Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars

Today, Costin told me about a video of our band on YouTube, a video that Mihai put up from a concert and the recorded song, and uploaded on YouTube.

I didn’t know about it, but it’s nice to see it.

So, even if you have heard the song before, see it on YouTube again, this time with video, not only audio: the song is Nu-mi pasa (I don’t care). At the moment we played this, Mihai was not with us, he was video recording this. See the whole band here.

So, enjoy listening and comment!

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I was reading an interview with Eric Adams from Manowar this morning and I found it very interesting to see how they compose a song. Quite very interesting, I’d say…

So I will just reproduce here that part from the interview of Eric Adams on Metal-Rules.com, I hope I won’t get complains for copying it. So here it is:

How do you guys get to where you have the songs selected? I mean, is it just…

EA: Usually it’s if, I mean, if Joey writes the song, if he comes up with the idea, he generally comes up with the idea and–I don’t know why but it is usually two or three o’clock in the morning, because I get the phone call about that time-and he’ll always say, “I can’t continue on this song until I hear if it’s in your key, if it’s good for you.”

So I come over to his house, right away, while he’s hot and we work on it together. Once we come up with a melody together, we kind of piece the song together, and then everyone gets over to his place (we have our own studio over at his place) and we work on it as a band. Then it’s a song.

Then we move on to the next one. And that’s how it is. Then, we generally go back to it after awhile, with fresh ears, and we listen to it with new ideas.

Then we add the new ideas in. Then we leave it alone for a while. Then we move on to the next song. Then we come back to that one with fresh ears again, until we come back to that song and we say, “OK, does anyone got any more ideas?” And then when everyone has said, “Nah, I can’t think of any, I think that’s it,” then that’s it-the song gets put to bed and we move on. Because you can overproduce a song as well, if you keep on it.

Personally I found it very interesting to work like this. However, they are a professional band, it would be a bit difficult to call my buddy and lead singer in the middle of the night, hey, man, come over to test a song to see if it fits your key…I imagine his joy and willingness to come over…

What do you say about it? Do you call your lead singer in the middle of the night to see how a song would sound?

Later edit: it just hit me, how could a song not be in this guy’s key? It’s said he covers 5.5 octaves! I won’t bet my life but you should listen this:

Well?!

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These days, following the concert I’ve been to, I was thinking what’s actually better, to keep your musical direction over the years or to change it as the wind blows, to keep sales up?

I mean I was thinking about the way people accuse Manowar (is this a subject that keeps on returning to me?!!) of not changing their music too much over time. But isn’t that a good thing? I mean, as we have a saying here in Romania, some may be still searching, they’ve found it!!

Maybe this is what being vertical in music means, to keep your way of doing things(music) no matter how wind blows, how musical genders come and go.

I was thinking about Metallica and how people accused them of selling themselves by making a music that is “connected to our times”. Or Bon Jovi, as a matter of fact. If you put songs like Living on a prayer next to the acoustic ballads they make these days, it won’t sound too much alike, maybe only the voice is the same (and I would also have something to say about it…)

Changing your music over time means adapting, means exploring new grounds, means reaching new fans (how about losing old fans that followed you over the years and can’t find themselves in the music you are making now?).

Keeping your musical direction means adding new fans to old ones, without losing the fans that followed you over time. Maybe it won’t help you too much in exploring new grounds, but it means you have a vertical way of doing things.

Now, this is an older dilema of mine: what should you be: the captain leading the ship until the last moment, dying,  or the rat running away when the ship’s sinking, staying alive?

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Last night I’ve seen Manowar live in Bucharest, Romania.

I am a Manowar fan since highschool, waiting to see them live and be part of their show. I’ve waited this for the last 15 years, hoping they’ll get here. Last night, it happened: Manowar was here, I was there to see them, next to a lot of people of all ages…

I was very nervous since I have waited this for a long time, it was their first time in Romania, a lot of fans waited to see them…

It was a strange feeling, something that I have never felt since a long time, people dressed with t-shirts painted with Manowar, skulls, women and weird daemons, boots, spikes, all these people happy to be there. I was hearing around me people saying hey, Metallica was here, I haven’t been there, Maiden was here, I missed it, but, man, THIS IS MANOWAR, I WOULDN’T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD!!

My thoughts exactly!

Metallica was here, Maiden, Saxon, Helloween, I wasn’t there. Even Vai, I missed that too. But I really wanted to go to see Manowar!

I planned this with Michelle, my band mate and long time school friend, he purchased the tickets to section A, right in front of the stage.

So we headed to Bucharest. Unfortunately, I realized I don’t have anyone of my old t-shirts with skulls, none, fuck, none! The meanest t-shirt I had it was one begging “Please give beer…”. Pathetic…Michelle had one with what he called a dog head with fangs. Later he came back to this and pretended it was some kind of a monster…right. We just couldn’t go to Manowar like this, so we started to look for a “mean” t-shirt. I knew a shop where they used to sell such shirts, I remember I wanted to buy one with Megadeth a couple of weeks ago, so I headed there, the shop was not there anymore…I called Costin, the lead singer, he pointed me to the mall. Right, we went there and we realized these days, “mean t-shirts” come also on pink and orange. Fuck, no!

So we got to Bucharest, reached the location, but we weren’t sure where exactly it was so while at a stop, I lowered the window to ask the guy to my left where’s the location exactly. I looked at them: nice car, “corporate” look for the driver, lady next to him dressed sharp, with large sunglasses, again “corporate” look…hmm… ok, let’s give it a try: where’s the…the guy looks at me and asks me: to Manowar you mean? I would have liked to see my facial expression, probably my jaw was somewhere on the floor…yes…we go there too!

To make a long story short, we bought t-shirts from the band stand, honestly not much to choose from, but hey, any tshirt that says Manowar will do…

At 9 PM we’ve heard the classic “Ladies and gentlemen, from the United States of America, please hail: MANOWAR!” Fuck, yeaaah! The stage exploded in lights and sound and the show started…

I must tell you I’ve felt like never before, everything was happening right there in front of my eyes, at 15 meters, Eric Adams, Joey DeMaio, Karl Logan and Donny Hamzik (as a temporary replacement for Scott Columbus).

Man, these guys rule! I know they play a role, I am not stupid, but I’ve felt great! Classic hits started to flow, it was damn loud, my langs were pounding from drum kicks and everything was there like it should be. Eric Adams is, as I have always thought, a great frontman, a great performer, he entered the role and played it the way he should.

Classic, “trademarked” high screams and low “Ha!” from his throat, gesture and facial expression, everything was great.

So we reached the 3rd song, if I well remember, Kings of metal! A classic…

In the middle of the song, right on a drum beat, everything shut down. We, the audience, not realizing what it was, continued to sing. Eric Adams was hitting the mic with his palm, the mic was dead. We realized something was wrong, they left the stage: the power was down! Fuck!

The power failure lasted like 20 minutes, moment when Joey came on stage and walking like an emperor started to question us: Did Metallica come here?! Yeaaah!! Did they have problems with not having enough power? Nooo!Maiden was here? Yeaah!Did they have problems with not having enough power? Nooo!Motorhead was here? Yeaah!(2 days ago) Again, they didn’t have power problems. But we did, because we were the loudest band int he world!!!

Yeah, OK, you fixed it well!

What happened was that a generator just exploded shutting everything down.

So they started again the same song, 3-4 lyrics and powww!!! Fuck! Come on! Not again!!

Third’s time was fine, but it was obvious they were pissed off, Eric Adams lost his nerve, his joy to sing. The song was flawless, but something was missing, they were singing like waiting for something to happen. But it didn’t! Everything went fine!

Then, he started to sing Heart of steel! Only himself and the piano. Man, I must tell you at that moment, I had a feeling I have never felt before: I was part of a wall of sound, everybody was singing, note by note, word by word. I knew every word of the song, so did the rest of the crowd. Eric Adams was happy, you could see it in his eyes, he stopped singing at a moment because the whole crowd was singing, you could see on his face that he feels good being on stage in such moments…

I can tell you at that moment I had a strange feeling, I felt (don’t laugh or smile) tears in my eyes, it was something unbelievable, effectively a wall of sound, every single voice in the audience was singing…you need to be there to understand…

For a band that was never to Romania that was huge, that was wonderful.

At one moment, Joey DeMaio remained on stage and…started to speak Romanian. Not that classic I love you Romania, but like 15 minutes of speaking Romanian! Damn, Romanian is not an easy language! I know they were telling him in his ears what to say, but this guy pronounced it word by word! For 15 minutes!

I remember at one moment a guy in front of me screamed to the stage something like, My man, you are Romanian, man!! and everybody started to laugh there. It was mad, this guy actually worked for the show here, he made his homework! Looking on the back of my tshirt, he probably had the same speech in Finland, Norway and Germany! Now, that’s a dare to learn the speech in many languages that you don’t know, for 15 minutes! I know he is Italian and probably Romanian comes easier on him, if he actually speaks Italian, but that was an effort I appreciated!

As other observations, they gave a guitar to a guy they picked from the audience and asked them to play on stage with them they played together a song, then they signed the guitar, had a couple of sexist moments inviting girls on stage and behind the stage, but OK, it’s part of the show, I understand that.

I’ve got home at 3AM, tired but happy, today my throat hurts when I speak, but I am really happy I was there, for me it meant a lot, I have waited this for 15 years and now I was there. I wish they would have played more, more hits, cutting those moments with the guitar given to the guy and the ladies, and just play a few songs more, but hey, a show’s a show!

I can tell you now I feel happy and content…

I have seen Manowar live! Now I will be waiting for Satriani, I guess…

Later edit: I have found a couple of videos from yesterday night:

and Heart of steel

PS: 2 days ago Santana played in the same festival and 3 days ago, Motorhead

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So I have this Accept compilation CD in my car and I keep on listening a few songs on my way home or from home. I was curious about a few things so, reading on Wikipedia about the history of Accept, I found that the song I’m a rebel was initially composed for ACDC. Hmm…

Even more curious, I wanted to know what was the relationship between ACDC and Accept, because one of the songs I like the most from their discography, Hard attack, seems like made for ACDC. Even the way the guitar is being played makes me think of ACDC. Actually I have always seen Accept as being ACDC on steroids so…

Well, coming back to I’m a rebel, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it:

“I’m a Rebel” is an unreleased song written by Angus and Malcolm Young’s older brother, Alex Young, and recorded on 15 September 1976, during sessions outside Albert Productions without George Young and Harry Vanda. Reportedly, Bon Scott was very drunk when the song was recorded. The recording remains in Albert Productions vaults. In 1980 the German heavy metal group Accept covered it and the original is said to be close to Accept’s version.

Anyway, honestly I couldn’t see ACDC on this song, but man I would hear them on Hard attack…

So, here’s Accept version of I’m a rebel

UDO’s version, meaner, I’d say

And here’s Hard attack…

Now, tell me if you wouldn’t see Brian Johnson on the chorus of this one…Even the guitar screams ACDC…

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This blog is about guitars, rock music, blues music, this kind of music, not pop or dance or whatever.

But I do remember the period when everybody in the neigborhood was listening Michael Jackson’s music, was speaking about Michael Jackson and was waiting for him to come to Romania. And he did come and it was madness. All those girls screaming like crazy the famous “I love you, Michael!!!”, fainting on his concert, crying and acting crazy, all those things my mother couldn’t understand and honestly, me neither…

But I had a copy of Thriller and I did listen to it a lot back then, I used to like it, it was new, it was crazy…

It was, for Romania here, a change, from the communist political regime  to “liberty” how everybody called it. Michael was the first big name that came to Romania, if I well remember, it was a symbol at that moment, it was the sign we are heading to something new and that the world is open to anything.

Then it appeared more and more obvious that he had issues, news came from all over about his problems with money, children, health etc. I always wondered (and probably you too) why he tried so much to change his appearence…

Anyway, we should not care about this at this moment, we should care about the fact that he meant a great deal for the music worldwide. How many could brag for getting the name “king of ” some musical style? He was named king of pop and nobody could take that from him and probably nobody will for the next period of time.

But now Michael Jackson is dead.

I found about it this morning reading a e-newspaper. Strange, considering I understand it’s all over the TV and radio news, I didn’t have time to get them. I was wondering this morning in my car(listening a radio station) what’s that buzz with Michael Jackson, I presumed he released an album or something.

But not. He is dead. King of pop is dead.

So, it made me think and write this article.

Rest in peace, Michael, your problems are over now…

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I guess we all know the song Stand by me, right?

You can’t say no, really, this movie here proves it without doubt.

Take a look here, enjoy and comment!

Well?

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I have discovered www.teachwombat.com a few days ago, by being pointed to it by Ken, one of the guys behind it. How do you say that in English? I think you’d say I’ve been pitched, right?

Well, I started to look at the site, to see what it is about, Ken also handed me a copy of the material there for this review and I can tell you he managed to get me interested…

TeachWombat.com is actually, what I could name “the starting guitar teacher resource“. The material on the site is actually a great collection of guitar chords, progressions, scales, all in a graphical form, all marked on a guitar neck, a wide range (250, they counted!) of student handouts that can be printed over and over again. Complexity ranges from first position 3 notes chords to extended jazz chords, has exercises, patterns and modes. Pretty much all you need to start teaching guitar. Handy…

The whole site is aimed actually to provide materials, “how to” and guidance for the guitar player that wants to start a guitar teaching business. As I was saying, very handy if you consider that you get all the materials for $15, in pdf format, so you can print them over and over again to give to your students. The fact is that with such materials, anybody that knows how to play the guitar can start teaching guitar.

I enjoyed the fact that you also get “blank necks” that you can draw on, to show your students how to play and the materials for bass players. Yeah, they rule! I will show them to my bass player buddy, he’ll enjoy them, I’m sure.

Also, I liked the materials about how to plan your lessons, what to tell your students or about how to manage the whole activity.

And all these come in a $15 package…

Now get there and see for yourselves, maybe some of you will discover a hidden vocation! If so, let me know, I will feel proud for making the teacher in you come out in the wild!

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I’m not a big fan of Accept. I do like their music, but it’s a long way to go to the fan status . However, Amamos la vida is one of the songs that I will always keep burried somewhere deep into my heart. It’s because of the memories it brings back to me…

I remember listening this song while climbing a peak with my friends, on heavy rain, with a large backpack on my back and with an improvised  rain coat covering me and the backpack. Under all this I had a walkman playing rock music and from all the songs that I listened at that moment, Amamos la vida remained strongly marked in my head; for me Amamos la vida will always mean heavy rain in the mountains when there’s nothing dry on you,  cold, best friends and then a hot cup of tea at the chalet…

That’s Amamos la vida for me…

However, a few days ago I gave a Hammerfall CD to my buddy drummer and got an Accept CD to listen in my car. I must admit I didn’t know a few of the songs there, like for example Mistreated, which is a lovely ballad, not quite Accept, but OK, a rock ballad typical for those times.

But my ear told me something’s fishy there, that’s not Udo, man, who’s the guy singing this?!

Again, I am not a fan of Accept, I didn’t know about the fact that Udo and Accept split at one moment because the band wanted to pursue a more “commercial” path. Well, seems that David Reece replaced him for only 1 album, sounds to me an interesting replacement, however, again, turning the band into something else.

You know, it made me think to Iron Maiden and Blaze Baley, but David Reece is better here, probably because he was allowed to sing like himself. Hmm, I’m mean…

So, to conclude, here’s Accept with David Reece and Mistreated

and Amamos la vida.

By the way, what’s that thing with Mistreated? Everybody felt the need to make a song named Mistreated or I’ve been mistreated or similar?! I think I know at least 3 already…

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I guess everybody in this line of interest knows about the fact that Guitar Idol 2009 announced a winner: Jack Thammarat, from Bangkok, probably you have also listened his entry already, but I will take my chance and post it here also, because I really enjoyed it, a very inspiring and lovely song.

What probably you don’t know is that a Romanian was part of the contest, his name is Marius Pop, he is the son of the lead singer and guitar player of a known band here in Romania (for “connoiseurs”, not mainstream, Celelalte Cuvinte - “The other words”). He is the guitar player of a pop singer that I know, we used to be kind of friends at one moment, pop singer that is from my town(Smiley is the name), we used to meet in the studio here and I also recorded guitar for 2 of his songs while here. Now he is famous all over the country, what do you know…

So here’s the entry of the winner and the entry of Marius Pop.

Enjoy!

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