A discussion today with one of my friends and long time guitar buddy made me remember a story that I have forgotten. Or at least I thought it is forgotten…

During my high school period, I went camping with a couple of friends somewhere in the neighborhood of a village. We spent there a couple of nights around the fire. I used to have long hair and of course, my acoustic guitar with me.

When we wanted to return to the city, we realized we missed the bus to get us home and the next one was leaving the second morning, so we had to spend one more night there. So we decided to spend the night in the bus station and play the guitar.

We met these 2 young ladies, sisters, that were living there, they saw us playing the guitar and they joined us in the bus station; they played and singed very well and we had a great time there. One of them told us that her boyfriend also plays the guitar and sings. Well…

During that night they sang a few songs, that I don’t remember, except one because of 2 particular reasons: the girl playing the guitar and and singing lead used a very interesting combination , going from D chord to Dm and still keeping the G key and damn, it sounded so beautiful. The second reason was a verse something like “God only has clothes for beautiful girls”.

The next morning we left and we never saw these girls again.

3-4 years later?

I was in the university this time, still wearing long hair, still playing the guitar, this time in a real band, hard rock. Of course, the night life was great, we had parties all the time, mostly in the university buildings (where students live when they are not from the city, damn, I can not find the word!!!).

Best friends. Beer. Girls. Girlfriends. Drinking parties. Guitar.

The girlfriend of one of my best friends tells me one day: you know, I have a cousin playing the guitar and he sings also, with his girlfriend, maybe we could all meet one day. Well, why not? Let’s meet. Of course, the proper occasion was an other party in the same location I can not find the name for.

So, we meet. I meet the guy, his future wife, his sister, who was part of their singing band at these parties, damn, a lot of people. We became friends, playing and singing together at every such party. We played once on the roof of the university facilities, in the middle of the night, with this friend that made me to remember this story. He also plays the guitar.

So, around 8 months pass, time when we’ve got drunk a lot of times playing the guitar and having a lot of fun. Everywhere where those parties took place, we played together.

Well…One night, the wife of my guitar friend takes the guitar and starts to sing a beautiful song where she used at a moment a D to Dm change over a verse like “God only has clothes for beautiful girls”. My eyes popped out! Where do you know this song from? Well, she says, I composed it!! My jaw dropped…Where did you say you are from? From there…Damn! Do you remember about 3-4 years ago 3 guys playing the guitar in the bus station…her eyes popped out! It was YOU?!!! YEAH, DAMN IT! IT WAS ME!!!

I should tell you that everybody around us didn’t quite understand the story, of course, after we explained it everybody made fun of us because for 8 months we didn’t recognize each other but because of a song we did…For many months this story was told to our friends who were not there the first time and of course, for for a long time everybody made fun of us.

I should tell you that I would really love to hear this song again and I think I am going to ask this (girl)friend of mine,when I will see her next time, to record it for me and send it because it seems that really marked a moment in my life.

So, how is that for a real guitar story? Huh?

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

I guess that childhood memories and heroes always haunt us over time. I guess this is the case with Aranjuez Guitar Quartet playing Pink Panther theme on classic guitars.

After the first smiles, if you have the patience to listen to it until the end, you will see they also transformed the theme a bit and improvise over a blues progression keeping the original idea. Sounds interesting.

Enjoy!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

I am sure most of you know Steve Vai’s famous 3 neck Ibanez guitar. It makes a very interesting show to watch, because, beside being the Master of The Space Guitar, Mr Vai is also the Master of Visual Appearances and I think we all know what I am speaking about.

But are you familiar with the concept of “Harpolyre”? If not, read on, watch this video and let me know what you think!

…the new classification of “fretted harp guitars” – however, I don’t want to make too much of this term, as I expect it will confuse the casual reader into thinking I consider it a type of true harp guitar. It is not. Nor is it a “triple-neck” guitar, nor a type of lyre guitar. Despite most major museums having specimens, no scholar has addressed the instrument in any detail, though many have noted the unusual tunings of the outer necks – obviously not intended for chords. Yet they are fully fretted, even extending to glued-on soundboard frets in some specimens…

Read more

Now, can you tell me where did Mr Vai get his inspiration from? Could it be this instrument?

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

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!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

You can not argue that this guy developed a strange talent…

I can’t help myself asking what actually determined him to learn to play the guitar with that damn spoon?

Now, stumble that and digg!! Thank you!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Gary of Thumbrella posted this strange 3 necks guitar on his website.

Two things I have to ask about this guitar:

1) What would you do with the middle neck? How does it sound actually, cause it has no hole under the strings.

2) Why would you put a bass guitar on the same box with a 6 string guitar? What would be the use of this?

Ah, I get it. Actually it is an ergonomic “band guitar”, you have there the solo, the rhythm and the bass guitarists playing all together on the same guitar.

And as usual, the rhythm guitar is squeezed between the solo guitar and the bass guitar and he doesn’t actually need to be heard so that’s the reason they didn’t assign him a hole.

That explains it…

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Seems that these days I am obsessed with performances that are not in the usual range of an artist. Yesterday we had Joe Satriani playing a Gibson Les Paul, today I have Michael Angelo Batio playing jazz…that’s right, people, Michael Angelo Batio without his 2 hand taping, without speed licks, Michael Angelo Bation playing jazz…

Of, course, again, a professional guitar player has more tricks in the bag, right, Jack?
But how’s that for an unusual performance?

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

There is this guy on YouTube that sings and plays an acoustic guitar so beautiful and peaceful that I couldn’t help not to become a fan as soon as I have heard him. He gives me such a warm feeling and I would listen to him for hours. I just imagine this guy has such a beautiful, rich and accomplished life because you could only sing this way if you have inner peace and you are happy with who you are…

He covers various songs, sometimes using a harmonica too, has a very beautiful calm voice and he never shows his face in those videos. Some of you may already know him from YouTube, but I don’t think it will be a problem listening him again, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, as much as I would have loved to embed a video here, he disabled this feature so I can only point you to his channel and wish you a nice audition! Here’s a short list out of his currently 96 songs:

• You’ve got a friend(James Taylor)
• King of the road(Roger Miller)
• A song for Adam( Jackson Browne)
• Let it snow

And his channel here: FretKillr

Is this guy great or what?

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Browsing a few guitar related websites I have found this website speaking, among other things, about tuning problems, especially for rock bands.

Some of them I already knew because I have observed them myself but others never crossed my mind. I must tell you the article is not a short one, but very informative, the information there is a gem and a must read for anyone who’s ever held a guitar in his hands and tried to tune it.

The man(Jack Endino) has a lot of years behind him as a rock music player and as a studio engineer and he speaks from experience. Here’s a quick extras from his website, just to open your appetite for reading further:

You know how when you plug a guitar in and pluck a string, sometimes the tuner needle (or LED display) wavers back and forth and drives you crazy? And you have to pluck it every which way before getting a “good reading” which finally “settles down?” Do these three things:

1. switch your guitar to its rhythm (neck) pickup, if it has one;
2. roll your guitar’s tone knobs all the way off, to remove all the highs; and then
3. pluck the open string right over the twelfth fret, not over the pickup. Try it; you’ll be amazed.

Read the whole article here and then come back and let me know what you think!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Today, Jon posted on his blog a review of a Doolin guitar, a very beautiful one, that I really liked. So I followed the link in order to see more. To my surprise, I have seen an other acoustic guitar that made me very curious, due to the particular design. I am speaking about Justin King’s Double-Neck Doolin acoustic guitar (kind of a long name for a strange guitar).

So, my first reaction was WTF? How can you play such a guitar? Is it for an ambidextrous guitar player? I thought that he’ll turn the guitar around and play it the other side, cause I couldn’t see any other possibility of playing it since the distance between the two necks is so small so you could never slip your hand between those 2 necks! I didn’t know Justin King plays both hands (you know what I mean)!!

Well, the video here cleared it all and revealed an other extreme playing technique of an amazing guitar player on a strange guitar!

Enjoy!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It