Bring This Coupon into Guitar Center and Take an Extra

10% OFF*

That’s instant savings on any single item. Choose from the nation’s widest selection of guitars, basses, amps, effects, drum kits, keyboards, turntables, recording gear, PA systems and more!

I love that they say “any single item.” Of course, we all know that the asterisk means “any except ….“ . But they do say that’s it’s good for “guitars, basses, amps, effects, drum kits, keyboards, turntables, recording gear, PA systems and more!”, so it sounds like a pretty good deal, right? 10% off a new Stratocaster maybe? Or 10% of a new Marshall amplifier?

Not quite…

Of course, we’re all used to seeing the asterisk after discount deals, with a long list of exclusions for which the coupon is not applicable. No one really gives you 10% off just any old item. Guitar Center should win an award, though, because I have never in my short, mad life seen such all-encompassing fine print as I have seen here:

*10% applies to single-item purchase at our tagged Guaranteed Lowest Price. Not be [sic] used with any other promotions or offers. not valid on prior purchases. No cash value. Excludes used, clearance, price-matched, and vintage equipment, Adam monitors, AKG, Ampeg, Apogee Duets, Apple, Audix, Bose, Crate, Crown, dbx, Digitech, DigiDesign HD, Edirol, ESP, Euphonix, EVH, Fender, some Gibson & Epiphone, Gretsch guitars, Jackson, JBL, Korg, KRK, Lexicon, Mackie, Marshall, Martin, Mesa Boogie, Mogami, Monster Cable, Morgan, some Roland/BOSS products, Royer Labs, Shure, Soundcraft, Squier, SSL, SRW, & Vox. Offer valid 6/1/2009 - 6/30/2009.

Funny how it says it’s to be used on any single-item purchase at their Guaranteed Lowest Price, but if you need them to price-match an item to actually pay the lowest price, the 10% doesn’t apply.

I guess you can buy your guitar for full price, and save 10% off the $1.99 package of guitar picks you buy to play it… just make sure you don’t get Fender picks, or anything besides Guitar Center brand, for that matter.

If anyone has succesfully used this coupon on anything, I’d love to know what… else I’ll have to wait until my next GC trip and ask someone working there, “so what does this cover?”

(Photo Credit)

Sure, some of us tune down a half-step to play along with Stevie Ray Vaughan, or Jimi Hendrix, or Buddy Guy, or just to match a particular individual’s vocal range better. Some of us tune our low E string down a full step to D for a heavier sound, or tune our high E string down to D to experiment with bottleneck (slide) guitar.

But how many of us have really experimented with the guitar? I mean, really experimented? Everyone of us fiddles around and experiments constantly with the standard layout of the guitar… but how many of us have taken a plunge off the deep end of familiarity and comfort, into a strange and alien universe of an alternate tuning?

It can be a daunting task; it seems at times like you’re learning the guitar from scratch, trying to figure out things like chords and simple scales all over again from the ground up. And in a way, you are… and that’s what makes it so exciting!

Experimenting with alternate tunings gives you a chance to tear down the habits and customs that might be holding your creativity back. So get out the tuner, twist some pegs, dive off the deep end, and teach yourself to swim in the funky waves of the unknown:

NOTE: Before trying these tunings, keep in mind a few factors: when tuning down, you will need heavier strings in order to maintain playable tension. When tuning up, you need to use lighter strings to avoid putting too much tension on your instrument or breaking lots (LOTS!) of strings. And of course, you guitar could always use a set-up when switching to a new tuning.

For now I’ll just cover generic “alternate tunings”, but for the next two weeks I’ll be posting even more tunings for you to explore: Open Tunings, Crossnote Tunings, Modal Tunings, Extended Chord Tunings, and more. Now on to the alternate tunings themselves:

Alternate Tunings

Standard Tuning: E-A-D-g-b-e

In standard tuning, the interval between all of the strings is a perfect fourth (five half-steps or semitones), except for interval between the third string (G) and the second string (B), which is a major third (four semitones).

1/2-Step Down: E♭-A♭-D♭-g♭-b♭-e♭

1/2 Step Down tuning, also known as E♭ Tuning, is very similar to Standard Tuning. In fact, it is nearly identical except that each string is lower one half-step (one semitone) from Standard Tuning. E♭ Tuning can be used for a variety of reasons, including the fact the the extra slack in the strings make bends  easier or to better suit the singer’s vocal range. Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Weezer all use(d) this tuning frequently.

1-Whole Step Down: D-G-C-f-a-d

Also known as “D Tuning,” this is essentially taking 1/2-Step Down Tuning twice as far. Simply lower each string one-whole step (two semitones) from Standard Tuning for Whole Step Lower tuning. This tuning can be used for the same reasons as 1/2-Step Down tuning, except taken even further - twice as chunky chunkies, twice as slinky bendies, and twice as suitable… er… suitableness. If that’s not low enough for you, you can keep dropping all 6 strings an equal amount until you’re at, say, 2-step down tuning, or 3 1/2-step down tuning, or 6-step down tuning… the only limit is the strength and gauge of your strings, and the strength of your bowels.

Drop-D: D-A-d-g-b-e’

Drop-D Tuning, used extensively by hard rock, heavy metal and folk guitarists, is likely the most common alternate tuning in recent history. By lowering the low E string one full-step, to D, it becomes possible to play power chords with one finger, by barring one fret on the 4th, 5th and 6th strings. Drop-D Tuning gives a ‘darker’ sound, and, of course, allows for a lower overall range than Standard Tuning.

Double Drop-D: D-A-d-g-b-d’

Double Drop-D, a favorite of Neil Young, is identical to regular Drop-D except that the high e string is also lowered a full-step to d. Because the highest four strings are tuned to a G major chord, this tuning can come in handy for playing bottleneck guitar, because you can quickly reach this tuning from standard.

1-Whole Step Down Drop-C: C-G-c-f-a-d’

If it’s possible to hit the brown note on a guitar, I imagine you’d use Drop-C to do it. Drop C Tuning is a combination of Whole Step Down and Drop D: first, tune all strings down one full-step (two semitones) from Standard Tuning, then tune the 6th string down an additional full-step to C.  This is about as low as you can possibly tune a standard guitar, and even for Drop-C, you’ll likely need some pretty heavy strings in order to maintain tension and keep your notes from sounding like a wet fart. As with lowering standard tuning, you can lower this tuning as far as you’d like, or as far as your guitar strings and intestines can tolerate.

D5 Tuning - D-A-d-d-d’-d’

D5 tuning gives a nice, clear, expansive sound, very open sounding, and great for slide. Strumming all 6 strings openly plays, as the name implies, a D5 chord, or D Power Chord. Reach this tuning by tuning the 6th string down a full step, the 3rd string down 5 half-steps, the 2nd string up 3 half-steps, and the 1st string down one full step.

A variation on this tuning is to tune the 3rd strong from G up to A, instead of down to D. This gives the tuning a fifth in two different octaves, adding some depth to the sound at the expense of losing the middle octave double-drone on the D string(s).

Ostrich Tuning - D-D-d-d-d’-d’

In Ostrich tuning, all of the strings are tuned to the same note, creating a giant drone machine. Lou Reed created this tuning during his stay with the Velvet Underground. NOTE: you’ll most definately need a custom set of strings for this one!

New Standard Tuning - C-G-d-a-e’-g’

From wikipedia:

“This is a tuning devised by Robert Fripp of King Crimson, used by most Guitar Craft students around the world. The tuning is similar to all fifths except the first string is dropped from b’ to g’. Some guitarists maintain that the term ‘New Standard Tuning’ is a misnomer and consider it to be a source of controversy, but the name appears to have stuck due the absence of viable alternative designations. Time will tell whether the tuning is in fact accepted outside of GC as a viable all-purpose tuning.”

All Fourths - E-A-d-g-c’-f’

All Fourths tuning is similar to standard tuning, or at least the the lowest four strings of standard tuning. The kink of the B-string being a major third instead of a fourth is removed, and the 2nd string is tuned to C to retain an interval of fourth. This also means that the 1st string, in order to remain a fourth above the 2nd string, is tuned to F. Because of the consistency of intervals across the fretboard, chords can simply be moved up, down or across the fretboard, but this means that full 6-string barre chords are no longer possible in the traditional sense.

All Fifths - C-G-d-a-e’-b’

All Fifths tuning is a 6-string adaption of violin tuning. The increased range of this tuning means you’ll need custom strings: extra heavy on the bottom, and extra light on the top.

All Minor Thirds - C-D#-F#-A-c-d#

This tuning lowers the range of your guitar quite a bit, but might be neat to use if you’re really going for a minor feel.

All Majors Thirds - C-E-G#-c-e-g#

This tuning splits the guitar into two identical halves, a C-F-G# on the 4th, 5th and 6th strings, and an identical set-up, though an octave higher, on the 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings.

All Augmented Fourths - C-F#-c-f#-c’-f#’

The augmented fourth, being exactly one half of an octave, means that in this tuning, every other string is one octave higher. For example, the 4th string is one octave higher than the 6th, and the 2nd string is one octave higher than the 4th… same for the 1st, 3rd and 5th strings.

All Minor Sixths - C-G#-E-C-G#-E

The same words of caution apply here as for the All Fifths tuning: don’t try this with your regular set of strings. Even more important here!

All Major Sixths - C-A-F#-D#-C-A

See above. Times two!

Well?

What do you think? Have any of you tried any of the more exotic tunings here? I’ve tried quite a few myself, and they’re certainly interesting to mess around with once in a while… it’d be nice if I had a few dozen guitars, though, so I could keep one in each tuning all the time!

Let me know in the comments if you have any experience or expertise in this area, and stay tuned all week for even more alternate tunings.

(Photo Credit)

Yes, the site is back up.

No, it won’t stay looking like this.

I thought I should get it up at 5pm like I said, so as not to make a liar out of myself.

Just know that if it’s kinda fugly when you see it, it won’t be that way for long: I’ll be spending the rest of the night taking full advantage of my new (and awesome!) layout, so by tomorrow the site will be back to it’s old (but new) sexy self, and I can get back to the myriad of posts I’ve got in the pipeline.

Hugs and Kisses and Dry humps,

Mad Stratter

Led Zeppelin may have taken from Willie Dixon, but look where they took it to? When blues was stolen from the Delta in the early 20th century, it wasn’t theft… it was transformation. The art of rock & roll.

Now that is originality: Art via thievery.

Don’t beat yourself up in striving for something completely original, originality is an illusion. We’re all influenced by the things around us, our creativity is an accumulation of consuming those things that speak to us, digesting them, mixing them up and around, and spitting them back out as something your own. That’s originality, filtering the world through your soul.

Now go read a book, go for a walk, take a nap; take it in and throw it back out there.

Steal a piano line from Beethoven and make it a guitar lick. Translate a scene from a Coppola flick into a purely sonic vibe. Write the soundtrack to a Huxley novel.Or a Yeats poem. Narrate a dream with a guitar. Or just bring Muddy Waters from the Delta of the 30’s to the 21st century through your fingers.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a novel to read.

(Photo Credit)

Today’s post comes from Brian Casel, a songwriter, musician and blogger extraordinaire. Brian Casel writes about songwriting techniques, recording and promotion at servethesong.net.  He is currently writing and releasing an EP every month in 2009.  Check out his music at briancasel.com.

The key to writing great songs is to keep things fresh and dynamic.  You can mix things up by incorporating a variety of sounds, styles, and techniques in your compositions.

When writing on guitar, structuring a great chord progression involves an important set of creative decisions.  Each chord conveys a specific emotion.  The chord progression signals the direction of the mood and dynamic of the song.  Effective chord progressions can tell their own story, even when there are no lyrics layered on top of them.  Chords can convey sorrow, excitement, inspiration, triumph or any other unspoken feeling.

The common assumption is to play all available notes in a chord.  If you fingers can cover the ground and the notes work in harmony with one another, then they must fair game.  This may be true in some cases, like a wide open chorus section to an arena rock anthem.  But other times you may be going for a more nuanced approach.

Try being more selective in the makeup of each chord.  Strip the chords of strings that do nothing more than add loudness, and keep only the the notes that are most essential to bring forward the essence of this moment in your composition.  Choose the two or three harmonic elements that touch the soul in that unspoken way.

Sometimes the best creative choice in a composition is to take something away, rather than add something.  This applies to chord structure, just as it applies to many other aspects of songwriting.  I discuss this idea of using negative space in songwriting in this article.

Choose your chord’s building blocks wisely!  They can often drastically change the effect of the chord, which in turn changes the mood of the song.  Choose the notes that serve the song in the best way possible.  Think of a chord progression as several melodies that run in parallel.  When played separately, each should work well as an interesting melody on its own.  When these melodies are merged in chord form, their harmony enhances their emotional effect.

When writing a fast funky tune, try muting the omitted notes and apply a firm hold on the usable notes.  Strum over all six strings to combine your sweet combo of chosen notes and the choppiness of muted frets.

If you’re going for a loose and flowing sound that surrounds the listener in a sea of colors, try focusing on pick accuracy and target your chosen notes, letting them ring out with a full and round tone.

Give your chord progressions purpose and clarity by selecting their building blocks wisely and stripping away the clutter.  Let those chords breathe!

For more great posts like this, subscribe to the Brian Casel and Serve The Song RSS Feeds. If you are interested in guest posting here at the Mad Stratter, drop me a line here.

I came across this post at Guitar Player Gear Guide in my twitter feed today via amplifi3r. Read about it there, and also here and here, and here:

Fender® brings you the soothing sounds of the Hawaiian Islands with a new family of Tenor Ukuleles! All models offer sweet tone, easy playability, sturdy construction and the added flair of a unique Telecaster® guitar headstock shape. Fender Ukuleles are hand crafted in Indonesia and come with a padded carry bag and instructional booklet.
Fender brings you the authentic sound of the Hawaiian Islands with its first-ever series of ukulele models.

Ukuleles are enjoying renewed popularity, with exquisite sounds and designs that are a far cry from mere musical toys. Originally built by Portuguese immigrants to the Hawaiian Islands in the 1880s, the small guitar-like instruments produced a lilting sound that instantly evoked the lush South Pacific atmosphere of their island homeland.

Fender’s three new tenor-style ukulele models offer finely crafted sound and construction; they too instantly evoke the sound and spirit of Hawaii, with a dash of traditional Fender mojo for good measure—each one features the distinctive Fender Telecaster® guitar headstock shape, unique body shapes and bracing patterns designed exclusively for Fender, a Fender ukulele gig bag and an instruction book to get you started. Mahalo!

All of the ukuleles have a mahogany neck, rosewood bridge and fingerboard. The Pa’ina and Hau’oli have mahogany bodies, while the Koa Nohea is made of, you guessed it, koa. They’ve all got a 17″ scale length, with 19 frets.

Also note that the Pa’ina is an electric uke, with a passive pickup and an end-pin jack.

MSRP is $200 (Hau’oli), $300 (Nohea) and $400 (Pa’ina) for the various models.

These little babies will be availabie in the U.S. on January 19th… a little less than 2 weeks away.

And not a moment too soon! The importance of memorizing the notes of the fretboard can’t be understated. When it comes to improvising, building chords, or even determining what key a song is in, it is infinitely easier to do when you have the fretboard at your command, with all her secrets unlocked, rather than trying to tackle each piece of the puzzle when it’s most important to know it without thinking.

Now, it’s not necessary to know the names of all the notes on the neck… the are plenty of guitarists (some of the greatest, even), who know nothing about “all the theory stuff”  (-SRV). It’s possible to kick auditory ass without knowing, say, where all of the Db’s are on the fretboard. Many people simply understand intervals and relationships between notes, without knowing much about the notes themselves, and still sound awesome. But if you’re here, you are, I’m assuming, a guitarist interested in learning all he can about his instrument. So why not start with the basics?

While you can very conceivably jam without knowing all the note’s names, and just learning the patterns, knowing the names of all the notes on the fretboard comes in handy when combined with chord-theory, and constructing different voicings and inversions of chords.

We guitarists often learn all the in-depth, complicated stuff without ever learning the fundamentals that it’s all built on. Lots of guitarists master their axes without ever learning the beginner’s stuff, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing… but it can’t hurt to work on fundamentals and what not. I mean, even though we can jam and rip a lead like no other, we all practice our scales and modes every day, right?

(I know… me neither. But I should!)

While being awesome does not mean you have to know all the notes, but knowing all of the notes will help you be awesome. Dig?

The first thing you’ll need to know, if you don’t already, is the 12-step scale we use in Western music:

A - A#/Bb - B - C - C#/Db - D - D#/Eb - E - F - F#/Gb - G - G#/Ab - A

Now, many people make the argument that A# and Bb are not exactly the same note, and in an absolute sense, this may be true. But one the guitar, they are. It’s just a matter of naming each one dependent on which key you’re playing in, but more on that later. For now, just know that A#=Bb, F#=Gb, etc.

Each fret on your guitar signifies a half-step, meaning two frets is a full-step. For example, A to A# is a half step, D to D# is a half step, first fret on the B string to the second fret on the B string is a half step; A to B is a full step, Db to Eb is a full step, first fret on the B string to third fret on the B string is a full step.

Note that every natural note (A, B, C, etc. without sharps or flats) is a full step apart except for B to C and E to F. Therefore, a half-step up from B is C, while a full step up from B is C#. Those two wrinkles are the only little fluke you’ll need to worry about here.

(That also means that Cb is really B, and E# is really F, although depending on the style of music you play, you’ll see those oddities rarely to never.)

The progression of notes is always the same; it just starts on a different note on each string, with the twelfth… that looks funny… 12th fret… is one octave higher than the open string. So the scale written above is actually the notes of the A-string from open to the 12th fret. For the E-strings, start on “E”, go all the way around once, and end on “E” again at the 12th fret.

Okay, lots of words. Descriptions can make a relatively simple concept confusing, so I’ve made a chart to help you to visualize what I’m talking about here:

This make a handy reference while learning the notes, but be careful not become reliant upon it. The goal here is to internalize the concept so that it becomes second nature.

As for how to do that, I’m afraid I haven’t yet discovered a way to make it fun, interesting, exciting, enthralling, riveting or captivating.

I have laid out a few ways to make it relatively painless:

• The first way to ingrain the notes into your mind soul is to simply go up and down each string, fret by fret, naming the notes. Pick a tempo of your choice, and start with the open E-string, and say out loud to yourself like a doggone fool, “E!”. Then the first fret, “F!”, then the third, “F#/Gb!”. Now, you don’t necessarily have to say both at once, as long as you know that the two notes are the same. What I find useful is to name all the notes with sharps on your way up the neck, then name them with flats on your way back down, so that you learn both. Do this for all 6 strings.

• Once you’re reasonably confident with that, and can do that exercise accurately and at an even tempo, try to find all of the, say, the A’s on the neck (ex. 5th fret 6th string, 17th fret 6th string, open 5th string, 12th fret 5th string, 7th fret 3rd string, etc).  Do the same for all of the E’s, G’s, D’s and C’s in every spot on the neck. Once you’ve got those notes down, you can start working on finding all of the A#/Bb’s, B’s, C#/Db’s, D#/Eb’s, F’s, F#’s/Gb’s and G#/Ab’s.

NOTE: Use fret markers to your advantage. Playing in the keys of E, A, and G (likely the 3 most common keys you’ll use unless you play some funky exotic stuff… which you should! But anyway…), most of the notes you’ll use in these keys are found on the dotted frets.

• Once you’ve drilled the exercises to the point of boredom bordering on insanity, then quiz yourself: play a single note anywhere on the neck at random and try to figure out as quickly as possible what the note is.

• A bit more advanced is to play a random chord and try to figure out each note within it as quickly as possible. Arpeggiate (is that a word?) the chords, naming each note in tempo. If you know a bit of theory and how chords are constructed, this will be a bit easier, but still useful because chords are all voiced different; if you don’t know any theory beyond what you’re learning right now, this will give you insight into chord construction. But if this is blowing your mind right now, don’t worry about it just yet; I’ll be dedicating an entire lesson to chord construction soon enough.

Bonus Exercise: If you really want to push yourself, try finding all the bends for a certain note: for example, A is found at the 5th fret on the 1st string, but it is also found at the 8th fret on the 2nd string when bent up a full step from G to A. This is especially useful if you’re a young blues man or woman.

• Now that you’ve got a grasp on the names of the notes on the fretboard, use them as often as you can. For example, when you play through your scales, name each note.

…or you could take the easy way out, sling your guitar over your shoulder and head down to the nearest crossroads.

Personally, I’ve done this years ago for standard tuning. The fun (where is the sarcasm key on my keyboard?) part comes now that I’m doing it all over again on open-tuned guitars… it’s like going to pick up you son/daughter/brother/sister at elementary school and realizing you couldn’t recite your multiplication tables to save your life.

If you have any questions, too bad, piss off ask in the comments below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

The whiz-bang round-&-round of our homey (and sometimes homely) third stone, little blue ball of Blues, has come full circle like it has billions upon perpetual billions of times before.

A time to pretend we have some regard for our health and well-being during the next whiz-bang.

A time to put forth the illusion of “personal development” that’s so annoyingly blogged about every damn place you look.

A time to take heart in the words of Oprah and Dr. Phil and pretend that this is the year we’re gonna turn it all around.

…or a time of year to say FUCK IT, I like around smokin’  TNT, drinkin’ dynamite and general self-abuse. I just L-O-V-E, LOVE going to bed an exhausted, stinky wreck while the rest of the sane world is greeting the sun with self-affirmations and hypnotherapy tapes. And I particularly enjoy playing Russian Roulette with my Lovin’ Launcher while some low-down, dirty, grimy Delta Blues howls outta a single broken speaker, with a stranger who’s potentially equally dirty and grimy.

Erm… you get the picture. I also am a big fan of disturbingly graphic, insanely verbalized pictorals.

“BRB”, as they say in teh interweb lingos, I’m going to have one last cigarette of 2008 to celebrate a year of smoking and slow suicide ahead of me!

Viva la vida vice!

…

…

…

Okay, I’m back.

Anyway, enough about my vices. What am I gonna do to make 2009 rock a little bit harder?

• Well, a return to fundamentals, first of all: scales, modes, and generally working on my chops.
• Also, each week, I want to learn one new cover, and learn it well. This week’s objective is “Texas Flood,” since I’ll probably need the next 51 to polish it to a luster.
• Also, something I’ve decided to really challenge myself in doing is to write one new song a week, an idea I found out has already been attempted (much more succesfully than my own, I’m sure) here and here.
• And less time-sensitive, because I’m awful with schedules, and having two time-based objectives on my plate (on top of blogging) is quite enough, I just want to play out more this year. I haven’t played a gig in 7 months, and that is 8 months too long.
• Oh, and go to more shows. It used to be easy when I was managing a bar that had live music 4-5 days a week; until my infantile scotch-for-breakfast fucktard boss was too cheap to invest in live music, that is, and singlehandedly drove one lowly business and, more importantly, one formerly-rockin’ music scene into the ground. A change of venue means… well, a change of venues. I just haven’t taken advantage of them yet.
• Also, I should use the term  “Lovin’ Launcher” much, much more.

Feliz Navida-da-da-da-da-da-skiddledy-bop-bop-ba-doo-da

…d.

When I posted my Finger Exercises for Guitarists, I used an ugly, convoluted process to get the graphics for the exercises. Well, I’ve found a prettier, yet no less convoluted, process, and has redone the graphics to make them more legible.

Enjoy.

That’s about the extent of my Open G know-how. Or any open tuning knowledge, for that matter.

So then I go to thinking about all the other possibilities of various tunings. I mean, I typically only play in Eb (or sometimes standard, when I’m messin’ around with the harps), which is great for ridin’ along the SRV-Hendrix vein, but there’s just so much more out there. So I’ve been playing around lately with Keithified Stratocaster, now reunited with it’s low-E string. Of course, a capo on the 2nd fret makes this effectively Open A tuning, which, although it’s nice for playing along with certain songs, is essentially the same thing as Open G, creatively speaking. Open G and Open A are not fundamentally different, the way Open G and Open D are.

(For those of you who don’t know, Open G tuning is D-G-D-G-B-D, Open A is one step higher at E-A-E-A-C#-E, while Open D is in a whole other ballpark: D-A-D-F#-A-D).

It sounds like Robert Johnson uses some open tunings, and Muddy Waters seems to use open G and A quite a bit in his early stuff. There’s the Stones, of course, and Duane Allman. I don’t know much more, though.

So now I come to you, dear readers, looking for more information on open tunings,ask for suggestions on cool, unique, and interesting tunings, and what techniques you use to play in them.

Also, I’d like to compile a list of artists who frequently use alternate tunings, or songs in alternate tunings by artists who frequently use standard tuning.

On a not-quite-related note, does anyone else think that Letterman’s Sneezing Monkey looks a bit like Keef?

…you be the judge.