Guitar Solo of the Week: "Invincible" by Matt Bellamy of MUSE

I couldn't find a video of just this guitar solo, so you'll find it between 4:30 and 5:01. But, I absolutely love this whole song so the solo really is the icing on the cake.
The solo isn't too difficult or fancy, but I find it really creative and expressive. Using a whammy and some delay, Matt Bellamy uses hammer-ons for the legato parts (with the whammy pedal heel-down) and then taps a single note (the melody) while pushing the Whammy pedal toe-down. Since this is a live version, it's not as clean as the album's solo, but still pretty neat. I highly recommend you check out this album by MUSE called "Black Holes and Revelations". It's a good'n.

Macaroni, Guns, & God

The lunchroom at my work has a TV. It only has one channel. That channel is CBC. Guess what CBC airs everyday @ 12:00pm-ish? The news. Guess what CBC News is usually running? Economic, politcal, and religious turmoil around the world. Neat. I get to watch more Palestinians vs. Israelites terrorize each other, monotonous updates on the stock market, and the next Stephen Harper beat-down whlie I eat my Michaelena's microwavable mac and cheese. Why can't I enjoy my perservatives in peace? What is the world coming to?
I've never been one to follow politics, economics, or religious warfare all that much. That's not to say it doesn't bother me or that I've become immune to it. I mean, how could I possibly dodge it? It's everywhere. And, maybe the more important question is, how can I help?
Well, the long and short of it is that I can't. Ever since Cain and Able there has been warfare of some sort. Cain's fruits & veggies didn't match up to Able's beef & pork chops. So, he killed him. But, can you blame God for choosing hamburgers over stir-fry? Of course not, but that's neither here nor there. We're so used to seeing violence, martyrdom, material excess, and damage to political system that we tend to discount its importance and le it roll off of our shoulders. At least I so. What about you?

Since I don't follow all this "news" gobbledeegook, I s'pose all the questions I have will never be answered for me:
Why are two religions fighting over a street that separates them?
Why is everyone on Stephen Harper's back if we're the ones who put him there in the first place?
Why are we so worried about economic decline if we're so busy spending our money on iTouch games and kasmir scarves?

All we've been hearing as of that is the financial crisis we've been going through. I'm sure that, in the long run, it'll affect me somewhere down the line, but it's been all rainbows and sunshine in my world. Specifically, the cost of gas has gone down $0.40/L or so over the past few months. Cool! My gas bill is decreased by $25 or so. And, when I inquired about filling my furnace-oil-tank a few months ago it was going to cost me about $1100 to fill. Now, it's only about $810. Awesome!
Who said we were in a financiapocalypse?

Woah. That's a good word. Financiapocalypse.
I'm going to write a song with that title.
It's going to be a hit.

Guitar Hero: Worship Leader Edition

I’m sure many of you have seen this concept before, either as a Facebook group or maybe even through email. Most of the ideas expressed in the following are taken directly from the “Worship Hero” Facebook group but, as a worship leader/musician, I thought it’d be appropriate to edit, organize, and repost it for all to see. The truth is both true and funny so take it with a grain of salt. I present to you...


Guitar Hero: Worship Leader Edition

Your Mission:
You are a musician with a call to lead God’s people into worship on a voluntary (or, God permitting, vocational) basis. The first level starts you off leading worship at a small church building your spiritual gifts and efforts up by making your way through many ministries and churches to the ultimate goal of becoming a worship leader at a prestigious mega-church.

Your Purpose:
To become a multi-million dollar worship leader (see "rock-star") while still giving all glory, honor, and praise to God through music.

Rules of (Spiritual) Engagement:

All worship sets must include a minimum of two hymns, one Chris Tomlin song, and one 80’s/90’s worship chorus. In addition, tempo transitions must start out fast, followed by medium-tempo songs, ending with slow tempo songs.

All songs must follow the following map: Verses, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus. Deviation from this order can result in excommunication and mass confusion of instrumentalists.

Some levels will require you to conduct certain stage designs which must incldue particular realistic touches to your environment such as tacky plastic foliage, inspirational banners, or plexi-glass pulpits.

You must maintain your team's dress-code during services. This code excludes skrits above the knee, open-toed shoes, hats of any kind, ripped/torn/faded jeans, and t-shirts. Any choice of "inappropriate" clothing will result in an uprising of old congregationalists and threatening elders.

Every so often you, as the leader, will take it upon yourself to demand an acoustic set which will face great and silent opposition from your keyboard players and drummers who are forced to play percussive instruments. No matter how boring this is, no one is allowed to or will ever complain because we all know that we do not come to church to be entertained. Inproper balance of this level is dangferous as you may experience higher than normal level on the FHLI (False Humility Level Indicator) and you may also lose some youth at the next service.

You, as the worship leader, must conduct the entire congregation. You will not keep tempo however. You must force the band to follow your seizure-like speed changes.

Games Modes:

Practice Mode: as worship leader, you must direct, practice, and rehearse your worship band on a weekly basis. This mode will always be fantastic and include many elements foreign to Sunday mornings (ie: drum fills, shots, accapellas, interludes, worship, and the Holy Spirit) and every song's tempo will be increased by 30bpm with fluctuations in anxiety levels

Service Mode: You must develop a repertoire of worship songs. Instrumentalists are permitted to experiment with solos, but take caution: any excessive soloing will cause an uproar amongst some of the elder. Your transposition and arranging skills must be honed to make sure that every song has no more than four chords (the fewer, the better) and must not deviate from the keys of G, E, or D as they are the easiest for guitar players to play.

Your Band & Instrumentalists:
you must recruit a band on a weekly basis composed entirely of Churched individuals who think they are skilled in their instrument.

Your worship team must have a minimum of:
-at least three guitar players (bass, acoustic, electric)
-at least four singers
-at least one keyboard player
-two percussionists: one must be a drummer while the other must consist of a musician who cannot play any instrument or sing but still wants to be on the worship team; you provide them with a triangle, bongos, djembe, or tambourine.

Guitar players:

electric guitarists must play 94% of what the acoustic player is playing. Any derivation should be dealt with by turning the amp down

guitar amps must be run through a DI Box. Do not mic the amp. Heaven forbid you have good tone

guitar players must not have their amps turned up past 0.5 on the volume knob. Failure to do so will result in dissension from the sound techs and the elderly.

occasionally, one of your guitarists will require a capo. This will result in utter chaos as you will now have two sets of chord sheets which will inevitably be mixed up and none of your band members will know which key to actaully play in

any and all guitar solos must begin with the melody of the song's chorus. Derivation from this will be allowed (but not recommended) after 4 bars

Drummers:

drum kits must be fully engulfed by a plexi-glass wall. No one will know or ever understand the reasoning for this but failure to do so will result in dissension from sound techs and the elderly

drummers must resort to "Hot Rods" and/or plastic sticks because wood sticks make too much noise

even if volume of a song is only going from soft to mind-blowingly loud in half a measure, your drummer requires only one skill: and that is to build

Bass players:

bass players must go direct through a D.I. (direct input) and musn't use amplifiers larger than one 10" speaker. Failure to do so will result in dissension from sound techs and the elderly

you will lose points if your bass player is making any use whatsoever of the subwoofers provided by the church's sound system

bass players will always be the only member of the band with actual talent. To ensure that no one hears them, make sure he is turned down at all times except for simple, one-note intros

Keyboard/Piano/Organ:

every song (fast or slow) must have a keyboard pad as the background. The keyboardist must work hard to make it look like they are contributing. This is usually achieved by dramatic facial expressions, swaying, or yelling in between pre-choruses and choruses

the final slow song must be dominated by an angelic synth sound. This activates the Holy Spirit.

Vocalists:

75% of your vocalists must sing the melody. A maximum of two harmonies are allowed which must be at 50% the volume of the melody

any vocal harmony must be dragged out longer than the melody to allow the congregation to hear them

POINT STRUCTURE:

points are awarded if you or any band member shouts “Jesus!”, “Yes, Lord!”, or other indistinguishable noises between choruses

points are awarded for getting your band-mates to properly execute map and tambre changes using any means necessary including leg-lifts, dirty looks, frantic arm waving, and/or yelling

be sure not to leave more than 4 seconds of awkward silence while transitioning songs, as the Holy Spirit Level Indicator (HSLI) will take a sudden drop. If the HSLI remains in the red for more than 15 seconds, your team will be asked to leave the stage, and you will be told gently that there are other teams who would like to use their gifts for God as well

bonus points are awarded if everyone in your band (including vocalists) shows up on time. However, double MINUS those points because the sound techs are MIA

points will also be lost when you request "just the voices" and your drummer or guitar player keeps playing

points will be lost when the vast majority of the congregation raises their hands and sings only during the chorus while staring blankly at you or the projection screen during the verses

points are lost if you say, "God is good" and no one replies "all the time"

at the end of a set (level), a middle-aged woman who knows your name but doesn't introduce herself will say, "You are SO anointed!" Your FHLI (False Humility Level Indicator) will blink indicating the false humility you're about to use to respond with. 5000 extra points and a free set of in-ears if you can figure out how to respond well

Christmas List

Every kid writes a Christmas List to give to their parents in hopes that'll make it's way to Santa (or the local Futureshop representative). I don't get Sears' annual "WishList" catalog anymore so I can cricle the thigns I want with highlighter, so here’s my Christmas list for this year. I’ll follow up on it after ward:

Jamie's Christmas Wish-List:
iPod Touch
MacBook Pro
Calgary Flames jersey (#3 Phaneuf customization optional)
Calgary Flames to win Stanley Cup
42" LCD HDTV (preferably, wall-mountable)
Dwight Schrute Bobblehead
Jesus Christ Bobblehead
"Guitar Hero: World Tour" for Wii
The Force Unleashed for Wii
Mario Kart for Wii
NHL2K9 for Wii
world peace
Wall-E DVD
The Dark Knight DVD
Gone Baby Gone DVD
John Mayer: Where the Light Is DVD
Crossroads: Guitar Festival 2007 DVD
David Crowder Band: Remedy Club Tour
Trip to Hawaii
Plain black zip-up hoodie
Catalinbread Ottava Magus






One of my favorite things about Christmas when I was a kid was making a Christmas list. It’s like an adult buying a 649 ticket and just imagining the possibilities (enter “million-dollar happy dance” here). Most of my wish-list when I was kid consisted of some very extravagant things like an electric Jeep and the deed to Legoland. But I was often disappointed when I would open boxes of white socks, underwear, and knit-sweaters; things my mother said I “needed”.
As I’ve grown older, though I still want that deed, I noticed that my Christmas lists still aren’t reflecting things that I need. Instead, I noticed that it’s filled with electronic devices that would be obsolete as soon as plug it in, movies that will be watched a few times before they begin to collect dust, and unrealistic hopes. The fact is, I actually do need a few pairs of white socks, underwear, and a sweater or two (no wool, please). I have debt I need to pay off (not add onto), a 200 gallon oil tank that needs to be kept filled so we can keep warm, and a son growing out of his clothes faster than Oprah at a buffet.


Needless to say, I don't put so much faith in my Christmas lists anymore. Why? Multiple reasons:
1) Catherine and I decided not to exchange gifts anymore? Why? multiple reasons:
a) we don't have the money
b) we have each other (thank you Santa?)
c) we get to spend a little money on Noah
2) Our parents bless us with so much throughout the year, that we couldn’t possibly ask anything more of them
3) All my 'wants' are too expensive and material. Instead, "trip to Hawaii" becomes "boxer/briefs with no holes"
4) I've lost faith in Santa’s H0H 0H0 postal code

I was reading on a Christmas-justice organization called The Advent Conspiracy the other day. The Advent Conspiracy is an attempt to make Christmas a "world-changing event again by turning our focus back to the birth of Christ". They encourage participants to "trade our season of stress for a season celebration and unbelievable memories with your friends and family" while also helping out those in need in our communities. How do they do this? They have 4 tasks they practice:
- Worship Fully: the story of Jesus means entering a season of overwhelming passion to worship Jesus
- Spend Less: buy ONE LESS GIFT this Christmas. many who have taken this small sacrifice have been more available to celebrate Christ during the advent season
- Give More: it’s time to make love visible through relational giving. Sounds a lot better than getting a sweater two sizes too big, right
- Love All: by spending less at Christmas we have the opportunity to join Him in giving resources and time to those who need help the most.

I encouraged my pastor a few other church-leaders to really look into this organization as a means to get the church involved in Christmas of a different kind; love of another kind. One of less “wanting” and “wishing” with more “needing”, “giving” and “loving’. I dare you.

Guitar Solo of the Week: "Little Wing" by Monte Montgomery

This week's guitar-solo is not necessarily a solo, but a song in general.
It's "Little Wing" ; written by the great Jimi Hendrix, perfected (and perhaps bettered) by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and imitated by practically every good guitar player in history. Hendrix had a knack for writing guitar part that not only created chordal structure tot eh song, but included melody in the same arrangement. So, most of the time it sounds like two guitars. Originally written for the electric, Monte Montgomery rocks this out on an old beat-up acoustic. While still sounding like the original, Monte really fancies this version up a bit (maybe a bit too much at times) but throws in a few different flavours (including classical, jazz, and a bit of flamenco).

Beware: this clip is about 10 minutes long. While the whole song seems to be a solo and certainly worth watching, the "payoff" for me comes somewhere between 5:20-6:30. Wowzers

Thx to Sunny for introducing me to Monte Montgomery. Enjoy.

Super-Powers of the Bible

Bleh… I’m not feeling well this morning. It probably has to do with a the fact that Catherine and I haven’t been getting much sleep lately because Noah is trying to get back into his sleep schedule. The trip to Calgary last week really messed with his sked and now mom & dad are taking the brunt of the sked. Also, I think I’m coming down with a cold. I played floor hockey last night and walked home afterward. Even though it’s not far for me to walk, I think the mixture of sweat and cold night air didn’t mix well with me. I couldn’t’ even stay up for HEROES I was tired! Oh well, I’ll have to d/l it tonight.

I’ve been struggling with HEROES this season; there’s so much going on and so many characters to follow. It’s starting to become more like your average day-time soap but with electricity , time/space manipulation , and the cutting off of heads . Oh, and characters who don’t belong . Then again, day-time soaps have those too. But, it got me thinking this morning, “what if people in the Bible had super-powers”? Then I thought, “I guess in a way they did. Jesus had super-powers and God passed his super-powers onto other people”. Then I thought again, “this calls for a list”. Get our your Bibles and prepare to do a small bit of reading. Here’re some examples of some of the coolest super-powers found in the Bible:

The Conjuring of Bears: 2 Kings 2:23-25 – some youth start to poke fun at Elisha so he puts a curse on them; a curse that would have two bears appear out of nowhere and maul 42 mouthy kids. Take that you tight-jean-wearing, emo kids!

The Staff of Moses: Exodus 7:10-12 – neat. This staff could turn into snakes and eat other staffs/snakes. Cool. This staff could do a few other small feats like turn water into blood, part seas, make frogs grow from the earth, and also control the weather. If I owned this staff, there’d be no more snow. And, the Peticodiac would become that of Grape Koool-Aid

Health by Fashion: Mark 5:25-35 – a woman suffering from hemophelia who was too ill to elbow her way through a crowd of people to see Jesus, thought to herself, “if I just touch his robe, I will be healed”. Surely enough, the woman stretched out and caught a nibble of Jesus’ robe. Jesus sensed the touch and told her that because of her faith, she’d been healed. Neat. If our TWLOHA shirts could all do that, life would be so much more healthy, am I right?

Demon-pigs: Matthew 8:30-32 – I’ve got mixed emotions on this one. On the one hand, it would be fun to single-handedly drive out demons from friends and family and into the closest livestock. Demons, and the grips they have on our sins, suck. But on the other hand, why take it out on the pigs? If we had no pigs, we’d have no bacon. That would definitely suck.

Lion Meat: Judges 14:5-6 – “The Spirit of the LORD came upon him (Samson) in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat.” Enough said.

Water into Wine: John 2:1-11 – Jesus makes a big splash at a wedding turning the water into wine. This is two-fold. For the wine connoisseur, it’d be a helpful way to smell, stir, and swish to your hearts desire. But alcoholism would also be up 400%.

Balaam’s Ass speaks: Numbers 22:21-35 – Ok, maybe I was just looking for an excuse to say “ass", but Balaam deserves some cred because I imagine it’s where DreamWorks got the idea for Donkey .

Raising an army of dead: Ezekiel 37: 1-14 – Just think of what it could do to the war on terror… it would bring new meaning to "beating a dead horse".

Confusion and Coals: Isaiah 6:1-8 – The presence of God is like a rubix cube. You really gotta sit down, concentrate, and unpack what you’re looking at. Then, all of a sudden, BAM! Someone burns your mouth like a hot pan of sizzling fajita meat.

Of course there're a lot more miracles & feats in the Bible. I guess I'd be foolish to not mention Jesus taking a crazy beating and then raising himself from the dead. Sounds kind of like Claire Bennet , but without the "saving humanity" and "defeating Satan" part.

Guitar Solo of the Week: "Answers" solo by Steve Vai

Guitar solos aren't necessarily a lost art, but good, original, creative solos certainly aren't as common either. While I believe in some musical cases, the "solo" has been replaced by cool riffs, great melody, and Macbook-powered/Appleby-driven loops & sequencing, it's so refreshing to hear a creative/original solo every now and then. Thus, every week I'm going to post a "guitar solo of the week" video. The first solo I'm going to post is not the solo I ever heard, but certainly the first solo I ever "felt" or "experienced". Here it is in all it's shred/glory...

Back in '98 or so, when I had first met my friend Tim Heerebout, he got me into this guitar virtuoso concert thing called "G3" starring Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson. I had never heard of any of these players before as I was still into my "only-listen-to-metal" stage of adolescents. But, Tim got me hook on these guys and I remember going gaga over this solo section at the end of Vai's song called "Answers". The whole thing is pretty neat, but about 0:39 seconds in, he goes into this part that boggles my mind: he sweep-picks on the way down, taps the fretboard on the way up, and does a whole bunch of hammer-on/pull-offs in between; not only that, but it sounds so perfect and "beautiful".
Now, this version is from the DVD, though he has a different version on the CD (which I prefer as he adds a bit of whammy bar in it). Anywho... check it out. It really took me back. Enjoy:
Guitar - Steve Vai
Rhythm/Keys - Mike Keneely
Drums: Mike Mangini
Bass: Michael Tait from dc Talk?

Ronery... So, Ronery

I had to get up @ 4:30am on Wednesday morning to drive Catherine and Noah to the airport. That wasn't fun. Then again, I guess I dug my own grave because it was I (and both sets of parents) who bought Catherine a plane ticket for her birthday to Calgary to go visit her sisters and get away with the baby for a week. She deserves it. However, it’s only day 2 of having the house to myself (and Morris), but it’s pretty lonely. I miss seeing Noah’s smiling face in the morning and his giggle when he sees me come home. In a house with an empty oil tank (it’s $1100 to fill!) I miss the warm body to help war things up. Microwavable dinners aren’t as good as home-cookin’ I’ve discovered.
However, I have been able to play a lot more guitar. Once I get home from work, eat supper, play with Noah, and get him to bed, it’s a task to be quiet in the house. Thus, I never have time to play guitar (or else I’ll wake the baby). It’s been nice to warm up the 6L6’s and just play for once. I noticed I’ve really lost a lot of chops lately. With all the rhythm guitar playing I’ve been doing with worship, I seem to have left my lead chops somewhere. While that’s ok (I’m not doing much lead playing anyway) it’s been fun to just turn it up and play.
Also, I’m looking forward to jamming with some friends this weekend. We’re gonna take a hours to jam a few covers and maybe put some chords together and create something else. Who knows. It’ll just be fun to mess around with some other musicians and “create”. I haven’t done that in forever so it’ll nice to see if there’re any creative juices left flowing.

Listening to:
“Gazing” by Future of Forestry
“Feel Good Drag” by Anberlin
“Paperthin Hymn” by Anberlin
“Sometimes” from Across the Universe soundtrack
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” from Across the Universe soundtrack

Art vs. Ministry: Part 2 (?)

Last night, I was in Truro, NS where I got the chance to lead a worship event with some friends. Though not too many folks came out and the response seemed a bit sparse (at least from my view), it went well and we (the band) had a good time playing. It was a good (read humbling) experience and I’m glad we got to expand some people’s worship experience. The highlight for me, though, may have been the conversation on the drive home. We (Pyke & Jamie Sutherland) talked a little bit about the ”art vs. ministry” dilemma that I blogged about a few weeks ago. We also talked about passion as musicians and when one’s hope of becoming a rock n’ roll star becomes a passing dream. Jamie (Sutherland) said something really interesting during our conversation:
“I’m 3_ years old (you’re welcome, Mr. Sutherland) and I still have those dreams being at playing music for a living. But, even though I’ve come to grips with the fact that that is probably not going to happen, I believe that those dreams eventually come to fruition in one way or another. Why else would God promise us the desires of our heart?”
Well, I’m only 25 so I’m sure I’ve still got lots of years before my hopes & dreams are totally behind me but, at least for me, it feels like my chances have come and gone. Until the “desires of my heart” change, I still have hopes of being a vocational musician. I feel like I’ve got a lot of creative input that needs to come out of my head and I hope to find the right people to share that with. This leads me to another interesting conversation I had this past week…
I had a unsuspected/encouraging chat with a friend this past week who was probing me (not physically) about my musical endeavors (or lack thereof). He assured me that I should need to find a group of guys that share the same musical grasp, talent, and style as me and that I could make something of what I’ve got. Ok, maybe he didn’t use as many words, but he was encouraging me to find my own musical output and keep searching for a musical vehicle to transport some creativity.
Well, I plan on it.
I’m getting together with some buds this weekend and we’re gonna jam around. That’s always fun whether anything comes of it or not.