keyboard/organ things that was in the band that I saw, but it wasn’t!

He walked over to the standard back yard table in the 70’s, and placed this big black thing with one handle on it, on the table. He said “stand back because this thing will blind ya!” What hell is he babbling about! He was washing his motor cycle at the time and I saw a couple of dead soldiers beside the bike so I thought he was drunk or something. So I moved back and he began to open up this thing.

As he opened it up, the glare that this thing gave off was unreal! I was slightly blinded. When my eyes started to re-focus, I saw what I believed to be as a guitar but this was VERY, VERY DIFFERENT! Oh my GOD, what the hell, it’s got 2 necks on it!!!

gibson-dbl.jpg

It was a candy apple red double neck guitar. The name on the top where the tuning heads were said “Gibson” At that moment, I realized that it was the same guitar that the guitar player Jimmy Page had! Holy shit, this must be Jimmy Page that I’m talking to!!!

I started to get that same feeling that I had, had when I saw that Christian Rock Band, flash pots went off to start the show. Now I know what their called, at the time, I had no idea what was going on but it looked sooo cool. I slowly approached this mythical device with eyes and mouth WIDE OPEN! He then said “What do ya think of it kid?” He then brought it out of it’s strange home and begun strumming it! He was strumming the 12 string part of the guitar and it was a strange but wondrous thing that I heard for the very first time. He began to play “Stairway to Heaven” and in my mind that clinched it, he was Jimmy Page, but his face was off a bit.

Has anyone had an experience like this before?

Just Jamming on my own!

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Well, now I was at a point where I was playing in school and at mass. I kept listening to songs on the radio over and over again. I was never a writer of songs, so I just listened to the guitar parts in every song. I remember trying to figure out the song in my head by paying attention to the low end of the song. What I mean is the bass part.

I put everything out of my mind and listened intensely at this. I hummed it in my head and tried to slow it down as well. Once I started out with the bass components, the chords just started to pop in place. My knowledge of chords was limited so, that is when I asked Mrs. Lord if she had anything more up her sleeve, so she gave me this book, and I dived into it. She had started me out on “The bar Chords”!

This was really cool because no one else in our class was doing it but me. This opened up some area that was fun for me! I tried to simplify what I was shown (imagine playing a B chord without barring the second fret) and tried making a more bassie/bottom end sound to the chord. That is when I started barring the chords the way everyone else does. This helped me obtain that rock sound that was being played on the radio at the time. For the longest time I tried to figure out how they got that sound, it must have been that big black thing with lights and knobs on it that I saw at the school concert.

How did everyone start out figuring songs at a young age, like this?

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