Way to be a better musician #567- Go See Some Live Music!!!!

One of the things you can do to make yourself a better musician is to of course practice practice practice, but another thing is to go some some live, in person music. Im not talking about watching your favorite band live on a dvd or youtube but physically going out and seeing it happen in real life. Go see some big name national bands and go see some great local music as well. You can see some great music in a coffee shop, restaurant, bar, club, arena, stadium, church and just about any place else. You will learn a ton from seeing your favorite band live. You will see how they perform. Learn some of the stage moves. Listen to the tones and sounds of the amps and guitars. You will even in some cases here your favorite song played a little different live too. Sometimes when a song is done in the studio it is done way different live. Sometimes its better, sometimes not.There are certain bands that are meant to be seen live. Phish is one. They are 1000 times better live than on cd. Godsmack is a band I HATE but will pay to see them any day of the week. They are a completely different animal live. My wife and i had the pleasure of seeing Roger Waters do "The Wall" in concert. It was the single most amazing show I have ever seen. The playing was top notch. The lights and production was top notch and the sound was world class. Watching a master like Roger Waters showed me a whole new way to perform to a crowd. A guy like him can have an audience in the palm of his hand in about 10 seconds. I learned alot about how to interact with a crowd by going and seeing Ozzy. He interacts with the crowd and makes everyone in the audience feel "special." There is also something about being with other people and singing along and dancing to songs that cannot be experienced by listening on an iPod or watching a dvd. There are tons of great local artists who are just as good as any national act too. You can learn alot by watching guys like Riley Williams, Michael Dinkins or TuTu DeVine. So get your butt out of your house and get some concert tickets or go out and see some great local music!

Product Review: MXR Distortion Pedals

This review is done by Rock Bottom Music owner Jonathon Karow.

My quick review on three new MXR pedals at Rock Bottom Music:
Personally I like the MXR 78' Bad Ass Distortion A.K.A. Appetite for Distortion. The MXR Bad Ass Modified O.D. pedal is not bad but sounds a bit "boxy" through my Hot Rod Deluxe. It is a great pedal... just not "my tone". It might make a nice lead boost over and above the tube gain (like a Tube Screamer but voiced differently)? The MXR Full Bore Metal is PERFECT for someone looking for Modern High Gain from Enter Sand Man to full out Death Metal. It is fun to play with but not a necessary "color in my personal Crayon box". I would definitely have one if I were a Metal shred guitarist.

A very cool feature on the Full Bore Metal is the Gate button (Noise Gate). It can be adjusted for the Gate time in the battery compartment. A green LED lights up to visually show the player when the Gate is active.
Come on down to Rock Bottom and test drive them for yourself. The price for these are lower here than any place else...guarenteed!

Product Review : iRig

This product review is on the iRig. The iRig is a cool little device that hooks to your iPhone or iPod and lets you plug your guitar into it and do a vast array of cool things, from just jammin, to recording, to jammin with other people in an online jam session. This little thing is great.

Once you get yourself an iRig you will need to get an app that it works with. There are tons of them, so dont worry about not finding one. It basically works with anything such as garageband, amplitude, etc. I downloaded garageband. The rig itself has a female 1/4 inch jack input for you to plug your guitar into, has a 1/8 inch female input jack to hook your headphones (or run to another form of external monitor) and it has a male 1/8 jack out to hook to your phone or iPad. Once you hook up and open up your app it is really easy to get going. You get lots of choices of amps to choose from. You can have a Marshall, Vox, Fender, Mesa Boogie and any other type of amp right at your finger tips! You also, depending on your app, have a choice of any pedal under the sun! You can control the pedal just like you do a real pedal. You move the knobs and tweek it just like in real life. you can choose the order of your pedals too. If you got some good headphones, ex: the marshall ones from a previous entry, the sound will be pretty darn good. You can jam as loud as you want and not bother your wife, a sleeping baby, neighbors or mom and dad! That is a huge plus!

Some of the apps have some great features. In the one I have, garageband, you can get online and have jam sessions with people around the world. If you have a song idea you can record it at a moments notice. It also lets you do virtual drums, bass and about any other instrument too. that way you can have rough or even complete songs to take to your band mates. I use it to record chord progressions for my students. once its recorded its a breeze to email it or text it to some one.

The iRig is compatible with most any smart phone, iPad, tablet, etc. For less than $50 you got something that is awesome. Depending on the app you can do anything! Apps go from free to $20. The iRig is a great investment. A whole lot cheaper than a porta studio plus you get tons of features. Stop on down to Rock bottom and get one. You will love it.

Student Spotlight: Isaac Verbeck

This edition of "Student Spotlight" is on 16 year old Isaac Verbeck. Isaac has been playing guitar for about 2 years now and has been taking lessons from me since February 24, 2011. Isaac starting playing for a couple reasons. His brother played and that inspired him. He also liked how portable a guitar is to carry around verses say a keyboard. He also just really liked music! Along with his brother playing, his dad plays numerous instruments. His brother does alot of singing and theatre. His brother currently goes to college for singing. Some of his favorite guitar players are Brad nowell from the band Sublime and the guitar players from the band "Slightly Stupid." His dream guitar, and this is a first for this answer, is a high end nylon string acoustic guitar. he wants one because the sound is just great on one. I asked Isaac if he could play a gig anywhere on Earth where would it be. He replied " I would want to play somewhere in Orange County California. That is pretty much the birthplace of any good ska and punk and I just absolutely love those styles of music." Isaac has had a chance to check out a couple of live concerts. He has seen Reliant K, lots of local bands in different areas and various other regional bands. He has some gigging experience too. Isaac was in a band called "Of all the people" and they got to do a couple of gigs with them while he was still in high school. If his band could have played with any band of his choosing what would he pick? He dreams of being on the monster tour called "Warped Tour." Warped tour is a staple of summer concert touring with some of the best and biggest bands out there. That reason and the fact that that tour has so many styles of music on it are reasons why he would dream of being a part of Warp Tour.I also asked him " If you could pick any band in history to be a guitar player for, who would it be?" He replied quickly with " Van Halen!!" Why? Again he replied quickly " Its Van Halen!!! Come on!!! Is there really any other reason???" Isaac also plays a bunch of other instruments. He plays the bass, ukulele,sings and even played the trumpet back in middle school. Isaac is out of high school and is currently working on getting into Augusta State University and getting a computer science degree. Isaac plans on keeping up with music and sees himself continuing making music tracks and posting on the Internet because he loves doing it and its fun. Isaac has got alot from his lessons with me but the thing that has stuck with him the most is screwing around with arpeggios. He loves doing it and has a ton of fun with them. Some advice he has for anyone starting out is to learn 4 chords and learn every song you can with them. I have had a blast working with Isaac. he is a good kid with a ton of creativity. He is going to be musically active for many years and i am looking forward to hearing it! So heres to you Isaac......Keep Rockin........Keep Playin.......and keep Having Fun!!!!!

Spotlight licks: Scott Terry

this edition of "spotlight licks" is brought to you by musician extraordinaire, scott terry. scott is a multi instrumentalist who plays, harp, guitar, banjo, mandolin and countless others. he has played with some world class musicians. he has played with the legendary bluegrass out fit the lewis family, was guitar tech for smash country stars heartland, is endorsed by martin guitars, jammed with earl scruggs and countless other great musical endeavours. he is going to demonstrate moving up on the neck, playing various voicings of the A chord and throwing in some smokin chicken pickin licks based on the A minor and A major pentatonic scales. he even throws in some chromatic notes while going up. he has some great hybrid picking throughout,has some huge bends, some great pull off licks and ends on a cool banjo-esque lick. have fun with this one. he breaks it down slow at the end of the video. that is the prime time to pick up what he is doing. if you have a tough time break it down to learning it a section at a time. consider a section of licks the area in one position of the A chord. as he moves up to the next position of the chord that is the next section and so on.

Student Concert: May 12th Earthfest

It's that time of year again. That time when the students get to get on stage and strut their stuff. This year it will be at the Columbia County Ampitheatre. It is a family event that is celbrating the planet Earth. The students will take the stage at 11:00 a.m. Performances will include Gaia Colafrancseco, Brian Yonn, Blake Sloan, Carter Kight and Taylor Temples and a group performance with Alex Cooke, Chris Marks and his brother Anthony Marks. I can not wait for this. The kids always have a blast and do an outstanding job. I would like to thank Rob Boggs for setting this up for us and providing the sound system for the event. The ampitheatre is located at 630 Ronald Reagan Drive Evans Ga. Its off Washington road behind the library. If you hit the Evans Walmart you went to far. So be sure to be there, tell a friend and be ready to have a good time.

Student Spotlight : Collin Castillo

This edition of "Student Spotlight" is on a very up and coming musician, Collin Castillo. He has been playing guitar for 5 years and has been taking lessons from me since October 2010. Collin got into playing guitar because he saw someone playing and really liked it. His Mom and Dad , at one time, sponsored a band. The band was called " The Fifth." He thought what they did was awesome and wanted to jam. His parents thought it was a phase at first but 5 years later it was no phase! Collin is a 7th grader at River Side Middle School. He plans on going to college for 4 years and hopefully getting to do some music while there. His favorite band of all time is Alice in Chains. He says Alice is one of his dads favorites and that's how he got into listening to them. He doesn't really have a guitar he wants or a "dream" guitar. He plays no favorites with them. He just loves guitars. He has been to a few concerts in his young life too. The best and favorite one he has seen has been Alice In Chains. His mom took him to Atlanta to see them. Seeing that concert is what made him want to be in a band. If Collin could play guitar for any band, new or old, one that is still around or will never be around again, that band would be 90's king's of grunge, Nirvana. He says they are a cool band and he loves all their songs. Collin is currently the guitar player in his church band at Alder's Gate church. They practice every Sunday and Wednesday and play a gig 1 or 2 times a month. Being in this band landed him his first ever real gig. It was about 6 months ago and Alder's Church band kicked some butt! if he could play any gig anywhere in the world Collin would play the Super Bowl.Why? "It is the biggest gig you could ever have and everyone would get to see me play!" Some of Collin's favorite guitar players are Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Perry and Jerry Cantrell. Collin comes from a somewhat musical family. His Aunt Cindy plays everything- piano, guitar, ukulele to name a few. His Great Granny played piano. His uncle by marriage is a heck of a musician, Noel Brown.Noel is an Augusta legend! His mom and dad are huge musical fans and have gave him all the support a young music man could dream of. Why did he start taking lessons? He said "I really like guitar and thought it would be a cool fun thing to do. I really loved it once i started. It's my time to get my escape and have fun." What has been the thing he has got the most use from from lessons? Collin said " You showing me all the chords and their different shapes and learning all the notes on my fretboard." Collin Castillo is a great kid with a huge enthusiasm for music. He is bright and an all around good person. He works hard to be a good player. He continues to impress me week in and week out. He is gonna do great in life when he grows up, as a person and a musician. So here's to you Collin........Keep Rockin'.........Keep Playin'.........and keep Having Fun!!!