The Weekly Acolyte

Source
Chandrasonic's Top Guitar Tips

1. Pick up your guitar - close your eyes. You are now holding a drum machine and / or a sampler in a different form.

2. Play "Funky Kingston" by Toots and The Maytals and pay attention to the section where Toots hollers "Give me some of that funky guitar ... Now reggae." Play it 50 times then you'll see what I'm talking about.

3. Don't play chords or notes - play a feeling, a thought, an event or a place. Don't play Cm 7; play a volcano erupting. Don't play some tired old Blues Riff; play the sound of the Stock Market collapsing. Jimi Hendrix was the first to understand this. Unfortunately, his legions of imitators do not.

4. Love Bass and Drums more than you love the guitar. Use the guitar to keep the Bass and Drums rolling. Listen to all the other sounds that are happening around you. Turning point; playing one note or not playing at all are all skills in themselves. Listen to Lee Perry, Scientist, King Tubby ... they know.

5. 99% of the time, people play something that they know when they pick up the guitar. Play something you don't know. Play something the world has never heard before. Always be a composer, not only a player.

6. Everything within your reach is a potential instrument. Effects are instruments, the amp is an instrument. Even the buzz of an amp and its on and off switch. Try to view the guitar as an appendage to the effects and amp rather than the other way round. You will find new sounds instantly.

7. Attack without mercy all principle and symbols of the guitar establishment. This entails:
1) Burn all copies of any and every "Guitar" magazine.
2) Go down to the guitar shop and burn every "original" leaving only "cheap" foreign copies.
3) Destroy anything made by Marshall on sight.

8. For every "expensive" guitar, you could buy ten "cheap" ones. Don't be precious! Retune them, detune them, play them with knives and screwdrivers. Play them with one string only etc. Abuse the guitar. That's when it starts to sound good.

9. Learn sampling and MIDI. Contrary to general perceptions, technology is the saviour of conventional instruments. It will make you rethink the way you play which can only be good. Also the fact that you play guitar will inform your programming. The first example of this principle in action can be found on the early Def Jam singles (LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Run DMC.) Check out our LP or "Brown Paper Bag" by Roni Size for a continuing tradition.

10. Now I mention it, why bother to play the guitar at all? Just use the case to stand the sampler on and forget about it. Tee Hee!
- www.asiandubfoundation.com

Robbie

Sabrina Ferilli

Links
Converting HL2 / CS:S demos to avi
How to start with nothing and end up with an avi of Counter Strike Source gameplay + sound
Ultimate guide to .dem to .avi convertion

HUMANMETRICS Jung Typology Test
Addictive Flash Games - Tickle Girl (@ killsometime.com)

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