As GuitarGear.org has grown, so has its readership, but trying to keep a constant feed of fresh content isn’t as easy you might think, considering that it has only been me doing it for the past couple of years, with a couple of contributions from folks like Tweed Demon in the past. One of the areas that I wanted to expand to was providing more education pieces; partly because I’ve started teaching beginning to intermediate guitar players, but also because music theory is something that really interests me. But far be it from me to share any formal knowledge – I’m self-taught. I can only describe theory in terms of how I’ve experienced it, not in any real academic ways.
So it comes as a real pleasure to introduce to you GuitarGear’s newest author, “wesman.” Wesman started commenting on the site a couple of months ago, and his feedback has been both honest and insightful. So after he “corrected” me in a recent post about music theory, I felt compelled to contact him and ask him to contribute his knowledge to the site. He gracefully accepted. Here’s a transcript of a quick interview I gave to him:
How did you discover GuitarGear.org?
It was suggested to me in google reader
What’s your musical background? Did you study formally or organically?
I started playing guitar around the age of 10. I took fairly standard guitar lessons in that they were lax on theory. I never learned notation and only minimal (practical) theory. In high school some friends and I were able to persuade the school to do a theory class for the 6 of us as an elective and that was my first exposure to “real” theory. My the time I graduated I was competent on guitar, bass and drums. I took a few classes in theory, history and composition in college while majoring in computer science and worked on my playing in various bands. I picked up the harmonica and also started experimenting with a cassette 4-track which started my love of recording. Since college I’ve become proficient on piano and organ, honed my guitar skills and focused on composition and live performance. I’m working on picking up the sax now!
What styles of music do you play or write?
I play primarily rock music – typically fast, loud stuff – punk, not metal or anything too evil sounding – I have done a lot of intimate quiet recordings as well, but I usually prefer uptempo music when playing in a band – I’ve got some demos on my myspace: myspace.com/angoraluvu <http://myspace.com/angoraluvu> .
What’s in your rig?
oh man – I love talking about this stuff – my main amplifier for live use is the mesa/boogie mk iv which I think is nearly perfect. at home I have a mid-70s Fender Vibro-Champ. For guitars, I primarily play a les paul classic and my backup is a double cutaway les paul special. I also have a 70’s RI strat and some foreign-built epiphone casino (the label came off – I think it’s indonesian or something, but it is nice for playing at home). live, I typically use just a fulltone clyde deluxe wah pedal though lately I’ve been bringing a line6 FM4 which I use for uni-vibe, flanger, tremolo and ring modulator effects. For acoustics, I have a beautiful 1970’s gibson j-200 artist and a seagull m12 12-string. I play bass in a band as well – I use a 1982 gibson ripper and a recent rickenbacker 4001 through an ampeg v4b that, I think, is from the 90s
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