It seems I’m rather in a mood to write a novel, but that’s not for today. I have some other plans. It seems each time a holiday approaches to an end, I seem to develop a great interest in writing a blog. How long has been? 4 months? Could be more if you’re good at math (something I’m not, or merely denying).  Days and weeks were spent to pump my demanding tummy with good edible stuff. The rest of the time I had my hands on the guitar. Truth to be told, I’m not sure if I’ve been making progress; but even I did, I believe its barely a jump of a bacteria from one spot to another. Nonetheless, the battle must go on. Other than that, I did do a little reading during the birth on my jolly good days, but it all were consumed with good old computer games that much recalled of my younger days.

Seems like a good deal of people already made their way into higher places to achieve higher ambitions. It something that I can never really feel. Ambition for professionalism. Has all these music and life thought made me feel of abandoning my previous ambitions? Somehow I feel they had a role in making me have tough figuring out the puzzle and putting the pieces together.

Ah, I fear the story must end if I were to recharge my appetite to write. Would that be another 6 months? We shall see about that..

Howee – Waited For Your Call

http://listverse.com/health/top-10-things-that-are-surprisingly-good-for-you/

He’s not very young now. But let’s take a look at his pictures, era-wise accordingly. And hear some story from lil’ old gramps, will ya?

Did i mention he sings too? He has a very good command of his voice, and he takes the job as a lead guitarist close to his soul. How do I prove this?

That’s Dire Straits’ first hit, the Sultans of Swings. At first I had a very taboo kinda thingy. I thought it to be a strange sounding title, but sure the songs hints out good melody. Not noisy, but just sweet.

He plays the electric guitar with his fingers. Most guitarists use picks, fingerpicks, or plectrum, whatever you call it; for a the same reason, achieving top speed and get a hold of a solid sound. Unlike Marky, he uses his fingers to create dynamics in his guitar, making it sound very very his style.

Although Knopfler is well-known for his rockish attitude, it is quite obvious one would notice a flavour of country in his style of playing. And at some points, it turns out the be rather bluesy. I can say he’s influenced by Celtic background. Check out Walk of Life, Dire Straits. I bet you heard this on Mix FM or Lite n Easy before.

That song really shows his colours of country, or some may call it folkish.

That’s a little bit on my favourite guitarist so far in my life. There are really other great guitarist like Saul Hudson (Slash), Eric Clapton, Randy Rhoads, David Gilmour etc. But in my biased opinion (imbo), I seriously feel that Mark Knopfler is the only one person who can tell a story so sad, with his guitar. It’s just a few notes, but it is so melodic that it really drives into your soul. Let’s end this with my favourite Mark Knopfler song. Please please do check out the ending solo. It’s also known as the most heart-breaking solo ever in history. (I know it’s very old fashioned, so I suggest you get the audio file for a much modern take on the song)

Time for personal shout-outs. I’m pissed off at some things in my life. There’s one huge mistake that I do ALL the time. Everytime there’s a chance right in front of me, I do not notice it and when the thing’s gone, I’m all ravish about having it back. You see, I had this opportunity so open in front of me. It was hinting its existence in front of my eyes for almost 2 months. And now, only just knowing to appreciate its value, at the same time to know that it’s no longer in front of my eyes. Oh well, there goes another turning point. I seriously got to learn how to appreciate things in front of my eyes these days. ps: When I mentioned “thing”, I didn’t mean static stuff. It’s alive, and it’s nourishing :/

Insights please!

To increase this intensity, recently I had a clash of thoughts with a friend of mine, saying art is simple, much opposed to my own ideology. Probably both have diverse meanings to a certain degree of savours. I hope those who are reading this post to participate in a mini survey of mine to clarify a little bit of everything:

1. What’s your primary art proficiency? This could be ranging from classic art, photography, digital art, architecture, music, literature, etc.

2. Anything specific or specialization about your art? Maybe you only deal with nature on drawings, or probably people on photography.

3. When did this skill begin to cultivate within you? Probably you just started craving digital artistry last month, or you could have dug music at the age of 9.

4. Is art for simple or complex people? Do you just see(or listen) the surface of a particular art product, or you dive into it and try to harvest every single meaning and emotion from it?

5. What is your motive when you produce your own art? This is quite a wide range of prospect. Surprise me.

6. Have you produced any art object on your own? Everyone is an artist right? Just some people has different day to open their shell.

6. Do you want your art to be enjoyed by people? Pretty straight forward

7. Are you a simple or complex people? Another straight forward question. Cheers.

8. What do you have in mind right now? Sounds contributeful to the survey.

You should answer like the following sample of my personal opinion:

1. Music

2. Blues Fusion

3. February 2008

4. I think art is for complex people. Simple people simply view and comment at first glance. Complex people try to understand on what motive it is being made and how the blend of colours and rhyhtm contribute to its beauty.

5. I usually use my life as a motive. Sometimes, a girl that I am fond of. But most of the time, the moment I’m feeling right now.

6. Not yet. But I’m inspired to release something big and cherished. Time to show the world that an unknown Malaysian banana Chinese has a grand scheme that others would not have thought so.

7. Complex. Very complex and perplex. Not much to my desire but I seem to have cultivated this within for quite some time already.

8. I wish to have spent more time to study for my PLC (Programmable Logic Control) test tomorrow.

You might have thought that this survey has an open ending, which leads to nothing at the end, but be in peace to know that I will produce a mini report and conclusion when I have an acceptable number of participants.

Thanks for reading, and thank you twice for participating! Don’t dissapoint me. Cheers for the champion.

The below is assuming i have AMPLE time. No exams. No appointments. No assignments. These fulfill the requirement for the following schedule for me.

1.   Rhythm Practice(45 minutes)

• I used to think doing all the lead work is cool, but I went jamming one day with some professionals, I got stuck and I knew I had to work on my rhythms. Blues and jazz rhythm is not about strumming chords wildly like an acoustic or country boy does. It seriously involves CREATIVITY. If you’re not, then learn from songs and techniques from formidable rhythm players.
• Practice on: Chords (learn new chord voicing and ‘flavours’), Arpeggios, a little Scale knowledge can help much, some Strumming Patterns, and most important Rhythm Variation.
• How to learn: Learn a new chord a week. A new arpeggio pattern or voicing a week, learn only important scales(Major & Minor Scale, Pentatonics, Mixolydian, Dorian is enough if you’re just starting), dun bother learning all those weird scales, Rhythm Variation comes in naturally as you practice constantly.
• For blues, learning rhythm can be very tough at first. There’s so many music styles to cover like Mississippi Delta Blues, Urban/Chicago Blues, Texas Blues, British/Rock Blues, slow blues, minor blues and the list stretches…. Learn at least one of each, and that will be good enough for you.
• Spend as much time only as you feel like you’re ready. If you think you need more time than this, I advise that you stop at 1 hour and proceed with lead work.

2.   Lead Practice/Improvisation(1 hour)

• Every guitarist sure wants to solo at some point. So this is where the real fun of the musician begins. Keep in mind that, RHYTHM comes first then the LEAD.
• Learn: Scale (see Rhythm section), Memorized Licks, Phrasing(more below), Rhythm Variation, Arpeggios.
• Memorize a lick a day, then recall the lick the day after. Your licks can be licks from any sources. But good licks come from legends. My legend is Mark Knopfler. Learn all the mentioned scales, your phrasing is heavily based on scales. All of this should be learned within 15-20 minutes. Your skills must be then applied to a jamming session with a METRONOME or backing track. In weeks, you’ll notice a big hike in your soloing. You’ll notice your scales tend to have more melody. All this will perfect if you phrase well.
• Lead work is probably the hardest of all. If you’re playing blues, jazz or rock, you don’t want to play other player’s solo. You want to play YOUR own solo. This is where you develop your own style. I’m working hard everyday on that, so should you =)

So what’s phrasing all about? Phrasing means playing a scale with melody. What makes good phrasing?

1. Rhyhtm. A full note, half, quarter, eigth, sixteenth, and TRIPLETS. They create variety in your music taste.
2. Technique. This includes bending, vibrato, slide, slurs etc. I won’t be teaching you here. But you should try this website to have a taste of techniques. This is where I dug my early guitar education.
3. Dynamics. How hard you accentuate your notes creates a different voicing to that note. You’ll probably want to this on tonic notes or chord tones. You know the pianissimo and its family, and staccato, legato kind of this you learned in music class? The volume of your music will create a wave of difference. Staccato and legato will form the story line. Search wiki for more info =)
4. Spacing and Rests. Let your licks and phrases take a break over time. This gives time for the licks to blend into listeners’ mind. No matter how slow you play. But phrasing this way makes your music very in line with melody. NEVER EVER LEGATO(play with rapid succession) WITHOUT RESTS AND SPACINGS.
5. FEEL. This solves everything. Your first feel for blues will be strong and weak later on. The feel take place eventually as you practice with backing tracks and bands often. You will need to revive that feel during your critical gigs. The feel became the reason I play this genre and gave birth to passion and passion is a good driver for everything. Do realize that jazz feel is very different. You won’t be making faces and feeling the music like blues. You just feel the harmony and the tendency to create that jazz sound. This is where blues, jazz, funk, rock,etc gets the edge of advantage as compared to other music styles.

Please please please have fun with music. Remember it’s about fun, not a show-off action series. Those who boast just proves they are really desperate to  be the best musician. Take things easy. Don’t be hard on yourself if it’s too hard. And when you’re good in music one day, be humble and your music will be largely appreciated. Just like most good songwriters today; their songs are accepted because of their humility. Since music is so connected to us, it is based largely on a great sense of humanity. Another thing to bear in mind is what makes a good musician is the one who composes new tunes, not musicians who play covers of others. Use some brain juice to help you on that.

I really don’t want to write an essay for MUET again. So I leave it to avid readers to decipher the sentences and take it to your advantage if you think you really need it. Somehow I think you’ll need it if you love the music as much as I do. Till then, enjoy! Please comment for support of this long written text. Cheers have a nice day! =)

I’m just to list about 5 stuff. If I were to put like 10-20 of them, I don’t think anyone would have bothered listening any. At least, try the one on top =)

1. Dire Straits – Tunnel of Love
2. Gary Moore – The Loner
3. Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight
4. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Little Wing
5. Eric Clapton & The Beatles – My Guitar Gently Weeps

You can easily find those songs on the two following lists:

www.radioblogclub.com

www.youtube.com

I’ve been listening song No 1 like so repetitously. Probably I listened to it during a very feely trip and it stuck with me ever since. That song would remind me of that day. It happens to be a song about a theme park too, as I was there at that time. The ending guitar and keyboard solo is very meaninful. Hope you’ll enjoy it as well!

Honestly, I never knew how i started playing the guitar. I guess it was something like this.

1. It was about exactly a year ago I got rejected by someone. haha. Ok fine, you heard it. Then I took some time to take a reflection on myself. The results: I think I was a lamer, lifeless, unskilled guy.
2. So I saw this guy who was playing guitar in front of a crowd. I told myself, I’ll never be as good as him, he’s just too damn good at guitars I’ll never be able to perform. Though about 12 years ago, I was already exposed to rock bands like Bon Jovi, Guns & Roses, and more. Those days I always day-dreamed I was like somekind of international rock musician. But I know those were merely dreams.
3. Then, I tried taking acoustics, so I invested about rm500 to start playing guitar, with no where to start. I tried playing some pop songs. Even strumming basic chords was a major feat to me that time. Silly.
4. I tried youtube videos for a start. Kinda hard for me. Needed lots of ear skills to catch those teachers playing. There was this guitar teacher on youtube who taught some simple blues tunes.
5. I gathered a lot of effort to master this language of music. It was tough but I tried and tried for almost 3 months to play this solo flawlessly(by now i kind of forgotten it already. lol).
6. I made a little research of the blues. It seems very expressive despite it’s weird sounds. It seems all the blues song whether major or minor, at least put love as a theme and most speak of unspeakable pain in their solos.
7. Over the course, I had a turmoil in my life. Problems come and go. Some problems still exist till today. Problems that hurt all the time. It seems I have more reason to study the blues. So, I sank myself completely into learning this music. I noticed I started to get better. My playing more solid, and I can improvise without reading any notes. Just playing from my heart.
8. I got a book on electric blues. I invested in electric guitar business. I focussed a lot on improvisation, followed by rhythm techniques and theory (though blues the break music theory all the time). As time goes by, I discovered more blues tunes and solos by legendary blues musicians like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Moore, Albert King, BB King and the list stretches on.
9. By now, you can say blues has already been a part of me. The mastery of the language is just but a beginning. I’m always into learning more techniques.

For the moment, I play the minor blues to express my feelings. Among the feelings, I let my guitar speak of my solitary life about the loneliness i suffer till the very present day. Also, I do sing of someone whom I dearly miss. That’s all I’ll say for now. I sure deserve some privacy, don’t I?

Many may not understand why this music sounds weird. Maybe some people wouldn’t consider my playing as real music. But I know, my playing is not about skill, technique, knowledge and pride. My playing is all about my feelings. And that’s why I never stopped playing the Blues ever since.

1. Master the essential 12 Bar Blues and know how to play 7^th chords, 9^th chords, minor 7^th, minor and major chords. Major 7th is rarely used.
2. Master the important positions of the Pentatonic Scale. Position 1 most notably, and then position 2, 3, 5. I seldom use position 4 for not much reason.
3. Master bending(half step, quarter, blues bend, full bend, double bends too), vibratos and slide. These techniques are key to creating the blues sound.
4. Have a good sense of blues rhythm. This is achieved by listening to lots of blues & notice the difference between classic blues, and modern blues.
5. Rhythm is also achieved with the triplet feel. Check wiki for this. You just need the FEEL. No feel, no blues.
6. Think of sad stuff and infest yourself with sadness. Especially important if you’re playing minor blues, not just the typical happy ones. A good way to achieve feel the real way.
7. Don’t just simply hit the notes. Take a lot of pauses. Imitate vocals of some artists. People need to breathe, so does your guitar. Pauses allow more energy to be soaked into your solo.
8. Memorize a lick a day. This could be licks from the masters like BB King, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Gary Moore etc. It could also be a lick that you derive yourself.
9. Improvise. This does not mean you improve something that has already been around though it helps in a way. Play spontaneously side tracking with the above-mentioned ‘blues feel’. Somehow you’ll create your own lick in the meantime.
10. Combine. Create the ultimate solo with your new-founded skills.

I personally do not know how I got into learning electric blues, but I seem to be learning lots of them now. But it’s something not to regret learning. Don’t just learn songs. It could be cool to show you friends that you can play ‘a song’. But what’s better if you can play your OWN songs. Something very different from playing other styles of music like jazz, rock, metal and classical. What makes Blues SO different is when you successfully play it with the right feel, you will get some kind of electric feeling in your chest that’s trying to burst out from you. Minor blues will make your heart cry out. I’ve got that so I’m here to share.

You can never do that on a violin, classical guitar, piano, keyboard, cello or whatever. I mean you don’t actually want to ‘bend’ the piano or keyboard right? You won’t actually want to vibrato those intruments too, unless you which to attract attention of your parents or friends the hard way. But if you have an acoustic or electric, you’ll appreciate the fact that you may have the blues with you.