The Freeguitarvideos.com Blog

Scott Henderson answers your questions

2009-07-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Strat-O-Blogster has tipped us to the announcement that Scott Henderson will begin answering questions from fans over at Online-Discussion.com. Below I've included some of my favorite questions and responses from Scott's last answer session on June 24th as well as the youtube version of Guy Fenocchi's "Scott Henderson Style Lick" lesson:

Question: Is touring work or fun for you? I mean you gig almost every day, so do you get tired of it after some gigs in a row?

Scott: I love playing every night even though I wish I had more new tunes. The only part I hate is flying because it fucks up my ears and just sucks in general. When you add up the playing hours vs. the travel, setting up/tearing down hours, it does sometimes feel more like the moving and storage business, but a great night on stage more than makes up for the hassle and I feel like I'm lucky to do what I do.

Question: ...and do you agree that Simpsons started to suck after season 9??

Scott: What I heard was that they were using the A team writers for the movie and the B team for the show, but now that the movie is over, I've seen it get a little better. Still not as good as the classics though...

Question: How many "fusion" standards do you know? I mean things like Actual proof, Havona, Humpty Dumpty...can you please name a few that you think are interesting and fun to play?

Scott: I can think of more than a few, if you're like me and consider about 50 Weather Report tunes as great fusion standards. You can find a lot of them in various Real Books.

Documentary featuring Jimmy Page, The Edge, & Jack White

2009-07-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the trailer for It Might Get Loud. This is a documentary about Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White in which they basically just talk about electric guitars and it looks awesome. There is some good stuff that pops up on the cable arts channels but this looks like it's on a different level production wise.

(HT: Huffington Post)

Acoustic/Electric Guitar T-Shirt

2009-07-13T11:02:00.001-07:00

Get this cool looking "Living in Harmony" t-shirt from Threadless. Available as a Men's T, Girly T, or hoodie.

How Auto-Tune Works

2009-07-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

You've probably heard many artists use Auto-Tune without realizing it. And then there are the obvious users such as Cher and T-Pain. This short video by Nova shows you how Auto-Tune actually works. The piece starts out a little cheezy but there is some interesting information in here.

Guitar Forum Spotlight: July 7th 2009

2009-07-07T13:43:00.000-07:00

- Over at guitarforums.com there is a discussion over whether you should practice sitting down or standing up. Like many of these questions, the answer depends on your goals as a guitarist. If you intend to play live a lot, it would probably serve you well to also have frequent practice playing your guitar in the standing position. For more tips, our own Peter Vogl has free videos on the seated guitar position and standing position

- Trying to decide between the real deal and a knock off? Take a look at this post on Gibson Les Pauls vs. a copy. Take a look especially at dspellman's comments:

IMHO, Gibson doesn't start making a really good Les Paul type guitar until you get to the $3000 mark. Even at that price point, there are guitars that are far less expensive that easily compete with Gibsons in terms of playability and build quality.

At the low end, Rondo Music's Agile AL3000 series (AL3XXX, actually, since there are 3000M and 3100's) are real contenders, and normally run about $389 - $599 (if you want a 3/4" solid maple top). The pickups in these are Alnico V's that actually sound and respond very much like Gibson's '57's. The controls in these are serviceable, but it would certainly be cheap to shake these out and replace them with the best availalbe. But these guitars come with multi-layer binding around the body and headstock, single-layer binding on the fretboard. They have ebony fretboards and real abalone inlays. The fretboards have a 13.7" radius (Gibsons are 12", the frets are hand-dressed, the necks are a bit thinner than Gibson's '60 series (you can also get necks that are wider and thinner) and very comfortable. The bodies are SOLID mahogany (I think there's one series that has chambered bodies available) and the result is a guitar that measures up very well against what Gibson tosses out there in the sub-$3000 range.

- And finally we have a thread debating Rosewood vs. Maple fretboards. Two arguments come into play. Does the type of wood that the fretboard is made from make a difference? And if it does what are the differences.

Guitar Links for June 8th

2009-06-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

- Sure I can name a couple types of moustaches off the top of my head: the "handlebar", "fu manchu", etc. But you really need an extensive list to correctly describe the variety of moustaches out there. Luckily Thumbarella has found this ukulele featuring drawings of different soup strainers all over the body of the instrument. On the "Illustrated Guide to the Moustaches of the World" ukulele you'll find the "the sad cowboy", "the imperial", and "the Shirley Temple". In addition to the moustaches the head of the instrument has the following quote:

"There are three kinds of man you must never trust: a man who hunts south of the Thames, a man who has soup for lunch; and a man who waxes his moustache." -Sir James Richards

- Guitar Noize has come across a helpful Mac application for guitarists. Capo lets you pinpoint sections of songs you're trying to learn. You can then listen to that section on loop and even at different speeds.

- Guitar Research has compiled a list of the 50 Greatest Guitar Albums. The list is a little heavy on the metal for my taste but it's definitely a good selection of material if you're trying to find good and fun guitar parts to play.

Les Paul Outline T-Shirt

2009-06-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Kapoww T Shirts has this nifty little shirt available in twenty different t-shirt colors. Not a bad little logo. They are based out of Great Britain but the price with shipping converts to about $28.

Pay for the Fruit but Get the Guitar Lessons For Free

2009-05-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

We have over 150 free video lessons online, but it's no substitute for hiring an actual instructor. And what's better than hiring an actual instructor? Getting a free one. And that's exactly what Billy Farmer does as the Gig Harbor Farmer's Market every Saturday.

"Farmer was spurred on to give guitar lessons when he had a young student drop out of one of his classes because he couldn’t afford the lessons.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “For every one that you see, there’s a whole bunch of other kids that would like to learn but can’t afford it.”

That’s a sad scenario, Farmer said, because a lot of the children who want to learn have talent.

“I am able to see it right away,” he said. “It’s like turning on a light switch. Then you see the whole self-esteem thing, and it just goes from there.”

Well that's just awesome. I immediately thought of parents having something to distract their kids while they shop. But helping kids in a situation that couldn't otherwise afford it is a great thing.

The 5 Greatest Guitar Playing Movie Characters

2009-05-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, the I Heart Guitar Blog came up with 5 Fictional But Awesome Guitar Players. And really it's hard to argue with any list that features Janice from the Muppet Show's Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem. But their post lead me to reflect on some my favorite movie characters that played guitar. So I went through the list in my head and found the evidence on Youtube. I've stayed away from real guitarists like anybody featured in Blues Brothers or Jeff Healey in Roadhouse. If you have other suggestions or comments leave them in the comments.

1. Drew from Deliverance. Earns points for being so dedicated to playing guitar that he decided to bring along a six string for a white water canoeing trip.

2. Clint Eastwood in Honky Tonk Man. Because it's Clint Eastwood. Enough said.

3. Tommy Johnson in O Brother Where Art Thou. I know that Chris Thomas King is actually a musician, but I'm making an exception because 99% of America wouldn't know about him if it wasn't for this movie. Tommy Johnson deserves props for not only being the soul selling bluesman, as he's featured below, but also for doubling up and playing the flatpicking lead guitar part for "Man of Constant Sorrow". That's range.

4. Russell Hammond in Almost Famous. "I AM A GOLDEN GOD"

5. Dusty Bottoms singing Blue Shadows (On the Trail) in Three Amigos.

New Free Guitar Lesson: Blues Lick in E

2009-05-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Jody Worrel has a new video lesson teaching you a blues lick for an intermediate to advanced player. This lick is in the key of E and would sound great over a slow blues groove. You can watch the Youtube version below and click here to view the tab

We also have new premium lessons that will teach you how to play Sweet Home Chicago, an an acoustic country solo, and help you work on acoustic country rhythm guitar.

Blind Boy Grunt on Bob Dylan

2009-05-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

Bob Dylan's recent release of Together Through Life has brought some attention from the media. I've found two things especially interesting. First is a quick rundown of the pseudonyms that Dylan has used over the years. Rolling Stone went through 30 years of interviews to pull Bob's opinions on the same subjects from different stages in his career. I dug this quote on performing live:

"Ask Muhammad All why he fights one more fight. Go ask Marlon Brando why he makes one more movie. Ask Mick Jagger why he goes on the road. See what kind of answers you come up with. Is it so surprising I'm on the road? What else would I be doing in this life — meditating on the mountain? Whatever someone finds fulfilling, whatever his or her purpose is — that's all it is."
[From Issue 278 - November 16, 1978]

SRV on Unplugged

2009-05-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

In the early days of MTV Unplugged they'd often try to fit several performers into one 30 minute episode. Such was the case with Stevie Ray Vaughan who had to split time with Steve Vai. For some reason, these early episodes never really got shown as reruns. You can apparently find the performance on this dvd. The video below shows all three songs from the performance : Rude Mood, Pride and Joy, and Testify. You can also watch a short outtake of Life Without You

New Country Jam Tracks

2009-05-06T11:02:00.000-07:00

We have a new collection of jam tracks with a country rock feel. The Let's Jam! Country Vol. 2 Download is a collection of seven .mp3 tracks that were recorded by professional studio musicians. These rhythm tracks play recognizable country progressions that you can use to practice leads part over with you guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and more. The collection also comes with a .pdf that features the chord progression for each song and a few tips for soloing.

Play sample track: Over the Limit

Guitar Links May 5th

2009-05-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

- Flatpicking Lesson on Tennessee Wagoner featuring tab and .mp3

- Six tips on buying guitars at garage sales or at pawn shops. Most pawn shops are internet savvy at this point, but garage sales can still be a good bargain.

- And the tale of someone who struck guitar gold at a garage sale. Crazy, crazy, crazy amount of guitar gold.

Twenty Album Covers recreated with Legos

2009-04-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Toy Zone has twenty album covers that have been recreated using lego parts. Some are just legos superimposed into backgrounds and some are the real deal and just use legos. I've included my favorites below. And while we're at it, why not just take another look at the White Stripe's awesome lego video for "Fell in Love with A Girl".

Guitar Links April 24th

2009-04-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

- The New York Times has a simplistic but fairly neat flash graphic showing the design process of a Martin guitar.

- Somone in Atlanta posts a Craig's List guitar lesson ad with a twist. The lessons are free for women who agree to be topless during the lesson. But not just any women: "Also, the free/topless offer only goes for attractive, not overly fat females. Seeing fat girls topless does not make my day better. Fat girls are welcome to take guitar lessons, but you have to pay just like any dudes." I'm assuming he doesn't get much of a response.

A few cool links from Gibson:

- Video lesson on learning how to play the guitar riff from Green Onions. You may not recognize the name of the song but you'll recognize the tune of this instrumental from the 60's.

- A gear guide on recreating Wilco's live sound. If you haven't been keeping up with Wilco, there music has taken a guitar heavy turn with the addition of Nels Cline. Their last album "Sky Blue Sky" has at times a Grateful Dead/Phish type jam band sound. But with fuzzier guitars. Check the performance of "You Are My Face" below. It's starts off mellow and then kicks it up a notch.

Jeff Beck's New Blog

2009-04-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

Jeff Beck has started posting blog entries on his site. He started April 1st and has posted three thus far. So 1-2 posts a month should be about what to expect. I haven't watched a ton of Jeff Beck interviews so I'm not familiar enough with his personality to figure out how to interpret some of the statements. I'm assuming they are jokes but you never know.

"In Cleveland we met up with a group of FBI people who showed us around. In return we invited them to the concert. They seemed to have a really good time but ended up putting my manager in handcuffs!!"

Below is Jody Worrell's free lesson on some Jeff Beck style bending techniques. Jody also has a lesson on learning a Jeff Beck style solo

(HT: Strat-O-Blogster)

Chicks Dig the Guitar

2009-04-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

College Humor's video guide to playing guitar just well enough to impress the ladies. (semi-adult content). I normally embed this stuff, but the video was in widescreen and wouldn't fit.

Joe Pass talking about Jazz Blues

2009-04-20T12:08:00.001-07:00

Someone has uploaded the first ten minutes of Joe Pass' "The Blue Side of Jazz" instruction video to Youtube. It's pretty informal. Joe's speech is as off the cuff as his playing. To learn some specific Joe Pass style licks check out Billy Wilkie's Classic Jazz Licks (Lesson One and Two) and More Joe Pass Style.

Using other Instruments as Inspiration for Guitar

2009-04-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

I've been reading recently about the influences of John Coltrane on Duane Allman. Specifically Duane using pull offs to recreate some of the sounds Coltrane made with his sax. In fact Duane grabbed a lot of ideas from Coltrane and Miles Davis. From 10 Things You Gotta Do to Play Like Duane Allman:

"Whether it’s a ten-minute solo during “Elizabeth Reed,” or one of the Brothers’ trademark extended cadenzas, you’ve gotta get fluent with the kind of extended modal jamming that permeated the band’s live performances. The emphasis on Am7’s upper extensions—the 9 (B), 11 (D), and 13 (F#)—played over the Im7-IV Dorian-based vamp in Ex. 5a reveals Allman’s professed admiration for the modal jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Ex. 5b is derived from three successive motifs that Allman regularly reprised during his extended closing improvisations in the Allman Brothers staple “You Don’t Love Me”: sliding parallel fifths reminiscent of his work on Clapton’s arrangement of “Little Wing,” a legato reading of the melody to “Joy to the World,” and a flashy display of upper-register A major-based thirty-second-note triplets."

Then I also stumbled across this Premier Guitar article with Ten Mile Davis Tips for Guitarists. These ideas are adapted from a panel of Miles' friends discussing Kind of Blue's 50th anniversary.

"No one utilized non-notes for musical effect like Miles did. For some reason, when we play guitar we are conditioned to put 99.9% of our focus on the notes we’re playing. The spaces without notes in Kind of Blue are a big part of that record. It gives listeners time to absorb and process, both between passages and within phrases.

“The powerful thing with Kind of Blue is the space and information. There’s a lot of air in that record in the sense you don’t feel overloaded and you can take in each note. You don’t feel confronted with the music. You feel as if you’ve been invited into something very special.”
-David Fricke"

I've heard Dave Matthews mention that he feels like a drummer who plays guitar and he focuses more on the percussion of the instrument. Dave Rawlings at times seems to produce a mandolin like tone from his archtop acoustic. We all know about Jimmy Page's experiments with bowing a guitar. It's not always an easy thing to do, but looking to other instruments as an influence for your playing can help you create a unique sound. Whether it's technique, rhythm, or note choices.

In Memory of Elizabeth Reed - Live from the Fillmore East 1970

Mom Rock

2009-04-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has an article on moms singing for their guitarist sons. Guitar Center is hosting a series of competitions that allow Karaoke moms the chance to win their children a free week at Camp Jam. For their trouble the winning mom also got a gift certificate to Spa Sydell.

“I don’t think she’s ever sung into a microphone before,” marveled Mark Porch, as he watched his wife Kellie brazen her way through the Guns N’ Roses tune, backed by Tyler making like Slash on the high overtones."

I watched VH1's "100 One Hit Wonders of the 80's" last week and they mentioned that Edie Brickell and her stepson Harper Simon perform together in the band The Heavy Circles. So here's the question, assuming your mother had enough talent, could you perform with her? Would she tell you to tuck your shirt in while on stage?

Eric Johnson Tone Tips

2009-03-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Guitar Lifestyle for finding this old Eric Johnson article from Guitar World. Of note is Eric's opinion on how much your fingering decisions affect your guitar tone.

"I always sacrifice ease of execution for better tone. For example, on "Camel's Night Out" (Venus Isle), which we'll cover next month, I played the same solo using eight different fingerings until I got the tone I wanted. You can imagine how long that must have taken!"

And that's a really good point. Not just that your left hand can affect the tone, but experimenting. If you continue to practice and experiment you will find little techniques or sounds that you're partial to. As those elements continue to show up in your playing you begin developing your own style.

So You Wanna Be a Muzak Star!

2009-03-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Last week we linked to an overview of recording on your computer. Well now Guitar Noize has a post about possibly turning those recordings in to cash. Pump Audio is a firm that licenses independent and mainly lyric free music for use in advertising, tv, radio, and web use. You retain rights to the song and make some bank. Sure, not many people aspire to be the creator of the background music for a car dealership ad or a podcast, but it's not a bad way to make money for stuff you were already doing.

Forum Spotlight: Take a Guitar on a Cruise Ship?

2009-03-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

It's currently Spring Break time and summer is coming up fast. Are you going on a cruise any time soon and hoping to get a little picking in while on vacation? The Acoustic Guitar Forum has a thread discussing tips on taking your guitar along with you on the cruise ship. I'd say the most important tip boils down to keeping your guitar with you during the orientation/emarbarkation time and not leaving it with the rest of your luggage that may just be left outside your door. Consider your guitar your carry on. Other than that you should have no worries and plenty of time and great settings to practice.

Recording Guitar Demos on Your Computer

2009-03-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Generally Electric has a three part guide to taking a guitar idea you come up with and transferring it into a simple demo that you record on your computer. These directions have specifics about using Apple's Garage Band software but there are some larger principles that can be applied to anyone using a computer to record guitar.

Part 1: The Basics of Recording
Part 2: Creating Loops/Backing Tracks
Part 3: Effects and Finishing Up

An excerpt:

"Going through this process will have introduced you to the basics of recording. There’s a wealth of things to learn about recording, but remember that the music itself is the most important thing, and what we’ve covered here is all about demonstrating your musical ideas.

I find the following points useful to keep in mind:

Keep it simple: don't go overboard with multiple parts and special effects. Think of this as the musical equivalent of a sketch on the back of a napkin: just put down what you need to communicate your idea.

Get it down: don't spend too long tweaking. Get a basic beat down and record your parts over it. You can always expand and improve it later, but don't let your inspiration fade while you're programming a tambourine part.

Come back to it: when you're done, leave it alone and do something else for a while. Come back to it later with fresh ears and see how it sounds.

Don't compare: don't worry that your demo doesn't sound like a professional recording, because it's not supposed to. Remember that it's only meant to communicate an idea, and many of your favourite songs will have started life in the same way.

Experiment: if you don't know what something does, use it. The more you play around with this stuff, the more you'll learn and the better your recordings will be."