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The band Toto

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Toto is one of those bands from the late 70’s to the present day that has produced one or two certain song(s) that everyone attaches some fond memories to or just really like the band! The level of musicianship, the jelling of the band members, that sound and rhythm they had was truly unmistakable. Toto was such a polished band that some people may have viewed them in too harsh a light. Their first self titled album, Toto, was the best one they ever put out.

I had all these musical emotions fly directly into my mind the other day by an unexpected force, my god-son Jeffery! He had been talking about this TOTO Greatest Hits (Steel box collection) that he just picked up and he talked about some of the tunes that he liked on it.

The songs he was referring to were some of Toto’s newer releases. They were the ones that I had heard over and over again on the radio. They were nice and all that but, not always as complex and intricate as I liked in comparison with their first project.

So yesterday a few of us went off to help my cousin, Jeffery’s aunt and her husband, put in a retaining wall in their back yard. On the drive over there, Jeffery told me he brought his Toto CD and asked me if I wanted to hear it, so I sheepishly said ok?!

When he placed it in the car CD player and hit play, a few of the songs on it instantly brought me back to my early years as a young progressive guitar player. I honestly love how they formed all their chord/vocal progressions in each of their songs. All though I could not for the life of me figure them out back then, I could certainly appreciate the talent that was needed in performing these difficult pieces live on stage.

Does anyone out there have their self titled album Toto in their collection? If not, then here is what they played on this classic album in order!
Child’s Anthem, I’ll Supply the Love, Georgy Porgy, Manuela Run, You are the Flower, Girl Goodbye, Takin’ it Back, Rockmaker, Hold the Line and Angela.

The members of the band for this album were Bobby Kimball, Steve Porcaro, David Hungate, David Paich, Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro.

These bunch of musicians were everything that I could ever want in a band’s style. They guitar, keyboards, bass, drums and percussion are all seasoned studio players. Just imagine how many ways they could come up with in playing a song?

I used to listen to them everyday in my early years. The only song I ever played of theirs was Hold the Line, with a Brantford band called Duece. No other musicians wanted to venture off in that direction. I used my sister’s old stereo a QueOn some much that I went through 3 stylists! I listened to each song taking it apart instrument by instrument in my mind. It’s amazing how much time a young kid can have on his hands isn’t it!

BTW the word toto means all encompassing in Latin! This is so great because it really represents the true essence of the band because of all the contrasting musical styles that they cover.

Keep on Jammin’





Whole Hearted by Extreme

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I’ve told you now that I am currently in a little acoustic project with a buddy from work. When we got together for the second time, I started playing Hole Hearted by the the 90’s band called Extreme. It went so well that we both started singing it perfectly!

I have played this song many times before with numerous bands in the past and got great response from this song. The first was with a guy named Guytano. I’ve got an old cassette version of us somewhere and it was awesome!

So fast forward to today and it seems like we’ve gonna resurrect it once again.

Going through youtube, searching for unique versions of songs, is a favorite past time on mine. Looking at different chord phrasings of songs fascinates me. My way of playing, at the risk of sounding like an old broken record, is to challenge a listener to hear different ways in which a song can be performed.

Today I found an acoustic version of this song by Extreme. It has sounds like the original, but with a little subtle twist to it.

This version of the band has original members Gary Cherone (Lead Vocals), Nuno Bettencourt (a Canadian Guitarist) with guests Steve Hackett and on slide guitar John Paul Jones(ex-bass player from Led Zeppelin). To tell you the truth, I didn’t even notice him until the end of the song. Speaking of Led Zeppelin, we’ll doing Ramble On as well!

So here is the version that I will attempt to add little parts from, to their original rendition of the song. What do you think about it?

Keep on Jammin’

Bass Guitar Beginnings

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The bass has always played an important role in the music of yesterday and most modern music today. No matter what the instrument is, a bass line is usually always represented in some form or another, from the lower instruments of an orchestra, to the bass notes played by a solo acoustic guitarist, the bass line serves as the foundation and root for the music. Music would sound hollow and incomplete without a driving bass line. With the advent of jazz, blues and then rock and roll, a different type of instrument was needed to play a strong bass line. This is when the bass guitar came into play.

Bass guitars have been around since the 1930’s though not quite in the exact same form as the Fender bass guitars that we know today, but you could say that their predecessors, the acoustic Basses, have been around for many years longer.

The bass guitar was different from the bass that everyone had been familiar with for many years though. Instead of playing it vertically and either plucking the strings or pulling a bow across the strings, the bass guitar is played just like a regular guitar and is held horizontally.

From a distance, the electric bass guitar could easily be mistaken for an electric guitar as the both look very similar with the same solid body shape, however the bass usually has a longer neck. Also, unlike an acoustic guitar which is hollow, with a sound hole to allow for amplification, the sound of a Fender bass guitar is amplified by plugging it in to an amplifier and speaker.

With four strings tuned in 4ths just like the four lowest strings of a regular guitar except tuned an octave lower, the bass guitar is similar to the guitar and guitarist sometimes play bass and vice versa. While guitars are primarily strummed and picked, the bass can be played with a variety of techniques as well including, fingering, picking, slapping,thumb play, muting thumping and more. Because of it’s close relationship to the drums and the pulse of the music, the bass guitar is considered to be a rhythm section instrument.

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