Corporate man

It's official!

I'm now a Liability Limited Company! Woohoo! I am now "Rock God Music, LLC." Nice.

It's shaping up to be a great 2008. I will be adding an instructional part to my website, www.poodleman.com, and for my local clients, things are really gonna rock with the new guitar club!


But now, back to philosophy and learning.

I went up to DC the other night. I got jumped, and some black guy stole...my soul!

Let me explain...

A client of mine, Doc, and his wife Sherry, gave me a very generous Christmas present. They bought me tickets to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra!

Wow, what a show. If you've never seen TSO before, you owe it to yourself to go next year. They're a rock band, plus a classical string section, plus grade A singers. They play classical Christmas tunes with a rock spin. Set in an arena, with superb lighting and pyrotechnics, their show is not to be missed. They rock!

Well, they had this soul singer. He sang an incredible rendition of "Hark, the Herald." It took my breath, and soul, away. So that's what I mean when I say I got jumped.

I'm not quite sure how he did it. And if we examine all the greats, it's very hard to pinpoint.

All of your favorites can probably be matched in skill by the goofs down at the local guitar shop. Walk through the guitar department on a Saturday afternoon, and you'll see guys who can play as fast as Eddie, weave lines like Wes, and cry like Stevie.

But they still don't sound like 'em. We can deduce that technique alone isn't the defining factor.
And neither is ear, or theory, for that matter.

So what is it? Well, I don't know for sure, but I think two factors have a great deal to do with it.


Intention and Communication.


Intention would be the story we want to tell. The heartbreak, the suffering, the joy, the anger, we wish to convey.

Communication would be the means to do so. This is our technique, our command of the musical language. For I think it is a language, and we need to be able to "talk" to communicate.

Intention, in my book, is the most important. I think players like some of the less technically able greats fall into this category. Take someone like Muddy Waters, an undisputed master of the blues genre. He certainly didn't have the chops of Steve Vai, but man, his intention was there, and that shone through with an unquenchable fire.

Communication without intention yields the fluff found at guitar shops on Saturday afternoons.
But Communication with intention creates guitar heroes. This is why I consider it important to practice and feel.

A great debate rages around the chops vs. soul question. I think you can have both.

In other words, drawing a parallel to the English language, Charles Dickens, a shredder of the paper, certainly doesn't lack for feeling. But I use big words, and I certainly am no Dickens!
And on the other side, a few lines scribbled from the trenches of war can be just as poignant as any of the great works.

The good news is: I think Intention and Communication are two very separate skills. Practice your arpeggios, and really start to care about life.

Have a story to tell, and the ability to tell it.

Rock on!

No more elevator music

The title "Professional musician" seems to many people the biggest oxymoron contained in the English language.

However, I have tried. I shower. I show up on time. I brush my teeth, I learn the songs, and I'm in tune and warmed up when I show up on the gig.

One of the biggest challenges of maintaining this blog has been to keep it strictly musical. As I'm (hopefully) speaking to an audience with a wide range of viewpoints and opinions, it is foremost in my mind to keep a certain level of professionalism in my writing.

Sure, I'll offer crazy ideas, insane advice, and zany thoughts - but careful ones.

However, I feel that in trying to maintain an image, I'm inadvertently becoming strictly an entertainer, and not a force of positive change.

Us entertainers have an important job. We're in the center of attention, and in a world where it's hard to get people to focus, the stage, blog, or video is a powerful tool. We shouldn't throw away the opportunity to better the world around us.

I feel that I've become too neutral, to head-in-the-sand ostrich like, and well, it's stopping now.

(I'm sure you won't be surprised when I tell you that I used to be a fiery grassroots activist.)

I will be occasionally posting links to stories and websites that I consider important, such as Amnesty International petitions, etc. They'll just be a link at the bottom of the post, so they won't be in your face. But they will be there.

Please click on 'em, and think about 'em, and if you agree, take action.

By the way, in order to keep this blog from leaning too far the other way, don't bother posting any comments about the links and/or the issues. They won't be posted.

Bands who speak out for the world are brave souls, indeed. It's very easy to just sing soft love songs, or angry hate songs.

But it's not quite as simple to sing about stuff that matters. You might just wake people up.

Take a look at Troy Davis' story.

Mr Van Halen, your shoe's untied

Happy Halloween, folks!

Today is a very scary day. My littlest brother is getting his learner's permit. Be sure to stay off the sidewalks!

I've been noticing something very curious about the guitar world, best summed up in a joke that a great guitarist told me once.

"How many guitar players does it take to change a light bulb?"


13. One to change the bulb, and 12 to stand around and remark how they would change it so much faster, or keep their elbow in while doing so, or "this is why I never use incandescent bulbs", etc...

I'm getting the impression that a lot of guitarists would tell Eddie Van Halen if his shoe was untied.

This is a curious behavior, indeed, and I have to admit, I'm just as guilty of it as anyone else.

Here's what I think is up. (But hey, maybe I'm way off.)

Musicians, or anyone, who judge their self worth by their skills or knowledge...Are sitting in a very vulnerable corner of their minds. If one's intrinsic value is dictated by the ability to play arpeggios faster than anyone on the block, this might have been OK a few years ago.

But thanks to a little company called YouTube, a lot of big, tough metalheads were crushed by some kids who are just plain faster. So now, Marty Metalhead has to be the fastest on the internet, instead of the block. Imagine the pressure! "Enemies fill up the pages, are they real?" as Ozzy Osbourne sang in "Diary of a Madman."

My typical reaction to a threat is to destroy it.

Especially mosquitoes.

Now, when there's a guitar player who's way better than me, there's several responses I could have.

The first, and most common, is to discount the musician, say they're playing too fast (then why do all the slow guys work on speed?), have lousy tone, etc etc.

This usually feels bad, because a.) it's often untrue, and b.) we know we're making our own excuses not to go practice. Or go get a record deal ourselves.

The second response is more insidious, and just as unhealthy, as the first. Upon seeing a fabulous jazz musician shredding through "Giant Steps" in 7/4, after we close our mouths, and fully comprehend what's happening, we say "oh, well, I don't really want to be a jazz musician."
Discounting, in a passive-aggressive way.

The third is a cool reaction.

"By George! That guy is smokin'! I'm gonna ask him for some lessons, and then, darnit, I'm gonna go practice, because I see where my chops should be, and then I'm gonna go build a band, and then I'm gonna go chase a record deal, and then I'm gonna go buy a grammar book about avoiding run on sentences!"

A teacher of mine once said that once he stopped trying to be the best musician in the world, and instead concentrated on being the best musician he could be, the battle ended, and everyone became teachers instead of enemies.

So the next time you open your mouth to knock some famous musician, or even a local one, look inside first. Maybe your inner child is angry for missing it's practice routine. ;)

Rock on!

Your own songs

The "Sky is Crying" today, and it is nice.

A very short post today:

Somebody told me once, or I read somewhere....

"On the subject of cover songs - they're great, but unless you write your own stuff, you'll always be playing somebody else's songs..."

So when are you gonna write your own stuff?

(By the way, I've got some original material coming out next week. Stay tuned....)

Go practice! And go write!