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Archives for August 2009

I missed the Canadian Guitar Festival again!

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The Canadian Guitar Festival highlights some of hidden talent that we have here on this continent. The Canadian Guitar Festival and Fingerstyle Guitar Competition offers the best of acoustic guitar virtuosity on an International stage.

Have you ever planned on doing something that you really, really want to do only to end up shake your head when you realize that you completely forgotten the thing that you swore to yourself that you wouldn’t forget? Well this is the one event’s! I’ve posted about this fabulous event before on my other blog and still I forget! A dear old friend on Facebook told me about this one, thanx for reminding me Mary! She actually sent me a link from her local newpaper about the festival.

The festival is held in a town called Kepler, which is a bit west of the festival. On the last day of the show, 19 competitors, some from as far away as Philadelphia and Hawaii, entered the finger-style guitar competition. Just imagine the different interpretations that can be heard on the stage, must of been nice!

A little side note here, Air Canada(not Westjet this time around) damaged a guitarist’s axe.

Calum Graham our 2nd place winner had his guitar smashed to pieces by Air Canada. Lets “cross our fingers in the hopes that Air Canada will do the right thing”! Canadian Guitar Festival 2009

I wonder if Bruce Cockburn ever gets the opportunity to get there? He lives in Kingston, which is about 20-22kms. from downtown Kingston.

Also in the area and on that same weekend was 2 other music festivals. One is called Flinton Jamboree and the other is Blue Skies. That’s an amazing amount of music for one weekend!

Did anyone here get the chance to go to this years Canadian Guitar Festival?

Keep on Jammin’





Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats

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The song Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez is one of those great songs that just keeps looping over and over in your mind.

The picking that he does on his classical guitar, is both haunting and beautiful.

The key to pulling off this song is patience. The articulate sequence he uses on his picking hand (right) seems simple enough at first. The average guitar player might just assume that he is using effects to create that lofty sound but, the truth of the matter is in HOW HE PICKS the strings.

I found this THE BEST instructional video on how to play this masterpiece – Heartbeats, take a look.

I can’t stress enough that you figure out this song in SUPER SLOW MOTION! If you choose to blow through it, you will get the overall way to play this song but, people will notice. I first wrote about this tune on my other blog Guitar Licks many months ago. While watching a TV show with my wife, I instantly fell into it’s power! I had to figure it out but had no time to. Now I found this video and I just have to share it with all of you.

I figure that, in order to get the natural flow of the song, it will take me about 2 weeks of playing it over and over again. This will no doubt drive my wife up the wall, it will allow me time to get re-acquainted with Mr. couch and put my marriage to the test(for the 10 zillionth time) … but it’s worth it’s soooo worth it to sound perfect!

So best of luck with figuring it out and I’ll say hello to Mr. couch for you all!

Keep on Jammin’

Bruce Cockburn played at 2009 Mississauga Festival

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My wife and I went to see Canada’s Bruce Cockburn play at the 2009 Mississauga Waterfront Festival and he was, as usual, out of this world! This guy plays solo acoustic guitar that sounds like he has a whole band behind him.

He is a WORLD CLASS GUITARIST!

The weather was great that day. Our seats, our lawn chairs that is, were fabulous! We were up as close as you could get. The view was unobstructed, until the late comers rushed to the front row! I hate when that happens.

His set that he played was great. A nice mixture of old and some stuff from his latest album titled Slice O Life.

I loved his, If a Tree Falls in the Forest.PLEASE turn down the volume before watching this one!

Below are some great pics my wife got at the show!

Bruce Cockburn Waterfront Festival Toronto 21

Bruce’s Chrome Dobro Guitar, Fender telecaster pickup(p/u) and a built in mic. Got it in 1990.

Bruce Cockburn Waterfront Festival Toronto 12

Bruce’s 12-string by Linda Manzer, side-mounted Fishman Prefix Pro, acoustic pre-amps with Matrix p/u’s and Audio-Technica internal mics.

Bruce Cockburn Waterfront Festival Toronto 11

His main acoustic, 20 years old, extra deep body. Same p/u’s as above. Mic signal goes directly to the sound board. P/U’s run through pedals. In order Boss TU-2 tuner, Empress tremolo, Boss DD-5 delay, Line 6 MM4 and DL-4. The signal then goes through a rack-mounted Lexicon Alex reverb(for World of Wonders) and a Demeter tube DL.

Bruce Cockburn is a simply a modern day acoustic guitar god!

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