Greg Koch Plays 'Cause We Ended As Lovers

Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (behind the Cheddar Curtain as he likes to describe it), Greg Koch's playing is a gristly stew of influences.

Take a dollop of Jimi Hendrix, a spoonful of Eric Clapton, a dash of Chet Atkins, a peppering of BB, Albert and Freddie King, and a heaping helping of Albert Lee, and you have a killer gumbo that doesn't even begin to describe Koch's indescribable style. Or wry sense of humor.

In this in-store guitar clinic vid -- Koch is a clinician for Fender Instruments and Hal Leonard -- he demonstrates his succulent volume swells starting at 2:59 in the style of Duane Allman and Roy Buchanan before launching into a Jeff Beck-style rendition of 'Cause We Ended As Lovers at 3:31.

Koch's sheer control of the instrument is indisputable. Check out his Beck-approved finger-style approach to the main melody at 4:00 before going back to pick-mode briefly at 4:25 to execute some pick pinch-harmonics. I especially dig his quirky flurry of triplets at 5:19.

Koch has several books and DVDs out on Hal Leonard -- guitar instruction at its finest. Check them out here.

Birthday Salute and Quintessential Solo #3 -- John Mayer

Born 16th October 1977, John Mayer is one of those guys 'serious' musicians love to hate.

With a writing and singing style resembling an intraveneous feed into the very heart of pop radio, the man is a songwriting machine with a string of hits that don't seem to stop coming.

But dig a little deeper into his music and you'll hear a musician with a deep understanding of the blues guitar tradition. His playing is often compared to his idol, Stevie Ray Vaughan, but listen further and you'll hear shadings of Freddie King, T-Bone Walker and Albert King. With a little BB thrown in for good measure.

And what is really remarkable is how Mayer sneaks his guitar influences into his radio-friendly songs, weaving them around his vocals like a second voice -- in essence, representing his blues roots to his wide audience.

In this vid, Mayer shows us that he is not all just pop and fluff. He shows us what he's really capable of, with just a Stratocaster in hand.

Performing live at the Michael Jackson Memorial on 7th July 2009, Mayer performs a moving unaccompanied version of the Jackson hit, Human Nature.

Addressing the plaintive melody line on the upper strings, Mayer holds down the bassline with a Johnny Smith-approved thumb-over-the-neck technique. Check out the uncanny vocal quality of his guitar tone on the first phrase.

The cry that Carlos Santana often refers to is just dripping off his fingerboard.

(As a side note, check out also Tuck Andress' stunning solo guitar version of Human Nature on YouTube)

Buy John Mayer CDs Here!

My Top 10 List of Left-Handed Guitarists

TIME magazine recently published their 'Top 10 Lefties' list to commemorate International Left-Handers Day on August 13th:

Barack Obama
Bill Gates
Oprah Winfrey
Babe Ruth
Napoleon Bonaparte
Leonardo Da Vinci
Marie Curie
Aristotle
Ned Flanders (Editor's Note: ?!)
Jimi Hendrix

Of Jimi, TIME wrote:

"Jimi Hendrix played guitar upside down and backwards, and to his devout fans' parents, it probably sounded like it."

"The six-string revolutionary favored a right-handed Fender Stratocaster, slung upside-down across his shoulders, that didn't even need to be restrung: Hendrix taught himself how to hit the strings in reverse order, producing a unique sound and allowing him to alternate between left- and right-handed playing if he so desired. (He could play right-handed but generally preferred not to)"

Sorry guys, but I've never seen Hendrix play guitar 'upside down and backwards' with the 'strings in reverse order'. He would even restring a 12-string so that the high E was nearest his toes, as in the clip below:



Perhaps they were thinking of another lefty -- Albert King?

Anyhow, here are 10 lefty guitarists that make my Top 10 list. Note that both Steve Morse and Vinnie Moore are lefties who play right-handed:

• Jimi Hendrix
• Paul McCartney
• Albert King
• Steve Morse
• Jackie King
• Otis Rush
• Al McKay
• Elliot Easton
• Vinnie Moore
• Tony Iommi