TapperMike

Undercover Angel - Alan O'Day

I truly could believe what you are stating except for.... Using the same Steinberg ASIO on the same Yamaha THR as a soundcard produces entirely different results on my Windows 10 machine then it does on my Windows Vista machine. Vista should be the sluggish one, not win10

The pignose has lasted me since 1986. Prior to that I had another pignose which dated back to '76 Durable critters.

It's funny you mention latency. I bought a Dell desktop with windows 10 pro. It's got tons of ram and the latest i7 processor. The midi latency is atroucious compared to my older AMD quad core running vista. Something's amiss. On the new dell it doesn't matter if I'm running Steinberg asio, asio4all or waspi/direct either via the hdmi, the built in soundcard or my Yamaha THR all in one amp/soundcard.

Seems like a likeable guy. I had to go scouring youtube after your link. Great stuff. Every acoustic guitar I've ever had has gone to hell in a handbasket. I finally gave up buying them. People always look at me funny in the park because I'll bring an electric guitar and my pignose.

Let's just move forward All Of Me , Frank Sinatra .

Wow some great stories. I don't see concerts anymore. That died for me during the late 80's though I wish I'd seen Steely Dan back in the 90's I rarely go to bars as well. Between financial strains and alcoholism the only reason for me to go is prolly to meet up with an old friend who's still gigging. I much prefer the free concerts in the park. 60's through 80's cover bands. They actually make more money doing the parks and rec cuicuit then they would in bars. What's more is it's only a two hour show. The audience is all ages. Though mostly +40. Wixom / Walled Lake is strange with regards to listening habits. The kids (teens/twenties) still listen to classic rock. And those that do play instruments still work out their chops on Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Stones, Beatles and earlier works by David Bowie. Until just recently I'd worked with this 17 year old girl who plays guitar, mandolin and ukulele She'd play songs like Going to California by Zep and Rod Stewart and the faces covers. Damn well, I might add.

Many just ran out of money. Kenny Loggins for example. He didn't plan, he didn't save. He honestly thought his life would be living out of a van. He finally went back to performing so his kid could go to college. The expensive ticket concerts are mostly older artists who until recently were all playing at casinos. It's hard not to go out and play when you are looking at all that money still to be made. http://ultimateclassicrock.com/expensive-concert-tickets/ They weren't pulling in this type of money in their prime.

Alice Cooper could prolly retire. He's actually a lot healthier then many rockers younger and the same age as him. He's had a life of...working out and no drugs or drink (I know it sounds crazy) People like that need an audience. Les Paul retired in the 1960's after his accident. It wasn't about the accident. The music industry didn't want him anymore and he couldn't get any gigs. He'd tinker around with various inventions after the sound on sound and multi-track but many of them didn't catch on. Still he had enough money to live as he wanted to. Then Chet Atkins pulled him out of his early retirement for a few years. He would do shows and make the late night tv circuit. Then he retired again. Even though he tried to stay active his health was declining badly. Oddly the thing that got him healthy again for his last ten years was going back on stage. I'm not a fan of LP's stage presence. He's often snarky and kids his fellow bandmates. My running joke about the rolling stones back in the 70's was that they should really retire "Satisfaction" from the set. Mick Jagger could get all the satisfaction one man can handle. Stupid Rich, Beautiful wife who would host orgies on Sunday when not touring and when he was on tour he'd have guards snap polaroids of girls in the crowd from which he'd choose to bed with.

I already have some understanding of notation. I can sight read though, Not at the speed I used to. I want to broaden my skills on the linnstrument with more of a foundation piano like approach. Sure I've dabbled on the keys before. I'm not afraid of learning things again in a new way. Also... please refrain from classical music. I'm more interested in pop/rock/country approaches to the instrument. Thanks

Thanks for your reply. All valid and shared by me. I'd go further but I have to run off to work for slave wages. I too had some sales jobs that didn't work out, simply because I didn't have it in me. In regards to David Bowie. You couldn't have picked a better choice. He was the first punk rocker imho. He tried to make it as a folk musician first but couldn't pull that off. He went bankrupt pretending he was rich so he could sell more records during his glam rock period. I actually liked many of his songs at that time but I think it was more of the people he surrounded himself with then his own inventiveness. Many a rocker who knew him at the time said he was an okay bloke till he started acting like Ziggy Stardust. As he exited one genre on to the next he always was ashamed over what he just did. I can understand wanting to change musical direction in ones life. I actually like players who do that throughout a career. But to say your ashamed of it is another matter. I also loved the material he produced in the 80's. After he switched styles and apologized for everything he had done previously .."To get back into his roots for being in music" I threw in the towel. Couldn't stand the stuff he was doing didn't give a damn about how many records he produced. Listeners have this thing (or had) about how much an artist can change from album to album. It pigeonholes the artist and can stunt personal development of the artist as a person. Al Jolson had a shtick when he was young that opened a lot of doors. He was capable of so much more but that's not what the public wanted to see. So the rest of his life he was a caricature of his former self. Clapton was one of the few that both expanded his range as a musician/writer and retained much of his core listeners while gaining new followings. When I saw him in the 80's the audience had a balance of teens, 20's,30's,40's, and 50's It was a sold out concert. When he changes styles it's not about chasing a fad. Those of us who are cover artists are freed from all of that. The best are actors more then musicians. We don't just play the part we act it. And unlike the acting profession we aren't typecast.

I'm learning easy piano pieces on the linnstrument. For a time I'd watch a video of someone playing the piano and say to myself "That's cool" and then try to recreate it on the linn. Problem was I'd never go back to it afterwards, it wouldn't be locked into my muscle memory. Therefore enjoyable but not memorable. Now I'm stepping back a bit and trying to build foundations for playing. Aside from route scales, arpeggios and chord cadences. I'm taking on songs as written rather then as improvised. For instance. I'm learning Your Song by Elton John. I'm actually printing up the sheet and learning it from notation which is a more direct path on the linn then simply listening or watching via keyboard view. My notation reading skills are coming around. Something I haven't done in ages. I kind of feel like I'm making progress. It's hard to judge when you have a certain level of skill on one instrument through decades of experience and then you have a ground up experience on a new instrument.

I have no problems endorsing products I support...even for free. When this song came out...my first reaction was... I would have loved to been her producer. But maybe not. Along time back there were these Karaoke video producers in malls that would have huge waits. Parents wanting to have their kids doing music videos. For a little more the producer would actually write the songs for them and do all the background music. It was huge money in wealthier communities. Talk up to the parents tell them that they think the kid has real potential and then charge the rich parents crazy money for really poorly produced music videos. There is a lot of money to be had producing music videos like this. But it's something I just couldn't do. Sure the parents have more then enough money to spend. And when the rich kid want's to try something else the parents will fork out the dough again and again.

A 70 year old may or may not have more compassion than a 20 year old. Usually more as Folky types of that age were pre hippies, during the 60's It was all about peace, love and understanding. They have something to share and so do you. I was befriended by a folk player who,,, had too many years away from the instrument but was kind enough to poor himself into playing so I could have a jam buddy. He was rock solid. And by that I mean reliable. He supported what I did even when he didn't follow it. At that time I'd do 50~70's pop rock but what really drove me was fusion. Larry Carlton, Al Di Meola, Chic Corea and Steely Dan. Whenever I'd ask him to lay down a rhythm guitar part I could throw all the chords in the world at him and he'd play it through. Wasn't the most inventive rhythmically but sometimes you need someone solid behind you as opposed to flashy. He also made it a point to introduce me around to jazz and bluegrass players in the area even though he wasn't a jazz or a bluegrass player himself. It was from his jazz connections that I did get paying gigs doing trad (traditional) jazz something I've grown to appreciate more as time goes by.

My Cousin is a Novelist and sent me this via facebook. Are you a shill. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shill Will you write anything for a buck? Sylvester Stallone's first feature was porn. He recant's his decision later stating it was the only way for him to earn a buck. In fact it may have been his role in the porn movie that caught the eyes of casting directors and got him into legitimate films There are many such stories in history about famous artists songwriters musicians who would easily sell out for a buck that eventually lead them to a better career. I may be more saintly now, I wasn't in my younger years. I'd get studio work doing local tv commercials. Party stores, pawn shops, car part stores. Oil change you name it. Because the clients were cheap they didn't want to pay royalties. So the producer / writer would take part of one motif from one song and merge it with another motif from another song. It would sound familiar enough but not quite recognizable to the public. You'll often here the same thing in background music for low budget tv shows and movies. Big budget commercials and tv shows will actually pay for the rights because it's worth it to them and they can later release it as a soundtrack. Do you feel that the music you make is a part of you? Or Do you take on the role of story teller and dissolve yourself from the process as it's not your story you are telling? Would you do anything for recognition/fame in hopes that later on you could make up the difference by having the recognition to do what you want and possibly keep the following? (That's what both Tom Petty and Johnny Cougar Mellencamp did and they've stated as much)

Same back Rob.

I think a great deal of it has to do with "Peaking" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow#Peak_experiences in regards to performance be it live or recorded. I've had a few where it's practically being outside my body looking down at myself and saying this is good keep on going

I love songstuff. Real musicians, real stories a sense of camaraderie exists beyond the boundaries of musical genre's and cultural influences.

About the blues. Not only is it a simple form but it allows for improvisation. At least good blues does. You don't have to learn things note for note. If you listen to.... "Stormy Monday" for example. T-Bone Walker wrote it but it was covered by everyone different. Buddy Guy chops off part of the intro and his leads are his leads not T-Bones. The Allman Brothers have a wonderful rendition of the same song and while it still sounds "Somewhat" the same it's really quite different. (Different key different chord voicings, different solo's) About practicing for 2 years as a band. I did that once. (79-81). The Miller Brothers. A space, sci-fi band with lots of classical overtones and jazz fusion influences over a disco beat. Like Chic Corea's Return to Forever meets Rush meets Donna Summer. No covers all originals. We'd practice as a group four days a week and were expected to practice separately on the days we didn't practice. We'd only practice on a maximum of one song a week. Three hours on one song 4 days a week. It was maddening. As John would say you practice till you can't make a mistake. Finally the band leader felt we were ready to go. I practiced my arse off with a day job that barely paid the rent living in a boarding house in Detroit and surviving on Ramen Noodles. It was a boiler maker mentality. Anyway we recorded to vinyl pressed 1000 copies and started trying to find gigs. There was no place to play for what we did. We'd play amazingly and then get boo'd off the stage. Urban punk bars, Suburban Corporate Building bars. Everyone wanted something different then what we did. The funny part was we got airplay on a local rock station regularly (about 4 a.m was the only time they'd play us.) Had we waited around for a few more years we would have been the next Howard Jones or Joe Jackson that and many other minor miracles like leaving Detroit and trying to set up in California or New York. Byron Miller (the band leader) was a maniacal genius. We were allowed no personal input on the songs he wrote. Everything was always his way. Eventually he was in talks with a big record label. But Byron tried the same approach with us as he did with them. And (as many years later I found out) He wanted to dump the band to become a solo artist have it all re recorded by studio pros. Washing those songs out of my system took forever. I'd try to write something and out would pop out a song I did with the Miller Brothers it was that ingrained into my psyche. For a time I'd just play folk rock covers which was as far away from Miller Brothers music just to get beyond it in my life. And still on occasion I'll be minding my own business and one will pop into my head. What's funny now is... Most songs I'll occasionally sing at work no one knows anyway. Sometimes I think if I brought a guitar to work and started playing "The Rain Song" or "No Quarter" They'd be calling 911 because they don't know the song and think I've gone insane.

It's so weird even when you have all the right stuff happening in a band and hold down a 9-5. Much more sane to work in a music store where you are working 11-7 then go and play 9-1. It drove me crazy. I loved it and it still drove me crazy. When you get in a very solid band doing a very strict style of music. You get extremely good at it. Amazingly extremely good to the point where you can't play a bad note to save your life. The other side of that is if you want to try something different you're so locked into what you do night after night on stage the magic of something different isn't there. You have to fight with every once of yourself. When you do fight for the other side bandmates can often take it as a rejection of them and the music you do with them. When I was in a blues band. we were professionals first friends second. Which is a good thing. We didn't get into a lot of personality clashes that bands go through. But all along I was expanding my jazz skills separate because it was something I wanted for myself. I'd drive and listen to particular jazz songs try to recall and transcribe them with a few minutes hear and there and then.... Record em on my four track cassette. Play all the parts. While Jim the band leader encouraged me in all things even if they weren't rock/blues. The rest of the band members thought that I was planning an exit strategy. Or that my dedication to jazz would pull me away from the "tightness" we had as a band. Eventually I quit the band, not for internal issues but because I was offered a job in restaurant management. Which I felt I needed but it meant giving up gigs for working in the restaurant nights. The band eventually broke up. The lead singer got a job at a factory making good money and got married to a woman who wanted her man at home after a long day, It seemed so surreal playing in a band and being a success in the local blues circuit. I never had the confidence to be a one man band but when I was in the band we were all in it together. I knew they'd always have my back and mine theirs. I'd pour my heart into playing and many nights I'd be faking it till I made it. Thinking of myself as an actor playing a part on the stage made it much easier for me. When I got off stage I wanted to be treated as an average joe. Not a hero. And yet people would constantly be buying me drinks and treating me like some kind of God. My personality rejects that stuff. I'm fine with applause and even standing ovations. I'm not fine with people coming up to me on the street that may have seen me play talking about how great I am. I'd never been good with that. Nor have I ever been good with glad handing people. Talking to them between sets and telling them where I'm playing next and how it would mean a lot to me if they showed up. I'd seriously thought about returning to the blues circuit again. Just going through and working out the old standards and sitting in on jam nights and seeing where it went from there. A buddy of mine for years is a bass player in a number of bands as it's his only form of income. He invited me to a blues jam. It was a great show but I showed up too late to sign up and the jammers were coming out of the woodwork. So I watched the show, saw the jammers, met the band but didn't get up on stage. Since then I haven't been able to get out of work early enough to play on stage. And my desire to practice the old standards and get my chops back up to par has dwindled. Climbing the blues heap was excruciatingly hard for me. More so for jazz but that's a topic for another day. Once I'd gotten to where I needed to be I set that as my standard. If I can't reach my standard I don't want to walk out a blues stage again. Sure I could play at a lesser level and do okay but why be less of a player? An odd thing about the blues... I only like it. I don't love it and I certainly don't live it. An odd thing about the "Tapper" In my early years I was the first kid on my block to figure out EVH tapping (back in the 70's) I tried to tap as much as I could as often as I could and I got every book and magazine on tapping out there. Then I saw Stanley Jordan tap. After that point I was no longer interested in shred style tapping. I'd re invented myself towards a more chapman stick approach. I was actually shamed for tapping on blues and jazz standard. I'd do great versions but people hated it as it wasn't more traditional. Well SJ does it. Yeah and your not him. So I put it off to the side and once I'd stopped playing out professionally I went back to it. That was about 2000. Back in y2k everything I did was tapped. Hence the name. It's not like I'm a tapper from hell shredding a mile a minute. The next evolution in my playing was... Stanley Jordan again. I saw this video before Youtube came around. And then this one... Ztars were always way out of my range. Eventually Starr Labs came out with an affordable (then $1200 now 600) Baby Z I didn't touch a guitar for the first 6 months owning the baby z. Even when I did go back to playing guitar I'd lost all desire to tap on guitar. and even though I'd developed a lot of tap/picking knock and roll ideas on the ztar 90 % of my playing was "tapped" The baby was and still is great for what it is. However I kept on getting pissed due to it's limited range (14 frets) Eventually a z6 (24 frets) found it's way to me. But it had serious flaws due to abuse by previous owners. They only got worse over time. Now more then a third, close to half the buttons don't work and they are on various parts of the neck. Repair would cost more than replacement. I'd dreamed of mini12's or Z boards Or Z-boards Or even Z 24 x 24 zboards All way out of my price range. Then the Linnstrument happened. Comparing a linn to a zboard is apples and oranges. Zboards have a depth to the programming level unmatched in any midi controller ever. They also have so many ways to split/layer the bed and well over 6 octaves. Linns have almost 5 octaves but they have amazing expressiveness to them. The linn is magical to me. I'll pull up a simple plugin and if it has a familiar ring I'll try to figure out a song from listening memory. Wont bother with looking for sheet music, won't scan youtube for a rendition. Just use the inner ear and let it carry me there. It's so magical I'll get distracted and not have the time left to get practice in like I should.

Well that's a funny thing with me. It will usually take me a few days to get my rock chops up to speed if I haven't been playing rock in 6 months. Every once in awhile I'll work through covers I used to play get everything up to steam play like I did 20 or more years ago. Be happy with it and then... sink into a slight depression as it's only for my ears. In years past I could always sit in with a rock/blues band during a jam night, Feel good about myself playing for the crowd or... Bring a guitar to work and try to jam with my fellow guitarists at work between shifts and after work. Now... no one seems to be a player in the restaurant field. And there is no hanging out after work or between shifts. Years gone by I'd always be able to find a fellow player or an audience Usually I work at home doing tech support, go to work, come home do more tech work and with the free time before / after all the work I still try to get in everything else. I'd never thought I'd say this as I've always thought of myself as a self starter player (and still am) but not having an audience or the expectation of an audience brings me down a bit. Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. But a new day begins and I like to challenge myself so on I go.

Two hours a night after everything else. after you've done all your scale and other workouts. As always when considering jazz.... Band-in-a=Box http://www.pgmusic.com/

Honestly,,, It's just a lot of hard work and opportunity. Teachers were the worst!!! (well some) I'd work out arrangements to jam over and then they'd take solo's and not let go. To develop really good improvisational skills you really need 2 solid hours of soloing. Atter awhile it becomes second nature to play any key any changes. But that's a long while of continually jamming, copying licks working out arpeggios so they don't sound sloppy or cold. And then you need to play out a lot in jazz jams. Unfortunately the only open mic / jams left are blues jams with an occasional rock song. I'm facing the hardest setback of my life right now with the linnstrument. It's not the action, it's me. I've seen what others are doing with it and I want to go in a different direction. I'm stuck building myself back up from the ground level. But I can see the goals beyond the horizon. And as long as I know they are there via hard work and dedication I push on.

It's so extremely hard to get into a working jazz band these days. (especially around these parts) Working being the operative word. It's been dying for a long time now. Which is why many a jazz guitarist has opted for one man band Chord/Melody approach. I myself embrace it Once one starts going down that road an odd thing happens. One loses the ability/desire to improvise as a jazz musician. Instead you become focused on the arrangement. Gone are the solo's. Which is why Rudi and I got into jazz in the first place. The other option is to... Expand your musicianship to other instruments to fill the void. Many of us have been or are doing that. It's time consuming.

Sorry it didn't work out for you. Yep you are much better off without them.