I splurged this week and bought myself a new WHAMMY 5! They are amazing

hey you guitar nuts. this is a recording I found online of my friend Roy Howell
from Memphis. You can catch him for free most thursday nights @ Neils
on Quince, playing with Jack Rowell

I've been away....

Hello Guitar Freaks!
I've been pretty negligent about posting on here lately,so I hope to correct this
and post some relevant material for all us musicians out there.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE~!

Hot Hot Hot!!!!
July is turning out to be even hotter than june.
Everyone stay in and stay COOL!!!

Swampkatz on Live TV

We were invited to appear on a local TV show in Jackson, TN last week
and also do a taped show for later showing. It was a nice day to make a road trip.
I will try to post some of the video on our youtube site when we get it.

Why guitars are the best instrument to play...

This is an article I found online yesterday and wanted to share it with all of you.

The Guitar's Advantages Over Other Instruments
By Phil Stimac

The most obvious advantage the guitar has over other instruments is its portability. Unlike a baby grand piano, you can easily pack your guitar around on your shoulder in a carrying case. I bought my first guitar when I was a sophomore in high school. It was a Stella, purchased for twenty-nine dollars from George Porcella, the proprietor of Porcella's Music Store in Gilroy, California. Since then, I have owned, sold, traded, pawned or lost a dozen or so more.

My love for the guitar soared in 1978 when I first heard world-renown classical guitar master Andres Segovia's The Intimate Guitar album. I listened to it on the recommendation of a teacher I had just begun taking classical lessons from in Santa Cruz. Capitalizing on the guitar's ability to produce both melodic and harmonic sound, Segovia was able to make his guitar sound like two separate instruments. In addition to being the world's most recognized classical performer, Segovia did much throughout his life to increase the popularity of his beloved instrument. He produced instruction books and materials, transcribed classical music to fit the guitar and held concerts, seminars and workshops throughout the world.

Prior to that time I began studying classical guitar, I had been able to play folk and country songs in the style of Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson using three simple chords. My newly learned music theory, coupled with a more developed ear, opened up a new world of learning and enjoyment for me. The right and left hand techniques used in guitar playing gave my body a better sense of balance and integration than playing a wind or brass instrument.

The guitar offers players the opportunity to experiment with techniques and create different styles and picking patterns, from Flamingo to Travis picking. Likewise, you can change and invent new musical styles by changing the type or thickness of your strings. You can also change guitar types from a classical nylon string, to a steel string acoustic. Electric pick-ups as well as electric guitars with amps and foot pedal attachments allow the player to increase volume and add special sound effects. Guitars can be played with a pick or with a variety of finger-pickings styles.

Still, the guitar has other has advantages too. Unlike most brass and wind instruments, you can play complex four, five and six note chords on a guitar. Although the use of a capo is frowned on by classical players, its use in other styles gives players the unique ability to quickly change keys to adjust to a singers vocal range or preferences.

This versatile instrument is also one of the few you hold over your heart. To the serious player like myself, this not only enhances the tone you produce from the strings, but makes your playing one with your voice.

Phil Stimac teaches guitar and songwriting. He also designs and manages blogs for artists and people in business. Phil is also CEO of The Elite Lawyers and Judges Whistleblower Network of America, and consultant to Ave Paz, Inc.

New Christmas site

I have a new site selling guitars, amps, keyboards and much more just in time for Christmas. Go see http://rockyschristmastoychest.com
and find out what big savings you can have on

Les Pauls, digital recorders and a whole lot more....

New Music Store Comin for Christmas This Year

I bought a domain name and opened a little online store for XMAS
the link should be working soon at Rocky's Christmas Toychest
Come see the amazing values I have on guitars, keyboards, digital recorders and more.

new video from our gig last week

Improve your playing part one

Do you want to improve your guitar technique, play guitar cleaner, eliminate sloppy playing and unwanted string noise? Sloppy guitar technique is a very common problem. Many guitarists have been asking for solutions. This article will help you to improve your guitar technique.

There are 5 main challenges that electric guitar players must overcome in order to learn and master guitar technique. These 5 guitar technique challenges are divided into 3 groups:

1. Awareness

2. Sounds you 'want' to hear (the notes you are attempting to play cleanly)

3. Sounds you do 'not' want to hear (the sloppy sounds you sometimes hear such as unwanted string noise)
Today we will take a look at the first two groups. In Part 2 of this article series we'll focus on the last group of guitar technique challenges.

Focused Awareness - Many guitar players are not fully aware of every imperfection in their guitar technique. Some of these players do sense that 'something' may be wrong, but are not sure about exactly what their specific guitar technique problems are. Obviously, you cannot effectively correct a technical problem until and unless you know exactly what it is.

There are 2 main ways you can approach this:

1. Record yourself playing a something you want to improve on. Listen back (carefully) at 25%-33% speed so that you more easily identify any unclear notes, excess string noise, scratchy noises between the notes, inconsistency in your pick attack, etc.). You may or may not be able to hear everything on your own (many people simply can't yet) and you may or may not be able to 'correctly' identify the cause of each imperfection present in your guitar playing. If you can that's great, but if you're not sure then...

2. Work with a guitar teacher to evaluate your playing and use that feedback to begin the process of making any necessary changes to your technique. Not only will a good teacher help you to play clean by telling you 'what to do', but also because he will hear problems that you may not really be hearing.

IF you have an excellent ear, you should be able to identify the fine details of your problem, if not, work with your guitar teacher.

Articulation - The First Half of Two Hand Synchronization
The second step is to focus on your articulation. Articulation is the first half of two hand synchronization. To play cleaner you need your hands to fret and pick each note at precisely the same time (simultaneously).

There are 3 critical things you need to do to improve your articulation:

1. Use a clean guitar tone when practicing (no distortion and NO effects!). Distortion and effects will mask any imperfections in your articulation, so do not practice with them when focusing on "Articulation" (the rules will change when we talk about "The Release" in the next section).

2. Play loud enough so that you can truly hear what is happening as you are playing.

3. When you are practicing something slowly MAKE SURE that you do NOT change ANYTHING about how you approach and articulate each note. Fact is, most guitar players actually play very differently when playing slow compared to when playing fast. If you change anything in the way you are articulating the notes (such as playing with a lighter touch, using a weaker or stronger pick attack, changing your hand position, pick angle etc.) you will NOT fully improve your technique because the sound you make when playing will be different and therefore harder to detect and identify any problems with your articulation.

The Release - The Second Half of Two Hand Synchronization
The third step toward cleaner playing is 'the release'. For most guitar players 'the release' is the hardest problem to detect and correct. That's generally because once players articulate a note cleanly, they ignore what immediately comes after (small sloppy noise in between the notes or 2 notes slightly 'bleeding' together.

And practicing your guitar with a 'clean' tone (no distortion) - as described above when focusing on articulation - almost always masks problems in the release phase of playing a note. This is why many people think their guitar playing sounds pretty clean when practicing without distortion but sense something is wrong when later playing with distortion... but they are not sure what the problem is... or worse, they actually do not hear the problem at all (but other people do). This is why focused awareness is so critical.

I use multiple steps to help my guitar students fully solve this problem (not all of which can be fully demonstrated or expressed in an article), but here are the absolutely necessary steps toward correcting problems with 'the release'.

1. Practice your guitar WITH distortion (but NO EFFECTS!) now. (Notice, this is the exact opposite advice I gave you to identify and correct 'articulation' problems above).

2. Again you need to play your guitar loud enough to hear precisely what is coming out of your amplifier (other noises in the room can mask the subtle things you need to be listening for).

3. Practice slow (but as stated above, do NOT change ANYTHING in the way you articulate OR RELEASE a note compared to when you are playing fast!).

4. Listen for any subtle noise in between notes (you will probably notice a 'scratchy sound' just before you play the next note). If you have a hard time hearing anything then record yourself and listen back to the recording at 1/4 or 1/3 speed (I guarantee you will hear this short scratchy sound now!)

5. Now that you know what to listen for, you will probably notice it all the time whenever you listen very carefully... and THEN you are ready to being to correct the problem...

Fact is there can be several reasons why your guitar playing may not be clean during the release of a note, but the most common cause is this: When you release a note your brain is probably telling your finger to 'lift off' (make an upward motion away from the string you just played). This can cause all sorts of nasty technique problems (fatigue, slower guitar playing speeds, and sloppy guitar playing... among other things).

The solution is to stop your brain from sending your fingers instructions to 'lift off; of each note and instead to simply 'relax'. When your finger relaxes it will naturally, immediately and effortlessly 'release' the note you just played. There are 2 main benefits to this:

1. Because the motion is effortless, you can play faster and for a much longer time (and most importantly) with greater ease.

2. Because your brain does not give the finger the instruction to make a 'lift off' motion this actually prevents your finger from moving (or preparing to move) prematurely (which is a major cause of the sloppy 'scratchy sound' that may be present in your guitar playing.

It is now very important to realize two things. First you CAN solve these problems and improve your guitar technique. Second, it won't happen over night, this will take time and some consistent practice (possibly over several weeks or longer). But the benefits of being able to play guitar clean are well worth the patience required.

In Part 2 of this article series we'll focus on the last group of guitar technique challenges.


Get 15 more guitar playing tips to immediately improve your guitar playing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=T._Hess
Tom Hess author.


Learn how to play amazingly with Guitar Tricks online guitar instruction!

Hooray! Jeff Beck is coming!

Next week marks the arrival of the new Jeff Beck album, and  three weeks from today the man himself is playing down at the river for Memphis in may. This will be the first time since 1995 that he's played here and the third time in all that I've seen him live.

I highly recommend to anyone reading this to go and get the new album next Tuesday as soon as the store opens!!!!

Best Learning Course is Jamorama by a Landslide!

In doing my research for products to promote to
aspiring musicians I kept coming back to Jamorama.
What is great about it is you can start
on the level most appropriate to your playing level and progress
as you go and upgrade at the same time.
By using easy to follow video tutorials, the speed at which you will
learn is sped up considerably. I learned the hard way, lifting the needle
off the record and repeating till I had the phrase or lick down. Today's
technology eliminates that "old school" method entirely, although you could
still use it, but why would anyone want to?

Come check it out today at Jamorama
and see for yourself!
Fill in the subscribe form on the right and receive my newsletter
featuring all the latest guitar playing news!

Great video history of the Yardbirds

Watch The Yardbirds in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

A Guitarist's Guide to Better Practicing

Having a regular and effective practice routine is a necessary part of making good progress on any musical instrument. Some people think you have to play for hours a day, but as little as 30 minutes a day of well thought out practice is enough to make satisfying progress in the first few years of playing. Most of us have jobs, families, and other commitments, so playing for hours at a time is not usually possible. That's okay because the quality of the practice is more important than the quantity. Let's look at some basic strategies to get the most out of a practice session.

Set aside a designated amount of time for each practice session, and stick to it for that amount of time. This can be half an hour, twenty minutes, an hour, or whatever you have time for. Figure out a block of time and then practice for that amount. Don't give in to distractions like getting up check email, snacking, or calling a friend. Make the most of your given time.

Establish some short, medium, and long-term goals. This can help you decide what to work on for each practice session. For example, say you want to learn to play House of the Rising Sun. You can't switch between all the chords smoothly, and you haven't even attempted to tackle the barred F chord. Plus the thought of even trying play this song for others makes you a nervous wreck. Learning the entire song and playing it for others could be a long-term goal. Working on the barred F chord and barre chords in general could be a medium term goal, as they can take a while to become second nature. And smoothing out the chord transitions can be a short-term goal. Dedicate part or all of a practice session to identifying chord changes that give you problems, and work through them slowly till the kinks are ironed out.

Make sure your practice space is comfortable, has everything you need, and is out of the way of other people. If permitted, tell friends and family you are practicing and not to be disturbed. If you play sitting down, get a chair that is comfortable for holding a guitar. Are picks, capos, strings, slides, tuners, metronomes, and whatever else you may need in easy reach? If you are reading music off paper, it's worth it to invest in a music stand. It will result in much better playing posture than putting the sheet music flat down on a table or on the floor.

Make sure your guitar is in tune before starting, and take note of when you might have to change your strings next. Being in tune and producing a good tone are both important components of a successful practice session. If you play regularly normal guitar strings should be changed every two to three months, or even more often if you are stickler for ideal tone quality. Coated guitar strings can last even longer.

It's also a good idea to decide how you are going to divide your practice time. You might want to spend a few minutes on rhythm, a few on scales, and a few learning songs. Don't let any one part of your playing get neglected for too long. Each aspect of musical development needs to be practiced regularly. If, for example, you practice fingerstyle most of the time, you might lose your ability to use a pick. So if you want both skills in the long run, give them both some attention each time you play.

Finally, make sure you are in a good state of mind. If you are just going through the motions and not pushing yourself or listening carefully, you won't progress very quickly. It's very important to focus and find areas that are just out of your reach to repeat and drill. That is when learning is the most fun and satisfying. If it's too hard or too easy, it won't engage your mind.

Efficient and productive use of practice time is one of the keys to making regular and steady progress on any musical instrument. Evaluate where you are, where you want to be, and put together a practice routine to get you there. Then, make sure you stick with it for best success.

Image via Wikipedia

Jennifer Martin is CEO of http://www.RhythmStrummer.com. Her site offers easy guitar lessons for adult learners in a fun atmosphere with NO advertising.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Martin

Come check out my fun music site at http://funplayingmusic.com

How To Seriously Improve Your Guitar Playing

By Chris Standring


There are bedroom guitar players and there are live performers. There doesn't seem to be anything in between. The minute you walk on to a stage (whether you get paid or not) you are a professional. You are in the business of entertaining and displaying your wares, so to speak. And if you really want to seriously get your guitar playing together it is the latter you need to strive for in my opinion. I am not suggesting you 'turn pro', you know attempt to do this thing full time, that is a whole other set of issues itself, but in order for your guitar playing to really get to where it needs to get to, you simply have to play in a live performance setting, preferably in a public forum. Ideally with other musicians you can interact with.

You can spend a lifetime reading books, studying your musical heroes, playing along to music minus one records, but none of this will ultimately give you the full picture. In order to be a true well rounded musician, you have to have real world experience. I'll try to explain why...

When I was just starting out in the profession as a fresh untainted fish in the vast sea of the London music business, I had to get myself known in order to find work. So I set about to answer ads in music papers. Now, after studying classical guitar at the London College of Music, I came out of a 3 year course with a facility to sight-read. Or should I say the beginnings of sight-reading ability, as jazz and pop music written on paper is a whole other world, as I was about to find out. I remember having to sight-read a piece of jazz music with a dance band at an audition. There were about 10 guitar players going for this gig. I must have been about 23 years old. The musical director said "I kind of like what you did Chris but you didn't really cut it mate! There are other guys here that have what I need". Ouch!!! That hurt. But I was young. It was actually good to hear. So I went back to my music library, pulled out a ton of violin music and practiced reading in different positions on the fretboard. Not to mention learning how to grab chords on sight in different fret positions.

Another time, I went down to audition for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, a band known to be extremely taxing musically, and a training ground for London session players. I sat in the guitar chair with my Gibson 335 on my lap, ready to play. The director called a chart, I placed it on the stand and he counted it off. He counted it off around 250 BPM. Frighteningly fast! Well, it was all I could do to get my eyes to follow the music, measure by measure, much less play the music that was written within those bars! I didn't even touch my guitar that rehearsal. I simply placed it back in its case and went home. Ouch again! That was a hard knock! I gave myself exactly a year to get it together. I went back to my practicing with a vengeance. A year later I joined the band for about a year and a half.

Another for instance; about 13 years ago I was playing with a jazz singer in a trio situation with an eminent LA drummer and acoustic bassist. I hadn't done much trio playing, if any at the time, but I was looking forward to playing. At the end of one of the songs I completely messed up the ending. In fact I would go further, I hadn't really worked on any song endings. Didn't really have that together at all. The drummer scowled at me, particularly because I threw him off, as I was not definite in how I wanted to end the song (because I didn't know myself!). He was furious when I made him look bad. He said to me "Dude, you've got to dictate these endings, you're the one playing the chords!". He was right. I was crushed! I went home, sulked for a week (maybe two). Then I went back to my practice room. I was not to be defeated.....

These are the hard knocks you simply have to get in your music life to dictate what you need to work on to get your total musicianship together! You just cannot expect to perfect your instrument without real world experience. You can't get that experience any other way. I can recount tons of times that this sort of thing has happened, and there are still things today that I learn on a weekly basis at live gigs, telling me what I need to work on. The difference today of course is that it's me who is being critical of myself, rather than other bandmates and musical directors telling me I suck!

And the neccessity of performing live is true of any musical genre you choose. Interacting with other musicians is an art in itself. I know technically great players who can't play with others. Does this make them great musicians? I'm not so sure. But they sure can get round the instrument. But if they were to do any amount of live ensemble playing they would have one or two knocks coming, and if they are smart they would work on those issues. Otherwise it's back to solo guitar playing in the back of their local restaurant. (A noble and valid thing to do, let me also say).

There are many issues that come up in a real live playing situation that just don't come up in a bedroom practice session. Time, time-feel, supportive ensemble playing, projection of sound and tone, and most of all a sense of energy and commitment within a performance that is extremely different, and is very difficult to even put into words frankly. You just need to experience it, and that experience will improve your playing tenfold.

So get out there and do some gigs. I know it is hard to make that happen sometimes, but if you cannot make it happen then start a rehearsal band with a few others and play through repertoire. Get together with other guitarists and play through tunes, take solos and take turns being supportive. As you improve, take the plunge and take yourself to the next level.

And by recommending you do all this I am by no means suggesting you put away your books, records and Jamie Abersold play alongs. Absolutely not. This is something of course you should continue to do. But it is only 50% of your musical makeup. I promise you, by performing live you will improve yourself as a guitar player, but most of all as a musician, and at the end of the day this is what we all need to aspire to.

Go to it and have fun!



Chris Standring is a recording artist and the owner of Play Jazz Guitar.com Visit the website for more info on his ground breaking home study guitar courses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Standring

Barre Chord Learning Tips For Beginner Guitar Players

By Tom Fontana

Learning how to play barre chords (bar chords) is one of the most difficult tasks any beginner guitarist will encounter. Since lots of songs require the use of barre chords, it holds many people back from fulfilling their desire to learn the guitar properly, or even quit altogether.

The good news is that with enough practice and dedication, playing barre chords will become easy. All professional guitarists learned to play them, you can too. Next time you feel like these chords are holding you back, remember these tips.

* Check your thumb: You need to literally pinch the neck of the guitar between your thumb and index finger, which means your thumb needs to be smack in the middle of the back of the neck of the guitar exerting just enough pressure, to pinch the strings.
* Check your index finger: You need to place your index finger parallel with the fret wire, as close to it as possible. Also, make sure your finger is not just laying flat, but slightly rolled onto its side. A straight and rigid finger will not work.
* Check your wrist: The best way to hold bar chords is by moving your wrist forward, which allows your index finger to become flatter on the neck. Experiment with different wrist positions.
* Check your elbow: Your elbow needs to be closer to your body while you are holding bar chords, since this allows your index finger to be rolled onto its side.
* Check which strings you need to be holding: Your finger usually doesn't have to hold down every string for a bar chord. For example, an E shaped bar chord only requires you to hold down strings 1, 2 and 6 (the high E, B, and low E strings). Concentrating your index finger on holding only these strings, while your other fingers hold down the rest of the strings, will make this bar chord easier.
* Your hand will get tired, but it shouldn't get numb tired. If it does, you are holding down too hard, and not concentrating enough on the correct technique.
* Practice bar chords for 5 minutes every day: As you know, practice makes perfect. If you practice holding down bar chords for just a couple of minutes a day for 2 weeks straight, you will get 300% better.
* Watch famous guitarists: Looking at videos of pros will motivate you, and watching their hands will even give you pointers on how they are fretting the chords.

Remember that anybody can learn the guitar, it's just a bit difficult at first. Believe me when I tell you that all professionals struggled with bar chords as well, but they kept at it, and learned it. You can too!

If you want to read more on the correct technique and types of bar chords, or watch a video guitar lesson on bar chords, head on over to TheGuitarLesson.com, where your find dozens of quality beginner guitar lessons, useful guitar tools, and more.

Tom Fontana is a guitar teacher and musician. His passion for the guitar spanned relatively late, during high school, but has never stopped growing since. ... ...
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Fontana

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How Much Theory Should a Guitar Player Know?

I personally believe that one should know the rules before they break them. Obviously it is not good to be overly analytical but it wouldn't be an entirely bad thing to look at music from an analytical perspective. In order to look at things from an analytical perspective, you need information to analyze. That's where music theory comes into play. So what I am about to present is not only a case for learning music theory but also what basic components of music theory you should, at a minimum, possess knowledge of.

It is important when you are playing along with a band that you have some idea as to what key you are playing in; especially if you are working on original material. You may be able to learn cover material from listening to a CD but it is also easier to pick up any song whether cover or original if you know music theory. Even more so if you know your way around the different keys.

There really isn't much of an excuse for not taking the time to obtain some knowledge in music theory. There are free sources of information all over the Internet. Probably the most basic, yet essential, information would be knowledge of the keys, chords and scales.

You should be familiar with the 12 major keys and their relative minors. Having an adequate understanding of the different keys will allow you to be able to transpose a song from one key into another. There are a number of times where I've transposed a song from one key to another simply because it was a better key for me to sing in. You may find that to be the case with a number of singers.

You should have an adequate chord vocabulary. There are also a few scales that every guitarist should be familiar with, like the major or diatonic scale as well as the harmonic minor scale and the pentatonic scale in both the major and minor modes.

If you don't want to spend the money on lessons or books, you should run an internet search for the information you want to obtain. I would first suggest you run a search for guitar chords listed by key. Check out a few sites to see which one offers the easiest approach for learning.

After you begin to learn the guitar chords by key, you should start learning scales. You should also run an internet search for guitar scales listed by key. You may be even more specific than that. For example: you can enter D harmonic minor and you will get a great number of results.

So, in conclusion, I hope that I have not only convinced you that learning music theory would be a valuable asset to your musicianship but that I have also set you off in the right direction towards doing so.

About the Author:
Bob Craypoe is a musician, writer, cartoonist, webmaster and entrepreneur who resides in Northern New Jersey. He is the creator of
Guitar4Blind.com (a site that teaches the visually impaired how to play guitar), as well as numerous other sites. You can hear his music at: http://www.craypoe.com/bob

Article Source:

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http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bob_Craypoe

Watch for it

I am creating a new page to place all my new
musical toys and products
for sale online and adding it to my
rockymcdaniel.com site to make some
commissions . You can see it now at
http://funplayingmusic.com

Image by Bern@t via Flickr

Happy 4th of July!

Time for firecrackers and watermelon and cook outs!

Yes, it's the 4th of July in the good 'ol USA again. try not to blow a finger off and

don't drive drunk. You might get popped by the law, or worse, kill yourself.

Stay cool my friends....BTW, does anybody out there have a pool I can use????

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