a Little bit Rough!

Hey Folks!
Happy New year to you all! Sorry its been a while, but i have been very busy with my day job! I hope you all had a great festive period - I certainly did, I was off skiing in the Alps. All I can say is that it blew me away. Gotta go back again next Christmas. Here is a sample of what it looked like!

That's me at the top of the Bouc Blanc gondola. it was sunny and warm for most of the time we were there. I also think it did my busted shoulder a whole lot of good.

Anyway, since the last post I have played live at the Royal Hotel Music club in Stromness, Orkney with Pete Bassett. Unfortunately (for everyone else) i was also singing. we played Britney Spears, Hit me baby one more time and an acoustic version of Ghost riders in the sky, influenced by the Outlaws version. Here are a few pics from the fateful evening that Stromness was exposed to my dulcet tones. Thanks to Mike Henderson for letting me use these!

Here i am winning the cake in the raffle - unfortunately i had to share it!

Here's me and Pete singing ghost riders in the sky. we tried to find cowboy hats but I'm afraid a sombrero was as good as i could do and Pete's wasn't much closer to a Stetson.

Here's one of me strumming along. The beard and locks have gone since then. I'm now shaven headed and beardless thanks to my better half.


Talking of ghost riders in the sky, I have decided I'm going to record it. I know I said I was going to do a shred fest instrumental - and I still fully intend on it, but, I just love ghost Riders - always have even when I was a little boy. So Pete Bassett, you have inspired me to do this! and I think we can make a pretty decent job of it. However, in the meantime I have recorded a rough guitar track for it, and boy, do i mean rough! - Recording levels weren't set, hasn't been mixed etc. But, its just intended to give the guy who is going to record the drums for me (the very sickeningly talented young Mr Ross Clark - this guy is a fantastic drummer and his main instrument is guitar! - and what's even more sickening is that he can do all this at this standard and he's only 15!). We'll see if we can't turn this into a 3 way guitar fest with me, Pete and Ross all giving it some large at the end of the song.

Anyway, the exceptionally rough backing track is in my SoundCloud widget thingy at the side of the page. Please don't laugh too much at the dreadful quality. It will be recorded properly once Ross has done the drums. The guitar solo has a few zippy arpeggios thrown in, and there's a nice acoustic solo at the start. This is just a taster (bad taste perhaps, but a taster none the less!) of what i am planning for the song. I also thought I better do some sort of post as I realise that you, my loving audience, were missing me and were distraught at not having a post to read since before Christmas.

Anyway, I'm gonna sign off for now, hopefully there'll be more to follow soon!

Dave B

Celtic Connections

Ok, so this is a bit different to what i normally do. but a friend of Mrs Flowers (my better half) made a special request. So this is about a beautiful Celtic song called Siuil a run, originally by Clannad. i would have played on my acoustic guitar, but it is up in Orkland at the moment.

So anyway, the chords are as follows:

Intro verse:
Em7, D, Em, C7, Em Bm7, C6, D, Am7, Bm7, Fadd9, G6, and A.

The verse then goes

Em7, D, Em, c7,Em, Bm7, Am, D, Am7, Bm7 C, C, (C, D, C, Emin7 - this is at the end of the first verse after the main part of the verse. not in other verses although there is a similar bit on the end of 2 chorus' almost like a bridge)

The chorus is almost identical to the verse as follows:

Em7, D, Em, c7,Em, Bm7, Am, D, Am7, Bm7 C, C, C, D, E (Although at one point the song plays the chorus twice in succession and the final C, D, E are only played on the second iteration, it just goes straight back to E minor in the first iteration.

The fade out is as follows,

Am, C, D, F, G - Repeat to Fade.

Here is a video of me describing it, then jamming along with the track. I hope this helps you with your audition! And i hope it helps anyone else who might be interested in learning this stunningly pretty song.

Normal service will be resumed for the next blog. I have started working on a shredfest guitar instrumental - so watch this space - I havent done one of these for a while so I'm looking forward to it!

Regards,

Dave B

symphonic Solo!

Well folks,
Here is the next exciting installment! Thought I'd do a video tutorial of the Megadeth, Symphony of Destruction solo, as I have the audio file up in my wee widget on the right hand side of the page. It isn't an easy solo, but then Marty Friedman is absolutely one of the best modern rock guitarists on the go. I can't claim to be a big Megadeth fan, but I love the way Marty Friedman plays guitar. I love the way he uses vibrato, it just makes his playing sound so passionate. I also love the very odd note selection he uses, he uses diminished and augmented stuff all over the place, with the augmented stuff sounding really bizarre and not in tune with anything, then suddenly he just throws in the most beautiful little fast arpeggios which just add so much melody. The contrast in everything he plays, even from a melodic perspective, is stunning. And lets not even talk about the total spagetti fingers, complete technically difficult standard of almost everything he plays.

Anyway, here is the video. Let me know what you think, and whether it has helped you. Even if you never intend on playing the full song, playing this solo will get you tieing your fingers in knots for a while and to that end, its gotta be pretty good practise.

 There'll be a few more of these to follow, probably another Marty Friedman solo - Tornado of souls (stunning solo), Eddie Van Halen's solo in Jump and i dont know what else yet.

all the best,

Dave B

Recording in the Frozen North

Ok, so i spend a lot of time up in Orkney, although I live in central Scotland. My Partner moved up there to study for a Doctorate a few years back and her kids are at school there. Orkney has a great music scene,. There are always live bands somewhere at the weekend. There is also an accoustic night at the royal hotel on the last/first Friday of the month, which is often frequented by some of my good friends - The Snarx, who can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Snarx/240525905989087

There is also the brilliant Orkney Blues Festival at the end of every summer. More details here:

http://orkneyblues.co.uk/

Also, I am trying to get an open forum Jam session organised on a regular basis. The idea being that this will be held in a local pub or hotel at the weekend during the day and open to all. Intended that all age groups and abilities should be able and encouraged to take part. I dont want to say too much about that here as that's a whole blog in its own right.

Anyway, the other day while i was up in Orkney i decided to try and do some recording with my new Boss GT-10 floor peddle and see how it sounded. I have also been wanting to try and record a version of Megadeth's classic, 'Symphony of Destruction' for a while, so thought I'd give it a try. It can be found in the audio player on the left hand side (Along with a few tracks i recorded years ago) - let me know what you think - all comments are welcome as long as they are polite. I Originally recorded it with vocals, but they were just too horrific to include in the final mix! Here is a picture of me during the recording!

Look at the total concentration! - That was at the tricky little arpeggio section in the guitar break (I think?).

I recorded these tracks using Cubase VST as the sequencer for the bass and drum parts and also to multitrack the audio. I played symphony for distruction on my red Ibanez RG570, this was played through a noise gate, into my marshall 9000 series pre-amp, into my graphic EQ, into my Boss GT-10 and then into the actual amp, which was driving a 2 x 12 cab. I used a Shure PG58 microphone for recording both the output from the guitar and the vocals. I prefer using a mic for recording the guitar as i think it sounds far better.

Further to this I also went round to see a great slide guitar player the other night for a bit of a jam and to try and come up with some ideas for doing something together, it was great and pretty productive so watch this space!