Metal not lmletal and day 49

The problem of volume has always been with the guitar.  Earlier strings instruments used bows and could have giant bodies to provide immense volumes.  Eventually the body would get so large that you got out of the guitar's sound pocket and you'd be playing Bass.  Any form of making a guitar larger ended up being more like larger string instruments like the Harp or the piano.  This was all solved by electrical amplification in the 20th century, but right before that revolution an amazingly cool guitar style was invented.

Resonators are guitars designed to work with metal parts to create a strong reflection of sound back to the audience.  The sound was certainly louder than many acoustics of the time, but the metal really did give it a unique sound that did not work with most types of music at the time.  Resonators became cheap, and easier to move around than having your own electrical PA system.  The more "rural" types of music adopted these "outdated" instruments, and due to the sheer amount of usage they got in Bluegrass and blues, they are now accepted as mainstay sounds of those genre.

Resonators have metal bowls and reflectors, known as "Cones" built under the strings to take the sound and reflect it back out into the audience.  The originals used a 3 cone design, but a split in the company lead to a simpler and cheaper "dobro" design using a single cone.  Further, you could get square necked resonators to play like a steel lap guitar, or the round neck variety to play more like a traditional guitar.  Both are popular with slide guitar techniques.

Resonators, to me, rank as some of the most beautiful instruments ever created.  There are entire guitars manufactured out of bell brass and engraved with patterns and designs that remind me of the dualing pistols of the 17th century.  There are just as beautiful wood and metal combos that look like something out of a junk yard, but sound amazing.

Day 49

Still snowed in, but my hearth is still warmed by the awesomely burning light of ROCK.

or something Jack Black would say.... or maybe I'm watching too much Gearmanndude.  Wait, same person aren't they?  Has that myth been busted?  I refuse to accept it.

Anyway.  Somehow in between all the metal and rock, I came up with a very poppy guitar track.  Sounds a bit like "Steady as She Goes" now that I sit here and think about it, but I think that I was channeling Nirvana's Nevermind when I was doing it.  It is poppy, and its sorta happy sounding, but don't hold that against it, its fun to play!  I swear.  I'm really jonesing for a fuzz pedal these days.  Its quickly looking like 70's rock may give way to some 90's alternative soon.

So I'm practicing Stranglehold and while looking at my "recommended" tab, there was Black Betty.  Wow, it looks "doable" for me as well.  Black Betty just has so much energy, I figured I wasn't ready for it, but I think with practice I can get it pretty quickly.  It all goes back to my power chords having a lot more definition and sound to them.  As I said before, they're becoming less punk and more 70's rock, and that's evident with the two new songs I'm practicing on.  Black Betty has also been in my head because of Rayman Legends.  There's a level on that where the bad guys play Black Betty while you bowl through them running from some monstrosity or another, and its highly entertaining.

Straps and Kazoos and Day 29

I have a strap problem.



It is weird some of the things you realize about yourself.  I've known for quite some time that I try to get the strap that matches best with my instruments, to me it was common sense, something everyone does, right?  Well apparently I have something deeper than that.

My girlfriend and I were at the music shop earlier this week and looking at the acoustics on the wall.  They had 4 of the same model, just different adornments and cosmetic changes on the wall.  It is at this point I want to emphasize that they all sounded pretty well.  I looked at all 4 and listed them to myself "this one here is most like the kind of bass I'd go for".  It was made of a rare figured wood, with just a few adornments.  "this is more like the electrics I'd go for".  It had more Gibson-esque inlays and adornments with a solid color.  "I think I like this one least".  The least one had garish inlays all up and around the neck, and the body we very embelished with abalone, and even the color was a color I shy away from.  No way does this guitar say anything about me.



Then I went to look at the straps they had at the store, which were situated so that I was looking at these guitars while I looked through the straps.  They had the usual nylon, something I'd only get for a super pointy 80's guitar I'd never buy in the first place.  Then there was this why leather one with these tasteful, almost japanese styled flower imprints dotted here and there.  It matched very well with the garish looking acoustic, and suddenly if I was going to buy one of these 4 acoustics, the one in last place suddenly became a contender for first place.  It was then that I realized I had a problem lol.

Realizing a problem is the first step to fixing it.

I hope.

This is the part where I be a responsible example and tell you that you should pick a strap based on comfort first and looks last. But, come on.  That works if you're being all "zen master" but we all know its more "oh this looks cool... is it comfortable".  Its fine to go for looks, just DO NOT FORGET the comfort part.  Oh and its physics, if your guitar is hurting your shoulder because its heavier than you're used to, get a wider strap.  Padding can help, but not as much as adding an extra inch of wideness.



Day 29

So today I jammed out with a kazoo.  Yea, I'm surprised as you are.  There is actually a kazoo in the Session feature and its featured in a band i had to use for a mission.  My guitar has enough fuzz on it to basically be a kazoo, so sometimes it was hard to tell them apart lol.  It was a nice, uppity ditty in Pentatonic Major in the key of C I think it was.  Maybe it was A.  Not my cup of tea, but a fun experience none-the-less.  You kazoo players take heart, someone in Rocksmith is carrying the torch to legitimize your musical instrument of choice!

I also played in a "Newgrass" blues based country band.  I played in Pent Major again, but this time in G.  So far the key of G is my favorite for blues playing, so this was actually pretty cool.  I'm no where near as good with the Major Pent as I am with Minor though, but practice practice practice as they say.  Speaking of things in the key of G, I'm currently practicing transitions out and into G with the chords I already know.  This is going to open up several new paths for me, song wise.  I honestly can't remember if I have said this already, but watching a Foreign Film with Subtitles really helps me stay in one spot, and focus while I play through the chords.  I live in a world where since middle school they have taught multi-tasking as the "normal" resting state, and worked as a chef where the difference between good and bad is how well you can multi-task, so its hard for me now to sit there and do one task and not feel like I'm wasting time.  I know watching a film and practicing are technically 2 things, but it could be much much worse.

I really need to redo all my preset sounds.  My mainstay, based on a plexi/OCD overdrive sound just doesn't have enough low end to sound nice when palm muting, and also it has a little too much dirt for the kind of stuff I'm practicing with these days.  I still never got a fuzz I liked, but then again I'm not playing anything where fuzz fits all that much.  I think tomorrow I'm going to get a cleaner, fatter over drive for my primary, and a high gain "High on Fire" sound for a backup.

Play what you like, even if you don't like it. And Day 19

Forgive me if I've ever given you this "speech" already.

I did not consider myself a "bassist" until I had this strange set of revelations.  One of these revelations was that I should embrace what I find fun to play.

I know that seems weird, but I have to explain a little.  I'm probably notorious around my friends were hating radio.  I really can't wait for 2 or 3 songs that I don't care for to get done for 1 tolerable song.  This means that it is hard for me to focus on learning any songs I find blah.  This also means I don't like playing "blah" bass lines that exist in a lot of classic Rock or the genres I listen the most to.  Its my flaw, I know I suck more because of it, but I try to live with it.

About 6 years ago I was turned on to "jazz improv" bass by the Talkbass forums.  I have to tell you, I can't sit and listen to this stuff really... but holy crap do I love to play it.  How can I explain that without sounding like a jerk?  Maybe its like the people that will play sports, but hate watching it on TV?  Maybe it reminds them that they should be doing it rather than watching it?  I do make myself sit and listen though, for learning reasons.  It has probably made me what people would call a "busy" bass player.

I read that John Paul Jones used to listen to horn players and that's how he got inspired for his bass lines in Led Zeppelin.  So I immediately got on Youtube and looked up the horn player I knew the name of, Louis Armstrong.   I also branched out.  The silly thing was, I forgot to go back and listen to more Led Zeppelin.  This came later with another "revelation" I will write about later.  By listening to that, I began appreciating the older "golden era" of horn player's music.  I also became a much better bass player, and learned a very clean, "poppy" sound as I tried to come closer to the sounds I heard on the jazz.

Anyways, all of that is to say, play what you find fun.  Sure, you've probably heard it, and you've probably thought "well yea, play what you like not what other people like" and I say YES BUT, maybe you find something fun that you don't like.  Play to your strengths.  You may love Punk rock, but you find you hate the bass lines.  You may despise Surfer music, but find tremolo picking to be tons of fun.  Play what is strong for you and it will make you practice more, and eventually you can work your style into the genres you like.

John Paul Jones works his motown inspired stuff into the heaviest rock that Led Zeppelin does.  Flea brought funk bass into punk rock.  Brent Hinds of metal band Mastodon is a bluegrass banjo player.  I have, on several occasions, brought my improv jazz into blues.  I am currently bringing the only thing I really know decently on guitar, simple blues riffs, into chugging palm muted metal.  Play what you find fun, play what is strong for you in technique, and then YOU can make it the genre you wish you were playing.  You may find your own voice and bring something new to the world.

Day 19

I'm not going to lie, I did not get a lot of playing in today.  I had jury duty and after I got home, I took a nap.  I used the guitar unplugged for about 30 minutes, noodling as I waited for lunch to get cooked.  Practiced the stuff I've been practicing lately.  I did play 1 game each of my "warm up" Guitarcade games.  I also played some of the Scale Racer.  I love the look of Scale Racer.  It reminds me of Rad Racer, a game I played a  lot in my youth.  Scale Racer is the kind of game that is going to help me learn scales.  I wanted Scale Warriors to help so badly, but I'm more focused on getting the "game" correct than learning anything.

I did get some practice in though, so I count that as a triumph.  You can take it as you will.