Recent Blogs Posts

#10... hammer-ons & pull-offs

#9... bending above the nut

#8... headstock

#7... bolt-on

#6... buckle rash

#5... hot pickups

#4... bone nut

#3... single coil

#2... brown sound

#1... humbucker!



Honourable mentions: G-string, F-hole and speed knobs.

Feel free to add more in the comments section.

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Tags: filthy, humour, tangent, terminology, top 10

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Music

My hiatus is officially over and it's time for an update.

Since my last post I:

1. moved my family out of one house and into another,
2. had a serious bout of bronchitis and pneumonia,
3. was promoted at work,
4. turned 40,
5. lost over 25 pounds (including 1.5" from my neck, 2" from my chest and 4" off my waist),
6. and suffered a ligament injury to the thumb on my fret hand, which still hasn't fully healed.

Even if I had the time or inclination to play ...

Tags: life, motivation, procrastination, rationalization, resurrection

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Music

I am reading Gary Marcus' Guitar Zero. In fact, I finished it tonight.

It's an excellent read for a middle-aged analyst and guitar enthusiast like myself. The book offers enormous insight into how we learn, how our brains re-wire themselves, how music affects us, music history, theories, studies, observations, anecdotes, opinions...

I read a digital copy on my iPhone. This was also a new experience for me and, surprisingly, not unpleasant. I was a hardcover guy, now ...

Tags: adult learning, book review, guitar zero, hope, recommend

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Music

Ties and dots.

Ugh.

Ties and dots.

I get it. They're simple concepts, but this is the first music notation that made me roll my eyes and want to go to bed early.

I've had minimal difficulty with whole, half, quarter and eighth notes writhing up, down and across the staff. It's cool. It's an alphabet. There's a natural flow and familiarity. These are notes/letters forming riff/words... but now I have to deal with these accents--these ties ...

Tags: challenge, dots, learning, notation, ties

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Music

I've definitely played more difficult songs than "Ode to Joy." I can't recall playing an entire song on just 2 strings. I can't recall playing an entire song with only 5 recycled, natural notes.

So why am I grinning from ear to ear? Because I can read EEFGGFEDCCDEEDD | EEFGGFEDCCDEDCC | DDECDFECDFEDCFG | EEFGGFEDCCDEDCC across a treble staff as fast as you can read it here.

Sure, it's just "Ode to Joy." But playing it from sheet music at a decent ...

Tags: baby steps, beethoven, progress, reading music

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Music

I wanted to play the guitar tonight. So I did, but I didn't.

I wanted to play the guitar tonight, but I didn't want to practice fretboard fundamentals or learn foundational music theory. I told myself to play the guitar because practice is just practice and it's not really playing. I convinced myself to play/not play.

This is perhaps the most insidious trap in adult learning: rationalizing procrastination. In effect, I played myself.

All I've ever wanted to ...

Tags: learning, procrastination, work

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Music

Previously, I expressed concern over the inconsistency of thumb placement by my fret hand. Eerily, my pre-recorded guitar teacher addressed the issue tonight.

What's scarier is his advice made instant sense and had an immediate impact (paraphrasing): don't worry about your thumb, worry about your wrist--keep your wrist down and your thumb will fall into place.

The prescribed wrist-down technique has also improved my fingertip angles. As well, it helps keep my fret ...

Tags: concerns, learning, music theory, revelations

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Music

Noble me, I literally started from scratch. I did not fast forward through the pre-lessons like "the parts of the guitar" or "the names of the strings." In recognition of this miracle, I may change my handle to Saint David.

Early comments about Gibson's Learn & Master Guitar program:

• Outstanding production value
• Nice balance between high-level concepts and low-level details
• Steve Krenz is a genuinely nice guy and his voice is well suited for instruction
• Appreciate

...

Acoustic guitar? Check!
Chromatic tuner? Check!
Picks of various shapes and sizes? Check!
DVD-based guitar learning program? Check!

Some backstory: last year I received Gibson's Learn & Master Guitar as a gift. It's a high-end product in this saturated market and emphasizes music theory as much as technique. Plus, L&MG was already an established thing before Gibson funded some reshoots and attached their brand to it. Vote of confidence, right?
...

Tags: dvds, excuses, inventory, learning, music theory

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Music

Around Christmas, 2011 I decided that I wanted to build an amp. Originally I planned to heavily mod a Valve Jr that I traded a couple of pedals for...After doing a lot of reading, I decided to go with a PCB from ppwatt.com. I'll build a head, and I need a speaker cabinet too. So I ordered up a Jensen Jet Falcon, 12-inch and a bunch of T-Nuts (part# S-HTN1032) from Antique Electric Supply (AES).


I decided to use ...

Tags: ax84 cabinet;5e3;

Categories

Music , Guitar Gear

Lately I’ve been reminiscing a lot about my musical influences. It started a few months back when I started searching for a new Tube amp. I’ve always been a Fender guy, more out of habit than anything else, my first decent amp was a Fender Princeton stereo chorus and for the last 12 years or so I’ve been playing a HRDlx. I love Fender cleans but a part of me always felt that I was missing out nice dirty tones. Distortion pedals with a Fender amp never quite did it for me - but I got by. ...