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So...
I have been doing something recently that I never would have guessed I'd be doing. Read on...
I jam with a couple of guys, and have been for the past several years. We always played mostly modern and alternative rock (foo fighters, green day, smashing pumpkins; not mysong selection, mind you...) and some classics (Kiss) and some left field tuff (Marily Manson).
We were in kind of a rut, but recently one of the guys and I became friends with the manager of a privately owned music store. He started joining us for some of our Pizza and Jam nights. Adding him to the mix has diversified our song selection a bit, as he likes AC/DC, southern rock, etc. Something else he threw into the mix was a Dwight Yoakum song called "Fast As You". I liked it as soon as I heard it, as it has a snappy blues progression to it. I learned the bass line and the guitar parts for it, and started working on the lead.
Now, country lead playing is a whole different beast from the stuff I normally play. Mark, the new guy we started jamming with, is a Berklee grad, and is fairly phenomanal at country stylings. He's from Texas, and used to jam with Eric Johnson. So he's got the chops.
Anyway, at our Jam on Friday night I told him that I wasn't going to pimp him for lessons, but I really wanted to spend about 15 minutes with him going over the lead that I learned for Fast As You.
We got done with our jam (I actually played bass and sang all night), and my buddies went upstairs and Mark gave me a 15 minute crash course in country lead playing. It was cool, because I speak music-theory lingo (modes, minor 3rd vs. Major 3rd, etc.), and it was the most enlightneing 15 minutes I've had in a while. It was such a time saver for me to have someone tell me the ins and outs of a particular style instead of me having to struggle through it on my own.
So, tonight while watching "The Unit" I grabbed my Tele and noodled on some country licks. Never in a million years would I imagine that I'd ever do that; but I've tried to be more open minded musically as of late, and it has been quite refreshing.
- E.
I have been doing something recently that I never would have guessed I'd be doing. Read on...
I jam with a couple of guys, and have been for the past several years. We always played mostly modern and alternative rock (foo fighters, green day, smashing pumpkins; not mysong selection, mind you...) and some classics (Kiss) and some left field tuff (Marily Manson).
We were in kind of a rut, but recently one of the guys and I became friends with the manager of a privately owned music store. He started joining us for some of our Pizza and Jam nights. Adding him to the mix has diversified our song selection a bit, as he likes AC/DC, southern rock, etc. Something else he threw into the mix was a Dwight Yoakum song called "Fast As You". I liked it as soon as I heard it, as it has a snappy blues progression to it. I learned the bass line and the guitar parts for it, and started working on the lead.
Now, country lead playing is a whole different beast from the stuff I normally play. Mark, the new guy we started jamming with, is a Berklee grad, and is fairly phenomanal at country stylings. He's from Texas, and used to jam with Eric Johnson. So he's got the chops.
Anyway, at our Jam on Friday night I told him that I wasn't going to pimp him for lessons, but I really wanted to spend about 15 minutes with him going over the lead that I learned for Fast As You.
We got done with our jam (I actually played bass and sang all night), and my buddies went upstairs and Mark gave me a 15 minute crash course in country lead playing. It was cool, because I speak music-theory lingo (modes, minor 3rd vs. Major 3rd, etc.), and it was the most enlightneing 15 minutes I've had in a while. It was such a time saver for me to have someone tell me the ins and outs of a particular style instead of me having to struggle through it on my own.
So, tonight while watching "The Unit" I grabbed my Tele and noodled on some country licks. Never in a million years would I imagine that I'd ever do that; but I've tried to be more open minded musically as of late, and it has been quite refreshing.
- E.
I have a music education behind me as well and understand modes, scales, etc. but, I have have a difficult time staying in the right mode.
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