All about guitar - how to play the guitar, practicing the guitar, guitar effects pedals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and so much more. No matter what style of guitar you're into you'll find something here.
Here's a quick lesson about bending strings on the guitar. Bending strings add character to guitar solos and are often used in blues and rock music. I found a video that shows good string bending technique and provides exercises to practice them effectively. Also, it's important to recognize how specific string bends are written in guitar tab. The two articles I found should give you a great introduction to string bending and teach you how to start applying them to your own playing.
Here is some more information about string bending from About.com. This article provides some audio examples at the original source, and shows how they are written in guitar tab. Check it out here at http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa031401e.htm.
We've learned some interesting new techniques in the past few lessons, but none that will give you as much trouble in the beginning as string bending. Bending strings is a technique used, when playing single note riffs and solos, to give the guitar a more "vocal" quality. Although it's a technique used mostly by lead guitar players, even three chord folk guitarists will call upon string bends from time to time.
Bending Technique
Bending the strings far enough to get the pitch to change (which is what we're trying to do) takes a good deal of effort. The key is to use three of your fingers to bend the string, instead of just the finger on the fret you're trying to bend. You accomplish this by placing your third finger on the fret you're trying to bend. Place your first and second fingers on the frets behind it, and exert pressure with all three fingers. Let's look at the first exercise.
Start by fretting the note on the tenth fret of the second string, with your third finger. Your second finger should rest on the second string, ninth fret. Your first finger should rest on the second string, eighth fret. Our goal is to bend this note up one semi-tone (called a "half step"), and then return the note to it's original pitch. Play the tenth fret, then the 11th fret, so you can hear the proper pitch of the note you're trying to bend to. Then pick the note, and exert force in an upwards motion (towards you), while still putting some pressure on the string so it keeps ringing. Try and use all three fingers to bend the string, not just the third finger. Then, return the note to it's original pitch.
Chances are, when you first attempt this, you won't get the pitch to change much. This will be especially true if you try bending on an acoustic guitar - they are much harder to bend strings on. Be extremely patient... chances are you haven't used these muscles before, and they'll take time to strengthen. Keep practicing, and you'll get the hang of it eventually. Be sure and listen to the audio clip to hear what the bend should sound like.
A Harder Bending Technique
This exercise is exactly the same as the one above, except this time, we're going to attempt to bend the note up two frets (a "tone", or a "full step"). Start by playing the tenth fret, then the 12th fret, to hear the pitch you're trying to bend the note to. Now, while fretting the note on the tenth fret of the second string with your third finger, pick the note, and try to bend it up to the 12th fret, then return it to it's original pitch. Remember: use all three fingers to help bend the note, or you'll never be able to push the note far enough.
Things to Remember:
If the note is 'dying' before you've completed the bend, you've probably stopped exerting enough pressure against the fretboard to keep the note sounding. You HAVE to use all three fingers Make sure you're pushing the strings in the direction of the sky, not the ground. Bends are almost always done on the top three strings, as they are lighter, and are easier to bend. It's easier to bend strings on the higher frets on the guitar. Down near the headstock, it gets very hard to bend.
It will take time to master this technique, so be patient.
Mike's Guitar Talk is committed to providing the best guitar information to you every day. Subscribe now to receive all these articles e-mailed directly to your inbox so you don't have to go looking for them. Also, join in on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Guitar-Talk/208529755864772.
Professional musicians that have come before us have provided tips and insight into becoming musicians whether they may realize it or not. From making mistakes to guitar successes, we can watch and absorb these lessons to use in our own music careers. This post focuses on taking the right steps to become a musician. Whether you are starting off in a garage band or taking private music lessons, the advice found in the following articles will help steer you in the right direction to reach your music goals.
There’s a noticeable difference in skill level between the average amateur musician and the average professional. That’s obvious to even the casual listener. But if you’re an aspiring musician, the trouble is getting from here to there – and I’ve seen a lot of musicians waste a great deal of time heading down a path that seems correct: focusing only on technical skills.
Technical skills are important. The average professional musician will make fewer mistakes than the average amateur. The pro will be able to handle more difficult fingerings, play faster, and so on. The pro puts a lot more time into practice and performance rehearsal. These differences are obvious.
This leads the average aspiring musician to focus exclusively on their practice time. Putting in more time (and putting more into your time in terms of focus, practice organization, etc.) will probably make you a better technician. You might even become so good that you can make a living at playing. But that won’t necessarily make you a better musician.
Musicianship is the big picture – the total package, the creation of the entire musical experience. Technical ability is the toolbox we use for creating our big picture. The brush strokes of a sign painter might be just as precise as those of Rembrandt… but that technical ability won’t help the sign painter become a great artist without adding a few extra ingredients. Someone who has the big picture can be a great artist without having extreme technical ability – in the art world, a parallel might be Grandma Moses or Jackson Pollack. Their works don’t show the technical ability of many others, but that didn’t keep their art from rising above the pack.
I’m going to look at three and a half of the non-technical skills that great musical artists develop. Maybe you can use these musings as a road map for your own advancement.
1. Great musicians listen deeply.
There’s a lot going on in music. There’s the timing, the choice of notes, the relationship of pitches in a melody to each other, the interaction of pitches to create harmony, and the distribution of that harmony across instruments. There are variations in dynamics and phrasing that make each interpretation of a song slightly different from all the others – even if they’re played by the same group. The result is many layers of complexity, even in simple music.
When you’re listening to music, strive to get the most out of it that you can. When you’re practicing, keep those ears working: listen closely to the sounds you’re making, and how they relate to the techniques you’re using. When you’re playing with others, listen to what they’re doing, and how you’re relating to them. Eventually, you want to develop what pros call “big ears”, the ability to take in and process the big picture as it happens.
2. Great musicians categorize sounds in their minds.
Every rhythm, every scale, every interval, chord voicing, arrangement etc. is different. But they’re made up of the same stuff: sounds happening in time. Great musicians define sound in terms they can use.
For some that means understanding traditional music theory. For others it might be focusing on the ‘color’ they get when tones are distributed in a different way. But no matter how they go about it, great musicians organize their mental toolbox of sounds.
When you hear something that you like, listen to it over and over. Break it down: what makes it different from other things you’ve heard? What makes it similar? Can you apply the difference to another melody, or chord progression?
Great music and great performances break down into the combination of small things that aren’t remarkable in themselves. Becoming a musician isn’t just about adding more tools to your technical toolbox – it’s about taking the tools you already own and understanding exactly what you can do with them.
3. Great musicians use time.
Music is sound occurring as time unfolds. Time is the scaffolding on which we hang everything musical. We can organize everything neatly on that scaffold – with every sound happening in precise, regular time – or we can move those sounds forward or back against the beat.
The beat is the pulse of music. But the beat is not the music. We can divide up beats in different ways, we can play ahead of (or behind) the pulse of a tune. Great musicians ‘feel the beat’ and exploit the relationship between the pulse and what they do over it.
Any rhythm you can play on a guitar has three basic parts: the attack (when the sound begins), the duration (how long it lasts), and what happens in between. Silence is a huge part of rhythm. Listen deeply to the rhythms you hear, both in music and in everyday life, and categorize them in a way that works for you. Sharpen your sense of musical pulse at every opportunity – there is no substitute for an internal sense of rhythm.
3.5. Many great musicians know where they came from musically.
You’ll hear most musicians talk about their “influences.” For some, it’s just a laundry list of artists they like to listen to. And yes, those artists will influence your playing – because they shape the sound you hear inside your head… and great musicians take that sound in their head and put it out through their instrument, duplicating their vision as closely as possible.
But most of the great musicians I’ve known listen widely as well as deeply. I know a brilliant sax player who spends a lot of time listening to Hendrix. I know a punk guitarist who listens to a lot of Stravinsky. And I know classical musicians who spend time with bluegrass – and vice versa.
Listening widely as well as deeply, and categorizing the sounds they hear, allows these musicians to be deliberately influenced by other sources. A great example would be Paul Simon being influenced by African music (especially Mbaqanga) on the album “Graceland.” These musicians continually seek out and experiment with the unfamiliar, keeping what works for them and discarding the rest.
I hope you’ll find these observations useful in your own development as a musician.
There are three levels of practice that guitar players must know how to use in order to achieve their full potential on guitar. They are Microscopic Practice, Assimilating, and Shaping. I have covered in detail these three levels, or aspects of practice in Chapter 5 of “The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar.”
The first two levels are where we use specific procedures for teaching the fingers how to make the movements required to produce the notes we need. All technical problems are worked out in these two levels, and the music is “input” into the mind and body, at least as far as the mechanical process of playing the music goes.
However, the goal of all our practice is to go beyond the mechanical aspect of playing, and to put our mastery of the physical aspect of playing our music at the service of the ultimate goal: making music, real music. That is the purpose of the third level of practice, Shaping.
Imagine you are in a play, and they hand you your lines. You have to read them, and memorize them, and practice saying them. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with some of the words, you would have to learn the pronunciation, and practice saying the word correctly (Microscopic Practice). Perhaps you had a problem remembering all the lines, and saying them at the right time. You would have to work that out as well (Assimilating). Finally, it would be rehearsal time. You would be expected to have your lines down, and as the opening night came nearer, the director would expect you to be pumping blood into that part, and delivering a real flesh and blood character to the audience. He or she would be trying to help you and guide you to an ultimate vision of that character’s essence. The greater the actor and director, the more powerful that final vision and product will be. That final process is Shaping.
This is what we need to do with our music, to the best of our artistic skills, at any point in our development. Interestingly enough, many guitar students avoid this aspect of practice. They actually avoid putting everything together, and doing what guitar players are meant to do: “play” the guitar. This avoidance also prevents them from developing themselves into something that every guitar player should be, something that is actually more important than becoming a guitarist – becoming a musician.
Why do guitar students avoid this?
Many guitar students are afraidof putting everything together! They are always “trying” to learn a song, solo, or piece of music. They do not know how to do the first two levels of practice, and because of this they make many mistakes during playing, and breakdown all over the place. If they were to try to put all the music together and play it from beginning to end, they would get so frustrated and depressed at their inability to get through the music that they would feel like they might as well stop fooling themselves, do the world a favor, and give up the guitar!
Every guitar student must learn the first two levels of practice before they are even capable of the third level. We must be able to actually teach our fingers to do what they have to do to make each note we need, and we need to be able to string all those movements together into one continuous flow, so that our music can be given birth.
But like everything other living entity, after being born, our music must be developed. It must “grow,” it must “mature,” and ultimately have a life of its own that nonetheless reflects where it came from. All those who are already musicians know this, and do this.
And so must every guitar student if they wish to become guitar players and musicians.
How do we develop the music we play after we have given it birth, or the possibility of existing? How do we turn the results of the mechanical process of learning new finger movements into the wonderful emotional phenomenon we call “music?”
Like so many other things in life, there is only one way to do it, and that is to do it!
We must sit down, or stand up with our guitar, and play the music as if we were on stage performing it, or as if we were recording it. We must play the whole thing through, and on top of that, enjoy the music we are making as we do it. We must develop a relationship to the music itself, as if it were a living being we are getting to know. We must let it soak into us and speak to us. We must discover its meaning, for us, and we must let the music tell us how it wishes to be played. I call this process “going for the music.”
You may be thinking, “Well, isn’t that obvious? Do you really have to tell guitar players that they need to play the guitar? You don’t have to tell tennis players they need to play tennis do you?” If you are thinking that, and you are a guitar teacher, I guarantee you have many students who are not doing this. To them, it is not obvious, they need to be told to do it, in fact, they often need to be forced to do it.
I require all may students to do this, perhaps not with everything we work on, but I want to see a “body of work” developing over time, a group of pieces that they can play well, from beginning to end, in other words, a repertoire. To help them do this, to learn the hard work of “refining” a piece to performance level, I have made the “Guitar Principles Guitar Improvement Workshop” open to everyone, my personal students as well as all interested parties.
Getting Started
It can be overwhelming to begin this new, improved relationship to music and the guitar if you are one of the many guitar players who has never really taken command of a group of songs, solos, or pieces, and put them together, refined them, and brought them to “performance level.” Here is how to get started:
1) Pick 3 songs or pieces that you love, and feel are reasonable for you to expect to handle in a technical way.
2) Start with the first one, and begin to practice it with the intention of playing the whole thing from beginning to end.
3) Divide your song or piece into sections. Learn the first section. For a song, you might learn just the intro first, then add the first verse, then the pre-chorus, then chorus. Divide it into sections that make sense to you.
4) Focus on that first section. Do the necessary technical work at the Level 1 & 2 practice. If you use “The Principles,” you will know exactly how to do this. Use “The Basic Practice Approach” to bring the music to a slow but steady tempo. Usually, half of the performance speed is a good first goal.
5) Video yourself playing it. It will probably have various problems and breakdowns. Do not get upset! Instead, make the decision to find out what is wrong, by educating yourself about how to practice.
Go to my “Guitar Improvement Workshop”. Post the link to your video. You will then be told the nature of your problems and also exactly what you need to do to solve those problems and improve your playing.
You can be a good guitar player, and reach your guitar playing goals. But you have to do what all the rest of us who have become guitar players had to do. You have to “make it real” by going for the music, and when you find that you can’t quite get what you are going for, you have to learn how to remove whatever obstacle stands between you and your vision of the music.
For the ever-evolving guitarist/musician, technical understanding, technical work, and the achievement of greater musical intensity in our playing go hand in hand in each day’s practice.
Guitar lessons
Finally, many musicians have made mistakes in their career. Fortunately for us, we are able to observe these mistakes through their eyes and make sure to avoid them and reach our music goals. This last article focuses on 10 mistakes that people make when trying to become professional musicians. Find the article here at http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/professional-musician-mistakes/.
There many things you need to know and do in order to become successful in the music industry. But even if you learn and do all of those things, you still might prevent yourself from achieving success in the music business by making key mistakes along the way.
There are many pitfalls on the path to success, and that is particularly true in the music industry.
After mentoring many musicians who are developing their own music careers, I see the same false assumptions, problems, and mistakes appear again and again. Here is the list of the Top 10 mistakes that can hold you back:
Mistake #10 – Not having a compelling image that is congruent with your music. Most musicians (and bands) severely underestimate the importance of their image. Yes, music is about “music,” but the music business success is about having a total package that includes music, image, a visual stage show, and many other things that need to be fully developed and integrated in a congruent way.
Mistake #9 – Trying to “get your name out there.” Although this seems to be a main goal of most musicians and bands, it is the wrong approach to start with. Before trying to be seen and heard as much as possible, it is often more important to focus on “converting” the people who hear and see you into becoming actual fans. This “conversion” is the first key to your promotional success, not getting seen or heard as much as possible.
Mistake #8 – Believing that social media websites are the keys to online music promotion for musicians and bands. Social media websites are a tool. They are one piece of the online music marketing puzzle. Music industry companies (record labels, artist managers, booking agents, etc.) are far more interested in the popularity of your website, not how many friends you have at MySpace, YouTube, Facebook or any other website that you do not own and control. Want to impress the industry with your band’s promotion? Build your own personal website traffic.
Mistake #7 – Not investing enough time into building your music career. Most musicians spend most of their time on music, but put very little effort into the many other critical elements needed to make it in the music business. If you are already a talented musician, you should invest at least 50% of your time into starting or advancing your music career. If you are still developing your musical skills, you should still invest around 25% of your “music” time into building a future music career.
Mistake #6 – Surrounding yourself with people who are negative, lazy and lack ambition. If you are very serious about becoming a professional musician and building a great career in music, then you absolutely must surround yourself with like-minded musicians.
Mistake #5 – Having merely mediocre live performing skills. Many musicians who are not yet in a good band put off developing their live performing and stage presence skills. This is a big reason why talented musicians don’t get into really good bands that they audition for. Your music may be good, but a live show requires more than great music. If people only wanted to hear the music, they would listen to you at home. Both fans and record labels want (and expect) to see a real show. Neglecting live performance skills results in talented musicians and bands becoming quickly forgotten.
Mistake #4 – Focusing on increasing the quantity of fans instead of the intensity of your fans. The number of fans you have should always be your secondary focus (not your primary one) if you want to become successful in the music industry. The fact is, it is not the number of fans that matters most, but rather the number of fanatics which will contribute more directly to your success (or lack of it). This is particularly true in the beginning of a band’s music career. Focus more effort on converting your existing fans into raving fanatics. Learn to do this and the number of your overall fans will increase through powerful word of mouth. Mistake #3 – Not enough cash flow to support your music career. Like it or not, it takes money to build a music career. Even if other people/companies are paying for your record, tour support, merchandise, etc. you still need to have the freedom to pursue opportunities as they come. Sadly, many musicians miss opportunities because they can’t afford to take advantage of them. In addition to a decent income, you also need the flexibility of being able to take time away from that income source to go into the studio, go on tour, etc. That is why learning how to teach guitar is such a great way to achieve both if you learn how to become a highly successful guitar teacher.
Mistake #2 – Not enough depth in your music relationships. There’s an old expression, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” In music this is often modified to, “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.” The truth is it’s not about either. The most important aspect of connections within the music industry is how deep are the current relationships you have now and will develop in the future. You don’t want to simply know people or be known, you want people who know you to have a real deep connection with you so that you are always on the top of their mind when opportunities present themselves. Ask yourself, “What can I do right now to deepen my existing relationships further on an ongoing basis?”
Mistake #1 – Having a fundamental misunderstanding about what record companies look for – and expect – from new bands. This is a huge topic, but in a nutshell it’s very useful to think of record companies like a bank that lends money to people or small businesses. Record companies make most of their decisions about with whom they will work and what the terms will be in much the same way that a bank will determine who they will loan money to and what the terms of the loan will be. Both record companies and banks basically want to know three things:
How much value do you bring to the deal right now?
How much risk do you bring with you right now?
How much potential value and risk might you bring to them in the future after they invest in you?
If you want to buy a house, the bank wants to know a lot about the specific house you want to buy and even more about you. Record companies are the exact same, they want to know about your music, your talent and your band, but they also care as much (or more) about you (and your band mates) as people. What is it about you that will make a record deal a good or bad investment for them?
Mike's Guitar Talk is committed to providing the best guitar information on the web to you. Subscribe now to receive articles daily in your own e-mail inbox. You can also join up on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Guitar-Talk/208529755864772.
Choosing the right guitar amplifier is an important decision for every electric guitarist. The main reason is the amp can have drastic effects on the tone of your guitar. There has been a question that has been asked for decades, "Should I use a tube amp or a solid state amp?" Most guitarists have preferred tube amps in the heavy rock decades of the 1960s and 70s; mainly because technology hadn't produced a digital product that could match a tube amplifier. But now the question should be given some serious thought since we do have the digital technology to match tube amplifiers. This post is going to present a few different perspectives and answers to the amp question. It will also be a good introduction to both technologies in case you aren't already familiar with them.
When you're creating a band, you need to think about the instruments you have and how you can generate not only the best sound but the most unique sound as well. Tube guitar amplifiers are gaining in popularity because they are able to not only increase the sound that your instruments are generating but also help modify the tone.
If you already have a guitar, you don't need to go out and buy a bunch of new guitars or even hire a new guitar player for your band. All you really need are tube guitar amps to help create some new sound effects. This can be done as you play, or later on through the use of extensive programming, depending upon the type of amp that you buy.
Combo guitar amps can also help you get several different sounds in one unit. This is often more cost effective if you're trying to get multiple sounds throughout your music. It will also allow you to branch out much easier into other genres. Otherwise you could end up with multiple amps, each capable of producing only one or two necessary effects.
Whether you have an electric or acoustic guitar, your band can benefit from the sounds that tube guitar amplifiers can generate. These tube guitar amplifiers can be purchased for a few hundred dollars or a few thousand, depending on the quality, the features and of course, your budget. If you plan on playing professionally or going on tour, it would benefit you by spending the extra money because the quality of sound that it will produce will be much better.
When you're shopping for tube guitar amps, you need to look at what it can do for you. You should see if it will allow you to customize the frequencies and whether it will emphasize the sounds that you create or not. You will also be able to add various electronic effects. Depending upon the amp, you may also be able to record directly from the amp to make it easier to play back your sounds and figure out the settings.
Tube guitar amps have been a very important part of music for decades now. Tube amps in general are used throughout home theater systems and much more because of the great sound that they are able to produce. You can find them in various different sizes and you need to ensure that it is able to produce the volume of sound you need - especially if you're playing in night clubs or auditoriums packed with screaming fans.
As you shop around for the different amps, combo guitar amps should always be considered first. While they are a little more expensive, you will ultimately get the most use out of it because of what they are capable of. Many different brands manufacture combo guitar amps, so you need to shop each one, read the benefits and features and much more.
If you can find reviews about some of the amps, it can also help you decide if it's worth the money. This will tell you what other musicians have been using the amp for, the sounds they're getting from it and whether or not they think it's worth the money.
Your band will need a lot of different instruments and equipment to succeed in the music industry. Add a tube guitar amplifier to your list of needs and you'll be able to make the music you've always wanted to make.
The debate of Sold State VS Tube Amps has been getting more and more interesting as the technology behind digital effects continues to grow.
There is an interesting article at epinions.com, where the author did a sound test and apparently they participants couldn’t tell the difference between a solid state amp and a tube amp.
Guitar amps have come a long way since the electric guitar was first conceived. However, the advances in technology has not had the impact on amplifiers that one would have predicted. Tube Amplifiers, for now, appear be the king of tone in the guitar world.
Looking Under The Hood
Tube amplifiers use a series of old fashioned tubes to provide power, distortion, and tone. Solid State amplifiers rely on transistors, and sometimes software, to provide the tone. They both have the same job, to amplify the sound of your guitar, however they both sound totally different, with good and bad points.
So without further ado, here is my summary of the pros and cons of both Solid State amps and Tube/Valve amps.
Digital solid state amplifier
Solid State Amps
The Pros:
Usually have clean sounds, crisp and accurate.
Quick and responsive to your playing.
Can take more abuse in moving since there are very few fragile parts.
Require less maintenance.
Can emulate many different amplifiers at the push of a button.
The Cons:
Lacking “warmth” – Usually sounds cold and sterile.
Distortion is usually sharp sounding “like razorblades”.
Lacking Individual Tone. Most Solid State amps all sound very similar and will sound the same with almost any player.
Tube/Valve Amps
The Pros:
Tube amps are best known for their warmth. They are pleasing to the ear, something you can not justify in a laboratory. Scientists have no way of measuring the warmth, which is probably the reason that they have not been able to duplicate it in a solid state amp.
Each tube amp sounds different, each with its own unique tone. No two guitarists will sound the same through the same tube amp, as the amp will respond to the individuals playing technique in a totally different way. Tube amps have been described by many veteran guitarists as “Tone Monsters”.
Tube amps sound fat and thick, and will sound even fatter as the volume is turned up, creating that famous wall of sound. Tube amps sound HUGE!
Tubes, by their very nature of operation distort sound, and do so in the most pleasing way to the human ear, by Pushing and Pulling on each other. You can read more about how tubes work on wikipedia.
Tubes compress your sound in several ways, usually when to much power is demanded from the output transformer. The transformer can not handle the signal peaks and softly rounds them off, causing even more distortion. Trust me, it’s a good thing.
Unmatched in power and clarity (ie. 20W tubes can easily match the power of a 200W solid state)
The Cons:
Dosen’t sound as good at low volumes. Sounds better when you play them loud.
If you play every week, tubes will last a little over a year before they start to loose their tone. They need to be replaced and that will cost anywhere from $80 to $250.
Tube amps cost a lot more than a solid state.
You can’t instantly get access to different amps “emulated” sounds with the click of a button. Generally, if you use a tube amp, you would use guitar pedals to create different sounds. Here’s my list of the top 39 pedals for guitarists.
Tube amps in general are very heavy.
In summary, every guitarist is searching for that the ultimate tone producing guitar, amp and pedal combination. As we grow as guitar players, we will no doubt make many different purchases, and every now and then hopefully we will come across something magical. When you play the perfect guitar and amp combination, it’s a feeling like no other!
Mike's Guitar Talk is committed to providing the best guitar information to you on the web. Subscribe now to enjoy these articles daily by receiving them in your inbox. Also, join up on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Guitar-Talk/208529755864772.
Rock legends like Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Iron Maiden and KISS have have offered the world more than hit songs, killer shows and shredding guitars... they have also inspired some of the best all-female tribute bands to hit the road too. I'm talking about Misstallica, Lez Zeppelin, Judas Priestess, Hell's Belles, Iron Maidens and PRISS. These rock girls have toured the world as tribute acts to some of the most iconic bands in rock music history. This feature will introduce you to all these great tribute bands with video performances included. Enjoy!
They’ve got the hair. They can rock tight pants. And lord knows, they’ve got the balls to think they can do justice to the songs of the legends.
Yep, they’re all-female tribute bands, and they are kicking ass across the globe.
These six bands are made up of seasoned musicians who are not only serious about laying down an authentic performance of classic rock and metal, but they also bring their own artistry to the table.
So check out these six, um, titillating all-female tribute bands. And who knows; maybe with your help I’ll track down a few more! Share your faves in the comments below.
Misstallica
These ladies rock hard and they aren’t afraid to get loud! OMG, I can’t even re-write this, it’s so good. Straight from their site:
"MISSTALLICA is the WORLD’s ONLY and GREATEST All-Female Tribute to Metallica!!! Formed in 2008 as a side project to the girls’ already successful Queen Diamond (All-Female Tribute to King Diamond), MISSTALLICA was the response to the want and need for old school thrash metal and a pretty face to go with it! MISSTALLICA offers the Metallica experience but with BOOBIES!!!"
Lol! Gina Gleason rocks guitars and vocals while Tiana Jimenez takes on lead guitar duties.
Can an all-female band really do the masters of metal justice? Click here and view the vid:
Lez Zeppelin
Lez Zeppelin recorded their first album with Eddie Kramer as producer. They tracked down all original gear, we’re talking an ’50s-era Les Paul and Telecaster, Supro amp, '60s-era compressor, Hammond organ and a Fuzzbender stomp box. And then they recorded their second album in an all analog studio with producers Perry Margouleff and William Wittman.
This is serious tribute shit. They’ve got the chops. Hell, they’ve toured the world playing some seriously major venues, including coveted spots on Bonnaroo, Rock-am-Ring, VooDoo Festival and more. Yep, Lez Zeppelin performs, records, and pretty much lives, eats and breathes Zeppelin. Are they straight, Are they gay? Who cares. “Definitely. Probably. Maybe,” says Steph Paynes, the lead guitarist and founder of the group. What I do know? They are definitely worth a listen.
Here are the ladies dishing out “Communication Breakdown.” Can you take it?
Judas Priestess
Formed in late 2009, Judas Priestess claims it has “the blessing of the Metal God himself, Judas Priest front man, Rob Halford.” Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know these ladies put their hearts and souls into delivering the goods when it comes to playing the Priest. A staple at motorcycle rallies across the Southern U.S., New York-based Judas Priestess dives into the classic hits and deep album cuts. And I’ve gotta say, in addition to D Mercedes and Josette’s blazing dual lead guitar chops, singer MilitiA is simply mesmerizing.
This video doesn’t do justice to their face-melting live performances. But it’ll give you a little taste of what you’re in for!
PRISS
Billing themselves as “the sexy alter ego of the greatest band of all time,” PRISS does up KISS in full stage makeup. Based in LA, the ladies in PRISS have been honing their chops for several years. With Sharon Needles as “Doll Stanley” and Jennifer Paro as “Lace Frehley,” PRISS excels at dead on guitar goodness. But the best little tidbit I dug up was this video clip of the girls appearing on “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” when Shannon Tweed joins them at the mic.
Is Gene Simmons on tranquilizers? Anyhow, if you wanna see some Detroit Rock City strut, keep an eye open for PRISS.
Kind of a so-so video recording, but you can tell these ladies are serious about rocking it!
Hell’s Belles
“The best AC/DC cover I’ve heard? There was an all-girl cover band in America called Hell’s Belles!” so says Angus Young himself. And who are we to argue with Angus?
Celebrating 11 years of AC/DC extravaganza, the longevity of this group is a statement all its own, testifying to the professionalism, musicianship and pure showmanship of its members.
I love this quote from their site bio: “It’s ever increasingly rare that the fans are amazed by these five ‘Women,’ yet, it’s almost always the fans are blown away by the truth and finesse these 5 musicians present AC/DC, night after night, city to city, tiny bar to grand theatre.” Now that’s what this column is all about. Just rockin’ it like we mean it. You go girls.
Here’s a video of Hell’s Belles rocking “Thunderstruck.”
The Iron Maidens
Perhaps the best known and loved of all female tribute bands, the LA-based Iron Maidens are the breeding ground for serious guitar talent. A couple Iron Maidens guitarists mentioned previously in this column are Nili Brosh and Nita Strauss. The band and its members have been the recipients of many awards including best tribute band, and best in category (guitar, bass, drums, voice) at events such as The Rock City News Awards, The LA Music Awards, and The All Access Magazine Award Show to name a few.
The current lineup has Kirsten “Bruce Chickinson” Rosenberg on vocals, Linda “Nikki McBURRain” McDonald on drums, Courtney “Adriana Smith” Cox and Nita “Mega Murray” Strauss on guitars, and Wanda "Steph Harris" Ortiz on bass. So hot and so good, you’ll walk home with your ears ringing and a smile on your face.
Watch the Iron Maidens perform to a crowd of 40,000. Don’t ya wanna be there?
Mike's Guitar Talk is committed to providing the best guitar information to you on the web. Subscribe now to enjoy these articles daily by receiving them in your inbox. Also, join up on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Guitar-Talk/208529755864772.
Guitarists everywhere can learn a few lessons about showmanship and guitar playing from guitar icon, Angus Young from AC/DC. Fortunately for his fans, Young has provided us with some great interviews about his playing, his guitar heroes, and the band. This feature will highlight some things you may not know about Angus Young and then I'll also provide some of his history with AC/DC and his gear. You will also read some information about his playing style; since he is known for being a hard picker. I hope you enjoy this feature on guitar legend, Angus Young.
Angus Young of AC/DC
From Wikipedia.org
I'd like to start off with a biography of the band AC/DC. This should catch you up on the group in case you aren't so familiar with them, and lead into some of the more rare information about Angus Young later in the feature. Check it out here at http://www.guitarworld.com/biography-acdc.
More than three decades into a career that shows no signs of slowing down or letting up, AC/DC, like electricity itself, provides the world with an essential source of power and energy. Since forming in 1973, AC/DC's high voltage rock 'n' roll has flowed out into the world via consistently sold-out concert tours and global sales totaling more than 150 million albums and counting.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment's #1 best-selling catalog act worldwide, AC/DC has sold nearly 70 million albums in the U.S. alone, making AC/DC one of the five top-selling bands in American music history. One of the group's best-loved works, the enormously successful and influential Back In Black, has achieved RIAA "Double Diamond" status, for sales in excess of 22 million copies in the United States, and is the U.S.'s fifth largest-selling album ever.
But the roots of AC/DC lie back in Australia, and before that Glasgow, Scotland, where Angus and Malcolm Young, the musical core of the band (and still the most formidable guitar team in rock history), were born (in 1958 and 1953, respectively). In 1963, the Young family migrated to Sydney, Australia, where music would make its mark on the brothers. (As a member of the Easybeats, Angus and Malcolm's older sibling, George Young, was responsible for one of Australia's first international hits, "Friday On My Mind," in 1966. From 1974 through 2000, George and musical collaborator, Harry Vanda, produced a number of AC/DC albums including High Voltage, T.N.T., Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock, If You Want Blood You've Got It, Powerage, '74 Jailbreak, Who Made Who, Blow Up Your Video, and Stiff Upper Lip.)
Taking a cue and encouragement from their older brother's musical success, Angus and Malcolm Young formed their own rock 'n' roll combo and premiered their inimitable interlocking guitar sound on December 31, 1973 at a New Year's Eve gig at Sydney's Chequers Club.
Calling their new rock band AC/DC (from the back of a sewing machine owned by their sister, Margaret), Angus and Malcolm moved from Sydney to Melbourne and began plowing through numerous line-ups searching for a solid rhythm section and a lead singer whose voice could match the manic assault of the Young brothers' guitars. The newly-christened AC/DC found its spiritual sparkplug in Bon Scott, a hard-living, hard-loving, hard-playing wild-eyed rabble-rousing singer who'd once "auditioned" for the band when he'd worked for them as a roadie and driver back in Sydney. With Bon Scott, another born Scotsman who'd relocated to Australia as a lad, in place as co-frontman to Angus' trademark raffish schoolboy-in-knickers, AC/DC was ready to electrify the world.
Quickly signed by George Young to the Albert Records label in Australia, AC/DC kicked out its first Australian album releases, 1974's High Voltage (a somewhat different album from the US High Voltage) and 1975's T.N.T. With each album achieving silver, gold, and platinum status in Australia, AC/DC embarked on a regime of relentless touring that would become one of the most enduring hallmarks of the band's career.
In 1976, having conquered their very first continent, AC/DC set off for Great Britain. When the band's no-holds-barred double-barrel rock 'n' roll landed them a residency at the prestigious Marquee Club, AC/DC promptly broke the venue's all-time house attendance record. AC/DC's days in clubland would not last much longer. Within a year, Let There Be Rock, the band's first simultaneous world release and first to use the unmistakable AC/DC logo—raised metallic Gothic lettering separated by Zeus's own lightning bolt—would catapult them into the stadium strata. AC/DC was ready to take on America.
The summer of 1977 found AC/DC performing a dizzying crisscross of American gigs, ranging from clubs like the Palladium and CBGB in New York and the Whiskey in Los Angeles to sprawling venues like the Jacksonville Coliseum. By 1978, AC/DC was one of the hottest concert attractions in the world. For the group's next studio album, they teamed up with producer Mutt Lange to create the undeniable hard rock masterpiece, 1979's Highway To Hell, the first AC/DC album to break into the US Top 100 and the first to go gold in America. In November of that year, the band went to Paris to film the monumental Let The Be Rock concert film, a quintessential document of a golden moment in the band's rise to world fame.
On February 19, 1980, with the band finding genuine success around the world, lead singer Bon Scott died in London at the age of 33. Reeling from the shock of the loss of their boisterous soulful lead singer, the surviving members of AC/DC decided there was only one way to pay proper tribute to Bon Scott: carry on and create the music he'd want them to make.
The group found an incredibly simpatico new lead singer and frontman in Brian Johnson, a Newcastle native who'd sung in a band Bon Scott raved about called Geordie. Returning to the studio with Mutt Lange, AC/DC and the group's new vocalist created Back In Black, one of the best-selling albums, in any musical genre, of all-time. Powered by the title track and the anthemic "You Shook Me All Night Long," "Back In Black" hit #1 in the UK and #4 in the US, where it has gone on to achieve 22x platinum (double Diamond plus) status.
AC/DC continued releasing best-selling albums through the 1980s and 1990s accompanied by strings of sold-out tours and major headlining concert and festival performances—including attendance-record-smashing concerts on the "Monsters of Rock," Castle Donington, "Rock In Rio," and 1991's "Rock Around The Bloc" festival at Tushino Airfield in Moscow, a free concert attended by close to one million fans.
On September 15, 2000, AC/DC was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and had their hands imprinted in the cement in front of the Guitar Center on Hollywood Boulevard.
On March 10, 2003, AC/DC was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Aerosmith's Steve Tyler performed the induction, sang "You Shook Me All Night Long" with AC/DC during the ceremony and described the group's signature power chords and timelessly enduring rock 'n' roll as "...the thunder from Down Under that gives you the second-most-powerful surge that can flow through your body."
AC/DC's most recent record, Black Ice, was released in October 2008 on Columbia Records.
This column comes from Angus Young's classic magazine column, "Let There Be Rock." Interview by Nick Bowcott.
AC/DC are more than just a great rock band, they're an institution. Trends may come and go, but their unique brand of rhythm 'n bruise has proven to be timeless. Angus Young, the band's lead playing livewire, has also deservedly attained a legendary standing in the business. In fact, one of modern rock's leading lights, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains recently refered to him as "the absolute god of blues-rock guitar."
In the first of a series of exclusive lessons with Guitar World, Angus talks about his unique playing style ... "Style? I didn't think I had any!" laughs Angus. "I just plug in and hit the thing really hard. That's my style ... or lack of one! That's why I use extra-heavy Fender picks-there's a lot of plastic in 'em so it takes longer to wear 'em out! Actually, because I'm so small, when I strike an open A chord I get physically thrown to the left and when I play an open G chord I go right. That's how hard I play, and that's how a lot of my stage act has come about. I just go where the guitar takes me."
GUITAR WORLD: Did you play that hard from the moment you started or is it something that evolved?
ANGUS YOUNG: I've always liked to really hit the strings. I grew up with Mal [Mal is Angus' nickname for his brother Malcolm, AC/DC's rhythm guitarist/riff-writer-GW Ed.), who, besides having a great right [picking] hand, really understands how to get the most out of a guitar. He would always tell me, "don't tickle it, hit the bugger!"
The funny thing is, when you learn to play really hard you also learn the instrument's limitations. I honestly believe that you have to be able to play the gu itar hard if you want to be able to get the whole spectrum of tones out of it. Since I normally play so hard, when I start picking a bit softer my tone changes completely, and t hat's really useful sometimes for creating a more laid-back feel.
The verse of "Sin City" [Powerage] is a good example of this being put into action.
Yeah, we belt out the main riff pretty hard during the intra and the chorus, but when the vocal comes in we ease back on it a bit. Doing that adds a bit of color and dynamics to the song. You can't always be going for the throat, mate! You need some relief from time to time.
Do you ever reach for your guitar's volume pot and turn it down a tad when you're easing back on the intensity?
Yeah, I'll roll it back just a hair for that kinda part sometimes. It depends if I think I'm being cool-which is pretty friggin ' rare, actually! [laughs] Normally, I'm too lazy to do that, so I just pick a little lighter instead. Or, sometimes I might even sit out for a while, like I do at the start of "Livewire" [High Voltage]. Mal starts the thing off with the chords and then I just jump in when the rest of the band comes in. That's the beauty of having another guitarist there, I can nip off for a quick smoke and leave Mal to it! [laughs)
Do you ever switch to your neck pickup to create a different tonal vibe?
I used to do that a lot; I'd be fiddling about with the [pickup slector] switch all the time. I still hunt back and forth sometimes now, but only if I'm in a diddly mood.
On stage though, I rarely do it. Hell, you can do a lot to alter your tone just by changing where you pick the strings -- you don't even have to flick that switch! If you pick near the bridge you get more top and as you move further away from it your sound gets more bassy.
Another thing I' ll do to add a bit of color to a part is pick it with my fingers. I do that quite a bit, and so does Mal.
Like at the start of "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" [Back in Black] for example...
Exactly. I kick the thing off by picking out the riff using my pick and my fingers together [a technique known as hybrid picking]. Then, when the band comes in, I just hammer it out to get a more dynamic thing happening.
It’s been nearly four decades since Malcolm Young invited his kid brother, Angus, to join a new band he was putting together. Who could have imagined, at that time, that all these years later AC/DC would still be churning out some of the world’s greatest riff-rock?
Through the years, legions of guitar players and fans have delved deeply into Angus’ background, perhaps looking for the secrets behind his artful riff-making. Still, we managed to uncover some biographical facts that might have escaped all but the most diehard followers.
He still owns the very first Gibson SG he bought – 41 years ago.
Young purchased a late ’60s Gibson SG from a music shop located within walking distance of his family’s home in Sydney, Australia, when he was just 16 years old. To this day, it remains one of his main go-to guitars. “I think it was the little devil horns [that sold me],” he told the New Zealand Herald, in 2010. “I’ve still got it and it’s still my favorite guitar of them all.”
His main pre-AC/DC job prepared him well for the band’s bawdy lyrical content.
Young left school before his 15th birthday. Not long afterwards, he took a job working as a typesetter at a “men’s” magazine that sported the title, Ribald. Malcolm, incidentally, had by then put in a couple of years doing sewing machine maintenance for a company that manufactured bras.
His older sister, Margaret, suggested something even more important than Angus’ trademark schoolboy uniform.
Most AC/DC fans know that it was the Young brothers’ sister, Margaret, who encouraged Angus to wear his schoolboy get-up on-stage. But fewer fans realize that it was also Margaret who christened her siblings’ band “AC/DC” after noticing the letters on a vacuum cleaner. According to biographer Susan Masino, Angus and Malcolm liked the fact that the letters denoted power and electricity.
He’s a closet fan of jazz great Louis Armstrong.
In a 1992 interview with Guitar magazine, Young hailed Louis Armstrong as “one of the greatest musicians of all time.” He went on to explain: “I went to see [Armstrong] perform when I was a kid, and that’s always stuck with me. It’s amazing to listen to his old records and hear the musicianship and emotion, especially when you consider that technology, in those days, was almost nonexistent. There was an aura about him.”
He regards solos as the easiest part of what he does.
Young once told Guitar Player that, while he couldn’t fill Malcolm’s shoes as a guitarist, Malcolm could likely fill his, at least with regard to solos. “That’s the easy part,” he said. “There’s no great thing in being a soloist. I think the hardest thing is to play together with a lot of people, and do that right. I mean, when four guys hit one note all at once – very few people can do that.”
He was “totally shocked” when Malcolm asked him to join the band.
“In the beginning, we never used to play together, even at home,” Angus told Guitar, in 1992. “Malcolm would be in one room with his tape recorder putting tunes together, and I would be in the other room pretending I was Jimi Hendrix. When I’d walk in to see what he was up to, he’d go, ‘Get out!’ I was amazed when he asked me to come down to a rehearsal and play.”
His riffs helped oust former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega from power.
In 1989, American government officials bombarded Manuel Noriega’s embassy refuge in Panama with “Hells Bells,” “Highway to Hell” and other choice riff-rockers. The tactic worked so well with Noriega, who was known to be an opera lover, that it’s since been employed by U.S. officials in other similar situations.
He’s always been a teetotaler.
Bon Scott was known for his prodigious consumption of alcohol. Through the years, Malcolm Young has imbibed his share of booze as well. Not so with Angus. “Angus was always drinking a big glass of chocolate milk or coffee,” Nantucket guitarist Tommy Redd once recalled, years after touring with AC/DC. “Malcolm, however, used to walk around with Jack Daniels in a bottle that was as big as he was.”
One of his closest friends during the making of the Back in Black album was … ELP’s Keith Emerson.
In the wake of Bon Scott’s death, AC/DC traveled to the Bahamas to recover from the shock, and to record Back in Black. Especially therapeutic were the afternoons when Emerson, Lake and Palmer keyboardist Keith Emerson, who lived in Nassau at the time, took Angus and the other band members out on his fishing boat. “I think it was great excitement for them, and kind of introduced them to my way of the Bahamian life,” Emerson later said. “I think they grew to like it and it [helped them] settle into recording.”
He expects he’ll still be wearing his schoolboy outfit on-stage well into his 60s.
When asked by Guitar if he would still be donning his trademark “get-up” at age 64, Angus described his attire as distinguished and “classic.” “Have you seen what some of the younger [artists] are wearing nowadays?” he asked. “They look like they’ve stolen their mothers’ skirts! If that’s fashionable, then you could say I’ve maintained a distinctively classic look.”
Mike's Guitar Talk is committed to providing the best guitar information to you on the web. Subscribe now to receive these articles daily in your inbox and join in the conversation on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Guitar-Talk/208529755864772.
Few professional guitarists have bridged as many musical gaps as Brian Setzer. Originally the front man of the rockabilly group, the Stray Cats, Setzer has had a successful career playing styles of rock, jazz, folk, rockabilly, and even a little blues. This post is all about the iconic guitar legend, Brian Setzer. If you have never seen or heard him perform, then I guarantee you are in for a treat.
Brian Setzer
From Wikipedia.org
Let's start out with some of Setzer's background and impact on the music industry. He has been a powerhouse performer on stages all over the world for many years. Read this excerpt from one of his long time fans at http://www.guitarworld.com/latest-buzz-ode-brian-setzer-not-so-stray-cat.
Every boy has a hero, someone they want to be like and spend numerous hours trying to emulate.
In 1991, I was invited by my girlfriend to see a band she thought I would enjoy. I was very into 1950s rock 'n' roll. I wore blue jeans and rolled-up white T-shirts and I had just bought myself a 1956 Buick Special, red with a white top, four doors, a little rusty but the original tube radio still worked…I was sold.
She bought tickets for my birthday to see a band that was playing at the Bacchanal, an old club that existed off of Claremont Mesa Boulevard. The band was called the Stray Cats. I had a recollection of them from the early '80s, but did not know much about them.
My girlfriend and I went into the club early and got a great place right in front of the stage. When the show began, three lonely musicians took the stage. An upright bass, a very small drum setup, and a guitar and amp were the all the back line provided for this tiny trio. I don’t know exactly what happened after that, all I can say was that I was rocked out of my socks.
That night struck a chord in me that has never stopped ringing. I dropped out of school the next day and set out to start my own group. My friends were studying to be doctors, lawyers and responsible business people. I wanted to start my own version of the Stray Cats, but more importantly, I wanted to be Brian Setzer.
Setzer was born on April 10, 1959, in Massapequa, New York, and raised in Long Island. In 1979 Brian formed a rockabilly cover band with his brother Gary on drums and Bob Beecher on bass, calling themselves the Tom Cats. Brian left in early 1980 to join school pals Jim McDonald and Lee Drucker to form the Stray Cats.
By the summer they left the U.S. and headed to Britain where they thought people might be hipper to their sound. Following a gig at London's The Venue, they encountered Dave Edmunds in their dressing room. Famed as both a performer and producer, Edmunds told them he'd like to work with them before a record label or manager (that probably didn't know what they were doing) screwed them all up.
They signed to Arista Records and over five days in October they recorded their first album at the Eden and Jam Studios in London. The following month, “Runaway Boys” was released as their first single, and the rest his history.
“Runaway Boys” is a neo-rockabilly classic. It was perfect for the time and helped generate a new band of followers for the group and the genre. They returned to the U.S. and with the strength generated from their first hit in England, they charted in the U.S. as well with “Runaway Boys” and had even greater success with songs such as “Rock this Town” and “Stray Cat Strut,” which went to number three in 1983.
Brian, Lee, and Jim had successfully and single-handedly brought back the rockabilly sound reminiscent of the days of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran.
After many years of success, Brian and the Stray Cats went their separate ways. Setzer had a few solo album releases but eventually went on to his next idea. Brian had a huge love for jazz standards and big band music. He decided to form his own big band and do standards and originals lead by an electric guitar. Brian put together The Brian Setzer Orchestra, aka BSO.
BSO originally got signed to Hollywood Records. They had moderate success with the first album release but because of the great expense of a 17-piece orchestra and no major hit, the label dropped Setzer. Brian shelled a large portion of his own money into the project. He was still making quite a bit off of his royalties with the Stray Cats, but it was depleting fast.
Nevertheless, he believed in the project and kept it afloat. When it seemed as though he would run out of money, BSO got signed to Interscope Records. This major label gave the group the marketing push that it needed. “Jump, Jive, and Wail,” a tune made famous by Louie Prima, made the top 40 list and in 1999, Brian Setzer received two Grammy awards: Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for “Jump, Jive, and Wail” and Best Pop Instrumental Performance for “Sleepwalk," a catchy instrumental penned and performed originally by Santo & Johnny.
Once again, Brian Setzer had done the impossible. He had brought back the “big band” sound to a mainstream level. The jazz music genre, which at first was reluctant to the greasy rock and roller, accepted Brian and credited him for helping get mainstream folks back into jazz music.
I met Brian at the NAMM show in California for the first time in 1993, two years after I saw him perform with the Stray Cats. I gave him the first album release of my group, Hot Rod Lincoln. I had dedicated the album to him for inspiring me to form the group and chase my own dreams.
I met him six months later at a press appearance for his orchestra on 91X, the San Diego-based radio station. Brian told me that he really enjoyed the album and thanked me for the dedication. It was then that I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I thanked Brian personally for inspiring me and when we looked at each other, I almost broke down. He was touched by this and we have been friends ever since.
Hot Rod Lincoln has opened for BSO many times. We even played a Christmas party at his private home. Brian wrote “Blue Café," the title track to my third record. The album won “best local recording” at the San Diego music awards in 1997.
Brian Setzer, in my opinion, is one of the best guitarists in the world. He has single-handedly brought back two genres of music, regardless of the music going on at the time. His energy is incredible both on and off the stage.
Aside from the style of his playing, Brian has taught me a couple of things that have become my own rule of thumb. Once he told me, “It is more important to take one note and hold it for the guy in the front row than to play a lot of great chops.” I have never forgotten that and always try to play to the audience rather than in front of them.
The other was to be humble. I have never met a guy more humble than Brian. Anytime a fan wants to talk, I always make a point to stop and give them the time they deserve, just as Brian has done for his fans and did for me. I often wonder what I might be doing with my life if I had not seen Brian Setzer perform in 1991.
I wanted to add that -- since this time (I wrote the above piece a while ago) -- I became lead guitarist for Lee Rocker, bassist of the Stray Cats, and also got to open for their tour of Europe in 13 countries during the summer of 2008. It’s been a fantastic ride and continues to be. I believe if one follows their heart and dreams, good things will come.
Here’s a video of me playing with the Stray Cats the last night of the tour in Brussels in front of about 3,000 people. This was the pinnacle of my life, as far as dreams are concerned. Truly going full circle from being in the front row, to on stage with my favorite band ... an indescribable experience.
Immediately after I got off the stage, I went to the dressing room along and stared at myself in the mirror for 10 minutes. I couldn’t believe it happened.
The best way to experience Setzer's music is live. Fortunately, we can have the next best thing, seeing videos of live shows. You got a taste of the Stray Cats in the last article, but lets take a look at his big band. Check out the video here at http://www.guitar-tube.com/watch/brian-setzer-mercury-blues.
Setzer's latest album, Setzer Goes Instru-Mental, is his first ever all instrumental album. This next post catches you up to speed with the album and offers some of Setzer's insight into his songwriting method and guitar gear. Check it out now at http://www.guitaraficionado.com/from-the-magazine-brian-setzer.html.
In a career spanning more than four decades, Brian Setzer has made an indelible mark on rockabilly and big-band music. With his latest album, he’s now conquered instrumental music as well.
By Chris Gill
You won’t find many successful musicians forsaking Southern California’s balmy climes for Minneapolis’ frigid environs, but that’s just what Brian Setzer did. In 2005, the guitarist relocated to the city from Los Angeles, his home for two decades. The move apparently did nothing to slow him down. Since then, the former Stray Cats frontman has recorded several outstanding albums, including the rocking solo album 13 and his most recent studio effort with the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Songs from Lonely Avenue, a jazzy, sophisticated collection of self-penned material that many critics praised as some of the finest work in his 30-year career.
“Minneapolis is a good place to be,” says Setzer, relaxing among an impressive assortment of vintage and custom Gretsch guitars and classic amps scattered about his downtown loft. “It’s really nice up here, if you don’t mind the cold weather. The people are great, it’s not crowded, and there is no rush-hour traffic. You can drive 15 minutes and go fishing or enjoy any variety of outdoor activities. There’s also a really good music scene downtown.”
Although Setzer spent most of 2010 enjoying the comforts of home away from the road, he didn’t relax idly by the ol’ fishin’ hole. Instead, he recorded his first all-instrumental effort, Setzer Goes Instru-Mental, which is the album longtime fans of his guitar playing have waited to hear. While Setzer has offered a few tastes of his fierce guitar-playing skills on a handful of extended solos or a rare instrumental track on his albums with the Stray Cats or the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Setzer Goes Instru-Mental showcases his impressive talents and the breadth of his playing like never before. In the pantheon of great instrumental guitar albums, it deserves a prominent place alongside hillbilly jazz classics by Jimmy Bryant, Hank Garland, and Joe Maphis as well as discs by modern style-fusing virtuosos like Danny Gatton and the Hellecasters.
Rockabilly guitar
“I didn’t start off wanting to do a purely instrumental record,” Setzer admits. “When I started writing songs for this record, I quickly completed six or seven songs with vocals. All of a sudden, I started fooling around with the melody chords that became the foundation for my version of ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky.’ I thought it sounded really cool.
People don’t really play that style of chord melody any more. Before I knew it, I had the whole song rearranged and redone. I ended up abandoning the other path I was on and started going in an instrumental direction. Then the ideas started flying.”
Although the album features a few covers, like “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” the jazz standard “Cherokee,” and the quintessential Gene Vincent rockabilly classic “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” most of the songs are new original compositions. “Far Noir East” tips its wide-brim Borsalino to moody crime jazz, while “Earl’s Breakdown” pays tribute to bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs, with Setzer pickin’ and grinnin’ on a five-string banjo.
“Intermission” has the smooth savoir-faire of a Jimmy Bryant barnburner, contrasting the gritty, reverb-drenched, surf-inspired “Go Go Godzilla” and “Hot Love.” The track “Pickpocket” showcases Setzer’s signature rockabilly-infused Travis picking at its finest, while his solo performance on “Hillbilly Jazz Meltdown” will likely earn him respect from a new following of guitar connoisseurs.
When told that several of the songs on the album feature performances that are reminiscent of classic instrumental tracks by Jimmy Bryant, Hank Garland, and Les Paul, Setzer admits, “I don’t really study other players, per se. It just comes out of me sounding the way it does. I’m Brian Setzer, but I am influenced by a wide variety of guitar players who make me who I am. Sometimes I think that playing so many different styles might hurt me a little bit; people generally want to listen to a musician or artist who does one thing straight down the middle. That just ain’t what I do. You could argue that it’s been to my advantage, and maybe that’s why I’ve been around for more than 30 years. I do it because I always like to try to do different things. I get bored doing the same thing. In this case, I realized that I had never made a record where it was just me playing guitar.
“All of the songs have a little taste of somebody else,” he elaborates. “The end of ‘Cherokee’ sounds a little like Les Paul, and ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ is my own version of that song, but if you’re a guitar player you just have to play Cliff Gallup’s solo. I didn’t nail it down perfectly note for note, but you have to get that same feel because it’s so classic and good.”
Speaking of classic and good, the guitars that Setzer used to record the album included several choice instruments from his collection that he’s rarely had the proper opportunity to record with before. “I finally got to use my 1963 D’Angelico Excel on ‘Cherokee,’” he explains. “That guitar is a god. It has a Rhythm Chief pickup on it, and I plugged it straight into a 1961 Fender Twin amp. The acoustic rhythm guitar is also the D’Angelico, but I unplugged it and recorded it acoustically with a mic. If you’re going to play an archtop, there’s nothing that compares to a D’Angelico. The D’Angelico is the Stradivarius of the modern age. It sounds like a piano. I’m lucky to have two D’Angelico guitars: the Excel and a New Yorker.”
Setzer played another iconic jazz archtop on “Lonesome Road.” “I used a Stromberg Master 400 on that song,” he says. “Wow! What a guitar. It has a big, beautiful sound that is unlike anything else. It’s a whole different beast than the D’Angelico, but it sounds great as well. I really love old archtops. I’ve always wanted a Stromberg, and I finally found some guy in England who had one for sale. I couldn’t believe it when I found it. I traded one of my guitars with him and gave him some cash.”
However, for most of the album Setzer relied primarily on his trusty Gretsch guitars. “For the rockin’ stuff, I’ve never been able to beat that Gretsch tone,” he says. “I bought my first Gretsch 6120 when I was a kid. When I plugged it into my Bassman amp I went, ‘There it is!’ That was the sound I was looking for. I’ve tried to improve upon that sound, and I’ve even tried playing through other rigs. I once tried playing a Les Paul through a Marshall, for example. But I never could beat that sound. It works for me.”
To record Setzer Goes Instru-Mental, Setzer initially planned to use that same iconic 1959 Gretsch 6120, which he has played on records since the beginning of the Stray Cats, plugged into his 1962 Fender Bassman amp piggybacked on a matching 2×12 cabinet. But his signature rig started giving him trouble as soon as recording got underway.
“A lot of my vintage gear broke down on me while I was using it,” he says. “I played my ’59 Gretsch through the ’62 Bassman on the first song I recorded, but halfway through the song I realized that one of the speakers was blown. Luckily, we miked the speaker that was still good. After that, the Gretsch started to fall apart. First a few frets slid out, and then the Bigsby broke. I guess I play my guitars pretty hard. I just said the hell with it and grabbed my new signature model Gretsch or one of my Gretsch Hot Rod guitars instead and used them for the rest of the record.
“It worked out because it inspired me to try different things. My tone on ‘Far Noir East’ is probably the best guitar tone I’ve ever gotten. I played my signature 6120 through the ’61 Twin and a 1961 Fender Reverb unit. The sound that came out of that rig was just beautiful.”
Setzer is an avid Gretsch fan who played a significant role in the company’s resurrection in the late Eighties and has helped the brand maintain and grow its popularity these last three decades. Although he’s collected a wide variety of vintage Gretsch guitars over the years, including several White Falcons, Silver Jets, and even a 1955 Roundup with a matching amp, he feels that the guitars Gretsch is making today are as good as they’ve ever been, if not better.
“Vintage Gretsch guitars need to be maintained and refurbished,” he says. “You can’t play a stock Gretsch from 1959. It probably won’t play in tune and the fretboard will probably be warped and pitted. You can get it refurbished to make it playable, but that takes away some of its value. The new Gretsch guitars are pretty much spot on. I’m glad we’ve got them playing right again. When Gretsch first came back in the late Eighties, they just weren’t doing them right. They lost their way and were making guitars with big, thick tops on them. I couldn’t get them to make the guitars the way people wanted, which is like the way they made them in the Fifties.”
Setzer credits FMIC (Fender Musical Instrument Corporation), which took control of the production, distribution, and marketing of Gretsch guitars in 2002, with taking the necessary steps to make the guitars the way Gretsch enthusiasts wanted them. As an example of Fender’s commitment, he tells the story of how Fender vice president Mike Lewis put a vintage Gretsch 6120 through a CAT scan machine to accurately replicate the distinctive trestle bracing used on that model during the late Fifties and early Sixties. “Mike wanted to do it right,” says Setzer. “He figured that a CAT scan was the best way to figure out how it was done.”
Setzer’s guitar collection features a handful of instruments that don’t fall into the Gretsch or jazz archtop category, including a 1964 Gibson Firebird V with a Cardinal Red custom color finish, a 1959 Guild Bluesbird, a 2003 Bigsby BY-50, and a 1956 Martin D-28.
“That old red Firebird plays real good,” he says. “I have a lot of vintage guitars, but I don’t own any Flying Vs or ’59 Les Pauls. What I have is what I play. I’ve gotten rid of stuff that I don’t use. It doesn’t make any sense to me to keep a guitar in a closet and just look at it occasionally.”
Fans in Europe and Japan will have the opportunity to hear a few of Setzer’s new instrumental songs live when he brings his latest project, the Rockabilly Riot, on tour there this year. “The Rockabilly Riot is three bands in one that covers my whole career,” he explains. “It has two standup bass players, two drummers, piano, and me. We aren’t all on the stage at the same time until the end. I want to have two guys standing on their basses trading licks. I think that would be cool, and I don’t think that’s been done. I want to have a real rockabilly riot at the end.”
In the U.S., fans will have to wait until year’s end when Setzer will be reviving his annual holiday tour with the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Although Setzer once hinted that he was considering retiring his big band, after 18 years it’s still going strong. “I can’t kill the big band,” he says, laughing. “I don’t have any plans to record an album with them because it’s very expensive to record a big-band album. I have to be really confident about what I want to do with them before I enter the studio. The Christmas tour has become a standard, and people really missed it when I took a break last year, so I’m doing it again this year.”
Considering all the different musical avenues Setzer has cruised down these past few years, from recording faithful recreations of Sun Records rockabilly classics to reworking classical compositions with swing arrangements, it’s hard to predict which direction he’ll turn next. “I just stay true to myself,” he says. “Deep down I’m a rockabilly cat, but I jump in all these different directions, as cats will do. Looking back over the last 30 years, I’m very lucky. Not many people go that long. They burn out or just end being forgotten about. I’m very grateful.”
Brian Setzer is a great role model for any guitarist hoping to make it in the music industry. Mike's Guitar Talk is committed to providing the best guitar information to you on the web. Subscribe now to receive it all daily in your inbox. Also, join your friends on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Guitar-Talk/208529755864772.
