Hanky Pooh Interviews

Hanky_Pooh · July 13, 2018, 2:51pm

I did a test guitar talk show to see how it would turn out. My first guest is Philly guitarist Chris Gordon. You guys might find some of it entertaining. I will list the topic timestamps below.

01:50 Caged vs 3 note per string
03:20 Physiology plays a role
09:21 “Modes” vs scale positions
14:41 Picking techniques
16:50 Jimmy Bruno
18:23 Yngwie Malmsteen
25:03 Economy picking
30:02 Alternate picking (and totally failing at explaining rotation)
33:57 Swiping?
40:59 The effects of never being complacent
43:02 Greg Howe and how styles develop
46:40 Technique vs Musicality
48:37 How do you get that fast?
53:05 Yngwie Impressions
55:20 Joe Stump

blueberrypie · July 13, 2018, 5:01pm

Cool stuff man! and kinda fun. I didn’t know that guy but he’s great, really.
Watched about half of it so far but there’s some interesting things.

Not sure about the ‘rotation’ either … I’m relatively knew on CTC so maybe I miss sthg but I’m don’t think that rotation (at least how you describe it in the clip) is absolutely necessary to escape both sides in alternate picking. Personally I don’t feel it that way.

Hanky_Pooh · July 13, 2018, 6:06pm

Thanks! @blueberrypie and welcome to CTC

Yeah, he totally didn’t get what I was saying. He must only tilt just enough to come out of the plane of the strings. And doesn’t associate that movement as rotation. It’s either that or he swipes out of the occasional trapped pick stroke. He is a guy I know from here in Florida. He moved back to Philly.

He’s old school and doesn’t do a lot of stuff with pro video equipment to put online. But he’s one of the best players I know. I figured I’d at least share the video on here. It would be cool to see his playing with good cameras. I don’t know if anyone here would be interested? I think he shreds like a MF.

shinjuku · July 15, 2018, 3:15am

I watched it all - informative and entertaining! Very funny Joe Stump impersonation!

Interesting what he was saying about the rising force arps being a three note pattern not a four note pattern. Not sure if he is correct but it sure sounded good when he played it.

Also it sounds like he has contacted the CtC team? It would be cool to see his playing under the magnet.

Acecrusher · July 15, 2018, 12:07pm

I’m about to listen to this, or however much I have time for now and then listen to the rest later. I just wanted to ask since you describe this in a way that it seems it’s your first episode of this show, do you have a background in being an interviewer or is this the first interview you’ve ever conducted? I’ve always enjoyed listening to interviews and at times have considered getting into interviewing.

BTW, I pictured you having long hair. Did you ever have long hair?

NCASO · July 16, 2018, 1:54pm

Good interview. Informative. Nice job.

Very insightful on body mechanics and how players compensate for their body types.

When I hear great players attempt to explain how they pick, and then just trail off into nothing, I really appreciate the work Troy has done with CTC. There is truly nothing like CTC…

As far as Yngwie being retarded. …lol. I don’t think so…

He’s extremely eccentric, and proud. . He threw his guitar at his drummer due to his ego more than anything else imo.

Horganovski · July 18, 2018, 9:19am

Nice work! Enjoyed the interview and some useful tips there.

Hanky_Pooh · August 13, 2018, 5:30am

Here is my 2nd episode of “Guitar Talk” everybody. I like how this one turned out. You might find it inspirational.

01:29 War of Thrones and Rocklahoma
02:30 My YouTube Channel is growing
03:20 Holmes and Slice
05:12 Playing for Rob Rock
06:39 Rick’s Charvel
07:30 Practice routines
10:00 Us vs Yngwie vs other players
13:12 Connecting scale shapes
15:25 32nd notes
16:37 Super trills
18:58 Why shred guitar? Yngwie Malmsteen, Ronnie Le Tekro, Akira Takasaki… and Stryper?
22:20 Long distance music collaborations
23:32 Until The Bitter End
23:45 Playing old Alcatrazz riffs from memory
26:07 The Steeler album (Yngwie)
27:14 War of Thrones leads
28:29 Sounding like yourself
29:40 Shrapnel Records, Joey Tafolla, Greg Howe, Racer X, Cacophony, Marty Friedman, Jason Becker
33:01 Anton Oparin, Henrique Paganini, Baby Saster
35:14 A time before YouTube with no tabs. Rob Rock, M.A.R.S. Project Driver, Impellitteri
36:44 Al Di Meola
38:43 Jamming together 16 years later (improv)
40:50 Outro. My guitars and Rick’s other Charvel

16 years ago, me and Rick toured the world in a Racer X style Power Metal band. Even though there is only one way audio in Skype, we still jammed a little not being able to hear each other. lol.

Acecrusher · August 13, 2018, 7:14am

Hey Hank! You’ve got a natural ability for interviewing! I hope you do more of them. I don’t think the censoring is necessary. I find the constant “quack, quack” far more offensive than the “word” or the n word, or the c word. I’m a big First Amendment advocate which unfortunately has gotten certain internet forum moderators upset with me. You’ve gotta realize your audience is mainly heavy metal musicians and they’ve heard it all. They’re thick skinned people. When you had long hair back in the 80s or even 90s you had to develop a thick skin because of the way mainstream society would treat you just because of your hair! So, your audience is not going to stop listening to you because they heard your guest say a naughty word, heh heh.

I think the guy you interviewed, Chris Gordon is a talented guy with impressive technique. I’like to see you interview him again! There are some things you could expound on a little more such as swiping. I don;t think he really got the idea of what you were trying to ask him about. He showed you a sweep lick where he swiped a muted note, but in the repeating Paul Gilbert lick, when it’s played using outside string changes, you could try asking him something specific such as: When you do the upstroke on the 4th note of the 6 note lick, you have to make the pick cross over the string where the 5th note is so that you can pick it on a downstroke. How do you cross over the string instead of accidentally slamming the pick into the string on the upstroke"? Chris is a fast, clean player and it would be interesting to get a deeper insight into how he manages to play so fast and so clean. Chris Gordon’s a damn good player.

I don’t think Chris Gordon has any idea of what he’s talking about regarding his belief that Yngwie doesn’t know any theory. Does Chris Gordon even know that Yngwie has written a symphony? You should have asked him. His response would have been interesting. But it doesn’t bother me that he says that about Yngwie. That’s his opinion. Dissenting opinions are what make things interesting. If we all had the exact same beliefs and opinions the world would be a dull place!

Good job Hank! Keep the interviews coming!

Acecrusher · August 13, 2018, 9:25am

@Hanky_Pooh
This probably seems unorthodox to reply to my own post but here’s the reason: Hank, I distinctly remember you answering my question about your hair because you not only replied that you used to have long hair but you posted a cool picture of yourself with some rock musicians including Stephen Pearcy - lead vocalist of Ratt - if I recall. So, what happened to that picture? I liked it! I like your interviews too and I hope they become a regular thing!!!

Hanky_Pooh · August 13, 2018, 6:38pm

Hey Ace, thanks man! I will do more interviews but not every week. No, I don’t have any interview experience. I don’t know what I’m doing. Freedom of speech and offending somebody isn’t the problem. The problem is, I know YouTube will eventually demonetize any video with profanity. It’s only a matter of time. So why work so hard on my videos only to have the ads yanked from them in the future. It’s a stupid move leaving the cussing in the video. I want my ad revenue. So I’ll let the ducks quack. I think it’s funny anyway.

I can do a follow up with Chris Gordon. Chris doesn’t understand what I said about the rotation. Most players don’t. I think that is the section of the primer that Troy wants to remove? Most alt pickers I’ve seen are rolling the pick on the index with the thumb to change the pickslant. This is what I have started doing when I practice alternate picking. I am not trying to rock the wrist all the time. Like Chris said, that seems like a lot of work. The only way to really see what Chris is doing is with a close up cam. There is only so much I can see in a low light grainy 360p image.

I don’t really have any comment on the Yngwie stuff.

I would think that picture is in another thread? Maybe I deleted it. Rick was in that pic also. Here is that pic again.

Rick, me, Stephen Pearcy, Rob Rock
hanksp

Acecrusher · August 13, 2018, 6:44pm

Hey Hank, Cool pictures! And I see why you put in the duck quacks now. If YouTube is going to demonetize videos with profanity then sure, I see why you would delete the cursing. Chris seems like there would still be plenty to talk about with him in a follow up interview so I’ll be looking forward to it.

weealf · August 13, 2018, 6:50pm

Hi @Hanky_Pooh thanks very much for sharing this with the forum. I am half way through the first interview and am blown away by this guy. He is very interesting to listen to. Also he is one hell of a guitarist. The Yngwie playing is simply perfect for me. It sounds like he knows a lot of theory and jazz knowledge as well. Very cool and interesting dude. Where did you find him?

Hanky_Pooh · August 13, 2018, 8:45pm

Hey, no problem man. Chris used to live close to me in Florida. There isn’t many real good guitar players in this area, so you just sort of know who can play around here.

Chris isn’t a big time famous guitarist, but he is probably the best all around guitarist I know. He really knows his stuff man.

Acecrusher · August 16, 2018, 12:28pm

Did Chris used to live in Orlando or in the Tampa Bay area? You live in the Orlando area, right? Did you ever live in Tampa? The reason I ask is I did live in Tampa from 1988-1992 and I can tell you there were a tremendous number of great guitarists in the Tampa Bay area, meaning Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. You could probably even include Sarasota - the home of legendary progressive metal band Crimson Glory. While their vocalist Midnight got most of the attention for his absolutely incredible voice, Crimson Glory had some great lead guitarists! Maybe you didn’t live in the Tampa Bay area on the 80s and early 90s or if you did, maybe you hadn’t yet become interested in guitar playing. If I’m not mistaken, you said you started playing in 1994. That was a horrible time for finding great guitarists anywhere in the country! Why? because it was the height of the grunge fad and guitar solos were considered passe or worse, “self-indulgent.” Fortunately that trend has long since passed and it’s cool to be able to shred again but in the mid and late 90s, it was a bad time for serious guitarists! Would you agree?

That might even be an interesting topic to bring up in some of your interviews with professional guitarists, or even serious guitarists who didn’t play for money. Ask them how they felt during the grunge era and what they did about guitar solos being “out of style” at the time. Just a suggestion, Hank! I think it could lead to some very interesting stories but of course it’s entirely up to you

Check out these amazing Florida guitarists!

Hanky_Pooh · August 16, 2018, 1:38pm

Ace, I know Ben Jackson and Jon Drenning… Look, it got cut from the interview, but Wade Black is the singer for War of Thrones. Rick’s band. Wade Black sang on Crimson Glory’s Astronomica and was their touring singer for a long time. Because John(midnight), for several personal reasons, didn’t want to perform anymore. Wade still has a band with Ben Jackson.

Maybe I should have left some of the Wade conversation in, but it was slowing the flow of the talk down, most people do not know who Crimson Glory is. I didn’t want the interview going off on Crimson Glory for 30 minutes. It was messing the interview flow up. IMO.

You are preaching to the choir in regards to Florida man. This is where I am from, my grandfather, and his father, they all worked the orange fields here. So I am not just passing through unaware of the past happenings.

After your 88-92 time of living here, Death Metal was a huge scene all through the 90s. Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide…

Sadly, nothing is going on in the Rock scene anymore. Most tours aren’t even booking Florida anymore. I guess they can’t sell tickets. Unless it’s a huge act, you will probably have to drive to Atlanta to see them. There are exceptions, like Yngwie, but he lives here.

What was good about starting in '94 and being into shred? I got to hang out with Yngwie in '95 and '96 because hardly anybody was coming to the shows down here. All of the killer shred stuff was in the Cut-Out bin in music stores. The pawn shops were full of badass 80’s guitars man. Kramers, hot rodded strats, I bought a Ontario, Ca custom shop Jackson Kelly for $300 man.

I will keep those topics you mentioned in mind Ace.

Acecrusher · August 18, 2018, 4:21pm

I remembered Wade Black a little bit from my time in Tampa and I remember that one night one of the local radio stations broadcasted a show by Wade’s band at the time. I’m pretty sure they were named Lucian Blaque… Is that correct?

Hanky_Pooh · August 19, 2018, 5:16pm

I don’t know Ace. I don’t know Wade Black’s catalog. I just googled Lucian Blaque and a bunch of info pops up. So yes.

I wasn’t around any rock scene in '92, I think you are a little older than me. Sorry I am not much for conversation on the Tampa scene but I honestly don’t follow or care about what a lot of those guys are doing. I try to focus on what Lucian Hank is doing

Acecrusher · August 20, 2018, 8:08am

Hey Hank! I just watched the Rick Renstrom interview. You looked like you were in a particularly good mood that day. I think it helps the interview when the host is in a good mood. Good interview! Rick has a real fast tremolo picking technique. I don’t see his elbow or wrist moving so what is he using to move the pick so fast? Is it thumb and finger motion? I noticed his arms and wrists look like he may have been in an accident or something. Do you know the story behind that? While you interview people it becomes obvious you’ve got a pretty interesting background yourself. Have you thought of maybe having someone interview you? Things that come to mind would include how did you get the gig with Rob Rock, some stories from tours with him, what led to that collaboration between the two of you coming to an end, who else have you played for, do you still have any desire to tour with a band, etc.

Hanky_Pooh · August 20, 2018, 8:57pm

I’m always in a good mood man. My background? I could write a bunch of books… But left the past behind.