bryanaspey.com / Bryan Aspey Official Website

Bryan Aspey Winter NAMM 2012 Appearances!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:41:00 +0000

Bryan Aspey Winter NAMM 2012 Appearances!

Muriel Anderson's All Star Guitar Night
Saturday, January 21 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm at the Anaheim Marriott Platinum Ballroom
http://allstarguitarnight.com/upcoming-shows/

Epiphone Acoustic & Electric guitar demos

at Gibson Booth #303AB

Friday, January 20 at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., and 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/gibson-rocks-namm-0112-2012/

Be sure to stop by to check out the tunes and say hi!

Bryan Joins DiMarzio!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Wed, 18 May 2011 01:02:00 +0000

I've been a long-time fan of DiMarzio pickups and accessories, and am beyond thrilled to announce that I have officially joined the esteemed family of DiMarzio players!

Check out my profile on DiMarzio.com to find out more, and to see what pickups I'm using in my guitars right now.

Steal This Tone

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:56:00 +0000

I thought some of you might enjoy rocking out with the tone I created for the AmpKit contest, and am happy to share it here with you all.

All amp, pedal and mic settings are exact, the only difference being that I removed the delay pedal (used only at the end of my solo) for compatibility with the free app.

Here then, is a patch I hope will bring you as much shred-'till-dawn enjoyment as it has brought me:

Aspey Solo VK

How to install:
Open this page on your iPhone, tap and hold the link above and "Open in New Page", then tap the "Open in AmpKit" button. "Aspey Solo VK" will now appear in the "My Setups" section of AmpKit.

Subscribers can open this file by just tapping the link in the email message on iPhone and "Open in AmpKit"

Make sure you subscribe by email so you'll get my future posts delivered right to your inbox (delivered by Google Feedburner so you'll never get any spam, of course.)

Bryan Wins Grand Prize in the AmpKit Ultimate Tone Contest!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 20:22:00 +0000

from agilepartners.com

"Agile Partners and Peavey Electronics are pleased to announce the AmpKit Ultimate Tone Contest Grand Prize winner, Bryan Aspey. Bryan wins the Peavey Classic 30/112 amp for his awesome Composed by the Sea in Cornwall recording from AmpKit!"

Selected by a distinguished panel of judges:

Rusty Cooley - Renowned shred guitarist and Peavey artist

Hartley Peavey - Founder & CEO, Peavey Electronics Corporation

Brad Tolinski - Editor-in-Chief, Guitar World Magazine

The judges applied the following criteria to select the Grand Prize winner: guitar playing quality, performance quality (i.e., played with passion, from your heart), and tone quality based on the creative use of AmpKit gear.

Read more about AmpKit and the Ultimate Tone Contest on
agilepartners.com
peavey.com

See the related post on
bryanaspey.com

AmpKit: a study in portable possibilities

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:52:00 +0000

When I heard about the AmpKit Ultimate Tone Contest right before leaving on a trip to England, I had no idea what I was going to record for my entry. Fortunately, I grabbed my carry-on bag consisting of my Steinberger ZT3, iPhone, AmpKit and LiNK, and received plenty of inspiration from the ocean which was never far from sight:

http://snd.sc/cTPn9S

Composed by the Sea in Cornwall from AmpKit by Bryan Aspey

AmpKit Test 1 "Late Night Shred Snack"

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 07:45:00 +0000

Here's my first test recording with the AmpKit iPhone App by Agile Partners.

I recorded this solo around 1am during a late night, low volume (though you wouldn't know if from this recording!) practice session. Inspiring tones to be found here for sure. Audio exported directly via AmpKit.

Gear: Steinberger ZT3 > Peavey AmpKit LiNK > iPhone 3GS > AmpKit Free > Tivoli PAL (monitor, for my ears only)
Amp: Peavey ValveKing, Lead Channel w/ gain set below 50%, Noise Gate Pedal ON, 4x12
©2010 Bryan Aspey

Bryan Aspey - AmpKit Test 1 - "Late Night Shred Snack" www.bryanaspey.com by Bryan Aspey

Bryan Wins First Place In Shred This III Competition!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 22:31:00 +0000

"Bryan Aspey continues to wow the masses with his incredible playing."

Steinberger.com News

Bryan says:

"I'm honored to have won First Place in the Shred This III competition!

A huge congrats to Joop, Martin, Nikolay and Nick - I'm proud to share a spot in the top 5 with you guys. Congrats also to the top 15, and to all the other awesome players who joined in this most challenging competition.

Special Thanks to Laurie Monk, Rick Graham, Tom Quayle, Magnus Olsson and Chris Brooks for taking the time out of their busy schedules and putting in the hard work to make this all happen! Extra Special Thanks to Brett Garsed and DiMarzio for being a part of this, and for helping to take this competition to another level!

Extra Extra Special Thanks to Ned Steinberger and Kevin @ Gibson for their tremendous support and for making it possible to rock my killer new Steinberger ZT3 in this competition!"

Steinberger.com News

http://www.steinberger.com/news20100008.html

Truth in Shredding
http://www.truthinshredding.com/2010/09/shred-this-iii-brett-garsed-and.html

>> click here to subscribe on YouTube!

Bryan Aspey - Shred This III

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:20:00 +0000

Here goes my entry for the latest installment of the most excellent "Shred This" competition series, created and hosted by Truth in Shredding.

Check out the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2MGTTj-o74

Stick to the Point

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:16:00 +0000

If you have a guitar pick and some carpet or a rug, you have to try this - you will thank me later.

How to Sharpen Your Guitar Pick on the Carpet (YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyYKT0SzrBo

My friend Stirling showed me this great trick about 12 years ago - I couldn't believe it actually worked, and have used it all the time since then. It's great for putting a nice sharp point on any standard pick, or for getting a little extra life out of some of the old worn out picks you might have around the house.

This technique has come in handy for me more than you can imagine, and I decided it was time to share it with the world, so I got out my trusty iPhone and captured the magic (at least it still seems like magic to me) right here:

Bryan Aspey Steinberger ZT3 demo

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:14:00 +0000

Talking about and playing some Steinberger ZT3 and TransTrem examples in this video clip from my upcoming instructional video. Out August 2010.

©2010 Bryan Aspey

Composition and Improvisation

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:43:00 +0000

Today I received a question from a friend on YouTube who prompted me to share my thoughts on composition and improvisation. Here's the question:

hi bryan,
i have one question concerning the solo in the shred this competition:
did you improvise it or was it a composed solo?
id be happy to know!!!

Great question! All of my recorded solos begin as improvisation, then gradually become crafted into composition. I love to improvise, and try to keep the spirit of improvisation in mind whenever I play, but my personal approach is based on my belief that:

Composition is improvisation captured and perfected

Many times the very first thing I play off the top of my head becomes part of the final composition; other times I work through sections with specific theory or technical ideas in mind.

By the time I record, the final solo is locked in and I pretty much know what I'm going to play, but still I remain open to moments of inspiration - some of the coolest moments happen when I play something unexpected. When you have to play everything in one unbroken take, as in the competition solos, you're bound to have at least a couple of moments you think could have been better. For me, the positive side is that sometimes those mistakes sound better than what I originally had in mind.

Near the end of my "Shred This Too" solo I messed up, not that what I played sounded bad, just that I played something different from what I had planned. I wound up liking this unexpected moment of... let's call it "inspiration"... so much that I chose to submit this take as my entry for the competition!

Bryan Joins Steinberger Guitars!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:32:00 +0000

Bryan has joined the Steinberger family of artists and will now be playing Steinberger as his main guitars of choice.

"I'm honored to be part of the Steinberger family," Bryan said, "and have really lost my head over the new ZT3!"

Bryan is currently Featured Artist on Steinberger.com

Steinberger ZT3 "Headless Rampage"

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:53:00 +0000

Bryan Aspey shows off the all new TransTrem equipped Steinberger ZT3, with a guitar solo from his latest composition "Headless Rampage"!

Find out more about Steinberger and the ZT3 at http://www.steinberger.com

©2010 Bryan Aspey

it's like braces...for guitarists

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:59:00 +0000

The last time I went to the dentist, I picked up a brochure on Invisalign, which uses a series of clear removable aligners to gradually straighten your teeth. It was explained to me that you have a start point (where your teeth are now) and an end point (a nice set of straight teeth) and a series of aligners are made to create a smooth transition between the two.

This is a good example of a logical, relatively painless way of achieving results in any field and puts the idea of "slow and steady wins the race" into practice. Imagine one day you saw someone with really straight teeth, and decided you wanted to transform yours too, so you went to work pulling at them with a pair of pliers. The results weren't everything you'd hoped for and made your teeth hurt a lot, so you gave up - until one day you decided to try again, only to realize that you just weren't cut out for having straight teeth.

If only you'd known that with the right approach, the proper tools, and a lot of patience and faith, you could have reached your goals and saved yourself a lot of pain and frustration!

If you want to build chops and speed on guitar, the right approach is - lots of slow practice, with a focus on good technique and economy of motion, looking for gradual improvement. The proper tools are - a good set of exercises, your plectrum of choice and a metronome. Patience and faith comes in when you believe that you can get to where you want to go, and that you're also on the right path. In case you find yourself lacking in the faith department, look to guitarists like Michael Angelo Batio, Tony MacAlpine, John Williams and the countless others who have emphasized the importance of slow practice. As for the patience, you're on your own.

Remember: start point, end point, gradual steps in between (the metronome even maps out these steps for us).

The Virtues of Chaos

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:16:00 +0000

"In a work of art, chaos must shimmer
through the veil of order"
-Novalis

We all love practicing our scales, intervals and sequences - right? They lead to an unparalleled technical command over the instrument, while also giving us melodic devices and licks we can incorporate into our solos. One potential down side of this is that when these patterns and exercises come to dominate a guitarist's style, his solos may end up sounding like little more than really well executed sets of technical drills.

So how do we create solos that capitalize on the benefits we've gained by practicing technical patterns and exercises, while avoiding the pitfalls of scale-grinder oblivion?

One way is to introduce a little bit of chaos - that out of control quality present in many of my favorite guitar solos. In his instructional video Exotic Metal Guitar, Marty Friedman calls this chaotic element "shock". What this means to each player (and how they incorporate it) will vary, so here are just a few simple ideas to get those chaotic juices flowing in your next solo:

Establish a consistent rhythmic pattern, then break it
Play a fast and wild sounding shape based lick, then balance it with a simple melody
Run a pattern up or down the fingerboard in half-steps
Play some dissonant sounding chords or intervals
Interweave a number of different melodic patterns to create a new pattern that is no longer recognizable as a pattern (order wearing the mask of chaos)
Try playing familiar licks and patterns with different note groupings and rhythms (play a four-note repetitive lick with a triplet rhythm, etc.)
Stretch and bend the rhythm of your melody across many beats to create an elastic and disorienting feel of time

Remember, order and chaos are most effective when they are both used to create contrast with one another.

Cultivate an appreciation for the subtle and the expressive

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:19:00 +0000

When I was a young aspiring shredder I always gravitated to the most insane sounding, fast and impossible things that I would hear my favorite guitarists playing and I'd say "THAT'S what I want to play!" Chord progressions and song structure were out, as was the majority of any solo content that was not exceedingly fast. As a result, I spent a lot of time trying to learn and master licks that were way beyond my technical ability.

If I could go back to that time and teach myself a lesson now, I'd tell myself to take the complete opposite approach at least once in a while. I'd say "If you want to work on your soloing, pick out a few solos you like that sound fairly easy, and learn them in their entirety - but not just the notes - work hard on hearing the transitions between notes; the rate, depth and placement of vibrato; try to gain an understanding of the sense of timing the player used; learn the underlying chord progression and find out how the notes in the solo relate to the chords; develop a sensitivity in your ears, mind and hands to all those subtle details beyond just playing the notes - this is where the music lives."

Then again, I probably wouldn't have listened to any of this, and I'd just have to wait to learn these lessons in time, which I eventually did - maybe you will learn them sooner!

Let Your Training Take Over

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Sometimes you'll hear guitar players talk of playing on "autopilot" - the act of allowing patterns and phrases which have been ingrained in muscle memory to cut loose and almost play themselves. There are many who look down on this approach, claiming that it is not musical and that it leads to robotic or soulless playing. I think the opposite. Only through repeated practice, continually drilling in patterns and investigating their uses thoroughly, does a guitarist become intimately familiar with the sounds, applications and techniques necessary to play these patterns effortlessly, without thought.

The guitarist who is not thoroughly familiar with the licks, patterns and phrases he has learned over the years will sit down and say "OK now I'm going to play this lick... now this lick... what next?" The guitarist who has absorbed the same licks, patterns and phrases and diligently practiced applying them in a wide variety of situations will have no trouble flowing from one idea to the next, combining and altering them in the moment to create new and unique phrases that sound completely spontaneous.

This reminds me of a story that I think will illustrate the point well. One day during my college years, I went into the studio to record with an Irish fiddle player. I was laying down some basic accompaniment on acoustic guitar, when suddenly the engineer stopped us and said there had been a problem. He asked if we could start over from a certain point in the tune, and I said "sure, but I play it differently each time, so it might be hard to edit later". After the session was over, we went into the control room to listen to both guitar parts, and I was surprised to find out that while I thought I had played spontaneously, I had actually played the exact same thing both times!

By later exploring more musical possibilities and working on them until they were second nature, I was able to give myself more freedom and more options to use at any moment; options which I would have either forgotten or hesitated to try if I hadn't know them well. I had gained the ability to play more creatively through the use of practice and repetition.

In your dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 05:39:00 +0000

Research shows that the learning process continues well beyond our waking lives, and into the world of dreams. While we sleep, the brain busily works at connecting, strengthening and making sense of all the information we've taken in during the day.

One of the more interesting and fun habits I developed while studying classical guitar was to practice for 30 minutes to one hour, just before bed, in hopes that my mind would carry on where I had left off - all while I was sleeping!

Here were some of my rules:

Play slow, don't even think about playing anything fast
Play only new things that are unfamiliar, things that keep both the fingers and mind occupied
A measure, a phrase, an entire page, it doesn't matter - don't worry about accomplishment, only play what time will allow
Don't play any wrong notes - focus carefully on the notes at hand, and playing them well

After completing this session each night, I went to bed feeling calm, relaxed and happy - it's a kind of musical meditation. I can't say for sure how much continued practice went on during my dreams, but I do know that within the period of about a year, I went from having no music in my classical repertoire to giving a full hour recital of solo guitar music at the George Washington University. I believe that working on new pieces before going to sleep helped speed up the learning and memorization process.

One of my earliest rock guitar influences and still one of my favorites, Michael Angelo Batio once said "if you want to play fast, you have to practice slow" yet many rock guitarists spend very little time playing slow; if you're one of them (as I used to be), the routine I outlined above is also a great way to get a little slow, focused practice into your day.

it's "bonus lick" time!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:23:00 +0000

I've got some great new things in the works over the next couple of weeks that I just can't wait to share with you all, but in the meantime I wanted to give a little something back to all my friends and fans out there who keep coming back to visit me here.

I stuck my iPhone in front of my Tech 21 Trademark 60 and made a quick and dirty recording with iProRecorder, and thought I'd share a taste of what's coming out of my amp these days:

insane blues lick #1 by bryanaspey

This is a sick little bluesy lick I came up with for you all to learn and enjoy (played fast and slow). Stay tuned for more guitar madness!

Shred This Too - The Results!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:10:00 +0000

The Truth in Shredding "Shred This Too" Competition has come to a close with a staggering 300+ entries, and I'm delighted to report that I have the great honor of sharing a spot in the top 5 with some real monsters in this worldwide rock guitar extravaganza - as well as being the only guitarist in the Americas to make that list!

Check out the video above to hear what Marco Sfogli has to say about the winning entries, and see my video in it's entirety below!

As always, thanks for watching!

Postcards from the woodshed

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:10:00 +0000

Transcriptions of my licks & lesson material in the works http://ping.fm/kfweG

Peterson iStroboSoft Tuner

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:13:00 +0000

My new favorite tuner, and the one I relied on to get me in tune for my Shred This Too video.

Strobe tuners are widely regarded as the most accurate tuners out there, and they are usually also the most expensive. The biggest name in strobe tuners is Peterson, who not long ago released two affordable
portable versions of their larger strobe tuners in two formats - a flip open, gameboy-style (StroboFlip) tuner, and a stomp box (StroboStomp) tuner. I was amazed by the responsiveness and accuracy of the StroboFlip when a friend demonstrated it in his studio, and I almost bought one. At around $200 USD this was considered a pretty good deal, and provided an opportunity for "the rest of us" to own a Peterson Strobe Tuner. Still, because of the price tag, I hesitated... and I can't tell you how glad I am that I did.

Peterson has released an incredible iPhone app version of their strobe tuner software, and I'm even more impressed with this $10 app than I was with the StroboFlip. It works via the onboard iPhone mic (iPod touch users will need an external mic or special cable available from Peterson), and it is lightning fast and dead accurate. I relied on this app to get me in tune before recording my Shred This Too competition video; it was a joy to use and I have never seen better accuracy in ANY tuner. To test the sensitivity with the onboard iPhone mic, I rolled my guitar volume all the way down, rested the iPhone on my leg, pressed the "input boost" button (which raises the mic input level by +24dB) and tuned up using only the acoustic sound coming from my electric guitar; again, fast and accurate.

The bottom line: if you own an iPhone, you need this app. Don't hesitate, don't mess around with other tuner apps, get the Peterson iStroboSoft and never be caught without a tuner again - it will also happen be the best tuner you've ever owned.

Check it out on the iTunes store here:

http://bit.ly/dcmSdU

Shred This Too Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:22:00 +0000

My entry for the Truth in Shredding "Shred This Too" Competition!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS7UzjSvCE00

Perfectly Frank Words of Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:07:00 +0000

"I think everybody who does gymnastic guitar and looks at other gymnastic guitarists sort of goes, "How fast is he movin' his fingers?" It is a competitive thing.

... Really, though, if you take away the gymnastics, you have to say, "What's the message here!" It's like, uh, a pissing contest [laughter]."

- Frank Zappa, 1987

All this and more, from the man who helped put Steve Vai on the map! I've had this great interview from Guitar Player Magazine tucked away in the back of my head for a while now, and decided to rediscover it and share it here. Hope you enjoy it.

Get the full interview.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Aspey) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:28:00 +0000

Thanks to my friends all over the world who've connected, shown their support and provided me with such a wealth of inspiration.

2009 has been a really exciting year, and I hope to continue giving back some of that inspiration as we turn this corner; lots of great things in store for the new year!

2010 here we come -

Let's rock

Happy New Year Everyone!