New CAGED Guitar Phone App

Over the past few months I have been co-developing a phone app with Leafcutter Studios. The idea is that the app teaches the CAGED system for learning the guitar fretboard. If you've not heard of it, the CAGED system takes five basic chord shapes and orientates everything from there – it really does accelerate your learning; I was introduced to it by the legendary jazz guitarist Joe Pass way back at the beginning of the 1980s and it increased my knowledge of the fretboard almost instantly.

We've employed some games in the app that test your fretboard knowledge in a fun way and we've even included a facility to view the fretboard diagrams in a left-handed configuration!

The app is available for both Android and iPhone users and costs $1.99.

Jim Marshall: 1923-2012

I thought I'd write a short tribute on the passing of Jim Marshall from a purely personal point of view, recalling when it was that I switched over to using his amps and why.

Back in the 1980s I was playing in a pub band whose missions in life were simple: to have fun and to tackle some of the more demanding music that were favourites of the individual members. So our repertoire consisted of tunes by Tower Of Power, Steely Dan, Sting (in his jazzy first solo album days) as well as crowd pleasers like ZZ Top, Clapton and Stevie Wonder.

In any case, on this particular night we were playing at a pub in Sudbury, Suffolk and I had taken along my current 'rock' amp which was a transistor-powered Sessionette SG75 (Jan Akkerman had one too!) which I was very happy with as it provided just about everything I needed from a sweet clean sound to powerful overdrive via twin channels.

Meanwhile, back at the gig, the band steamed into 'Rosanna' by Toto. I had practised the solo up and was ready for launch after the keyboard solo in the middle of the song. At the appropriate moment, I hit the 'overdrive' footswitch and went for it. Trouble was, the dynamics had picked up to such an extent during the keyboard solo that my amp had nothing left and I doubt if anyone actually heard the solo I'd spent ages working on so diligently!

Needless to say I was pretty downcast by the whole affair and so the very next day I did the only thing I thought would solve the situation: I went out and bought a Marshall JCM800 50watt combo that stayed with me as my primary rock amp of choice until three years ago by which time my change to acoustic playing had relegated the amp to a lonely existence at the back of a cupboard.

As far as I know, it is now in Poland somewhere (because it was a Polish guy who bought it when I sold it on eBay) and doubtless still rocking loud and proud!

So thanks, Jim: you really helped me turn it up to eleven.

A New Guitar And The Headless Video!

It's always an exciting time when you receive a new guitar. Well, for me it is anyway; others may suggest I seek help – and fast. But I'm harmless...

So at the end of last year, I had the pleasure of unpacking a brand new hand built acoustic guitar. It's a Fylde Goodfellow – a stablemate for my other acoustic which is a Fylde Falstaff – and a lovely little instrument to play.

For the enthusiast, basically it's an 00 body size with a cedar top and sapele back and sides plus a Honduras mahogany neck with a rosewood board. The on-board electrics are a Headway FEQ system.

But enough about vital statistics, you want to hear what it sounds like, right? OK, but first I'll just tell the story of how we recorded this video... It's headless because essentially this was the feed from Camera 2; for some reason Camera 1's feed was too dark to use and so I thought that nobody would care if they couldn't see me gurning for the world, they'd be more interested in looking at the guitar. So we let it go through.

Sound-wise, what you're hearing is mainly the Headway pick-up with a little ambient 'room' from a Zoom H1 (which picked up a passing motorbike towards the end). The eq is flat and we added a little Lexicon reverb just to make everything a bit more sonically cosy.

So here's the Headless Guitarist playing a track from my first album 'Nocturnal' entitled 'Time Together'.

A Night At The Movies

I thought I'd share a few videos that I've hung up on You Tube recently... So if you'd like to settle yourself in the upper circle, let's dim the lights and get on with it.

The first features guitar legend, good friend and fellow Elixir String endorsee Martin Taylor and myself engaged in an impromptu jam at last year's London Acoustic Show. The story behind this one is that I'd just got off a train and been hurried into a very hot stuffy room (the windows were shut because of the filming and it was a surprisingly warm September day) and told to 'play something'. That's why I look a little hot and bothered!

Anyway, this is the result...



Our next presentation is from the same video shoot which finds me talking to Martin about the use of partial capos – a composing device to which I am particularly, erm, partial...



Speaking of partial capos and moving swiftly on, the next video was recorded at The Glee Club in Birmingham last year. The sound is not as good as I would like and it was very dark in the club, but the rawness and general low-light artiness kinda makes up for it... The piece I'm playing is entitled 'A Stranger's Tale' and you can just about make out a G7th capo over the four bass strings if you look really hard...



I played this gig with my fellow acoustic troubadour, the very excellent Ben Powell. One afternoon recently we engaged in a fit of trial and error with iMovie and produced a sample of the 'in the round' show we do together. Ben's playing his custom Patrick Eggle Saluda and I'm playing a Custom Fylde Falstaff. Oh and we're available for hire!



Finally, let's go back to where we started; the London Acoustic Show last year. Another feature of that (very busy) day was that I played a set on the Elixir Strings stand. The full performance was filmed (but I haven't as yet seen it) but here is a short extract filmed by my son Tim on his phone. It gives the flavour of the day, anyway!



So there you have it: the lights have come up and impatient-looking cinema staff are cleaning up all the spilled popcorn.

Thanks for watching!

'So What Sort Of Music Do You Play?'

As you can imagine, this is a question that comes up quite regularly in any musician's day-to-day existence… and it's getting harder and harder to answer. The reason, I think, is that we have become so fond of categorisation in music – and, worse still, many of these convenient little compartments are subject to further division into subcategories.

I play what I think is termed as being 'acoustic fingerstyle' guitar. That's what I and various other practitioners call it anyway; trouble is, no one seems to understand what it actually is. I've had some people say to me, 'Oh, you mean country music?' or 'What, like jazz?' and neither is right, as far as I'm concerned.

It's the same in record shops. If you play within the remit of this particular musical niche and are lucky enough to have attracted record company support, you're quite likely to find your CDs stored under 'World', 'New Age' or 'Jazz'. Furthermore, in the digital domains like iTunes, eMusic and their like (where you yourself have little or no control regarding which category your music ends up under) there's no provision for acoustic fingerstyle. My CDs have been placed under 'Relaxation' or 'New Age' or 'Music For Meditation' and, as far as I'm concerned, it's not anything like. Certainly, if I was going shopping for CDs by Michael Hedges or Pierre Bensusan, looking under 'new age' or 'world' wouldn't be my first port of call.

Things used to be a lot more simple. Once, I'm told, your music was either classical, commercial or folk. Take it or leave it. The definitions were easy to understand: classical was anything involving orchestras or ensembles playing Bach, Berlioz or Beethoven, commercial was pop and rock and folk was... well, everything else.

Under this form of categorisation I'm a folk musician in that I don't consider myself a part of music's commercial landscape. Seriously; ask my accountant.

It's easy to think that this is really a trivial problem and unlikely to have too much of an impact on a career; after all, does it really matter where your music is filed in the public consciousness? Well, yes it does. The problem reveals itself when you try to get gigs, for instance.

If you play in a blues or a covers band, it's likely that you'll be able to make a promoter or club/pub owner understand what it is you play much easier than I would. Blues? What? Like Muddy Waters, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Clapton – that kind of thing? Covers band? What? Rock covers? Queen, Bad Company, bit of Supergrass, Elbow thrown in for the students? Deal done. But 'acoustic fingerstyle'? What's that?

You see my problem. I guess it's a matter of time before we acoustic minstrels find a home under one roof or other. It may be that a champion will reveal himself; someone will have a hit with a film theme or something and immediately afterwards everything reboots and we can say, 'You know, like so-and-so...' when asked the inevitable question.

But until then, it's a no man's land of misunderstanding.

The Wonders Of The Internet

Just trying to set up a selling account for my website and it's driving me mad!

Thought I'd share that with everyone...

Hard Shoulder

As around .0000001% of the world knows, last September I released my second album of acoustic fingerstyle guitar tomfoolery on the public at large. Obviously, in such circumstances, the thing to do is to get oneself onto the touring/gigging circuit and make people aware of its existence. After all, success in the music biz is only around 10% having a good product out there, the other 90% is down to letting people know about it.

All well and good, then. But, as everyone knows, the best laid plans of mice, men and acoustic guitarists oft go awry and in January of this year I began getting pain in my left shoulder. Worse still, it all felt very familiar and I knew what was coming…

Anyone heard of a condition known as 'frozen shoulder'? The medical name for it is 'adhesive capsulitis' and it works its evil magic by gradually paralysing the shoulder joint and rewarding you with a bolt of very serious pain every time you try to move your arm. Not good for playing guitar, then.

To make matters worse and to illustrate the bitter irony of the situation still further (I'm not after sympathy here, honest) I'd had it before in the other shoulder back in 2003 and so I knew that it's effectively a very long slog in terms of recovery time as the condition can last between eight to 18 months.

There's nothing doctors can do except offer sympathy and any painkillers you choose. I chose Tramadol, because they worked last time, but despite the fact that they numb the pain quite effectively and allow you to drift off into sleep, they also have nasty side effects – even more so when you stop taking them.

It's now July and I'm only just getting most of the movement back in my arm (it never fully returns) and experiencing little or no pain and so it's time to get back out there. Taking seven months off sick when you've got new tunes to play people is nothing short of a disaster, which is why I've chosen to re-release 'Arboretum' on my own label and kinda start all over again.

So, as I type, the album is being pressed onto those silver shiny discs that some of you might remember and at the same time being delivered in digital form to all the usual outlets on the internet. There are even dates in the diary, starting with a gig at this year's London Acoustic Guitar Show at Olympia. Sunday 11th September on the Acoustic Café stage at 2.30pm, to be precise.

Now, with a seven month lay-off behind me, the only thing I have to do is get back to practising like a maniac to restore the strength in my left hand and arm – and trying to remember all the pieces!