Guitarist of the Day: Jonathon Grasse on Surrealestate's Lacunae (Acoustic Levitation)

 

Guitarist of the Day: Jonathon Grasse on Surrealestate's Lacunae (Acoustic Levitation)

 

In the track I Still Dream of Nana, whispering, as a musical-dramatical device, has the effect of drawing the listener into the sound world created by guitarist Jonathon Grasse and the LA-based group Surrealestate on their new release Lacunae on the Acoustic Levitation label.

Grasse is an imaginative and oh-so patient player. He treats the Stratocaster like an alto or soprano instrument, coaxing the most delicate, yet complete, sounds and overtones in what can sometimes be the harshest range of the electric guitar. I’ve always admired this unique aspect of his playing. By the time he shifts into the instrument’s lower ranges, you’ve almost forgotten that the instrument has lows (and this is just part of Grasse’s afore-mentioned patience). In I Still Dream of Nana, he shifts between tonal and non-tempered sounds, and employs articulations that alternately remind me of a koto, gongs and bells, environmental, and imaginary spatial sounds. The recording preserves the nuances of the microstructures that Grasse constructs/releases. Throughout the CD, Grasse draws your attention to his uncluttered yet timbrally loaded guitar gestures. His career as a composer definitely informs his guitar playing. No shredding here, just music through masterful playing…thank goodness.

The title of the album (Lacunae) is perfect for this track, as a metaphor for a (spiritual) space previously unexamined, omitted, or unthought. Grasse’s playing is well suited to the ensemble that includes Charles Sharp on percussion and little instruments, David Martinelli on drum set, Jeff Schwartz on bass. Ken Luey on flute/clarinet/tenor sax, and Bruce Friedman on trumpet. 

LA keeps coming up as an expanding place for new and inventive music and as a home to practitioners of the highest quality. Hopefully, Surrealestate's Lacunae, and Grasse’s contribution to it, will get the attention it deserves. This is music beyond category and well worth a listen.

-Amigo

Jonathan's website
 

Available for purchase/listen at iTunes
 

Guitar Technique of the Day: Plateaus and habits

An interesting problem of late. Some very simple possibilities/variations are escaping my notice and don't show up in improvisations. I think I've become too accustomed to my habits, so I have to start transcribing and copying other guitarists again. Also, setting limits helps. For example, using just the 1st and 2nd finger of the left hand on the fretboard, and, relatedly, playing across the fretboard more (Django did this a lot, as do sitarists of the Ravi Shankar school). I was watching some old George Benson videos and noticed that, in spite of using all four left hand fingers, he often uses just the first, second, and third, omitting the fourth. This enables a great kind of slower to medium-fast phrasing and can make smaller riffs and lines more interesting. Plateaus are tough to get out of, but I'm hoping to move past this one soon. It's weird-having practiced so much that certain basic things fall out of your purview. Who ever heard of practicing too much? :)

Please vote for "A Beautiful Life" in GC Keith Urban contest.

Please vote for "A Beautiful Life" in GC Keith Urban contest. I could use the millions. Heck, I could use the hundreds.

Guitar Technique of the Day: "natural" electric guitar latency

 

I recently had the realization that an essential difference between the response of an acoustic and electric guitar is, regarding the latter, I can hear/feel the micro-delay between the acoustic pluck and the response of the amplifier speaker at the end of the line. I've never read or heard about this phenomenon, and was quite shocked to stumble upon it.

I  thought that electricity travels at the speed of light, but according to Bill Beatty, the speed of electricity is dependent on the value of the current; the lower the current, the slower the speed. If this is true, the small milliamp AC outputs of guitar pickups indeed conduct slowly relative to higher current values. But Beatty still doesn't give speeds.

see: http://amasci.com/miscon/speed.html

I'm not that interested in the final scientific resolution of this question, but I am psyched that my ear/touch have gotten sensitive enough that I can hear/feel differences. If I'm not imagining it, then the sensitivity and complexity of the human architecture continues to amaze me. I believe this insight will yield major benefits in my electric guitaring.

Any thoughts, equations, negations?

Tube Amp Reference Books/Videos

 

There's nothing like getting your hands dirty in electronics to realize the true potential of the AC signal/Voltage that is your sound.

A guy named Wayne Reno compiled this list. Thanks Wayne.

1. “How To Service Your Own Tube Amp” (book and video) by Tom Mitchell – If you only buy one, this is it, in my humble opinion.

2. "The Guitar Amp Handbook: Understanding Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds" by Dave Hunter - An excellent introductory treatise to the world of guitar amplification. Very readable and he does a great job of making the concepts understandable. Highly recommended.

3. “Video 1 - Tube Amp Basics for the Guitarist” by Gerald Weber – I found Gerald’s videos and the one above by Tom Mitchell very, very helpful. It’s great to be able to see and hear about tube amp circuits instead of just reading about them.

4. “Video 2 - Basic Tube Guitar Amp Overhaul and Servicing” by Gerald Weber

5. “Video 3 - Advanced Tube Guitar Amp Overhaul and Servicing” by Gerald Weber

6. “A Desktop Reference Of Hip Vintage Guitar Amps” by Gerald Weber – Lots of good info and schematics

7. “Tube Amp Talk For The Guitarist And Tech” by Gerald Weber – more good info. Check out “The Trainwreck Pages”

8. "Tube Guitar Amplifier Essentials" by Gerald Weber - The latest in his series of books.

9. “The Ultimate Tone – Volumes 1 and 2” by Kevin O’Connor

10. “The Tube Amp Book” by Aspen Pittman of Groove Tubes

11. “Tube Amp Workbook” by Dave Funk

12. “Audio Cyclopedia – First Edition” by Howard Tremaine – The bible, with everything knowable about tube circuits. Very technical. Make sure to get the First Edition since after this one a lot of the tube circuits were dropped in favor of solid-state. I bought mine used on eBay and it wasn’t cheap.

13. “RCA Receiving Tube Manual”

14. “General Electric Essential Characteristics”

15. “Tube Substitution Handbook” by Howard Sams

16. “The Fender Amp Book” by John Morrish – a small book with the Fender models and specs on each

17. “The Amp Book” by Donald Brosnac – an introductory treatment

18. “Amps! The Other Half Of Rock ‘N’ Roll” by Ritchie Fliegler – a good history of tube amps with lots of photos

19. “The Complete Guide To Guitar And Amp Maintenance” by Ritchie Fliegler – good practical advise but not very detailed

20. “Fender Amps. The First Fifty Years” by John Teagle and John Sprung – good history of all of Fender’s amps with photos

21. “The Fender Inside Story” by Forrest White – an insiders view of the history of Fender

22. “Marshall. The Illustrated Story Of The Sound Of Rock” by Michael Doyle

23. “Ampeg. The Story Behind The Sound” by Gregg Hopkins and Bill Moore

24. “Blue Book Of Guitar Amplifiers” by Zachary Fjestad – Specs on many brands of amps and what they are selling for now

Zen Posts

Music as THE vehicle, not as A vehicle for something else like ambition, ego, or power. This is an especially delicate point for (mostly male) guitarists. Perhaps amateurs are closer to the truth of why we started playing the guitar in the first place: so we could make music. The guitar is an instrument/tool for our creativity, not the locus of it.

zen posts

Don't let you eyes fool your ears, grasshoppers. Close the eyes, listen and focus. Inhabit the now and the near future simultaneously. Don't play if you don't hear anything.

Zen Posts

1. Play THROUGH the strings, like a conguero plays through the drum skin/head.
2. There are no strings, thus no resistance.
3. Minimum effort, maximum sound.

I'm back...I think.

it's been a while since I've written so I apologize to the readers who were beginning to check into my Guitarist of the Day blog. I've been off producing records (11 of them) and writing music for a couple of commissions including a play out in LA. Anyway, I'm back...I think.

Also, It would be great if readers could post on this blog rather than send me personal emails about posts. That way, we can see if this blog will actually work. If not, then I'll just go to rewiring some more of my guitars.:)

I hope you're all having a good summer and that your music is moving ahead despite the inevitable obstacles.

regards,

Cristian

 

ASCAP has lost its mind

In its claims against Creative Commons (among others) ASCAP is showing that it does not understand how people make and engage with music now. ASCAP is  doomed to failure. I like some of those old songs too, but what does that kind of artistic production have to do with the majority of musicmakers working today? Marilyn Bergman and ASSCAP are stuck in the windmills of their minds.

Creative Commons responds to ASCAP

 

Guitarist notebook: modulation matrix (triads in all major keys)

Matrix of triads in all major keys*

(in cycle of fourths and fifths)

Context: modulation to close and distant keys.

Exercise: Use matrix to modulate to close and distant-related keys.

(ex. from C to G#m)

notes:

Same target chord exists one adjacent key away to either side (fourth or fifth).

(ex. C chord exists in the keys of F and G).

Each major and minor chord exists in 3 keys only.

Major chords function as I- IV-V. Minor chords function as ii-vi-iii. ONLY.

There are other ways to modulate outside of this matrix, but matrix shows important ways to do this.

In addition to matrix scheme, minor chords can all become tonic (i) chords. Not just ii-vi-iii. This is a huge topic for another day.

Diminished chord is unique to a key and functions as a leading tone dominant chord to the tonic (V-I).

In columns diminished chords serve as a transition between major and minor forms.

(ex. Eb – E dim – Em)

*  For advanced musicians, this matrix shows many relationships beyond those noted above. A personal analysis will yield many useful insights into different kinds of tonal relationships. As one example, it is a way to look at the circle of fourths and fifths that includes all chords in the keys, not just keys. There are many others.

 

John Butler Live Rig

Check out John Butler's live rig. There is a lot to LEARN about an acoustic/electric set-up for that big tone which is always quasi-mysterious, especially on the acoustic side of things. John, however, goes through the black magic to a great sound. The GP interviewer (Robbie Ginett?) is an idiot and starts out with an insipid generic question which he then qualifies with a moronic follow-up question. Too much hair to distract him, I guess. Butler takes Robbie, and us, to a good place though. Compassionate dude.

 

Guitar movie: Notes on "It Might Get Loud"

notebook entry:

Jimmy Page is the royalty here, what with his early history as a first call London session guitarist (Kinks, Joe Cocker, played on "Goldfinger") and his later association with those bands whose names I can't remember right now. When he plays the intro riff to "Whole Lotta Love" for Mr. White and Mr. Edge,  they are reduced to adolescents in awe of black magic, as most of us would be. Their faces must have hurt from grinning for so long.

Jack White and Jimmy Page seem to have the most in common in terms of a musical aesthetic derived from the blues and are thus able to play music in various situations with a minimum amount of electronic gak. Edge requires U2, and so much gear that it makes him look ridiculous one on one with the others. Although clips of Edge w/U2 reveal the singular location of his mojo...in collective expression.

Jack White building a guitar in minutes is the opening of the film. "Who says you need to buy a guitar?" is his question. Then some wicked low slide riffs. Gibson and Fender take note and fuck you for your extortionate prices.

The jams between them are mildly interesting, but good inspiration for aspirants. Lots of mistakes = lots of encouragement.

Jimmy Page on the music that influenced him and showing you via gestures the techniques/touch used is awesome. He really studied these things. And he still loves it. Jack White too.

Although the movie bills itself as a history of the electric guitar through they eyes of three guitar icons. It's really about the personal history of music and guitaring in their lives. No Les Paul, no history of the electric guitar--let's face it.

It's hard to remember that Edge came of age in the punk era, and he is committed to the punk ethos and narrative of playing and performing without knowing much about music, at least in terms of his musical formation. Page and White come from a deep reverence for tradition and American roots music while simultaneously trying to forge their own individual voices.

It seems that Mr. White is not too enamored of Mr. Edge.

Concert footage you've seen and loved before--a million times. Stories you already know and love. I like Jack White bleeding on his Gretsch--very dramatic. Led Zeppelin--absolutely. Edge--where is U2 when you need them?




 

Guitar Gak: Talent Booster pedal for your shit licks!

Brian Wampler, the pedal designer/guru has finally designed the perfect pedal for the Guitar Hero generation desirous of glory without effort--sound without practice.  It's the Talent Booster* pedal that morphs your half-ass blues licks into monstrous Buddy Guy tones with just a click of the footswitch....click. Now you can be a badass half-ass in disguise, a turd cloaked as a hot shit guitar player....click. Yeah, I'm bad. I'm nationwide-tatatatatatata..., but, not really. :)

http://www.wamplerpedals.com/talent_booster

No women are referenced in this post (except as lookers on), since they don't fall for stupid stuff like this. This is male only stupid. 

* The Talent Booster is really a JFET based booster with a gain control.

 

Guitarist practice of the day: RELAX (those stupid guitar faces) and/or Try Yoga or end up looking like Yoda

“Named must your fear be before banish it you can.”

One thing that master guitarists (across styles) seem to have in common is total relaxation of the body and hands while playing.*  For guitarists raised as rock and blues players (the majority), this can be difficult because of the "guitar faces" and "fastest gun hung low" requirements of the genre. Of course, every body is different and by extension the natural strength and dexterity of hands.

Edward Van Halen is a guitarist whose guitar faces and extreme use of his body do not hinder the relaxation in his playing. The dead give away of his relaxation is his penchant for smiling in the midst of his testosterone-driven guitar face displays. It's as if he's putting you on with his non-playing antics. Maybe he is naturally able to relax of disconnect  his relaxed guitar playing faculties from the tight guitar faces and acrobatics, or maybe that is something gained from practice. Can you do this? Or is all that tightness giving you constipation and slowing down your musicality instead?

Your  hands and arms are not disconnected from the rest of your body. Tension anywhere in your body is going to show up in your hands, and tension is not what you want in your guitar playing (or sports or anything) as it can be a hindrance to the free-flow of your ideas, and ultimately a path toward injury. Strength is a part of economy of movement, not an end in itself. All you need is the optimum amount of work (remember physics) necessary to achieve the "sound" of the technique you're working on (bends, vibrato, whatever). Everything else is overkill and a waste of your finite energy.  Sure. some sounds require some smack, but how much is the question. Too much and you actually shrink the amplitude of the string vibration (killing the low frequencies in the sustain) while over-emphasizing the transient (initial pick)....click, click, click.

We all have different bodies and different hand strengths (think of the difference in sound between Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn). Try to gauge yours by feeling it out and by conscious, wide-awake, wide-eared, practice.** This is especially true for rockers from blues to death metal who could use a little chill factor anyway (I imagine Satan was a pretty relaxed, if fallen, angel.-lol).

Also, try yoga so you don't wind up looking like Yoda.

* Look at past Guitarist of the Day video postings of Vicente Amigo, Carlos Hayre, Joe Maphis, George Benson, Jerry Reed, etc. for examples of this.

** It also varies from instrument to instrument, and also on the particular techniques used. Hey, I didn't say it was easy.

- thanks to my wife Dana for advice and on-going corrections on this important subject.

 

Guitar CD of the Day: For A Few Guitars More: A Tribute to Ennio Morricone

There are lots of Morricone tributes, but I like the unpretentiousness of this one. No fancy "new" classical musicians ironically slumming for street cred, but rock/blues musicians who proceed with genuine affection for the man and the material. Lots of good, bad, and ugly guitar playing and tones. The CD is hard to get so, I've included links to homepages and sounds of participating musicians and groups. Make some pasta and let this collection be your cheese. Bust out your cheapest amp and crankiest Danelectro distortion, drench in reverb, and proceed to have some fun al dente. Ole!

Compilation organized by Larry "Moon Dawg" White and Dalibor Pavicic
Artwork and package design Don Vigeant, Ltd.
 

For ongoing discussions about the music and films, check out Listservs: Ennio Morricone, Spaghetti Westerns
Surf/instro music: Cowabunga, Reverborama

THE TRACKS/LAS PISTAS:

1. Guns Don't Argue
from Guns Don't Argue [Le Pistole non Discutono], dir. Mario Caiano, 1964 
performed by The Penetrators
(Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
Rip Thrillby (lead guitar), Spanky Twangler (rhythm guitar), Trace Lugar (bass), Illya "Stix" Stechkin (drums)

 

2. Titoli (A Fistful of Dollars)
from A Fistful of Dollars [Un Pugno di Dollari], dir. Sergio Leone, 1964
performed by Bradipos IV 
(Caserta, Italy)
Franz (g/k), Enrico (d), Ghigo (b), Max (g) 

 

3. For A Fistful of Dollars
from A Fistful of Dollars
performed by Dave Wronksi
(Los Angeles, California, USA)
Dave Wronski (guitars)

 

4. For a Few Dollars More
from For a Few Dollars More [Qualche Dollaro in Piú], dir. Sergio Leone, 1965
performed by Cosmonauti
(Rome, Italy)
Stefano Giustinani (g), Andrea Lauri (g), Massimo Petrozzi (b), Alessandro Petrozzi (d)

 

5. Sixty Seconds To What? [aka La Resa dei Conti]
from For a Few Dollars More
performed by Brent J. Cooper
(Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
Brent J. Cooper (guitar, Fender Bass VI), Russell Broom (faux Mellotron, bass), Jim Atomic (drums, percussion).
Recorded by Russell A. Broom

 

6. The Vice Of Killing
from For a Few Dollars More
performed by The Langhorns
(Lund, Sweden)
Michael Sellers (guitar), Rikard Swärdh (drums), Martin Berglund (bass), Petter Lindgard (trumpet)

 

7. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly [Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo], 1966
performed by The Atlantics
(Sydney, New South Wales, Australia)
produced by Martin Cilia in cooperation with Sirena Music
Martin Cilia (g), Jim Skiathitis (g), Bosco Bosonac (b), Peter Hood (d)

 

8. The Ecstasy of Gold
from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
performed by 3 Balls of Fire
(Austin, Texas, USA) 
Burniní Mike Vernon (guitars, six-string bass, dust storm), Mike Robberson (bass), Freddie 
Steady Krc (drums and keyboard) and The Amazing Sophomores (vocals)

 

9. A Gun for Ringo
from A Gun for Ringo [Una Pistola per Ringo], dir. Duccio Tessari, 1965
performed by the Bambi Molesters
(Zagreb, Croatia)
Lada Furlan (bass), Hrvoje Zaborac (drums), Dalibor Pavicic (guitar), Dinko Tomljanovic (guitar)

 

10. Navajo Joe
from Navajo Joe, dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1966
performed by Pollo del Mar
(San Francisco, California, USA)
Ferenc Dobronyi (g), Jono Jones (g), Jeff Turner (b), Jeremy Rexford (d)

 

11. The Big Gundown (Seconda Caccia)
from The Big Gundown [La Resa dei Conti], dir. Sergio Sollima, 1966
performed by The Irreversible Slacks
(New York, New York, USA)
Circus Slack (guitar), Havana Slack (sax), Idlewild Slack (guitar), Professor Slack (drums), Skipper Slack (bass), Wee Slack (saw)

 

12. The Hellbenders
from The Hellbenders [I Crudeli], dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1966
performed by The Hellbenders
(Detroit, Michigan, USA)
Rick Mills (guitar), Chris Flanagan (guitar), Bill Bowen (drums), Bill Rowe (bass); 
mixed by Jim Diamond

 

13. The Great Silence
from The Great Silence [Il Grande Silenzio], dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1968
performed by Kim Humphreys
(Sidney, New South Wales, Australia)
Kim Humphreys (guitars); produced by Kim Humphreys & John Roy, Now Hear This 2002.

 

14. Once Upon a Time in the West 
from Once Upon a Time in the West [C'erauna Volta il West], dir. Sergio Leone, 1969
performed by In the West 
(Hollywood, Florida, USA)
Dean Sire (Hammond organ, bass), Eddie Gregg (guitar), Lou Abbott (drums)

 

15. As a Judgment [Come una Sentenza]
from Once Upon a Time in the West
performed by Bernard Yin and David Arnson
(Los Angeles, California, USA)
Bernard Yin (guitars), David Arnson (guitars) 

 

16. Farewell to Cheyenne
from Once Upon a Time in the West
performed by Di Dollari 
(Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)
Glen Jones (4-string guitar, whistle), Paul W. Horn (electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, jaw harp, recorder), Dave Onnen (bass), Mike Croswell (french horn, accordion, mouth organ, whistle, penny whistle), Matt Zaun (drums, percussion).

17. The Loud, the Loose, and the Savage
composed by Davie Allan (inspired by Ennio Morricone)
(c) 2001 Arrow Dynamic Music (BMI)
performed by Davie Allan
(Los Angeles, California, USA)
Davie Allan (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums)
 

Above songs composed by Ennio Morricone

 

The Guitarist of the day is the Vicente Amigo

What do you do in a style that, at a minimum, is already hyper-virtuosic? Is it even possible to play with more eloquence, dexterity, force, and speed than Paco de Lucia? The smart way is to take another musical path entirely. Well, Vicente has somehow found a  personal path down calle flamenco.  You’ve got to have big ones to even imagine being a rudimentary flamenco guitarist, much less a classic one. Vicente Amigo (no relation) is of the latter type and brings an original tone, rhythmic astuteness, and a fresh musiclity to the art. Check out his fandangos and bulerias and switch styles fast. I like to think he’s my Spanish cousin and that this type of playing runs in the family, but I was only dreaming. hijo de puta!

brain-droppings: A Les Paul is a Les Paul*

 

I am troubled by the observation that the rhetoric of invention is currently being used by artists to describe what, in previous times, was simply thought of as imitation, research, or curating. Calling the latter three “invention” would have been plagiarism or ignorance.  Perhaps the elevation of the DJ to the role of central creator is having unintended consequences in current generations of artists, or perhaps the desire for reputation has finally and completely eclipsed the desire for creation? I guess that is not new either, but it seems a cultural impulse now rather than a strictly personal one. I cannot believe that listening to or studying Bach makes you Bach. Maybe these are postmodern times after all.

The act of naming is an implicit claim to creation, discovery, and invention. But a Les Paul does not need renaming.

* It would be more re(f/v)erential and perhaps artistic, but less guitaristic, to say a rose is a rose.

The guitarist of the day is the "maestro" Carlos Hayre

The Maestro Carlos Hayre  

Carlos Hayre is a celebrated guitarist and recognized “maestro” of Peruvian criollo and Afro-Peruvian music.  In the 1960s, he worked alongside the noted Peruvian musicologist and decimista [author and performer of décimas] Nicomedes Santa Cruz, recreating and introducing music pieces into the Peruvian repertoire which have become classics, such as “No me Cumben,” “La Raiz del Guarango,” and “Manuel Antonio.”

As a guitarist, bassist, arranger, conductor, director, and accompanist, he has recorded over 80 albums with major Latin American orchestras and recording stars including the renowned singer and composer Alicia Maguiña with whom he set new performance standards. Carlos pioneered the use of the cajón as a percussion instrument in the vals, one of the most typical popular and folkloric musics of Peru. Additionally, he innovated this musical genre by, as musicologist William Tompkins writes, “introducing new harmonies and dynamics which gave the vals new life and developmental impetus, thus shaping its contemporary performance style.”

Carlos is also a foremost interpreter of the marinera limeña, recording the 1970 album La Marinera Limeña es Así with the renowned singer Abelardo Vázquez, and the previous generation of Peruvian masters that included guitarist Vicente Vázquez, singers Augusto Asquez and Curita Gonzalez, and cajón player Canano. He is credited with reviving interest in the marinera limeña within Peru in the late 1960s and 1970s when interest in this criollo genre waning.


He was also one of my teachers and perhaps the only musical "genius" I've ever known. :)

5/11. I've added some links to video and music (courtesy of NYU). Carlos is currently living in Lima, Peru where he has received the accolades and respect that he has earned through his dedication and talent.

music and video:

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/global/peru/jazz/carlos/

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/global/peru/jazz/carlos/la_marinera_limena_es_asi

Quote of the day

Oye, major? minor?...whatever.

- Hector Viera

editor's note: a delicious admixture of supreme wisdom, total ignorance, 

and dismissive disdain as only a Miami Cuban and rocker could provide. :)

brain-droppings: Ryan Bingham and the Oscar

Well, 'round here we knew Ryan Bingham was gonna be a big star since first seeing him and the Dead Horses at Pinala's in Lubbock, when me and my Tejas honey was like...who's that man floatin' in a sea of plastic country poseurs? Then again on Austin City Limits they were smoking. But we didn't imagine that in six months, he would go from a decent house at the boozy Mercury Lounge in NYC to the Academy Awards, and taking an Oscar for song of the year for the theme from Crazy Heart--I mean, shiiiiiiiiiiit! I guess if T-Bone Burnett gets a hold of you, things happen fast.

Maybe Bingham can put Oscar in his bathroom over the toilet so guests can see he remains humble and true to his honky-tonk, rodeo-riding vision of things. Them hard times is over except for the internal ones. Congratulations to you and to the Big Lebowski. Here's to real music and honest expression, god damn it!

  
p.s. Dead Horses guitarist Corby Shaub is a mighty fine player we'll feature soon. 

p.s.s.  I guess George Clooney was pissed because the only Ryan Bingham that got an Oscar was the real one.

The Guitarist of the Day is youngblood James Moore

(James with arrow)

James Moore is in many ways typical of the best musicians of his twenty-something generation: fiercely eclectic, concise, training to die for, open-minded, and non-elitist. For James, difference is not a concept or a lifestyle, or a too self-conscious artistic orientation. His music has the honesty element that compels a listen and the sonic signature that says "here is an interesting new artist." Whether playing crazy electric and nylon string classical, new music, and unclassifiable stuff, his personality comes through.


James' guitar quartet is Dither, and they are coming to an experimental venue near you. Request some Bach and he'll pull out a lute suite, some David Lang or Eve Beglarian and he'll hit it. But really, ask him to play whatever he wants and you'll be satisfied.

Of course, he has the extensive inflato-bio and credits so necessary in the economy of prestige that is such a cumbersome part of the NYC new music scene, but don't hold that against him. It's the system, mon.

homepage: jamesmooreguitar.com
sounds: http://www.ditherquartet.com/audio.html

Guitarist notebook: secundal (seconds) harmony

 

Notes:

1. On the guitar, there are 16 three-note (cluster), closed-position, combinations with one open string. (see matrix above)

2. In a secundal context, two-note combinations w/unisons in one voice give the impression of a three-note combination.

3. Try different combinations, per matrix above, emphasizing one or two chords as goals or cadence.

4. Apply as units in traditional (jazz or other) voice-leading.

5. Good voice leading contextualizes and clarifies increasing dissonance.

6. In clusters, think of outside voices as what is heard melodically. The inside voices yield weight, color, and vibration (through beats).

7. Imply consonant, standard progressions.

8. Think about chord movement in seconds. The main cadences are ii-i and vii-i in major and minor.

9. Three note groupings are clusters

10. min/min (symbol on right of matrix) is read from the bottom up and indicates two stacked minor second intervals. The four possible combinations are min/min, min/maj, maj/min, and maj/maj.

The (displaced) Chilean Guitarists of the Day are victims of the earthquake: HELP OUT!

Help traditional musicians displaced by the earthquake in Chile

I received the following email from Chilean ethnomusicologist Christian Spencer in Santiago, Chile.  It says it all:
  
Dear all:

The last earthquake affected severely jobs and lifes of popular musicians in Chile, specially the oral singers from remote provinces, whose feeble houses came down entirely. There is a centralised and reliable webpage to help both in national or international levels. Here is the link:

http://chileayuda.com/
Christian Spencer Espinosa

Puerto montt está temblando
Es un acabo de mundo

- Violeta Parra 

Puerto Montt is trembling/shaking/quaking

It's the end of a world

- Violeta Parra

Guitarist practice of the day: LISTEN

LISTEN

Although we generally think of practice as an expansive activity, years of solid practice can also obscure alternate pathways, even those that are simpler and clearer solutions to musical questions (i.e., problems). This is especially true for guitarists who are typically addicted to hands and eyes over sound. This is why practice has to be rooted in the here and now and not just automatic repetition of patterns and shapes. Pay attention and listen as well as think about solutions. Emphasize the former and find yourself awake and flying.

Thought and language give impetus, shape and focus to action, but are not action itself. Listening is a part of action, but action is ultimately one thing.

The guitar (book) of the day is The Grateful Dead in Concert

The Grateful Dead in Concert
Essays on Live Improvisation
Edited by Jim Tuedio and Stan Spector
Foreword by Stanley Krippner
ISBN 978-0-7864-4357-4
32 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
365pp. softcover 2010

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The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation offers a spirited analysis of the unique improvisational character of Grateful Dead music and its impact on appreciative fans. The 20 essays capture distinct facets of the Grateful Dead phenomenon from a broad range of scholarly angles. The band’s trademark synergizing focus is discussed as a function of complex musical improvisation interlaced with the band members’ collective assimilation of an impressive range of marginal musical forms and lyrical traditions. These facets are shown to produce a vibrant Deadhead experience, resulting in community influences still morphing in new directions 45 years after the band’s initial impact. 
 --
This is a really great book by any objective standard. Oh, I just noticed I have an essay in it titled "Non-Systematic Thoughts on Improvisation." Who knew? ...especially that I might know something about "marginal musical forms." :)

C

Hendrix notes no. 1: The Prodigal Son

This series is inspired by the scene in the Monterey Pop documentary of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, where an unidentified woman watches the end of Jimi’s performance in stunned silence. She’s never heard or seen anything like this. Hendrix notes is an open question, a forum about all things Hendrix, not  the usual hagiographic account of a supernatural being, but a cyberplace to reasonably discuss his continuing influence.    
That's groovy, man.

Why the title Hendrix notes? Well, making Jimi Hendrix the guitarist of the day seems, for now anyway…too redundant, boringly so. I mean, really? What is there to say that you haven’t literally heard thousands of times? He’s passed into history that by definition, for a single figure, implies a clear narrative/story (what is history?) understood as a definitive statement of that biographical person’s experience in, and continuing effect on, culture; in Jimi’s case: music and pop culture. Don't we already know that story? 

I need another way in, a reason to be interested in writing about Hendrix....a mission. So, here is my mission statement: Hendrix notes is an open question, a forum about all things Hendrix, not  the usual hagiographic account of a supernatural being, but a cyberplace to reasonably discuss his continuing influence.

Let's begin with one view of the mythological Hendrix:

Example no.1. The return of the prodigal son. In the fleshing out of this biblical archtype: Jimi, after being rejected by the racist American music industry, goes to England where he finally, now an old man in his mid to late twenties, gets his chance to succeed in the enlightened neo-blues climate of 1960’s London. All the British guitar slingers creamed (I believe it) their tight bell-bottom blues genes. 

After this oversea success, Jimi is finally embraced in his home country of the USA, as the genius native son (a fact complicated by his being black, but also partly “Indian” since he can’t be too black in this now ancient 1960s story/myth). This return is symbolized by his performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.

Does the above example seem simplistic to you? Plug in another artist's name and run the story in your head. Now?

To be continued ad infinitum.

The guitarist of the day is Joe Maphis "King of the Strings"

You probably did, but I didn't know anything about Joe Maphis until I very recently starting listening, looking at videos, etc. He is the typical "find" in terms of ruining all my assumptions about who invented what and who invented it first. It's the typical mistake: thinking that the first time we heard a style or a sound that impacts us, it is the original utterance.*  Check out Joe Maphis, the virtuoso from Bakersfield (Merle Haggard must've known him?) You'll quake in your snakeskin Gucci boots. The double-neck Mosrite is out of control.

The entry is lifted from Wikipedia (a dubious source), but one that gets us started:

Born Otis W. Maphis (born May 12, 1921 Suffolk, Virginia – died June 27, 1986), was an American country music guitarist. He married singer Rose Lee Maphis in 1948.

One of the flashiest country guitarists of the 1950s and 1960s, Joe Maphis was known as The King of the Strings.^[1] He was able to play many stringed instruments with great facility.^[2] However, he specialized in dazzling guitar virtuosity. Working out of Bakersfield, California, he rose to prominence with his own hits such as "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music)" as well as playing with acts like Johnny Burnette, Doyle Holly, The Collins Kids, Wanda Jackson, Rose Maddox and Ricky Nelson. His playing was an influence on such greats as Merle Travis, Jimmy Bryant and Chet Atkins. He was known for his use of a double-neck Mosrite guitar, specially built for him by Semie Moseley, which was a boon to Moseley's fledgling career as a guitar builder. He was a regular guest on the Jimmy Dean television show in the 1960s.

Joe's guitar hero was Mother Maybelle Carter, matriarch of the Carter Family. Her daughter June Carter Cash and husband Johnny Cash so admired Joe's guitar playing that Joe is buried in a Hendersonville, TN cemetery next to Maybelle, her husband, Ezra Carter (A.P.'s brother), and daughter, Anita Carter.

"Pickin' and a Singin.'" A display of crazy virtuousity by Maphis on double-neck electric guitar, mandolin, violin, banjo, upright bass, and vocals. The hat flourish at the end is symbolic of a time when a certain kind of of showmanship was a required professional skill. My wife is right in saying that Maphis on all the other instruments really contextualizes the double-neck guitar playing that was his primary focus. I wish I'd thought of that-damn it.




* check out the this video of Jimi Hendrix listening to Buddy Guy in New Orleans, and experience the same kind of reality check. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v5YWSBD23U

The guitarist of the day is Susan Tedeschi

Susan Tedeschi is fucking cool. Don't say it. Don't say she sounds like Janis or Bonnie because it ain't true. It's the genitalia that's confusing you. She sounds like herself. And check out that solidbody D'Angelico in the second clip - damn.  Susan's definitely got the blues, and good for her. Soul, taste, tone, songs, the whiskey-inflected voice quality....it's all there (who knew Boston could produce anything but millions-of-notes guitar clones?) I've never seen her live, but I will ASAP.

Susan's music is drawn from a  confluence of American musics including blues, country, and jazz; and she rocks (see the period).  Her work shows a consistent craftspersonship (yikes!), and her songs contain interesting lyrics, arrangements, and jazz/blues chord changes in addition to the root/fifth blues shuffles we all know and love when grooved right. Susan's musicality and tasteful restraint on the guitar are some of her trademarks, as is her really fine singing. For some reason, I feel like there's an Elvin Bishop reference here, but it might just be my 'magination running away wit me.

Don't compare her to other women, but to other musicians if you are the comparing kind. Gender don't matter here in the USA, y'all (what?). In fact, don't compare her to anyone at all. Especially to her famous guitarist husband: he who shall remain nameless in this post. It's about HER and her artistry. Is she an effective communicator and artist with the musical language she uses? - yeah.

I'm glad to see real artists making a difference in the world, and surviving somehow. It gives us all hope and inspiration. Cheers to Susan Tedeschi. She is definitely on the "good" side of this blog and blogger. Keep up the work. Susan, I'm definitely partial to the telecaster, though. :)

homepage and more sounds at http://susantedeschi.com

The (dickhead) guitarist of the day is X

I recently performed at the Next Wave Festival at BAM in NYC. X was the composer on the project. I've enjoyed X's compositional work in the past, and I've heard he is a decent guitarist, and as a part of the New York downtown scene, X has had a good run as a public artist. I had never met X previous to this project, so I was happy to make his acquaintance. I introduced myself as did a friend of mine who is a composer and leader of a new music ensemble. I gave X some of my music, explained what I did as a composer and fellow guitarist and expressed my excitement about working with him. X was a little distant, but that's cool because it's such a loaded environment, what with the production looming and all, plus we're all artists: a little weird, self-conscious, and socially awkward-well, not so much me and my friend, but definitely X.

Anyway, the next day during a production lunch break, some cast members and I (and my composer friend) go to a falafel place we like in the Brooklyn neighborhood where BAM is located. Lo and behold, X is there and our waiter sits us right next to him. This is cool. We gesture his way, but it is clear that X is not interested since he goes out of his way not to acknowledge us. I know what you're thinking - what a dickhead, right? But let's not jump to conclusions, after all, there is Mediterranean food coming.

Anyway, X begins a LOUD soliloquy about the proliferation of young composers in their twenties who are working and thriving in the city  (I've noticed that too and think it's cool). Then X, still in declamatory mode, asks the rhetorical question: "Why are there are hardly any, or no, composers in their thirties and forties who are doing any interesting work, or that I have even heard of?"  I couldn't believe this douche bag! I mean, we thirties and forties are sitting right there, all of us professional working artists,  and with the gigs and experience to merit collegial treatment at the very least, but not insults from this troll (X).

I chose not to confront X since he was a principal in our show that opened the next night, and I never  want to bring bad vibes to a production (plus X looks a little soft). But, it was all I could do not to channel my Queens vibe and wring X's late-fifties chicken neck. Maybe X hasn't heard of us (hundreds at least) because his inner ear can't hear beyond the perfectly sound-proof sphere of ego that surrounds him; or, perhaps because my generation is too close in age to X for us to be acolytes or fans; or maybe he doesn't support artists other than himself.... I don't know... and don't care to speculate beyond this post.

I'm not inklined to say who X is, but my story is true - my hand to God (Woody Allen voice). X is definitely the (dickhead) guitarist of the day. Way to go X! Keep up the good community work that is a stated part of your liberal ethos.  There is a lesson to be learned here, and that is a lesson in how not to be like X. BTW, the BAM show was fabulous despite the generic music.

The dickhead homepage

Keep on practicing y'all. Don't let the devil get you down.

Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you.

- Carly Simon