8 pages. i'm not gonna read them all so sorry if i missed anything.

keihan - I know what it's like to hang out with the orchestral / classical types... I've always been principally a rock / metal guitarist. Many years ago I studied Music history, harmony and composition 16th to 20th century at the University of London. In my tutor group there were piansts, an oboe player, a cellist, violinists, a french horn player... and me... I learned a lot from them.. they have many strengths - mostly accademic and performance and the way they appraoch study and performance training in general... they also have weaknesses - most of them can't jam and they most don't write... They are awesome musicians but generally not that creative...

If you talk to these guys about 'ornamentation' they'll be thinking of flashy little embelishments like 'praltriller, mordent, appogiatura etc.. against, these are tiny little musical figures that enhance the melody... it is possible to play these on guitar - and I do...
The little touches like raking etc I'd consider to be additional 'ornamentation' but specific to electric guitar technique....
In general, the term 'tone' in the US = the term 'note' in Europe.. ie: half tone, whole tone = half note, whole note ... this being the case, raking doesn't really qualify as a tone at all.. raking is- the sound generated by muted strings played in quick succession before the target note is struck.. if anything, raking is more like an 'acciacatura' but the crushed notes have no real pitch... an acciacutura is an 18th century ornament.... so if you look at modern rock playing close enough, you'll find that there are still more traditional terms that fit or can be made to fit....

Judging a player and judging a person are not the same... and don't have to be connected..

No matter what way you cut it - Modern guitar style would not be the same if Yngwie had not been discovered... he was an inovator and deserves to be remembered for his contibution to the instrument...

Anyone heard Malmsteen play blues?.. I have and he really is good.... I think he music has become 'formula-ised'.. so he write to his fans ears... thus - more of the same....

bad gigs are great experience, painful though they are - character building stuff... learning how to tough it out on stage without getting phased is really important... good 'men from the boys' attitude stuff...

As I remember it, Vai's heartshaped guitar was won by a guy in Sweden, and I remember thinking that the odds for that happening must've been pretty high...... Sweden has only 8-9 million inhabitants, compared to the US' 250 millions or whatever, and how many of us living in Sweden are Vai fans AND participated in the contest???

Ultra Zone is a great album and I really like the way the guitar is more embedded in the arrangements of indian voices and other instruments. I can miss that in Joe's music sometimes, the guitar is so very much in the center and everything is focused on that. I think SBM is, to me, easier to listen to because of the way Joe brought in some oriental influences. It also makes it easier to separate the different songs from each other if there isn't just the guitar playing a lot of cool riffs, especially when the album is new and you don't know the songs by heart. Just my opinion...

Ahhhh, another weekend gone and only 11 pages to get through in a lunch hour ;-)

The Yngwie Thing - How many guys slagging the dude were around at the time of impact ? He was THE man, i saw him in '86 and he was blistering. He can play, he is arrogant but it's not totally without foundation. He has a very distinctive sound as do many other people / groups who are accused of being boring or repetitive. Worst thing about Yngwie and others like him ? They can't write songs ! Full of musicianship and technique but they could never turn out a catchy sing-a-long hook................ Magic fucking Mirror indeed ! (awesome solo though).......... I rarely listen to YM these days because it's like listening to 4 minutes of dross to get to something interesting................... want to hear some great songs ? Go out and buy One by One by the Foo Fighters - excellent album.

TRUTINA - Elderberries ?!!!, You've got to be a Python fan - lmao

KEIHAN - Agree with you totally on the set up thing, as i've posted before. I think that Nuno was / is totally under-rated, man, he could make the guitar talk like Vai and he has got to be one of the funkiest MF's to ever shred. Somebody else i think is under-rated was Vito Bratta (White Lion), great sound, great technique and an awesome sense of melody ;-)

CLARKY - I reckon that you are really Keihan and that you just got bored with not having anybody to argue with - lol I know what you mean about trained muso's and jamming. My old man's a grade 8 keyboard player, fair play to him he was always into theatre organ stuff and he learnt to play it, 2 keyboards and a 25 note pedal board on a Wurlitizer. Ask him to jam and he ain't got a clue. You've got to be able to feel it not just reproduce it.

AVARICE - Usurped ?! Whoa quite the educated antagonist aren't we ? LOL You realise that treason is punishable by death...................... long live the King and all that have sailed up him !!!!!!! moo, baa, oink, cluck, woof, meoow, ey-ore, tweet !

GREG M - Of course Britney is better than Steve, Joe or Yngwie..................... if you're going to be stuck on a desert island with one other person ;-) btw I saw a great pic of a H202 in TG this month, what's the difference between that and the H302 ?

GUITO - lmao ;-)

CRYSTALPLANET - Stand up and take it like a man, dude ! You could always throw your POD at her - lmao ;-)

ARTANIS - Of course you can say SV wanks a lot, listen to 'Firegarden'.................... ain't that just the way it goes ? lol

LOL! R6Rocker, Vito is another on my list as underrated. I met him in '89 and he is a real great guy! Sat down and had some pizza with him and his shadow (bodyguard).

Clarky,

Thanks for the advice. Aye, one of my best friends is a classical pianist and sound engineer from Egypt. He's working on his U.S. citizenship at the moment, but he has been quite helpful. He's planning on going over various modes, chord scale relationships, etc with me soon (although I know most of my scales and how to relate them to the proper keys, I'm somewhat lost when it comes to chord building and how all that works... I've tried to read up on some of it, but it's like Greek to me heheh).

Since I usually compose by ear, he feels that this might be a useful tool for me to have under my belt while composing more complex arrangements and may save me a lot of time as compared to doing it all by ear alone.

I believe Nuno plays a Washburn sig series. I have a nice little Washburn Mercury that is my little sweetheart. She's been modified and tweaked of course ;). Ahhh... silicone breats and all heheh..

YourFavoriteNickname: No problem at all, I definately see your point. I don't particularly like the attitude I've seen of his either, but I just choose to ignore his mouth, and listen to his fingers.

Artanis I: Excellent point about Joe telling us to drop the Yngwie stuff, it is his site afterall.

alexandrecaetano: Sounds good, keep me posted and email me if you have any questions.

r6rocker: Yeah man! Python Rocks!

Nuno and Vito are both very underated in my opinion, both victims of the Grunge clan. Only the absolute cream of the crop (Satch, Vai, Gilbert etc) survived those wars and they're still licking their wounds.

The Ultra Zone rocks as much as it sucks in my opinion. I like about half the songs a whole lot, almost as much as P&W stuff, and don't really care for the other half.

When I was a little boy, I looked down, and saw some peach fuzz, and I thought it was cool, but then I went blind, ROFL

trutina How the feck do you play all three necks at the same time? Okay, let me guess, you tap one with one hand, tap the second with the other hand and the third one you get harmonics using your tongue?

r6rI freely admit that I was only 1 for quite a bit of 1986. I'd like to buy one by one like I'd like to buy gilbert, king crimson, muddy waters etc - you can't buy everything at once (unless you're bill gates). The difference between a H302 and a H202, well they've changes some of the specs since I bought mine, but the 302 is a thru neck, and i think the 202 is a bolt neck. Apart from that, one has a bit nicer hardware than the other, and I'm really not sure whether the pickups are the same or not. (but they didn't look black and white and gay when I bought mine, as they do now.) I may check out TG this month now you've said that.

Of course Malmsteem had talent, you need to have bags of that to play at 16 notes per minute or whatever it was. I have this kind of feeling that if John Petrucci wasn't in a band like DT, he mite go a bit down Yngwie's road (but then again, he likes Al Di Meola and Morse, so maybe not. I get the same sort of feeling about Jordan Rudess's keyboard playing (actually, come to think of it, quite a lot of 6DOIT. I reckon that what DT need to put them back on track at the moment is Kevin Moore.)

Hey Joe! Are you awake now?

I just got back from Robben Ford Live!
It was great time! He's really nice guy!
The place is called Motion Blue Yokohama...
That was nice place to see jazz live.
I wish that he would have safe trip to US.
I'm going to sleep now...ZZZ...

I love you!!! Take care!

Song Of The Day : Chevrolet

JSCLONE1 - listened to your tune.. lots of good ideas.... at 8mins its a bit too long. If you cut down the length & condensed some of the theme's it would be great.

Danny K Alien Water Dance Demos

r6r - funny... lol... I need to fight with someone, it may as well be me.... lmao...

I totally agree with your Malmsteen comments....

http://www.courseofevolution.com/forum/index.php

personally, I compose by ear too.. however, my studies did provide me with a whole raft of cool tools that I can draw upon... dispite knowing all of these 'tricks', your intuition is normally the best judge.. using these tricks grows your intuition into something more powerful... learning and applying this stuff can only be a good thing..

greg mand trutina....3 neck guitar.vai used it on fever dream on the ultra zone..i downloaded an ultra zone concert..and he played the 3 neck guitar...really cool....

wow - I made number 31 in the IUMA metal chartand 31 in the IUMA prog rock chart - for me that's pretty good.... woo hoo..