Guitar Techniques 239 Sampler by Future PLC

the finest guitar lessons on the planet 239 FEBRUARY 2015

20 YEARS OF THE FINEST GUITAR LESSONS

20 tips

play better SOLOs today! Solos dull and boring? Then break

plus...

Theory questions answered, learn to read music, give your chops a workout, & more!

out of the rut with 20 Pro Tips to ignite the Guitar God in you!

101 SOUL CHORDS

Discover the cool chords and neat progressions that gave Atlantic, Stax and Motown their groove!

CLASSICAL

ERIK SATIE

Play Gymnopédie No 2

PLay like

BOB SEGER Rock like a legend!

JIMMY PAGE Blues style revealed

john mclaughlin

From R&B to jazz-fusion

classic track tabbed!

WHITESNAKE Fool For Your Loving Learn a Moody-Marsden gem from the band’s ‘golden age’

MARK KNOPFLER PLUS

Learn the later Steve Vai solo

Acoustic fingerpicking

ISSUE 239 FEBRuary 2015

Just some of your regular GT technique experts... Shaun Baxter

One of the UK’s most respected music educators, Shaun has taught many who are now top tutors. His album Jazz Metal was hailed as a milestone.

jon bishop

Jon is one of those great all-rounders who can turn his hand to almost any style. No ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’, he nails every one with ease!

pete callard

Pete’s credits include Lionel Richie, Gary Barlow, Annie Lennox and Shpongle. He can be seen and heard on numerous tv shows, recordings and film soundtracks.

Phil Capone

Phil is a great guitarist who specialises in blues and jazz. He teaches at ICMP in London, writes for GT and Total Guitar and has published 10 top tuition books.

charlie griffiths

Guitar Institute tutor Charlie first came to fame in Total Guitar’s Challenge Charlie series. He’s also one of the UK’s top rock, metal and fusion guitarists.

phil hilborne

The UK’s original magazine guitar tutor, Phil’s something of a legend. A great player, he regularly plays guitar in the Queen musical, We Will Rock You.

pat heath

BIMM Brighton lecturer, ESP product demonstrator and all-round busy musician Pat takes over from Terry Lewis on 30-Minute Lickbag. Welcome, Pat!

bridget mermikides

Guildhall and Royal Academy trained, Bridget is a Royal College of Music, examiner, a respected classical player and award-winning blues guitarist.

the

finest

guitar tuition you can buy !

Welcome HAVING JUST COMPLETED a 30-date rock’n’roll tour it struck me that discipline is vital when being in a band. It can simply mean getting to the shows (I drove 6000 miles in five weeks and neither I nor any of the 13 band and crew, missed or was late for a gig). That kind of discipline should be a given - as should being in a sober state, arriving on stage dressed appropriately and so on - but of course there’s also the discipline in the playing. This particular gig is not tough from a technique perspective, but it’s a professional show so things need to be right. I had to create a few new solos on songs I’d not done before an interesting challenge. I’m always torn between a set piece that I recreate every night; winging it totally, or using a basic template and deviating from it as the mood strikes. I almost always go for the third option, as I like to give myself something to aim for, but also to surpass. The danger is that one can come unstuck - I found myself in unexpected areas of the neck once or twice but never messed up completely; I prefer this approach though, as gives me a feeling that I’m more musician than parrot! I played a pair of

electrics - a Tele mostly and a Strat for the last bit - I needed the vibrato for some Hank stuff and it’s nice to have a change anyway. One night I got the strap caught around my neck and totally missed my cue, which gave me palpitations and the rest of the band a laugh! It went well every other night, thank goodness. I also played acoustic for about a third of the songs. Several had a fast ‘galloping’ rhythm that not only required stamina, but also demanded concentration - the opposite of my soloing stance, you might say. Oddly, while I forgave myself for an imperfect solo, I was livid if I messed up my strumming! Discipline is also important when playing the same songs night after night after night. It’s tough to stay focused and not drift off. I found that trying to beat last night’s ratio of ‘perfection to cock-up’ usually did the trick. Come to think of it, GT is all about discipline, concentration and getting it right. So good luck with your own ‘perfection to cock-up’ ratio this month! See you soon.

Neville Marten, Editor neville.marten@futurenet.com

Don’t miss our amazing digital edition Our digital edition for iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire and Nook is now even better!

jacob quistgaard

Royal Academy trained, Quist is a superb player who can turn his hand to any number of styles and topics. He’s currently on tour with Bryan Ferry.

Stuart Ryan

Head of Guitar at BIMM Bristol, Stu is an acoustic guitar virtuoso who performs throughout the UK. His latest book/CD ‘The Tradition’ is available now.

andy saphir

A top teacher at the Guitar Institute (ICMP), Andy is a phenomenal player in a host of styles. He mixes just the right degree of flash with consummate taste.

tristan seume

One of ACM Guildford’s leading tutors Tristan is also mega busy on the folk circuit playing with Jackie Oates. His brand-new CD, Middle Child, is out now!

john wheatcroft

A truly phenomenal guitarist, John heads up the guitar facility at Tech Music Schools in London. He’s a master at all styles, but a legend in Gypsy Jazz.

Tap the links

Finding your way around the magazine is easy. Tapping the feature titles on the cover or the contents page, takes you straight to the relevant articles. Any web and email links in the text are tappable too!

Animated tab & audio

Most songs and lessons have the audio built in, with a moving cursor showing you exactly where you are in the music. Simply tap the ‘play’ button then you can fastforward or scroll back at will.

Play the videos

Certain of the articles have accompanying videos full of useful insight and additional information. Once again, tap the play buttons to enjoy video masterclasses on your iPad or smartphone.

PLUS! Get a FREE iPad/iPhone sample of GT. For full details and how to receive our digital edition regularly, go to bit.ly/guitartechniques (if you live in the UK) or bit.ly/guitartechus (overseas). You can also find us on www.zinio.com (NB: Zinio editions do not yet have interactive tab or audio).

February 2015 GuitarTechniques 3

• C ON T E N T S • F E BRUA RY 201 5 •

Learning Zone Lessons Introduction

30-minute lickbag

Music editor Jason Sidwell introduces this month’s lessons with more words of wisdom. BIMM’s Pat Heath has six great licks for you.

blues

rock

vidEo

Creative Rock

chopS shop

British R&B

jazz

Acoustic

music reading

John Wheatcroft looks at the blues inflences behind Zeppelin’s mighty Jimmy Page. Martin Cooper meets one of rock’s early pioneers, the one and only Bob Seger. Carlos Bonell presents his final video on classical-guitar technique.

Shaun Baxter’s bootcamp focuses its attention on 16th-note Mixolydian lines. Andy Saphir concludes his look at linear alternate picking on an electric guitar.

The name’s Bond. Graham Bond. Phil Capone shows how a young John McLaughlin gained his first footings in Bond’s ‘Organization’.

COVER FEATURE bETTER SOLOING

Jon Bishop shows how you can use a number of different techniques to turbocharge your soloing.

Pete Callard continues with the Whole Tone.

Stuart Ryan unveils the clawhammer style of Dire Straits’ legendary Mark Knopfler.

Charlie Griffiths looks at 16th notes and rests.

FEATURES

Welcome 3

transcriptIon #1 WHITESNAKE Fool For Your Loving

Nev introduces our feature packed issue...

Steve Allsworth transcribes a classic 1980s rock anthem for rock guitar and throws in an additional Steve Vai solo for good measure!

Jon Bishop shows you how to inject soul into your playing, with a little help from Prince, James Brown, Steve Cropper and more!

Theory Godmother

Answers to your musical and theoretical issues.

Intro

Subscriptions

back issues

Save time and money – get GT delivered! Missed one? See how you can get it – here!

Albums

New guitar CDs and DVDs reviewed and rated.

transcriptIon #2 ERIK SATIE Gymnopedie No 2

talkback

Tell us your views... we want to know!

News and regulars, plus Phil’s One-Minute Lick, That Was The Year, Hot For Teacher and more.

SPECIAL feature SOUL CHORDS Expand your vocabulary

VIDEO MASTERCLASS

REGULAR FEATURES

TAB GUIDE

Our terms and signs explained.

Bridget Mermikides presents another masterpiece from the undisputed Godfather of Minimalism, the one and only Erik Satie.

Next Month

The Shadows’ Atlantis, blues soloing and string skipping, plus Joe Bonamassa, Mike Stern, Manfred Mann, The Mars Volta, and more…

Carlos Bonell Part 4

For his final video masterclass, Carlos explains a number of useful classical guitar techniques.

February 2015 GuitarTechniques 5

Write to: Guitar Techniques, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. Email: neville.marten@futurenet.com using the header ‘Talkback’. THUMBS DOWN! I felt recently I was making progress properly for the first time, spending up to two hours a day practising the guitar. But for the second time in the space of a year I have had a thumb injury that takes six weeks to heal up, so I know my technique is wrong somewhere. I am trying to change my posture, the way I grip the neck, taking regular breaks, stopping myself gripping too hard and tensing up. My question is: should the pad of my thumb be on the back of the neck and should it always move with the hand or act as a pivot? I think sometimes when I pivot with the thumb for big stretches I squeeze and tense up, and the tip of my thumb might not have the pad spread evenly. The part of my thumb that is sore is the second joint which has a dull ache. It’s really knocked my confidence and I am sure my thumb position for chords and string bending is correct. I enclosed a picture. Paul Shaw Jason Sidwell replies: Paul, while we’re not equipped to offer advice from a medical perspective, the photo you’ve sent of you playing a wide stretch looks fine. The thumb is positioned well and there doesn’t look too much of a strain on it despite the wider stretch; most guitarists playing this would look similar. If you are having playing pains it may be that your thumb hasn’t healed

IAIN REED / ICONICPIX

Paul Shaw’s thumb position looks fine to us

well enough yet (two injuries in one year is heavy going!) to accommodate such stretches. You don’t say whether you were able to play like this before the injuries, but your letter suggests they were incurred while playing, which does point towards technique problems. An isolated photo like this can only provide so much information as regards problem solving; we’d need to see you actually play different things to detect where (if any) problems lie. Large stretches are one thing but barre chords can also be straining - if you play them a lot, this can have an impact on your

6 GuitarTechniques February 2015

thumb. One suggestion we’d offer is that you may be using too much pressure when fretting; a common problem with many which often explains why someone sounds out of tune despite the guitar being in tune (your fingers should almost never touch the fretboard’s wood). To see if this applies to you, fret a note and then release the tension until you get a buzzing sound (on the cusp of the note not sustaining). If this exertion is less than your usual amount when fretting, you will need to re-programme your playing. We’d also recommend looking into your action (string-tofretboard distance) and string gauge choice. While this is a very personal area, you may like to try a lighter gauge (change from .010 to 0.009 gauge perhaps) so there’s less strain when fretting and string bending. So, with what you’ve told us, it would seem you’ve a few areas to consider along with a possible visit to your doctor to become more savvy to your problems.

MARR-VELLOUS! I recently went to see Johnny Marr perform at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. All I can say is, what an inspirational guitarist. I strongly advise each and every reader to stop reading this now and go and purchase a copy of The Smiths’ Hatful Of Hollow (if they don’t already own it!) to allow them to hear for themselves. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Johnny doesn’t even sound like a guitar - or any other instrument for that matter! I don’t know where you’d begin writing a Steal Their Style feature on Marr! He just blends acoustic and electric parts sublimely on his records and manages to pull off this innovative sound live, too. Combine that with his genius songwriting and you have a virtuoso musician who, for me, will always be up there with Hendrix and Clapton. Now, I must begin to save for that lovely signature Jaguar of his! Alfie Williams Johnny Marr is indeed a spectacularly creative and able guitarist. While Morrissey’s monotone vocals never

I like my fair share of blues as anyone does, but come on guys, this is ridiculous. Marty Wilkins, New York Well, Marty, first of all no issue is ‘all about’ any particular style of music. We aim to be as broad as possible, and cover as many styles and levels as we can, each and every month. However – and I’ve said this time and time again – the issues that sell the best (and help keep us in business) tend to be blues related. The issue you mention was the best selling for over a year, and we have to keep a commercial eye on things in order to stay viable during tough times for magazine publishing. But, out of interest, I’ve just gone through that particular magazine and here’s what it contained: 12 pages of blues in Johnny Marr: the cover feature (which it highly creative, could be said was a general original and able fretboard workout anyway) and another three-and-a-half in our really did it for me, I was always struck monthly Blues column; nine pages of by the cleverness and complexities gypsy jazz (Nuages); eight pages on within The Smiths’ backing tracks using passing chords (a bona fide (ironically, the guitarists that have ‘theory’ feature); nine pages of classical worked with Morrissey since his Smiths guitar (Bizet’s Carmen and Carlos days have often trod a similar musical Bonell’s video); three pages with six path to that of their illustrious forbear). cool licks in all styles (30-Minute Other projects with which Marr has Lickbag); three pages of modern been involved have always exuded an ‘classic’ rock (Kings Of Leon); five pages air of class, too – I loved his work with of neo-classical rock (Creative Rock); Kirsty MacColl, for instance. I’ve not two pages of Chops Shop (technique seen Johnny live, but it would seem like study); five pages on British R&B it’s something we should all do, so (Spencer Davis /Steve Winwood); four thanks for the heads up. I saw a Johnny pages of straight jazz (Blue Note Jag in Sounds Great in Cheadle last Anniversary); three pages of Paul week and it looked fab – I may even McCartney’s fingerstyle and ‘thumb revisit Hatful Of Hollow too, now you’ve and strum’ (Acoustic); plus two pages reminded me! Anyone got any other on reading music (more theory). great guitarists that we should be Can you now honestly tell me that taking more heed of? this issue was ‘all about blues’? Or that there’s a guitarist on this planet that TOO MUCH BLUES! Yet again the latest issue is all about wouldn’t extract something of value from it? We try hard to be balanced, blues (Blues Workout, GT236). and I really don’t mind fair criticism - it Don’t you guys think we’ve had helps us do better - but please do us the enough of it by now? I mean, those honour of looking five notes can only go beyond the (yes, quite so far! What about all possibly bluesy) cover, the other great styles where you will see a of music that are out readers’ digest of broad there? And what and brilliant guitar about articles that are tuition from the finest just about guitar tutors and players out ‘technique’ or ‘theory’ there - at a fraction of the and not related to cost of one guitar lesson! blues every time?

Q&A

Theory Godmother

Post your playing posers and technical teasers to: Theory Godmother, Guitar Techniques, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 2BW; or email me at info@davidmead.net - every wish is your Godmother’s command! The Unmusical Box? Dear Theory Godmother

GUITAR TECHNIQUES MAGAZINE 2 3 9

Theory Godmother - David Mead

EXAMPLES 1-5 Ex 1

I’ve decided that it’s high time I knuckled down and started to learn about chords on the guitar properly, rather than relying on the box shapes I learned from diagrams when I began playing. At present, if someone wants me to play a D major chord I’ll play the little triangular shape on the top three strings or a barre chord at the 5th fret. But the problem is that I don’t really know what I’m doing, I’m just responding to a prompt with a shape I’ve memorised. I want my choice of chord to be founded on a more musical basis, rather than just an automatic response. Could you tell me a good way of kickstarting this, bearing in mind I’m going to be a complete novice at it to begin with? Gordon

Ex 1

One of the main barriers between guitarists and understanding harmony is the way chords are taught. Pianists don’t learn from diagrams, they programme the information musically, which is why they’re the smart-asses in a band when it comes to theory. The first things to look for are the triads at the heart of every chord. Triads are formed from the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a Major or Minor scale and give us the names of the notes contained in the chord boxes with which we’re all familiar. You mentioned D Major: Ex 1 shows the D scale with the 1st, 3rd and 5th piled up to form the chord. The notes are D, F# and A. If you already know the names of the notes on the fretboard – and if not, write yourself out a neck chart to refer to – then try to relate this info to the chord shapes for D that you already know (Ex 2). Minor chords are dealt with in the same manner. Look at the D Minor scale in Ex 3: once again, we merely extract the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale and that gives us D, F and A. Check it against the shape down at the nut (Ex 4) and you can see that this is correct. The same rule applies to every chord in the book. Take the 1st, 3rd and 5th from any scale, and you’ll end up with the basic triad.

Ex 3

# œ & # 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

E B G D A E

GUITAR TECHNIQUES MAGAZINE 2 3 9

5 3 1

2 4 5

Theory Godmother - David Mead

Ex 2Ex 3

Ex 4

Ex 1

#b 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ & & # 444 œ œ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œ œœœ 5 1

E B E G B D G A D E A E

2 3 4 5 6 7 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

0 4

2 30 2

1 3 2 3

1 1

3 3

0 0

3 4

5 5

35 13 1

2 2

2 32 54 5

Ex 3

& b 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ 1

E B G D AGUITAR E

5 3 1

1 3 0 2 3 2 2 0 2 3 0 3 3 5 Theory Godmother - David Mead TECHNIQUES MAGAZINE 2 3 9

Ex 5 Ex 5

& 44 œ œ œ œ ⋲ œ œ 1 e & uh (2) e

Verify all this by exploring scales, extracting the triads and matching them to the shapes you’ve learned. Get a good scale book and another on harmony, but don’t be disheartened that this is a lot of work, because you’re quickly going to begin seeing patterns emerging, and notice that virtually all the chord shapes we learn emanate from the CAGED system, which we’ve covered often in GT in the past. Nearly all other chords are built from basic triads and so getting this information ingrained will help immeasurably and provide you with a strong grounding in guitar harmony.

œœ œ

œ œœ œ

&(uh) 3 e &(uh 4) e & uh

Count On Us

Dear Theory Godmother I’m sending you a bar of music from a solo I’m working on. The trouble is, I can hear what’s going on when I play the CD, and come up with an approximation based on what I’m hearing, but I can’t completely nail it because I can’t count my way through the bar! How would you count it? If I can play it through slowly with a proper way of counting it, I will be able to bring it up to speed quicker than the hit-or-miss method I’m currently using. Thanks... Ian

The key to counting music is to locate the beats in any bar, and you can get all the information you need from the time signature. If a piece is in 4/4, you’re looking for four crotchet or quarter note beats split into whichever rhythmic elements the original player used. In your example, we’re dealing mainly with 16th notes, ties and rests, so understanding that there are four 16th notes or rests to every beat is essential. I’ve reduced what you sent me to straightforward rhythmic notation (a good tip, as it helps you see the rhythm more clearly) and provided you with what I think is a good way of counting it out (Ex 5). Basically each beat is counted ‘I e & a’ and the silent, tied or rested components are in brackets. Begin very slow, with a metronome and without a guitar in your hands – count, don’t play – and then gradually bring it up to speed. For general reading skills, continue to read our music reading series (page 92).

Syntax Inspector

Dear Theory Godmother My question might sound a little pedantic, but when people talk about a blues, they often say it’s a “straight I-IV-V arrangement”. But surely this ought to be distinguishable from a song with a regular I major - IV major - V7th and so wouldn’t it be more correct to say I7-IV7-V7, to be sure everyone is on the right page? Trev Technically you’re correct, but it’s just a short hand way to reference the chords. The rule-breaking antics of the blues are well known among musicians and so just saying, “Let’s play a blues in A” is all that’s necessary! But you’re right: a straightforward I-IV-V sequence in, say, A major would comprise the chords of A major (the I), D major (the IV) and E7 (the V) and would sound less bluesy than you might be expecting. Whereas a ‘proper’ blues in A (all chords are made dominant 7ths or similar) would be A7 for the I chord, D7 for the IV and E7 for the V. So if you had to write the chords down, then I7, IV7, V7 in such-and-such a key would indeed convey the text book correct information.

February 2015 GuitarTechniques 9

• G u i t a r T e c h n i q u e s • F E B RUAR Y 2 0 1 5 •

Jam tracks tips 1. Slow Blues in E Here we have a slow blues in E at just 55bpm, which you can approach in a variety of ways. The good old E Minor Pentatonic scale (E G A B D) will work – and so will E Major Pentatonic (E F# G# B C#), although the latter works best on the I chord (E9) and V chord (B9). Try mixing in some E Mixolydian mode (E F# G# A B C# D) – this works perfectly for the I chord (E9).

2. Rockout in G Here’s a fun uptempo rock track in G. You can use G Minor Pentatonic (G Bb C D F) and G Minor Blues scale (G Bb C C# D F) as a starting point, but the track works well with quite a few more colourful scales. The chord progression is: G-Bbmaj7Cadd9-Abmaj7. Try using G Mixolydian (G A B C D E F) on G chords, G Dorian (G A Bb C D E F) on Bbmaj7 and Cadd9 and finally G Phrygian (G Ab Bb C D Eb F) on the final Abmaj7 chord.

3. 7/8 Groove in F#m

Great new books for guitarists! Hal Leonard Books has published two cool new books for guitar enthusiasts: The Fender Archives by Tom Wheeler (£27.43), with a foreword by the legendary picker James Burton; and Brian May’s Red Special £15.99) by Brian May himself, along with our old pal Simon Bradley. The Fender Archives is part history, part archive, part scrapbook and part treasure chest, telling the story of an American icon through its rich past. The Fender Archives looks at the company from the inside; handwritten letters, production totals, personal logbooks, in-house memos, Leo Fender’s drawing-board sketches, financial reports-such documents are freed here from long confinement in cardboard boxes and filing cabinets, dusted off, and promoted from background to spotlight. It sheds new light on the inspirations for revolutionary instruments and amplifiers, their sometimes-difficult births and growing pains, the environment into which they were unleashed upon the world, and the motivations and personalities of key players. Featured are rare and previously unseen photographs and documents from Fender’s rich history as well as posters, and other items housed in folders bound within the book. “Tom has compiled a captivating collection of artifacts that is guaranteed to satisfy the most passionate Fender fanatic,” said Richard McDonald,

10 GuitarTechniques February 2015

executive vice president of the Fender brand. And who are we to argue? Brian May’s Red Special tells the story of how Brian and his father Harold built the rock star’s iconic guitar. Says Brian: “I designed an instrument from scratch, with the intention that it would have a capability beyond anything that was out there, more tunable, with a greater range of pitches and sounds, with a better tremolo, and with a capability of feeding back through the air in a ‘good’ way.” In Brian May’s Red Special, readers will discover everything they ever wished to know about the Queen axe hero’s unique instrument. This is accompanied by original diagrams, sketches and notes dating from the building of the guitar, as well as a great selection of photographs including Brian on stage with his guitar, close-ups and x-rays. “There is more to the Red Special than the technical aspects, though; there’s the human side, too,” says co-author, Simon Bradley. “The guitar represents a link to a part of Brian he’s kept private up to now: the home life of his earliest years, his relationship with his parents, and how that all dovetailed into the very genesis of Queen - and the birth of That Guitar”. Brian May’s Red Special includes rare and previously unseen photographs; a must-read for any Queen fan. Visit www.halleonard books.com for more on both these great guitar tomes.

Count the subdivisions of this 7/8 groove track as 2-3-2 (meaning 1-2-1-2-3-1-2). It’s in F#m, but harmonically speaking it’s quite open, so I suggest playing around with a variety of scales. Try F# Dorian (F# G# A B C# D# E), F# Minor scale (F# G# A B C# D E), F# Phrygian (F# G A B C# D E) and even F# Mixolydian (F# G# A# B C# D# E). Of course F# Minor Pentatonic and F# Blues scale also work great!

4. C Jazz Blues – Medium Swing Here’s a standard jazz blues in C. Try mixing C Major Pentatonic (C D E G A) with C Minor Pentatonic (C Eb F G Bb) for a start. One additional jazzy colour to catch is the A7 in bar 8 of the 12-bar blues cycle. Perhaps have a go at outlining an A7 arpeggio here (A C# E G), or use the D Harmonic Minor scale (D E F G A Bb C#), which also works perfectly. Additionally, see if you can whip out an F# Diminished arpeggio (F# A C Eb) in bar 6 of the cycle for the F# diminished chord. Created for you by Jacob Quistgaard. For free scale maps and hundreds more tracks, visit www.quistorama. com. Also subscribe to www.youtube. com/QuistTV to get all the latest free jam tracks and licks!

wPOPP

Early festival news for 2015

Buy framed Guitarist prints online

We have received some early information about two of next year’s music festivals. The Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival will run from March 5 through to March 8 2015 at the town’s Colston Hall. The headline act, American blues legend Dr John, promises to draw a crowd from all over the UK for the final night of the Festival with his first visit to the area for 12 years. The six-time Grammy Award winning musician is the embodiment of New Orleans – a city with which the Festival has nurtured a great friendship. A formidable boogie and blues pianist, his unique blend of bluesy rhythms, Crescent City funk and voodoo flair fused with New Orleans R&B have made him one of the city’s most distinctive musical ambassadors, loved wherever he goes. Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings - an all star nine-piece band led by the ex-Rolling Stone himself - will be another of the Festival’s highlights. Visit www.bristoljazz andbluesfest.com for further details and updates. Meanwhile, tickets for the 2015 Cambridge Folk Festival are already on sale, ranging from £25 for a day to £150 (for the full festival). Having started life in

Our sister magazine Guitarist is rightly recognised for featuring the finest guitar photography in the world. Others try to copy, but can’t match the quality of art direction, lighting and of course the photographers themselves. Now many of these beautiful shots are available to purchase from Getty Images’ photos.com website. Liven up your home office, personalise your music room or even go bold and have that 59 Les Paul or 54 Strat gazing down from above the fireplace. The shots selected feature some of the most rare, iconic and beautiful guitars on the planet;

Dr John: R&B piano legend

1965, the 14,000 capacity Festival draws acclaim for its combination of internationally renowned headline artists and support for up and coming young performers and continues to enjoy sell-out crowds year on year. Popular for its unique parkland setting, great facilities and family friendliness, the Festival boasts four covered stages, street theatre, music workshops and sessions, raucous ceilidhs, open stages, a youth area, internet café, kids’ ceilidh, storytelling, free creche, paddling pool and playground, real ale bars. Details of the first artists to be confirmed will be published soon, so click over to www. cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk to keep up to date with events or book tickets in advance.

and photos.com is the only place from where ready-framed prints from Guitarist’s impressive archive can be purchased. The range of shots is regularly updated so that there’s a constant source of the latest pics available. And if that’s not enough, readers of Guitar Techniques can gain an impressive 20 per cent discount by quoting GUITAR20 when they check out. Visit photos.com and browse the galleries of these awesome axes - whether for you, or as a gift for a guitar-playing friend, there’s bound to be something there that twangs your string!

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PHIL HILBORNE’S ONE-MINUTE LICK Chordal Jazz-Blues Lick lead. Play this bar on its own followed by a few Pentatonic Here we see a very useful four-bar, organ-like chordal licks and you will see exactly what I mean. The final bar phrase. In bars 1-2 you should notice how all the chords are contains a couple of nice chord forms - an 11th and a 9th. ‘rootless’. These chords are great for using with a bassist in These sound great and have multiple applications - such as situations where perhaps you don’t want to double anything the cool ending played here. You could opt for pick, fingers that is already being played. This sort of jazz-blues comping or a pick-and-fingers combination - use whichever works was popular with players like Kenny Burrell and Joe Pass. best for you. After playing through this piece, transpose the In bar 3 - from the pick-up ‘A’ bass note in bar 2 - is a sparser sequence to other keys and integrate with lead lines too - for doublestop-based - Danny Joe Walsh and GUITAR TECHNIQUES idea MAGAZINE 2 3Gatton, 9 ONE MINUTE LICK - by Phil Hilborne instance, bars 1-2 moved up to become D7 (10th fret) and E7 country players like Brent Mason often use this kind of phrase CHORDAL JAZZ / BLUES LICK (12th fret) will make a cool 12-bar blues progression. as it allows them to seamlessly jump between rhythm and

©»¡¡º ## 4 & 4

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9/26/14 9:55 AM

February 2015 GuitarTechniques 11

Mitch Dalton’s

EMILE HOLBA

An invitation to join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on a trip to Russia to take part in two concerts of film music, one in Moscow and a second performance in St. Petersburg the following evening. A simple enough event to organise, you might surmise. But is it?

About four weeks before departure, a Russian visa application form arrives. It is of some length and requests details of my life and family history to which only an appearance on BBC TV’s Who Do You Think You Are could do full justice. And on to to the event itself... After a refreshing night’s sleep that segues gracefully into a lie-in until 4.30am, the cab arrives at 5.30am and whisks me to Heathrow. A nice lady from ‘management’ greets me and stuffs into my grateful mittens an envelope containing Roubles sufficient in number to subsist adequately while away. I will not detain you further with the journey details except to say that after allowing for the three-hour time difference (forward), the usual airport shenanigans and the near four-hour coach crawl through truly terrifying Moscow traffic, we happy band of sheep arrive at our hotel well into the evening. There is just time for a traditional Russian repast in a genuine Argentinian steak house across the road. And day one is done. The following day is a breeze in comparison. I arise at a civilised hour, partake of a hearty breakfast and am ready to face the day. At around midday, my colleagues in the Rhythm Section (Andy Pask, bass guitar), Andy Vinter (keys) and Andy McGlasson (drums) and I potter down to the idiosyncratically named Crocus City Hall. There is nothing whatsoever to suggest horticulture during our taxi ride. However there is a great deal to

12 GuitarTechniques February 2015

suggest a sprawling concrete metropolis with a massive transport problem. We arrive ahead of the orchestra in order to set up and check that the gear has arrived and that there are no unforeseen problems. Top tips: 1) Remember to bring continental adapters with you for the pedal board and any other powered accessories. The guitar tends to sound rather quiet without them. 2) Try to manoeuvre your seating position so that you aren’t sitting in front of the trumpet section in a symphony orchestra. They make Aerosmith sound like a bunch of lightweights. 3) Invest in a pair of moulded protective ear defenders. (See 2.) I check the parts which, as is the norm, I am seeing for the first time. Hmm....a couple of solos (Ghost Busters and Rocky) and half a dozen other tunes. Looks okay. However, bear in my mind that the challenge in this environment is to follow the conductor, read the dots, stay in time with the orchestra and lock into some kind of groove with the rhythm section. I can assure you that it is a challenge for the uninitiated. An example - the Percussion section is situated at the other side of the stage, about 100 feet away. Sound travels at 1100 feet per second. You do the maths... However, I have done this many times before. I have faith... And so we sound check. We rehearse. We don our white jackets. We perform. It goes very well. The band play their backsides off. The audience loves us.

We return to the hotel eventually. All is well with world. Except for one tiny detail. We are to leave for St. Petersburg by train the next morning. At 5.45am. Which means, allowing for the time difference, waking at 2.00am British time. That is if one has decided to sleep at all. Others in the orchestra have made different lifestyle choices. They don’t look too well. There is now a slightly surreal air to proceedings as we take the coach to the station and board the state-ofthe-art train to the former Russian capital. We hurtle to our destination at speeds touching 200mph in complete, if sleep-deprived, comfort, and arrive to be greeted by the disconcerting sounds of martial brass band music blaring from the station platform. I crash out for a couple of hours at the hotel. Then it’s off to the gig. I have had a restorative bath but cannot claim to feel much like rocking out. I just hope that Doctor Footlights will work his magic later. And so we repeat the events of yesterday but with only a two-hour sound check. We perform the same programme while scenes from the relevant movies are back-projected on to a giant screen behind us. The audience is demonstrably ecstatic. I feel that we will be back. Meanwhile, a good night’s kip is uppermost in what remains of my mind right now. So there you have it. Touring with an orchestra. A bit like war. Only no one dies. Usually. The hours are worse though...

Charles Watkins 1923-2014 It is with great sadness that we report that audio pioneer Charles Watkins passed away recently at the age of 91, on October 28, 2014. Charles invented the Watkins Copicat, a tape loop based echo unit first introduced 1958. It was originally inspired by the Morino Marini Quartet who made famous the song, Come Prima, which contained a special use of repeated phrasings. The Copicat revolutionised sound processing and had a huge influence on music during the 1960s and 1970s. Charles also founded the WEM (Watkins Electric Music) company and their amps, mixers and effects were used by everyone from Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones to The Who, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, Hank Marvin and Pink Floyd.

A PRS for just £399? PRS Guitars Europe has unveiled a brand new range of SE series models – the SE Standard range – with prices starting at a previously unthinkable £399. Inspired by Paul Reed Smith’s early pre-factory guitars of the 70s and early 80s, the SE Standards feature all-mahogany construction and deliver great tone through their PRS designed pickups. Despite their stripped-down price, the SE Standards include many features found on top-of-the-line PRS instruments such as the iconic bird inlays, PRS design stoptail or trem bridges and PRS Wide Thin or Wide Fat neck carves. Each of the SE Standard models ships in a PRS SE gig-bag. The new guitar range includes the Standard 24, Standard 22, Singlecut Standard, Tremonti Standard and Santana Standard models. Visit www. prsguitars.com for further details and exact specifications of all these cool guitars.