eta - I was describing a sequence of chord.

First play a C chord.

Then play Ab7:

e| 4
b| 7
g| 5
d| 4
a| 6
e| 4

Then play C/G - that's the same as the first C chord, but with the bottom note as G on the E string...

master yoda- yup piano strings break, only very rarely though. And since there are normally 3 of them per note, it makes it harder to tune - plus with pianos you gotta think about tempering...

clarky - beethoven's 5th - mid-romantic? i'm just surprised cause i've never seen him classed beyond early romantic. definitely a mosher though.

I'm surprised other requiems, eg. verdi's and brahms don't get a mention, for their loud bits. Is that Prokoviev pre-20th C? i think of him as 20th C but don't know much about him.

as for 20th century (art side of things) - well, lots of stravinsky can get in there. i know your thoughts on rite fof spring- howabout firebird (i forget the name of the bit- ivan tsarevitch dancing or something i think... the bit with the octatonic that sounds like it could be out of Stevie Vai's Bangkok/Fire Garden Suite... dunno where that connection came from...

clarky - can we include some gilbert and sullivan? :P I agree with what you've said though. Prokoviev is just romantic with a few wrong notes here and there. Other guys like Respighi, Bartok too...

down, down, down lost???

i'm off guys...

two week holiday in majorca, starting tomorrow, gotta get up to wigan today...

hi guys!

i was born crying my head off, with blood all over me and pooing and wetting myself all the time... does that make it right for me to do that now?

the bible is clear that homosexuality is wrong. it's also clear that lying is wrong, and that many other things are wrong. christians don't expect non-christians do adhere to the law of the bible. all we ant is for you to come to a state where you respect your creator and give your life to him. If you get to that stage, then maybe since your priorities are in the right place, you'll need to change one or two things about your life.

i would never treat a homosexual non-christian different to any other non-christian. i have a good non-christian homosexual friend who understands and agrees with what i've said. though he doesn't agree with it, he understands and respects my viewpoint.

Hmm.. Ok - Important stuff first... (since this is talk to joe)

I've now at last got ITLIS... I definitely like it... I'd need to hear it a few more times before I give a full opinion, but highlights are tracks 5 and 6. I love the more experimental bits, eg. in Bamboo and would love to see Joe do more of this stuff (and the whole of track 5...) I think it's the experimental stuff that seperates Joe from other guitarists, and where all his knowledge and human touch shines out the most...

first 4 tracks slightly disappointed me in these respects, but it's made up for elsewhere. I like the rain is cool...

JSJS - yeah, I've seen the passion of the christ. good film, and pretty accurate/sound. definitely worth seeing once, but once is probably enough...

jazzy boy - yup he did say that... and that's far more important than the question of sexuality... but the phrase "love the sinner, hate the sin" is the one i stand by, as would Jesus himself.

you hate republicans? funny to see that only a few posts after quoting jesus (re. love one another as you love yourself)

stu clone - i sincerely agree with the flawed nature of my analogy... i wasn't seriously adopting it, merely pointing out the statement i was replying to was itself nowhere near a proper understanding of the issue.

joeman - though i agree with most of what you're saying, please don't attack people personally... it takes power away from the main message, and isn't the kind of thing jesus would do.

do the stu - thanks for the welcome back and helping keep discussion here respectable... if i could fly is cool... an edit would be good, wouldn't be hard to stick a fade out on all that IV - V - Ib chord progression at the end... I'm sure you know what I mean...

bbkane - joe does like important stuff being debated here, so I don't think it's neccessary to stop... all it needs is people to be calm and civil... which although hard to achieve, can be worth it. itlis does rock though...

joeman - yeah, i understand... name calling is so tempting at times but rarely any real use...

jazzyboy - we agree on something! :) well, kinda... i think tracks 2-4 are the worst 3, with Gnaahh just after... but the rest is really great.

joeman - i know what you mean baout searching... i think this has a great beginning and end, but i'd have preferred something a bit more constructed in the middle, it can get a bit "what's going on here?" ish. Having said that, Joe's playing is highly varied, and not the typical joe soloing type stuff (which can be said for most of this album).

that reviewer does make sense, at least in terms of grammar. but he seems to be missing a few points...

a) steve was zappa's guitarist... i genuinely doubt that frank was talking about his own stunt guitarist.

b) these guitarists all have distinct style... no doubt about that.

c) the reviewer really meant to point out that yngwie didn't have enough variety...

but i think he's pretty right about the jams to be honest... i was particularly disappointed by the jams on the cd (the dvd ones were better, still not as good as the 96 ones though...)

is there love in space?

christian answer - since God is omnipresent, and God is love, then yes, there is love in space...

matrix revolutions answer - love is just a word... ( i won't do the rest...)

trutina - and you can reduce that 1/3 of christians by a long way, since a large number of them aren't christians, but say they are (the number of people i've talked to who've thought they were christian by descent, but never set foot in a church)

steevlan - go to any decent sized hmv or virgin and you'll find the album!

michelle - i understand what you're saying,and i hope you allow me to explain myself a bit better. As a christian i believe that belief in jesus christ as the resurrected Son of God is the most important thing. If you have it, you're a Christian, if you don't then you're not a Christian (you have a different faith). I am saying that a large proportion of that '1/3 of the world Christian' statistic are not actually Christians by that definition- they say they are christians just because they're nothing else - by default. Nothing to do with God. A lot of people I've talked to are like this.

The coming to church thing is another matter, but you'll find that most Christians (who should have a healthy relationship with God) will go to church on a regular basis. This is not a hoop you have to jump through, but a certain amount of time and effort that you can give back to God, in response to your faith (see above).

michelle - sure thing, churches can use some pretty bad jargon... I'm at a church which uses veryu little of it, but the pastor was once talking to a christian who was so used to jargon she didn't have a clue what he was talking about caues he was using everyday language!

dave - that sucks, man... you've been screwed over.

Problem with nearly all church denominations is that there are bad eggs around within them. You will find that in the Catholic church there are a very high percentage of churches which really have very little to do with God anyway. There are still lots of good Catholic churches, but there are so many bad ones that swamp them.

Membership in the church of england is going down heavily... again, many C of E churches (including the one I can see right now, out of my window) are run by people not properly commited to God, who are frankly dying out. On the other hand, there are also many truth-seeking growing C of E churches which are growing at unseen-before rates (like my home church).

This all links in with "not all people who go to church are good" thing... which is true on more than one level. By the world's standards, there are a lot of bad people who go to church. By God's standards, everyone who goes to church is bad, but many have put their faith in Christ, and are forgiven.

chris - hehe, the alien thing kinda reminds me of avarice.... the frightening thing is some people would actually believe that. There are lots of people who look to the most far fetched explanations of bible events that are far less likely than how the bible itself actually puts it.

Austin - I'll post a review of your review sometime later than now... gonna do a listen through whilst reading your review.

S4tch Boogie- well, I'm at university at the moment, so I have a home church and a church here. My home church is a Church of England Church, but my church here is a Christian City International Church. This is a pretty small (but growing) group of churches, which is Pentecostal if anything.

I've been a christian since 1998, so coming up to 6 years. I was born in a Christian family got sent to church etc. but never really got the hang of the gospel (despite knowing every bible story inside out) until 1998.

How about you?

this andy timmons thing - i'm really interested in hearing it, but i have a rubbish connection that won't do the job - downloady possible?

austin - i've now looked at your review and listened to the bits you pointed out... i'll go through them one by one and say where i agree...

i agree with all your general album comments- amazing melodies at time, and would have loved to hear the choruses you point out an extra time each.

As for pro tools, i know exactly what you mean...there are many bits that you can feel have originally been played to a drum track, and groove feels that much different when you put a real drummer in. It's particularly apparent when it's just guitar on it's own though (eg. hands in the air).

I don't know where the fault for the lack of creativity in the drumming lies... Neal Morse's Testimony was done in pro tools, but you'd never guess from Mike Portnoy's drumming on it... so it could either be that Neal Morse is a better drummer than Joe, which is probably true (he's about to announce a drum endorsement as well as a singing, guitar and keyboard one), or it could be that mike portnoy is better at stepping out of the original drumbeat and adding something new to it. I suspect it's a bit of both.

As for song by song, to save space i'll tell you i generally agree with it all, except the bits i point out..

hands in the air - i think that 2:06 onwards is a different song really... it just doesn't match the stuff before it in my opinion... and then Joe seems to bolt together a few other ideas to lengthen it up, all of which are good, but none of them seem really structural. So more, yes, but not on that track.

itlis - i think the outro solo is amazing too, but in a different way to the champagne? one... i'd compare it more to the stuff on the track eoc...

if i could fly... amazing, yes... even my mum likes this one... would like another chorus, *that* note is indeed perfect, but maybe a touch of variation in the outro solo - i mean the solo's great but the backing is a bit repetitive.

souls of distortion i gree with, and i'd just like to add that i love the way joe plays around with the rhythm in the chorus... that's the best thing about this one...

just look up - i also hear unsung lyrics, which i have made up in my own mind to a certain extent. this is also true for if i could fly though...

i like the rain - i'd put it pretty high on my list of favourite to least, as far as this album goes... the way the words are phrased works way better than lifestyle imo, and the chorus has that special touch.

searching - i agree on matt's basslines...

bamboo... 2.30 is the best bit on the album for me... everything is perfect, the drums, the use of bowed bass, the tapping and the whammy... so moody...

little bird - i'm not sure where that came from, but thanks...

i agree that faith is a personal thing (as personal as your whole life) and i've not tried to show anything off - you might have got that impression from me answering a question that another member asked though.

If you put faith in a bridge to support your weight, you are effectively saying " i trust this bridge" and you then step on it. if you've chosen a thin, dodgy looking piece of wood, you might have put your faith in the wrong thing. Whereas if you pick the Golden Gate bridge, you're pretty safe.

I put my faith in Jesus Christ. I think he is the single most reliable thing, person or idea to put your faith in. Others disagree, which is their right.

the wars happened....

van wailin - not all music is to enjoy.... have you ever heard any Gustav Mahler? :P I think that on here, peopleshould be allowed to tell Joe what they think of any new release, completely honestly. I love the thing, but there are certainly favourites and least favourites...

S4TCH ... well this church keeps the prophecy and tounges within the limits of the bible... which is nicer than an nfi church i went to a while back... but that had some really rocking things going too...

artanis - very true. i say that if you're going to put faith in a bridge, you at least have to take some steps over it... put your life on the line, so to speak.

nick - that sucks...shame you're not enjoying it. Have you talked to neil about how to get the most out of the course?