Guitar

The Art of Slide Guitar

March 2, 2009 By Corey Bray Leave a Comment

In this lesson, we will be covering a few ideas in the area of slide guitar. To start us off, Keni Lee Burgess gives us a brief history behind Resonator type guitars and what to look out for when purchasing one.

KENI LEE BURGESS: Resonator Guitars & bottleneck slides

Next, Keni offers up some helpful tips to those who are interested in getting into slide playing.

KENI LEE BURGESS: Tips to get you started

Now that we know what we are dealing with, Keni takes us through the paces by teaching us how to play an actual song using a slide.

KENI LEE BURGESS: Lesson on how to play bottleneck slide

Finally, we have an example from Sonny Landreth involving playing electric slide with other effects that I felt would be a nice addition to this lesson.

SONNY LANDRETH: Slide Lesson & Plays Next To Kindred Spirit

The nice thing about learning to play slide is that it gives you a perfect excuse to mess around in alternate tunings. This is generally due to the fact that a lot of songs played using a slide are composed in open chord tunings, which differ from the A440 standard tuning. Playing in these tunings forces you to pay attention to your theory in order to really learn your way around the neck again. And slide guitar is another way to introduce a little variety into your playing from time to time.

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Filed Under: Beginning Guitar Lessons Tagged With: 1930's, Atomic, beginning, blues, bottleneck, brass, Bray, Burgess, cone, corey, effects, Finger, glass, Guitar, history, introduction, Keni, Kindred, Landreth, Lee, lesson, national, resonator, slide, Sonny, Spirit, tips

The Japanese Connection

February 20, 2009 By Corey Bray Leave a Comment

By Corey Bray

It’s evening in the city and the light dims through your apartment
window. Kicking back in your computer chair, you decide to enjoy a few
music videos on the web. Who can blame you, it’s murder to have to put
up with the daily grind and sometimes you just need something loud and
rock’n to help your nerves regain their composure. That’s when you run
across this video featuring Paul Gilbert and Freddie Nelson.

WASTE OF TIME: PAUL GILBERT & FREDDIE NELSON

Okay, that was a good primer, but let’s check out Paul in Japan.

PAUL GILBERT & TJ HELMERICH IN JAPAN

When you think of Japan, you don’t usually think of their being this
big Rock & Roll scene around. But, the more you ponder the idea, you
begin to imagine more than hanging gardens and compact cars. In fact,
it strikes you a little odd that so many virtuoso level guitar players
seem to gravitate over to Japan. That is, players like Marty Friedman,
who has become a guitar icon on Japanese television. But, how did Marty
pick up Japanese in the first place?

MARTY FRIEDMAN: TEACH YOURSELF JAPANESE

Before you know it, you run across a video of Gilbert and Friedman
in Japan working together. Is this a conspiracy?

PAUL GILBERT & MARTY FRIEDMAN

So, does this mean that the U. S. is slowly losing its virtuoso
guitarists to Japan? Or, is this just a passing phase? Though the
thought of the guitarists you grew up with all migrating over to Japan
is a little disturbing, you wonder if there isn’t more to this story
than initially meets the eye.

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Filed Under: Ultimate Guitar Experience Tagged With: connection, conspiracy, correspondence, course, deal, Freddie, Friedman, Gilbert, Guitar, Helmerich, Japan, Japanese, Manga, Marty, Nelson, Oklahoma, Paul, record, rock, roll, speak, teach, television, TJ, university, video, virtuoso

Finding the Right Distortion Pedal

February 20, 2009 By Corey Bray Leave a Comment

By Corey Bray

Choosing the right distortion pedal for your rig can make the difference between a mediocre and an absolutely fabulous playing experience. But, with hundreds of distortion pedals out on the market, where do you begin? If you are into older rock, a classic distortion pedal to check out is the Electro Harmonix Big Muff pedal.

THE ELECTRO-HARMONIX BIG MUFF

Though I love EH pedals, I was not as impressed with the Big Muff as I had imagined I would be. But, if you just want a basic pedal to get you started in working on defining your distorted sound, the Big Muff is not a bad pedal to start out with.

If you just need a decent distortion pedal that gives you a lot of flexibility, the Boss MT2 Metal Zone might be right up your alley.

THE BOSS MT2 METAL ZONE

You really can dial in a lot of different distortion sounds with this pedal. I sometimes use an MT2 through a Lexicon PCM-81 effects rack to get an almost violin sound. Which is kind of ironic, because the cost of the MT2 is around $90 and the cost of a Lexicon PCM-81 is close to $2000 new. So, sometimes the best sounds come from mixing cheap and expensive gear together. You never know what is going to give you precisely what you need.

Now, if you are really into the sound of players like Joe Satriani, you can begin to approach his signature sound with the new Vox Saturator pedal.

THE VOX SATURATOR

Though I think the Saturator pedal is likely going to find its way into my pedal chain in the near future, the Ibanez Jemini distortion pedal seems to give more of the control I’m personally looking for in my own playing.

THE IBANEZ JAMINI

Of course, you should really go out and check out a lot of different distortion pedals before deciding which one belongs in your rig. When trying out distortion pedals in the music store, I recommend running a distortion pedal through an Equalizer Pedal as well as a decent sounding reverb pedal. Often, pedal demos online tend to present a pedals raw sound, but in reality, that sort of demo is really pretty useless. Knowing how a pedal is going to work along with other effects is typically a far better way to gage its performance and whether or not it is right for your rig. So, don’t be shy and make those sales reps down at the music store really work their butts off to prove to you that they have helped you to find the right distortion pedal for the job.

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Filed Under: Beginning Guitar Lessons Tagged With: Big, Bray, corey, distortion, effects, Guitar, Ibanez, Jemini, Joe, Lexicon, metal, MT2, Muff, music, neoclassical, PCM-81, pedal, Satriani, Saturator, signature, sound, Steve, store, Vai, virtuoso, Vox, Zone

How Jazz Helps Your Groove

January 26, 2009 By Corey Bray Leave a Comment

By Corey Bray

You are probably wondering why I am bothering you with jazz. What does jazz have to do with becoming a great shredder or even a great guitarist for that matter? In all honesty, jazz is the doorway to moving beyond the ruts and boredom of everyday repetitious playing. Some of the most exciting passages I’ve created in my rock instrumentals came from being able to add a touch of jazz to the mix to give the work that much needed spice. Though you may not want to become a full blown jazz guitarist, what jazz helps you to do is to think more coherently about how you are approaching the use of chords and notes in your playing. Here is a simple example of how to approach chords differently than in, say, a strict rock setting, which can help you to start thinking outside of the box.

JAZZ ANTICIPATION

This next video gets more into the heart of jazz and helps you to focus in on working in a walking bass line with your chord changes, which could be used as a nice break from the normal rock approach, to demonstrate that you have more to offer with your playing than just a jumble of quick notes.

WALKING JAZZ BASS

So, I hope this little introduction to jazz technique has helped you to recognize not only how jazz opens the door to greater freedom in your playing, but also how it can make a piece sound more interesting, even if used in a subtle way to enhance your songs.

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Filed Under: Intermediate Guitar Lessons Tagged With: bass, bumping, chords, door, fill, five, fresh, groove, Guitar, half, ideas, instrumental, interesting, intermediate, Jazz, lesson, one, passages, play, progression, rock, scales, Spring, step, two, videos, walking

The Art of Bending

January 19, 2009 By Corey Bray Leave a Comment

JEFF BECK STYLE BENDS

DOUBLE STOP BENDS

DOUBLE STOP LESSON

And since we are on the subject of bending, here is a word from Bender.

BENDER’S THOUGHTS

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Filed Under: Beginning Guitar Lessons Tagged With: Beck, Bend, Bender, Double, Futurama, Guitar, Jeff, lesson, Stop, strings, Style, two

John Petrucci and Rock Discipline

January 9, 2009 By Corey Bray Leave a Comment

JOHN PETRUCCI

The following videos are taken from John’s Rock Discipline DVD. An instructional DVD that no aspiring guitar player should be without.

PART 1:

PART 2:

PART 3:

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Filed Under: Beginning Guitar Lessons Tagged With: disciplin, Dream, DVD, Guitar, important, instructional, John, lesson, Petrucci, player, practice, rock, stretches, Theatre

33 Guitar Lessons for the Blind and Visually Impaired

January 8, 2009 By Corey Bray Leave a Comment

These are links to my guitar lessons on Blink Nation, a social network for the blind. Please enjoy!

Guitar Lesson 1: Introduction

Guitar Lesson 2: Tuning The Guitar

Guitar Lesson 3: Basic Finger Exercise and Intro to Intervals

Guitar Lesson 4: Intervals Continued and a New Finger Exercis

Guitar Lesson 5: Identifying Notes on the Guitar Neck

Guitar Lesson 6: Using a Pick

Guitar Lesson 7: A More Complete Notation For Blind Guitar Players

Guitar Lesson 8: The C Major Scale

Guitar Lesson 9: The C Major Scale as a Finger

Guitar Lesson 10: Taking Our Picking More

Guitar Lesson 33: Q & A with Corey

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Filed Under: Blind Guitarists' Resources Tagged With: ascii, augmented, blind, chords, chromatic, corey bray, diatonic, diminished, flats, fretboard, frets, Guitar, lessons arpeggios, major, metronome, minor, modes, notation, notes, picks, runs, scales, shapes, sharps, stylus, theory, visually impaired

Mike Lowry Band (Rock, Southern Rock, Blues)

January 6, 2009 By Corey Bray Leave a Comment

I would like to wish my readers a happy new year. I’m hoping that 2009 will bring us in touch with more great music as we head into our second year together here on the Atomic Finger blog. This week I scoped out a few bands close to home and got a fresh look at my own local music scene. There is no question that Atlanta is home to a rather diverse musical culture. Yet, like many places in the Deep South, you can usually find a good mix of southern rock and blues bands. I don’t know if it was the sound of the harmonica or the feel of the lead guitar, but when I stumbled across the Mike Lowry band, I just had to pause and enjoy the nicely crafted sound these guys brought to the table. Mike is no stranger to the rigors of being an entertainer. Early on, Lowry began his walk of fame as a child actor and commercial model. For more than 12-years, he has worked to make a name for himself in the music business. Now, three albums later, his music appears to take on a more balanced feel compared to his earlier work. But, don’t take my word for it. Check out the Mike Lowry band for yourself.

To check out the Mike Lowry Band, please visit:
http://www.myspace.com/mikelowryband

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