Pete Wilk had a really great comment about the rock-less nature of the solo that I posted yesterday.

“Sounds cool and mellow to me, but WHERE’S THE ROCK!”

It’s true. That solo was decidedly not rock.

Why focus on jazz? The plan here is for me to develop a mastery of the finer nuances of music theory and then crank the distortion and melt the faces of the world population.

At a recent Jazz show my roommate Kevin said it best regarding percussion styles, though the same holds true for guitar (paraphrased):

“I think the differences between rock and jazz drumming are similar to the differences between algebra and calculus.”

Once I get my jazz integral on, you can bet your natural exponent that I will determinant the crap out of your rocktangular matrix.

I’ve uploaded my latest recording of a solo that I wrote over the standard Rhythm Changes chord progression. While it may not sound like much to non-guitarists, there are a couple really cool things going on in this solo that I’m quite proud of. Most specifically, there are a handful of spots in the solo where I play over altered dominant chords (sharping or flatting the 5th or 9th of a chord).

The complexity of these altered dominant chords carries over into the soloing, providing much more opportunity for freedom and depth. I’m still working on which notes are considered acceptable and which unacceptable, so it’s even more of a challenge to have it all come together into something graceful.

Feel free to listen and let me know what you think.

rhythm-changes.mp3

This year’s Christmas was full of fun surprises, not least of which was some cash to aid in the purchase of a loop pedal for my guitar. Last night, I purchased said loop pedal at Joe Riff’s, a small establishment in Middletown CT.

A loop pedal is an expensive tool considering its apparent limited complexity. The goal is simple: provide a pedal that will allow recording and overdubbing of tracks in an easy to navigate system. While conceptually elementary, this pedal will prove an invaluable tool for my practicing. Now, I will be able to lay down a chord track and then solo over myself without having to wire my guitar through my computer and switch back and forth between keyboard and instrument.

Recently, Tony Guitar has been giving me songs with reduced chord structures. For example, the song might call out a Db, but Tony wants me to embellish the chord with additional notes so that it has a more complex elaborate sound. That Db might sound more interesting if it were played as a Db6 or a Db6add9. When I customize a song with these embellished chords, without someone else to play the parts I have no means of hearing how well it all comes together.

PROBLEM NO MORE.

My new loop pedal allows me to record my exciting embellished chords and play over them! How perfectly convenient!

Look out 2010, I’m going to rock you like a hurricane.

There’s a fair correlation between musical success and mental eccentricity. Axl Rose, Nick Drake, and Fiona Apple are classic anguished musicians, but there are other examples of persons less tortured who simply seem to see things that the rest of us don’t. Tom Waits, Jack White, Leonard Cohen, the list goes on.

I think all of us would expect that a visit to any musical higher education establishment would reveal a wide assortment of genius and vibrant mental individuality.

This weekend, after extended guitar practice, I had an idea. Perhaps it isn’t necessarily a uniquely wired brain that triggers musical majesty, but instead the study of music that gives rise to mental peculiarities.

Music practice is an odd bird. The thousands upon thousands of hours of excessive repetition, competition, self-criticism, and solidarity associated with a day of practice might tip the scales away from psychological normalcy. Or, at a minimum, generate an odd atmosphere for child development.

I’m not saying this situation is unhealthy, just distinctive. I would love to hear comments from the professional musicians amongst us. Alicia? Sarah T? what do you think?

Do you feel that your music practice changed your personalities? Or perhaps your unique personalities made you successful within the arts?

On Sunday, the might of my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amplifier dropped a notch from face-melting to face-simmering.

Predictably, we inhabitants of the House of Rock gather in the living room on a somewhat regular basis to engage in musical rockery. With Kevin at the drums and Shaun and I working the guitars, we tend to generate totally rockin loud music.

Recently, we were playing around with Them Bones by Alice in Chains. I’ve been encouraging Kevin, a recent recruit to the drums, to try some off-time tunes and this one seemed like the ultimate choice. In Them Bones the verses consist of ear crushing distortion in 7/8 time over an involved, yet straightforward, drum rhythm.

I was in the middle of cranking out second inversions (the most brütal of the inversions), when my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier suddenly cracked and buzzed with a drone that can only be likened to the desperate bleat of a dying mule. Deep within the depths of its holy sanctum, my Mesa Boogie suffered a blown vacuum tube.

The vacuum tube is the heart of the amplifier. Its life force. Its passion.

Without this particular vacuum tube it was all my little amplifier could do to sputter out folk songs at low volumes. Praise heaven I didn’t lose more tubes! I heard that Slash once lost two tubes mid-concert only to find his November Rain solo sounding alarming similar to the chorus of Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. The Horror! Worse, rumor has it that the Jonas Brothers purposefully play with three blown tubes. The Shame!

Replacement of this vacuum tube stands at the top of my to-do list.

Last night I had an amazing guitar lesson. I arrived at Tony Guitar’s place on time and was welcomed inside quite graciously by a very cheerful man. I entered into his studio and could hear Tony Guitar’s son (?), Chris Piano, playing some remarkable jazz piano in an adjacent room. After getting myself settled, Tony Guitar and I talked a bit about what I was hoping to accomplish, my musical tastes, and my current skill level on the guit.

Bit by bit, he worked through my knowledge base trying to get a good grasp of exactly where I was in my playing. And then we got to work.

We covered a lot of material for this first class. It was mostly basic stuff, but right out of the gate it’s obvious that this content will greatly improve my playing. By far the most hilariously awesome moment of the lesson occurred as he worked to desegregate chords and scales from their labels. I’ll try to explain

a G major scale goes a like this:
G A B C D E F# G

an E minor scale goes like this:
E F# G A B C D E

Same notes. Just a different order. So Tony Guitar wanted me to separate the requirement in my head that a G scale be only played over a G chord. In fact, you could play it over an Eminor scale without any dissonance. Likewise there are other scales that can be played over each other. An Am pentatonic can be played over an E or a D. It’s just knowing where and how different notes can be applied.

To demonstrate this, Tony Guitar asked me to play an Am pentatonic while he shifted the underlying chords.

I started picking up and down the scale.

At first, he started playing some basic 12 bar blues in Am. Then he shifted to C major. Then he shifted to a true minor which was much darker and more foreboding. Finally, he said “keep playing that scale and listen to what I do now. You’re going to hate this.”

And just like that, we were playing Disco. I don’t know what chords he was using, or the strum pattern, or the groove… but it was Disco and it was hilarious. Point taken Tony Guitar. Point taken.

I got home and practiced for a few hours. I feel totally motivated and I’m extremely excited and thankful to have found this instructor.

READER PARTICIPATION! WOO!
Now it’s your turn to help!

One of my assignments was to amass 20-25 MP3’s of guitar songs that I’m interested in learning. “I have a very distinct plan of what I’m going to teach you,” Tony Guitar decreed, “but I can teach you these things with any collection of songs that you supply.” The rules are simple: I must like the song. I must not already know how to play the song. Problem is, usually when I hear a song I really really like, I learn how to play it – maybe not to perfection… but I get the gist of it. And I’d rather approach this task with a wealth of new funky songs that scream awesome. So if you have any recommendations for great guitar songs that I should include in this bunch, I’d appreciate it. Any genre is acceptable except country. That last rule is my own.

I bought a new acoustic guitar from a co-worker. He had a beautiful Martin that wasn’t getting any use and so he gave me a fair deal on it, and I promptly purchased it. It has a very mellow cool tone and works beautifully with chords. Finger-picking is quiet, but I’m adapting my playing style to accommodate.

Check it out!

Alicia e-mailed me a hilarious musical… experience (?)… that my sisters and I put together a few years ago using my guitar and a weird little ‘learn the solar system’ toy that my folks got for me as an ironic Christmas present. I think I may have posted about it when we first completed it, but I can’t find the link – so here’s a refresh.

zolarzyztem.mp3

It’s weird and fun.

Interestingly, Jupiter actually has 63 moons, not 16. Also, I love the desperate scream of ‘Saturn!’ in the midst of the Saturn harmony.

I’m looking for new rising cultural heroes. If you are aware of any, please provide a link and description in the comments to something different, unique, and awesome. Mainstream is okay, but underground would be even better. Perhaps you have a friend who performs hard rock with a theremin, or a relative who builds chairs out of old recycled VHS tapes. Do you know someone who has an uncomfortable ability to sculpt copper? Comment it up!

I’ll start.

I’ve linked to Reggie Watts a whole heap of times on this very dot com. He’s a very strongly haired dude who engages in comedic and musically intense solo performance work. He is the lead singer in the soul band Maktub and also performs alone with a loops sampler. He’s extremely entertaining and has amazing vocal and rocking skills. I first heard of him a few years ago, but lately his popularity has been expanding somewhat dramatically. His push into the mainstream boomed recently with his performance (linked to below) on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

A few of my musical favorites (I’ve linked to some of these in the past):

Out of Control
Freestyle
I want Candy.

Reggie’s comedic style is different. His performance often seems disjointed and a bit unexpected, but definitely funny and laced with skill of a professional.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (starts at 35:18 (right after the last commercial))

Fuller, longer version of a similar performance:
Reggie on The Sound of Young America

Maktub music samples.
Buy Maktub music.

Reggie MSPaint.

I’m working to try and score an interview with Reggie, which would, of course, be posted here on MikeDiDonato.com. we’ll see if it works out. In the meantime, if you’ve discovered some secret underground artist or musician that you’d like to share, please post your find in the comments!

Jesse stopped by on Wednesday with a pretty intense musical setup. He’s got a keyboard that he can hook up to his computer and generate absurdly funky sounds. The user adjustability is off the charts. He started by showing me how he could create some intense drum beats. The software is very high quality so the sounds are diverse and deep.

Meanwhile, I got my guitar and hooked it up to my Tonelab which can generate some weird guitar sounds. We started by jamming with a few themes. Our first theme was circus. I used my guitar and effects to create a really chipper twangy sound. Jesse laid down a beat and worked with a organesque something or other. Then we jammed for probably 20 minutes working with the Tetris theme. I turned on an octave chorus, and Jesse pulled up a program that is specifically designed to generate Nintendo style sounds. Oh man. It was hilarious.

We ended the night by recording this 17 second… thing. It’s dark and short, but was fun to record. My favorite parts are the drums rhythm at 13 seconds and the ominous ‘ring mod’ guitar that sounds here and there throughout the sound clip.

Check it out!

houseorock.mp3

I find Ryan Adams completely hilarious. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Adams, he’s a singer/songwriter who has some decent tunes. My personal favorites are the heavy blues/rockish songs like “Tina Toledo’s Street Walkin’ Blues” and “Shallow” though he also has a whole heap of slower less distorted tunes.

Despite his good writings, he’s pretty obnoxious to his fans and regularly has fits. He’s been known to storm off the stage after making a scene and shouting obscenities at his fans. I find these antics hilarious because they really embody the tortured artist/irreverent rockstar sort of personality.

I was talking to Jill recently and learned that the editor of the World Policy Journal asked Ryan Adams to write an article about what he thought music would be like in 25 years (it was the journal’s 25th anniversary). Apparently Adams stalled and stalled, missing every deadline. Finally he came up with this.

Ha!

Shaun L. got Rock Band 2 a short while ago and we have been playing like crazy.

This is my avatar:

Please note:
The heroic hair
The impressive tiger striped coat
The really sweet scarf

Last night we jammed through a few tunes including:
Alanis – You Oughta Know
some Fleetwood Mac.
Journey – Any way you want it
Soundgarden – Spoonman
Alice in Chains – Man in the Box

Shaun L. owned the guitar. Kevin switched bass and drums, and I switched drums and vocals. We ended the night with Livin’ on a Prayer which has disgustingly brutal vocals. If any of you guys have Rock Band 2 out there, we’ll have to hook up on the internet and have Band showdowns.

Our band, LeMarbelous, will crush you.

Alright gang, we’re really close. The voting ends tonight at midnight and the it’s über close. Just a few more votes and I could be living like a rock star!

The votes are counted by IP address, so if you have more than one computer, please make use of them. It’s for a good cause!

http://www.coldplayontour.com/wtic/

We’re the last video on the bottom.

Thank you,
Keller Glass

As some of you may know, I’ve recently been playing bass and singing backup for Pam Autuori, a talented young singer-songwriter based out of Hartford. We’ve been selected as one of the 15 finalists in a competition to open up for ColdPlay. If you’re willing please head over to http://www.coldplayontour.com/wtic/ and vote for Pam, she the last video at the bottom of the page.

Thanks a bunch,
Keller

Whoa. The sound from that amp and speaker set is heavy. The amp runs with two channels. The first is labeled ‘orange’, the second ‘red.’ I’ve set it up so that Orange runs clean and Red runs distorted. The distortion has such a powerful powerful growl. I’ve never played anything so brutal before. It really is stunning.

The volume doesn’t impress me most. Sure, you can crank Zeus up to a very mighty loud, but it’s really the high quality rumble that makes Zeus worth it.

I have to play around more with the settings because there are a ton. You can change the sound from spongy to bold, you can add Presence, or change from silicon to vacuum tubes, and that’s all before I try and introduce the VOX tonelab into the mix.

yeah, the House of Rock just got a little more rock.

The speaker cabinet arrived.
The rock is complete. and the rock is intense.

Friends? I’d like to introduce you to my new guitar amplifier: Zeus.

Look out internet, Zeus will shake you with its Thunder.

Volume scale:
1. Loud.
2. Do not play in a confined space without ear protection. Damage to ears is possible.
3. Suggested volume for practicing in a basement with your band.
4. In an average space, this volume will drown out your bassist and rhythm guitarist
5. Clears sinuses.
6. Acceptable volume for playing in an Arena.
7. Frees slaves.
8. Cures cancer.
9. Builds dynasties.
10. Spurs Revolutions.
11. Provides evidence for the Big Bang Theory.

Zeus has only two channels. The current Mesa Dual Recs on the market have three channels, but their sound isn’t quite the same as the original two channel variety. The two channels pretty much indicate rock and more rock. Zeus contains 6L6 and KT-88 vacuum tubes. I’m going to play around with those a bit and try to find a good set of tubes to complement my playing preference. Zeus is a beautiful machine.

What do you think of Crocea Mors it was the name of Julius Ceaser’s sword and is latin for Yellow Death.

I WANT THESE.

Keytars.

Today I’m headed to Providence to witness my sister Theresa’s thesis defense. Yes. She is one requirement away from achieving her PHD is social psychology. Way to go Tree!!!!

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Yesterday, I learned about the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Amp. I spent some time talking to friends, reading reviews, and researching and… DANG. This one sounds ideal.

It also sounds pricey. $1300ish for the head. Then more for speakers. Yikes!!!

Perhaps I can use some of Uncle Sam’s rebate in June to help fund such an adventure. Guitar equipment is awesome. Totally totally awesome.

Yes, I can resist paying a dollar for a soda at the soda machine, but I have the hardest time resisting absurdly expensive awesome guitar gear.

It is with extreme excitement that I can officially report that my sister Alicia won the competition yesterday and will be starting her first big-time official symphonic gig with the Oregon Symphony. This is such huge overwhelmingly fantastic news. Alicia’s been working hard and taking auditions furiously since she graduated from college. She’ll be playing 2nd chair and will be starting up in August.

She’ll play for a year and if everyone’s happy she could pull a tenure spot.

Join me in Congratulating Alicia!

Yay!!!!

So the last four days have been pretty wild. I’ll start with Thursday and include updates of the rest of this past weekend as this week progresses.

Thursday night I played at an open mic in Berlin. The place is called the Pine Loft. It’s actually a pizza parlor and not the type of place you’d expect to have an open mic setup. Tall pine columns and bright heavy floors give the feeling of a boy-scout camp more than a musical oasis, but the organizers do a good job with it. The guy running the sound seems to know what he’s doing and the musicians who play are quite skilled.

I went with Keller, Ernie, Cordelia, Cathryn, and John. I played two tunes: Sunshower by Chris Cornell and Posters by Jack Johnson. I would rate my performance as ‘passable’.

Waaay more cool was the fact that I got a whole bunch of compliments on my beautiful guitar. It was refreshing and made me quite proud. Boy that thing is nice. I’ve been trying to get practice time in every day. Soon… yes… soon I will be able to play guitar well enough to live up to this guitar’s majesty.

As for a name? I’m still not decided. At the moment I’m leaning towards ‘Olivia‘. Specific heat, which got the most words of praise in the previous post, is too long for me. It doesn’t have any mystique to it either. The greek names intrigue me as well. I remain undecided.

First of all, have I mentioned how much I adore my guitar? It is so perfectly hot.

I’m here to talk a bit about names for said guitar. I contacted Cindy. She’s pretty amazing at coming up with good names for stuff. I sent her a picture and asked her advice. She responded with the following suggestions for guitar names:

Lust Storm
Red Devil
Dionysus
Specific Heat
Olivia
Pandora
Ambrosia
Stolen Fire
Prometheus
Persephone

And there are still those that were recommended previously:
Mary Jane
Gillian
Slayvixen

thoughts?