Category: Music
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A pounding hard bop record caught my attention in a café one time. The sax player was wailing away on a repeated figure and I thought, “Ah, there’s someone playing Jimmy Page’s favorite lick again.” If you listen closely to this tune, after around the three minute mark, sax player Joe Henderson will actually…
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Two Thousand Sixteen has been a crazy year. But my version of it took a huge upswing when I got the chance to work with my former guitar student Andrea Fischman on her new recording with her group, Mancie. There were a few songs that needed lead guitar, and Andrea gave me the call. I…
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If you’ve ever played some of the licks in “Wind Cries Mary” or “Melissa,” you’ve played major pentatonic licks. But students often ask me to explain the theory behind this major mode application of the minor pentatonic scale. It’s quite simple, but there are still a few ins and outs that can help your…
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My search for Robert Johnson goes on like all the rest of us. It started years ago when I was in my early teens. I read a Johnny Winter interview where he said, “If you want to play rock and roll, you’ve got to listen to some Robert Johnson, B.B. King, and Jimi Hendrix.” I…
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The first I ever heard of Frank Zappa was when he was name-checked in the 1972 Deep Purple anthem, “Smoke on the Water.” There was already a little bit of a backlash building against the song in the mid-seventies, but to my ears, I just wanted to know who this guy was who was so…
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Rocking out in the dark confines of American Trash While crowds thronged the beaches of the world and the Olympics thankfully came to a peaceful and safe conclusion, Saints & Sinners have been not-so-quietly going about our business. We’ve been tightening up our repertoire and preparing for to go into the studio in the fall…
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I was fourteen going on fifteen, and my friends Mike Jett on drums and John Przedpelski on bass and I played in a tiny attic room on the third floor of Mike’s house in Forest Hills, where we all grew up. Mike somehow crammed his brand new, six piece Ludwig black pearl drum set in…
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The jury may have finished with Jimmy Page for the moment, but the Zepmeister must certainly enjoy a chuckle from time to time knowing that one of his greatest sources may never be revealed: Earl Hooker. That’s right – the music for the track “You Need Love,” by Muddy Waters was not actually written…
On Practicing Guitar 