Powerage by ACDC

I started this journey through ACDC with a few preconceptions.  Many of them were true.  I thought the Bon Scott era was a dirty era with songs about wild rock and roll life; this was true.  Some preconceptions were not true.  I thought Bon Scott had only done 3 or so albums.  I now know that Scott was there for many more hits and albums than I had previously thought.

I knew that early on ACDC took lots of inspiration from the 1950's rockers, like Chuck Berry and Little Richard.  I had figured that the "middle" era of classic hits and THE "ACDC" sound came about largely as the influence of Mutt Lange producing Highway to Hell.  The first couple of albums only reinforced this, as these albums are very much rock and roll, and not yet "hard rock".

Boy was I surprised when I listened to Powerage.

Powerage is the album BEFORE Mutt Lange met up with the guys.  Powerage was produced and mixed by the same guys that had always did the ACDC albums before; Angus and Malcom's brother George, and his friend Harry Vanda.  From track 1 to the last, the sound is much more what I hear as "ACDC" than what came before.  Instead of quick power chords, the guitar tones are allowed to breath.  Instead of a bluesy sort of solo, there were some fast play, and unless I"m mistaken there was some tapping.  Instead of a Chuck Berry ripoff(that everyone from Jimmy Paige to Keith Richards have admitted to doing, its not a black spot to get lent a song by Chuck), there were ACDC riffs.  Its like Malcom and Angus finally let go of their hero's inspiration and started paving their own road.

This has surprised me and given me MORE respect that I already had for the band.  They have admitted that they are a band that need direction from a producer.  Famously they disliked Rick Rubin's approach.  Rubin made a career of getting put in charge of bands that have been dicked around by record companies, and using his clout to give them freedom.  Brian Johnson complained, "we hardly ever saw the guy".  This wasn't neglect, he was doing what he does, he was letting the band do whatever they want.  Anyway, I had assumed that the big transition from an early blues rock band to the biggest hard rock band of all time was because Mutt Lange had taught them a thing or two about recording, and the success of Highway and Back in Black lead to them keeping that voice.

Now I know they came up with the sound themselves as a natural evolution of their touring, writing, and chemistry as a band.

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.

Youtube likes and Day 43

I debated on if I wanted to do this post now or not.  I have a feeling most people read these at work, so its probably a little boring to get a post of videos.  Still, this is sort of a shout out to those that are helping me and do not know it, and a little bit of a "hey check these guys out" as well.  These are a couple of youtube channels that are helping me.

Rob "Chappers" Chapman

His channel is probably 60% gear, 20% tips, and 20% vlog.  The best thing about his channel?  Watching them play.  No seriously.  Rob is a "metal" kind of player, and Cap-10 is a bluesy player.  They play practically the same couple of licks on everything they review, and they do it on purpose so you can compare and contrast the equipment.  This also means that you're learning and not even knowing it.  They aren't just showing off, this stuff is pretty simple to medium in skill requirements and their channel sound is amazing.

Marty Z

Marty Z does a lot of rock and blues, but I watch him mainly for his acoustic instructionals.  He's a laid back guy with good sound on his channel(this is more rare on Youtube than you'd think).  I like that he not only teaches you the "correct" way of playing, he teaches you "correct" variations on playing certain songs.  He's not a slave to doing it "like the artist" and I think that's an important lesson.  He's good stuff, his lessons are free even though he works for a pay website, and all around is really helpful.  He does a good mix of "pop" acoustic songs, but is really focused on 60's and 70's rock.




Day 43

I am quickly falling into playing Blues-rock and Metal(of the Doom/Sabbath varietal), which are two genres I really don't mind being practiced in.  Thing is, I love 70's rock.  So all yesterday when I practiced, I thought of 70's rock songs while playing and tried to match some phrases.  I was not trying to actually copy a song, because I'm not good enough to do that yet, but at least use it to get me into the mood of playing less blues inspired rock'n'roll and more pure Rock.  It resulted in a couple of new phrase recordings, so I'm quite happy about that.  It is still hard as hell not to fill "space" in the practice session with blues licks.  I really need to just learn some Rock licks.  Still, I'm trying to focus on basics all through the 60 day challenge, and not so much learning songs... after the 60 days though...  I have plans.

The "accents" lesson in Rocksmith seemed a little silly to me.  Rocksmith 2014 is amazing and they obviously did a lot of great new work on it over Rocksmith.  I read and watch comparisons and I really do not think Rocksmith 2013 was something I'd have stuck with.  Rocksmith '14 has the session mode, much better Guitarcade, and the Riff Repeater... I can't imagine trying to learn any songs from the game without Riff Repeater.  If you get 2013, just do it if you see it cheap and you want to import all the songs from it.

I would like to see some videos added for the Chord and Technique section of the game.  There's this "Tool Box" section you can access that is for quick reference, so I can see why they did not do videos on most of it, but things like "tapping" and "slap and pop" techniques should at least have a link to the Lesson on them.  Idealy just a quick refresher video so the player doesn't have to watch all the lesson again.  Something for the next iteration.  Really though, I am so extremely happy with 2014's edition.  They did not just sit back and do nothing to improve it.  I see now a competitor on the market that uses big names, selling them as "instructors" and presenting the songs as tabs on screen.  If I had never played Rocksmith I would think Bandfuse made a lot of sense.  After seeing it in action, I think that maybe the Rocksmith version of notes coming head on is a better way, but maybe I'm just used to it.  Not going to turn this into a Bandfuse review/bash though.  Just look at some vids if you're interested.  I'd still pick up Rocksmith 2014 instead.

Spotlight Guitarcade: Hurtlin' Hurdles and day 36

Hurtlin' Hurdles

Hurtlin' Hurdles is a game in which you use Tremelo to cause a robotic runner to outrun an approaching robot destroying spiked roller of death.  It is a sort of relay race where you change robots when you change strings.  To keep ahead of the spike roller you have to collect certain power ups that will increase the distance between you and the death roller.  I felt like a picture did not accurately show what the game was like, so I included a video above.

There are two games that this Guitarcade calls back to.  The first is a blast from my personal past called "World Class Track Meet".  There was an old addition to the original Nintendo Entertainment System called the "Power Pad" and it came with a game, the only game I ever played that used the thing, called World Class Track Meet.  You "ran" on the pad and "jumped" to avoid hurdles in the track meet.

The second game that this calls to was Base Wars, a baseball game where they players were changes to robots.  Similar robot games also came out where they took sports and replaced the humans with robots and added power ups and such.  You mix Base Wars with World Class Track Meet and you get Hurtlin' Hurdles.

I do not play this game as much as the others.  I'm just not a tremelo person, but I can tell you that if you need to build up familiarity with the base technique, this game will do it.  If you need to build up the muscles that let you play tremelo for long periods of time, this game is a must, and this game will do it.  It is entertaining to watch, but very stressful to play.  The graphics, music, and style fit the influences perfectly and again, whoever put the time into making this game did a great job and really looks and feels like something they were passionate about.


Day 36

Today I worked on getting my "rock" tone better in Rocksmith.  I started with a JCM800 marshall amp, this is pretty much a standard in Rock.  I got the overdriven sound, but felt like it needed a little something extra.  I ended up putting the OCD clone pedal(Custom Overdrive I think it is) in front of the amp at a lower gain boost setting and that sounded pretty good.  There was something missing, and I couldn't quite figure it out.  I think what I realized is that my stereo's speakers are just weak in the treble.  I'm not a trebbly kind of person.  I prefer motown bass sounds and crunchy distortion in general, but when I put that treble booster in the signal chain, it made the sound come alive.  So it is something I would not use in real life through my amp, but it compensates for whatever is missing in my stereo speakers.  So when you're doing some tone shaping in Rocksmith, try out things you normally would not think you'd want to use.  I'm about 75% satisfied with the sound.  I had to put a noise gate in there because the treble boost is also a "junk" boost.

I have just about gotten "play effortlessly" in the easy, medium and powerchord version of Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd.  These are not Rocksmith categories, I'm learning this from watching youtube, but the skills to play this song are something I learned in Rocksmith, and that I am actively practicing in Rocksmith's Guitarcade and lesson practice tracks.  Next I need to start coming up with how I'm going to do my 1-2 minute "can you play Simple Man?" sample version.  This means I have to listen to the song in its entirety each day...  I have to reiterate that I'm not a huge Skynyrd fan lol.  This was simply to work on my technique.

I know that Simple Man and Everlong have featured a lot in these posts.  I am deliberately trying to be "light" on learning songs during this 60 day challenge.  I'm focusing on what I feel I am weakest on, and that's technique.  I feel like if I get diverted by learning 5-6 Beatles songs, 5-6 Black Sabbath songs, etc etc; that I will slack on my pure technique practice.  Sometimes I find songs that seem perfect for practicing the technique I'm working on, and that's the ones I feature here a lot.  Everlong helped me on Power Chords, timing practice, song section changes, and stuff like that.  Simple Man is teaching me chord changes, the balance of power chords with regular chords, and improvisation inside chord structure.

Tomorrow though... I'm thinking of investigating the basics of funk strumming.

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.