New Monday #8
Happy Monday!
The spirit of rock 'n' roll and playing live continues with this AMAZING video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HldgxyA2XiQ
This is the definitive version of Johnny B Goode. Yes, Chuck Berry wrote it, but Hendrix blows the doors off of it.
How to Structure a Guitar Solo
Hendrix does two guitar solos, in the middle and at the end. Each solo goes through the changes (the chords of the song) three times. Each time through, he manages to drop a bomb of a solo that's different from, and yet similar to, the other solos.
This is a producing/artistic concept I'll dig into more later that we'll call Diverse in Unity/Unified in Diversity.
Each individual time through the changes has a sustained note opening, followed by a contrasting section with more of a flurry of notes. Each time through the changes follows that formula, with some minor variations. This is a "unity" aspect that locks the solos together and allows us to hear them as one complete statement.
But each sustained opening is different from all the others, and in the middle solo, the drama and energy of each time through increases. The first time he wobbles the note around in the midrange and keeps the fast stuff in the same general area. The second time through is more aggressive, opening with a dive bomb and playing more complex patterns after that. The third time he kicks a wah in—using it more like a treble boost—and plays a bunch of piercing high stuff. It's very dramatic, building up like a train heading at you.
The ending solo is similarly increasingly dramatic - in the middle he plays with his teeth (and yes, he's really playing with his teeth) and ending with an unaccompanied speediest, followed by the entire band hitting the last note perfectly.
I think my favorite moment, though, is right after the last note ends, Hendrix checks his tuning. It's sort of like, "Oh, back to business here." I love that.
So, next time you're in the studio and things are boring, or the guitarist has more ambition than ideas, think on Diverse in Unity/Unified in Diversity.
Use Our Plug-ins Backwards
To make the Hendrix video for y'all I took video from one source and audio from another, but even then it didn't sound all that good to me. So, I ran the entire thing through our EL Juan Limiter, and what a difference.
I also realized that both Dan and I tend to use our plug-ins backwards from the way they're laid out. So I made a video of our "reversed workflow" for you and explained a few things as well.
Click here for Using the EL Juan Backward video
By the time a lot of you get this we'll be in the middle of an eclipse. Crazy times! Last week an earthquake, this week a lunar eclipse! I wonder what might happen after that...???
As always, we love to hear from you, so please write us with your comments and ideas. We’re all ears.
Warm regards,
The guys at Korneff
