My Guitar Music

Grand Finale Stage - Warsaw, Poland

Black Powder Toys & XX Grand Finale of Great Christmas Charity

2012 and here we go again! Definitely looking forward to it, especially few days away before flying to my homeland (Poland) and play some music! My Black Powder Toys bandwas officially invited by Jurek Owsiak (organizator of Great Christmas Charity and Woodstock – biggest open air festival in the World) to play XX Grand finale of Great Christmas Charity on main Warsaw stage Jan 8, 2012 (Palac Kultury i nauki). We will perform 25 min set (planned 15:25) sharing the stage with some of the bands I grew up on – Dzem, Elektryczne Gitary. Definitely exciting trip, but also one of the last minute things, but hey who wouldn’t take a chance to play in front of 100 000 people!!!

We are getting ready to perform the best of us but also looking forward to meet some cool people, including Jurek Owsiak. This guy is a true inspiration not only for musicians but any human being, helping kids, families, accident victims. For more information about this event visit WOSP website or Black Powder Toys. We are thrilled Black Powder Toys can be a part of XX-th Grand Finale of Wielka Orkiestra Swiatecznej Pomocy!!!

Indaba Music

I don’t think I have mentioned yet but I am a big fan and user of Indaba Music. There’s no other website like this for musician offering features like: online jams, contests, very cool system of track commenting and many, many more. It has even built in online recording platform, so you should definitely check it out! Today, I’d like to share one of the recent contest I will be entering and hopefully coming up with some tracks this weekend!

Indaba guitar solo contest with Bayside

This is another guitar solo contest (Staind didn’t go so well ) with Bayside. To be honest, I’ve never heard of these guys before but listening to the stem tracks sounds like they like melodies. So do I. To read more or enter the contest simply visit: www.indabamusic.com and good luck!

My solo

Didn’t get enough to get it done but no excuses! Special thanks to Derek Simpson and here it is:

Today I wanted to bring to attention awesome Swedish band to the table which has I believe second (after Abba) hits on their record. Obviously I’m talking about Roxette. Who doesn’t know this wicked pop band from the 80′s – 90′s should definitely look more into it. Very catchy melodies, pop-rock guitar riffs combined with phenomenal vocal of Marie Fredriksson.

“Listen to your heart” – Roxette

Today, I’d like to introduce my little instrumental version of ‘Listen to your heart” as I always wanted to cover this song (hasn’t happened till today). Here’s my instrumental version of “Listen to your heart”, hope you like it:

Black Powder Toys @ Terry Fox Theatre

I have to admit that September 17, 2011 show will always stay in my memory as there were few reasons for that. First of all we got a chance to open up a big rock band with history like LOMBARD, second play it at an awesome Terry Fox Theatre venue and 3rd of all: first time playing in front of mostly Polish audience!

I was really surprised how well crowd responded to our Black Powder Toys set, promoting “Made in China” album. Hopefully this is the first big step for us to fly to Poland next year and play in front of my homeland crowd! Here’s a video cover from this show – Matchbox Twenty ” Bright Lights”:

Black Powder Toys Push Pull on Polskie Radio #3

Last week was full of good music news for me and other band members of Black Powder Toys. Thank to Piotr Baron from National Polish Radio Station 3 we are being voted to get to the official TOP LIST!!! So far we’ve made it to the NEWS section after one week being played 3 times. Hopefully will get enough votes to move on but in any case we are thrilled to get an exposure on Station 3 which is National Legend Radio Station.

Here’s a preview of “Push Pull”:
Push Pull by blackpowdertoys

VOTE, SHARE!

Radio Station #3 (Trojka) News Section with Black Powder Toys "Push Pull"

For all those who want to help us out feel free  to re-share this article, FB on Black Powder Toys official website or VOTE (warning: minimum Polish required): VOTE NOW!!! If you want to hear us live playing in on the radio stay tuned with RadioIks, Sep 17, 2011, 10:00-1200am (Pacific Time) or 19:00-21:00 in Poland.

Few common entry level guitar player mistakes!

Today’s post is based on few popular beginner guitarist mistakes, even pro’s do. I guess in most cases it’s laziness (or super busy schedule) but no excuse when it comes to practice. Here we go!

1) No metronome.

You should be always practicing with a metronome to make sure every note rings exactly as long as it needs to. Even though it’s art everything has to make mathematical sense. Playing with metronome will also correct any slower finger delay but also improve your accuracy.

2) Too fast!

#2 on my list is definitely playing too fast. Try learning a phrase and play it in few different tempo variations. You should be able to play it perfectly half slower (than original tempo) but also speed up at least twice so give yourself some room with a click.

3) No stretch or warm up

As mentioned earlier this one totally belongs to “lazy” category however it’s very, very important: warm-up. I usually like to warm up without an instrument first just stretching fingers or squeezing tennis ball is a good one for at least 5-10min before picking up a guitar. Begin with mid tempo picking / stretching exercises.

4) Too much strength

A lot of younger guitarists especially when transitioning from a badly (or none) set up guitar put way too much pressure on the strings while playing. As an outcome you hear all those unwanted bends and or bad pitched notes which aren’t the nicest things to hear from a listener perspective but also shows your limited instrument control abilities.  What I’d recommend is to find few finger strength improving exercises and keep doing them on daily basis routine. Remember when playing (especially fast) your hand has to be RELAXED!

5) Bad position

Looking COOL should never be a deciding factor on how well you play. Make sure your sound or accuracy are more important than ‘cool’ low strapped guitar or funky movements. #1 is the sound coming from your instrument so set yourself in the most comfortable playing position. Once your playing achieves satisfying shape, you can work on some stage presence.

Lombard & Black Powder Toys in Vancouver

Lombard & Black Powder Toys, Sep 17, Terry Fox Theatre, Port Coquitlam, BC

It is finally confirmed that my Black Powder Toys band will open up for LOMBARD in their only BC show after 16 years!!! For those who don’t know (Polish rock scene ) Lombard is one of the biggest Polish rock bands in the history so we are very excited to share the stage with such a name. We’ll be playing in Terry Fox Theatre in Port Coquitlam on September 17, 2011 and I’d like to welcome you all to attend this party!

Today’s post had to happen as no matter what you think about Steve Vai he totally deserves to be where he is as a great musician but also inspiring person. There’s a lot of comments saying Steve’s style is sport’ish and has low artistic value, but whoever realizes what it takes to get where Mr. Steve is today will not throw any words like this to the world. I have to admit I love watching Vai’s interviews as he bring some very interesting point of view on music, exercises, technique and work ethic. Here’s one of the interviews I found recently that stuck in my head. There’s this one line he says that makes my head thinking:

I don’t work on my weaknesses, I work on my strenghts

Hope you enjoy this mentoring video, same (or more) than I do.

Vancouver CFOX Seeds 2011 Band Contest

Here we go again! Another year of Vancouver Seeds by CFOX and this time BLACK POWDER TOYS is on board. With a recently finished ‘MADE IN CHINA’ album we had a tough choice of what to enter to the contest as CFOX ‘requires’ heavier sounding rock, but our style is not heavy. Final choice was: They try, Meltdown and Back Here Again. Feel free to check our submission and VOTE @ http://cfox.supernova.com/BLACKPOWDERTOYS

2011 Vancouver CFOX Seeds submission by Black Powder Toys

Elixir Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Strings

Elixir Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Strings Review

I have to admit since I bought my last acoustic (Taylor DN3) I enjoy playing acoustic way more than electric. Different world. No electronics, cables, sound processors, just real wood instrument and whatever you can come out of it. The only thing that annoyed me were very fast wearing strings which would loose their sound literately after few hours of playing until I found Elixir Strings. Elixir’s patent (NANOWEB technology) is based on a concept that all the strings are covered with a very thin layer of plastic material which basically preserves them from your natural body oil access and corrosion. The downside is that these strings are much harder too play, especially bending (require more strength), however that can turn out great, especially if you keep doing the same exercises you do on your electric. After hours of pain you’ll surprise yourself.

Elixir Phosphor Bronze my day-to-day acoustic strings summary

Anyways, just wanted to share a tip how to keep good quality sound for months without straining the budget. So far haven’t found better day-to-day playing solution and hey they sound really good! For studio recording I would still go for un-coated strings. Here’s Elixir Phosphor Bronze Light-Medium strings (.12-.56) in action: