Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars

The previous post with Gary Moore and his Parisian walkways made me thing at something else: there were a couple of instrumental songs that meant something for me at one moment and still remained up to this day in my memory as milestones of guitar playing. These songs are for me masterpieces that should be listened and remembed by every guitar player around. Unfortunately, I can’t brag myself about studying them, I just love them and love to listen these songs as great guitar pieces from a technical and melodic point of view.

OK, I could go into a clichee here and everybody will say, oh, yeah, right, Satriani, doh! But I can not help it and start the list with Always with me, always with you, Joe Satriani. The definitive instrumental hit.

Then, I guess, Yngwie Malmsteen and his Black Star… We could all argue about how infatuated the guy is, but I guess nobody will argue about what he meant (still means?) for the guitar world.

Then, I would put here Gary Moore and The Loner.

I must admit I didn’t know the video, I only had the song on tape at that moment, so seeing Gary Moore with a Jackson seems a bit strange, to me Gary Moore is the Gibson guy, even if I do know his early days rock history. I still love Blood of emeralds.

I could also name Steve Vai with For the love of God, which to me is a sister song for Always with me, but not as touchy, the same way Vai is not as soulful as Satriani in his playing. Ah, yes, and Fleetwood Mac with Albatros, a personal one, I used to play it in highschool.

So, again:

1. Always with me, always with you, Joe Satriani
2. Black star, Yngwie Malmsteen
3. The loner, Gary Moore

Anything else from your side?

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One of the things that heavily influenced the rock music, and actually I could even dare to say “created” is the overdrive. If you paid attention to yourself in your early days of playing the guitars and to other young rock fans you’ve probably met along the way, the biggest joy is to just get that famous metal, distorted palmed sound. Giiiiiigigigi!!! Whatever…

I remember that when I used to own one of those BOSS DS1 stompboxes, the overdrive know was turned to maximum value. No doubt here.

The same, when I purchased the BOSS multieffect I still own and happily use even today, when I started to set the parameters there, like EQ settings, delay, chorus, flanger, noise reduction, I had no doubt regarding the gain setting, it is turnet to 15 out of 15. And to be honest, I still use it today. ‘Cause I like it!

However, I realized that I started to like also a guitar sound that has not so much overdrive on it, so the original guitar sound cuts through the overdrive. I actually look at other fomous overdrive users, see Satriani for ex, think Starry night. Starry night is nothing like Surfing with the aliens or Always with you, always with me. Starry night is warmer, closer to the classic 70’s rock sound maybe.

OK, I also played guitars with the overdrive turned on even more than mine, but my feeling was that I couldn’t tell what I play, is it a guitar? Is it some kind of a keyboard?

I remember loving the sound on Parisian walkways or Still got the blues, at that moment I was in love with that sound, even if it was not a metal sound, the sustain there, like for ex on Parisian walkways, is unbeatable, the dream of  any guitar player…man…

I still play my guitar with the sustain and gain on maximum, and honestly, I can not get that ACDC sound no matter how much I’d try, it does not represent me, even if it sounds great on their records. You know, I like Accept very much, I’ve always thought Accept is ACDC with a better guitar sound. Don’t hit me here for saying that!

So, how do you keep your overdrive settings?

PS: The sustained note at 3.18 makes one of the most famous moments in rock music, don’t you think? I actually don’t know if this is the exact same concert, but I remember speaking in highschool about that moment when Gary Moore played that long note, I remember that…

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Religion is something personal, so personal that sometimes changes that particular person forever. However, I don’t want to start a discussion about religion here, I try to respect every person’s decision and option, even if I don’t quite understand the religion as an option, but as a part that defines you from day one, not something to opt for later.

However, this post was started by a discussion about Cat Stevens. Or should I say Yusuf Islam? I can tell you I really like his work, I especially love Father and son and Wild world, but also Morning has broken or Lady D’Arbanville. I don’t belong to that period, I guess I am a mixture of beautiful music that I discovered while walking my path. The fact is that every time I discover a beautiful song or a band that I didn’t know about my soul is filled with joy and happiness, I feel like a new universe has open to me.

I discovered Cat Stevens while in high school, we used to play Father and son a lot, I remember associating it to Knocking on heaven’s door, probably because of the similarities of the chord structure, or because of the deep message, or who knows why, I know I still remember Knocking each time I think about Father and son.

The fact is that my respect for Cat Stevens grew stronger when I discovered he is the man behind Mr Big’s hit Whild World. And then I found the new Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam. As I said, I won’t start a discussion about the motivation behind this change, I just know I wish he wouldn’t stop being part of this world of music that I love and appreciate. I can tell you I don’t know much about his recent music, I just know his early songs. I love that part.

Today Costin, my friend and band mate was telling me by messenger how ACDC was earning 80 million $ per year by selling tickets, vs Metallica with $56 millions. Madonna takes like $10 million per month. Now that’s a salary…

Maybe this could be a motivation, you have everything, money is not something to worry about, you climb a new step on Maslow’s pyramid, you know, that part with basic needs, then social needs, then spiritual needs, etc.

However, I still play Father and son and I enjoy every second of it.

PS: About the title, I wanted to say something about turning right and left and I I remembered a joke so I cut that part:

On the right, there’s nothing left and on the left there’s nothing right…

Right!

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Tennyson Williams commented a few days ago here saying he knows a very good rock guitar player, knowing all the chords in the book, that can’t handle bossa nova. Well, this is probably because that guy focused only on rock and, while this is not a bad thing, it limited him.

The fact is that, if you think about it, so many great hard and heavy rock guitar licks come from outside rock, like from blues for example! Think of all the pentatonic licks you hear everyday played on an overdrive on all the greatest guitar hits! These bits are there because that guy playing them tried to also grow into other directions than heavy rock.

If you hear chromatic passages in metal, this is probably because that guitar player tried to dive into jazz at a moment. Following the same idea, bossa nova would help too, I guess. Crossing the line helps almost every time when it comes to music.

However, licks and scales are not the only issue when trying to improvise out of your musical comfort area, we should also count the rhythmic part of your licks. Doesn’t that sound familiar to you? I mean, if you are used to play 4/4 rock meter all the time, you probably have your licks ready for this even in your sleep, but how about trying to play what you are used to on a more exotic meter? How about 6/16 or 3/8? Well, trust me, in most of the situations, your licks won’t fit in, you will find yourself in an uncomfortable situation trying either to fill spaces, either surprised by the fact that the bar just ended. Your 4/4 improvisations won’t save you this time…

The fact is that in a real life situation you probably won’t need to play all kind of styles day by day, unless you play for the musical section of your local theater, I guess, but being able to improvise in unorthodox meters may help you a lot to face an unexpected challenge and to grow as a complete musician.

…now I shut my damn mouth and go play some bossa nova…

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Warning! To guitar players: this post is not about guitars, it is about drums! To drummers: the title is a joke, relax

Well, these days I’ve started to work with my band two songs from Metallica, Nothing else matters and Whiskey in the jar. OK, I must be in the mood for Metallica these days, I guess, but working on these songs made me think of how important the drummer really is.

I mean, if you listen Nothing else matters, with a musician’s ear, you’ll hear Lars Ulrich’s drums all over. His style of playing drums is almost trademarked.

You probably already know it, you know Metallica and you recognize Lars out of 1000 drummers, isn’t it? The fact is that Lars had such a big influence on Metallica’s sound that without him, Metallica would have never been the same, no matter what other drummer would have taken his place.

I mean, from my experience, changing the drummer in a band is a big and I mean REALLY BIG thing! Working a song with a drummer will give a particular balance to that song, that another drummer may not be able to get it. I’ve played with quite a few drummers so far and I can tell you that I’ve felt every one of them as being different.

Our previous drummer was a Limp Bizkit fan, his way of playing drums was modern, energetic, very interesting. When we started to play alternative, his presence was exactly what we needed at that moment.

Our current drummer is an old school rock fan: Whitesnake, Metallica, Maiden, UDO, Accept, etc. Totally different way of playing drums…

Lars has his own style, as it happens with all great musicians and his presence in the band is, I guess, along with Hetfield’s voice, the very definition of Metallica’s sound.

If you want to test this for yourself, ask your drummer to play Nothing else matters, the same way Lars Ulrich plays, and then start a chat with him about it! You may find it interesting…

You know, there is that joke that says the drummer is not a musician, but he is that guy hanging around musicians…Funny joke, but not true at all in this case. Actually, if you think about it, how many drummers can you think of that can be named out of 100 drummers the same way Ulrich can? I know there are thousands great drummers, but how many have their style so unique that you will immediately know who’s playing there?

Well? Who would you name?

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A few days ago I was writing about that pig bleeding party, if this is how you call it in English(thanks, Sammy!). I have observed a very interesting fact while being there, something that made me think about it for a few days. Remember I said that when I arrived, there were already some guys playing on stage, guys that we teamed up with, to make a band for the evening. Most of them haven’t played since a few good years, but all together, we managed to have a good “show” that evening.

Also we took breaks, because after all, it was a party with friends, we had lunch, had a couple of drinks, chit-chat with everybody around, etc.

Well, in those moments, the stage usually got full of other people that used to play an instrument at one moment. Well, one of those moments is the reason I write this here now…

It was that guy there, fan of SRV and John Mayer, that loved to play Lenny (and it sounded really nice, plus that I listened Lenny that very morning so I had it fresh in my mind). He approached me at one moment when I went for a coffee and we had an interesting conversation about guitars (mine especially), SRV, Satriani, Vai, you know, the usual chit-chat guitar players come up with when they get together, he’s a very interesting guy,we even exchanged phone numbers and asked if he can come to one of our rehearsals sessions one day. Well, yes, I guess.

Then it was this other guy that was totally addicted to metal. He asked me if he could try my guitar. Yes, no problem. He told me he has a Gibson Les Paul at home and if I am not mistaken, also a Strat. Nice, I don’t have any of these. Well…

So, he started to play some Maiden, then a few riffs of a local underground metal band in Romania, a band that I also like to listen once in a while (but probably I am the only one in the 100 people that surround me that even know about that band). Well, I liked to hear those heavy riffs, I knew the songs, I have them on my laptop, but the people there didn’t know them…

At the same time, on stage it was the SRV guy with his guitar. But he couldn’t play metal under any circumstance, he was the Lenny guy…But the Maiden fan didn’t know blues…

I was looking at them, one trying to play metal and the other trying to play blues. Didn’t work. Didn’t work at all. They seemed like 2 guys speaking two different languages, they didn’t have any common grounds to rely on…

Do you know what I’ve thought at that moment? I have thought about my post of a few months ago about being original in blues. You commented there saying that blues actually offers the common ground that both musicians and the audience know, gives everybody an international language to speak. This is so true, with only 3 chords, basic “blues culture” they could have had a great time jamming together. Probably the Lenny guy could have put it together, but there must be 2 to play tennis, isn’t it?

I still have that image in my mind of two guys, each of them being able to play the guitar pretty good, but not being able to communicate and play together at the same time.

And here I remember a movie that I’ve watched a lot of years ago on TV, with a jazz trumpet player, I think. He wanted to play in a band, it was a jazz band playing down the street, he went there to speak to them about it. The band leader listened to him, told him about learning scales and sent him back home to come back later after learning scales. He came back a few months ago, I know to play this.

OK then, now go back and listen those songs and learn them. When you can play them, come back and we’ll speak about it. He came back a few months later playing the songs.

OK, NOW YOU CAN START LEARNING TO PLAY WITH A BAND.Go back and…

I don’t remember how the movie ended, if the guy joined the band or not, I just remember the idea. There’s more to it that learning to play the guitar, it is not enough to know the chords or the notes, it is not enough to know the song, you must learn to work with the others in the band and listen to them…

Don’t you agree?

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A quick and last one, for this year: HAPPY NEW YEAR, GUYS!!!

May all your dreams come true in the year to come, stay healthy, find more time for your guitar and…rock on!

Happy New Year!

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I will start by describing an old tradition in Romania that you, if not familiar with it, you may find it less pleasant and why not, a bit barbarian.OK, I’ll take my chance. So…

Each year, on one of the days around Christmas, people in country side, kill/cut/sacrifice a pig that is grown usually in their own backyard farm. This is something that goes back a very long time, I guess, and I am not able to tell you the origin of this tradition. Romania is a Christian country. Well, this tradition I bet it’s not Christian, but pre-Christian. The fact is that it blended so well with Christmas that it became part of it, without anybody asking about the origin anymore.

Coming back to the point, this usually goes like this: the family gets together in the country side, kill/cut/sacrifice the pig, then prepare it on top of a fire, then slice it and prepare it for storage for the months to come. Because it happens on Christmas, usually a cold period, with snow, local Romanian drinks are also part of a tradition (think Whiskey or Vodka as more famous alternatives). Actually, if you want, you can look at this as a big barbecue, because actually a barbecue is always part of the process.

I was part of this tradition a week ago, at my parents in law. OK, I came in a bit later, to skip the part where they actually kill the pig, because I don’t like it…

OK, why am I telling you this? You may ask yourself where’s the relationship with playing the guitar?

Well, two days ago, Costin, the lead singer in my band invited us to …play at such an event. What?! Yeah, it’ll be fun, he says, you’ll see! Some friends of my brother invited us, yadda, yadda, yadda…

Aaaah…yeah, I guess…we’ll see…

OK, the fact is that we all spoke about it, but only 3 of us were available for that day, the other 2 were away for the holidays. So I packed up the guitar, took my gig bag thinking this might be like the strangest place I’ve ever played…

The fact is that I didn’t know where this will take place, Costin only told me the general coordinates, so I had a bit of trouble finding the location. I called the guy: do you have the cars outside? Will I see your car at the gates? Well, he says, there’s actually no gate, how to put it, it’s a large property near a lake, a small hotel…

OK, after a bit of search, there I was. A nice hotel and restaurant near a private lake…And I was expecting a backyard of some guy in the country side…

I entered the restaurant where everything took place and I was a bit overwhelmed at first. There were about 50-60 people there, a stage, drums, amplifiers, some guys already playing on stage, and a few familiar faces.

OK, but where’s the pig? I was expecting something different, you know…The fact is that this friend wanted to throw a party for his friends, so bought a pig, already sacrificed by the owner, brought it to the restaurant(that his uncle owns), then gave it to the chef to prepare it for everybody. Drinks and the meals were on the house. OK then, a real party!

I can say that we came in for 2 hours and we stayed there for about 6 hours, canceling other things we had planned for that evening, because we’ve felt very well there. The fact is that after all, from the band, only me and Costin, the lead singer, managed to get there, but hey, after all, we’ve been to a few parties together and can play a few good songs with only a guitar and voice.

As I was saying, there were a few guys there that could play a bit, a drummer that said he didn’t play drums in the last 12 years and that the one that taught him to play drums is our current drummer. What do you know?! My wife told me this, I didn’t know about it, she talked to the guy for a while, interesting story, too bad Coco, our drummer was not there to meet him. My wife told me he was explaining to her how he and his band of 12 years ago were opening for Kapela back then. Well, imagine when my wife told him that me and Costin used to play in Kapela…

The fact is I can say I was impressed how things went along when we’ve got together on that small stage, we started to play songs after only one minute of preparation for each of them, I knew the song and I was telling them the chords as we played. But in the end, everything went well. At one moment we also played a few “acoustic” songs, just me and Costin, the way we used to play at parties.

My Variax guitar proved to be the star of the evening, I can only say it was great and that if I would have a rack of guitars to chose from, for a cover songs party, between a Gibson Les Paul, a Strat and a Tele, I would pick a Variax anytime since I had there everything I wanted, just a knob away!

We played blues on my “Tele”, solos on my “Gibson” and balads on my “acoustic guitar”, and I can say it rocked the house!

I think that you couldn’t spend Christmas better than this, partying with friends playing the guitar!

Christmas rock parties rock, don’t you think?!

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As I find verry little time to blog these days (and I am sure you have the same problem), I just want to wish you a Merry Christmas, have a wonderful Winter Holiday and have the time of your life together with your loved ones!

May all your dreams come true!

Ho, ho, ho!

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Starting today I will start a new category, “Scrapers (the wall of shame)”. This is because today, Mad Stratter sent me an email pointing me to www.discountguitarsinfo.com, informing me about the fact that this site scraps our content. I can tell you I recognized there a lot of the articles we all post day by day, a lot of articles from Mad Stratter’s blog, from Jon’s GuitarNoize, from Stratoblogster, and a lot more blogs I enjoy and read every day.

This is not the first time I see this. A couple of weeks ago, Danny from GuitarPlayersCenter.com sent me an email complaining me about the same thing, but about another site.

A couple of good months ago, Jon started a conversation with me and IG about another site scraping content.

I guess we all know how difficult it is to come up with original content each and every day so this kind of situations should not go unpunished. There are ways to fight this. I know a few and I am sure you also know a few. I will tell you my best one, IMO: the only reason this kind of websites exist is to build content for AdSense or similar advertising systems. Content builds search traffic. Traffic means money, the reason this kind of sites exits. Google gives you the possibility to report such sites for duplicated, scrapped content, terminating the account associated to the site. No money, no reason for the site to exist.

OK, there are other ways to make money, but in such cases, AdSense is a very important one.

You add here your own methods, let’s see if we can fight this! And when you find other sites scraping our content, share it with the rest of us, we might be interested…

I think that we join our forces, we might just start a movement here: “Say NO to scraping!”

What do you say?

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