Guitar Licks

Guitars, tips and great music discussions




You are here: Home / Archives for Musicians

Bruce Cockburn – If a tree falls in the forest

by

Now this is a song that I will attempt when I get a moment or so.


I heard Bruce do an acoustic version of this one on the radio and as usual, they didn’t announce which album it was from. Is it just me or, does this tick you off too? As said best by Charlie Brown “AAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

I love the use of his wammie bar on his guitar. He is the type of player who will either use or not use an effect and pull it off right both ways. This is what I shoot for when choosing a song that I want to play. If I can’t tackle a song correctly then I’ll try and try again! However, if I can’t, then I be a man and just let some get away!

Keep on Jammin’




Bruce Cockburn – If I had a Rocket Launcher Live

by

If I Had a Rocket Launcher by Bruce Cockburn, performed live (10/21/06) at the Tarrytown Music Hall. Marty Balin featuring Slick Aguilar, Charlie DeChant, Gordon G.G. Gebert, Dave Trupia, Michael Sciotto.
Video 8:01 minutes

This is a favorite song of mine to play live. If you ever get the opportunity to see me perform, it will be on my play list. I do the acoustic version very well. The solo parts are challenging enough, and this is maybe the only song beside Neon that I can always change up every time I play or just have an extended solo to it.

Bruce plays the song in so many positions that he makes it all look easy, but the great ones always do don’t they.

My Larivee L-03 has the depth that you need to pull off a technical song like this live. My DigiTech chorus pedal is the perfect fit for this tune – like it was made for it. Hopefully when I find the time, I’ll tape video of it and let you be the judge on how to improve portions of the song, or which parts to eliminate. Hopefully the latter won’t come into play. 😉

Keep on Jammin’

A Realization that I can play guitar

by

I was just surfing while listening to one of my favorite Canadian musicians of all time, Bruce Cockburn (B.C.). I came to the realization that I am finally playing like a great guitar player of the 80’s, Mark Knopfler.

In grade 8, a song came onto the music scene that was really new and refreshing. It was a band called “Dire Straights”. The song that caught my ear was “Sultan of Swing”.

The guitar player was just a jammin’ on this tune. His name is Mark Knopfler. This popular song at the time was a song that I just had to play. I was taking lessons from the best guitar teacher of all time, in my mind, C. Peterson. I had requested that he show me how to play this tune and he said that he had already figured it out.

Mr. P. was just unreal at figuring out anything in on guitar. So off he went and started to show me the song. It was fun and challenging to play, just the way I liked it. After a couple of lessons, I could play the song pretty much inside out, which is the way he taught me.

While playing the song for many years, I decided to re-visit this song to see if there was any other way(s) to improve playing it. Mr. Peterson introduced me to the technique that Mark Knopfler used on the song but I thought that this guy was one of those off beat musicians that would fade after a short success, boy was I wrong.

I had listened to this song repeatedly over the years,and I noticed subtle tones that I had missed while playing. When I played it, it had a crisper sounding to it then what he had. His version almost had a muddled sound. In my younger years listening to the song, I had noticed that, and I thought it was just the recording technique at the time and that was it. So I then tried playing it with just my fingers and wow, it was really hard to play.

Being a classical guitar player, I was use to using my fingers but had to use my nails to attack the strings but, this guy used his thumbs and at a lightning like speed during his solo’s to boot! I tried and tried and tried but I could not get the calluses on the sides of my fingers that I really needed to pull of the song so I went back to the original way of playing the song.

Now fast forward to 2 years ago when I fell in love with the B.C.’s style of finger picking. The attack technique used here was different from my classical training but I loved the sound he got out of his axe. It was just plain fun to listen to.

So today while I was surfing and listening to B.C. at the same time, I was listening to this song called “It’s Going Down Slow” and “Mamma just wants to barrelhouse all night long”, from Waiting for a Miracle (1987). Today I can play these ones not bad and I just enjoy listening to them. It was at that moment that I noticed the similarities between both techniques and it had just dawned on me that, I can play guitar.

Keep on jammin’

The toughest song I can play, and sing

by

Well as you already know, I enjoy the challenge that comes with playing some of John Mayer’s tunes. I love the chord progressions that he exposes us to. He also brings the high difficulty of playing guitar while making “Pop Music”. I honestly hope that other musicians, who make pop music, notice that the bar is raised VERY HIGH because of this man!

Anyways, Neon is the song that I find that is the toughest song to sing and play at the same time while USING FINGERS ONLY. I actually am still in the process of fine tuning this song, if truth be told. I can play and sing the song to the level of any hack can but if it ain’t perfect … well, I refuse to play it live. Nothing worst then people listening to you live at a venue and knowing by the look in their eyes that you are just another guy playing guitar. I must admit that I am very hard on myself but that’s the way I’ve always been. When I do master and play it live, this will be such a natural high that I will find it hard to contain myself.

The song that I’m trying to reproduce is a collage of many of his versions of this tune. I am working on the acoustic one first then playing the electric one will come easier, I hope! There are many little and subtle things that he does version to version that I want to incorporate into one version. In all honesty, I think that I am not that great at improvising solo’s at all. I fuck around but I am nowhere near the level that I really should be!

So below is a great version of Neon done live by JM and I want you to play this over and over again and please give me your input on the difficulty of both playing and singing this song live.

Gemini, the band that should have been …

by

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)

G-Force Media Productions

by

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

by

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!

by

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?

Meta

Archives

Pages

Tags

Acoustic amp band bands Brantford Bruce Cockburn Canada Canadian concert Entertainment fender funny General guitar Guitar Equipment guitarist guitar player guitars Home house Humor humour instrument jammin jazz John Mayer keyboard Live Music musician Musicians play playing Progressive Rock Pylis rock RUSH Songs to play sound strings Technology Toronto tour Video YES