http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcY6A_Lt-P4

It is a great song, arguably the seed of the American hardcore punk movement. Maybe there would have been no Blackflag if the Dead Boys had never graced the stage of CBGB’s.

Here’s another taste of the Dead Boys back in the day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D32jb-IzQc

Of course they just wanted to be The Stooges:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgl1QonOlHg

And who could blame them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXs56KuLjeI

Need I say more?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d2peo1VYBE

I don’t mean to be too harsh, but I’m a child of the eighties. I dont mean the hairband synth-pop lame-ass shitty music eighties. I mean the real eighties which no one gave any attention to in the eighties.There really was a great amount of kick ass rock and roll going on then, but you couldn’t hear it on the radio.

Here is an example of one of my favorite bands…great songs, great guitars, just great. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to THE REPLACEMENTS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eMGwbzvruQ

Income tax deduction
What a hell of a function

OK so the video quality is not so good. But listen through that, dammit! I mean that was 1987! There were no hand held digital camcorders.

Maybe this will help you understand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MThfdTEkkOo

Maybe you had to be there. I was. I saw those guys in ’85 in a small bar called Peabody’s Downunder in Cleveland Ohio. It was loud as hell and they were fucking brilliant.

What’s my point? Here’s my point: Green Day, Nirvana etc..OK, look at their influences. There are a lot of bands that are pretty much forgotten that paved the way for the big fucking famous motherfuckers. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXbPlFgSfao

Seriously, would there have been a Green Day if the Descendants had never existed?

How about this:

I went to see the Zero Boys when I was 18 in Cincinnati in 1982. I have to say that night changed my life. Opening was an awesome band from Anderson Indiana called The Repellents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU5DbGGoWso

OK, once again maybe you had to be there. Well, I was there and it meant something.

In the early 90′s when punk hit big it was kind of sick. It was like all the weenie-assed motherfuckers got into your lunch. It was like having your diary copied and spread across MTV. It was like throwing up in the cafeteria at lunch, and 10 minutes later everyone else puking too, just to be cool. I mean it sucked.

I do like Nirvana though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIZtCC62G_0

But doesn’t all go back to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Tb3DT-mjA

Or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbLRf0j80wU

Yeah…that’s what I’m talking about!

And let’s not leave the girls out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMDn6V7ZLhE

I do like girls, and bad-ass girls with guitars, well I’m speechless.

Everyone is standing on someones shoulders. If you wanna rock you gotta know where it came from.

Now, what the fuck are you going to do with your guitar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4BYMvVvMg0

That’s some pretty awesome guitar playing don’t ya think? I wonder what the bandana is all about. Is it some sort of code I’m not hip to?

Anyway, this is sure to make you smile and get out your guitar and practice. And maybe it’ll get you looking for some new friends. You know the kind that you can play music with.

This tune is Jerry’s Breakdown by Jerry Reed. Here is a fantastic version played by Jerry himself along with Chet Atkins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8KBhnebwE

Now that is some fine guitar playing!

First is the “I just want to rock, dude. I don’t need to know all that technical stuff.”

My answer: Well, the truth is that if you aspire to mediocrity you don’t need to know theory. But if you want to be good you want to understand everything there is to know about the music you are trying to play.

Understanding how the notes work together, how they each play a particular role in a melody, how they work together to form chords and keys and chord progressions, will be instrumental in learning the music of others, in composing your own music, and is absolutely essential when it comes to improvisation.

The second excuse is the “I’m afraid it will ruin my style” argument.

My answer: That is absolutely ludicrous. Music theory is information; it is a system of understanding how music is constructed. In what other endeavor can having more information that directly pertains to what you are trying to do decrease your mastery?

If you actually have a style, an understanding of music theory will help you identify and develop that style.

Understand that I am not talking about learning to read music. Learning to read is a good idea, it will help you to be a better musician, and it is a skill that might get you some good paying gigs that otherwise would go to a more qualified musician. But a basic understanding of music theory is possible without reading one note of written music.

The problem is that most theory books are geared toward those who are studying formal classical music in a college setting. But there are a few good books and other resources available for the average guitar player.

On of the best books I’ve found is Music Theory For Guitar, by my friend, Marc, who also writes the 100 Blues Licks blog.

What I like about it is that it’s practical. You don’t have to read to understand music, or to understand this book. He cuts out all the theoretical stuff you don’t need to know, and makes everyting applicable to what you do as a guitar player.

He also throws in a great book about playing lead guitar that ties back to the music theory book, and all of this for only $10!

Seriously, this package will save you years of lessons and lots of money.

So if you are trying to improve your guitar skills you can’t go wrong with Music Theory For Guitar.

Upon visual inspection of the wires through the f-hole, I quickly discovered that a single wire had broken off at the point where it was soldered to the volume pot. Under normal circumstances this would have been a snap to fix, but the difficulty in working on this style of guitar is that the only way to access the wiring is through the f-hole. There is no back access panel that makes it easy to get at the guts of the guitar, like there is on a Les Paul.

I like to do my own guitar repair and set up. I hate paying people to things I can do myself, I like to do them my way, and I get a great deal of satisfaction from a successful guitar repair. So I was determined to work this one out for myself.

So, after grabbing the dental floss from the medicine cabinet, I took the guitar out to my garage workshop and got to work. I laid the guitar on its back on some carpet remnants on my workbench, and removed the strings. It was time for a new set anyhow.

Then I removed the knobs. One by one I loosened the nuts that tighten the pots to the guitar body and tied a piece of dental floss to the posts. I made sure each piece of floss was around 3 feet long. I did the same with the switch and the input jack.

Once this was done, I removed the pick guard, because it covered a large section of the f-hole. Then I completely removed the nuts on the pots, switch and input jack, and very carefully pulled the entire assembly out of the guitar through the f-hole.

Once the harness was removed I grabbed roll of masking tape and taped the floss to the guitar body at the holes. This was to ensure that the ends of the floss would not go into the guitar, making it even more difficult to get the wiring assembly back into the guitar.

Then I fired up my soldering iron and fixed the broken connection. While I was at it I thought it would be a good idea to check all the other connections to make sure they were solid. I did not want to have to do this again.

Then it was time to test my work. I plugged the guitar into the small practice amp I keep on my workbench, and then I checked each pickup and each position of the switch by tapping the pickup pole pieces with a screwdriver.

Satisfied that everything was working right, I unplugged the guitar and very carefully slid the entire assembly back into the guitar through the f-hole. Then I pulled on the floss, starting with the input jack which was the farthest away from the f-hole, to get each component back in place. I put the nut on each component as once it was in place, and once they were tight, I plugged the guitar back into the amp to test again.

I must admit, I held my breath at this point, because I really did not want to take everything out again! But fortunately everything worked right. I removed the floss, put the knobs back on and I was done.

Now I have one of my favorite guitars in working order again, and the next time I have to do a repair on a guitar with f-holes I will have this experience to fall back on

I wonder if he practised the crap out of this so he could do it in a prearranged order. He’d probably miss a couple riff if he didn’t

Anyway, I thought this was pretty cool. Do you recognize every song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNq94ZaZ0Yk

A great thing about it being just me and a guitar is that I don’t have to worry about what the bass player or drummer is doing, I can call any tune I want, and if I feel like taking a break I don’t have to work it out with the band leader.

When Eric Clapton pulls out his acoustic guitar to play some sweet blues he has a few thousand people in front of him to please. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oei5PTADpPM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwS7SfTjKk

There are blues jams nights in every city where you can just show up and get some experience, meet other like-minded musicians, and just have a lot of fun.  You don’t have a band? No problem! Just hit a jam and get up there and play the blues!

Every guitar player should have at least a few blues licks in their bag of tricks, at least a few of the standard licks.  And as you practice the blues and get more experience you will develop you own licks, and hopefully your own style.

For a start check out these cool blues licks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmriY2FZKYY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx4cRw6TIIg