Electric Guitarist

Steve Vai Youtube Tender Surrender

When I first heard this youtube video of Steve Vai I  noticed how he’d drawn from three other great guitar players, all of which I’ve posted about recently.  Whether it’s intentional or not, it’s what I hear.  

The first guitarist that hear in this tune is Wes Montgomery  Wes was the master of playing octaves, e.g he’d play an E and then at the same time he’d play an E further up the scale, this was one of his distinguishable characteristics of his playing. 

The next player I hear in here is Hendrix, I’m thinking Little Wing and also the way Jimi would play a slow blues and use all those hammer-ons and pull=offs whilst holding down a chord.

The next player I here is Jeff Beck, the tone is so Beckonian to me.  Yes Steve Vai takes it and runs with it but I definitely hear Beck in there.  From there he starts to use more contemporay style of left hand technique.  And from there he reeps back into Hendrix. 

Now this is my opinion, you may hear other elements.

Tags: Guitar Masters, Steve Vai Youtube, Tender Surrender utube

Leet Ritenour Steve Lukather Youtube

The only thing better than one guitar is two, the only thing better than one great guitarist is two. Apply the afore mentioned principle to a song by a musical genius e.g. Jeff Beck ‘Because we’ve Ended  as Lovers’ and the result is something extraordinary.

Lee Ritenour crept or quietly exploded into the jazz rock scene in the late seventies both as a ession player and band leader, and Steve Lukather was turning many heads with his perfect recordings and work with commercial band Toto.  Regardless of what style we prefer as listeners, do yourself a favour, watch and listen to this guitar video.

Tags: Lee Ritenour youtube, Steve Lukather

Eric Clapton Youtube Cream Crossroads

Eric Clapton with Jack Bruce on Bass and Ginger Baker on guitar helped define British blues.  This recent recording of Crossroads the Robert Johnson traditional blues classic is an example of how musicians can take a musical idea and make it their own, in the same way that Hendrix redefined All Along the Watchtower.  Some may not know it but in the sixties people were calling Eric Clapton God.  In an Eastern mystical sense that is true and also if you say he’s a guitar God, yep I’ll back that one up for sure.   The control Clapton has is unbelievable, the way he can shift the dynamics of a song in a split second has always interested me; from screaming lead to sensible accompaniment without blinking.

Tags: Cream utube video, Crossroad Blues for Guitar, Eric Clapton Youtube

Larry Carlton and Robben Ford Youube

Larry Carlton scared the living daylights out of me in the seventies with his intro to the Steely Dan song Don’t take me Alive.  I was already familiar with his work prior to his work with the Dan.  Robben Ford appeared on the scene a short time later.  To hear these guys together is a bit of a treat, they function at a much higher level than most guitar players.  That is not an insult to anyone at all, it’s just that they have done the hard yards of study and working on seesions and with other world class musicians.    Two guitars interacting is always a ‘goer’ for me.   These guys are two of the worlds best jazz rock players.   If you are not familiar with either of these players, I highly reommend exploring their work.

Tags: Jazz rock guitar utube, Robben Ford Larry Carlton Youtube

Randy Jacobs Youtube Boneshakers

I the mid nighties I was very interested in Guitar Construction.  During that time I found an excellent book about Danny Ferringtons guitars, the book came with a CD sampler of Danny’s guitars that he had made  for some exceptional guitar players.  One of the guitar players was a guy called Randy Jacobs.  I’ve written about Randy because you may not have heard of him.  The video is a production  music vid but it features Randy on guitar and it won’t take much for you to hear how good he is from the opening riff.  His tone is superb and and he’s feel for a song  is second to none. And hey, how good is the guys voice.

Tags: Boneshakers, Randy Jacobs Youtube Video

Stevie Ray Vaughan Youtube Guitar Lesson

Stevie Ray Vaughan playing a slow blues live was one of a handful of guitar moments that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  And if I could go back in time I probably would have broken the rules of the concert hall where I saw him play and stood at the very front of the stage to allow that moment to dig deeper into my memory.  But it’s always in hindsight and after a persons death that we think  of these things.

We’re at least fortunate to be able to freeze time in a video relive the brilliance of Stevie Ray way after he’s gone.  This Guitar Lesson of Stevie Ray Vaughan on Youtube is a must foe every guitarist regardless of what standard you may play at.   There is also a short interesting interview about his life as well and a taste of his version of Superstition by Stevie Wonder

Tags: Stevie Ray Guitar Lesson, Stevie Ray Vaughan Youtube

Peter Green Youtube Albatross Fleetwood Mac

You may know Fleetwood Mac as a pop band.  But prior to their massive success they were very much a blues band and amongst guitar players Peter Green was regarded as being at the top of the list playing his beautiful sounding Les Paul.  The song Albatross did make it to the airwaves, it’s very etherial and the restraint is something in this tune is to be admired.

Peter Green playing a blues on a strat

Here’s Albatross

Tags: Fleetwood Mac utube, Peter Green Guitar, Peter Green Youtube

Joe Walsh with James Taylor Youtube

If you like electric guitar you’ll love this, Joe Walsh. You may know Joe Walsh from the Eagles, but his musical history goes way back to the James Gang the band was with years ago and also Joe Walsh’s solo albums with tunes like Time Out.  This tune is James Taylor doing Steamroller Blues but I had to post about it he because of Joe Walsh’s beautiful singing electric guitar fills are so good it would be a shame if you never got to hear his guitar fills.

Tags: James Taylor and Joe Walsh Youtube, Steamroller Blues

Pat Metheny Youtube

Pat Metheny is one of those rare musicians who matured musically at a very young age.  At sixteen he was daring enough to approach the great jazz vibraphone player and ask him if he couild play with him.  And the legend goes on from there.  Pat Metheny when he recorded on the ECM help draw a large number of younger musicians to contemporary jazz.   He is known for his very lyrical playing, wheras many players don’t think too much about getting a melodic result but concentrate on being brilliant.  Metheny achieves that brilliance by his attention to melody and tone as well as having a technique that is far superior to most players.  Few players will achieve what Pat Metheny has done in his life time.

On this recording he is playing a semi acoustic, it’s called have you heard and is recorded in 1995 in Japan. He’s .playing reasonably fast in this tune but if you have followed his musical journey, you’d know he does very slow material, open tuning, and tunes on acoustic as well.

Tags: Pat Metheny Youtube Guitar

Carlos Santana Youtube – Samba Pa Ti

Carlos Santana is the guitar player that for me has the sweetest distortion I have ever heard.   There is a romantic side to every musician, some are a little afraid to admit it.  But when I was 14, and that’s 38 years ago I oddly enough had the intelligence (or testerone levels) to recognise the beauty of the song Samba Pa Ti.  I first heard it on the Abraxas album, with the Greg Rollie playing awesome keyboards.  I think that the Abraxas album was a milestone in contemporay music. From memory Santana as playing a Yamaha guitar here and I think at the time he was using Mesa Boogie amps.

Tags: Carlos Santana Youtube, Samba Pa Ti

B B King Gary Moore Youtube Blues Guitar

B B King and Gary Moore together.  Well if you’re interested in good tone in blues, it’s pretty hard to go past either B B King or Gary Moore.  To have the two of them together, Gary Moore on his Les Paul Gold on treble pickup  (Gosh I had one of those Les Paul guitars for 16 years and sold it) , and B B on his butterfly.

I saw B B King live, his sound is just as good live as on recording.  The interesting thing about B B King, and this really made me laugh, he said he can’t play chords.  It doesn’t bother me, just keep playing like that.

Listen out for the interplay of the two guitars swapping lines and the build that happens around about 5 and a half minutes.  I like music with feeling, that’s a priority for me.  This youtube has something special.

Tags: B B King Youtube, Blues Guitar, Gary Moore utube, The Thrill Is Gone

Jeff Beck Youtube Nadia

If Jeff Beck’s  name that is mentioned amongst guitar players who have been around for years,  it generally creates a feeling of humility.  Regardless how good you be, it’s always hats off to Jeff Beck.   My first real awareness of Jeff Beck was on the Beck Bogart and Appice album in the early seventies, with tunes like Black Cat Moan and Superstion.  This led me to explore his earlier work like Rough and Ready with Bob Tench on vocals and Max Middleton on keys and introduced me to tunes such as Definitely Maybe.

I was fortunate to see Jeff Beck play live once with Jan Hammer, the keyboard player.  His tone is unmatchable by players, his technique unique because he plays fingerstyle, but it doesn’t sound like it.  His control of elecronics is so far ahead of most other players. 

The Jeff Beck Youtube video is called Nadia.  When I first heard it, my thoughts were that he had bridged the gap between Indian music and rock, and I don’t mean Bollyrock. I mean the deep transcendal side of Indian music that digs deep into the soul of each us.

And yes, as a guitar player, I am humbled when I hear this tune.

Tags: electric guitarist, Jeff Beck Youtube, utube electric guitar

Wes Montgomery Youtube Jazz Guitar

Wes Montgomery is to jazz guitar what Jimi Hendrix is to rock guitar.  I was 14 years old when someone took me to a record shop and said, “You like guitar, you better hear this guy”.  From that moment on I was hooked and although I was very up to speed on who was hot in rock guitar, I had a passion for jazz guitar and also it was a style that I natural had a feel for as a player.  

What guitar players need to realise about Wes Montgomery is he played with his thumb, not with a plectrum and nor was he a fingerstyle player. Wes is the benchmark that all jazz guitar players are measured by.  He was very famous for his octave playing.  His phrasing is perfect and as the late Ike Isaacs used to say to me about many of the guitar players out there, “they are just a bad version of Wes”.   Anyone that has played for 30 years or so would get the idea straight away.    As guitar players, particularly those that are jazz players, we owe a lot to or maybe I should say we can contribute a lot to Wes.

Wes Montgomery Youtube of his tune Jingles

Tags: Jazz Guitar utube, Wes Montgomery Youtube

Electric Guitarist for Electric and Acoustic Guitarists

Over the past year I, Tony Hogan have created two of the premier acoustic guitar blog sites on the world wide web.  Just because I have written about acoustic guitars and have specialized in resources to help the acoustic guitarists develop by no means implies that I do not have an interest in the electric guitar.  

So now that I my two major acoustic guitar blogs are running smoothly, the acoustic guitarist and the acoustic guitar I felt it was time to venture into one of my other great loves, the electric guitar.  From time t time you will see players that you know, great youtube videos and information about electric guitar players, but what I really would like to do is introduce you to players of different styles that you may not have heard of.  Often there are great guitar parts that are easy to miss because they are so well arranged and fit so beuatifully into a tune that people miss it.  Yeah sure, there’s lots of players that are flashy, but what about the other guys and ladies that just play awesome guitar, but because of our lack of understanding we miss the brilliance. 

So this is a labour of love for me, and like all things good such as music, it’s those that are a labour of love that will be the most beneficial in the long term.  As a player of guitar for 39 years I’ve seen and heard a lot, but I am also intelligent enough to know I haven’t even scrapped the surface.

Tags: electric guitarist, tony hogan guitar blog

Jimi Hendrix YouTube Voodoo Chile

Jimi Hendrix playing Voodoo Chile is the definitive guitar tune.  I still remember the day in 1970 when my friend told me that Hendrix had died, it was the 19th of September and the news came to me a day late. I was 14 years old and had already subconsciously decided that Jimi Hendrix was going to replace Jesus as my idol, so the news was frightening and for the next 10 years I had the opening line of All Along the Watchtower and the riff from Voodoo Chile running through my head at regular intervals, only to be replaced every now and then by the jazz legend Wes Montgomery playing his gorgeous octaves and Carlos Santana playing the outrageously romantic Samba Pa Ti.

So, seeing I was so addicted to the music of Jimi in my teens, I thought it only fitting to make my first youtube at the Electric Guitarist Blog Website, Hendrix doing one of the tunes that even to this day lturns my head inside out. 

Actually I got a spooked by Hendrix when I was 15, I heard a gutar player playing on the radio, and I thought “ohhrr Hendrix wasn’t that good”, and this is not a lie, a glass window smashed on my head.  It never did any damage but scarred the living daylights out of me.  Jimi Hendrix inspired me to follow through on the Rainbow Bridge and the song that came out of that movie and was also on the album called the Rainbow Bridge was Pali Gap, a beautiful haunting instrumental which few people ever mention.

Jimi Hendrix Youtube video of Voodoo Chile.

Tags: Jimi Hendrix Youtube, Voodoo Chile Youtube, Worlds Greatest Guitarist