It’s All About Tone

You’ve probably heard people say about a particular player “Man, he’s got great tone!” It took me quite a while to understand what that meant. There’s a tendency to think that “tone” means a particular sound, but every player has their own sound. Some have great tone, some not so much, but there are lots of players with good to great tone that all have their own individual sound on their particular axe.

The great players can pick up pretty much any example of their chosen instrument and create “their” sound. The sound comes from the player, primarily, as I pointed out elsewhere in this blog (see “It Ain’t The Gear“). The same goes for tone. Sure, the equipment can color the sound to some degree, but there’s no amount of equipment that is going to give a player good tone.

So, what exactly is tone?

Read more in Roots, Rock ‘n Blues News…

There’s A Reason They Call It “Playing”

Let’s consider two words: “playing” and “working.” Which one sounds like more fun? Silly question, right? Obviously, if you’re “working” you’re not having fun. Work isn’t supposed to be fun, it’s what you do to put food on the table and gas in the car so you can get to work.

Watching bands perform you can always tell which ones are “working” and which ones are “playing.” Personally, I’d rather watch a band “play” than “work.” If they’re not having fun up there, it’s not likely the audience is enjoying the performance as much as they could, either.

Here are a couple of examples I saw recently on HDNet…

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