[CRACK Alex's Guitar Pro 5
Sofie Kovalcheck
I started woodworking about 3 years ago, looking for a way to relax and build something with my hands on weekends after working all week as a software engineer. I started by making mostly shop projects, and slowly got into finer woodworking (small furniture, more advanced joinery).
For a long time I've been dreaming of building a guitar but I thought it would be impossible with the tools and skills I have. A few months ago I finally gave it a shot and LOVED it.
This will be my 3rd guitar build from scratch. I will use a pre-slotted fretboard from StewMac but everything else will be built from rough lumber.
I work mostly with hand tools, but use a jigsaw to cut the body outline and a router to carve out the body cavities. I love old hand tools and find it more pleasant to work with quiet tools and take my time to do most of the work by hand.
I build glass electric guitars. I will attempt to build a glass Les Paul inspired design. This will be different from my previous designs and work in that it will be the first time I try to build a single cutaway glass guitar body.
I've always wondered why a player would tune in that way (I know that Eddie VH would typically tune his guitar a half step down so that he could do more bendy stuff, but why would Alex on just this one particular song tune a step up). Is it just that they couldn't get the right feel on the song otherwise? I'd love to know the thinking that went into it.
As far as capo - I've never had a capo applied to a guitar and had it retain exact tuning, usually one or more strings are over/under tension. Fretting is an exact science, if you push too hard or too soft it changes the note being played [as well as where in that fret space you're pressing].
You're right about Driven...that said, there is a low-sounding D chord during the choruses but that's handled by the bass. It's a fun song. We used to do that one, Half The World, Virtuality, and Dog Years.
Did you start composing your own songs right away?
Yes. It was shortly after I started classes that I began songwriting. My vocal instructor Emily Shrader from NYC Guitar School has been very helpful in teaching me about songwriting.
Where do you record your songs?
I generally record the basic vocal and guitar tracks in my bedroom, then send them off to my producer Steve Glazer who fills them out with other instruments. I give him a general idea of what I want, then he works his magic!
Last month I mentioned that the November, 2012 issue of Guitar Player magazine would feature Alex Lifeson on the cover. John over at Cygnus-X1.net has transcribed and scanned the article and made it available online at this location. The cover tagline reads Alex Lifeson: Blending Old & New on Clockwork Angels, and the article itself is titled Alex Lifeson: Like Clockwork. Alex talks in detail about his guitar playing on the Clockwork Angels album as well as his gear, along with a few other subjects. Here are his comments on the differences between the band's approach on Clockwork Angels compared to Snakes & Arrows:
I think the approach was a lot simpler with Clockwork Angels. We really made an effort to write Snakes & Arrows acoustically and when it came to recording, I missed those acoustics. So, we blended them in and consequently there's a density to that record that in retrospect I would have preferred to have thinned out. When we started working on this record, right from the get-go the idea was to make it more three-piece in order to make it a clearer-sounding record. So, for the most part, I might have double-tracked guitars and only on a few songs did I layer them up. "BU2B" has 100 guitars overdubbed on it, just playing the same thing to make it super heavy, but generally it's pretty much double-tracked guitar left and right. It was really refreshing to approach it that way. That's the way we used to record: two tracks of guitar and no rhythm guitar in the solo sections. Consequently, it's made reproducing them live simpler in some ways and also more satisfying in the context of having just one guitar player.
There's also a minor setlist spoiler of sorts where Alex states that the band would continue playing one particular track from the last tour that they actually didn't end up playing this tour - at least not yet (note that the interview was conducted in the summer). There's also a sidebar interview with producer Nick Raskulinecz, and another short one with Alex's guitar tech Scott Appleton. You can check out the entire article at this location. Thanks John!
This is one of my favorite Artist and I used to watch his shows whenever possible. He is such a good guitarist and I am so much addicted to most of the works. Thanks for sharing about him it gave much more idea about this artist www.designyourowndiamondring.com
Most people try out new songs on their friends in the basement. Most bands warm up for recording in rehearsal halls. It's safer. But then, Rush have never played it safe. So last fall, when it came time to warm up for the recording of their album, Grace Under Pressure, Rush went looking for an appropriate hall. Never known for a small sound, they chose Radio City Music Hall, in New York City! Certainly their music is big enough to fill the Grand Canyon. But the question has never been how can three guys make so much sound - but rather, how can the same three guys make so many different sounds?
Like so many of the finest groups, Rush is defined by distinct periods. The early albums were Zeppelin clones. The middle period shows the heavy trappings of the British art rockers. More recently, keyboards and a stripped-down sound have brought Rush to the top, firmly defining them as the premiere modern metalists of the 80s. GUITAR spoke with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson about these changes and how he's been able to grow on the guitar without growing old.
Alex: Songs like "Oh Pretty Woman" from John Mayall's Crusade album bring back memories of when we started. I would spend months trying to figure out songs like this, early on in my guitar playing career. Mick Taylor's sound was exceptional for that time. He had that grit and sustain, and the right kind of smooth distortion.
With instruments, amps and effects it's easy to get new input because so many new products come out every year. But where do you go to get new musical input that translates to that next plateau jump as a player?
Obvious: Steve Howe of Yes, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett of Genesis, and Jimmy Page. Alex basically took the cerebral approach of prog rockers like Howe and Hackett, and crossed it with a big dose of hard rock and roll courtesy of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin to create progressive music that rocked. And indeed, in the beginning, Rush sounded like the offspring of a Led Zeppelin/Yes marriage. Alex plays a lot of acoustic guitar; like Howe, much of it classical, and a lot of 12 string ala Rutherford and Page.
Sound: Alex's style revolves around occupying a lot of space, and nobody does it better. Through the careful use of time-based effects as well as unusual, ambiguous chord voicings, Alex creates a wash of sound that is almost three dimensional.
Chord voicings: I honestly believe that many of the chords Alex plays didn't exist (at least in rock) before he created them. Take a listen to the Hemispheres album for a virtual clinic on Lifeson chords. You can analyze them from a theory standpoint but that won't do them justice; the approach to fingering them is so outside-the-box that a schooled player would NEVER think to do it that way.
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