Guitars, tips and great music discussions
by Chris
Hey Gang … my wife, Tricia, writes for a blogging network. It’s called 451press and they are looking for some new writers to take over existing blogs. Check out my wifes page to see the list of blogs that they need writers for – there’s a huge variety of topics to write about, so I’m thinking that some of you might be interested.
Oh yeah, you can make some money by be a 451press writer too. Check it out.
Keep on Jammin’
by Chris
“We’ve just lost the nicest guy in rock & roll.†This says it all.
On Friday March 9, 2007, in southern New Hampshire around 1:20 P.M., the world not only lost the nicest guy in R & R but the greatest “Arena Rock” vocalist ever in my eyes. Mr. Brad Delp sadly took his own life at his home. He was 55 years of age. I honestly wish I was there trying desperately to talk him out of it. This man’s vocals really helped me turn into a guitar player who was trying find a direction to go towards. He will truly be missed by millions of people.
The Boston Fan site is just full of memorials that really hit home.
These guys summed up to me what it is to be the average guy’s stadium-rockers. I had hoped to have seen the rock legions this summer when they went on tour, for the first time in a long time. Wow, what a blast we would of had.
Just let your imagination run totally wild for a second. Imagine playing this tune with the band live while being the first guitar player! I do this every time I’m driving alone on the highway. When this tune comes up, I wish I had # 11 on our volume control in the car!
Mr. Brad Delp, I hope that you have found your peace. May God have mercy on your soul and may your soul rest in peace.
by Chris
Today was like any day, at work in the O.R. recovery room. People coming in to be taken care of and then leaving when they are ready to go to either their in-patient room or to go to the final recovery room, then home.
Last weekend we were at my mother’s birthday dinner treating her to her favorite Chinese restaurant. During the meal I had developed a crack on the fingernail on my middle finger on my left hand. As you know I use my finger nails to play with most of the time and this is a big thing to have happen to a guitarist like myself.
I tried to repair it with a product called Ecrinal. This product is partially made of horse hair resins. This product is suppose to be one of the best on the market but doesn’t work well on my plain finger nails. I could have used crazy glue to repair it but I didn’t have any at the time. Note: medical crazy glue is used on some cuts to close them up in hospitals all over the world.
In my case if I had some crazy glue on me at the time, the glue more then likely would have traveled onto the top portion of the fingernail where the nail meets the skin, at the cuticle. If this happened, the nail will still grow out and the glue would hold the skin and nail together at that point, ahhhhh! It would not allow the nail to grow freely away for the skin, I’ve done it before without knowing what was going on!
So today, while transporting a patient to his room, he was very aggressive and we tried to get him to settle down so he would not rip out any of his I.V. lines. During this, I bent back my nail and it cracked to the point where I had to gingerly remove it from my finger.
I started to do so very carefully, only after the transport had been complete. I wasn’t sure if the nail was completely broken off from the rest of the healthy nail, which is still strong and attached to the other part of my finger.
As I was removing the damaged part at the end of my finger, I thought that it would be quite painful but to my surprise and relief, it came off rather nicely.
So now for the big question, do I get new nails or take the rest off and give the old nails underneath (the fake ones), time to breath? If you are not aware, if you keep fake acrylic nails on your fingers all the time, you run the risk of having very unhealthy looking nails later on in life? Bet you did not know that. Well there you go, you learned something new today!
Keep on Jammin’
by Chris
This unit is a vintage pedal to be used with guitar and keyboards. The effects with this pedal is just awesome! It works like a dream when I play Spirit of Radio, Lime Light or Red Barchetta. It phases in and out with mind blowing effects.
If you are a keyboard player, you might want to take a very close looks at this pedal. It can give you a sound similar Leslie Amplifier. The closest to it that is out there. Many other accomplished keyboardist have similar views.
When I was jamming with Tony F., the best keyboardist I’ve ever had the honour to play with live, he wanted to give my pedal a try. To our amazement, it was the best sound that we had ever heard. Tony had the foresight and ear to know that a Leslie Amp. is the best thing going for the serious keyboardist. So he actively was searching for a pedal to give him that desired effect. Little did he know, he had the answer that he was looking for all the time, literally right in front of him!
If you are not aware, Leslie Speakers/Cabinets are speakers inside the cabinet that rotate, yes rotate to give you that natural whirling sound. They are those big wooden boxes that you see in church choir lofts. This will make you think twice when looking up at the band upstairs thinking that there are no undiscovered secrets in a church!
When the old band got together for a re-union show a couple of years ago, Tony told me that he still had that old pedal and that it still had the box and manual with it. It’s really nice to know that there are still very decent people roaming around the planet like him, a real throw back to gentler days.
On this Boss Flanger site you can hear the sound that you get from it. Check it out you vintage sound seekers. It also has a great picture at the bottom of the page.
by Chris
This is the pedal that I lost some time ago to an old boss and friend at a company called Mr Case in Toronto. He used it many years ago when he was gigging and I wasn’t. The band always practiced in their warehouse and one night it was broken into and yep you guessed it, off it went.
I loved this thing for one reason and one reason only, the sound that I got when I used it for La Villa Strangiato, from Hemispheres, 1978.
This is the part when they start playing. He uses the Morley Wah pedal to get that great Gothic church organ effect.
I used to sit and try this effect for hours on end at home. With my old Boss Chorus, Boss Flanger and Morley pedal, running through the HIWATT it sounded just like a church organ.
For a pedal that I used for only one thing, it worked flawlessly! The way that the sound slowly just crept out of the amp. … It still gives me goose bumps just thinking of it.
The Fuss effect part of the pedal I never really explored, too bad ’cause it may have had some use at some point when I was playing a lot.
It was big, scary and cumbersome looking but I still miss it! RIP, Mr. Morley, wherever you’re playing.
Keep on Jammin’
by Chris
Journey is a band that I really respect. The vocals are so powerful. The guitar is just cutting through the air and the keyboards bring both together like nothing that I can describe. I remember when this song came out, I pretended to be sick so I could stay at home and figure it out on piano.
To this day I still love playing this song, but I honestly wish I had vocals like these guys to pull it off just right!
Keep on Jammin’
by Chris
Well this past Saturday was my mother’s birthday and my wife and I were going to take her out to dinner with my younger sister and family. While in Brantford, I thought that I could hook up with my old buddy Steve B., the ex-bass player (turned guitar solo artist) and get some tracks down for a song that he is currently recording. As luck would have it, both my wife and Steve were sick.
So I went down the street of my parents home to the scene of the crime for New Years 2007 at the May’s! I had to go out and pick up my Mom’s cake at a local bakery and when returning home I decided to just drive down the old street for fun. That’s when I saw Mr. M. walking into his house. So I went in and had a couple of beers and then my favorite brother-in-law Stevie H. had to come and rescue me from certain inebriation.
So after that we all went out for dinner and had a great time.
While driving home to Toronto I started to get a headache. I’m not prone to these things so I thought it would just pass, boy was I wrong.
I felt like someone was drilling into my head at the temples. I thought about pulling over and getting a hotel room and get better. When I got home I just lay on the couch and placed a heating pad on my head. Finally after 1/2 an hour I went to bed. I got up the next day and it was still there. The afternoon and evening was a bit better but wow, what a headache. Today, Monday, is better but I feel it coming and going again!
Trish, my angel of mercy, told me that it could be a virus, sinus problem or maybe there was some MSG in the food we ate at the Chinese restaurant. Don’t know what it is, but I wish that I could tag someone and it would be their turn to be it! I really don’t mean that, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.
Keep on Jammin’ (but very quietly)
by Chris
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’
by Chris
So, get in touch with Elek and find out if he wants to show up ok dude? This Saturday is fine with us.
Love ya LIVE BUDDY!
Stick
by Chris
Well I had the honour of stumbling into the house of Bob & Laurie May this year, with my brother Tim, his son Brian and some of the members of Gemini. We were only going to stay for a while but when the guitar came out and other guitar players and harmonica players showed up, the guitar gods said that, this is our destination! We honestly wanted to wish them the best in the new year but our gracious hosts made it impossible to leave. Real salt of the earth people, if there were more Bob and Laurie’s in the world we would not have wars!
Bob is the type of guitar player who, like most of us, underestimates his abilities on the axe! He is a basic, no nonsense kind of player. When we got our our destination, we were thinking of going to a private party with lawyers and politicians (honestly we were), but thank God we found the Mays! Their home is literally a hop, skip and a stagger from my parents home that we were staying/passing out this night.
When we arrived, we were greeted by the May’s in true Brantford fashion, having a beer and a shot before our ass’s hit the chair. I had brought my Larrivee with me to show Bob because he had not seen/heard it yet. After burning one, I had told him that I had been working on this piece from John Mayer called neon and asked if he wanted to hear it, either that or I had just informed him of this difficult tune that I wanted to play for him just trying to hold back all of my enthusiasm, I can’t remember? He was the first guitar player to hear me attempt to do justice to this song.
After that, all hell broke lose and people started to pile into their house. We went on down to the basement of “Franken Wine” (long drunkin’ story best told when sober) to just jam and a jammin’ we would go. Steve, John, Bob and the guy that I called “the guy with the black cowboy hat” (i still can’t remember his name) started to play songs and it was truly a night for some fun!
Thanx Bob and Laurie for the blast we had that night.
Cheers, to the nicest people on the planet!!!