Hey guys; new nickname for a spangly new wbesite (formerly "The Nut") which looks, by the way, F*CKING AWESOME!!!!!! Thought that since I'd finally seen the new Star Wars movie last night (which was also f*cking awesome) that this was the only possible choice... lol

PhrygianDominant - Thanks man. I'll try that. I was thinking I might have to the first five minutes of audio and the second five minutes separately and then try to join them together with no seams. Very difficult, that would have been. The loss of the user's manual clouds everything... lol

The Local Person - My gilrfriend is doing a Maths exam today, so I assume it's that one. I just picked the slightly more light hearted subjects - Music and an AVCE in Performing Arts. My last exam is on Monday. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe (or anyone that knows...) - This is probably a really stupid question, but is Joe Satriani your real name or just a stage name? What's your take on stage names? Also, I agree with whoever it was that suggested having that JS logo thing made into a car sticker. That would be cool, IMHO.

Seeyas later. The 25th approaches...

Vetteguy43 - It doesn't really matter if you tap with your pick, as long as it works for you. It just means that the tapped notes will have a slightly different timbre to most people's. If you watch the LISF video/DVD you should notice that whenevr Joe taps, he seems to prefer using the pick to tap all that really cosmic, full-on widdly tapping - watch the solo in The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing and you'll see that. But for the more "subdued" tapping, like Always With Me, Always With You and the breakdown of Satch Boogie he uses his middle finger. It really doesn't matter.

Local Dude - Yeah, that would be cool. I am indeed going to the London show on July 18th, so we could meet up there for sure. My other jam-buddy Danny J should be coming along too. I'd love to get together for a jam some time; it's the summer hols soon, so any time would be good really. Let me know. Where abouts in Sussex are you?

PhrygianDominant - I checked my mail and apparently I have none. Been having a few problems with it recently though...

3 - 0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bring on the Brazillians...

Theory buffs - Does this scale have another, less complicated name - Phrygian Dominant #7? So it's a Phrygian Dominant scale with a sharpened seventh; 1, b2, 3, 4, 5, b6, 7. It's really cool coz the upper and lower tetrachords are the same, you have a three note chromaticism at the top, and from the third to the sixth is a little snippet of a half-whole diminished scale. It's the scale used in Misirlou, from the beginning of Pulp Fiction. Anyway, does it have a "proper" name?

PhrygianDominant - That's weird... Come to think of it, I haven't received any mail in a few days. I'll look into it...

July 18th rolls nearer...

L8rs, Neil.

Satch3d and Local Dude - I don't know, becasue it also has a minor sixth. It's one of those annoying polytonal scales. That was, in fact, gonna be my next question - is it major or minor. Coz usually it's the third that defines the tonality, right? But it still sounds minor. Aaaaargggghhhhh!!!!! Anyways, I know Haywards Heath. It is quite far to come just to see a gig, I suppose. Never mind. Another time? Definitely gotta jam, though...

Anybody know how much a Boss BCB-3B flight case for effects pedals costs roughly, in £'s...?

L8rs, Neil.

PhrygDom - Well, I sent an e-mail to the trouble shooting thingy at Yahoo! and am stull awaiting a reply. The thing is, if it's totally f*cked, then I won't get a reply... lol. Perhaps I'll just have to open a new account with somone else.

Local Dude and Matt King - I just saw that scale (Phrygian Dominant #7, double harmonic minor, blah blah...) referred to as the Gypsy scale in a book called "The Art of Joe Satriani". The precise quote is this: Some of Satriani's other favourites include the Hindu scale (1 2 3 4 5 b6 b7), the Gypsy scale (1 b2 3 4 5 b6 7), the Dorian #4 (1 2 b3 #4 5 6 b7), and the Hungarian scale (1 #2 3 #4 5 6 b7). I knew it had another name... By the way, the Hindu scale (also known as Mixolydian b6) is interesting. As soon is IUMA is up and running again I'll be posting a new tune using that scale. It's very cool...

I had my last ever exam yesterday afternoon - it was Music A2. I'm a free man!!!!!!!!!!!!! Until results day, on August 15th anyway...

L8rz, Neil.

http://neilmorgan.iuma.com

Local Dude - Nah, I did the OCR paper. Good job too, given Edexcel's performance this year... lol. I hope your girlfriend did well with hers. Mine went pretty well, except the first extract on the tape was of a particularly poor quality and I had to complete the bass part on the score, BUT I COULDN'T F*CKING HEAR IT COZ THE TAPE WAS SO SH*TTY! lol. Anyway, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger...

Joe - Just thought I'd say how much I'm enjoying your column in Guitar World. Your's and Mr Vai's were the best they've had since I've been a reader. Zakk Wylde's is pretty cool, and OH MY GOD THERE'S A T.V.R. TUSCAN PARKED JUST DOWN THE ROAD FROM MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!! so was Kirk Hammett's. Anyways, just thought I'd show my appreciation. Looking forward to the new album...

L8rs, Neil.

Whilst KB1 went about it in a totally inapprpriate manner, there is a lot of truth in what he says. EOC sucked, except fot Until We Say Goodbye and Clouds Race Across the Sky, because it's like Joe was trying too hard to do someting different. But from what I've heard of the new record, which isn't a lot, it sounds killer. So far, every album has been better than the one preceeding it (except EOC), but that wouldn't be hard after NOTE. CP kicks ass, The Extremist kick ass, the self-titled album kicks ass (except for Cool #9 and Killer Bee Bop) and Joe is going from strength to strength. As for using obscenities? Who cares - some people just aren't very articulate, I guess...

Matt King - Well said, about the whole scale thing. There are loads of people to learn from on this site, especially Clarky and your good self, but it doesn't really matter what stuff is called. If you're not having to teach any body else then you could just call each scale #1, #2, #3, etc. so long as you remember which one is which, right? But say you get famous and have an interview at Guitar World and they say "So, what scale do you use for this solo?" you can't just say "Oh that's scale #1400 with a root note of C#." lol

L8s, Neil.

Clarky - Sounds cool. My exams have finished now, so I can come up again whenever, if that's okay. I bought a Morley Bad Horsie today. It's wicked; you said "A wah-wah is an extremely expressive tool." Too true, and it makes it much easier if the thing just turns on the minute you step on it! Stay tuned for some new tunes on my IUMA, one of which incorporates the Mixolydian b6 scale - very cool.

ANYONE WANT TO BUY A WAH-WAH PEDAL?

Man, I keep uploading a new photo for my IUMA, but the site still seems to show the old one...

PhrygDom - I have a new e-mail, so you should be able to send me that stuff now... dontspillmybeer@hotmail.com

L8rs, Neil.

Desert Sun - Hehehe. "PIng pong Delay"? What the fuck? lol

New album tomorrow!!!!!!!

L8rs, Neil.

Well well, there have been a lot of posts since my last stop! And I was going to read them all before posting, I really was, but there was about fourteen pages. I read about nine or ten and then thought "fuck this!". So I'm sorry if, by chance, somebody asked me a question and I didn't read it. You'll just have to ask it again, won't you...

Ya Yo - You're right; Hagrid does look like Yngwie Malmsteen! I laughed my ass of when I read that, man...

New songs coming to my IUMA by the weekend (hopefully...)!

L8rs,Neil

Satch3d - Stop just spinning it and go put the thing in your CD player - you'll like it even more that way, trust me!!!!! lol

Stu Not Boo - I reckon Oriental Melody is pretty good. As soon as I put it in my CD player and heard that intro I was like "hmmm..." I just love the drum groove and the bit that I suppose could be called the chorus. The only problems I have with that one are I don't really like the melody guitar sound at the beginning; that really soaked in delay sound kinda does my head in. And the solo sounds a bit, dare I say it, sloppy in places. But I think that's also down to the tone - it's quite muddy. I didn't have anywhere near the problems you had in tracking the album down though. I just walked into my local MVC, checked the "new releases" shelf, and there it was...

Anybody else having problems uploading stuff to their IUMA lately?

L8rs, Neil.

Local Dude - So man, when can we jam? Are you free over the summer?

Ya Yo - They should make a new Harry Potter movie with Malmsteen as the bad guy, and call it "Harry Potter and the Fretwanker's Ego"!!!!!

Plum Loco - A house, huh? So when's the house warming party?

Anybody know if Robert Fripp is touring with Joe so he can play Sleep Walk live? I don't really like that track (sounds like something from the "Grease" soundtrack...) but it sure would be cool to see Fripp and Satch on the same stage...

L8r, Neil.

Not-so-local-for-some Local Dude - Yeah man, for sure. Hey, you wanna meet up someplace for the London show on the 18th?

Anybody know who did Starry Night originally?

Man, I've really been geting into EOC lately...

JSC 1 - How's that classical piece coming along?

L8rs, Neil.

JSC1 - I've been getting a bit of grief from IUMA lately too. Every photo I try to upload ends up on the site as a big mass of grey. I can upload new texts and stuff but not pictures it seems. I hate to think what's gonna happen when I try to upload new songs in a few days... Regarding EOC also, I said in my last post that I've really been getting into it lately. I used to think it kinda sucks the whole way through, but I decided to give it another listen just the other day. I still don't like the first three tracks or "Attack!" that much, but from "Until We Say Goodbye" until the end of the album it's absolutely minbblowing. My favourite song on the album is "Clouds Race Across The Sky" and my favourtie little bit on the whole album is that two-part contrary motion figure at the end of what I suppose could be called the chorus. So simple!! I dont do pot anymore but that song, along with Slow And Easy and Engines Of Creation, are the sort of music I can imagine getting really hammered to, and just sitting there chilling, y'know? lol

Local Dude - Damn striaght I'll be at the front! I'll be the guy with the blow up guitar, probably wearing a Dream Theater t-shirt...

Austin - Okay, I meant Sleep Walk... Who did that originally?

Tilted Jacks? Who really cares. If you don't have one but you want one you could just buy one of those cables with the L-shaped Jacks. If you have one but you don't want one, then why did you buy a guitar you weren't 100% happy with? Don't buy a JS Series just because it's a JS Series...

Whoever it was enquiring about wireless systems - If you get one you have to be prepared to buy a really expensive one, because I have a relatively cheap one and it sounds like crap. It muddies up the sound like you wouldn't believe, so I just bought a really long cable.

Over and out, Neil.

Man, I need a haircut...

DAVESTOCK on Wednesday night!!!!!!!!!!!

SBM is certainly working it's way up my "Satch Chart"! It only started out quite close to the bottom, just above NOTE, FIABD, and SWTA. But it sure is a climber - right now it's at third place, just above Joe Satriani and just below The Extremist. It might well overtake The Extremist soon, but I don't think anything will ever top Crystal Planet...

Cor24 - Rubina is Joe's wife.

"beautiful, adj. - with qualities that give delight to the senses, esp. the eye and ear, or which awaken admiration in the mind."

Joe, "You Saved My Life" is truly a beautiful piece of music...

Local Dude - Davestock happened last night, and it was awesome. I got such a buzz out of the fact that people turned up to something I helped to organise. We raised just under £300 too! All the bands played really well, particularly my band - we were on fire, man!!!!! You missed a great show, but I'm looking into the possibility of getting the video of our set, or maybe just the bit where I play "For The Love Of God", on the internet. Also, I got my Davestock t-shirt so I'll probably be wearing that to the Shepherds Bush show instead of a Dream Theater t-shirt, so look out for the guy with the blow-up guitar and the Davestock t-shirt... lol

L8rs, Neil.

Paul Huxley - Er, I don't really have any "brilliance" to show you, but I like to think I'm pretty good so hopefully there are some things I can show you...

JSC1 - You got SBM yet? I bet you're pacing round the house smashing things up at the moment... lol. Went to your IUMA. My computer hates downloading so I streamed the piece, which meant I got loads of gaps in for all that "buffering" BS, but I think I got the basic idea - pretty damn cool! Give us more... Also, I think you should make the Biography a bit longer, give us some more information about yourself. And judging by that photo you have inhumanly long fingers, you freak! lol :D

L8rs, Neil.