Quantcast
Channel: Guitar World
Viewing all 4164 articles
Browse latest View live

Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time Readers Poll: Round 1 — "Johnny B. Goode" (Chuck Berry) Vs. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Jimmy Page)

0
0

A few years ago, the editors of Guitar World magazine compiled what we feel is the ultimate guide to the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.

The list, which has been quoted by countless artists, websites and publications around the world, starts with Richie Sambora's work on Bon Jovi's “Wanted Dead or Alive” (Number 100) and builds to a truly epic finish with Jimmy Page's solo on "Stairway to Heaven" (Number 1).

To quote our "Stairway to Heaven" story that ran with the list, "If Jimmy Page is the Steven Spielberg of guitarists, then 'Stairway' is his Close Encounters."

We've kicked off a summer blockbuster of our own — a no-holds-barred six-string shootout. We're pitting Guitar World's top 64 guitar solos against each other in an NCAA-style, 64-team single-elimination tournament. Every day, we will ask you to cast your vote in a different guitar-solo matchup as dictated by the 64-team-style bracket.

You can vote only once per matchup. The voting for each matchup ends as soon as the next matchup is posted (Basically, that's one poll per day during the first round of elimination, including weekends and holidays).

In some cases, genre will clash against genre; a thrash solo might compete against a Southern rock solo, for instance. But let's get real: They're all guitar solos, played on guitars, by guitarists, most of them in some subset of the umbrella genre of rock. When choosing, it might have to come down to, "Which solo is more original and creative? Which is more iconic? or Which one kicks a larger, more impressive assemblage of asses?"

Today, it's Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" (12) against Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You" (53), featuring the guitar work of one Jimmy Page. Get busy! You'll find the poll at the bottom of the story.


Yesterday's Results

Winner: "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (92.89 percent)
Loser: "Geek USA" (7.11 percent)

Round 1, Day 14: "Johnny B. Goode" Vs. "Since I've Been Loving You"

12. “Johnny B. Goode”
Soloist: Chuck Berry
Album: His Best, Volume One (MCA, 1997)




53. "Since I've Been Loving You”
Soloist: Jimmy Page
Album: Led Zeppelin—Led Zeppelin III (Atlantic, 1970)

Voting Closed!

Winner:"Since I've Been Loving You" (62.72 percent)
Loser:"Johnny B. Goode" (37.28 percent)

Head HERE to see all the matchups that have taken place so far!

Additional Content

Tab Book: Get Note-for-Note Transcriptions for Every Song from Foo Fighters'"Wasting Light'

0
0

The Wasting Light songbook features note-for-note transcriptions for the Foo Fighters' 2011 album that shot to the top of six Billboard charts, including the coveted Top 200.

The book features tabs for 11 songs:

• Arlandria
• Back & Forth
• Bridge Burning
• Dear Rosemary
• I Should Have Known
• A Matter of Time
• Miss the Misery
• Rope
• These Days
• Walk
• White Limo.

The 128-page book is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for $22.99.

Additional Content

Exclusive Video Premiere: Queen V — "Cry Your Eyes Out”

0
0

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of a new music video by New York City's Queen V.

The song, “Cry Your Eyes Out,” is featured on Queen V's new album, The Decade Of Queen V, which will be released Tuesday, June 25, through Royal Noise Records.

From “My Machine” (featuring Tom Morello), to “Wasted” (with vocal assists by Lemmy) to “Right Or Wrong,” this is a power-packed 11-song collection of passionate rock and roll.

Check out the video below and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments!

For more about Queen V, visit her official website and Facebook page.

Photo: Wayne Herrschaft

Three Steps to Shred: Fundamental Daily Practice Techniques in About 15 Minutes

0
0

No matter your level of experience, being a guitarist involves pushing your personal boundaries with the instrument.

Many players find themselves struggling to develop the physical abilities needed to play like their heroes, and, crucially, they never settle on a consistent set of exercises because they find themselves drowning in so many different suggestions.

In this column and video, I discuss some straightforward, essential practice techniques you can work into a simple, short daily routine to improve your dexterity, speed, strength and stamina to help you overcome obstacles and become a better guitar player.

These practice techniques are broken into three sections: 01. Picking hand: two three-minute exercises; 02. Fretting hand: a series of 15- or 20-second strength exercises; and 03. Both hands: a symmetrical exercise emphasizing synchronization between the left and right hands.

All in all, these exercises should take about 15 minutes. My students have found that, when done faithfully and properly, they yield significant positive results. Please note that it's a good idea to stretch out your hands, wrists and arms for a few minutes before doing these exercises.

01. Picking Hand: Three-Minute Picking Technique

This straightforward exercise is broken into two sections: First, perform a series of eighth-note downstrokes in rhythm, at a speed that is comfortable to you, for a period of three straight minutes. Follow this by performing a series of eighth-notes in rhythm using alternate picking — a downstroke followed by an upstroke — at the same speed for the full three minutes. Performing these simple exercises each for the full three minutes allows you to develop your stamina and rhythm abilities, meanwhile developing valuable muscle memory in your picking hand.

Screen Shot 2013-06-21 at 3.33.15 PM.png

While it seems simple, this exercise can be conceptually difficult in that it often tries the patience of guitarists eager to move on to faster speeds. Just remember: Using a metronome is not a contest. It is important to be honest with yourself about what speed is comfortable for the full three minutes, and resist any urges to rush on to a higher speed you cannot maintain.

And remember there is no reason to feel bad about starting with what may seem like a slow speed. Don't let your ego interfere with your practice routine. Sure, there are higher speeds that may be comfortable for a matter of 20 seconds, but you should stick to the speed where you can “lock in," that you can comfortably maintain for the full three minutes, and use that speed with this exercise each day.

The alternate-picked section of this exercise initially should be done at the same speed as your downstrokes, which may seem slow to you at first. I advise students to start slow with the alternate picking portion to ensure their upstrokes are highly similar to their downstrokes in dynamic and attack, allowing your alternate picking to sound as identical as possible to your repeated downstrokes.

Move the metronome speed up as higher speeds become comfortable to you for the full three minutes. It may take time (weeks or months) to move up the speed, but give yourself that time. Taking an honest approach to this exercise can truly develop your picking hand technique.

02. Fretting Hand: Strength Exercises

The next step is a set of legato exercises in which you are utilizing all of the finger combinations in a few groups. These exercises require no picking at all, and are purely legato. They involve a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs performed as hard and fast as you can maintain for 15 seconds at a time. If done correctly, you will really feel this exercise in your fretting hand, wrist and forearm. Once again, it is advisable stretch your hands, wrists and arms before beginning these exercises.

Screen Shot 2013-06-21 at 3.33.36 PM.png

Take your first (index) finger on your fretting hand and hold it at the fifth fret on the third string. Then hammer on your second (middle) finger one fret up as hard as you can (at the sixth fret on the third string) and immediately pull it off as hard as you can. Do this over and over for 15 seconds.

After 15 seconds, without stopping, perform similar hammer-ons and pull-offs with your third (ring) finger one fret up (at the seventh fret) for 15 seconds. Without stopping, follow this with a similar 15-second set of hammer-ons and pull-offs using your fourth (pinky) finger at the eighth fret. Throughout these sets of exercises, your first finger should be held at the fifth fret on the third string.

Without stopping, place and hold your second finger down at the sixth fret on the third string and hammer on and pull off your third finger one fret up at the seventh fret for 15 seconds. Then, without stopping, follow this with a similar 15 seconds of hammer-ons and pull-offs of your fourth finger at the eighth fret. Throughout these sets of exercises, your second finger should be held at the sixth fret on the third string.

From there, hold your third finger at the seventh fret, and hammer on and pull off your fourth finger at the eighth fret for 15 seconds.

Once you can comfortably maintain these exercises for a period of 15 seconds, feel free to increase the times for each exercise to 20 seconds. Additionally, feel free to focus on the sections that give you the most trouble — e.g., many guitarists need extra work holding the position with their second or third fingers and performing hammer-ons and pull-offs with their third and fourth fingers. Indeed, you may want to start with these more difficult ones and move backwards toward the easier ones.

03. Both Hands: Symmetrical Exercise

Finally, I recommend closing with a straightforward synchronization exercise that is fairly common, but is important to do it correctly and do it consistently. This dexterity exercise uses your hands together to play each fretting finger across four frets to ascend and descend the strings across the neck.

Screen Shot 2013-06-21 at 3.33.45 PM.png

The goal is effective synchronization between the two hands and to learn to transfer smoothly in each fretted interval and when switching strings across the neck. It is a good idea to use a metronome and to always go as slow as your slowest transfer, to effectively allow you to increase speed over time.

Steve Stine is a longtime and sought-after guitar teacher who is professor of Modern Guitar Studies at North Dakota State University. Over the last 27 years, he has taught thousands of students, including established touring musicians, and released numerous video guitar lesson courses via established publishers. A resident of Fargo, North Dakota, today he is more accessible than ever before through the convenience of live online guitar lessons at LessonFace.com.

LessonFace.com offers live online music lessons via videoconference, allowing you to access top teachers in a wide variety of instruments from anywhere with a broadband connection. Steve is offering a live online group class for intermediate players this summer called “The Players Series” via the LessonFace.com platform. More information about live online lessons with Steve is available at lessonface.com/player.

Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time Readers Poll: Round 1 — "Bulls on Parade" (Tom Morello) Vs. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (Eric Clapton)

0
0

A few years ago, the editors of Guitar World magazine compiled what we feel is the ultimate guide to the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.

The list, which has been quoted by countless artists, websites and publications around the world, starts with Richie Sambora's work on Bon Jovi's “Wanted Dead or Alive” (Number 100) and builds to a truly epic finish with Jimmy Page's solo on "Stairway to Heaven" (Number 1).

To quote our "Stairway to Heaven" story that ran with the list, "If Jimmy Page is the Steven Spielberg of guitarists, then 'Stairway' is his Close Encounters."

We've kicked off a summer blockbuster of our own — a no-holds-barred six-string shootout. We're pitting Guitar World's top 64 guitar solos against each other in an NCAA-style, 64-team single-elimination tournament. Every day, we will ask you to cast your vote in a different guitar-solo matchup as dictated by the 64-team-style bracket.

You can vote only once per matchup. The voting for each matchup ends as soon as the next matchup is posted (Basically, that's one poll per day during the first round of elimination, including weekends and holidays).

In some cases, genre will clash against genre; a thrash solo might compete against a Southern rock solo, for instance. But let's get real: They're all guitar solos, played on guitars, by guitarists, most of them in some subset of the umbrella genre of rock. When choosing, it might have to come down to, "Which solo is more original and creative? Which is more iconic? or Which one kicks a larger, more impressive assemblage of asses?"

Today, it's Tom Morello's work on "Bulls on Parade" (23) by Rage Against the Machine against Eric Clapton's one and only guest appearance on a Beatles song, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (42). Get busy! You'll find the poll at the bottom of the story.


Yesterday's Results

Winner:"Since I've Been Loving You" (62.72 percent)
Loser:"Johnny B. Goode" (37.28 percent)


Round 1, Day 15: "Bulls on Parade" Vs. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

23. “Bulls on Parade”
Soloist: Tom Morello
Album: Rage Against the Machine—Evil Empire (Epic, 1996)

“That’s me playing a solo by flicking the toggle switch back and forth,” says Rage Against the Machine’s innovative guitarist Tom Morello.

“The story behind that sound starts with me going over to Ibanez one day. They were making a guitar for a guy in another band, and it had a special feature on it that they wanted me to try out. So I tried it, and it didn’t really seem to do much that was anything different from a normal guitar.

"But I noticed that when you set the toggle between the two pickup settings, there was a really peculiar, high-pitched noise, and you could manipulate the tone of it dramatically when you turned the tone knob. I asked them what the noise was, and they said it was just incidental, that the guitar had an internal pickup and it was picking up this weird noise that they were trying to get rid of. I said, ‘Oh, no, no—come here with that one.’ [laughs] I gave them an idea of what I thought was possible with that noise, and they were kind enough to custom build a guitar for me with that feature in it.”




42. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Soloist: Eric Clapton
Album: The Beatles—The Beatles (Apple, 1968)

“When we actually started recording this, it was just me playing the acoustic guitar and singing it, and nobody was interested,” recalls the song’s author, George Harrison. “Well, Ringo probably was, but John and Paul weren’t. When I went home that night, I was really disappointed because I thought, Well, this is really quite a good song; it’s not as if it’s crap!

"And the next day I happened to drive back into London with Eric [Clapton], and I suddenly said, ‘Why don’t you come play on this track?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that; the others wouldn’t like it…’ But I finally said, ‘Well, damn, it’s my song, and I’d like you to come down.’ So he did, and everybody was good as gold because he was there.

"I sang it with the acoustic guitar with Paul on piano, and Eric and Ringo. Later, Paul overdubbed bass. Then we listened back to it and Eric said, ‘Ah, there’s a problem, though; it’s not Beatlesy enough.’ So we put the song through the ADT [automatic double tracker] to wobble it a bit.”

Cast Your Vote!

Head HERE to see all the matchups that have taken place so far!

Additional Content

Review: Danelectro '67 Heaven Guitar

0
0

The following content is related to the August 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.

In the vast history of guitar design, Danelectros shine as iconic, incomparable oddities, sort of the Andy Warhol of our industry. Nothing else can duplicate the twangy rumble that emanates from their hollow, pressed-wood bodies and lipstick pickups, and each Danelectro model rarely gets more than its 15 minutes of fame, as the limited catalog is replaced every few years.

This makes the new ’67 Heaven even more noteworthy as the company’s first-ever reissue, an update really, of the famous Danelectro Hawk that originally debuted in 1967.

Exclusive Premiere! Orianthi "Heaven in This Hell" Interactive Video

0
0

Platinum selling solo artist and Australian guitarist Orianthi (Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper, Carrie Underwood) has just premiered the music video for "Heaven In This Hell," the title track off her new solo album released on Robo Records.

Produced by Grammy and Golden Globe winning artist/producer Dave Stewart, the video was directed by Paul Boyd (Deadmau5, Neon Trees) head of production at Weapons of Mass Entertainment. Alongside Orianthi, the video features Glen Sobel (drummer for Alice Cooper), Tommy Henriksen (guitarist for Alice Cooper) and Cyril Niccolai (of The Fairchilds) who plays her Voodoo Cowboy love interest.

Check out our exclusive interactive version of the video below.

Dear Guitar Hero: Jeff Beck Talks Jimi Hendrix, the British Blues Explosion and His "Poor Man’s Pedal Steel" Approach

0
0

He is held in the highest regard by Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, was close friends with Jimi Hendrix, and his mid-Sixties recordings with the Yardbirds invented the sound for heavy metal guitar. But what Guitar World readers really want to know is...

You’ve always played with a wonderful type of aggression, throwing wild sounds at the audience in a way that says, “Deal with this!” Where does that attitude come from? — Angelo Barth

It’s like a tantrum. Those things are outbursts, like exactly what I wanted to do to the teachers at school. It’s a bottled-up frustration that manifests itself in those outbursts, as well as a reflection of my life and my reaction to the difficulties of it. Singers are like that when they start screaming, like Screaming Jay Hawkins: One minute he’s singing perfectly normally, and then all of a sudden he bursts into rage. Love it.

I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos. And then there was this simple movement in the middle of the show, which was a comedy, and I thought, What a great parallel between the way that I think and the way this circus is happening. It had a special meaning for me, aside from the spectacle of it all. When I came away from it, I thought, If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.

I’ve read about Jimi Hendrix coming every night for a week to jam with the Jeff Beck Group at the Scene Club in New York City. Can you describe what that was like and your relationship with Jimi? — Charles Pizer

We did six nights in a row there [in June 1968]. The initial gig that broke us in America was at the Fillmore East with the Grateful Dead. But after that success and the great write ups, we then had to go down-market at a small club for six nights. It gave everyone a chance to watch what they had just seen again, six times in a row. We didn’t really want to be scrutinized like that, in case we just happened to get lucky the night we played the Fillmore, which was quite good.

The first night at the Scene, Jimi didn’t show up, but he came for the rest of the five nights. Around about the halfway mark, he’d come in from whatever recording he’d been doing. The buzz was incredible: the place was packed anyway, but when he came in they were standing on each other’s shoulders. Sometimes he didn’t have his guitar, so he would turn one of my spare guitars upside down and played that way, and I actually played bass at one point. I’ve got a photograph of that. Thank god someone took a picture, because there’s hardly any record of those goings-on.

[[ Go 'In Deep' with Andy Aledort: 'How to Play in the Style of Jeff Beck' ]]

Around that time, Jimi and I played a secret gig, a benefit at [drug rehabilitation center] Daytop Village. Jimi drove me up in his Corvette…that was the best moment. His driving was terrible. We were stuck in traffic in the middle of New York City, and he had this brand-new 427 Corvette boiling over, and I thought, I hope it doesn’t blow up right here! [laughs] I was thinking, Why did you buy a Corvette in Manhattan?

I wasn’t looking for compliments, but before I met Jimi someone told me that he knew all about my recordings with the Yardbirds. He had to, because for someone so utterly flamboyant and played so inventively, I knew he was one for listening out. He wasn’t one of those staid, insular kinds of blues players; he would listen to everything. And that alone thrilled me. He’d also seen the Yardbirds live in 1965/1966 when he was playing sideman to Little Richard, I believe.

It was amazing to see him play, and I’d met him before I saw him perform. I saw him at this tiny little club in London, with all of these “dolly birds,” which is what they called girls dressed in their miniskirts. I think they all thought he was going to be a folky, Bob Dylan–type of character [laughs], and he blew the place apart with his version of [Dylan’s] “Like a Rolling Stone.”

I just went, “Ah…this is so great!” It overshadowed any feelings of inferiority or competiveness. It was so amazing. To see someone doing what I wanted to do… I came out a little crestfallen, but on the positive side, here was this guy opening big doors for us. Instead of looking on the negative side and saying, “We’re finished,” I was thinking, No, we’ve just started! I was delighted to have known him for the short time that I did. It was the magical watering hole of the Speakeasy, the club where we hung out in London, that enabled that to happen. It was the one place you could go and be guaranteed to see Eric or Jimi and have fun playing. Those places don’t seem to exist anymore.

In the late Sixties in the States we were all very aware of a “British blues explosion,” but was there a sense in England that the music was really expanding, and that what came next—the musical adventurousness of Cream and Jimi Hendrix — was on the horizon? — Kate McCrae

For me, the first shockwave was Jimi Hendrix. That was the major thing that shook everybody up over here. Even though we’d all established ourselves as fairly safe in the guitar field, he came along and reset all of the rules in one evening. Next thing you know, Eric was moving ahead with Cream, and it was kicking off in big chunks.

But me, I was left with nothing. That was the hurtful part, because I didn’t have anything to come back at them with. Time went by, and I scraped by with Cozy [Powell, drummer for 1971’s Rough and Ready and 1972’s Jeff Beck Group albums], and luckily enough I got with BBA [Beck, Bogert and Appice, in 1973], which was a power trio. That helped, because they were so enthusiastic, and it was like Cream on acid!

Then George Martin comes in and we start mellowing down a bit and making more “classy” sort of music, I suppose you could say, with [1975’s] Blow by Blow.

When you toured with fellow British guitar great Eric Clapton, was there ever any animosity or competitiveness between the two of you? — Hilary Franceschi

Playing with Eric has been a very happy turn of events. First of all, I think he actually likes me after all these years, which is heart-warming. I didn’t realize he detested me quite so badly until he revealed that recently in Rolling Stone. [laughs] He said we were enemies, but that was more on his side. I was subservient to him when I joined the Yardbirds, because he was such a big “face” there.

But when I developed my own wacky style with the Yardbirds albums, I didn’t feel in any way that I was encroaching on his patch at all, nor have I ever since then, along with when [producer] George Martin came along for Blow by Blow and Wired. George gave me the confidence to play on an instrumental album, and at that point I was absolutely cleared from any kind of “direct” challenge to what Eric was doing, or anyone else for that matter, in terms of clashing styles.

And yet, I think Eric wanted to be the guy associated with the guitar, which he subsequently became. You stop anybody on any street, around the world, and they know who Eric Clapton is. They don’t know who I am! But we’re going to change that, aren’t we? [laughs]

In the mid Sixties, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers was a band that served as a training ground for some of Britain’s best blues guitarists, such as Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. Did Mayall ever ask you to join the Bluesbreakers? — Alex Durant

He did. John called my mum several times. He found my mum’s number, and she said to me, “Oh, that John Mayall sounds very nice!” [laughs] But I didn’t want that — I didn’t want to be playing blues all of the time. I’d seen Eric with them, and he was fantastic, really. He did the job better than I could have, and I just didn’t want to have that challenge. My musical taste was changing radically from 12-bar blues. I might have done better in that band than in the Yardbirds, but I certainly would not have been given the same kind of free reign to do the experimenting that I did in the Yardbirds.

John Mayall came to see me with the Yardbirds at some gig. He was very straightforward. He never embellished or gave us any flowery comments about the gig. He said, “The audience loved it, but there was not much blues, was there?” And I thought, Excuse me, but this isn’t a blues band. It sort of was, but he’s a purist and he was listening for Little Walter–style harmonica solos. I didn’t want to be mimicking Chicago blues musicians forever. My thinking was, We’re not them, we’re not black, we’re British middle-class kids and let’s get on and do our own music. We had a bit of disharmony about that, but not to take away from John’s dedication to it.

In the late Sixties and into the early Seventies, jazz legend Miles Davis was incorporating more of a rock approach. He was known to tell his guitarists, “Play like Hendrix.” Was there ever an offer of any kind for you to play or record with Miles? — Harry Booth

In my mind’s eye, he was, and still is, so far up there in the world of jazz. He’s in a gold-plated place. Miles was one of those natural spirits that let the musicians do what they wanted to. On the Tribute to Jack Johnson album [1971, featuring guitarist John McLaughlin], you can hear John pushing a lot, and I think it was a great slight-of-hand on Miles’ part to get the vibe from someone else and then sit on top of that. There’s sort of a recirculating power going on. I would have loved to have had the chance to play with Miles, but it was never brought up. I don’t know if he even knew who I was. If he were to come back, I’d definitely knock on his door.

You’ve mentioned in past interviews that your guitar playing has been inspired by vocalists. Has your playing also been influenced by other instruments, such as the pedal-steel guitar, because of the use of the slide and the volume control? — Vincent McDowall

Absolutely, yeah. I do a very poor man’s pedal steel on the Stratocaster. The people I listened to were [steel player] Speedy West with [guitarist] Jimmy Bryant. Unfortunately, the actual physical layout of the steel guitar makes it very difficult to recreate on a regular guitar. But it doesn’t stop one from listening to it and embracing some of the style. There’s a guy now, Bruce Kaphan, who is amazing.

There were so many incredible guitar players in England in the mid Sixties — you, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Mick Taylor, Peter Green. Were each of you very aware of one another’s careers, and did you play together often? — Hugh Finsecker

Mentally, there was some subliminal connection between all of us, wondering what one another were doing, but physically, no, we were not around each other very often at all. Eric lived not very far away from me at the time, and Jimmy lived not very far away, either, but I hardly ever saw Jimmy until I got him into the Yardbirds as the bass player. England being so small, many people think we all lived in Buckingham Palace together [laughs], but in fact we saw each other very rarely.

I joined the Yardbirds in February of ’65, and I’d never saw sight or sound of Eric with them before that. My only connection to him was hearing the rest of the band talking about him, that he used to do this, that and the other. I got pretty pissed off with it, like, “Shut up, I’m here now!” For the first couple of weeks, all I heard was, “Oh, Eric, the girls love him in this place,” and I’d say, “All right, enough of that!”

I didn’t see him until about a year later, because we were off to America. Right when I joined the Yardbirds, they had a massive hit with “For Your Love,” which Eric detested and was the reason he left the band. So we were off pummeling around the States on the three-week promo tour. When we went back [to England], by pure chance I bumped into him in a club and I thought we were actually going to get into a fight! But when he saw me, he went, “Hello, man!” and he gave me a big hug, and that was the end of that.

Back in 1983, when you and Eric appeared together for the ARMS [Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis] Benefit for Ronnie Lane, Eric was quoted as saying, “Jeff is probably the finest guitar player I’ve ever seen.” Was that actually the first time the two of you ever played together? — Paul Montgomery

Wow, good Lord — did he really say that? I’m deeply honored. Before ARMS, we had only done the concerts with John Cleese and Monty Python [The Secret Policeman’s Ball, 1979, and The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, 1981] so the ARMS concert was one of the first times Eric and I ever played together in front of an audience. We did a few things right after that, too, such as Amnesty International [in 1985].

On 2010's Emotion & Commotion, how did the idea evolve to record with a 64-piece orchestra? — Albert Shorofsky

I was listening to an interview I did way back in 1966 with Brian Matthews, the guy that ran the Saturday Club radio show in England, and there was a clip where he asked me, “What would you like to see yourself doing in the future?” and I said, “I’d like to play with a big orchestra.” [laughs] I couldn’t believe that, even way back then, I was thinking about doing that.

At the time, I’d seen Tina Turner and heard the amazing sounds of the Phil Spector productions that featured big, powerful string sections, and the orchestral sounds on other pop records, too. I thought, There couldn’t be a better backdrop for some kind of powerful music than a big orchestra. My wish to hear how a guitar would sound in front of an orchestra has always been there.

Recently, I did a version of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony for an album that I hope to be accepted by EMI Classics. They said they loved it and wanted 12 more pieces, but it took so long to learn the Fifth and get it right, I imagined it would take another six months to get the rest together. So I took the idea and, in order to make it a little easier on myself, I chose somewhat simpler melodies that could be rattled off fairly quickly just to see if it worked, and everyone seemed to like the results.

For Emotion & Commotion, I originally wanted to present two CDs in the box, with Emotion, the orchestral stuff, on one disc and Commotion, the stuff with the band, on the other. I went into the studio one day and [producer] Steve Lipson had sequenced the orchestral and band tracks together. He said, “What do you reckon?” and I said, “It sounds all right to me. Let’s carry on!” Every time I walked into the studio, I wouldn’t remember what I’d done the previous day, and there was no kind of rhyme or reason to what was going on until he started to sequence some of the demos together. We forced it together. The ingredients were pleasing musical pieces but there was no preconception to it, and it just happened.

The orchestral works on Emotion & Commotion sound fantastic and are reminiscent of “Diamond Dust,” from Blow by Blow. Would you say there is a connection between Emotion & Commotion and Blow by Blow? — Leroy Ray

This new album is not dissimilar from Blow by Blow in terms of the approach, where it was done in a “seat of the pants” kind of way. When nothing’s planned, that’s when the results seem to happen. I don’t organize myself sufficiently to get an album of material together, book the studio and go. I need to be kicked; I need to be forced physically to go in. That’s how it works for me. I’ll get a great idea in the house, and it’ll stay there unless somebody comes and drags it out of me!

One of the most ambitious tracks on Emotion & Commotion is your presentation of “Nessun dorma,” from Puccini’s opera, Turandot. Also, you share the melody of “Elegy for Dunkirk” with opera singer Olivia Safe. Are you a classical music fan? — Bruno Curreri

Around the time I did my recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, I was looking for some other pieces to record. One that I liked very much was Ravel’s “Pavane,” so I learned that, and I was listening to what they were playing on the Albert Hall Prom [The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts]. Every year they have a prom, which is a big music festival. I’m looking away from rock and roll into proper, serious melodies, and, for me, it has been a good playground to look into. And [the late opera singer Luciano] Pavarotti never ceases to amaze me; the bellowing— the big, deep, proper opera singing — is something I love, and I was keen to try “Nessun dorma,” which he sang magnificently.

My guitar is not a voice, and it’s not his voice; I played it like a spirited, bluesy thing. That’s what I was trying to do: make the guitar do things it’s not supposed to do.

Your DVD, Performing this Week … Live at Ronnie Scott’s, features a set list that spans your entire career. Does each of those songs have a special meaning for you? — Irene Coco

When I first went out with the band with Tal [Wilkenfeld] and Vinnie [Colaiuta], we were short of new material to play, so I thought, Why not do a “quicky” trip back through time, and put some of the early stuff in there? Albeit without Rod [Stewart]. We did “People Get Ready” and stuff like that. I think it added up to quite a good journey back through history, so anyone that hadn’t seen me got a snapshot of what was going on back in ’66 and ’68.

As opposed to bombarding people with brand-new, avant-garde techno, I thought it would be better to establish a foundation for people to hear and it seemed to work. Two of the songs at the start of the set, [John McLaughlin’s] “Eternity’s Breath” [from 1975’s Visions of the Emerald Beyond] and [Billy Cobham’s] “Stratus” [from 1973’s Spectrum], I played because I want people to realize that music was around, plus it’s still fun to play.

I’m just a messenger for John on those songs, because I want people to listen to him. If people enjoy my version of it, then my job is done. John is so far ahead of his time — he really is. He’s not half as well known as I’d like him to be. Those songs are played with the most heartfelt respect. Nowadays, to really sort out the men from the boys, John plays mostly acoustic, which cannot be bluffed.

Billy Cobham’s Spectrum album gave life to me at the time, on top of the Mahavishnu records featuring [keyboardist] Jan Hammer. It represented a whole area that was as exciting to me as when I first heard “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley. They were inspirational to me to the point that I started to adopt that type of music. Tommy Bolin’s guitar playing on Spectrum is fantastic. What a sad loss; he was on the tour when I was out with Jan in 1976, and Tommy died after the first night of the tour in Miami. I heard the news the next morning.

Can you talk about Les Paul’s influence on you as a guitar player? — Dan Holland

Les is sadly missed, but he had a great life and he gave us so much more than just the guitar. I’ve always been a huge fan, and his guitar playing inspired me a great deal. I was glad to have had the chance to get to know him.

For more about Jeff Beck, visit his official website and Facebook page (both of which could use a bit of updating).

Additional Content

Travis Picking: A Guitarist's Guide to Fingerpicking Techniques, Patterns and Styles

0
0

Travis Picking: A Guitarist's Guide to Fingerpicking Techniques, Patterns and Styles is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

From the backwoods of Kentucky to modern-day concert arenas, the Travis picking technique has been a guitar staple for generations.

In this comprehensive guide, Acoustic Guitar magazine contributing editor Andrew DuBrock takes you step-by-step from basic accompaniment patterns to advanced fingerpicking methods in the style of Merle, Chet and many others. The accompanying CD contains a demonstration of every example in the book.

This 72-page book is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for $16.99.

Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time Readers Poll: Round 1 — "Aqualung" (Martin Barre) Vs. "Reelin' in the Years" (Elliott Randall)

0
0

A few years ago, the editors of Guitar World magazine compiled what we feel is the ultimate guide to the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.

The list, which has been quoted by countless artists, websites and publications around the world, starts with Richie Sambora's work on Bon Jovi's “Wanted Dead or Alive” (Number 100) and builds to a truly epic finish with Jimmy Page's solo on "Stairway to Heaven" (Number 1).

To quote our "Stairway to Heaven" story that ran with the list, "If Jimmy Page is the Steven Spielberg of guitarists, then 'Stairway' is his Close Encounters."

We've kicked off a summer blockbuster of our own — a no-holds-barred six-string shootout. We're pitting Guitar World's top 64 guitar solos against each other in an NCAA-style, 64-team single-elimination tournament. Every day, we will ask you to cast your vote in a different guitar-solo matchup as dictated by the 64-team-style bracket.

You can vote only once per matchup. The voting for each matchup ends as soon as the next matchup is posted (Basically, that's one poll per day during the first round of elimination, including weekends and holidays).

In some cases, genre will clash against genre; a thrash solo might compete against a Southern rock solo, for instance. But let's get real: They're all guitar solos, played on guitars, by guitarists, most of them in some subset of the umbrella genre of rock. When choosing, it might have to come down to, "Which solo is more original and creative? Which is more iconic? or Which one kicks a larger, more impressive assemblage of asses?"

Today, we see two classics from the early 1970s go head to head. Martin Barre's guitar solo on Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" (25) faces Elliott Randall's guitar work on Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years" (40). Get busy! You'll find the poll at the bottom of the story.


Yesterday's Results

Winner:"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (78.45 percent)
Loser: "Bulls on Parade" (21.55 percent)


Round 1, Day 16: "Aqualung" Vs. "Reelin' in the Years"

25. “Aqualung”
Soloist: Martin Barre
Album: Jethro Tull—Aqualung (Chrysalis, 1971)

Aqualung was a difficult and very tense album to record, but at the end of the day it was important,” says Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre. “Ian wrote the riff and verses to the song ‘Aqualung,’ but he felt it needed a new section for the guitar break. I said, ‘Why don’t we just play the verse chords in half-time for the first part of the solo, then pick it back up for the rest of the solo?’ It was a simple solution that really worked.”

“While I was playing the solo, which was really going well, Jimmy Page walked into the control room and started waving. I thought, ‘Should I wave back and mess up the solo or should I just grin and carry on?’ Being a professional to the end, I just grinned.”




40. "Reelin' in the Years"
Soloist: Elliott Randall
Album: Steely Dan—Can’t Buy a Thrill (MCA, 1972)

While recording Steely Dan’s 1972 debut, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen knew they had a great track for “Reelin’ in the Years”—if they could only come up with the appropriate guitar solo to jumpstart the tune. So they put in a call to Elliott Randall, with whom they had worked in the backing band for Jay and the Americans, and who’d had played on many of the duo’s early, pre-Steely Dan demos.

“They were having trouble finding the right ‘flavor’ solo for ‘Reelin,’ and asked me to give it a go,” recalls Randall. “Most of the song was already complete, so I had the good fortune of having a very clear picture of what the solo was laying on top of. They played it for me without much dialogue about what I should play. It just wasn’t necessary because we did it in one take and nothing was written. Jeff Baxter played the harmony parts, but my entire lead—intro/answers/solo/end solo—was one continuous take played through a very simple setup: my old Strat, the same one I’ve been using since 1965, plugged directly into an Ampeg SVT amp, and miked with a single AKG 414. The whole solo just came to me, and I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to play it.”

Cast Your Vote!

Head HERE to see all the matchups that have taken place so far!

Additional Content

Trent Reznor on Adrian Belew Quitting Nine Inch Nails: "It's Felt Like a Wrench in the Works"

0
0

As we reported earlier this month, King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew recently quit Nine Inch Nails, posting the following note via Facebook:

"hey folks, before this goes too far let me say this: I greatly respect trent and the music he makes. no one is at fault. we both agreed it just was not working. I’m sorry to disappoint anyone. that really hurts. but NIN will do an amazing show and I am back where I belong: creating FLUX."

Belew was the second member of NIN to quit in less than a month; bassist Eric Avery announced his departure May 15, saying he felt "overwhelmed" by "the intensity Nails demands."

Speaking recently to CBS, Reznor came clean about the shifting lineup, admitting it had been "disruptive."

"You can spend a lot of time hypothesising, imagining and projecting what it’s gonna be with this chemistry and this recipe of people in a room playing music, and in reality it rarely is that," he said.

"It's felt like a wrench in the works at times, but at the same time it's made me rethink a lot of how we put this together, and I think where we're ending up at is a place that’s much truer to what Nine Inch Nails should be and better in the long run," he added.

The new Nine Inch Nails album, Hesitation Marks, will be released September 3. It was produced by Reznor, Alan Moulder and Atticus Ross. In a statement about the album, Reznor wrote: "I've been less than honest about what I've really been up to lately. For the last year I've been secretly working non-stop with Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder on a new, full-length Nine Inch Nails record, which I am happy to say is finished and frankly fucking great."

Hesitation Marks Track Listing:

'The Eater of Dreams'
'Copy of A'
'Came Back Haunted'
'Find My Way'
'All Time Low'
'Disappointed'
'Everything'
'Satellite'
'Various Methods of Escape'
'Running'
'I Would for You'
'In Two'
'While I’m Still Here'
'Black Noise'

belewslidertrquote.jpg

Additional Content

Monster Licks: Shredding in the Familiar Yet Harmonically Beautiful Straight Minor Pentatonic Scale

0
0

In this edition of Monster Licks, I'm using the straight minor pentatonic scale in the key of B.

The straight pentatonic sonically is an incredibly powerful scale when used melodically and fast. This lick is a great representation of how far you can take the straight pentatonic scale and move it all over the neck.

What I love most about this scale is that tonally there are no surprises for the listener; it is harmonically beautiful whether played fast or slow. Obviously, this particular lick is to be played with some speed, but if you break it down, you could use any line from it and lead into a bend or slide — and it would sound incredible.

You find the pentatonic scale in all kinds of music from all over the world; it knows no boundaries! It was my goal from very early on in my career to be able to use this beautiful scale to its full shredding potential! I'm still searching for new ways to sonically deliver this scale. I just love the sound of it; it really resonates with my being.

I know a lot of people think guitar players who play fast have no feeling. Well, this is completely untrue. A lot of thought, practice and feeling goes into all of my runs. Music, for me, is a great healer. Playing fast really lets me switch off from everything and connect to a greater source, just as playing a slow melody may do for some other guitarists. Everyone is different. I admire all levels of technicality and musicality. There's something to learn from everyone!

The Lick

This lick is a combination of arpeggios, single-note lines, hammers, pulls and slides.

It is very important to focus in hard on the hammers/pulls and slides in this lick. They are the key to making the transitions smooth, and more importantly they keep the sweep patterns flowing in the right directions. A lot of thought goes into creating a lick of this complexity. First you have the fingerings and transitions, but then you need to work out ways of keeping the picking pattern flowing evenly and quickly. This is why every slide, hammer and pull is so essential in this lick.

If you are unsure of the picking pattern, then watch the slow part of the lick and focus in on my picking hand. You will notice that although I am sweeping the arpeggios, my technique remains controlled even at a slow tempo. This is essential to mastering this approach. Your goal should be to play runs like this at any speed and with any sound.

Never be discouraged by any guitar techniques you see or hear. You don’t need to be able to play a million miles an hour to write music or enjoy playing music, but I would encourage any musician to practice hard and challenge themselves as much as possible, as this is a sure way to becoming a better player. The more you can do, the more opportunities will come your way!

I hope you enjoy! Please join me on YouTube right here! Or just contact me at glennproudfoot.com.

mnster.jpg

Australia's Glenn Proudfoot has played and toured with major signed bands and artists in Europe and Australia, including progressive rockers Prazsky Vyber. Glenn released his first instrumental solo album, Lick Em, in 2010. It is available on iTunes and at glennproudfoot.com.

Full Shred: No Pain, No Strain — Warming Up to Avoid Hand Injuries

0
0

Here's a classic Guitar World column by former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman.

I'd like to discuss a topic that a bunch of you have written in asking about recently: warming up. This is a subject I touched on back in the November 1994 issue of "Guitar School," and it's so important that it's definitely worth revisiting again.

Whenever you're going to do any form of strenuous exercise, you should always warm up first if you want to avoid possibly hurting yourself. If you were playing baseball you wouldn't just get up there and start hitting balls with all your strength -- you'd swing the bat a few times before you tried to hit a home run.

So I believe it's important to warm up before you do pretty much anything on the guitar, be it recording, playing a gig or rehearsing. There are many bones, tendons and muscles involved in moving your fingers around, so before you start flailing 'em around recklessly, you should really do some form of warm up.

Injury Prevention

Warming up not only helps your technique, it also helps prevent injuries. I've met so many guitarists who've been forced to stop playing because of tendonitis and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I never used to warm up and I ended up fucking up my right (picking) hand really bad when I first joined Megadeth. In fact, it was so bad that the first doctor I saw told me that I should stop playing guitar forever if I wanted to use my arm again!

I got a second opinion and, fortunately, after a year of intense physical therapy, my hand got better. I was really lucky, I guess, because I was right on the edge there for a while.

Fair Warning

Having said all this, I'm still guilty of not always warming up. Despite my nightmare experience, sometimes I just grab my guitar and let rip. I really should know better, though, because every doctor I've seen has told me it's really important to at least stretch your fingers out before going for broke.

If you don't, you could mess up your hands, and then your guitar playing could be done for good. Because of this, whenever I pick up the guitar I usually try to do something that uses both hands and moves all of my left-hand fingers slowly. You'll be surprised how much this kind of "slowhand" warm-up helps get the juices flowing.

If you come out of the gate blazing then you're missing the whole point of warming up. In fact, if you start off too fast then it's probably gonna do you more harm than good. You don't have to perform some kind of concerto and definitely not "Flight of the Bumblebee!" The purpose of warming up is to "awaken" all your guitar-playing muscles, tendons and ligaments and prepare them for the vigorous demands you're about to make on them.

marty_0.jpg

Draw The Line

As you're about to discover, none of my warm-up exercises really have any musical value that I can think of -- they're just different ways to move my fingers. Some players get too caught up in trying to make their warm-up and technique exercises sound like real music and end up using their exercises in their songs. I think it's better to warm up by playing something musically meaningless because there's less chance that you will allow your technical goals to interfere with your aesthetic sense.

When I'm warming up, I really don't care what notes I hit or whether they make musical sense. I just instinctively play anything that involves using all my fingers while playing slowly and cleanly. Keeping my warm-up exercises obviously non-musical helps me prevent them from invading my compositional mindset.

Slow Ride

A real simple warm-up exercise that uses all your left-hand fingers and the least amount of thought would obviously be a straight chromatic scale pattern like that shown in FIGURE 1. Another thing I like doing is taking a simple pattern that covers three strings and then moving it across the neck.

FIGURE 2 is a chromatic example of this idea while FIGURE 3 involves a bit of left-hand stretching. At the risk of being redundant, remember that slow and sure is the key with all of these warm-up exercises. The objective here is only to get your fingers and hands warmed up, period. I can't say that doing these sort of exercises will make you a better guitarist because there's really no direct relationship between them and how well you can play. It's only about moving your muscles for the well-being of your hands.

Go Your Own Way

These few warm-up ideas are purely intended to illustrate my point and are probably not any better than something you can come up with yourself. So use your imagination and create some exercises that may be better suited to your fingers. If you treat your hands with the respect they deserve, you should be able to get more mileage from them.

Additional Content

Bent Out of Shape: White Wizzard — 'The Devil's Cut' Guitar Solo Lesson, Part 1

0
0

If you've been following my blog posts, you will know I recently recorded guitar solos for the new White Wizzard album, The Devil's Cut.

I recently got together with my band mate and fellow White Wizzard guitarist, Jake Dreyer, to go over our favorite solos from the album and show you how to play them.

We also chose specific parts from each solo to give you in tab form, which we feel would be beneficial for you to learn. Jake's style is highly advanced "neo-classical," and he uses a lot of sweep picked arpeggios. This contrasts my simpler, melodic "bluesy" style and between us we can cover a wide range of styles and influences.

Will: Here's a lick from my solo for "King of the Highway." It uses a simple pentatonic idea where I double pick each note with palm muting to create a staccato style effect. This technique could be used to enhance any scale or arpeggio idea to create a "riff" within a solo. I've heard guitar players such as John Sykes and Jake E. Lee use this technique, and I have subsequently made it a trademark of my own playing. This technique can be used to create dynamics within your solos or used to create interesting motifs within your songs. Try it out!

tab1_0.jpg

Jake: This example comes from the seventh measure of my solo from "Strike the Iron," the second track from The Devil’s Cut. My goal was to give this section of the solo a climax as well as a transition into the next chord (A major). This is done by outlining the V chord in A harmonic minor, the E7 chord (E G# B D).

This lick starts with a 32nd-note ascending three-string arpeggio outlining an E major chord in root position followed by a descending and ascending E major arpeggio in the same position, this time going down to the fifth string. Beat two has the same arpeggio, slid up one position to first inversion, meaning the arpeggio now starts on the third of the chord (G#). This is descended and ascended with an added tap to the fifth (B).

Measure eight has us continue with the same notes, but during this measure we introduce an added note, F, which is going to now give off the tonality of an E7(b9). You could think of this as basically outlining a secondary leading tone chord in A harmonic minor. The first shape highlights a descending and ascending three-note-per-string G# whole diminished chord, which is string-skipped from the first string to the third string, followed by the same pattern, only moved up a minor 3rd.

Beat eight contains a multi-finger-tapping technique going from the notes D to E; you could analyze the E as being a neighboring tone to the G# diminished chord or as the root in the dominant b9 chord. I do this by using my second and third finger on my right hand. Though if you had a device that kept your pick on your thumb (i.e. the Chris Broderick pick clip), it could be done by using the first and second or any combination you feel is more comfortable. At any rate, that is the lick that takes up measure 7 and 8 of "Strike the Iron."

Now turn on that metronome and start annoying your girlfriend/boyfriend/parents/siblings/household pets with this lick. At least that is what I hope for!

tab2_0.jpg

Thanks for watching our solo lesson. Hopefully you learned something you can use in your own playing. We will have a second lesson coming soon. The Devils Cut is out in the US on Century Media Records and in Europe on Earache Records. Cheers!

Will Wallner is a guitarist from England who now lives in Los Angeles. He recently signed a solo deal with Polish record label Metal Mind Productions for the release of his debut album, which features influential musicians from hard rock and heavy metal. He also is the lead guitarist for White Wizzard (Earache Records) and toured Japan, the US and Canada in 2012. Follow Will on Facebook and Twitter.

Video: Zakk Wylde and Nick Catanese Perform "The Blessed Hellride" at Iridium Jazz Club

0
0

Zakk Wylde played a three-night stand at New York City's Iridium Jazz Club earlier this month, and some official video from his June 12 show has been posted on Wylde's YouTube page.

Check out Wylde and his Black Label Society bandmate Nick Catanese performing a fully acoustic rendition of "The Blessed Hellride" below. "The Blessed Hellride" is the title track from Black Label Society's 2003 album.

The black and white video, which includes performance shots, crowd shots and scenes from the Iridium neighborhood (1650 Broadway), was directed by Justin Reich.

Additional Content

Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time Readers Poll: Round 1 — "Sultans of Swing" (Mark Knopfler) Vs. "Sharp Dressed Man" (Billy Gibbons)

0
0

A few years ago, the editors of Guitar World magazine compiled what we feel is the ultimate guide to the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.

The list, which has been quoted by countless artists, websites and publications around the world, starts with Richie Sambora's work on Bon Jovi's “Wanted Dead or Alive” (Number 100) and builds to a truly epic finish with Jimmy Page's solo on "Stairway to Heaven" (Number 1).

To quote our "Stairway to Heaven" story that ran with the list, "If Jimmy Page is the Steven Spielberg of guitarists, then 'Stairway' is his Close Encounters."

We've kicked off a summer blockbuster of our own — a no-holds-barred six-string shootout. We're pitting Guitar World's top 64 guitar solos against each other in an NCAA-style, 64-team single-elimination tournament. Every day, we will ask you to cast your vote in a different guitar-solo matchup as dictated by the 64-team-style bracket.

You can vote only once per matchup. The voting for each matchup ends as soon as the next matchup is posted (Basically, that's one poll per day during the first round of elimination, including weekends and holidays).

In some cases, genre will clash against genre; a thrash solo might compete against a Southern rock solo, for instance. But let's get real: They're all guitar solos, played on guitars, by guitarists, most of them in some subset of the umbrella genre of rock. When choosing, it might have to come down to, "Which solo is more original and creative? Which is more iconic? or Which one kicks a larger, more impressive assemblage of asses?"

Yesterday's Results

Winner: "Reelin' in the Years" (57.05 percent)
Loser:"Aqualung" (42.95 percent)

Today, two great guitarists make their first appearance in this summer's Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time readers poll. We have Mark Knopfler's classic Strat solo on Dire Straits'"Sultans of Swing" (22) going up against Billy Gibbons' fretwork on "Sharp Dressed Man" (43), one of ZZ Top's massive early '80s hits. Get busy! You'll find the poll at the bottom of the story.


Round 1, Day 17: "Sultans of Swing" Vs. "Sharp Dressed Man"

22. “Sultans of Swing”
Soloist: Mark Knopfler
Album: Dire Straits—Dire Straits (Warner Bros., 1978)

“ ‘Sultans of Swing’ was originally written on a National Steel guitar in an open tuning, though I never performed it that way,” recalls Mark Knopfler. “I thought it was dull, but as soon as I bought my first Strat in 1977, the whole thing changed, though the lyrics remained the same. It just came alive as soon as I played it on that ’61 Strat—which remained my main guitar for many years and was basically the only thing I played on the first album—and the new chord changes just presented themselves and fell into place.

"It’s really a good example of how the music you make is shaped by what you play it on, and is a lesson for young players. If you feel that you’re not getting enough out of a song, change the instrument—go from an acoustic to an electric or vice versa, or try an open tuning. Do something to shake it up. As for the actual solo, it was just more or less what I played every night. It’s just a Fender Twin and the Strat, with its three-way selector switch jammed into a middle position. That gives the song its sound, and I think there were quite a few five-way switches installed as a result of that song.”




43. "Sharp Dressed Man"
Soloist: Billy Gibbons
Album: ZZ Top—Eliminator (Warner Bros., 1983)

In 1983, a smart gambling man would have bet the house on ZZ Top’s imminent doom. After all, it wasn’t the best of times for good and greasy Texas blues and boogie music. Then the Little Old Band from Texas surprised everyone with Eliminator, a brilliant merger of roadhouse blues and synthesizer swells and looped beats. The album quickly became their biggest hit ever, spurred in large part by the irresistible “Sharp Dressed Man.”

“That song and the whole album really embrace the simplicity of blues and techno music with the complex challenge of how to blend them together,” says guitarist Billy Gibbons. “If you zero in on the middle solo, you will find a slide guitar part played in open E tuning on a Fender Esquire and a sudden shift halfway through the solo to standard Spanish electric tuning played on my good ol’ Les Paul, Pearly Gates. Both were played through a Marshall plexi 100-watt head with two angled cabinets with Celestion 25-watt greenbacks. It was a compound track, two parts blended to one.

“To this day, the song certainly stands among one of the band’s favorites and we’re particularly delighted to share spotlight on a solo that enjoys such favoritism. There are, of course, the more intricate and demanding solos, but we will gladly finger through the solo of ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ at any requested moment! The track just has a really raucous delivery, which is a good ignition point onstage, sitting on the tailgate out in the middle of nowhere, sipping a cold one, or wherever you may be. It just does something to you.”

Voting Closed!

Winner:"Sultans of Swing" (86.29 percent)
Loser:"Sharp Dressed Man" (13.71 percent)

Head HERE to see all the matchups that have taken place so far!

Additional Content

Kiss Premiere Lyric Video for "Right Here Right Now"

0
0

Kiss and Vevo have teamed up to premiere the band's new lyric video for “Right Here Right Now.” You can check it out below.

“Right Here Right Now” has been adopted by the Arena Football League (AFL) and will be played in every AFL arena this season.

From a press release sent this morning:

"The lyrics and video for 'Right Here Right Now' encapsulates Kiss’ drive and sheer, unrelenting determination as they triumphantly succeeded in becoming one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all-time. Packed with all the explosions, fire, confetti and excitement you can expect from a true, larger-than-life Kiss concert experience, VEVO’s premiere of Kiss' bombastic new video 'Right Here Right Now' brings this extravaganza right into your home and onto your screen.

"The video also features the legions of devoted fans and KISS Army members from around the world whose dedication continue to make Kiss one of the greatest and most successful rock bands in history."

For more Kiss info, visit the band's Facebook page.

Additional Content

Purple Heart: Daredevil Guitar Virtuoso Steve Morse Discusses Deep Purple's New Album, 'Now What?!'

0
0

This is an excerpt from the August 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine. For the rest of this story, plus a tribute to Slayer's Jeff Hanneman and features on Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins, Joe Bonamassa, Iggy and the Stooges, Eric Clapton's 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival, the 25 Best Guitar & Music Apps and more, check out the August 2013 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

When Guitar World catches up with Steve Morse, it’s at a rare moment when the Deep Purple guitarist is actually at home. “I’m in the U.S. right now, oddly enough,” he says, calling from his house in Ocala, Florida. He laughs: “But management will try to change that soon.”

Indeed, for the past several years, Deep Purple have embarked upon something akin to what Bob Dylan fans have taken to calling that artist’s Never Ending Tour. It seems as if the veteran British metal act is always playing somewhere, to someone. In much of the world, Deep Purple are as popular as ever, performing before large crowds in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia and the Americas.

In addition to the substantial road work, Deep Purple have just released a new studio album, Now What?! Recorded by legendary producer Bob Ezrin, it’s their first album in eight years and their 19th since forming in England 45 years ago. Featuring veteran members Ian Gillan (vocals), Roger Glover (bass) and Ian Paice (drums), Purple are currently rounded out by Morse, who has been with the band since 1996, and keyboardist Don Airey, who joined in 2002 to replace founding organist Jon Lord, who passed away in June 2012.

Though it had been a while since the band had entered the studio together, Morse says the material for Now What?! came quickly. “We did three writing sessions over the course of a year and ended up with over 20 songs,” he explains. “I remember saying to the guys, ‘Can we please stop putting new ones on the pile? I can’t remember them all!’ ”

GUITAR WORLD: Now What?! is Deep Purple’s first studio effort in eight years. Why did you decide to make the album now?

Actually, I was one of the guys asking the same thing! My vision was every tour we’d do another song and just release it on the web site. I’d say, “Don’t even try to sell it, because things are different these days as far as how people listen to music.” But the rest of the guys were like, “Well, this is what we do, this is what we’ve always done. So let’s do the best studio album we can.” And Bob [Ezrin] agreed. So I got into it wholeheartedly.

You cover a lot of stylistic ground on the album. There are plenty of straightforward rockers, like “Hell to Pay” and “Weirdistan” but also mellow, jazzy cuts, like “All the Time in the World,” and more epic tunes, like “Above and Beyond.”

I think we just naturally do that, because Ian Paice is one of those drummers that can play swing-type stuff as smoothly as rock. So it leaves room for a lot of different feels. “All the Time in the World”: the verse in that is kind of slinky and relaxed but still has a little bit of swing to it. And “Above and Beyond” was me sort of pushing the band musically in a certain direction. I was imagining an orchestral background mix with sort of a Zeppelin-y heaviness. And chord-wise I guess it’s a little more proggy, more like the kind of thing I might have brought into a Kansas writing session [Morse was a member of Kansas in the late Eighties]. Lot of different triads over the tonic, which sort of stays the same. So there were a lot of different ideas.

One of the great guitar spots on the album is the intro to “Uncommon Man,” which begins with an extended, unaccompanied solo from you. How did that come about?

That was Bob, pure and simple. I don’t think I would have thought to do anything like that. But he came to one of our shows, and afterward at the studio he said, “I want you to do something like you did at the concert.” And I said, “That was improv.” So he said, “Well, then do an improv. You’re rolling.” We were all in a circle looking at each other, and I just started playing like I would live. And Don [Airey] has super-incredible ears, so he heard what I was doing and just followed along. Then when Don started leading with the chords, I had to listen and try to follow him. And if you listen to the song, there’s one chord where I didn’t quite get it. There are a couple notes in one of the runs that don’t completely match. I meant to do that! [laughs] But it was just one of those moments where it was the entire band doing the take and there was no way to fix it. It was literally a moment in time. And I love when we keep takes, especially when it’s the first take. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s really cool to have those spontaneous moments.

Photo: Getty Images

For the rest of this story, plus a tribute to Slayer's Jeff Hanneman and features on Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins, Joe Bonamassa, Iggy and the Stooges, Eric Clapton's 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival, the 25 Best Guitar & Music Apps and more, check out the August 2013 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

August2013_0.jpg

Additional Content

Viral Video: John Lennon Auditions for 'The Voice'

0
0

A new, almost-viral video (it hasn't quite reached 700,000 views at this point) is making the rounds. It shows former Beatle John Lennon — who died in 1980 — auditioning for The Voice.

The video, which was posted to YouTube on Monday, is edited to show Lennon performing his 1971 hit "Imagine" as the judges — Adam Levine, Shakira, Usher and Blake Shelton — react with bored stares, sighs and cringes. They go on to tell Lennon that his singing isn't quite good enough.

Perhaps the point the video is trying to make (if any) is that talent-search shows like The Voice and American Idol don't recognize quirky talent that doesn't fit the standard, cookie-cutter mold. They'd most likely skip over people like John Lennon and Bob Dylan, as the very end of the video suggests. Thoughts?

By the way, Lennon's performance of "Imagine" (which you can see here in its unadulterated form) is from 1975. It's one of his final live performances; he retired from music in the mid-'70s before making his comeback with Double Fantasy in 1980.

Additional Content

Strat Outta Hell: Shredder Joe Stump Talks New Album, 'Revenge of the Shredlord'

0
0

Joe Stump, who was ranked the Number 6 Fastest Shredder of All Time by Guitar One magazine, is a legend in many circles and has released an impressive number of solo and group efforts over the years.

But he recently released what might be his greatest album to date, Revenge of the Shredlord, via Lion Music in Europe.

Although Stump keeps busy — he's an associate professor at Berklee College of Music, and he just wrapped up a tour with Raven Lord — he recently found time to discuss practicing, his work ethic, the new album and a lot more.

GUITAR WORLD: How did you prepare for Revenge of the Shredlord?

I didn’t necessarily have a practice routine other than to just go into my workroom and start playing. Sometimes it might be some kind of groove I’m working on, and then I start to come up with different things to add to my playing vocabulary. Or I might try to improve upon things that are inside my vocabulary already. Then the ideas just start to flow.

Can you discuss the recording process for the new album?

On this particular record, I recorded all of the guitars at home. I had a bunch of the tunes composed and did everything at home, and I knew what all of the solos, melodies and harmonies were going to be. Then we put the bass and drums on afterwards in a studio. But I have a fairly modest home recording setup and get a killer tone. So while I can’t make a whole record at my place, I can certainly record killer guitar tracks. As you listen to the new record, all of the guitar tones you'll hear on there are killer and it's just with my modest recording setup.

Grammy-winning engineer Ducky Carlisle (Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter) handled mixing duties. What was that like?

Ducky has worked on so many great records. He's also mixed a bunch of my past records. He lives like three doors down from me, too, so you can't get much can more convenient than that. He's done a ton of heavy-duty stuff and not really very many metal things. He's great sonically, and he's got a great place with a combination of killer analog gear and every single plug-in known to man. I am fairly in tune with what I want sonically, and he can get it. Plus he is a close friend, so we get to hang out when making a record together, which is also cool.

Take us back to your beginnings. How and why did you start playing?

I started playing when I was 10 growing up in New York. In the '70s I used to watch Johnny Cash's show and then Glen Campbell's show, and playing guitar always looked cool. So I played for a little bit and then I stopped playing. Then I took it up again when I was 13, all because of the hard rock that was out at the time — Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, UFO and so on.

Then, in my final year of high school, I discovered Al Di Meola’s Elegant Gypsy record, and that made me want to play guitar even more and really pursue extreme fast playing. Al is one of the forefathers of blazing playing. I had already gotten into stuff like Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth with the Scorpions' stuff like “Taken By Force." But when I heard “Race with Devil on Spanish Highway” and “Mediterranean Sundance” I was hooked.

One of the things that drew me to Berklee was that Al had studied there. So I went and studied jazz and fusion there and classical stuff, but then I went back to rock full on, halfway through Berklee. I got back to my roots with Blackmore, Uli Jon Roth, Gary Moore and Schenker. I love all of the European hard rock masters. I always tell everybody, “The only guy I listen to who is actually from America is Jimi Hendrix.”

You’ve been an associate professor at Berklee for a long time. What has it taught you?

When I’m working with players and discussing things, I'll occasionally come up with different ways to practice stuff. Inside my playing vocabulary, teaching may help me come up with some kind of variation on something. One thing I really do try to convey to my students is that I love to play and that I'm extremely motivated. I'm always playing, and I tell them that if you're here at Berklee, you should be sleeping, eating and breathing music. Waking up every day extremely excited about it. That's the way I was when I was young and I'm still that way. To me, if you don’t have that kind of enthusiasm, love and passion for it, then you should get out of the game, because there is no room for you there.

You have had some high-profile students over the years at Berklee — Gus G., Metal Mike, and more. How does that make you feel?

It's great that I’ve had contact with a bunch of players that have gone on to do well, and it's nice that I've inspired them and influenced them. But you know, those guys were great players and worked their asses off to get where they are. I'm extremely happy for them, and if I helped them in some way and they took some influence from the help and it turned up positive, that’s great. But no one gets there without breaking their balls. Everybody does it on their own to a certain extent.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known then?

Tough question. You know, the times change so drastically that it's tough to answer that. The music industry in general, as anybody would know, is full of highs and lows. Great things happen, and then you also have disappointments. So I rarely look back and say, "Well, I should have done that differently,” because many times things that are disappointments a lot of times are not within your control. You know, maybe you make a killer record and it’s not promoted properly, stuff like that. There are just so many things that are not in your control.

What would you say are your career highlights?

I’d say this record certainly is a crowning achievement. It is the pinnacle of my playing and composing as far as my solo career goes. It’s also been great in the past to be listed along with players who are heroes that I respect and look up to. Having great reviews of some of my past records in prominent publications also has been an honor.

And I've had many great shows. Whether it's on huge stages on European festivals or at small pubs, I’ve had great memorable shows at both. So it's tough for me to pinpoint specific things. Like back in 1994, which seems like ages ago, my second record came out and I remember it was a big deal for me, because Yngwie Malmsteen actually hung around and watched my set and let me know that he liked it, and we hung out backstage. So it was a huge deal getting to open up for one of my heroes and one of my main influences. He did a clinic once at Berklee years ago, maybe around 2007, and he's always been very nice to me and very cool. It's certainly no secret that he's one of my main influences.

Who do you think are some really underrated players out there?

One really criminally underrated player I really love is Walter Giardino from a band called Rata Blanca from South America. He’s a Blackmore disciple like myself, and he just rocks. He's got a great modern tone and great feel. He's somebody I really love to listen to. Another guy that's a buddy of mine that I think is a killer player that can shred his ass is Toby Knapp. Toby was on Shrapnel Records years ago and he's done a couple of solo records since. We trade CDs back and forth; he's a cool old-school shred guy that has elements of black metal and thrash in his stuff. I really enjoy listening to him.

Any advice for younger players who want to get really good at guitar and have a career in music?

The best advice I can give anybody is that in this day and age, there is no exact plan in the industry, and everything changes fast and drastically. The bottom line is the more you play and the harder you work, the faster you’re going to get better. There are no shortcuts or technologies that can save you from the work that it takes to obtain skill. And there is no substitute for completely dedicating yourself to the guitar.

Dave Reffett is a Berklee College of Music graduate and has worked with some of the best players in rock and metal. He is an instructor at (and the head of) the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal department at The Real School of Music in the metro Boston area. He also is a master clinician and a highly-in-demand private guitar teacher. He teaches lessons in person and worldwide via Skype. As an artist and performer, he is working on some soon-to-be revealed high-profile projects with A-list players in rock and metal. In 2009, he formed the musical project Shredding The Envelope and released the critically acclaimed album The Call Of The Flames. Dave also is an official artist endorsee for companies like Seymour Duncan, Gibson, Eminence and Esoterik Guitars, which in 2011 released a Dave Reffett signature model guitar, the DR-1. Dave has worked in the past at Sanctuary Records and Virgin Records, where he promoting acts like The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Korn and Meat Loaf.

Viewing all 4164 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images