I’m a musician, writer, and comic artist. Welcome to my website.
All in Thoughts
If you are under 50 you may not realize that Guitar TABs didn’t exist in their current form before the 1980s. There have been different forms of unique stringed instrument tablature as far back as the 15th century (for lutes), but modern guitar TAB is a fairly recent addition. I am not sure exactly when modern guitar TAB became common, but if I remember correctly it was sometime in the early to mid 1980s.
People often ask me how long it takes to learn to play the guitar. I usually tell them, it depends on how good you want to be. Playing guitar is a lot like running track. Seriously. It is somewhat like a marathon, except you never finish. Guitar is a lifelong race. Actually it is more like the hurdles...
I have watched the "relic" guitar trend for several years now, but personally, I’m still not sold on spending thousands of dollars on a new guitar that looks like it has been beat up. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I have to admit they do have a certain appeal. And guitar builders certainly wouldn’t keep making “relics” if they didn’t sell.
Some times I am scrambling to get set up before a gig. Other times I can relax and take my time. Saturday was one of those relaxing times. I got to the venue early and had plenty of time to set up and enjoy the beautiful weather and quiet before the sound check, last minute set list changes, and gigging began.
Most of us do stupid stuff as kids. My generation had no idea there would be the Internet and eBay or we wouldn’t have stuck baseball cards in our bike spokes to hear them flap. I wouldn’t have given all my Hot Wheels cars to my cousin when I got too old for them. In fact...
I play in the band called Peak City Sound, which is a cover band that plays a wide variety of music including soul, rock, pop, and beach music (Carolina style.) I need to cover a lot of guitar styles. But the band is bigger than most, with 14 members, including a five piece horn section and four main singers. So space is always at a premium.
Why are musicians so weird? I was talking to some musician friends about how I didn't think you could really escape a subterranean cave large enough to hold an ocean at the center of the earth through the conduit of an active volcano by riding in a giant clam shell shaped fire-proof vessel and being pushed up and out the throat of the volcano by a lava eruption. And even if you could
It seems to me that there are five main components (or things) that guitar players use when soloing or improvising on guitar. I’m talking about how guitar players think about or react to music while playing to create solos. The five components are
I am beginning to think we have gotten it backwards when it comes to music. We've become a nation of music listeners instead of music makers. In times past people gathered around the family piano, or a guitar on the porch, and sang together for fun. People sang while they worked (have you done that lately?)
When you play outdoor gigs, you never know where you might end up playing. Yesterday Peak City Sound was booked to play at a PGA tournament at a very nice local country club. Sweet. But we ended up playing on a huge balcony way above the audience, who were milling around a bunch of food trucks.
For 30 years I thought Gordon Lightfoot was singing “every highway.” Today I learned it was “carefree highway.” I don’t like the song now.
In 1978 I was a teenager working as a grill cook at a restaurant called Bill Knapps in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I got to know the janitor there who played some guitar and sang (he sounded a lot like Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull.) His name was Dave (I can’t remember his last name.) Dave lived in a house with three other guys who were all in local bands. Dave invited me over to do some jamming. I was expecting it to be just him and me, but when I got there, two of his roommates where there.
You have probably heard the saying “Practice makes perfect” and there is a element of truth to the cliche. If you practice something enough times you should be able to play it well consistently. But should perfection be the ultimate goal for music?
I have completed the first part of creating a chord melody arrangement. For me that involves the actual arranging of the music. I use Sibelius notation software to notate the arrangement. I used to use paper and pencil, but I have gotten fast enough at Sibelius, and notating rhythm accurately, that it makes no sense to do it twice. I can make edits easier in Sibelius than on paper. And I burn through less erasers that way.
My love affair with effects pedals started back in the 1970's when I saved up enough to get an Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man pedal. There was no Internet or YouTube back then, so any information I got about gear came from going to a music store, from friends, or from Guitar Player magazine ads.
The Deluxe Memory Man had three effects: chorus, vibrato, and echo (delay.) It was truly one of the first multi-effects pedals. I didn't really understand all it could do when I got it, but it looked cool and had lots of knobs and buttons, so I figured it had to be good.
Last night I played an outdoor show with my band Peak City Sound. I was originally asked to join the band as a fill in guitarist because the regular guitarist, Hannu, frequently travels the globe with his job thanks to his superpower of speaking a ridiculous number of languages. I once asked him how many languages he spoke and he said “All of them.” I laughed, but I almost believe him.
Like most guitar players, in addition to astrophysics and molecular biology, I also studied electrical engineering. So as a side job I have decided to create a line of boutique guitar pedals. I am looking for feedback from my fellow guitar players. Here are my first two designs. What do you think?
Its name says it all. Simply step on the switch and you will have awesome tone and playing ability. No need to fiddle with knobs or jumper switches or rockers or toggles. Just get awesome.
Ask guitar players my age (even younger ones) who their guitar heroes are and you will likely hear the same five names in many replies: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Eddie Van Halen. Which is understandable since they each are amazing, creative players who heavily influenced the way everyone who came after them plays guitar.
I certainly am a fan of them also, but I learned to appreciate them more as I entered my twenties. They didn’t resonate with me as a teen in the 1970s like other players did. I seemed to have had a more unusual set of guitar heroes. Stylistically, none of then are very similar. Some of them you probably wouldn’t have thought of and some you may not even know of.
Welcome to Mark Starlin Creative Depot. It is official launch day. I am excited to be starting a brand new online adventure. I previously created and published the Better Guitar website, which had a long 15 year life span on the web.
