I love seeing live music. You get to see how the recorded music takes shape after being played over and over again. Sometimes you get a first glimpse at new material or the artist’s take on someone else’s material, which may never get recorded. Furthermore, you get to network with people who have similar tastes in music.

But, over the past few years I’ve noticed an alarming trend in ticket prices. For medium and major acts, ticket prices have been rising at a rate that seems to be far higher than most other artists. Add to that the ever-increasing fees imposed by Ticketmaster and you’ve pretty much priced most people out of the show.

To illustrate my point…A major artist recently announced a tour that is scheduled to come through Nashville in 2010. I wanted to go see this artist, so I obtained a pre-sale code and logged into Ticketmaster. To my surprise, it was going to cost almost $80 per ticket to get the best available seats. I could have bought cheaper seats at about $45 per ticket, but those seats would have been in the upper balcony of the arena. Call me a curmedgeon, but I’d rather not go than pay over $50 (after parking and not including concessions) per ticket to barely be able to see the artist on stage. For the sake of comparison, two legendary bands played a joint show here in town not too long ago for a ticket price of about $60 after fees.

I thought that maybe that artist was an anomoly. Another artist also announced a tour that is scheduled to come through Nashville in 2010. This artist is not as widely known and is playing a smaller venue here in town. I looked up ticket prices for this artist, and mid-level seats were going to be about $45. While not nearly as pricey as the other artist, after paying for parking, it’s still over $100 for two people to go see the show. As a result, we decided to pass on the show.

Compare this with the $40 my wife and I spent (total, with food) to go see an up-and-coming artist at a smaller venue here in town. There were no ridiculous fees, either. Just a fair price for a great show. And, we even got to meet and talk to the artist after the show. Somehow, the artist was making it work while charging a very small amount for tickets. Of course, it remains to be seen whether this artist will raise ticket prices as they get more widely known. I hope they don’t try to keep up with everyone else.

The fact is, as much as I enjoy watching live music, it’s becoming increasingly cost prohibitive to do so, at least to see major acts. For my money, I’d rather support smaller venues who in turn are supporting up-and-coming artists. In my experience, these shows have been more fun because the crowds are generally smaller and more engaged with the music. Not to mention that these shows are generally less than half the cost of seeing a major act’s show.

I have partnered with Fret12 to give away one copy each of Mark Tremonti’s and Leslie West’s instructional DVDs. These are both two of the best produced instructional DVDs I’ve seen. Not only are they chock full of instructional material, there’s some nice insight into their background as well.

You can see my review of the Tremonti DVD here. The Leslie West DVD is similarly produced with background info, instructional content, and special guests, including Zack Wylde and Mark Tremonti, as well as a look into the making of West’s Dean signature guitar. For you amp geeks out there, there’s also a guest appearance by Budda co-founder Jeff Bober!

So, how can you win these DVDs? Easy! All you have to do is use the Contact page to send me an e-mail letting me know that you want to be entered into the contest. Please use “Fret12 Contest” in the subject line. Please note that these DVDs are encoded for US and Canada only.

The fine print: The contest will run through Saturday, Dec. 12, and I will randomly select the winner on Sunday, Dec. 13. This should allow me to get the DVDs to you before Christmas. One winner will win both DVDs. You must supply an e-mail address, but I will not use the e-mail addresses for anything other than to contact the winner.

Here’s a trailer for Mark Tremonti’s instructional DVD:

Here’s a trailer for Leslie West’s instructional DVD:

As we enter the holiday season, it’s time to start thinking of gift ideas for that special guitarist in your life. Perhaps consider a unique handmade guitar-related item from Etsy, a site where craft artists can sell their handmade products. You can find unique picks, straps, and even complete guitars on Etsy. There’s a little something for everyone.

Eric Clapton is one of my favorite guitarists. He has been for almost as long as I’ve been playing. Most guitarists I know feel the same way. However, I wonder if non-guitarists feel the same way?

Several years ago, I was driving a younger relative around in my car, and I was playing a Clapton CD. When he asked what I was playing, he looked incredulous when I told him it was Clapton. The feeling I got was that he was thinking, “Who still listens to Clapton?”

I wonder if this is a sentiment shared by most younger non-guitarists. Even though Clapton helped shape rock music and holds a significant place in musical history, has he done anything over the past few years, or even the past decade or so, that speaks to the next generation of musicians. Or, is he just a piece of musical history.

In my opinion, Eric Clapton is definitely still relevant. But, my opinion is and always will be clouded by the fact that his music (past and present) has had such an impact on me and my playing. If I didn’t play guitar, I’m not sure I’d feel the same way.

What do you think? Is Eric Clapton still relevant to the next generation of fans?

I can’t remember how I came across this article, but I recently found a classic article about Eric Johnson from 1986. The article was written around the time of the release of Johnson’s album Tones. Several of Johnson’s contemporaries are quoted in the article, including Steve Morse, Billy Gibbons, Johnny Winter, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, who had this to say about Johnson:

“Few people understand that when the guy was 15, he was playing Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery stuff, and he was doing it right–that’s pretty cool! If the record that he made years ago, The Seven Worlds, had come out at the time it was ready, instead of being held back for the reason of dollars and pennies–someone besides Eric was holding out for too much money for a deal–he would have been as big as Jeff Beck. He would have been very much in the public eye for modern jazz, rock, and fusion. The guy deserves a lot more recognition than he’s ever gotten. Eric is an honest human being, and he cares about everything. Just listen to him and learn.”

I didn’t realize that Johnson’s first album was stalled for so long by management issues. However, it’s good to know that after those early struggles, Johnson finally started to get the recognition he deserved. Of course, now he’s very well known as one of the greatest guitarists playing today, but it’s interesting to read about him at a time when he wasn’t nearly as well known.

For better or worse, Stevie Ray Vaughan is a dominating figure in the blues world. So much so that anyone who picks up a Stratocaster and plays notes from the pentatonic scale is automatically labeled an SRV clone. Anthony Stauffer, who runs StevieSnacks, which is a site that teaches how to play in the style of SRV, knows this all to well. In a recent post titled Blues is More Than SRV, he talks about why you shouldn’t be deterred in playing SRV-style music, if that’s what moves you:

If you want to play like SRV, then by all means, tackle that pursuit with everything you’ve got. Ignore the critics and get all that your heart can hold or your fingers can bear. As you learn to play the music you love, you’ll be more happy than anyone who criticizes, but don’t expect them to realize that. Do it because you love it, not because you want to please anybody.

I couldn’t agree more. There are people who seem to thrive in putting other people down. Don’t let them stop you from doing something you love.

I should note that if you do want to play in the style of SRV, Stauffer’s lessons are the best I’ve seen in explaining how to play in that style. He’s not only an excellent guitarist, but an excellent teacher.

Anthony Stauffer has posted an interesting article about how he has arrived at playing music for a hobby instead of as a career. After trying to become a rock star for over 10 years, he had to be honest with himself:

This simple truth created a situation where I resented having to do the very things that were necessary to put me in a position to do what I though I loved. I thought I wanted to travel the world playing music on stages in front of thousands of people. But I hated packing up all my gear to go play a show for 50 people. And even more, I hated packing up all my stuff at odd hours of the morning, and taking it back home. I simply wanted to get on stage and play, and that’s it.

It’s easy to romanticize what it must be like to be a rock star, but, as Anthony points out, making it as a musician requires much more than playing music.

I’ve been a fan of Tool’s Adam Jones since hearing their album Undertow in 1993. Jones seems to make his Les Paul sound larger than life on all of their recordings. In 2006, Mix magazine interviewed Joe Barresi and Bob Ludwig, who were responsible for recording Tool’s most recent album 10,000 Days. They discuss how they recorded the album. Of particular interest to me was the gear that Jones used in the studio:

The signal chain for tracking guitar was a bit complex. “Adam would play into whatever pedals he needed,” Barresi says. “That signal then went into a Systematic Systems Splitter. Then it would go to between three and five heads. The signal from the heads went to their own individual cabinets. Each cabinet had two or three microphones on it. Then all the microphones came back to the console, and they were blended down as separated for each amp. The Diezel amp went to its own track. The Marshall amp went to its own track. The third track was a blend of the Bogner and the Rivera, or whatever I liked for the song. And that would be one take — three tracks of guitar.”

Also discussed in the interview is how Jones recorded the talkbox solo in the song “Jambi.” In addition to talking about how they recorded the guitar parts, Barresi and Ludwig also discuss how they recorded Danny Carey’s drums, Justin Chancellor’s bass, and Maynard James Kennan’s vocals. Check out the interview here.

If you spend any time on the Gear Page forums, you know about the legend of Alexander (“Howard”) Dumble. If you don’t, Dumble has created a series of almost mythical amps used by tone hounds, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, Sonny Landreth, and John Mayer. He’s notoriously reclusive and builds amps only for people he deems worthy. Used Dumble amps go for around $50,000.

Author Jesse Schwarz has written a book about Dumble amps, called a Dumble Book. The book features a Dumble history, photos of Dumble amps, and interviews with Dumble and others. The cost of the book is around $300.

Christopher Liscio, the developer of the excellent learning tool Capo, let me know that he has recently updated the app. I’ve previously reviewed Capo and really liked it. Probably the biggest new feature of the app is the ability to save the slowed music so that you can listen to it on an iPod, thus enabling you to practice away from the computer. You can export an entire song or just a looped portion of a song enabling you to customize your learning experience. A podcast series is available on the Capo Web site; the podcast describes how to use the product as well as basic ear training techniques.