PAUL GILBERT JAM - Paul Gilbert Clinic in Manila -
This was a rare occurrence here in the Philippines. I'm on my way to Suburbia, a nightspot that caters to showband, teenybopper party types. Odd? You betcha, but this afternoon it's gonna be rockin''!
This was the venue for a Rock Guitar Clinic by none other than PAUL GILBERT. I'm sure all you guys know him as the shredmeister with some of the most terrifying guitar licks caught on record; from Racer X, to Mr. BIG, to his instructional video series. He's also a very good songwriter (in my book) with the right mix of hooks, melodic content, sappiness (hey, we all like sappy stuff, we just don't admit it), humor and chops. Now let me tell you first what Paul Gilbert means to me.
I started out trying to play punk in the New Wave era, because I didn't have the dough to buy all those gadgets needed for New Wave. T'was just me, my guitar and my tiny solid-state practice amp turned all the way up. I then gravitated towards the bluesy stylings of Guns and Roses and the almighty Minor Pentatonic scale. I found out that if I pick up and down fast enough and breeze through the pentatonic box with my left hand index and ring fingers at roughly the same rate, I could produce that bubbling, whirlwind-type of runs I hear on tape, with lots o'distortion, of course.
Enter my guitar teacher Alan Tenorio. I owe this guy a lot, as the stuff he showed me became the foundation of my playing. He introduced me to guys like Vinnie Moore, Frank Gambale and of course, Paul Gilbert. Alan lent me his Paul Gilbert instructional video and gave me a copy of the tabs he wrote out for the 3 note-per-string scales. I then devoured all of the Paul Gilbert material I had, practicing that familiar 4 note sequence up to 4 hours a day just to get my synchronization right. I practiced EVERYTHING from the 3 note-per-string modes, pentatonic and blues scales to the string skipping sequences and some other stuff I can't recall right now. So in addition to my bluesy licks, I had the ability to eat up the whole fretboard in a single blazing scalar run.
The 3-note-per string scales were particularly helpful as they later helped me understand the modes and their relationships. They also helped me visualize the fretboard up to the point where I just close my eyes and I see the notes on the neck in my mind. That helped me a lot when I was working out licks away from the guitar. The last Paul Gilbert-ism I applied to my playing was when I was working out the scalar runs of the Classical Guitar Concerto "Concierto de Aranjuez". The original runs used the classical-approved scales with a lot of shifts, which were a pain to play cleanly. Enter the PG 3-note-string fingerings and they came out immaculate :-)
To put it bluntly, PG is the single biggest block in my foundation as a guitar playercand I was gonna see him up close after all these years.
On the way to the venue, my friend Ogie joked about me jamming with PG. Jam with PG? Yeah Right!
The venue was packed with guitar players of all disciplines, ages and even race! A kid flew in from Japan just to be at this clinic! So after settling at the back of the venue, we waited for PG to come out. Eric De Leon (Ibanez Product Manager, Audiophile, Inc.) came onstage for the artist intro, during which he asked for victims, erc. volunteers for a head cuttin' session with PG at the end of the clinic. A long line soon formed near the stage, so Eric decided to pick out 3 young hotshots (including the kid who flew in from Japan) and 3 "recorded" artists: Mike Villegas (Rizal Underground, studio ace), Michael Turner (Battery) and yours truly.
After Eric's spirited intro, PG came out with guns a'blazin' and ca TAIL! His suit looked like something fresh out of a Dr. Seuss book. You gotta love this guy! HA!
For the next couple of hours or so, we were treated to a journey through his musical mind. Topics ranging from his early guitar playing years to speed development to practicing to musical independence (that particular display of playing the keyboard arpeggios to "Lamb lies on Broadway" while singing the lyrics was a quite an experience) to songcraft were entertained and answered. Of course the inevitable "Why did you leave Mr. BIG?" question also came up. PG showed a lot of class by gently sidestepping the issue and rendering what I consider the highlight of the clinic: a marriage of the 3 hits from 3 biggest acts of the British Invasion: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath andc the Spice Girls! "Two become one" with the "Stairway to Heaven" solo and the Black Sabbath outro riff. The audience was waiting for PG to cut the song short, but he played the song in its entirety! HAHA! Did I mention that you gotta love this guy?
Side note: The unmistakable PG tone was nicely carried throughout the venue. A peek at the stage reveals a minimal rig: a Laney GH100L half stack and an Ibanez TS9. A Boss digital delay set to a single repeat perched on top of the Laney head, probably running through the effects loop. The best tone advice that PG didn't give out during his talks, but I quietly realized is that the guitar's volume knob is a powerful thing. When he rolls down the volume, he gets a squeaky clean tone (I'm talking pop ballad clean!) with no hint of dirt. Turning it up gets the grinding overdrive, and the Tube Screamer kicks everything into blitzkrieg mode. A really handy tone trick for singer/guitarists. Of course, I later found out that the Laney amp is the most suitable amp for this trick as it responds really well to volume knob manipulation. The stock mod Ibanez does on their volume knobs also helps a lot in maintaining the highs when turning down the volume.
Jam time came and all 6 participants got called up on stage. Watching from afar, it never really occurred to me how tall PG is. When he shook my hand as I came up onstage, HE NEARLY CRUSHED IT! A strong, firm handshake if I ever felt one. Good thing I had a firm handshake of my own so it wasn't as painful, heheh.
Now here comes the 1st quandary; nobody wanted to go first. Finally Mike Villegas relented and whipped out a cool, melodic solo. Now comes the 2nd quandary: nobody wanted to be last. So I offered to be last and the other guys went out in the order they wanted and ripped out their stuff. Haru (the kid from Japan) was particularly impressive. You can tell from the look on PG's face that he's enjoying the head cutting immensely. One of the kids got carried away and turned his amp WAAYYY up, a sitch PG quickly fixed with a turn of the amp's knob. All the guys came out with great licks and solos, not just a bunch of lifeless scales but actual melodies with great structures.
I was contemplating backstage on what to do when I went out, since I wasn't as fast and as clean as I used to be. After some thought, I decided to just screw it and come out with cojones. I stepped onstage, tweaked the mid on my amp then opened my solo with a WILD overbend... hehe that certainly caught PG's attention :-) The next few bars went by in a flurry and I thought we were nearly done as we were allotted only 2 turns of 4 bars each, or so we were told. The unexpected happened and PG came in from behind me and played on my guitar! I was still stupefied that I kept squeezing the last note I played while PG was trying to rip out those licks. He swatted by hand away which made me come to my senses a little bit. A few more exchanges ensued and we ended up playing at the same time! Oh man, that was the most delicious head cutting session I've ever been in! HAHAHA! You really gotta love this guy!
I came off the stage in a daze and I vaguely recall PG saying something like "Hey man, how about going on tour?" Since I was in a daze and I wasn't even sure if he was talking to me, I just kept going without looking back 'tilll I reached my friends.
The clinic ended and the usual autograph signing session followed. I didn't bother lining up as I had something more precious from the whole event. I went home still not sure if what happened that afternoon was just a dream... or not. The pics that my friends gave me the following week confirmed that everything wasn't a dream. I got to share the stage with one of my heroes, and held my own end up. For the next few weeks, I still got into that dazed place every time I replayed the clinic in my mind, only to be brought back to reality by the dull, throbbing pain of my hand that Paul Gilbert shook.
Thanks a lot, PG! More than you'll ever know.
All Photos by Ding Marcello.
Special Thanks to Audiophile Components, Inc.
