I don’t know why, following the 2 articles of a few days ago about Metallica, I started to ask myself a few questions like what is Jason Newsted doing now? So I looked on YT and found a couple of videos with him playing with Ozzy and then from a suggested link, I found this video, a short overview of how Metallica found the new bass player, Robert Trujillo.

Very cool video, I must admit, I had a great time watching it so I said why not share it with you here? So, here it is, in case you don’t know it already!

I found it very interesting that the guys from Metallica were not looking for skills, since I guess at that level, they are all there, but they were looking for THE VIBE…

By the way, considering the fact that there are other bass players in this video from well known bands, isn’t it a bit embarrassing for them to be in that video? I mean, man, I saw you in that video…you didn’t make it…

What do you think?

Hey, I just realized, the blond guy in the video, with the band, is the same one that sleeps on the sofa in Nothing else matters, right(Bob Rock)? Man, watching again the video of Nothing else matters made me remember why I love Metallica…

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I was listening a radio show in my car while coming here and the guy there war reviewing Metallica’s new record from his personal point of view and I realized that I haven’t listened anything from that record so far. I think I just missed it. Also I don’t watch that much music oriented television these days due to the current trends in music so if it was on TV(and I guess it was), I missed it also.

But intrigued by the review of this guy, from which I strongly remember 2 things, the fact that the record has an intentionally rugged sound, not heavily edited, to preserve the spirit and that guitar solos are back, I looked for a video on YT and I found this one, The day that never comes.

I must say I love Metallica’s ballads, I even liked the sound change on ReLoad, but this song…I don’t get it.

It doesn’t have anything, doesn’t bring anything to me, I think that if it wouldn’t be the video I would not even have the patience to listen it to the end. To me, it sounds like something done in a moment when they had no inspiration to write a good song. I will try to listen some more songs, maybe I just don’t like this one but I will find others that I will like, but this one, being promoted, it should be one of the representative songs for the album, one to make you buy the new record.

Is it me or you feel the same about it?

PS: However, something’s going on, 8 minutes song, rock solo, thrashy/speed riffs, rock feeling. No melody, but hey, maybe it’s just me.

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I must admit I didn’t know Sonny Landreth until yesterday, so when I found an article about him on npr.org naming him a guitarist’s guitarist, I just had to find out who this guy was.

Also, I am not a big fan of slide guitar, I like to listen when used in a good song but I am not much into it, I guess also because of the alternative tuning. Whatever. But Sonny Landreth got my attention with his style of playing right from the start. As npr.org says:

Most guitarists rest the slide on the strings over the frets to create a quavering, fluid sound. They pluck the strings above the guitar’s sound hole. Landreth does that, finger-picking in a Chet Atkins style, but he also plays chords, as he says, on the “wild side” of the slide — up on the neck — creating what John Hiatt calls “ghost notes.
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But there’s more. Landreth has perfected a tremolo using the palm of his hand as a baffle over the sound hole, which he combines with the notes behind the glass. “Kind of an accordion effect,” he says. “So you can manipulate the sound with the motion of your palm.”
(Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95101083)

This made me dive a bit more into this guy and I looked for him on YT. I found a couple of videos that are quite amazing, him playing with Eric Clapton, with Jeff Beck, with Mark Knopfler and also a lot other great solo performances. Actually he released 9 CDs of his own already so he has a lot to say I guess in a solo performance.

Maybe some of you know him, maybe some other don’t, so here are two YT videos, pay attention to his right hand….

PS: I really like the song in the first video and I also like his voice. In the beginning I wanted to only add a video, then I’ve got charmed by this song so I just put both here.

Also, here’s Sonny Landreth’s site, www.sonnylandreth.com.

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I was always very intrigued by bands (rock bands) that grow as economical entities, and here I could think here of Iron Maiden which is told to own quite a bit of possessions (lands, investments), the plane that Bruce flies, etc.

Another example is Metallica which took their business very seriously and restricted the usage of their name (which is trademarked, OK, no issue here) in a very aggressive way. Maybe you remember the lipstick issue of 1-2 years ago, with that lipstick manufacturer that named his latest product Metallica. Bad business idea…

The reason I started this post is a news about Robert Trujillio who had a business deal with Fernandes Guitars long before joining Metallica, Fernandes Guitars being allowed to use Trujillo’s image in promotional materials, while providing him a load of custom bass guitars.

I don’t know the exact terms of the contract, but I do know that Metallica has a long going contract with ESP Guitars, which you probably are already aware of (who wouldn’t be!); I remember a large poster I had on my room wall about 10 years ago with Hetfield playing an ESP, moment when I was actually very interested in ESP guitars. Whatever…

Now, coming back to the point, Metallica sent Fernandes Guitars a cease and desist letter demanding them to no longer use Robert Trujillo’s name…

Here in Romania we have a saying: what came first? The egg or the chicken?

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Some time ago in this post here I had a video with Stanley Jordan playing Stairway to heaven in his unmistakable style.

Today I decided to post another video of Stanley Jordan playing Autumn leaves.

I really like that song and I am impressed with his style a lot, from the first second I have seen him playing, however I can not stop asking myself if he really plays guitar there. I guess he had a secret passion for playing the piano…

By the way, I don’t like the suit. Is it a jazz thing or what?

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GuitarMx speaks today about “Chickenfoot” project and that is what started me…

If you are not familiar with Chickenfoot, well, let’s say that it’s going to be a 4 stars band, and I don’t mean like 4 out of 5 possible stars. I am referring to the fact that Joe Satriani will be playing the guitar, Sammy Hagar, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith will complete the band. Of course, each of you may see it from an other angle, but me, I look at it from the point of view of the guitar player: Satriani will be there.

OK, now I ask myself if this project will actually become a real band or it will be just a fun thing to do while on holiday. If I well remember, Red Hot Chili Peppers took a 1 year holiday, by the way…

They say that the sound is close to early Zeppelin, not quite my music, if you know what I mean, but frankly it will be fun to listen Satch and his airspace guitar playing Zeppelin-like music, it’s something totally different than what Satriani used us to listen.

I think it will make a very interesting experiment, considering Satriani never-ending quest for out-of-this-world sound. It will be interesting to put this new record they will produce (seems they will go in the studio now) next to Satriani’s digital Engines of Creation, I guess we won’t even find common grounds for comparing them.

I ask myself, will we recognize Satriani on this record? Satriani has one of the most recognizable guitar sound and way of playing in this world but this is exactly because he adopted this futuristic music. Early Zeppelin music means 68-75(?), let’s say, and this is not an era where Satriani’s music will fit…

But I am sure it will be a great experiment and I am looking forward to listening it, since no matter what it will be close to, the value of these people got together for an album is a guarantee for some good songs.

What’s your opinion on this one?

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This morning, GuitarMX blog features a video about how to play Pantera’s song Walk. While the video is great and you can actually learn the riffs there, the subject of this post is about what Dennis Hodges, the instructor teaching the song, said about the tuning Dimebag Darrell used for that song and for the whole album actually.

As Dennis Hodges says, Dimebag Darrell and the bass player started at one moment to tune the guitars down a quarter of a step! However, for this very song they are also tuned down a full step so in order to correctly play the song along with the tape, you need to tune your guitar down 1 step and a quarter! Damn!

While tuning it down one full step does not intrigue me, there are various reasons for which they would do it, from heavier sounds to putting less pressure on the lead singer, I am intrigued by that quarter of a step! Imagine you need to tune your guitar so your low E string is right between D# and E! Now, why would they do such thing?

What could be the reason for this? Somebody put some light on this for me, please!

By the way, I dare you tune your guitar this way without using an electronic guitar tuner! Ha!

Also, if you watch the video on GuitarMx site, pay attention at the end of it how the guy in the video uses his fingers to go from a G to a G#. I just noticed it because I didn’t understand at first why is he playing that way…He uses fingers 1 and 3 for the G chord and right next to it 2 and 4 for the G# chord. I would have gone forward half a step but his chords make an interesting moment to watch and talk about!

Buy from Amazon:
Razorback Dimebag Classic Black w/case
Cowboys from Hell
Vulgar Display of Power

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One of the things that I really think about for a long time is what skills a performing artist needs on stage and I am not speaking here about musical skills, studies, licks or tricks …

Be an entertainer

What I speak here about is social skills, that quality that separates a singer, a guitar player, a musician from a real performing entertainer (in the good sense of the word). And before jumping to slap me because you didn’t study long years how to play the guitar just to entertain people, think about it for a moment.

Entertaining people does not mean necessarily making them laugh, OK? It means making people feel good at your shows, no matter you are Sepultura, Iron Maiden or Shakira. Think about Manowar and the motorcycles they use in some of their shows when going on stage, think about ACDC and Angus Young’s almost trademarked jump.

I know that some of you may think that music is what really matters, not acting foolish on stage, but in my opinion that matters also. It matters because it is part of THE SHOW, it is part of the whole thing going on there.

We have here a band where the lead singer is also an actor. It helps. It really helps. The guy does not have the best voice, he has range, OK, has a particular sound of his voice that differentiate him, has good songs, but he often sings flat on stage, loses his air and he really couldn’t care less because what he does on stage is not singing, is acting, is performing, is entertaining the audience.

What makes them different is, beside the songs, the fact that they seem to live every moment on stage and the public feels it very well…I have paid some thinking about this since we don’t have this on stage every time and we should really invest some time in this.

Teaming the beast

Also, speaking about social skills, I guess one of those skills you really need (at least at first) is the capacity to overcome unpleasant moments.

I remember one interview of two famous Romanian stand-up comics performing together. They were explaining how in one of their shows, in a club, some guy from the public started to make fun of them and didn’t want to stop. At one moment, one of the artists kind of blocked not knowing how to answer to what the guy from the audience was screaming at them, moment when the other comic, with over 20 years experience in this, decided to answer back and shut the mouth of the poor bastard in everybody’s laughing. Call it experience, but it is also part of those social skills you need on stage.

At one moment we had such a show where it was a mixed audience, rock and hip hop (small town, not that many bands, make a show, call everyone there. Bad idea!). At one moment hip hop fans started to throw things on stage at rock bands. Hip hop fans are not hard rock fans and will probably never be…well…

The reason that started this post is a video with Paul Gilbers and a stage “moment” he handled great! Take a look and let me know what you think!

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A very interesting thing I didn’t know about: the Xavian scale, Steve Vai’s “own” scale. Well, did you know about that? A very interesting topic that I have never thought about. Really, it shows you how deeply involved in his music Steve Vai really is.

For me, all those scales out there contains some of the same 12 notes in a “standard” chromatic scale and honestly I have never thought about another way of dividing the space between 2 octaves. Well, I guess somebody else did…

Think about taking this available “space” and divide it in another number of equal intervals, not in 12 as we commonly know. Divide it in 10 spaces, or in 8, or in 9, or in 20 spaces…whatever… The result? Well, you could name it “another chromatic scale”, I guess. This is exactly what Steve Vai did: took this space and divided it in 16 equal spaces and then, by experimenting a lot, he took 10 notes out of 16 and built his “own scale”, Xavian. Speaking about playing like Steve Vai…

Of course, you won’t be able to do this with a regular guitar, no matter how good you are, since it is not built for this. Vai couldn’t do it either so he asked Steve Ripley to build such a 16 intervals guitar for him. He also has a 24 intervals guitar…

Seems that Deep down into the pain song is the only record where he actually used the Xavian scale. Listen closely the end of the song. I know that Steve Vai uses strange modes all over his music, but his own scale with notes outside the known Universe, man, that’s weird…

What do you think about this? Read more about this here and come back and comment, I would like to know your thoughts on this!!

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One of the things I deeply admire at great guitar players and great musicians in general is the capacity to express so many nuances in their music in a few simple notes and it has always been a dare and a constant quest for me to express this.

The reason that started this post is actually Dream Theater. I really love their song “Another day” and each time I listen it I find myself charmed by all those nuances there…Listen for example the starting riffs, 3 simple notes or the solo guitar theme/intro or even the drums!

Now that I have started this, I think that if I would need to define Dream Theater in one single word, that would be NUANCES, nuances all over. This is actually the result of their musical studies at Berklee School of Music, result of theory and practice, I’d say, and I guess that even if you are not a big fan of progressive rock you agree with me that no other rock band can be represented by this word better than Dream Theater: nuances…

Here’s Another day for you! Enjoy and comment!

Am I right or what?

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