Guitar Lifestyle

Entire Song Recorded on iPhone

Josh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:45:44 +0000

The 88 have recently recorded an entire song titled “Love is the Thing” using the FourTrack iPhone application by Sonoma Wire Works. They describe a bit of the process and reasoning behind recording a song using the iPhone on their site.

This Spring, we were on tour opening up for the B-52s, with shows all around the East Coast. One day while we were driving, Keith was browsing through the applications on the iPhone and came across FourTrack. We thought this app would be a great way to record song ideas while we are away from home.

So we downloaded it, and I thought it would be a neat experiment to record the full band on a phone. I was very curious to see how it would sound.

You can judge for yourself below, but I think their experiment turned out pretty well. And, it’s not only a great advertisement for the FourTrack app, it’s turning out to be a great marketing tool for the band.

Quinn Sullivan on the Today Show

Josh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:55:09 +0000

I was watching the Today Show the other morning and was surprised to see a profile of young 10-year old blues guitarist Quinn Sullivan. If you’re not familiar with Sullivan, Buddy Guy took an interest in Sullivan a few years ago and even featured him on his last album Skin Deep. While most of his peers are probably enjoying their summer vacation by riding bikes, swimming, and playing video games, Sullivan is spending his summer vacation touring and recording an album. The future looks bright for Quinn Sullivan.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Peter Green Story

Josh — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:00:35 +0000

An interesting 12-part documentary of Peter Green has been posted to YouTube. I’ve embedded part 1 below, but parts 2-12 can be found at the following locations:

Here’s part 1:

(via TGP)

Jason Vieaux - Tiny Desk Concert

Josh — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:00:33 +0000

Classical guitarist Jason Vieaux was recently a featured performer on NPR as part of their Tiny Desk concert series. The concert included three performances, the first a prelude by Bach, then a real interesting piece by composer Maximo Diego Pujol titled “Candombe en mi,” followed by “Capricho Arabe” by Francisco Tarrega. There’s also a sidebar on NPR’s site about how Vieaux embeds a piece of a ping pong under his thumbnail to aid in playing.

Watch Vieaux’s Tiny Desk concert below:

Practice Logs

Josh — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:09:05 +0000

I’m terrible about keeping a log of my practice sessions. Chris Davis gives us five reasons why keeping a practice log helps. Here’s one of the reasons:

Ever sat down to practice and though, “well, I wonder what I should do today?” We’ve all been there. A practice log takes the questions out of the equation. What did I have trouble with during the last practice session? A practice log can help track these issues and focus your practice session in on them

Stuart Weber - The Fifth Row

Josh — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:56:03 +0000

The thing that I enjoy so much about Twitter is that you get to connect with people you might not have connected with otherwise. One artist that I’ve met through Twitter is Stuart Weber, a classical guitarist and composer based out of Montana. Weber has recently released a new CD titled The Fifth Row, which includes a number of original compositions as well as performances of Weber’s arrangement of compositions by composers such as George Philipp Telemann, Antonin Dvorak, Bela Bartok, Randy Newman, and Samuel Ward.

Weber’s performances of the pieces are tasteful and well executed. His technique is flawless, but not at the expense of the music. To me, one of the hallmarks of a great classical guitarist is whether you can listen to the guitarist perform and not think about the technique but instead focus on the music. Weber certainly falls into this category. Listening to The Fifth Row, I find myself engrossed in the music. I’m really impressed with Weber’s ability to bring out the emotion of the compositions.

In addition to the performances, Weber celebrates 11 historic theaters in the Western United States by recording a different track in each theater. Some of the theaters Weber celebrates are the Ellen Theater in Bozeman, Montana; the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride, Colorado; and the Ellen Eccles Theater in Logan, Utah.

The Fifth Row highlights Stuart Weber’s excellent performing, arranging, and composing skills. If you are a fan of classical guitar music, I think you’ll really enjoy The Fifth Row.

Also, see Dr. Matthew Warnock’s review of The Fifth Row for Modern Guitars.

Below is a video of Weber playing one of my favorite pieces from the CD, Telemann’s “Bouree alla Polacca”:

The Rust

Josh — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:00:42 +0000

Tuesday night my wife and I went to the Rutledge to check out upcoming local Nashville band The Rust. The Rust have been on quite an upswing over the past few months, even though the band’s fairly new to the scene. They recently won a battle of the bands here in Nashville, competing against 100 other bands. They’re starting to get spots on local radio stations, and they’ve recently confirmed a fall tour opening for Secondhand Serenade.

The band was excellent and played selections from their debut album Anticipation, which was released late last year. The songs are probably best categorized as melodic hard rock, with influences such as Fuel, Chevelle, Foo Fighters, and Metallica. I was surprised to learn that the drummer has only played a few shows with the band and the rhythm guitarist was playing his first show with the band. The reason I was surprised was because the band sounded very tight, like they’d been playing together for years. Singer/guitarist Nick James was great, as was the rest of the band, which includes keyboardist Chris Scott, lead guitarist Justin Davenport, bassist Greg McCool, and the new rhythm guitarist, whose name I, unfortunately, didn’t catch.

I think The Rust have a bright future ahead of them. It’s exciting to see a group of talented guys starting to get some of the recognition they deserve. Here’s a video of The Rust playing their song “Drowning” from Tuesday’s show:

Eddie Van Halen Sues Nike

Josh — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:30:39 +0000

What’s with iconic guitarists suing people lately? First Joe Satriani, now Eddie Van Halen. He has taken some offense to Nike’s new Dunk Low line of shoes, which feature a pattern similar to the paint scheme on Van Halen’s famous “Frankenstein” guitar. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Nike unsurprisingly disputes Van Halen’s claim:

Nike’s Dunk shoe design is not substantially similar to any of the Van Halen designs, and Nike has not referenced the ‘Van Halen’ name or image as part of any marketing campaign or promotional material associated with the shoe.

Once again, only the lawyers will end up winning with this lawsuit.

SRV’s ‘64 Vibroverb Dissected

Josh — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:24:50 +0000

CP Thornton Guitars has posted the Tone Quest Report magazine from August 2007 (PDF), which features a dissection of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘64 Vibroverb amp. SRV’s amp tech Cesar Diaz had done quite a few modifications to the amp, including changing the caps, adding a larger transformer as well as many other mods. It’s interesting to read how the amp was modified to help give SRV his massive tone.

(via TGP)

Blues with Brains

Josh — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:00:34 +0000

Guitarist Chuck D’Aloia has recently released an instructional lesson set titled Blues with Brains. Unlike other blues lessons that try to teach you basic pentatonic blues licks, Blues with Brains teaches you how to add a different element to your blues playing.

While you do not need to know music theory in order to benefit from the lessons D’Aloia provides, I think you’d get the most benefit from the lessons if you have a basic knowledge of blues progessions (I-IV-V) and a basic knowledge of the pentatonic scales. This is the foundation that D’Aloia starts with, and he then shows you how to take it in a different, slightly jazzier direction.

He starts off with a basic blues progression in A minor and discusses how the notes work over the chords. Some notes work better than others, and D’Aloia discusses which ones work and which ones don’t. After going over examples slowly, he then plays over a jam track to illustrate his ideas. Not only is it helpful to see Chuck play the examples, it’s just fun to hear Chuck play.

After explaining how to work with pentatonic scales, Chuck talks about dominant 7 blues and the diminished scale. Throughout all of the lessons, Chuck’s teaching style is warm and infectious. It’s clear that Chuck enjoys the music he’s playing and that he enjoys teaching it to others.

There’s a LOT of information packed into the 1:15 of Blues with Brains. I think it’ll take a number of run-throughs of the lessons in order to fully grasp the concepts Chuck is teaching, but I’ve already got some new ideas to explore.

In addition to Blues with Brains, Chuck has recently released a CD of jazz/fusion music titled Circle 7. Chuck’s playing is very tasteful and illustrates many of the concepts he goes through in Blues with Brains.

You can purchase Blues with Brains directly from Chuck as either a DVD or a download. Here’s a video sample of Blues with Brains.

Also check out reviews of Blues with Brains on TGP’s Webzine and Guitar Gear Enthusiast.