Is it a tool chest or bag of tricks??.

(Ian Moore debut CD was an epiphany to my whole outlook in music. It was not just about playing guitar anymore after I heard this CD back in 1993).

Taken fr: The Killing Floor

Yahoo Groups Date: Thu May 26, 2005 6:41 pm Subject: My input on Guitar Wars

Darren (El Diablo) had asked me: Have you ever thought of competing, JCM?

Truthfully... Yeah when I was twelve and going into my teens...lol

All kidding aside... Guitar Wars to me feels like....

Who makes the best cake icing in town... My question is... What about the cake as a whole or the cake's bread??... There's so much more than just chops and flash... I've seen lots of acoustic guitar players that would entertain a crowd for hours and hours playing nothing but open chords with not one lick and on one night, as an encore, these two fuckers whipped out this tune called "The Dueling Banjos"... Totally fucking amazing to end a show...

(Brian May very underated guitarist... He's covered all different styles and has one of the most amazing tones ever and no one sounds like him)

My work requires to visits music stores here in SA and Austin. I've seen and heard the best solo/licks of the month and after 30 minutes you'll get the feeling that playing rhythm is not very importand and I know how that goes because when I was young I was doing the same thing... I wanted to be the fastest gun in town. But I can't stress enough how importand it is to learn rhythm playing or just other styles of music period.

I remember when it wasn't cool to play guitar solos... That was a trip... All these dumb fuckers that had no business in front cover of top rated guitar mags didn't even know how to tune there guitars... Go fucking figure...

I am not going to say showing off your chops is not fun or cool because it is... But it's never been my style to show you how much or what I can do in two minutes because chops and flash is just a couple of tools in my tool box and of course my goal is to have a cool tool chest with lots of drawers and lots of tools...lol

What happen to me as I got older and wiser was- my priorities changed to... Be coming a better composer/song writer, singer, showman ship first and then a guitarplayer. I didn't understand this until I had to front my own band. Doing my own songs and cover tunes my style trying entertaining people is by far the hardest of all for me to accomplish and keep proficient at it...

(Monstrous technique, total tone zone heaven: Robben Ford)

I've clocked with a metronome speed picking as fast as Paul Gilbert and doing legato licks a la Richie Kotzen all day. But I would bore you after 20 minutes solo and I much rather entertain you and keep you in the zone with me for two hours than a quickie 20 minutes... Unless of course if you are Eddie Van Halen...Soooo no you won't see me in a Guitar Wars competition... Unless of course I'm starving for food, water, gear or attention. But I will never say never though... I just might join the next enrollment of Guitar Wars... mmmm.. you got me thinking now Darren... JCM "Will do it for Johnny"