Street Musician is now proud to be able to offer our readers a small range of handmade classical guitars from South America, made by the same expert luthier and musician who has been touring South America and the rest of the world, performing and making [...]]]> Welcome to our new classical guitar section.

Street Musician is now proud to be able to offer our readers a small range of handmade classical guitars from South America, made by the same expert luthier and musician who has been touring South America and the rest of the world, performing and making professional instruments including charangos, quena flutes and classical guitars for over 30 years.

The classical guitars featured on this site now and in the future are all quality instruments that have been made using rare woods native to South America, and in true Street Musician style have been tested, inspected and vetted by one of Britain’s most respected luthiers and classical musicians – Colin Thompson.

Guitars Vetted by Colin Thompson - Musical Engineer

A master craftsman, musical engineer and expert in his field, including all types of stringed and woodwind instruments, Colin is also a  respected musician, classical guitarist and author of ‘The English Fiddle Tutor’. He has spent his life dealing with instruments of this nature and has clients from all over England travelling to see him, seeking his advice and expertise.

He has kindly agreed to vet the classical guitars, charangos and flutes you see here on Street Musician to ensure my buyers receive good quality instruments at a fair price.

After many years of working from his own home workshop, Colin has now moved and works in association with Harmony Music in Dorchester, one of the largest independent music shops in the country.

The instruments featured on this site have also been checked by the proprietors of Harmony Music and have been given the green light to be displayed in their shop for sale to the public if we would like them to.

I would like to thank Colin and the proprietors of Harmony Music in their support of the instrument sales here on Street Musician and hope to continue to have a successful relationship, ensuring the quality of the instruments I sell and the complete satisfaction of my buyers.

These handmade guitars have been tested for sound quality, construction, action, intonation and thoroughly checked to ensure they have been set up correctly by the producer.

I am proud to say that each of these three separately priced guitars were given good reviews, a clean bill of health and have subsequently been priced at their true values.

Even better, you will find the true prices of these guitars have been slashed even further to ensure these guitars reach my customers at a truly unbelievable price.

Classical Guitars

In  the future, Street Musician will be mostly featuring classical guitars in the traditional full body style along with the odd the cut out body shape as well.

The three guitars shown here all feature cutouts and were originally made after receiving a few requests for cut out guitars after a short offline survey. As the guitars shown here are all priced between the £250 – £500 mark, I figured I’d see how they fared as opposed to the traditional full classical shape.

My next few guitars will probably be considerably more expensive and I will also be featuring different makers from other well established luthier families in South America, after getting them vetted and checked for sound quality and good workmanship of course.

Guitar 1

Handmade Classical Guitar & Case

The first guitar featured is the most expensive model of our three and after being thoroughly inspected, played and tested has been classified as a nice, well crafted, balanced guitar with a great sound. It is set up well and has very good intonation, action and sustain for its price bracket. This guitar has been professionally valued at £500 by Colin and Harmony Music.

As a special offer here on Street Musician, I am offering this guitar for sale at £450

This guitar features an Ebony fretboard, the body is constructed of Bolivian Jacaranda wood, the soundboard is German Albeto Pine and the neck is constructed of Mara wood.

This guitar also comes with a free hard/semi hard case. More details below.

A quality instrument.

This handmade classical guitar, along with a free hard/semi hard case is professionally valued at £500, but is listed here for sale here on Street Musician for £450

Dents, Faults and Abrasions

If you study the photos above, on the 8th row down you will notice a slight fading of the rosette that travels for about a third of the circumference. This is not hugely visible when first viewing the guitar but can definitely be noticed once the issue has been pointed out. Along with this, the guitar has been somewhat over varnished on the front of the soundboard resulting in some varnish and streak lines. There are also 3 slight varnish blemishes on the back of the guitar. These can’t really be seen on the photo’s but in true Street  Musician fashion, what you get here is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I believe these varnishing faults have arisen due to the fact that I requested the guitar to have extra special attention placed on the finish of the guitar due to the UK market this instrument is aimed for. This particular guitar took two months to build and on time of collection had been sent to another guitar finisher as there had apparently been some issues that had occurred due to the nature of the request. I think maybe the guitar has been over varnished and then an attempt has been made to correct the error, resulting in the partial fading of the rosette and streaking.

These cosmetic issues in no way affect the main elements and sound quality of this guitar, and it’s original valuation of £500 has already taken into account these issues. The guitar would be valued at a higher price had these issues not arisen but when asked about the affect of the cosmetics relating to the finish of the guitar, the concensus is that the most important elements that combine to create a good classical guitar, being the tonal quality, volume, intonation, sustain, action and playability are all present in this guitar. Also, the rare woods of which it has been made and the way it has been constructed are very good.

Please take your time to study the images above and if you have any questions about this instrument then feel free to contact me by email or the comment form below.

The Case

The case was made by a separate case manufacturer and is made of aluminium and plastic. It was bought mainly to protect the guitar during importation. Although it it is a hard case, I would say it’s level of construction lies somewhere in between the solidity of a semi hard case and a hard shell case.

The case looks nice and the finish is adequate, but on close inspection is a little rough in places. It does come free with the guitar and will last well but as I am somewhat of a perfectionist, I would ideally have liked it to have had a slightly better finish. However, those who have seen and inspected the case have expressed the fact that it looks fine and is satisfactory for the purpose.

This particular make of case is very commonly used in Bolivia and around South America and you will find many exporters supply this exact case as a standard for international export and local use. It is for this reason I selected this model for my guitars.

I would much rather show you these instruments in person and am willing to travel reasonable distances to accommodate potential buyers. You are also welcome to personally view or collect the instrument from my residence.

Please use the contact form below or email me to arrange a viewing.

Handmade Classical Guitar & Case

Handmade Classical Guitar

Made by a Famous Andean Musician, Luthier & Composer
Over 30 Years Experience Making and Performing Fine Instruments
Handcrafted with Ebony, Jacaranda, Albeto Pine and Mara Wood
Vetted by Professional UK Musician, Luthier and Musical Engineer
Fair Trade, Directly from the Artisan in Bolivia
Expertly valued at £500, priced at £449
100 % Money Back Guarantee.

Payment Details

For this handmade concert guitar and case.

£449

+ Postage & Packaging anywhere in the UK – £ 14.99

Total

£463.99

I accept the following payment methods.

PayPal is my preferred method of payment, but I will also accept cheques and postal orders.

For residents in the UK – Click below to purchase.

Please contact me to arrange purchase of this instrument.

Kier.

If you live outside the UK, I am also willing to post this guitar anywhere in the world providing payment is made first. Please contact me to discuss price and international postage requirements.

This product comes directly from the artisans own hands and was bought with a fair trade and with the greatest respect.

Remember – If you are interested in purchasing this instrument, you are always covered by the Street Musician guarantee.

Guitar 2

Handmade Classical Guitar & Case

Here is the second of our featured handmade classical guitars.

This second guitar is the mid priced model of our three and has also been thoroughly inspected, played and tested by  Colin Thompson.

Although this guitar is a cheaper model and features a Rosewood fretboard instead of an Ebony one, it is also very well balanced, is correctly set up and has great intonation, action, sustain, volume and a comparable sound to the guitar above.

This guitar has been professionally valued at at least £375 by Colin and Harmony Music.

As a special offer here on Street Musician, I am offering this guitar for sale at £349

This guitar features a Rosewood fretboard, the body and neck is constructed of Bolivian Jacaranda wood, the soundboard is Oregon Pine.

This guitar also comes with a free hard/semi hard case. More details below.

This handmade classical guitar, along with a free hard/semi hard case has been professionally valued at £375, but is listed here for sale here on Street Musician for £349

Dents, Faults and Abrasions

If you study the photos above, on the 5th row down you will notice a small slice in the rosette that travels for about a 5 ml into the pattern. The fault is visible but not hugely noticeable when viewing the guitar. In my opinion the photo’s that depict this cut do make it appear more prominent than it does in real life and I think it’s visibility depends on the light reflection and the angle at which the guitar is viewed. Obviously, in my photo’s I have tried to depict the fault as clearly as possible in order to give the viewer the best chance of making the correct purchase decision.

Apart from this, the finish is quite good across the rest of the guitar, although there is a pooling of vanish just beside the left hand side of the saddle.  This can be seen on the 4th photo down on the main section of photos. This pooling of clear varnish can’t really be seen easily on the guitar unless you look for it or view it in the light at the right angle, but as always, what you get with Street Musician is the whole truth and nothing but the truth right across the board.

These cosmetic issues in no way affect the playability, action, intonation and beautiful tonal qualities of this guitar, and it’s original valuation of £375 has already taken into account all these minor faults. The guitar would be valued at a slightly higher price had these issues not arisen.

Please take your time to study the images above and if you have any questions about this instrument then feel free to contact me by email or the comment form below.

The Case

The case was made by a separate case manufacturer and is made of aluminium and plastic. It was bought mainly to protect the guitar during importation. Although it it is a hard case, I would say it’s level of construction lies somewhere in between the solidity of a semi hard case and a hard shell case.

The case looks nice and the finish is adequate, but on close inspection is a little rough in places. It does come free with the guitar and will last well but as I am somewhat of a perfectionist, I would ideally have liked it to have had a slightly better finish. However, those who have seen and inspected the case have expressed the fact that it looks fine and is satisfactory for the purpose.

This particular make of case is very commonly used in Bolivia and around South America and you will find many exporters supply this exact case as a standard for international export and local use. It is for this reason I selected this model for my guitars.

I would much rather show you the instrument in person and am willing to travel reasonable distances to accommodate a buyer. You are also welcome to personally view or collect the instrument from my residence. Please use the contact form below or email me to arrange a viewing.

Handmade Classical Guitar & Case

Handmade Classical Guitar

Made by a Famous Andean Musician, Luthier & Composer
Over 30 Years Experience Making and Performing Fine Instruments
Handcrafted with Jacaranda, Rosewood, Oregon Pine
Vetted by Professional UK Musician, Luthier and Musical Engineer
Fair Trade, Directly from the Artisan in Bolivia
Expertly valued at £375, priced at £349
100 % Money Back Guarantee.

Payment Details

For this handmade concert guitar and case.

£349

+ Postage & Packaging anywhere in the UK – £ 14.99

Total

£363.99

I accept the following payment methods.

PayPal is my preferred method of payment, but I will also accept cheques and postal orders.

For residents in the UK – Click below to purchase.

Please contact me to arrange purchase of this instrument.

Kier.

If you live outside the UK, I am also willing to post this guitar anywhere in the world providing payment is made first. Please contact me to discuss price and international postage requirements.

This product comes directly from the artisans own hands and was bought with a fair trade and with the greatest respect.

Remember – If you are interested in purchasing this instrument, you are always covered by the Street Musician guarantee.

I also have other instruments for sale on this site and will have much more to offer in the near future. Check out my instruments page for details. I am currently in the process of setting up another web site to promote these and many other weird and wonderful items from South America and I also have a few auctions running on Ebay if you would like to take a look.

It may take a while, but there’s going to be some great stuff coming this way. So keep checking back for more great offers here on Street Musician.

Thanks for looking.

Kier

Other Posts of Interest

Instruments For Sale
Why Do I Sell Bolivian Instruments ?
The South American Charango
Flutes – Quenas and Quenachos
Street Musician Guarantee
Postage & Packaging Details

Posted 10.11.09

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For those in a band it should be a much simpler process with each member bringing their own gear and (in theory) being responsible for their individual equipment. Serious musicians are usually [...]]]> You might not think it, but preparing for a gig is a logistical nightmare, especially if you are a solo artist.

For those in a band it should be a much simpler process with each member bringing their own gear and (in theory) being responsible for their individual equipment. Serious musicians are usually well organised and efficient at what they do but if you are talking about your average bunch of muso’s who get together every now and then to do a few gigs, then it don’t expect things to run smoothly unless someone takes charge.

You’ll notice with a lot of bands out there, there’s always one member of the group who’s got his head screwed on, organising things and making sure it all runs smoothly. Half the time the rest of the group don’t give a damn or are totally irresponsible anyway and couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery.

It’s the same with everything in life, if you want to do something right, you’ve got to do it yourself.

If something goes wrong in the middle of a gig, expecting the guitarist to have brought spare fuses for the PA or the bassist to have a pair of pliers handy when everyone’s got stinking hangovers is just not going to happen. Someone’s got to take charge of the essentials.

Being a solo musician, you’ve got no choice anyway and if something happens to your equipment, you only have yourself to blame if you are not properly prepared.

The more equipment you’ve got, the more spares you’re going to need incase something goes wrong.

You might think when practicing at home or in the studio that everything’s fine and your leads and equipment are in good nick, but when you take everything down, transport it across the county, set it all up again and fire up the system, you’d be surprised at how many things go wrong at the other end. Often it is without warning and for no reason at all.

If you are out gigging and something goes wrong at ten o’ clock at night, you aren’t going to be able to go out and buy spare leads and equipment to solve the problem, so you need to have thought of every potential issue that might occur and be prepared for it when it happens.

Hard Work

Below is a list of stuff including spares and other helpful items that I take to my gigs. If you can afford it and have the space, you can keep much of it pre packed which will save you a lot of time but for me, doing a gig is still a ten hour round trip from start to finish. It’s a real mission and partly my own fault for taking so much equipment but it’s also down to the place in which I live.

For most gigs I take three guitars (two electrics and an acoustic) and a full P.A system. It’s not the biggest but it’s still pretty hefty for a solo artist. Some guys take smaller compact P.A’s to their gigs which will just about cover a small pub. These are perfect for acoustic gigs but unfortunately my set mimics a full band set up playing stuff like the Arctic Monkeys, Muse and Nirvana etc. so it has to pack a bit more of a punch.

I also live in town and on the first floor, so most of the time when I do a gig, I have to :

Restring three guitars, take down and pack my equipment, take it all downstairs, load the van, drive to the gig, unload the van, set it all up, park the van which could be miles away if you’re gigging in town, tune up and sound check, play for two to three hours, take it all down again, get the van, load the van, drive home, unload the van, take it all upstairs and then park the van which by the time you get home on a weekend at one or two in the morning, there are no parking spaces left for miles around, especially in Summer. Also, if I haven’t got another gig for a while, I’ve got to set it all up again the next day so I can use my studio throughout the week.

Getting friends to help out seriously reduces the time it takes to complete the process but you can’t rely on friends forever so be prepared for some seriously hard work and to do it on your own.

Make no mistake – it’s hard work and yeah, I could make my life a lot simpler by only taking one guitar but that would limit the songs I could play. Some songs need an electric, other songs need a down tuned electric and my acoustic is essential.

Both my electric guitars have double locking trems and you can’t spend ten minutes re-tuning them in the middle of your set every time you change songs. My playlist also differs every time I gig so I can’t just take one electric and re-tune in the break. So for me, if I want to play at my full potential, three guitars are a must.

Keeping It Simple – More Pay – Easy Life

I used to take just one acoustic to my gigs and stamp on the distortion to play heavier tracks in my set. It worked well but using an acoustic this way poses obvious limitations regarding feedback, volumes, soloing and fx, so after a year or so I started taking my electric. I then made some more tracks and found I needed two electrics to play them all. Life was much easier then but I’ve only got myself to blame for trying to take on to much.

You don’t want to be lugging shed loads of equipment around unless you really have to.

Remember – The more complex your set is, the more practicing you will need to do and the more equipment you will need to take. This will ultimately result in longer practicing hours and take much longer to complete the round trip for the gig. This reduces the amount you’ll be getting paid per hour for your time.

Some artists get away with playing two halves of 45 minutes and take just one guitar and a small P.A. I play for 2.5 to 3 hrs with 3 guitars and a full P.A, so guess who’s life is more difficult.

Keeping it simple is often better than trying to strain yourself by gigging with everything you’ve got. If you keep it simple you’ll have a much easier ride, although you might not find it so satisfying at the end of the night.

Gig Equipment List

This list is only a basic guide for you to work from but should contain most things a solo artist will need to get playing and a few other items that could help in an emergency. For a full band, just add each individual members’ gear and spares.

Extras

You can add extras like fags, medication, contact lenses, food etc. depending on your own individual needs and don’t forget beer for after the gig. As you can see I’ve got pain killers listed to keep recurring back pain under control if I hurt myself lugging equipment around. If you wear glasses or contacts, you need to realise that if you lose one or both, you may not be able to see anything and this could seriously affect they way you operate throughout the gig. Be prepared and don’t get caught out.

Weather Conditions

Spare clothing is really useful if you get soaked moving your equipment around in bad weather. Just because it’s hammering it down you can’t sit around waiting for the rain to stop, you still have to get there on time and do your job. In winter you can guarantee it’s going to be chucking it down every time you go out and do a gig.

If you haven’t got cases, you’ll need something to throw over the top of your stuff to protect your gear in wet weather.

I use an iPod and remote controls to play my home made accompaniment but also take a spare cd player in case it goes wrong. Spare remote batteries and connectors ensure that if anything suddenly stops working, I’ve got alternatives to back me up.

Flea forgot his slacks !

The simplest thing like forgetting your guitar strap can completely ruin your night and if you’ve traveled 40 miles to your gig you can’t exactly nip home and get it. Although a lot of these things seem blatantly obvious, it does help to list them and check you’ve got everything before you go. It will make your life a lot easier and could get you out of some sticky situations.

Other Posts of Interest

How to Get Gigs
From Home to Stage
Good Gigs – Bad Gigs
Busking

It can be quite soul destroying to ask a number of landlords for a gig and then get turned down by [...]]]> There are lots of things you can do to get yourself booked for a gig but by far the best way is to simply walk into a local pub and ask.

It can be quite soul destroying to ask a number of landlords for a gig and then get turned down by most of them as they’re often only interested in booking established musicians with a following. It always helps if you’ve got a few loyal fans or a load of mates who’ll turn up and buy drinks all night as the pubs like to know they’ll cover their expenses if no one else turns up to watch.

If you haven’t got much of a following or you can’t guarantee a few people will turn up, don’t worry, you’ll still be able to get yourself a good few gigs but you might have to try a little harder.

It’s the classic chicken and the egg problem. How can you develop a following when no one will give you a chance in the first place ? You’ve just got to keep plugging away and hassle as many venues and people as you can until you get a break.

You might feel the urge to offer to play for nothing to get your foot in the door at your first few gigs. It sounds like a good idea but whatever you do, do not offer your services for free or dirt cheap. In doing this you undermine your own position as a musician and also undermine every other musician out there trying to make a living out of their playing.

There are thousands of new bands and musicians out there and if every new act offered their first few gigs for free, there wouldn’t be any point in paying for musicians at all.

Charging for your music proves that you consider yourself to be worth the money you are being paid. If you perform a gig for half price or just a few measly pounds, the venue might not be so happy to pay you the next time you play. The owner gets a free nights entertainment and gains the profit from your efforts while you struggle to achieve your goals. Imagine the next guy turning up and playing for free as well. It seems like a good idea but playing for peanuts puts the livelihoods of all musicians at risk, unless it’s for charity or mates of course, then it’s always good.

I thought of playing for very little or nothing in a few pubs when I first started out, then I spoke to a few experienced musicians who put me straight. Just think about it a bit before you consider this option.

If a landlord doesn’t know how good you are you might be required to drop your asking price by ten or twenty pounds but make it known that you are doing this as a one off and the next one will be full price.

Don’t Get Disillusioned

You will probably be turned down in 8 about out of 10 pubs you visit to try and get a gig. The chances are the landlord will have most of his entertainment for the year booked up already with tried and tested acts. If you’re lucky, he or she may have had a cancellation or have a few dates left in the book available for you so keep your calendar clear and take whatever date you can get. Generally, if you are worth your salt they will like you and have you back for repeat bookings once you’ve got your foot through the door.

Best Time Of Year

The best time to go out and get bookings is early on in the year, around about mid February. In January, after the expense of Christmas and New Year, everybody is totally skint and the pubs and clubs are pretty much empty for a good few weeks. Everybody is still reeling from the shock of it all and most people need a wage packet or two to repair the damage before they can venture out again.

Come mid February there’s plenty of gigs for the taking as landlords start to to fill up their entertainment bookings for the year. They’re also looking for new talent and are more likely to give new artists a try.

Be quick and get in as many bookings as you can as venues will fill their books fast. Loads of new acts spring up at this time of year and you’ll also be competing with many bands reforming and getting back on the scene as they try and live up to their New Years resolutions.

February is probably the one time of year you need to be ready to go for it and commit yourself to gigs months in advance.

Book Them All At Once

Check out the local venues in your area on Google and print out a list. There is bound to be a local web site or pub guide listing on the net and be prepared to go way out of your way to find gigs. Many musicians regularly travel long distances to get an audience.

Take your list and visit all the pubs, clubs and bars in the area over a couple of days. This will make your search more efficient and you’ll waste much less time and effort than trying to cover just two or three every time you venture out. Make a day of it and visit at least fifteen or twenty venues to start with. You’re bound to comeback with at least one or two bookings by the end of the day. Over a few days you should end up with some good results.

Don’t Forget The Clubs

Don’t forget to try the private clubs, hotels and local holiday camps. These places tend to have captive audiences and can often afford to pay more than local pubs. Be aware that these venues are usually played by experienced musicians and if you end up gigging in a large holiday camp or posh hotel, you’ll be expected to be professional and play at a reasonably high standard. You could also try tackling the more rougher social and working clubs. They are not quite so fussy and can be rough at times but they are fun and often pay quite well.

Local Working Mens Club !

Do I Need a Demo CD ?

People often assume a demo cd is a must for getting yourself gigs. It can help but this also works both ways. Listening to a roughly recorded home made demo may not capture the dynamics of your live performance and the listener might not like the choice of song you have recorded, so in some instances having a demo cd could work against you.

The chances are you won’t have spent a lot of money on a professional cd and mixed it down with state of the art equipment like the cd’s you buy in the shops, but nowadays you can make perfectly adequate recordings and demo cd’s from home on your own pc using programs like Cubase and Sonar. If you do have a well recorded demo that represents you well, it’s always a bonus but if you haven’t got the means to produce something that sounds good, you might be better off without one.

You will almost always be asked if you have some kind of material to listen to but if you don’t have a demo then there are other ways of showing how good you are.

Take Your Acoustic

Taking your acoustic guitar into the pub and offering a live demonstration can be a great way to get yourself booked. If you can pull out a good song there and then in front of daytime customers then you should be home and dry. Don’t ask for an opinion or booking straight after your performance as you don’t want to be putting pressure on the landlord and make them feel uncomfortable. If you don’t get a ‘yes’ straight away, just tell them to think about it and you will call later.

Come and have a go or jam nights are also a good way of promoting yourself to the management. It may take a few sessions but if you play well over a couple of nights and inform the boss that you have a full set and are interested in doing proper gigs, you have a good chance of getting in.

Talk To Other Musicians

A lot of musicians or professional entertainers who have been in the business for a while end up acting as agents which helps supplement their income alongside their music. They’ll have been round the circuit many times and will have built friendships with owners and management. This allows them recruit talent and recommend new artists to these venues. Depending on their circumstances, they may charge you a percentage of your fee to do this or they might just help you out for free as a favour from one musician to another.

Most musicians or entertainers have been in the same boat at some point in their lives and if you approach them and enquire about getting a few gigs, the chances are they’ll will be able to help you out in some way or at least point you in the right direction.

Get A Professional Agent

The easiest way of getting yourself gigs is to get a professional agent. Look in the local directories or on line and you are bound to find one in your area. You may have to audition to prove your ability and will most certainly have to pay around 15-20% of your fees for every gig you are booked for. A good agent will be able to get you as many gigs as you want and will have contacts all over the country as well as abroad. An agent will save you a lot of time and hassle but it’s not so great when you have to pay them a large percentage out of your hard earned cash for the privilege.

A lot of musicians have big problems paying out to an agent every time they perform and although you might not mind at first, after a while it becomes a bit of a sore point shelling out time and time again when all they’ve essentially done was get you that initial gig. If you constantly play different venues then it’s not so bad and it’s probably worth the fee, but if you are paying out over and over again for playing at the same place, it’s money for nothing for the agent when you could have easily introduced yourself and saved yourself a lot of cash.

If you are prepared to go the extra distance and be your own agent you can save yourself hundreds, if not thousands of pounds a year.

If you choose an agent, ask around and speak to other musicians about them before you get too involved. Not all agents are good and some are downright useless or even crooked. I have heard many stories about agents ripping off their clients or having a detrimental effect on their careers. When I began my career, my agent was so useless I ended up sacking him and spent more time helping him out than he did me.

Just like anything in life, some agents are brilliant and will enhance your career no end while others are useless and will bring you down.

Golden Handcuffs

One last piece of advise whilst you are out there trying to find your feet.

You may encounter one or two particularly controlling landlords who reel off a list of conditions about where you are aloud to play around town once you have agreed to perform in their venue on a regular basis. Be careful here because depending on what they propose, their restrictions might be quite acceptable or they could be way out of order.

Most landlords will not want you to play in their pub on a Friday night and then at the pub next door on the same weekend or even within a couple of weeks of you playing there. This is reasonably acceptable as local drinkers often frequent pubs within range of each other and if they know you are playing at the next pub in a weeks time or tomorrow night, they might not bother coming out to see you tonight. This means the venue loses potential customers so they can be excused for asking you to steer clear of the immediate area for a couple of weeks after gigging there, but be careful of landlords asking you for complete exclusivity to their venue or giving you wide areas or lengthy time limits to avoid playing in the vicinity just for the right to play in their venue.

I was once asked for exclusive rights to play in one venue in a street of seven bars on the edge of town. I didn’t mind so much as I was just starting out and was glad of the opportunity to play, but a while later the golden handcuffs were extended to another 5 pubs within a few hundred yards. I didn’t mind because there were still shed loads of other pubs in town so I agreed at first. I was then asked by some people to gig in three of these particular venues but because of my previous agreement I had to turn them down.

That really bugged me. All of a sudden I felt like a prisoner and had lost my freedom as a musician. Within a few days of turning these new gigs down I jacked in my verbal contract with my regular venue and spread my wings again. I appreciated the opportunity the original pub had given me but felt much better once I’d broken the handcuffs. I lost the original gig but gained the freedom to play in about 12 other pubs…none of which had the same stipulations.

It just goes to show the lengths some people are willing to go to to make their establishments exclusive and pull in customers.

There is something to be said for exclusivity and in some ways it can help your career. You don’t want to overdo your exposure by gigging the hell out of an area until everyone is sick of you. On the other hand, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin either. Try and achieve a balance that will benefit both you and the establishments you play in.

Get Yourself Out There

The more you put yourself out there in the public view the more chance you have of someone booking you. I’ve been booked for gigs in all sorts of places, when out busking, at jam nights, at my own gigs, practicing in weird places, even over the internet. You never really know when the next one is coming until someone asks you.

Think of yourself or your band as a product that needs to be marketed. Get yourself a website, advertise, perform for charity and make yourself known at any and every opportunity you can. Once people start to know you and word of mouth gets round, you’ll find it much easier to get bookings and develop a strong following. Then hopefully, if you are good enough, the gigs will come to you.

Posted 22.09.09

Other Posts of Interest

Gigging Preparation
From Home to Stage
Good Gigs – Bad Gigs
Busking

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We’ll still be going through a few more changes over the next few days while I get things finished off, but don’t fret, all our old articles, posts and guides are still here – they ‘re just in [...]]]> Don’t worry, you’re not not going crazy, Street Musician has changed for the better.

We’ll still be going through a few more changes over the next few days while I get things finished off, but don’t fret, all our old articles, posts and guides are still here – they ‘re just in a different order and look totally different. We’ll sort things out bit by bit and hopefully things will cool down as I get through my blog list.

Things have been going on behind the scenes for a while now and you’ll notice many of the articles here on the new site have been revised, improved and updated to bring the site up to scratch. There’ll be lots more good stuff to come over the next few weeks.

Things are gonna change round here even more, so stick around and see what’s happening. If you notice links not working, funny titles, rss feeds up the duff, messed up graphics and behind the scene blogs…don’t worry…it’s all part of the process.

Thanks for visiting and stick around and see if you can spot anything new.

Kier

Most people think learning lyrics is easy. An average person will assume they [...]]]> Every now and then I get confronted with a song that has either a ridiculously long set of lyrics containing about twenty verses or one that does not make any sense at all, making it extremely difficult to learn.

Most people think learning lyrics is easy. An average person will assume they know most of the words to many of their favourite albums as they tend to sing along to them every day in the car or workplace.

The one thing I realised when I first started busking is that there’s a big difference between singing along to an accompanying album and trying to play the song on your own with nothing but your self to cue from.

Auto Cue

If a person is provided with even the slightest cue, like the first letter, sound or syllable to the start of a song line, it triggers the brains automatic recognition of the following lyrics allowing you to easily finish the sentence or verse. The brain recognises these cues so fast that it only takes a few milliseconds to register a sound from a cd to trigger your own response and help you sing along. This leads many people into the false belief that they know the song really well when in actual fact they don’t.

It’s only when you switch off the music, give them a mic and tell ‘em to sing that people realise they don’t have a clue where to start. I see this happen all the time when people offer to accompany me singing out busking or at a gig or wherever. Even with a guitar strumming the tune, they don’t know where to start or which verse comes first. If I give them one word or an accompanying half line then they’re off. Until a few seconds later when they need another cue for the next line or verse.

Even if you do know all the words in the whole song, it’s not knowing the order of the verses, choruses and middle 8’s that can stop you in your tracks.

There’s nothing worse than singing a song and getting the lyrics right but screwing up the verse order. Ninety percent of the time the audience won’t know or notice anyway, but as a singer it’s vital that you know your words and can project them with confidence.

Here’s a funny vid proving even pro’s forget their words. The guys from R.E.M. have to go out and buy their own songbooks and CD’s before going on tour just, to remember their own lyrics.

The Boring Way

There is a big difference in the the way the brain takes in information when trying to memorise things. We all know for instance that a larger percentage is taken in and absorbed by the brain when writing down a piece of information than by just reading it. The same goes for reading and listening, you are much more likely to learn a piece by reading it than just listening to it. This would lead us to believe that if we need to learn a song then the best way would be to keep writing it down, over and over again.

The problem is, it is incredibly boring and takes a lot of time out of your day. Writing out the same song more than once is really tedious and if you’ve got loads of other songs to learn or more important stuff to do, you don’t want to be stuck in a room pushing a pen or sat in the same place listening for hours on end.

It’s even worse if the song doesn’t make sense or is incredibly long winded. By the time you’ve gone through it a couple of times, you’ll be so racked off you’ll probably give up.

The only way to learn a song off by heart with the minimum of effort is to ram it down your own throat and burn it into your brain so badly that you’ll remember it for the rest of your life without even trying. Here’s my fool proof method.

How to Memorise a Song for Life with Minimum Effort

The first thing you need is an MP3 player and some earphones. You don’t need an expensive one like an ipod, just get the smallest, cheapest one you can find and a pair of cheap 99p budget earphones from the nearest supermarket. It doesn’t matter about the sound quality or memory capacity, as long as you can hear it and it holds a few songs it will be fine and you won’t have to worry about replacing expensive equipment if you loose it.

Download the song you want to learn from the internet. You can easily buy it from iTunes or download it from one of the free music sites like Beemp3.com. If you have it on CD, stick it in your PC and rip it to an MP3 file.

Load the song onto your mp3 player along with any other songs you feel like learning in the near future.

Print or write out the lyrics on a couple of pieces of paper. You can easily find them by visiting the many online lyric sites on the net.

Sit down for ten minutes and listen to the song undisturbed, two or three times over while reading the accompanying lyrics. This will give you an initial understanding of exactly what is being said and the general construction of the song. You’ll also be able to correct any mistakes in the lyrics sheet as most of the time you’ll find they’re wrong anyway.

When you’ve done this, fold the paper up and put it in your back pocket. Make sure you keep it with you over the next couple of days.

Now get up, stick the MP3 player on repeat and get on with your life.

Intense Exposure

Over the next 48 hrs you must keep the Mp3 player by your side and on repeat at all times, constantly cycling through that same song over and over again without stopping. At work, in bed, out shopping, in the car, walking the dog, everywhere. Every possible second you are awake and can get away with it, play that damn song.

When you go to bed at night, stick your earphones in on a low volume and whack it on repeat until you crash out. You’ll wake in the night with the song still ringing in your brain. When you are out shopping or your partner is trying to talk to you, stick one earphone in and respond with the other.

Be Careful

Whatever you do, always ensure you keep your headphone volumes as low as possible to avoid damaging your hearing. Excess volume over a prolonged period of time can cause permanent damage to the eardrums leading to noise induced hearing loss or tinnitus – a permanent ringing in the ear commonly found in those who misuse mp3 players and portable music devices.

Keeping a low volume on your player will avoid damaging your hearing and getting on peoples nerves. If you can barely hear it yourself then neither can anyone else. Thousands of people each year do permanent damage to their hearing by blasting music through earphones so everyone within thirty yards can hear. Be careful or you could find yourself dealing with serious problems in the future.

Test Yourself

Every now and then, when you just can’t bear listening to the song anymore, switch off the player and try and sing it to yourself. See how far you get. If you get stuck, pull out the piece of paper with the lyrics on and give yourself a cue. Go through the song quietly in your head at every opportunity, referring to the sheet when you need it.

You will find that within a few hours you become completely obsessed with the song. Even if you can’t stand it, you will find yourself constantly thinking it, speaking it, singing it and dreaming about it. You basically live walk and sleep the song at every opportunity for two days while getting on with your normal life.

Lyric Interpretation – Association

As you get to grips with the lyrics, a great technique is to equate various lines and verses with your own interpretations of what is going on in the song. Think of imaginative scenes depicting the story that is being told as the song unfolds. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous the scenes you imagine are, it is the act of equating words with sounds and pictures in your mind that creates and strengthens new electrochemical bonds and memory paths between the cells in your brain.

These new associating images actually create physical links in the brain making the memories much stronger, more permanent and easier to retrieve.

Permanent Recall

Sights, sounds, smells and images often remind us of things long forgotten buried deep in our past memories. The links created and associated with that memory at the time were so strong that many years later a simple smell or sound can bring it all rushing back.

The power of mind association is widely used by memory masters and helps them achieve great feats of the mind like memorising packs of cards in minutes. It’s because they associate each card they pass on their journey through the deck with an imaginary journey they take in their mind. This equates cards and numbers to powerful and familiar thoughts, images and colours.

This technique is a little more advanced that I’m suggesting. You don’t necessarily have to take an imaginary journey through the whole song, but just allow your imagination to guide you through the song picking up any obvious anchor points you can equate to images in order to help you through.

Check out some of the lyrics to Can’t Stop – By the Chili’s. They are brilliant but totally absurd. A real nightmare to learn, but easily conquered using mass exposure and image association techniques. See if you can equate some of the lines to imaginative scenes you can think of yourself.

Can’t Stop

Can’t stop addicted to the shin dig
Cop top he says I’m gonna win big
Choose not a life of imitation
Distant cousin to the reservation
Defunkt the pistol that you pay for
This punk the feeling that you stay for
In time I want to be your best friend
Eastside love is living on the westend
Knock out but boy you better come to
Don’t die you know the truth is some do
Go write your message on the pavement
Burnin so bright I wonder what the wave meant
White heat is screaming in the jungle
Complete the motion if you stumble
Go ask the dust for any answers
Come back strong with 50 belly dancers

Sweetheart is bleeding in the snowcone
So smart she’s leading me to ozone
Music the great communicator
Use two sticks to make it in the nature
I’ll get you into penetration
The gender of a generation
The birth of every other nation
Worth your weight the gold of meditation
This chapters going to be a close one
Smoke rings I know your going to blow one
All on a spaceship persevering
Use my hands for everything but steering
Can’t stop the spirits when they need you
Mop tops are happy when they feed you
J. butterfly is in the treetop
Birds that blow the meaning into bebop

???

The sort of things that go through my head when singing this one are pretty bizarre I can tell you.

Once you’ve got to the point where you can recite the song faultlessly in your head with no backup or accompanying music, you’re done. You brain is fried and the song is imprinted (more like branded) in your head for good. From then on, your normal practice will keep the song fresh in your mind for years to come.

It sounds intense but in reality it is a very simple and easy way of learning absolutely any song, no matter how long or complex with the minimum of effort. To lessen the interruption to your normal life, you need to be imaginative and get at least one earphone on the go whenever you can. Monotonous tasks like cooking, exercising and work are the ideal times to fire up the mp3 player.

Learn Anything – Anywhere

This technique works for just about any method of learning. I spent a few days learning Spanish using this method a couple of years ago and most of it is still in my head.

You can use these methods to learn music theory, maths, formulas, recipes, languages or anything else. Give them a try and see how well it works.

The funny thing is, because it is so intense but still allows you the freedom to get on with your life, you will always remember exactly what you did over the couple of days you learned the song. You will remember what the piece of paper looked like, how the words and verses were written, what you were doing and how you felt.

I learned ‘From The Ritz to The Rubble’ on the motorway, checking out a van for sale half way up the country, three Travis songs rebuilding the chimneys on the roof of my Dad’s house and Outside – by Staind while fitting a new kitchen to name a few.

Give it a try and see if it works for you.

Posted 11.11.09

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Being able to focus on a project sounds like a good quality to have, [...]]]> One thing that really bugs me about myself is my ability to get drawn into a new task and become so completely immersed in whatever it is, that I do nothing but that for weeks at a time.

Being able to focus on a project sounds like a good quality to have, the problem is when I do it, it’s normally at the expense of everything else. Even if I’ve spent months building up to something, it all seems to go straight out the window when a new challenge arises.

Not quite that bad !

There’s normally a pretty good reason for me to do this and in the end it all contributes to my life’s final master plan, but I can’t help thinking if I’d just stop getting into all these other projects and concentrate on one main goal, then I’d probably have got there by now and achieved much more success in one particular area than constantly trying to achieve success in lots of different ones.

We all try and fit too much into our lives and when we get it right we can achieve great things, but sometimes the pressure and work loads we place upon ourselves stifle other areas of our lives that we should really be concentrating on. With work commitments, family and the normal strains and stresses of everyday life, there are only a certain amount of hours in the day we can put aside to achieve these new goals.

One thing you’ve got to watch out for, especially if you are trying to achieve and keep a certain standard as a musician, is not to let these new workloads infringe on your practice. Time management is vital if you are to keep your head above the fret board.

For the last few weeks I’ve been concentrating on building my new artisan business and also getting an online presence with an e commerce shop/blog. The whole thing ties in nicely with Street Musician and as I mentioned before, selling instruments is something I’ve always wanted to do. But I’ve been so immersed in what I’ve been doing that my guitar practice and vocal routines have gone completely down the pan.

It happens every time I get into a new project and even though I promised myself I would keep my practice up this time, I’ve let it slip as I knew I would.

I didn’t mind too much until a few days ago, the whole thing blew up due to numerous issues with the commerce script I’ve been using. I’ve spent days messing about with this thing only to find that I’m having to wipe the whole site out and start again.

So not only has it been a waste of time and I’m now back to square one, but I’ve also thrown my practice out of the window for the last few weeks, rendering me temporarily useless on the guitar and croaking like an x factor wannabe when trying to sing.

It’s been so long since I put in some decent practice, all those songs that were so easy and pleasurable to play not so long ago, now sound terrible. My voice is weak with no presence and after a couple of hours on the guitar my fingers hurt like hell and I feel like a beginner again.

Once your fingers go soft and your throat becomes used to the easy life, your brain still thinks you are capable of pulling off loads of wicked songs but your body just can’t handle it.

If I hadn’t got so involved and obsessed with what I’m doing and spent practically every moment of my waking hours thrashing out this new business and just kept my eye in for an hour or two a day, then when every thing comes crashing down around my head as it usually does and I find I am back where I started, then at least I could say that I’m still pretty good on the guitar and when all else fails I could go out and do a few gigs or a bit of busking to relieve the stress.

There is nothing better than to be able to perform any song in your itinerary without screwing up and nothing worse than knowing you should be playing well when you sound bloody awful.

I go through these phases a few times a year. I play like hell for anything up to 8 hours a day and get myself up to a standard where I can kick out a three hour nightmare set with my eyes shut, and then I get involved in something completely different and throw it all out the window for weeks at a time.

Letting Your Practice Slip

The simple formula about playing the guitar is the more you play, the better you get. Then the easier it becomes and the more you get the urge to play. It becomes an addiction, a really good addiction. Picking up your guitar and knowing you are playing well because you’ve been putting in the time gives you a real buzz and when you practice like hell for weeks on end, your playing gets to levels that blow your own mind. You find you can’t wait to pick the guitar up and wonder what new levels you will achieve each day. Just the thought of how fast you’ll shred as you break down your own barriers is enough to keep you coming back for more.

Once you you let it slip for more than a week or two, the thought of practicing becomes much less appealing and getting back to the standard you were achieving becomes a lot more of a hassle and a real up hill struggle.

Miss two or three weeks and you then have to go back through the pain of re-hardening your fingertips, strengthening your muscles and stretching your fingers, just like you did as a beginner. Everything you achieved when you were putting in the time is more or less wasted.

Missing Opportunities

The summer is almost over and I reckon because I took my eye off the guitar, I’ve missed out on a good few gigs and a lot of busking. With a little effort I could have easily maintained what was already in place. I wouldn’t have had to practice much, just enough to keep it together.

If a record producer came up to me now and said, ‘Play us a few songs and let’s see what you can do’, I’d probably blow it and put in a useless performance, simply because I haven’t put in the practice. Nobody is interested in the excuses and reasons why you sound bad.

I know it won’t take long to get my skills back, probably about two or three weeks, but by then it would be way too late to grab any chance thrown at me. Opportunities don’t hang around for long and you have to grab them while you can. That means you need to be able to play at your best at any time and have the skills to put on a good show whenever and wherever the chance arises.

This guy’s got it covered !

The moral of this story is the decline in my guitar and vocal skills could have easily been avoided if I had just put in an hour or two every day to keep up what I’ve been working towards for years.

I’ve taken many long term brakes from the guitar in my life and every time I stop playing I feel like something is missing. But when I achieve a standard I’m happy with, I seem to take it for granted and am all to easily distracted.

I’m all my years of playing, if I’d never stopped, I’d probably be touring the world by now and be pretty loaded. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about being a success, I could just enjoy all the cash I’d have earned.

You often hear of musicians ruining their jobs, family lives and everything in favour of their music as they put it in front of anything and everything else in their lives. I think that’s taking it too far and I never would as my family is the most important thing to me. But I’m going to make sure that in future, I put my playing in front of all the other less important things in life so I don’t keep throwing away all the hard work and practice I’ve done every time I try and achieve something new.

I think from now on, I’m going to make a promise to myself to never, ever let it slip again – whatever the reason.

We’ll see how it goes.

Posted 27.08.09

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The most common method of fingering an average bar chord is to stretch your first finger across all six strings and finger the chord with your remaining 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers.

An age old problem encountered by beginner guitarists battling with bar chords is which way to finger them.

The most common method of fingering an average bar chord is to stretch your first finger across all six strings and finger the chord with your remaining 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers.

1st Finger Bar Chord

However, you’ll often see gigging guitarists performing them another way by wrapping their thumbs over the top of the neck and barring the 6th or 5th and 6th strings with their thumb whilst covering the rest of the strings with their remaining digits.

Thumb Wrap Bar Chord

There is a huge difference both in wrist positioning and finger technique between these two methods and any beginner taking on any one of these will realise they are both extremely hard to master. You’ll need to know which method you should learn and practice as a permanent technique and conquer the one that will be most useful to you in the long term future.

As is everything with music, it mainly comes down to the style of music you are going to be playing, the instrument you play, i.e acoustic or electric and how good you intend to get.

Good or Bad Technique ?

Many teachers of rock or classical styles will tell you it is bad practice to wrap your thumb around the top of the neck either when soloing or playing bar chords. With these particular styles, the method is considered bad technique solely because of the limitations it places on the style that is being played. The pioneering players that lead the way in the progression of these particular styles use techniques that often cannot be achieved using the constricting thumb wrap method.

Blues, Funk, Soul and Indie

With different styles such as blues, funk and soul etc. using the thumb wrap to play bar chords actually enhances the players ability to play the riffs and techniques that create that particular style.

You’ll find that many of the world’s most famous blues, funk and soul players like Mississippi John Hurt, Hendrix, Clapton etc. right the way up to modern day guitarists like John Frusciante from the Chili’s have used the technique to great extent in their styles of playing and in doing so have achieved incredible results that could not be reproduced using any other method.

Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun

Every style in music places different requirements on the player and when covering songs and trying to achieve a certain feel, although you can often achieve a similar sound to the original using the same notes but different fingering techniques, you may never truly mimic that sense of feeling instilled by it’s creator unless you play it in the same way as performed by the original artist.

In other words, you won’t crack a Satriani song by wrapping your thumb over the top of the neck and you’ll never play the Chili’s – Under The Bridge and get all those little hammer on’s and pull offs that ring throughout the song sounding right without using the thumb wrap to give your little finger the freedom it needs to move.

How It Works For Me

In my personal experience and after years of playing rock and thrash metal with the electric guitar and also rock and popular with the acoustic, I find that I don’t need to play bar chords using the finger wrap method that often, and when I do it can be easier for me to play these songs still using my first finger and the full bar method.

Often, when you cover a song by an average band who’s guitarist uses the thumb wrap method, the song won’t necessarily be so difficult that you have to play it in the same style to get that similar sound. It is only on occasions when you are trying to mimic the playing style of a legend that you will have no option but to switch.

I also play a number of songs that comprise completely of thrum wrap chords which gives me good reason to play them and keep in practice.

For me I would say the ratio of songs I play using the two methods is about 80% – 20% in favour of the full 1st finger bar.

For you it could be the complete opposite. I usually only play rock, pop and in the past a lot of thrash metal. If I started to play a lot of blues and funk, I’m pretty sure I’d be saying the exact opposite and most of my playing would encounter thumb wrap chords and melodies on a regular basis.

Another thing about the thumb wrap method, is it’s a damn site easier doing it on an electric guitar rather than an acoustic. If you do play the acoustic and are required to adopt it as you make your way through a song, then don’t let the thicker neck of the guitar stop you from achieving your goals. It may be more difficult, but the more you practice, the easier it will become.

Take a look at the acoustic version of Under the Bridge played by John Frusciante on this post to see this method applied on an acoustic.

More Ways Than One

The cool thing about playing the guitar is once you get past a certain standard and can handle the basics, there are no dead set rules about how you should play something. Every artist plays in a way that feels most comfortable to them, which gives their own material a particular style and feel.

There are certain paths you can take to make life easier as you tackle different areas, but these are designed to be strayed from and experimented with in order to achieve new sounds and techniques.

As long as you don’t pick up too many bad habits that render you incapable of playing to a decent standard and you avoid doing things that are likely to cause damage to your tendons or ligaments, you can pick and choose how you develop your own style.

As you progress as a musician, you will undoubtedly cross into new genres of music which will require you to learn new skills to cope with the new challenges you are given. You will see that learning to play something one way is never enough to see you through to the end of your days as a guitarist. Sooner or later you will learn how to play things not just one way, but many ways.

Joe Satriani

As your knowledge and experience grows you will no longer dread these new challenges but will actively embrace the thought of learning something new and difficult to make you a better player and more of a guitarist as a whole.

How to Choose and Implement Your Bar Chord Method

My advice would be to start by learning the full 1st finger bar method across the 6 strings. You’ll always need to master this in whatever style of music you play. Then check out your favourite guitarist’s live music videos on You Tube and examine their styles and chord playing techniques.

If it is obvious that thumb wrap chords play a huge part in their playing, then get to work as you will have to adopt these methods to enable you to play in a similar way.

In my case, chord style consists of mainly playing chords barred using the first finger method with the occasional switch to the thumb wrap, but if you predominantly stick to one method, make sure you also practice the other regularly in your your daily workout. This will keep your hands and fingers prepared and give you the ability to switch easily if the need arises.

Let us know how you fret your bar chords in comment in the form below.

Other Posts of Interest

The Open G Chord Problem
Thumb Wrap or Finger Bar Chords
Guitar Practice – How Much ?
Conquering Bar Chords
Guitar Chords Made Easy

Posted 20.08.09

In these lessons he gives us a demonstration of how to play Under The Bridge from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magic.

John Frusciante

He also talks a bit about his youth and how [...]]]> Here’s a couple of great guitar lessons I found from the legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante.

In these lessons he gives us a demonstration of how to play Under The Bridge from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magic.

John Frusciante

He also talks a bit about his youth and how he first encountered and began to develop his signature playing style which allows him to fill the air with licks, trills, chords and lead melodies in a combined fashion giving the listener the sense of listening to two or three guitars at once. This technique was pioneered by the godfather of funk Curtis Mayfeild and adopted by the late great Jimi Hendrix who was a major influence on John’s playing style.

This video really does help the listener deal with the age old problem of which way you should play your bar chords i.e using your thumb by wrapping it over the top strings or by barring your first finger across all six, an issue which I know many beginner guitarists including myself have had many sleepless nights over.

I think at the end of the day it basically comes down to your style, and what sort of music you play. As I tend to play a lot of covers during my live sets and when out busking, I deal with the problem by playing my bar chords both ways, depending on what song I am performing at the time.

At least you now know, if you want to play Chili Peppers stuff the way John Frusciante does, you’ll need to get frisky with your thumb.

The video above shows him performing the song with his electric guitar, but for those of you out there who think there’s no way they’ll be able to achieve this on an acoustic, here’s another video showing how he does just that.

Slightly more difficult but still playable.

Keep practicing.

More lessons from famous guitarists coming soon.

Posted 14.08.09

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The Top 100 has been going strong now since July 2008, and over the last 15 [...]]]> The Street Musician Top 100 Guitar Blogs is the best resource on the net for all the greatest guitar blogs on Earth. Each blog is listed with Google PR, Technorati and Alexa rankings and updated daily.

The Top 100 has been going strong now since July 2008, and over the last 15 months has gone from strength to strength bringing the best bloggers in the land and countless other guitar enthusiasts together in one place. If you are interested in joining the Top 100 or know of any great blogs that aren’t listed here, send me your submission and we’ll add you to the list.

Click here to find out more about the Top 100.

If you make it into the top rankings, Congratulations – you’ve got one of the best guitar blogs in the world.

Take a look at the Top 100 Guitar Blogs and click here to check out their recent posts.

Note : Technorati are going through a few changes at the moment and will be offering new widgets that take advantage of the new features on their site. As a result, the Technorati API and many current widgets are showing old or incorrect data for some sites. Hopefully this will return to normal over the next couple of weeks.

If you know of any good guitar blogs that aren’t mentioned here, send us an Email at Street Musician and we will add it to our list.

Once you are listed you can check out your competition and see how you progress up the blogging ranks.

Any blogs shown with missing rankings marked N/A should contact that specific web authority and ensure their website and feeds have been registered correctly. Once your blog has been claimed you should attain a ranking which will automatically be picked up by our Top 100.

Good Luck

Ok, before we start receiving any death threats over this one, it is of course a complete fake. I assume it’s completely obvious to most people, but after reading [...]]]> Check out the shred master kick some ass on stage (not!)
This cracks me up more every time I watch it.

Ok, before we start receiving any death threats over this one, it is of course a complete fake. I assume it’s completely obvious to most people, but after reading some of the You Tube comments on this vid, it seems a lot of people are actually shocked at how bad Eddie is playing.

It’s one of many hilarious shredding over dub vids that were originally featured on You Tube by artist StSanders, real name Santeri Ojala, a musician from Finland who dubs incredibly bad solos over rock legends’ performances. After hitting over 7 million views, he was kicked off You Tube after complaints from his victims prompted the site to remove his videos, citing performance copyright violations. Although some of these artists including Steve Vai commented his footage was absolutely hilarious, it seems not everyone thought so.

So just to put things right, here’s the actual real video of the live performance from his Les Paul tribute.

That’s more like it.

Posted 03.02.09