Yesterday we took in our final day at the NAMM show. Being Saturday, it was the day where the big crowds turned out to see the big name artists and the big changes taking place in the world of music gear.

After seeing pretty much everything that’s being exhibited this year we thought it would be cool to share a couple of new developments here that we think you are going to like and that maybe, will change the way we interact with music in the future.

The first thing that really got us buzzing is the new Eleven Amp from Avid (the guys behind Pro Tools).

They call it the killer rack because it puts professional recording and signal processing in the hands of every guitarist. Eleven has been an amp-cab-mic modeling software plug-in for pro-tools for some time now, but recently the avid team have developed the idea and turned it into a stand alone piece of hardware.

Taking Cool Processing technology from their Pro equipment TDM HD systems (big $$) and adding that to the software, Avid have produced a box that completes all the intensive algorithms that drive the complex software and delivers the audio to your speakers, amp setup and or via USB to your computer and pro tools environment with no latency.

The Eleven rack will suit the guitarist that is at the level where studio and stage is becoming part of their musicianship experience. This is a tool that will allow you to record your guitar straight into the digital world and have the end signal sounding very nice indeed. The quest for analog tone in the digital world drives these development teams project by project and the reality is that one day a cheap $100 guitar will sound like a rare 70’s telecaster through a 60’s fender combo.

The well trained ears have previous said, these emulation plug-in sounds are good, but they don’t sound like the real thing being mic’d up with the old 60’s combo.

James Michael – Producer, engineer,songwriter; motley crue, meatloaf, scorpions said, ” I’ve seen the potential for years with small preamps and amp emulation plug-ins, but Eleven is the first plug-in that can honestly replace the guitar amp.” Very exciting future for production.

You can find out more about Eleven here.

Another interesting development is the new partnership between Fender Guitars and eJamming. We all know what Fender are famous for, but you may not have heard of the eJamming crew before. eJamming have been around for a few years now but it’s only recently that they have partnered with Fender and gained more exposure.

Basically, eJamming is just that – jamming online. eJamming’s online platform allows you to connect and jam out with your friends and other musicians no matter where both parties are in the world. The Fender representatives we spoke to said the partnership was a natural progression for Fender and that they chose eJamming as it offers the lowest amount of delay in signal.

This is definitely worth checking out and it’s free to try, so you can test it out with your friends before signing on. Check it out here.

If you do get a chance to try these things out then please leave a comment on this post so others can read your thoughts about them.

So, that is it from us at the show for now. While we’ve shared only a few interesting highlights here on the blog, we’ve taken a lot more information away from the show that will help us develop a better service for all of you in 2010. Also, look forward to to more NAMM related posts in the next couple of weeks.

Cheers
Jon

No not the Nam of the 1960’s – NAMM the music trade show.

NAMM is short for National Association of Music Merchants and their annual show is one of largest music product trade shows in the world. It’s held every January in Anaheim, California, and sees thousands of exhibitors and tens of thousands of attendees through it’s doors.

A couple of days ago, David and I (Jon) left Rockstar HQ for LA to come to see what the show is all about. Two Rockstar boys in the big city. Basically, our objective is to find out what’s going on in the world of music products and to get some ideas from within the music industry for how we can improve what we do so you the student gets a better learning experience with Jamorama.

The NAMM Show is not open to the general public, so we thought we would share some of the interesting things we see at the show here so you can get idea of what it’s like.

Today was the opening day and we spent the morning getting our bearings and checking out some of the major exhibitors. NAMM is the premier music trade show in North America and all the big boys come to exhibit their latest toys. Martin, PRS, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Marshall, Orange, you name it, it’s there and then another 200+ boutique guitar, amp, piano, drums and audio gear manufacturers.

Some highlights from the day were seeing some of the new developments making electronic drum kits more visually appealing, new technology from digi design that enables guitarists to play directly into the protools environment and a coffee that was so hot it that it was still burny an hour later.

The best part of the day however was catching up with Andy McKee of Youtube fame. Andy’s a monster on guitar by any man’s standard. His percussive acoustic tapping style is truly unique and a joy to watch. Check him out playing his most famous piece, ‘Drifting’, in the video below.

Tomorrow we continue our research at the show. We’ll be posting regularly throughout so keep your eyes open for that!

Cheers
Jon

During the Christmas and New Year period we really got the impression that many new guitarists out there are experiencing a sense of being alone in their pursuit of playing the guitar.

It was great responding to all those who needed help and lend support, ideas and encouragement for those just starting out. We are also excited that more and more of you are interacting with other Jamorama guitarists and the Jamorama Team on Facebook.

One of the main obstacles that budding guitarists face is the feeling of isolation. You can feel like the only one struggling and can easily be discouraged when you’re trying to play that new chord or strum pattern (for the hundredth time) and don’t seem to be getting any closer. Your fingers are sore and you think, ‘Why not just give up?’.

The great thing is you are not as alone as you think!

Jamorama on Facebook provides a place for you to come and connect with other guitarists learning the same techniques and experiencing the same learning difficulties as you. The whole Jamorama Team is very active in the online community and we also have some very helpful articles in the ‘Discussion area’.

So next time you’re struggling with a particular exercise, jump on Facebook and let us all know. There’s a high chance someone is having the same struggle or has just got past it. Remember, you are NOT alone!

Be sure to share your wins too – there is nothing better than finally playing that tricky riff you’ve been working on.

Connect with the whole Jamorama Team and other Jamorama guitarists today.

With full bellies and for some, a mild beer glow, we headed off to the AMI stadium eager with anticipation about the night ahead.

Luis brought the guacamole

Parking wasn’t a problem thanks to Dan’s Dad’s business being situated only two blocks away from the venue and the Rockstar Recipes crew efficiently joined the steady wave of concert goers as the South Island grunge collective ascended upon the old Lancaster grounds.

Approaching the gates, the atmosphere intensified and you could tell that underneath the notorious Christchurch conservative exteriors there were a heck of a lot of rock ‘n’ roll fans bursting with excitement.

Liam Finn opened up while we found our seats and his energetic, indie rock felt very appropriate and really set the whole tone for the evening. Within the first three songs Eddie Vedder appeared on stage and performed alongside Liam much to the delight of the congregation.

By the time we found the right stand and got settled in Ben Harper and Relentless 7 were just kicking off and the show really did kick into second gear.
Once again it didn’t take long for Eddie Vedder to arrive on stage and together they performed ‘Under Pressure’ by Queen/David Bowie.

The crowd responded really well to Ben but as the sunlight began to fade and Pearl Jam came on stage and erupted into their set the stadium really did come alive.
The night grew colder but the light drips and drabs of rain didn’t seem to affect the crowd’s enthusiasm.

Eddie was a real gentleman and charmed the pants off the critical New Zealand audience with some well placed, locally geared anecdotes and a genuine concern for mosh-pit safety.

Ed Vedder Rocked the Stage

A real crowd pleaser, Eddie announced it was Matt Cameron’s birthday and thirty thousand fans all sang Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs.

The show rolled out like clockwork and Pearl Jam performed exceptionally well, musicianship was absolutely in the pocket and the set list was a very sensitive mix of old and new tracks.

This was the final show of the tour and after a good couple of years on the road these seasoned pros showed no sign of fatigue or lack of passion.
Pearl Jam live in Christchurch 09 definitely goes down in RSR history as an awesome team field trip and an unforgettable experience for the whole crew.

Last week I had a quick look at some custom guitar hero controllers as well as the YAMAHA EZAG stringless guitar, a “guitar” that falls half way in between a stringless controller and a learning tool with l.e.d.’s  to illustrate where you place your fingers upon the neck.

Guitar Rising is a music video game where the player plays a real guitar as cued by the game’s visuals. Following rock music sequences and streaming notes, players play guitar melodies and rhythms. Beginner difficulty levels are designed for non-guitar players and hard difficulties will challenge experienced guitarists.

The great news is Guitar Rising from Game Tank allows you to play a real guitar in a game that combines the Guitar Hero format with guitar tablature. There are six lines on the screen that represent the six strings just like the neck of your guitar. The color-coordinated notes have been replaced with numbers that tell you which fret to finger.

So a number seven moving across the third line or string from the top, means you’ll play a D note on your 3rd string. Guitar players who have spent any time with standard tablature will find this to be like second nature. If you haven’t then this game will help you move away from the stringless controller format into the territory of REAL guitar playing whilst still having fun.

At this point, GameTank is still unsure whether to implement full chords and polyphony in the final game (that is playing more than one note at a time) – right now the game recognizes notes only one-at-a-time basis and neither can it recognise slides, bends, rakes, triplets, diads etcetera.

This could develop into a really useful and versatile learning tool for those of you who enjoy the Guitar hero format but want to move above and beyond the unrealistic paddle switch clicking of the guitar hero controllers.

You will need a USB interface for your guitar such as the Line 6 guitar port – click here to find out more!

So if it’s time to ditch that amateurish controller toy guitar machine then here is the suggested method, but make sure you listen to Pet Sounds first; and why not?

Cheers,

Jake Edwards

Rockstar Recipes is an award winning Christchurch, New Zealand-based Company that produces online educational resources to teach people to learn to play musical instruments. We have over 60,000 members and more than 330,000 page views a month.

We’re hiring someone to run our 3 online communities. Please read this entire post and then let us know if you’re interested.

Rockstar Team

The opportunity

Rockstar Recipes is an award winning Christchurch-based Company that produces online educational resources to teach people to learn to play musical instruments. They are a talented group of young people and have been in business since September, 2003.

The team at Rockstar Recipes are mad about music, teaching and technology and think they can change the way the world learns to play music.

Rockstar Recipes are now looking for someone to join the team who shares that passion, someone who genuinely wants to make a difference…

The right person for the job?

The Community Manager will be responsible for growing Rockstar Recipes 3 communities – Jamorama, Rocket Piano and SongPond.

They will be responsible for managing communications to these groups on a daily basis, mediating disputes, retaining members and evangelizing for our brands.

As well as speaking on behalf of Rockstar Recipes you will be an advocate for our community members; monitoring and listening to conversations, engaging customers, responding to requests, conducting research and facilitating the relationship between customers and product developers.

Significant base salary. Rockstar Recipes offers great benefits for full-time employees.

How to apply

Visit our website for all the details.

It’s a funny old world that’s for sure. While some of the population seems hell bent on preserving their youthful good looks, brainwashed by the shallow whimsies of Hollywood`s plastic people, or even their own vanity; the world of the guitar is steadfastly running in the opposite direction. There is currently no botox available for guitar – but Keith Richard’s dermatologist is down at Gibson and Fender charging big bucks to mess up your axe with an old flask of tea, an ashtray of fag-ends, a rusty chisel and a dirty old palm sander!

Let’s face it,  guitar design remains predominantly trapped back in the 1950’s -and in this world change is a suspicious and malignant blight that the the guitar stoic must resist!

We’ve had a look at modern materials here, but accepted wisdom holds that concepts such as old, vintage, traditional and classic are the foundations upon which tone, sound and greatness are built.

Indeed, the Fender custom sheep, sorry shop, have taken it upon themselves to introduce the Road Worn(tm) series – guitars that come pre-loved, pre-stressed or what have you!

You can of course do it yourself, but in reality there is no substitute for time tested, genuine, cut your teeth, on the ciricuit wear and tear.

Some fellers on ebay have been pre-loving their guitars and putting them up for sale but the results are often a little over cooked. One guy even dragged his Strat’  body behind his  I-roc – man he must just hate guitars.

These, on the other hand, are in fact rather tastefully replete with all the realistic accoutrements of a life spent gigging out on the road.

Gibson have also released a series of worn and aged pseudo-vintage guitars but at some seriously high price levels – you’ve got to ask yourself is it worth it when you could just wait 20 years, become a great player, save the money and gain your wear and tear the real and the hard way.

The interesting thing about the world of guitar is the way in which the old and the new harmonise, where difference and innovation fuse with tradition.

Cheers,

Jake Edwards

Gibson citation custom approx $33,000

Gibson Jeff Beck `54 oxblood approx $8,200

BUT it’s definitely a scale with a dark and minor character: moody, doleful and chock full of midnight moonshine. What happens though if you manage to shake off those blues shackles and even crack a wry old grin into your sleeve every now and then?

Happy Blues by Jen Jacobs @ www.type1diabetesart.com

Happy Blues
Jen J.
www.type1diabetesart.com

Well you must be feeling the good vibrations so it’s time to play a little happiness into your life!

So to complement the minor, today we are going to have a look at a simple Major Pentatonic Box and this has a much more uplifting “major” character. If this sounds a little like GREEK to you then “DONT PANIC!” because it’s all about creating a mood, it’s all about discovering the way different sounds and intervals (the gaps between notes in terms of both pitch and space) create, enhance or combine to communicate emotion.

IF you enjoy the inimitable sound of B.B. King then this post is also just what the doctor prescribed!

Remember that you can of course combine elements of both the minor and major pentatonic scales so experiment away and see how much fun you can have changing the mood!

This is a great scale shape to start exploring that major feel, but do remember there are a whole host of related shapes:

If you have a look at the GUITAR LICKERS website then you’ll see that the scale I’ve illustrated above is just one of five others that you can begin to learn and experiment with. Each shape is slideable and will help you create exciting and interesting tone colour moods when soloing and improvising.

DONT FORGET THAT CRUCIAL VIBRATO!!

In the videos below have a close look at B.B. King’s vibrato technique – he predominantly uses his first or index finger to create a fast, fluttering vibrato through very rotational, almost circular and fast left hand movement. Idiosyncratic but also awesome and inspiring in its uniquity!   COOL!!

When the marketing machine itself seems to become more a part of the product it promotes than the product itself, when the inherent qualitites of individuality have been crushed under the weight of commercialism and when all the corners have been knocked off, rounded down and filed into a useless dust by the “machine” then what is there left of real, intrinsic value?

Luckily some artists are born with a respect for their art and instrument and a no holds barred approach to quality control,

When it comes to modern acoustic fingerstyle guitar Paul Ubana Jones is one of the highly regarded champions, perhaps even a pioneer, of a unique and highly expressive, soulful approach to acoustic guitar that he effortlessly combines with song.

Paul fuses a bold approach to tunings, percussive harmonics, and melody with a highly fluid picking technique and soulful intensity to deliver a wonderful mixture of an almost funky, Hendrixy and blues-rock approach to the bass end of the groove with European flavoured folk and progressive classical motifs, leads, lines, hybrid arpeggios, blues picking styles and more. It`s a very modern and expressive mix of technique, soul and talent.

Born in London and playing guitar by the age of 11, Paul graduated from a London music college, where he studied guitar and cello, and began to forge the solo acoustic style that he has stuck to and developed over the years.

In the late eighties Paul and his family moved to New Zealand, which is still their permanent home. He has continued to perform internationally, to growing acclaim. Concert performances include opening for the likes of Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Taj Mahal, Keb Mo’, Tuck and Patti, and Crowded House.

Understandably Paul’s “off the hook” skills aren’t something that’ll come to you overnight, unless you’re friends with the devil, but, to compliment the awesome Blind Blake style fingerpicking lesson from Jim Bruce, Paul’s approach to fusion expands upon an already eloquent vocabulary.

So, here is Paul discussing one of his clawhammer thumb picking patterns.

Whilst this may be out of your playing depth technically Paul describes some helpful techniques in approaching fingerpicking such as focusing upon a relaxed hand and extracting and concentrating upon the the rhythm of the left hand – it`s well worth spending some time in trying to apply Paul’s advice to your own picking practice regime.

Cheers,

Jake Edwards

smoking kills

Gangstaz…..they`re getting older by the minute!

After last weeks biscuit tin expose today’s magnificent “homewares” based guitar art comes courtesy of the fine, fine craftsmen at Daddy Mojo!

If you have a penchant for the ostentatious and chocolaty flavours of the Republic of Cuba’s most famous export, hand rolled upon the thighs of young Cuban virgins then light up another top ranking stogie because when you’ve finished that box the fellas at Daddy Mojo can turn it into a world of acoustic delight worthy of any bluegrass, cotton-pickin’, square dancin’, chicken pickin` jamboree!

Just in case you’re wondering, the cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone whose resonator is an empty cigar box. Because the instrument is (more traditionally) homemade, there is no standard for dimensions, string types or construction techniques.

Many early cigar box guitars consisted of only one or two strings that were attached to the ends of a broomstick that was inserted into the cigar box. Other cigar box guitars were more complex, with the builder attempting to simulate a traditional string instrument such as a guitar, banjo, or fiddle.

Cigar boxes in their current form did not exist exist prior to the 1840s when cigar manufacturers started using smaller, more portable boxes with 20-50 cigars per box.

The cigar box guitars and fiddles were also important in the rise of jug bands and blues. As most of these performers were black Americans living in poverty, many could not afford a “real” instrument. Using these, along with the washtub bass, jugs, washboards, and harmonica, black musicians performed the blues.

Each Daddy Mojo Cigar Box Guitar has it’s own unique sound and personality; they are made by hand one at a time in our small workshop in Montreal, Canada. They’re small, portable and almost indestructible…and let’s face it, they look cool as hell and attract major attention!

Daddy Mojo is proud to offer Paypal as an easy way of purchasing your custom cigar box guitar online — you do not need a Paypal account to take advantage of this new feature.

The Daddy Mojo Blog is here and the website is here.

Just to whet your appetite here are a couple of you tube videos from the Daddy Mojo website and they’re as strange as a fish!

Now,
if you’re a road rebel, a rouseabout and a rollingstone or just a good old fashioned hobo riding the rails then get your laughing gear around these sweet babies…

That`s right, when you wanna throw down The Chew Tobacco Rag around the old campfire, these smoking weed tins are ‘jes’ what you need!

SMOJO,

who are based in the U.K., make a a great range of smoke tin amplifiers just for the blackteeth connoisseur.

And they also make a few cigar box guitars too for that fashionable black lung look! These things sound absolutely SMOKIN’…like an egg fryin on a hot rail !

Well Folks, that’s just about all for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and it has inspired you to consider
looking into some more unusual guitars or instruments as well as given a little insight into the early history of the jugband blues phenomenon. There are some amazing modern day jugbands on you tube so check them out.

Even better though, I recommend looking out for an old gramophone player and getting yourself a collection of 78`s – they offer some of the hottest jazz and blues on the planet. As well as Doo-wop, Rockabilly and the humour of big band leaders such as Phil Harris, Spike Jones,

Here are Benny Goodman and Lightnin Hopkins cookin’ up on the shellac!!

Cheers,

Jake Edwards.