Too Many Things and Six Strings

My physio has been telling me for ages I have to stop playing guitar for a bit to let my shoulder and wrist recover. It's easier said than done... I went on Friday and of course was asked "Have you rested and not played?". "Definitely not played as much. Only rehearsal Wednesday night. Oh, and Thursday night. Then a bit of practice during the other days". "So no, you've not rested at all"... Actually for me that was resting, I hardly practiced during the day and on one day I think I didn't even touch the guitar... It's really difficult not to practice, there's so much to learn still and so much better to get, you don't do that without practice. Anyway, yesterday was "sort out the house day". Trips to the tip, moving things about, all that stuff. Time finally to get my nice Gibson patent print framed as well, so I took apart an old picture frame and started cleaning the glass and BAM! Managed to take a big chunk out ...

Hmmmmm.... Modes.... What's them things then?! I'll be honest, modes have confused the hell out of me for years, but basically they're just moods really, the first mode for example is simple the major scale. We'll get into it later but another mode is just the minor scale. Another mode sounds a little exotic and eastern and so on. The thing to remember though is that if you know your major scale, you can play every mode. Basically if you're playing by yourself just doing scales you can't hear the modes. We need a reference for the modes to work, so all through this we're going to assume the bass player is just droning an E note. That droning gives us our context. What?! But they're different, how can they all be the same scale?! Well, they're the same scale just started in different places. In fact the guitar makes this easy for you. Again though this idea has confused me for years, I just needed a way for my brain to understand it! The first mod...

It's difficult to know what to write today. Last night the news started coming in about the explosion at the Manchester Arena and this morning we have clarification of what happened. This concert was with an artist who has an audience predominately of younger people, so this was targeted at that audience. I know what people will say "You don't react like this when there are suicide bombers in other countries". Well, every time it happens, wherever it is in the world, it's a horrible thing, but it is human nature to be more affected when it is closer to home, and the first thing I did this morning was to check the people in the office in Manchester were all okay. It's not that I care more for them than others, but I know them so it's closer to home, and I have a connection to them so I can check if they are alright. Music is a beautiful thing which brings people together. It has no race, no religion, no class (although unfortunately we add class to it at...

Ages years ago I built a rehearsal room and recording studio in my garage. It does the job brilliantly, in fact the whole of The Bophins New Swag was done in there. It's great to have a musical man cave my bands can use whenever they want, but being a guitarist and IT person I fit that stereotype of not being great at DIY. Also, my brother and I have a genetic disposition to being terrible at that sort of thing. The stories we could tell about the family home back in the day.... So, when it came to do the all important outside wall, I bought in a proper builder. Being a proper builder he ignored my instructions and missed the concept of soundproofing by building the wall on top of the fake floor and leaving a big hole at the bottom. My neighbours are great though. We stop at 10pm and no one has ever complained. If you have the windows shut and TV on you can't hear a thing, but we do sometimes have people out by the driveway listening in! So today 3/4 of The Bophins are goi...

I've been a bit quiet the last few days and for good reason. Like most people in working bands, I have a day job and mine is as head of system security for a health charity. We look after pretty much anyone who needs help, try to catch the people who fall through the gaps in the NHS. We bid for (and win at times obviously) NHS contracts to run services. We bid against the big players you'll have heard of, but the difference is that all our profits go into our charity arm. Anyway, unless you've been living under a rock you'll know there's been a massive international malware attack which brought the NHS to its knees and a number of other health providers. I noticed something early part of last week and just did some due diligence making sure we had things set right, so when it hit we were unaffected. I was asked to make the call about our response. Do we take our systems offline to fully protect ourselves? I said No. If our systems go offline, real people are affe...

Often the trouble with guitarists is we can't let go of our guitars, so we end up with an absurd collection. Here's the ones I have at my house. The singer from The Bophins has a couple of mine, a few friends have borrowed some as well, but here's the home collection (missing two bass guitars as one lives in the studio, my brothers old headless bass included!). After taking these pictures I decided to have a clear out of the guitars I never really use. My main weapons are the Gibson and Gretsch in the top picture, middle. In fact most the guitars in the top I use, with the exception of the Tokai which needs a little TLC. The bottom picture the EVH Special, the Ibanez an the Fender Parlour are the most used. The beaten Jackson second from the right I bought when I was 19, it was a Charvette but only the actual body which was white is still original. Anyway, what I was getting to eventually is that it's tough as a guitarist to get rid of guitars, you get atta...

Last night I spoke to an old school friend of mine, actually my best friend for many years at school, a guy called Charlie (Adrian) Groves. It was great to talk to him for a few hours after probably around 20 years of not having spoken. He sent me an old press article from when I was 16 about one of my old bands with a very dodgy looking picture of us. The reporter for some reason decided that Def Leopard was my main influence - I think because it was a rock band people had heard of. I still remember being annoyed with that at the time... still bugs me a little now...  I was just amazed that someone had kept the article, an old friend. I know I don't have a copy and I know my folks didn't keep one. Not sure if they saw it, I'll have to show it to mum at some point. I've also decided to have a guitar clean out. I have a few which I don't use. Not trust me, as a guitarist selling any guitars regardless of if you use them or not is a painful process be...

Yes yes, I know, still not written the Carlos post, but I will, just bear with me! So, yesterday my band The Bophins released their second album New Swag - that link goes to Spotify but it's on all major digital stores... The physical version has been delayed because apparently five to six working days is an estimate, ten to twelve is more accurate, oh well, patience and all that. We recorded, produced, mixed and mastered it all by ourselves and I think I'm rightly proud of what this motley bunch has produced! No idea how many ears will hear it, but so far all very good feedback. So, the gig in London... it was interesting, and I won't name names but let's just say The Bophins as the middle band on were the only band not to sit downstairs while others were playing. If you're in a band remember this, unless you really can't, watch the other bands! Then you won't get blacklisted by promoters and won't be added to the "never going to play with the...