I’m a musician, writer, and comic artist. Welcome to my website.
In the 1970s guitarist Kerry Livgren was mainly an electric guitar player playing in the progressive rock band Kansas. He decided he wanted to learn to play fingerstyle guitar and he create an exercise to practice. That exercise was the chords in “Dust In The Wind.” His wife heard him playing it and said “That’s really pretty, you should put words to it.” Livgren said “No it’s just an exercise.” But his wife didn’t relent and eventually Livgren wrote lyrics for it.
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...
Power chords are essentially double stops, or partial chords. True chords have at least three different notes. Power chords contain only the root and 5th note of a scale. But because they are used like chords they are considered chords. They are usually notated as a 5 chord. For example, a C Power chord is usually notated C5. There are both two and three string versions of the Power chord. The three string version simply adds the octave of the root note.
I will now rap a rhyme about lamp ties:
I went outside and it was damp
I got knocked down ‘cause my tie was a lamp
I started to jerk and do a shocking dance
I looked so weird I had to move to France
Way back in July of 2104 I started working on a chord melody arrangement of the jazz standard A Day In The Life Of A Fool. The title was prophetic. It was a major challenge. I did eventually work out an arrangement I thought sounded good. And I began practicing it. It took a long time to memorize and even longer to be able to play it well. Then I tried to make a video of myself playing it. Ha!
In 1954 rock and roll was in its infancy. Bill Haley & His Comets had gone into the studio to record a new song (Thirteen Women) their record label, Decca, wanted them to record as a single. This was before multi-track recording so the band all played together and did take after take until they got a good one.
The Nova System is a studio-quality digital multi-effects unit with analog distortion/overdrive. It seems designed for those seeking high-quality digital effects in a convenient, compact, road-worthy unit.
When Van Halen’s first album came out in 1978 most guitar players I knew (me included) were stunned by the instrumental guitar solo “Eruption", wondering how Eddie Van Halen could play so crazy fast. Later, thanks to guitar magazines (there was no YouTube back then to learn licks off of), we found out that he was “tapping.” He wasn’t the first to use this technique (I won’t jump into that argument of who was) but he certainly popularized it.
Song writing, like guitar playing, is a skill that takes time to learn but brings great benefits. Once you have the ability to play a few chords, you should try writing songs. You don’t need to be a great player or singer to write songs. Start with a simple three-chord progression, or a cool guitar riff, and try coming up with a melody line.
After extensive repeated listening I have determined that the song is about a girl named Sue Sussudio or possibly Sue Sue Sudio. (If she had married Phil she would have become Sue Sue Collins — not nearly as cool.)
This song started a Bossa Nova craze in the U.S. in 1962 and in turn brought considerable latin influence to American music, especially jazz. It was also the last dying gasp of “jazz” as popular music before The Beatles changed what popular music meant.
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.
I have posted a bunch of older music I have recorded over the years. Most of it I recorded myself playing all the instruments, but there are also two songs from my old band Big Truth.
You can listen to them on the Media page. I hope you like them.
Basically, tone is the audio quality and musical characteristics of sound. Some guitars are said to have good tone, and without a doubt some guitars (and amplifiers, effects, etc.) sound “better” than others. The trick is to know your instrument and play it in a way that brings out its best tone for each song. If you own an electric guitar, learn what each pickup sounds like and use the correct pickup or combination of pickups for the song you are playing.
If you are fan of “classic rock” (a music industry label, not mine) you might recognize the singer as Paul Rodgers who went on to international fame with the band Bad Company. But the guitar playing of Paul Kossoff is the real star in this song. The ambiguous chords in the verse have stymied beginning guitarists since the song’s release. They are actually two different chord voicings overdubbed. I will have mercy on you and show a way to play them with only one guitar.
Sometimes there are just a few words difference between a flop and a hit record. For example change only two words and these hit record lyrics aren’t quite as appealing.
“Sunshine, on my shoulders makes me sunburned. Sunshine, in my eyes can make me blind.”
Otis Redding started writing this song while living on a rented houseboat in California. He finished the song with the help of STAX producer and guitar player Steve Cropper in Memphis just days before his death in an airplane crash in 1967. Cropper’s unique, soulful style of playing makes this song a masterclass in how to use riffs/fills (hammer-ons, double stops, slides, etc.)
They don’t call it “playing” guitar for nothing. Practicing is essential if you want to improve, but practicing is just repetition. Anything you want to learn will eventually come with repetition. But don’t spend all your playing time just practicing. Every time you pick up your guitar you should play at least one thing for pure enjoyment.
When the guys at Dragon Heart’s Picks approached me about reviewing their picks I warned them that I was a 40+ year Fender Medium pick user and that I had tried and used dozens of other picks over the years including the newer synthetic material premium picks, even stone picks! But I always returned to Fender Medium picks. So I would be a tough sell. They weren’t deterred and sent me one of each Dragon’s Heart pick models.
Many guitar player spend countless hours perfecting their tone at home and then when they get in a band setting their tone seems weak or their guitar is hard to hear when the band is playing. This is the hard reality of guitar tone. A great solo guitar tone is not always a great band guitar tone. It’s really all about tonal balance and interaction with the other instruments in the band. Here are some general tips to help you improve your “band” tone.
