Search options (Page 230 of 279)

The version I have has Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.  Or because they're Canadian it's really Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal.  And I mis-spelled Holst. 

Anyway, Wagner's Ring is good too.  It has nothing to do with the slasher movie.  It is a symphonic telling of The Ring of the Nibelung.  Either one can get you a ticket if you're not careful. 

- Zurf

p.s. I use SRV when I'm working out.  If I go sans music, I get about 150 steps per minute on the elliptical, but when I'm listening to SRV I get about 170 to 180 and burn a whole lot more calories according to the computer.  Taxman, Texas Flood, Crossfire, and Tightrope are my favorites.  I try and play Tightrope and Crossfire on bass but can't keep up.

Russell - Bassists don't care about literal meaning of words.  Come on now.  Power chords on a bass are usually just the root and third or root and fifth played at the same time.  If you want to introduce some tension in the music, you can also play the root and fourth at the same time.  I usually use the root as the lower note, but there's no reason it can't be the higher pitched note too. 

I'm kind of a bass purist, prefering to play bass lines one note at a time, but lots of bassists play "power chords" - that Russell correctly points out aren't chords at all - but as I also correctly point out bassists don't care. 

I used to hope to be a bass mutant, but I haven't dedicated the time to practice, and now that I'm spending all my time playing at guitar (as differentiated from intentional and sincere practice), I probably won't either.  So it's probably time for me to pull the bass down off the wall and put in some practice time and learn some more riffs and scales and whatnot. 

- Zurf

Yes.  I enjoy mambo and rhumba music, but do not speak Spanish.  I enjoy Zydeco and Cajun music but do not speak creole or French.  I used to speak a little Spanish and passable German, but have lost the ability through lack of exercise.  The depth of my loss was driven home this past weekend when I bumped into a German tourist, and while I knew exactly what words she was saying (when she talked slowly for me) their meaning was entirely lost.  Fortunately, she knew enough English and I was able to recall just enough German that I was able to help her with her question.  Otherwise, I'd have felt terrible.  "Nicht so schnell" came in handy.

- Zurf

I have the same problem.  I asked a similar question not long ago and got some interesting and valuable suggestions regarding picks and nail hardening.  Try doing a search for the subject of finger picks.  You can search by going to the dark blue banner at the top and clicking on the word "search" there.

Hey LesPaulGuy, with that comment, I think you'll enjoy this joke.  I watched The Late Show with Jay Leno last night.  He had a Bush impersonator on for a comedy "interview."  Anyway, Leno asked "Bush" whether he was getting any rest now that the pressure is off.  The Bush impersonator replied, "Like all Americans, I am sleeping a lot better now that I'm not the President."  That cracked me up. 

Ozy - That song is in my list of songs to memorize.  I have a book of songs I want to memorize and have them rated Green, Yellow, and Red.  Green is that I can play it smoothly without the chart.  Yellow is that I can play it relatively smoothly with the chart.  And Red means there's a lot of work to do.  Age is in Yellow status.  I've been playing it fingerstyle.  There's a pretty good chord chart of it on Chordie.  I don't play it just like the chord chart, but close.  I take those chord charts as guidelines rather than something to be strictly followed. 

- Zurf

Well, I've broken down and called an instructor.  Told him specifically what I want to improve on and he says he can help with that.  Haven't worked it out yet, but I'm actually getting excited about improving my playing.  There are some obvious things I need to improve upon with both my right hand and my left, and I'm just not going to get it out of a book.  My buddy with whom I used to jamm and who helped me to learn quite a lot has moved to Tennessee (eight hour drive at a minimum).  So, I'm going to see if an instructor can help me, and hope too that my daughter will want to learn from him. Maybe he can show her a couple of easy songs or riffs and some of the cheat chords so she can strum along with Daddy.  That'd be fun.

- Zurf

You'll be welcome.  I'll have to come up with some reason to explain to my wife why I'm bringing young attractive blondes back from the airport with me, but I'm sure something will come to me.

- Zurf

Try playing some banjo or fiddle or piano music on your guitar.  Also, try converting from one style to another.  I don't know if it'll break you out of your rut, but it's fun. 

I've been working on putting Wild Rose of the Mountain - a traditional fiddle tune - to work on guitar.  Also a lullaby done by the original artist on hammered dulcimer on guitar.  Finally, I've been working on Crocodile Rock, a piano rock song, to be a fingerpick bluegrass guitar song.  It's fun. 

- Zurf

He did his best, and I think he did what he thought was right.  Time to let bygones be bygones. 

That said, I suspect that there is nothing on his calender for the next several days but to sleep.  The stress of that job has got to be inconceivable without having experienced it.  John Quincy Adams said, "The office is President is such that no one who has occupied it would congratulate a friend elected to it."  It has only gotten more difficult since that worthy occupied the office. 

- Zurf

If the Steelers are in it, I have to go with them.  I've known two Steelers, and both were as nice as could be.  I can't remember their names right now.  One was the fiance of the gal that used to give me rides back home.  She attended college with me in Virginia, and her fiance attended college in my home town in Pennsylvania.  So I would catch rides with her when she went to visit him and I could visit my friends cheap.  He was drafted out of college.  So, that's one.  The other was a guy who my sister used to hang out with when she was in college.  She was a scholarship athlete for Pitt (track, in her case) and lived in the athletic dorm.  She knew all the football players and other athletes.  The ones she introduced us to when we'd visit all seemed like pretty decent fellows.  One in particular was drafted by the Steelers.  He used to have to duck his head and turn his shoulders to go through a doorway.  Kind of a big guy. 

I worked in the training room at Va Tech, too, so I met a lot of those guys.  I was a data checker for the grad student who supported the athletes.  All I did was wave at them as they came in and maybe refilled their water bottles if they were in the therapy tub and I didn't want them to have to get out and walk naked past me to the water fountain.  Last thing my skinny little already-washed-up-bicycle-racer ego needed was for a nine foot tall six foot wide naked athlete pumped up from the gym to walk past him.  Sheesh.  Anyway, they were friendly and good guys too.  None of them remembered my name (fair enough because I didn't remember theirs), so I got to be known as "Cuz".  The athletes all called each other "bro" or "brother-man", and the trainer was "Pops" (he must have been almost 32).  I guess they figured I was part of the family (but not quite), so "Cuz" worked. 

So, wildly off on a tangent.  I'm going with Steelers while at the same time demonstrating my complete ignorance of all things football.   

- Zurf

Geez Ken, I guess it really was a Merry Christmas at your castle.  It's the gift that keeps on giving (headaches). 

- Zurf

Well, it's not much, but I've found that the second fret is a wonder for hammer-ons.  If you've got a chord that requires second fret fingerings, try strumming the chord, or picking the string for the chord without your left hand fingers in place and hammer onto the second fret.  Sounds good to me anyway.  D, G, C, A (A7 to A or Am7 to Am sound particularly nice, as does the reverse with a pull-off). 

Not much help, but I don't know much, so from that perspective it's a lot. 

- Zurf