Like my new twitter avatar?

I’ve taken the month of August off to get some serious time into the website.
I might even catch up to the target of a lesson a week i set myself a few months ago.. you never know.

What I need now though is for you guys to suggest some lesson topics and tell me what you would like to see covered in the next batch of lessons.

email me @ john@guitarod.com

A few of you have come up with some great suggestions already but i need more so keep those ideas coming.
Anything goes and i’m up for a challenge so don’t be shy

Big thanks in advance guys.

JD

PS. I’ve just started on twitter so if your a tweeter click my avatar picture (isn’t it cute   )

Playing Along with these tracks is excellent fun and as far as my ears can tell Mr. Vai has just taken the guitar off the original album tracks to give us the authentic sound of these fabulous musicians to play along with!

He hasn’t just muted the guitar off though,  guide parts have been left in over introductions so you know when to come in and the whole thing sounds like it has been re-mixed/mastered to give a fuller sound in absence of the lead parts.

Listening to these tracks without playing along has an unexpected bonus as you can hear all the little intricate parts that get lost in the mix behind the lead guitar.

It also certainly gave me a greater appreciation for how much Vai does with his guitar playing as the tracks do indeed sound very naked without his Vai-ness

There’s a new section coming to the www.guitarod.com website in the summer  called “The Style File” Where im going to take well known guitar players and show you how to do play in their style using techniques, riffs & phrasing common to there playing. Not just playing one of their songs but becoming a  “soundalike” so you play any song in their style.. Guess who’s going to be one of the first?!?…

Vai has once again pulled a marketing masterstroke and become the first guitarist to really capitalize from backing tracks using his own website www.vai.com and www.Itunes.com for electronic distribution.  Some guitar players have attempted this before but not with the marketing and branding that Vai has ironically made his trademark.

In summary; A must buy for any Vai fan and well worth the money!

This JD reporting for GuitarOD.com, playing ‘Tender Surrender” with my foot on the coffee table pretending its a stage monitor and i’m playing to a packed Wembly, not just my dog

If you’ve never seen one of these devices they basically cut the power to the stage mains supply if the noise in the venue rises above a certain level, on principal a good idea – THE PROBLEM IS – I’ve seen these units set so that the normal background noise of people chatting can set them off and BOOM – no music, no band, no venue!

So there was an en e petition on the “number 10″ website, i signed it and so did a lot of people i know and contacted AND THEN a few days ago i got a reply in my inbox saying the government had responded to the petition and here’s the opening line from the response;

“We are pleased to tell you that there is no truth in claims that the Government is planning to introduce a requirement for entertainment venues to fit noise control devices.”

This is a great response, its a bit panto (“oh no we didn’t!, oh yes we did!) but it shows that (irony warning!) if we make enough noise we can be heard and you should take every opportunity to tell your government what to do with your tax money (or your parents tax money)

And just so you know, I only do politics when it comes knocking on my door so don’t worry, normal guitary blogs will resume immediately.

thanks for checking back guys,

JD

You can read the Governments full response here.