Bring out your soul and leave the radio OFF

I know that it can be fun to learn songs that you really like. It is a great way to learn. You pop a CD into the CD player and get your guitar tuned just right and practice with your favorite music. Most the time during my early guitar playing years I started to realize that while playing with a CD there were many little things that I previously over looked. The length to hold a note. The distance of a bend. The tone of a scream. These are the little things that separate you from the rest. It does not take too much for someone to learn how to play a song but it shows that you stand out above the norm when you can focus on and understand how to play with feel.

Playing with a metronome can greatly help a person with timing and train up there speed. It is a good way to help clean your playing up. Playing with an extra edge and getting the right feel to the music can not be achieved while using a metronome. At least not when you are learning. It is okay to shut the thing off and free yourself from any outside influence. It causes a person to focus on mostly timing. It takes away from being able to let loose and add some feel to what you are playing. I know that it not always true but when you are learning I think it is important to have only yourself to rely on and see what happens. When your jamming with a CD you can learn a lot more about the feel of the song you are playing but even still you are not going to get enough of yourself into the music.

I know that some people think playing the song exactly is what should be done and I agree most of the time but I also think that any guitarist should have his own stamp on everything he plays. Including some other persons music. People have to remember that they are not a robot. They are human. We all have individual minds and souls. If you ask me I will tell you that those two things are the most important part of any musician. If one can learn to tap into that then one can easily stand out and become a distinct individual while playing there guitar or whatever instrument. It does not matter which.

You see. The whole reason why I am even writing these posts is because all I hear all the time is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy etc... I will not listen to the radio ever. The radio is poison to a true musician. I don't care what anybody says. Go ahead and turn on the radio and listen to the latest rock or metal music. You tell yourself if you hear much of a difference. There is too much music out in the world to chain yourself to the radio. Especially with the internet which of course you have because you are reading this right now. If you are a radio listener then I challenge you to not do so for an entire year. I guarantee your musical taste will become more unique and you will have a far greater understanding of what you really like and how you really would like to sound. If all you get is the same crap everyone else gets then your just a drone and will not have any real feel to your playing beyond the next guy. One of my favorite bands is Prong. If you listen to Prong then you already understand what I am getting at. If you do not listen to Prong then I am first mad at you and second urging you to do so.



Prong is a band that sets the standard. They are the band that other bands follow. They are one of the most unique and amazing bands that is still making music today. Look how many bar bands murder the song "Snap your fingers Snap your neck". This is a good example of how not to be a musician. I have never seen a single bar band that plays this song correctly. Ever. The very reason they are playing that song and not any other prong song is because they listen to the radio. If they had a shred of common sense they would understand that Prong has far greater songs that could be played instead of playing the same songs and set list that every other bar band plays. If you go to bars with bands like this then please stop going. At least start griping about how typical it is.

Sorry about that. I hate bar bands with no real talent. There are too many of them. In the small town where I live it is all I have ever seen. I have to go to Minneapolis if I want to at least hear some unique bands and different music. Where I live it is either radio music or the blues. I HATE THE BLUES. I know most of the music I play myself is of course influenced by the blues but NOT DIRECTLY. If you like the blues then fine whatever. I don't.

There is another very major part of bringing out your own feel and sound and that is your equipment itself. Not just what kind of gear but how you set it up. Music gear is expensive and there is a lot to consider when designing your sound. To this day I do not have everything that I would like to have. I will list what I have so you know where I am coming from.

I play mostly one guitar but I have four guitars. They are:

Westone Spectrum LX
Dean Dime From Hell
Washburn Black Jack
Kramer ZX20

My amplifier

Marshall Valvestate VS100

My effects

Digitech GNX 3

My Digitech is a floor processor which I plug directly into the input of my Marshall head. My Digitech has every effect you could think of and I use a mixture of mostly

Delay
Chorus
Sustain
Compression
Distortion

I mix the effects of my GNX 3 with the settings on my Marshall. My Marshall is set like this

Gain 10
Contour 5
Base 5
Middle 5
Treble 8 or 9

My Marshall also has a mix of Reverb, FX Mix, and Overdrive.

Using all my gear along with my guitar itself gives me a wide range of sound. I have been tweaking my sound my entire guitar life and still do so to this day. You should always be experimenting with your own sound and adding that very thought to your journey of becoming the type of guitarist that you want to become.