Playing

I play the guitar and have done since I was about fifteen. I think I started because the coolest boys I knew all played, not because of any particular affinity with the instrument itself. However, I quickly became fascinated with guitars themselves, as well as by playing them, and in particular electric guitars. One of my earliest guitar-related memories is of the smell of the Yamaha brochure I got through the post, and the sight of the gorgeous, wine red Yamaha SG3000 on the cover.

I've written about guitars, equipment and other related subject, of course:

• I upgraded a Squier Strat with new pickups and electronics.
• A brief review of the Guitarist special ("collectors"!) edition 100 Great Guitars
• A look at 2 books, confusingly both called "Build Your Own Electric Guitar", although in fact only one actually shows how to do this:
• The Haynes manual is actually about assembling a Strat
• Martin Oakham's book, on the other hand, is (almost) comprehensive
• A review of the MXR Phase 90
• Pedal power 2015 - a round up of pedals I owned
• A review of my Gordon-Smith GS2/60
• Pedal power 2017 - an update of the above
• Pedal power 2019 - third installment
• Pedal power 2021 - fourth installment
• Pedal power 2022 - fifth installment

I've been through ups and downs with the guitar. I played constantly through my teens, several hours a day when I could. It took a back seat to work when I graduated, but then I played in a band for while later. Then I stopped again due to both a lack of time and space to have the guitars out.

More recently my interest has been rekindled with membership of the fantastic Fretboard forum. One of the best things about it is the monthly challenges they run, which give a structure and a motive to playing which I certainly would otherwise lack. In particular, they have a "Solo of the Month" competition, in which a backing track is supplied, you do a solo over the top and submit it, and at the end of the month everyone votes for their favourites. I've yet to win, but I love doing it. And more to the point, I am genuinely proud of some of my playing - I've surprised myself.

Here are my blog posts about the solos themselves: notes about how I devised it, played it, and a link to the solo itself on Soundcloud.

• SotM #34 - March 2018
• SotM #33 - February 2018
• SotM #32 - January 2018
• SotM #27 - May 2017
• SotM #26 - April 2017
• SotM #25 - March 2017
• SotM #22 - December 2016
• SotM #21 - November 2016
• SotM #20 - October 2016

And here's a Soundcloud playlist of all my solos.