Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars

Yesterday I was caught in a traffic jam and I had noting to do than listen to the radio in my car. So I turned on the radio and there was a girl singing on top of a bass guitar, drums and keyboard. I was not paying attention to it in the beginning. Then, I remember the progress of my thoughts: hmm, sounds interesting, but for this music style it would need some strong electric guitars here, some power riffs. And I tell to my wife, sitting next to me, in what language is this girl singing? I sense I understand every word of what she sings there, just that I don’t actually understand anything, it is somehow close to English, an Anglo-Saxon language, but a Nordic one, also the way the music is composed tells me a Nordic band. Read the rest of this entry »

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I am a guitar player, I love electric guitars, but I also get excited every time I see a beautiful bass guitar. I love long lined bass guitars. If when it comes to electric guitars, classics may come first (such as with Fender or Gibson), with bass guitars, I love those thin, modern shapes.

Each time I see a bass guitar such as Ibanez SR650PB or Ibanez SR20TH4, I feel great! I feel somehow in shape, I feel sharp, the music seems exact and complex, just when looking at the bass guitar. Ok, if the bass player has dreadlocks and holding the bass guitar up his chest playing with his fingers, man, that’s an image to remember!

I know it is not about the image but about the sound, and a Fender Precision bass or a Fender Jazz bass may beat anything when it comes to the sound, but the look, nothing beats that modern shape when it comes to the bass guitars.

And of course, these dudes playing the bass guitars above need to slap. By the way, in my imagination, Seinfeld’s theme is played on such a bass guitar!

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That’s a quick one, for GuitarNoise, because I read the site almost everyday and I found there a lot of interesting electric guitars: man, you should review this one, it is one of the strangest guitar I have seen so far, how many dare to go on stage with this one? I know I wouldn’t!

How about you ?

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Since a long time I think about what is the best guitar you could have? Well, I must say that I got to the conclusion that is not you the one that choses the electric guitar, it is not even the “electric guitar choses you” idea. Let’s put it this way: you want to play jazz and you pick a Jackson KE2 Kelly like this one. Would it feel right? Well, I think not, even if it would probably do the job in the right hands, if the situation asks it and you don’t have any other choice.

How about playing heavy metal on an Ibanez Artist model? Again it does not feel right. Of course that, once more, it would probably do the trick for a situation where you don’t have a choice, but it won’t be the same.

As you probably see, I have kept Gibson electric guitars and Fender electric guitars out of this because Fender and Gibson, as the time proved it, fits any gender. I have seen Gibson played by heavy metal bands as well as blues and jazz bands, if you consider Malmsteen, then Fender would be the weapon of choice for any speed kind.

However, I think that in most cases, some electric guitars fit better some musical styles. A jazz guitar player would look and feel right with an Ibanez AS model, like John Scofield, while a shredder would probably use the Jackson model I have spoke about a bit earlier.

Electric guitars are lovely toys, but you need to feel comfortable playing them. Don’t chose an electric guitar that you don’t feel comfortable since it won’t give you the feeling you need on stage. You need to feel full, from the way your guitar stays in your hand to the way you look there. If you feel right from all point of views, then, your creativity will work best. Otherwise you will have drawbacks that will keep you from expressing the way you could. I think this is true for anthing you do in your life, you should only do what you love, unfortunately this is not always possible as all of us probably know.

Did you ever think how Slash would look with a Dean from hell guitar? Dimebag looked great with it and fully expressed what he felt, but think about that guitar in the hands of, let’s say…Clapton?! I remember once while in the rehearsal room of some local band I have tested a hollow guitar and felt like the worst guitar ever to me, at that time. Why? Because I had that “metal all over” thing and no matter if the guitar would have been the best ever, the most expensive and had some signature on it, for me it was not satisfying at that time.

How about you? Are you playing the guitar you love?

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I was thinking about how many of us would be really able to grow old in this music business? You see these guys on stage, 55 years old and you say, man, these guys are great, what a life they had! And probably you are right, not many get to see what they have seen during their long rock and roll life. Booze parties, drugs, sex and a lot of money spent without one regret on their reckless life.
The sex, drugs and rock and roll model was maybe fit for the 70’s but if you look back, just count how many died along the way. I have seen somewhere some numbers, saying that the probability of a rock star to dye before his time is 3 times higher than for a regular person due to drug abuse. It gave me something to think about at that moment…

Did you think about great bands, like Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Metallica, etc. Ask yourself if they still throw parties like they used to do long time ago. You will say that they are not that young anymore now and maybe you are right, that may be the reason. But I am sure it is something else: they took music seriously, they took it as a business. They are business people behind their rock and roll glamor. They all had their share of drugs and alcohol and reckless life, but now they look at the music business in a serious way. They know that in order to resist and beat time, they need to keep a steady pace, without the abuses they were used to while very young.

This is the model and the model is there, in front of our eyes, but how many would be able to follow it and take what’s best of it?

What do you think,am I right or not?

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Since a few days my car CD player is locked (since I removed the battery for a quick fix on my car) and because I am moving into a new apartment, I can not find car’s support leaflet with the unlock code. That’s why I use a portable mp3 player. This gives me an other point of view on the music I listen.

For example, this morning, I realized that there are particular bass guitar sound for specific bands, a bass guitar sound that defines the band’s sound in general. Some I could easily spot were Iron Maiden and Manowar. If you take Steve Harris’ bass sound and style of playing, I think you can not miss it. If you listen carefully, his way of playing, with his fingers gives a smooth, “puffy” sound for the bass (yes, this is my perception of it, despite the musical style,Harris would probably kill me for this), while it also sounds like the strings are loose, like he is somehow tuned 2-3 tones below. Also consider that “riding” style of playing and you have Steve Harris’ unmistakable bass sound! Read the rest of this entry »

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Did you ever notice that famous guitar players have their own way of producing the vibrato? Take for example Eric Clapton, he has some fast, almost one finger vibrato. Also if you consider the fact that he has also an unique way of keeping the guitar neck in his hands, when soloing, I would say that if I would only see his hands playing the guitar, I would know it is him. Pay attention to his solo here.

OK, let’s take Steve Vai also: when  I have seen Vai vibrating a note, I was confused, he has some large, round way of vibrating a note. His (looooong) finger does at the same time a vertical and an horizontal moving, kind of a circle; I could say that he massage that particular string, like when your head hurts and you press your forehead circularly. See here in order to understand. It may be a show thing, it is more interesting for the camera, but this also gives him a low frequency vibrato that is “sweeter”.

To also consider a third  type, take Malmsteen, which has his violin like vibrato, probably because of his violin backgrounds. If you have never thought about that so far, pay attention next time you listen Malmsteen and also listen a violin player after listening Malmsteen.

Any other examples you could think of?

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You know, I have asked myself if those guys in a punk rock band, or in an alternative rock band, are just that bad guitar players or they just follow the “lousy guitar player” trend in this musical style.

If taken out of their bands, would they still be able to play a decent tune or they would just go na nanan na until you crash the guitar on their heads?

By the way, I used to play alternative rock due to a 1 year contract but before that I was in pop-rock. And before that on hard-rock. Does this count or I have the alternative stamp all over me?

By the way, that’s me with my band playing alternative rock music.

Later edit: since this post generated quite an amount of interest, here’s a link to a post of mine on BandAMP website where I put an approximative translation of the above song lyrics. By the way, the song was ranked 4th for that period contest.

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I was watching a video of Michael Angelo Batio after somebody reached my site looking for some of his guitar tabs and I was just wondering: why would you need Michael Angelo Batio guitar tabs?

You would probably not be able to do anything with them. I think that no matter how many guitar tabs you will have from Michael Angelo himself, you will not be able to shred the way he does. He did it his whole life and beside that he plays with his both hands at the same time so…

Later edit: it sounded bad. I meant to say that it is not easy to play both hands, if not impossible (for me). If you can do it, you have all my respect. If you can do it the way Michael Angelo Batio does it, then you must be great, so send me a CD and a couple of tickets to your concerts, I will be there!

Anyway, this is not a reason for you to stop trying, just that you should not put all your trust in these guitar tabs you find on the internet! Instead, practice, practice and again…practice!

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I was reading this post here about top 28 most recognizable guitars. I must say that I just love this topic, even if I have never thought about it. I will not post here again the same top that the other guys posted on their blogs, just that I must admit that there are some electric guitars, mostly, that made a strong impact on the way the artist’s image was built. Indeed, think about Prince with his Purple Glyph Symbol Guitar, think about Zakk Wylde circle guitar, think about Michael Angelo Batio with his The Reverse Double-Neck guitar, etc.

I had only one thing to object to that top. I don’t see the Red Special model of Brian May and that’s one recognizable model, I think that every guitar player in this world knows it and some also know the legend of how it was built.

I would also add Steve Vai’s cut through guitar to that list and maybe a few others too. However the list is great.

Man, I just observed now: no SRV no 1 model either?!!

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