GIMME SHELTER RIFF

My favorite moment of the gig on Friday, aside from some incredibly proud moments I had watching my students play, was when I said to Dave Chappell:

"Can you kick off Gimme Shelter? You know, the Keith Lick?"

To which he replied:

"Sure! What key?"

"Nice!" I thought "Now THAT's a PRO!"

The Seminal Whirlies and The Grand Candy had a very fine time celebrating Keith Richards' Birthday on Friday Night with a little help from our friends. Thanks everybody for coming out, even with the threat of the snow-pocalypse looming overhead. Thanks for getting a little shelter from the storm with us.

Here's the opening lick from GIMME SHELTER from The Rolling Stones' great Let It Bleed, the "Fake Last Song" at the show on Friday at Sin-É:



The four bars above are pretty close to what Keith plays on the second pass through the chord changes. He plays each pass subtly differently, but you'll have to listen to that and figure out his subtle voodoo yourself.

It's arranged in several 'Keys'.

Here it is arranged guitar in Open E, Open G, and Standard tuning.

To be able play this song and be able to fake an orchestration of all of the parts on one guitar, I recommend Open E.

I also included a line of acoustic rhythm guitar at the bottom, playing essentially the guiro rhythm from this song. If you're learning this lick and have a buddy who can strum some open chords, have him capo at the ninth fret and strum the chords E, D, and C chords indicated really lightly near the bridge of his acoustic.

Of special note: I notated the Key as C#minor, even though the tonic chord is major in this tune. Every other chord in the song borrows from the parallel minor key, so it made the notation more clear to use the C# minor key signature. "Less accidentals? Less accidents!" I always say.

Here's four more bars, the bit where Keith does his melodic bit in the top voice:

I hope you enjoy playing this riff.

Happy Holidays!

dcguitar.com
Advancing Guitar Lessons:
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DC Guitar Party Update

There is NO COVER for tomorrow night's gig at Sin-E.

Charity Raffle Details:

All proceeds from the raffle will be donated to The National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Raffle tickets are $5 and entitle you to enter the drawing to win a FREE one hour trial lesson ($75 dollar value) with me.

A purchase of four raffle tickets enters you to win the grand prize drawing.
Grand Prize: 3 Months of Beginner Lessons ($600 Value)
Second Prize: 1 Month of Lessons ($200 Value)

For practical reasons, current students are ineligible for a. However, they can enter and gift the lessons to their friends, relatives, etc....

This just in, Dave Chappell Joins The Show:

Exciting news....

The Grand Candy will be augmented by Dave Chappell, one of the finest guitar pickers in the Washington, D.C. area.

Dave is an excellent example of the fine telecaster tradition in this area. His playing harkens to that of one of his mentors, Mr. Danny Gatton. I'm very glad to have him on board so that my students may have an opportunity to hear his fine playing.

DC Guitar Party

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
The First Annual DC Guitar Holiday Party.
Live at Sin-E
8pm, Friday, December 18th

Live Music

No Cover

Charity Raffle



I could find no other occasion more meritorious than the birth of a legend of rock, and a personal favorite of mine: Keith Richards. So we're doing it on his birthday. There will be live music with NO COVER CHARGE.

As a benefit for Breast Cancer, I'll be raffling off about $1200 in FREE guitar lessons for the Holidays. I figure Keith would like an event that saves at least half of the things he sings about here. And I know Keith's music has saved the other half of those things for many of us, many times.

Check the update, but here's the rough idea:

1rst Prize: 3 Months of FREE Private Guitar Lessons
2nd prize: 1 Month of FREE Private Guitar Lessons
3rd-5th prizes: 1 FREE Introductory Lesson

As for the live music, my current Jam Class band, The Seminal Whirlies, is going to open the show. In the spirit of lifetime musical growth, I play drums in this band. My students play guitar.

I am pleased to be able to say that another one of my students, Ms.Margot MacDonald, will be dropping by after her gig at the Kennedy Center that night.

At Sin-E, she'll be sitting in with some ladies and gents that call themselves The Grand Candy.

The theme of the evening is Keith Richards self-professed method of songwriting, from the April 1983 issue of Guitar Player Magazine:

The way I write songs is to sit down and play 25 great songs by other people and hope that one of mine drips off the end.

So over the course of the evening, the various musicians assembled will work their way through about 20, possibly even 30 of the songs listed below. As Keith is 66 (heh heh!) this year, here are 66 songs that might qualify for the event:

1. All You Need Is Love The Beatles
2. Beast of Burden The Rolling Stones
3. Born Under A Bad Sign Albert King
4. Brown Sugar The Rolling Stones
5. Cry Cry Cry Johnny Cash
6. Dead Flowers The Rolling Stones
7. The First Cut Is The Deepest Cat Stevens
8. Gimme Shelter The Rolling Stones
9. Hallelujah Leonard Cohen
10. Happy The Rolling Stones
11. Happy Christmas (War is Over) John Lennon
12. Have Love, Will Travel Richard Berry
13. Hideaway Freddie King
14. I Hear The Bells Mike Doughty
15. I Saw Her Standing There The Beatles
16. Johnny B. Goode Chuck Berry
17. Jumping Jack Flash The Rolling Stones
18. Just Like A Woman Bob Dylan
19. Lawyers, Guns and Money Warren Zevon
20. Legs ZZ Top
21. Mind Your Own Business Hank Williams
22. Mississippi Bob Dylan
23. Mysterious Ways U2
24. Not Fade Away Buddy Holly
25. Rock And Roll Music Chuck Berry
26. Roll Over Beethoven Chuck Berry
27. Satisfaction The Rolling Stones
28. She Took A Lot of Pills Robbie Fulks
29. Sunshine of Your Love Cream
30. Trenchtown Rock Bob Marley
31. Tumbling Dice The Rolling Stones
32. While My Guitar Gently Weeps The Beatles
33. Wild Horses The Rolling Stones
34. You Can’t Always Get What U Want The Rolling Stones

The First Cut IS the deepest.

Songs Eliminated on 12/11:

1. Brass In Pocket The Pretenders
2. Don't Think Twice It's Alright Bob Dylan
3. Expresso Love Dire Straits
4. Let’s Have A War Fear
5. Loving Cup The Rolling Stones
6. The Way Fastball
7. (They Call It) Stormy Monday T-Bone Walker
8. Stop Your Sobbing Kinks / Pretender
9. Too Much Monkey Business Chuck Berry
10. You Shook Me All Night Long AC/DC
11. Sultans of Swing Dire Straits

Eliminated on 12/14:

1. Looking Out My Back Door CCR
2. Louie, Louie Richard Berry
3. Love Song The Cure
4. Mannish Boy Muddy Waters
5. Memphis Chuck Berry

Eliminated on 12/16:

1. Can't Buy Me Love The Beatles
2. Fairy Tale of New York The Pogue
3. Golden Years David Bowie
4. Instant Karma John Lennon
5. It’s Only Rock And Roll The Rolling Stones
6. It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me Billy Joel
7. Little T & A The Rolling Stones
8. Live With Me The Rolling Stones
   
   

Eliminated on 12/17:

1. Can't Buy Me Love The Beatles
2. You Got The Silver The Rolling Stones
3. Walking On The Moon The Police
4. (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding Nick Lowe
5. Suspicious Minds Elvis Presley
6. Should I Stay or Should I Go The Clash
7. Spoonful Willie Dixon
8. Pour Some Sugar On Me Def Leppard
9. Money (That’s What I Want) Barrett Strong (Motown)

Over the next week the list will be edited, and starting next Music Monday (Yo ho ho: #mm) the list will be whittled down to a manageable size via Twitter.

Keep up with the setlist changes on Twitter:
Follow @diddleybow

Then come join me at my neighborhood bar for a fun evening on Friday the 18th.

dcguitar.com
Advancing Guitar Lessons:
Washington, D.C.
Professional Musical Fun
for Beginners and Beyond

The Reggae One Drop Rhythm

Another name for the beat in Reggae is 'One Drop'. In this beat, the strong beat is beat three, as opposed to beat one. The first beat is 'dropped'. Hence the term 'One Drop'.

Here's a great example of a One Drop rhythm. Check out the nasty groove created by drummer Carlton "Carly" Barrett and bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett on Bob Marley's "Trenchtown Rock" from Bob Marley Live!

Here I've created a simple interpretation of that groove for a three piece rhythm section:




Bass: The bass is where the action is in reggae. Check out how the the bass line 'drops the one' on every measure except the last one. Amazing Bass, how sweet the sound indeed!

Guitarists: this is two rhythm parts compressed into one for a trio setting. Usually this guitar part would appear as two separate rhythm instrument parts. One instrument playing only the legato strong beat on beat three, the other playing the staccato 'back beat' on beats two and four.

Also, take note of the voice leading in the upper voices of the guitar chords. It really makes the chord progression perk up.

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Turn The Beat Around

Turning the beat around, or Rhythmic Displacement is an excellent way to spice up your rhythm guitar playing. Here is a simple illustration of what it is, and how you can practice turning a simple beat around.



This example is a basic country two-beat. In the pickup bar, we have the typical 'bomp bomp bomp' country music pickup notes. They are a means of signifying the end of a musical phrase, or the beginning of the next musical phrase. You can also signify the end of a phrase with more funk by using rhythmic displacement.

The first full line is a four bar phrase. Three bars of A, followed by one of E. The rhythm played in the bass is identical in every bar. As you play it, simply notice how the change to an E chord punctuates the end of the four bar phrase.



In the last bar of the second line, the bass note on beat three is displaced an eighth note early, and placed on the 'and' of beat two. This leaves you a rest, or 'empty beat' on beat three. In India they call this empty beat the Khali. Practice this phrase over and over until you can play it smoothly. Enjoy how the rhythmic 'balance' gets upset by the new rhythm, but don't lose your balance:



Now we aren't only using harmony to punctuate the phrase, we are using rhythm. Funky!

The third full line, measures 9-12, are the same rhythm as the last line, however the low E is sustained through beat three. Still funky, but it feels a little different without that empty beat on three. Try it:



Finally, as a contrast, and for those of you who are uncomfortable with the funk, here's the four bar phrase with the typical country pickup notes rounding out the last bar. No funk whatsoever:



Now go on and get funky!

dcguitar.com
Advancing Guitar Lessons:
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Follow me on Twitter: @diddleybow

Jam Class, Mother Funker!!!

One of the things I do in addition to private guitar lessons in Washington, D.C., is a rock band class for adults called 'Jam Class'.

Students bring out their electric guitars to the Mid-Life-Crisis Center and rock out together. We rehearse classic rock material in a studio with amps, drums, and a P.A.

Rock on!

This class is specifically for adult students who are tired of playing rock band video games and want to actually play rock music in an ensemble setting.

As it takes place well after bedtime on school nights, I was going to call it 'Adult Jam Class'. I was hoping for the 'Adult Swim' connotation, however, I started getting too many emails with unsavory pictures attached. So, now I'm just calling it 'Jam Class', Mother Funker.

Here are the tunes we've rehearsed in Jam Class this fall or are planning to rehearse in the next few weeks:

Born Under A Bad Sign - Albert King
Cry Cry Cry - Johnny Cash
The First Cut Is The Deepest - Cat Stevens via Sheryl Crow
Have Love, Will Travel - Richard Berry, via the Black Keys
Hideaway - Freddie King
Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
Looking Out My Back Door - CCR
Louie, Louie - Richard Berry
Mind Your Own Business - Hank Williams
Mississippi - Bob Dylan
Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
She Took A Lot of Pills (And Died) - Robbie Fulks
Should I Stay or Should I Go - The Clash
Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
(They Call It) Stormy Monday - T-Bone Walker
You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC


Drop me an email if you'd like to check out a Jam Class sometime and learn how to Jam! Make sure and ask me to sing the 'Jam Class' jingle for you. It's a doozie!

dcguitar.com
Advancing Guitar Lessons:
Washington, D.C.
Professional Musical Fun
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Hey Jude Flow Chart

Brought to you by the good people at I Love All This:



I do love that. I'll try to be back with some more guitar advice soon....

dcguitar.com
Advancing Guitar Lessons:
Washington, D.C.
Professional Musical Fun
for Beginners and Beyond

Follow me on Twitter: @diddleybow

Aerosmith's Famously Displaced Riff:Walk This Way

Ever since getting the 'Fever' for rhythmic displacement I've been thinking about its place in popular riffage.

Here's another example of rhythmic displacement in a simplified version of Aerosmith's glorious 'Walk This Way' riff.

Once again, four staves, as in this post.



The first two measures make up a very un-funky version of the riff, simply to demonstrate how the the riff would sound if the second iteration of the sequence of four notes were not displaced to a very funky place: the second sixteenth note of beat two.

Play it safe with the first two measures, then make it funky with the second two measures.

Rock on!

dcguitar.com
Advancing Guitar Lessons:
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Bass Displacement: "Fever" by Peggy Lee

Hearing "Fever" at Starbucks this morning, I thought: that bass intro is a very simple, elegant example of rhythmic displacement.

So I tweeted a diddley tab.

Only so much you can do with 140 characters, so here's a little expansion:



First line: Musical Notation
I've transposed to Am for ease of use. Capo I to hear in Bbminor. Or transpose it yourself. It's good exercise.

Check out the rhythmic displacement of the first measure in the second measure. In the first measure, C is played on beat 3. In the second, it's displaced one eighth note early, and played on the and of two. The syncopation is given added kick at the end of measure 3, as the melody resolves to the tonic on the last upbeat of the bar, anticipating the downbeat of measure 4.

The Second Line is diddley tab:
One string only. Remember, Capo I to hear in the recorded key of Bb Minor. BbMinor??? Rassa-frassin' Horn keys!

The Third Line is an open position fingering:
This fingering would work well when accompanying a singer. You could ornament the bass line with some hybrid picking and make it sound great!

Fourth Line is 'Lead Guitar' Fingering:
Up an octave for an example of a 'lead guitar' fingering. Doubling the bass player could sound really cool on this. This is still notated with capo I, so be careful if you choose to interpret the articulation marks in the third measure of music as bends. Sliding is more capo friendly. Once you've got the idea, ditch the capo, tweak the fingering, and let 'er rip.

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Advancing Guitar Lessons:
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Explore The Fretboard: Wipe Out!

Playing on one string, diddley bow style, can teach a guitarist quite a bit about melody. Moving these melodies onto different groups of two and three strings can help a guitarist learn quite a lot about the fretboard.

In order to learn something about this, here are the first four bars of "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris. There are four lines of notation. Each line is a different guitar fingering of the same melody:



The first line is musical notation.

The second line is the same melody, tabbed for one string. (Diddley Tab, y'all!)

The third line is the same melody, tabbed across the A, D, and G strings. This is similar to the way most rock guitarists would play this famous riff. As you play this, notice how as the melody is transposed, the fingering shape is transposed exactly. You just move the riff around, fingering roughly the same way.

The fourth line can teach you a lot about one of the open mysteries of guitar fingerings, as it moves the melody across the D, G and B strings.

The fretboard shape of a melody changes when that melody is moved from any other pair of strings to being played on the G and B pair.

The fourth line of notation moves the melody to a fingering on the G and B strings at the end of bar 4. You will notice as you play this, that your fingers make a different shape as you play the end of the fourth bar, into the 5th and 6th bars. This new 'fingering shape' is repeated in the 9th and 10th bars.

Things are somehow different when we play on the G and B strings. We know this from tuning the guitar. As in the diagram to the right, all of the other string pairs are tuned 'five frets apart'. However, the G and B pair is tuned 'four frets apart'. This makes playing over these strings a special case. Improvisors take note!

Here is the entire 'form' for of the 12 Bar Blues type riff for Wipeout:

First four bars:



Second four bars:



Third four bars:



Rock and repeat!

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It Might Get Loud, Pt. 3: The Edge Brings It All Back Home By Reigning In The Wankery

There's a scene in It Might Get Loud where they cut to a version of Spinal Tap playing 'Big Bottom'.

The Edge describes his unusual reaction to the hilarious This Is Spinal Tap: he wept. It struck too close to the bone.

And let's face it, it's true. The director and the players in this film are all too tactful to touch it, but really, Spinal tap wasn't all that far from, um, the ridiculous outfit to the right of this text.

But it wasn't just style, according to Edge. It was substance, too.

Edge says something to the effect that the 10 minute guitar solo is too often just pure self indulgence, and he didn't want to go down that well trodden road. It's never stated, but it's true: Page is the original God of Wank.

I don't mean to suggest that his solos are wankery. Far from it. Page is a formidable composer. And composers, for my money, are the most interesting improvisors, because they have command of the most Seminal Whirly of all: Melody.

Jimmy Page's rock soloing is genius. However, the problem of any form of worship isn't usually the God or even his iconography. It's the Idolators.

These days, I guess you could say it's the American Idolators. But I digress.

I'm merely trying to say that the problem wasn't Page, per se, as much as it was his legions of imitators and followers. And they weren't just imitating his riffs. They were imitating his self indulgence.

With Page's dominance, suddenly blues-rock is the DE FACTO sound of the 70's. Everything is covered in wet, drippy blues noodling. Yuk. The opposite of cool.

So Edge's style came as a reaction to this rococo, whirly, noodly style.

However, by Edge's own admission, at the time U2 made their first record, Edge sucked. He could not shred. There was no way he could compete in WPM! (That's Whirlies Per Minute) But the punk aesthetic allowed him to turn this weakness into a powerful asset.

Here's the funny thing: Edge is candid about the fact that when his seminal band started, none of the players in the group could play. AT ALL. The scenes of Edge at the high school where U2 met and formed are charming and telling. Unlike Page, who started Zeppelin at 25 years of age, David Howell Evans was 15 when U2 started in 1976.

If you listen closely his words and his playing, Edge prides himself not on axe slinging, but on creating new sounds, and on serving the emotional needs of the song. He makes no claims to any shred cred. It's exactly opposite the point.

Check out this amusing clip where he lampoons his own 'cool new riff':

Indeed, Edge is definitely responsible for taking the anti-wank aesthetic of Punk to a whole new musical level. However, I don't particularly find his claim that 'he could hear ways to use [echo] that no one had used it before' to be particularly compelling, as David Gilmour and Andy Summers had already explored a lot of the echo territory that Edge claims to invent in the latter part of this clip:

Edge's greatest gift? There's no one in music more capable of creating varied and powerful emotional landscapes than the Edge.

Check out this Video of Edge's tech, Dallas Schoo, explaining how Edge uses his massive effects collection. He says that Edge rarely re-uses a sound or tone. His rig looks like something that should be in an airplane cockpit:

When you see the pile of technology that Edge has collected over the years in order to conjure his electronic voodoo , it's no wonder someone would arrive on the scene in a few years with the idea of paring it down to the essentials. Enter Jack White, in Pt. 4

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Diddley Tweet @ John Mayer

Playing on one string can really heighten your melodic sense. Hence my love for the Diddley Bow.

I composed this Diddley Bow Riff in Twitter, using the Diddley Tab Rules 1.0. Since I envisioned it as a sixteenth note funk type riff, I sent it to John Mayer for fun. Hence the name, 'Tweet John Mayer'.

Here is the Text of the original Tweet:

@johncmayer 1 Measure 16/16ths in Amin. Make it Funky! ||:5-.5.Q.ML'K'L.8\73-:|| Peep my tweets re: Diddley Tab Rules 4 Secret Decoder Ring.

Tweet John Mayer.

That sounds naughty.

The 'Twitter Diddley Tab Code' here for one measure of 4/4 in sixteenth notes is this bit:

||:5-.5.Q.ML'K'L.8\73-:||

Here is staff notation and tablature of that tweeted measure, to help crack the Twitter Diddley Tab code, along with the decoder ring.




Playing up and down on one string does heighten your melodic sense, but it's often awkward technically.

As a bonus, the second measure gives you a practical fingering for playing the melody across the strings. Apologies, I didn't include the articulation markings in the second measure. However, if you play it both ways, you will easily sound it out.

Rock on, Rockin' Robin!

dcguitar.com
Advancing Guitar Lessons:
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New! FREE One String Guitar Tabson Twitter: @DIDDLEYBOW

Daily Guitar Tabs And Other Updates.
One String at a Time:

In a quest worthy of Don Quixote, I'm interested in presenting Diddley Bow tablature on Twitter. Why? Why not?

It seems that the secret is saving characters. So, music, on twitter, starts to look like a code you would get out of a cereal box or the back of a comic book. FUN!

Here is the secret decoder ring, so far.

Diddley Tab Rules:

Time Signatures:

Each character in Twitter will indicate one musical subdivision.

So you have to indicate the smallest subdivision you wish to employ in a melody:

For example. 4/4, could be written either below:

If I indicate 16/16, that means sixteen sixteenth notes per measure.
If I indicate 8/8, eight eighth notes. Etc.

Durational Characters:
Each durational character indicates time, one subdivision at a time. The subdivision level and number of subdivisions is given in the time signature.

NOTES:
Notes are indicated by Fret numbers. First, numbers 0-9, and letters for frets 10 and up.
Fret 10=J, Fret 11=K, Fret 12=L. Etc.

MORE NOTES:
Other durational characters are the period and the dash.
A period (.) signifies a rest of one musical subdivision.
A dash (-) indicates a held note of one musical subdivision.

A WHOLE BAR (REPEAT):

The percent symbol (%) indicates playing the last whole measure again.

Non durational characters:
These characters do NOT indicate any passage of time.
BARLINES:
A bar line looks like this: |
A repeat sign looks like this: ||: :||
To save characters, a repeat sign may look like this: |: :|


SLURS:
A single quotation (') indicates a slur. either a hammer on or a pull-off, determined by the direction of the melody.
A slash (/) indicates a slide up.
A backslash (\) indicates a slide down.

That's not all folks!

I'm wrestling with Sibelius right now, but I will be back with some more musical examples to help this make sense of this.

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Beginner Lesson:Individual Chord Practice

Before beginner guitarists can learn how to change chords, they must learn to make chords automatically from muscle memory. In my lessons, I refer to this as 'Individual Chord Practice'. Here are four chord shapes to practice.



Start with the Em chord grip above, and follow these instructions to practice your muscle memory:

1) Form the G chord grip as it is shown in the diagram above.

2) Sound each string of the guitar by playing a rest stroke to the next string. This way you can hear whether each string is sounding, and whether or not that individual string is muted or is buzzing.

3) Adjust your fingers so that each of the strings is ringing clearly. Find a friend or a teacher to help you with this. Model your hands on those of your favorite players. Most importantly: make small adjustments. Go slowly.

4) Release the pressure of your fingers on the strings. But DO NOT REMOVE them. Leave them in contact with the strings.

5) Re-apply pressure to the strings and repeat the above instructions x15.

Once you are able to reliably recreate clear sounding chords, step # 4 changes:

1) Form the G chord grip as it is shown in the diagram above.

2) Sound each string of the guitar by playing a rest stroke to the next string. This way you can hear whether each string is sounding, and whether or not that individual string is muted or is buzzing.

3) Adjust your fingers so that each of the strings is ringing clearly. Find a friend or a teacher to help you with this. Model your hands on those of your favorite players. Most importantly: make small adjustments. Go slowly.

4) Let go of the strings while continuing to hold the chord shape in the air, as if you are mime-ing the chord. Let go of the strings, but only let your fingers travel about an eighth of an inch from the strings. As you get better at this, increase the distance. As always, the 3x correct rule is a good idea.

5) Re-apply pressure to the strings and repeat the above instructions x15.

Repeat the above practice with each of the four chords above. As that gets better, you are ready to work on chord transitions.

Now go play some guitar!

dcguitar.com
Advancing Guitar Lessons:
Washington, D.C.
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It Might Get Loud, Pt. 2: Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page was the first of the icons in this movie to forge a new style positioning himself against what was happening musically around him.

After cutting his teeth playing skiffle and then blues in the early 1960's, Page spent years establishing himself as a session guitarist. His game changing musical statement, Led Zeppelin, was formed as a direct reaction against the direction he found his recording sessions taking. The music was becoming, in his words: "too muzak."

As a response to music he found increasingly emotionally tepid, Page turned up the heat. Guitar gearhounds will love Page's account of his first overdrive / sustainer. Check out the look of absolute delight on the faces of Edge and White watching Page:



Page founded an explosive troupe of musicians that redefined the term bombast for a whole new generation of musicians. The Blues shouts these Yardbirds had copped from the mouths of Mississippians were now breaking through levees into massive adolescent tantrums. (One of the best scenes in this film shows exactly where that track's drums were recorded. Amazing! Worth the price of admission alone.)

Zeppelin's blues-based whisper to scream aesthetic became the de facto rock and roll blueprint. See Aerosmith, Guns n' Roses, Jane's Addiction, etc., etc., etc. for details.

Check out how Stephen Davis cartoon-ishly describes the omnipotence of Zeppelin in America in the 1970's in the opening sentence of Watch You Bleed, his new Guns n' Roses biography:

And as Led Zeppelin floated over America in the seventies, its shadow darkened the country's heartland the deepest.

It's true! Zeppelin and their acolytes became so omnipresent, its very ubiquity destroyed its meaning. The music was massive, but it began to feel less emotionally direct... almost... like... Muzak? Dare I say it lost its Edge? Ohh.... sorry!

David Evans, according to It Might Get Loud, was about to bring it back.

Coming soon, in part 3 of this piece.

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Advancing Guitar Lessons:
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