Mac Atom

bum tidlly um pum.... bump bump

me me me YUS!! My amp is knackered so that'd be awesome!

Problem solved, Black Atom aren't busy that night. We'd be ideal

blackatom - you'd never have guessed eh?

Hell Yeah

I heard at one point that Ving Rhames was being lined up to play the big man, that would have been ok, much better than Michael Clarke Duncan. He's WAY to massive, not that I have anything against massive people... obviously, but BA was never that huge, muscly but fairly short. Ving Rhames would have pretty much fit the bill, apart he would have never have the ability to pull off the one-liners with such aplom. And if Jim Carrey ever got his hands on the part of Murdock I'd be very sad indeed. Ooops, just read back and realised that quite a lot of what I've written could be perceived as being very rude indeed

Yeah I should have resized it....

Here's one!

Funny, I could have sworn there were already 3 in-house drum tutors at Tom's

Just downloaded it and it sounds ace! Totally different from what I remember of the old E106. Your new Vocallist sounds feckin' immense!

Sweet, can't wait to see them!

Ach well, it was bound to happen. Apparantly there's a Bruce Springsteen track called "The Ties That Bind"

The modes I ALWAYS get people to start with are Aeolian (which you already probably know - its just Natural Minor) and Dorian (exactly the same as the Aeolian but with a raised 6th). The thing you always need to remember is that all of the seven modes of the Major scale (Ionian' date=' Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian) are built using exactly the same notes as the Major scale. Hence the reason that if you play an E minor scale over a G major chord it works. The E minor (Aeolian) mode is built from the G Major scale and so uses the exact same notes, only in a different order. Once you know the few simple rules for working this stuff out it really is a piece of cake. People always get hung up trying to learn all of the different shapes of all seven Modes before they even have a clue as to what they sound like or what they are used for. The main thing when learning a new mode, as with anything on guitar, is being able to HEAR the effect of what you are playing. If you just learn all the shapes and then apply them over a given chord progression then it'll sound exactly like that - a scale. Your efforts will not sound musical and lets face it, thats the point right. So, give yourself a week for example. During this week you are going to commit yourself to learning, improvising with, and most importantly understanding the application of a given mode. Lets say for arguments sake the Dorian mode. You could learn and commit to memory all of the possible shapes for the mode from its root in all keys but at the moment this isn't neccessary. Don't get me wrong, this will come in handy as you become more comfortable with the mode but at the moment an encyclopaedic knowledge of the shapes isn't going to help. You need some simple rules to follow that will give you immediate results that are going to have you playing and hearing the effects of the Dorian Mode. Here they are: 1. The Dorian basically sounds the same as a minor scale but with one different note. Use it that way. Any place that you would normally try and improvise using the natural minor scale, throw in the Dorian instead. That is over any Minor or Minor7th chord or over a progression in a minor key. 2. Now that you know where you can use it you need to know what notes to play. For the moment you can follow this simple rule. If you want to play the Dorian mode you play the natural minor scale which you should already know, starting on the note which is found a fifth higher than the root of the chord or the key that you are playing in. For example, if playing in the key of A minor, you play an E natural minor scale and you are using the Dorian mode in A. 3. There are some potential problems with Modal playing. If you alter a scale (eg Dorian raises the 6th of a minor scale) then you must alter the chords in that key accordingly. In simple terms this means that in a minor key (which Dorian is used for) chord iv (which in the key of A minor is Dm) has to become major. Here's an example chord progression in A minor that the Dorian mode would work perfectly over - Am7 D Em7 D. Play this progression through until you can't forget it and then start to bust the E natural minor scale (A Dorian) over it. If you have the facility then record the progression and then play over it. Alternatively, if you are the kind of person who keeps a friend handy then ask them to play the chords. They can't play guitar?? Then teach them how to play the chords.. come on an Am7 D and Em7 are about as straight-forward as they come and taking on a pupil, no-matter what your own ability is a great way to better your own playing. 4. Listen to the effect of the scale, especially that note that at first is going to sound pretty much wrong, and the effect it creates. That [i']wrong sounding note is the note that gives the mode its flavour. Thats all a mode is, a slightly different flavour. Hope thats maybe given you enough to get started, I'm going to run cos the football's about to start but let me know how you get on and I'll carry on at some point if you think its going to help. Cheers

Hmm... not so sure about the chord shapes for drop-tuned guitars as I've never really messed around enough with different tunings. I'm sure Dan would be able to give you jeaps of advice about it cos he's always coming up with hunners of cool chords in his crazy drop-tuned antics As for the modal stuff, I'd be more than happy to email you some ideas to get you started

Cool Site!! I'll maybe try and put something together about overcoming the fear of modal playing for beginners to intermediates. Its always assumed that modes are scary and unapproachable for inexperienced players but they've been given a bad press Hopefully a simple introduction, highlighting the potential of modal playing, would inspire a few folk to venture a little further.

I'd go sevenfold.... ooops its happened again hasn't it

I've just found out that Paul will be playing two gigs in Aberdeen on the 7th and 8th of October. For those of you who haven't heard of him he is possibly the most amazing blues guitarist you'll ever see in the flesh. I've seen him up here a couple of times now and he's pretty much reduced me to a quivering wreck each time. He was voted Guitarist of the year in 1995 by Guitarist Magazine and he's on the road again at the moment with his band. I urge all of you who have even the slightest interest in any kind of guitar music to try and make it down to the gigs - it doesn't even matter if your not a huge fan of blues, he plays enough shredding rock licks to keep all of us metal heads happy too The gigs are: 'The Globe' Aberdeen, Scotland Thursday, 7th October 2004, 9pm 'The Loft' 16 Justice Mill Lane, Aberdeen, Scotland Friday, 8th October 2004, 9pm I'll hopefully see a few of you there!! PS Check out his website if you don't believe me about how good he really is http://www.paulrose.co.uk

The same shitty platinum series Warlock that I've been playing for years. I've been promising myself a new guitar for quite a while now but I feel quite nauseous when I consider the amount of money I'd have to part with to get myself something decent.

Twas an immensly awesome gig for us - it's just amazing to see everyone getting so into it and I think its pretty obvious that we really feed off that. The more that you guys rock out the more we enjoy it and last night will be one to remember for a long time. Cheers again guys - you all fucking rule!!

I look forward to the collective busting...

Hoorah! Should be awesome.