Tom my writers block vanished as soon as I heard that mystical background cricket... thanks champ... you inspire me and relax my dog with your voice...
Hey Uncle Larry I’ve got three comments. 1. Mandolin??? Bust one out on us please. 2. Tribute bands-Unfortunately blame the lack of rock radio for the over abundance of classic rock cover and tribute bands. Where do you get your original shit played … although you and Guthrie maybe breaking some ground. 3. Prog rock for children- play “Close To The Edge” loud for your kids. I did for my son when he was young. It freaked him out, but he definitely didn’t ask, “Is that even music.” As always much love from NC.
@@halvach1998 I'd say maybe more so for jazz. On one side, many jazzheads get too caught up in a race of who can come up with the wackiest, most complex and overcooked shit out of sheer pretention, on the other jazz usually involves complex rhythm, harmony and feel so tons of people who'd do fine in other genres can't wrap their heads around all that and end up repeating the same progressions and licks to an extent that makes Greta Van Fleet sound groundbreaking vs. Zeppelin.
Really dig the budget “era”(as the kids say) Larry! Fun to see what a guy who has holy grail instruments around thinks of some of the more affordable lesser vintage options out there
Here in Dallas, we’ve had a phenomenal Beatles tribute band, for going on 30 years now (since before tribute band became wide spread. They are called Hard Night’s Day. The members are all great local musicians, and they’ve changed some spots throughout the years. I think they all have other gigs, too, but they are amazing at covering The Beatles. Really tight. To me that’s a cool “tribute” band for you. They’re not smearing on KISS makeup and doing ridiculous pyro. They are perfectly playing live Beatles songs. For those of us who love live music, love the Beatles and never got to see them live, they’re frankly awesome. So I guess my point is there’s a place for some tribute bands, when it’s really tastefully done and the band they are covering has an amazing catalog of work. Good stuff.
As someone who gives beginner lessons, whenever I show a student the modern simple 4 chord song template, they’re usually either happy that it’s so easy or disappointed to find out the song actually doesn’t even change. There’s an art to making something simple have complexity. Some of the modern songs pull it off, and many of them do not. Great video, Tom.
So glad my musical moral compass was shaped by classic 60s/70s guitar centric music. It’s helped tremendously to fend off the assault of 4 chord pablum, made me a bit of a snob. But that brought me to you. Oh, most 60s/70s bands are tribute bands at this point.
I heard Johnny Rzeznik once say that when you have writer’s block you’re actually still writing the whole time-you just hate everything. It was really eye opening. I like your philosophy too. Try to come up with something that doesn’t bore you, and hopefully it doesn’t bore everyone else too.
Like addicts, we musicians have spoiled our brains for the simple music that casual listeners love. We’ve heard it all before. We need ever increasing novelty and complexity to keep us interested. Hence postwar jazz, fusion, serialism, art music, and so on.
My fav tribute band was Yellow Matter Custard. Matt Bissonette, Paul Gilbert, Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Kasim Sulton doing Beatles numbers. It was a lot of fun.
There is an old adage, usually regarding solos, "less is more." I'm thinking that to some folks jazz sounds like an onslaught of notes that is hard for their ears to parse. If a song can make its point with three or fours chords and a nice melody that is just enough for a lot of people. Not everyone is lucky enough to play an instrument and to have trained their ear in the process. Depending on my mood, I like artists like Miles Davis, Django Reinhardt (see the Hot Club of France recordings), and others, but I mainly enjoy The Who, Pink Floyd, Roy Orbison (fantastic voice), crunchy rock, and a wide range of other artists and performers. I would like to thank Tom for taking the time to make these videos. A friend of mine turned me on to them a few weeks ago and I've been working my way through them. There is so much useful information in these episodes! Tom is a real inspiration, I wish that there had been a mentor like him around when I was first learning to play guitar.
Now that everyone can cut, copy, paste, quantize, and synthesize their parts, music has become even more formulaic. This is also a huge factor in why music has regressed. One doesn't need to practice music anymore to be a 'musician' in the public's eye. Just push a button or two, quantize, and boom...a 'song' is recorded.
Totally agree with your comments about Jazz vs pop. And that’s coming from a fellow session man who plays a lot of jazz and released Jazz-ish albums. Sad isn’t it how conditioned people have become.
Sometimes I'll forward through the intro song (I know I know) - but this one had be glued to the computer! Nice haunting version played superbly! Love you Tom!
I do know what you're talking about. The pop song model has become perfect with its production, structure and heart strings. It does draw you in but it's all to perfect and unfortunately all sounds the same (within each genre). For me, it too has become the eternal background music. Thank for everything Tom!
You just wanted your boy's to have a pool in the Nashville heat, and you moved whatever mountain needed to be moved and you made it happen, The "Dad" in you is strong and you impress this 66 year old guitar playin' Grandfather of 6 more and more all the time. Good work Tom, Good worrk. 👍💪
The exception for tribute bands is Brit Floyd - Pink Floyd. They are amazing, and the only way you're ever going to get to see the whole Pink Floyd theatrical show now. Energy-wise it's not the same as a normal live concert, but technically, theatrically and musically they're well worth the money.
El Monstero in StLouis. About 7 Christmas shows. Amazing musicians from local bands. They started as a way to blow off steam and play Pink Floyd songs without pressure in the late 90s. Now it’s a full on Pink Floyd show. The music is 💯 and the stage show amazing. Last time I saw them they opened with Not Now John on a dark stage that lit up on the first note and exploding confetti. That show they played a song off the cuff from Meddle so that their set included a song from every Floyd album.
I think the simplicity of the 3 chord song or the 4 chord song is what makes the good ones work. Especially when you find the 4th or 5th chord and elevate the thing in a great middle 8. It takes something special to write that simply and connect.
Larry, I am a jazz musician, but YOU are #1 on my list of musicians who prove that music doesn't have to be jazz to be harmonically rich and interesting. Your music is beautiful, and your videos are great. You are doing a wonderful thing for the musical community, and your generosity is as remarkable as your music. Kudos and thanks to you! Play on . . . . . .
The four chord phenomenon is not new. I’m 75, and all of the music I grew up with, from doo-whop hits of the 50s and 60s are *all*, basically, variations of the 4- chord hit. From, He’s still the boy I love, to Surfer Girl, to Country Roads, to Amarillo by Morning, to We’re An American Band, to Born to Run … it’s endless and timeless. Those simple chord progressions are easy to learn and remember, and that makes them catchy - for almost everyone in our western culture. Purple Irises! You said it yourself .. “I don’t know, but that sounds like a fuckin’ hit to me!”
Tom, I’ve been watching your channel for sometime now and you just have an incredible tone no matter what guitar you’re playing. Good luck with the new house that’s an exciting purchase. Cheers.
For me, the conditioning isn’t happening because I don’t really listen to anything new in the popular music world. New music for me consists of your three releases. Bryan Beller’s Scenes From The Flood and The Aristocrats. Anything else I purchase is old catalog stuff. I’m mostly stuck in the music I was into from mid 70s to mid 2000. Thanks, Uncle Larry for all you share. It is truly a gift.
Hi Uncle Larry. I read somewhere that the human brain makes automatic and active choices. Automatic choices can be walking, talking, enjoying things You already have accepted, liking people You already understand etc. Active choices are trying to understand something new, getting to know people, learning a craft, accepting differences etc. The normal divide between automatic and active choices is 95% to 5%. Some peolpe claim that if algorithms keep giving people only what they already have acceptet, they might stop trying using the «active» 5%. Trying to keep the active part of the brain alive seems important. So keep those complicated chords coming. Love the show
Tom, We are very close in age and I listen to all types of music. I have always leaned towards blues, rock and country but I find myself listening to jazz more and more. I now find myself hunting down jazz on vinyl. It's not for everyone but really good jazz holds it's own.
Thanks again Uncle Larry, I'm with you on the "tribute" or "cover" band thing, I want to just create my own, period, I'll be 70 in July, ain't got time to be an echo, a voice is what I want.
@@gwbuilder5779 I always wanted to call D'Addario and ask them why their strings don't break. I used Slinkys for the longest time and they broke every 5 minutes.
@@halvach1998 yeah there's a lot of good sounding strings out there. I keep using D'Addario Strings because of the strength. It's been so long maybe other companies have caught up I wouldn't know
@@stringlocker Still pretty much the same. Most pros use the XLs unless they are sponsored by someone. Every once in a while I'll try different strings, but always go back to the XLs because they sound better and last a really long time.
For me, music evokes emotion. It's like food... sometimes you want the comforting familiarity of a 4 chord burger and fries and sometimes you want the adventure of something you've never heard. Like I grew up on AC/DC, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath etc but when Bjork came along, she blew me away and I enjoy almost all kinds of music.
I did the tribute band thing for a bit. It was a Skynyrd tribute so it was a lot of fun to play. I learned a lot and got the good pay and fun gigs, but ultimately I got out because I didn’t want to get stuck. It’s a dangerous trap to fall into. One of the odd things I experienced is how strange and intimate it is to learn a player’s catalogue/parts/inflection/vibrato/etc note for note. It kind of feels like walking around in their mind a bit and seeing how they think. I ended up developing this weird connection with them, which is another reason I wanted to get out. It’d be easy to lose yourself. (For me anyway) I’m guessing that’s what happens to the majority of Elvis impersonators.
I'm conditioned. Years ago I tried to break out of it by only writing and playing in open tunings. So I wrote a few albums worth of tunes, and played them out with my band for years, before I realized,... it was still the same four chords.
Doug's gotta be one of the best to do it. He's performed some miracles on some tough repairs for me and I'll always sing his praises. Jared Peterman's another absolutely great tech as well as a monster player. So lucky to have so many great techs in our little big town in TN
Haha, man you are one hell of a guitar player, but I don’t even come here for that anymore. Some of your philosophy, observations, and attitudes just ring so true for me. It’s like therapy and sometimes I find myself just laughing and nodding my head. Some times all you want in this world is to be leveled with and there’s nothing but truth on this channel. Keep it up!
hey, gotta say, I'm a jazz hound and I loved the "pop" riff because it was so soaked in feeling. And the "jazzy" thing sounded more like "gospel" to me. But whatever, it's great stuff, keep on rollin Tom!
I had a rude awakening with Jazz at a young age decades ago. I was going to jams in Chicago when there was just a tiny bit of the old guard still around and the jams were at spots which still had glittery geometric patterns etched in the mirrors, guys with purple suits plus a feather in the cap and slick intelligent bartender ladies who called you "honey." So, I'm at this jam watching the scene play out and there's these college age kids like me along with others. Mid jam an older guy walks in wearing painting clothes, overalls, looking like he just got off the job....and he did, his work van was parked outside. He makes a motion, sits behind the drums, they call a tune and the guy just kills it. Monster!! After listening to a lot of the older guys one thing was clear....lots of these cats grew up playing all day long at each other's houses. The best players would hold court at their residence, play all day with the other musicians on the block then gig at night. Everyone else would try to keep up. Aside from NYC, all these cities like KC, New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, Philly, Baltimore, etc were just chock full of jazz joints way back when and most of the talent was right around the block. If you didn't grow up like that learning at the best players houses from a young age? Man, it's a mountain to climb. If you did? There's still kids coming out of Baltimore, New York, New Orleans & Philadelphia who play like they were born knowing the music. I grew up on AC/DC in nowheresville, so climbing that Jazz ladder is a tall order. Part of that music, you could argue the root of it, is culture.
Such a great video, Tom, on so many levels. Thanks for the recommendations for guys who work on guitars. My wife and I are musicians and probably moving to Nashville next summer because we love it there. One of my Les Pauls needs new frets so I’m going to look up Dougie. Mostly, I played GHS boomers and have for years; I’ll have to give D’addario another try. Finding vintage pickups in a project guitar that you thought was meh. It’s like finding buried treasure. On the subject of being bored with hearing yourself, play the same stuff over and over, we are all prisoners of our conventions and conveniences. What I have found is really interesting is playing guitar while I’m watching TV and only half paying attention to what I’m playing somehow it lets me detach from my conventions and reach out past it all and let new and different stuff come out. It’s like my playing is not being limited by my expectations. It’s cool. I hear what you’re saying about jazz being background music to most of the world; but I feel a bit differently about it. For me, jazz has always been the music of summertime. It puts me in a certain state of mind that only jazz will do. Although Donald Fagen’s Night Fly album and Steely Dan does it too. It’s awesome stuff. And finally, I have to agree with Marshall that a colony of slippermen is not really my favorite song from the Lamb lies down. Especially when there are so many other great songs on that album like fly on a windshield or anyway or hairless heart. I love all that old Genesis stuff. I love playing blood on the rooftops, Squonk, ripples, cuckoo cocoon on guitar. Have a great weekend and good luck with the new house.
Best explanation of these process I’ve heard in a long time… My students ask me this question all the time and I like… I’m constantly fishing for notes… or searching for the next new chord and then find another chord to rub up against it and then you start hammering it out… could be a day.. could be years ?
That Japanese guy who covers Led Zeppelin is Jimmy Sakurai. Great guitar player. There´s a video of Jimmy Page himself attending one of his gigs. A bit of a shame he doesn´t do music of his own really, as much as I like to watch him do the Zeppelin thing
Here in Bangkok we have a local named Champon who does stellar re-frets and other guitar work, Jescar re-fret $55, stainless $90 insane deal! Oh yeah, I just bought another Bogner LaGrange, the red ecstacy is awesome too, but that plexi pedal is fantastic, feels/sounds like the most versatile Marshall of your dreams.
Thanks for sharing your insights man! It seems like the guys that share the tricks of the trade are truly the humble but also great at what they do. I put everything you teach to use. Thanks dude!
Only the old school appreciates what goes into writing and producing a song. The younger generations have been exactly what you said, conditioned. I call it something else but it's the same thing.
I've only heard the word "pablum" used in conversation by another amazing human, Jean Shepherd (author of A Christmas Story) and now you. Your vids are kind of like the vintage late night radio show that he used to host. Thanks again for the entertainment as well as the education sir.
Best Les Paul I've ever played is a 75' Deluxe with the bridge pickup routed for a humbucker. The neck is the original. I love the maple neck, very strong. The neck pickup is original, the bridge is a Lindy Fralin. They are perfectly balanced. It's on its fourth set of frets. A testament to how good it is. It started as a tobacco burst, cannot know that now by looking at it. It looks like a fully faded burst. Nobody has done anything to change how it looks besides simply playing it.
I heard Sting remark to Beato that if a new song doesn’t surprise him in the 30(?) seconds, he losses interest. That’s close to describing what I feel sometimes, but if a song with a stock chord progression is played with some amazing groove, cool tone, interesting rhythm, brilliant lyric, etc. there’s a pretty good chance that I make it past thirty seconds. At the same time, while there is lots of elements to appreciate, for me there’s nothing as satisfying musically as an original and surprising chord progression.
My favorite uncle growing up and presently is my mom's baby brother, nonother than Uncle Larry Argenbright from Ringold, Ga. so found it funny when Tom took on the Uncle Larry alias,...love it! Hey Larry, i have a hell of an extensive guitar collection(67) all top shelf like Martins(10)/Top Shelf, Gibby's, both elec & acoustic, exquisite Kevin Ryan w/bevel ed sound flutes(stunning guitar!), a gorgeous jumbo Guild 12-banger in maple bk & sds, spruce top, also have a sweet Guild JF 6-sting in rosewood bk n. sides, a killer 66' Gibson Byrdland freshly signed by the Motorcity Madman himself after the Boots in the Sand show at the Hertz Arena in South Fl., partied with Skynyrd and the boys before they took the stage after Nugent finished their set, it was a multi band gig, Gavin Degraw, and several others played before i got there only seeing Ted & Skynyrd play,...got a beautiful Collings CJ in mint cond as most all of my guitars are, yes im one of "them"/picky fucks. 😮 got a gorgeous Dana Bourgois Presentation model in snake headstock, very sweet ever played Larrivee D-09 w/beautifully figured brazilian back n sides, Martin CSN&Y Jerry Toler Tribte model(NEVER) played,...and an ass-ton more high end guitars both electric and acoustic,...only reason selling is my crusty 68 y/o hands are terribly arthritc coupled with Trigger finger making it impossible to play, even had to quit my band of 16 years,...SUCKS! :-(😢 Hey Larry, if you or any other Skoolers might be interested in adding another one to their "herd" gimmee a shout,...850-218-1629 Tim Keep pickin it pretty Larry,...and thank you for gracing us with your up close and personal techniques allowing we mere mortals a birdseye view of how a true Master of the instrument gets it done,...pure melodic magic! Oh, my wife is from Reynoldsburg, just outside of Cleveland,...Go Browns- Go Tribe! Also my channel: Tim Richey...there are a few more Tim Richey's so plug in a song like Fire and Rain or Everything I Own, then the rest of vids should come up ...Cheers Lads!
I have been listening to a lot of Miles and Coltrane lately...I live in Honolulu, we have always been late for everything here. I remember in the early 80s we would get TV shows one week after the mainland and even movies were releases a bit later than the mainland. As for music, we have our island style, but to be honest, I am stuck in the now oldies (60-70-80s) music. I grew up in the midwest in the 70s and we had all types, but mostly country and rock. Jazz has always been around, I played music (trumpet) back in those days, so it was always leaning towards that. Now after playing guitar for 30 years or more, I really enjoy to figure out the jazz stuff. But you know, there is nothing like listening to a killer solo by Jimi or EC. The blues have always been in my DNA, give me some T-Bone or Muddy...
UL, I like the addition of chapters for the video. Nice touch. For historical purposes, this video might have set your personal record for name dropping. Not that it matters to me, I don't know any of the names that you mentioned.
I used to listen to a lot of Jazz Funk/Fusion/acid. You get to keep much of the complexity and interest offered by jazz, with something that has some balls and get up and dance to it. Stuff from Herbie Hancock , Billy Cobham, Roy Ayers, David Axelrod and early Level 42 are great to my ear. I do like lots of other genres though.
Here in little Simi Valley, I recently saw an Elton John tribute band and the guy looked like Elton but, more importantly, he really really sounded exactly like him and the rest of the band was pretty good. It was a lot of fun. And I do love a really good Pink Floyd copy like Australian Pink Floyd. It's something to behold to hear all of the original sounds expertly re-created.
