Guitars, tips and great music discussions
I imagine that having an extra digit on your left hand must have it’s con’s, but the pro’s might just make it worth it!
Playing a 7 string guitar would come in quite handy with a hand configuration like this? When playing difficult chord progressions like the ones that Bruce Cockburn and John Mayer use, wouldn’t it be nice to have another finger just hanging around the old fret board?
Wow, keep on Jammin’
This little device looks like something that would be found in an old Frankenstein black and white movie or something out of the Hilarious house of Frightenstein.
The inventors name was Leon Theremin and the Theremin was built in 1918. Vladimir Lenin liked the instrument so much that he actually took lessons!
This instrument was made more main stream while Jimmy Page of Zed Zeppelin used it in the studio and on stage. He plays this instrument in Whole Lotta Love and No Quarter.
You don’t really have to touch it to make sounds, get that all of you out there that say they can’t play any instruments! This video will show you how so check it out ok, you know who you are!
Keep on Jammin’
I have been using my Fender Lead II as of late. I only have one guitar stand and I rotate the guitars that I put in it many times throughout the year.
I got this guitar off a exchange student from Japan around 1984-85. Oddly enough, this is a Student Guitar, meaning the body is smaller making it easier to play. He was a little low on funds and he wanted to know if I wanted to by it. At first I started to give him lessons and he was not that bad if memory serves me correctly.
While looking at my black Fender I started to wonder what year this baby was built so a Googling I will go!
This site was the one that I ended up at. You can normally determine the age of your guitar by the serial numbers. Mine is “E0 09736” so it’s made in 1980, that makes it 27 years old! If you have a Fender guitar just sitting around the house, go and get it and find out how old your is. Get back us on that one if you have one.
I just love the sound of the X-1 single coil pick ups on this one. You can raise the pick ups by turning the 2 screws at either end of the pick up clock wise. This adjustment brings the pick up closer to the strings thus you get a stronger signal.
There is a phase reversal switch that works when you are in the middle position or using both pick ups at the same time. This switch is really nice to have at your disposal.
I know I will try to get a picture of mine up here soon!It has 21 medium Jumbo frets with a 4 bolt neck piece. It has a “Soft V or C†profile neck, which means the part of the body which attaches to the neck section of the guitar. The neck itself is maple. The small headstock is a nice reminder of the past Fender guitars that were built between 1954-65. Oh, headstock is part where you tune the strings on the “head” of the guitar in case your unfamiliar with guitar terms.
The bridge, where you put the strings on the body of the guitar, is designed after a Fender Telecaster. Keith Richards plays this type of an axe.
As far as I know it was made at the Fender Fullerton California plant. It was also one of the last fender guitars to be made at this legendary location!
So hats off to my 27 year old gal and hope we’re together a lot longer!
Keep on Jammin’
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’
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?
Bare with me as I get this new blog started. I plan to talk about music, playing the guitar, and possibly provide some guitar tabs. If I can figure out what would be the best way to do it I might even give short guitar lessons on this blog.
If you just came across this site by chance and you are a musician or have an interest in learning more about music come back and visit in a few days.