Last month, I suggested a number of ways you can go about finding people to play with and, hopefully, eventually form a band with. When you start searching, don’t settle for the first people you meet, and don’t expect a miracle right away, either. Many a time I’ve found myself standing in a room with two or three other people, and we couldn’t play even a note together. But don’t get discouraged. Every musician you listen to has gone through this sort of frustration.
Doesn’t it sometimes seem like everybody who can play is already in a band? And since that’s the case, how are you ever gonna find someone to play with? It’s a Catch-22 situation. I never beat it, because in the end I found a band that was already making records and touring-they just needed a new guitar player. As I mentioned in the first column, I answered a bunch of ads, and nothing really came of it. But that’s not to say that my experience is typical-there are a bunch of highly original bands out there that totally have their own thing that got together by answering ads they found in their local paper or music store. Just don’t expect the first ad you answer to result in the band of your dreams.
While you’re trying to form the perfect band, you may be confronted by choosing between, say, an average drummer or bassist who’s your friend and a really good player who’s kind of a jerk. Who do you go with: Mr. Nice Guy or the asshole? My advice is to go with the former. There are two reasons for this: 1) The whole concept of a band is to grow together into something unique, and that’s not gonna happen if you’re not friends. The only thing that’s gonna save you from going insane on a six-week van tour is your ability to get along. Incompatibility is why most bands break up or people “leave” for no apparent reason. Whenever you see that good ol’ “musical differences” explanation, read it as “they hate each other.” 2) There are a million four-piece guitar/bass/drums/vocals-type bands out there, so sometimes it’s better to play with people who haven’t been playing that long and don’t have a well-formed style yet. They’ll probably be much more flexible, and this could give you a better chance of creating an original style.
That’s enough band talk for this month; let’s finish up with a playing idea.
Last issue, I mentioned that a cool way to spice up your rhythm work is to apply an all-out bend to a chord. The intro riff to “Real Solution #9” on Astro Creep: 2000 shown in FIGURE 1 is a good example of what I’m talking about. In this song I’m using a “dropped-D tuning” on a guitar that’s already tuned down a half-step from concert pitch, which means that my strings are tuned as follows: Db, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb from low to high. A lot of people assume that I used a slide to play this riff because I used one for “More Human Than Human,” but I’m not. I’m just bending a two-note power chord.
As you can see in FIGURE 1, I bend the C5 chord at the 10th fret up a whole step to D5. It took me a while to master bending the low E and A strings together by exactly the same amount at the same time, but by using two fingers (my middle and “pointing” fingers) for more bending control and power, I was able to nail it almost every time.
Another example of using string bending on more than one string to enhance an octave riff is the segue between the verse and chorus of “Feed The Gods” on the Airheads soundtrack. This is shown in FIGURE 2.
I bend each “octave” slightly with my “pointer” finger (low-E-string notes) and my pinkie (D-string notes). This creates a weird engine-revving effect. Incidentally, I also play octaves in this song’s solo. The “robot-baby crying” effect created with a wah pedal makes it sound even more like a dirt bike. Now apply creative string-bending to your own riffs to give them that psychotic edge. See ya.
