Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars

If you still ask yourself where are we going to, look here!

Are we going nuts or what?!! What really happened to those Manowar or Metallica t-shirts I used to wear?

“I could say that this post is not about guitars since what I am going to write further is more about blogging than about playing the guitar”

This is how I intended to start this post, but after a few seconds I realized that I would be wrong in more ways than one. This post IS about blogging AS MUCH AS IS about playing the guitar and being part of a band. And I will tell you why.

As you probably know, I have started a dare with myself a few days ago, to reach 5000 unique visitors per day in the next 6 months on this blog. Due to that dare, I have started to think what would make me reach my target. I have plenty of ideas,to be honest, I only wish to have the time to put this in practice since this blog is not the only thing I do, as you probably imagine. So, beside social networking, which may be a double edge knife, crushing your server and leaving no real value behind, I asked myself what would make a blog stand out of the crowd?

1) First thing I could think of is to FIND A VOICE

As you probably imagine, it is not THAT voice everybody thinks he/she possess when singing in the bathroom. No. It is about the voice you blog with. Such a voice gives you personality, is part of your branding process, makes your readers know you better and builds a place for you in your reader’s consciousness.

You may be the angry guy over the music store, picking on every band ever appeared. Of course, you hate Metallica, you don’t like Clapton, Bon Jovi is a sissy, while the last album of Sting sucks! (Sorry, man, I really don’t think so!)

Or you may be the tech guy, giving information about everything, you may be the reviewer that just uses a colder and objective position when reviewing.

Some speak using the third person (a bit strange, IMO, but it works) some plural form of the first person. It is nothing but a way of finding your own voice in this already crowded blogging world.

2) Find your OWN POSITION

Or niche, or point of view, that specific something that identify you, just don’t follow masses. It may be cool to speak about something popular, but if everybody speaks about it you will be just a drop in an ocean. Not easy to get noticed, right? Instead, find your position, find that special something that you can give to the public and give it in the best possible way. You may want to speak about how to buy an electric guitar and offer tips to support this.

Or maybe you review electric guitars. Good one! A stronger one? Review very expensive, rare guitars. That’s even better!

Now think about it. It may be cool to play metal the way Skid Row used to do it. It may be cool to jam with your friends over some Megadeth songs. Rock on! But don’t ever try to make it big this way cause you won’t! They made it big, the song is already played! Instead, find that special something that identify you as a band and stick to it.

Did you see Bon Jovi play about politics? Well, I haven’t, if he did, I don’t know about it. He sings about loooove!!! Remember? Never say goodbye, never say godbyeyeyeeee!! Do you like Gamma Ray?! Politics! Politics and…social politics. Whatever that means! Manowar?! Brothers of true metal!! Hail, hail, hail and kill! We are not afraid to die!! (I am a big fan of Manowar, but, man, if I am going to hear this one more time I am going to hail, hail, hail and kill!!!) By the way, did you know that Joey DeMaio, the bass player and main man of Manowar worked as a pyro-tech for Black Sabbath during their “Heaven and Hell” tour? He liked that music, but do you see him playing it? No, he found his own place!

All these bands stick to their theme and rolls it over and over again because this is what keeps their audience in place. Do it when blogging and you will see the results!

3) Branding!!

Now, that’s a bit more complex. I am not marketing educated, I am engineer (yep!) by education, programmer by profession and web developer/marketer only by hobby, but if I know something about blogging is to brand yourself!

Remember? Brand yourself! Make your blog and your name a brand. And here I would count a good domain name, well designed, unique logo, a motto! (You find it, I wasn’t yet able to find one for myself!), colors that are consistent through all your site, THAT VOICE I was speaking about early, your blog theme, a CUSTOM SKIN! Yes, that is a must. Don’t try to impose yourself on the market with that default skin cause you won’t make it too far! Instead have a custom blog skin that make a big impression on your readers!

You know, it is like with women! I know she is smart, but God, couldn’t you make it a bit more beautiful to make me come closer and see how smart she really is?!! That’s true with blogging too. A custom skin will make your visitors pay more attention to your blog and get to read what you actually have to say.

Of course, this goes the same way with a band. Branding for a band includes a custom logo (I don’t know about the motto), theme of the music and lyrics, the image the band imposes to the public (think KISS, think ACDC, think Manowar), a particular way of behaving on the stage, this is also part of the brand, the sound, the musical style, etc. Think about it!

4) Start a BUZZ

That is something that goes a bit further, it is something that we all desire but not everybody succeeds in doing this. In order for your blog to make it big, you need to start a buzz, to make some waves, to have people notice you. It is in close relationship with No 1. If you go with the wind, you won’t be noticed. Instead, also as part of your voice, you may just be the NO guy! If everybody speaks in a good way about a trend, YOU start screaming and buzzing and making a big fuss about it. Somebody big will finally notice you and argue with you, probably he will point to you, others will join to kick your ass and all of a sudden you are somebody in this crowded world.

You are that particular SOMEBODY that EVERYBODY would like to beat up! But you’ve got noticed!

If you don’t believe me, think of actors that built a whole career from being the bad ass everybody hates. Think soap opera. Well, of course, I know YOU don’t watch it, you probably are the dominant male around, ok, I see, but your girlfriends, mothers, wives watch them so there is a big chance YOU know what I am speaking about. I know I do…

5) Create SOCIAL PROOF

This is like when you get in touch with famous bloggers and they start speaking about you. If they speak about you, you must be good, right? Even if you bought a review on some famous site or on some famous blog.

How is this similar with being in a band? Well, very easy! Didn’t you ask why unknown bands get together to play with big bands on the same show? How do they come to the same TV shows? Exposure in well known places, in the company of a famous somebody! You must be also somebody! I will buy your CD!!!

6) Build an audience

Well, this is one of the most important things to do and I let it as a last resort! Build an audience! When blogging, you use RSS, email, fan base. When playing, your fans are the most important assets of yours. That is why I hate bands not treating fans right. They are there because WE put them there. THEY live as a band because of US! Damn, I got a bit too passionate about it, I think! Whatever!

That is about all for the moment. It is very late in the night and I think I need some sleep, this was a long post and I find it already difficult to focus.

Also, please keep in mind I am aware of everything I have written here. However, if you will see that I missed implementing some of these things on my blog, well, remember that you should do what the preacher says, not what the preacher does…Or how you put it in English…

Now, Stumble that!

This article has got a quite big push on StumbleUpon (thanks, guys!!), so if you are here, why don’t you also give it a push on Digg?

Every rock star, every guitar legend becomes a parent when time comes. Joe Perry of Aerosmith was no exception. He is the proud father of 2 out of 3 members of “TAB the band” members, namely Adrian Perry and Tony Perry. Adrian is the vocal and bass player while Tony is the one who continues the family tradition as the guitar player. “Pulling Out Just Enough To Win” is the name of the album they released.

The interesting thing (and at the same time a fact that honors them) is that,even if following a musical career, they didn’t want to use their daddy’s fame to get through this tough business and managed to built their own way. I think that it is better like this, to prove yourself that you have your own identity and that you’re not just a shadow of your famous father, because this will be something that a lot of folks will throw in your face over time.

However, when asked by Joe Perry to help him with a concert, they didn’t say no, so they’ll be together on February 8th at Fox Theatre at Foxwoods playing together. By the way, if you want to win a ticket to this show, hurry up and get one here!

You can find more about them on their website here and on their MySpace page.

By the way, here in Romania they are not known at all, how known are they in USA? Beside being daddy’s kids, I mean.

I was reading this morning on From The Woodshed blog about how Joe, the guy behind the blog, works his way on the guitar by structured techniques and not just by ear. That kind of made me think for a minute. I remember when I started programming, I didn’t know a lot of stuff, but I used to keep a paper and a pen on my desk and used to write down all the new terms I was hearing around me and then searched for them on the internet and in the documentation. That helped me a lot since I learned a lot when doing this. If I think about it, this is a form of organizing yourself, which, to be honest, is not one of my forms of expression, if you know what I mean…

I proposed to myself to also be more organized in this area of music and guitar. It is not difficult to do it, just that you need a bit of dedication. I think I should also write down what I want to learn or practice and take it one at a time. I want to practice more scales, well, put it down on paper to see it and remember it.

Personally I would like to work more my tapping techniques. I am not a tapping and arpeggios guitar player. I love power metal and heavy and Satriani and stuff, but I was never able to put enough time to study this properly. The fact is that while at a party in my university years, I had a stupid accident that left me with a cut tendon on my left hand.

I had surgery for this (the doctor say that if it wouldn’t have been my guitar playing she would have let it like this since it is not a major thing! Damn it! It’s good I play the guitar!!). After the surgery I had to recover but my little finger on the left hand didn’t fully recover the same mobility like before so I couldn’t manage to use it properly for arpeggios so I just managed to play an other way.

So, to those thinking that guitar playing is over in such cases, well, trust me, it isn’t!You just need to find other way of expressing yourself. Music is not just about technical skills but about expressing yourself.

Regarding this thing with my finger, in that period I was in the studio with my previous band, Kapela. We were recording a demo album that was never released,unfortunately. However, I felt terrible, I was really pissed off about this thing with the surgery. I had a large (literally: LARGE!!!) bandage on my hand with a wooden stick inside it, to keep my finger on the right position. Well, imagine me going to the studio with this thing on.

I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to record anything since I had only 3 fingers to use (I don’t count the thumb so even at that time I had 5 fingers, really!) My part in the band was rhythm guitar and the guys were really cool to understand me and support me back then. I managed to record my parts after more takes, with a bit more attention.

I do have some pictures from the studio back then, with my monstrous bandaged finger, all my friends used to laugh at me back then, I was the only one not feeling like laughing, really.

Anyway, time passed and now I am loving every moment playing my guitar, even if I don’t do those elaborated arpeggios. But I don’t stress myself about it, music is about feeling and expression. By the way, I do solo guitar and I don’t complain, my fingers work very well, thank you! Including that little finger. However, no arpeggios, OK?

PS: This post started in a direction but led me to an other one. That’s OK for me. OK for you?

“Q: What do you do when you don’t have inspiration to write anything on your blog?

A: Go and play the guitar.”

Your’s truly

Did you know that if you are not happy with the way your guitar controller for Guitar Hero 3 looks like you can get some pretty wild ones at DecalGirl.com?

They look pretty wild, beautiful colors, almost made me think of normal electric guitars.

And they all come at $14.99. I think it is worth to make your gaming more spicy, right?

What really makes a guitar player? Is his unique playing style, along with his own sound?Is it creativity? OK, if I think about it, creativity helps defining the style. And sound also, so I think I can stick to this “style” thing. It is about being recognized (again marketing?!) out of the crowded space of guitar playing.

Let’s think for a bit and create an artificial environment where you put a guitar player in a closed box, so you can’t see him, don’t know who’s inside, give him all his equipment and let him create a piece of music.

Can you tell who the guitar player is just by listening the musical piece he created? If you can, you probably have a great name there, a guitar player that is sure of himself, with strong roots, a real “guitar hero”.

I think of a few that I would recognize in such a case:

• Joe Satriani - one of the most creative guitar players IMO, close to my heart since a long, long time. His own high tech guitar sounds and his unmistakable riffs put him there as one of the main guitar icons of the last 20 years
• Steve Vai - OK, maybe this time it is me not being that creative, probably you think that sure, this guy is some kind of Satriani fan, how could he not like Vai? And so it is, but this is not the reason I put Steve Vai here. Now really, can you have Steve Vai playing in that closed box and not recognize him? I think that those long-finger licks he patented make him sure of his place here.
• Slash - I don’t particularly find Slash to be such a great technician, but his fat Gibson sound and the way he always falls on his feet when soloing, plus his licks of a particular sweetness ask for a place here.
• Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Well, I can only think of the ending of songs such as Crazy, Crying and I could tell he’s in the box, no doubt about it.
• Frank Gambale. Here’s the fact that he started to study guitar by listening to keyboard players so his way of playing the guitar is quite unique. If you also count his personal method of fast picking and his upside-down scales, he’s there!
• Gary Moore - He’s got the blues, man!! I know I would recognize him in a moment. Wouldn’t you?
• Stevie Ray Vaughan- I would have put here also SRV from the start but after listening Andy Timmons playing “I remember Stevie” I was amazed by how he managed to catch that particular style of SRV. OK, I said above that each artist should play his own style, not try to sound like somebody else, so SRV should be put there also
• Brian May - no need to say more, he’s there.

Yngwee Malmsteen - no doubt, one of the most powerful influences for skilled players with his own sound and style. However I don’t add him here since too many guitar players copied him that you can not say anymore who’s ho nowadays. But if the list was made 20 years ago probably he would have been the first.

Who did I miss?

Later edit:

• Yngwee Malmsteen - for creating an unique style, neo-classic rock, even if so many followed him that today they assimilated his style that you can not tell the difference. Jon of GuitarNoize.com convinced me to add Yngwee.
• Jimi Hendrix - OK (still Jon)
• Paul Gilbert (Jon)
• B.B. King (Jon)
• Carlos Santana (thanks Pilgrim)
• Albert King (Pilgrim)
• Glenn Kaiser (Pilgrim but I don’t know him so…)
• Fank Zappa (thanks Dr J)

Anybody else?

If you are like me, and I guess you are since you read these lines, you often felt like playing the guitar in the middle of the night. I know it used to happen to me quite often. And also, you probably know that it is not a good idea, unless you live by yourself. If you don’t, well…then you know what I mean.

But how about playing a guitar that is…silent. I know it sounds somehow like playing the air guitar, but it is not about the air guitar (that one still makes noise when turning up the volume on your CD player, you know!!) but about Yamaha Silent Guitar! Yep! You probably know it, I know about it for some time now (was released somewhere in 2002, I think), but I haven’t had the opportunity to test it personally yet. However, I know I would like to own one for those sleepless nights when I feel like playing.

The interesting thing is that, at least in the video below, it sounds quite interesting (OK, through a sound processor). Also, Yamaha SLG 100N model comes with nylon strings and the fact that you can plug in a CD player makes it great for rehearsing since you can play over your own previously recorded material.

General belief is that if you want to make it as a rock musician, you must play either electric guitar, bass or drums. I am not speaking about singing, that’s an other story. The fact is that indeed, general belief is …generally right, you have way more chances to succeed when playing one of those instruments. But of course, there are bands like Apocalyptica…

Other musical styles are more permissive and allow you to make a name for yourself in a less than classical way. When I say this, I am thinking about Jake Shimabukuro and his ukulele music.

His interpretation on ukulele of some widely known melodies, like “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” puts the instrument under a special light. Also, with songs like “Let’s dance”(see video below) he takes the instrument out of it’s usual musical area and this is exactly what makes it interesting.

Here he plays a flamenco-like song. While played on an acoustic guitar it would not make that a big impression, on ukulele it made me smile and listen it all the way to the end.

Of course, when you decide to try standing out from the crowd in a place where you would not normally belong to, like playing cello in a rock area or flamenco on ukulele you take a risk, people may reject you from the start.Or if you break the resistance and if you really have something to say, a consistent and unique musical presence, then you stand out from the crowd for good. You find your niche.

There was this joke with the 2 shoes salesman sent to sell shoes on a jungle village. The first one says “man, I don’t stand a chance, nobody here wears shoes I won’t sell anything” while the second says “what an opportunity, nobody here wears shoes yet!”

I think that it is not about what you do is more about how you do it and of course, what’s your unique point of sale, about how you identify your opportunities and the ways to exploit them. Nobody here plays cello in rock music?!What an opportunity! I’m in!

It is marketing if you think about it. Music nowadays is nothing but marketing.

Since GuitarNoize and Guitar Channel posted about this, it may not be news anymore, but due to the fact that I love Joe Satriani’s work so much, I just couldn’t let it go. So I point here the fact that on April 1st, 2008, Joe Satriani will release his 13th solo album under the funny name of Professor Satchafunkilus. Whatever that means…

I must admit I don’t know what the album will sound like, but after playing instrumental rock so many years, experiencing electronic sounds and later warmer jazzy touches, we could expect almost anything from him. I think the fans will be there no matter what the musical style will be.

And if we count the fact that ZZ Satriani, Joe’s son is playing the sax on this album, well…