Tag Archives: Jeff Healey

Jeff Healey

Written by Jamorama on October 18, 2009 — 4 Comments

There’s an awful lot of talk about tone and technique but talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. One guitarist who never let anything get in the way of his playing is Jeff Healey, a blind but immensely talented and unique guitarist who played the guitar whilst it lay across his lap.

He lost his sight to eye cancer when he was a year old and was given his first guitar two years later. At a school for the blind, he was shown how to play the guitar the usual way but found it felt more comfortable on his lap. Among the first to recognise his talent was Albert Collins, one of blues music’s elder statesmen, who became his first champion and invited him to share the stage at a show in Toronto. Before he was out of his teens he had also played with Stevie Ray Vaughan and B. B. King. Jeff was also a highly talented trumpet player and a hot jazz afficianado releasing a series of jazz albums and amassing a collection of over 30,000 78rpm records.

78 165x300 Jeff Healey

Healey’s literally hands-on approach to the guitar gave him an unsurpassable level of attack & sustain rivalling that of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan which he combined with an absolutely devastating high octane thumb fretting technique and soaring string bends. I saw Jeff in the early 90`s in London and the performance was absolutely mesmerising, highly physical and intensely emotional.

If you’re struggling to find inspiration and the practice routine or lessons are getting you down perhaps try doing it with your eyes shut – sitting down is optional, unless you`re on the toilet, or in the car…

I’ve added the George Harrison masterpiece “While my guitar gently weeps” below because it affords some close up shots of Jeff’s hands in action. Sadly the cancer that robbed Jeff of his sight caught up with him in March 2008 and ended his life.

Cheers,

Jake Edwards

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Unusual guitar practice

Written by Jamorama on March 8, 2009 — 8 Comments

As a follow on from my post here on being unusual, having something unique and not running with the crowd I thought it might be good to run a short list of unusual guitar related ideas. Being unusual really, really helps stylistically. Here’s a few interesting players off the top of my head!

Keith Richards – 5 strings only and G tuning – D, B, G, D, G (high to low)
Django – predominantly two  finger playing style as other fingers were badly burnt
Robert Johnson – almost supernatural physical technique beyond the horizon
Mississippi John Hurt – earthy brown-dirt piedmont picking souds like  molasses, treacle and golden syrup
Charlie Christian – pioneer of amplification
Jesse Lone Cat Fuller – one man band blues-folk player who invented the Fotdella bass machine
Jeff Healey – Being blind the guitar is played on his lap
T bone Walker – played behind his head, with teeth and before Jimi
Jimi Hendrix – uses teeth, lighter fluid, art-destruction, plays behind head,  attacks amps and heavy feedback
Jeff Beck – one of the early feedback pioneers, also uses unorthodox approach to neck-scales-tremolo etc
Frank Zappa – watermelons in easter hay and shut up and play your guitar – theme from the 3rd movement of sinister footwear
Stevie Ray Vaughan – uses half step down tuning
Eric Mongrain – a highly melodic tapping style (see also Kaki King for a percussive style)
Jimmy Page – used a violin bow and a theremin on occasion
Alvin Lee – completely unique English sound and style  – live, using a drumstick for a right hand, incredible
Johnny greenwood,  Adrian Belew, Reeves Gabrels – completely insane sounds
Robert Fripp – loops and frippertronics
Frank Gambale, Alan Holdswoth, John Maclaughlin – jazz fusion of various degrees
Paul Ubana Jones – mind blowing and unique style
Fred Frith – avante garde un-guitar playing
Richie Havens – open D tuning tour de force
The Edge -underrated master of skeletal arpeggios soaked with melodic feeling – redefined rock/pop guitar sounds
Adrian Legg – idiosyncratic individual picking style complemented with technique and taste
Son House – unimaginably authentic individualism

So, do what feels best even if it`s unusual and strange!

Do what suits you.  Do what you like. Use your limitations to your advantage & if you only know a few scales – there`s no limit to what you can do – explore them fully in all senses.
You dont have to be blind, crippled or named after a fruit, but it might help…a little.

Here are some pictures of me practising underwater, great for making those  leagues below sea-sounds.
Later this week I`ll be travelling to the earth`s core to conduct electromagnetic, heat exchange, tone experiments.

Personally, Ive got my Strat` set up with the bridge in a unique way that should leave the guitar out of tune. It came about through an accident where I ripped the unit out of the body years ago and the tremsetter fell apart. It`s now become part of my overall style…it`s great.

Cheers, Jake.

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