I saw Alice in Chains live for the first time when they came to St. Paul on July 9. From this middle-aged man, those slightly older middle-aged men on stage seemed to be aging rather gracefully. I don’t have their latest yet but I understand that it’s filled with mostly mid-tempo material. In concert, they…
I’ve been thinking about getting into posting videos for a long time, but I finally figured out how to take video using my MacBook’s iSight camera but with audio coming from my audio interface. So these look like crap but I’d say the sound is superior to most webcam or phone videos. It’s quite embarrassing…
Earlier I reported that I was struggling with a wrist pain. Upon a little research and experimentation, I figured out what was going on. First, the facts: It always happens when I’m cold: when the weather turns cold (I live in Minnesota, USA) and my body in general gets cold easily And I’m trying to…
It’s not like I practice for hours everyday (I wish) but from time to time I have wrist problems. Sometimes it’s a burning, cramping sensation in my forearm, but more problematic is a sense of tightness I feel in my left wrist, usually relating to trying to do some fast legato licks on lower strings…
Recently I’ve been watching the myriad of Paul Gilbert guitar lessons available on YouTube. I’m not a huge fan of his music (Mr. Big’s Lean Into It was the only album I owned) but watching these I am developing more interest in his music, as Paul just strikes me as a guy who of life.…
I don’t know about you, but my ultimate goal as a guitarist can be summed up in one sentence: to be able to play anything I hear in my head. Now, in order for that to happen, these elements need to be in place: You have something in mind to play. This may seem obvious,…
Last weekend I accompanied my wife on an acoustic guitar while she thumbed through a few children’s songbook, singing to my tired-and-needed-to-wind-down children. And this little family event reminded me of the importance of doing the simple things well. Finding the Challenge in Simple Things From a guitar player’s point of view, it can seem…
I was reading an interview of Joan Vilà, a famed soccer educator from Spain, one who had a hand in training many players at FC Barcelona, one of the best club teams in the world. He had observed some Japanese youth players and said that while they were technically very advanced, they were lacking in…
Well, thank you for asking. 🙂 What follows is my own theory about why single-coil pickups have a greater dynamics range and thus forces you to develop better control over your dynamics. I’m not an expert on electric engineering — so correct me if I’m wrong anywhere. Traditional single-coil pickups have weaker outputs, probably weaker…