The Pulse #12 - Copyright, Jason Becker, Jeff Beck and MS: The Bash

	In this issue @ Introduction @ New Articles on iBreatheMusic @ Pulse Bites: New digital copyright @ Essential Listening: Jason Becker @ Eric's Shred 101-Lick @ Member Spotlight: The Bash @ Sizzling Hot Forum Topics


	Introduction Hello all, Thanks to you, iBreatheMusic and its forums are constantly growing. On Tueday our post count reached 10.000, which I think is quite an impressive number and shows that the popularity of the site is constatly growing. There are also a few drawbacks to this which we quite heavily experienced the last few weeks. It's pretty easy for someone to subscribe to the forums to promote any service to a targeted audience, without any intention to constructively take part in the discussions. Most of the time such posts are spotted and removed within a few minutes. Still, we are not able to monitor the discussions 24 hours a day and this is where I wanna thank all members who always have a close eye on what's happening in the forums and when needed report any kind of spam message or suspected inadequate postings. It's our intention to keep the forums as clean as possible and I think this is in all our favour. Talking about spam: I recently received this spam mail and I really had to laugh out loud (Zatz!! This one is for you :-). It's a response to the forum thread 'perfect pitch training disks' and our discussion about vacuum cleaners at http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=157 Sorry guys: http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/posts/vacuum.htm Wall-Hugging Technology?!? but how does this thing sound? :-) Guni

New Articles on IbreatheMusic
Musical Frustration by Tom Hess Are you musically frustrated with yourself? Are you not the musician that you want to be? I think just about everyone has had these thoughts go through their mind from time to time... Continue

Do Not Disturb by Eric Vandenberg Here's a collection of thoughts about practicing... how to get the most out of your practicing time, practicing methods and strategies, a sample schedule etc. Continue

Moving From The Familiar to The Unfamiliar - Alternate View by James B Schultz Borrowing from the concept of learning modes from each scale degree or alternately from a common root. An alternate approach to learning the relationship between modes or keys by altering known patterns instead of moving them around, is presented. Continue

Tapping Arpeggios - Part 1 by Atanas Shishkov I use a lot of two-handed licks in my playing. I started to explore and include more of this technique into my style because of the smooth and fluid sounds created with two-hand playing... Continue

Why Not Do Both? (Legato Pt.2 and more...) by Eric Vandenberg In this article, I'd like to show you a slightly different approach to legato-playing (Brett Garsed-style), and also the "Technique A vs. Technique B" vs. "Why not do both?" approach. Continue


	Pulse Bites: New digital copyright Lately I have been trying to understand what the new copyright and patent directives are that the US and the EU are trying to push through, and what they have in store for us from a consumer perspective. Well, unless you're a lawyer, the directives themselves are quite hard to read, let alone understand. So, I was looking for actual real world scenarios. Here are a few that are based on the EU directives for the new patent law: - Imagine you have a CD at home which is secured through a patented code and can be only played on a CD player made by company XY. Due to financial reasons the company owning the patent decides to stop its CD player line. Well, bad luck my friends. The CD will be unusable. - Another CD example. You buy 2 CDs: 1 was produced by Sony, one by Ariola. Both CDs can only be played on the company's own CD Player. This CD player has the speakers built in and there's no line out for external speakers so there's no copying possible. - You buy computer software: you need to buy the yearly updates - even if you want to keep the old version. You have to buy the new software on a yearly basis to the price the company sets - whether you like it or not. - The software you own has a bug: keep it to yourself. Talking about software bugs can put you into prison. So, according to the license agreement, you are legally bound to not disclose any bugs you may find. This translates into losing the right for the software that you have purchased having to work in the first place. Bottom line is that this will drastically diminish consumer rights, not to mention that this is in no way helpful to any artists. If this all goes through I think our society will become a society of hackers and crackers :-). Feel free to comment on any of the above in the forums - I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. For more information or speaking up check out these links: GNU and FSF (Free Software Foundation): http://www.gnu.org US Citizens: Digital Speech: http://www.digitalspeech.org Petition Against Software Patents: http://www.petitiononline.com/pasp01/petition.html Anti-DMCA Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/nixdmca/petition.html Europe: http://swpat.ffii.org/events/2003/europarl/07/


	Essential Listening: Jason Becker Jason Becker – Perspectives I have mentioned this album a few times before in the forums. This is one of the most beautiful albums I have EVER heard, written by Jason when he was already suffering from ALS. A lot of the composing and arranging was done by him on the computer, using an Eye-tracking system, cuz he was unable to move much anymore. There is so much beautiful music on this one. Starting with the percussion-heavy 'Primal', we get a plethora of different styles and soundscapes. 'Rain' is a beautiful guitar solo, 'End Of The Beginning' is a long orchestral piece with some amazing guitar-work by Michael Lee Firkins (the melodies are wonderful). 'Higher' has some of the most astonishing choir-arrangements I have ever heard, it's almost divine. 'Blue' has some kickin' blues-guitar soloing (also, some shred included), while 'Empire' is based on vast orchestration-parts, japanese scales and a great guitar-melody. This album is simply amazing, and proves what a great composer Jason is. It's heartbreaking to listen to it while remembering what he must have gone through to make it (you can see scenes from the production phase on Jason's new video), and to consider what a musical genius he is, stricken with such a horrible disease. This one definitely is recommended to everyone… whether you're a guitarist, a fan of classical or ambient music, or not a musician at all… a unique statement by an incredibly talented, brave young man. This CD is available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005J9WX/guitar4u http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005J9WX/ibreathemus02-21


	Eric's Shred 101 Two melodies played with natural harmonics, Jeff Beck-style. OK, this time we have some stuff that might not be exactly 'shred-material'. We're talking about two melodies played with natural harmonics, inspired by Jeff Beck. Lots of people use harmonics as an effect, but you can actually play scales and melodies with them. The first melody is taken from Beck's beautiful 'Where Were You' (from 'Guitar Shop'), which is one of the most beautiful guitar solo-pieces I have ever heard. Make sure the harmonics ring out clearly, and add some vibrato with the wang-bar. The second melody is the famous 'Big Ben'-melody ... try to come up with more melodies played with natural or even harp harmonics.


	Member Spotlight: The Bash Member name: The Bash Real name: Davey Little Location: Illinois Instrument: Guitar How and when did you get started with music? I believe it probably started many lifetimes ago. But in this lifetime it began when I got my first guitar sometime around age 10. I had wanted a guitar for many years before that which was kinna strange as I'm not even sure I knew what one was. My grandfather played and maybe that was the reason I wanted one. It wasn't until I saw a video clip of The Beatles at She Stadium that my musical life made any sense. It was at that point something clicked inside me, the fog cleared and a path opened. How did you come across iBreatheMusic.com? I discovered the old site one day scouring the web looking for input on how to go best go about putting together a basic music theory paper for some of my students. Well, I discovered Guni's articles on Intervals and Chord Scales and it was so much better than anything I could of come up with so my brilliant plan was: Go here and download this. What styles of music do you play? Hmm, this question is kinna misleading as it actually implies I have style :) Actually I like noodling with everything I can get my ears on, but I'm pretty much a straight up rocker. Who are your biggest influences? The Beatles, Frank Zappa, David Gilmoure, Jimmy Page, Richie Blackmore, Steve Morse, Jeff Beck, John Petrucci, Steve Howe, Pete Townshend, etc. I could on and on for days but those were some of the guys who shaped me musically through licks or songwriting or mentally through attitude. What formal training have you had? I graduated from college with a Music/Business Degree. So 4 years of basic Music training. What were some of the biggest breakthroughs you had in your learning of music theory? That if I take that Jimmy Page lick from the 5th fret and move it to the 12th fret I just moved from the Key of A to E. So at least in the beginning it was moving basic pentatonic shapes around and realizing it was the same 5 shapes just in a new location. What practice technique you use do you feel has paid off the most handsomely in its effect on the way you play? When I first started I had no one to jam with so I'd jam with myself. I'd recorded a progression on a cheap tape recorder and make stuff up over the top of it and record that with another cheap tape recorder. Poor Boy's 2 track. That and playing with a metronome (which should come as package with every instrument ever sold). How long did you play before you had your first paying gig? Not really sure, somewhere between being 16 and 18 yrs old. I was defiantly over 18 when you could call what we got real money. Well real money as far as a gigging musicians go :) What gear do you use? I have a Washburn that was a prototype for the Nuno model (with the extended cutway) there was only so many of those made so I got luckey there. I got Washburn G-15V that's my main gigging axe. Amp wise I got a Messa Mark IV that's my main Amp, a Laney AOR series head that was my main head, now it's my safety net. And A Digitech processor, that does more things than I really wanna know about, that I ain't seen in years. What are you up to at the moment? Hopefully expanding. Not currently gigging I've got more musical time for myself. I've been trying to write without an instrument just ear/mind and paper (power tab) in this case. Sometime in the near future I'd like to get my own Computer (outside the family computer) set up with a professional program to do this properly. Anyway it's defiantly the kinda stuff the average person in a bar dosen't wanna hear :) Do you have any interests (apart from iBreathe of course!)? Music and Reading. I've as many books as Albums and Cds.


	Sizzling Hot Forum Topics Sweep picking - handy hints! http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1236 Understanding Intervals http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1177 Pulse Bites: What makes you tick? http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1362 Dimarzio Pickups http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1376 Happy Birthday Eric http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1369


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