DISQUS

Why no photo?

I think about melody and progressions which support the melody. If the melody, chords and progressions hit me emotionally, I chase after it. If it also aligns with my Blues sense, I try to synthesize it all as best I can. Remember that Jazz comes from Blues, so don't try to consider Jazz as an "outside influence" of Blues. Go back to earlier Jazz where it's more identifiable with Blues, then move forward. But find a place where YOU recognize Blues shifting into Jazz. Those places exist because Blues is the root.

"J" is so right about Bonamassa! Another is Derek Trucks. Both Bonamassa and Trucks are incorporating Jazz and even Eastern & Celtic influences into their music. But both anchor firmly to and from the Blues. But without getting too technical, I think they both also place melody & emotion at a very high priority.

There's a youtube vid of Bonamassa and Walter Trout trading solos on stage. Trout is eventually cycling through all his fastest runs, while JB still pauses here and there to phrase melodically or hold single notes. JB could out-shred Trout no problem, but he steps back and plays musically. So instead of resulting in a cacophony of 16th note craziness, JB continues to breathe.

Sonny Landreth's October PG interview mentions being a horn player and bringing that breathing aspect to guitar playing. In other words, sing a guitar solo as if you were taking breaths.

So don't separate your guitar solos from how you would sing. Then I think you're playing closer to the heart.

This is great stuff!!

Great post and thread! You're becoming the next IG!

There really are a lot of faces to the Blues. If you listen to a good Blues program, i.e. Sirius Satellite's CH 74, you'll hear lots of variety. I don't know if everyone can subscribe to that. But there's also a lot of online stuff, like Pandora.com, where you can create your own stations which Pandora then builds from. Soon, you're hearing all sorts of great music.

An important thing to note about Robben Ford, is that he's an accomplished Jazz musician, an alum of Miles Davis, who can step outside and do all sorts of turnarounds on the harmonic scale. Larry Carlton is another player who can use Blues as a spring board into other musical areas then turnaround back into the Blues like he never left.

So another suggestion might be to play any kind of music with a Blues FEELING, and make it your own Blues.

I was in a shop in Salem, OR recently which had 4 Normandy's in stock. They look nice. The chrome one was really cool!

I played an Epi LP recently and was very impressed. Gibson has a lot higher end product with Epi than Fender does with Squier. It's cool to have a guitar that really works for ya!

Here's a spectrum for ya--

From this solo (2:06):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9OBw7yQEzg

To this solo (3:10):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqxo1SKB0z8

And all points in between. LOL:)))))

I've got something for you. 1974 - Michael Schenker on UFO's Phenomenon album. A highly imaginative solo in an otherwise highly boring song "Time on My Hands".

Your imagination is the key to soloing.

Listen to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-shD4j-tfU

They should make a movie about this guy with Will Ferrell, and call the movie "Della Vega Nights".

Ross is very good! I'm a big fan of Tommy Emmanuel and the late Michael Hedges. Check out this clip of Monte Montgomery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31QQ1gNpAaY

He's fantastic at duplication and execution. Now he needs to start listening to everything and different genres so that he can have lots of variations to synthesize from-- then eventually he'll evolve his own voice. There's getting to be a large number of players who can play at this high level, but if they don't diversify and work from a broader palette, we end up with lots of clones out there, as in the case of many young Asian players.

With that level of ability and duplication, Chris Feener has the potential to bring something new to the table, if he continues to broaden genre-wise.

On the first Van Halen album EVH was Floyd-less. A couple other pre-Floyd/pre-locking tuners live recordings worth checking are:

Hendrix - Band of Gypsies

Deep Purple - Made in Japan

Angus is a Zen master. He's always played that SG through a Marshall and has never been a gear freak. In fact, he once said that his favorite effect is the cord.

Guitar Shop Magazine (long gone) used to have those signal chain diagrams. The Angus Young diagram was hysterical-- literally an SG>cord>Marshall.

Those tunes are so simple, but you gotta keep the whole song in mind in order to lock it in. It's easy for me to accidentally slip into an AC DC medley. But the lyric line can keep you on the tune. Just feel it.

My '72 Tele Thinline is on it's 3rd refret and missing 20% of its neck finish. The natural ash body and maple neck color have grown very amber in tint.

However, this guitar has little resale value because it didn't belong to and/or hasn't been autographed by or photographed with a famous player. It also doesn't have resale because it wasn't intentionally and prematurely put into it's current condition by the Custom Shop and stamped as such. Another non-collectible aspect, is that it's not in "mint" condition either-- for the clean market side.

Without official guitar-god or Fender marketing mojo stamp, it's just a worn old guitar.

In spite of that, new relic models go for $2000 plus.

If and when Fender releases a '72 RI Relic, that might be the only way the value of my '72 might see an increase in value. Until then, I just watch and wonder about it all...

We've been going around & around with this subject for awhile now in the guitar blogosphere. IG says it in the best simplest way possible. I kinda like the relic thing, but remember when I bought my first decent electric in high school. It was a brand new Fender Mustang that I saved and earned to buy. I remember keeping it clean and polished all the time. If a friend wanted to play it, I made 'em wash their hands and cover their belt buckle. It was a matter of pride to keep the guitar looking good, and really upsetting to get a scratch or a chip.

So if you don't get the relic thing, and think it's silly, that's totally fine! It is a funny trend. It's very respectable and probably more sane to take good care of your instrument and keep it looking shiny and new as long as possible. Imagine how stupid it would be if people did this to new cars.

Cool! It's also worth noting that her ukulele seems to be a serious instrument. So many ukes are just cheesy little toys. Not this one.

eBay has been pretty good for me. I'm an affiliate for Musician's Friend, Zzounds, Music123 and a few other retailers, but none of them do well for me. eBay pulls in people though.

I got my first speeding ticket driving to ZZ Top's "She Loves My Automobile".

My favorite driving music is Tribal Tech, Scott Henderson's old fusion band.

She's great-- very nice tone! I have a hunch that she's promoting that guitar line.

There's another Korean line called Swing, that is well demo'd on their site and youtube by some awesome Korean players.

As for you being new to guitar girls, I'm shocked that you haven't yet discovered my Strat-o-Sisters Directory!!!

Better get over there-- there are lots of great ladies playing guitars:

http://stratoblogster.blogspot.com/2006/10/stra...

Somebody's gonna build a Guitar Hero interface for these guitars. Then real guitar players can play real guitar in Guitar Hero. And what an excellent chop building tool that will be.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting at Stratoblogster! Good to know you're out there!

I like this post because you are expressing a unique viewpoint. I also imagine about guitar sounds and styles through other perceptions, but haven't written about it that way.

You oughta consider pursuing a consistent "guitar metaphor" theme with your postings. I don't see anyone else doing it. Good to be unique!

jp

Hang in there!!!

You can control a lot with your attack. Where you pick, how you pick, varying how you pick wherever you pick-- and changing all that fluidly. A player who anchors his right hand to one spot and holds his pick the same way for everything he plays will sound...

Good observation. He's definitely a Strat player, regardless of his baroqueness. Hendrix, Jeff Beck, SRV and Eric Johnson constantly tweak their pickup selectors, vol & tone controls AND attack the strings in different locations.

Constantly chasing tone and trying to articulate.

When you listen to live Hendrix, i.e. Band of Gypsies, he's switching between effects constantly. Not just for specific sections of the tunes, but throughout the soloing.

You're right, lot's of players just sit on a sound they like, and it gets boring.

That's the bluesiest Yngwie's ever gonna get.

Have a great weekend!!