Musings

Weekly Kindling: A Web Comic, RIP Jim Marshall, and Guitar Murder

Weekly Kindling is a new feature on The Punch-In and will feature the latest guitar news, tricks, tips, and inspiration. Check back at the end of every week or subscribe via email in the right sidebar.

Guitar-related Web Comic of the Week:

What’s Burning This Week:

>> Jim Marshall, Legendary Rock Photographer, Passes Away at 74
Jim Marshall, the photographer who captured some of rock & roll’s most unforgettable images including photos of Jimi Hendrix burning his guitar at Monterey Pop and Johnny Cash flipping the bird at San Quentin, died in his sleep last night in New York. He was 74. Read the full article.

>> Failed Guitarist Even Fails at Murder
A 37-year old musician accused of slamming his guitar into his girlfriend’s head, choking her until she passed out and saying, “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to kill you,” was jailed recently. Read the full article.

>> The Precocious Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart as The Runaways
Check out what Fanning and Stewart had to say about embodying rock icons and their relationships with their real life counterparts as well as Stewart’s hesitation to retell exactly how Joan Jett explained to rock out on the guitar. Here’s an excerpt from the actually-interesting interview:

Kristen, you play guitar yourself, but did Joan give you any tips on how to really embody the female guitarist?
Stewart: She’s got a really unique connection to the music, the way it comes out of her. The compulsion to make it, to create the sound isn’t something that all musicians have and the fact that she never started playing lead guitar – she wanted to play rhythm guitar, she wanted to keep the music going. So she was always telling me to connect like it’s coming through you and considering your guitar is right here [points to pelvic area], it really is a weird center. The only way that I can describe it and I’ve said it before, is like – she literally sort of told me – it was like – why am I doing this right now? The only way I can describe it and the way she told me to play like her and it’s the only way that feels right is to like – you have to @#$% your guitar. [Turns to publicist] I didn’t know how else to say that. I’m sorry!

Read the full article.

Random Inspiration of the Week:

>> The most fascinating guitarist in Africa: Ronnie

Let us know what you think of this video in the comments!

Featured TrueFire Guitar Lesson of the Week:

>> “Duffy’s Edge” from Guitar Cubed

Of the many things Guitar Cubed brings to the table that you might have otherwise dismissed, its major as a key center that might prove to be the biggest revelation to some (I know from my days in the jam session trenches it was all about minor and chugging E strings. Major was just too, well, major sounding! Man, did I miss out!). So far weve explored the muscle rock version of major through Stiff Upper Lip and the lighter jamband side with Granola. Now its time go a little alt-rock/arena rock with Duffys Edge as well as continue to dive into two-chord jams with a jam that exploits the mighty I-V change. Named after its two primary sources of inspiration Billy Duffy of the Cult and The Edge of U2, this jam is major all right—major rock star, that is! Check out the full course by Chris Buono.

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March 19th 2010

Daylight Savings

By Charlie Doom

We’re still adjusting to the time change here, it’s been hard going. The coffee machine is down for the count; the tech says it wasn’t designed to funnel more than 24 gallons a day, and nobody is quite sure how soon the new one will arrive.

Come Armageddon. Come.

However, this rather dire situation has spawned at least one good thing; we’ve been exploring other ways to stimulate our heads throughout the day – out of desperation, mind you. But with desperate times come desperate measures and that, more often than not, forces you to get creative.

So, in an effort to break the shackles of Daylight Savings, here are a few things we’ve found to keep your mind awake and your chops strong throughout the day:

The Spock Exercise

This is a little challenging and might freak out your friends.

1. Make a Spock sign with your hands — extend ring fingers to pinkies, middle fingers to indexes.
(see the image to the right if you don’t know what a Vulcan is)

2. Transition from the Spock sign to the Westside sign — extend middle fingers to ring fingers.
(see the image to the right if you think Snoop Dog is a beagle)

3. Repeat over and over until you can’t stand it anymore!

Two Handed Finger in the Eye Trick

This will sharpen your hand-eye coordination and it’s kind of fun.

1. Put both your hands flat on a table and spread your fingers

2. Label the fingers on each hand 1 through 5
(I label my thumb as 1)

3. Set a pattern where you lift designated fingers one at a time i.e. 1, 5, 3, 1, 2, 4 do it until you get really fast at completing the pattern cycle, then create a new pattern and start over
Hint: your hands should mirror each other when doing these patterns

Write with your non-dominant hand

If you’re a righty, try becoming a lefty and visa versa. It goes without saying that writing with your non-dominant hand is hard, but you can get better at it, just practice. Get really good at this and take note of how it changes your playing.

Gangster Coin Roll

Just like Ol’ Bugsy, roll a coin down the knuckles and fingers of your hand. This will help your fingerpicking and dexterity, just refrain from indulging in poor Cagney impersonations.

1. Find a quarter (50 cent pieces work best, if you can find one)

2. Explaining how to do this is a little involved, so read this Wiki on how to properly roll a coin

Play your guitar for 3 minutes every hour

If your office is cool with you having a guitar by your desk, then keep a guitar by your desk. Just like smoke breaks of yore, take a guitar break every so often, we recommend 3 minutes each hour. That’s enough time to learn one of these 50 Blues Licks and by the end of the day you’ll have clocked in over 20 minutes of practice! Try this one on for size:

Improving your hand-eye coordination and learning how to control your body is the best thing you can do to beef up your chops outside of the shed. And the benefits will go farther than just the 24th fret.

Got any exercises you’d like to share? Post them in the comments!

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March 17th 2010

Weekly Kindling: Jimi Henchicks, Guitar Smashing, and “Real” Guitar Video Games

Fuel for the Fire:
“The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.”
- Sir Thomas Beecham

What’s Burning This Week:

>> Art Lovers Flock to See “Jimi Henchicks” An obscure art exhibition featuring live birds “playing” electric guitars has become a runaway hit and internet sensation. Last week people going to the exhibition at the Barbican centre in London were waiting up to 90 minutes to see the birds perform — with queues far longer than for the blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy. Read the full article and check out the video of the birds below:

>> Entertaining rock and roll expression or blasphemy? Gibson examines the art of guitar smashing with “5 Ways to Destroy a Guitar” featuring Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Kurt Cobain, Ritchie Blackmore & Stevie Ray Vaughn. Read the full article or check our favorites from the list with videos below:

Set It on Fire Like Jimi Hendrix

Play The Hell Out of It Like Stevie Ray Vaughan

Hot Topic of the Week:

>> Are guitar video games good for teaching kids guitar or should they just try the real thing?

- A video game with a stringed guitar!? A new twist to the popular music game genre will bring players one step closer to the rock icons they seek to emulate — Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring features a guitar controller with real strings (instead of buttons). Power Gig is similar to other music games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and features “beat-match” style play in which players must match the onscreen beats with their instruments. Read the full article from PCWorld.

- “I’m the voice of Guitar Hero 6,” says KISS front man Gene Simmons during a video clip produced by Game On, a division of UK media site ITN. And that’s all he says. The clip has been removed from the context of what’s assumed to be a full interview and essentially turns Simmons’ statement into a gag line. Still, Simmons does appear to be the first “official” spokesperson to outright name the next iteration of Guitar Hero, albeit unofficially. Read the full article from Joystiq.

- “Real” guitar teaches you to play as easy as Guitar Hero? This concept is a guitar where you learn a real, actual, applicable beyond the game skill. The designer of this project had the idea come while he was watching friends jam upon Guitar Hero and Rock Band all day long. He was so good at that, but couldn’t play a real guitar at all! Read the full article from Yanko Design.

Let us know your thoughts on this topic in the comments!

Featured TrueFire Guitar Lesson of the Week:

>> “Amazing Grace” from Fretboard Epiphanies

This example illustrates the creation of the arrangement. The first chorus features mainly the bass and the melody. Later, harmonies and chords are introduced. Then, chord substitutions are made and some filler notes are added.

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March 10th 2010

Andreas Oberg – Billie’s Bounce

Our good friend Robert Conti plays jazz guitar like nobody’s business. That’s why we jumped when he told us to check out Andreas Oberg. This version of Billie’s Bounce was performed at Muriel Anderson’s All Star Guitar Night. You can thank us later for having the cameras rolling.

Shortly after this performance, Andreas came down to TrueFire to record not one but two courses; Gypsy Jazz Duets with Frank Vignola and a straight-ahead jazz course, Jazz Combustion. Both will blow your mind.

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March 9th 2010

New Jimi

by Rich Maloof

The new Hendrix release is out today. Valleys of Neptune is based primarily on tracks recorded though never released by Jimi back in 1969.

Jimi released just three studio albums in his lifetime, but his posthumous output has been prolific. Experience Hendrix, the company headed up by his adopted half-sister Janie, says they have material to satisfy fans for at least another decade. Here in 2010, the 40th year anniversary of Jimi’s passing will also be commemorated — or exploited, if you see it that way — by a tribute tour, the remastering of several older titles, and an all-Hendrix version of Rock Band.

Of course, if Jimi had himself completed the tracks heard on Valleys of Neptune and seen them fit for release, it would have come out in 1970 rather than forty years later. Instead, it took some studio magic to resurrect Jimi and complete some performances. For the title track, engineer Eddie Kramer synched up a recording of Jimi’s original guitar and vocals with a live version he had played with his Experience trio in 1970. For “Crying Blue Rain” and “Mr. Bad Luck,” performances from 1987 by Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding were added to the sparse original tracks. So there’s a certain Weekend at Bernie’s aspect to Neptune, much like back in 1995 when three then-surviving Beatles added tracks and released John Lennon’s “Free As A Bird.”

Anyone who loves Jimi and can never get enough should still be pretty amped up by how well Neptune captures the vibe of original Hendrix recordings. It’s nearly worth the price of admission just to hear his reading of Cream’s “Sunshine of your Love” and a stomping version of “Hear My Train A Comin’.” And it’s great that a younger generation is being exposed to, and embracing, an incredible musician who lived and died before they were a sparkle in their daddy’s pants.

Yet a nagging question remains: Would Jimi have wanted us to hear it? For all of his laidback, late-’60s looseness, Jimi Hendrix was a perfectionist — not to mention shy and famously insecure about his own performances. To us it’s like uncovering a stash of pure gold but maybe to him it would be like being caught in his underwear. As fans, we want to hear it; as fellow musicians, we owe him a second thought. What if someone went into your hard drive, found all of your rough, half-finished demos and shared them with the world? Even if they sounded as good as Valleys of Neptune, you’d probably wish you could have finished them first, on your own terms.

The Punch-In is edited by Rich Maloof, who has a long history with TrueFire as artist, educator, and producer. Rich’s body of work as a published author and Editor in Chief of Guitar magazine has been distributed and translated internationally.