Guitarist of the Day

Zen Posts: slow it down

2011-09-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Slow it all down until you hear and know all the ins and outs. Then slow it down again. Baby steps to Giant Steps. You'll never play it live anyway, so relax and have fun with it.

BRAIN DROPPINGS

2011-09-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Wynton Marsalis thinks he knows everything. He knows a hell of a lot, but noone is omniscient. Music is larger than any individual musician; even your favorite ones. Everything else is ego trippin' my peoples. :)

Brain Droppings

2011-09-14T20:05:00.001-07:00

Do it or don't but please stop bitching about it.

Zen Posts: On Music Theory

2011-07-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Particular music theories contain solutions to culturally specific questions about musical structure and aesthetic value whose answers are then posed as objective universal realities. Music theories are more accurately described as music "strategies" whose questions already contain the answers. Transcendent musicians know better than to try to contain music in inherently dualistic, discursive ergo linguistic forms.

Zen Posts: Sucking

2011-07-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

If you're sucking or you just suck, keep sucking until you don't suck anymore. :)

Zen Posts: intuition

2011-06-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

Imagine the total sound field of the guitar so that you can extend the instrument's voice intuitively during improvisation. During a performance you may encounter something new.

Zen Posts: sustain

2011-06-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Although you have to account for the lack of sustain on the guitar, do not think of the guitar as a non-sustaining instrument. The latter is a mistake that will limit your possibilities.

You are the instrument.

Cristian Amigo and Daniel Levin (cello) at Parque de la Tranquilidad

2011-05-18T14:37:00.001-07:00

Living Room Solo Series/no. 5/slide music__Cristian Amigo

2011-05-02T12:53:00.001-07:00

The Purple One: 1993 guitar solo

2011-04-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Gear doesn't make you. It's a finish. If Prince only had access to spoons we'd be asking how is it that he makes so much great music with what I only use for eating?

Cristian Amigo Living Room Series/no. 2a - blues abstraction

2011-04-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Cristian Amigo Living Room Series/no. 1 - Les Paul Standard

2011-04-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Diary: Shut Up And Play Your Guitar

2011-03-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

Amazing playing week: big band UM Farmington Creative Arts Ensemble, duo with Gustavo Aguilar at Bates, Elliot Sharp's 60th at Issue Project Room, Who Killed Boo Boo? at INTAR, and New Music Tuesdays with Miguel Frasconi and Kingdom of Jones. So good to step outside the role of paper composer. Shut up and play your guitar! I will, but I'd also better sharpen my pencils.

Theory of the Day: Giant Steps again!

2011-03-12T07:01:00.001-08:00

Giant Steps is not primarily a progression in thirds but a meditation on the triple character of an augmented triad. On a guitar, this is an easier way to organize the materials in a way that is fluidly tri-modal (B, Eb, G).

Diary: snow day at UM Farmington

2011-02-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

Did a master class at UM Farmington. so much snow that classes were cancelled. But guitarists showed up anyway. The guitar as a system was the topic. Hope I influenced some young musicians. Jammed with Gustavo Aguilar-that dude is a monster.

Guitar Technique of the Day: EQ

2011-02-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

Clarifying frequencies opens a spatial dimension in addition to wavelength consideration or opening up frequency spectrum.

EQ helps define the SIZE of the instrument and the sound.

Multiple stages of EQs is basic technique.

SHADOW metaphor

Because the guitar tone control is a low pass filter, the control doesn't have any effect on the low frequencies below the EQ's cut off frequency; it only effects higher frequencies above the cutoff frequency. Since most EQ is subtractive, an EQ after your guitar, before the amp, enables access to low frequencies for roll off (or boost too, but watch out) depending on the instrument, the amp, and the room/space you are playing in, and your ears. Get big ears. Grow golden ears.

...more to come for sure.

Reality Check: Jimi listening to Buddy Guy

2011-02-14T06:27:00.000-08:00

Check out the this video of Jimi Hendrix listening to Buddy Guy in a New Orleans club in the 1960s and "experience" a reality check. Nothing comes from nothing and that's good - that's culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v5YWSBD23U

Zen Posts

2011-02-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

1. Learn and set the form
2. Now exceed it.

Zen Posts: Unilinear Time in Music and Life

2011-02-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

In most mainstream American music (including jazz, new music, and popular music), time moves linearly forward in infinite, yet quantifiable units that bind us all to a single grid like a giant Excel spreadsheet. Time in rows and columns. This is a deep cultural bias - white people stuff. It seeps into all temporal-cultural thought in a world where the West has beaten (literally) the competition. Even the ex-colonials live in white time now.

But Time is relative, and this is a property of nature, a scientifically provable fact (thank you Albert E. for letting us know that some mystics had it right all along: that Time is fluid and multiple, and that absolute time is an illusion of the Newtonian physical world humans inhabit, but not the law of the universe.) And relativity has metaphoric-ideological repercussions for intelligent artists and inventors.

Even the groove (grid) music I love is most exciting when something exceeds the grid or form. Think of Miles or Prince or Stevie Wonder. Magic is off-grid. Step off the grid if you can, or be a clone, a widget, a willing servant, or slave to GarageBand. Dudes, My mom bought me a computer. Now I'm an artist!

Fascism is the father of on-grid compliance... the realm of the thoughtless or mindless recreation of structures that are no longer vital because they have hardened into reified and commodified objects in the technological-industrial world. These forms, once liberating, are now straight jackets for original thought imposed from above by the now elders who once dreamed of freedom, and can now only advertise freedom as a modus operandi, a formula, for all to follow in order to maintain their elder authority or power in the world of status and money. What is sad is that young artists are drawn into this conservative sphere of time in order to further their own conservative careers and ideas. I read a blog recently where an up and coming young composer wrote, "originality is overrated." Hmmmmm. Methinks he doth protest too much.

Artists, think of shapes other than forward-pointed lines. Also, forget about unilinear progress, even while nurturing experience. Do not be a slave to the ruling industrial assembly-line experience of time; use it creatively; ride it like waves in a larger ocean. Set up your temporal form; then exceed it.

Zen Posts: Is Guitar Playing a Form of Music?

2011-02-09T12:04:00.000-08:00

There is no best or better unless guitar playing is decontextualized from actual music and turned into a male sporting event as it often is. Boys can be ridiculous and/or stupid so much of the time.

Notes on the Guitar as a System

2011-02-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

The acoustic guitar is a context unto itself, thus it's appeal for solo work. A small universe of sounds is available to the careful player and listener.

The electric guitar requires an amp to complete a system. Without amplification, a solid or semi-hollow body electric guitar has minimum, barely audible resonance. Amplification brings out the resonances and overtones that are the magical qualities associated with electric guitars. The guitar must be played and amplified loudly to make the electric guitar sound vibrate to its potential. electric guitar = electric guitar + amplifier.

Also, for me, the electric guitar requires the context of an ensemble, as its harmonic/resonant capabilities (particularly at solo volume levels) are smaller than those available to an acoustic guitar in a solo context.

The reason acoustic guitars sound mostly bad amplified is because the piezo and sound hole pick-ups don't "pick up" the qualities of the resonating body (guitar top) that is the acoustic transducer, nor do they pick up the bi-tones that result from a stopping a string with a finger on the fretboard.

The acoustic guitar is about maximum vibration before amplification while the electric guitar is the inverse.

It all about resonating bodies.

Topic of the Day: MICROTONES

2011-02-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

Microtones focus your attention to qualities of distance not available in equal temperament.

On an electric guitar, a slide can act as a quasi-third bridge allowing normally inaudible bi-tones to be amplified by pickups.

A slide can also trigger bi-tone multiphonics due to changing the proportions of the strings on the left side of the third bridge. Bi-tones are sometimes called ghost notes/tones in popular parlance, but this name only serves to obscure this well-documented aspect of string vibration.

On an acoustic guitar, bi-tones are normally audible and add to the complexity of the acoustic sound.

Resource: List of Books and Videos about Amps and Electric Guitars

2011-02-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

More commercial than academic, but sometimes that's just right or better.

http://amptone.com/booksrecording.htm#_Toc142020948

Topic of the Day: RESONANCE

2011-02-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

Resonance. The minimum through maximum vibration potential of a system. Includes inductive vibrations in supposedly unrelated circuits (i.e., natural, human, and computer system environments). Metaphorically, not formally, related to resonance in electronic circuit theory.

Microtones bring your attention to qualities of distance not available in equal temperament. It's all about resonance, both in and outside your ears, and the ears' ability to map space in your brain.

In addition to making harmonic use of the modes of limited transposition, he [Messiaen] cited the harmonic series as a physical phenomenon which provides chords with a context which he felt to be missing in purely serial music.^[44] An example of Messiaen's harmonic use of this phenomenon, which he called "resonance", is the last two bars of Messiaen's first piano Prélude, La colombe ("The dove"); the chord is built from harmonics of the fundamental base note E.^[45] - Wikipedia: Messiaen, Olivier. 1/4/11

Solo or Group Event No. 1 - Amigo

2011-02-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

Some ideas I've been working on. (click on image for original size). Let me know what's what, eh?

Temporality

2011-01-30T15:13:00.000-08:00

Trying to find my way back into this blog:

Remember what Susan McClary wrote and also, the way Gagaku and Javanese music, and Zen... made me feel about temporality. I still think time is the most basic musical quality. Multiple times, time spectra, the theory of relativity, and so on. Time span cast in various dimensions.
---

Maybe this will turn into a guitarcentric space for thoughts about music and composition rather than an exclusive guitar thing. That would be cool.

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

2010-11-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-11-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-15T04:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-09T16:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-06-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-04-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-09T08:58:00.001-07:00

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"

2010-03-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

“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

2010-03-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

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*

2010-03-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-10T07:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

(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

2010-03-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-03-03T19:55:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-01T08:55:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-27T09:44:00.000-08:00

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

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

2010-02-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

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"

2010-02-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-21T09:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-20T12:04:00.000-08:00

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

brain-droppings: What the hell is "roots" music anyway?

2010-02-16T07:28:00.000-08:00

brain-droppings: What the hell is "roots" music anyway?

The term "root" as in roots music is problematic for a description of music/culture. If you keep in mind that root is a metaphor and that metaphors work by resemblance, you'll see that root conjures up a single source, like a tree root, as the source of the entire tree (forget the seed at this point). But if metaphors work to open up new ways of thinking about what was previously unthinkable, they can also obscure: remember we are trying to talk about "roots" music, not trees. Others have suggested rhizome* as a better metaphor for music/culture because it traces back to multiple sources rather than to a single source, yet retains other organic associations such as growth and development. Perhaps the rhizomic metaphor may illuminate new aspects for us, but what will it obscure? We'll see.

The search for origins in music is complicated, and people who devote their lives to the study of historical and cultural aspects of music know that the specific origin of a particular style or instrument or practice always disappears in a hazy mist of rumor, tradition, politics, and self-interest. Notice that anytime you see someone argue for a specific origin, they have a specific agenda (usually self or group interest) to sell. Of course, generalizations can be made. I mean, who is going to argue about the centrality of African-Americans in the birth and development of most American popular music including jazz and the blues? You have to be a wing nut to believe otherwise. You can also point to movements and specific persons who contributed to, lets say jazz, in distinctive and influential ways. What you cannot locate is the first utterance of "jazz, " the inventor of it. The old work around was the term "folk music" meaning that it came from the folk (group) rather than from an individual. But that is an outdated and ultimately irrational term: let's face it, people (single and multiple) make music, not cultures.

Still, "roots" has current utility as a musical category, even in the much beloved Grammys. We have to deal with it. But lets remember that the original need for a metaphor comes from being unable to express the complexity that the metaphor points toward.

I guess for now, I'll just continue being a avant-blues and roots guitarist, whatever the hell that means or points to. Time to shut up and play my guitar.

* In botany, a rhizome (from Greek: ῥίζωμα, rhizoma, "root-stalk") is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes.

Quote of the day

2010-02-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

"Just because it's an interesting idea, that doesn't mean it's going to sound good."

- Leah Pressman

The guitarist of the day is Lefty Williams

2010-02-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

The guitarist of the day is Lefty Williams

I'm a sucker for that southern rock-blues sound that is Lefty's staple. Smooth tones, soulful playing, a Ronnie Van Zandt trace in the vocals, this up-and-coming Atlanta guitarist is bound to be heard by you and yours. With just a little more development and better production values, I think he could inhabit a popular sweet spot between Nashville, rock, and roots-inspired music.

The most impressive thing about him is his commitment to, and love of music - and he is just another example of the power of music to hold our imagination and channel our energies. In the CNN piece, his story is told in the tired American dream/myth style of overcoming all adversity in reaching the promised land, but music can't be overcome; it has to be respected, given in to, and studied - any moment now, music will kick your ass. You don't reach the promised land, but you aim for it. I think Williams knows that. He hasn't overcome - he's just working like a muthaf****.

The fact that he has only one hand is of no musical consequence; it is a biographical detail. CNN idiots - god!

Watch out John Mayer, there's a hellhound on your trail!

Lefty Williams Band homepage

The CNN story:

The guitar site of the day is amptone.com

2010-02-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

amptone.com

Amp Tone, Effects Placement, and
Cranked-Amp Tone at Any Volume. (since 1997)

A comprehensive professional site dedicated to most or all the issues associated with getting an optimum tone from your particular set-up. Debunks many myths that the music instrument industrial complex tries to sell you in the way of new gear (you need the new Slash Les Paul so you sound just like him!). Your old gear may be fine. but you may not be maximizing its or your potential. The site is partial to tube amps, but aren't we all? Let's face it, good gear is the frosting on the cake that is you. You are the instrument, or you are the cake....or something like that.

The part-time guitarist of the day is John Mayer

2010-02-10T08:11:00.000-08:00

Part-time blues guitarist, full-time, self-confessed, wanna-be pornographer John Mayer is at again. In his latest Rolling Stone and Playboy interviews, multi-million dollar watch collector Mayer, obsessed with his cock, and unable to distinguish between the reality and illusion of his stellar career, shows us the dangerous path that a young person with his degree of talent and dumb luck can take.

I've always thought that if Mayer had more time to pay his dues, then he might also develop a less derivative approach to his playing, and music, and living in general. The tradition of the blues, like jazz, is not just a form or sound or sentiment, it is also a tradition of innovation; of standing on the shoulders of masters, yet finding a personal musical voice with which to express your perspective from the stream. Mayer kind-of sings like Stevie Ray Vaughn, and sort-of plays as if the blues were invented in 1960s England (see/hear, but don't buy the DVD Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles). He hasn't found his own musical voice yet, but having one or searching for one is a basic requirement of being an artist. Mayer's talent is formidable, but musical talent and musical accomplishment are not necessarily coextensive, and anyone's artistic growth is endangered when the prerogatives of the market are their sole guiding principle. Any fool with industry backing can win a Grammy - even multiples. It's not necessarily a measure of musical accomplishment as much as a measure of commercial accomplishment. I imagine lover-of-starlets Mayer confuses his bio with himself- something equally dangerous for those at the top, middle, or bottom.

In guitaring/living, the bar is set high, but John ("blowing me off is the new sucking me off") Mayer is looking down at his Rolex. Mayer is a student lost in tangents, not a master practitioner. The sword (yes, even Mayer's "sword") has to have an ethical imperative if it is to mean something other than senseless ego gratification. He may yet dedicate himself to becoming an artist rather than an two-degrees removed impersonator of dead black guitar players. I think we could all benefit from that. Hopefully, he'll stop being such a jerk.

For all those watches, John doesn't know what time it is. Sell the watches. Give ALL the proceeds to the Haitian relief effort. Champion other artists. Respect women. You can do it John. I have faith in you. I know you can be fully human.

Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them.

C

Your thoughts?

The non-guitarist of the day is Guitar Center girl

2010-02-09T17:57:00.000-08:00

So I walk into my local Queens Guitar Center because I'm looking for a new bridge for my telecaster. I ask the Latina (proud of my peeps) guitar girl in the accessories department, and she brings out an aluminum slide. Since I sometimes mumble, I assume my words are unintelligible, and I again ask for a bridge for my telecaster, at which point she brings me a nut for an acoustic steel string guitar. Now I understand, so I take one of those heavy metal death-inspired guitars and show her what part of a guitar is the bridge. I don't see a light turn on, but I'm just looking for my bridge, and figure now I'll find one. Has anybody seen a bridge? All of a sudden she is not talking to me and walking around behind the counter aimlessly, and I wonder what is going on. I say, "what about the bridge for my telecaster?." She says "telecaster?", and I say "Fender" telecaster. But this is already too much information and her vacant eyes drift off into the clouds. I imagine that her piercings can actually be melted into a bridge for my "Fender" telecaster. I show her a "Fender telecaster" so she can learn, but she is not in a learning mood. Guitar girl says, "I don't think we have that." Twenty seconds of silence. I say, "sister, I'm trying to buy something from you, throw me a bone here!" She doesn't know how to look it up and finally another "sales representative" is called and she looks it up--wouldn't you know it - no telecaster bridges - guitar girl was right: mea culpa. It serves me right for playing such an esoteric instrument - the longest-running electric guitar model in production, in history. Oh, well. I decide to pick up a Tube Screamer I spy behind the counter. Things are going smoothly. Guitar girl rings it up without any problemas. She asks if I want to buy Guitar Center insurance for it. I say no. Guitar girl says stone-faced, "it (the Tube Screamer) sounds better if you buy the insurance." I guess I must look like a total idiot. I say no, but thank her for looking out for my sonic health. I've been dazed and confused for so long it's true. I wanted a woman--never bargained for you.

Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them.

Cristian

The guitarist of the day is Roger Kleier

2010-02-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

The guitarist of the day is Roger Kleier. An NYC experimental guitarist with a West Coast sensibility about space, content, and time. Kleir is patient with his tones, and he colors like a sound painter.... He rocks too. His long standing association with his partner/collaborator Annie Gosfield have yielded innovative and influential recordings on various labels. His latest 2009 solo CD The Night Has Many Hours is on the Innova Recordings Label of the American Composers Forum. Bend an ear, yo.

Track: Hyperplane
more tracks and info: Roger's homepage

Guitar Gak: AMIGOBOMB No. 1 "Bustelo" Guitar Amp

2010-02-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

AMIGOBOMB No. 1 "Bustelo" Guitar Amp (Head only). .5 - .7W. 9 Volt battery powered. gain/boost switch. volume control. ultra-touch sensitive studio lo-watt, lo-noise solid state amp based on "Little Gem" design and 386 op-amp. Voiced by Amigo for single-coil heaven and humbucking overdrive tones. Gain/boost switch gives you "2-channel" operation. Speaker loads tested from 4-16 Ohms. Plenty loud and plenty soft. hand-crafted (obviously). can voice to specs. Plenty of sonic and design oomph. $150 (you supply the can). Taking orders now. 4 week delivery or 2 days depending. Serious tone inquiries only. camigo@mac.com.

brain-droppings: The Grammys

2010-02-03T06:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the Grammys have come and gone. I have to remind myself that they don't represent the state of music, rather the state of the music entertainment business--that way, I can fool myself to sleep at night. When the person who wins album of the year can't be bothered to sing in tune during her performance, and even interesting artists are reduced to objects in a Big Brother freak show, you've gotta scratch your head and ask yourself, "Oh, my god. What have you done?" Letting the days go by.

The guitarist of the day is Ali Farka Toure

2010-02-02T05:33:00.000-08:00

The guitarist of the day is Ali Farka Toure. Ali Farke Toure was a virtuoso of the highest order in Africa, and the pivotal figure in modern Malian music. The son of an upper class Muslim family, this non-griot (not of a music family or caste) came to music through an abundance of talent and skill. Musicians do not rank highly in most Muslim societies, so a music career was actually a downwardly mobile move for him (and by extension his family) to make. Eventually, Toure came to symbolize and sound Malian music to the world, and nothing raises local status like success. His international popularity was sealed by his association with American guitarist/producer Ry Cooder, and by the obvious affinities between Toure's music and American deep blues (particularly John Lee Hooker) that made Toure's sound immediately recognizable and available, with a difference, to European and American ears. He played up this blues/Malian connection to the maximum, both inventing and discovering linkages. White people ate that shit up. Sophisticated radio hosts (especially in LA) thought they had discovered the unspoiled direct river route to the mother land. What they got was a direct shot of Ali Farka Toure, the maestro. Allāhu Akbar (الله أكبر). God is Great!
---
Ali Farke Toure discussing American "black" music and it's relation to him and Malian/African music. American blues guitarist Corey Harris is the interlocuter and second guitarist.

The guitarist of the day is Atahualpa Yupanqui

2010-02-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

The guitarist of the day is Atahualpa Yupanqui. One of the founders of the South American "new song" movement of the 1950s and 60s. Atahualpa transformed Argentinian folklore with his inimitable guitar style and lyrics that empathized with the common man-the peasant-the mestizo (Indian/European) that he himself was. His style has been copied by all Spanish-speaking South American guitarists to the point that it is a part of the basic stylistic vocabulary of traditional or roots music.

The video, taken when he was older, still shows the maestro in good, if not top, form. Refer to sound recordings for definitive performances.

The classic Luna Tucumana:

The guitarist of the day is Baden Powell

2010-01-28T20:49:00.000-08:00

The guitarist of the day is Baden Powell. Baden Powell, along with João Gilberto are perhaps the most beloved Brazilian guitarists of all time. In 1962, Powell and Vinicius de Moraes began a collaboration that yielded some classics of 1960s Brazilian music. They sought to transcend the then internationally fashionable bossa nova sound by mixing Afro-Brazilian elements with bossa nova, samba, and jazz. The best known results are the Afro-Sambas de Baden e Vinicius.

Guitar pieces such as Berimbau, Xangô, Simplesmente, Braziliense, Horizon, Consolação, Samba, Casa Velha, Lotus, Imagem, and Canto de Ossanha are standards. His playing meets the highest technical and aesthetic standards: his unique melodic solo guitar playing and control of Brazilian rhythms and ways of articulating them are a high water mark for Luso- and Latin American nylon-string guitarists. And that Brazilian right hand that I've heard called a "little miracle."

This version of A.C. Jobim's "One Note Samba" ain't your daddy's martini-swigging, best friend's wife-shagging One Note Samba:
Baden Powell 1967 Berlin Guitar Festival

Check out these amazing free transcriptions in notation and tab:
http://www.brazil-on-guitar.de/tabs.html
---

---
The year before his death. 1999.

The guitarist of the day is Jerry Reed

2010-01-27T21:01:00.000-08:00

The guitarist of the day is Jerry Reed. One of the rare nylon-string players in country music (along with Willie Nelson), his discovery by guitarist/producer Chet Atkins put the Georgia picker on the map. Virtuosic cuts like "The Claw" continue to attract the attention of serious players. His "Guitar Man," covered by Elvis Presley and many others (including Tom Jones) put him in the popular music world of the 60s and 70s. Jerry's duets with Chet Atkins (listen to "Muleskinner Blues") set a new standard for a super-accomplished Nashville sound. Humor and showmanship were also Reed trademarks and sometimes compromise his live performances. But, he was performing for the people--not guitar players like y'all. Listen to his chord intro and electric guitar accompaniment to "Georgia on my Mind" and you'll hear this good ol' boy on the classic Hoagy Carmichael ballad--weep if you have to. I miss Jerry Reed. I hope you do too.

Jerry on telecaster with Glen Campell on Gibson es335 in this version of "Guitar Man". Check out the original if you can.

The guitarist of the day is Carlos Santana

2010-01-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

The guitarist of the day is Carlos Santana. The inventor and sole practitioner of a style. The original Latin role model for roles that do not exist. The tone, the style, the spirit. An American institution. I'm not crazy about his line of ties, but his musical line is a must-listen must-absorb for all aspirants-grasshopper.

The "Samba Pa' Ti" love guru:

---
AMIGO MINI LESSON:
Carlos loves that dorian mode for minors. He uses it over minor sevenths and as a substitution for pentatonics. ex. A minor pentatonic = A dorian.

The guitarist of the day is Pat Martino

2010-01-26T06:28:00.000-08:00

The guitarist of the day is Pat Martino. After suffering a brain aneurism he had to relearn how to play the guitar, so he's mastered it twice. He is unique among us in his commitment. like Pythagoras, he is both mystic and scientist. His playing, while fairly complicated, is undergirded by an original approach to harmony based on the simplification of harmonic and melodic structures, and trust in the ear. Simplify and transcend is what I call it. The John Coltrane of the guitar, his harmonic superimpositions are off the charts, yet clear.

"Sunny" is the first jazz tune I ever attempted. Here is Pat and special guest John Scofield's attempt:)

------

PAT MARTINO LESSON: minor substitutions over dominant #5 chords.
* For rock guitarists "reducing to minor" may be especially useful since you may already know your minors (through pentatonics and dorian mode). Reducing to minor may open up other chord types and chord progressions to you.

The guitarist(s) of the day are Sonny Sharrock and George Benson

2010-01-25T06:02:00.000-08:00

When Sonny first came to New York, he was super-intimidated because the very first live music he heard was a street jazz band with a teenager named George Benson playing guitar. He must have thought "does everyone in NY play like this--Geez!" It's a good thing they both stayed.

Was there ever a more relaxed or soulful guitarist than George Benson? It's how I play in my dreams; in the stream and dissolved in it. Thank you George.

Sat at 9:31pm ·

Santana tribute to Sonny (thanks to David Jones):

Guitarist of the Day

Zen Posts: slow it down

BRAIN DROPPINGS

Brain Droppings

Zen Posts: On Music Theory

Zen Posts: Sucking

Zen Posts: intuition

Zen Posts: sustain

Cristian Amigo and Daniel Levin (cello) at Parque de la Tranquilidad

Living Room Solo Series/no. 5/slide music__Cristian Amigo

The Purple One: 1993 guitar solo

Gear doesn't make you. It's a finish. If Prince only had access to spoons we'd be asking how is it that he makes so much great music with what I only use for eating?

Cristian Amigo Living Room Series/no. 2a - blues abstraction

Cristian Amigo Living Room Series/no. 1 - Les Paul Standard

Diary: Shut Up And Play Your Guitar

Theory of the Day: Giant Steps again!

Diary: snow day at UM Farmington

Guitar Technique of the Day: EQ

Reality Check: Jimi listening to Buddy Guy

Zen Posts

Zen Posts: Unilinear Time in Music and Life

Zen Posts: Is Guitar Playing a Form of Music?

Notes on the Guitar as a System

Topic of the Day: MICROTONES

Resource: List of Books and Videos about Amps and Electric Guitars

Topic of the Day: RESONANCE

Solo or Group Event No. 1 - Amigo

Temporality

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

Guitar Technique of the Day: Plateaus and habits

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

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

Tube Amp Reference Books/Videos

Zen Posts

zen posts

Zen Posts

I'm back...I think.

ASCAP has lost its mind

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

John Butler Live Rig

Guitar movie: Notes on "It Might Get Loud"

Guitar Gak: Talent Booster pedal for your shit licks!

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

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

The Guitarist of the day is the Vicente Amigo

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

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

The Maestro Carlos Hayre

Quote of the day

brain-droppings: Ryan Bingham and the Oscar

The Guitarist of the Day is youngblood James Moore

Guitarist notebook: secundal (seconds) harmony

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

Guitarist practice of the day: LISTEN

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

Hendrix notes no. 1: The Prodigal Son

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

The guitarist of the day is Susan Tedeschi

The (dickhead) guitarist of the day is X

brain-droppings: What the hell is "roots" music anyway?

Quote of the day

"Just because it's an interesting idea, that doesn't mean it's going to sound good."

- Leah Pressman

The guitarist of the day is Lefty Williams

The guitar site of the day is amptone.com

amptone.com

Amp Tone, Effects Placement, andCranked-Amp Tone at Any Volume. (since 1997)

The part-time guitarist of the day is John Mayer

The non-guitarist of the day is Guitar Center girl

The guitarist of the day is Roger Kleier

Guitar Gak: AMIGOBOMB No. 1 "Bustelo" Guitar Amp

brain-droppings: The Grammys

The guitarist of the day is Ali Farka Toure

The guitarist of the day is Atahualpa Yupanqui

The guitarist of the day is Baden Powell

The guitarist of the day is Jerry Reed

The guitarist of the day is Carlos Santana

The guitarist of the day is Pat Martino

The guitarist(s) of the day are Sonny Sharrock and George Benson

Amp Tone, Effects Placement, and
Cranked-Amp Tone at Any Volume. (since 1997)