good on ya cubit, you have good taste, Buckethead aside....

YEAH!!!! PHILLY WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anybody seen Satch looking like John 5?

Hi 5 McKenna!

My neighbors set off fireworks after the win! lmao! To funny!

Yay Phillies! My Gram & Grandpop are partyin' hard in heaven tonight! They were huge Philly fans. Hi 5 Grammy! Hi 5 Grandpop!!!

Guitar Samuri,

Part of what makes us human is intuition. It helps me avoid collisions on the highway. Is it just an emotion devoid of reason? I don't think so.

I am as reasonable a human being as you. I have many decisions to make every day when it comes to helping take care of my husband (who has epilepsy) and help him stay as healthy as possible so he can work and stay employed. This requires me to think about if and when he takes his medications--did he remember to take his mid-day dose? How long will he be able to work at a job that requires him to be on his feet for 8 hours a day. His memory is affected by his disorder and he often forgets to do everyday things that you and I take for granted ever other person knows.

Epilepsy has taught me an important lesson. Life is precious and cannot be taken for granted. Every moment I spend with my Steve is important because I don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Steve's doctor practices at Stanford Hospital and has asked us to join him in finding a cure for epilepsy. I consider this life mission very important. I can't ask for the future. All I have is today.

Once again, I've said enough--maybe too much!

McKenna,

Thank you for the soulful vid--great guitar. You must be a student of Satch. It shows.

its like mudville here.

ZuperDaveMcCarthy - I remember back when you changed your username here just after you had quit smoking...it's good that you've been able to stick with it.

The Super Colossal email is on my list of things to get to...I haven't forgotten about it, I promise. If you make it out to SF maybe it can be a conversation in line before the gig...haha. ;-)

I just helped Blue_Moon plan his trip out here, so I can do the same with you...no problem. How many days do you think you'd be staying? Send me an email with more info, like how much money you want to spend, and I'll send a few suggestions your way.

Your Buckethead ticket came in the mail today, by the way...

Sweet!

Hi Joe!

I've got another problem with students maybe you can help me out with again.

Before I discussed "out of time" phrasing with them. Suggesting they sing the lines they play sends chills down their spines though haha. I suppose we all had to overcome the singing embarrassment at one point... Anyways...

With more advanced students, I'm having a somewhat difficult time teaching them the "legato" phrasing they hear you play. We've all seen the whole, practice scales and modes or symmetrical patterns with hammer ons and pull offs, but rarely do we see a lick look like this (straight up and down) since doing so can be rather boring.

I've resorted to teaching them the 3 note per string idea, and I refer to this pattern (lets use the whole-step whole-step pattern for example) index finger is the anchor, and you start by pulling off the pinky note, then the middle finger hammer-on up to the pinky again, and back down. Say on the first string it would look like this:

--7p3h5h7p5p3---

This done in rapid succession creates a flurry which sounds like we're on the right track. I focus on this "flurry" as the main "engine" of the legato technique as it applies to the fast lead stuff we hear people play. Unfortunately, I kinda run aground there... Short of saying something like, ok lets apply this to a scale and just sort of randomize a pattern.

I say, have a starting place, know the key you wanna stay with, and find a place to end it, in the time frame you wish to allot it.

Thats a mouthful, but this is MY understanding of how I approach this technique. As we would probably agree, this legato technique is a GREAT way of achieving some strange "off time" licks that are so individual of the player...

I know there are sooooo many things that go into concepts like this, and I want to reassure students that, in time, if you develop it, it'll just be natural. Can you share some insight on this subject? When it comes to this style of phrasing, very little I find is common knowledge on it, since it appears so random. But when students come up and say, they wanna play "Surfing With The Alien"... I get excited but know things get rocky when we get deeper into the song.

Always appreciate the comments Joe!

TIKIMON- Are you going to clearwater show?

don't you think Joe should let people take video cameras into the shows. i seriously doubt that it would hurt his sales at all!! The gratefuld dead let their fans tape concerts for like... ever.

Guitar Samurai-thanks, BTW i love the samurai. i just have one thing to say to anyone who is willing to listen. this is the most important election probably ever. congress has gotten way out of hand. this whole buyout of the banks is clearly unconstitutional. (do your research) besides that there were no strings attached as we were told there would be. i am so distraught as to the direction this country is going. we are losing all our basic freedoms.

Who is Obama? he started as a public organizer. his job is to get government money for the people he represents. we are now learning more about Obamas questionable friends and these people sure as hell don't represent me or most americans. i always looked at politics as the worst of two evils. Obama is not trustworthy. he is deceiving, anti-american, and anti-business. i put a post out 2 months ago that i said Obamas views are border line communist, well foks the proof is in the puddin'. don't want to have to say later "I told you so".

Do The Stu i thought skolnick was on the east tour , but can not find any info of who is on what show.