Alex Lifeson Guitar Lessons

Christmas, 1981 landed a cassette of Rush's Moving Pictures in my stocking which had been hung by the chimney (with care). Delighted by Santa's thoughtfulness, within minutes the recording found a permanent home in the cassette deck of my Aiwa boombox.

A few months prior I had bought a mahogany plywood Les Paul clone for $75 from my cousin, Scott Baker. He'd tried guitar, but hated it, returning immediately to design which has always been his first love.

The guitar came with a small solid-state amp that was never loud or distorted enough for my taste. Somehow I discovered if I patched cables from my standalone Panasonic cassette deck into the Aiwa, then back out to the guitar amp, and plugged the guitar into the Panasonic (while hitting Record|Pause|Play) I could use the source input knob on the Panasonic to dial in a gorgeous smooth distortion with unlimited gain. Some sort of unholy feedback loop. Even better, I had surround sound as speakers on both the Aiwa and the guitar amp broadcast my playing...mixed with Moving Pictures.

Eternal Glory!

Only problem is I couldn't yet play guitar. But the first song on Side 2 of Moving Pictures was The Camera Eye, which featured sustained guitar notes in a deceptively simple melody. First, I could tune to the song. Second, the notes came at me slow enough I could hunt around on the fretboard until I matched pitch. There was no Guitar Hero, and I didn't know how to read music or tab.

Trial and error as I slowly built fingertip calluses, wearing the fidelity of the cassette down to mud with pause & rewind. I finally mastered the song, even the wrist-breaking odd-time signature 12-string rhythm part, and meandering pitch bends in the solo.

I've long since forgotten those subtle nuances, but Alex's playing inspired and shaped my own music. I learned his love for suspended chords, unusual time signatures, and abstract intricate textures.

But here's the point.

Think how much fun it would have been if I could have learned directly from Alex. Using hi-def close-up video. Watching this brings back a flood of memories. Sure, "good old days" and all that, but — with technology like iVideosongs — the present is even better.

Comments

[Roger Placer]

DUDE. In late 1981 I purchased "Exit Stage Left" and for the next 10 years, I was a changed young man. At one point, I knew how to play every Rush song from Fly By Night through Grace Under Pressure. My very first performance on a stage was a two song set - "Vital Signs" and "The Spirit of Radio."

I couldn't keep up that pace in college ('85-'89), as by then I had started to write and record my own stuff. But Alex is a huge influence on my playing! Very cool indeed.