The Deconstruction of Music

Punk rock changed my life forever. When I was around 10 or 11 I spent the majority of my time thinking about how cool it would be to become a professional skateboarder. I would spend hours watching skate videos, and day dreaming about how cool that would be to be able to land those tricks. I've always considered myself a grab the bull by the horns type of person, so I'd go out and try to master the tricks I saw the pro's doing. Most of the time I'd end up being dirty and bleeding but that was part of the fun of it. After watching a lot of those skate videos I really started digging on the music that was playing in the background. It was something totally different then what I was used to hearing on the radio, and I wanted to check into it. The realization of punk rock was born.

The first show that I was able to see was Guttermouth and it rocked. There was a ton of people that showed up and they played loud and fast. People were going crazy and it was so hot in there you could about cut the air with a knife. After that show I went home, got the acoustic guitar out of the attic, dusted it off, and went online to figure out how to make this guitar work.

I ended up going online because I had no idea where to get started on figuring this beast out. I didn't know anything other then this freaking thing has to be so out of tune its not funny, so I tried finding websites that showed you how to tune it up. Thank the lord for early internet because I was able to get it close enough in tune for it to somewhat resemble music. I spent the next few months learning how to read tabs, and trying to figure out the deal with all these power chords.

After mastering the fast power chords of punk music I began wanting to play songs that had a little more meat to them. I remember watching a skateboard video with Jamie Thomas in it and they had Slayer "South of Heaven" playing in the background. Its a pretty rockin song and it was the first metal song that I ended up learning. At that point my metal side started to shine. I started getting into a lot of the AC/DC, Guns N Roses, Metallica, Motley Crue, Van Halen, ect. type bands because the guitar in it was pretty awesome. I still believe AC/DC comes from hell cause they are to bad ass for regular humans.

I was into playing metal for a couple years before I realized what 60's rock n' roll had to offer. The guitar riffs with metal are awesome but the one thing they are missing is a little soul. What do you figure when metal comes from hell. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, ect. became my new influences and I started learning up those songs. There was something sort of awesome about that time in music. I guess the drugs might have been better at that time, or a lot of these bands were heavily influenced by a lot of unrecorded blues artists of the day. Take a look at the Rolling Stones name. Rumor on the street is that Muddy Waters (awesome blues musician) has a song Rolling Stone. Coincidence, I think not.

Well that leads my musical path to learning the blues, and what a trip its been. There is so many great blues music out there, and I believe its the heart of the thing we call rock n' roll. Musicians like Howlin Wolfe, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, Son House are awesome at making timeless music. You can even see their influence in contemporary music. Nirvana covered Leadbelly "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" on unplugged. The White Stripes cover a lot of early blues songs, but one that comes to mind is "Death Letter" originally by Son House.

So far that's my musical journey on the guitar. From punk rock to blues, and what a trip its been.

There's a lot of big mistakes I've seen a lot of musicians get into when trying out for a band. Some players get so focused on playing music exactly how it sounds on a CD that they forget music is supposed to be a creative process. That is unless you just want to play in a note for note cover band. Which can be cool in its own right. You can get plenty of paying gigs if you play spot on covers, but be careful if you want to play in an original band. I have seen many musicians get caught in the "I've learned nothing but covers and have no idea how to creatively play the guitar" trap.

One of my biggest pet peeves I have is when someone asks to jam with me and they start playing a riff that I start to recognize. It's like "well that's cool, but it was cooler when AC/DC did it." A lot of times when people get together and jam the make or break thing is whether the people musically click. A lot of that has to do with how well you know how to improvise and be creative on a similar style of music. Below is a list of suggestions to avoid getting into that trap and I hope you find it hopeful.

1. Learn A Style Not A Song- This is probably the best advice I have so maybe I should have saved it for last, but if you like playing songs from
metal bands start learning metal techniques. That really goes for any genre of music, and every genre has its own tricks and techniques. Try learning what chords and licks make that style sound the way it does.

2. Take Time to Play- Sometimes time can seem to get away from you because there's so many cool songs to learn, and not that much time in the day to play. Try and not spend your entire jamming time learning new songs. Spend sometime just jamming and let your sound start to come out.

3. Learn Multiple Styles- I've always found that when your able to have a lot of different styles under your belt it lets you have a lot more
creative freedom when your making a new song up. There's nothing cooler then if you have a tough sounding riff and then you throw in a carnival sounding lick. I know that's a weird example but you can never go wrong in learning something new.

Those are some ideas to keep you from getting in that trap. I'm sure others out there can give some other things I've forgot, but it seems like a good top 3 to me. Oh ya, and if you get 20 different guitar pedals and spend 30 minutes messing with them before you hit the first chord. I just want you to know I hate that.