Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars

This is wicked! 2 Japanese musicians playing rock music on those guitar-like traditional instruments! I must admit, they made my day and I watched this video twice (so far)!

I especially loved the energy and dedication!

Aren’t these guys great, or what?

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I discovered Dusty Ciggaar (what a name!) reading JP’s Stratoblogster blog and I was very surprised to see how well this guy knows his way around the guitar. He seems to be only 17 now but has such a fluency and feeling, plus the fact that he has some complex licks that are not everybody’s chops, if you know what I mean.

The videos I have seen featured him playing at 15 yo so the guy has this in him since a long time.

For the moment I don’t know much about Dusty Ciggaar, I have seen on MySpace he plays in a band called Rhythm Chiefs and they do it good! He lives in Netherlands and this year appeared on a jazz compilation and man,this guy is all booked up!

Dusty Ciggaar won ALL age categories of the Sena Guitar Awards when he was just 14 years old! Imagine that!

I would have loved to put here the first song on his MySpace page, at http://www.myspace.com/dustyfc, but I can not. So, you go there and listen that first melody cause it really made me blue. The picture with Jimmy Vaughan stands as an interesting social proof! I wish I had such a picture myself

Enjoy!

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Today I had to take my wife to the local county hospital for a minor surgery, she needs to remove a limp on her wrist. What made me write this here is the fact that we went to the same hospital, same floor, same doctor that operated me 10 years ago for a cut tendon on my left hand.

It was funny(in a not so funny way) to see again those places after ten years because they brought back so many unpleasant memories. I remember I was thinking about how my life as a guitar player is over and how I won’t be able to play the guitar again. How would I play the guitar with an injured tendon on my left hand? What should I do?

I had a couple of ideas while recovering from the surgery, like trying to play left handed, but I would have needed to start all over again learning the guitar and all those processes in my brain needed to be reversed also…I have also considered starting playing drums since I used to love playing drums at that moment.

The good thing is that after the surgery I was able to recover well and I’ve got back to playing the guitar. In the beginning I remember my pinky had no speed and precision, I wanted it to press a particular fret at a particular molment but my pinky used to think something else.

But after a while, I’ve got back to normal(I still have an issue with that finger but I have managed to live with it) and playing the guitar actually was the best thing I could have done since I needed exercising that finger and guitar playing gave me all the reasons in the world to do that while actually playing. By the way, 4 fingers playing sucks big time!

So today, while seeing again those places made me remember all these and how the doctor said that comparing to the patients there, I have not such a big problem(and how right she was) and she will do her best because I play the guitar. Thank God I do!

PS: My wife still haven’t had the surgery due to doctor being very busy today with urgencies so I am going to go there tomorrow again. Brrrr….

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Kind of related to the post of a few days ago, I have thought about this reading IG’s last post where he has this guitar noodle as he calls it. Interesting piece, made me ask myself what would I have uploaded in his place?

The song he uploaded there is a nice piece, with 2 tracks, but can not be categorized as solo and rhythm, but more like 2 rhythm guitar tracks playing together creating a nice warm feeling. Now, did you notice that when you ask a guitar player to record something, on his own, he will probably go for a solo over rhythm piece?

I am actually more and more interested these days in lovely rhythm parts, than solo parts. Solo is good, everybody loves solo guitar tracks, I know I do and you probably love them also since you read these lines. But in some cases, a good rhythm piece is way better than the solo part, for the overall weight of the song.

Now, if I would ask you to record and upload something, what would you go for?

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Last night I was at a wedding party. Actually, it was all day long cause a cousin of my wife’s got married, but what made me write this post was the actual party, not the paperwork or religious service.

So, a short overview of what Romanian wedding music means: usually there are 2 main traditional dance styles in Romania that are suited for weddings, a faster one and a middle paced one. Both have speed variations, but basically these are the 2 main, period, both being traditional folkloric dances. There are also other regional variations, but wherever you go in Romania, if you are going to take part to a wedding, you’d better know to dance these 2.

Now, what this has got to do with music? All the (traditional)songs can be adapted to fit these 2 dance styles so you get to a point where no matter what you are singing, it works on one of these 2 styles. Both are 4/4 so it’s not that difficult. If you have seen my previous post about Romanian folkloric music you will understand me better. They both dance in large circles, usually a lot of people participate to these circles.

Now to get to my point: there was this band on stage, playing, when I got there. I didn’t give them too much attention since I was already tired and frankly I was also hungry, after a long day of running around with the groom and bride and barely waiting for the food.

But at one moment, the band managed to get my attention since they managed to play some common songs on a totally different rhythm than the original one. The original song had a rhythm where the singer had enough room to breath. Musically speaking, a song needs breaks, pauses for the voice, a song can not have the lyrics chained one to the other, since nobody will understand anything from it. Well, this was the case with a few songs there. Imagine a fast paced dance, fast measures, where one sentence ends at the end of the measure and the next one starts right in the beginning of the next one, forced by the rhythm.

This was a mistake, since they forced these songs on a rhythm that was not the original one. Honestly I couldn’t understand why they did it since the original songs were quite good, very known and were very “danceable”, which is always a good thing at weddings.

Well, now comes the second part of my frustration: given these fast measures and lyrics that ended at the exact end of the measure, the singer actually didn’t have the time to start the next verse in the beginning of the next measure, on the first beat because she needed to breath, so…she let one more beat to go!! So, instead of starting on the first beat of the second measure, she started on the 2nd or on the 3rd, starting counting an other measure from there!!

For me it was frustrating, even if I didn’t pay too much attention to them, the songs have a fluency and a rhythm that leads you and you start feeling it at one point. When the measures are not well respected, you feel it effortlessly. I guess it has to do with your inner mathematical/musical sense.

After a while I realized this girl that was singing had quite a habit of not counting the beats in measures, even if she had all the time in the world to breath. So, it was quite frequent to start singing on the 2nd or 3rd beat instead of the first beat of the next measure and start counting from there and this happened no matter the rhythm of the song. For God’s sake, woman, count! Damn it!

I remember I had an experience with a girl singing in my band about 10 years ago, we had this song that had 8 measures in the beginning of it, measures that had a particular meaning, a melody that justified those exact 8 measures there! Well, she didn’t count too well, almost each time we played that song, on stage, she counted till 4 or 6 instead of 8 and started singing. The only good thing it was the fact that the chord was the same as the one where she should have started singing so we quickly played along exchanging glances! Damn, woman, count! Damn it!

Well, after a few bottles of wine with friends and family, these things were overcome, since overall, the singer didn’t sing flat or anything like this, she had a good voice, I think her math was not very good(considering counting beats in a 4/4 measure), or breathing sense, but they kept a good spirit for the audience and the songs were good.

I came back in the morning with a small headache, but not because of the music. This was from the Whiskey and wine, I guess. Too many glasses of wine?

But, well, again…who’s counting? Damn it, woman!

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Stage names are usual and after a while using them, nobody actually remembers the real name behind the artist. It would be very interesting to take a little quiz here… Let’s see:

1) Name the English singer, guitar player and songwriter born on 30 September 1947, become very famous in English rock music in the 70’s and died in the year I was born. Well, nobody said it is going to be easy, ok? Real name: Mark Feld, hint: Jurassic Park.

2) Name the guy behind the name Paul David Hewson. Born in 1960 in Dublin, raised in Dublin also, became one of the most influential lead singers of present day. Hint: humanitarian work, involvement, military outfit

3) Name the American singer and songwriter that was born in 1948 under the name Vincent Furnier (that’s funny, his name really does not represent him at all!) whose career spans five decades.The stage show features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood and boa constrictors. Hint: paint,horror,recorded an “aria” of the world famous Jesus Christ Superstar but not being part of the original show.

4) Now that’s old, you fans of vintage things must know this one: born in 1936, died in 1959, pioneer of rock and roll, inspiration source for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The name: Charles Hardin Holley. Hint: Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 13 on a list of 100 most influential artists of all time. That must mean something, right?

5) Ooo, this is good: Lars Lannerback. Really good! Guess the man! Born in 1963, icon of rock music, I won’t say the style cause you’ll nail it at once, reports he was “born”(as a guitar player) the day Jimi Hendrix died. Hint: Fender, scalloped fretboard, Speedy Gonzales

6) Another tricky one: Farrokh Bulsara. Would you believe this guy is one of the most famous rock singers!? Born in 1946 in Zanzibar, died, but again, I don’t say the year. Trademarked voice, trademarked band style, stage presence, shows. Hint: not of the stone age, trademarked guitar for his famous band mate, big shows, George Michael, Paul Rodgers, teeth

7) Born 1947, James Newell Osterberg, Jr is an American singer, songwriter and an occasional actor. Considered to be an innovator of punk rock and garage rock, he is sometimes referred to by the nicknames “the Godfather of Punk” and “the Rock Iguana”, and is widely acknowledged as one of the most dynamic stage performers, as Wikipedia says. Hint: bare-chested

After being one of the most famous rock singers around, William Bailey got into a long period of struggling, studio work and re-branding. Turbulent, left the stage more than once, unique, inimitable voice, he is the branded voice of some of the most famous hits in modern rock music. Hint: Dr Pepper,13 years

9) Born in 1958, Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna, Jr. is an American bassist, author, photographer, and the main songwriter for the rock band…na, na, na…it won’t be that easy! He usually plays Gibson Thunderbird Reverse Basses, and had his own signature bass produced by Gibson. Hint: 12-string basses, Playboy

10) Name the guitar player born in 1967 as Jeffrey Phillip Wiedlandt. Tough, rugged look, branded Gibson guitar, unique playing style, a worldwide guitar icon, he is most known for his work with some…let’s say TV reality show star…Hint: bulls-eye,his biggest influence is the very guitar player he replaced in the same band. Now that is interesting…

So, let me hear you! Who are those guys? Do you know your stuff? By the way, Stumble and Digg me!

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Yesterday a Carrefour hypermarket was launched in my city and of course, my wife just needed to be there, the same way she had to be there for the other 4-5 hypermarkets when they were launched. Of course, me and a friend of mine (his wife was there with mine) were angry like hell, we didn’t have where to park, I have never seen so many cars in one single place, cars parked on the sides of the highway, in curve, on every possible exit. At one moment, my friend had to stop and turn back because his car was too large to go on one street that had cars parked on the sides…Imagine that.

Now, in the middle of this parking hell, there was that stage installed where our local Shakin’ Stevens played his nationwide hits!No kiddin’, we have our own local Shakin’ Stevens the same way we have all kind of worldwide bands adapted to our local cultural environment.

I don’t speak about impersonators, no, I speak about artists that build their image taking as a model one artist or another from the “western” culture. It is very interesting to see how a musical market that started virtually with no “new” artist develops day by day by adding new “modeled” artists.

It is interesting because there is still room. You can look around, see what is not covered in Romania and build a new artist by a template borrowed from western markets. Why not, if it works and brings money? Plus that it kind of gives you a direction, a niche, your own place on this already crowded artistic world, right? Well, it is not that frequent anymore, at artist level, but at song level, I am still amused when I realize one song or another are composed to match some western artist style or sound…

I guess this process is very common on markets that are not yet well developed. As one of my band mates and long time friend, used to say, when a company does not know what to do, copies an other one. It works well in music too.

Well, don’t get me wrong, as any other “consumer”, I fall for this too, I like this guy’s music. His name is Stefan Banica Jr. He sings, dances, plays guitar and piano, but first he is a respected actor, a very known one here, he has a huge visibility, also due to his late father who was a very respected actor long before his son came to being, plus that he is the moderator of “So you think you can dance” franchised show here!

I was amused at first when I have seen his glowing stage outfits, seemed so aged to me(the costumes, not him, since he is around 40 yo),  but after a short while I realized it is part of a bigger image. He gathered around him great musicians, one of the best guitar players in Romania, Nicu Patoi, a big band, with trumpets and stuff…Whatever. Every year he has this big Christmas concert where women go nuts for him. And yes, he makes a lot of money, he is one of the best sold artists here. And he produces hits, which is always a desirable thing.

I am actually curious, did you observe in your corner of the world this kind of “modeled” development of the local music market?

Anyway, here’s one of the hits our local rock’n'roll artist used to break the hearts of so many women here…

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I have seen a lot of guitar players that play rock, blues or jazz having not so good opinions about alternative music bands, nu metal, etc. The fact is that I had myself my share of fast judgment related to some bands and honestly I feel bad for kind of rushing into judging them. Now, after this small mea culpa, let me tell you the point of this post: we work since a few days a song that is new and at the same time, old, meaning that it has been composed about 4-5 years ago, has been played a few times, but then kind of forgotten. Now we try to bring new life to it.

The fact is that we used to refer to this song by the name Rolling, as in Limp Bizkit’ Rolling due to drum line. Now, when I started playing the guitar line, I realized I need something new, some new approach, to match the drums and the bass line. Everything must sound new, I need some strange sounds, some interesting chords to dress up a very simple progression, Em, C, D…

I have started to listen Limp Bizkit, Korn, Guano Apes to see how they do it and what makes them sound the way they do. Beside the over processed guitar, in most cases, the chords use some interesting forms and turns, that, again, don’t come naturally to me, but surely provoke me.

I have come up with something that IMO sounds as it should, but I kept on thinking about this.

Actually, modern music, nu metal, alternative music, all these are not simple to create, despite what an experienced guitar player might think at a first glance. I am sure that if you are used to play pentatonic scales, blues and fast solos, you might face a problem trying to put up a simple alternative song, because your brain doesn’t think that way.

The fact is that I was listening yesterday, I think, something on YT, but I don’t remember where or what, I just remember what the guy said: “they don’t have the experience, so young people can not do anything else but being creative!”

I can’t help thinking about Metallica and that album that changed their musical direction a few years ago, I presume it was not easy for them to be creative on a new musical direction, preserving at the same time their branded sound.

So, let’s do the following exercise and then come back and comment here: listen one of the new bands that you hear these days (I don’t speak about Blink 182, OK?), take Guano apes or Korn and try to come up with a few riffs that match their music. Put yourself in the place of their guitar player and try to enrich the song.

Well, do you still think it is easy? The interesting part is that it is not about technical knowledge, even if a good chords theory helps a lot, but it is about creativity and breaking new grounds! And if you think at one moment that if it is just about power chords, listen carefully again

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Because I haven’t had a “poll” here in a while, today’s question is how much is enough when we count the power of an amp for a “regular” rehearsal room?

Let’s define the conditions: regular rehearsal room, let’s say 7-8m long, 7-8 m wide, regular height, I guess, about 2.45 m(?) and a “regular” band, something like drums, bass, 1 guitar, 1 keyboard, 1-2 microphones.

So, considering these conditions(that you may adjust to fit your “regular” image of a rehearsal room/band), how much would you consider it would be enough for a guitar amp? Would 75 watts do it? Or do you need 100 watts? Or 50 watts will do the trick also?

Keep in mind I speak here about distinguishing your guitar from the rest, in a “constructive” way, not making as much noise as possible so nobody else could be heard beside you…

Also, would the same wattage work for the bass amp too, or is it different?

How about for a 2 guitars band, does it change anything? What other parameters should be considered? Walls type? Drummer madness? Music style? Amp type? Number of speakers? Types of speakers? What else?

Let me hear you!

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Well, what can I say more than this month has been very quiet. I had other things to do and I kind of lost my enthusiasm regarding my dare, even if I should never ever lose it if I want to reach that target.

Not much happened, I had around 10.000 visitors but constant traffic, I had only 1 small spike, on 15, of 507 visitors which is not much.

This month I focused more on monetizing the traffic, and this is not an easy task for a blog, since the traffic for a blog is so much different compared to search engine traffic.

I have managed to make the fabulous amount of $133.5 using various sources, like AdSense, affiliates and direct sold advertising space. I can say I made this money from music, isn’t it?

So, to make a long story short, statistics go like this:

• 9805 visitors
• 10.804 visits
• 15.233 page views
• 1.41 Pages/Visitor
• 143 RSS subscribers
• $133.5

Also, in case you are new here and want to find out the story from day 1, here’s the 4th report which will lead you to the rest of the story.

Ah, and yes, again, if you are new here, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feeds! Thanks!

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