Rig for “Not Fast Enuff” cover band

I’ve been rehearsing with a new cover band for a while now. As our setlist developed, we gravitated toward a hard rock sound. This shaped my decisions about the gear I’m using with this band. For some other recent projects, I’ve been using smaller tube amps (mainly a Peavey Delta Blues or a Fender Blues Junior), running the amp clean and using pedals for overdrive and distortion. But in this case, doing the cover scene, I know we’ll play a lot of smaller stages. And, I’ll need a lot of high-gain tone, but won’t need (or want) a lot of volume. So, rather than the tube amps I’ve been using, I decided on the Peavey Bandit 112 for my amp. The Bandit is solid state, but delivers solid clean and high gain tones, and has other useful features like a foot-switchable volume boost and a keep-it-simple direct out.

In advance of our first gig tomorrow night, I also picked up a new pedalboard. I anticipate doing a lot of gigs with this band, so I wanted to do a board tailored to the sounds we’re after. Pre-input, I have a Jim Dunlop volume pedal (with the Boss tuner hooked up to the “tuner out”) and a Morley “Bad Horsie” wah. Through the effects loop, I’m going with the Boss Giga Delay and the Line 6 Modulation Modeler. As this is a cover band, I wanted to have the broadest palette of effects with the fewest pedals. The Giga Delay is programmable, and has the useful feature of toggling between two delays. I generally have a short delay on, and use a longer delay for solos. The Line 6 offers a nice array of choruses, flanges, phasers and tremolo. Those two pedals easily cover the ground of six “single” stompboxes. In all, I’ve got a good range of sounds for this band, with the simplest setup (and lightest-to-lug amp) I think I could get away with.

To mount everything, I picked the Pedaltrain Pro, which is simple, has plenty of room for the layout I’m using (with room for future expansion), and a nice sturdy gig bag.

Here’s a look at the Pedaltrain Pro:

Here’s the board loaded up, ready for tomorrow’s gig:

Though I’m always looking for possible improvements, I think this setup will work well for this project for the foreseeable future. If we book some events in bigger rooms, I will be tempted to mount a wireless on there, though!

NOT FAST ENUFF featured in the Toledo Blade

NOT FAST ENÜFF is a cover band I’ve been rehearsing with since spring. The personnel are Rob Distel (vocals, formerly of Backseat Fare), Mike Toth (percussion, also of Nine Lives), and Chad Sin (bass, also of Nine Lives). We’re doing a fun selection of covers (classic, 80’s, modern, country, rap/R&B) with a hard rock edge. With months of rehearsal behind us, we’re starting to book gigs, with dates into mid-2015. In advance of our first outing later this month, we’re promoting the band at every opportunity. Mike is our marketing guru, and his promotional piece de résistance was landing us this write-up in the Toledo Blade:

Paramore “Still Into You” guitar lesson

Posted a new video lesson on YouTube today! I learned this new Paramore single for a cover band I joined recently. Most of my lessons so far have focused on fingerstyle and acoustic sounds, so I thought I’d shift gears with a straight-ahead rock tune. “Still Into You” uses drop-D tuning, where the low E string is tuned down a whole-step to D. As we’ll see, this tuning not only gives us a low open D for riffing, but also opens up some cool five-note powerchord voicings. There are also some interesting layered guitar1/guitar2 parts in the verse and bridge. Enjoy!

Hunter Hayes “I Want Crazy” guitar lesson

Posted a new video lesson this morning! This week I take a look at the new Hunter Hayes single “I Want Crazy.” There are other videos on YouTube (and elsewhere) covering the rhythm guitar, which is relatively straightforward. So, I decided to focus on the main theme, which initially appears the intro, then after the first chorus (1:13) and again in the outro (3:19). The theme is a challenging lick utilizing triplets, swung 8th notes, hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides. Throughout, the theme has a Celtic dance feel to it, and is fun to play (especially at or near album tempo)!

This is a good example of a phrase where metronome practice is invaluable. Learn each phrase, and be very conscious of choosing a specific picking pattern and fingerings (you don’t necessarily have to use my fingerings from the video, but pick a fingering and stay with it). Find a tempo, no matter how slow, that you can play each phrase in proper time with the metronome. With enough repetition, you’ll be able to gradually increase the tempo until you reach performance speed.

A PDF of the lesson (standard notation and tab) is available here.

“Sunglasses at Night” guitar lesson

Posted a new video lesson today! Now that the basic website is up and running, I plan to post at least one new lesson every week.

This is part of my series of lessons on strategies for playing piano riffs on guitar. Previously, we’ve looked at various ways (capo, alternate tunings, loop pedal) to copy piano parts note-for-note. Here, we’ll take a different perspective. Sometimes, a keyboard part may sound a bit sparse on guitar. This is where arranging techniques are useful.

Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” is a great example of this. In the recording, the keyboard part is dramatic and effective, but sounds thin on a solo acoustic guitar. Using the keyboard riff as a starting point, we’ll utilize the implied underlying harmony to arrange a nice classical-style arpeggio figure.

The second half of the lesson covers improvising over the changes. The main chord progression is Amin – D9/F# – F – F/G. Three of these chords sound in the key of A minor (no sharps, no flats). The second chord is a D dominant sound (D – F# – A – C – E), which sits a bit outside the key of A minor. No worries, I’ll show you a simple way to alter the A minor pentatonic scale to improvise over D7.

I’ll be happy to respond to any questions or comments!

Enjoy!

Saturnine Hello @ Frankie’s

Toledo’s Saturnine Hello headlined Frankie’s last night, with opening sets by Toledo’s Sugarboxx and Curbside Beauty from Detroit. Saturnine Hello, active on the Toledo original music scene for more than a decade, is a power trio featuring Robby Nine on lead vocals and lead guitar, Jonny Trash on drums and Mighty Mike on bass. In addition to rhythm section duties, Jonny and Mike also lay down solid backing vocals.

The band’s music is a meaty stew of various influences, most obviously punk, 80’s hair metal and glam, and 90’s (think Smashing Pumpkins). The most impressive aspect of Saturnine Hello’s sound is their ability to project the best features of their influences while shedding the flaws of each genre. Though heavily influenced by punk, frontman Robby Nine’s guitar work goes far beyond chugging powerchords, incorporating interesting chord voicings, ambient sounds and pitch-shifting effects, at times reminiscent of Tom Morello. Bassist Mighty Mike, rather than simply drone away on root notes, plays cool lines without overplaying or sacrificing a solid groove. Likewise, Jonny Trash eschews excess in favor of maintaining a tight, formidable rhythm section.

A highlight of Saturnine’s set was their intense performance of “Born Dead” from the “Sometimes Galore” LP. This band is more than ready to open for national acts, or headline mid-size venues. It’s troubling that Toledo can’t manage to fill up a small venue like Frankie’s to support a band of this caliber.

Saturnine Hello:

Mighty Mike:

Robby Nine:

The opening acts also brought their A-game. Sugarboxx, fronted by Kevin Mandraken, delivered a high-energy set of 80’s influenced hard rock. Another high point of the evening was Curbside Beauty’s kick-ass set. These guys sound like Buckcherry, if Buckcherry wrote better songs. Don’t miss these guys the next time they’re in town…they’re well worth checking out!

Queensryche in Toledo!

Got a call from my friend Chris earlier this week. He’s a former guitar student, now a working-musician colleague (guitarist, bassist & soundman). Anyways, Chris got a last minute hookup with VIP passes to the 5/31/13 Queensryche show at Toledo Harley-Davidson, and asked if I’d like to check it out.

I accepted, looking forward to a great hang with Chris. Plus, the opening act was Damien, a kick-ass Toledo metal band with Chuck Stohl (one of my first guitar teachers) on lead. Honestly, though, despite being a long-time fan, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about Queensryche, given the recent departure/firing of Geoff Tate. His vocals are huge part of the band’s distinctive sound. Could it still really be Queensryche without Tate fronting the group?

Let me say, my doubts vanished completely after last night. The second song of the set was “Walk in the Shadows,” and vocalist Todd La Torre absolutely crushed it, and the band sounded awesome! The rest of the show was equally impressive, with La Torre in complete command of the material. I’m a Queensryche fan all over again! I’m interested to check out the new album later this month, and see if La Torre has lyric-writing skills to match his voice…

Here’s us meeting the band:

Journey “Don’t Stop Believing” guitar lesson

New guitar lesson up on YouTube…

Break out your looper pedal and learn to play the keyboard parts from this classic Journey tune. This arrangement is perfect for a small ensemble or acoustic setting. Using loops is one way to creatively fill in space, or keep a rhythm part going while you take a solo. Click on the post title to view the video.

Cheers!

“Bad Company” guitar lesson

Posted another lesson on strategies for playing piano riffs on guitar. I’ll show you an acoustic arrangement of the piano parts to “Bad Company.” This lesson also introduces drop D-flat tuning, which is Db – Ab – Db – Gb – Bb – Eb (low to high). Eddie Van Halen uses this tuning in “Unchained,” and Zakk Wylde uses it quite a bit, too. And, as you’ll hear in this lesson, it’s a useful tuning for fingerstyle acoustic as well. Click the post title to view the video.

Enjoy!

Counting Crows “Colorblind” guitar lesson

In this lesson, you’ll learn the note-for-note piano parts to “Colorblind” by Counting Crows. This tune is a great example of how you can use a capo to play high-register arpeggio figures. A PDF of this lesson in standard notation and tablature is available here.

Thanks to my friend Tim Oehlers for the song suggestion! I highly recommend checking out Tim’s guitar compositions here.

Scott Williams

Guitarist – Music Teacher