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Looper's Delight
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I really dug the Talking Heads, particularly during this period and collaborations with Eno. I love Adrian Belew's playing and I would have to agree with whoever suggested that Adrian's guitar position has drifted north over the years. Hold a Parker Fly too low and that top horn is liable to gouge your groin...ouch! but I digress. On closer look you will notice that he has long arms and his guitar neck is not horizontal, but tilted up at perhaps a 45 degree angle. You will also notice that his roll in that band was soloist and color commentary with some minimal rhythm playing, mostly involving upper four string voicing's and single note fills. He also does the thumb over thing perhaps inspired by Hendrix, as his whammy bar technique suggests. Not to take anything away from his unique and singularly creative approach, but there are plenty scales and chord voicings that would be a determent physically, to him or any player to try and play with the guitar slung that low. The proper way to hold the guitar varies with the individuals body type I believe, and the right way to hold a guitar should be about having it in the optimal position as to not cause any part of your body involved in that process undue stress. Sure Jimmy Page and Adrian Belew look cool with their guitars slung low, but I doubt either of those guys play that way in the studio, and I would imagine they both have suffered some wrist related injuries as a result of hyper extending their fretting hand wrists playing that way. At some point style should give way to common sense, but Rock and Roll has always been about rebellion, so for God's sake, sling your guitar low like Sid Vicious if that's what floats your boat. Me, I'll sling my guitar higher and play better and longer with less pain. Bill PS, check out Adrian's waistband up past his navel, geek city!! and perhaps creating more of an illusion that his guitar is slung lower than it is. And I disagree with whomever inferred Tina Weymouth wasn't funky, She and the other bass player are totally locked in playing the same parts, and she wrote them! the bassist seems to be adding the occasional slap bass accent, but Tina's Hofner short scale bass doesn't do that sound very well, but suits her small hands, speaking of great guitar playing David Byrne is the funky engine that drove that band, a highly underrated rhythm guitarist IMHO -----Original Message----- From: Rainer Straschill [mailto:moinsound@googlemail.com] Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 8:49 AM To: loopers-delight@loopers-delight.com Subject: OT: proper way to hold you guitar - live video So I noticed there's this general conflict how to hold your electric guitar, more specifically how long the shoulder strap should be. Generally it's accepted that while having a long strap looks cooler (and is thus indispensable for rock music), only with a short strap good command of the instrument is possible - that's why all the jazz cats etc. accept that they look stupid and have the guitar hanging at chest level. Well, here's to prove different - a virtuoso guitarist with his instrument at knee level: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g8lFmsCXhg Rainer ps: yes, there is some looping relation...