Live Musician Central

Author: Live Musician Central

Sunday Funnies – David Lee Roth Runnin’ With The Devil Vocal Clips

David Lee Roth – The Devil

Ahhhh yeah! Runnin’ With The Devil is seriously classic Van Halen. Now you can enjoy all the ohhh’s, uhhhgh, whistles and whooohooo’s right at your own computer. That’s right, somebody got ahold of the solo vocal track from the Van Halen song, Runnin’ With The Devil and turned the best parts into flash enabled sound clips. You gotta play it to believe it. I think that David Lee Roth isn’t just runnin’ with the devil, after hearing these clips I think he just may be the devil!

You gotta check out the David Lee Roth solo vocal track clips.
Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 1-17-08

Every weekend at Live Musician Central we put up some of the most heavily marketed new releases in the music industry. These new music releases aren’t necessasarily my personal favorites but they are being pushed extremely hard by the industry. The reason I post these up is so that we as live musicians can stay on top of what’s going to be thrust into the public eye. Two of the biggest challenges of being a performer is to play music that is current and that the audience is going to be familiar with. I know I hate it when my band takes the time to learn a great new song only to play it live and have everyone in the audience sit there with a dazed look on their face because they don’t know the song. If you pick songs from these heavily marketed new releases you will have a better chance of playing music that people will know.

I’m sure that you’re aware that Apple’s iTunes is now the biggest retailer of music in the United States. Today I’m going to put links up exclusively for albums from iTunes. iTunes is pushing these releases extremely hard so it’s a good idea to for us as performing musicians to be aware of them.

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Having A Jam Session Songwriting Session

Shufflin' Noah In The Jam Room

I am a songwriter as well as a live performing musician. I’ve been writing songs since I was about 15 years old and I have an extensive catalog of completed music. I write songs a lot of different ways. Sometimes I’ll sit down at the piano or with a guitar and write an entire song with lyrics, start to finish. Sometimes I’ll come up with a riff or chord progression and I’ll have to turn it over in my mind for a few days until I feel like I can finish a song with it. Another thing I’ll do is write with my band by getting together and actively writing a complete song. These are usually great songs because everyone adds something to them. Today I’m going to talk about one of my all-time favorite ways to write songs. That’s by having a jam session and just letting things happen while we record everything we play.

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Introducing The EVH Wolfgang Electric Guitar

EVH Wolfgang Guitar

If you’ve been reading Live Musician Central for long then you know I’m a certified Fender products junkie. Don’t get me wrong, I own a Gibson Les Paul Custom and I love it but not as much as I love my Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster. So I was really stoked when I read about Fender building a custom guitar for Eddie Van Halen. That guitar is branded and named the EVH Wolfgang. It’s got some really amazing specs and according to Eddie himself the EVH Wolfgang Guitar is exactly the same as the instrument he plays live. In an interview for Guitar World magazine, Eddie is quoted as saying “The Wolfgang is a culmination of my 35 years of experimenting with guitars. Everything that I’ve destroyed, stumbled onto, learned and experienced in my journey to get to where we are now is in this guitar.”

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The Who’s John Entwistle – Bass Solo

One of my favorite bands also has one of my favorite bass players, Mr. John Entwistle. His recorded work with the Who is just incredible to listen to and his bass solo on My Generation is one of the most famous recorded bass solos ever. He’s also an outstanding live musician and has no reservations about taking exteneded bass solos live. Today I’m posting up a clip of John Entwistle playing a bass solo in the middle of the song 5:15 from Quadrophenia. It was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in 2000. I really like the way his bass sounds on this solo and the camera attached to the top of his bass neck really gives an interesting visual perspective. It’s cool to watch him use his E-String drop tuner as well. The scales that he plays are pure John Entwistle and they’re comprised of a style that the man himself forged. They may not make perfect sense in a music theory setting but they’re pure Entwistle. Any musician that can create such a unique signature sound as well as a unique melodic signature should be revered. I like how Roger Daltrey introduces him at the end of the song.

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Build Finger Strength With The Gripmaster Exercise Tool

Gripmaster – Extra Light Tension

As any guitarist will tell you, playing in a live band will definitely test your stamina in ways you never would expect. It’s really hard to build the type of endurance you will need to be able to play an entire live gig when you don’t play out a lot. You can practice on your instrument of course but it’s hard to practice for 3 hours to simulate the live show experience. Even if you do play regularly it’s a good idea to have some tools to help you build your finger strength and stamina. Years ago I bought a Gripmaster Exercise Tool finger exerciser and I have used it to help stay in playing shape over the years. I have recommended this product to many of my students as well to help them build up their finger muscles.

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Weekend Gig Report – In Stereo at Canyon Inn, January 9-10, 2009

In Stereo Bass Drum Logo

In Stereo rocked the Canyon Inn this chilly January weekend. The Canyon Inn in Salt Lake City, Utah is a great place for live bands to play and we really enjoyed being there. We hadn’t played for a while so we had quite a bit of rust to knock off for this show. We started out pretty rough on Friday night but by the time we finished on Saturday night we were back in really good form.

Friday night the effects of the U.S. economies current recession was really evident in the club. Usually during the peak ski season the Canyon Inn fills up to capacity every night. Friday it was only about half full. That was probably a good thing because we didn’t have our sharp edge intact as we were a bit rusty from the time off over the holidays. Luckily we pulled it together and ended up giving a really good show. (more…)
Sunday Funnies – Kiss Shreds Video “I Will Never Go To School”

This is a very interesting overdub of the Kiss video for their song “I Was Made For Loving You”. It looks like the song was written specifically to line up with what’s happening in this video. I can’t imagine the amount of time it took to write a song to match the video, lay down the tracks and line everything up with the video. It’s really funny to watch though and the captions make it even funnier. Enjoy!

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Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 1-10-08

Every week at Live Musician Central I pick some of the top new releases available for you to download from both iTunes and Amazon.com music service. These new release choices reflect the heaviest music industry marketing. There are two reasons I post up the most heavily music industry marketed albums. First, by checking out these releases you’ll be able to keep a finger on the pulse of the mainstream music industry. It’s still a very powerful business that heavily influences peoples buying choices. The second reason is that a large number of people are going to know these albums. So if your band is looking for new music to put in your bands setlist these would be good choices simply because your chance of people knowing the songs at your shows will be very high. You’ll also look very on top of things and current with your knowledge of music. So these albums are a great resource for your song selection. I will also post up links to top selling albums of all time for the reason of song selection as well.

I use links to both iTunes and Amazon.com. iTunes is now the top music retailer in the U.S. so it goes without saying that people are going to be downloading their recommended new releases. I put links up from Amazon.com because their music service is an incredible bargain and their MP3’s are DRM free. You can save a bundle downloading entire albums from Amazon.com over iTunes. Amazon.com MP3’s are also ripped at an excellent sounding 256kbps and since they’re DRM free you can play them on multiple MP3 players including iPods and iPhones. You’ve got to check out the album by The Fireman, which is really the duo of Paul McCartney and producer Youth. The album is surprisingly good.
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Market Your Band By Giving Out Free Swag

Personalized Wristbands

Constant marketing is essential for every live musician to promote their music and their band. With marketing your goal is to be able to keep your name and and logo in front of as many people as you can as often as you can. That brings me to the topic of giving away free swag. Yes the term “Free Swag” is a current buzz phrase on the marketing scene especially among the young and the hip. In case you were wondering, the term “Swag” as it’s used here means cool free stuff. Traditionally, swag means booty, goods or money stolen by any thief and is most commonly associated with pirates. Yo-Ho! As I said, it’s really just appealing to the young hipsters of today.

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