The following content is related to the March 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.
I wrote the song “Jeff Beck” with the intention of submitting it to Jeff Beck for inclusion on an album of his. The song didn’t make it onto the record, unfortunately, so I recorded it myself for the 2009 Krantz Carlock Lefebvre album.
I used Beck’s name as the title because it was inspired by his style of blues playing. He has such a distinct way of expressing pure individualism within many different variants of the blues form, retaining the integrity of the idiom while, at times, going about as far out as anyone could imagine. Likewise, this tune is an abstraction of the blues, because I allow my ear to follow whatever it’s attracted to.
If I hear one of those weird open-string chords that is undefined, harmonically speaking, it adds balance to the “muscle” of the tune, which is provided by the unison figures played together by guitar and bass. There are hard-edged groove elements that are blended with open-ended suspended chords, and that type of mix is really attractive to me. This also fits into my musical impression of Beck, who plays a lot of stuff that is outside the standard vocabulary but often does so within the context of straight-ahead blues and rock.
“The skill is in choosing which notes to emphasize, or maybe skip entirely, while maintaining the alternate strokes”: Why rhythm is as important as the notes you play in a blues guitar solo
“We often overlook this humble technique, yet it’s such an important tool for expressive rhythm and lead playing”: Palm muting is an essential guitar technique – but there’s a lot more to it than just chugging. Are you using it to its full potential?
