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Jazz Guitar Harmony by Jody Fisher (book)

10 September 2010

I love chords. Love ‘em, love ‘em, love ‘em! I’m one of “those” guitar players that gets off on hearing great guitar rhythm playing/comping than a great solo. Especially in regards to jazz, comping and playing the right notes and chord voicings is where it’s at. There is nothing like hearing a new chord underneath [...]

The Rock Lock is Like a Ninja Bodyguard For Your Guitar

9 September 2010

3 Comments

Every once in a while a product comes along that is at the same time inherently simple in concept and completely brilliant. Products like these have always lingered in the “wouldn’t it be cool if…” parts of our subconscious, but for one reason or another never poked its way through to the “hey, we should [...]

Guitar Concepts DVD by Joe Dochtermann

30 August 2010

4 Comments

Joe Dochtermann, author of one of my new favorite books on audio recording and production, was kind enough to send me his new DVD – Guitar Concepts – which is available for purchase on his website. It’s always interesting to look at a person’s sophomore effort after hitting such a huge home run. Kind of [...]

Bye Bye Wooden Acoustic Guitars!

17 August 2010

15 Comments

I think it’s safe to say that there is a stigma attached to non-wooden guitars. Although technology wasn’t ready until recently for an innovation in acoustic guitar design, even if the technology was there 20 years ago the hearts and minds of the people were even less ready. Simply put, acoustic guitars absolutely had to [...]

Les Paul – Live in New York (DVD)

12 August 2010

0 Comments

Every musician, regardless of what instrument you play or what style you like, owes a huge debt to Les Paul. It’s easy to remember him as the namesake for one of the most important guitars in the history of music. It’s somewhat less easy to remember him as the person who created the multi-track recorder. [...]

IK Multimedia’s Amplitube and iRig

10 August 2010

15 Comments

In just about every way I’m totally stoked about IK Multimedia’s Amplitube, an amp modeling program that you can use on your iPhone and/or iPad. Several times a week before my martial arts class I have about an hour to kill. Some days I study Thai, but other days I take my small beat-around Squier [...]

The Most Infuriating Guitar Product, Ever!

4 August 2010

35 Comments

I’ve been trying to keep to my normal blogging schedule lately. Typically, Wednesdays I take a break from Fretterverse and work on my other blog. But I came across something that annoyed me so deeply, we’re talking on a visceral level, that I couldn’t just let it go for even one more day. Yes, my [...]

The Great Capo Caper

3 August 2010

5 Comments

A capo is a device that attaches to the neck of your guitar and essentially acts like another finger so you can play complicated fingerings more easily. Many singer-songwriters use them so they don’t have to fumble around with awkward chord voicings while singing. The most common capo is, of course, the standard six-string capo [...]

Jazz Guitar Comping – Andrew Green (Book)

2 August 2010

0 Comments

Any and all guitar players should be concerned with their rhythm playing. Concerned in the sense that it’s just as important (if not more so) than being great at soloing. I have always been much more impressed with the ability of guitarists to play with the band rather than how well they stand out. Especially [...]

Meisel COM-90 Clip-On Electronic Tuner

27 July 2010

2 Comments

Having a good tuner is a must. I think we can all agree that there is nothing worse than a guitar player whose guitar is out of tune. When I first started learning jazz guitar (still learning…) I went on this mad search for the be-all clip-on tuner to use with my jazz box. It’s [...]