Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of "Everything Matters," a new song by Ted Nugent. The track is from the Nuge's new album, Shutup&Jam!, which will be released July 8 via Frontiers Records.
Check it out below and let us know what you think of it in the comments or on Facebook!
Shutup&Jam! is the first all-new studio album from the Motor City Madman in seven years.
“My guitar has never gently weeped, but she does sucker punch me mercilessly at regular intervals," Nugent said in a press release. "‘She's Gone’ is just another example of what we do together every day after I complete my ranch chores at home in Texas, and the MotorCity soulmusic slugfest erupts into spiritual love songs like this.
The album features Nugent on guitar and vocals, Greg Smith on bass, Mick Brown on drums, Derek St. Holmes on guitar and vocals and Sammy Hagar, who's a special guest on “She’s Gone.”
Shutup&Jam! is available now for pre-order at Amazon and iTunes.
Nugent’s “SHUTUP&JAM! TOUR”:
Thu 7/3 Wichita Falls, TX Wichita Falls Memorial Auditorium
Fri 7/4 Santa Fe, NM CamelRock Casino
Sat 7/5 Oklahoma City, OK Starlight Amphitheater at Frontier City
Sun 7/6 New Braunfels, TX River Road Ice House
Tue 7/8 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
Wed 7/9 Ramona, CA Ramona Mainstage
Thu 7/10 Prescott Valley, AZ Tim's Toyota Center
Fri 7/11 The Canyon Club Agoura Hills, CA
Sat 7/12 Las Vegas, NV Orleans Hotel & Casino
Sun 7/13 Anaheim, CA City National Grove of Anaheim
Mon 7/14 Anaheim, CA City National Grove of Anaheim
*Thu 7/17 Council Bluffs, IA Mid-America Center
Fri 7/18 Merrillville, IN Star Plaza Theatre
Sat 7/19 Detroit, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
Mon 7/21 Huntington, NY The Paramount
Tue 7/22 Montclair, NJ The Wellmont Theater
Wed 7/23 Jim Thorpe, PA Penn's Peak
Thu 7/24 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
Fri 7/25 Morgantown, WV MountainFest at Mylan Park
Sat 7/26 Oshkosh, WI Leach Amphitheater at Riverside Park
Sun 7/27 Medina, MN Medina Entertainment Center
Tue 7/29 Kansas City, MO Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland
Wed 7/30 Englewood, CO Gothic Theatre
Thu 7/31 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot
Fri 8/1 Sheridan, WY Trails End Concert Park
Sat 8/2 Tacoma, WA Emerald Queen Casino
Sun 8/3 Tacoma, WA Emerald Queen Casino
Wed 8/6 Sturgis, SD Full Throttle Saloon
Fri 8/8 Maumee, OH NW Ohio Rib-Off at Lucas County Fairgrounds
Sat 8/9 Oxford, OH Indian Creek Amphitheatre
Mon 8/11 North Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues
Tue 8/12 Lake Buena Vista, FL House of Blues
Thu 8/14 Houston, TX House of Blues
Fri 8/15 Biloxi, MS Hard Rock Live
Sat 8/16 Fort Worth, TX Billy Bob's Texas
*denotes opening for Hank Williams Jr.
Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of a new guitar-playthrough video by Vancouver's Archspire.
The track, "Lucid Collective Somnambulation," is from the band's new album, The Lucid Collective, which is available now through Season of Mist.
"In this video, we wanted to showcase the gear we love and the music we have been inspired to write," said Archspire guitarist Dean Lamb. "The primary tone for both guitars is the Line 6 POD HD Pro through Mesa tube-powered amps. We exclusively use Ibanez guitars (Dean-RG2228, Tobi-Universe 7) paired with Seymour Duncan Blackout 8's and MT 7's, respectively.
"This song includes plenty of two-hand tapping, fast sweeping and fast-picked riffs, so if you like your guitar techniques at extreme speeds, we hope you dig this track! Stay tech!"
One of the biggest problems I encounter with jazz guitar students is that they have learned a ton of chords, scales and arpeggios, but they can’t play a tune or jam on a standard with other musicians.
When learning how to play jazz guitar, it’s vital to keep a focus on learning tunes, as well as developing technique, in order to avoid an awkward situation when someone invites you to jam and you don’t know any tunes.
Most players, if not all, pick up the guitar to play songs and jam with other people, so having a strategy in the practice room for learning standards will be beneficial to help you achieve this goal.
In this lesson, I’ve listed my 10-step checklist that I run in the woodshed when I learn a new jazz standard so that you can have a group of exercises that will build your chord, scale and arpeggio vocabulary while allowing you to increase your repertoire at the same time.
Check out these 10 exercises, and if you have an essential item you'd add to this list, share it in the comments section below.
Learning Jazz Standards Checklist
Here is the list of 10 exercises to help you learn any jazz standard on guitar. Depending on where your strengths and weaknesses lie, you might want to focus more time on the melody, chord, scale or arpeggios sections.
01. Memorize the melody in two positions on the fretboard. 02. Sing the melody from memory. 03. Play the root note of each chord in time to a backing track. 04. Comp Drop 3 chords from the sixth and fifth-string root notes. 05. Comp Drop 2 chords from the fifth and fourth-string root notes. 06. Play one-octave arpeggios for each chord. 07. Play two-octave arpeggios for each chord. 08. Play one-octave scales for each chord. 09. Play two-octave scales for each chord. 10. Work on a half time and/or walking bass line for the chord changes.
Try working out these 10 items the next time you learn a jazz standard on guitar and see how they can help you solidify a tune into your memory and under your fingers from a melody, comping and soloing situation.
Do you have an essential learning tool that you would add to this list? Share your thoughts in the COMMENTS section below.
Matt Warnock is the owner of mattwarnockguitar.com, a free website that provides hundreds of lessons and resources designed to help guitarists of all experience levels meet their practice and performance goals. Matt lives in the UK, where he is a lecturer in Popular Music Performance at the University of Chester and an examiner for the London College of Music (Registry of Guitar Tutors).
Seemingly trying to distance themselves as much as possible from their early days, back when they'd perform songs about absent fathers and teenagers shooting themselves in school, Pearl Jam performed a snippet of "Let It Go"— a song from the 2013 Disney film Frozen— during a show in Milan, Italy, over the weekend.
The grunge legends incorporated the mega-hit's chorus into a performance of their own hit, "Daughter."
Feel your angst-ridden teenage years spent listening to Pearl Jam slowly slip away, and watch a video of the performance below.
Although many of the attendees at Eric Clapton's June 21 show at SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, would've — at first — said something along the lines of "Clapton is God," his alleged divinity was unable to prevent technical difficulties from cutting that night's concert short.
Clapton left the stage without explanation partway through the J.J. Cale cover "Cocaine" and never returned. When Clapton's crew came out to dismantle the stage, the crowd reportedly erupted in boos and catcalls.
A statement posted later that night on Clapton's Facebook page read:
“Unfortunately last night in Glasgow we experienced a steadily worsening technical problem with the PA system that the band battled with throughout the show but by the last song of the set it became unbearable on stage and Eric was unable to complete that number.
“During the encore break we were able to reset and the band finished as planned with the last number. The usual touring set length runs at 1hr 35 mins so in fact the full set was performed apart from the entirety of 'Cocaine,' which had to be curtailed. Eric is nevertheless sorry for the break in the concert and the disappointment of his fans.”
This explanation was met with little sympathy from the paid audience, who reportedly inundated Clapton's Facebook page with irate messages, to the point where the page's administrators began deleting posts.
Following the April premiere of Alice Cooper’s film, Super Duper Alice Cooper, at the Tribeca Film Festival and its subsequent on DVD, rock's greatest showman is hitting the road as a "very special guest" during Mötley Crüe’s final "All Bad Things Must Come To An End" North American tour, which starts in July.
But the tour also will mark the debut of Cooper's new guitarist, Nita Strauss, who recently was listed as one of GuitarWorld.com's "10 Female Guitar Players You Should Know." Strauss takes the place of Orianthi, who had toured with Cooper for the past several years.
Strauss — whose influences include Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert and Shawn Lane — has already made her mark with the Iron Maidens and Femme Fatale. She’ll now join Cooper’s three-guitar attack, joining fellow six-stringers Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen.
I recently spoke to Strauss about the upcoming tour, her gear and how she got her start.
GUITAR WORLD: Tell me how you got involved with this project.
Kip Winger was the one who actually connected the dots. We met each other on the Monsters of Rock Cruise, where he saw me play. He later heard through the grapevine that Alice was looking for someone, so he sent them a few links and videos of me performing. I was then introduced to Shep Gordon [manager] and Bob Ezrin [producer] who sent me over a few tracks to learn and from there. Everything just seemed to fall into place. I'm so honored and excited to be a part of this project. It's hard to put into words.
What was it like when you first met Alice?
I first met Alice in LA when he was recording some material for his new album. Ezrin called and asked me if I’d like to come down to the studio and meet him. So I went down and got to sit in the studio for Alice’s recording session. He’s such a cool guy. The whole experience was pretty incredible.
What can you tell me about the tour?
Alice has his new film out, Super Duper Alice Cooper, which is a fantastic, super-fun movie. For the tour, we'll be doing 72 cities beginning with a few warmup shows in Michigan and then joining up with the Crüe on July 2. We have a little break in September and then go back out until mid-November.
Do you feel added pressure being in a three-guitar band situation?
I come from a band that played Iron Maiden songs, so the multi-guitar-player thing isn't something that’s really new to me. By the same token, these are iconic songs and I really want to make sure that I do them justice.
What's your live setup going to be like for this tour?
I'll be using Blackstar Series One EL34 heads. I picked those because they have a really classic sound. I also have a TC Electronic G-Force, which is going to run most of the effects, a Voodoo Lab Ground Control, Cry Baby Wah and a Whammy pedal. Simple and effective is the way to do it.
Can you tell me a little about your musical upbringing?
My dad is a musician and I come from a whole line of musicians going back to the composer Johann Strauss. I've always been around music in my house and one day my dad bought me a guitar. But it wasn’t until I saw the ending scene in the movie Crossroads— Steve Vai vs. Ralph Macchio — when it was like, That's what I want to do!" [laughs]. From then on, it was full-speed ahead, and I've never looked back. Just seeing how cool Steve Vai looked and the way he made the guitar sing was so inspirational. To this day, he's still my favorite guitar player.
Do you have advice for female guitar players?
The paramount thing is to always compare yourself to the guitarists you're influenced by. Don’t just limit yourself to female musicians. Compare yourself to the best of the best. If you strive to be the best, that's what you’re going to become.
At what point do you think the feeling of being on a tour of this magnitude will really sink in?
I think it will be that first show and first note — the surreal moment when I see myself standing on stage with Alice Cooper. He's got this larger-than-life persona and wants the same out of the band members. When I'm there playing to him, I think that's when it’s really going to hit me the most.
For more about Strauss, follow her on Facebook. To keep up with Alice Cooper, visit alicecooper.com.
James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.
Today we’re proud to give you the world premiere of Portland songwriter Adam Zwig’s new video, “Sunshine Waves.”
The track will appear on his forthcoming EP, Stones, Bones, and Skin, which you can pick up August 18.
The clip shows Zwig performing to a packed venue with a 1967 Gibson J-45. “I love playing acoustic on this song because it adds the rustic sound and organic feel that the tune needs. We rehearsed the song with all electric guitars and it sounded cold and cluttered,” he shares.
“Playing the acoustic really brought in the warmth and it glued all the instruments together."
Well Adam Zwig, we tend to agree!
Produced by the Grammy Award-winning David Bianco (Bob Dylan, U2, Johnny Cash) and Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, Loretta Lynn), Stones, Bones, and Skin offers a hypnotic and harmonious hybrid of Americana, pop, rock, folk and world music over the course of five sparkling tracks.
Check out the video below, and find out more at adamzwig.com.
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.
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.
Earlier this month, the gang at Seymour Duncan posted a pretty cool interactive video that helps guitarists decide what kind (or kinds) of pickup they might want to "pick up."
The main clip (seen below), which is 44 seconds long, features five photos, labled "Humbucker,""Single-Coil Strat,""Single-Coil Tele,""P-90" and "Acoustic." When you click on any of the photos, you're taken to a new video, which then gives you another series of interactive options, each one leading to an informative demo video of a particular pickup model.
From the company:
"This is a tool that includes a small sample of great video demos to help you find the right pickup. It does not currently work on mobile devices and does not include every pickup."
Classical guitar songs and techniques have inspired modern artists ranging from the Doors to Metallica.
In this new DVD, 20 Essential Classical Licks, you'll develop the essential skills required to play fingerstyle on a nylon-string acoustic guitar, such as arpeggio patterns and techniques, rolling triplets and sextuplets, natural and artificial harmonics, grace-note embellishments, tremolo picking and much more.
You'll also learn how to play eight vital classical guitar compositions, including "Spanish Ballad,""Malorca,""La Catedral" and Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."
Over 60 minutes of instruction!
Learn eight songs and these vital techniques:
Arpeggio Patterns
Tremolo Picking
Rolling and 16 Note Triplets
Natural and Artificial Harmonics
... and much more!
When a legendary guitarist is invited to play on a recording session, he or she is expected to make a noticeable impact on the song or album being recorded.
Bearing that in mind, Jeff Beck — as a session guitarist — has pretty much never disappointed.
Here are his top 10 guest-session appearances.
10. The Pretenders, “Legalize Me,"Viva El Amor (1999)
At first, one wonders if Beck is even playing on this song — until just around the 2:14 mark, when he boldly announces his presence with one of his freakish trademark whammy-bar moves — and it only gets better from there.
In Deep with Andy Aledort Presents How to Play in the Style of Jeff Beck is an exclusive DVD. Guitar World editor and instructor Andy Aledort takes a look at the playing style of the legendary Jeff Beck, showing you the scales and lead lines used by Beck in his groundbreaking solo work. It's available now at the Guitar World Online Store.
09. Toots & The Maytals, “54-46 Was My Number,” True Love (2004)
This is from a Toots album that’s packed with guest appearances by big-name guitarists, including Eric Clapton, Trey Anastasio, Bonnie Raitt and Keith Richards. But Beck stands out in a crowd, delivering a cool, weird solo that almost makes it sound like his part was tracked backwards in the mix (It wasn't).
It’s also a nice change of pace to hear him in a reggae setting.
08. Paul Rodgers, “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters (1993)
Beck’s evil tone on the intro riff alone is enough to earn this tune a spot on this list. It also represents the only slide guitar to be found among these choices.
Beck appears on three songs on this Muddy Waters tribute album by the Bad Company and Free frontman.
07. Paul Jones, “The Dog Presides,” Insane Times (1968)
Here’s the Jeff Beck Group-era Beck sounding very much like his former Yardbird self on this song’s opening riff, fills and solo. The recording even features another former Yardbird, Paul Samwell-Smith, on bass.
That’s Paul McCartney on drums, by the way. No one seems to remember the barking dog’s name.
06. Nerada Michael Walden, “Saint and the Rascal,” Garden of Love Light (1976)
This catchy, funky instrumental with a strong hook can almost be considered an outtake from Wired, Beck’s classic 1976 album. After all, Nerada Michael Walden played drums on Wired and wrote four songs on the album, including “Play With Me.” So Beck returned the favor by playing with Walden.
05. Jimmy Copley, “Everyday I Have the Blues,” Slap My Hand (2008)
For people who've survived listening to Beck’s over-produced Flash album (1986), it’s a real treat to hear him play with such a small, stripped-down band; in fact, all you really hear are the drums (Copley is a British drummer with impressive credentials) and Beck’s chunky-sounding Strat.
And that’s fine, because you get to hear him turn a simple three-chord blues shuffle into a showcase for his whammy-bar hijinks and out-of-left-field bits and pieces. No video for this one!
04. Rod Stewart, "Infatuation,"Camouflage (1984)
Maybe this one will whet your appetite for the album Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart have been working on together in recent months.
Regardless, listen to how Beck contributes something special and unique to what could’ve been just another catchy mid-1980s pop hit. Beck also appears in the video — as does actor Mike Mazurki, who can be spotted in the films Some Like It Hot and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
03. John McLaughlin, “Django,” The Promise (1995)
Simply put, this one gives you twice the bang for your buck: You get Jeff Beck trading off with John McLaughlin on a seven-plus-minute rendition of John Lewis’ “Django,” a musical elegy for guitarist Django Rheinhardt.
Beck starts things off with the basic melody, and things pretty much get more and more interesting as the song moves forward.
02. Stanley Clarke, “Hello Jeff,” Journey to Love (1975)
When the star of the show — in this case, bassist Stanley Clarke — actually incorporates his session guitarist’s name into the title of the track he played on, you can expect some memorable fretwork. Such is the case on this mid-‘70s instrumental gem, which features impressive playing by everyone involved, including the brilliant Clarke.
01. Roger Waters, “What God Wants, Pt. 3,” Amused to Death (1992)
Roger Waters is singing about vultures, bullets and soldiers, when, all of a sudden, a Strat bursts into the mix just before the two-minute mark, playing a powerful, emotional solo.
Is it an outtake from Pink Floyd's The Wall? Nope; it’s one of a handful of Beck-enriched songs from Waters’ Amused to Death album.
Check out Beck’s solo, how he wisely uses every inch of real estate Waters gives him. If nothing else, the song answers the rarely asked question, “What would Pink Floyd have sounded like if Jeff Beck were in the band?”
Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World. He writes things.
Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of "Forty Mile Town," a new lyric video by guitarist Eric Johnson.
The airy and glistening track is from Johnson's new live album, Europe Live, which was released today, June 24, via Mascot Label Group's Provogue Records.
The majority of the album, which was recorded in venues the continent, includes the guitarist's appearance at Amsterdam's Melkweg; there also are several selections from two dates in Germany, not to mention a Paris show.
The album features 14 tracks from throughout Johnson's career (including "Cliffs of Dover,""Austin" and the instrumental "Fatdaddy"), plus two new songs, "Intro" and "Evinrude Fever." Johnson even celebrates his side-project, Alien Love Child, with the hard-driving rock workout "Zenland" and the 11-plus-minute multi-modal suite "Last House on the Block."
Be sure to check out the video below and tell us what you think of it in the comments or on Facebook! Note that Johnson is touring this summer, and you can check out his current itinerary below the video.
For all things Johnson — and to order the new album — head to ericjohnson.com.
Confirmed 2014 Eric Johnson Appearances:
7/30 Des Moines, IA Wooly's
7/31 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall
8/01 St. Charles, IL Arcada Theater
8/02 Columbus, OH Woodlands Park Street Saloon
8/03 Kent, OH Kent Stage
8/05 Cincinnati, OH Taft Ballroom
8/06 Rochester Hills, MI Meadow Brook
8/07 Grand Rapids, MI Intersection
8/08 Evanston, IL SPACE
8/10 Minneapolis, MN Cedar
8/12 Kansas City, MO Knuckleheads
8/13 Omaha, NE Waiting Room
8/14 Fort Collins, CO Aggie
8/15 Boulder, CO Fox Theatre
8/16 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the August 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
If pedal effects were colors on a painter’s palette, I’d describe overdrive as black or white, distortion as red or blue, and fuzz as purple, mainly because fuzz is typically best used sparingly.
Describing the EarthQuaker Devices Terminal, which is a fuzz pedal, I’d go even further by comparing it to a glossy, metal-flake hue of heliotrope, but one that you’d want to use in excess, such as to paint a hot rod.
Far from a mild-mannered effect, the Terminal is raunchy and ratty and has practically nothing in common with classic fuzz.
It turns out Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is a film director. Who knew?
Below, check out a short film, The Truth, which was directed by Durst, who also stars as Evan Jealous, a motivational speaker/spiritual leader who enjoys hitting people with chairs.
Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland—yes, that's Wes Borland—appears midway in the film to receive some "healing."
You can watch the entire 30-minute film or skip directly to 22:50 to catch the Durst/Borland face smash.
In this Monster Lick, I'm using a variation of the G pentatonic scale. The scales used are the flat five (or blues scale), major 3rd and major 6th pentatonic. This is achieved simply by adding the above scale tones to the standard minor pentatonic.
The notes in the G minor pentatonic are G, Bb (or A#), C, D, F. The flat five is a Db (or C#), the major 3rd is a B and the major 6th is an E.
You simply add these notes to the minor pentatonic to get the sound. You don't substitute any note; you add one of the above notes to the straight minor pentatonic.
It's very important to practice every variation individually, as every scale has a very specific sound and requires a lot of practice to master. Bunching up these scales, as I've done in this lick, has only been achievable by understanding each scale by itself first. This took an incredible amount of study and was something I've developed over years of practice.
Today, this style of playing comes naturally to me. I'm able to add these notes randomly at any time as I know each individual scale inside and out — all over the fretboard.
For players who are just starting out or have only been playing for a while, I suggest you use this lick as a guide to how far you can take the idea. Practice the actual scale in the first position (Box 1). Once comfortable, start adding the other notes. First practice the straight minor pentatonic, then add the flat 5, then the major 3rd and finally the major 6th. Once you feel confident and understand the individual scales, start to have some fun with your improvising.
This tonality works great with blues, rock, jazz and even metal. The pentatonic scale is found through all styles of music.
The lick:
When played at speed, the added notes are less dissonant but certainly create a very intense-sounding run. What's interesting, though, is that when played slow, you can really start to hear the dissonance between the major and minor notes. This is a great thing to remember when improvising over a more mellow blues or jazz piece or even when wanting to create a fusion outside side with your rock playing.
As with all of these licks the important thing is to understand the idea behind the lick, as the goal should be to take this idea and create your own style.
The pentatonic scale is a key ingredient for all guitar players; it's the most-used scale for soloing. My advice is to practice and understand as much as possible when it comes to these scales.
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. His latest album — a still-untitled all-instrumental release — will be available in March 2014.
Check out Yngwie Malmsteen's cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" below.
The track is from Malmsteen's late-2009 album, High Impact.
"It was a tribute to [Jackson], but I’ve always liked the song,"Malmsteen said in a "Dear Guitar Hero" feature in Guitar World. "It’s my heavy metal version of the song, with de-tuned guitars and Ripper Owens on vocals.
"Unlike the original, I begin with a guitar solo, and there’s another solo in the middle of the track. It’s not too much like the original. I played it my own way, like I did on my Inspiration album, where I covered songs from other artists."
The name says it all: Guitar World's 50 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time presents the 50 best as decided by the editors at Guitar World magazine, transcribed note-for-note.
The 512-page book Includes:
All Along the Watchtower
All Day and All of the Night
Barracuda
Bohemian Rhapsody
Carry on Wayward Son
Crazy Train
Detroit Rock City
Enter Sandman
Free Bird
Highway to Hell
Hotel California
Iron Man
Layla
Misirlou
Pride and Joy
School's Out
Smells like Teen Spirit
Smoke on the Water
Sweet Child O' Mine
Tush
Welcome to the Jungle
You Really Got Me
These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the August 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.
There are a lot of great electric solidbody guitars on the market these days, but the vast majority of them look and sound similar to a handful of classic models introduced in the Fifties.
MusicVox is one of the few present-day companies that are truly doing their own thing and providing players with something a little different than the status quo. The MusicVox MI-5 and Space Cadet Custom Special models may have very cool and quirky styling, but at their heart they are no-nonsense players’ instruments designed to deliver the goods in the studio and onstage.
Electra Guitars has launched its new Phoenix S models.
The guitars are available worldwide through select distributors and dealers or directly from the Electra factory. The Phoenix S followsup last year's Omega and Omega Prime models.
Based off of the vintage Electra Phoenix X110 guitar, the new Phoenix S features an aggressively offset, double-cutaway swamp ash body complimented by a 25.5-inch scale, maple C-shape bolt-on neck, a 12-inch radius maple fretboard, 22 jumbo frets, black dot inlays and a GraphTech TUSQ nut.
The three Electra MagnaFlux SC single coil configuration teamed with the Electra Analog Tone Blend control allows for any and all combinations of the three pickups, in conjunction with the standard five-way switch. The electronics are dialed in with a single volume and a single tone control.
Finishing the instrument are Hipshot inline tuners, a vintage-style tremolo bridge and large strap pins in chrome. Each guitar ships with the Electra MagnaFlex strings, an optional Electra gig bag and is available in either Trans Black or Sunburst.
Five years have passed since funk-metal icons Living Colour released a studio album. Apparently, the band has decided that’s long enough. The New York rockers are currently hard at work at a New Jersey studio, where they’re writing and recording a whole slew of new tunes.
And as lead guitarist Vernon Reid explains, the origins of the new project, due next fall, are quite interesting. It all started when the band was invited to play the centenary of the birth of Robert Johnson, in 2011.
“We played the song ‘Preachin’ Blues,’ ” Reid says, “and it got me to thinking about the blues, hard rock and metal and how they’re all connected. It started this conversation about, ‘What does it mean to have that in the mix?’ Because, we were like, ‘We’re not gonna do a blues-rock record,’ but the blues is very integral and important. So that conversation has been the underpinning of what we’ve been doing.”
While Living Colour would never be mistaken for a blues group, Reid clearly feels a level of kinship with the genre. Searching for a way to apply it to Living Colour’s new music, he borrowed from the playbook of one of rock’s biggest entities: Led Zeppelin.
“One of the things that I love about Led Zeppelin is that they reverse-engineered the blues,” Reid said. “They took it, spun it sideways and turned it on its head. That’s sort of a model in my mind—not to sound at all like them but taking things and turning them sideways.”
Part of what Reid finds exciting about the blues is the lyrics. While they are superficially about life’s hardships, he hears in them deep stories about the darkness and complexity of human existence.
“The cliché is, the old black man complaining about his life,” he says. “That’s not what it is. That’s like saying the blues is about playing the pentatonic scale. You reduce it to component parts and then you can’t see what is actually happening, and what’s happening is really a very interesting story about the human condition.
"When you’re talking about, ‘The devil took my woman,’ are you talking about a rival? Are you talking about the bottle? Are you talking about other addictions? What are you talking about?”
Reid’s own fine form of expression demands no such explanations, but it did require something of a tune-up. For the new album, he’s busting out a wide array of interesting toys, including one of his old Pro Co Rat distortion pedals that’s been modded by Keeley Electronics. Reid has also incorporated a number of pedals made by Pigtronix, including the Echolution and the Philosopher King sustainer into his signal chain. “I think [Pigtronix president] David Koltai is a brilliant pedal designer,” Reid said. “When it comes to the whole boutique thing in the modern era, he’s one of the leaders.”
While Living Colour’s new record remains a work in progress, Reid let slip a couple of interesting covers that the band already has in the can. “We just recorded ‘Preachin’ Blues’ and ‘Kick Out the Jams’ by the MC5,” he says. “The crazy thing is, we recorded ‘Preachin’ Blues’ on Robert Johnson’s 103rd birthday. So we played that song for the first time on the 100th anniversary of Robert Johnson and only got around to recording it on the 103rd birthday.”
He doesn’t what the group’s new album will ultimately look or sound like, but Reid remains hopeful that it will speak to people in ways that he may never have intended. “What I hope happens is that it’s going to tell a kind of narrative,” he says. “That story may be different to whoever listens, but a story is definitely going to be there.”
Axology
Guitar: Parker Vernon Reid Signature MaxxFly DF824VR Amps: Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, Mesa/Boogie Lonestar, Kemper Profiling Amplifier Effects: Keeley-modded Pro Cro Rat Distortion, Eventide H-9 Harmonizer, Pigtronix Echolution, Pigtronix Philosopher King Sustainer, Roland VG-99, Roland FC-300, Roland GR-20, Zoom G3, Line 6 M9
