2012 is here, 2011′s musical highs and lows for me.

Less than 12 hours ago I rang in the new year of 2012. I’d been thinking about the musical postives and negatives that I’d seen through 2011 and now that I’m awake and fresh I thought I’d document this.

I saw a few stand out gigs in 2011, I saw John Mayer at the Hammer Smith Apollo that was simply stunning, Phip Sayce at the Bristol Tunnels (supported by Marcus Bonfanti) and the original Jayhawks line up at the Manchester Academy.

• Philip Sayce released the album “Ruby Electric”, a mix of some great new songs and some quality live recordings of past favourites
• I found Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band “Live In Chicago” – I’ve never liked Kenny Wayne Shepherds music on albums (despite his obvious talnet) but live he really shines.
• The Jayhawks original line up returned to release the album “Mocking Bird Time”
• Laura Marling released “A Creature I Don’t Know”, this is nothing like Laura Marlings other albums and is a lesson in music production from Ethan Johns.
• Through the Eric Clapton Crossroads festival DVD’s I really started to appreciate Derek Trucks, especially the album “Already Free”
• Ryan Adams released “Ashes & Fire” each album Ryan Adams puts out I enjoy a little more than the last (apart from Easy Tiger which I think is his best work)

2011′s musical dissapointments consisted of

• Aimee Mann – no new music
• Lisa Loeb – no new music
• John Mayer – delaying the release of “Born And Raised” due to a problem with his throat
• Black Country Communion’s album “2″ – better than the first but still poor compared to what it should be
• Joe Bonamassa’s release “Dust Bowl” a real dissapointment, possibly spreading himself too thin ?
• Joe Bonamassa’s general move away from focus on music to pushing out albums and signature gear, seriously signature Les Paul (various models), signature Les Paul Studio, Signature Epiphone Les Paul, signature guitar picks, signature fuzz face, signature Wah, signature Carolanne amplifier, and even a signature microphone….his live rig is now consisting of 6 amps ??? This guy can play and write, I hope 2012 sees a return onto less but more quality output.

For me personally I’ve really found my feet and style as a guitarist and I actually like what I play, how I play, how I sound and what I write for the first time in years. Listening and reading a lot more to quality guitar plays such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer and Philip Sayce, I think I’ve really started to understand how to use a guitar amplifier well and even multiple guitar amplifiers combined as one. I’ve learnt how to use and control gain and over drive through quality amplifiers and effects pedals and I’m surprised how little drive I use these days. Through discussions and listening to musician friends both real world and online cyber friends I’ve exeprienced other peoples positive and negative experiences which has helped me become more comfortable with my own. Because of the wide scope and age of music I’ve listened to this year I’ve started to see and appreciate more how much of an effect a producer has on how music is recorded and the importance of working with someone who not only has the skill to bring music to a high quality recording but also shares the same vision and direction of your own.

Best wishes to anyone who reads this blog, all 6 of you……

Martin Guitar Change & Harmonica Blues

not much been going on muscially recently, messed around with a few things but not found much working for me. My birthday happened last weekend and I treated myself to a new Martin OM28 acoustic guitar, it’s very very different from my normal acoustic taste, there is no cut away, it’s what I’d class as a strumming guitar or a song writers guitars, it’s not meant for guitar virtuoso style stuff, it’s been a god send, two songs that have not worked for me have just started working on an acoustic, I’ve simplfied it and like it.

Progression Of A Live Musician

Ever wondered what it would be like being a famous musician, playing the same songs over and over again every night, wonder how exciting but dull it could be ?

I’m giving to give an example of how it can really inspire music and in some cases take it to a higher level.

I’m going to offer up the solo from John Mayers song “Belief” from the Continuum record. It’s a very simple but effective solo and one of my favourites.

If you don’t have this album, buy it now, but I digress.

Lets look at the album track first of all, here is the album solo

Belief – Album Solo

As you can here a lightly driven guitar for a short and simple solo, very nice very effective.

Now lets listen to it live, this was taken from the album launch gig.

album-launch-belief-solo

As you can here, it’s a slightly different sound, a little harder driven, the tempo is a little up and there are minor changes to it. It’s a great live sound and has a bit of feel to it.

Fast forward a year or so, and we are back to another live performance.

where-the-light-is-belief-solo

The sound has matured as has the live performance, the tempo is a little up again, and the driven sound much smoother, the solo is based around the original studio recording with a few tweaks, a little more than the album launch gig. As you can see he’s getting more comfortable playing it and is improving it and playing around with it more, to keep it fresh to the audience as well as to himself as a player.

Now we fast forward on another year or so, the songs been around for over two years now and it’s been played, lord knows how many times live.

becon-belief-solo

The tempo is again quicker than the album track, but there is a real intensive feel about this one, much more than the others, the sound is similar to the most recent gig, a smoother but harder driven sound, this time the solo is based on the concept of the album solo, but is much more advanced and free, it’s a much more technical and impressive solo (one of my favourite guitar solos to date).

All the times this has been played live, you’d think it would get tedious, but from what I’m hearing I can hear it progressing as a guitar solo, and a piece of music, plus I think it’s probably improving the player and expanding his range and ideas for future tracks.

I’d like to hope I’m right about this and playing the same song over and over does actually inspire you to do it better and better rather than sit there playing the same notes over and over.

thoughts ?

New Listenings – Broadening Horizons

I’m currently listening to some new artists at the moment, trying to broaden my own personal listening tastes and artists I listen to to broaden my playing style and technique.

While listening to Country Music TV’s Cross Roads  projects I’ve found Brad Paisley and Keith Urban. I’ve certainly been aware of them as guitarists for a long time, however I’ve never really listened to their songs. They are actually really good and very diverse in style as well as being very good guitarists with very different styles and techniques. Brad’s use of a B-Bender on his telecasters is very subtle and clever, and Keith’s right hand rhythmic technique is very impressive. While I won’t be playing B-Benders any time soon, the clever bends are something I may try to use in future.

I’ve also been listening to Aynsley Lister, a UK blues rock guitarist and song writer who writes some lovely melody lines with clever guitar progressions. He also does a superb cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Cross Town Traffic which I think I’ll rip off and add to my own set, it’s great.

Despite my new listening pleasures, I’ve got to keep myself in check listening to all this country based music, I need to make sure I don’t turn into a cowboy.

What Did Hendrix Mean To Me ?

This week a lot of musical press and sources are running sections on Jimi Hendrix. A lot are asking famous musicians and guitarists “What did Jimi mean to you”. Well, as someone who is not famous, but certainly a musician and guitarist I thought I’d ask myself the same question and journal it here.

Unlike most guitarist I found Hendrix very late, so he didn’t really mean that much to me, in fact I never got him at all. I thought his playing was dull, his songs mumbled and his tone “noise”. Now I’m prepared to be shot for admitting that, as to any guitarist that is blasphemy. As times gone by and I’ve matured both as a human and a guitarist I’ve really started to appreciate Hendrix (just like the Beatles). A lot of my earlier criticisms where harsh and ill founded.  Is his playing dull ? no, certainly not, it’s just not flash, which with time I’ve learnt to appreciate is much more of a skill than flash playing. His songs, are they good? yes they are. In my younger form, quality of recordings was a sign of how good a musician you where, this is wrong. This music was recorded a long time ago before the quality of kit that is available today was even dreamt about. If you cut the recordings some slack and pay attention to the songs, I’ve found that they are fantastic, well thought out sections of music with intelligent composition ranging from short simple songs, to complexly written pieces of music with equally complex arrangements. The lyrical content ranges from thought out statements to free form exploration. Some stand out more than others to me. Bold As Love, Spanish Castle Magic, Wait Until Tomorrow, Cross Town Traffic and Hey Joe stand out to me along with Purple Haze, Voodoo Child and Fire which are well know classics. I could go on.The one area I still feel the same about is Jimi’s guitar sound, I still don’t get the buzz that’s around it. I fully understand and enjoy (hell I use them) the pioneering effects Jimi created and used the Leslie/vibe sound, the Octavia, the aggressive fuzz but it’s just not a stand out tone for me, but then if you read my earlier posts Marshall driven sound has never been my amp lust, maybe part of that is down to the low quality of the recordings.

What did Hendrix mean to me? as a guitarist growing up, nothing, nothing at all, however he did help me find a lot of the base skills such as speed and phrasing that used to be a core part of my playing by not wanting to sound like him, now what does he mean for me? A lot. I now enjoy and feel inspired by his songs and his playing, he’s helped open me up to other players such a SRV who I always enjoyed as a player technically but never as a listening pleasure. A key area Jimi has effected me is helping me understand how to make a full sound with a small group. I’m currently playing in a Trio and when I’m playing and writing for the Trio I don’t just focus on the guitar parts, but how to work with the drum, bass and vocal parts to make the sound full and rich, for example how to make a wild drum section controlled and not stand out but fill out an empty sonic space. I’m pleased that I’ve found Jimi from a listening point of view and from a musicians point of view as now that I actually enjoy him I can appreciate him and that influence has helped make me a better player, songwriter and producer of music.