Thank you sir. I haven’t read about any track breakdowns of the demo, but I assume they have guitars on at least 2 - 3 tracks in most songs. I assumed it was just David multi-tracking…pretty common even back then…
Modes are really very simple, but the starting point to understanding them is the major scale which doesn’t get much action in rock or blues***** You can see the basis of modes using pentatonics if you compare the major and major pentatonic, they’re exactly the same notes, A minor = C major - which one you are currently using depends on the context (what the bass player is doing 
).
***** the Mixolydian****** does but do we really want to go there 
****** The Dorian crops up a bit, IIRC *No Quarter *and *Any Colour You Like *(off Dark Side…) are both D Dorian.
Small Clanger, you have such an engineer’s mindset. 
You break down the problem into its component parts, process it and understand the whole better.
I have come to realize over the years that I play guitar for one reason: the flow. Getting into that zone where time slows down, the groove feels easy and I am fully in the moment. Coming at music from a theory standpoint, for me, is not conducive to flow. I wish I could explain it better - I learn by getting into the flow and then trying new stuff - new notes/phrasing, a different chord, a different rhythmic approach - within that context. If it doesn’t make sense to me that way, I can’t pull it into my playing. I try out the Theory columns in the guitar magazines and while I “get” them - I can’t integrate them into my playing until I fit them into the flow…
A thread on guitar picks
A thread on how many strings in your bass
Cool! Clean and accurate and in the groove - well done. You’re playing a Strat, right? Sounded very Stratty.
Thanks. I feel like I could get it a little cleaner if was willing to record a few more takes.
I’m surprised you can tell. That little effects box I use sounds okay when I’m practicing, but now that I’ve had a chance to hear it in isolation, the jazz setting (for the lead track) sounds a little sterile. The accoustic setting on the rhythm track still sounds okay, but probably doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing. I don’t know if I’d want to perform with either of them, but I can tell when I’m getting the technique right, which is all I need for the moment. And it’s cheaper than two guitars.
Since we’re posting samples of our playing - 
- and I just happened to have these two videos lying around that I recorded for my nieces:
Catfish Blues:
http://www.vimeo.com/11697752
Little Wing (SRV version):
http://www.vimeo.com/11697810
There’s a couple of clams here and there, but it’s the blues man…
Hey - that sounds great! Nice groove you get goin’ there. Hard to keep the flow when you move between rhythm and lead. Like your homebrew with the copper pickguard, too. You are going with a very clean tone - I have my Rat on, like, full time. I always promise myself I am going to explore the clean channel more, but I never end up doing it 
Thanks. “Keeping the flow” is something I learned early in my teen years.
There was this little segment of a Stephen King movie called Maximum Overdrive where the soundtrack had Angus Young just chunking away in A and throwing these tasty licks over the top of it - totally in the zone. I thought it sounded beyond cool, so I sat in front of the TV with my guitar and rewound the tape about two million times and learned it by ear. That was my initiation to “flow”…
What do you know - I found it on youtube. Around the 7:28 mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTWpR8p7lY4&feature=related
By the way, I’m not always clean. In that second video, you can see my Marshall behind me in the closet.
I just spotted this pedal and had to share with everyone. Why didn’t Boss come out with this years ago?
Ha! That’s pretty funny. I’d use that pedal, but I’m far too modest.
That is freakin’ hilarious - already shared it with a bunch of guitar friends…
So I can actually see the day when I can play Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” sometime in the not too distant future! Just working on getting the lead together. And I’m making progress on “Eruption,” heh. It’s just a trick, but it’s fun anyhow.
Anyway, mostly I popped in here for a couple of pick related questions. First: what’s the basic thinking on picks? What I mean is that while there’s definitely a level on which it’s just a matter of personal preference, looking at the guitar pick thread it seemed as if “everybody knew” that certain styles/materials/thicknesses of pick were associated with jazz or country or rock or a certain tone or whatever. Me, I like a medium thickness pick, but it’s just because I like how it feels sure and concrete against the strings vs. the thinner picks I started with.
Second, and less important: In addition to the familiar fretting calluses, I’ve also got a callus on my picking thumb. Is that just from holding a pick, or do I just have a coincidental completely un-guitar-related callus going on?
Obligatory Kindergarten Cop reference:
“Maybe it’s a tumor!”
“It’s naht a tumah!”
That does sound rather odd; I’m not sure how you’d build up a callus by holding a pick, unless you were somehow generating a lot of friction there.
Typically folks start with Fender Mediums - or Thins if they are very strum-oriented - and then, a few years in, go through a big Pick Quest™ where they try the ones made from petrified mammoth tusk and Illodium Q-36 and the like…and they typically end up with a basic shape - often either Fender or Dunlop - that is easy to buy in bulk and gets them what they need. I wouldn’t overthink it.
As for calluses on your picking hand - well, I have one on the side of my index finger, the part that holds the pick along with the pad of my thumb…
Sounds like you’re probably brushing the strings with your thumb when you choke up on the pick. If I’m doing heavily strummed barre chord work, the side of my thumb tends to brush inaudibly against the strings just a bit on upstrokes, maybe you’re doing the same sort of thing. This is neither good nor bad technique, just something to be aware of.
Don’t get me wrong–I’m not devoting much thought to it. I’m perfectly happy with my Dunlop Tortex yellow or blue, or the Fender medium that I lost somewhere in the basement the other day. But some of the talk in the pick thread made it sound as if certain styles or thicknesses of pick were naturally associated with certain styles of music or playing. E.g., “Well, I’m a jazz player, so naturally I use Anaesthesia Brand picks for that super-smooth mellow sound.”
Dunno what’s up with my thumb callus–might be I just noticed it when I started playing. I’m still mildly fascinated by my hard fingertips.
Oh, also… d&r from all the jazz players 
Nice observation **squeegee **- if that is what **LM **is doing, then you’re correct when it comes to standard strumming. When it comes to lead playing, though, you are describing a specific technique - pinch harmonics. Thats when you pick a note but have enough thumb-flesh brushing the string when you pick it that you change the character of the note. Very ZZ Top - most of Billy Gibbons’ leads involve a bit of pinching - and very metal - that squealing note you hear in metal leads is obtained that way…
ETA - just saw your reply LM - well, sure, there are certain “truths” or stereotypes:
- folks who mostly strum tend to go with Thin picks
- jazz cats tend to use very small, thick picks because they need super-fast maneuverability and tend not to do big strumming
- some folks turn their standard-sized picks and use one of the rounder corner - especially if they do rock lead work without a ton of switching between lead and rhythm work
It also doesn’t help that those small picks are commonly called "jazz picks"and Dunlop brands theirs as “Jazz III” or similar. Really, you can use any type of pick for any style of playing if that works for you. That Dunlop M pick isn’t holding you back from your jazz calling, LawMonkey, but it is worth just buying one of every weight & style of cheap picks and experimenting. I hear thumb picks are quite useful, go try one!
I meant when strumming, though my “choking up” comment probably could have been taken to mean lead/single note playing. I think I learned LaGrange when I was 17 (very long ago), and figured out the pinch harmonics by trial and error. But, yeah, I meant while strumming, not pinching.