Thursday 22 July 2010

Playing The Bands First Song, From My Perspective

Good Evening,

I'd like to do somewhat of a different blog here, my take on playing music, not just on my own, but with my band "Light & Motion".

In my blogs I've never really spoken directly about my pure passion for music, with what's going on these days, it's always been the thing I've loved doing, plugged in, unplugged, on paper, in my head, music, is what makes me who I am, which sounds cliched I know, however, with the illnesses and side effects I suffer with, its the thing that's ALWAYS been consistent, and with it, I've met some of the best people in the world.

Last night was a stonking practice, beforehand I felt bloody awful and I contemplated not going, alas Kim, the drummer of the outfit coaxed me that it'd be for the best, so I went down and I'm very glad I did...

Me & Fellow guitarist and good friend Jay were the first to arrive, there we were setting up, each of us at polar opposites in terms of tastes and playing styles, I'm plugging in an array of pedals from a Pitch Shifter to a Fuzz, to a Delay pedal and many more, whilst he plugs in the Wah pedal I borrowed him, into a couple of distortion pedals straight into the amp.
I'm a self-confessed effects based player, I don't play in the traditional nature, I use effects alot to create new sound, I've always loved the concept of getting lost in technology and stumbling on something new or beautiful that could be used that no-one has heard before, I'm completely self taught and I don't follow traditional methods, nor inspirations, whereas some may class "Stairway To Heaven" or "November Rain"'s solo's as the best on the face of the earth (not that I'm dissing them, they aren't bad songs!) I class my more inspirational solos as U2's "Love Is Blindness" or Peter Framptons cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", aside from bands, after I dropped guitar duties in Crashpoint, and wasn;t really doing much in a band with guitar, I sat working more on my technique, just working on simple things like hand positioning, feel, vibrato, just general back to the drawing board, take what I've got and improve...

Anyway where was I...

so then Laura, our bass player and Kim, our drummer entered, and promptly, we were all set up, and ready to go, we run through our first full track that we've virtually finished were calling "Croydon" for now, we kicked into it, and for once, I dunno what it was, I stood, with my eyes closed, I could feel everything that was going on musically, like this song that had started off as a sort of rough jingle a month back, has evolved into this beast of a rock song where all of us get to work to our strengths, I stood there eyes closed, which I never do, absolutely still, playing at my best, just feeling the pulsating bass and drums in my feet, everything ringing in my ears.

I closed my eyes, and hit chords that cut like a knife, not thinking of where I wanted to be, but taking in the moment, trying to leave an impression with every single note... when my solo came, I didn't even have to look, I just stepped on the Whammy and in my head I've split my solo like this

Melodic/Bendy/Tappy/R2D2

I loved the fact that right there, everything was where it was meant to be, we were all playing off each other, for the last run of the chorus, I opened my eyes, to see how well we were all doing, and to me, that's what its all about, we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream, the song ended, and a slam of an E minor... Laura's Dad, Roger had popped in aswell and we certainly got the thumbs up off of him aswell, just re-assuring that it isn't just us that thinks we sound great!

with that, keep dreaming

Your pal
Luke

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