General Music Chat

Woo! I jammed tonight with someone else on guitar for the first time. We really did not play anything major together, but like got to know each others playing styles and capabilities. This guy has been playing about 5 years, so he is much smoother than me, he is a bit more advanced as well. But it was very cool.

We started on the Line 6 amps, played some heavy stuff. I played Hetfield's backing riff for Welcome Home Sanitarium and he played Hammett's solo over it. That was cool. I actually found an awesome guitar, it was a PRS. I loved the fretboard and the sound.

Then we switched to Fender amplifiers and Fender guitars. They have great clean sounds on them, but I could not figure out if there was any distortion in them or if they had anything like that at all. The guitar itself was fair, but it was cool to play my Middle Eastern riff on.

Then back to the Line 6, with some EMG pickups. Played some heavy stuff in Drop D on there. This guy is a Tool fan, he is very good at playing their stuff. It was awesome to watch.

Well, that is the basics of it. I finally found someone to jam with. Awesome!

Thought I would tell everyone about that.

Note, Irminsul, I am still waiting for that cheerleader I requested in the other thread.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Good job. Since you made it through your first jam session, I'm sending her right over. I think she'll be on the 9:00 flight, and you'll have to pick her up. Buxom greeneyed hottie, her name is Brandi and she has small snake tattoo on her left ankle.

Good job. Since you made it through your first jam session, I'm sending her right over. I think she'll be on the 9:00 flight, and you'll have to pick her up. Buxom greeneyed hottie, her name is Brandi and she has small snake tattoo on her left ankle.

Woo! I will walk to the airport if I have to, thank you. Lmao. Hmm.. Snake tattoo, might be a Goth... Goth's are hot... Hmm... I will wear black nail polish...

I am on my way to the airport Brandi!!!!

Lmao, peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

that all the "experienced" musicians we play with don't have the excited fresh wondrous feeling we got from our first jam session. Music would be a lot more fun if we had an open mind like guitaranatomy. All of us "professionals" should take a lesson from this. Later...

Last night my old band got together to practice for New Years and it was a blast. We lined the amps into a board and played thru headphones. We should have had the recorder going cause it sounded so good. We ran thru about 50 songs and out of those only 5-6 came apart on us. So I can relate a little to how GA feels. It was cool to have the whole group back together and a couple of the guys were hinting about how fun it might be to line some gigs up again. Now if we can only figure how to make enough money out of it to keep everyone interested...................

I am sure you know how I feel, jw123. I wish you luck, maybe you can find someway to make enough money to keep everyone in the band satisfied with gigging again. We need musicians who have been playing many years to continue in bands, there are too many new musicians who stink.

Note: I wish I was at your jam session as well, would have liked to see what you guys played.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

GA,

You cant imagine. Ive been sitting in with bands, trying to get a new group started, but so far from where Im coming from its been a dud. I mean I have gone and auditioned with bands that have supposedly been together a while and some of them cant get all the way thru a song. It just freaks me out and then they want to know why Im not interested in joining them. So, sat I play with the old band and we should have been in a club somewhere, the only song we didnt get thru was that Disturbed song Down With The Sickness and even it sounded good, since none of us have really listened to it.

After we practiced we went down to the club we are playing for New Years and some young band is in there and they just stunk with a Capital S. I told our singer next time we practice we need to set up some where and charge the door, cause we definitely would have smoked this band.

But and heres the kicker, sunday afternoon we go and set the PA up and my old band has a big one with extra staging and lights smoke, the whole 9 yards. We mess with this pa for a couple of hours and it sounds like its a transistor radio, everything is at unity with an MP3 player, power amps wide open and it just isnt happening. We finally figure out its the snake send, all 4 of them are screwed up, its like only a fifth of the signal is getting thru. So we run a wire straight to the amps and its fixed, then they decide to move the board and effects rack. We spent about 5 hours setting it all up, and then tonite the 1st group sound checks at 7:30. We dont play until 1am, its gonna be a long nite. And you wonder why musicians use drugs.

GA,

You cant imagine. Ive been sitting in with bands, trying to get a new group started, but so far from where Im coming from its been a dud. I mean I have gone and auditioned with bands that have supposedly been together a while and some of them cant get all the way thru a song. It just freaks me out and then they want to know why Im not interested in joining them. So, sat I play with the old band and we should have been in a club somewhere, the only song we didnt get thru was that Disturbed song Down With The Sickness and even it sounded good, since none of us have really listened to it.

After we practiced we went down to the club we are playing for New Years and some young band is in there and they just stunk with a Capital S. I told our singer next time we practice we need to set up some where and charge the door, cause we definitely would have smoked this band.

But and heres the kicker, sunday afternoon we go and set the PA up and my old band has a big one with extra staging and lights smoke, the whole 9 yards. We mess with this pa for a couple of hours and it sounds like its a transistor radio, everything is at unity with an MP3 player, power amps wide open and it just isnt happening. We finally figure out its the snake send, all 4 of them are screwed up, its like only a fifth of the signal is getting thru. So we run a wire straight to the amps and its fixed, then they decide to move the board and effects rack. We spent about 5 hours setting it all up, and then tonite the 1st group sound checks at 7:30. We dont play until 1am, its gonna be a long nite. And you wonder why musicians use drugs.

Wow, yeah, you definitely have a right to walk out of a door on a band who cannot even finish one song and states they have experience (I am referring to the bands you tried out for). However, do not worry about your band not getting through "Down With the Sickness," not many bands should try that one out, not because of the guitars, but the vocals. I heard a band do that one, it does not work right, David Draiman from Disturbed has powerful vocals, when people cover the song they last seconds and sound like crap.

As for the PA system thing, I am not advanced enough to understand how it all works thoroughly, but how you described it gave me enough info to understand what you were talking about. That is pretty bad that you guys have to go through all of that setup. I have seen that before, these bands do not get on till 1am, so I can see why they drink 5 cups of coffee, or some feel the need to do drugs, lmao. I think I would fall over if I had to just start getting ready at 1am.

Here is a small story about that. I went into a bar with my mother (They allowed me in and never carded me, woo, ). At this bar a rock band was about to perform after another one, well they had began setting up. They did it fairly fast, but if I recall it was like 1am. I think they played until like 3am after the setup, they had already played once before that earlier in the evening. The lead singer looked burnt out, and you could hear it in his vocals, he sounded tired, and probably wasted at that point.

Thus, due to seeing it in person, I know where you are coming from, man. Good luck with your band, man. You guys do need to start charging since you are better than what is out there from the sound of it. Any band who can wipe the stage with other bands is worthy enough of making a couple of bucks out there. Heck, if I had a band, and knew they rocked and could blow others off the stage, I would book bigger events for money. Saying I have a good fan following of course.

Go rock the stage jw123!

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

GA,

Actually the guy that sings with us was handling the vocals on Down With The Sickness. Me and the other guitar player didnt know it once it goes to those little harmony guitar parts. My son plays it all the time so I was just playing it off the top of my head. Songs like this are all about attitude and a rythym vibe, it really doesnt take much of a player to play them so dont be intimidated by a song like this. Now if your singer sounds like a choking chicken the best thing to do is move on. When we do another gig this song will be on the list, in fact I think we could pull it off well enough to play tonite.

GA,

Actually the guy that sings with us was handling the vocals on Down With The Sickness. Me and the other guitar player didnt know it once it goes to those little harmony guitar parts. My son plays it all the time so I was just playing it off the top of my head. Songs like this are all about attitude and a rythym vibe, it really doesnt take much of a player to play them so dont be intimidated by a song like this. Now if your singer sounds like a choking chicken the best thing to do is move on. When we do another gig this song will be on the list, in fact I think we could pull it off well enough to play tonite.

Okay, man. As long as you feel confident enough you can pull it off, go for it. I hope it sounds great, it sounds like your band is experienced enough to handle any type of song they are given (Which rocks! Rare to see a band like that).

Good luck tonight, man!

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

I can barely remember my first jam session, my uncles who taught me how to play guitar took me to someone's house, I was about 8 or so, with a cheapo Silvertone acoustic and the guy who lived there asked me if I could play guitar boogie...I looked totally lost I guess, my uncle grinned at me, turned so I could see his guitar neck and started playing and I just picked it right up from there and had no more trouble, except changing keys. That's about all I remember of it. Didn't try any lead of course, I didn't even think about trying lead for another 3 or 4 years, then after seeing Michael Nesmith play "Valerie" on the Monkees TV show I knew i just HAD to learn some lead...So I guess you can credit the Monkees and Michael Nesmith as my first guitar influence.

Next jam session after that, aside from with my uncles at the grandparents' house, was when a guy in 8th grade asked me to audition for his band, people were telling him I was the best guitar player in school. HUH??? I didn't even know any of them had heard me...except on an old, beat up Gibson acoustic in the band room with strings about 8 years old...anyway we got together Saturday, played one song and he looked at the drummer and said "I think he's our boy".

They asked me if I was ready to work at it and I jumped at that chance, I was really sick of guys who just didn't want to put any effort into it. Learn to stumble through 4 or 5 songs just well enough to get the girls' attention then they would start with the "aww let's just play, we don't have to do all that"...They were sick of it too.

First song we learned was "Lady Madonna" or "Get Back" can't remember, we did both. I remember helping the keyboard player figure out the right part for "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin", I'd never even tried it, didn't have a piano to try it on, just found the first note and the harmony note to it then went from there...amazed them both but he learned it right away. An hour later we were playing it. My mother came upstairs (garage apartment) to pick me up after practice and thought we had the radio playing...it was actually the band... That made us feel good...the look of surprise on her face, "I thought you had the radio on!"...we were 3 happy kids. Didn't have a bass player, just guitar keyboards and drums. (Remember Farfisa organs?)

I can barely remember my first jam session, my uncles who taught me how to play guitar took me to someone's house, I was about 8 or so, with a cheapo Silvertone acoustic and the guy who lived there asked me if I could play guitar boogie...I looked totally lost I guess, my uncle grinned at me, turned so I could see his guitar neck and started playing and I just picked it right up from there and had no more trouble, except changing keys. That's about all I remember of it. Didn't try any lead of course, I didn't even think about trying lead for another 3 or 4 years, then after seeing Michael Nesmith play "Valerie" on the Monkees TV show I knew i just HAD to learn some lead...So I guess you can credit the Monkees and Michael Nesmith as my first guitar influence.

Next jam session after that, aside from with my uncles at the grandparents' house, was when a guy in 8th grade asked me to audition for his band, people were telling him I was the best guitar player in school. HUH??? I didn't even know any of them had heard me...except on an old, beat up Gibson acoustic in the band room with strings about 8 years old...anyway we got together Saturday, played one song and he looked at the drummer and said "I think he's our boy".

They asked me if I was ready to work at it and I jumped at that chance, I was really sick of guys who just didn't want to put any effort into it. Learn to stumble through 4 or 5 songs just well enough to get the girls' attention then they would start with the "aww let's just play, we don't have to do all that"...They were sick of it too.

First song we learned was "Lady Madonna" or "Get Back" can't remember, we did both. I remember helping the keyboard player figure out the right part for "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin", I'd never even tried it, didn't have a piano to try it on, just found the first note and the harmony note to it then went from there...amazed them both but he learned it right away. An hour later we were playing it. My mother came upstairs (garage apartment) to pick me up after practice and thought we had the radio playing...it was actually the band... That made us feel good...the look of surprise on her face, "I thought you had the radio on!"...we were 3 happy kids. Didn't have a bass player, just guitar keyboards and drums. (Remember Farfisa organs?)

That is a fascinating story Paleopete. Thank you for posting it. I had that happen one time, a friend of my mother thought the real song was on, I was playing "Don't Fear The Reaper," by Blue Oyster Cult on my guitar. I was happy with that, plus I was happy the other day when I did have my "first jam session." I actually did not mess up everything, I was nervous about it too. But somehow, I had kept thinking earlier in the day how everyone on here was telling me about confidence, and there you go, it just came to me somehow when I jammed. First we just both played random different riffs, then we played "Welcome Home Sanitarium," which I talked about before. It was cool just not to mess it up, then we showed off some riffs we both wrote. Looked at many guitars, that is when I found the PRS (Awesome guitar, trying to remember which PRS it was though, lol).

So yeah, it was rather interesting that day. I cannot wait to jam again. I wish I could get some audio up on here for everyone to hear me. I really need that critique, and I am sure I will get it with how choppy I can sound at times, lol. It is all part of being new though, so I will except it. Last night I burnt my hands into the ground playing guitar, I think I played that thing between yesterday and the late night for like 10 hours (Ow! Hands are better now though).

But back to what you were saying, I am sure it must have been cool to get into a band that easily, you must have been some guitarist for someone only playing a short time. We need that kind of talent in this world. Last night I saw a Jazz show honoring Ella Fitzgerald, I was in shock by the talent. Made me want to throw the guitar out the window at one point though, lol, they barely used guitars, mostly pianos and other instruments. I will take up piano next, I like the sound of Jazz/blues piano. I remember the first old time blues song I heard, it was in the movie "The Majestic," Jim Carrey played the song "Boogie Woogie Blues," on piano (Amazing). Last night I wish I could have gone and played in a band for some kind of New Years celebration, would have been cool.

By the way, "The Monkees," scare me . I am not a fan, *Shrug*.
Who can account for taste though. I have heard of the company Silvertone, I stumbled upon them the other day looking for a bass guitar that was inexpensive to learn off of someday As for Farfisa organs, I have no clue... What a strange name for an organ company...

At any rate, peace out, man, GuitarAnatomy.

Farfisa is what I've played most of my life. Unlike that "Black Paneled Super Reverb amp" that I sold to "Ceaser Diez" for $100 , I could never part with the "Farf." I lovenly removed the old organ from its cabinet,reinstalled my trusty ol' Yam. SY-55 Synth.(topped and MIDI-ed with a slightly younger SY-35) ,programed a "Fat Farfisa voice" into the whole mess and ,
<------------- THERE IT IS!

I like old Farfisa organs. They were used in some of the first compositions of one of my favorite composers, Phillip Glass. He talks about how he was so poor, he literally held the poor old thing together with gauze, duct tape and bandaids.

good luck with it GuitarAnatomy.music is a very harch mistress but it is also the most amazing thing that can ever happen to you and remember its not a sprint race, it takes time and a strong reslove but you have taken the first step and even the greatest journeys start with a single step.