Music- Tones

Tones

First post. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog where I share my ideas, opinions, and experiences with my Music. 

I'm the front-man in 3 Days Leave, a christian rock band from SC (check us out here www.facebook.com/3daysleave). As the only guitar player in my band I have to do extra work on my tones. I'm mean lets face it, not many bands have three guitar players like Iron Maiden or Lynyrd Skynyrd. Most are lucky to have two solid guys with capable axes to fill all the demands of rhythm and lead with an occasional fill-in or picking pattern that only 2% of the listen audience will appreciate. Then there are the troopers, the real go getters who put in overtime to be the one guitar player and carry the crushing weight of knowing the melody and face-melting all depends on you (so this may be melodramatic but bear with me). It's a task nonetheless. Being the only guitar player requires you pick your battles. You decide when you're going to rip a lead, when you're going to pick a pattern, and when you just keep strumming on - the - click - every - single - time. In my band, we have a keyboard player, we'll call him Joshua... actually everyone calls him Joshua. He of course helps fill the rhythm but lets be real there are way cooler things you can do with an organ/piano/synth than just punch chords. So as I said, I pick my battles and my tones help me do this. I have a small but growing pedal board (pictures to come of a hand built board I'm working on). And on that board I have several pedals that I love and wouldn't... no couldn't play a show without. I'm a big fan of vintage sounds. Lets be real though, what mac-owning, scarf-wearing, I-lead-worship-at-my-church-sometimes guitar player doesn't express that same sentiment. But for me tones are kinda of a big deal, like Anchorman Ron Burgundy big deal. In fact, a buddy and I were talking about guitar tones and he mentioned that the guitar player of Maroon 5 is a tone snob and won't even use a belt pack for fear of distorting the signal. I can dig it, tone-snob maybe. When I punch my Boss Fender Deluxe Reverb '65 I want to hear that classic "spring rattle" that intermittently seeps through my strum. My reasoning? Tones are like adverbs. You can take a normal melody line and play it with a specific tones (the tone of course being rendered by a guitar, amp or more commonly a pedal) and "make" the song. Example, Poison "Every Rose has its Thorn." Yeah the verse starts slow and its only G and C but that bright, roomy, chorusy acoustic guitar takes the G and C chords and helps to make a number one hit in 1988 for the band Poison. In conclusion, next time you sit down to write a song, play a cover tune, or practice with your band take time to think about what KIND of sound is coming out of your amp. Create the tone with your ears. Use everything in your arsenal from EQ knobs on your amp, volume and tone knobs on your guitar, and your pedal settings. Be a connoisseur of tones. For me it makes the song and helps me to convey the message of the lyrics. 

Keep rocking the Free World.

-A.J.