guitarist | Guitar Players Collective

A Trip To The Guitar Store

Posted on October 18, 2016 by SonographicTendencies

Going to the music store is a wonderful experience, who doesn’t want to be in a large sonorous room with off tempo beats and out of tune guitars competing for the attentions of reluctant ~~audience members~~ customers?

The typical trip begins with a greeting by a long haired employee who looks happy to be there and is totally fine with his life choices despite what his parents say. Followed by a short detour to the amplifier section, there you’ll find the latest line 6 amplifier just begging to be dialed up to the “insane” setting.

After playing a long medley of Metallica riffs peppered with various tapping licks, rickety sweep arpeggios and out of tune bends with the treble on 12,

the now inspired six stringer goes on to look at guitars he can not afford only to be intercepted by the “can I help you guy”, “nah I’m just looking” is the readily available answer. hqdefault

Before long a couple hours have passed, and you have tasted the sweet Martin and Taylor tones of the acoustic section, played the intro to “Whipeout” on the drums, used the bathroom to evacuate your bowels only to finally approach the counter and ask the “Guitar Retail Specialist” if there are any Ernie Ball Slinky’s or Dunlop Jazz III’s on sale.

After a quick palaver with said employee, you’ll be questioning yourself whether you’re being punk’d.”Do you want an extended warranty on your strings”? No, no I don’t.

After your journey is complete, you can walk to your car knowing that your guitar is going to sound bitching once you place those Ernie Ball Slinky pinks on it! Once you get home you begin the ritual; you grab your preferred ax, string winder and other string changing paraphernalia, you cut off the strings one by one, not caring what that nerd on Facebook said about it ruining your truss rod. After about 5 minutes, a close call with your eyeball almost being poked out, and a couple needle sticks on your fingertips from the strings, you finally tune that bad boy up and re-tune it, then tune some more to where you are almost in tune. You bend that high E string at the fifteenth fret and POP!

Henry “Stax” Suarez

Guitar Players Collective

Featured in this article are videos from Jared Dines, Ryan “Fluff” Bruce and Tyler “Music is Win” Larson check them out, they are great guitarists, musicians and funny as hell.

Online Guitarist Featurette Tina S.

Posted on August 23, 2016 by SonographicTendencies

Tina S has been making YouTube guitar covers for quite a while, eight years in fact.In this video she is covering the 3rd movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

Now historically Tina has received some hate from the online guitar community, “she has no emotion” is an oft quoted trope for example, but the hate typically appears to be jealousy in disguise. She has talent and obviously puts in the wood shedding hours. She has amassed quite the following online and deservedly so…

She has been featured on Guitar World and Guitar Player magazines Facebook pages many times.

She is usually seen playing Vigier Guitars, a French electric guitar, bass, and string manufacturer based in Grigny, Essonne, which she is endorsed by. She uses Ernie Ball slinky 9-46 strings.

So sit back and enjoy a fellow guitarist exhibit technique, phrasing and tone, a trifecta in the guitar universe!

Ludwig van Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata (3rd Movement) Tina S Cover

Tina’s Youtube Page

Tina’s Facebook page

Henry Stax

Guitar Players Collective

Mock And Roll Hall of Fame

Posted on April 11, 2016 by SonographicTendencies

Oh the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where does one begin? Probably one of the most unrock n roll institutions there is save for the Grammy’s!

Let’s take a look at this year’s inductees:

Steve Miller

Okay great!! He’s earned it.

Cheap Trick

Sure enough, well deserved…

N.W.A.

Well, uhm… huh?!

In all respects to NWA they are iconic and definitely culturally significant but Rock n Roll they are not. They are as rock as Jethro Tull are metal (still not in the HoF) however the latter at least is within the Rock category. Would Steve Miller be admitted into the Hip Hop Hall of Fame? Unlikely.

Now I know genres and sub-genres are funny things and many band’s blur lines.

You could also argue genre’s have been more historically important for record labels then for actually categorizing music. But it is the system we have and many people identify with and understand it.

It brings up the question, what is rock? Now that is a tough question beyond the scope of this article. But it could be argued that Rock IS an attitude, which NWA definitely posses, but it is also about sound bought to us by instrumentation, loud guitars, thundering bass and crashing drums are and should be part of the ingredients.

If samples and 808’s are sufficient to be called “rock” then categorizing music appears to be an exercise in futility. Why not add Liberace to the RnRHoF? He sure is flamboyant enough for rock.

Who will be future inductees 20 years down the line? Justin Bieber? Nicki Minaj? Now if there was shortage of rock bands needed to fill the hall then by all means add more obscure or unrelated acts but it clearly is not the case. I mean when bands like NWA are admitted in place of bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest? something is just not right there I guess when you have a bunch of suits running organizations like this it is to be expected, it is obvious it’s a business, and businesses end line is to make money by whatever means necessary.

At least Steve Miller spoke out about some problems with the Hall of Fame after his induction.

“We’re not gonna wrap this one up,” Miller said, insisting the press woman sit down and learn something. “This is how close this show came to not happening, because of the way the artists are being treated right now.”

Classic. Good for him!

List of others who should be in the Hall of Fame but aren’t.

Henry Stax

Guitar Players Collective

#GuitaristsBeLike

Posted on August 14, 2015 by SonographicTendencies

We guitarists are special bunch, and like any Unique group of people we have vernacular and phrases that only we regurgitate on and on in conversations and gear forums the world over. Here I am gonna list a few terms and comments you are likley to encounter perusing the web and or guitar store!

“Does It Go To Eleven?”

An oft repeated joke paying homage to the very best musician parody to date, Spinal Tap. I that Famous scene Nigel Tufnel is showing Marty DiBergi his Guitar and amp collection. He goes on to explain how he has modded his Marshall’s to go to eleven as opposed to the typical 10… The scene is a classic and just one of many quotable moments in the movie.

“Does It Djent?”

A relatively new Sub-genre of Progressive Metal that sports über high gain guitar amps. The word Djent itself is an onomatopoeia for the distinctive high-gain, distorted palm-muted, down tuned guitars typical of this genre which has gained a massive following… This popular phrase can be found on YouTube videos and Guitar forums on the daily!

“I’ve never taken any lessons”

Often repeated by the newer generation of self-taught guitarists. A phrase spoken with pride by the self learners and resented by more traditionally trained guitarists…

“I Plug In Straight”

Some guitarists think that they get a purer tone if they eschew the use of guitar pedals. Going straight into the amp prevents the buffering of the guitar tone… These people are usually assholes.

“Nice Tone! Tube?”

Another purist is the Tube snob. Every piece of technology known to man has benefited from digitization. Except the guitar amp. Many a guitarists will play solely through a tube amplifier, typically high wattage. The saturation and compression provided by tube (called valves oversees) amplifiers can not be denied. It is no surprise that these tones are still sought after more than a half century later!!! However the Tube snob never gives digital or solid state its credit. Tough in its earlier days the technology left a lot to be desired, modern gear is astounding in sound quality, yet the tone hound will tell you that the tones are, “cold”, “clinical”, “lacking warmth” and “Fizzy” etc… These people should be avoided cause no one needs that kind of negativity in their life!

These are just a few there are so many that is would require publishing a book to document them all!

Jamstick “Guitar” of the Future?

Posted on April 1, 2015 by SonographicTendencies

Jamstick, not to be confused with “selfie stick” (aka narcissists baton) is a MIDI guitar controller desinged to go hand in hand with iOS devices like iPad or iPhone, as well as Mac. At just 16 inches long it is very portable. Claiming to use infrared light, to scan the fret board in real-time to convert you six string picking into to MIDI data. Made to be used in conjunction with apps made specifically for the Jamstick and music apps made by third parties.

With five frets going up and down pentatonic scales first position, barre and power chords will be a breeze.

We are living in a Technologically advanced and App driven society for sure. The term “there is an app for that”, applies here as well. From blue tooth digital guitar amplifiers, to amp sims and iPad/iPhone apps used for instruction, jamming, practicing or just plain fun!

There is no doubt these changes taking place are here to stay, much to chagrin of the Analog lovers the world over. Guitarists though quick to don stage personas, put makeup on, grow their hair long, are a conservative bunch. As such, new products like the Jamstick are oftentimes met with skepticism. However as a guitarist of a modern era, I believe a product like this is the future! A small fretboard with “real” Frets and Guitar strings has a lot of functionality, coming from someone who has actually used hour-long train rides to practice my guitar with head phones and line 6 pocket pod, I can tell you it is an uncomfortable task.

With the Jamstick we can practice in a train or a plane, teens and adults alike taking long road trips can practice along with its built-in iOS capabilities. There has been other products similar to this, as well as small-scale or travel guitars. What makes this product unique is its Multi App and MIDI capabilities, which can open the door for digital audio recording. Given the rise and popularity of guitar games of both plastic and real guitar varieties, a product like this is sure to sell well, and taking into account that the companies recent kickstarter program reaching its goal of $50,000 in just 4 hours, things are looking promising for the developers Zivix!

But will this just be another Music Tech gimmick? Destined to end up in a drawer of unused pedals and cables? Only time will tell, however there is a lot of promise for this product and I for one would definitely consider using one for times when playing a real guitar just might not allow, or for easy midi recording on my iPad.

NO doubt this will NEVER replace a traditional guitar, it’s scale is too small, and might be uncomfortable for bigger people but this will definitely be a great addition to modern more tech savvy guitarists and musicians.

Jam Stick Website

I Just Wanna Be (YouTube) Famous

Posted on March 23, 2015 by SonographicTendencies

“The Internet gives you your own record label” A line spoken by one of the musicians in a recent video on YouTubes new service.

There is no doubt about it, YouTube has been a game changer for many modern artists, the ubiquitousness of the site that lets you publish videos of yourself has been around since 2007.

Given that 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute with over 4 billion videos viewed EVERY DAY! It is an extremely important (though not the only) tool for the up and coming or Independent artist.

Dubbed YouTube for Artists ( youtube.com/yt/artists/ ), and although we don’t need another Bieber in this world, many a rising artist can likely benefit from another tool like this. Here, they say, you’ll be offered various features, like tips on how best to get discovered, lessons on engaging fans beyond your videos, a guide to making money and more.

Being a musician in the 20th century is indeed exciting, with technology bringing digital audio recording capabilities to home project studios the world over, to being able to market oneself via social media and connect with people from all over the world, a feat once only available to musicians with record contracts. And though having a YouTube channel wont make you a overnight sensation, the requisite work must still be put in, it certainly can’t hurt to have another outlet in our journey as music makers!

Only time will tell whether this new platform will really help young budding musicians. In the meanwhile here is the video and link to the article detailing this new service…

youtubecreator.blogspot.com/2015/03/helping-music-artists-make-most-of.html

The “Blurred Lines” of Copyright

Posted on March 16, 2015 by SonographicTendencies

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In light of the current news that musicians Robin Thicke (using the term lightly of course) and Pharrell Williams were found guilty of copyright infringement for allegedly stealing the “feel” and “sound” Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” for their hit song “Blurred Lines”.

While this is certainly a big win for the Marvin Gaye’s estate, what repercussions will this have on musicians and us guitarists in specific?

With everyone having influences and most wearing it on their sleeves, it bears to mention that the line of Homage and explicit rip off is, excuse the pun, mighty blurred indeed…

It reminds one of the time when Joe Satriani sued Coldplay for ripping off “If I Could Fly” in there hit “Viva La Vida”. Did they sound the same? Sure! Was it a blatant rip off? While the melody and rhythm have striking resemblances, one has to wonder if Coldplay was even aware of Joe Satriani’s existence. Maybe they were? Perhaps they weren’t, if in fact the Pop giants were hip to Satriani’s Guitar Instrumental track and in the proceeded to “borrow” from Satriani’s song,what keeps it from being an homage as opposed to a rip off?

Coldplay Vs. Joe Satriani

Another example the Rock titans Led Zeppelin to see the effects of “inspiration”, easily one of the biggest acts in the 70’s as far as Blues based Hard Rock is concerned, they were clearly “inspired” from the earlier blues musicians. They have borrowed from everyone, including completely lifting certain songs. Do I like them less for it? No! But is it right?

7 songs that Led Zeppelin Ripped Off

I’ve written riffs before, only to be told seconds later by someone “sounds cool, it reminds me of such and such song”! Did I steal the songs ideas? perhaps I was influenced subconsciously but not on purpose.You then find yourself in a predicament of, should I change this thing I just came up with because it sounds like something else?

As to the question of whether Robin and Pharrell stole Marvin Gaye’s song, I have no input cause I just don’t care enough about either of these artists, with all due respect to Marvin Gaye and Pharrell Williams…

But it is a good time to discuss the sometimes not so black and white nature of copyright issues.
If we become too stringent future artists might be reluctant to record a certain idea for fear of being sued, on the other hand we don’t want every person with access to a recording studio, professional or otherwise, to blatantly rip off someone’s hard work…

Blurred Lines Vs. Gotta Give It Up

Where do we draw the line between homage and song stealing?

The Collective \m/

Posted on March 15, 2015 by SonographicTendencies

Welcome collectivists! It is with great pleasure I announce to you the GPC Blog. The reason we’ve created this site is to further our mission to spread guitar love!

Being a member of several guitar forums and groups in the past I saw that there was a desperate need for a community where people were not just interested in self promoting their cover videos but were also interested in a guitar communion.

A place where they could all learn and share about one of the things we hold so dear to our lives! Wether 6,7,8,12 or more strings, we could all congregate on the shared desire to wax poetic on all things music in general and guitar in specific. Many music/guitar communities have their niche, be it shredding or a certain genre of guitar playing. What we wanted was a place where the absolute beginner to seasoned professional can come and share their videos, experiences and knowledge without the typical flame wars and trolls that other places are plagued with…

In the few weeks since our inception we have done some pretty amazing things, first and foremost creating a fertile ground for us to communicate and network! We have amassed a considerable number of very dedicated members who are contributing and moderating to make sure our sanctuary stays fun and productive! We have created a YouTube and spawned the GPC Global jam! A transcontinental and multicultural musical collaboration not seen in the internet before!

We are literally the biggest guitar band in the world!

In the coming weeks we have many new things coming your way, including features on other websites and blogs, more gear reviews more lessons so stay tuned. It is truly an exciting time to be a musician/guitarist and an even more exciting time to be a member of the GPC!!!

GPC Facebook group

GPC Official FB Page

Henry Stax
Tune up, Plug in and Rock out!