Guitar Lovers

As a young child, I grew up listening to some of my parents’ old records. They had a full complement of Beatles music and some stuff by The Beach Boys. But I wasn’t immediately drawn to the Fab Four’s pop craftsmanship or the sunny surfing anthems coming out of California. Instead I turned to the monster guitar riffs supplied by The Rolling Stones and The Who.

My musical tastes evolved as I got older, of course, but the electric guitar is still my favorite instrument. The versatility of an electric ax is impressive as well. It can be utilized for jazz noodling sessions and Delta blues licks alike. When I pull out an electric guitar, I like to emulate my childhood gods by unleashing a monster solo. Guitar music transports us to another place and time; for that, I will always owe the electric guitar my allegiance.

Many people who are interested in music gravitate towards the electric guitar. Especially if you’re interested in learning music with a bit more of an edge to it, it’s a fantastic place to start with your musical training. Whether you’re teaching yourself or you’re turning to a professional tutor for help, there are some amazing and iconic songs available for new or established lovers of electric guitars.

If you want to learn songs that feature the electric guitar, try learning the main riff of “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes. Or perhaps you’re more interested in Weezer songs, in which case you should learn “Say It Ain’t So.” And if you want to take your guitar lessons to earlier works, tackle “Foxy Lady” by Jimi Hendrix or “Layla” by . Whatever song you learn, don’t forget that there are numerous online videos with step by step tutorials, so if you ever get stuck, you can probably find a video to help you along.

Whether you like it or not, rock n’ roll is here to stay. What used to be a music that was frowned upon by the older generations is now the music that almost everyone loves. This music has been dominating the charts time and again, thanks to its youth appeal. Rock n’ roll has been an avenue for self-expression.

What differentiates rock n’ roll music from other music genres is the type of instruments being played. Sounds mostly come from electric keyboards, drums, and guitars. It then doesn’t come as a surprise that the number of electric guitars for sale has gone up. More and more music lovers, particularly guitarists, have traded their old guitars for the funkier ones. Knowing how to play an electric guitar is a skill and an art. The arrangements can be quite difficult that it takes talent and a lot of practice to master it.

Digital Audio Workstations

Most home studios these days are based around computer Digital Audio Workstations, which combine tracking (recording), audio editing, effects and processing, and mixdown features into one convenient package. These amazing software tools are superpowerful, but all that power can come with the price of complexity. Here are some tips for getting more out of your Digital Audio Workstations.

22. Custom Templates
Sessions with preset tracks and input assignments will get you started quicker.
Remember Tip No. 1 about making it easy to get your studio recording? The same applies to your DAW. You can set up your own templates—empty sessions with tracks already created and assigned to inputs and outputs—so that all you have to do is plug in a mic, arm the track, and hit Record. This saves time and makes the path from inspiration to recording much faster and easier.

23. Optimize Your CPU
Disable background programs you don’t need.
Computers are complex beasts. Often there is a lot going on that we aren’t aware of. Unfortunately, all of that stuff that we’re unaware of saps power from your computer’s ability to play tracks and run plug-ins. Go through and disable any background programs and processes, such as antivirus, backup, and anything else you don’t need that could sap power away from recording and process audio. In many cases, you’ll be surprised how much CPU power you make available to your DAW.

24. External Hard Drives
Record your tracks to a dedicated hard drive.
In most cases you’ll get better results if you record audio tracks to a dedicated hard drive, rather than to your computer’s system drive. With the system drive, there’s always danger of the system interrupting for some reason. Plus, you’ll generally have more room and a faster response with an external FireWire or USB 2.0 drive. You’ll also want another external drive for backing up all your files for safekeeping.

25. RAM-tastic
Add more RAM for better performance.
The number one way to increase your computer’s power is to add more RAM. RAM is the memory that your machine uses to load the operating system and any programs, as well as data that is being processed, off the hard drive. In my opinion, 1 GB of RAM is the minimum amount you should have for basic recording, and I highly recommend at least 2 GB. If you’re running virtual instruments (software synths and samplers), 2 GB is the minimum, with 4 GB being much better. You’ll be surprised how snappy and fast your computer feels when it has enough RAM to function well. (Always check your software’s minimum system requirements for the amount of RAM the manufacturer recommends.)

26. Sampling Rates
If you can hear the difference with a high sampling rate, use it. If not, save your hard drive.
Should you use a high sampling rate, say, 96 kHz, even if your recording is going to end up as a CD or an MP3? For a rock, pop, or similar recording, I don’t hear much difference. For a solo steel-string or classical guitar piece or an intimate, acoustic jazz recording with great mics, preamps, and converters, there may be a subtle improvement. But don’t take my word for it. Try recording the same tracks with high and standard sampling rates, then compare. If your ears hear a difference, go for the high rate. If you can’t tell which is which, save the hard drive and computer resources

MICROPHONE TIPS

The microphone is where it all starts—the sound is never going to get any better than it does when it is captured by the mic. You can tweak it, twist it, slice it, dice it, and squash it, but the quality of the raw miked sound is essential to the final results. These tips will help you optimize your miked signals.

11. Mono Miking
One mic will give you a tight, punchy track.
Should you use one or two mics on your guitar? The answer depends on the result you want. For a driving, hard-strummed track in a band context, one mic will create a tight, punchy sound without taking up too much room in the mix.

12. Stereo Miking
Use two mics for a complete picture of your guitar.
For a solo guitar track—fingerstyle or picked—two mics will give a broader, deeper, more spacious sound, with width that fills both speakers. Two mics can also be positioned to capture a more complete “picture” of the guitar than a single mic can.

13. Multiple-Mic Solutions
Make sure your tracks are in phase.
If you’re using more than one microphone on a source, or if you’re recording more than one instrument at a time and the sound from one instrument is getting into another instrument’s mic, you could have phase issues caused by the different arrival times of the sound waves at different mics. “Out-of-phase” tracks have a hollow, empty sound when combined. Most mixers (software or hardware) include a phase switch for each channel; try it both on and off. One position will usually sound noticeably better than the other.

14. Tracking Guitar and Voice
Use mic polar patterns to isolate tracks.
Tracking someone who plays and sings at the same time can be a real challenge—it’s difficult to isolate the guitar from the vocal so that each can be treated differently during mixdown. There are several things you can do to increase isolation between the two. Place the mics as close as possible to the guitar and the singer’s mouth. Take advantage of the mic polar patterns—cardioid, figure-eight, hypercardioid; all these mic patterns have “nulls” where they don’t pick up sound well. Try to position the nulls for the guitar and vocal mics so they aren’t picking up the other source. Depending on the song and performance, I prefer to just go with it—either live with the bleed between the guitar and vocal or use one well-placed mic pulled back a bit to capture both. The result will be a natural, “you are there” recording of the performance.

15. Recording More Than One Player
Make the performers comfortable.
As a recording engineer, my goal is to capture a great performance. When recording more than one player simultaneously, I make sure the performers are set up so they are completely comfortable, then I’ll place my mics to capture the sound as well as I can. As in Tip No. 14, try to place the mic “nulls” so that there is as much isolation between the performers as possible, and consider putting something between them—a sofa, a divider, whatever you have, in order to improve isolation. Or, again, just go with it: place mics in front of the performers and capture a “you are there” recording of the performance where everyone happily bleeds into everyone else’s mic.

16. Size Matters
Experiment with different mic types.
Should you use a large- or a small-diaphragm mic to record? For vocals—and vocal-like instruments, such as wind instruments—large-diaphragms are the standard. For acoustic guitar, in general, small-diaphragm mics will give you more detail and clarity while large-diaphragms will provide a fuller, punchier sound. Having said that, experiment! Try each type and see which you prefer.

17. Omnidirectional Mics
For natural sound and room ambience, try an omni.
Omnidirectional microphones mics pick up sound well from all directions. The advantage is that they will give you an even, balanced sound and good dynamic response, with no proximity effect (bass boost), even with the mic very close to the guitar. You also get some room ambience, resulting in a more natural sound. The disadvantage is that there is no isolation—the mic will pick up everything in the room to some degree. And if the room doesn’t sound all that great, you may not want its ambience in the recording. I love omnis for stereo “live” recordings of classical, acoustic jazz, and similar styles. They aren’t as common for multitrack recordings, but I’m using them more and more for their natural sound quality.

18. Give It Some Space
Pull your guitar mics back a few feet.
No one ever hears an acoustic guitar from a foot away—which is where we often place our microphones. As listeners, we always hear the instrument from some distance back in the room. For most instruments the sound “develops” and comes together a few feet away from the instrument. With guitar, for example, the main source of the sound may be the soundboard—though the sound quality will vary depending on the spot on the soundboard you are listening to. But vibrations from the neck, back, sides, even headstock, all contribute to the overall sound to some degree—and a close mic will never capture all that resonance. Try pulling your mics back a few feet, or use distant mics placed five or more feet away in conjunction with close mics, to really capture what your guitar sounds like.

19. Laser Accuracy
A laser pointer will show you exactly where your mics are pointed.
Want to know exactly where your mics are pointing? Use a laser pointer alongside your mic to see exactly where it is aimed.

20. Sonic Reinforcement
Record a pickup track alongside mic tracks.
If a guitar has a pickup, I always record it to a track, even if I’m using microphones. I then have the option of blending in the pickup sound (with or without EQ to shape it) to reinforce the mic tracks.

21. Tweak the Pickup Track
When recording a pickup signal, use a good direct box and shape the signal with EQ.
If you’re working with just a pickup (no mics), it can be a challenge to get a great recorded sound. First, use a good direct box or instrument input. Consider using something like one of the Fishman Aura processors, which use digital “images” of real acoustic guitars—I’ve done solo guitar recordings using these and had excellent results. Many listeners couldn’t tell I hadn’t used a mic! D-Tar’s Mama Bear is another option, as it uses digital modeling to create more realistic acoustic sounds from a pickup. Otherwise, record the pickup signal dry, then during mixdown carefully EQ the pickup signal to remove any harsh upper midrange. Brighten the top end to open up the sound, and shape the bass to be more realistic. Then, add a small amount of extremely short reverb—1/10 of a second or so—to simulate the resonance of the instrument. You don’t want so much that you hear it as a reverb tail, just enough to add some space and depth to the pickup sound.

Everything is possible. Even you can play a guitar the rock star way. Those who are still new with this, then you have to learn the basics. Even those who are big names in the music industry started from scratch.

If you are grim and determined to learn the guitar like a pro, it takes constant practice and guidance from the expert. Learning to play can both be physically and mentally draining.

To many, the first step in learning the guitar is by familiarizing the guitar chords. This way, it would help you to strengthen your fingers, wrists, and most specially the hand.

This strength that will be developed will eventually help you in mastering the art of guitar playing. Constant practice on learning and playing the chords will be a big help to coordinate the picking hand together with the hand which is voicing the chords.

Though this may be considered as one of the basic ways in guitar playing, this would serve as your solid foundation in your further endeavors in playing the guitar. If you are now confident that you have mastered the basics of playing the guitar, then you can let some of your friends and families witness your new talent.

By doing this, it will give you greater confidence and inspire you to work hard in practicing.

When planning to play the guitar, remember that the longest journey starts with a single step. If you want to learn how to play the guitar, then do it now.

There are now many free resources on the internet teaching people how to play the guitar. There are also many online guitar learning courses such as Jamorama that provides a step by step guide online. These are prefect for people who are busy and can’t attend a traditional guitar learning class.

You can go online anytime of the day when you are free and learn guitar online. Most online guitar learning courses provides videos and software that makes learning easier than ever before.

Know the secrets of the guitar masters. The guitar effect pedal is an innovation in music artistry. Transform the sound of your guitar into different kinds of instruments and effects. The reverb effect prolongs the melodic tones to several bars. The wawa effect was made popular by Chet Atkins that allows the sound into “wawa” eclectic sound.

The foot pedals amplify your guitar licks into crescendo mode and they can multiply the effect to make it sound like more than one guitar is playing. One click on the device will change an electric guitar’s sounds into that of an acoustic classical guitar. This amazing device will amplify your guitar skills to make you sound like a guitar master.

by Robert Denman

The date of June 9, 1915 was a special day in the lives of George and Evelyn Polfuss, as a baby boy was born to them. They named him Lester William. Little did they realize the impact this child would have on the world of twentieth century popular music. Lester was born to sturdy German stock and would learn the value of motivation and dedication to hard work from his mother. From early on, she was the driving force to propel him forward to excel at everything he did, especially his music.
As a young child, Lester taught himself the harmonica and progressed to the guitar after just a few years. The first influence on Lester was Pie Plant Pete, an entertainer from Chicago’s WLS radio station, who played a guitar and harmonica at the same time. Soon, Lester had managed to copy this man’s act. Evelyn had given Les the stage name of Red Hot Red, because of his red hair and his “red-hot” music. By 1929, Les was doing solo dates around his home town of Waukesha, Wisconson.

In the spring of 1931, Lester met Sunny Joe Wolverton, who had a profound influence as a mentor on the lad. Sunny Joe was a string player with Rube Tronson’s Cowboys. They became instant friends. After Sunny Joe had left the Cowboys, Rube Tronson offered Lester a job in his band. At the age of 17, in 1932, Lester went on the road with Rube Tronson.In the meantime, Sunny Joe had landed a job with KMOX in St. Louis as a staff musician. Joe offered Les a job at the station and Les dropped out of high school and went to St. Louis in October, 1932. Sunny Joe gave Les a stage name of Rhubarb Red, playing off the name of Pie Plant Pete, rhubarb being a synonym for pie plant. Lester was a devoted student of the guitar under Sunny Joe’s tutelage, and soon Sunny Joe purchased for Lester his first Gibson guitar, an L-50 arch-top, as a gift. The Depression caused KMOX to make cutbacks and both young men were let go, and soon landed a job together at KWTO in Springfield, Missouri. At this time, Joe bought for Lester a Gibson L-5, as Lester was progressing so fast on the guitar. In 1934 they were hired by WBBM in Chicago, and were still playing hillbilly tunes and moving toward more big band songs in the pop field. The job at WBBM soon ended and the lads got a job playing at the Chicago World’s Fair in the summer of 1934. It was here that Lester and Sunny Joe had a falling out in August of 1934. Les wanted to play jazz and experiment with the electric guitar, while Sunny Joe preferred to remain in country music and use his acoustic guitar. Lester Polfuss remained in Chicago performing on a variety of radio stations as Rhubarb Red. Shortly thereafter, he was hired by WJJD to perform as Rhubarb Red and at the same time working at a sister station, WIND, playing jazz under his new stage name of Les Paul. Listeners did not realise that Rhubarb Red and Les Paul were the same person. During this period in the mid 1930’s, Les was listening to the piano of Art Tatum and was much influenced by this man’s playing. Also, Les had acquired recordings of Django Reinhardt, the gypsy jazz guitarist from the Hot Club of France. Soon the style of Django became the style of Les, although he would never admit the influence Django had on him.

Les began jamming at night with other jazz musicians around Chicago and enjoyed his experiences with Art Tatum, Roy Eldridge, Nat Cole, and Earl Hines. In 1936 and into 1937, Les recorded 20 sides on the Decca label with Georgia White, a popular blues singer. Les was 21 at this time.

One problem Les was having was to find a decent sounding amplified guitar in order to be heard better in the noisy clubs. None of the currently available electric guitars satisfied his sensitive ear. At this point Les began building pickups powerful enough for his use. He mounted them on second-hand guitars as he experimented with the placement and tonal qualities these pickups would offer. Les discovered that the vibration of the guitar’s top seemed to interfere with the sound of the vibrating strings when using his pickups. He was determined to find a way to stop the vibration of the top so the pure sound of the vibrating strings would be heard alone. The Larson Brothers of Chicago built him a guitar with a half-inch-thick maple top and no sound holes. This would stop the vibration of the top. Les was the first guitarist to place 2 pickups on his instrument. This guitar with the thick top was his pioneering idea later to be found in the solid body guitars to come.

Les’s custom-designed electric guitar generated favorable response, and he started playing with George Barnes, another convert to the early electric guitar. At this time, Les had built a primitive disk-cutting lathe and taught himself how to overdub on a single disk. It was this machine that would be the forerunner of the sound on sound recording technique that would make Les Paul famous.

In 1937, the Les Paul Trio was formed with Les, and guitarist Jimmy Atkins (older brother of Chet Atkins), and a bassist, Ernie Newton. Les was the lead guitarist, and Jimmy played rhythm guitar and sang.

Les, then 22, yearned to travel to New York City to play jazz in the big time. So, the trio left for New York to seek their fortune in the genre of jazz. After failing to get an audition with Paul Whiteman, Les managed to convince Fred Waring to listen to the trio. Mr. Waring liked these young fellows at once, and hired them to play with his orchestra, The Pennsylvanians. The Les Paul Trio was a featured act with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians on radio as well as live perfomances. Most listeners had never heard an electric guitar and were intrigued with Les’s sizzling single-note technique. In fact, Les began receiving more fan letters than Waring himself. Other young guitarists were influenced by Les’s work with Waring. Johnny Smith, Tony Mottola,and Charlie Byrd were some of the great guitarists who were impacted by Les’s work with Waring.

After hours Les would jam with Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Stuff Smith, and Roy Eldridge. He even traded licks with Charlie Christian on the bandstand at Minton’s in Harlem. Many musicians jammed all night with Les in the basement of his apartment building. In 1939 the Trio cut some records on their own.

In 1941, the Epiphone Guitar Company permitted Les to use their factory on Sundays for his experiments refining his electric guitar. Here, Les built his Famous “Log”, a 20 pound guitar made from a 4″X 4″length of pine. He added a neck and two pickups he made. And to make it look like a guitar he installed a pair of side wings from an Epiphone acoustic. Les played the “log”,and his modified Gibson, along with his customized Epiphones in clubs.

In the spring of 1941, Les received a severe electric shock from his microphone stand in the basement of the apartment building. This injury prevented Les from playing for some time while he recuperated. Les and Waring were in conflict anyhow from Les’s recordings he made outside of the Waring Orchestra, and Les disbanded the trio and resigned from the Pennsylvanians. He accepted a job as music director for 2 radio stations in Chicago and returned to WJJD and WIND. Les began playing again and left the two stations for the WBBM studio orchestra. This lead to a regular spot with the Ben Bernie Orchestra broadcasting on WBBM. His astounding guitar work attracted a young Bucky Pizzarelli to the radio broadcasts to marvel at Les’s technique.

During this time, Les brought the “Log” to M.H. Berlin, the president of Chicago Musical Instruments, which had acquired Gibson. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce Les’s idea for Gibson to manufacture a solid-body guitar. After declaring the “Log” to be nothing but a broomstick with pickups, Mr. Berlin laughed Les out the door.

In 1943, Ben Bernie retired to California due to poor health and promised to groom Les to take over his orchestra. Les, now 27, made the drive to Hollywood envisioning a leap upward in his career. He even had the desire to approach Bing Crosby to work with him. By this time Ben Bernie was too ill to be of any help to his young protégé. Mr. Bernie passed away in October, 1943. Les wasted no time in forming a new trio and they soon got jobs with NBC in Hollywood as staff musicians. This was the home of Bing Crosby’s weekly Kraft Music Hall show.

Les’s plans were interrupted by the draft in 1943. Fortunately, Les had a friend in Meredith Willson, the music director of NBC. Major Willson was commissioned by the army to be the music director for the Armed Forces Radio Service, and pulled strings to get Les into his unit. This experience proved to be one of the greatest breaks in Les’s career. He edited many hours of prerecorded entertainment into variety shows for Armed Forces network distribution. Les was now into the study of audio engineering. He formed a new trio and associated with many Hollywood stars featured on the network. The nice part is that Les could still live at home and work close to home. Within months, though, Les applied for a medical discharge and was out of uniform by early 1944. He still made transcriptions for the AFRS through C.P. MacGregor Recording Studio, and recorded with many outstanding musicians, including alto sax man Willie Smith. Les learned audio work from the McGregor engineers in order to satisfy his thirst for knowledge in the field.

In June of 1944, Les was invited by Nat Cole to join his trio in playing a show, Jazz At The Phiharmonic, in Los Angeles. This concert along with other JATP concerts was released on records and sold well. Les returned to NBC after his army stint was over, and continued as before. He finally got the chance to play for Bing Crosby and was invited to be a frequent guest on his show with the new Les Paul Trio. A few months later the Les Paul Trio backed Crosby on the Decca label with the song, “It’s Been A Long, Long Time”. The song became a number one hit. Crosby, being impressed with Les’s technical recording skills, encouraged him to open his own studio. Les built a studio in his garage and even built his own recording lathe, using a solid steel Cadillac flywheel for a turntable. It was driven by dental belts. His studio also served as a guitar laboratory where he experimented with his guitar designs matching parts from various guitars. He came up with a modified Epiphone to which he bolted a steel plate to prevent the top from vibrating. With his own hand wound pickups mounted on the top he got the long-sustaining sound of a solid body guitar. Over the next five years, Les’s experiments in his garage studio, would produce the new guitar sounds and audio recording techniques that would help to change popular music forever.

During this time the garage studio became a busy cottage industry as he recorded many stars from the period. Les was also busy with over a dozen sustaining shows on NBC as well as being a guest with George Burns and Gracie Allen, and continuing as a guest with Bing Crosby. He also did a number of recordings with his trio on the Decca label.

One year after Les’s hit with Bing Crosby, he teamed up with the Andrews Sisters to record a hit record, “Rumors Are Flying”. A few weeks later, Les landed his first Hollywood night club gig at the Club Rounders. With his group, he would play jazz standards mixed with some of his old Rhubarb Red hillbilly tunes. Les was then booked by the Andrews Sisters on their next road tour. The trio opened for them and accompanied their performances. During the tour, Les tried out his new headless aluminum guitar. However, it went in and out of tune due to the heat from the spotlights playing on it, and generated a lot of laughs.

Les now found himself in a crossroads of his career. He watched ecstatic audiences dancing in the aisles to the Andrews Sisters and their rendition of “Rum and Coca-Cola”, and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, while his jazz numbers were not getting across to the listeners. He decided to come up with a new approach to music. He resolved to make his music more accessible to his listeners. This signaled his shift away from jazz into middle-of-the-road pop music. Upon returning to the west coast he went into his garage studio and began his work.

After many hours of work alone he came up with his method of overdubbing to produce a clean effect with many parts being layered. He was way ahead of the contemporary audio engineers and had them baffled. After 500 discarded disks, Les finally produced a mutilayered arrangement of 8 guitars on the song, “Lover”, in 1947. Capital Records put it on the market and Les had a big hit. The “New Sound” of Les Paul was born.

Les decided to hire a female vocalist for his Rhubard Red show, one of several sustaining programs he did for NBC. He auditioned Iris Colleen Summers, a lovely young country singer. This led to a partnership with Les giving her the stage name of Mary Ford. While traveling through Oklahoma in January, 1948, the couple’s car skidded off the road and plummeted 20 feet into a frozen creek bed. Among Les’s many injuries, his right elbow was shattered. After a series of operations, his right arm was repaired, but it was many months before he was able to train his arm and hand to play again. During this time his new rendition of “Lover” was selling everywhere and receiving much air time. One day Bing Crosby dropped by and presented Les with a get-well gift of a new Ampex tape recorder.

By 1949, Les was ready to play in public with Mary and had a debut with her at the Polfuss family tavern in Waukesha. Then a series of appearances around Milwaukee followed. Mary was in. They toured together in 1949 and in December they returned to Milwaukee and were married on December 29. Les began experimenting with his Ampex tape recorder and figured out how to overdub on tape by adding a second playback head. The modified Ampex now was a portable recording studio which they used to record their many hits in hotel rooms while travelling between shows.

The couple soon began making radio shows together for NBC. The fifteen minute radio program, “Les Paul and Mary Ford At Home”, was pre-recorded and broadcast every Friday night. Also, several more potential hits were being released by Capital Records. Les and Mary did all their recording at home or on the road and submitted the masters to Capital, with Les dicatating to the record company what songs were destined to become hits.

After extensive touring and recording the couple decided to leave Hollywood and head for New York City to make the crossover from radio to television. They took a cramped apartment in Les’s former New York neighborhood. It was here that they conceived and recorded their arrangement of “How High The Moon”, a hard-swinging multilayered arrangement containing twelve overdubs using the guitar and Mary’s voice. Capital was not ready for this one yet, but after Les had scored several more hits with Capital in 1950 and 1951, including, “Tennessee Waltz”, and “Mockin’ Bird Hill”, it was easier to persuade Capital to put out “How High The Moon”. Released in March of 1951, within one month, “How High The Moon” and “Mockin’ Bird Hill” captured The Hit Parade’s number 1 and number 2 spots, respectively. Les and Mary were in the big time.

The first solid body electric guitar was introduced to the market in 1948 by Leo Fender. Compared to the hollow-body electrics, the solid body guitars offered long sustain and a sharp treble, without the problem of feedback. Ted McCarty, the president of Gibson at the time, felt the need to address the competition from Fender, and instructed Gibson’s research and development department to design a solid body guitar. After a few months the team at Gibson built a promising prototype. It featured a mahogany body with a single cutaway sporting 2 P-90 pickups. A neck with a fingerboard of 22 frets extended the range of the instrument. The top was carved in such a way to appear like the arched tops on the Gibson acoustics. A gold finish applied to the top earned the guitar the nickname of “the Gold Top”. The next strategy would be for McCarty to figure out how to market the new design. He thought immediately of Les Paul as an endorser of the instrument. After all, Les was one of the country’s most highly acclaimed players and was well known for his own work on improving the electric guitar. In the fall of 1951, McCarty presented the prototype to Les for his advice and counsel. The new guitar pleased Les very much, and a five-year contract was drawn up that night for Les to endorse the guitar for a royalty on each one sold. Les also was required to play only Gibsons in public. In regards to the design of the new solid body, Les had one suggestion. It was to use a trapeze tailpiece with a cylindrical bar that he had recently developed. Other than this modification, the guitar was entirely a creation of Gibson’s research and development department. Les convinced McCarty to give the guitar the name of “The Les Paul Model”. Les unveiled his new Gold Top for the first time at the New York Paramount in June, 1952. Les used the Gold Top to record “Tiger Rag”, which became another big hit.

Les and Mary had earned $500,000 by the end of 1951, and had recorded more top ten hits for the year than Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and the Andrews Sisters combined. They also tied Patti Page for top selling recording artist, having sold more than six million disks since January of 1951. Les bought a big Cadillac to use on their expanding road tours with plenty of space for all their electronic gear. Next came the woodland retreat in Mahwah, NJ, in the Ramopo Mountains. Renovations began to turn the house into a mansion including Les’s recording studio and an echo chamber carved out of a neighboring mountain. In September, 1952, after cutting “I’m Sitting on Top of the World”, Les and Mary sailed for London to appear at the Palladium Theatre, where they debuted before the Queen and the royal family.

In 1953 the couple recorded the song that would be the largest seller of their career. In June, 1953, “Vaya con Dios” hit the record bins, and sailed to the number one spot. Following this success the couple started to host their own daily television broadcast from their Mahwah home. Sponsered by Listerine, it ran for 3 years as the Les Paul and Mary Ford Show. Les and Mary enjoyed their success by working even harder. They managed to put out 28 hits between 1950 and 1957. In early 1955, rock and roll came along and eventually threatened the popularity of many performers including Les Paul and Mary Ford. Rock and roll left Les stranded and he was baffled by the rising appeal of rock and roll performers. In fact, the electric guitar which propelled Les into popularity had become the instrument of his professional doom in the hands of the rock and roll entertainers. Les and Mary were showing the serious signs of strain from the years of living a show business life style.

Les then turned to his other interest: electronics. In 1954, he toyed with the idea of stacking eight recording units to produce multigenerational music. He went to Ampex with his ideas and in 1957, Ampex brought out “the Octupus” as Les called it. This eight track machine revolutionized the recording industry.

In 1956, Les devised a remote control little black box attached to his guitar that would enable him to operate the taped accompaniment he used during live performances. An invitation to play at the Eisenhower White House was the first chance for Les to test his new device called the “Les Paulverizer”.

Les and Mary left Capital and signed with the Columbia label in July, 1958. But, the move failed to restore their declining career. Their marriage was also failing and their many professional and personal setbacks resulted in a divorce in December, 1964. Les now layed low in New Jersey, playing some and working on his electronic experiments. He liked to jam at home all night with his old friends. Les had ended his association with Gibson around 1961, due to the waning popularity of his guitars. In 1967, Les persuaded Gibson to utilize his new low-impedance pickups leading to several new Les Paul Models to emerge with these new pickups. However, the new pickups never caught on and by the mid 1970s, Gibson dropped the concept.

Les’s old friend, Bucky Pizzarelli, called Les in 1972 and wanted Les to join him as a duet for a gig. Les was well received once again and this began a return to the mainstream through a number of new opportunites. Les was doing personal appearances again and was featured in a few videos. In May, 1975, Les and Chet Atkins recorded an album, “Chester and Lester”. The album became a popular and critical success and earned the two guitarists a Grammy award in 1977. Later in 1977, Les was badly shaken by Mary Ford’s death and the passing of his personal manager, as well as Jimmy Atkins and Ernie Newton(from the original Les Paul Trio). Shortly after this, Bing Crosby also died.

In 1980, Les underwent quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. His recovery was a very slow and difficult process. Eventually, Les was up and playing again despite severe arthritis in both hands. His friend and fellow guitarist, Wayne Wright, landed a gig at Fat Tuesday’s, a jazz club in New York City. Together with Gary Mazzaroppi on bass the trio debuted at Fat Tuesday’s in March, 1984, and enjoyed a long standing engagement each Monday night for several years. Les was being called the “Living Legend” and his life and music suddenly appealed to the young rockers looking for a hero. His guitars had been in the hands of major rock stars for some time and his recording studio innovations had been adopted by these younger recording artists. Many younger guitarists were astounded to find that Les Paul was a real person, and not just a guitar. The “Living Legend” had returned to center stage. The very culture that put Les out of business was now chasing after him, even though Les never played rock and roll in his life. In January, 1988, Les was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, not because he was a rocker, but for the instrument he had helped to create along with his invention of multiple-track recording. In February, 2001, Les received a technology Grammy for 6 decades of contributions to the recording industry including the Les Paul Guitar, multiple-track recording, overdubbing techniques, tape echo, and his eight-track tape recorder.

Since 1996, Les and his trio have played at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City each Monday night, and at the age of 86, despite frail health, Les is determined to continue. Les has a photo website at: www.redhotred.com.

Les Paul is indeed the “Living Legend of the Electric Guitar”.

As guitarists, we tend to use the minor pentatonic scale way too much, especially as beginners. Let’s stop disrespecting a great music style by playing the same thing over and over
again. There’s more to the blues than just 1, b3, 4, 5, and b7.
First, let’s talk about the most basic of the blues style: the 12-bar (I-IV-V) blues progression. Usually someone will noodle with the I Minor Pentatonic over that. One thing that often confused me is that the I chord is usually played as a major chord, yet we play a minor scale over it. Isn’t that against the rules? Well, the modulation of the major and minor 3rd is the foundation of that sound we call “blues”. You should use the b7 tone instead of the major 7 tone, because the b7 tone sounds more bluesy, and the b7 can be found in both major (Mixolydian) and minor (Dorian, Aeolian, Locrian, Phrygian) scales. So, you can sound a little more original by simply making the chords minor and using a Mixolydian Pentatonic scale (1, 3, 4, 5, b7), and still get the blues sound.

To expand your melodic approach even more, let’s try using a scale that isn’t pentatonic. In my opinion, the two best modes to use over blues are Mixolydian and Dorian. Why? They only differ in their third - Mixolydian has a major third while Dorian has a minor third. So, we could use Mixolydian when we’re playing over minor chords and Dorian over major (remember, we want to get that modulation of the 3rds going). Or you could just make an 8 tone scale consisting of 1, 2, b3, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7; this would put the modulation in the lead line. Then, you could also do that in the harmony (play a minor 7th chord and hammer-on/pull-off the major 3rd note).

To expand your harmonic approach, we can do chord substitutions, or add color tones to the chords. A simple way to make the progression sound more jazzy (better) would be to play something like I(13)-IV(9)-V(13). The Miles Davis tune, “All Blues” uses a I(7/min7)-II(m7)-bIII(maj7)-II(m7) progression (the “7/min7″ means modulate the chords 3rd from major to minor quickly, usually with hammer-ons/pull-offs).

The main thing that I want to get across is that the blues sound is created by the dominant 7th tone, and by the third, modulating from major to minor. This is an important realization for any blues or jazz player.