Guitar 05/08

The newest issue of GUITAR magazine hit the newsstands yesterday. Among cool stories (CCR, Satriani etc.) and interesting reviews, it features the newest episode of “Talking Hands”, the second episode focussing on scale patterns. So check it out!

Rediscovering “Resolution”

It’s been two years now since the Andy Timmons band released “Resolution”. I remember the day I got it, and listened to it the first time… I was blown away. It soon became my favorite AT-release, and one of my favorite instrumental guitar albums.
What I love about is:

- it sounds fresh, alive, vibrant

_ it sounds almost as if the band was jamming in the studio, cutting the tracks live
- the guitar sounds are awesome, my favorite AT-sound and a great benchmark for a warm, singing, guitar sound.
- The songwriting and riffs

I listened to it so much, and soon knew the whole album by heart. And I just started listening to it again. I met Andy at the Musikmesse last month, and it was fun to talk a bit, hang out, and just meet him again, and just recently, I got out “Resolution” and gave it a spin again.
If you haven’t checked it out, I really recommend it. Its not only a great album full of great phrasing, licks and melodies, but also a master-class for band interaction and great, song-oriented playing in an instrumental setting, without a gazillion overdubs, quite 70s-ish.
Check it out!

By the way, a while after the album came out, I made a partial, rough TAB of the opening track, “Deliver Us”. I figured it might be interesting for some of you, so here it is, in PDF-Format. (You might have to have Powertab installed for the notes and numbers to be displayed correctly, utilizing the PTB-font)

timmons

LOTW: Picking exercise #3

Here is the third in my little series of basic alternate picking exercises… I hope these are useful to you. If you include all six into your practice regimen, they will help you to improve your alternate picking, especially string-crossing.

Pay attention to the pick directions, use a metronome and take it slow… make sure you play accurately and avoid unwanted noises!

Chet Atkins

It’s a bummer that a lot of younger players aren’t familiar with Chet Atkins anymore. Sure, I understand that if you’re into Vai and Satriani, at first it might seem as if Chet’s music might not be comparable, but… he was an incredible player, and there is a lot of awesome music to be discovered in his discography.

Also, Chet apparently was a truly wonderful human being, and a true gentleman, and I wish I could have had a chance to meet him.
A couple of years ago, I saw a performance of Chet on TV, and he played this beautiful tune about his father, and I remember being very touched by the beautiful song and the whole performance. Unfortunately, I didn’t memorize the title.
Later on, I tried to find a recording of the song, but couldn’t. It wasn’t until recently that, by the magic of google and youtube, I found out the title of the song… “I Still Can’t Say Goodbye”.
And I found a video of this on youtube. If you haven’t heard this tune before, I really recommend to check it out… it’s beautiful.
And there is so much more to be found in his music. I am currently working on his version of “The Entertainer”, and it’s not only quite challenging, but also a bunch of fun to work on that. A truly amazing player he was… RIP Chet…

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PS: In case that the youtuve player does not appear in the blog-entry, just click the link above to go to the video at youtube. Apparently, WordPress changed their coding a bit, and it seems as if inserting a video into a post does not work the way it used to anymore… a bug?