As the band gets ready for our show on Friday I can think about what it is like to play guitar. I am, as refered to in the guitar world, a noodler or a shredder. A shredder is someone who plays really fast and a noodler is someone who solos all the time. I suppose it is fun for me but for the audience it is a different story. Nowadays guitar is a background instrament. Solos are almost unheard of - IMO it's because they can't play em. I've been to many parties where the music would be 80s music, people would be sitting around listening to the singing and the lyrics, then the guitar solo pops up and they start talking to one another. They are oblivious that the best part of the song is happening. Luckily, other guitar players listen and critique it. In Dallas this is especially true because we actually have a large guitar community. There are usually 2 guitar festivals sometimes more during the year and there are tons of people who show up. We all wear our Hendrix and Vaughan t-shirts and talk about the good ole days, then a famous shredder gets up on stage and noodles for 90 minutes. That's when we are in heaven. People who don't play guitar are like - is this a song? But we know different. It's all about the show, the glory of doing something that most people don't care about, but we do.

Thought of the Day

"The numbers all go to eleven. Look...right across the board."--Nigel Tufnel explaining the volume controls on his amplifiers

"Ahh...oh, I see..."--Marty DiBergi

"Eleven...eleven...eleven..."--Nigel

"And most of these amps go up to ten."--Marty

"Exactly."--Nigel

"Does that mean it's...louder? Is it any louder?"--Marty

"Well, it's one louder, isn't it?"--Nigel

"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"--Marty

"[Pause]... These go to eleven."-Nigel

-- This is Spinal Tap