POST # 018 David Fiuczynski on Microtonal Music

“In Western music, microtones represent all intervals in between the semitones of the 12 notes per octave system, however there is a lot of music that uses notes between the cracks. And in many world music, the grid is much smaller. Turkish music roughly operates on nine notes per whole tone, and Arabic music roughly uses quartertones with 24 notes per octave. The best way to talk about microtones is by looking at the blues. Blues players will milk the area between the minor 3rd and the major 3rd. The notes between the 4th and sharp 4th, and the 6th and flat 7th, tend to be what are referred to as ‘blue’ notes. You don’t find those notes, or microtones, on a piano. You can think of microtones within Arabic or older Chinese music as being Eastern blue notes which are really beautiful and affect me in the same way the blues do.” - David Fiuczynski

(Bach's well tempered clavier is nothing to sneeze at, but there is much more then the 'classical' way of organizing music.. although I am having enough trouble with the 12 notes as it is! David Fiuczynski working the microtones below. - Ed)

POST # 017 John Jorgenson on Jerry Reed

“I never became adapt at Jerry’s style exactly, but learning his tunes inspired lots of licks in the “floating technique” where scales are played using fretted strings higher up the neck on lower strings followed by open strings to give a ringing harp-like texture, and in the banjoroll style too.”

“Most players, myself included, can tend to get a little too serious about the music, and Jerry reminded us that guitar playing can be hot and humorous at the same time.” John Jorgenson

(I think Jerry is showing off some of that floating technique below...now I feel like some fried chicken, ice cold beer and starting a fight at some honky tonk! - Ed)

POST #016 Jerry Reed on Getting Better on the Guitar

“You’ve gotta love guitar, love sitting down with it 18, 20 hours a day. I did it and I don’t regret a minute of it. I lived with that instrument day and night for 25 years. That’s what it takes to get better” – Jerry Reed

(Play every chance you get! How much do you play? - Ed)

POST #015 Derek Trucks on Coltrane

“..anytime you are playing with musicians that you have never played a note with before, the first 20 to 30 percent is just the feeling-out process, learning how people phrase things. And that’s often the beauty of it. Sometimes you get the most inspired moments when you first make those connections, because you get thrown into the deep end and you either sink or swim.” – Derek Trucks

“You can shift a tune like “Impressions”, from a straight minor to all these Indian-inflected scales. You can go anywhere you want to go if the bass player and the keyboard player are listening carefully enough to follow you.” – Derek Trucks on Coltrane and modal blues

(Derek Trucks getting thrown into the deep end with McCoy Tyner on Greensleeves and swims like the creature from the black lagoon. - Ed)

POST #014 B. B. King on Vintage Guitars

“He (BB King) seems both perplexed and amused when asked if he brought out some of his older instruments for more of a vintage tone. “Why?” he chuckles. “I’m not so good that I can play five or six guitars, or eight or 10, like I see some of these guys do. I’ve got many of the same [i.e. many 355s and 335s], but only one that I’m playing now, and that’s the one I like.” B.B. King

( Aren't we all guitar junkies? But sure would love to give them all up to play like BB! BB making Lucile sing at Sing Sing, 1972. - Ed )

POST # 013 Robin Trower on emotional playing

“ And you emulate that. (B B King’s bend and vibrato) Or, more accurately, you try to emulate that emotion. I think that’s been my main approach all along. Even though I’ve got guitar heroes, I’ve never tried to work out exactly what they’re doing. I just try to find what’s behind it, or feel what it is that they’re feeling to make it sound so emotional” – Robin Trower

“Shostakovich, a Russian composer, wrote very emotional music, as did various other classical composers. Egyptian folk music is very emotional. But what you’re talking about, in terms of adherence to black music in America, is a stylistic thing that enables you to express your own emotions by using a formula, if you like.” – Robin Trower

(Only reason you practice to get more technique is to have more ways of expressing your emotions ... Trower getting emotional in Day of the Eagle - Ed)

POST # 012 Page Hamilton on being a musician

“ Be a musician, as that is infinitely more interesting than being a rock star. Devour music and play the guitar and work at it and listen to everything. Don’t be a pinhead that just listens to Green Day. There is so much more out there musically.” Page Hamilton of Helmet

( whats the difference between a rock star and an air guitar champion?? ...hmm there is a joke in there somewhere :P - Ed)

POST # 011 Joe Satriani on getting his first gigs

“ I remember when I was playing in high school bands and it seemed as if there was no place to play and try to make a living. People were going to clubs, but they only wanted to dance to disco music; the live rock thing was pretty much dead. So I thought, how can I proceed with my goal, which was to be the greatest rock guitar player in the world [laughs] but still make a buck, you know? And someobody told me that I could play guitar in a disco band, and as abhorrent as that sounded to me, I thought, Well, I’ll still be playing the guitar, and I’ll be in front of a crowd. And that’s what I did for a while.” Joe Satriani

(must had been some pretty amazing disco cover band! I met Joe at a music store signing once, a nicer guy you will not find -Ed)





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHIpXm41EK4

POST # 010 Barney Kessel on Touring

As I look back, there's always been a pattern; wanting the security and convenience of staying in one place, having it for a great length of time, then really wanting to play. Which involves going out of town and travelling, really liking that, until I finally get the feeling I want to come home. – Barney Kessel

I left Los Angeles four times to play with Charlie Barnet. In 1947 I left to be a part of Jazz At The Philharmonic; I played with Charlie Parker's group, and Sarah Vaughan was on it for the first time.

That was very hectic; I had not really evolved enough as a person to be able to cope with it all. I was very disturbed and bothered by the frantic atmosphere off the stand, although I enjoyed it on the stand.
Today I just adopt a philosophical attitude about it. Everyone's going to do what they do, and you just have to keep your eye on the ball. All I want to do is play: I'm not concerned about their personal habits.

– Barney Kessel

(Barney Kessel had to dye his hands black so he can appear with the rest of the musicians in this television clip from a bygone era - Ed)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_WyhK-Urms

POST #009 Robin Trower on Songwriting

“But you know straightaway if you’ve got a song or not. Within half an hour, you should pretty much have the shape of the thing. If you’ve got to bash away at it, throw it out. It wasn’t meant to be. From the point of first getting an idea, it should be within…okay, I’ll give it an hour. You should have that musical idea narrowed down. ‘Cause the ideas should flow naturally, one from the other, until it gets to the end.” – Robin Trower

( Have you ever spend hours labouring over your one song, just to find that the ones you liked the best were written in 5 minutes :P -Ed)

POST # 008 Vernon Reid on the BLUES

I Don’t separate Eric Dolphy from Sly Stone from Monk from Coltrane from Hendrix or the Temptations, because the common thing that links all these people together is the blues. – Vernon Reid

(Blues is the most influential music of the 20th century? I agree - Ed)

POST #007 Paul Gilbert on playing FAST

“You have to play well before you can play fast, at least if you want it to be listenable. The same techniques that allow you to sound good when playing slow apply to playing fast. So work on playing well before you work on playing fast” – Paul Gilbert

( There is unfortunately no short cut, even for the great Paul Gilbert, needless to say great advice for us mere mortals - Ed)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPGA3vjMLgE

POST # 006 Barney Kessel on Starting Out on Jazz Guitar

"I always felt like a real stumble-bum, I remember when I learned to play the six-string barre F chord, my fingers bled from working so hard at it.”- Barney Kessel



“I learned major, minor, chromatic, and augmented scales, I learned how to read; I learned how to build up to four-note chords, and how to build diatonic scales. I also learned something that is a veryimportant part of fingerboard study that I don’t see being taught a lot today. My teacher insisted that as we learned to play each chord, we had to learn the name of each note inthe chord, and we also had to know in which part of thechord each note was. Like, which note was the 5th of the chord, or the 3rd." - Barney Kessel

“They were trying to tell me,” Kessel recalled to Gitler, “‘Play like a horn.’ I didn’t know that they meant to play a melodic, single-note line, to try and play like a tenor saxophone or a trumpet. I recall my very earliest, feeble attempts were to play either chords, likea ukulele, or to play single notes, but I would tremolo it as though it were a mandolin. They would say, no, play like a horn. I didn’t know what they meant. Finally, when I did heard Charlie Christian it had an enormous impact on me... His style was very reminiscent of Lester Young to me. And then I could see what they were talking about.” - Barney Kessel

(The musical Journey of a thousand notes starts with a single F barred chord....Ed)






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqgwVpCTAf4

POST #005 Brad Paisley on Telecasters

"Redd Volkart who is the master of that approach, can grab baseball bat sized 50's broadcaster necks and bend them down an octave, and it doesnt seem to hurt them. All you have to do is adjust their truss rods every couple of months. Its a great trick Tele players can do, its cooler than cheating and using a whammy bar. Whammy bars are for sissies." - Brad Paisley, country guitarist.

(I ain't trying that on my Fender copper finish 52 Tele reissue! Looks like I might be adjusting the trustrod on my Axl Badwater Strat copy soon :P - Ed)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ7iaYKUrBM

POST # 004 Brad Paisley on Influences

" Find a tone that's unique and then explore notes that arent always used and you're on your way to something special. I learned a lot about that from guys like Redd Volkaert. ... he could go right form Charlie Christian to Roy Nichols and keep things interesting by throwing in all these different influences and thats something I've always tries to do " - Brad Paisley

(Cluster Puck....same chord progression...as many different interpretations as there are guest guitarists! - Ed)





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6BJ2E8eKww

POST #003 Paul Bollenback on Listening and Learning

"Some students will have tremendous hands, or really good ears, but they don't know anything about playing jazz because they never sat down and really listened to any jazz. If you are going to be a jazz guitar player, you'd better listen to some jazz guitar players and learn something" - Paul Bollenback , jazz guitarist

(Listen and pickup a few nice ideas from the video of the very tasty Mr Bollenback ! - Ed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJp2CT_uDx8&feature=related

POST #002 JOE LOUIS WALKER

"I agree with Willie Dixon, who told me that doing a bad version of yourself is better than doing a good version of somebody else" - JOE LOUIS WALKER , blues guitarist

(JLW doing a GREAT version of himself below on "I Didn't Know" - Ed)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQUz_rwHh60

POST # 001 Guitar EUREKA!

Welcome to GUITAR EUREKA!!

This blog is about those 'EUREKA' or moments of clarity you get when you are struggling with a musical concept or guitar technique for a long time...then you read an interview, an article, a quotation, and everything becomes clear...and you go EUREKA! NOW i understand! A moment of absolute clarity and you achive guitar nirvana.....if just for a second....until the next musical/guitar challenge comes along and you are on your next journey to your next Eureka moment.

Mostly this blog will feature quotations from guitarists I have collected and found inspirational. They might not all teach you a particular technique or musical concept , but hopefully they will inspire you to go EUREKA, pick up your guitar, find your own voice and play ya heart out !!