Rudi

Nice One Rob Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick - Ian Dury & the Blockheads

no music on building sites? Thats intolerable. This is why we have trade unions

That Jeff Beck video is great. I saw him play only once. It was in (or near) Nottingham. I was 17 at the time. I didnt know that about Jimmy Page. Its a shame to hear his misleading stories. Was he insecure do you think?

Six Blade Knife - Dire Straits (live at RockPalast)

Not enough. I learned something last week though. I will be working with a young drummer Saturday morning who has booked a practice room at a nearby studio. I learned some (his choice)* songs to do, which I now find I actually like. My usual quick listen is not enough. I need repeat listens to appreciate. Whatever I listen to encroaches into whatever I work on. Anything from a new song to a solo. I have never used this on purpose. * Lonely Boy – Black Keys, Steady As She Goes – Raconteur , Mr Brightside – The Killers

... I see what you mean. Sorry mate! Sugar Magnolia - Grateful Dead (live)

The Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cut 2015 I’ve been curious about these ever since finding the Hagstrom Deuce. This is the model the Deuce is based on. The more expensive 2014 Special had the full arch-top shaped body cap and trim. The 2015 version is half the price with a slab body and minimal features. It looks basic & cheap, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It has a rugged visual appeal. I handled one a short while ago. It didn’t seem too bad. I played one at Nevada Music yesterday. I couldn’t get on with it at all. I felt clumsy. It’s as if my technique was applied to the wrong instrument. I was catching adjacent strings with my fingers and so had to try to palm mute pretty much everything. The sound from the P90s pickups & the Marshal amp didn’t help. Everything sounded nasty. If the experience had been positive, I might have followed it up with bringing my own amp along to try it with. It wasn’t even worth it though. I also tried the Epiphone ES-339*. (they didn’t have a Gibson one) If anything, the fingerboard on this was even smaller, but it felt better. It was playable and I managed to coax some nice sounds from it. These Epis actually have one advantage over the Gibsons. The pickups (the humbucker versions) are coil split. A useful feature. *The ES-339 is a Gibson Hollowbody based on the ES-335 (Chuck Berry, Alvin Lee, BB King etc). The body is scaled down and so less bulky.

Vets just dont get this do they?

I dont think Ive seen a bouzouki used in Irish music. I still associate them mainly with Greece. They are a great sounding instrument though.

Blown Out perform both 'Lorraine' and '25 Miles' in Ab. 'Hard To Handle' in A# is worse as I have a solo in it. This is what to expect working with saxophonists. (actual quote from Mark Barber-Alto Sax : "Our C is not your C" ) Dan's voice may cope better with the keys he prefers rather than it being an unfamiliararity issue. Improved monitoring is still the first fix IMO.

Corinna - Taj Mahal

Lots of things might be thought of as cheating. Artists that use backing tracks are cheating more than you propose to do. The more common it gets, the more its accepted. If it works for you then go for it. As for hearing yourself, do you use monitors? Powered ones can be pretty good. It shouldn't even matter if the public hear. The crucial thing is you being able to rely on your voice.

ouch....

I was thinking yesterday that Calexico have distinct ties into the surf category. I have two of their albums. I tend not to think in genres so it never occurred to me earlier. Take a listen here

Ok thanks Les, Yes the left arm's fingers apply pressure against the fretboard, which would just force the neck backward without support. So the right elbow assist is quite useful.

Glad to be of some help. PM me if you create anything on these lines. Id be interested

I have now listened to all the links (that I didn’t already know well). I am surprised to find that there is not much to add from my original assessment. The time aspect to Surf is even more common & pronounced than I thought it would be. It’s even in the punk stuff. There is also a tendency to borrow from Arab sounding scales. I stress the word ‘sounding’. Its more an impressionistic sound than authentic. This all tracks back to Dick Dale of course. Misirlou has become an icon of genre definition apparently. To summarise surf (sorry experts): the accented time already described. Early rock colouration (guitar sounds etc) and riffs. Very derivative in nature I would say. That is not to say that I am any sort of expert. I have just applied some working knowledge to what I recall of these genres. That is; I thought about them and told it how I see it. There is already a lot written about Swing online. I didn’t find anything that contradicted what I said, but it’s worth a search on your own. TapperMike would have been good to talk on swing. He would be informative I think. Hello Mike !? (he’s still job hunting I think. So I wont shout too loud).

Promontory Rider - Jerry Garcia Band & Robert Hunter

Question - Moody Blues

I'm feeling positive for ya Mike.

ok good. But give me a day or two to digest some of these. Looking fwd to those Surf tunes!

I had to check a couple of examples to be sure these genres were still what I thought they were. Surf: From what I hear there are 3 retro components. Structure: Rhythm. Lots of the rhythm styling features an accent on the implied 7th beat in 4/4 or 6/8 timings. In other words if you sub divide the 4/4 bar into 8th measures, the last beat (the 7th) will be as prominent as the first. In short. You hear a preceding 8th prior to the 1st beat of the bar. This may not be definitive, buts it’s common. Colour: The sounds are from early 60s. The clean guitar with spring reverb. The ongoing sizzling ‘white noise’ cymbals. Technique: The light cymbal rides. The speed alternating flatpicked guitar, which is like a mandolin style. Swing: I will only talk about rhythm here. Again the 8th is important. The straight 8th (half) beat is replaced by a shuffle 8th . I’ve heard it said that the 8th itself is further divided into triplets and you play on or between the first 2 triplets and not the third. Others will say that is a desperate description of a rhythm that can only be ‘felt’ rather than written/defined. So the ‘swing 8th’ broadly defines the style. So phrases in swing use the implied 8th which is ‘across’ the beat rather than on the beat. We need examples here. Rather than me provide them, perhaps you would. Then this whole description thing would be less abstract.

When Alice Comes Back to the Farm - The Move

Rock n Roll Doctor - Little Feat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOlTZGuLKM

Wonderful performance. Tidy film too.