This is a little blues lick in C, using both Minor and Major pentatonic scale in 3rd position (with the addition of 6th from scale), works well over an C7 Chord.Tab : NSB Quick Lick 2For those of you who lead busy lives and struggle to get guitar practice into your daily schedule, quick licks offers a way of improving your vocabulary and ear in just 10 minutes a day.For more in-depth information on maximising your practice time and finding your own voice on the instrument, check out my book Guitar Creativity - A new way of thinking https://gumroad.com/l/zCAXyEnjoy!PeaceNeil
Quick Lick #1 - Blues Style
Here is the first of my quick lick lessons, this is a little blues lick in A, using both Minor and Major pentatonic scale in 4th position (with the addition of 6th from scale), works well over an A7 Chord.Here is the tab for this lesson.Quick Lick #1 Blues LickEnjoyPeaceNeil
Quick Licks - An Introduction
New for 2015 is a series of new online tutorials I am going to be doing, here is a video which give a brief introduction to the tutorials. The idea is simple it is for those of you who lead busy lives and struggle to get guitar practice into your daily schedule, quick licks offers a way of improving your vocabulary and ear in just 10 minutes a day (or less). The premise is simple and I explain all in the introduction video....For more in-depth information on maximising your practice time and finding your own voice on the instrument, check out my book Guitar Creativity - A new way of thinking https://gumroad.com/l/zCAXyEnjoy!PeaceNeil
La Roux - In for the kill - Chords and Melody
Hello everyone, I have decided to share a few bits of teaching information with you. A student of mine asked me for a guitar version of La roux's In for the kill song, so I have produced a version which can be played on an acoustic or electric guitar. Here is the simple tab for it, along with the chord progression.This part shows the initial solo line and the basic rhythm for the verses. In for the kill - Intro and soloThis part shows all the chords for the whole piece, plus the structure. In for the kill ChordsEnjoyPeaceNeil
On the radio
Very excited about being interviewed by Caroline Boyd on the radio show this evening, talking about all things creative, music, guitar and bookish on ALLFM 96.9 at around 5!! In particular, talking about the release of my new book Guitar Creativity | A new way of thinking which has been released in Kindle format on Amazon worldwide. Other electronic, and PDF versions will be available once a fix period of time has passed with Amazon. So watch this space.Enjoy!PeaceNeil
The death of originality in Guitar Playing? and music?
So it suddenly dawned on me, are we all on a quest to sound the same, the same facsimiles of our heroes? I don't mean this in a 'I want to play XYZ's songs' kind of way, but more in a 'I need to copy every nuance of every player to be of any value' kind of way....a couple of questions popped into my head after a session on YouTube, watching guitar lessons, reviews and players. There seems to be in-proportionate amount of videos featuring how to sound like XYZ, my version of XYZ, reviews saying something sounds a bit like XYZ and ABC. Now before you call my a hypocrite, I know I have many of these kind of videos on my own channel, and this is my point, or at least the question I started to ask myself.
Do you think we are all starting to sound the same, as guitarists, as musicians?
Are we all looking for the same sound, gear, image (and I am guility of this too) and because of the advent of social media there is simply so much of this. It is awesome in some ways, as it is so easy now to find out how to play the solo from Jump, or the chords for Hold on I am Coming and everything else in between, we can have gear rig run downs of all our favourite artists. But, I couldn't help feel that there were very few people whom were standout, but then I guess there are only handfuls of artists whom sound unique (i.e. the ones we are trying to emulate!).
I know I have written about this before, but do we now have too many options, too much access that we stop learning how to be ourselves?
I can't help thinking about digital technology, e.g digital amp modellers can model every nuance of classic amps (e.g AxeFX, Kempler, Line 6 HD 500)....and yeah I know ....still the purists complain...'it's still not the same as JCM800 or Fender Blackface, Dumble etc'...but what about something different, why can't I be happy with a great sounding amp....one that makes ME sound great, one that makes ME want to play, one that defines MY sound?
There is also a lot of, the attitude 'well I need to have every amp under the sun at my fingers tips' to emulate every song I am playing, well I could go with this maybe if you are in an authentic tribute act, or perhaps a covers band where you try to emulate classic songs. But, I actually think that an interpretation (in a function band situation) is probably much more fun, exciting and unique, then basically listening to a band 'sound exactly' the same as the record? What are your thoughts?
I am beginning to think that perhaps our heroes are the ones who just do what they want, with what they have at their disposal. Clapton, Page et all (and Hendrix) were all session guys, playing 'covers' gigs back in the day, honing their skills and their sound...did they have all the amps, options we have today? No....are they legends....yes!
But what did some of the 'icons' do? What did Eddie Van Halen do? Took a Marshall and modded it to what he wanted, same with the his Frankenstrat made up from bits and pieces. Van Halen, played the clubs, did the covers (think of 'You really got me', a cover which became synonymous with Van Halen....likewise, 'All along the watchtower' which Hendrix 'owned') and us such they have classic, instantly recognisable sounds of their own. BB King, Brian May, Steve Vai etc etc
How did those guys learn?
Pretty much by ear, gaining a close as possible aproximation, but at the same time developing their own way of playing it. Nuno Bettencourt developed his unique style by copying Van Halen by ear, not watching or reading a pitch/position accurate tab, as we might do now. This meant he wasn't quite right (by his own admission) but this contributed to him developing ways to mimic without copying.
It goes back to what I was saying here...all we seem to be doing is reciting famous speeches inflection for inflection, work for word, pause for pause. Time for us to say and sound sometning new? We are copying a comedians stand up routing gag for gag.
Blackstar Amps may have got their motto right...the sound in your head...what is it?
What are my goals then? Well, to be able to knock out some cool Chordal vamps, mimic some of the amazing licks that Gutrhie plays, perhaps get my tone a bit more like Larry Carlton. But ultimately, I think I want to sound like me, after all music is supposed to be personal expression.
Creativity comes out of limitation.
So today....just play and say what you want to say.
Remember..... gear doesn’t make you awesome, you make you awesome
Peace
Neil
Nile Rodgers - Guitar Lesson
I just stumbled across this little video of a Nile Rodgers Masterclass and it really does make a great watch with some really interesting things to think about guitarwise. Really worth a watch and hopefully take away some ideas, especially about improving rhythm playing. The thing about Nile is that you can instantly know it is him playing, one of the very few whom you instantly can recognise.EnjoyPeaceNeil
Guthrie Govan interview - fantastic questions and advice
I just came across this fantastic interview by Guthrie Govan, and it certainly is very thought provoking and is without doubt one of the most down to earth and humbling interviews I have read. It just goes to show that you don't have to have a massive ego or be a total show off. In particular, I found this two sections very important and interesting
At the various guitar clinics he conducts, Guthrie Govan has a series of questions he likes to pose to attendees. "I find that knowing why you're playing helps to make all of the other questions disappear," he explains. "So I'll ask people things like, 'Why am I playing? What do I expect from my guitar playing? Do I want to be in a band? Do I want to write music? Do I want to be some YouTube god who just scares the other shredders?' These are all interesting things to consider."
They really are interesting things to consider, and I know I have been thinking about them a lot since I read the article. Personally, I feel that I want to slow down, concentrate more on note choice and getting more depth and tone from each note, trying to add my personality into everything I play.And this is without doubt one of the best things and piece of advice, I have ever read about guitar playing...
I don't think there is a 'best' guitar player in the world. People ask me at clinics, 'Who do you think is the best guitar player? Who's your favorite guitar player?' And I always reply, 'I know who my favorite Hendrix is.' [Laughs] Or 'I know who my favorite Django Reinhardt is.' "Really, I think the goal is to find your unique thing and then spend the rest of your life competing with yourself, getting better at crystallizing whatever it is that makes your musical voice special. So I don't subscribe to the whole 'best or worst' thing. Guitar playing isn't a sport."
You can read the full article here, well worth it for sure!!PeaceNeil
Amazing slow downer - best tool ever?
There is no denying that learning and transcribing is one of the best ways of learning and progressing with the guitar. But it does take a lot of time, patience and energy, and in the days of vinyl, a lot of wear on your record collection. The main parameters which any tool requires are the ability to loop an area of the track and slow it down, whilst retaining the pitch.There are plenty of tools out there on the market to help you do this, but I have been pointed in the direction of the Amazing slow downer by Ronisoft and it is fantastic! In particular it works on a Tablet or smartphone too. It is really one of the simplest tools in this area that I have found and it works really well. Well worth a look I would say.PeaceNeil