Home Forums Guitar Discussion Guitar Be so kind as to evaluate my guitar playing and band, please

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    • #71133
      1bassleft
      Participant

      🙂 , if you don’t mind me saying, I could tell that. I didn’t comment because the playing is more important than the gear. If you haven’t done so, go to the “acoustic” category and listen to some of the clips “acoustica1” has put up using his Lakeland. Gorgeous tone that makes his clip on a Takemine sound cheap. Unfortunately for all of us, money shows when it comes to acoustics.

    • #71135
      _AV_
      Participant

      Thanks. It was played on a $70 acoustic from a goodwill store, by the way.

    • #71139
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Oh, I liked that piece quite a lot. There’s a bit at the end where the recording loses clarity and even distorts a bit but 90+% of it is finger-pickin’ good.

    • #71137
      _AV_
      Participant

      I’m going to assume when saying we’re not tight, you’re talking about the middle section of the flamenco song? well, that was just me overdubbed a couple times. The main body was done as one take, without a metronome, and I had to over dub the chords and that harmony line by ear.

    • #71141
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Flamenco style?? im not really qualified to comment on it, it sounds OK to me, it’s not really anything i would put on my turntable, are you primarily a flamenco style player turning your style to classic rock? Listening to the song again another thing has struck me, the band although play technically quite well don’t play that tight together, have you been together long? and do you all rehearse much? you obviously get tighter the more you play, i still like the first 90 secs of the rock number, ditch the second half.
      Great Bass tone.

    • #71153
      _AV_
      Participant

      I’ve posted a guitar instrumental piece which you may find interesting.

      http://www.myspace.com/whitesummertheband

    • #71151
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Macca, why can’t he just put up with playing Bass, he is such a great bass player, he brought lefties into the ‘Normal’ world, we all now accept them as almost equals, why cant he just be pleased with that?? why does he insist on trying to get us to accept Mandolin players too? it just wont work.

    • #71165
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Me too and, now you mention it, the Hofner 500/1 sound is making me kick myself. I used one for a while, and that Epiphone is a very good clone of it, given the huge price difference. Being a lefty, I ought to get one and audition for a tribute band (as long as I don’t have to play that ghastly new song Macca is promoting).

      Straight up, keep us posted with any new material etc.

    • #71186
      Michael
      Participant

      Yeah, I’d still like to hear some more AV.

    • #71172
      lee_UK
      Participant

      In parts it’s a great song, most people on this forum would admit they cant write for toffee, you have a talent for it, and that 12-bar still doesn’t fit, and the solo is a bit naff, slow it down, leave some space and think about how the solo should fit, try to make parts of it a bit more melodic, give it some structure.
      But i like the song, well done.

    • #71121
      _AV_
      Participant

      I completely understand what you’re saying, and I respect your opinion.
      The blues section of this song has been very, very controversial with whomever has heard it. It seems people either love it or hate it. I don’t have a songwriting formula, and this is really the only song I’ve written structured in this way. It definately doesn’t build dynamically the way some of the others do, but thats part of the peculiarity of this song. In regard to the flow of the song, keep in mind it’s title.

      Our bassplayer uses an Epiphone Viola bass which was DI’d on this recording. He played fingerstyle and his influences are Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones and John Entwistle.

    • #71198
      Michael
      Participant

      I’m taking another listen. This after 90 seconds part has ME worried that I liked it.

      Edit:

      Nah I still stand by my first response. The transition could be better… but in terms of the actual artistic value, I like it.

    • #71194
      1bassleft
      Participant

      😆 , that’s Lee. He divides his time between Guitarsite and the diplomatic corps. It’s not that you’re lacking in technical ability, it’s just that (and this is IMO, not Lee’s) modern guitar solo playing is in “less is more” mode. I haven’t heard a solo go on looping like that for some time, as far as recordings go.

      I did look through your site pretty thoroughly and I am taking your total age into account. If I seem a little harsh, it’s so that you learn quickly enough to still be viable. By the time I got the idea of really perfecting songs, I was already into comfy slippers and attending more friend’s funerals than weddings…

      I appreciate that recording lots of songs is expensive (although my bands have sometimes booked a coupla days and dumped up to six tracks semi-live with just vocal overdubs. Engineers hate it but it’s doable if you’re tight). But you miss the point. It’s not about having lots of different songs that demonstrate various styles etc – that just makes you look a bit schizo. Each individual song should be designed to be interesting for the whole 3-4 minutes that it plays for. That’s all you’ll get from an AOR person’s attention span, and a fair proportion of a live audience, too. Your song is promising for the first 90 secs, but I think it deserves some thought into how it can be better developed.

      As a bass player, I was interested in the very individual tone your 4-stringer has. Distinctive, and rather pleasant. What gear/playing style does he use?

    • #71178
      _AV_
      Participant

      Could you be more specific as to what was wrong with the solo?

      Now I’m worried.

    • #71190
      lee_UK
      Participant

      i like the bass run down at 30 secs, i like the song up til the 12 bar, like bass said the 12 bar change wasn’t done very well, i like the classic rock style before that change, keep that drummer he’s excellent and i think the solo on the end was pretty poor, not very well thought out and not very well played, think up of a snappier solo, the song deserves it.
      but if you played in the style of the first 1 1/2 minutes on a complete CD i would buy it.
      Lets hear some more.

    • #71175
      _AV_
      Participant

      Each one of our compositions are completey different, and it’s a shame that there’s only one thats well recorded enough to be posted at the moment.

      I don’t like to repeat sections of songs alot, although I know this is necessary sometimes. When we decided to record this, we picked something that would be simple, catchy, and yet showcase some diversity and musical talent as well.

      And keep in mind, it was written back when I was 15, one of the first sets of riffs I ever came up with.

      But thanks alot for listening and replying, I appreciate it greatly, and have noted everything said.

    • #71169
      1bassleft
      Participant

      Unlike Mike, I didn’t go for the move to 12-bar after the 90 seconds. Seemed like a drop in, wasn’t particularly smoothly done, I don’t think it adds anything other than seconds to the song. The main instrumental theme is fairly interesting; classic rock style but also poppy/bouncy. What I think you need to do is spend some time on what I call “quality control”.

      Gettin an initial riff you’re happy with is relatively easy but building that up into a whole song is the tricky bit. By going for a 12-bar, followed by the main riff with guitar soloing, you’ve really gone for the easiest options. After a while, when you’ve listened to the song again and again and again, you’ll hopefully want to make some improvements. I always work on the basis of listening to your own recordings at least a dozen times. If something starts to annoy you, then you can be sure that it annoyed the neutral listener the 1st or 2nd time they heard it.

      Your drummer’s very capable, BTW. Perhaps just a little too high in the mix if he’s going to hit that many skins a second 😀 . Nothing wrong with that many rolls and fills, just needs to be pulled back a bit in volume or it dominates everything.

    • #71145
      Michael
      Participant

      haha nah not the accents. With the levels the instruments were at, I could just not distinguish what was actually being said.

    • #71161
      _AV_
      Participant

      thanks for listening, I appreciate it

      we’re from Canada, maybe it’s our accents?

    • #71125
      Michael
      Participant

      I’d listen to more, but the vocals man. I can’t comprehend them. Which is a problem with the recording, not the singer.

      Liked the shift at around 1:36. Let us hear some more.

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