Paul Gilbert: How to save you hearing - the 12 step program



Paul Gilbert: Save you hearing now... Premier Guitar full interview

• Don’t put your ear right up against your 4x12 cabinet while it’s blasting loud, no matter how much you love the sound.

• Don’t crank up your headphones to concert volume while air-drumming to Rush albums every night before you go to bed.

• Don’t crank up your car stereo to concert volume every time you drive.

• Don’t angle your 4x12 cabinet sideways onstage to spare the audience but instead slam yourself with volume.

• Don’t insist that your drummer play with an Alex Van Halen-style washy ride cymbal and a sloshy open hi-hat on every song.

• Don’t sleep with headphones plugged into a cassette player set on “loop” in order to internalize classical music.

• Don’t spend 14-hour days recording with a loud click track in your headphones. Instead, record live with the entire band, so you can listen and adjust to everyone’s natural tempo without the DINK DONK DINK DONK DINK DONK of that earwrecking cowbell.

• Don’t spend 14-hour days editing instruments and vocals. Hire an engineer who can do it quicker and better.

• Don’t spend hours messing around with microphones, pre-amps, and EQs in the studio. Spend the time practicing to get a great performance. This will always beat any editing, tweaking, or mixing.

• Don’t build a home studio without treating the rooms with acoustic paneling. Foam and carpets are ineffectual. You need thick bass traps made from compressed fiberglass. Trying to mix in an untreated room will just confuse your ears and the tendency to solve the problem by turning up the volume doesn’t help. Treat the walls and ceiling with bass traps—lots of them!

• Don’t stick your head into the side-fill monitor to try to figure out the key of an unfamiliar song during the chaos of a multi-guitar NAMM jam. Just mute your strings and go chicka-chicka. That works in any key.

• Don’t be “cool” during situations where the music is too loud. Put your fingers in your ears or leave the room.

• Don’t perform music that is constantly loud. Choose or write music that contains dynamic changes in volume. These volume changes will actually make the loud parts more musically effective via the contrast to the quieter parts. And your ears will fare much better due to the rests.












Paul Gilbert’s Great Guitar Escape will take place July 9th - 13th at Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY. Guitar players of all ages, levels and styles are invited to join Paul Gilbert and other expert musicians for this experience focused on the techniques, styles, and life of the modern working musician.




Full details http://www.greatguitarescape.com/schedule.html






3:00 PM Sign In
4:30 – 5:15 PM Meet and Greet with Instructors
5:30 – 6:30 PM Paul Gilbert – Introduction Seminar
6:45 – 8:00 PM Dinner
8:30 PM Concert with Paul Gilbert Band




8:00 – 10:00 AMBreakfast
10:15 – 11:15 AM Scotty Johnson - Crash Course in Music Theory: The Language of Musicians
11:30 – 12:45 PM Paul Gilbert - 5 Steps to Alternate Picking
1:00 – 2:00 PM Lunch
2:15 – 3:30 PM Kid Anderson - Rock ‘n’ Blues Vocabulary I, Paul Gilbert - Hands-On Beginners Course I
3:45 – 5:00 PM Tony MacAlpine - Advanced Heavy Rock I
5:15 – 6:30 PM Guthrie Govan - Choose Your Notes Wisely: Note Choice and Improvisation
6:45 – 8:00 PM Dinner
8:30 PM Concert/Jam with Paul Gilbert and all instructors





8:00 – 10:00 AM Breakfast
10:15 – 11:15 AMSam Coulson - Vibrato, Sustain, and Ripping Tone I
11:30 – 12:45 PMPaul Gilbert - Stuck Technique - Unstuck!: Break through your technique barriers. Bring your guitar!
1:00 – 2:00 PMLunch
2:15 – 3:30 PMRodney Holmes - Groove Inventions I, Mike Arellano - Guitar Tech 101, Paul Gilbert - Hands-On Beginner’s Course II
3:45 – 5:00 PMScotty Johnson - Essential Skills for the Working Guitarist I, Tom Size - Crash Course in Modern Mixing
5:15 – 6:30 PMKid Andersen - Rock ‘n’ Blues Vocabulary II, Kelly LeMieux - Bass Guitar On Tour I
6:45 – 8:00 PMDinner
8:30 PMConcert/Jam with Paul Gilbert and all instructors





8:00 – 10:00 AMBreakfast
10:15 – 11:15 AM Sam Coulson - Vibrato, Sustain, and Ripping Tone II, Scotty Johnson - Essential Skills for the Working Guitarist II
11:30 – 12:45 PM Paul Gilbert - Melodic Phrasing with Arpeggios and ‘Arscalios’
1:00 – 2:00 PM Lunch
2:15 – 3:30 PM Tony MacAlpine - Adv. Heavy Rock II, Rodney Holmes - Groove Inventions II, Paul Gilbert - Beginner’s Course III
3:45 – 5:00 PM Guthrie Govan - It’s All In the Details: A guide to articulation and control, Kelly LeMieux - Bass Guitar On Tour II
6:45 – 8:00 PM Dinner
8:30 PM Concert/Jam with Paul Gilbert and all instructors





8:00 – 10:00 AM Breakfast
10:00 – 11:00 AMPaul Gilbert Speech / Meet and Greet with Photo
11:00 AM Check Out

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