Ok so it’s not like they went back in the studio today, more like a couple of weeks ago, err, if I wasn’t so lazy i’d check out on Twitter (or, you know, the official website) when (31 Jan, there). So it looks like it’s going to be another big year with interesting releases, meanwhile, Joe, Sammy, Chad and Mike just wanted to say hi:
“It’s my new diet, just walk by the food” … Yeah ok so nothing much musically 
This video was supposed to be exclusive to the Ibanez website, and only for a couple of days but as is usual on the web, it’s made its way to YouTube as well so check out the music video for Light Years away, the first single from Joe Satriani’s latest album Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards
:
Trippy
Edit: Some more information posted by Joe on Facebook earlier:
Directed & Edited by Jon Luini and Arthur Rosato, filmed by Jon Luini, Chris Sentovich, and Boris Karpman. For those interested, the footage comes from the first show of the tour in Napa, three shows in Europe (two in Paris + Amsterdam), a few snippets from recording of the album at Skywalker Sound, and a green screen session shot for the LED wall footage used at the live shows.
I wasn’t sure I’d get much chance to pick up the guitar today but as it turned out, not only was I able to get my daily routine done (legato, far easier than sweeps), I was also spoilt for choice working on some songs.
I was kindly sent a good batch of Guitar Pro files having recently acquired it to better my learning of songs. There’s more to pick from than I’ll ever need (in fact some of them will probably have to be weeded out, not being too keen on some of the French stuff) but I took the chance to hunt down the file for The Mighty Turtle Head and spent some time going over it with my tab sheet and make small corrections. Luckily it was overall pretty well transcribed, and now it’s mostly a matter of working out the best audio settings for each instrument. Since the original was for Guitar Pro 3, there’s room for improvement sound-wise. If anyone has sources for Guitar Pro 6 sound banks, repositories, libraries or any way to make instruments sound more like people like Satch that would be helpful.
But that wasn’t the only song I checked of course, one I pulled out again, that I think I already had, though possibly in PowerTab format was Iron Maiden’s Afraid To Shoot Strangers* which is quite possibly my favourite tune of theirs, and thus has been on my mind to learn for some time. I did give it a go some time ago but never really followed through much, this could be my chance to really increase the amount of songs I know reasonably quickly. You know, sneak in an AC/DC here, a Motorhead there and before you know it, I’ll know more than the handful of Metallica and Megadeth riffs I could vaguely pull out not even 3 years ago. Having said that, I’m also intending to figure out if I can learn one or two of the easier Marty Friedman songs, though maybe I should hunt a good transcription first, the version of Jewel I just heard almost made my ears pop…
* I know, seeing what day it is, Hallowed Be Thy Name might have been more appropriate, what can I say? I don’t do greeting cards holidays 
I’m not gonna write tons about this concert because I don’t have swathes of time but I thought I’d put down a thing or two.
The concert was this part Friday the 22 October 2010 at the Clyde Auditorium (SECC) in Glasgow. It was a pretty rainy day and I’d never been to the SECC so it was a bit of a challenge. Still I was able to grab a train that drops you off at the Exhibition Centre (that’s the name of the station) and it’s a 5min walk to the concert hall.
I got there with over an hour to spare, and was one of the first to get in when the doors opened at 7pm. Although I booked my ticket pretty much as soon as booking opened on-line having stupidly missed out on Slash’s concert, I still didn’t really have the best seat (Joe doesn’t walk along the stage much and he was playing on the opposite end of the stage I was facing).
The opening act was Simon MacBride, an guitar player I didn’t know of but who turned out to be most excellent. He’s an Irish guy who basically plays in the style of Joe Bonamassa, so mostly bluesy but with some shred thrown in for good measure, and a very similar voice too. I might hunt down his albums as I quite liked his style.
Joe came on stage around 8.30, the line up wasn’t quite the same as that of Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards. Accompanying him were:
So I was a little disappointed that Mike Keneally wasn’t touring with Joe but apparently he has commitments with Steve Vai… still I can’t complain as Jem did an excellent job, though the keyboards were a little quiet at times, but maybe it’s just because of where I was sitting.
Great selection of tunes from Joe, I took notes of each song played and only managed to fail to recognise 3 of them, I won’t tell which ones Here’s the setlist:
He also brought back the LED backdrop he had on the Satchafunkilus tour but frankly it didn’t really serve any purpose other than the occasional psychedelic display. Overall it was a gig a little longer than I expected but really enjoyable. I took a couple of photos and a short video with my phone but really they’re so bad I don’t think it’s worth bothering posting them.
Another interesting exercise tonight. Nothing too complicated, just a run of notes in triplets, and yet, it took me a certain tempo to actually play the triplets properly. Somehow, played too slow it’s hard to keep the tempo going and you end up playing notes longer than others. It’s a bit of a far cry from sweep picking but there you go. Mind you, the top speed was challenging in getting my hand coordination to keep up. This is something I really hope this series of exercises will eventually correct. I try to ever remain mindful of any tension in either arm, shoulder, wrist, fingers what have you so with practice I should hopefully relax into a blaze of notes when the time is right.
Meanwhile, I seem to favour certain rhythms to play over. For instance, I can’t quite say why but trying to jam over the Blue Noize backing track again, I just can’t seem to find the right notes to play over it. I can find 9ths but other than that it’s pretty empty. For grins I tried other backing tracks at similar speeds and was able to find a nice groove, so it really is hit and miss, though I don’t despair that one day it won’t matter so much. Incidentally, I’m really starting to enjoy string-skipping experiments I put in my playing, this really adds a nice flavour.
Finally, The Mighty Turtle Head is going to be a challenge, but, I’m hoping to make it easier to practice with my copy of Guitar Pro 6, assuming I can find either the right file to download or the right settings for the right sound. Either way, there’s a lot of work ahead.
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