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Eric Iverson

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Everything posted by Eric Iverson

  1. Well, scale and arpeggio practice doesn't HAVE to be boring. You can try DIFFERENT scales and arpeggios over backing tracks, to see how they sound, and experiment with different rhythmic ideas - not just eighth notes, in other words.
  2. I don't have an issue with a loud electric guitar at the proper TIME. Not when it interferes with the singers (and, yes Virginia, people DO want to hear them and (dare I say) understand the lyrics.) Personally, I think good sound is CLEAN sound. I like to be able to hear everyone in the band, and for the featured performer at that moment to be in the foreground. A guitarist can play with a loud amp, but that doesn't mean he can't turn down a bit when appropriate.
  3. One time I saw a guy using a rolling capo to facilitate moving it from one fret to another without having to take it off. Worked well for him. For some reason, he was physically incapable of playing barre chords, yet with this device he could play in all keys and was actually a good rhythm player. Heated capos? If your playing is as HOT as MINE is, you don't need no stinkin' heated capos! (Just kidding, guys.) PS One day I played live when it was cold out (for the NYC marathon as it turns out; and something to keep my hands warm would have been nice.... especially the guy I was playing with was into doing a marathon version of the song we were doing, so there was no way to stick my hands in my pockets to warm them up. Re: metronomes - I have seen ads in restrooms that say "for a good time, call so and so", so apparently that person knows the secret of good time, so you don't need no stinkin' metronomes.
  4. Well, the way a lot of people use metronomes is to practice a piece or passage at a slow tempo and get it down cold, the right notes at the right time with clean execution and good tone and phrasing, say at 60 bpm. Then they play the same thing at 70 bpm until they nail THAT, and then move up to 80 bpm, etc. That's all well and good unless you overdo it, but you could say that about just about ANYTHING. After all, tsunamis are only WATER.......
  5. And sometimes the "themes" are religious and/or political. Nothing wrong with that, as long as they're upfront about it, IMHO. Please, I'm NOT trying to start any religious or political arguments. I hear enough of that everywhere I go, LOL.
  6. My best friend is in a tribute band to Neil Young called Young At Heart. They're based in Des Moines, Iowa, so I haven't heard a chance to hear them, though I know my friend is a good guitar player. He says the pieces jell and that they have good singers. I've never played in a band paying tribute to one artist or band, although of course I've played covers of different people's songs. We learned the material and the signature riffs, but never tried to copy the original version slavishly. Sometimes we COULDN'T, because of the instrumentation or the keys our singers were comfortable singing in. In fact, I used to think of cover bands as untalented hacks - "where's the creativity?" until I made friends in a cover band who did excellent versions of the songs, as close as possible. Made me rethink things, although I prefer to have the freedom to explore different versions. For example, I wouldn't mind doing Neil Young's "Down by the River" and maybe copy the original phrase from his guitar solo - sort of signature to the song - but certainly not his whole solo. In my hubris and shameless arrogance, I feel I could do a BETTER ONE, LOL; though of course that's a matter of opinion. Not that I'm as good as Roy Buchanan was, but Roy played much better solos than Neil on Down By The River, and still kept the feeling of the song. But I do think that if the original arrangement was really well crafted, or a guitar solo really memorable, it might be better to do that version than just some sloppy hack work version.
  7. Living proof that all guitar players are PREVERTS! (Remember Dr. Strangelove?)
  8. A poem I wrote for a guitarist friend who works as a butcher: I've got to make a living and must face the facts It's either my meat cleaver or my axe.... So he was a DUAL THREAT as they say; luckily he's not a violent person, at least in my experience. Of course I never tried to steal any of his GUITARS.....
  9. Long after the sun burns out, and the earth is destroyed, THIS THREAD will go on.... and on.... and on.... and on.... Maybe in a parallel universe, somewhere and somewhen.
  10. 500 PAGES IS ENOUGH!!! DELETION DAY ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW THIS IS THE END, MY ONLY FRIEND FINIS YOU BOUGHT IT, YOU NAME IT A SKUNK ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD SMELL AS SWEET Spend your time learning to play and write good songs, and worry about your band name later. TOO LONG FOR A BAND NAME, MAYBE.....
  11. Deathless Thread Is this REALLY almost 500 pages????
  12. No Spring Chickens Old Farts at Play
  13. You came to see us, you name us (based on an old record, "You Bought It, You Name It")
  14. Yes, the '60s DID produce some weird names like Strawberry Alarm Clock etc.
  15. "Clean and Friendly" for a heavy metal band. Actually there is an album (and possibly band) by that name, but by a classical mandolinist.
  16. Has anyone ever made a guitar with movable frets, like a sitar? I remember watching Ravi Shankar move the frets when about to play a different raga, without any hesitation, like it was nothing at all to get it to the exact right location!
  17. Yeah, it WAS rather harsh.... sorry, guys!
  18. I'm DONE with this thread, DONE, I tell you!!!! Your band by any other name will stink as bad, to misquote my buddy Will.
  19. A Rose By Any Other Name Skunk Cabbage Blue Violets The Violet Blues Band Why oh why, is a grown man like me, wasting time with this nonsense? [too long for a band name, LOL]
  20. The Maine Coons The Ocelots The Platypuses (yes, that's the proper plural)
  21. Proud Peacocks Birds of Paradise The Mud Hens (funkier than Eagles and Turkeys!) The Byrds (oh wait, that's already taken.....)
  22. Gallstones Adrenal Glands Intestinal Loops (Forgive me, we've been translating lots of medical stuff lately.)
  23. Ragaholics Bachaholics Guitar Junkies Fretheads (defined as "someone who fast forwards to guitar solos" I say these things about myself, jokingly....
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