Guitar Wisdom: 99 Ways to Play Better
I stumbled upon this list of 99 Ways to Play Better today & found some good stuff.
Of particular note:
- 5. Unmask
“Try cutting back on the effects in your setup. It may help you to better discover the music.” —Bill Kirchen
- 12. Move On
“Don’t be precious about anything—much less a certain guitar sound. There is always another interesting sound or effect just waiting to be discovered.” —Robin Guthrie
- 19. Literary Soloing
“Think of a guitar solo as a paragraph. You need a clear beginning, a middle, and an end. Look at musical phrases like sentences, and make sure you break them up using punctuation—or space. You pause naturally when conversing, right? If you don’t, you’ll bore the listener. The same thing will happen with your audience if your solo is one dimensional. You’ll wear them out and lose their attention.” —Tom Principato
- 32. Mix It Up
“Treat each guitar track—and each song—completely different. For example, if I’m using a certain amp and guitar on one track, I’ll deliberately use something else for the next tune or overdub.” —Keith Richards
- 36. Rhythmic Solos
“If the band is playing in 7/4 time, try to play in 4/4. When you do that sort of thing, you begin to notice certain ways in which the two rhythms synchronize over a long period of time. Thinking in these long lengths, you automatically start to develop rhythmic ideas that have a way of interconnecting.” —Jerry Garcia
- 38. Get Funky
“Forget about the fancy chords, and just concentrate on a funky beat.” —John Lee Hooker
- 41. Go Big
“Use big strings. I like a set with a .013 E string, but I’ve gone as high as a .018-.074 set. They’ll eat your hands, your tuning pegs, and your amp, but they sound great.” —Stevie Ray Vaughan
- 67. Hello, It’s Me
“Get in touch with your uniqueness—even if you don’t like it. Once the crushing realization that I wasn’t going to be Brian May or Steve Morse hit me, I had to start embracing the things I hated about my style.” —Ty Tabor
- 70. Get Out
“You must perform for an audience, because the real crunch happens when you get in front of people. You may discover that some things you played in rehearsal don’t make any sense, because you fooled around too much with the frilly stuff and forgot the basic drive of the song. Playing live also teaches you deal with situations like dropping your pick or breaking a string, as well as forcing you to project. You have to direct your playing somewhere—unless you want to sit in a room like a painter who won’t show his paintings to anybody.” —Rory Gallagher
- 71. Noise
“Once you get off the beaten path of chords and notes, any noise can be its own microcosm of songwriting. There is a deep library of songs that go from G to C. There is not a deep library of songs that use a toggle switch and a wah pedal. It’s a wide-open road.” —Tom Morello
- 91. Mess Up
“Play sloppy, make mistakes, and let those mistakes lead you to different territories and ideas. It’s important to take advantage of both the rational control and the irrational uncontrolled.” —Henry Kaiser
- 99. Trust Your Hands
“Your sound is in your hands as much as anything. It’s the way you pick, and the way you hold the guitar, more than it is the amp or the guitar you use.” —Stevie Ray Vaughan
So much rockin’ to do, so little time…
Sorry if posts are coming a little slow lately, but with a new semester, a new job, and a new band, I don’t have quite so much time to sit around, get stoned and write posts. I am working on the Mad Stratter behind the scenes, however, trying to get everything organized in a less blog-y way. For example, the Anatomy sections is kicking off with some updates as far as the Neck, Bridge and Body; all of SRV’s guitars have been condensed into one page in the Axology section, and I’ve got a rough history of the Stratocaster together… so while you’re waiting for some more good-ol’-fashioned bloggery-style postage, be sure to check those out.
Next on the to-do-list is a guide on setting up your Strat, a little bit about hot-rodding, more reviews, and maybe even some guitar lessons and exercises.
Monday Morning Mojo, vol. iii: the Lomeo Brothers,
Listen to the Lomeo Brothers version of “Dust My Broom”
Last week we went all the way down to Miama for our soundtrack from an amazing young guitarist named Lucciano Pizzichini. This week, we’re back up in my neck of the woods, with the Lomeo Brothers from Utica, NY.
In 1999, when guitar player Adam and harpist/vocalist Matt were 12 and 10 years old, respectively, they became the youngest performers ever to play at a Woodstock festival. Unfortunately, they hold no such distinction here at the Mad Stratter, being older than Lucciano and younger than Andrew Halliday. Adam’s 1975 Stratocaster pictured above holds a distinction of it’s own, however, being the oldest axe featured here at the Mad Stratter to date.
The Lomeo Brothers were kind enough to give me three tunes for your listening pleasure, so in addition to “Dust My Broom” above, be sure to check out “Pony Blues” & “Messin’ With The Kid”.
Fender Test Drive Promotion
If you’re fortunate enough to live near an authorized Fender dealer, you can test drive a Strat (or other Fender guitar, but since you’re reading it here, I’m assuming you’ll want to play atleast a strat or two) and get this t-shirt free. Sure, it’s a Tele pictured on the shirt, but I’ll let that slide because of that beautiful blonde squeezed into it.
I sent for mine, so in 6 to 8 weeks, just as I’ll be forgetting about this promotion, I’ll have a Fender t-shirt stuffed into my much-too-small mailbox.
