Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars

I was telling you a couple of days ago about the fact that we (the band) intend to record a few songs to put them together on an album. I have already been to a recording studio in Bucharest to speak to the guy there, who’s the keyboard player of a quite popular band here in Romania, Spin where a buddy of mine plays the guitar. He actually pointed us to this studio, they also record there. Of course, when it is your studio it would be strange to go to the neighbor…

Me and the guys spoke about recording this album and finding a record company to produce it/publish it and here our ideas went apart…Me and the other guitar player wanted to contact a producer to put his/her mark on the record since a bit more experience never hurts while the lead singer doesn’t want to hear about it. And I really know why: we had 4 such experiences with producers over the years and everybody wanted a different thing, in the end doing nothing but making us lose our direction and this is bad… You actually need a direction, one of your own and stick to it.

So we got to the idea to build a website (doh!) and publish what we record there, on YouTube and other similar sites and forget everything about recording companies. Original, huh? I guess nobody did it before, right?!!

I guess making yourself known is what really matters after all, if you sign with a record label that does nothing but keep you in a closet, doesn’t help you too much, right? Better to make yourself known to the public using other media channels such as the internet. And if you manage to come up with a few good songs you could be spotted and signed by somebody.

The fact is that we really want to do this since at a moment we took kind of a break, then re-united with new forces, new gear and started to make music again.

We decided to cover also a few good songs that we like and this is not something that we used to do, I can tell you in the past we only covered 1 or 2 songs, it was all about our songs.

When we reunited we decided to cover a bunch of songs to glue together again and I can’t say it hurt. By the way, Costin, the lead singer just sent me an SMS, he is an club where a buddy plays and he says the atmosphere is great and tries to arrange a show for next week. Now, in a club you definitively need covers…

Also, since we decided to record something, I came up with 2 new songs that are not bad at all, seems I didn’t lose it completely

So, I just wanted to post that here so you know I didn’t completely vanished…

I just have things to do but I need to get in shape soon!

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Yesterday evening we were part of a cultural event: my buddy and band mate Costin released his 3rd poetry book!

It’s a very interesting side of culture, I am a musician and I am also a keen amateur photographer but poetry is something a bit outside my regular interest area so being part of such an event is always great since it opens new worlds to me and makes me aware there’s something more around us! Plus that I know the artist, I took the pictures and I designed the poster and the invitations. So I was also involved in this, in a way.

I don’t know much about poetry to I won’t dare say anything about the book itself, there were 2 critics there that did their jobs when presenting the book.

And of course, because the poet is also a musician we also had good guitar music to create the mood. The guitar player in the pictures below is an old friend, a very interesting and complex guitar player, I always liked to joke asking him if he still uses all of the available chords in every single song he composes

He always answers me he does…

By the way, the guitar here brings back some nice memories since he lent it to me when recording one of our songs that is very dear to us.  He promised to give it to me again when recording since the guitar has a lovely, clear sound. The guitar is a Cort, I would recommend it to anyone.

That’s about it, guys! I go to bed now since it is late and I think I got a cold since my back muscles hurt when I move and my eyes too…

See you tomorrow!

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Thanks to Jason Nocera, I give you again another comic strip with our friends Buddy and Hopkins.

Enjoy!

And remember, for Funny Music T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers and Mugs Visit The Buddy and Hopkins Online Store!

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Seems I haven’t updated my blog since a good while, haven’t I? Well, I feel I owe you, my readers a few words about it.

Here it goes:

Last week the company I used to work for just died. Period. The administrators decided that given the difficult economic period we are all facing, the best thing to do is close the company or at least freeze it for the time being. This being said, here’s the unemployment notification and off you go!

Well, honestly I have been expecting this since a while since the new management didn’t show many signs they can put the company where it should have been. I mean, beside Everything is going to be OK and we have trust in the team and we are going to bring contracts, not much happened.

Just for the record, we used to be a team of .NET developers that had a quite high technical specialization, developing over the years programs that were quite complex. Personally I have worked in this company since 2002 and for 6 years I have been part of a research project that was very interesting and complex.

Now, everything is down and dust sets over the whole thing.

As I was saying, I can’t say I was too upset since I was expecting this since a while. I don’t know, you just see it and feel it coming.

The period is not good also, we are right before winter holidays, it is a difficult time to find work, no matter you are looking for a job or for a contract on your own. Which, by the way, it is what I have decided to do.

I have decided to not look for work anymore, the whole thing pissed me off, the company kind of took every bit of energy I had, the whole process of closing the company was a mess and a pitiful thing to do. Not because of the situation itself but for the people involved in the process. Whatever.

So, I have decided to work for myself, to find jobs and to live the dream, my friends!! I have decided to go on my own way, as an entrepreneur and do my own things.

I will keep you posted on this one, I don’t wanna talk much about it for the moment.

From another point of view, my baby girl who just turned 7 months old yesterday suffered a pneumonia (I still wonder why that happened) and I had to put her in the hospital, Ani, my wife stayed with her there and myself too for 2 full days, then I started to also leave for short periods since I had things to do, but generally speaking, 5 days were just lost from all points of view, trying to put our wonderful baby girl on her feet. Hypotetically speaking since she doesn’t yet stand.

So, those being said, not much reasons to blog, is it? But I plan to come back to bloging since I have another reason to do it: we plan to record a few good songs and put them together as an album. There.

We have already spoken to the studio, I will speak again with the guys there on Monday, we are trying to go in the studio somewhere in December to start recording. Most of the songs will be old songs that we will try to record in a trully professional way but we also have some new material.

I will keepp you posted on this one also.

Meanwhile whish me luck and I will keep you posted.

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Again, Jason Nocera sent me one of his wonderful comic strips with our two guitar buddies, Buddy and Hopkins. I started to look forward for his strips every week now.

And remember to visit Buddy and Hopkins online store

This is funny, if you consider we have a band here in Romania called Free beer…

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Some time ago I have decided to post here guest posts from other fellow guitar bloggers, hoping this will bring something now to the table, different from what I usually write about. So, this being said, today I will post here an article of Anton Emery, the Community Manager of http://www.RhythmStrummer.com. This site offers easy guitar lessons in a fun & patient atmosphere, taught by teachers who care. Students learn songs & technique lessons across a variety of genres, including Folk, Country, and Classic Rock- all with NO advertising.

Anton sent me today an article about an overview of different tonewoods for acoustic guitar and I am happy to post it here today, hoping we would all learn something from it. Enjoy and comment!

To the beginner buying an acoustic guitar can be an over whelming decision. They come in a myriad of body shapes, all with different specifications and woods. How are you supposed to know what makes one better than the other? In this article we will look at some of the various tone woods that acoustic guitars are made of, and how they impact the sound.

First off I want to say that tone is a very subjective. The words and images I use to describe tone may be different than the ones you use. So while these kinds of articles are good as a guide, there is no substitute for your own experiences and using your own ears. Go out and play a bunch of guitars and be your own judge in the end.

Acoustic guitars generally use one type of wood for the top, and another type of wood for the back and sides. Occasionally you may see one type of wood for the back, and another for the sides, but usually they are the same.

Top Woods

Spruce is by far the most common top wood. It comes in many varieties including Sitka, Englemann, and Adirondack, to name a few. It is a sturdy, stable wood with a high strength to weight ratio, well suited for guitar tops.

Sitka spruce is a good all around wood, being to stand up to heavy strumming and picking, but on the right guitar also being responsive enough for a light fingerstyle player. Of course a lot of this is dependent on how the guitar is built and braced. Sitka spruce has a very loud strong tone, with a decent amount of sustain. I feel as a top wood it tends to emphasize the fundamentals more than the overtones, but there is enough there to keep the sound interesting.

Engelmann spruce is lighter in weight and less stiff than sitka. It responds well to a lighter attack, resulting in a more immediate sound, and one more lush with overtones than the other varieties of spruce. Folks say that Engelmann does not hold up as well to heavy strumming. I can’t verify this, I only know I have really enjoyed the Engelmann topped that I have played fingerstyle. I have a pretty light attack, so they seem to suit me quite well.

Appalachian or red spruce was widely used before World War II. A lot of the great pre war Martin guitars are topped with red spruce. Then the wood was over harvested and folks began switching over to sitka. Red spruce is a fairly heavy and stiff wood. It has good volume, a lot of dynamic range, and generally favors the fundamentals though also includes a good amount of overtones in the sound. Red spruce is generally very expensive as guitar top, and usually only available as an upgrade.

Besides spruce, cedar is another fairly common top wood seen on acoustic guitars. It is much softer than spruce, and more prone to nicks and dings. The appealing thing about cedar is it sounds rich and played in from the start. It responds very well to a light attack, and is a popular top wood among fingerstyle guitar players. Cedar top with rosewood back and sides will make for a very rich and deep sounding guitar right from the start. If you want a lot of clarity and note separation this may not be the ideal top wood for you. Some folks say cedar does not hold up that well to vigorous strumming or a harder attack, and that the sound breaks up or gets muddy. I can’t verify this for myself.

Irish guitarist John Doyle plays a cedar topped Lowden and he is quite a rocking player.

Another topwood you will see sometimes is Redwood. It is said to be the best of both worlds, combining the sensitivity and richness of cedar with the durability and volume of spruce. Folks I know who have redwood topped guitars rave about them, so definitely worth checking out.

Back and Side woods

One of the most common side woods is Rosewood. It has a lot of, richness, volume, and sustain that many players find very appealing. Indian rosewood is the most common and available choice these days. Brazillian Rosewood is another option, though it is a very expensive upgrade. It is illegal to import Brazillian Rosewood logs now, so most of the supply that guitar builders have is from before the ban, making it very limited and desirable.

The other common back and side wood is Mahogany. It is lighter and less dense than rosewood. In my opinion mahogany is kind of under valued as a guitar wood, with folks usually opting for the richer sounding rosewood. Obviously this depends on the sound you want and playing style, but mahogany is a very fine back and side wood. It will have a drier, more fundamental sound than rosewood, with good clarity and note separation. Paired with either a spruce or cedar top a guitar with mahogany back and sides will be a good recording instrument, with a clear fundamental sound easily captured by the mics. Often rich sounding rosewood guitars are great sounding to the player and an audience, but can be harder to record.

Maple is another wood you will sometimes see for the back and sides. It has a very bright and penetrating sound, but paired with the right wood can make for a great sounding guitar.

Other woods you will sometimes see for the back and sides are cocobolo, ebony, Honduran rosewood, and zirocote. These are less common, probably more seen on higher end instruments. They all have a very rich sound, with some people comparing them to brazillian rosewood. Ebony in particular is very dense, and will make for a heavy guitar.

Hopefully that sheds some light on the various guitar woods and will give you some ideas of what to look for when shopping around. Depending on what price range you are looking in, you may not run into all these options, but they are good to know about. And above all else, let your ears be the final judge, not what folks say on the internet.

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I bet you all love cartoons! I know I love them; I love cartoons and comic strips! Yeah!
And we all love guitar music…
So what can be cooler than a comic strip about…playing the guitar?Maybe a comic strip about playing blues?!!

Well, to make a long story short, I give you Jason Nocera, a professional cartoonist who does a blues/music themed comic strip called Buddy and Hopkins!

He owns a site where he publish niche cartoons, http://www.nichecartoons.com, a very cool idea to enter the market, if you ask me, I would never have thought about it, really.

He was more than kind to allow me to publish his work here, so you can all enjoy it.

Today I give you the first one, more to come in the next weekends.

Jason also owns a store on cafepress.com, so for funny music T-Shirts, bumper stickers and mugs visit The Buddy and Hopkins Online Store at http://www.cafepress.com/bluestshirts

Enjoy and comment!

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I was thinking about something that bothers me since my first day on stage:

Can you ever watch/listen your own concerts fully happy with the result?

I mean, every time I watch one of our own shows there’s something bothering me: look, I sucked on backing vocals here, I sound like a choked goat, fuck! Or damn, the sound was horrible, or I don’t know, like, one time it happened that Costin, the lead singer in my band jump right to the chorus when he wasn’t supposed to. We ALL looked at him asking ourselves WTF happened?!!

It happened that I(cheers: yeaaahh!) entered earlier with the solo (stupid me!) and none of us realized that…After the damn solo, the math of the song told us to go on with the lyrics while Costin, the lead singer, knew that after the solo comes the chorus. So he entered that…

OK, but that’s something that happens once in a while, a very rare while, I hope it never happen again on stage. And the fact is that nobody in the crowd realized that, it was one of our own songs, the lead singer realized at one moment something was definitively wrong and he improvised something so we could all stand proud at the end of the show. Nothing happened!Ih!

But the main idea was not to speak about the moments we/you screw up, but about the normal shows that you watch on tape later on. Is there any perfect show there?!

1) Can you happily watch your shows saying well, yeah, that’s one heck of a show right there!!!

And 2) because I started the parallel thread here: what’s the worst screw up on stage you’ve ever experienced?

I will start here by telling you about a contest we were part of somewhere around 1999 I guess, we were playing this song here, “Doar tu” is called (translation:Only you), the song has some breaks here and there and at one moment, the drummer started on the wrong hand, I mean he started half a measure later or God knows what happened, because after that moment we played that song half measure earlier than our drummer who only realized something was wrong when we all finished the song and he kept on playing…

We were close to killing him for that at that moment. The fact is that the next year, in the same formula we won the second place in this national contest, with this song here, the song brought us a contract  so we didn’t actually suck, generally speaking, right? Don’t get that impression, OK?

So, here’s the song, in an acoustic version, no drums or bass, but you get the point.

So, now, honestly speaking, what was the worst moment you have experienced on stage!?

Come on! Amaze me!

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It’s a shitty weather in Romania these days, it’s raining, there’s no sign of sun, I barely woke up this morning, I feel like going back to sleep.

So, naturally, I am in a mood for listening some acoustic guitar…Or Gary Moore. Or both…
So here it is Still got the blues, Gary Moore, on acoustic guitar

And The prophet

Or Samba pa ti, Santana?

So, how’s the weather where you live in terms of music you listen?

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I was telling you a few months ago about one of the most famous and loved bands in Romania, Iris, and about the lead singer, Cristi Minculescu, the most emblematic rock icon in Romania, that needed a liver transplant. His wife was the donor.

Now he is OK, last night he came back on stage in a concert that a lot of fans waited without actually knowing if it will take place or not…Last night it happened.

So I can only say: Welcome back, Cristi and Iris! Welcome back, for good!

Here’s a song of last night, Lost dream it is called, the main idea of the song is that “we all leave like a lost dream”.

On the back screen, images with Mercury, Cobain, Michael Jackson, John Bonham, John Lennon and a few Romanian artists we all loved here very much, that left this world much too soon. You can watch people hailing when their images appear on screen.

PS: in 1996 when they released this song, I was there in the crowd at the official album release concert. What a great time I had!

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