Jam session: Improvisation in Cmin

Hi all,

Recently did a post for Guitar4Christ forum thread on Blues Jamming. Did all of this on my laptop which required quite abit of routing of cables... anyways it's mostly based on Cmin Pentatonic scale with abit of alteration here and there. Enjoy!



Press play or download here

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: jason_ong, jams, audio, pentatonic

Guitar of the day: Parker Fly P-42

Parker Fly guitars are absolutely beautiful in my opinion. It's really light in weight and has a nice smooth neck too. It's my dream electric for performances. The good ones are really expensive but their low-end P-42 is pretty affordable at USD$520 (SGD$800+). Another guitar to work towards! :)

Here's a nice track in the style of Toto by legendary composer Hans Zimmer featuring the high-end acoustic/electric Parker Fly! :)


Click on image or download here

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitar, parker_fly, p-42, hans_zimmer, audio

Guitar of the day: Gibson ES-335

One of my favourites & must haves even though I've never played one before. That's because my fav guitarist Lee Ritenour plays it (along with many many other great players)! :)


Lee Ritenour doing his smooth thingey with his ES-335

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitar, gibson, es335, lee_ritenour

Female Power! Part 1: Sheila E

Hi all,

I love the drums. Nothing catches me more than a great groove! Whoever says that females can't be good drummers? The video below is a great example of power drumming with a feminine touche.

Click to watch video in new browser


Visit Sheila E's website at www.sheilae.com

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: drummer, female, sheila_e, video

Interview with Lildrummergie

Click play button to listen



Interview with drummer Angie Tan aka "Lildrummergie". Recorded on my laptop without any edits using Odeo.

runtime: 3:00min

Tags: drummer, female, angie_tan, interview, audio

Nu-Song on Da Blog

Hi all,

I've finally come around to putting up just pure audio on my blog. Seems like a regress? Well not really as I think audio has a place in our lives that video can never give; the realm of the imagination. What the video gives blatantly, you can see it in your head creatively with audio.



This is an idea that I had while toying around trying to figure out a Sting song. It suddenly hit me that the first 2 bars of chord progression sounded like my band's original song "Turn It Around" written by Ryan Wong. Went ahead to include more chords, according to what I head in my head and came up with something like this. Unfortunately the recording only allowed 3 mins max so the song was cut off after a buildup at the end. Thank God that the ending was just some licks that had gone wrong. Heh… :P

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: song, original, jason_ong, composition, sting, turn_it_around, audio

Gorillaz "Dare" music video

Hi all,

I've always been fascinated by the "pseudo" group Gorillaz even though I've never given their music some serious listening. It's very electropop. Anyway that's the trend these days with "postpunkelectropoprock" on the rise as seen by the likes of The Killers, The Bravery, Muse, etc.

The intersting thing about Gorillaz is that it's marketed solely on music videos with eyecatching cartoon animations. one of its member's from Blur too! I wonder if the guy inside the video below is him...


Click on image to watch video

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tag: virtual, band, gorillaz, blur, video

Guitar of the day: Michael Kelly's Valor electric custom

A beauty to behold, except for the headstock, which looked abit too big for it's slim body. I always tell my students to treat the guitar like a human coz it's got a head, neck & body too! :)

I think Michael's Patriot custom looks better!



Visit Michael Kelly's MySpace to hear his guitar in action.

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitar, michael_kelly, valor, electric, custom

Guitar of the day: Seagull acoustic S6

Godin Guitars actually manufactures Seagull guitars! Like most great luthers (guitar makers), they're from north America! :)

a Godin fan,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitar, seagull, acoustic, s6, godin, canadian

Jason Mraz live video

Hi all,

I've never heard Jason Mraz's music though I've definitely been introduced to him by association (my name's Jason if you don't already know!). Caught this live video of him performing. Nice. Reminds me of John Mayer though. Who's that guy playing the harmonica? I love the sound of a harmonica! :)

Click on image to watch video

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitarist, singer, jason_mraz, video, pop

Jazz some shredding duel

"Video, video, on the blog. Who's the shreddest of them all?"

I'm not talking about some paper shredding machine but of some insanely fast jazz players who does the musical equivalent (tearing up musical phrases).

Here are two of the best that I know of. Watch the videos below to believe it.


John Mclaughlin


Jimmy Bruno

Phew... that was REALLY FAST. Well I'll just take heart that these players looked pretty old. That means I'm relatively young and have the chance to catch up! :)

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitarist, john_mclaughlin, jimmy_bruno, shredding, jazz, video

Guitar of the day: Godin Multiac special edition

The nylon Multiac by Godin's one of my favourite and must have in future! Putting a picture of this beautiful guitar here brings me one step closer to owning one! :)

A Godin fan,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitar, godin, multitiac

Quotes of the day

"I don’t play with an open string mentality. That’s very limiting. If you think about playing just open strings, then you live in a world of Am, Em, A major."

"He’s (George Benson) so ridiculously good, and he used to work terribly hard. When I used to work in his band, he’d get off the bandstand at 2 a.m. and continue practicing until six or seven in the morning, on a regular basis."

~ Earl Klugh

"I’ve listened to everything from Black Sabbath to Zeppelin to Creedence, Elton John, and Neil Young. When I’m lifting weights I’ll listen to Meshuggah and Ministry, and when mellowing out on the bus I’ll listen to Coldplay."

~ Zakk Wylde



Tags: quotes, earl_klugh, zakk_wylde, george_benson

Feature: Nuno Betterncourt's "extreme" funk!

Hi all,

Here's to one of my favourite guitarist of all time: Nuno Bettencourt.

He used to be the guitarist of the now dyfunct band Extreme, who gave us the pop ballad hit, "More Than Words". Don't be fooled by the gentle and soothing guitar playing in that iconic single as Nuno plays superb blend of rock & funk guitar like no other. His sense of funk rythym has influence my playing very much.

Someone once asked, "What effects do I use to get Nuno's sound?". To which a magazine column answered, "It's not in the effects he used. It's in his picking.". This mantra has stayed with me till this day. I'm convinced that with a good picking hand, one can produce all kinds of tone from a guitar using just a simple distortion.

Besides having great funky tone, Nuno's got amazing riff ideas too! Check out an amatuer playing one of his best known rock solo from "Get The Funk Out" in the video below.



As if that isn't enough, I was quite amazed to catch a video of his live performance. (Watch video below) Awesome energy on stage! I'm puzzled as to how he plays with such accuracy and timing with his guitar hanging so low? Guess that's why he's Nuno and I'm not! :)



Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitarist, nuno_bettencourt, video, funk

Jason Becker: An inspiring story

Hi all,

Today we're gonna look at an inspiring story of passion and perseverence.

The main character's Jason Becker. Some of you might have already known about him. Jason's a absolutely brilliant electric guitarist who inspired countless guitarist during his peak and all these happened at a tender age of 20+.

But life for Jason took a twist when he was diagnosed with a rare degenrative disease which took control over his body slowly...

Watch a documentary on him below. The video's divided into 3 parts. 2 articles on his story and 1 footage of him playing in high school.



Here's another video in tribute to Jason's amazing talent.

To Jason:

You'll always be loved no matter what your condition is. Keep rocking!

Blessings,
GuitarTalk



Tags: guitarist, jason_becker, documentary, video

Maintenance: Humidity

Hi all,

Guitars are made by man. And like all things not sprung from nature, care must be taken in order to prolong its lifespan. This is especially true for acoustic guitars where a protective lacquer is minimal so as not to inhibit the resonance of its body to get a full sound. Electrics on the other hand are usually coated heavily so easier to maintain. In the video below, we shall see how dry conditions can spoil your precious acoustic guitar. So think twice if you're thinking of placing your guitar in a dehumidified environment!

Click on play button to watch video



Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: tips, video

Line6 Variax vs iGuitar by Brian Moore Guitars

Hi all,

Technology for guitar hasn't changed much for ages. With the relatively recent advances in computing, some companies have tried harvesting it's power to link the analog nature of the guitar into the digital foray.

Line6 comes to my mind as they're the first guitar product company that I know of that made such products. They're major breakthru was in the form of their Variax, which boast an inbuilt synthesizer on the guitar. There's no traditional pickup here. The signals are converted to digital ones via a midi pickup and converted back to analog to be output into an amplifier. Check out videos on the amazing versatility of this instrument!

Click on image to visit Line6's video galleries:




















I've found another guitar that tries to merge technology to the guitar in a fuss free manner. This time it's in tihe form of iGuitar by Brian Moore Guitars. Brian Moore guitars are really beautifully constructed but cost a bomb... These days the i's are added to make a product sound cool, all thanks to Apple's iPod. The interesting things about this guitar is that it's able to connect to your laptop/computer via an usb connection. Though this is nothing really new as there are already modules that guitars can connect to that allows pc access via usbs, this is I think the first that attempts to give you a usb connection straight out of the guitar! What's the big deal about connecting the guitart to a pc? You see once your guitar's connected to one with decent computing power, you can use your desktop to process your guitar sounds via sythesizer softwares. You have also the ability to record your playing straight to your pc! Check out some of these features in the video below.

Click on image to view video in new browser window:



Tags: guitar, line6, variax, brian_moore_guitar, iguitar, video

Fantastic "virtual" drummer!

Hi all,

3D animation has come a long way. This time somebody has animated drumming great Neil Peart from the progressive rockband pioneer Rush. Neil's drumming is legendary. This animation takes his playing to a whole "new" level! :)

Quote from creator Bobby Standridge:

On a technical note, the video was created with 3D Studio Max R3 and hand
keyframed using a video reference of me air-drumming along to the song. Being an
older version of the software, the inverse kinematics tended to bog down after a
few hundred frames, so I had to break the video down into many (un)manageable
pieces. Adobe's Photoshop CS and Premiere Pro played key roles during the
compositing and authoring phases.

Click play button to watch video in new browser window



Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: drummer, neil_peart, video

Taylor guitar through a distortion?

Hi all,

I have come across many people who has the preconception that you can only get those fat distorted guitar sound using an electric guitar. We shall see from the video below that we can get those power chords riffing using an plugin acoustic guitar too! I've tried it myself many times before but have found feedback to be an issue which the video gives us an insight into eliminating it. Enjoy!


Click play button to stream video

Tags: guitar, tips, video