Fret Filings - (Anne's Blog)

Sunday, March 9, 2008

TOTO
Topic: Riff-In-A-Jiff

...and your little dog, too!

Okay okay, I know the name of this band of top sessioneers isn't a reference to Dorothy's dog in The Wizard Of Oz. It's a reference to the Latin "in toto", meaning 'in entirety' or 'completely'. And maybe it's a bit ironic that they're being posted in this section for riffs, intros, and parts of songs...tabs that haven't been done "in toto". So here's some Steve Lukather guitar riffing, from the band's 1978 debut album Toto.

TOTO - "Hold the Line" (D. Paich)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/varriffs.txt

Live version video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj2SZbQtPGA

Posted by planet/zerofret at 2:10 AM EST
Updated: Sunday, March 9, 2008 2:12 AM EST
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Friday, March 7, 2008

TIME FOR A CHANGE
Topic: Guitar

Not anything big. Just a guitar string change, actually. My Super Slinkies are all slinked out. They're slinkless. They've come unslunk (they didn't know what they were headed for, and when they found what they were headed for, it was too late, they've come unsluuuuunk). Well, you can tell it's a Friday, can't you? A snowed-in one, at that.

Really, though, my guitar has been crying out for a string changing for probably about two months now. And I always say 'as soon as I finish this tab, I'll do a change'. Then I finish the tab, and almost immediately get tinkering around with the next one. And having gotten into it and not wanting to slow the momentum, I say to myself 'as soon as I finish this tab, I'll do a change'. Etc.

But no more putting it off. Before the next tab, it has to get done. So probably tomorrow night, while I watch the hockey game, or something. Time to put the "zing" back in the string.

I remember once reading in a guitar magazine that you could get some extra life out of worn out strings by boiling them in water. So I tried it (this was a looong time ago) just to see what the effect would be. I took a worn out set off my guitar, gave them a boiling, and put them back on the guitar. And the result was...thud! I don't know, maybe it makes them cleaner, or something. Or maybe if you add salt while you boil, it'll make them tastier...for those of you who do the 'watch me play with my teeth' bit.

But they still sound just as dull as they did before. The article did say that this won't work miracles, but as far as I could see, it didn't do anything at all. So it was a one time experiment.

Nothing beats a fresh set of strings with that zing and brightness in them. They sound better, they feel better to play. And I "slink" a change will do me good.

Posted by planet/zerofret at 4:46 PM EST
Updated: Friday, March 7, 2008 4:56 PM EST
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Wednesday, March 5, 2008

JEFF HEALEY
Topic: Bands/Music

A Canadian great passes away. Even after all these years, his guitar playing style still amazes me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBBCJ68mC4c

JEFF HEALEY March 25, 1966 - March 2, 2008

Posted by planet/zerofret at 1:14 AM EST
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Sunday, March 2, 2008

FEBRUARY 2008 REVIEW
Topic: Website

Most-viewed tabs for the month of February 2008 (w/ view numbers):

9 - Headpins - Turn It Loud
5 - Bad Company - Ready For Love (crd)
5 - Chilliwack - Communication Breakdown
4 - Doobie Brothers - China Grove
4 - Headpins - Don't It Make Ya Feel
4 - Stevie Nicks - Sorcerer
3 - Kim Mitchell - All We Are
3 - Supertramp - School

Total tab views for February: 91 (Tabs-82, Chords-9)

Most-viewed tabs overall (stats date from Oct. 3/07 to Feb. 29/08):

27 - Headpins - Don't It Make Ya Feel
13 - Trooper - Two For the Show
11 - Girlschool - Race With the Devil (guitar)
11 - Max Webster - High Class In Borrowed Shoes
11 - Kim Mitchell - All We Are
10 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
9 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
9 - Doobie Brothers - China Grove
9 - Headpins - Turn It Loud
9 - Max Webster - Battle Scar
9 - Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle
9 - Toronto - Your Daddy Don't Know
9 - Trooper - Raise A Little Hell

*Only tab views made by people (excluding my own views) are counted here. Webcrawler/bot views are excluded.

Posted by planet/zerofret at 1:52 AM EST
Updated: Sunday, March 2, 2008 1:54 AM EST
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Friday, February 29, 2008

BAD COMPANY
Topic: Riff-In-A-Jiff

A little laid back Bad Company for you, on this day which comes only once every four years. And to help kick off your weekend. Have a good one, everybody! From the band's 1975 Straight Shooter album.

BAD COMPANY - "Feel Like Makin' Love" (P. Rodgers/M. Ralphs)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/varriffs.txt

Hear it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCdIczS1Y78

Posted by planet/zerofret at 1:16 AM EST
Updated: Friday, February 29, 2008 1:18 AM EST
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Friday, February 22, 2008

PATCH WORK
Topic: Website

I made a small change to the "Turn It Loud" tab, so I thought I'd make a note of it here in case anyone wants the updated tab.

The change is in bar 15 of the Guitar Solo. The first half of the measure has been changed to natural harmonics at the 5th fret. Same notes as before, but played as harmonics.

When I was first doing the tab, I thought that that part might be harmonics, but ultimately I decided it didn't sound enough like harmonics to tab it that way. But last night watching video footage of the song, I could see the guitarist was definitely playing that part as natural harmonics at the 5th fret. And in that footage, he plays pretty much the exact same solo live that Brian MacLeod played on the original recording, so I figure that Bar 15 part should be harmonics, and I made the change.

Posted by planet/zerofret at 1:02 AM EST
Updated: Friday, February 22, 2008 1:10 AM EST
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

HELIX
Topic: Riff-In-A-Jiff

This riff is brought to you by the good people of Maxwell House! Okay, it's actually brought to you by Helix. And it's a bit more than a riff. I was asked to do a bit of this song, maybe just the Intro or something. So I did up to the first Chorus (Intro, Verse, Chorus). Since it was a partial tab, I thought I'd post it here. The song is from Helix' 1990 Back For Another Taste CD.

When I was asked to do it, I didn't know the song. It's a good song, although I noticed immediately that it reminded me a lot of another song that was a very big hit back in the 1980's, done by a very well known band. It's mostly the Chorus that I find similar, not so much the verses. And if you click on the bottom link of this post to the page where the Helix song is, and take a look at the short credits list for that album, you'll even find a fairly obvious clue as to what other band I'm referring to. So I don't think it's totally accidental that the two songs sound similar.

"Last Drop" requires some retuning. You'll need to tune to Eb. It can be played in standard tuning, of course, but it will sound half a tone higher than the recording.

HELIX - "Good To the Last Drop" (B. Vollmer/M. Ribler)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/canriffs.txt

You can hear the whole song on this page of Helix' site (scroll down the menu to Track #9):

http://www.planethelix.com/Albums/Album08.htm

Posted by planet/zerofret at 1:54 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 2:06 AM EST
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Sunday, February 17, 2008

CHORDS PAGE
Topic: Website

You might have noticed the new page added to the site just this past week, a page for songs that aren't full tabs, but have chord changes only. The reason that page came to be is because it occurred to me that I have stacks of chord charts that I've done over the years, and I could be using some of them on the site. Whether there will be any interest in them, I don't know, but it adds to the content of the site.

The majority of them were done several years ago, so any that I consider adding to the site will get a check over before they get posted. One of the problems I've encountered is that some of these were worked out off of albums that I've never replaced the vinyl version with a CD, meaning that I don't have the record anymore. In those cases, I can't check it against the record, of course. Like the one I posted today, Nazareth's "Heart's Grown Cold". I don't have a CD with that song on it. I had to look it up on YouTube and try to check it against a live version.

The page could be a slow growing one, as it won't be high priority. The main focus of the site will continue to be full tabs. I'll work at typing up chord charts on nights when I don't have any prepared tab to get into the computer. The exception to that would be if someone were to ask for the chord changes to a song. That would be given the same priority as a tab. For the most part, though, the page will be a side project.

So far it's mostly been a matter of re-arranging things. I've moved the handful of chord charts off of the tab pages and onto the Chords page. But I didn't want to open up the page until I had at least one new song to add. So I hooked the page up to the site on Thursday when I had the Bad Company song ready, then added a Nazareth song today.

These chord charts have been done over a long period of years, taking in a lot of different music I've listened to over that time. So there could be a real cross section of musical styles, from mainstream rock to prog to folk to metal to punk to New Wave. Just about anything might show up.

On the tab front, I'm currently half way through the next one.

Posted by planet/zerofret at 2:46 AM EST
Updated: Sunday, February 17, 2008 2:57 AM EST
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Saturday, February 16, 2008

TURN IT LOUD
Topic: Website

New tab posted today, the Headpins' "Turn It Loud".

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/cantab/headpins-turnitloud.txt

I'll get a video version linked to the site soon. I think there's a couple of different ones at YouTube.

Also, when I get a chance, I'll explain a bit about the new page added to the site.

Have a great weekend!...a long weekend in both Canada and the States, I think.

Posted by planet/zerofret at 2:52 AM EST
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Monday, February 11, 2008

HOCKEY DAY GUITAR
Topic: Guitar

Over the weekend, "Hockey Night In Canada" did its annual "Hockey Day In Canada" broadcast. It's a once a year event which features a triple-header broadcast, usually featuring all the Canadian-based teams in action. They base the show in a small-ish town (Winkler, Manitoba this year) and fill the space between games with features about hockey being part of the Canadian cultural fabric, players talking about influential coaches growing up, etc.

A couple of weeks ago on "Hockey Night", they came back from commercial for the regular Ron and Don wrap-up after the early game, and Don Cherry was holding a Gibson guitar. Turned out it was an auction being done in relation to "Hockey Day". Gibson had done a custom guitar for them. Interested, I looked for more info on the Net. This isn't a guitar I would buy or bid on, but I was just interested in getting a better look at it, and reading a bit about it.

It's a 2008 Les Paul Studio, with "Hockey Night" themed art work that features a picture of Ron & Don, kids playing hockey, snow flakes, and a stylized maple leaf. On the side, along the top, is printed "Hockey Day In Canada 2008". The artist is Ray Bishop, who has done art work for the masks of various pro goalies (Belfour and Hasek, among others).

The auction is closed now. The guitar drew 81 bids, and had a closing price of $6,120.

The auction page for it (with pictures) is here: http://auction.nhl.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=90845762&prmenbr=12717464&aunbr=91192472

Posted by planet/zerofret at 2:11 AM EST
Updated: Monday, February 11, 2008 2:24 AM EST
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