The Making of an EP - steaming toward the finish line!

Hey hey rockers!

Whew, sorry I haven't been too much fun in the blogosphere! I've been spending any available minute in my studio mixing this CD down! It's SO CLOSE! I've gotten in touch with a mastering engineer (he comes highly recommended, and I'm thrilled to be working with him!) I've been burning CD's right and left, listening to them in my car, on the computer, etc etc tryin' to get that mix just perfect. Stupid bass guitar. Grrr....It won't EQ just right. I've been working in photoshop, getting the album artwork just right. I've been dragging my brother out of the house at night to have him take pictures of me wearing a 40's hat and wool coat looking somber in the back yard. But it is ALMOST there! And I CAN'T WAIT! I'm so excited! SO, once all this is done, I will a.) start writing some better blogs, and b.) send y'all a copy!

In the meantime...Before my next student walks in, here's something to think about:

Start a sonic journal. Try writing a song every day and record it, no matter how bad it is. Now, if you're not a musician and you're reading this, you can apply it to your field, too. If you're a writer: start a blog. If you're a ice sculptor...you might need some gloves, 'cause your hands will never warm up! But you get the idea.

Too often us guitarists overlook songwriting as stuff best left to people named Ani with really strange hair. (And this is coming from a guy named "Poodleman.") But NO! Start writing those epic metal songs! Mega shredding alone won't write the song for you.

Rock on!

- Josh

Serenading the pavement

Hey hey!

I hope y'all have been staying cool! I haven't. I hate this weather. I also hate people who complain, but I will break my (non-existent) positive rule today, and say I'd like to complain about this. Being in business, and dealing with other businesses, if something isn't right, you pick up the phone and yell at somebody about it. "You call these guitar picks?!" But the weatherman is just like an umpire after the call at home plate is made, and yelling doesn't do any good. Phooey.

So, I'll give it up, and talk about something productive! The summertime is a great time to get outside and play some street music!

I've been meaning to myself, but the CD project (almost done!) is top priority right now. I've learned a lot playing on the street, technically called busking.

Now, of course, check with your local laws to make sure that it's allowed in your city, but most likely it is. I play in Alexandria, VA, and other than a noise ordinance, they say "have at it!"
It's fun, challenging, and a neat way to pick up a few extra bucks. It's also a nice contrast to have an endless audience as opposed to a stationary one.

Here's what ya need to get started:

- An acoustic guitar (or electric with a loop station - or an electric/acoustic Ukulele! I've seen it! It's AWESOME!)

- A bowl for the money! I used a guitar case once, and some rich boater dropped a dollar in the case and said, sincerely actually, "good luck with everything, buddy." Grrr! Of course, that's not the first time people have thought I was homeless...There was the bum on the subway asking for donations, and then he said to me "Hey, we should get YOU some donations!" OK, it was a bad hair day.

- Several songs. You don't need a bunch to get started - just a few, 'cause you'll end up repeating them, as the crowd always changes.

Find your "pitch" (area to play), while being respectful of any veteran buskers, and get ready to rock!

Curtis Blues, my street music mentor, has taught me there's two main types of customers:

- The walk by traffic, throwing a dollar your way as you jam.

- The show traffic, where a large crowd gathers, and you put on an impromptu gig for 'em. (Make sure you can get 'em to pay - people love to slink away at the outskirts.)

You'll also get the folks who will just stop and ask for a song. These are great, BECAUSE they can be the start of what buskers call "an edge." People tend to be skittish, and won't stop unless other people are already stopped and listening. So, if you can get a few people watching you, the more cautious will stop and listen.

There are many, many aspects of street performance, and I don't have a clue about most of them. I've shared what I know, and hopefully it will be of use to you in your quest. It's quite a learning experience, and a great way to sharpen stage skills.

So, throw your fear in the garbage, put on some brightly colored shoes, and hit the streets! It's way fun.

Rock on!

- Josh

How many colorful people?

Hey hey!

Whew, it is HOT on the east coast. And, strangely, my car must have been feeling the burn, too, because it decided it needed a new water pump. Hey, I can understand the hydration thing!
So, since my mom's a saint, she loaned me her car for a few days while I'm fixing mine. (My mechanical skills, while present, aren't exactly high ranking in the 'speed' department.)

And it seems that whenever I borrow mom's car, there's a great mix cd in the player with System of a Down and Rammstien. Ha! Seriously! This is actually because my younger brother also uses her car, BUT she gets a kick out of the music, and really likes the System stuff. (She's unsure about the Rammstien, because nobody is exactly sure what it's saying, and nobody wants to know, and mom's a very kind and harmony type of person.) (And by the way, please don't feel obligated to tell me what those guys are singing about. I prefer the bliss of ignorance. I assure you, I am a happy guy!)

So, anyway, I was driving to my teaching studio today, and I was listening to this one track. It starts out with a simple little keyboard riff, and then the chaos starts. But it's a typical German chaos - a focused, brutal, precision sonic attack. It rocks! It's actually easy to play on guitar, and I started to ponder the question "why does one riff over and over sound so darn cool?"

All of a sudden, my ear caught a subtle keyboard line in the background. The humidity so omnipresent these past few days must have acted a catalyst to the flashback that the song triggered, because, BAM, there I was...

It was years ago, and I was a camp counselor/terrorist trainer at a high school environmental leadership camp. We were out to save the world! (Some of the attendees are still keeping up the good work. I'm immensely proud of them.) My hair was super long, and super humidified, sort of like a cat that went through the washing machine. Yngwie Malmsteen lived at the top of my music charts, and if it wasn't fast, it wasn't good. If I had listened to the mosquitoes droning outside the main lodge that summer's evening, I would have thought their wings sluggish.

There was a guy there also named Josh, from New Jersey, and boy, was this guy from New Jersey, in the best sense of the word. Cool, with it, and he knew what was up. He was also a big rap fan, and he was trying to convince a younger version of myself that I could give up my diehard metalhead ways occasionally to enjoy the spitted word. I was a hard sell, but the other Josh had some interesting points. We were all standing around in the lodge, trying to look cool for the hippie chicks, and talking about music. The girls promptly ignored us. But we didn't realize it, so we kept talking.

"Look man, listen for the chord change in the back." All of a sudden, I heard what he was talking about. Behind the rhymes and the synthesized hi-hats, I heard a canvas of sound, subtly coloring the soundscape. And then it changed, and so did the picture. It was cool - and really slick! A far cry from the "LOOK AT MEEEE" mentality of the 80's music I was so obsessed with...

"DU! DU HAST!" the stereo growled, and snap, I was back in the blazing Tuesday afternoon, the rap and the enviro girls and my epic mullet all evaporating in the sun.

But Josh's New Jersey accent seemed to linger for a moment in the car, saying "See? See? That chord change is why rap is so catchy, know what I'm sayin', bro? See? Chord change there...Chord change there...See?"

And it seems to me that the subtle use of the keyboard lines is one (of the many) thing(s) that make those Rammstein tunes so darn cool, and keeps those riffs so fresh and face melting.

But it's in the subtlety that the genius is to be found. If the guy who tracked the 'boards was intent on his mix being out in the front, it would have been lost. The different parts being played were actually somewhat busy, but faded almost to the edge of imperception.

It struck me that, when faced with an arrangement choice, it's almost like planning a party. We can have weird Uncle Bill over, but that means that we probably shouldn't have weird Uncle Sam over either. (Where DOES he get off wearing hats like that?) Maybe we can balance it out with the cousins who are pretty standard.

Each part in our music is like a colorful, or not colorful, guest. How are these guests gonna work together, while keeping the party going, yet keeping the roof on? How many are there gonna be? Generally, the more there are, the quieter they should talk.

Be an event planner!

Scratch that, be a musician.

But you might try not scoffing at your ma the next time she's trying to figure out the guest list!

Rock on!

- Josh

Aces high!

Rockers!

Woooooeeehooooooo! I totally want to get my pilot's license now! My brother Noah just went for a flight in a little Piper, and all the brothers are enthused now. I have grand visions of a fighter squadron, flying across the country, with Iron Maiden blaring through the speakers, but they are being boring, and say only one brother plane in the sky at once. Lame. I mean, sure I ran that go kart OFF the road and IN to the telephone pole, but that was an isolated incident, I assure you. A MiG 15 is much different. I wonder if it has subwoofers or not...."Flaps...Check...Mega machine guns...check...subwoofers...check."

I've been having some fun conversations with people over the past few days about the magic of writing things down. Have you tried it? We all have goals in life, and music. Writing them down allows us to really specify what it is that we're after. If we know what we're trying to go, we can figure out how to get there.

I know it sounds pretty stupid, but the writing is a powerful way to achieve. Even more than helping with specifying our goals (getting the sweep picking to 4 bajillion beats per minute so our rivals' faces melt, for example), it seems to send a signal that "hey, we mean business."

Try it! I was cleaning recently (believe it or not), and I found a paper that I had written of what I'd like my life to look like a few years prior, down to having a corvette. Well, I don't have the vette yet, but I DO have a loud, red Z28 Camaro! And a lot of the other goals on the paper had either hit their mark, or were darn close.

How can we get what we don't ask for?

Write it down. Mean business. Then go out and achieve.

I'm going to set aside five dollars today for my pilot's license. And I'll write it down as soon as I get home.


Rock on!

- Josh

Local news!

Hey hey!

OK, no philosophy today - just some announcements. Your brain will appreciate the break!

STUDENTS! Or anyone in the DC Area! I'm hosting a rock 'n roll recital on July 23rd! It's called The ZakkFest, in honor of an especially cool student of mine. You don't have to take lessons from me to play in it. Drop me a note for details, and I'll sign you up!

Shady businessmen! And Students!

I've got a few open spaces in the summer schedule, and I'm looking for a few more students. Refer your friends, and get $20 per friend! Sell 'em out! Lie, tell 'em lessons are fun, and send 'em this way. You'll be paid for your efforts and sales pitch. (I once gave a student a $100 bill for commission. That could be you!)


For Everyone

I'm thrilled to announce my new single, Workaholic Blues, will be due out within two weeks! Yeah! Stay tuned for further details!

Well, that was a pretty lame blog post, so I ask you this:

Why have you not set off an air horn in Good Fortune's ear?

That'll wake it up.


Well?!


Rock on!

- Josh

The point, bro

Rockers!

I hope everyone has been stayin' cool in this muggy warm weather we're havin' near DC. I've been doing the lizard thing - wearing lizardy sunglasses and staying in the cool of my studio. And my CD is benefiting from it, let me tell you! I finally got some decent solo tracks down.

But the other day, I was just lunchin'. It was horrendous. I had every local guitar player sitting on my shoulder, metaphorically speaking, and my artistic vision was obscured, to say the least. "Josh, we're gonna pick on your chops if it's not fast enough, your tone if it is, and your hair if everything's perfect."

I was trying wayyy too hard to play a particular arpeggio in at a particular time stamp, and have a certain note value at a certain place, and it was just a mess. I stopped by Mom's for lunch, and she gave me a great bit of advice.

"Josh, you're a good guitar player. You're just having a bad day. Put it up, and try it again tomorrow."

So I did, and it worked. You'll most likely hear the tracks I'm referring to, as I think they're keepers. The jury's still out, but they should make the cut.

The thing that really, really struck me after recording the bad tracks was a mental picture a photographer. This shutterbug has obtained a spiffy new camera, and he's gonna show his buddies what it can do. He sees a picture that is worth a million bucks - but instead of capturing the very soul of the view, he starts fiddling with settings, changing lenses, adding filters, and trying to be technically perfect. In the process, he so misses the essence of the shot, and the light fades away from the day, and leaves him standing in the dark, fit for a National Geographic safari, his camera a crutch instead of a jar to capture the fireflies of inspiration.


An old point and shoot camera would have been way better. Sorta like how old clunky blues riffs can somehow express the depth of the pain we feel every day, as well as the joy.

So shred, rockers. Shred well. Practice, get that ideal tone...But don't let technique get in your way. Transcend it, forget about it, ignore it, I don't care. Just don't let it get in your way! Of course, this applies to any artist, or person for that matter.

Sometimes ya gotta ask yourself: What's the point, bro?

Well?


Rock on!

- Josh

About twenty cents

Rockers!

It's been a little while since I've thrown my two cents into the vast swirling void that is cyberspace...so I'm overdue!

I hope everyone's been good and is progressing nicely on their path toward world domination!

Dealing with a negative Ned?

My brother Noah calls them...

The Most Essential People

They always say the critics are our best friends, but sometimes that's hard to see, so caustic can these critics be sometimes. I'll run with the chemistry example, because success can be viewed as a process, a reaction if you will, with many agents causing ignition.

I'm sure we've all had the experience of a naysayer beautifully illustrating the path we're on if we don't change our ways. My favorite cosmic 2x4 in the face is when the party matter-of-factly states that we'd better start measuring the drapes for our house of failure, and they don't even realize it. They're dead on right, because, sometimes, the rest of the world isn't as blind as we are, and if we keep on the same path, we will need to order some extra-mediocre shades, indeed.

It's usually said like "Well, so when are you gonna go into sales? Wouldn't it be nice not to play dive bars?"

BAM!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

These are some of the most essential people - the arsonists who light that fire under us, and burn us into action. The acid that eats through the blinders, and gets us to wake up, smell the chemicals, and say "Hey man, I'm gonna get some better gigs, and make this happen!"

They're usually about as strong as the chemicals used to bleach my hair, and Jimi bless 'em for that, because you know that's some darn good stuff! The faster the blinders come off, the faster we can strike a ready pose, and say, "eat my dust, suckas!"

Jeff Beck...

Was the most amazing guitarist I've ever seen. I caught his show at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia, and promptly had a reason to buy a new mind. Mine is in tatters. I've been on a new tone quest...that doesn't involve gear. He got so many tones out of his strat without even stepping on a pedal. He used the volume and tone controls, whammy bar, and hit the guitar occasionally to make it sing like...an alien.

Very inspired, I've been having my students jam through a Fender Blues Jr. (15 watt tube amp) and pay super close attention to details like vibrato, slides, picking attack and intensity, and the like. Jeff showed me, as he filled the concert grounds with the magnificent sound of his soul, that...if you think it sounds good, it can sound even better.

I made the grevious mistake in the past of saying to myself "I'll concentrate on tone when I can play fast." This makes about as much sense as a chef saying "I'll make the soup taste good when I can chop the food really fast."

Play fast! But make it sound like a million bucks. A student jokingly asked me yesterday if sounding like $999,999 was good enough. And my answer?



NO.





Rock on! And start paying attention to your tone TODAY. It's just awareness.


- Josh