LINK:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Du2tPb3v-c
Since this is the closest to a general non-Norsk forum here, I guess this is where I'll post.  I managed to get a Ronni signature ESP guitar in a segment that has been aired on tv repeatedly (about 2x/week) for the last month, but it's making some jazz sounds instead of rock. The link is posted above and down below. There's more to the overall story, so you can read on if you like. If not, just skip to the link (you guy's know I like to type long entries!). It's sort of like the "introduce yourself" topic over again. This is who I am now (becoming).
As some of you know, I've recently returned to school as a music major here in the green hills and woods of New England. Being self-taught, this is my first time ever experiencing formal training. My main motivation is that——besides hard rock and some melodic metal——I've also been a huge fan of jazz and fusion since my long-haired teens (yes, the hair is long since gone). Being self-taught (a whole other story, and whole other struggle), jazz complexity is a place I never dared to go, beyond learning a few cool chords.
At first, I showed up to school with my electric guitar, my heavy 2x12 tube combo, a pedalboard, and even some rack gear (I'm no purist). I was ready to rock. The school's music instructor (the chief) told me to lose the gear, informing me that guitarists often end up playing their effects. He wanted it all stripped down and raw, which is not exactly my thing. Even clean, I like chorus, some reverb, a little delay, but he would have none of that. Oy!
We butted heads for the first few weeks, but I reluctantly acceded and began to play just the raw sound of a guitar through a little 1x10 Vox combo I own. No dressing, apparatus, frosting, or whatever you want to call it. It was naked and painfully plain.  I had some issues to overcome.
During the first semester, I studied some classical, playing "Hall Of the Mountain King" by Norwegian classical composer Edvard Grieg on acoustic guitar at the winter 2006 recitals. That was cool (my favorite classical piece). But in the second semester, they started steering me in the jazz direction I so badly want to explore.
I'm even taking my first guitar lessons ever while in school (four semesters required). I was very apprehensive about it, but my teacher is awesome; a Berklee alumni who has studied under jazz legend Pat Metheny, and who's a big local sideman, collaborator, producer, and studio gun for hire. He's teaching me a lot, gradually introducing me to jazz via rock and blues.
For my spring 2007 recital, I played Equinox by sax legend John Coltrane. The main goal was an improvised jazzy solo. The band never rehearsed together, even once. We discussed it several times, but no one's schedules made it possible. In fact, the drummer was recruited literally last minute (as in: in the hallway before we walked through the door!). I still played through the tiny little Vox practice amp, but I managed to talk the music department into letting me bring in my Lexicon Reflex for a higher quality reverb than what's available on the amp. They would hear nothing of gain! 
Two weeks prior, we had a private performance for the music staff, where we played, then received our constructive criticism. I got a little to "shreddy" during the solo, and was requested to play slower, let the notes breath, and capture the moodiness of the song, so that's what I worked on. Also, we had a train wreck because no one knew there was a tag except me (ending, where it repeats 3x), again due to lack of communication and rehearsal beforehand.
At the brief soundcheck before this performance, I managed to entirely forget how to play the piece. I went totally and blissfully blank.  But, things managed to come together, and in the end we had fun, so that's what really counts. There was a dress code; I had to wear suit pants, but I managed to keep the shirt untucked. What a rebel!  No long hair, no rock faces, or crazy performance. I must transform into a hep jazz cat, little by little. I'm even considering buying a black beret (haven't owned one in years).
I've continued my jazz studies over the summer, and I'm very heavily into learning the music of John Scofield (my favorite jazz guitarist), both from score books (now that I'm finally learning to read music) and video performances (steal every lick and chord you can!). I think that the next two recitals will witness the jazz ideas becoming much more rich and complex. It's all about progress. I'm a massive fan of dissonance and outside playing, but I don't have a good handle on the art yet in a jazz context. But I will get better. Really I will!! Be patient with me.
I'm a beginner all over again, learning to speak a new language, building a new vocabulary, hopefully saying something cool. I'll be 40  in November, so jazz-fusion is an appropriate direction for me right now in my life, especially living here in the very non-hr/hm friendly USA (yeah, there are pockets, but too few and far between to matter) and its youth-oriented pop market. Still, my OD-1 and Rat 2 pedals are NOT leaving my pedalboard!!! No way.
I managed to get the Ronni LeTekrø model ESP guitar on local public television, albeit in a jazz context, and it has been airing for the past month. It'll be in more upcoming recitals, ensembles, and——eventually——I'll have some sort of avant-garde jazz-rock-fusion project thingy going where we can get on the Homegrown show that supports the local music scene, including the "artsy" stuff.
Well, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. School starts in just a couple weeks, so things are gonna get busy.
LINK:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Du2tPb3v-c |
Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:47 pm
