Lunch Report April 12, 2023

[DanDoulogos]

Lunch report: I had me an A&W Teen burger - takeout. No drink no fries. It was "Okay" in the sense that there were no surprises good or bad.

G&L Topic of the day: Which of your G&L Guitars do you play the most, and why?
For myself, it's my Semi-hollow ASAT Special. I have several of my guitars in cases, but I leave a couple hanging in the living room and a couple in my bedroom. The Special is hanging in my bedroom, and since that is where I am most of the time, it is the one I end up grabbing the most. I often swap which guitars are in the cases, and which ones I leave hanging out on hooks - this I do (half in jest - but only half) because my wife complains if I don't play any particular guitar regularly, then it "isn't being played" and I "may as well sell it". She's only half kidding - but I do like playing all my guitars regularly, and that keeps me going. I keep the special out, because I love the tone, and it weighs less - which matters more as I get older.

Music Topic of the Day: Describe your "improv solo" journey!
I am self taught and have been playing now for 37 years. I started off with a chord chart separated into keys, a 440 tuning fork, and a stapled-in-the-middle-like-a-comic-book Hal Leonard book. It introduced me to some scales and chords as well.

To put it into perspective, I was living on my own, and didn't have any friends who were musicians. Armed with chord charts, and a decent ear, I began to learn songs from the radio. I wasn't very good at it, but after a couple of years I could strum a fair bit of recognizable tunes. It was around then - two or three years after I started playing, that guitar tablature magazines began showing up in stores. I started buying those and learned a bunch of songs that way - but even though I could play a lot of those songs afterwards, it is one thing to play a memorized solo, and quite another to make up something on the spot. I really didn't understand how scales worked over progressions nor did I understand tonal centers or modes or the value of spaces.

Soon after YouTube became a thing - I was able to get way more information that I could comfortably swallow, but I preferred that to the starvation diet I was on. I began to pay attention to the details, why this sounds right, and why that sounds wrong. I also gave up on playing boxed positions, and just worked out a kind of universal scale - which ended up being a lot like the "caged system" - though I never really tied it back to chords - I just began to use the whole fretboard as a matter of course. Yet even after all this, even though I could play an impromptu melody over a progression, I still found that I was very reliant on riffs and various practiced runs. So no matter what song I was playing over, it sounded like I was more or less playing the same few dozen phrases chopped up and mixed around.

I decided that playing fast wasn't for me. I don't get much faster than playing 16th notes at 110 bpm, and when I do it sounds sloppy. I decided that instead of using muscle memory in my fingers to create well trodden phrases - I'd slow it down, and think about what I though would sound good, and see how close I could get to playing that. That went a long way.

One thing I did pick up that really helped me. I heard someone online say that songs are built on chords not solos. That if you want to play a solo, you have to play that solo in the context of the song. So anytime you practice playing scales - you should practice them over chords, with a mind towards reinforcing the tonal center of what you're playing over. The idea was that if you do this, you'll not only get better with your eye-hand coordination - but you'll start thinking musically about what your doing rather than (as I was in the past) just repeating the same old muscle-memory licks over in different orders etc.

I don't think I am an improv master or anything - but I'm no longer embarrassed to take a solo. For me, I wish I had had the opportunities (and the mindset) to take lessons when I was younger. I am sure I would be a much better player today if I had.

Off Topic: Bud light beer... Too soon.

[tomanche]

Thanks, Dan. I'm a bit late, but here goes.

Lunch was quick homemade burritos with sautéed zucchini, carrots, and green pepper, with brown rice, non-dairy cheese, tomatillo salsa, and cabbage.

I think I play my maple-bodied Skyhawk the most—it sounds so great, it plays so well with its nonstandard narrow nut and slim neck—just a handful of fun. (But this evening, I was trying two dirt pedals at a friend's, using the Espada and a recently acquired ASAT Deluxe, and both guitars sounded absolutely tremendous... as did the pedals: Tosin Abasi drive and Andy Timmons drive.)

My improv solo journey: I took lessons for the first 3 years or so, and learned so much and so many styles from my second teacher. He moved, and I thought I could continue on my own. That was a mistake. But I always practiced soloing, improvising, and finding/breaking new patterns and ways of playing. And, I'm attracted to playing melodically. So the idea and motive of improv was baked in to my approach early on.

There were two times when I finally sat down and practiced from books: First, in early '90s, with Segovia's book of diatonic major and minor scales, which vastly improved my finger coordination. Later, in the mid oughts/early teens, working from Mick Goodrick's excellent, deep, long-term resource, The Advancing Guitarist. Learning modes from that really gave me flexibility all over the fretboard and in most keys. So, now I don't sound as if I'm searching/stumbling for that path through the chord changes. I still have so much ground to cover in that book. I still prefer to just pick up and play...

[sam]

A day late but joining in.

Lunch was toasted ham and cheese sandwich on two hawaiian rolls.

Which of your G&L Guitars do you play the most, and why? Lately the favored son is my parts ASAT "Super Jerry". Getting a variety of crispy tones and the whole feel hasn't gone away even after the honeymoon period. G&L CLF 100 Alnico V neck, an overwound ASAT pup (like on ASAT Super), and a 4-way switch



Describe your "improv solo" journey! Can't say I'm much of a solo'er, as Mark Knopfler said, "Mind, he's strictly rhythm, he doesn't want to make it cry or sing". Over the years with some lessons, learning from friends, the obligatory Hal Leonard book, Guitar Player mag, trying to figure out Jerry Garcia/Bob Weir interplay, learning scales, and painstaking pick up the record needle and go back to learn the lines I can proudly say I've acheived mediocrity!

Bud Light.... oh boy now that's a horse of a different color

[mutts]

I had a good size breakfast today so skimped on lunch- just cheese and crackers.

My current "go to" remains the Bluesboy 90 I bought some 8 years ago. I rotate regularly between that and 2 other Asats (plus acoustics) but the BB90 still sees the bulk of my playing time. I've really bonded with this guitar. Love the neck. Good variety of sounds between the two p'ups. Maybe because it's my only alder guitar - it seems to have a beefier/darker tone than my other guitars that I really enjoy right now.

I've been playing some 40 years. Took lessons briefly to start but it was not intensive. I learned from jamming with friends and then as a young adult I played in some bands. At times I tried learning things off records. Mainly it was just about having fun and making some noise. One of the great things about rock- you don't have to be a virtuoso.
I was never good at practicing; playing scales, doing exercises and the like was never something I could do. My skills are pretty average but I never set out to play classical or to be a shredder so it's worked out okay.

Off topic question- there's lots to unpack there! I'll just say my regular drink is a local hard cider.....

[john o]

hey everybody, thx Dan for the lunch report

wednesday was a hellacious day at the day job, i did eat something in the realm of cafeteria mexican food, can't exactly recall what

my G&L that gets the most reps from day to day is my 2007 ASAT special. has the chunky #1 classic C neck which I liken to some of the 50's Fender necks. it's a hand full but not too much. it weighs about 9 lbs, alder body. i sanded the lacquer off the back of the neck, put the ASAT "super" p'up at the bridge, fullerton red/cream pup covers, tort guard. lotsa wear on the fretboard but body in great shape. normally i don't like a gtr this heavy but there is something about this one. It gets these buttery tones yet jangly presence, has the 12 in radius and great action with no buzz. I have gigged with it 3 times and i take it to blues jams and band rehearsals. it doesn't disappoint.

re: improv, i have always thought that playing solos was an important means of expression. i'm self taught on gtr starting at age 14 using a small Kay acoustic and a mel bay chord book, but i took 5 years of classical piano starting at age 6, and got into brass/trombone/baritone at 10, so by the time i hit 14 i had 8 yrs of musical training, could read in both clefs and at least had some background. growing up in the 70's was great as a guitarist cause there was so much amazing music around on fm radio, and i had already spent alot of time with beatles records. my brothers played drums and bass so from the beginning i had other good musicians to play with regularly. No gtr lessons per se but a friend showed me the "barre chord" and that opened my eyes to many things, and another friend gave me a slide rule that showed the 5 patterns for pentatonic minor and major scales up and down the neck and that really opened my eyes. Another friend showed me the Mickey Baker jazz book and i learned a bunch of "jazz" chords from that (Robben Ford says he used this one too). Since then Pat Metheny's music turned me onto chromatics and phrasing, Jerry Garcia (slip knot), John Scofield and Robben Ford have turned me onto diminished scales and arpeggios, also "altered" scales using flat/sharp 5's and 9's and i spend some time regularly now trying to figure out how to integrate some of these ideas into solo lines that sound good and tell a story. It's a journey, and it's about expression.

bud lite? great commercials! ("an autumnal mead" ). i prefer Miller Lite