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Total guitar pedal systems or individual guitar foot pedals

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I am getting to the point that I am contemplating either buying a dedicated/complete foot pedal system or just gathering individual ones to use together. As I’ve said before, I do not have an amp as of yet. I think that either plugging into my desktop to help me start in my development of a rough sound is a start in the right direction.

First there is a product that I am currently looking into buying. This company creates complete foot pedal systems called Line 6. This product came to my attention through a recording studio that I worked with for quite a while. They introduced me to the Line 6 Floor POD. It’s a great system when all you have to do is to go into a studio and just plug in through the main board or a snake cable. The type of sounds this produces is just mind boggling, but it’s impractical to use when playing live.

A close second is the Tonelab LE. I had the honor of playing with a Brantford musician Craig Peeler, at a birthday party in Paris, Ontario one night, and he was using this system. It looks both simple to use, but it has this hidden complexity that I will need while attempting to find THAT sound I am looking for. Both the LINE 6 and this one allows you to adjust the sound in them and then program them into the pre-set buttons for fast recall when using the system live or just practicing.

There are also endless products of single pedals that are designed specifically for one sound. The vintage Morley Power Wah/Fuzz/Volume pedal or any BOSS pedals and a wide range distortion pedal would be a good start.

I have ALWAYS been a firm believer that when you buy anything, you should get a product that is dedicated for one thing and one thing only! No bells and whistles please. This would be a slow and painful experience for me right now. It is the right way to go, but if CounterPoint comes to the conclusion that I am indeed worthy of playing with them, then I have to get my act in gear Chop, Chop!

So for all yo musicians out there, which way should I go!

Sing_cerly
Clearly confused in Canada!




How to play the pipe organ

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Rick Wakeman shows off his church pipe organ skills at Lincoln Cathedral.

Ever since I was a young boy and went to St. Basil’s church to attend mass there, I loved hearing the pipe organ that they had. The longest pipe is over 70 feet long and when you stood beside it and the organist pulled out all the stops, the sound that emulated from it was overpowering to say the least! This is where the origins of the phrase “Pulling out all the stops” comes from!

I don’t write too many posts on classical music, but I do want to show you another section of my love for this mostly forgotten form of music.

Check out the guy in the background who has the envious task of working the multiple stops on the organ. I don’t know about you, but I’d be very nervous about trying to help the God Father of Progressive Rock adjust his sound, while he is playing just inches away from you!

Keep on Jammin’

Don Kirshners Rock concert

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Don Kirshners’ Rock concert brought us the best that Rock & Roll had to offer. It was the best and most viewed music show on television during my youth … and we thank you for it Don, wherever you are these days. This music variety show premiered on September 29, 1973 and sadly ended on January 1, 1981.

I can vividly remember staying home and watching this show countless nights, seeing musical giants strutting the stage! My mind would wander, imagining myself performing with these greats. I thought about how in the hell, what did these guys do to make the guitar sound like that? Did they sell their souls to the devil for unearthly musical powers?

At the time, Don Kirshners Rock concert was a land that I wanted to go to and be part of some how, some way. I now realize that this show helped me to become hooked on guitar playing.

The shows that really were embedded in my mind were Black Sabbath, Frank MarinoPoco, Brownsville Station , Kool and the Gang (as a young guitar player, these guys were out of sight man!), and John Klemmer (I distinctly remember this being my first exposure to jazz guitar playing).

Here is just a PARTIAL list of the musical who’s who of Rock, that played on the show, as well as helped forge my R & R experience for years to come!

Bad Company, Badfinger, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Black Sabbath, Brownsville Station, Joan Baez, Pat Benatar, Black Oak Arkansas, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Blue Öyster Cult, David Bowie, The Byrds, Harry Chapin, Cheap Trick, Jim Croce, Devo (one of my favorites!), The Doobie Brothers, Eagles
Earth, Wind & Fire, Edgar Winter Group, Electric Light Orchestra, Fleetwood Mac, Foghat, Golden Earring, The Guess Who, The Hollies, James Gang (the guy who lived down the street played in this band, Domenic Triano), Billy Joel, Johnny Winter, Kansas, B.B. King, Kiss, Mahogany Rush, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Frank Marino, Don McLean, Ted Nugent, New York Dolls, Billy Preston, Prince & The Revolution, Ramones (the ultimate wedding band, imagine the version of the bird dance!), Lou Rawls
The Rolling Stones, Todd Rundgren, Rush (my home town band from Toronto), Santana, Seals and Crofts, Sly & the Family Stone, The Stampeders, (love these guys!), Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, UFO, Uriah Heep, War, Weather Report, and T.Rex. Holly shit batman, what a partial list that was!

I ask people at work if they remember anything about this show and most of the time I get these blank stares looking back at me. Is it just me, or was this show one of the greatest shows to watch as a kid?

God bless Don Kirshner, where ever you are!

Keep on Jammin’ Don

Guitar players finger nails

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If you look at the picking fingers of a guitar player, don’t be surprised if you see long finer nails. So the next time you see a guy with long finger nails on one hand only, ask him if he’s a guitar player before jumping to any conclusions, ok?

I am a guitar player who plays many different styles of music. From classical, folk to SOME country and blues. I use a pick for the most part, I use a pick in combination with my fingers and I also use straight forward finger nails.

When I started playing classical guitar seriously, my nails were great. I took gelatin capsules and some nail hardener that my aunt, and beauty salon owner, told me to use. Maybe when your young, you have stronger nails? Anyone aware of this stat?

So I don’t have fake nails on all the time. I tend to put them on only when I know I will need them to play live somewhere OR if I’m working on perfecting a piece of music that I am working on at that time. Your finger nails, like your skin, need to breath.

If you have them on all the time, it can do some serious damage to them. They will become brittle and break like crazy. Aesthetically, it can make your nails, and even you, look like your some kind of weird person who lives on the fringes of society. If your into that sort of look, then look no further.

When I have them off, I do a light buff and apply a nail moisturizer to them once in a while. I can’t stress this enough.

I’ve tried things like Ecrnal, Triple Strong Gel and even crazy glue. Bruce Cockburn uses crazy glue, but it just doesn’t work for me. I’ve talked to countless people and there seems to be no other solution out there for me. Does anyone out there have the magic bullet that I am searching for?

Keep on Jammin’

Journey Concert in Toronto

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This super group of the from late 1978 to the present, played in Toronto last night at the Molson Amphitheater. This also happens to be the band’s new lead singer’s, Arnel Pineda’s, birthday. I bet he put on a fabulous show this night!

I have been a fan of Journey for some time now. I remember figuring out how to play Don’t Stop Believing on the piano when I was attending St. John’s High School in Brantford and I played it all the time. The vocalist Steve Perry range was unforgettable and some of the guitar work was just so in your face.

I only regret that I did not get the opportunity to have played any of their songs with Pylis. Now that was tragic indeed. Anyway your want it, would have been the best fit in mind!

The former lead singer Jeff Scott Soto is replaced by Arnel Pineda. Arnel is from Quezon City in the Philippines. While looking for a replacement for Jeff, Guitarist Neal Schon, located Arnel on youtube singing many tunes with his band The Zoo. He got a hold of him through youtube and the rest is history.

This show also had Heart and Cheap Trick on the billing. This would of been one hell of a show to see, I wish that we could have been there for this one!

Keep on Jammin’

Aja from Steely Dan

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The name of the song/album from Steely Dan titled Aja, is from a Korean women.

I’m not sure if I told you all before but some of my earliest exposure to Jazz guitar influences was from this fabulous band, Steely Dan and I owe a lot to this band in terms of my playing style. This is a little bit of music trivia that I found out while viewing youtube searching for Jackie Blue from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

First of all, my wife and I were watching this new show called Swingtown (go tot he bottom right for music samples). It’s about these couples from the 70’s, who were swingers, in the Chicago area. The music for this series is top notch, in our eyes! So while viewing the show, this song from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils (viewed by some to be a country version of Steely Dan) entitled Jackie Blue was playing. This song, like most of the songs on this show, just blew me right back to the 70’s during my childhood.

I remember this song as a comforting song, regardless of it’s content. During this part of the show, I picked up my acoustic and tried figuring it out. I was leaning towards a unplugged version of it and I soon nailed it very promptly.

Never perfectly happy in how I play songs, always looking for multiple ways to it, I looked in youtube to see if there was someone else who plays it in an unplugged style with no luck. Then in the Related Video section I found a video called Steely Dan – “Aja” The Making Of:

It was an interview with Walter Becker and Donald Fagen talking about their album Aja. As a kid, I was always interested in who that was on the front cover of it, this is when I found out who it finally was!

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Donald Fagen said that a high school friends older brother brother had went off to Korea and married this women, and her name was Aja. The couple later on moved back to the US. Donald Fagen thought that it was a very romantic image with a feeling of tranquility that comes with the name. Now after writing this particular song, he put her name to it, neat eh? AND she is the one on the front cover!

Another musical mystery solved!

Keep on Jammin’ everybody

Max Webster coming off the moon

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Just in case you have not heard of these guys, here is a little ditty and my old band Pylis played way back in the day.

It has everything you want in a tune to play live! It’s fun, difficult to play and most of all IT’S A CANADIAN BAND!!!!!

Enjoy!

Keep on Jammin’
Max Webster R.I.P.


Is Disco really Back

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Well maybe it’s time to pull out the old sequined hot pants, 12-inch records, mirror balls and platform shoes from where ever you saw them last? Is Disco really back or is it just a pipe dream?

The record labels and the so-called people in the know and says it is back! Should we listen and be very afraid OR should we embrace this as a long lost, more then mis-understood cousin? I have mixed feelings.

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Ever since disco started up, I kept listening for some crazy guitarist to jump in and blow me away. but I was just left hanging … for quite a while! Being as nieve back then as I was, I sorta was looking for a different style to come out of no where to bring to my arsenal of techniques to use when I was playing with different bands. The Rolling Stones started to jump on this bandwagon with their disco version of “Miss You”, but they fell far too short of my expectations.

I realize that the point of music is to sooth the savage beast in all of us. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, or so they say. But the most important thing that we have to recognize and acknowledge about any genre of music that it has the proper end result, is someone actually enjoying it?

Way back in the day, (back when I got hit by a school bus, true story here kidz) I had a buddy of mine whose parents had more dollars then sense and they gave their kids basically anything they wanted. Now this is where it gets scary, disco was all the rage and my buddy asked his parents to get a dance floor like Saturday Night Fever and guess what … they did! This thing was 1/4 the size of the dance floor of the above mentioned movie with the lights under the floor, attached to this light organ thingy with 1000 watt speakers to boot! It was really impressive and yes, I did the line thing at least once or twice … I think?

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The matriarchs of disco and both crowned “Queen of Disco”, Donna Summers and Gloria Gaynor are both coming out with new disco music for June and I guess that will help get the ball, or should I say disco ball rolling!

So tell us if you are FOR or AGAINST the return of DISCO into our lives. Was once enough or is it something old is something new?

Keep on Jammin’

Ball Media Productions

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This is a company that is owned and run by an old guitarist buddy that I use to play with way back in the day. His name is John Ball and what a success story his is.

John and I always played together but not in the same band. We hung around the same circle of friends and musicians and to make a long story short, we had different playing styles that never really over lapped. He gravitated to the harder speed metal sort of arrangements while I was under a more Progressive Rock, Jazz and to a lesser extent Pop genre.

My sister and John were closer in age and they both were in the same grade at St. John’s College. Boy did both of them get themselves into a little bit of trouble as kids during those years! Then again, I was no angel either.

His company is called Ball Media Productions and he had his humble beginnings in our home town of Brantford, Ontario. He at first started his empire with a recording studio in the basement of a well known Brantford music studio called Music and Sound. Over the years he has branched of into different area’s as he sees fit.

Now his company has a jaw dropping amount of specialized services that can now compete with the big guys!

Ball Media includes Printing/Bindery, Packaging, Branding/Indentity, CD / DVD Replication, Graphic Design and Web/Multimedia plus video area’s of expertise. Take a look for yourself and if you do need his services for anything no matter how small, just tell him “Stickman” sent you!

I wish him well with all of his company’s future endeavors but I know that he doesn’t need it!

Keep on Jammin’ Johnnie!

It’s Rocket Robin Hood

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I decided to wake up this Saturday morning very early and the TV was on. What I saw on the old idiot box, that’s what my dad called it, was Rocket Robin Hood of the 30th century.

As a kid growing up, the Saturday morning cartoons were part of the weekend routine and good old Robin, Little John and Friar Tuck were right there in the middle! The sound of the intro called In Troubled Times or the Countdown brought chills up and down my spine.

I was watching The Incredible Gem of Cosmo Khan. Seeing the name Cosmo brought to mind a inter-galactic Kramer with rag tag army of bad guys, if only he did the voice over it would have been my favorite episode!

Kramer, I mean Cosmo Khan was shrunk the tiny planet of Thor, on the outskirts of the galaxy, and held it for ransom until the U.S.S. (United Solar Systems) make Khan the Supreme War Lord of the universe! So now the U.S.S. had to ask Robin to join in their fight for the little planet. One thing though, Robin is a outlaw himself. Ok, they grant him amnesty and all is forgiven.

So the U.S.S. give the boys a ship and they take off immediately to Kramer’s, for some reason I can’t get him out of my head, Khan’s asteroid planet of Xanador to try and stop him. The ship is a bird and while descending to the planet some red neck hunters shot them down, wait there’s more!

After using their gravity boots to land safely, they finally reach Khans castle. They enter by digging under the wall using their disintegrating rays. Ok, their in.

They now must swim in the moot and get into the castle proper. Now inside, Khan is having lunch while admiring the shrunken planet of Thor on his galactic side table that has a magnetic field around it but for some reason it doesn’t work covering the top.

Now Khan is a little sleepy after his umpteenth home made solar chardonnay and finally passes out! Robin notices this flaw in the protective shield and jumps up on a ceiling beam with little John and they do some fishing, well that’s what they said. They got it, until Little John screamed out We got it and woke up Khan and he called his thugs.

Ah, it’s a two parter, can you believe it! Now I have to wake up next Saturday morning to see the Escape from Xanador episode!

Well I hope that I brought you all back to your Saturday morning cartoon memories, I know Robin did.

Keep on Jammin’ Rocket Robin Hood

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