Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars

News in a local newspaper, in my city: last night, the artist (name doesn’t actually matters) played without a capodaster.

…aaa…OK.. I guess…?!!

I must tell you I was a bit surprised at first, WTF is that of any interest for any of their readers? I mean, I know that technique of writing the title as catchy as possible, to make people read the article, but still, that’s a stupid title in the whole context of the article.

The idea was that the lady (folk singer/guitar player) couldn’t find the capodaster so she had to play only those songs that she could actually play without trying to transpose them.

However, that was not a news, I was angry for losing time after reading this article and I was also curious, do people actually know what a capodaster is? I asked a coleague here. Nope! So I guess using such a “technical” term in the title of a generalist newspaper is also a mistake. Or it is not? Maybe people get curious to find out what she played without…

Say 10 times in a row: capodaster, capodaster, capodaster…

Now, again, what’s a capodaster?!

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I was in the mood for Megadeth today, so I looked up for Symphony of destruction, I love that song, it is one of my favorite songs from Megadeth, I think next to Skin of my teeth and A tout le monde, I guess..

So, when listening to it on YouTube, I found a version of Nightwish, cool, I didn’t know Nightwish covered Symphony of destruction, I must say I liked it very much, it has a bit of a particular flavor, the keyboard in particular, sounds interesting and the voice of the bass player matches both the song and the band.

So here it is, Nightwish with Symphony of destruction!

By the way, if you also are in the mood for Megadeth, here’s the man himself teaching us how to play the song:

Enjoy!

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Since Pandora closed the gates for Romanian listeners (shame on you, Pandora!), no rights to broadcast here they say, I was looking for a new radio to listen once in a while.

I can tell you I have tried a few, I have also posted something here about it, but this time I am kind of excited about this one.

So, I was looking for some lullabies on the internet, to play for my newborn baby girl so I actually searched for “kids radio” or something like this and there I found it. Kids radio allright, but not only that! Actually, as they say, 350+ news, sport, talk and music stations! More than enough for me.

So, here’s the kids package where you can choose between lullabies, anime, whatever (I usually listen the lullabies station, you should check it out, slow country music, but also Metallica on bells and whistles. No kidding, I had the time of my life playing Fade to black and Nothing else matters to my daughter, everything on ding ding dongs…). 

But, beside the kids package, you should check the Blues channels, where you can choose between Acoustic blues, Blues women, Electric blues, etc. Or how about the jazz package? Jazz fusion, jazz latino, swing, bop, etc.

Or if this does not set you free, then let me tell you what turned my world on: the metal channel! Yeah! Hair metal station, power metal station, classic metal station (I actually asked myself what “classic” means in metal, it means Megadeth, Ozzy, Testament etc)

Don’t you dare try the rock package cause there are too many stations there to pick from.

How about country, baby?! All 70′s, all 80′s, all 90′s? All 2000′s?! Or folk!! Love country or outlaw country (I didn’t know this branch actually exists)

Ah, one more thing: commercials are in the beginning, so before starting the show you need to listen to a commercial about hair loss or something then here you go, no commercial for a very long time, so don’t panic! 

So I guess I’ve already spoken too much instead of pointing you to the package!

So here it is: AOL radio! 350+ stations, I love it, I bookmarked it, I listen to it all day long on my computer!

By the way,I am now listening to “Sinatra style” station. Cool!

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Well, my dear friends, let me tell you that on 26th April, 5 days ago a new “artist-to be” was born into this world: my little daughter, Alesia Maria.

My wife gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl that is going to be a great artist and a great person when she’ll grow up. Says me.

I only posted about it today since this period was really crazy for me, my wife was in the hospital in Bucharest for a few days and I was driving between cities, leaving the very first thing in the morning and coming home late at night, only having the time and mood to take a shower and fall asleep…

But now, when everything settled down a bit, I can tell you I have a wonderful baby girl, named, as I was already told you, Alesia Maria Oprescu, very cute and most of all…very quiet! I can actually sleep, you know!!

I can tell you I am very proud of my little baby girl, she only cries once in a while, she usually stays and looks at me, she has a lot of hair, which is more than I can say about me and she is also a great music critic, you know, she actually falls asleep while I sing to her. I must be really good at this…

So, here she is, Alesia Maria Oprescu, born on 26th April 2009, great artist-to be, daughter of a very proud father!

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Wow! This is all I can say now! Wow! Here’s why…

3 days ago I posted the article about Susan Boyle on Britain’s got talent, without thinking where this might go. As you probably already know, Susan Boyle is the internet star of the moment these days, her performance generating millions of page views all over the world.

So, after posting the article, I went to bed.

What do you know?!! Next morning I looked at my traffic stats and I can tell you in the first second I have felt a big hole in my stomack since everything was gone…gone…only one single spike, the current day…

What? Where s everything gone? Where are my stats since one and a half year?

And then I got it! They were here, nothing was lost, just that the traffic generated by Susan Boyle’s performance was so big that everything else seemed so small that Analytics graphs looked like everything so far was zero…

I can tell you that by the end of the day, 19.932 visitors watched Susan Boyle’s performance on my site. The next day, 10.416 visitors, the next day 7.206. Today, so far I have 3.013 visitors! 20.000 visitors in one day!! Huge traffic compared to everything else, from one single video…

I am not new on this internet, but happenings like this one never stop to amaze me. 5 minutes of video turned one person from nobody to somebody really known…

By the way, probably the same as everybody else, I couldn’t help asking myself who’s this lady? Who Susan Boyle is? Can I listen anything else sung by her?

Well, what do you know? Seems I can. Daily Record found a CD recorded in 1999, where she sings a song. The Millennium Celebration CD, partly funded by Whitburn Community Council, was the brainchild of local newspaper editor Eddie Anderson, who looked for unsigned artists to record this CD.

The performance is just astonishing on this record too…

Listen for yourself and let me know your opinion on this one as you did on the previous one.

Susan Boyle, Cry me a river, 1999

Simon confirmed he arranged for her to appear on Oprah show, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher recently supported her, she seems to have all the visibility she needs to make it big… Simon also told Daily Mail that she could top the Billboard charts in the US.

I can only say this lady never stops to amaze me and keeps me wanting more and more…

And you know what? I would really buy her CD if she will record one, and I don’t know why but I really think she will soon…

How about it, Simon?

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As you probably know, I love YouTube videos that bring something to the table.

So, you may already expect something interesting with the video here. It is not about guitars, but it is about simple people gifted with great talents. I have already said that those who made it big are up there because of a positive complex of happenings and should never look down on the rest of us, because they can never know who could slap you in the face without notice with a stunning performance…

Like the one here. I can tell you I started to watch this video ready to laugh big time, probably the same as everybody there but…

So, to not ruin your surprise, watch this video, of course, with sound. I can’t embed it because embedding was disabled by user request, on YT, but this should not be an issue.

Later edit: I managed to find a video out there, here it is:

And get back here and let me know what you think about the lady there!! By the way, in case you haven’t yet noticed, her name is Susan Boyle. Just for the record.

Isn’t she wonderful?

Unfortunately I could bet that we will never hear about her again, outside this  show. That’s life…

And now Stumble that!

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I’ve just found this video with Metallica’s Kirk Hammett trying to learn a riff that just doesn’t want to get in there…

Honestly I amused myself watching this and I remembered about asking myself, years ago, how they did that famous ending part in “One”. I have always considered that part (the speed part) the result of work, not inspiration, because you actually need to count and remember in order to get things right. Especially when that part implies that the whole band stop together, all at once. Imagine how it would have sounded if Kirk would have played one more note when everybody suddenly stopped…

And I love the face he makes at the end…

Now Stumble that!

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I am not a big fan of Rolling Stones, I like them, but they’re not my cup of cake, if you know what I mean. On the other hand, I like GNR, they come closer to what I look for in music.

However, seems that there are some common grounds to all these, there are points where Rolling Stones and Guns connect, beside the fact that the Stones probably represents a milestone for every single rock music lover in the world.

Like for example Sympathy for the devil, I didn’t know Guns recorded their own version, I just found it on YT and I can say it sounds interesting. Not quite GNR, but Axl’s voice gives an interesting flavor to this song, isn’t i?

Let’s see, comparing these 2 versions of 2 great bands, which one you find better? Or let’s say closer to your soul.

I would have personally liked to hear a bit more of Slash on this song, if Slash is actually present here. I can’t tell, is it actually GNR or a later version of Axl without the band?

Or, it’s like one commenter on YT said

“Don’t get me wrong i like guns and roses, but this is just one of those songs you don’t touch. It’s like someone covering thriller “

What do you have to say? Or is it like in that childhood dilemma in the title?

And by the way, somebody DID cover Thriller…

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You know, I was telling you about Line 6 and Ableton Live and my home recording experiences.

I enjoy doing this, I realized it is the best way to bring a new song to present it to the band. I record it at home (the guitar part, I mean) then I put a vocal guide on it and send it over to Costin, the lead singer, to put some words on it, to see how it sound, so when we get together at rehearsals, we already speak the same language.

However, if the guitar sounds better than a lot of guitars I have heard, I can’t get the voice right and I realized I don’t know how to record the vocals right, because I have never been in such a position to record it myself. Usually, you know, you go to the studio, you have the sound engineer there who already fixed things and maybe just tweak a little the sound and you just record the voice. Right?

Well, now I find myself in such a position so I need to…ih…study! Well, yeah, like I wouldn’t already have too much on my head, I started to look for how to record the voice.

See, the internet is such a great tool for learning, I can’t imagine what I would do without it these days! I have found this article here that says a few things about it. And of course, I said to share it with you.

So, what’s your experience with recording vocal parts? I mean…from the other end of the mic. Any good tips to share?

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As you probably know, I love Helloween and the kind of voices this style of music implies. And I love the way Michael Kiske sings. And I do love acoustic guitars. So, considering the above mentioned reasons, any association between these 2 (powerful voice + acoustic guitar) would be a winner IMO.

If I also consider the fact that I kind of missed Michael Kiske’s voice(I was even wondering what happened to him since a while) when I stumbled upon his latest album, Past in Different Ways, I was just thrilled. I keep on listening it over and over again so I decided to put here one of the songs on this album, so we all enjoy it!

Michael Kiske – When the sinner

and A little time

Also, you can check it on Amazon, see Past in Different Ways here!

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