Rockabilly Techniques-Easy Fingerstyle demo

Here’s a fairly basic fingerstyle lick in the key of E.  Based on an Emaj chord. Using the thumb independently is the hardest part of this exercise

and part 2 adds a few more notes

Visualinear TAB

Do you wish there was an easy way to write out Guitar parts when you don’t have 6 line TAB paper handy? I found this article on  Visualinear Tab and it’s very useful in that it gives more information about timing than regular TAB. It’s well worth checking out, it’ll save you time and give you more accurate TABs. Thanks to 12 Month Music.

The Key to Twang Guitar

People ask me all the time “how do I get that Twangy sound?” The secret is 95% technique, not just a particular Guitar or amp setting. When the solid-body electric Guitar first became widely available in the 1950’s, most folks were used to mellow sounding hollow-bodied Guitars.  Link Wray, the Ventures and Dick Dale were among the first to take advantage of this new sound. In terms of equipment, single-coil pickups, with some echo or reverb through a Fender Amp is a good place to start.

A lot of the sound comes from imitating Banjo and Steel Guitar licks. Using Open strings and Hammer-ons emphasize the brightness of your sound. Also experiment with picking near the bridge and right hand muting. Steel Guitar like bends can be made by bending the 2nd degree of the scale up to a maj 3rd, under the Root and fifth

You’ve probably noticed that  twangy  sounding players use a lot of single strings. Single strings cut through the sound of a band better than Chords or 2 string phrases. Also you want to avoid using more than just a hint of distortion or overdrive. This means your technique has to be spot-on and your choice of notes is very important. Sparseness is a virtue! If you have to ask yourself whether or not a note fits, it probably doesn’t.

 

Great Site for Theory and Scales

I try not to get into any Advanced Theory, past knowing the notes, intervals and understanding Chord and Song structure. Understanding the Major Chord (Root 3rd & 5th) is crucial because all the other chords are variations of the Major.

I recently came across a terrific site by Richard Lloyd (formerly of Television) and he has one of the best, simplest explanations of Musical Theory that I’ve seen. It’s called Richard Lloyd Lessons . Richard has been writing for Guitar World for a while, his style is very entertaining. If you are trying to uncover the mystic secrets of Music Theory for Guitar, then do yourself a favour and check out his site

Here’s one of his Videos

Ackk!, I’ve been tagged.

I’ve been tagged by GL Wilson at Guitarz to take part in one of these meme things that originated on TheOpenSource.com. The rules are as follows:
· Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
· Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
· Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.
1 – I have played the Guitar for 80% of my life. (started at 9, I’m now 45)
2 – Despite being in a band called the Deadcats, I love kitties. I have a Calico cat (Emily, I didn’t choose the name) and a Siamese fighting fish.
3 – Went to the same high-school as Jim Carrey. (Aldershot in Burlington,Ontario) I don’t remember him, but he wasn’t famous yet.
4 – I met one of my heroes, Link Wray. I got to shake his hand, and give him a Deadcats CD, with the tribute-song to him called “Wraygun”
5 – I won an online contest in the Province newspaper, for “best busker in Vancouver”, with band-mate Big Joe Burke last year. We don’t actually busk very often. People in Vancouver aren’t used to seeing pro musicians playing on the street, except for the Andes Pan-Flute guys that are everywhere.
6 – I’m learning to play the fiddle! I could get used to gigging with an instrument that weighs less than 1 lb and doesn’t require an amp!
7- I like Halloween more than X-mas. I choose creativity over consumerism. I would prefer to celebrate Halloween for 2months steady. However if anyone wants to send me any Guitars, Pedals, Amps or Musical gear to review, don’t wait until December. There’s always room for one more guitar.

Here’s the lucky 7!

The Guitarist, at the Guitarist blog
My old friend Blair Dobson, AKA “the Waif-” BlairDobson.com
Band-mate in Boomchix, Barb Watkins- letmeaxeyousomethin
Blue Morris of the Pink Flamingo Orchestra- Bluemorriss.com
MVL at Red Rooster Newspaper-Redroosternewspaper
Danial Florian, Athiest extraordinaire- Unreasanablefaith.com
Singer/Songwriter Big Joe Burke on Myspace- Bigjoeburke/Myspace

Several of the 7, I’ve never actually met in person so….feel free to ignore this. I dont know alot of people who blog , so I had to get creative. Took me a few days to get get this done but it was alot of fun and learned  a few useful bits of info in the process. Thanks in advance to any of the 7 who respond to this!