Liquid Metal Guitars….

Play music is: relationship, soul excercise, therapy & remedy, creativity, communication, human forming, development, friendship. A lot of things we can lose or waste during our lifes, not music.

and this is from a google search ” Why I Play Music”. A little  more formal, but you can see that playing music has all the good things that broccoli has but without the broccoli..

Learning to play a musical instrument offers a lot of benefits. I personally believe that if there’s one thing you should learn in your lifetime, it’ s how to play an instrument. Here are 5 reasons why:

1. Playing A Musical Instrument Makes You Smarter
Many studies have been conducted on the effects of music to the brain. Scientists say that children who are exposed to music, or those who play an instrument, do better in school than those who don’t. Recent research suggests exposure to music may benefit a child’s reading age, IQ and the development of certain parts of the brain. Adults can benefit from learning to play an instrument too because it helps the mind to be alert and remain active eventually helping to sharpen the memory.

2. It Teaches Discipline
Learning to play an instrument is like learning to speak another language and it can be challenging at times. One of the qualities musicians possess is discipline. You have to be disciplined in order to master playing your instrument. You have to set time each day to practice, practice and practice some more.

3. Playing A Musical Instrument Relieves Stress
We all have days when we are so stressed out and we just want to take a break from it all. Have you ever noticed that when you hear soft, soothing music you feel more relaxed? Playing an instrument can do that and more, especially if you’re the one playing. Music is one of life’s simple joys; it helps calm the mind.

4. Sense of Achievement
If you’re a beginner learning to play your first piece, it can be frustrating. But once you’ve mastered it, the satisfaction you’ll feel is priceless. Never mind if it’s just a simple piece, believe me you’ll never forget the first piece you’ve mastered. You are one more step closer to achieving your goal and that is certainly something to be proud of.

5. Playing A Musical Instrument is Fun
Sure it can be a lot of hard work but there is no denying playing an instrument is fun. Once you get better at it, opportunities will arise for you to share your newly learned skill with your family and friends. Who knows, you may also consider playing professionally in the future. Playing a musical instrument opens up a lot of good possibilities that will surely enrich your life.

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I belong to a group in LinkedIN called Guitar Enthusiasts . One of the members posed this question:

Hey …just a quick poll…I’m Curious, In a few sentences, why do you play music? I know we all love it…but what makes you play, rather than listen?

The is a ton of responses, I love reading them ’cause they get it. They get why music, making music, playing music, being in the music business is important to me.

Here are some:

From Robert:

I can’t help it. If some evil someone took my guitars away, I’d string a wire up against the house and play that. If that got taken away, I’d just sing and pretend I’m playing the guitar.

From Alan:

As Liam said, it helps me totally forget about a variety of pressures and it’s just flat out fun! I have built and maintained strong friendships (some lasting 30+ years) with people I jam with. Unlike my other passions (golf and skiing), once you invest in the equipment, all you need is time, not money (provided that you have a single family house to jam in). As I try to explain to my dear wife when she moans about me taking 2-4 hours away from my family to jam (which unfortunately only happens once or twice per month), there could be far worse things I can be doing-I am not out gambling, at go-go bars or have seasons tickets for professional sports teams that I enjoy following (not that there is anything wroing with that either)! When I heard my neighbors playing “Light My Fire” on electric guitar outside in 1970, I realized that is something I wanted to learn!

From Ric:

I’ll actually go days/weeks without listening to other music, just playing the guitar. For me it’s like not being able to eat for a prolonged period of time, when that happens your body craves good (healthy) simple foods. When I don’t listen to anything but my own guitar for awhile, I find myself craving very acoustic, simple tunes.

Then I snap out of it and launch some old Kansas cd’s.

From Dave:

I guess I’ve got what one of my guitar-playing friends calls the “Music Monster.” It’s that thing that hears all the instruments separately – that bass, this perfect squonk on the guitar, different violin sounds, etc. I have to work to hear music as one big thing of sound. You know how sounds have color?? Well, most of our non-musical friends don’t hear colors. Isn’t that weird? When I play I want to make and hear colors. Also, playing is like another language. Some things can’t be said any other way – they don’t translate. Also, I hope it can make me seem a little bit “cooler.” I’m incomplete without playing.

From Stewart:

I too used my guitar wiles to gain the interest of girls when I was a teenager.
It worked for me…most of the time….but that was just a fringe benefit.

From Carla:

It impresses guys as well as girls. In summer I practice on the grass margin out in the parking lot at lunchtime. The maintenance guys sit in their trucks and watch. And I don;t even play very well….

More to come..

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phil Music Guitar, Kansas, LinkedIn, Music, Playing guitar

Here are some cool pics done by Shirlaine Forrest of Lee on the UK leg of their tour. Next Australia and Japan. Check their music out,  damn fine music it is…LostProphets web site

Photo by Shirlaine Forrest www.shirlainephotos.co.uk

Photo by Shirlaine Forrest www.shirlainephotos.co.uk

Photo by Shirlaine Forrest www.shirlainephotos.co.uk

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phil Music Lee Gaze, Liquid Metal Guitars, LostProphets, Shirlaine Forrest, telecaster

One of the best parts of what I do is that I get see alot of music. Most is good, actually really good, but every once in a while I run across a guitar player that I am just completely fucking blown away by.

It was Shaun last night, playing a Liquid Metal Tele too, of course But man on man that boy made our guitar sing. He got more  sounds, effects, harmonics,  things,  out  that guitar that I have ever heard. It was stunning.

He put on a guitar show, pure and unadulterated guitar show, a la Bonamassa.  Great licks and breaks and jams and straight ahead bluesy rock that had the joint jumpin’. And the musicality was there too, you know, the thriving beat that picks you up and makes you dance…The place went nuts everyone was dancing in place and over the head clapping cheers when every  song was done.   I absolutely loved it.

If you get a chance to take these guys in.. do. Exceptional.

http://www.shaunverreault.com/

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phil Music Custom Tele, Joe Bonamassa, Shaun Verreault, Wide Mouth Mason

The Rat Pack and Johnny Carson…having an absolutely blast  on stage singing the Birth of the Blues.

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phil Music birth of the blues, johnny carson, rat pack

I got the book “When Giants Walked the Earth” ( about Led Zeppelin ) for Christmas. Guess the secret is out that I like reading about rock and rollers and the music that was the backdrop to my growing up.

I will write more on it when I am through the book, ( pg 200 ) but I just did some googling on characters and situations in the book and came across this. The quote below is an excerpt from an article announcing Gibson is making a limited run of this guitar.

I liked the info on the original:

The 1959 Les Paul that has come to be known as ‘Number Two’ was purchased by Page in 1973 after trying for some time to acquire an exceptional second Les Paul. This was several years after having acquired his other legendary Les Paul—’Number One’, a ’59 ’Burst with shaved-down neck profile and no serial number—from Joe Walsh.

‘Number Two’ was essentailly all original when he aquired it. Jimmy did have some modifications done to the neck shape so that it would more nearly match the feel of his “Number One”. The neck is certainly slim but not to such extremes as the now-ultra-slim neck on ‘Number One’. It had a strong

, beautiful sunburst finish with a red element that had faded to a dusky amber-brown, along with a clear serial number dating it to 1959. Page played this Les Paul frequently through his days with Led Zeppelin, and in the early ’80s decided to make it an even more versatile instrument. Page also added that he wanted to “explore the full range of what the two humbuckers have to offer” .

He designed a switching system for coil splitting, series/parallel, and phase-reverse options for both pickups, and employed a skilled electronics technician to devise a working schematic and make his sonic vision a reality. The result comprised a push/pull pot on each of the guitar’s four standard controls, plus two push-button switches hidden beneath the pickguard, all mounted on a ’59 Les Paul Standard that is otherwise a superb example of the breed, both in tone and playability.

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phil Music #2 les paul, Jimmy Page, joe walsh, led zeppelin, les paul, when giants walked the earth

This came through Bob Lefsetz, it is Eddie Vedder, then Sting paying tribute to Bruce at the Kennedy Center Ceremony for something something..

Great renditions… I like the look on Bruce’s face, a little uncomfortable that he is being honored, but way more antsy that he has to sit still… that he cant be performing.

Worth the watch..

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phil Music bruce springsteen, Eddie Vedder, sting, the rising

Charly Rey, from Mexico City,  is one of our players who is just great to work with. Always keeping us up to date on what he is up to with pics and tweets and such. He was doing some studio work and put together some little clips of sound for us.

This is our M1 Chrome TV Jones Special.

Clean:

Riff:

Tapping:

Charly Rey in the studio

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phil Music Charly Rey, custom guitar, custom pickups, les paul, tv jones, tweet

If you have a chance to see this show on HBO,  see it. Absolutely amazing…It was on  sunday night for four hours, no commercials just first class rock and roll acts. An great event on TV, for sure.

This is what went on.

• Jerry Lee Lewis reminds the crowd of rock & roll’s ’50s roots by settling in at a white baby grand for “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”

• Crosby, Stills and Nash add another layer of perfect harmony when James Taylor joins in on “Love the One You’re With.” The capper: one of many awe-inspiring guitar solos by Stephen Stills.

• Bonnie Raitt joins CSN for her own “Love Has No Pride,” and later tells the press, “To go back in my catalog and do something I rarely do live was angelic for me.”

• CSN break into “Midnight Rider” by the Allman Brothers on the anniversary of Duane Allman’s death. It’s a poignant moment, followed by another: Jackson Browne hits the stage to perform “The Pretender.”

• Paul Simon invites David Crosby and Graham Nash back onstage for very special reason: to honor “a dear friend of mine” who “was the first person to ever have a benefit concert here at Madison Square Garden – it’s called the Concert for Bangladesh – and it’s a man who I really loved and admired greatly, George Harrison.” The song: “Here Comes the Sun.”

• Paul Simon shouts out a pair of New York City neighborhoods when he invites Dion DiMucci and Little Anthony and the Imperials to the stage.
• U2 backs up Mick Jagger with help from Fergie.

• Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s voices mingle on “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The pair throw their arms around each other at the conclusion of “The Boxer.” Will the U.S. see this reunion again? Garfunkel admits their recent shows together “were a lovely falling back together again” but they have “no such plans,” after their set.

• Stevie Wonder turns a technical difficulty into a hilarious quip: “Aw, shit … stuff happens, you know what I’m saying?” and changes his set before it even gets going to kick off with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” He later pays homage to Michael Jackson with a stunning “The Way You Make Me Feel.”

• Smokey Robinson emerges for a loose, warm rendition of “Tracks of My Tears.” Moments later, John Legend arrives onstage to pay homage to Marvin Gaye with “Mercy, Mercy Me.” Not enough? B.B King is up next, earning Stevie’s praise as “the king of blues for every city in the world” with “The Thrill is Gone.”

• Sting strides onstage popping the bassline to “Higher Ground,” and the song morphs into “Roxanne” and back again.

• Two words: Jeff Beck. The guitar legend joins Wonder for “Superstition” and breaks into an otherworldly solo on the break, flinging his bare right hand at the strings and tapping away.

• Bruce Springsteen hits the stage with his famous plea, “Is there anybody alive out there?” He gives even himself a jolt with guest Sam Moore, who he praises as “one of the all time great bandleaders.”

• Springsteen welcomes John Fogerty for “Fortunate Son” and a pair of sweet covers for E Street: Fogerty’s own “Proud Mary” and Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman.”

• The E Street Band make their own Wall of Sound as Darlene Love joins Bruce and the gang for “A Fine, Fine Boy” and “Da Doo Ron Ron.” “We’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame now,” Springsteen exclaims.

• Tom Morello wah-s out a bone-crunching solo on a mind-blowing cover of “London Calling” with the E Street Band that nearly outdoes his earlier heroics on “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

• Springsteen delivers a brief and hilarious speech about how New Jersey and Long Island were once a connected landmass as a way of introducing the night’s final very special guest: Billy Joel. E Street keeps cranking through “You May Be Right,” “Only the Good Die Young” and Joel’s hometown anthem “New York State of Mind.”
• Six hours after Tom Hanks took the stage to open the show, Springsteen brings the house down with “Born to Run” and reluctantly leaves after wringing the last possible “higher” out of “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” “That’s rock & roll!” he exclaims.

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phil Music allman brothers, bonnie raitt, bruce springsteen, crosby stills nash, jeff beck, jerry lee lewis, john fogerty, metallica, mick jagger, paul simon, sting, the e street band, tom morello, u2

One of the absolute pleasures about what I do, is getting to see new bands that are up and coming. These guys are just fantastic, blew me away. And now the guitar slingin’ demons are playing a LMG T.

Take a look and listen..

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phil Music country music, Ridley Bent, telecaster