Absolutely Frank, Non-Foods - Revision history

Jason.Kreitzer at 04:55, 3 October 2021

2021-10-03T04:55:13Z

Spider of Destiny at 20:35, 19 November 2020

2020-11-19T20:35:19Z

Spider of Destiny at 10:49, 7 October 2013

2013-10-07T10:49:03Z

Emdebe: Category:1982-11

2007-04-14T20:41:54Z

Category:1982-11

Propellerkuh at 11:50, 28 January 2007

2007-01-28T11:50:53Z

Show changes

Propellerkuh at 17:27, 8 January 2007

2007-01-08T17:27:40Z

Czgibson: Correcting a typo - 'playe' > 'play'

2007-01-08T15:00:43Z

Correcting a typo - 'playe' > 'play'

Propellerkuh at 14:57, 7 January 2007

2007-01-07T14:57:39Z

Propellerkuh at 14:36, 7 January 2007

2007-01-07T14:36:36Z

Propellerkuh at 14:33, 7 January 2007

2007-01-07T14:33:01Z

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 ''Few Guitarists are unaware of Frank Zappa, who for the past 16 years has produced dozens of albums featuring sharp satire, full-scale orchestrations, and powerful guitar solos. Last profiled as the cover subject of the Jan. '77 issue of Guitar Player, Zappa has since released several albums, including the three-record'' [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (The Series)|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] ''series for his [[Barking Pumpkin Records|Barking-Pumpkin]] label:'' [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] [BPR 1111], [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More]] [BPR 1112], ''and'' [[Return Of The Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar|Return Of The Son Of Shut Up 'N Play yer Guitar]] [BPR 1113]. ''Although all of Frank's albums have a sizeable quantity of guitar work, this trio of LPs contains pieces that are specifically guitar-oriented.
-This Month, we welcome Frank as a regular columnist, presenting the first installment of a series in which he addresses specific questions regarding his creation of the [[Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] series. In this and subsequent columns, he will also discuss his views on music and solo techniques beyond the range of these three LPs. Transcriptions of Zappa's pieces are provided by [[Steve Vai]], who has been one of Frank's guitarists for the past few years.
+This Month, we welcome Frank as a regular columnist, presenting the first installment of a series in which he addresses specific questions regarding his creation of the [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar]] series. In this and subsequent columns, he will also discuss his views on music and solo techniques beyond the range of these three LPs. Transcriptions of Zappa's pieces are provided by [[Steve Vai]], who has been one of Frank's guitarists for the past few years.
 ''
@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 I tried to get different examples of different types of things that I play. I have one basic style, but inside of that style there are different things that I play. I wanted to have various examples of those things. And most of the selections were made on my own gut reaction to hearing the tapes and saying, "I like this solo" or "I don't like that one" -- just trying to find things that would fit together.
-'''Your music prominently features unusual rhythms and syncopations. A good example is "[[Five-Five-FIVE|Five Five Five]]" ([[Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]]). What kind of metric scheme was used?'''<br>
+'''Your music prominently features unusual rhythms and syncopations. A good example is "[[Five-Five-FIVE|Five Five Five]]" ([[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar]]). What kind of metric scheme was used?'''<br>
 It's in 5/8, 5/8, 5/4. You count it like this: One two one two three, one two one two three, one-and two-and three-and four-and five-and.
@@ Line 32: / Line 32: @@
 '''So you view writing as a shortcut.'''<br>
-It's a shortcut; it's a storage method. And in the case of the transcriptions that are coming from the guitar albums, they're no longer shortcuts because they don't need to shortcut it anymore -- they're all done. ''[Ed. Note: Transcriptions from the [[Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] series are scheduled to be available in the next few months.]'' But it's the way to show people who are interested in that kind of rhythm what it looks like on paper and how it works. Also, in a couple of examples it gives you a kind of positive proof that ESP does exist: The guitar parts and the drum parts for some of the things are transcribed and notated together on two staves, and you can see that the drummer -- in this case [[Vinnie Colaiuta]] -- and myself were playing exactly the same thing in a number of places where it would have been impossible to guess what was going on. It's the frequent little turns that are exactly ON, and then coming out on the downbeat in the next bar, and over to the next bar after that.
+It's a shortcut; it's a storage method. And in the case of the transcriptions that are coming from the guitar albums, they're no longer shortcuts because they don't need to shortcut it anymore -- they're all done. ''[Ed. Note: Transcriptions from the [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar]] series are scheduled to be available in the next few months.]'' But it's the way to show people who are interested in that kind of rhythm what it looks like on paper and how it works. Also, in a couple of examples it gives you a kind of positive proof that ESP does exist: The guitar parts and the drum parts for some of the things are transcribed and notated together on two staves, and you can see that the drummer -- in this case [[Vinnie Colaiuta]] -- and myself were playing exactly the same thing in a number of places where it would have been impossible to guess what was going on. It's the frequent little turns that are exactly ON, and then coming out on the downbeat in the next bar, and over to the next bar after that.
 '''On the inner sleeve of your Shut Up albums is music from "[[The Black Page]]." There are figures such as a triplet with groupings of three, five, and seven contained within. How do you count such an intricate part?'''

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 [[Image:GPM_82_11_3.png|frame|'''Measure 15 from "[[The Black Page]]",''' by Frank Zappa, transcribed by [[Steve Vai]]; © 1977 Frank Zappa/[[Munchkin Music]]]]
-Well, unless you're really skilled at sight-reading that type of material, you have to start by reading it slowly. So I think you're referring to bar 15 of "[[The Black Page]]". And that's a tricky bar to play. But it CAN be played and it has been played over and over again by a lot of different musicians in and out of the band. And it's a good place to start if you want to come into a direct confrontation with the type of rhythm that I use all the time. Any piece of time can be subdivided any old way you like. And that's what happens when people talk, because people don't talk in 4/4 or 3/4 or 2/4 -- they talk ''all over the place.'' And if the rhythm of what you play follows along with the natural scan of human speech, it'sa going to have a different feel to it. And in a way, it sounds weir; in another way, it sounds totally natural. It just depends on what you expect to hear from a piece of music. So, to count that particular bar, you divide the bar into a half-note triplet. That's the big bracket. And inside each of the half-note triplet beats, there are further subdivisions. That's all.
+Well, unless you're really skilled at sight-reading that type of material, you have to start by reading it slowly. So I think you're referring to bar 15 of "[[The Black Page]]". And that's a tricky bar to play. But it CAN be played and it has been played over and over again by a lot of different musicians in and out of the band. And it's a good place to start if you want to come into a direct confrontation with the type of rhythm that I use all the time. Any piece of time can be subdivided any old way you like. And that's what happens when people talk, because people don't talk in 4/4 or 3/4 or 2/4 -- they talk ''all over the place.'' And if the rhythm of what you play follows along with the natural scan of human speech, it'sa going to have a different feel to it. And in a way, it sounds weird; in another way, it sounds totally natural. It just depends on what you expect to hear from a piece of music. So, to count that particular bar, you divide the bar into a half-note triplet. That's the big bracket. And inside each of the half-note triplet beats, there are further subdivisions. That's all.
 '''For someone who has spent a great deal learning mostly from songs with 4/4 rock beats by guitar heroes such as [[Eddie Van Halen|Van Halen]], et al, what would be a good way to ease into more complex rhythmic usage?'''<br>
@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 '''Did you transcribe the pieces yourself?'''<br>
 No. I couldn't There's ''no'' way. The only person I know who can do this is [[Steve Vai]]. He transcribes all that stuff, and it's amazingly accurate. In fact, he recently transcribed a vocal piece that I did, and then learned it on the guitar. The difficult part of the vocal piece is that there is no steady rhythm track underneath it. That makes it even rougher. After he transcribed it, he came in and played the guitar along with what I sang, so it sounds kind of like ''George-Benson-from-Venus''-type thing. He's done it with this piece and another called "[[The Jazz Discharge Party Hats]]." So he knows what he's doing when he writes the stuff down. And I've seen him get into violent arguments with people who say, "This can't be right, what you've done here." And he pretty much stands behind every note that he's done. The things are constantly being checked and proofread. The best way to proofread them, of course, is to learn to play them all over again on another instrument, and then play along with the tape to see whether it's totally correct. I would say that most of Steve's transcriptions are ninety-five percent correct.
 [[Category:Articles by Zappa]]
 [[Category:1982-11]]

@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 Well, unless you're really skilled at sight-reading that type of material, you have to start by reading it slowly. So I think you're referring to bar 15 of "[[The Black Page]]". And that's a tricky bar to play. But it CAN be played and it has been played over and over again by a lot of different musicians in and out of the band. And it's a good place to start if you want to come into a direct confrontation with the type of rhythm that I use all the time. Any piece of time can be subdivided any old way you like. And that's what happens when people talk, because people don't talk in 4/4 or 3/4 or 2/4 -- they talk ''all over the place.'' And if the rhythm of what you play follows along with the natural scan of human speech, it'sa going to have a different feel to it. And in a way, it sounds weir; in another way, it sounds totally natural. It just depends on what you expect to hear from a piece of music. So, to count that particular bar, you divide the bar into a half-note triplet. That's the big bracket. And inside each of the half-note triplet beats, there are further subdivisions. That's all.
-'''For someone who has spent a great deal learning mostly from songs with 4/4 rock beats by guitar heroes such as [[wikipedia:Van Halen|Van Halen]], et al, what would be a good way to ease into more complex rhythmic usage?'''<br>
+'''For someone who has spent a great deal learning mostly from songs with 4/4 rock beats by guitar heroes such as [[Eddie Van Halen|Van Halen]], et al, what would be a good way to ease into more complex rhythmic usage?'''<br>
 There's no reason why someone shouldn't break out of the [[wikipedia:Van Halen|Van Halen]] mode. If you keep playing that way, you're always going to be assured of work. I don't recommend that anybody copy what I do or follow in that musical path, because what it's going to lead to is being outside of the framework where you can earn a living at what you do. You know, the more you play in 4/4, the better off you're going to be. That's the bottom line! Most of the people who read ''Guitar Player,'' I think, are interested in improving their careers.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:41, 14 April 2007
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	No. I couldn't There's ''no'' way. The only person I know who can do this is [[Steve Vai]]. He transcribes all that stuff, and it's amazingly accurate. In fact, he recently transcribed a vocal piece that I did, and then learned it on the guitar. The difficult part of the vocal piece is that there is no steady rhythm track underneath it. That makes it even rougher. After he transcribed it, he came in and played the guitar along with what I sang, so it sounds kind of like ''George-Benson-from-Venus''-type thing. He's done it with this piece and another called "[[The Jazz Discharge Party Hats]]." So he knows what he's doing when he writes the stuff down. And I've seen him get into violent arguments with people who say, "This can't be right, what you've done here." And he pretty much stands behind every note that he's done. The things are constantly being checked and proofread. The best way to proofread them, of course, is to learn to play them all over again on another instrument, and then play along with the tape to see whether it's totally correct. I would say that most of Steve's transcriptions are ninety-five percent correct.		No. I couldn't There's ''no'' way. The only person I know who can do this is [[Steve Vai]]. He transcribes all that stuff, and it's amazingly accurate. In fact, he recently transcribed a vocal piece that I did, and then learned it on the guitar. The difficult part of the vocal piece is that there is no steady rhythm track underneath it. That makes it even rougher. After he transcribed it, he came in and played the guitar along with what I sang, so it sounds kind of like ''George-Benson-from-Venus''-type thing. He's done it with this piece and another called "[[The Jazz Discharge Party Hats]]." So he knows what he's doing when he writes the stuff down. And I've seen him get into violent arguments with people who say, "This can't be right, what you've done here." And he pretty much stands behind every note that he's done. The things are constantly being checked and proofread. The best way to proofread them, of course, is to learn to play them all over again on another instrument, and then play along with the tape to see whether it's totally correct. I would say that most of Steve's transcriptions are ninety-five percent correct.
	[[Category:Articles by Zappa]]		[[Category:Articles by Zappa]]
		+	[[Category:1982-11]]

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 [[Image:GPM_82_11_1.png|frame]]
-'''In a piece such as "[[Five-Five-FIVE|Five Five Five]]", where you're in a meter that would generally be considered odd for mainstream roack or jazz, how would someone approach that without feeling as if they had two left feet?'''<br>
+'''In a piece such as "[[Five-Five-FIVE|Five Five Five]]", where you're in a meter that would generally be considered odd for mainstream rock or jazz, how would someone approach that without feeling as if they had two left feet?'''<br>
 It's a very guitar-oriented piece because of the way it uses the open string. So it's kind of an easy thing to pick up on the guitar, in spite of the odd rhythm. As long as the numbers involved tend to frighten you, though, then the odd rhythms are not your meat. Don't worry about the numbers -- you just have to worry about what the FEEL is. When I wrote that particular song, I never even stopped to figure out what the time signature was. I don't worry about that if I'm playing it on the guitar. If I'm writing it for an orchestra, then I do. But I don't calculate how things that I make up on guitar are going to look on paper or how it's ultimately going to be. I just play it, and then figure out what it is later, after I've recorded it.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 First Steps in Odd Meters<br>
 <br>
-''Few Guitarists are unaware of Frank Zappa, who for the past 16 years has produced dozens of albums featuring sharp satire, full-scale orchestrations, and powerful guitar solos. Last profiled as the cover subject of the Jan. '77 issue of Guitar Player, Zappa has since released several albums, including the three-record'' [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (The Series)|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] ''series for his [[Barking Pumpkin Records|Barking-Pumpkin]] label:'' [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] [BPR 1111], [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More|Shut Up 'N Playe Yer Guitar Some More]] [BPR 1112], ''and'' [[Return Of The Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar|Return Of The Son Of Shut Up 'N Play yer Guitar]] [BPR 1113]. ''Although all of Frank's albums have a sizeable quantity of guitar work, this trio of LPs contains pieces that are specifically guitar-oriented.
+''Few Guitarists are unaware of Frank Zappa, who for the past 16 years has produced dozens of albums featuring sharp satire, full-scale orchestrations, and powerful guitar solos. Last profiled as the cover subject of the Jan. '77 issue of Guitar Player, Zappa has since released several albums, including the three-record'' [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (The Series)|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] ''series for his [[Barking Pumpkin Records|Barking-Pumpkin]] label:'' [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] [BPR 1111], [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More]] [BPR 1112], ''and'' [[Return Of The Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar|Return Of The Son Of Shut Up 'N Play yer Guitar]] [BPR 1113]. ''Although all of Frank's albums have a sizeable quantity of guitar work, this trio of LPs contains pieces that are specifically guitar-oriented.
 This Month, we welcome Frank as a regular columnist, presenting the first installment of a series in which he addresses specific questions regarding his creation of the [[Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]] series. In this and subsequent columns, he will also discuss his views on music and solo techniques beyond the range of these three LPs. Transcriptions of Zappa's pieces are provided by [[Steve Vai]], who has been one of Frank's guitarists for the past few years.

@@ Line 95: / Line 95: @@
 Coming To Grips With Polyrhythms<br>
 <br>
-'''On the Song "[[Gee, I Like Your Pants,]]" there are some unusual tempo changes within certain bars.'''<br>
+'''On the Song "[[Gee, I Like Your Pants]]," there are some unusual tempo changes within certain bars.'''<br>
 There are 27 sixty-fourth-notes in the space of three quarter notes.