At The Movies With Guitardedblog.com: It Might Get Loud (2008)

Guitardedblog.com Goes to the Movies

It Might Get Loud

(2008)

Jack White making an electric guitar out of a Coke Bottle

  Put Jimmy Page, Jack White and U2's The Edge together in the same room give them guitars, then turn the cameras on and what do you have? In my case, you have a movie that will immediately put your wife to sleep. However, this will be a good thing. After that happpens, you will be free of distractions as this film will cause you to re-think you're entire approach to guitar playing.

    It Might Get Loud brings together three generations of rock guitarists from vastly different backgrounds to share how their personal histories and influences shaped their approach to guitar playing.

   You have Jimmy Page, the original guitar god, whose legendary past with Led Zeppelin simply blurs the line between history and myth. When you think of Jimmy Page and the guitar, you think of not only that raw, powerful, heavy sound, and larger than life riffs but also versatility and diversity rarely ever seen since in rock music. His body of work covers a range of different styles and influences including, blues, rock, folk, country and even indian/eastern influences. While he has been criticized as a sloppy player at times (a trait he has admitted himself as well) his solo's still remain among the tastiest, ballsiest, and most melodic ever heard in rock music. In todays world of what, in my opinion, is a musical landscape devoid of any real rock bands, or rock stars, Jimmy Page represents all that rock music once was, and what it will hopefully get back to one day.

Let's have a laugh at The Edge's Expense

 

  Now I've never been a fan of The Edge and I have nothing positive to say about Ireland's sacred cow, U2. The nuns in my catholic schoool liked U2, and when you can count catholic nuns in your fan base then you have simply failed to rock. And yeah I know Bono is a humanitarian, and I don't care. Frankly, I find the band is no longer relevant in rock/pop music and what they produce nowadays is nothing more than adult contemporary garbage. As a guitarist, The Edge relies too heavy on effects. I'm the last person that says technique is more important than originality. It's like saying just because you can type over 100wpm means you're automatically going to write a bestselling novel. Of course thats ridiculous. However, when you're guitar style consists of simply adding a ninth to a chord and playing the same note over and over through heavy delay and other effects, it is neither technical nor original. I learned nothing from The Edge's appearance in the film other than if you have enough money you can buy your way into a guitar career.  Confused?...

   So I'm not saying that The Edge sucks because he is not a guitar virtuoso and because he overuses effects. I'm telling you that The Edge sucks because his musical ideas are childish, boring, bland, uninspiring AND he also happens to overuse effects. People like Hendrix, Page and even David Gilmour use alot of effects at times, but they are not hiding behind the effects. There is complexity and genius underlying the effects. Their music can still stand on its own without all the effects. However, as far as this film's attempt to show what not to do, I couldn't think of a better spokesperson than The Edge. 

Technology is a big destroyer of emotion and truth.Auto-tuning doesn’t do anything for creativity. Yeah, it makes it easier and you can get home sooner; but it doesn’t make you a more creative person. That’s the disease we have to fight in any creative field: ease of use.”   - Jack White

   Each guitarist is there for a reason and they all bring something unique. With Jimmy Page it's all about the history, the legend, and pure raw talent and power. The Edge seems to create music much like a scientist would in a lab. Surrounded by technology and devoid of any real inspiration. Jack White's attitude to guitar and creativity and music in general was a breath of fresh air. His low-tech approach to music was the most memorable part of the film for me. While The Edge seems keen to just hide behind a wall of expensive effects, the fact that Jack White's main guitar since The White Stripes is a plastic Montgomery Wards guitar, makes his achievements in music just all that more impressive.

  Waching him make everything sound awesome from a hollow plastic guitar, to a dusty old out of tune piano, to a guitar made out of a soda bottle and string, really caused me to take a good long look at myself, to re-evaluate my entire approach to guitar playing and to question just what my priorities in music really are.

  Link Wray. If you're not familiar with that name, you will be by the end of this movie. To see someone who is a pretty private person and who has such a prolific musical resume, like Jimmy Page has, still get excited like a kid, listening to records is a real testament to just how powerful an instrument the guitar is. You know you are a badass when Jimmy Page is playing air guitar to your records!

 When you watch how Jack White and The Edge are just as excited as you are that Jimmy Page himself is actually showing you how to play Whole Lotta Love, you can't help but connect with that.

  So If you are a guitar geek, this film will give you more than your share of Holy Sh*t moments. In my opinion if this doesn't cause any guitarist or musician for that matter, to re-examine what their approach to music is all about then there is something wrong with you. Yes, thats right, the mentally unstable, unemployable guy is calling YOU out. If you're only an occasional guitar player or just haven't picked up a guitar in a while, you won't be for long, after watching this.

Ok Bye.

    

Making A Living in Music and Why I Won't Dot It: An Underachievers Story

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I. Making a Living In Music

Becoming a rich and famous musician requires many factors such as, talent* (though that one is questionable) looks, charisma, connections, luck, timing and certain other intangible factors that you can't control. Example: I would propose to you that one of the main reasons The Beatles happened when they did was because of the post WWII baby boom. There were more teenagers in the early 1960's then at any other time in history. Those little transistor radios were just coming into existance as well so radio stations could reach more people than ever before. The timing was right for them, the world was ready for The Beatles. You can't control that kind of stuff.

It's the exception to the rule. The chances at achieving that kind of success are astronomical. Even if you just write one hit song, or simply achieve some sort of moderate national, regional, or local success is a longshot at best. The idea of the starving band of brothers, braving the perils of the road has been romanticized in the minds of young struggling musicians. Take the following quote from Henry Rollins from the program, "Seven Ages of Rock."

Touring bands in a van, get by. And what do you get in return? 300 sweaty, adoring fans a night, and your freedom, your musical freedom. And maybe you missed some meals, or the cops came and shut your show down. But man, you weren't flipping burgers, you weren't filling Slurpees, and there was something to be said for that.

I can tell you that as a teenager the idea of roughing it on the road like that sounded the greatest life you could ever imagine. If it was a choice between, school or my parents house I'd much rather be starving on the road. But how much fun is it when you're almost 40 and still broke and starving and instead of trying to achieve stardom, you're simply trying to make enough money to survive?

Watch the movie Crazy Heart that came out a couple years ago. I'm not a fan of country music and I never actually finished watching the movie, but the begining of the movie shows Jeff Bridges as a washed up, musician, just trying to get by. It's a wakeup call for those who think it's gonna be so easy to make it big, and how cool it must be to live on the road. Watch the movie, odds are that's whats waiting to you.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone, but I do want to be honest about the realities of pursuing a career in music. If my children told me they wanted to pursue music full time and hit the road, I would never discourage them. I would much rather they look back one day, content that at least they tried than look back wondering what if? Nobody's last thought on their deathbed should ever be, "What if my entire life had been a mistake?" But I would make sure they knew just how hard its going to be. Anything worthwhile in life is usually not going to come easy.

Those stories we used to hear about, when the unknown little garage band gets discovered at their first big show, gets a record deal that night and becomes an overnight sensation is not real life. The fact is most bands make it big today because they have the financial backing behind them that allows them to live like musicians and devote all their time to developing their craft, while their professional representation solicits their material. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but as a rule of thumb, you can't just walk into the lobby of a record company expecting to drop off your demo. Odds are it won't even be listened to. They don't accept unsolicited material for fear of being sued.

Even for one of my favorite groups The Beatles, success didn't happen overnight. They probably played at least a thousand gigs before anyone ever heard of them. They spend months in Hamburg playing all night, every night. They slept in a storeroom behind the screen of a movie cinema next to to the bathrooms where they had to use the water in the urinals to wash and shave.

II. Why I Won't Do It

So I've always been wary about pursuing music professionally. Especially since I've have a hard time keeping a normal job, the thought of being self employed, and doing something I love is naturally enticing, but if I had to rely on playing guitar to pay the bills, would I still enjoy doing it?

If I made my hobby the very thing I'm relying on to live, then I'm turning an enjoyable pastime into the very source of stress and anxiety in my life. I play guitar to get away from the stress of work, and finances. I find playing so satisfying because it's an escape from all the bad stuff in life. i love the portability and freedom of just having my acoustic guitar that I can take with me anywhere and just start playing. Trying to make a living at music I might spend just as much if not more time, acquiring equipment, acquiring other musicians, transporting, loading and unloading gear, promoting, and selling, and traveling, then actually just playing the guitar, which is all I've ever wanted to do anyways, even if there's nobody around to hear it. Regardless of whether I make a dime doing it or not. All that other stuff is just a distraction to me and frankly not enjoyable.

What dop you do when the thing that you usually escape to is the very thing you're escaping from? Did that make sense? Because it makes sense in my mind but looking at this sentence on the screen it just looks weird...Anyways, thats probably why there are so many overdoses and other self destructive behaviors in music. Partying hard after the show is one thing, its a social activity and people are trying to have fun, but when that turns into systematically killing yourself with drugs and alcohol, and the minute you get to the next city, you're looking for the ghetto so you can immediately score, that is no longer trying to have fun. That is the behavior of someone who is miserable and hates themselves and is slowly committing suicide. What happened I thought rock n roll is supposed to be fun?

Sometimes people don't understand and will literally harass me and give me a hard time about the fact that I'm perfectly content and insistent on keeping guitar as a passionate hobby rather than some sort of job, that I must be successfull at.

How come you're not in a band? you're good enough...

What a waste of your abilities...

You should at least go try an open mic night somewhere...

You don't have to make a living at it, you can just do it for fun...

The thing is though, I ALREADY DO IT FOR FUN! for me just the very act of performing in public puts the focus on "The Band" as an entity, and takes the focus away from the literal act of actually playing the guitar.

Sure playing in front of people can be enjoyable, but playing to no audience is also just as enjoyable for me. I have no desire to impress anyone. I just don't see why I should have to go through the trouble of spending entire day traveling and loading an unloading gear, and fighting with some douchebag club owner because we're not getting paid enough and a dozen other hassles just to have that hour of two of enjoyable playing. I can already do that now and enjoy it without having to waste an entire day with all that other crap first.

I'm not saying never. Never Say Never, just like the James Bond Movie. If the right situation and the right people came together, I would be up for it as long as I was enjoying myself and it wasn't too serious. But if it never happens thats fine too. Thats not why I play. It's weird how people can get so confused and hostile towards me when they ask me why I don't perform publicly.

Because I'm happy playing guitar. It brings me contentment regardless of whether anyone is listening or not. It's the only thing I've ever been good at in my life. It's the only activity that is really fun for me. I would never put the one thing in life that brings me joy in life, in a position where there may be even a chance that it may not be fun any longer. I don't know if I could keep going if that ever happened. So why don't you go be in a friggin band? You're the one who keeps talking about it!

Now leave me alone.

Play With Your Fucking Heart!!!

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Guitardedblog.com Presents

The Esoteric Song of the Week

Watch me struggle to keep my shit together long enough to make this stupid video. I'm really sure what I was trying to do here except prove to the world, I own a guitar, I have moderate to average playing ability, I have the technology to... record myself playing guitar, I like Pink Floyd, I have a bad habit of completely loosing my train of thought mid-sentence, I probably have no business even messing around with my stupid bog and should probably have internet access taken away from me, and quite possibly consider institutionalization, haha, literally nobody is reading this.

Guitardedblog.com Presents: Bands You May Not Know - But Will.

White Minorities

on

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  Not that I know that many up and coming local bands but from time to time I do want to share with whoever is reading this (besides me, I still have no followers yet), all the good music that all my friends out there are doing.  And we're gonna start with my buddies from Sacramento CA, the White Minorities. But first for those of you not familiar with Sacramento, I really gotta explain a little bit about the city of Sacramento, where these guys come from.

   In my experience living in Sacramento the city is extremely laid back, and culturally and musically diverse.  It's like the city experiences a kind of 'cultural contact high'  from being just close enough to the Bay Area, and the rest of Northern California.
  Just some of the artists to come from this area include everyone from Lee Greenwood, and Club Nouveau to Tesla, Cake, Papa Roach and The Deftones, to The Cramps. See I told you, there's all sorts of crap going on over there, and I haven't even brought up all the damn Star Trek bands.

  The White Minorities sound is hardcore, its raw, it's metal, and if the venues they play at had a swear jar, there would be enough in it after their set to buy the entire crowd a round of drinks , yet its also hip, rhythmic, and funky. It reflects the diversity of the city they live in. The first time I heard these guys, their sound reminded me of Limp Bizkit, meets System of a Down, meets Suicidal Tendencies. The website lo-cal.com calls their sound, Hardcore/Psychedelic/Rap, which I think misses the point. The band calls their sound Ghetto Metal.
  And in case you're wondering, if you ever go to one of their shows, you won't find yourself standing out alone amongst a sea of Neo-Nazis, or figures in white hoods burning crosses on stage. The band name does not imply any racist, or White Supremacist undertones at all. In my opinion, and I'm sure they will let me know if I'm wrong about this, but the name is kind of a protest against political incorrectness, or like I always say, Joke you if you can't take a f*ck!
  What I like most about the White Minorities is that their shows are entertaining, the music just rocks, there's always good looking girls at their shows (not that they ever talk to me or anything. but thats cool cuz tho cuz I wouldn't know what to say to them anyways so I just sit there and stare at boobs all night) and although I'm afraid I might ruin their street cred or something if I say this, but they are, personally, just a fun, and cool bunch of people to be around.

...They also never said anything to me about the fact that here in Arizona before I got married, I used to get girls with their cd by pretending I used to be in the band, "but left to pursue a solo career." Thats how cool the White Minorities are, I have no social skills (unless I'm drinking), have, ADD/OCD/Aspergers, have to take a steady diet of anti-depressants and anti-psychotic meds just to keep myself somewhat sane, and their music can even get me girls! Now I'm not saying it was like fishing for dynamite, but it did work once or twice...ok definitely once, and almost twice, but for me thats really good. Thanks White Minorities, you are all my out of state wingmen.

But not right now because I'm married.

Ok I'm gonna shut up now and just let you hear it for themselves

White Minorities are:

Kyle Landsberger / Guitar, Vocals
Brett Davis / Lead Guitar
T-BoNe Jones / Bass Guitar
Jeremiah Landsberger / Drums / Vocals

Links

White Minorities on Youtube  Here

White Minorities on Facebook Here
White Minorities on Reverbnation Here

The Attention Deficit Disorder Song

Celebrity Guitar Lesson: Zakk Wylde

Guitardedblog.com's Weekly Feature:

Celebrity Guitar Lesson

Dammit, Jim! I'm a guitar player, not a...

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If you can actually play, its very hard not to copy other things that you hear. But we couldn't copy anything because we couldn't [play] - Roger Waters

  I've been playing guitar almost 30 years now, but I've always had problems composing original material.

 I used to overthink things and believed that I needed to study everything about music, and theory, and deciphering sheet music before I could be qualified to write a song.

  William Mann who was a critic for The Times [London] wrote the following about The Beatles:

one gets the impression they think simultaneously of harmony and melody, so firmly are the major tonic sevenths and ninths built into their tunes and the flat submediant key switches so natural in the Aeolian Cadence...

     John Lennon was reported to have said, Aeolian, cadence? sounds like a type of bird.

  I was a child of the 70's & 80's. I grew up in era of Heavy Metal, and people like Eddie Van Halen, and Yngwie Malmsteen (who I met once but thats another story), who are technical geniuses. Everything I grew up hearing taught me that if you can't play at a 100mph then you are not a worth a damn as a guitar player.

 My musical heroes include people like John Lennon, Syd Barrett, Kurt Cobain just to name a few. If there's one these people have shown me is that Creativity and Originality are also important too, and you don't HAVE to be a technical genius to be a successful musician. I never wanted to be one of those flashy, technical dudes other than to just fit in with all the other musicians I knew. Fact is I can't play that fast, nor do I want to. Hell I can't even THINK in notes that fast, much less play them.

 

 Ok so you don't have to be a musical theory genius and a technical wizzard to be a songwriter in modern music. My next idea had to do with inspiration and God. My thinking was that some people are just born or destined for greatness or have been born with this "personal hotline to God/The Universe" and either you have that or you don't.

  Afterall, Paul McCartney wrote Yesterday from a dream he'd had. Keith Richards wrote the riff from Satisfaction after waking up from a dream he had as well. Iggy Pop has talked about how if he can't get a song completed in under 10 minutes then it just gets thrown out.

  And yeah I know what some of you might say, that yeah his music sounds like it was written in under 10 minutes, but hey man, some of those old guitar riffs are heavy as hell, and Lust For Life? thats just one of those tunes you just can't get out of your head.

 And Mozart, being a technical genius, wrote the following to a friend once about how easily musical ideas came into his head:

     When I feel well and in a good humor, or when I am taking a drive or walking after a good meal, or in the night when I cannot sleep, thoughts crowd into my mind as easily as you could wish. Whence and how do they come? I do not know, and I have nothing to do with it. Those that please me I keep in my head and hum them.

 Inspiration is a funny thing. You only have it when you're not expecting it, and if you look for it, you'll never find it.  I've come up with a couple descent guitar riffs of my own. Everything I do is acoustic, and my style, if you could call it that I like to describe as "Pink Floyd Floyd on Heroin."

  The couple descent guitar riffs I've come up with on my own always happened by accident. Whenever I sit with the guitar with the attitude of, "ok I will now create a cool riff around which I will write an awesome song." it never happens. The only cool original things I've done, have always happened when I'm just playing in the moment and my mind is clear of objectives or goals or ideas. And there's something about the nightime too. Its weird but I could never play or write anything original during the daytime.

So what have we learned today?

•  You don't need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of music to write music.
•  You don't need to be a technical wizzard to be an awesome guitar player than songwriter.
•  For a lot of people (myself included) originality is much more important than technical ability
•  Inspiration is wonderful and special but ultimately not required. What's the proof? There are thousands upon thousands of awesome rock songs but only one Yesterday. Just because you didn't write it in some awesome dream, doesn't mean it can't be cool.
• The truth is, songwriting is a craft, and like any other craft its something that requires time, and hard work to master.

I always wanted to write, but I always figured it'd be no good unless somehow the hand just took the pen and started moving without me really having anything to do with it. Like automatic writing. But it just never happened. - Jim Morrison

 Yeah Mozart was a genius composing Symphonies at age five, but he didn't compose anything good until he was sixteen and had been playing his entire life.  Thomas Edison said genius was 1%  inspiration and 99% perspiration. Yeah Paul McCartney was 23 years old when he wrote Yesterday in his sleep, but he been writing songs since age 13. 10 years of practice and hard work set the foundation for Yesterday. In fact all The Beatles were all seasoned professional musicians that played thousands of gigs before anyone ever heard of them.

  So the reason I've never been able to really write any of my own material is mainly because I never actually worked at it. Kind of like Jim Morrison's quote, I thought if just didn't automatically happen there was no point in trying.
  Sometimes I also think that I maybe learned too much early on. My teens were spent learning theory, practicing flashy techniques that I didn't really want to be doing anyways and learning classical guitar. Like Roger Waters said at the start of this thing, sometimes I think that if I wasn't so concerned with sounding like how I thought I should sound so people will like me, that it would've forced me by default to be more original since I would've lacked the technical ability to simply mimick what I was hearing around me. There is some precedent to back up that statement. George Martin the legendary producer of The Beatles, once said of Paul McCartney:

I have often been asked if I could've written any of The Beatles tunes, and the answer is definitely no; for one basic reason, I didn't have their simple approach to music. I think that if Paul, for instance, had learned music 'properly' - not just the piano, but correct notation for writing and reading music, all the harmony and counterpoint that I had to go through, and the techniques of orchestration - it might well have inhibited him...once you start being taught things, your mind is channeled in a particular way. Paul didn't have that channeling, so he had freedom, and could think of things that I would've considered outrageous.

  And there's another thing too. I just don't have a driving urge to be creative. Sure I could practice and learn how to write a descent song, but I just like to play. I don't have a need to express myself musically the way someone like John Lennon has that driving creative urge. I don't have that burning in my soul that all my musical/artistic heroes all had. John Lennon had something to say, I don't have anything to say. I just wanna play the damn guitar.
 
  I'm just not a songwriter, I'm a guitar player, plain and simple. The only times I've ever felt like writing something original have been situations where I'm trying to impress a girl, or the real rare occassion that I meet another musician that I get along good with and we collaborate.
  I do very well with a songwriting partner. When it comes to playing or writing with others I've always favored people I get along with and am comfortable around and shares my same views on music and art  versus some dude who just has a good rep a singer or guitarist. I'm descent at coming with an intro or a riff, but not so good when it comes to melody and song structure. If I run into anybody I can collaborate with so that I can focus on my strenghts then I'm all down for trying to be creative.
  If not thats cool too because hey, I'm just the guitar player.

Why the Snark Tuner Rules

Guitardedblog.com

 Now I'm not the world's greatest guitarist, I'm just some dude who struggles to stay mentally sane and playing the guitar is the only thing in the world I enjoy doing, and I'm aware I probably don't even play that well, but the one thing I hate is when I either see someone play live or on Youtube or something and they're out of tune.

  When I was a kid just starting to learn seriously around '86-'87, the only way I was able to tune my guitar was either to tune to the music I was listening to on cassette, tune to the piano at school or tune to whatever friend of yours sounded the most in tune. That way you might still be out of tune but at least you're all in tune together.

  I'm not the smartest person in the world either, and I never figured out pitch pipes or tuning forks, I could never afford the plug in electronic tuners, and honestly I was always hit or miss with the whole fifth fret tuning method. It all depended on the low E. If I was by myself I had no way to tell if that was in tune so whatever I decided was "in tune" for the Low E, the other strings would be tuned accordingly.

  I was always out of tune for various reasons, having electric strings on my acoustic guitar because I couldn't afford an electric and I really wanted to rock out. No one ever taught me how to properly put strings on the guitar either, which meant whenever I was in tune it wouldn't be for very long.

  I'm a halfway descent player after almost 30 years but, I don't have what you would call, "manual dexterity." I'm not mechanically inclined, not good at working with my hands, am physically clumsy and I can f*ck up a cup of coffee. I am aware of how to properly put strings on the guitar "in theory" but I still can't get it right. Luckily for me my local music store just charges me an extra five bucks to put my strings on whenever I buy them. I'm more than willing to pay an extra five bucks for the convenience.

  I've noticed alot of people, especially professionals take what I (no offense intended) call a kind of "gearhead mentality" to their guitars, kind of like they would their cars. You all know that one guy in your neighborhood who spends all weekend in the garage working on their car. That seems to be a whole other discipline in the world of guitar playing, that I never learned. Thats cool if you're into that, you're the guys I take my stuff to, when I need work done. I guess my guitar is like my car. I just drive my car, I don't need to know every nut and bolt. I turn the key it starts. I pick up the guitar and strum and it plays. Thats all I need to know.

Ok so back to guitar tuners...

  The Snark is less than 30 bucks and its easy as hell to use. Just clip it on the headstock, make sure its on there good, there's only one button on it, press it and now its on and thats pretty much it. 

Told you it was easy!

The David Gilmour Power Hour

Guitardedblog.com

 David Gilmour is my favorite guitar player. Look the video clip above. He is the owner of the original Fender Stratocaster Serial# 00001! Now, just because I'm saying that doesn't mean I'm implying that there are no other talented guitarists out there. There are a ton of talented guitar players of different styles and abilities. David Gilmour's style, technique, and sound just appeals to me the most.

 I grew up playing guitar during the age of 80's metal when it seemed you couldn't even call yourself a guitar player unless you could play 100+/mph. The most important lesson I learned from David Gilmours work with Pink Floyd and his solo stuff is that you don't have to be some flashy speed demon to be a bad ass guitar player. He may not be the flashiest, or fastest player around but to me he's definitely the most tasteful, player around.

My Best of David Gilmour List

1. Comfortably Numb - Second Solo, from Pulse: This piece speaks for itself, its ridiculous how awesome this solo is. I saw them play on this tour, hearing it live was a life changing moment for me.



2. Dogs - From Animals : Alot of people don't like Animals, but its probably my favorite Floyd Album. Even David Gilmour isn't too fond of it apparently. Although when they did go on the Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour they rehearsed and nearly included "Sheep" on their set but Gilmour decided against it at the last moment because he felt he couldn't do Roger Waters vocals justice. Personally, I love this album, and Dogs, is definitely a guitar players song.

3. Echoes - From Pink Floyd in Pompeii: What Gilmour does from the 5:35 portion of the song until the breakdown thing is so heavy. The whole band sounds so tight, and they are all just jamming so hard. David Gilmour is on top of his game here.

4. Time - from Dark Side of the Moon Every note in that solo is just perfectly chosen. I listen to this solo the way I would go to The Louvre and admire The Mona Lisa.

5. One of These Days, - from Meddle, performed here on Pulse

Especially the really heavy jam that kicks in at the 4 minute mark was really special to hear Live. Which I did in Tempe, in April of 1994. That was a good day.

6. Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Live Acoustic Performance

I gotta include this specific performance because I think its important to show here that he may have a multi million dollar guitar setup and cool and expensive effects, and the original Fender Stratocaster, but the dude can also go low tech and just play his ass off with just him and a God Damn Acoustic Guitar.

 Ok so we have now seen, David Gilmour pretty much rules. He's shown me that as long as you have style and taste, you don't have to be the fastest player on the block to be a real badass.

 I'll finish this post with a link to a cool you tube clip thats a good tutorial on getting the David Gilmour sound on your own gear.



 

Amplitube's I-Rig for the I-Phone

Guitardedblog.com

 Now I'm almost 40 years old. If you had told the 13 year old me back in 1986 that one day I'll be using my phone to play, tune and record guitar, not only would I not have believed you, that wouldn't even make sense. How the hell are you gonna play guitar with a phone? How am I gonna tune a guitar with a phone?! What are YOU smoking? You got any more?

I've been an acoustic player most of my life for a few reasons.

•  I could never hold down a job long enough to afford a descent electric setup.
• If I was working, its impossible for me to save money, so I couldn't afford real gear anyways.
• It would be to loud to play at home anyways.
• The acoustic had more/easier portability, which I liked.
• I'm not a naturally fast "Eddie Van Halen" type so the acoustic suited me as a rhythm player.
• I'm not sure how to really use all that kind of equipment anyways. I find it confusing.
• If I had a descent setup I really didn't know anyone else who would be interested in just playing Pink Floyd and Beatles covers. My interests used to be limited. They have grown a little.

 The I-Rig is easy for me to use. The app has good tutorials on the different effects and amps, and the recording stuff, and best of all it just sounds awesome! I can have my earbud/headphones on so I don't bother my wife, and you can make it so you can play through speakers so other people can hear you I think, I haven't quite figured out that part yet. It has enough stuff to keep you entertained for a very long time.

And I am definitely someone who needs to be entertained and occupied for very long amounts of time.

  I think I paid under $40 for actual device. One end goes in your phone, the other one goes to your guitar cable, which of course goes to your guitar. Thats about as technical as you're gonna get from me. Then you just download the app, and you can pay to upgrade to get all the different kinds of effects and amps. Very easy.
  This finally lets me work on my electric playing. Which mainly just consists of playing Pink Floyd songs, but I'm really enjoying learning all the differnt effects, and I can plug my acoustic/electric in to it as well.

  This is the first thing I did with the I-Rig. I got a bad habit of not reading instructions or going thru tutorials and just figuring it out by just using it. I did this to teach myself the very basics of using some effects and recording.
  It's Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond just the begining guitar part. I used another track to do my best "on the fly" impersonation of the keyboard part.

  I'm just sharing this to show you what you can do with just a few minutes, a guitar, an I-Phone, the I-Rig and minimal talent and technical intelligence.



I've lost my crappy practice bass. I have no idea where I've left it. If I can ever find it, you can play your bass on it too.

Playing Guitar to Get Girls

Guitardedblog.com

  I first started playing guitar at age 9. I didn't get serious about until I was 13. The reason I got serious? to get girls. Unfortunately, on the extremely rare occassion I did get a girl, I had no idea what to do with her.

  In high school I was part of the rocker, metal-head crowd. They were the only ones that would have me. Oh yeah, and this was in the 1980's too. We had a guitar class in high school. All the metal heads were serious about learning and developing our skills.

  The guy in this funny Youtube video reminds of the other type of person that was in our guitar class. The clean-cut, all American, pretty boy, popular crowd, Oakley Sunglasses, Swatch Watch, Top 40, conformist preppy guy, who would take the one chord he learned in class that day and would be out on the quad, strumming it over and over again. The entire time he's surrounded by girls who are looking all captivated and swooning over him while saying stuff like, "Oh my God! you're like SO talented! Thats Amazing!" Kinda like the scene in Better of Dead where the bad blonde skier guy is playing guitar.

That made the real guitar players like me sick.

 I did have better luck in my late twenties and early 30's. I would maybe have one or two dates a year. Sometimes, I wouldn't know how to make it seem not seem so obvious that I'm trying get her to a place where she can listen to me play, so I would just take with me and just be honest and say, yeah I brought my guitar because if all goes well I will play it so I can impress you and get you to make out with me.

  Now I am NOT an expert on women but that direct approach seemed to work for me. I kinda come across as eccentric, odd and possibly some sort of mad genius, having the guitar around at least focuses people vaugue perception of me down to a definite image of an eccentric musician.

  Or maybe I was lucky to meet women who weren't put off when their date shows up to a movie theater or restaurant with a guitar case.

ok here's part two.

My Favorite Songs to Play for a Girl at the End of the Date

• ***NOT THAT I LIKE ALL THESE SONGS, THEY'RE JUST THE ONES THAT WORK BEST WHEN PLAYING FOR YOUR DATE***
• Every Rose Has It's Thorn - Poison
• Pretty much any other 80's Hair Metal Ballad that has that G, Cadd9, D chord thing going on
• Everlong - Foo Fighters
• Street Spirit - Radiohead
• Blackbird - The Beatles
• Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
• Soul To Squeeze - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins

 There's just a few, that I find help paint the picture of yourself as the talented, and sensitive musician with maybe hints at having a dark side. I've learned if you just barely hint at maybe having a dark side, women seem to like that. When you play for your date, don't look at the guitar or the girl, just kinda sadly stare off into a corner. Even better if you can sing along to what you're playing. If you're like me and aren't really good at eye contact anyways, playing the guitar will let you look artisic and cool instead of creepy and scary because you're not making eye contact.

  Well thats what has worked for me in the past. I don't claim to be an expert on dating or women, or music, or guitar or socializing. I find it easier to learn a foreign language than trying to figure out women, and dating. But I'm old enough, and smart enough, and like the natural researcher I am, I've found out thru others, media, print, and trial and error, things that work and don't work so much when
it comes to women and dating and all that.

  Learn guitar or any instrument, or just be good at anything, and let other people see you doing that.  Watch the movie The Tao of Steve, which goes into more detail on that.  Unless there's alcohol around to loosen me up, that damn is guitar is the only real way I feel comfortable socializing.
  
  Well I've found that in past that has tended to work

A Blog for the Mentally Guitarded

 

Jamming

When your focus is entirely in the present moment instead of re-living the past or worrying about the future, you are in this zone where nothing can mess with you. Even if you are doing nothing except observing your breathing, you are living completely in the present. You are in acceptance of what is, and have stopped fighting against the natural flow of life. 

  There are many different forms of meditation, but it all comes down to keeping your focus entirely in the present moment by concentrating on a sound, visualization, breath, instead of allowing the usual random thought activity that is usually occuring in our heads. Trying to find that "space between our thoughts." Learning how to get there and learning how to get better at staying there for longer periods of time.

  For me, guitar playing is like meditating. When I play, I'm not thinking, just doing. Completely focused on the present moment. When I'm jamming I'm just playing what comes naturally. Going with the flow, playing with my heart, not my head. Going wherever the music takes me. Trusting my gut instincts. Not worried about whats gonna happen next. Whatever direction the music takes me is fine, I'll just roll with it.

  Thats what jamming is all about, but what I really want to do is not to just jam on the guitar, but jam thru life.

  Jamming thru life means, living completely in the present. Totally in the moment and completely into whatever situation life has presented you with. Unburdened with the past and unconcerned with the future. Trusting your intuition.

  It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception. (When asked about his theory of relativity) - Albert Einstein

Even Einstein was Jamming when he discovered the Theory of Relativity!