Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars

Yesterday I was invited to a folkloric show at the main theater here. I am not a big fan of folkloric music, not at all, but because we were invited by one of the artists in the show, who has sung at my wedding, I couldn’t refuse the invitation.

I the beginning I thought it is going to be a boring show for me, since every time I see this kind of music on TV for ex, I change the channel. Man, I was wrong! I can tell you that I really enjoyed the show! And you know why? Because I have decided to make the best of it and I focused my attention on music, artists, instruments and I was amused of all the thoughts running through my head during the concert.

So, a few basic lines first: in Romanian folkloric music there are no guitars. Period. Doh! This “band” had a double bass (we call it contrabass here), 9 violins, 1 flute, 3 accordions and one cimbalom (is this the word?) plus one bandleader. Imagine the fact that the artists that are really famous here in Romania are also engaged in a collaboration with local theaters, so on stage were some very famous singers that you see on TV everyday (again, if you listen this music). Imagine Johny Cash or Dolly Parton singing in your city every month at the local theater. I don’t think it stands the comparison but you get my point.

Romanian folkloric music usually is a “returning walk”, to call it this way, you end your passages where you start them. You start the passage in C, you walk around, play, sing and, guess what, you go back to the same C! It is a round thing. Also, songs don’t always have choruses, in many cases, songs are made up by lyrics parts followed by a repetitive theme played on violins. And again, the themes are “round” and come back to the starting point.

So, because I am not a fan of this style, I only like about 2 singers, I tried to focus on something else.
And there the show became interesting:

Double bass player - because the double bass was clearly distinguishing from the rest of the instruments, I could easily follow it’s music. I was surprised to recognize in what that guy was playing some …ROCK AND ROLL FORMULAS!!! A bit altered cause Romanian folkloric music doesn’t follow the same chords progressions but it was fun to listen. Songs are mostly 4/4 in C or G major so it fits fine! The only observation was that in folkloric double bass progressions, this “rock and roll” progressions were altered by very interesting chromatic passages. I could also compare this double bass music to a jazz bass music due to the “walking bass” style, the guy never stayed on the same note and only used his bow to produce short notes, not as in cello playing (as less as I know about cello playing, I think of Apocalyptica and I have a reference point!)

Violins - very interesting, considering that I know one of the players as a VERY good player, he played at my wedding and I met him and the singer that invited us many times starting that moment and we became good acquaintances. The singer is very well seen here on this market of wedding singers. He proposed me at one time to start rehearsing with them to join them for playing at weddings, but as much as I was honored by the fact that he asked me, I politely refused, explained him I love my rock music and I love to play rock, pop and everything related to these styles but wedding music is not my “cup of tea”.

So, again about violins, I liked the way they synchronized (and they were 9!) and I loved some passages where some of the violins played the third of the rest, which I didn’t know it is used in this kind of music, but it gave a great effect!

Flute…nothing to say about him, no solo passages, no nothing, so I know he was there but I let him be, no particular interest there.

Well, the guy with the cimbalom (again, is there such word, right?!!). He is, along with the double bass player, the rhythmic section of the band and man, what rhythm he has!! I still wonder how he manages to hit those strings with his sticks. The funny part was that the women lead singers, after receiving flowers, always put them on his cimbalom, on one side. He always looked a bit intrigued: hey, WTF are you doing, hey, can’t you see I need those strings there?!! Damn, woman!! That made me think of a local expression used when you want to cover up a particular situation: “to put the handkerchief on the cimbalom”. I think I understand better now!!

Singers - here it was a very interesting situation. As in any style, there are singers and there are ENTERTAINERS! This last group were always in close contact with the public. I admired the fact that, some of them, for ex, after like 30 years in professional singing, were so sure of themselves and were practically ruling the scene! They were the master of the scene, feeling very secure and this transmitted a good feeling to the audience!

These ENTERTAINERS, of course, had the biggest success, the public kept on clapping and applauding at the end, asking for an other one. I admired them being so secure on stage, proving they know how to handle the crowd (of course, a very targeted public - beside myself).

I also watched the bandleader during the show: there were a couple of singers that were new or had not that much experience and I watched how the band leader stayed close to them, communicating to them, signaling to the band more difficult moments, as in free measures where everything must be “felt” by the band considering the performance of the singer. And then, I watched the bandleader totally relaxing when very experienced singers came on stage, the band leader started to smile, joking with them, and even left the stage for a few moments when one of those artists was singing. It was a proof of confidence and trust, because, anyway, after so much experience everything works by itself in such cases!

I have listen to the voice of the singers: there were 2 that I didn’t hear well, compared to the others. I asked myself if this is a matter of vocal technique or frequencies in their voices against the microphone frequency response. They were both males, one was with less experience, and I have immediately thought about vocal emissions, not being able to project the sound to where he should. But I also ask myself if it wasn’t about frequencies that were not distinguished from the rest of the band.

Anyway, most of the artists there, given his music style, are also wedding musicians. I remember joking with my wife about the cimbalom and double bass players going to a wedding: man, I am no taking this guy into my car?!! Hey, take the damn box out of my car, I have no room anymore!!

After the show we went to a restaurant with Romanian specific, to eat something, cause we were all hungry after the show. Me and my wife also invited my parents in law to this show and to the restaurant so we picked this Romanian specific restaurant so they feel comfortable there. What do you know!? The restaurant is owned by one of the artists in the show and she came after the show to sing in her own restaurant, as it seems she does once a week to keep it successful. So we couldn’t escape it there either!

But after a bottle of wine, everything was fine!

Looking back I consider this a very pleasant musical experience that I recommend to all of you. Listening to an other musical style was a refreshing thing, making me think more of my guitar playing and rock music!

By the way, I was telling you I only like about 2 Romanian folkloric singers. I want to point you here to the greatest Romanian folkloric singer, Maria Tanase. She does not live anymore but her musical talent, in my opinion wasn’t yet equaled by anyone. Here’s a couple of songs that are representative for her music. The first one is kind of a slow curse, “Who loves and leaves, may God give him punishment…”

See also a French version of the same song. She has a record in French, I think.

An other one here:

And also this one, in French, I don’t have anything in English but it may help a bit to catch the spirit.

Enjoy!

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Did you ever thought about what influence rock music has over people worldwide? I am always pleased to see artists outside rock music scene covering famous rock hits. Some of those covers come from people I wouldn’t have thought they enjoy rock music, like for example these cases below.

I know AC/DC is big, had a lot of hits and is in a position where everybody would like to sing one of their song, but man, Celine Dion, Anastacia , Shania Twain, Shakira singing AC/DC??!! This is a “must see” in my opinion!!

So, here we go:

Celine Dion and Anastacia singing “You shook me all night long” (pop rock version)

Shania Twain again with “You shook me all night long” (pop/country version, I love the slide on ACDC, I ask myself what Angus Young thought when he saw this video,because I don’t think he missed it!)

Shakira with “Back in black”, after you pass the first part, it is fine, considering Shakira’s singing style. I love the guitar part!

I consider these performances a tribute to monster band AC/DC, tribute that well known pop divas pay to somebody that made a mark on rock music. I consider it a form of respect, because when you are on top, you only sing somebody else’s songs if you really respect that artist.

Stumble that, people! Thanks!

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It may sound like a elementary school homework but I have really thought about this these last days. I have realized why I love that much playing the guitar.

It is not (only) because I love rock music, it is not (only) because of the beautiful sound or the energy when you hear the overdrive…

The reason I love playing the guitar is the fact that it opens infinite possibilities to my music. Think about it: every time you pick up your guitar you can come up with something totally different, something new and beautiful. I love the fact that my guitar is the door to infinite possibilities of expression.

Think about is this way: me, you, Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen, Hendrix, May, Segovia, Dimebag Darrel, Paco De Lucia , Frank Gambale, we all have the same damn thing: a 6 string instrument, but each one of us makes it sound different.

I love the fact that the same 6 strings are able to produce music that is so different: rock, jazz, blues, funk, classic music, flamenco, folk, damn, there are so many possibilities out there. And all these thanks to 6 strings and a box!

I kept on thinking these days about this and I realize I love the guitar more and more each day, exactly because of this and I realize that I am so small and tiny compared to the possibilities this instrument has. If I don’t make better music is because I can’t. My guitar surely can because it showed it so many times over the years all over the world! There are so many records to prove it!

By the way, IG launched a very interesting idea, “Hug your guitar week” and I think his initiative is a great way to show your guitar you love her.

So tell your guitar here why do you love her and give her a hug on IG’s blog!

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Without wanting to hurt girl’s feelings in any way, I haven’t seen that many good girl solo guitar players so far. Again, Jennifer Batten is a great exception that kicks ass! Yeah!

But while looking around (of course, for something else) I have seen this video on YouTube of a Korean girl playing the electric guitar. Man, she is good and plays very clean so I said it would be a good thing to share it with you here! So, here it is:

And let me hear your opinions on this! Does she kick ass or what?!

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These days I have been away but now I am back to my computer, so, I will try to catch up a bit with everything that happened while I was away.

I took a short 3 days holiday with my wife and a couple of good friends and we headed for a well known resort in Romania, called Lacul Rosu (Red Lake). We managed to see in only 3 days, a lot of places and came back with a lot of photos.

I have decided to only put here a few of them, because this is not the subject of this blog, but because a few days ago I have decided to add a new category called Romania, I think it will fit just fine. So, here it is:

Red Lake was formed around 1837 where it used to be a forest and now you can see tree parts coming out of the water, kind of spooky. We rented a boat and sailed to a couple of them, to see for ourselves how they look like!

This is an area where the concentration of people of Hungarian origin is high so every sign there was AT LEAST in 2 languages: Romanian and Hungarian. Plus German, English, French sometimes… Just as an observation, there are tensions born by historical events and by the fact that Hungarian people there, even if living in Romania, don’t speak Romanian well and sometimes, with just a bit of bad will, it is told they don’t want to.

I can say that we were a bit tensioned in that area at first because you could hear Hungarian speakers all around you, in the very heart of Romania, making us feel like we were in an other country, but beside that, I can say that we haven’t had any problem and people were OK even if in some cases we found it a bit difficult to communicate in Romanian, but with a bit of effort on both sides, we went along fine!

In the above picture, my wife is on the left of the picture, the other 2 people are my friends that joined us for this trip. Of course, I was taking pictures.

We traveled to the other side of the country, crossing an invisible historical border, totally changing the accent. My mother in law is from that side of the country so I am a bit used to the accent. We have found a telecabin where we least expected, especially because we couldn’t understand why is it there. We presumed it will serve a hotel that is currently under construction, but for the moment I can’t see the point… But well, it seems to have clients, at least we took a ride…

We have visited a few historic locations.

On our way back we visited a newly launched salt mine. Newly launched(2 days ago) for tourists, cause it was old and not used, anymore, of course. However, very impressive. I felt like in Jules Verne’s Trip to the center of the Earth. People were playing a lot of games there, buying stuff, etc. We played cards waiting for our return bus.

We took a trip to an old and beautiful medieval city, one of the most famous of Romania, from this point of view, Sighisoara. And just for the fans of this kind of stories, believe it or not, historically speaking we have seen the house where Vlad Tepes’s father lived and where Vlad Tepes was born (Vlad Tepes, the historical personality that is the root of Dracula’s story, ruler of Romania’s lower grounds, which almost all the time is identified with Bram Stoker’s Dracula).

Loved the girl speaking on the phone dressed like “old time” people.

Finally, we took a trip to Sibiu, which was the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2007. Sibiu is a beautiful city that worths every minute spent there. It reminds of German cities because there are a lot of German people living there, a community that blends perfectly with Romanian spirit.

It was a demanding trip and I was very tired when I got home, but I must admit, it was a beautiful trip. I didn’t take my guitar this time cause I knew there is no time, in the evening we were all tired so the only thing we wanted to do is hit the sack!

But now I’m back and ready to blog and play the guitar! Yeah!

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Yesterday I was speaking about the fact that I haven’t found much time these last days to spend in front of my computer and about the Easter grill party that we threw at the rehearsal room. There, I met an old band mate that I haven’t seen since, I don’t know, maybe 6-7 years (OK, I think I have seen him a couple of times on the street but this doesn’t count, cause we’ve didn’t talk too much). He currently plays in a band here that is quite known, Spin is the name, that had, I think 2 hits, and is doing fine, he says.

The previous guitar player of the same band was an other band mate of mine, from my previous band, Kapela…man, WTF am I doing, my ex band mates have good music contracts, I think I must be a lucky person, I definitely must be the reason they are doing well, don’t you think? I think I am some kind of a talisman of some sort, who knows…

By the way, an other ex-band mate, drummer, is also doing fine and has been in a few well known bands here, see, the talisman story stands…damn, I must move to Bucharest too!

But the reason of this post is not the fact that already 3 ex-band mates have a visible music career, but the fact that while drinking a beer and eating some cooked lamb chops, me and Silviu spoke about electric guitars, about preferences and latest acquisitions. And there he told me about his last acquisition, a brand new guitar that he is very happy about! Well, let me have it, what’s that wonder guitar name?

I was expecting some wonder Fender, some high tech Gibson, this kind of guitars, considering his expression. Well, no! How about a no-pickup guitar? No pickup? What? Is it a MIDI guitar or what?

Well, no, after he explained it to me a bit and he showed me on the internet (we have internet connection next to the grill, did you know that?) I understood what he was speaking about.

The guitar he bought was a Line 6 guitar. I have seen it before, just that because it has no visible pickups, I didn’t give it too much attention. A MIDI, guitar, of course, I thought! BUT IT IS NOT A MIDI GUITAR!!! No!

Line 6 Variax is a regular electric guitar,(at least from the point of view of how the string vibrations are caught by the pickups), otherwise you could call it an electronic guitar, I guess!

The guitar has pickups, just that not 1, 2 or 3 regular pickups but 6 pickups, one on every string, but they are not visible because they are in the bridge.

I guess you could call Line 6 Variax a modeling guitar, the way they call it, or an electronic guitar, or a guitar collection, because this is exactly what it is! A collection of guitars, electric and acoustic guitars!! The manufacturers studied a lot of famous guitars, like Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul, acoustic guitars, hollow bodies, etc, and put all those studies and statistics into some electronic processing unit INSIDE THE GUITAR!

Then, by adding an extra knob on the guitar, you could just PICK THE GUITAR YOU WANT FROM THE COLLECTION! I must say I was amazed! With one single move of the knob you could get the sound of a genuine Fender Telecaster or of a Gibson. And if this does not amaze you, how about getting the sound of a regular acoustic guitar? Well? He showed me a live show on YouTube where he was playing his new guitar using the acoustic tone, right from the guitar! I must say it was quite impressive and at first I thought it was not live!

I was also impressed by the line of musicians playing Line 6 Variax, artists like Steve Howe (Yes), Andy Taylor (Duran Duran), Ed O’Brien (Radiohead), David Whild and Donnie Mathis (Outkast), Khaliq Glover (Prince), Charlie Clouser (Nine Inch Nails), because in the beginning I thought it must be one of those gadgets that everybody loves but nobody really uses. Well, seems not!

For a studio musician I guess it must be the Heaven on Earth, because you don’t need to carry extra guitars for getting THE SOUND. With just a spin of a knob you have a double six guitar right there along with the the large hollow body guitar!

There are 25 models the guitar emulates, 3 Telecaster models, 1 Stratocaster, 11 Gibson, 2 Gretsch,
2 Rickenbacker, Guild, Dobro, Danelectro, a Sitar, a banjo, an Epiphone and a National, if I haven’t missed some, see the exact list here and the sample collection with how this guitar sound when emulating the guitars here.

There are a few models, Line 6 Variax 300, 600 and 700, my friend got the 700, which he said it costs around $1400 but worths every cent. The 300 and 600 models seem to have the exact same modeling features, what is different is the quality of the “outfit”.

If you also count the fact that with the use of Line 6 Workbench you can tune the strings the way you want, so you can get the drop D tuning or the open tuning without actually tunning any string other way than the standard international way, then I think you should have a look at this guitar if you haven’t already done it. I know I took a long dive into this new (for me) guitar and I must admit I would love one!

I ask myself, am I too impressed or this guitar is a must have? How do you see this? Would you buy one of these? Do you know anybody using one? Would you invest trust and money into a guitar that has actually no “real” pickups?

Can the modeling guitars be the future of electric guitars or this is just an other direction as with MIDI guitars and guitar synthesizers that will never replace “real” electric guitars?

What’s your call on this?

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These last days have been kind of slow for me. Slow, from the point of view of blogging, otherwise they have been crazy. We celebrated Easter (I am Christian Orthodox by religion, like probably 90% of the people here) and these last days me and my wife visited every possible relative because, of course, everybody was inviting and expecting us. Which is a wonderful thing, just that a bit demanding after a while…

And of course, the guys from the band asked their share, so, Costin, the lead singer, called to invite me to a barbecue at the rehearsal location (I don’t dare to call it room, cause it is not just a room, it is a building with a big yard). After 2 visits that day, I took my wife and my guitar and went to the rehearsal studio.

I can only tell you that I was part of the “team” handling the mixed grill (my wife says I still smell like smoke after taking like 4 baths) and Costin was part of the “team” handling the lamb cooked over the fire (which is way more difficult than cooking the mixed grill!). There was beer, music, food and a lot of fun! Everything was again organized under the same conditions as last time.

Everything ended up after a lot of playing the guitar, jamming and singing, around 1 o’clock AM, I think, when we decided that it was a busy day and we should all go home and take some rest. I know I needed it!

I have more stories to tell, but really, I find so little time to spend in front of my computer these days, but I will be back soon…

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Well, speaking about stage outfits…

I think this will do just fine, if you think about it, people came in for the music, right?

Or not…

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Looking again for some information on Roland GR33 guitar synthesizer, I found THIS THING, cause I have no idea how to call it. It is some kind of guitar-like instrument because it has a fretted neck and a guitar like “modus operandi”.

OK, actually it is called SynthAxe and it consists of a MIDI guitar like controller. Seems that SynthAxe was invented somewhere around 1984(?) by Bill Aitken.

If you ask yourself who would use such a thing, well, think again, my friends! And wonder! Al Di Meola had one, Allan Holdsworth had two such things!Yep! Two!

He must have had a nephew in love with guitars, I think it makes a great gift for birthdays. Look, buddy, I’ve got you a present! And it really plays! And I couldn’t resist the temptation and I’ve got one for myself too, now we could play together!! (Damn, here play has such an overloaded meaning!!!)

Here’s a video demonstration of how it actually sounds. I don’t know how playable it is, but I do appreciate the angle of the neck that gives me the impression that you can “operate” it better. Or should I say again PLAY better?

You like it? Or you have a nephew who would love such thing?

By the way, seems to cost around £10.000! Damn, an expensive gift!

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I’ve found via Dr J’s blog about a Seth Godin’s post, that I consider to be quite an interesting one. I used to read Seth Godin’s blog everyday some time ago, not that often lately, but still…

I will try to summarize here the main idea of Seth’s post, but in a guitar oriented way: what you do everyday helps you improve your playing or musical knowledge or is just “playing around”?

Personally I love to take my acoustic guitar and play a bit when I get home in the evening, it relaxes me, I think I am some kind of Einstein playing his violin in the evening. OK, I am not an Einstein, but I like the comparison…

So, when you pick your guitar, you just play whatever comes to your mind, or you play scales, try to work on some stubborn lick or just love the sound of your guitar? I know that this is heavily dependent on many things, that must be considered, like the mood, how tired you are,etc, and nobody says it’s wrong to play for relaxing in the evening, heck, I love to do that, so I couldn’t argue my own habits, you know…

But how about you? When you pick your guitar, do you practice or play?

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