Today I journeyed even further into the realm of electric guitar-dom with the purchase of my first distortion pedal. No electric guitar is complete without one, so I went with the economical Behringer TO100 Tube Overdrive, purchased at none other than Long and McQuade's. Now, I'm not a professional player. I wouldn't even consider myself much of a novice for that matter, but I will say you can't go wrong with $44.99 CAD. The MSRP is sitting even higher at $54.99, so I consider it a "great deal" (thank, you Mr. Mandel).
One of the songs learned (as it was four simple chords) was Lenny Kravits, "Fly Away." I played it on my old acoustic and it simply didn't seem right. It was missing that special something. Now that I have a pedal, I can rock out with the track and then some. Quite enjoyable. Gonna be on the cover of Rolling Stone.
It's nice to see that TheRoss has blown the dust off his guitar. We will all get together soon and rock out. We may, and this is completely speculation at this point, have a drummer.
Grindy and I were focusing on Fire Water Burn from the Bloodhound Gang the other day. It's easy, and fun. Why don't you play along?
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
The Least Talented of the Hacks
It's fitting that I am the last one to post on this page, as I am the least talented member of the group. I haven't touched my guitar in about 3 weeks and probably close to six months before that. Seeing as I'm off work today, I'm think I'm going to pull out my axe and lay down some Popular by Nada Surf... c'mon, you remember Nada Surf, right? Well, come to think of it, if you don't know "Popular" then you've probably ever heard of them. I suggest you go and (legally) download it. Go on, I'll wait.
Alright, enough typing I gotta get some pratice in. Later days.
Alright, enough typing I gotta get some pratice in. Later days.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Age of Electric
I was going to continue on my ramblings about my new Yamaha Eterna that I boasted about from my blog but I've opted instead to talk about other guitar related things. No sense regurgitating, right?
The first thing to point out-- as the electric is solid wood, it's heavier. Strap anyone? No, I didn't say "strap-on," you sick f***. The best part of the electric, and what also makes it easier to learn with, is that the strings are more malleable. You don't have to push down on them nearly as hard to create a good sound. I haven't tried to edumacate myself with the barre chords, but by simply playing around I've noticed it feels a lot nicer on the fingers using TheAxe™.
Most importantly to note, you feel more like a Rock Star with an electric guitar and less like a hippie. Very important.
So with the new guitar, I'm also more interested in learning something other than chords. Yes, I'm talking about picking. I want to rock out with some great solos sometime in the future. Of course to do that you'll need to have some serious speed skills. Whilst investigating this whole picking thing, I came across this article about "economy picking". Essentially. "economy picking" is simply utilizing your up and down pick movements to your best advantage. It's a great (and highly rated) lesson complete with some exercises to help you out on your learning adventure. Be sure to check it out.
About a month ago (it's been that long?) Grindy and I were jamming, when along came Nothing Else Matters a la Metallica. I wanted to play it. I wanted to learn. Grindy didn't have it down pat yet, but he had a decent grip on the opening. Of course I'm jealous of his ability, which thus provides a great motivator. This is labelled as an "advanced" tab over at Ultimate Guitar. This means that if I can learn it, I am smrt. Look out Grindy, I'm coming for you. Muah!
The first thing to point out-- as the electric is solid wood, it's heavier. Strap anyone? No, I didn't say "strap-on," you sick f***. The best part of the electric, and what also makes it easier to learn with, is that the strings are more malleable. You don't have to push down on them nearly as hard to create a good sound. I haven't tried to edumacate myself with the barre chords, but by simply playing around I've noticed it feels a lot nicer on the fingers using TheAxe™.
Most importantly to note, you feel more like a Rock Star with an electric guitar and less like a hippie. Very important.
So with the new guitar, I'm also more interested in learning something other than chords. Yes, I'm talking about picking. I want to rock out with some great solos sometime in the future. Of course to do that you'll need to have some serious speed skills. Whilst investigating this whole picking thing, I came across this article about "economy picking". Essentially. "economy picking" is simply utilizing your up and down pick movements to your best advantage. It's a great (and highly rated) lesson complete with some exercises to help you out on your learning adventure. Be sure to check it out.
About a month ago (it's been that long?) Grindy and I were jamming, when along came Nothing Else Matters a la Metallica. I wanted to play it. I wanted to learn. Grindy didn't have it down pat yet, but he had a decent grip on the opening. Of course I'm jealous of his ability, which thus provides a great motivator. This is labelled as an "advanced" tab over at Ultimate Guitar. This means that if I can learn it, I am smrt. Look out Grindy, I'm coming for you. Muah!
Technorati Tags: guitar, guitar theory, Nothing Else Matters
Saturday, December 9, 2006
Sensitive Tip
How erotic.
My guitar *cough* skills *cough*, like so many others, are self taught. Up unto this point, I believe that I've had lazy fingers with wrist attachment. I discovered this yesterday when I finally tried to play with my new "F" work around. Instead of getting that nice solid sound from a string, it sounded like it was vibrating against tinfoil. Not a pretty sound. My hypothesis gained further merit when I was playing the oh-so-simple Good Riddance. I was happily strumming along and it happened again. At first I thought I simply wasn't pushing hard enough or close enough to the frets. I had recently changed strings to some Martin 80/20 Bronze light acoustic strings. Maybe this was the source of my new found problem, because it certainly wouldn't be anything I was doing.
I started cascading my strums a little more, to see where the problems were coming from, which lead to a two fold hypothesis. The pair of my lower gaged strings and the improper finger pressure created ungodly sounds. While I could be lazy with my older strings, these new strings actually require me to use the tips instead of the (for lack of a better term) balls. Since changing to the tips, sounds have been more pure, but the downside is that new pressure that's place on my wrist. It's just something more to get used to, which will probably lead to the ability to play barre chords a little better. We'll see what happens.
My guitar *cough* skills *cough*, like so many others, are self taught. Up unto this point, I believe that I've had lazy fingers with wrist attachment. I discovered this yesterday when I finally tried to play with my new "F" work around. Instead of getting that nice solid sound from a string, it sounded like it was vibrating against tinfoil. Not a pretty sound. My hypothesis gained further merit when I was playing the oh-so-simple Good Riddance. I was happily strumming along and it happened again. At first I thought I simply wasn't pushing hard enough or close enough to the frets. I had recently changed strings to some Martin 80/20 Bronze light acoustic strings. Maybe this was the source of my new found problem, because it certainly wouldn't be anything I was doing.
I started cascading my strums a little more, to see where the problems were coming from, which lead to a two fold hypothesis. The pair of my lower gaged strings and the improper finger pressure created ungodly sounds. While I could be lazy with my older strings, these new strings actually require me to use the tips instead of the (for lack of a better term) balls. Since changing to the tips, sounds have been more pure, but the downside is that new pressure that's place on my wrist. It's just something more to get used to, which will probably lead to the ability to play barre chords a little better. We'll see what happens.
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
F, that hurts.
Excuse my newbie blood to the guitar world.
By far, I'm the worst of the group but with good reason. I only started playing the guitar, and I mean really only started playing in October. Although I've had my cheapie $50 acoustic for a good number of years, I just never touched it. Sure I went through bouts that lasted the whole of a week, but that really didn't keep the calluses. I digress.
I recently purchased a CAPO for the sole purpose of learning Barenaked Ladies tracks, as they use them pretty extensively. I thought I would try and brave Brian Wilson. I scanned the first couple of pages of Brian Wilson from "The Best of Barenaked Ladies" (ISBN 0-7692-1579-3) and found no traces of barre (I think that's what they're called) chords so I thought I was all good. Wrong. The lyrics "if you wanna find me I'll be (F) out in the sand box..." stopped me dead in my tracks. F. A barre chord. Or is it? (please excuse if I wrote these out wrong)
e----1----
B----1----
G----2----
D----3----
A----3----
E----1----
Further investigation found an alternate. An alternate I will surely use to avoid KILLING MY WRIST to play that dreaded F. If you're lazy like me, and your fingers are fast enough,
e----5----
B----3----
G----2----
D----4----
A----x----
E----x----
I haven't really tried playing "Brian Wilson" with this new found F'in joy, but I will soon. Perhaps I'll get a little YouTube action going on, so you can see exactly how poor my abilities are.
Also, the boys and I are getting together over the weekend for a little Jamage. Perhaps a report will appear soon after by any or all three of us.
By far, I'm the worst of the group but with good reason. I only started playing the guitar, and I mean really only started playing in October. Although I've had my cheapie $50 acoustic for a good number of years, I just never touched it. Sure I went through bouts that lasted the whole of a week, but that really didn't keep the calluses. I digress.
I recently purchased a CAPO for the sole purpose of learning Barenaked Ladies tracks, as they use them pretty extensively. I thought I would try and brave Brian Wilson. I scanned the first couple of pages of Brian Wilson from "The Best of Barenaked Ladies" (ISBN 0-7692-1579-3) and found no traces of barre (I think that's what they're called) chords so I thought I was all good. Wrong. The lyrics "if you wanna find me I'll be (F) out in the sand box..." stopped me dead in my tracks. F. A barre chord. Or is it? (please excuse if I wrote these out wrong)
e----1----
B----1----
G----2----
D----3----
A----3----
E----1----
Further investigation found an alternate. An alternate I will surely use to avoid KILLING MY WRIST to play that dreaded F. If you're lazy like me, and your fingers are fast enough,
e----5----
B----3----
G----2----
D----4----
A----x----
E----x----
I haven't really tried playing "Brian Wilson" with this new found F'in joy, but I will soon. Perhaps I'll get a little YouTube action going on, so you can see exactly how poor my abilities are.
Also, the boys and I are getting together over the weekend for a little Jamage. Perhaps a report will appear soon after by any or all three of us.
Friday, December 1, 2006
Barred from making chords
There was a quote on the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer many moons ago that really struck a chord with me. Oz (as played by Seth Green) had a conversation with one of his band mates
Devon: Man, we need a roadie. Other bands have roadies.
Oz: Well, other bands know more than three chords. Your professional bands can play up to six, sometimes seven completely different chords.
Devon: That's just, like, fruity jazz bands.
For me it goes beyond simply not being able to play a lot of chords. I can play a lot of chords however I still have issues with barre chords. A barre chord will have a construction similar to this:
e----5--------
B----5--------
G----6--------
D----7--------
A----7--------
E----5--------
Whereas your standard (and my staple) 5th chord would consist of the top 3 notes (actually the bottom if you're looking at the tab above) a barre chord will use every string. Oddly my issues is with the same string every time. The occursed B string. Unfortunately I have severely limited flexibility in my fingers. If others are double-jointed, I'm half-jointed. The little crease behind the knuckle of my pinky gives the B string just enough play so that it doesn't press against the frets. For those not guitar-savvy that means instead of a *DING* of a note I get the *DUNK* of a dead-note. so my barre chords look more like this:
e----5--------
B----x--------
G----6--------
D----7--------
A----7--------
E----5--------
This is really screwing me up on "Yellow Led Better" by Pearl Jam which is an awesome guitar song, awesome song all around and as a bonus not that difficult to sing. Even on my ESP F-50 (which has a pretty low action) I still can't make this chord properly. Alas I guess practice makes perfect so it'll have to be back to the drawing board.
we will we will rock you
Devon: Man, we need a roadie. Other bands have roadies.
Oz: Well, other bands know more than three chords. Your professional bands can play up to six, sometimes seven completely different chords.
Devon: That's just, like, fruity jazz bands.
For me it goes beyond simply not being able to play a lot of chords. I can play a lot of chords however I still have issues with barre chords. A barre chord will have a construction similar to this:
e----5--------
B----5--------
G----6--------
D----7--------
A----7--------
E----5--------
Whereas your standard (and my staple) 5th chord would consist of the top 3 notes (actually the bottom if you're looking at the tab above) a barre chord will use every string. Oddly my issues is with the same string every time. The occursed B string. Unfortunately I have severely limited flexibility in my fingers. If others are double-jointed, I'm half-jointed. The little crease behind the knuckle of my pinky gives the B string just enough play so that it doesn't press against the frets. For those not guitar-savvy that means instead of a *DING* of a note I get the *DUNK* of a dead-note. so my barre chords look more like this:
e----5--------
B----x--------
G----6--------
D----7--------
A----7--------
E----5--------
This is really screwing me up on "Yellow Led Better" by Pearl Jam which is an awesome guitar song, awesome song all around and as a bonus not that difficult to sing. Even on my ESP F-50 (which has a pretty low action) I still can't make this chord properly. Alas I guess practice makes perfect so it'll have to be back to the drawing board.
we will we will rock you
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