Charlie Crowe – Intergalactic Cowboy
I recently got a newsletter from Guitar Player magazine announcing the winner of the annual Guitar Player Guitar Superstar contest. I always like to check out the videos of the finals to see the contestants and even more to hear the comments of the judges. The latter are often more entertaining to me than the players.
Here’s my problem with contests like this one: the performers have a tendency to want to throw every chop they have into their (give or take) 4 minutes to impress the judges and show that they’re “the best”. What they play often doesn’t really qualify as a song, at least not to my ear, it’s mainly composed as a showcase for their various dazzling techniques.
So, I often find myself watching the “time left” number on the video to see how long it has to go so I can decide whether to tough it out or just click to the judges’ comments. What’s interesting is that the judges never fail to say several times during the evening that technique is great, but it’s not about being the fastest player or cramming the most notes into a measure. Still, every year, most of the contestants seem to focus on doing just that.
That’s why it’s always a pleasant surprise to find at least one player who actually understands what playing music is about. This year was no exception. I’d watched the first half dozen performances and was about to give up hope when they introduced Charlie Crowe playing a tune called “Intergalactic Cowboy.”
Now THAT’s what I’m talkin’ about! This dude walked out there all dressed in black wearing a black cowboy hat and proceeded to rock OUT! Check out the video below and dig some extremely tasty playing with tone for days and chops used in all the right places.
No, Charlie didn’t win the event. He finished third behind a solo acoustic player and a dude playing an 8-string guitar. In my opinion, Charlie’s was the only performance that actually sounded like he was playing a song rather than having a severe case of guitarrhea.
Okay, the acoustic cat couldn’t be accused of that, and the 8-string guy did show some dynamics instead of a constant blizzard of notes and noises, so I really can’t quibble with them being included in the top three. And, I’m not saying the other players were slouches. Any one of them could kick my ass all the way down the block. I just like to hear someone play something that sounds like music and use their chops when it fits the song instead of the other way around.
If you want to hear more of Charlie’s playing, check out his Myspace page:
Upgrade Your Guitar
Posted in: ImAGuitarPlayer Tags: easy guitar modifications, guitar upgrades, modify your guitar, upgrade your guitar
Upgrading your guitar is a great way to get a huge improvement in sound and/or playability without spending the big bucks for the high-end model. If you’re really handy you can actually build your own guitar, but most people will want to start with a decent guitar and improve it.
As an example, the first thing I do to any guitar I buy is replace the nut with an Earvana compensated tuning nut. This is a fairly easy modification to make, takes an hour or less, and makes a huge difference in the sound of the guitar, especially with first position chords.
With electric guitars, the difference between the low-end models and the expensive ones is often the pickups. With modern equipment, it’s fairly inexpensive to turn out very nice bodies, necks, etc. and as long as they’re put together well, you’ve got the basis for a very nice guitar.
Check out the models from the big name companies that are manufactured in Korea or Mexico, for example. You can often purchase a guitar for a couple hundred bucks that is solidly built and just needs an upgrade of the electronics to be a really killer axe.
My wife bought a Fender® Stratocaster® guitar for me for one of our anniversaries some years ago. It’s a Standard or “Mexican” Strat®, as opposed to the higher priced USA model. It’s a well built guitar, but the stock pickups were lame.
So, I bought a set of DiMarzio® replacement pickups and dropped them in. One thing I didn’t understand at the time was that the DiMarzios are humbucking pickups in a single-coil configuration, so the wiring was completely different from the standard Strat® wiring.
The techs at DiMarzio® were very helpful. They sent me a wiring diagram and explained how to wire up the pickups the correct way to get the sound I was after. They also exchanged the middle pickup I’d bought for one that is wired correctly for my setup.
That involved buying a new pickup selector switch to replace the one that came with the guitar. Because the humbuckers could be split, and needed to be in order to get good sound in all the switch positions, the switch needed many more wiring options than the original.
With the help of the diagram and instructions, I was able to get everything wired up the way I wanted it and the guitar sounds great now! If I remember correctly, the switch, pickups, and a new pickguard cost me under $200 and a couple of hours of my time.
If you have basic soldering skills and can work a screwdriver, you can make these mods easily. You’ll find that there’s something very satisfying about playing a guitar that you’ve upgraded yourself.
Top Five Mistakes of Amateur Musicians
This is an unofficial list based on my observations over a number of years. They are in no particular order and the list could certainly be expanded considerably! These are just the ones I’ve seen most often.
- Playing over other musicians – this could also be titled “Doesn’t play nice with others.” People not used to playing in a band situation (and some who are!) will often play constantly through an entire song, stepping on vocals, others trying to take solos, etc. This is a really quick way to earn the ire of your fellow musicians. Listen to the rest of the group and try to find a place where your instrument fits into the fabric of the song. It’s not a contest to see who gets the most notes in. The idea is to create a musical experience that’s enjoyable for the players as well as the audience.
- Playing the same licks over and over – this really comes down to one word: listening! I can’t tell you how many players I’ve heard who know one or two bluesy-sounding licks and beat them to death in the course of a solo. For whatever reason, it always tends to be the same couple of licks only varying by instrument. Listen to the music! For example, the blues isn’t always the same three chords and the same three or four signature licks. There’s immense variety in most every genre of music. Your playing will improve 1000% by simply learning the subtleties of your favorite music and introducing more variety into your playing.
- Playing too loud or too softly – usually, it’s the opposite, but there are those who don’t play loud enough to be heard at all. Sometimes that’s a blessing, but if you’re going to get up there, at least be heard! I knew a guy who could cup a harmonica over a vocal mic and look like he was blowing his lungs out, but no one could hear him. How he did it I have no idea, but it was bizarre to watch. At least he wasn’t damaging anybody’s hearing that way! Cranking your amp to 11 in order to be heard over everybody can be hazardous to someone’s health, quite possibly your own!
- Buying too much gear – the musical instrument industry thrives on Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or GAS. Musicians, especially amateurs, believe that if they buy another piece of gear, preferably the exact model played by Joe Rockstar, they’ll suddenly become the player of their dreams. Sorry, folks, it ain’t gonna happen. If you have the money and love toys, go for it, but if you’re wanting to be a player, spend the money on lesssons and practice! You don’t need a zillion effects to play well. The effects only color your sound. If your sound sucks to start with, all the gear in the world won’t help that. Buy an amp big enough for your needs, but save the stadium stack for when you and your band hit the big time.
- Not practicing properly – many amateurs spend their practice time playing things they already know. While it’s good to run over your repertoire occasionally, the purpose of practice is to hone your skills. That usually means learning something new and perfecting it. Make it a goal next time you practice to learn something new. Do that every time you practice and you’ll be amazed at how far your playing will come in a relatively short time. Practice only makes perfect if it’s correct practice. I know it’s easier and sometimes more fun to play things that are easy for you, but you won’t grow unless you keep stretching your abilities. In the long run, it’s way more fun to look back and realize how far you’ve come than to be playing the same stuff a year down the road.
Which Guitar Should I Buy?
This is probably the most commonly asked question when someone is just starting out with the guitar. There is a bewildering number of choices in all price ranges, so the prospective player needs to answer a couple questions to narrow their focus.
First, what style of music do you want to learn to play? If you want to shred like the metal monsters, you obviously don’t want a nylon string acoustic guitar! The simplest thing to do is to check out the guitars played by the players you most admire and look at similar models.
Second, how much do you want to spend on a guitar? The guitars played by the pros, generally speaking, will be way out of the budget range of most people. The axes you see on stage typically cost thousands of dollars each. The good news is that there are usually very similar models available for a few hundred dollars. The differences are many, but basically, the major reasons why the pro models cost so much more are: better pickups and electronics, more expensive materials for the body and neck and much more attention to detail in the fit and finish of the instrument.
You want to buy as good an instrument as you can afford, for two reasons. One, better quality guitars are easier to play meaning you won’t have to work as hard to get the sounds you want out of them. Two, if you decide after a while that you want to trade up to a better guitar, or you give up guitar playing for whatever reason, you can sell a better quality used guitar more readily than a cheap one.
Keep in mind that having the exact same model as Joe Rockstar plays will not automatically make you as good a player as he is! Buy one that looks like his if you want, but don’t break the bank until you know you’re going to stick with it for the long haul.
You’ve got a lot to learn before you’ll begin to push the limits of what a good inexpensive guitar can do. Save some of your hard-earned cash for how-to-play courses and concert tickets!
Tune Your Guitar By Ear
Tune your guitar by ear with this cool tuner! Click the desired string to sound the corresponding note.
Guitar Tuner courtesy of the folks at Wimpy Player
