Hello everyone,Just to let those know whom might be interested that I have created a group on LinkedIn for Gigging Musicians to discuss all things about gigging! Why not pop over and say hello!You can find the group here.You can also take a look at a blog post I wrote on top gigging tips here.EnjoyPeaceNeil
Gigging life saver - Neil's top tip 2
Don't over look a cheaper guitar as a backup. As we know you should always take a backup guitar to a gig, in case of any number of posible problem scenarios (most usually string breakage and tunage issues), so rather than taking your prized strat or Les Paul etc out, look at cheaper but reasonable guitars to gig with. You never know when some drunken reveller will get up and do untold damage!Top Tip 2 - Take a cheap guitar as a back upPeaceNeil
Guitar lesson - what are you saying?
After watching Guthrie Govan's professor shred lesson, which I wrote about here and this fantastic lesson by Paul Gilbert. It really has struck me that one of the failings in my playing is the ability to say something new and different sometimes. I think we can all fall into a rut of saying the same thing when we are speaking as well, so this isn't just about guitar playing, but in life too. It is also possible to draw on that analogy and look at the similarities between guitar playing and speaking/writing/singing. One thing you could try is to record yourself speaking with a dictaphone or computer etc and then analyse the way you speak and then do the same with your guitar playing. Do you say things the same way? Do you play the same licks, with the same emphasis in similar places, same words, same sentence structure?So what does this have to do with gutar playing you ask?Well, I am starting to think, and this may just be a personal thing, that because when I speak, I tend to say and phrase things similar with in my comfort zone, that this is coming across when I am playing guitar too, so I am trying to slow down, think more about what I am saying and the key...what I want to say and how I want to say it. Then I am applying this to the guitar, trying to say things in a different way, trying to phrase things different, different 'sentence' constructions, different emphasis on different words. And of course, longer words in longer sentences for those shreding moments!!Looking at guitar playing, we could perhaps draw these example analogies
- A shredding lick could be seen as being similar to saying a very long, complex sentence perfect, precise and fast.
- A rock lick could be seen as being similar to saying an exclamation or sentence in a chatty or colloquial way.
- A blues lick could be seen as being similar to saying a chatty, colloquial sentence with emotion.
And so on....If we consider the situation where someone gets some chewing gum in their hair, the following might be examples of the structures described above....
- "There seems to be some chewing gum stuck in my hair, could you please help get it out?" - might be the shred version
- "Aaarrggh arrrrghhhhhh....gum in my head....arrrgh get it f***ing out!!!!!!!" - might be the rock version
- "Damn..... got some gum stuck....stuck in my hair.....get it out will ya" - might be the blues version
Thinking of these sentences and then thinking of how they might sound if you played them on the guitar gives you an idea of where I am coming from. I would recommend trying it perhaps with each of the sentence above and see what they sound like. Then taking that to your playing and seeing if you can say the the same thing, but in a different way, or should I say take the same thing and see if you can play it in a different way.Be interested to hear you comments! Please add them to below!Enjoy!PeaceNeil
Gigging life saver - Neil's top tip I
Here is another top tip for those gigging musicians out there. This tip is something which has proved extremely useful on many occasions and has the potential to save a gig.With the advent of smartphones, iPads, iPods etc it is possible to store and read documents such as pdf or word documents on the phone.The top tip is to download the user manuals for all the pieces of equipment you are using and have the stored on your mobile device, so if something goes wrong you can easily open the manual up and find out what it going on. You can also keep documents of various settings etc and have them easily to hand. An easy solution is to download something like Dropbox and store them from your computer and sync with your phone. Of course you can store all manner of useful things that way!I know you can always download manuals via a smartphone, but my experience has shown that when you end up gigging in the middle of nowhere, you may not have a wifi or 3G signal and thus can't get online. Having them locally on a device could save your life :)Having the manual for my TC Nova System on my phone was extremely useful recently in finding out how to fix a problem I was having with level anomalies!PeaceNeil
Fantastic guitar lesson by Guthrie Govan
Guthrie Govan is fast getting a reputation on the internet (and deservedly so) and being the best guitarist out there, not just because of his ability to play in an style (well!) and shred (as is evidenced by this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUZK9dasP8s). But because he is also a fantastic teacher as well! There are so many clips out there on youtube thankfully, but I find this one a brilliant lesson to all us guitarists that I just had to share it!! I have certainly taken a lot from it!!Enjoy!!PeaceNeil
Daily Creation Challenge | Day 95 - Tribute to Jim
I had already done today's piece when I heard the news, so instead I decided to whack on my Marshall and play a few chords as a tribute to Jim Marshall who sadly passed away today.He may not have played a note, but his amps were responsible for all those notes, all those sounds, all those memories!Rip JimEnjoyPeaceNeil
Rip Jim Marshall
Totally shocked, devastated and gutted to hear that Jim Marshall has passed away :( Marshall amps have been such a big part of my life and the music I love for decades......my first amp was a Marshall, and so was my second, third and forth, to the point where I was interviewed for a job there, best interview ever (!!).....as I got to play guitar in the interview...My first amp was a Valvestate combo, quickly followed by JMP1 which I have been using for 20 years without fail. Gutted and lost for words. Marshall amps have been such a massive part of my life, from being on all the posters of all my heros growing up to being behind me at thousands of gigs.lost for words...RIP JimPeaceNeil