The Funky Sandwich

There is no shortage of incredibly talented and charismatic guitar players in this world, but this piece is not dedicated to any one of them. This one goes out to five guitarists who, I feel, never received the recognition they so rightly deserve. Here goes! 5. Keith Urban As much as I find the idea of an Australian singing Country & Not-So-Western a tad strange, I can't deny that Keith Urban's guitar chops are way up there! He has a great feel and his tone is beautifully Country with a touch of Classic Rock grit for good measure. I've always been impressed with his ability to play complex licks in between vocal measures without skipping a beat. The following live version of You Look Good In My Shirt showcases Keith's instrumental class. 4. Andy Timmons The late 90s was a great time for instrumental guitarists such as Eric Johnson, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. Their popularity however, overshadowed a guitar player of equal merit. Andy Timmons began ...

The world has lost an artist. A true artist. An artist we won't see the likes of for a very long time. Prince's musical genius cannot be overstated. A pop song writing machine from the age of 19, Prince's career went from strength to strength as he released hit after hit. His mixture of funk, rock and soul transcended the barriers of race, as he amassed fans from every corner of the globe. His skills as a multi-instrumentalist were legendary, but what inspired me most, was Prince's guitar playing. To this day, I have not met a guitarist who cited Prince as one of his/her influences, which I can understand to a certain degree. Over-the-top dance routines and synth-driven pop songs could have easily convinced most 80s rockers that they were witnessing another here today, gone tomorrow "musician". I must admit, I didn't take Prince seriously either when I was starting my journey as a guitarist. Clapton, Hendrix and AC/DC were all I needed. And then I he...

I'm sure that every gigging guitar player has experienced that moment when you begin your solo, ready to blow the minds of every person in the place, but your fingers don't get the memo. Warming up before a gig is the best way to ensure that your playing is at the level you normally expect it to be at. In the following article I'm going to go through a few of the exercises I've learnt over my career as a guitar player. Exercise 1 The key to this exercise is that it's running chromatically, which gives most pentatonic-loving guitar players a bit of a brain wobble. I usually do this exercise first, just to get my fingers moving. Also, this exercise works best if you are using a metronome to keep time. Exercise 2 Allow me to apologise on behalf of Joe Satriani for teaching you this exercise. It's a killer! This is one of Joe Satrianis favourite warm up techniques, for good reason. It is the perfect exercise for preparing your f...

It's April 2013, Coachella, and funk is filling the airwaves once again. Daft Punk's, then unknown, "Get Lucky" teaser is played to an audience of unsuspecting music lovers. The robots are shown jamming a truly epic funk track with none other than the father of funk, Nile Rodgers on guitar, and Pharrell Williams doing what he does best. The significance of this moment cannot be stressed enough. Funk, which had been laying dormant for thirty years, had finally made its way into popular culture once again. "Random Access Memories" started a funk revolution by establishing itself as the album of 2013/2014. In doing so, it set the stage for many great artists to capitalise on its success. Pharrell Williams, Olly Murs, Robin Thicke, Nick Jonas and many others contributed to this renaissance with their own brand of funk, but it wasn't until Mark Ronson, with the help of Bruno Mars, released "Uptown Funk" that I realised how powerful this gen...

When talking to any guitar player about solos, the usual suspects will no doubt be brought up, from the harmonically rich solo in "Hotel California" played by the guitar duo of Don Felder and Joe Walsh, to Jimmy Page's display of virtuosity in "Stairway to Heaven". In this article, I'm going to list five of my all-time favourite guitar solos at great risk to my personal well-being... 5. Home (01:48) Artist/Band: Michale Buble Solo Played by: Brian Green Feel, feel feel! This solo is made of pure feel. It starts off small and never really gets any bigger, however, the attention it demands is what makes it the bit of musical gold that it is. Brian Green's old school jazzy tone is exactly what this song cries out for. It is smooth and unobtrusive. His control is also worth noting. Each note sits beautifully among the instruments in the rhythm section as well as the string arrangement. Each listen yields something new to appreciate. 4.Smell...

Stop reading this and practice... Jokes aside, let me just state that these tips most probably won't make you more technically proficient on your instrument. That is not my goal. My goal is to introduce you to a new way of thinking when playing the guitar. Hopefully these tips will help you on the road to becoming a musically, harmonically rich guitar player. Let's get started. 1. Stop Listening To So Many Guitar Players Seems like a bit of a counter-productive statement, doesn't it? When I first started becoming a semi-proficient guitar player, listening to other guitarists and guitar-driven songs seemed like the natural thing to do, and for a while, this method definitely helped me on my way to technical proficiency. Pretty soon I was playing along to classics such as, "Hey Joe", "Layla" and "Sultans of Swing" with ease. However, It didn't take me long to hit the "ceiling" with regard to my musicality. It took me years ...

Get There Early! Something that I have learnt over my years of gigging is that if something can go wrong, it will. A simple way to prevent any unforeseen mishaps from happening is having enough time before you have to start playing to do some pre-gig checks. Normally, a sound check would be a great way to iron out any wrinkles that may become apparent. The most common things that I look out for are: 1. Faulty cables, 2. Battery strength in pedals, microphones, active instruments, etc. 3. Speaker and microphone placement. Feedback prevention should be the ultimate priority before your gig starts. The last thing anyone wants to hear when they go out is screaming feedback. Kill the feedback before it kills your gig!