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Posted by The Jimmy Whitley on August 10, 2000 at 05:39:57:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Anybody play guitar? posted by FujiSaki on August 09, 2000 at 11:19:30:
: : : Do any of you play the guitar? I'm interested to see what somebody who does thinks of Keith, Mick T., Brian and Woody. There strengths and weaknesses.
KEITH:
Strengths-Took the art of riffs and playing rhythm to a whole other level.
Weakness-Most of his solos are the same, "2 string,1,3,4,bend" Chuck Berry style of lead. There's nothing wrong with this style in itself as long as you mix in other styles from time to time. It's kind of like seasoning spices. Think of Keith's leads as salt and pepper. It goes on alot of things OK (in varied amounts) but you CAN'T put it on everything. (Ice Cream, Lucky Charms, Bananas, Orange Juice, etc)
BRIAN:
Strengths-Slide guitar, great melodies,
Weakness-Leads, but to be fair, at a certain point he pretty much stopped playing ANY
leads on guitar and opted for other instruments with great results. (again because of
melody-Ruby Tuesday for example)
MICK T:
Strengths- LEADS-not just flashy but also VERY melodic. SLIDE guitar too. Listen to
Ya-Ya's
Weakness-really doesn't have any major ones. Minor one might be that he's only a
"pretty good" rhythm player. : - )
RONNIE:
Strengths-Rhythm-Take some of his licks like Hey Negritta ("inspired by" PLEASE)
or The Faces Stay With Me etc. SLIDE (on this) as well as his pedal steel work (although
if he lived in Nashville...)
Weakness-LEADS-This pertains to his live leads (live at leeds?) besides in the studio you
get at least 10000 takes. In concert, SOME of his leads go absolutely NOWHERE with
seemingly random notes that just fill space, sometimes the leads are not even in the right
KEY that the song is. It gets to a point where Mick J. will even just cut him right off in
the middle of the solo and go into the chorus or sing the next verse. SOME of this may or
may not be due to certain influences? (the 1981 tour this seemed to happen alot)
: No I just wanted to hear what somebody who can actually do it thinks of the Stones
ability to play guitar. Which songs are easiest to play and which are hardest.
I can actually do it. Just as Keith can play every one of Chuck's licks note for note
and better than Chuck himself, I can do the same thing with Keith. Don't think so? Put up
a couple of hundred bucks and wager that you can stump me. You know what? You'll be eating
alot of Kraft Cheese and Macaroni that week because I'll have your money. Actually Syph
can probably play most of the licks too (but would need to woodshed abit because he's been
busy rehearsing for that latest Poison/Slaughter/Dokken/HairBand tour. :-)
Woodshed is musicians slang meaning like when you used to "cram" for a test 10
minutes before you had to take it. Woodshedding or "shedding" is the same thing
regarding learning songs. Ronnie Wood did a SHITLOAD of woodshedding for the 1975 US Tour.
OK enough of my whatever, here's the songs.
This will be a short list.
EASY TO PLAY: When the Whip Comes Down (Reg Tuning) The fact that MICK plays along SHOULD be your first clue. Technically 3 chords but mostly TWO chords "A" & "D" over and over until the break which is "G" & "D". These next two are in OPEN G tuning BUT you could play it in reg tuning as well. If You Can't Rock Me: (NOT including the middle Chuck Berry part where Charlie speeds up on the high hats. The main riff is D, C, G. (yes count em, 3 of them. again) actually its REALLY only 2 of them D and C because for the G chord you don't even have to touch the guitar because it's an (anybody, anybody ?) it's an OPEN G TUNING. (like when Keith does the intro on Honky Tonk Women) So, all your really doing is putting your index finger all the way across the 7th fret for the D chord, slide up 2 spaces to the 5th fret for the C chord, and finally REMOVE YOUR HAND ALL TOGETHER for the G chord. Of course you still got to have rhythm. Ventilator Blues is another one of those one finger/digit/appendage/stump etc songs BUT again you have to have rhythm.
The Hard Ones (speaking of which...)
I teach guitar also. Two of my students are learning basic Stones stuff. One of them will
tell me he knows some song but when he plays it, it's similar but if he had not told you
which song he was playing, you wouldn't have a clue what he was playing. Why am I telling
you this? Because when I list "the hardest" songs, I'm not talking about playing
them "pretty close" or close enough. I am talking about playing this note for
fucking note so that if you where in the other room, you would swear that it was the
Stones playing it. I take this shit pretty fucking seriously (not always : - )
Anyway my 4 picks would be in order of 4,3,2,1 (drumroll................Midnight
Rambler.....(please hold your applause until all have been selected).....Flea's
Theme..Monkey Man ......Tumbling Dice.....and the #1?*************************you all see
this coming right?...for the same reasons the Stones themselves have NEVER played this
live........Can't You Hear Me Knocking. Again, I'm not talking about just the verse and
chorus here. I'm also talking about THE INTRO and the INST. Part. Not pretty close. I mean
note for note. In January in San Francisco I saw Mick Taylor do it.
I have to crash now.
Later, JIMMY