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80’s band Zon and Put on the Show

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A Canadian band called Zon, was a theatrical band that was ahead of it’s time. Although I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing this band, it does hold a special part in my rock and roll heart!

While playing in Pylis, we played this song as an opening number. It got my heart just a pumping at break neck speed! The great keyboardist Tony F., recorded this circus like pipe organ sounding song that was followed by a keyboard solo that helped us lead into this tune! Ah, the memories!

Another tune from these guys that we did was called Time for your Love. It had lots of fun openings for me to jam on stage and boy was that fun! See CounterPoint, there was a time that I could pull off some free jamming/soloing on my axe! Too bad that I couldn’t reach deep into my little bag of tricks and show you what I mean.

If you are a fan of this band and you are looking some of their tunes to download, then check out this site for more info.

Enjoy.

Canadian pomp rockers Zon, which were originally released at the end of the 70s. What set them apart from other Canadian bands at the time, was their theatrical approach. Anyone who saw them performing live 25 years ago, will tell you how impressive they were. With special costumes and masks, it was indeed something you had to see at the time. Musically the band played keyboard orientated rock and have always been compared to Queen and (especially) Styx. As a matter of fact, one of the highlights of their (rather short) career came when they were asked to support Styx on their “Grand Illusion” tour. CBS took them under their wings and released “Astral Projector” in 1978 and “Back Down To Earth” a year later. In my opinion, the former is the better of the two, because it’s Zon from start to finish. On “Back Down To Earth”, CBS tried to push them into a more ‘commercial’ direction and the guys didn’t get enough time to write (enough) decent songs. Negative publicity and a corporate cleanout saw CBS dropping them from their roster. A (rather weak) third album was released on the small Falcon Records in 1980 before the band called it quits.
Rock Report

Keep on Jammin’





Insecurity issues associated with playing live music

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It seems to me that there are a lot of people out there who become anxious, insecure and or uncomfortable when they have to talk or perform in front of a group of people. Public speaking must be high on the list of personal stressers for many people.

This anxiety can be used to one’s benefit or make them become paralyzed with fear. With musicians, we try to use this insecurity to our advantage! Some say when this, the most dreaded of all emotions, is lacking before one goes up on stage, you might consider giving it up. By this I mean, some performers believe that if they don’t have butterflies in their stomach or some stress before going on stage their performance won’t be up to par.

I can relate to this topic on some levels. In the past I’ve lost the drive to play guitar and perform live. Actually going up on stage for me is similar to the average person just going to the store, I just don’t get those butterflies in my stomach.

The thing about operating in a public forum that gets me is … will they get into or like what I am playing for them? Will they pay attention to the subtle nuances and examine my guitar technique? Or will they just go, that’s nice. Maybe it’s acceptance that musicians crave for from their audience that makes us crazy.

panic I take apart everything I want to play into so many sections and perfect, in my mind that is, how they are reproduced and flow from one part of the song to the next. I also have to anticipate how to execute it if say a string breaks in a theatre or bar in the middle of song. I sometimes find that it’s hard to juggle all those issues and bond them together flawlessly into my act without losing my mind in front of an audience while giving the impression that it is all in a days work for a guitarist/performer!

I understand that over the years I’ve lightly touched on this topic before, on most of my other guitar blogs that I have, but I’ve never really been able to answer this question head on. I do think that I may have come across the answer to this question today while glancing through my MACLEAN’s magazine’s BOOKS section by Jonathon Gatehouse (OCT. 12′ 09).

The article was about Margaret Atwood and how she see perceives what her audience gets out of her great body of work. This is the part of the article that caught my attention!

After so many books, she has learned that it is useless to try to point the reader in one direction or the other – they will take away exactly what they want to. “Your not in control of how people read a book. They’re doing their own interpretation.

That’s it! It seems so simple now how she came to this conclusion. It is one of those – “you can’t see the forest through the trees” – kinda thing. My wife thinks that I shouldn’t take an audiences reaction so personally. She says that people are just going out to have a good time and enjoy themselves! I guess she does have a point. Now the hard part is in attempting to incorporate these words of wisdom into my musical mind set!

Sometimes this creeps into my writing style as well. I do not claim to be a wordsmith by any stretch of the imagination but I try. Some people have the ability to express themselves and get their message across and others just wish they had that talent! Most people I talk to say playing an instrument is similar. You may have all the technical knowledge and theory in how to play one but the way you reproduce a song, or the feel for it, is lacking.

So has anyone out there come across a way that helps them overcome their fear of performing or talking in front of people? Or is dealing with this problem just a part of one’s personality trait?

Keep on Jammin’

Bruce Cockburn’s Acoustic Matrix pick ups

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This is my second installment of what components Bruce Cockburn uses on his acoustic guitars. Today we’ll tackle his pick ups and basically how they work.

Bruce uses 2 types in this main guitars. One is called a Acoustic Matrix (video takes a while to load sometimes and don’t forget to go through all video’s, it’s worth it!) and the other is a modified Audio-Technica internal mic.

The Acoustic Matrix pickup (p/u) is the driving force behind the Fishman system. For this p/u, Bruce runs this signal through his guitar effects. The effects that he uses are numerous and will be part of another post that describes them in greater detail. Now the signal will travel directly into his sound board to be manipulated and then it is forwarded to the speakers. This particular kind of acoustic of pick up is essentially like a Piezoelectric p/u in nature.

This p/u technology produces a voltage signal when pressure is subjected to it (the sound vibrations of the strings against the front section of the guitar). This signal then converts these vibrations into an electrical signal. The material used here is called vibration sensing co-polymer film. It seizes the signal/sound and sends it off to the amplifier or P.A. system. This product is specifically designed for acoustic guitars and it’s an ideal application to be use for saddle-mounted pick ups!

Considering the length of the connection from the p/u to the preamp inside the guitar itself, around 4 inches in length, it will help to eliminate signal loss. More wire means more resistance and a drop in quality of the signal. This is very important in retaining that true guitar sound that you are looking for.

I’m not sure which of these he uses, so here’s a little bit of both, the Natural I and the Natural II system.

Acoustic Matrix Natural I is an active p/u meaning it is very sensitive to the vibrations that the strings produce at the saddle. The saddle is on the actual body of the guitar, to the right of your sound hole, if your a left handed player that is;). The lighter you attack your strings, the less of a signal is sent and vice versa. This would be perfect for smaller sized guitars. It is ideal for solo performers who play at a low volume level. If your guitar is very prone to feedback, then the Natural II is the one for you.

The Acoustic Matrix Natural II will compliment guitars that are larger like the big scallop-braced dreadnought with tons of big bottom end that is very characteristic of this type of guitar construction. The Natural II is for playing in larger venues or bands for that matter, when you need to be able to stand out in the crowd.

This delivery system tends to give you that warm, natural acoustic voicing that your guitar has. The bottom bass sound is picked up real nicely. Considering Mr. Cockburn’s love for the bottom end and the fact that his guitar are of the dreadnought construction, you can see why he might use this type of system in his guitars.

The Acoustic Matrix Natural II is basically the same as The Natural I but it empathizes the higher end sounds of the guitar. This is great for those BIG guitars that has that real natural bass resonance to it.

Now we will look at the other hidden p/u system in his arsenal that helps him obtain his distinctive sound.

Now we come to the Audio-Technica internal mic. As for this one, it is a modified Audio-Technica internal mic. I’ve never heard of it before so naturally I’m very interested in it.

Bruce must of stumbled upon it somewhere and just picked up the ball, or should I say mic, and ran with it! It’s basically a miniature condenser mic. This type of mic can be placed anywhere inside the guitar body to capture a much different tonal sound then traditional mics do. Bruce runs this p/u directly through to the board to get that natural, unadulterated sound. If anyone out there has this type of delivery system PLEASE COMMENT on this post! I am more then a little interested in this technology.

So there you have it. I’ve deliberately tried not to go too much technical details with this post. My goal was to expose you, musicians and non-musicians alike, to something a little different in how acoustic guitar pick ups are made and what they sound like. If you find something very interesting while on your journey to p/u enlightenment, please come back and tell us! The worst thing we can do is learn something from each other, right?!

Keep on Jammin’

Here are some other acoustic guitar pick ups that I like.

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