Too Many Things and Six Strings

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...

So yes, all bands work in different ways. I'm in a couple and the form may be different but the fundamentals stay the same. My playing is different for them as well. In my main band The Bophins I'm described mostly as Johnny Thunder meets Captain Sensible. It's fundamentally minor pentatonic based, all those old skool blues licks. I love them. The minor pentatonic is one of the most versatile and expressive scales for a guitarist, all frets in the four shape above below and between are fair game, go from minor to major, subvert the shape! It's great :). The other band The Furious Arcs I was described as Page meets Hendrix, it's all about the inversions, sevenths, diminished and so on. Plus the scales tend to be more formed so the drums and bass can link in with them. As I write this, I'm wondering how a band does actually work... Often badly, but sometimes you're lucky enough to be in a band without ego issues where everyone actually appreciates everyone e...