The Practice Room

Easy for you to say

Here's guitarist Martin Carthy talking about working with fiddler David Swarbrick:
"When we first started working together, I had never played dance tunes. Of course, my first reaction to playing them was, “I’ve got to learn them exactly right.” So, on a couple of occasions I’d find a tune and teach it to him and the first thing he’d do is change it. I would protest and say, “You can’t do that. That’s not how the tune goes.” His reaction in 1966 would be, “What you’ve got to understand is that a tune is like a coat hanger on which you hang your variations.”

The rest of the interview, and a bunch more, is at Innerviews.

[TJH]

WorkshopLive news

We are pleased to announce that Akamai will be our new flash video content provider, delivering our high speed flash videos world wide.  This means that WorkshopLive videos, mp3's and graphic files will be delivered even faster. Flash users don’t need to do anything differently; it’s all automatic. (QuickTime users won’t be affected by this change.)

We’ve made some other improvements recently:

• New Study Guides - These guides to help you navigate through the lessons.
• Cool tools - tuner, glossary, jam tracks and more.
• New Search - Find lessons and songs by keyword.
• Over 450 jam tracks to play along with.
• New Drum lessons (including beginner rock) with many more to come.

Check us out!

[TJH]

Guitar of the Year

The Paul Reed Smith Singlecut guitar received a Musikmesse International Press Award as Guitar of the Year.   The award was presented at the annual mipa-Party/Awards Ceremony on March 29, 2007, in Frankfurt, Germany. Mipa has honored musical instrument and equipment manufacturers for eight years. PRS has been nominated in the electric guitar category every year since the mipa award was created in 2000 and has received the “Best Electric Guitar of the Year” award six times. Past PRS model winners include the PRS Singlecut in 2000, the Santana SE in 2002, the Santana II in 2003 and the 513 in 2005 and 2006.

So: nobody asked me, of course, but even though this is probably a great guitar at a very reasonable price ($6-700 or so), I have to wonder: what makes it guitar of the year? How much different is it, after all, from a Les Paul or one of the countless other guitars inspired by the Les Paul? In fact, didn't PRS have to go to court with Gibson over this guitar? And didn't anybody do anything more innovative last year than polish up a classic design and sharpen their pencils a bit?

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for higher quality at lower prices, and I'm sure PRS has hit it out of the park on that score. I'm not knocking PRS. I'd just like to know what these mipa guys were thinking. The Singlecut strikes me as more of a manufacturing achievement than a guitar design achievement.

[TJH]

Buddy speaks

If you're a fan of Jimi Hendrix's favorite guitarist, Buddy Guy, check out the blues legend's interview  at Jambase. (Photo by Dick Waterman.)

Frank Ford at work

Frank Ford has been a luthier for 40 years or so. His web site, Frets.com, is a great browse for anyone interested in guitars. He's just posted a photo essay about protecting a celebity signature on the face of a guitar. It may make you think twice about having Paris Hilton sign your '59 Les Paul, although in this case the guitar came out looking great.

[TJH]

Dave Matthews Band summer tour

Dave Matthews has announced a 36-date US tour for the summer. He starts July 8 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill. Then it’s Mansfield, Mass. (Aug. 1-2); Hartford, Conn. (Aug. 4-5); Camden, N.J. (Aug. 7-8); Noblesville, Ind. (Aug. 17-18); East Troy, Wis. (Aug. 25-26); George, Washington (is that a joke?) Aug. 31-Sept. 2, West Palm Beach, Fla. (Sept. 14-15) and LA (Oct. 1-2).  Supporting acts on various dates include Xavier Rudd, Toots and the Maytals, Umphrey's McGee, Robert Rudolph and the Family Band, Pete Yorn, the Roots, the Wailers, Robert Earl Keen and Stephen Marley.

[TJH]

Bill Kirchen

A few weeks back we mentioned that Fretboard Journal had an interview with guitarist Bill Kirchen, a stand-out in the DC area who is otherwise, unfortunately, not well enough known. If you didn't get enough from that interview, or it you were too cheap to buy the magazine, surf on over to Pure Music for another interview with Bill. This one even has a few tracks from Bill's latest for you to listen to.

[TJH]

Music Rising Auction

Do you want Jimi Hendrix’s pants? A love letter from Janis Joplin? John Lennon’s sunglasses? No? How about guitars owned and/or signed by The Edge, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Jim Croce, Slash or Joan Jett? Or how about just helping out the musicians of the Louisiana Gulf Coast?

Visit the Icons of Music Auction at the Hard Rock Café in New York on April 21, or browse through these items, and plenty more, online at www.juliensauctions.com. Proceeds benefit Music Rising, a charitable project created by The Edge, producer Bob Ezrin and Gibson Guitars president Henry Juszkiewicz.

[TJH]

Gary Kramer's new Wing

Normally I’m your typical pre-war Martin guitar guy. Not that I actually have one - that’s just where my heart goes. But here’s a new guitar I could fall in love with.
 

The F-1 Delta Wing by Gary Kramer has 7 strings, 36 frets, one pickup and 5+ octaves. The neck is a 5-piece laminate of wenge and maple with jumbo frets from 1 to 24 and vintage-sized frets (I don’t know, but they’re probably smaller than jumbo) from 25 to 36. The neck profile is flat, which, according to Kramer, “provides thundering amounts of sustain.” It comes in black or white – a bit dull, perhaps, for such an interesting guitar. MSRP is $1,495.
 

I spend a lot of time working on songs by guys like Cole Porter and George Gershwin who died before Gary Kramer was born, so I don’t imagine he had me in mind when he came up with the F-1. He was probably thinking more of WorkshopLive shredders like Tobias Hurwitz and Dave Martone. Still, if one shows up at my local Ax Shack, I’m going after it.

[TJH]