Lunch Report, Friday March 19, 2010

[shawn500]

YEAH IT"S FRIDAY!!

Anyone gigging tonight??
We're playing a church fair. Should be fun. I hope the weather holds out as it's an outdoor gig.

So....let's talk music for a second.

What are your thoughts on the future of music?

I usually don't listen to the radio. The stations here are either pop music, 80's and 90's hits, oldie stations or new country. LSU has a really good station, and a local high school has a station that mainly plays blues and jazz. As far as what I hear in popular music, it's pretty much a wasteland. I think there's good stuff out there, but you have to dig for it more now than in the past.

Any thoughts on why this is? Is it that the general public's tastes have gotten so bad that stuff like Lady GaGa is considered great music, or is it that people just lap up the plastic, commercialized pap because they are unaware of better music that's out there? On any given night, I can hit any number of venues and hear local bands that are 10 times better than most of what is on the radio these days. Why aren't agents knocking down their doors?


Ok....what else?

G&L Content - What G&L would you most like to see recieve the "return" treatment? X-Bodies interceptors??? G-200??? of some other classic model?

The poll today related to hand and wrist issues. Anyone that answered in the affirmative care to share any advice or exercise tips for dealing with hand problems??


Lunch today? Gotta run some errands, so probably eat at Subway or someplace in the fast food realm. Nothing exciting, I'm afraid.

Thanks to all that participated this week! Looking forward to Jazzrat's tenure as L.R.

Knock 'em dead!

[jazzrat]

Whoh!....this is a pertinent poll. As I type, I'm wearing a splint after carpal tunnel surgery last week. I had the right wrist done a couple years ago so I knew what to expect. This one is healing well and stitches come out Tue. Can't wait to play.
Turns out my hand and wrist pain is not so much repeated stress as a complication of an immune system problem I have. Long story short I get arthritis type symptoms
in my tendons and since I use my hands at work and at play the symptoms are the worse there.

If you are having trouble(pain, numbness, tingling) SEE Somebody! There are lots of less invasive paths than surgery if you catch it early, such as vitamin therapy, massage, acupuncture etc. What DOES NOT work according to my physical therapist is playing through the pain or doing strength exercises while you are in pain.

Music, I think will continue to evolve. Just when I think I've heard it all somebody posts a clip and I get inspired all over again. Now...whether you can make money at it...that's another question.

G & L reissues.....have to say, I personally prefer the newer designs

Lunch today....and I may have to turn in my man card for this...leftover California Spinach salad with chicken, mandarin oranges, cranberrys, cashews and tomato vinaigrette dressing. My saving grace may be the sack of cookies I had at break time!

[shawn500]

Lunch today....and I may have to turn in my man card for this...leftover California Spinach salad with chicken, mandarin oranges, cranberrys, cashews and tomato vinaigrette dressing. My saving grace may be the sack of cookies I had at break time!

Nah....that sounds good!
Sounds similar to something the missus makes.

[shawn500]

About the hands, check this out: http://www.billymclaughlin.com/biography.php

Wow...pretty inspiring!

I have a somewhat similar problem. I was leaving a bar one evening, many sheets to the wind, and I stumbled and fell down a set of stairs. I instinctively put my hands out to break my fall, and sprained both of them. I have had issues ever since. If we do to many shows in a row, it aches really bad. Doctor says it's probably mild arthritis and to take asperin or anti-inflamatories. This seems to help, and I also were a wrist splint from time to time.

[MrRoundel]

Anyone gigging tonight??

Unfortunately not. Someday.

So....let's talk music for a second.

What are your thoughts on the future of music?

Unfortunately, I've seen pictures of, and heard of Lady Gaga. I can only imagine how great she is. Your description as "pap" is almost certainly apt. I think music has disintegrated to the point where it's no longer musical to my ear. The fact that rap, with its angry sound and lyrics, appeals to the younger crowd, I find a bit scary. With so many T.V. commercials using classic rock songs today, when their prime demographic is probably listening to rap, it shows it will have limited staying power as "music". Otherwise, Madison Ave. would be using more rap/hip-hop stuff to sell their stuff. I suppose if Sturm Ruger, Colt, Glock, etc., would have commercials, they'd probably use rap stuff. I believe that rap is more akin to poetry or prose than it is to music. It's like ranting to the sound of an extra-loud metronome. It ain't for me.Bring on the blues, classic rock, jazz, bluegrass. Anything but rap/hip-hop. I guess I'm getting old. Calling rap "music" reminds me of a saying I came up with during a political conversation about 3-4 years ago, "Calling a glove a shoe, doesn't make it fit your foot." I say put a cap in the pap.


G&L Content - What G&L would you most like to see recieve the "return" treatment? X-Bodies interceptors??? G-200??? of some other classic model?

I'd like to see that short-scale, mahogany G-200 back for a special run. That, or a longhorn style Interceptor/Comanche. I dig the X-bodies but don't play well enough to attract the attention it would, similar to why I wouldn't play one of the big metal flake G&L's.

The poll today related to hand and wrist issues. Anyone that answered in the affirmative care to share any advice or exercise tips for dealing with hand problems??

I'm glad that someone realizes that not all hands are created equal. My poll answer of not letting my physical limitations stop me from playing, is partially true, and is related to the distance that my fingernail attachment is to my finger-tip. Because my fingernail attachment comes very close to my fingertip, I have little, if any, fleshy fingertip that extends beyond the nail. All of my fingers are different this way. I cut my nails back as far as possible without experiencing "bamboo-shoot-like" nerve pain from playing. Sometimes I have to wait a day or two to play until the nail grows back a bit. I'm experiencing that right now on my middle finger. The worst offender is my index finger. Due to the fact that my fingernail, on the index finger in particular, contacts the fretboard before I get the string cleanly against the fret, it makes me hold my wrist at an angle. This is mostly true for fretting chords, and not much of an effect on individual note fretting. I'm finding this out recently, as I'm starting to mess with various riffs, after just doing strumming and broken chord fingerpicking until now. I was playing the intro riff this morning on Green River and found that it's not so hard after all. But, I digress.

This bending of my wrist to get cleaner fretting on chords, makes my wrist itself get pain occasionally. I've read that playing through the pain is bad, and found this out once, so I stop pretty quickly if I get the sharp pains in my wrist.

And NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo, I can't just cut my nails shorter. If you even think of saying that ...



Seriously, if all I had to do was cut my nails to play better, I'd friggin' do it. If you think I'm sensitive about this, you're right. I can count, on my good fingers, how many players have said "Just cut your nails shorter". I just came a bit unglued when a friend said this to me the other day. I lament this limitation but realize that I can do things that other players can't. Decent vocals concurrently with finger-picking are some of them. Few have it all, yes?

Great week of L.R. duties, Shawn500!

[darwinohm]

Glad to see you recovered from the fall. Some of us are lucky and get warnings. Others take the final plunge!

Couldn't take the poll as my fingers get numb only when sitting on the couch playing with the neck up high. A bit of Carpal and I am going to get it fixed. I am a life time nerd in the computer industry and that is a common condition.

Our lives are constant change and this is so true in music. It has new styles evolving constantly. I do not like a lot of the new things and same is true of many new hot artists. But, as always, there are some really new artists that are so good!. I look at when Vince Gill, Mark Knopfler, and some of the new guitarists that came along and considering what they were like compared to the artists of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. It is always a new wave going forward. I am very happy when the young people at our gigs have so much fun with the 50s, 60s rock and roll. I think music will survive forever. Good thing we don't live to be 150 as we would all have to learn new music many times over.

As for return G&Ls, mine are all newer than 2000. I really like my new F100 return but it is probably not like the originals. I have several reissue guitars of different brands and I like the new electronics and printed circuit boards as they are generally more reliable than hand wiring. I like tube amps but they require more repair. Having repaired computers for many years I have seen what solid state and PC boards have done. I think new designs in pickups have improved year after year.

Thanks again for the great week Shawn and hope the weather there has been as nice as we in Minnesota have had recently. -- Darwin

[repoman]

What are your thoughts on the future of music?

I don't know why but radio has certainly changed in the past 20 years since I was a kid. Unless you're
listening to college radio then the pop radio is so tied down to a strict formula. There are a ton of great
artists out there that just don't fit the formula so they'll never get any radio play.


As for re-issues, I'd like to see the G200 get another shot. Seems like it has a lot of desirable features.


I've been having some wrist issues since a mountain bike accident a few years ago. Tendon damage
heals slow and the doctor says I've got a touch of arthritis as well. Sucks getting old
Anti-inflamatories help. One of the best thing I did was getting one of those split "natural" keyboards
for the `puter. If you do a lot of typing/computing I'd suggest checking one out. It take a few days
to get used to it but once you do you'll never want to type on anything else.

Jeff

[bassman]

I think one generation has knocked the next generation's music since the beginning of time, but I do worry about what music is becoming today.
Maybe I am just showing my age.

I hear a problem when kids pickup guitars and emulate a-tonal riffs that are popular becasue they are on the latest hit album from whoever.
This is what you hear at Guitar Center over and overagain.

I don't hear most guitarists and bassplayers learning how to play with a good sense of harmony and musical knowledge. Its all about the latest riff, distortion and speed. Bassplayers only know how to slap. As if that 's the only way to play bass. Just don't ask them to play in a different key than E or A and don't ask them to blend in with a band . It all about their unending bass solo. I really wonder if these kids ever get to play with other people?

Rap is a whole 'nother thing, but I think there are enough people who understand that it really is a form of prose and it has limited but a pointed influence on the pop music of today and the last 20 years.

What I see as the legacy of Michael Jackson, for better of worse, is the performance record. By that I mean that some hit songs are more about the dance steps and video shoot than the actual song. His influence made Madonna and Lady Gaga possible.
I personally like Lady Gaga just for the visual impact of her videos. She must spend incredible amounts of money on her extremely creative costumes. Its not really about the music and she does have an incredible imagination.

There songs may never be covered by another artist because the production to do the original was so expensive and the song really doesn't hold up without the visual performance.

But with all that said , there are still singers trying to sing and to get great songs written for them to sing. They just have a harder time finding schooled writers to give them hit songs and skilled bands to front or be part of.

I forget the rest of the questions.

-bassman

[craigb]

The wrist thing. Well I'm a full-time computer geek and that along with bass playing and life in general can cause me problems. My #1 thing is using proper ergonomics on the computer - ergonomic keyboard, using a Kensington Expert Mouse trackball instead of a mouse and making sure I use proper ergonomics (sit up, get the chair & desk heights correct, etc.). My #2 thing is that G&Ls with 1.5" nut width necks (#6 or #8) are the only basses that are comfortable to play as much as I want without any discomfort. So no 5-strings or significant time on uncomfortable basses. It's a pain (literally if I'm not careful) but doing things the correct way keeps it from being a problem.

I also sometimes use these stretches to loosen things up when something else (usually a home maintenance project) has bugged my wrists: http://www.berklee.edu/bt/142/overuse_injuries.html

[shawn500]

I also sometimes use these stretches to loosen things up when something else (usually a home maintenance project) has bugged my wrists: http://www.berklee.edu/bt/142/overuse_injuries.html

Thanks for the link. I spend most of my time at work on the computer, so I have that exacerbating underlying wrist issues. I'll have to try those exercises.

[zapcosongs]

there are still singers trying to sing and to get great songs written for them to sing. They just have a harder time finding schooled writers to give them hit songs and skilled bands to front or be part of.

I forget the rest of the questions.

-bassman

Ha! Bassman, what does a moron who may have (dozens) of nice songs do these days - if he can't play nor sing worth a damn? This is my last thought at the end of each day. If you ever want a chuckle - and an original song or three for one of your bands - look me up. Hell, I'll bring the beer!

As to forgetting the question, I laughed and also wondered "what question?" These young folks think they have the answers, but they don't know the questions either... - ed

BTW, do you know anybody in my neck of the woods who teaches bass to morons? I've got two fine G&L low-end guitars now, and I haven't the foggiest idea of what to do with them - other than wake the kids!

[yowhatsshakin]

The poll today related to hand and wrist issues. Anyone that answered in the affirmative care to share any advice or exercise tips for dealing with hand problems??

Hey Shawn,
First, thanks for the enjoyable LR's! Second, in your poll I was missing this hand affliction that I frequently have. You know, that illness where the fingers of your fretting hand, for reasons unexplained or understandable, end up in some sort of a Gordian knot configuration preventing you from playing fast and elegant. Always take me a while to untie/unravel it all. And I try to avoid the Alexander the Great solution to it all

[zapcosongs]

.fingers of your fretting hand, for reasons unexplained or understandable, end up in some sort of a Gordian knot configuration preventing you from playing fast and elegant..

You're bummed when you're a bit short of "fast and elegant?" Heck. I'd settle for "fundamental but with rudimentary inspiration" any freaking day. Ha! - ed

[yowhatsshakin]

You're bummed when you're a bit short of "fast and elegant?" Heck. I'd settle for "fundamental but with rudimentary inspiration" any freaking day. Ha! - ed

I hear you Ed! But remember, I said 'fast' not 'shredding speed'. Just keeping these appendages out of each others way to avoid musical gridlock (or deadlock in many cases) is victory to me