Greatest Rock Guitarists

Today is tax day and as such I do not have time to do a full post today but I wanted to make sure I posted something. A friend on Facebook gave me a gift by asking who I thought was the greatest rock guitarist.

There was quite of few people with the stock answers of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eddie Van Halen. Great guitarists all of them but I wanted to dig a little deeper. So submitted for your approval.

Eric Johnson

Top Ten Favorite Acoustic Performances - Part 1

I am looking at to come up with some sort of formula to my posting but Top Ten lists seem to be popular with everyone so here is some of my favorite acoustic performance. Let me know what your thoughts on these or your favorites in the comments.

1. Waltz For Richard - First Aid Kit

I love these girls. They are a sister acoustic act from Sweden. They have a band play with them live but this from back when it was just the two of them. I highly recommend checking them out.

2. I Want You Back - K.T. Tumstall
You may know her from her song "Black Horse and  a Cherry Tree" or "Suddenly I See" used in multiple commercials. This video shows her having fun with a loop pedal.  I have been messing around  with a loop pedal lately and its harder than it looks.

3. Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed - Jerry's Breakdown. 

Two of the greatest guitar players of all time throwing it down. If you don't know who these people are you need to make a point to learn. 

4.Bruce Cockburn - If I had a Rocket Launcher - I used to love this song in the 80's despite its very dark subject matter. On acoustic guitar it takes on an entirely different persona.

5.Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run - It is always a challenge to take a song heavy on orchestration and turn it into a solo acoustic number. This is a good example of doing that. It keeps the essence of the original while reworking it into something new.

The Importance of Networking.

net·work 

/ˈnetˌwərk/

verb

gerund or present participle: networking

interact with other people to exchange information and develop contacts, especially to further one's career. "the skills of networking, bargaining, and negotiation"

In my day job I work as a Software Engineer. In that industry where you rarely stick to a company for longer than 3 years it is important to know as many people as possible. And in a very informal way you trade on favors and friendships I wish I knew this when I was young because it is extremely valuable in music.. Everyone you meet whether you it or not may be able to help you someday. Maybe you will be able to help them and they can owe a favor. Maybe that favor is a desirable gig or the opportunity to play with someone you want to play with.
They say its all in who you know. And that is true but you have it in your power to expand who you know.  This also goes to being nice and professional. If people like you and you are willing to help them. They will help you.
Lets see what the Godfather has to say about it.

Bruce Cockburn - Guitar Style

I have a huge amount of respect for this guy's guitar playing. Here is a short video that talks about his style.

Top Ten : Things to not talk about on stage

I will not name names, but a friend of mine has been known to get political on stage. In all honesty his views do not bother me at all. Perhaps because we have similar views. All the same. Don't do that.

Unless your shtick is to be offensive (done that) there is no need to offend your audience or worse yet the people who hired you to play. I imagine you want to play there again and have your audience come back and say good things about you to their friends.

With all that in mind here is my top ten list of things not to say about onstage.

1. Politics - We live in a diverse group of political opinions. Unless its your schtick its best you do not know theirs and they do not know yours.
2. Religion - Unless your in a religious band, then by all means talk it up, but most clubs are hiring to you entertain not win converts.
3. Judging people - So you have an issue with a group of people, say Pop Musicians, as far as you know half your audience loves Pop Musicians, you potentially just told half your audience not to come back.
4. Insulting the venue - Insult the venue or their audience they will probably not have you back. Or even worse other venues will find out and they will not hire you either. 
5. Insulting the Audience - Same reasons as above.
6. Insulting other musicians - Seeing a theme here?
7. Profanity - This is mostly just a personal one for me and it certainly has its exceptions. It is probably appropriate for a metal band. But if you have any diversity in your audience try to avoid it.
8. Apologize  for bad chords or words - They did not notice it until you just called it out.
9. Belch - Gross!, Are you drunk? Don't do that either. People are there to drink and hear music not to see you get trashed.
10. Complain - No one want to listen to it. Best case they will tune out, worst case they will leave.
11. Talking too much. - Talking is good, it engages the audience. Too much talking they will get bored. Once again there are exceptions. I have seen BB King tell some incredible stories on stage.

Ill do a post in the future on what are good things to talk about .

The Broken Bridge Pin

I had a moment of stupidity followed by a moment of brilliance yesterday. Unfortunately the moment of brilliance was not my own, I just benefited from it.

My Moment Of Stupidity
First of all as mentioned in a previous post my primary acoustic is in the repair shop.That leaves me playing my old Sigma Guitar that has not had a new set of strings in several years. Talk about painful.

After a couple of days of playing on this I finally get to the music store to buy a set of strings for it, because my strings are in my guitar case that is at the repair shop along with my string changing tool . Around 9:30 on the night of Easter I get around to changing the strings.

I was trying to change the strings and could not get the bridge pins out. I usually wrap a string around the pin to pull it out but even that was not working this time.

Never do this next part

I used a set of channel lock pliers to try and pull it out. Five of them came out fine with only minimal damage to the bridge pins. The 6th would not come out. So I started twisting it. NEVER EVER TWIST IT.  The top of the pin came off leaving the bridge pen stuck in the guitar. And even worse no way of keeping a string in to finish changing the strings.

So now you know the problem the point I want to share is how I solved it.

Getting the Pin Out

The First problem is getting the pin out. I did a quick look online and found solution that involved power tools. I was not about to do that. I am fairly certain that I would of just ended up causing more damage that way.
Here is the way I solved the problem.

1. I loosened the strings so I could get my hand in the sound hole. 
2. Found the pin inside the guitar.
3. I tried to push it out but it dug into my hands so I used the wrench to tap on the pin lightly and eventually it came out.

Finding a Replacement

Now that the broken pin was out  I did not want to wait to play my guitar so I needed a replacement. First thing I did is went and looked to see if I could steal a bridge pin off of another instrument. Unfortunately none of them used bridge pins. That would of been the ideal solution.

What ultimately worked for me I cannot take credit for. My friend Bruno had the idea but it worked well so I wanted to share. I actually did this a couple of ways  before I finally got it too work right.
Here are the steps I did.

1. Found an old set of chop sticks. I eat a fair amount of Chinese takeout so I had that around. I also like the chop stick because it had a tapered in.
2. So after trial and error I leaned that you need to cut the chop stick first. I used the tapered end that you grab the food with and cut about an inch and a half to two inches long. You need to saw as opposed to cut so it does not split. I carefully sawed it with a serrated steak knife. Don't judge, it's what I had around. I tried originally to cut it but it caused the chop stick to split. 
3. After that I used the chop stick the same way I would a pin. I want enough stuck out so I can get a grip and pull it out later once I get a replacement pin. I also was careful to hold on to it while I tightened the string.

It works great now. It gets in the way of palm muting but it was better than not being able to play at all and it buys me time until I can get to the music store.

Here is what the final product looked like.

Solo Guitar, Guitar Solo - Stray Cat Strut

Generally speaking if its just you and an acoustic guitar, guitar solos are not the first thing that comes to mine. After year of being the lead guitar player though I was not all that ready to let go of doing solos. 

I have been experimenting lately with adding guitar solos to my solo act. Actually it works as long as you keep a couple of guidelines in mind.

1. If you are loudly strumming open chords a solo will drop the bottom out. If your play more sparse you do not lose momentum in the solo.

2. Hit a bass note or a chord every now again.

3. Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm,. Pay attention to it. That is what's going to hold your song together when you break into a solo.

Here is an example of a solo I have been playing with for my version of Stray Cat Strut by The Stray Cats. It is based on the solo from the original recording but I have modified it to work for my solo acoustic set.

The Once and Future Taylor

Anything that once was will come back around again. I had an amazing experience today along those lines. The story starts several years ago.

The guitar was a Taylor 210C and I was playing in a church band at the time. Of course as church bands often do my gig was in the morning so the family is getting ready to go and my pre-teen daughter was helping load the car.
Ok, this was totally my fault. I do not hold her responsible at all.
I asked her to put the guitar behind the car and I would put it in the trunk. We all get in the car, my wife backs up.
Bump!
"What was that?"
My wife said. "Was that your guitar" I ran out of the car and saw what happened, went inside, went did bed and did not say a word to anyone for three hours.

While I slept my wife called a good friend who sold guitars for a living and the insurance company and I had a new guitar in hand the next day. Actually I upgraded to a 310C so there is that.

Another friend of mine asked me if I wanted the destroyed rotting carcass of my old Taylor. I couldnt' even look at it so I said take it away. I think he wanted it for the electronics inside through I later found out he found another guitar with the same story but the body was fine but the neck was broken and he had them put together into a single guitar.

Fast forward to today.

My second Taylor had a small crack on the back that I wanted to get fix. I called a friend and asked for a recommendation and got the name of a local repair guy.  I went there today and him and I instantly hit it off and we we talking and I started telling him the story I just told you. Only about 2 sentences in he goes "That was You?" He turned around and pulled off the shelf what was left of the body of my old guitar. He used what was good to build the other guitar and has been keeping the rest for parts. My guitar was an organ donor. It's a small world.

Memorizing lyrics

For me one of the biggest challenges I faced in starting up a new act was having to learn so many new songs. Playing in a band songs are generally longer than with an acoustic act. For one things songs with bands often have solos, usually in an acoustic act they do not. Thats not always the case but more on that in a later post.
Me personally I am pretty good at memorizing guitar parts. I guess my brain just works that way. I really struggle with memorizing lyrics.  Because of this I have developed some strategies for memorizing them.

1. Transcribe - I have been doing this for a while. I think it has to do with the whole right brain left brain concept. One of the first things I do is instead of printing out the lyrics, I write them out.
2. Understand the Story - Chances are the song you are learning tells a story of some sort. Or at least is trying to make a point. Really look at the words and understand what it is trying to say. This will help you emote the song but also it puts the lyrics in context.
3. Look for relationships in lyrics - Ok maybe this is just me and my weird brain but it is a huge help for me. Honestly I am not sure that what helps is the relationship or the act of looking for it. I am not sure how to explain so I will cite a couple of examples
1. Don't Think Twice it's Alright - Bob Dylan - This is a cool one. I struggled for a long time with this one. I knew most of the lyrics but the order always eluded me on stage. Then I realized that the second half of the verse alludes to the next verse.
   Verse 1 : Ok so the first one is a little week maybe I am adding an association that is not really there but that does not matter because it works. Line three says Look out your window, and I'll be gone  For me that goes to And It ain't no use in turning on your light, babe  in the second verse. I know that after I look out the window I will turn the light on.
   Verse 2: Here is a better one the second verse says in the second half But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say.  That  leads to the next verse So It ain't no use in calling out my name, gal.
2. Man On the Moon - REM - This would be a good example for Understand The Story as well but it is still about relationships. I remember this song by sumemrizing the verses. Verse 1 is the games verse,verse 2 is the science vs religion vs, verse three is the truck stop verse. That is enough for my memory to unlock all the lyrics.
4. Listen - This is straightforward. If I am in my car I have the songs I am learning on a playlist and I sing along with it. This is rarely good enough on its own. There are tons of songs I can sing along with that I cant sing alone.

These are some of the techniques I use? How about you? What tricks do you use to memorize lyrics?

Gig Tip #1 - Reinvent Your Set List

Quick quiz, which line of a song are you most likely to forget?

If you are anything like me it is the first line. How many times have you sat there playing the intro over and over again trying to remember what the first line to the song is. I won't say it happens often but it happens often enough.

Here is my solution and it involves something you are already doing or at least should be.
Generally if you are performing live you have pre-decided the order of your songs and have it written out in a setlist.

Traditionally you would have the song titles there. What would be more useful is instead of putting song titles, put the first line of each song.  You will never forget how a song starts again.

First Post - My journey into a Solo Acoustic Act

For starters let me give a disclaimer,  This is my fourth attempt at writing a blog and each time previously I have lacked in both posts and followers so we will see if this is any different. My primary goal for this is to document my journey into the world of the solo act and hopefully watch this blog grow into something more.
My desire to start performing a solo acoustic act grew out of a long chain of events.
I spent my twenties playing in a jam band and a novelty act and had a great time doing it but when I hit my thirties I started having kids and playing out nights was not as feasible an option as it once was. My wife convinced me to join a local church band. A steady Sunday morning gig! Sounded like a great band. For the next 8 years I played in a church band.
It was a great experience. I was lucky enough to play with several fantastic musicians and I learned a lot from the experience.  Maybe I can go more into detail with that in a later post, but the most important thing I learned is the joy I got from playing a song that everyone knew and could sing along with. The feeling I got from the energy given back to me from the audience far surpassed any feeling I got from playing a song that I loved.
When me and my wife made the decision to leave that church I tried to find other churches that I could join their band but none of it worked out. Either they had too many musicians already or the musicians they had were not of the quality I was used to.
I tried to form other bands but none of them worked out. I eventually landed an enjoyable gig as a lead guitarist in a classic country band but I still did not get the feeling I was looking for.

All this led me to these conclusions

• I want to Sing
• I want to play songs people know.
• I want the freedom to follow my own vision.

That landed me where I am now. I am just getting started. 1 gig so far as a solo act and another on the way. I will keep you informed.