Any Guitar Players Out there?

by WillowTrees 36 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  James Brown

  I have had the same experience with playing bass.

  Usually in a band situation I play bass, because that is what they need.

  And usually I am better than the guitar player.

  I have made most of my live performance money playing bass.

  But I am building a studio and hopefully I can put together a 3 piece where I play guitar.

  When I play bass the band already exist and they are finding gigs.

  When I play guitar i have to put the band together and find the gigs.

  Then when you find the gigs you have to get the musicians to come to them.

  Many bands I have been in have had 2 or 3 drummers.

  Several bass players

  Sevaral singers.

  They usually revolve around the lead guitar player or the singer.

  I have been in a lot of bands where I have been the better guitar player and I play bass.

  I have been in a lot of bands where I am the better singer.

  I guess up till now I have never wanted to be the star and take all the responsibility.

  I also have about 5 or 6 bass guitars.

  My best one is a Rickenbakcer like Mcartneys.

  Then I have several Ibanezes and a Fender.

  Also I have a Rouge hoffner copy which is really good. I use that for recording.

  I just started collecting because when I played out I made money.

  I had a day job, so I would save my money and buy a guitar.

  By the time I got to 62, I had about 50 guitars and bases.

  And music stores always made me happy.

  They are like toy stores.

  My man cave is like a music store with a wall of guitars drums and keyboards and a pa.
• 

  little_Socrates

  James Brown, wow, you sound like quite a character. I would love it if we could hang out and jam sometime :) I don't have the pro experince you do, I have mostly played for Church. I have some college level music classes and I have been around some great musicians that is how I have learned. However I am out of work now so I would love it if I could make money with music.

  I would love to have a Hofner style bass, it has a similar tone to my bass but it is MUCH lighter. I fell in love with my bass in the music store because of its tone and playablity but it gets awefully heavy after a couple hours. (Kind of hard to test how you will like an instrument after several hours of playing in the music store)

  My passion right now is recording. I recently got a zoom H6 portable digital recorder. It is amazing the sound quality that is possible now a days with a realitivly low cost portable device.. I really like making other people sound good. That is why I enjoy playing bass, recording, and running live sound boards.

  Are you actually able to make money from recording? People pay good money to have a pro photographer/videoographer to record special events in their lifes. Why wouldn't they also spend good money to get high quality audio recordings as well?
• 

  Oubliette

  Here are just a few that come to mind off the top of my head:

  • Hendrix: Purple Haze, The Wind Cries Mary
  • Satriani: Surfing with the Alien
  • Clapton: Sunshine of Your Love
  • Beatles: Day Tripper (Chorus)
  • Dire Straits: Money for Nothing

  What I think you're overlooking is that many of the songs you mentioned have multiple guitars overdubbed.

  Also, although power chords are the staple of some styles like punk or grunge and some players like Hendrix and Satriani utilize(d) a wide variety of guitar techniques, it is simply incorrect to say that of players like these that "I don't think ... [they] ever used them."
• 

  James Brown

  I got a steinberger bass for playing out because it is light.

  I also got a steiberger guitar fro playing out because it is light.

  I have never made any money recording.

  But I have met several who have.

  One fellow is a pro photographer and video grapher he takes photos of the Bucs and Rays here in Tampa.

  But when I first met him, he wan't.

  One fellow I know has his studio all in a lap top with pro-tools and he travels to the gig

  and records whether an event or someones home or studio. He has a very mobile set up.

  My recording set up is on a desk top with mixcraft 7 and protools.

  I am retired and would rather spend my musical time recording myself or playing myself in a bar.

  But if I needed money.

  I would probably get a nice lap top and put mixcrat 7 pro studio on it.

  If that did not fit the bill, which I don't see why it wouldn't

  I would put I would put pro tools on my lap top.

  I don't see why mixcraft would not do everything pro-tools does for a fraction of the money.
• 

  Spectre

  Isn't the basic E chord shape by definition a power chord?

  I play quite a bit. I need to really delve into knowing theory and all. I can play a lot of songs but only because of magazines with tabs.

  I love that there are so many videos on youtube either explaining how to play songs, especially those by the guitarist himself. Steve Howe is great to watch. There's one of Jake E Lee showing how people play Bark at the Moon wrong thats a blast to watch (I've been working on that song a lot lately). Jeff Beck showing all his guitars he's used. I didn't know that John 5 is such a telecaster enthusiest.

  I bought a Kramer Barretta back in 87 or so that I still have. Bought a American Standard Strat that I eventually sold because it was really not that great. For amps I have a Mesa Boogie .22 and a Gallien Krueger 250ml. Eventually I'd like a Gibson 175es and a Telecaster Hot Rod...eventually.
• 

  Oubliette

  Spectre: Isn't the basic E chord shape by definition a power chord?

  Good question. The answer is: No, it is not a "power chord" because it contains a 3rd, in this case the G# on the third string.

  

  Guitar "power chords" are usually just the root and 5th. Sometimes they contain an octave duplication of the root.

  So if you only played the bottom 2 or 3 strings of the basic E chord, then that would be a power chord.

  

  Here's the movable shape with the root on the 6th string:

  

  Here's the movable shape with the root on the 5th string:

  

  Alternately they can be inverted, that is the 5th on the bottom and the root on top. (Think "Smoke on the Water").

  

  Power chords are useful in Rock guitar playing for mainly two reasons:

  1. The ambiguity of having no third (which determines whether the harmony is major or minor) allows more freedom of choice for the soloist. Think about the bluesy history of rock with it's penchant to flat notes and bend them to "in-between" pitches and you'll understand how important this is.
  2. When guitarists started playing with increasingly more distorted tone, they found that playing the third in a chord made the sound more "messy" and that it didn't blend in the sonic mix of the ensemble.

  Interestingly, two extremely distorted guitars playing in thirds works really well together, while a single guitarist playing the same intervals simultaneously will usually not find the results very satisfying. This effect can be heard in many harmonized guitar solos.

  Here are a couple of examples excerpted from a Guitar Player magazine article, Harmony Guitar Solos of the '50s, '60s, and '70s:

  Brian May’s astounding work with Queen frequently utilized counterpoint as well as parallel harmonies, often during the same song, and Ex. 11, excerpted from the eyebrow-raising entrance of May’s solo in “Keep Yourself Alive” (the opening track from 1973’s Queen), illustrates the point to a tee. He begins playing thirds over the tonic F and C (V) chords, and then switches to a counterpoint approach for the F-A7/E-Dm-Bb-C-F progression in the following two measures. The next four bars (not notated) find May adopting the same strategy—two bars of parallel harmonies followed by two bars of counterpoint. Bravo!
  
  Our guided tour concludes with an excerpt from Thin Lizzy’s worldwide smash hit, “The Boys Are Back in Town” (from 1976’s Jailbreak). Ex. 12 shows how guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson coalesce during the songs’ infamous twin-guitar lead. Play through both parts, and you’ll find that the first three bars adhere to a rousing shuffle rhythm before contrasting with the dragged quarter-note triplets in bar 4. Play the whole deal over founder Phil Lynott’s A-B-C#-E bass line.

  

  Have fun!
• 

  Spectre

  Well if you want to get all fancy and play that G# then go ahead.

  Thanks, Oubliette. Interesting stuff.