Guitar Licks and Tips


You are here: Home / Archives for Chris

A great guitar intro to play

by

The best guitar intro that I never did play live was the one that belongs to “Feels so good” by Chuck Mangione! I can appreciate some people saying OMG, what the hell is this guy on? But honestly, playing this one is a great feeling!

I have some fond memories with this one. I was around 13 years old, playing in a KISS tribute band called Deuce. Brain M.(guitar/bass/singer) and Eddie K. (drummer) were great guys to hang around with. The tunes we played were fun, but not that much challenging to me at the time.

My guitar guru/teacher the great Chris P. from Brantford, was always trying to direct me in very subtle ways towards Jazz AND GOD BLESS HIM FOR THAT!!! He started to introduce me to this neat form of music and I really liked it!

He showed me these chord progressions that just blew my mind! Imagine, who would have thought that there were more chords out there to play then just the ones I played. I was one of those kidz who picked up the guitar very easily. Everyone was always looking at me because they thought I knew everything … boy did this prove them wrong!

Then there was this song that was on the radio that I thought was JUST GREAT, the beginning and the solo part of it that is! The other parts were ok, but these were the parts I wanted to play. I let my buddy’s listen to it and you can only imagine what thy thought of it. This song was called Feel so good!

It was the first song that I started out listening to it and closing my eyes and concentrating on every little chord that the guitar player played. I tried to figure it out, I was always good at figuring out song but this was way out of my comfort zone. I then brought it up to my guru and he smiled at me and said that I’m ready!

His way of teaching me a song was to show me just small sections of a piece and would send me home to practise it over and over again until I mastered it and ONLY THEN would he show me the rest of it! To this day, THIS IS HOW I FIGURE OUT A SONG TO PLAY IN A BAND! Chris showed me to take a part song inside out before going on to the rest. It just makes sense to approach a song in this manor, got it CounterPoint! This is how I play!

So here is the solo part of the song that I fell in love with so many years ago and I want to share it with you. I only wish that I had the opportunity to of heard the late great Coleman Mellett’s interpretation of this master piece!

RIP Coleman Mellett, Keep on Jammin’





A Drummers ultimate Throne

by

So this is where some drummers get their ideas from!

I recall one night while with some of my band mates and we were just sitting back watching the TV after practicing and hearing this weird tapping noise. At first we thought that it was water dripping from a tap and left it at that. Then after a short period of time I walked to where the sound was originating from (the john) and then I found out that is was the drummer going over a certain bridge of a song that we wee working on that night. He actually had his sticks with him!

Just a word to the wise here kidz, never handle a drummers sticks.

Keep on Jammin’

Tears on your Anorak

by

There was this tune called Tears on your Anorak that was not a real big hit on the charts in the 80’s, but I loved it none the less. It was one of those songs that kept on looping through my mine!

I admit that it’s not a very difficult piece to play on an electric guitar but, baby when you try to pull this off on an acoustic, then it’s a whole new kettle of worms! It’s a bit more difficult to let those strings ring out while attempting to play other ones all at the same time. Anyways, it was also the only song from one of those British one-hit-wonders that still ring out in my mind today. Humm, I wonder where they went to?

This song Tears on your Anorak, brings back so many great moments in my life! I use to play this song acoustically with a dear olde friend of mine Allan S. We played it everywhere we played! Bars, backyards, in trees and even elevators! I also played it on electric guitar with Dom., Eddie and Big Jon P. For the life of me, I’m not sure if we played this version live? Hopefully, one of them will get back to us and comment on this post about it.

So over the years from time to time, I’d start a search for these guys and of coarse, I’d go off onto another tangent and never get back. Does that sound familiar to you? Then this afternoon, with nothing else to do, I was eager to find an answer to where The Drivers went to and I found my answer on this particular blog!

Now as it turns out, they transformed themselves into the Cutting Crew! They were a B.C. band that had a couple of hits and disbanded in the mid 90’s. Never to be heard of again … until now!

Keep on Jammin’

Meta

Pages