Last Saturday evening I played my guitar at the Capilano Suspension Bridge for a group of US senators. This job is so awesome because I get to work with (and for) so many interesting people from all over world.
I’m having more fun now than ever before as I feel I’m finally getting my head and hands around playing this wonderful instrument. I’ve also finally worked out how to get a live nylon string guitar sound I like. That in itself has taken over 10 years to find!
Anyways, back to the gig…
The Capilano Suspension bridge is such a wonderful place to perform. It’s beautiful and peaceful. For this gig I performed with my Rumba Flamenco, Latin Jazz trio.
Here’s a link to the Capilano Suspension Bridge web site if you would like to visit there for yourself… http://www.capbridge.com/
Joining me once again on guitar was Andre Stepanian and on percussion was Lyndon Dewitt.
I arrived at 5:30pm to set up and we began at 7:20ish. The gig lasted until 10:20pm.
Once again I’ve taken my “Gig Cam” with me so you can join me behind the scenes today on the gig.
Music featured in this episode is my trio’s performance of Hotel California by the Eagles.
This is a fantastic tune to play as a soloist or with an instrumental group. The song is fantastic as a bar chord study as well as a great tune to improvise on.
Let’s begin with the fake book charts and the chord and scale sheets. Below you will also find the jam tracks and performance notes.
Here are the Hotel California jam tracks. Use the B minor scale for all the chords except the E major chord (key of A major). Also use B harmonic minor for the F# chords. I’ll go into more detail below the jam tracks.
Hotel California Jam Track Audio with Melody
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Hotel California Jam Track Audio no Melody
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Hotel California Jam Track Audio with Bass & Drums
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Here is the chords and scales to use to play the rhythm and improvise on Hotel California. You really have to be aware of what chord you are soloing on in this tune.
The Key of B minor has the chordsBm (I), Em (IV), F#m (V) & the related major chords D (I), G (IV), A (V)
The F# chord has 1 note that doesn’t belong the the B minor scale. So we need to raise the 7th note of the B minor scale to match the chord. The rule is… If the V chord of a minor is major you must use the harmonic minor scale.
This is were all the cool Arabic sounds come from that we love so much in Flamenco and Heavy metal, etc…
The E chord is also out of key and again it has one wrong note that doesn’t belong. This E chord belongs to the key of A major. In theory, the key of B minor is related to the key of D major which has 2 sharp notes F# & C#. The E chord has a G# note in it so if we add a G# note to our scale we our now playing an A major scale.
If all this is leaving your head spinning it’s best to hit the theory lessons as it will really help you improvise on this type of tune. You will also find the chord scale relationship lesson will help as well.
The easiest way to play on this tune right away is by memorizing the scales and start using them over the appropriate chords. I’ll post a video soon to help you.
Here is a great Gipsy King song for you to learn and jam on.
The chart on your left is the actual Fake Book chart that I use when performing the music in my band and the tab on the right is the chords, scales and melody for you to learn.
(The video may take a minute to load The menu on the left will work once the video is fully loaded ~ Enjoy)
(To enlarge the video… Click on the X in the bottom right corner)
Here’s the jam track
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Here’s the jam track with the melody
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There are some gigs that are kind of the same old thing then there are others that are just awesome. Playing solo guitar for Maddock Services 30th anniversary was one of those very special awesome gigs!
The gig was on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon and I was hired to play solo guitar for a 30th anniversary event for Maddock Services. This was to be a private back yard party that for me, would begin at 5pm until 8pm.
The house was massive with the main event taking place in the back yard. The back of the house had a couple of terraces then a massive tent stretching from one side of the property to the other. I was to set up in the middle of the tent on a dance floor for my performance.
I found the coolest part of the event to be the Money Booth. I had only seen one of these on the Ellen Show however, there it was! Guest’s were lined up around the house for their 30 or so seconds to jump in the booth.
Once they were in the booth the fan began blowing money around for the occupant to gather as much cash as possible in the allowed time!
Anyways time for you to see for yourself…
Once again I’ve taken my “Gig Cam” with me so you can join me behind the scenes today on the gig.
Last Saturday evening I played my guitar at the Capilano Suspension Bridge for a group of US senators. This job is so awesome because I get to work with (and for) so many interesting people from all over world.
