Author: LukeSniper

How to use a metronome (and a lesson on rhythm)

LukeSniper

I see people ask this question quite a bit online, and I’m usually not sure how to answer it. Often times it seems the people asking it just have a general lack of understanding as to how rhythm works. I imagine they wouldn’t have the question if that more fundamental issue was fixed, so while the video goes over some different things you can do with the metronome and talks a little bit about rhythm in general, I’d like to provide a more in-depth lesson on rhythm here.

I say it all the time, but it bears repeating: absolutes mean very little in music. This is especially true with rhythm! Rhythm is all about how long one note is compared to another, and we measure the length of a note in “beats”. How long is a beat? That depends… In a slower song, a beat could be one whole second or more. In a fast song, you could have two or three beats a second. The important thing to understand is that a beat is just a beat. It can be any amount of time, but it’s always one beat, and it is constant. Turn your metronome on… those are beats. It just clicks at a regular interval of time.

As I said before, we measure the length of notes in beats. Some notes are one beat long. Some notes are two beats long. Some notes are only half a beat long (which means you can squeeze two notes into one beat). Theoretically, notes can be infinitesimally small, but for the sake of practicality, let’s say the shortest possible note is just 1/4th of a beat, meaning we can cram four of those guys into a single beat. Try playing just one note per beat for a while. Count 1 2 3 4 as you do it (counting each number as you play each note). Now try playing two notes per beat. Count 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & as you do it. Now try four notes per beat. You can count 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a, but people often stumble over that, as it’s a mouthful. I prefer, instead, to simply say “watermelon” over and over, with each syllable landing on a note.

This should be pretty simple so far. Things get more complicated as you start to mix and match notes of different lengths, add in rests (which are just measured moments of silence), and combine notes in different ways. Hopefully what’s here is helpful though. I’d like to do something that really gets into the nitty-gritty of rhythm in the future, but that will take a little bit more planning.

Time Of The Preacher – solo & tutorial

LukeSniper

I’ve always loved this song. It’s so simple, but really effective. That’s especially true for the solo, which sticks almost entirely to chord tones. This requires a bit of jumping around the neck, but moving between chord shapes is a great way to go about doing that.

It’s not a terribly difficult solo either, so it’s a good pick for folks looking to try something that doesn’t limit itself to a single position scale.

Boris: Fuzz for the People – demo & review

LukeSniper

Full disclosure: I am friends with a couple folks at Nordstrand Audio, including the designer/builder of this pedal. I have received no compensation for this review and purchased my pedal at full retail price.

Price: $219 +tax

Available at the Nordstrand Audio website.

Rocket Surgeon is the new pedal division of Nordstrand Audio, known for their pickups. The first pedal in the lineup was the Seratone Mood Altering Fuzz, a bass fuzz, but their second outing is Boris: Fuzz for the People. The pedal is an attempt to create a fuzz that self-corrects the massive mid-scoop fuzz pedals typically have. In the studio, this isn’t an issue, as tracks will be extensively EQ’d and tweaked to sit properly in the mix anyway. It can be a problem in a live setting though, especially when used for solos. The obvious fix is to pair your fuzz with an EQ that brings the mids back, but it would be a lot easier if those mids just weren’t sucked out to begin with!

But before we get to the sounds Boris makes, let’s take a look at what comes in the box. Boris comes with more box swag than I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure if all this goodness is a special bonus for folks who got one of the first few or not, but there’s some cool stuff in here. My box included the following: two Dr. Von Fuzzbrauer stickers, two different Rocket Surgeon stickers, a mini Boris logo pin, a Nordstrand Audio pin and sticker, four self-adhesive rubber feet, and a piece of Velcro (hook side). The pedal itself was inside a silk pouch, and the box was filled with some shredded red paper. The black and red motif makes a bold statement that really gets you excited to plug this thing in. One thing I noticed is conspicuously missing is any warranty info. This may just be an omission for the first batch, however, and I’m sure one could just contact the company with any troubles. Including both the rubber feet and some Velcro is a nice consideration, especially since I don’t need to remove the feet myself, which is often the first thing I’ve got to do when putting a new pedal on my board.

Okay, that’s all great, but how’s it sound? Honestly, it’s a lot less fizzy and noisy than I expected. That’s probably got more to do with my inexperience with higher end fuzz pedals than anything else, but it was a pleasant surprise. The pedal sports three knobs (volume, tone, and fuzz) which behave how you would expect. Even with the fuzz control maxed out, Boris doesn’t push the noise floor up much at all. Most other fuzz pedals require a noise gate or constant tap dancing to keep it from filling any empty space with feedback and white noise, but I found myself sitting in near silence whenever I muted the strings. I anticipated something more akin to the Big Muff or the Fuzz Face, with a lot of high end crackle and pop, but Boris creates a really musical distortion that never once conjured up mental images of a VU meter about to snap off or the clip light on a mix channel begging for my attention. I’d actually put this in some sort of weird fuzz/overdrive hybrid category. It’s definitely a hard clipped sound, but there’s a smoothness to it that makes me less reticent to use it in situations where I might otherwise be reluctant to use such an aggressive effect.

The pedal cleans up great too. At lower fuzz levels it creates a sound similar to a blown speaker, and at the minimum setting it adds a nice bit of saturation and a pleasant mid-hump to your tone (especially with single coils).

The real thing that sets it apart is a control I haven’t mentioned yet: the Nuclear/Doom switch. A toggle switch beneath the tone knob allows you to flip between Nuclear and Doom settings. The Doom setting sounds more like a typical fuzz EQ: no mids and a ton of bass. I haven’t spent too much time with this setting, as I often found the Nuclear setting to yield more useful tones. The Nuclear setting reshapes the EQ, taming the bass a bit and bringing the mids back into the mix. The result is a much fuller sound that should do a good job cutting through when solo time comes around. I keep a Boss GE-7 on my board that has a mid-boost and a slight low-end roll off. I use it as my “solo button”. Switching between the Nuclear and Doom settings resulted in a comparable change in tone.
Overall, I’m more than pleased with the pedal. I anticipated it would be something I kept on my board for the occasional moment where a ridiculous amount of noise and buzz was just what I needed (like the heavy part in Creep), but after spending the afternoon toying with it, I have a feeling I’ll be using it a lot more than I initially intended to.

Monoprice mini delay review

LukeSniper

My EHX Memory Toy broke at a recent gig. I’ve ordered the necessary parts to fix it, but they haven’t arrived yet and I’ve got Copycats show! Slapback delay is a must for that kind of stuff, and I don’t currently have the money to go pick up a new delay.

But I can afford the Monoprice one! It cost me less than $25, and I’m very pleased with what it delivers.

It’s a standard no-frills digital delay. The controls are exactly what you’d expect: time, feedback, and a wet/dry mix. The wet/dry control is labeled “echo” and seems to max out at 50/50 wet/dry, which I find very convenient, as I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve wanted anything wetter than 50/50. The time knob is a big white chicken head knob and the other two controls are standard micro knobs. Time ranges from 25ms-600ms. You can also get some self-oscillation going when you push the feedback control past 3 o’clock. I have no use for such sounds, so I appreciate that the pedal isn’t overly sensitive in this regard. The switch has a nice click to it, no audible noise upon activation, and is true-bypass.

The casing is, I assume, aluminum. It’s the standard micro-sized casing that’s been popularized by TC Electronics, the micro TS from Ibanez, and other such pedals. Speaking of TC, this pedal would be best compared to the Flashback Mini. It’s only a quarter the price and sounds great (especially for the cost). The big bonus on the Flashback is the TonePrint feature, but if you just need a simple delay on the cheap, this is a great option.

But does it sound good? That’s why the video is up there. I don’t have the necessary equipment to record it properly, but you’ll get the idea. The delayed sound gets a bit gritty as it goes on, but it never gets harsh or muddy. All-in-all, I’m quite happy with it, and am considering keeping it on my board even after I’ve repaired the Memory Toy.

How to play “Rumble”

LukeSniper

I probably teach this song to a new student once a week, and I NEVER get tired of playing it. There are very few songs cooler than “Rumble”. If you’ve seen “It Might Get Loud”, you may remember the scene where Jimmy Page gets incredibly giddy just listening to it. That scene just makes me love it even more. If Jimmy Page is reduced to a giggling school boy upon listening to it, you should be too.

It’s a really simple song. It’s basically a 12 bar blues in E, except you play a couple D chords every couple bars. Once you get to the turnaround, you just play a simple descending E minor pentatonic scale.

Piece o’cake.

Jingle Bell Rock – chords & analysis

LukeSniper

Somebody on Reddit was asking about this tune, specifically “how the chords worked”. It had never really occurred to me, but this tune offers several excellent examples of some very common types of non-diatonic chords! Secondary dominants, ascending diminished chords, altered dominants, even the subdominant minor!

All this, with an almost entirely diatonic melody!