I have really had my fill of concerts within the recent past- Death Cab for Cutie, the Zombies ( incredible!-Rod Argent), Stevie Wonder playing the entire Songs in the Key of Life double album +EP, Joe Jackson, and Ringo Starr's All Star Band witth Todd Rundgren, Richard Paige (Mr. Mister), Warren Haynes (Govt Mule), Greg Rollie (Santana), Greg Bissonette (David Lee Roth) and Steve Lukather(Toto).

Ringo's concert was the most fun and amazing musicianship each playing through some pretty complex material and pulling it off. I was most impressed with Steve Lukather- his playing and solos,no matter how fast, made each note count and his phrasing and ideas were complete.

I found this article on tips for Guitarists, but it will apply to all musicians alike. Warning there are some "Sailor's Language" but all the *@$? are in the right places so as to not offend. His opinions about why music is stagnating because of people learning "tricks" off the internet as opposed to figuring them out is doing a disservice when they have to create or be on the spot to perform. He said it was like cutting into a cake and only getting frosting and all empty no cake.

[url]http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/steve-lukathers-8-tips-for-guitarists-618198[/url

I hope you get at least one idea from the article that you can use to better yourself!
take care,
Dave B "DBro"

"Practice what you don't know".

It feels good to play something well, but if that's all you do, there is no growth, no journey, no development.

I think one of the strongest litmus tests for who is a beginner and who is accomplished at an instrument is the ability to play with freedom. By this I mean being able to play with body and mind engaged on the music, not on hitting the right notes. This level of expertise is impossible without "Practice what you don't know".

That was a really good read. This conversation always makes me think of David Gilmour and I noticed that he mentioned Gilmour later in the article. Out of several pages of good stuff though, there was one thing he said that bothered me.


This is really crap when you think about it. Tapping is a technique just like anything else. This is roughly equivalent to saying "hey ... put that pick away. Somebody else has done it and you don't get to do that anymore. Same with your fingers. You have to use your ear lobes man!"

I just wonder where we'd be if guys like Andy McKee or Mike Dawes had taken this advice.

And good thing no one told a young Eddie Van Halen to drop all that blues stuff that his hero, Eric Clapton, was known for. Because it too had been done already!

Eddie Van Halen sounds absolutely nothing like his biggest hero of all time, Eric Clapton, but a young Eddie learned every note and lick of the Yardbirds and Eric Clapton, and then developed his own thing. And most of the world now knows that Eddie Van Halen didn't invent the finger tapping as a technique anyway.

I agree Glenn that that's kind of some B.S. And the line "Nobody's allowed to do that anymore"?

That's some shite right there. I don't need anyone's permission to do ANYTHING musically (although maybe the occasional validation would be nice).

(Now to read the rest of the article. But I had to violently agree with Glenn first.)

Now having read the entire article, I agree with: principally that it's not all about speed, and most of that speed is wasted playing live. I get his point that learning in your bedroom makes it hard to play with others, but that's always been the case, whether we're lifting and dropping phonograph needles over and over oldschool, or watching a Youtube video.

What's so magical about the slow, mysterious way? I taught myself to play piano and probably figured out 85% of most of the music theory I learned in school entirely on my own, and you know what, I re-invented 47 different kinds of wheels over 3 decades that I probably could have learned in a couple of days now watching Youtube videos. It didn't make me a better player (and I would have learned faster playing with others!). Learning slowly and inefficiently meant it took a lot longer to finally start making the music I was hearing in my head. I'm still not there after 30 years.

Your "amateur" player is lightyears better than the amateurs of yesteryear. I'm firmly convinced of that. The Internet has made the barrier to learning the esoteric information that is musicmaking much easier. If it means some kids are slavishly imitating the awesome sounds of their guitar heroes and not (yet) expressing their own identity, then my reply is "Get off my lawn, you kids!"

We ALL started that way and later developed our own identities. Or didn't!

But I know Eddie Van Halen himself is not impressed with the kids who just want to play as fast as they can because...whatever reason. The gunslinger mentality means that there's always someone faster than you.

Bob Culbertson will always kick my ass with his magnificent chops. I, however, write songs and melodies like a mf'er (salty language, I'm down with that, too) and even if I didn't, it's NOT A FRICKING CONTEST!!!!!

That's what I take away more than anything from the article.

But still, "get off my lawn, you whippersnappers with your rap, and your beatboxing, and your Youtubing shred videos, and your Chapman Sticky finger picking!"

Edits to add: I do agree that just learning licks and riffs without learning how to string them together or make them "musical" as opposed to "rote memorization of a few tricks" is a bad thing. I agree with most of this article and I'm a huge Toto fan, for what that's worth. But a few quibbles.

I think Steve L. was referring to is the use of tapping by guitarists as a trick and not a very musical trick at that. Of course tapping is valid and has wondrous potential in the hands of a musical player, but I'm afraid that Mr. Lukather was referring to the non-musical use of tapping as simply an easy route to blowing bazillions of notes to impress.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a kind of warning to people who do music to be fussy about their identity lest they end up playing like the lame-o below;

I'm thinking that Lukather was probably talking about people who do a variation on Eruption's tapping section; most everyone tries it without playing any other part of the solo, and they end up with this "Thunderstrucky/Am I Evil" kind of variation...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyXjjvnd5vo[/youtube]