In a world of increasing homogeneity and gratuitous eulogising of the mediocre by the media simply for what appears to be the sake of having something to talk about, it’s a rare sight to behold aberrations to the normal especially in the form of unique and uncompromising talent.
When the marketing machine itself seems to become more a part of the product it promotes than the product itself, when the inherent qualitites of individuality have been crushed under the weight of commercialism and when all the corners have been knocked off, rounded down and filed into a useless dust by the “machine” then what is there left of real, intrinsic value?
Luckily some artists are born with a respect for their art and instrument and a no holds barred approach to quality control,
When it comes to modern acoustic fingerstyle guitar Paul Ubana Jones is one of the highly regarded champions, perhaps even a pioneer, of a unique and highly expressive, soulful approach to acoustic guitar that he effortlessly combines with song.
Paul fuses a bold approach to tunings, percussive harmonics, and melody with a highly fluid picking technique and soulful intensity to deliver a wonderful mixture of an almost funky, Hendrixy and blues-rock approach to the bass end of the groove with European flavoured folk and progressive classical motifs, leads, lines, hybrid arpeggios, blues picking styles and more. It`s a very modern and expressive mix of technique, soul and talent.
Born in London and playing guitar by the age of 11, Paul graduated from a London music college, where he studied guitar and cello, and began to forge the solo acoustic style that he has stuck to and developed over the years.
In the late eighties Paul and his family moved to New Zealand, which is still their permanent home. He has continued to perform internationally, to growing acclaim. Concert performances include opening for the likes of Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Taj Mahal, Keb Mo’, Tuck and Patti, and Crowded House.
Understandably Paul’s “off the hook” skills aren’t something that’ll come to you overnight, unless you’re friends with the devil, but, to compliment the awesome Blind Blake style fingerpicking lesson from Jim Bruce, Paul’s approach to fusion expands upon an already eloquent vocabulary.
So, here is Paul discussing one of his clawhammer thumb picking patterns.
Whilst this may be out of your playing depth technically Paul describes some helpful techniques in approaching fingerpicking such as focusing upon a relaxed hand and extracting and concentrating upon the the rhythm of the left hand – it`s well worth spending some time in trying to apply Paul’s advice to your own picking practice regime.
Today we’re going to try very, very hard not to smash and burn our guitars because we’re looking at the unique approach of uber-talent and tastemaster extroadinaire Eric Johnson and…he is rather good….
Eric is from Texas. And while there’s definitely something in the water in Texas it`s affected Eric a little differently because his approach to the guitar is somewhat idiosyncratic. Besides, it must be talent, melody or some kind of mystical otherworldly pan-galactic musical goodness flowing from those southern taps and Eric Johnson is definitely drinking it.
Man, I’m thirsty this morning.
By the time Johnson released his Capitol Records debut Ah Via Musicom in 1990, he was regularly winning awards for his musicianship in the guitar press. During this period, Eric Johnson was also drawing recognition for the rich, violin-like tone he coaxed from his vintage Fender Stratocaster.
The instrumental “Cliffs of Dover” exemplified his unique sound and won Johnson a 1991 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The album Ah Via Musicom was a crossover hit, and was soon certified platinum. Here`s Eric playing “S.R.V.” an undoubted piece of absolute fretboard excellence…
Johnson`s approach to sound tends to blend clean, highly melodic and dramatic guitar runs, licks and arpeggios with a fusion of eastern and world approaches to tone such as koto like string effects and bends with subtle tapping and harmonics fuelled by a devastatingly precise and accurate picking technique and knowledge of the fretboard washed down with bucketloads of talent and a hint of psychedelia. What’s highly noticeable about Eric J.’s approach is that he likes to literally “think outside the (scale) box”:
I tend to stay away from the box fingerings a bit. Instead, I kind of connect different things together and try to be a little bit methodical in my approach. I jump around as per the string tension and the kind of sound and tonality I want.
To re-iterate whereas some players tend to play up or down a scale using almost predictable scales and licks Eric makes a conscious effort to jump across wider intervals and bridge uncommon scales & elements and in doing so create a whole new ultra-fresh guitar sound.
Here he is fusing jazz and blues techniques in the instrumental “Song for George”:
If you`re thinking of taking the guitar to a new part of the melodic galaxy unfettered from the chains of the blues-rock tradition then Eric’s music is a great place to look for inspiration. DON’T, no; DON’T allow the complexities of Eric’s style phase you out though – adopt a less is more approach and think about the more classical elements in the playing. A touch of reverb won’t go amiss here people! It’s a heady mix of influences from Wes Montgomery to Jimi Hendrix to Jeff Beck with maybe a touch of Bach or Paganini thrown in.
Eric fuses a more classical sense of melody with a highly accomplished and adult sonic palette blending vibrato, bends, scales and tones in a way that avoids the hair-metal neo-classical plagiarism of guitar for guitar’s sake and the time honoured cliches of the ‘been there, done that’ blues-rock guitar cannon.
Here he is playing “Manhattan” – so, listen up and listen good because it’s said that Eric can tell the aural difference between the brands of batteries in his effects pedals.
So where does this leave the rest of us, down here on the ground? Absolutely Nowhere! But fear not the awesome and versatile koto string bending technique is available for us mere mortals down here on earth and here is how you can learn to do it.
Fret a note with your picking hand index finger. Pick right behind your index finger with your picking hand thumb. These two steps occurs almost simultaneously. Next you can choose to bend this note by stretching the string with your fretting hand. Then you can pull off from your picking hand index finger to your fretting hand.
G DEC
Eric has also got together with Fender to endorse the G-DEC practice amplifier.
The G-DEC is a guitar practice amplifier which incorporates:
A modelling amp, which can sound like any of 17 different amplifiers
A digital effects processor containing 29 effects (many in stereo) so you can add reverb, phasing, flanging, wah, etc.
An on-board General MIDI synthesizer with MIDI In and Out jacks on the front panel
50 preset and 50 user-definable presets combination backing tracks
A 14 second phrase sampler, so you can record licks and practice against them
Auxiliary input for CD or mp3 player
Phones jack can be used with stereo headphones or as a stereo Line Out jack
A second input jack on the rear panel
A chromatic tuner
There’s a great interview here for those who’d like to find out a little more about Eric’s approach to the guitar.
Several years back I walked into Guitar Village in the U.K. to have a look at an Echoplex they had acquired.
Yeah!
The sales assistant was gushing with enthusiasm because this baby had been previously owned by none other than Eric Johnson himself. When he started the machine we heard Eric’s instantly recogniseable tone and playing coming off the tape.
Wow! “How much is it?” I asked.
I think he said it was somewhere around the 800 pound mark! Phew!
I decided to save a massive 783 pounds- and go and buy one of Eric’s C.D’s instead – smooth.
For those of you who dig the Piedmont fingerstyle of the North American East Coast here is traveling bluesman Jim Bruce showing you how to play the Doc Watson version of Deep River Blues. Jim makes his living traveling and playing on the streets of Europe.
This lesson is intermediate to advanced and showcases a somewhat idiosyncratic fingerstyle using just the one finger and one thumb. If you are a beginner you might like to try simply strumming the chords along with the Doc in the video below. Jim’s video has the chord diagrams embedded into it.
You can find out more about Jim Bruce and his guitar playing travels here and here where he showcases some great ragtime techniques and Blind Blake songs.
If you ever find yourself in a learning plateau when it comes to guitar you just have to plug into your imagination or maybe buy some John Fahey records…
If there was ever a man to put the words heavy and eclectic into the acoustic blues guitar cannon here he is - it’s John Fahey, iconoclast, drinker, rebel and consumate acoustic mash up artist – taking Skip James, Gregorian chants, early 20th Century ragtime, Gamelan and Tibetan music amongst a horde of other influences and blending them together into a rich and velvety cornucopia of guitar idiosyncracy. Fahey started out his career with a 17 dollar guitar and the inspiration of fellow stick-in-the-mud Guitar Frank (Hovington) a piedmont style player who rarely traveled for fear of losing his welfare support payments.
John Fahey
Guitar Frank
If you like Lightning Hopkins you`ll probably like Frank too. It’s well worth looking into Fahey’s work because his eclecticism illustrates that even within a specific genre or technique there are always new ways to express and expand the musical vocabulary of the guitar. Fahey is the forefather of modern acoustic guitar in sense that he was the first to demonstrate that the finger-picking techniques of traditional country and blues steel-string guitar could be used to express a world of non-traditional musical ideas.
Obviously, in the world of guitar legend one man stands alone, head and shoulders above his peers; distorting time and space whilst achieving transcendental oneness with his guitar in a zen like reverie of Amerindian shamanism, Free love, sex, politics, feedback, fire and death.
.
If there was ever a sacrifice made to the guitar gods, it was Hendrix himself…exploding into flame at Monterey, Hendrix burnt away in a three year vapour trail of drugs, touring, alcohol, invention, and innovation – notwithstanding the management, money and mafia troubles that followed in his wake.
For those of you who are baffled by the countless re-iterations and compilations floating endlessly around; the remixes and terrible bastardisations such as the “Midnight Lightning”album, or “Loose Ends” (which clearly showcase an industry’s shallow greed in selling the out-takes from the cutting room floor and even using hired modern musicians to remake tracks), add to this the blatent misbranding of Hendrix’ work with Curtis Knight and many more – to help you in avoiding these shark infested pools of the Hendrix legacy here are 6 albums that I can wholeheartedly recommend.
1.Are you Experienced – 1st album – in one word: FIRE
Hendrix first album fuses gritty rock, psychedelia and feedback in a blistering journey to the centre of the cosmos. This is as close to ‘classic’ rock as Hendrix gets with pumping riffs, weird guitar solo`s (purple haze) and a lyricism that combines Dylanesque surrealism with the hip acid talk of the American Summer of Love. This album is filled with the triumphant feelings of revolution, victory and optimism. It`s a fervent and heady mix of grass roots psychedelia and Hendrix earthy hands on approach to guitar tone exploration.
2.Axis Bold As Love – 2nd album -in one word: WATER
The second album leans more heavily towards a lyrical mysticism and the lucid poeticism of songwriting with meaning and intent as opposed to the hard rock rattle and hum immediacy of its feedback soaked predecessor. Hendrix begins to blend the jazz and funk influences of his days on the circuit with the science fiction, metaphysics and exploratory lyricism of his imagination with a more refined approach to instrumentation and more nuanced style. The final title track is possibly one of the greatest arrangements of lyrical metaphor, melodic rhythm guitar and majestic lead ever written or recorded.
3. Electric Ladyland – 3rd album – in one word: TRANSCENDENTAL
Take the previous two albums and throw in some voodoo space-blues, low down groove, funk, rock and roll, orchestration and then blend into a transcendental masterpiece of songwriting, guitar playing prowess, musical exploration, ufology, time travel and the foreboding sense that the world si coming to an end. The sheer emotional intent of the guitar playing alone on this double album absolutely shines through as Hendrix delivers masterpiece after expressive masterpiece.
4. Nine to the Universe – studio jams – rare jazz-blues improvisations – awesome and tight
Hendrix rocks into the studio to have a jam and the sonic results are absolutely off the hook. With more of a leaning towards a modal approach to the guitar Jimi proves that literally everything is in his hands as he manipulates his stratocaster and amp to deliver a huge tonal range within the context of progressive jazz-blues fusion jam session. If you are new to Hendrix this might be a little too abstract for you but if you’re looking to expand your musical expression on the guitar without resorting to gratuitous effects and cheap tricks this is a great place to start.
5. Band of Gypsys – live – the once in a lifetime guitar mastery of epic sonic genius that is machine gun
After disbanding the original experience Hendrix returns to New York with Buddy Miles and Billy Cox to deliver a more loosely organised series of extended songs and groovy hooks centred around the opposing themes of war and peace. Never to be underestimated, Hendrix quite simply recreates the sonic palette and experience of the Vietnam war on Machine Gun, producing some of the most mesmerising guitar tones in the history of rock in an astonishingly complete performance. Hendrix touts acres of sustain and feedback, combined with tremelo induced ufology and science fiction sounds in an engaging live performance that proves EXACTLY why he is history’s most mind blowing rock instrumentalist. Hendrix’ intent though is not only to transport you into a world of complete sonic guitar mastery but also to inspire spiritually through the kyuss of great hooks, timing and melody (Power to Love).
6. The Jimi Hendrix Concerts – a great compilation of live recordings
This collection of recordings showcases the original experience at their best and includes the absolutely monumentous tonal mastery and feedback genius of Are You Experienced live on eof the greatest moments in guitar history. This has to be heard to be believed. This is what the Experience sound like live on a great night and theyre absolutely burning it up. If you cant get this disc then get the LIVE AT WINTERLAND album instead.
7. Beautiful People – If 60`s were 90`s -
Some old friends of mine Duncan, Phil, Dave and Luke remixing Hendrix for the early 90`s chillaxation-house scene. It’s groovy and Eric Clapton’s nephew digs it too. If you like the idea of Hendrix with “modern” beats then this might be right up your street. The stand out cuts are “Get Your Mind Together” and “Sea Eventually”. Remixes with PM Dawn sounded incredible but never officially materialised. If you want your Hendrix licks and melodies served up in a dreamy, groovy back-beat sauce with a focus upon the nouvelle cuisine sampling of a chillaxed club mix then this is the h’ors d’oeuvre you’re after. Rilly Groovy.
There is alot more to Hendrix’ reputation than his guitar sonics, IMHO, and if you`d like to explore a more historical and multifaceted approach to understanding Hendrix as a songwriter, creative and political force then please click here.
Cheers,
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