Guitar Gods - Paul Rose

Paul Rose takes blues-rock playing to new levels. He plays with jaw-dropping vibrato, tapping and that violin volume-swell technique you can do on strat.  But the thing that sets him apart is his FEEL. Check out the link to Summertime below to see what I mean.

He plays LsL Strats through a Hughes & Kettner amp and cabinet with NO effects, and creates a vast array of tones by using the volume, tone and pickup selector on the guitar.

Rory Gallagher described Paul as "a hot player with a hot future", and Seymour Duncan (yes THAT one) rates Paul in his top 5 players (between Jeff Beck #1 and Roy Buchanan #3).

I saw him a couple of days ago in a tiny venue with his 3-piece band (Kenny Huchison - bass, Ted McKenna - drums). It was spectacular. I was grinning all night. And I still am.

My favourite tracks

Summertime (click for youtube)

Get Carter (from the album Note To Self)

All Along The Watchtower. (The first time I heard this I was listening on headphones walking to pick the kids up from school. The second solo made me find a bench to sit down to listen again and again).

Home (from the album Note To Self)

More

www.paulrose.co.uk 

www.youtube.com/user/stratfanatic

The 11,426 mile recording session - Day 1.

How do two people separated by 11,426 miles and 20 years, record a song that was never written down?

Twenty years ago I was in band called 'PretendFriends'. We were an indie-pop band based in Oxford, and riding on the boom in the Oxford music scene.  It was an extraordinary time. Lots of bands were successful locally, with the likes of Radiohead and Supergrass going on to international success.

We recorded two demo EPs - you can find some of our tunes here.

(Demos used to look like this).







Our claim to fame was that the local music mag 'Nightshift' included one of our songs in their Christmas Top 20 of 1995 alongside Radiohead's 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'!


Ego, beer and delusional behaviour (mostly mine) put paid to PretendFriends, but I stayed in contact with Ed the bass player.   After a Facebook chat the other night, we have decided to record one of our old, vaguely remembered tunes.

Now it's the cold light of day and we're wondering where to start. Oh and Ed now lives 11,426 miles away in New Zealand. Hmmm. Ed suggests we both do acoustic demos of how we think the song goes.


11,426 miles away, Ed smirks at the thought of me trying to remember 20 year old guitar parts.

Learning scales: the two pattern approach vs CAGED

Learning scales is a key building block for any aspiring guitarist. It is the equivalent of a child learning to talk.

The trick is to spend the MINIMUM amount of time memorising scales, and the MAXIMUM amount of time learning to make music with them.  So choosing an approach to start learning scales, for you or your student, is really important.

People often talk about using C-A-G-E-D (see Mastering The Major Scale by www.justinguitar.com) or the two pattern approach.

But actually these are essentially the same. Here's how C-A-G-E-D and the two-pattern approach relate to each other.

Here are the two-patterns of the major scale.

 

If you play pattern 1 and then pattern 2 across the neck you get this.

This is the two octave E-shape major scale from C-A-G-E-D. It is built by stacking Pattern 1 (root note on the 6th (E) string) and Pattern 2 in the same position (fret) across the neck.

If you stack Pattern 2 (root note on the 6th (E) string) and the Pattern 1 across the neck, you will get the two-octave G-shape major scale from C-A-G-E-D.



These are the only full two-octave patterns in C-A-G-E-D. All the others have one full octave and fragments of other octaves.

C is Pattern 2 with the root note on the 5th (A) string followed by part of Pattern 1 on the other strings.
A is Pattern 1 with the root note on the 5th (A) string followed by part of Pattern 2.
D is Pattern 1 with the root note on the 4th (D) string followed by part of Pattern 2.

Which approach should you use?

My preference is for the two-pattern approach. I think it is simpler and more complete. For instance, there is no part of the C-A-G-E-D system with a root note on the 3rd (G) string.

Here's a cheat sheet for six of the most important scales for guitarists

However, many self-taught guitarists start by learning chords so C-A-G-E-D makes a quick introduction to scales and how they relate to chords.

So, pick the approach which feels best and remember - memorising scales is only 10% of the job!