27 Sep 2022

Some blues improv over the rhythm from Green Onions by Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Green Onions is a fun rhythm part to play, though the original that part is shared between organ and guitar rather than being a single instrument.

15 Jul 2021

As I slowly bring online older archives, this piece by Led Zeppelin will become something I obviously gravitate towards. I was fairly late to discover Led Zeppelin, despute the fact my Dad was a fan, but I never really appreciated them until I understood more about the context, and now I’m a big fan of most of their work.

I think, just like with Bowie, it’s impossible for me to understand just what Led Zeppelin meant - their sound now is so ubiquitous, but back then it was something that hand’t been heard before and paved the way for heavy rock and heavy metal.

This particular piece was one that got me back into guitar after a long hiatus, seeing Jimmy Page perform it on the film It Might Get Loud:

If you don’t play guitar then then the direct link between what his narration over the top and what he’s playing might not be so obvious, but he’s going from gentle to loud, subtle rhythms to big in your face crunch, with some sitar like melody in the middle, all with just the guitar and the amp, no pedals, not other trickery. The guitar is often seen (and indeed used) as a simple instrument, but if you adjust how you attack the strings, how you play gentle and strong, you can unlock a rich range of sounds without having to use anything else. And just compare the nuance in Page’s playing with my own rendition, how effortlessly he makes it look as he moves his hands around the fretboard, and yet how much effort separates the two of us.

25 May 2021

My guitar teacher has me playing Oasis to practice my strumming patterns - it’s just like when I first picked up a guitar 25 years ago.

16 Jan 2021

As I can’t jam with others I caved and got a looper with built in drum machine to make playing more fun

30 Nov 2020

Trying some classical music for a change.

12 Jun 2019

Today I Practiced: The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix

This is a stab at the solo section from this one. My mic didn’t plug in properly, so you don’t quite get the tone, but it had lots of lovely sounding double stops in it. This is at the borderline of my skill level I suspect

22 May 2019

Today I Practiced: The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix. Another song full of very nuanced playing, which I struggle not to make sound robotic. For all your fancy lead lines, both Hendrix and Mayer are masters of making the rhythm part sound beautifully detailed.

19 May 2019

Today I Practiced: Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam

I have to confess that I don’t know the original - this is an exercise is Hendrix style double-stops to me. Playing double stops up round the middle of the fretboard seems to get the best tone out of this guitar and amp.