Dear Joe,

I just registered...found out about this site while ordering from Sony Music. I buy almost everything you release.

Saw you last @ 4th & B in San Diego, after you had to recover from pneumonia. I had pneumonia as well that lasted for 3 months!

I just wanted you to know that "LoveThing" touched the depth of my soul. My Dad died in 1998, and it felt as though I died as well.

Love Thing is the most beautiful, intense song I have ever been blessed enough to hear.

Thank you so much for enriching my life and making it so much more than it would be without your art.

Hey All

I was reading the posts about music downloaders and got to thinking.... I have a copy of Crystal Planet on cassette(yeah, i know) and was wondering....do you think its wrong of me to copy it to cd so i can listen to it that way or should i buy the cd...

Seriously, we need a T2J2 cd update.. the anticipation is KILLING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone else with me?

js1000...... What is your line of work? Maybe sometime when you're comin' to Elgin we could meet. Meeting another T2Jer would be cool. Let me know.

dave_carvalho....Welcome to the site. Sorry I don't have any ideas for ya on the guitar. I've heard of the Dinky...was thinkin of lookin' into one myself years ago. I haven't heard anything bad about them. I would go to the Jackson's site. If they have a forum. Post your thoughts on the Dinky and you'll get some feedback from Dinky owners. Best of luck.

roksok.... Welcome to the site also. Sorry to hear about your dad's passing. We all at T2J know what you mean about Joe's music. It touches your soul. That's the way it should be. Love Thing is my wife and my song. My personal fav is Flying In A Blue Dream. To me that song has everything in it. Take care.

vanishing truth..... Welcome to the site. I have not seen the Crystal Planet cassette....I didn't even know it exited. I have the Crystal Planet cd as matter of fact I have all of Joe's cd's. What's nice about cd's is not only are you supporting the artist but you get a great little booklet that comes with the cd. I know you supported Joe by buying the cassette but I'm sure the cassette has a scaled down version of the booklet. Maybe not. Fellow T2Jer Zinc Master and I were talking about this a couple of days ago. How we both like looking at the info. As far as copying the cassette to cd. That's your decision....I would buy the cd for reasons stated above. Just my thoughts and opinion. Take care.

Guitarmeister...I'll be seeing Ygnwie this Wednesday...I'll let you know how many warm ups there are!

Zenfish...I can post a direct link to your 1st movement...it's 20 minutes long...I think some of your extra songs are on it to! I tried to resend it to you....very large file though!

If you have a cleaner copy of it...with a little less red lined signal..it would help the purity of your tracks...could you possibly resend, or should I post it as is?

Dr. Mindcrime....there was an update several days ago about T2J2...we're getting very close to the end...yea!

Hey there Joe, how are you? How is recording? I cant wait to here the new album! I am so excited! I finally got a guitar. But I am looking to get an ovation, any advise on those guitars? I really want to here what you have to say about them. After all you are the king of guitars! Thanks greatly! Lots of love. Have a great day!

How is every one today?

have a great day everyone!

Keniko - Forgive me for 'eavesdropping', but I think I might chime in, if I may... lol. I wrote a bit of an essay, especially for you!!!!!

If you are trying to find the characteristic sound or flavour of a given scale/mode, there is a neat little trick you can do. This is by no means a rule or standardised chord progression - it's simply a device you can use to unlock the mysteries of modal flavours.

There are, in essence, only three scales in Western harmony: the major scale, the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale. Every other scale is either a mode of one of the above, or simply a synthetic scale (ie. one that has been 'invented' to serve a specific purpose). This means that every mode must be traceable to one of the above three scales. With that in mind, what you can do is determine the parent scale (that is the scale it comes from) of the scale/mode with which you're experimenting. Let's say we're looking at the Lydian mode in A, which is the fourth mode of the major scale. So, what we need to find out is which major scale has A as it's fourth. The answer is E. Then, you play chords IV and V of this scale but over a drone which is the root note of the mode in question - in this case A. In other words, we'd play chords IV andV of E major (Amaj7 and B7 respectively) over an A drone. These two chords, voiced in this way, will give you an undeniably Lydian sound. This trick works with every mode.

Now, the A natural minor scale is also knows as the Aeolian mode in A and it's the sixth mode of the C major scale. So, you would take chords IV and V of C major (Fmaj7 and G7) and superimpose them onto an A drone. That's your Aeolian or natural minor flavour right there!!! As I said, this works with every mode.

Now, a more Clarky-style approach (based on both his and my Classical schooling) would suggest that virtually everything you'll ever hear is based around cadence; the most notable of which is the perfect cadence - a movement from the V chord to the I chord. The 'rules of harmony' state that the V chord is always major (or dominant seventh; hence V7), but in a minor key this will give you the harmonic minor sound. Moreover, Jazz normally utilises an altered dominant as it's V7 chord, which draws upon the old classical stylings, albeit taking it somewhat further. So, you could perhaps in fact discover a certain scales tonality or modality by just cycling between its I and V chords. This would give you both an imperfect and perfect cadence respctively (although not a true perfect cadence, due to the V being minor), but I don't think it really gives you the same demonstration of the qualities of the particular scale or mode.

The most important thing to do is just experiment with stuff, and see what comes out.

joe may i ask a question ?

what do you think that was your biggest success as a CD ?

i'll be wating for answers... you'r friend Ricardo ... \m/ take care .. good luck with the cd :D

Zenfish i already live in the future :)

civgeek, hmm, curious that your S is "thin-sounding". Thanks for the input though, it all helps! I tried a Tone Zone in the bridge position of my SA1260 and was very disappointed. DiMarzio (and everyone else) say that it's a hot pickup fattened up with some boosted mids so it's got a god tonal spread and great harmonics. I found that the mid tones were completely missing and it was just bass and treble like a Kirk Hammett pickup. Maybe the TZ just doesn't like Mahogony so much 'cause in the Paul Gilbert models it screams.

Still, your comment was helpful 'cause I'm even more certain now that my current choice of combination will be a good one!

Keniko - That's cool; I'm more than happy to help. E-mail me or whatever if you like. As far as theory books go, 'The Jazz Theory Book' by Mark Levine is pretty much a Bible for the subject, but it does get somewhat intense at times... lol. Despite the name, it's really not an all out jazz-jargon assault!!!! Another great book is 'The Right Way To Read Music' by Harry and Michael Baxter. It's very much a classical kind of book as it were, in that it harps on about rules, traditions and pastiche, but it does start off talking about intervals, harmonised scales, chord pogressions, etc. Other than that, there's plenty of websites around with heaps of useful information. Google is your friend! :-D

Captain Steve, well spotted!

Satriella, Hi, from leafy Sawbridgeworth!

Master Yoda..... Ah ! ! ! Yes Google. Another good point. Hey...Thanks for the info on the books. I'll look into these books and try Google. Back in the day when I was reading music ....don't ask me why I stopped...Stupid.... I was working out of a book called " For Guitar Players Only " It was written by studio ace Tommy Tedesco. Unfortunetly Tommy Died just recently....But it's still a great book. Not a theory book. More for site and chord chart reading. Anyway thanks for your help.....Much appreciated. Take care.

You can visit me at my site. Email info there. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Zenfish...give me a little while to upload to my page....and I'll post your 1st movement of Sinfonie...you're welcome...

Guitarmeister...wonder how that classical cd came out...hmmm?

js1200js1000...Yngwie is playing at Westbury Music Fair...now the North Fork Theatre...on Thanksgiving Eve...then at BB King's in Manhattan several weeks later...