Just a couple of days ago I was watching the move “Roadhouse” (don’t know why) but I watched it. But then I rememberd one reason why; Jeff Healy was in it. I was sitting there with my wife saying, “I forgot about him… what a great blues player he is.” I remember the first time I saw him on MTV (when they actually played music) it was the video for “Confidence Man” and I was thinking, “man this guy is good.” His style of play had an edge to it that reminded me of Stevie Ray Vaughn. I was also fanscinated with how he played the guitar on his lap, not knowing he was blind until a few weeks later. I tried to emulate it, just to see how it feels but could never get it. I loved “Angel Eyes”, I bought the tape and learned how to play it. Don’t ask me now I couldn’t play it or even hum it. Unfortunately, I moved on to other CD’s and Tapes but for a time Jeff Healy was all that I listened to. Anyway, the very next day at work, I heard that he passed away on March 2nd, just when I was …
latest update
OK, so I’ve started this blog and here is one of the reasons why. My best friend, Hercules (yes that is his real name) Castro, has recently released a CD called “Singularity.” The thing you need to know about this is that he recorded all of this himself in his home studio. I’m talking all the drum tracks, bass, guitar, keyboards, etc… Corey Brown provides his vocals for 2 tracks on the release but other than that, Hercules does it all and does it well. The music on this CD covers many genres, from blues, electronica and progressive and all are at a high technical level. One of my favorite tunes is called “Pulse Detonation.” This song is fast, I mean really fast and the funny thing about this is that I didn’t really care for speed when we were younger. I would always say that feel is better than speed but I didn’t realize that you can have both and this song exemplifies this. So after watching him going throught the creation process, it really inspired me to work harder at my playing and just being creative (hence this blog). I also did the photography and artwork for the CD which …
The Toronto Fingerstyle Guitar Association just posted a three part interview with Tommy Emmanuel. Great insite how some of the chances he took to get where he is and the hard work that Tommy went through to achieve his accomplishments. He, of course, talks about how he always try’s to improve his playing and keeping it fresh. What’s exciting is him talking about a new Live DVD that will be shot in Chico California and a new instructional DVD featureing songs from “Only,” “Endless Road,” and “The Mystery.” That is certainly exciting and I can’t wait until those come out. Oh yeah, a new CD should be out by Christmas, so Tommy is a busy man. But don’t take my word for it. The links are below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kEBr_xiRiM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZz7zRHoONg&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52eLzA66tso&feature=related
When I first started playing guitar, I wanted to play like Eddie Van Halen. I wanted to write the next “Eruption” or “Cathedral” or any of the other songs that he has writting. It really doesn’t matter, I love them all. Anyway… I was a 80’s heavy metal fan and learned all the songs and/or licks that I could, especially Eddie’s. Problem is, I couldn’t play some of that because it was way beyond my ability. I thought if I played the lick over and over again, I would eventually be able to play it. It worked sometime but not all the time and I eventually gave up on some songs. So twenty four years later, after picking up my first guitar, I am now a big fanatic for fingerstyle guitar and want to learn everything I can about it. My problem is that I’m resorting to some bad habits that I had as a teenager. The big one was that I was practicing a song over and over again but not really making any progress. What I was lacking was some fundamentals, I was good but raw and not very clean in my playing. I was never formally trained …
Remember that old tip, in english class, where if your stumped on what your going to write, you’re instructed to scrawl “I don’t know what to write” over and over until you get past that block and continue with your writing. I’m working on a couple of projects and on all of them, I’m stumped, can’t move past that one line or chord. Which leads me to the my question, “what is the guitarist version of ‘I don’t know what to write’?” I’ve tried recording writing, down the progressions, learning new tunes, etc…. The only two things that have helped a bit was to hum the melody over the chords or run it over and over again in my head. I try to do this in order to hopefully polish these skills nad move on. My best friend tells me that the reason why I’m so stumped is because I try to get it perfect and I won’t move on until it is, which is partially true. He also says that I need to treat it as a rough draft that will get polished soon enough. Anyway… I’ll keep pluggin’ away.
