My kids and I play Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2 on our Playstation 3 relentlessly. There has been a really good side effect to playing these video games. My kids have become extremely interested in playing the real instruments that they’re emulating in the game. They’ve also gotten very interested in becoming performing live musicians. They are learning to play the songs that we play along with in Rock Band on the actual instruments because they are familiar with the arrangements that they focus on during gameplay. It’s really great how they’re going from gameplay to working on their musicianship.
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Jeff Beck – Where Were You (Live)
Where Were You is my favorite Jeff Beck guitar instrumental. It’s from his Guitar Shop album and when I first heard it, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. The notes that he achieves on his Stratocaster are just unbelievable. I’ve tried to hit them and I have had some success but not like the great Jeff Beck. He gets so much out of his Strat that it just defies description. You just have to listen and stand in awe of his skill.
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Download Free Fender Cyber-Twin SE Presets
Fender Cyber-Twin SE Front As you know, I use the Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier in my live band and in the recording studio. I’ve spent many hours programming and perfecting my own custom patches for the presets on my Cyber-Twin SE. One feature that I love about the Cyber-Twin SE is the ability to transmit and store the presets to my computer as MIDI system exclusive data. That gives me a permanent backup of all my custom presets just in case anything happens to my amplifier. All my hours of programming aren’t lost if something catastrophic should happen.
Today I’m going to offer for download, two of my custom presets that I programmed.
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Sunday Funnies – Xfm Baby Roadies
Little kids doing the roadie work for rock bands? Classic! I especially like the kid hauling the guitar up the stairs, watch for it. I showed this to my kids (my built-in rodies) and they said “That’s us!” I have to admit some of the scenes in this clip looked all too familiar. Enjoy! (more…)
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Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 11-29-08
Every weekend here at Live Musician Central we post up several albums for you to check out and download. We feature some of the most heavily marketed new releases every week. These albums are a good example of what the music industry is marketing and you can use them as a guide for building your bands songlist. You always want to play songs the people will be familiar with and there’s an excellent chance that the albums featured in our weekend album picks will have a lot of songs that people will know. It’s a good idea to have them on your MP3 player at gigs so you can test them out on an audience before you spend the time learning them. The album picks can make great break music.
We feature downloads from iTunes as well as MP3 downloads from Amazon.com music service. The Amazon.com MP3’s are ripped at 256kbps and are DRM free so you can copy them to as many music players as you like. They’re priced very low when you download entire albums. With the Amazon widgets below you can preview the album right here on Live Musician Central. I’m also posting a link to the iTunes $4.99 Album Of The Week. You can bet that people will be knowing those songs as well and it’s a great deal on a full album. This week the long awaited Guns-N-Roses album Chinese Democracy is finally available on iTunes! That’s kind of a small Christmas miracle isn’t it?
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Get Ready For Christmas With Black Friday Deals
Here are some of the best deals for the live musician on your shopping list this Christmas. You can save a lot of money by using the following list of links to do your shopping. You can save 15%, 20% or even 89% on music equipment and accessories with some of these deals. There’s also a lot of chances to get free shipping on your orders, regardless of the weight and you know how heavy speakers and amps can be. You could save hundreds of dollars on shipping costs alone. There’s also a link to excellent equipment rebates and gift guides as well. Amazon’s Black Friday deals are huge this year too and they have a great selection of music and music equipment. (more…)
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Perfect Club Speakers – JBL JRX125 Dual 15″ 2-Way Speaker
JBL JRX125 Speaker NOTE: The updated JBL JRX125 is now called the JBL JRX225. It is essentially the same speaker with a new number designation.
Probably the most critical item that you will need to purchase as you become a performing live musician is a great pair of speakers. The success of your live band really depends on how well your sound is translating live and the speakers are the voicebox of your band. Today I’m going to tell you about my JBL JRX125 speakers and how well they have served my music.
JBL Pro JRX225 2,000 Watt Dual 15" Inch 2-Way DJ P/A Passive Speaker
$499.95
JBL JRX225 Dual 15" 2000 Watt Passive 4 Ohm DJ/PA Speaker+Headphones JRX 225
$590.85
(2) JBL JRX225 Dual 15" 4000w DJ/PA Speakers+Powered 12-Ch. Mixer w/ 7 Band EQ
$1349.85
(2) JBL Pro JRX225 2000 Watt Dual 15" DJ PA Speakers+Power Amplifier+Cables
$1350.75
JBL JRX225 JRX200 Series Dual 15in 2 Way Passive Sound Reinforcement Loudspeaker
$297.99
JBL JRX225 Dual 15" Two-way Passive Loudspeaker with 2000W Peak Power LN
$549.12
I have owned my JBL JRX125’s for about 8 years now and have had no problems whatsoever with them. Visually the speakers are very nice looking with a rugged 18-guage steel mesh grille and a cloth covering. They have recessed handles on the sides and will accept both 1/4″ and Speakon connectors. The JBL nameplate on the grille and handles is nice and understated and keeps the speakers very professional looking.
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Brian May Guitar Solo – Live At Wembley Stadium
Yes it’s the great Brian May, one of the greatest live guitarists of all time. Brian has made some incredible recordings with Queen over the years but his live performance is simply off the charts. This guitar solo is from the Queen DVD “Live At Wembley Stadium“. Brian’s solo is really fun to listen to as he plays around with delay’s and harmonies.
This is one of Queen’s most popular recorded live shows and the filming is excellent as well as the sound. The sound on this DVD is mixed in DTS Surround Sound and it’s expansive and full. I highly recommend Queen – Live At Wembly Stadium and you can pick it up from the Live Musician Central Store for the incredibly low price of $12.99 . (more…)
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Fender Standard Jazz Bass Guitar Review
Fender Standard Jazz Bass – Midnight Wine I recently helped one of my students purchase a Fender Standard Jazz Bass guitar. He is going to be using it in his live band. Even though the Standard Jazz Bass is made in Mexico I was very impressed with the quality of the build of the Bass that he purchased. The Standard Jazz Bass has all the components that made the Fender Jazz Bass famous. It has two single coil pickups each with their own volume control and a single master tone control. This gives you the ability to mix the sound of the two pickups together in a multitude of different ways. It gives the Jazz Bass a lot of tonal options that you wouldn’t get with the Fender Precision Bass.
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I’m Thankful For Music
Thanksgiving week is upon us and I was just thinking about how thankful I am to be a musician and for all the incredible music that we have available to us. It’s really a great time to be a Live Musician with all the fantastic technology available to use in the creation of new music. The digital age has given us the ability to build affordable and extremely powerful digital audio workstations. Computer and audio interface hardware is very affordable and there are some fantastic software packages that give us unprecedented control over our music. It really is a great time to be a musician so here are some things I’m thankful for to celebrate this Thanksgiving.