Ozzy verses Amy: It’s the Prince of Darkness verses the Evil Princess of the Undead

Sometimes I wonder if Phoenix is considered the back end of concert dates. So many acts tend to take their Arizona Fans for granted or just bypass us when they have to cancel or reschedule another date. Others seem to forget that we tend to turn out in big numbers for almost any event. Ozzy obviously forgot or just didnt bleeping care.

Despite a monstrous crowd and dollars flying across the concession tables faster than bats out of hell, Ozzy managed to snub his Arizona Fans by failing to appear at the Phoenix Ozzfest event this past summer. And thats ironic since Phoenix hosted one of the two very first Ozzfest events in 1996. The other was held in Los Angeles. Maybe we just werent worthy of the Master of Metal this year? Not everyone was willing to pay one to three hundred dollars for a ticket and sacrifice their firstborn to Ozzy.

If youre going to skip out on fans, at least have the decency to record a video welcome message or greeting. There were lots of big screens around, so everyone would have seen it. If Ozzy had lost his voice or didnt feel well enough to speak, he could have offered a middle finger salute or bitten the head off one of the Backstreet Boys. If even that was too much to ask, the Prince of Darkness could have had his dogs come and crap all over the stage or asked Sharon to open the event by throwing some frozen poultry at the first few fans to arrive. If all else failed, his kids could have come and set fire to piles of N Sync and Snoop Dog CDs to get everyone in the mood for the days events.

Fortunately, there are some major acts out there that really care about the fans in this town and know how to show it. Mick Jaeger had some throat problems, so The Stones recently cancelled a few dates in the USA. Phoenix was not one of them. AFI, the CHILI PEPPERS, TAKING BACK SUNDAY and GWAR really rocked the Valley of the Sun over the summer. But my favorite was Evanescence.

Ill be the first to admit that I hadnt been up to date on all things Evanescence until my wife brought the Band to my attention several months ago. After I started listening to their music, I was glad she did. Its been some time since I heard anything that was melodic and unique. While fans might argue otherwise, most artists that manage to get signed these days seem like clones of struggling late eighties alternative music bands or the now infamous and always whiney sounds of the nineties.

I like music thats different and hate to admit it, but the last concert that I thought was refreshingly distinctive was a Buster Poindexter and the Banshees of Blue show in the early nineties. It was a smaller venue and the music was hot! Being from New York City, I guess Im a bit jaded. I had the opportunity to be exposed to a constant flow of live music in the form of big acts, street bands and everything in between before relocating to Arizona. On the flipside, it also means that I hold performers to a higher standard and know great music when I hear it. Thats how I felt when attended the Evanescence Concert at the Celebrity Theater last week.

After reading up on Amy Lee and the various Evanescence personnel changes for a couple of weeks before the big night, I was ready for the concert. We bought our tickets as soon as they went on sale. To be honest, they were a bargain for a concert held at the Celebrity Theater. That venue is as intimate as you can get without renting the local high school gym and using only half the space. One would expect to shell out the usual hundred bucks or more for being almost within arms reach of a class act like Evanescence, but we paid somewhere in the thirty to forty dollar range.

Listening to Revelation Theory open the show and hearing Amy Lee belt out her first couple of songs with Evanescence, I really felt guilty for paying so little to see so much talent in such an intimate setting. To make up for it, I tried to buy my wife and kids some band tees. By the time we got up to the front of a very long line, the good sizes were gone. I bought some anyway because Ive been trying to lose a few pounds lately. If I had any doubts about the band, it had nothing to do with their music or performance. I just wondered if they were getting their fair share?

Reading some of the comments attributed to her by various websites and blogs, I understood that there probably would not be any Amy Lee perfume, designer clothes, signature make up lines or Evanescence action figures available anywhere in the near future. However, whether she is or isnt a material girl, Amy has to know that she must have been personally responsible for the sudden increase in sales of things like dark eyeliner, black and white knee length socks and long black dresses. Oops, I forgot, and about a billion dollars worth of black hair dye.

Its not unusual to find artists who are unaware of their actual popularity or real earning potential. After all, they are Artists, not financiers. I got the distinct impression that the members of Evanescence were legitimately surprised by the numbers of fans that showed up for the sold-out event and the many more who wanted tickets and couldnt get in.

Amy offered an apology for the smaller venue, but all of us really enjoyed the intimate atmosphere. However, heres a bit of advice from the older and wiser to the lovely and immensely talented Miss Lee and her musical partners: Next time charge extra for the intimacy, find more stuff to sell and return those calls from the big management agencies. Even the evil princess of the undead can always use a few extra zeros behind a nice large number in her bank account. Amy and the band certainly earn it!

Oh, yea, I almost forgot. Ozzy, burn in Hell!

*Amy Lee has a Website called Out of the Shadows that is helping to educate people about Epilepsy and make a difference in the lives of Epileptics. Please visit www.outoftheshadows.com

- Bill Knell http://www.ArizonaRocksLive.com

How to Change Guitar Strings - 15 Minutes to Terrific Sound!

You love to play maybe live to play! You think about the sound of the guitar, the music and the songs, your tone, your big amplifier if its an electric and the beautiful complex notes that project from your guitar if its an acoustic. All are important like that one great drive off the tee in golf!

But, how do you get those notes? Its in the strings. Have you given much thought to your strings? Often overlooked always underrated, the strings are WHAT MAKE THE SOUND! Theyre the most important part of the sound chain.

The type of metal, the construction, the finish, the tension, the length, the coating — its a process. Once youve determined by asking around, listening, trying lots of brands and types what strings are right for you, then you change them EVERY FOUR WEEKS FOR THE REST OF YOUR GUITAR-PLAYING LIFE! No exceptions. Except one. If the strings you like have a protective coating in which case you change them when they stop sounding bright and musical maybe as long as three months.

Changing your strings is easy no tricks, no special knowledge and with practice you can do it in 20- minutes or less! To do this right youll need an electronic tuner. (We can also do it using a guitar thats already in tune, a nearby piano, a harmonica or a pitchfork. But, thats another article.)

Heres how:

1. First thing; all of the strings on your guitar wind into or toward the center of the headstock no mater which side they are on or what position they are in. Its a constant. This principle will allow you to tune your guitar on autopilot once you get used to it. And, it will become very important when stringing your guitar.

2. Now, de-tune or lower the pitch of existing strings A (#5), D (#4), G (#3), B (#2) and high E (#1) by turning the tuners (or machine heads) on the guitars headstock. Once there is some play in the string unwind it from the peg on the headstock. Leave the low E or 6th string in place and unhook the other 5 strings. Well use the low E string later on for reference. Make sure you dont stick yourself with the sharp ends of the strings.

3. Once the strings are unattached from the headstock - If you have an acoustic guitar, gently lift-out the bridge pins which anchor the strings to the guitars bridge. They pop right out then completely remove the strings from the guitar. If you have an electric guitar, pull the string through-the-body or through the tailpiece. Either way, you have now removed 5 of the 6 strings.

4. Grab your new strings take em out of the box and set them up high E (1st string) to low E (6th string) on your work surface. (A bed is great for changing strings!) This is also when people who love their guitar grab a rag and a little guitar polish and give their baby a good cleaning.

5. Because the low E string is still in place, well start with the A string (#5). Youll notice that the low E is wound to the first tuner on the headstock, closest to the fret board and the nut. Now, unwrap your B string. Always anchor your string first into the bridge. Its just the opposite of removing the strings from the bridge. Make certain the string is properly and firmly seated into the bridge. Set the string in the appropriate bridge slot if there is one run it along the fret board to the neck and position it above the appropriate nut slot.

6. Pull the string tight above the nut. Put 2 fingers under the string then extend it 2 inches beyond the appropriate post or tuner peg. Cut the string at that point with a pair of wire cutters or sharp scissors. In order to keep the string in place during tuning (winding) put a 90 degree bend at the end of the string with a pair of pliers. This is what you insert into the small string hole that every post or tuner peg is made with. INSERT ONLY THE 90 DEGREE BEND until the other end comes through the other side of the hole. Youll have quite a bit of slack still left in the string at this point.

7. Begin winding the string so that it turns into or toward the center of the headstock. Use a string-winder for this. Pluck the string as you turn the tuner to be certain it is elevating in pitch. Bring it up a few turns so that its taught. Also be certain that the string is in the appropriate slot at the bridge and in the nut at the headstock.

8. Proceed by anchoring, measuring carefully, cutting and bending, and inserting the remaining 4 strings into their respective posts or tuner pegs. Then wind them several turns as in the step above.

9. Pull each string gently, but firmly at the center of the string above the pick-up or the sound hole so that it is stretched a little. This aids in the string holding tune.

10. Now just as a reference depress the low E (6th) string at the 5th fret. Bring the A (5th) string up to that pitch. Its time to replace the low E just as you did the other 5 strings. (Your A string should be near pitch if the E was in tune.)

Now using your electronic tuner, raise all the strings to their proper pitch. Thats it! Over the next few days you will need to retune your guitar until the strings stretch to their proper playing length.

Now, go practice — and enjoy!

Beauty And The Blues - Two Of The Best From Nottingham

Twenty five years ago, the birth of a darker side of music was forming. Straight out of the loins of fast, furious punk, came the sombre approach to life and death in the form of Goth. It was initially the delights of North London in such suburbs as Camden Town that was first blamed. Pointed at by conservative bony fingers for the introduction to such macabre ways of thinking, it was actually Nottingham and the surrounding areas, it has been said, first took the giant steps into a brave new witchcraft -like world. Even though Nottingham didnt achieve great Goth status in the eyes of the rest of the English speaking world, (no claim on Joy Division, Im afraid) they did mange to put in their pennys worth as far as other music was to go.

So, we know that every town can have a stab at a claim to fame on the generating genre list. Its not difficult for the Liverpudlians to shout Cilla Black or Gerry and the Pacemakers in front of a passing tourist. They dont even have to mention the B word too much these days. Even Leeds can boast the more recent Sisters Of Mercy; probably one of the most innovative bands from the Goth movement, but, hold fast, there are more obscure places to go and find the birth of great names. What about Cobham in Surrey who gave us Peter Gabriel and who can forget Stanmore in Middlesex who gave us Billy Idol? So who have we been able to identify as more than just a blotch on the British music industry from this historic city?

Well, delving through the deepest depths of the back of my mind, I came up with two bands who have graced us with their enigmatic presence. The first of these bands are almost certainly going to be figures of the Sixties generation. Back in the midst of the psychedelic decade, long haired, introverted students were busily working away on their own stunning slants of already secure music themes. It wasnt just The Beatles that we got all unnecessary about by any stretch of the imagination. The youth of the day were shifting into a pattern of generating their own angles of music that their parents had been brought up on. The British Blues scene took its turn at peaking around the late Sixties with such sounds from John Mayall, Eric Clapton and Peter Green. Born out of the inspiration of the ever changing social acceptance of free thinking, a certain band flung themselves onto the general public from Nottingham and they eventually called themselves, Ten Years After. Appearing as though they had all failed the audition for Easy Rider, and with Leo Lyons, their bass guitarist looking more like Frank Zappa, these three individuals came together an created some of the greatest British born Blues around.

Although they may not light up any seasonal fire crackers in your minds, they will have made their presences felt throughout the revolutionary British Blues scene. Solidifying true Southern U.S blues with a predominately white guitar feel, they embarked on a historic career that has never really ended. Even though British Blues artists had been smouldering away in the privacy of their own bedrooms since the late Fifties, it was, strangely and literally, ten years after that this sound from the now, heavenly regarded, artists of that time, really came to the fore. It was great musicians like Alvin Lee, of Ten Years After, that gave us the backbone of a lot of the rock music we still listen to today.

Thankfully, they are still going strong and sounding just as exciting and revolutionary as they did forty years before, they just look like our dads now; bearded, friendly and trusting like a well behaved Spinal Tap, they undoubtedly, can still rock. For future gigs and contact, please go to www.ten-years-after.com.

The next influential band to come out of the Robin Hood city was a band that need no formal introduction. Tindersticks plunged head first into our ears initially as the strangely titled, Asphalt Ribbons. Quite where this name originated, I dont know, and even so, it was not under this name that they found any great success. Yet, it was the three musicians plus three more that gave us the name that stayed fast. Although, they never appeared to conger up any real critical acclaim, they did have a fairly memorable album, The Second Tindersticks Album, that landed the position of number 13 in April 1995. Describing them to a complete stranger is rather a difficult task as they did seem to create a genre all of their own. Not quite fitting into a known category, other than chamber pop, they may have been brushed casually with the title of Goth Gods, although this would have been better felt to be at the most extreme end of the scale where Goth may have met Country on a unique and totally accidental night

One thing was for certain, they somehow found the same frequency as a few other darkly spirited romantics floating around at the time. As the colourful craziness of the Eighties came to an abrupt halt and the more monochromed moroseness of the Nineties began, Tindersticks found themselves an audience that was surprisingly and completely at their mercy. Their depressingly precise lyrics and heart aching melodic music was quite the tonic for the faint hearted. Even though they were fundamentally a band who produced meaningful prose and wistful string arrangements, they were not unlike the pensive side of Lou Reeds Velvet Underground. The brooding vocals of Stuart Staples in Tindersticks was enough to melt the most coldest of souls. His emotion altering lyrics shifted darkly and absorbingly through the aching tunes and mournful chords, that the listener felt quite dragged in to his doom and gloom world. Perhaps making what we knew as mainstream Goth more along the lines of Stock, Aitken and Waterman..

Despite their bleak outlook, their beauty came from their traditionally perfected arrangements. Their music, although noose-needing, spelt out a theme that probably applies to us all at some stage in our lives. What Tindersticks gave us was an alleyway; destitute and deathly as it was, but a path when, on such down trodden moments, we might just find a guiding light. These glamorously laced themes dripping with personal failure were beautifully crafted with such musical skill that the songs seem practically timeless. It could well be argued that there never was, nor will there ever be, a band with such a gentle, inoffensive sound quite like Tindersticks. Find out more about this uniquely accomplished band at www.tindersticks.co.uk.

Since the two above mentioned bands slot into the filing cabinet of our minds of bands from Nottingham, they couldnt really be any further apart in the genre sense. Yet they are just as important to mention as any other, more famous name from anywhere esle. Both just as inspirational now to up and coming bands as others were to them in past decades. With this in mind, and with these two enchantingly professional groups, perhaps it is about time that we were graced with another band or artist from this city

michelle duffy 2006

Music in India

Music arises when dissonant sounds are made to sound in unison. Musical variety consists of the various attempts of people to open their multicultural and multidimensional souls to the world and express them through the musical tradition of a certain culture.

Perhaps we may best begin by taking a glance at folksong, where we are not cumbered by any theory or convention. We know our own: it is a little square in structure compared with the more fanciful Irish, homely compared with the adventurous Highland Scot, of extended compass compared with the French songs, which are almost talked, nave as compared with the sophisticated German, smooth compared with the angular Scandinavian, cheerful compared with the melancholy Russian, busy compared with the leisurely Italian, vocal compared with the Spanish, in which we hear the constant thrumming of the guitar.

In India the plains and the hills seem to contrast. In the plains we hear the Irish fancy, chiefly rhythmical; an ultrasmoothness which creeps from note to note scarcely risking a leap of any kind, and, like the French, with a short compass thoroughly well explored; lugubrious, not unlike the Russian according to our views though not perhaps according to theirs, for that is a thing that foreigners never can really judge; decidedly leisurely, as one expects in a country where kal means both yesterday and to-morrow; and purely vocal, without a hint of the influence of any instrument. In the hills it is more cheerful; the steps become leaps, the rhythm is accented, though it has not so many resources; it is as busy as you could wish, almost breathless in its excitement; it is pure singing, revelling in the sound, though one song is very much like another. But there is one characteristic of the hill tribes which should be noticed: they sing in the pentatonic. We think at once of the Scottish Highlanders and the Swiss yodelers and say it is the mountain air that makes these invigorating leaps in the melody; but when we find these same leaps equally in the plains of China and among the Sioux along the Missouri we think there must be some other explanation. Perhaps it is that instruments are not easily to be had in the mountains; for it is the instrument that first makes possible the division of the tone into two semitones. At any rate, whatever the reason, the fact is that the pentatonic, though not confined to, is characteristic of the Himalaya.

Internalizing The Beat Once For All

Im always amazed at how some musicians can come together, count-off a tune, and create music on the spot that really swings. How come some can do this yet others simply cant? Why is it that some music grooves a lot and some grooves less or not at all?

While there may be a number of reasons to this problem, Ill focus on one of them in this article. The beat

What is the beat? You may define it as: A common denominator, in the form of a pulse, used by a group of musicians in order to be able to play music together.

Now, if the individual musicians of a band or ensemble have different pulses, or beats, how can they possibly be on the same page? Even if someone is loudly marking the beat for everyone to hear, that doesnt mean that people are closely following it. Some may place their music exactly around the beat while others dont. All the individual notes that are being played dont line up the way they should which results in sloppy music. More carefully placed notes by the musicians result in a tighter sounding band.

Lets take a moment and use target practice as analogy.

The target is the beat. The arrow is the note. If we all shoot our arrows at the target at once, chances are that the arrows end up all over the place. Experienced professionals, however, have a much higher chance of hitting the bullseye. Well, the same applies to music. The more musicians hit the beat right on the head, the more the music will sound together. So how do you go about getting better at this? How can you get a better feel for the beat and make sure that your feel of the beat doesnt fluctuate as you are playing music? This, I believe, is the crux of the matter. The more difficult the music gets, the more musicians have to concentrate on mastering their part, so that they pay less attention to the beat.

This happens all the time on the bandstand, and it is really easy to observe. Next time youre on the bandstand, keep an eye on a musician thats tapping his foot to the beat. As the music gets more syncopated, the foot may skip a beat, speed up or slow down, it may attempt to play the part that the musician is trying to play, or it may stop altogether!

As this happens, the common denominator, the pulse or beat, the foundation thats supposed to keep the band together is now no longer stable. Of course, the musician may argue that the part that he played was exactly in sync with his foot, but that is all relative. His playing may have been right relative to his foot but if his foot moved, his playing was not right relative to the pulse of the band.

This can often lead to all kinds of discussions and disputes not all of which end on a happy note!

A common response to the above-mentioned problem is that we would all sound like robots or machines if we played exactly like the metronome.

Let me respond to this by looking at one of the masters of time or groove, the legendary drummer Steve Gadd. He is known as one of the drummers that has mastered time. This means that whatever he plays, he is always exactly with the metronome. You could shut off the metronome for a couple of bars and switch it back on and Steve would still be in sync with it. Yet, Mr. Gadd does not sound like a machine, far from it. His playing is some of the most grooviest youll ever hear. Why is that? Why can he be in sync with the metronome so much and not sound like a machine?

The answer is in where he places his notes. Lets look at a simple rock patten where his snare drum would fall on beat two and beat four of the bar. Now, he can decide to hit these two beats exactly on the head, or he can decide to lay them back a bit. This means that he would hit beat two and beat four just a tad after the metronome hit those same beats. These are tiny differences and only schooled ears can make them out. But these tiny details are what make music groove or not. The key is that if Steve decides to hit these two beats just a bit behind the beat (meaning a fraction of a second later than the metronome), he needs to be consistent and hit the two and four of consecutive bars at exactly the same spot as before.

Let me use the target practice analogy again to make this a bit clearer. If Steves decision to hit beat two and four a fraction of a second later than the metronome, would be equivalent to hitting the target just a bit to the right of the bullseye, everytime you shoot an arrow.

Notice how Steve would not change the beat or the common denominator at all, he would simply, consistenly place his note just after the beat, where the novice would move the beat and make playing music together impossible.

Does that make sense?

So how can we make sure that we dont loose the beat? Is that something we have to have naturally or can we acquire this skill through practice? Well, I believe that we can all improve our ability to keep the beat better by internalizing the beat. This will help you to place your notes exactly where you want them placed even when the music is difficult and requires a lot of concentration. This does not mean, however, that youll swing more, because, remember that the swing comes from knowing where to place your individual notes relative to the beat and doing so consistenly.

By knowing where to place your individual notes Im not implying that this is something that every musician is doing consciously. I believe that large amounts of talent are responsible for the fact that some people will just naturally place the notes in a way that makes them swing. This is what puts a Charlie Parker in a different league than the average college saxophone player.

Ok, so how do we do it? How can we solidify our sense of the beat?

The idea is to internalize the beat.

Internalizing the beat means to be able to sense the beat regardless of how much attention you have to pay to the music.

I firmly believe that you can only achieve this by using your voice. Tapping your foot is not an option as weve seen from my example above. You can always feel the vibrations of your voice, no matter how loud the music gets, not matter how many distractions youre dealing with.

I thus suggest the following exercise:

Exercise #1:

Sing quarter notes out loud and play rhythms with your hands.

You can do this along to with a metronome and without. Just start the metronome, sing the same quarter notes, and play the rhythms that you sightread with your hands. Dont just play rhythms that you know and are comfortable with. I usually grab just about any music I can get my hands on and play the rhythms with my hands while ignoring the melody.

Youll find this challenging at first, but once youve got the hang of it, it will become surprisingly easy.

At first there will be a tendency to stop counting out loud, or lower the volume gradually, some mumble. Focus on counting out loudly and clearly for the whole duration of the exercise. I suggest you count 1-2-3-4, not just any sound. However, if youre a horn player, you obviously cant count out loud. In this case I suggest you do the exercise without your instrument.

This exercise will most definitely help you build a more solid inner clock provided you practice it religiously.

In order to challenge yourself a bit more once youve mastered the first exercise, you add the following exercise:

Exercise #2:

Start off counting the click out loud just the way you did in exercise #1, then switch to singing the rhythm that youre reading from a book and play the quarter notes.

Let me just point out that this exercise will merely add independence skills and I dont believe that it is nearly as important as the first one.

The nice thing about this exercise is that it will become second nature and once you get back to the bandstand you wont have to consciously think about it. It will truly build a stronger sense of the beat which youll benefit from enormously.

Only thing left for you to do is convince your fellow band members to practice the same exercise.

Good Luck!

Learning How To Play Guitar Online

Do you know why music is so awesome and unique?

Because no one can take it from you. Whats even more awesome is that you can make music your own. Haven’t you ever thought of having a hit song, or releasing an album? I know most of those thoughts are just dreams and kind of far fetched, but the truth is you don’t have to be famous in order to play or write your own music.

One of the most popular instruments these days is the guitar. It seems like everywhere you look there’s another person playing guitar. This is really good, but the problem is that a lot of these guitar players don’t have any guidence, and either end up quitting or just never getting any better.

If you are interested in learning guitar, or perhaps you already play guitar, but are looking for some tips, then please read on. Below are several very helpful tips thats can help a newbie with learning guitar.

1. Don’t expect to be some kind of amazing guitar player overnight! It just doesn’t happen that way. Like most things, learning guitar takes time and you must be patient. The more you practice the better.

2. Start off slow. Don’t rush yourself, and don’t drive yourself crazy if you don’t get something right the first, second, or third time. It may take you a hundred times to get a riff right. The important thing is that you start off slow. Example: If you found a new riff, or chord progression that you like, start off practicing very slow. It may seem tedious, but it helps tremendously. Once you start adjusting to the riff, start increasing the speed.

3. Practice chord changes. One of the worst things to me is watching someone struggle to change between simple chords. Make sure to get these chord changes down. This will make everything so much easier in the long run.

4. One of my favorite things to do is to practice on an acoustic guitar. This strengthens your fingers greatly, and helps build speed.

5. Listen to lots of music. Any kind of music is ok. Then, just try and figure out whatever you’re listening to on guitar. Even if you only get in a couple of notes or chords, thats ok. This technique will help with your musical ear. Then after enough practice you’ll be able to pick up a song on the radio in no time.

I wish I could help you more, but unfortuneately thats about as good as I can do within an article.

I highly advise taking lessons. I know that taking lessons can cost a lot of money, but with technology these days you can take guitar lessons online for way cheaper. Usually a one time fee around $40 or $50. There are some really great programs out there that I highly recommend. Guitar Tutor Pro is an internet course that teaches guitar lessons online. If you’re looking for a program that covers the basics, scales, chords, reading music, theory, and more then this is the site for you.

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