All's a Chord 11: 1999

From:  James Halvorson

Please allow me to say that over the last 30 years, your playing has inspired me to be the musician that I am. What inspires you to write the acoustic pieces on your albums? They are absolutely beautiful and cerebral. The first time I ever wept over a song was on "Turn of the Century" off GOING FOR THE ONE. I'm not ashamed, either.

"Thanks, James, for listening to me for thirty years. What inspires me about acoustic guitar music I guess is that's where it all begin, it's like going back to fundamentals in music, and that's why I write most of my music because that's where it takes me back to. Glad you enjoy 'Turn of the Century' so much, and good luck."

From:  Sirjay

Firstly: I've not been playing for very long--six months--but I was wondering if you had any general tips about progressing more quickly, and absorbing a more classical style. As well ... what sheet music collections have you released? I've looked, but I can't seem to find anything.

"There's really not any quick way of doing something like learning classical guitar. But on the other hand the way to absorb the music more might be besides listening to it as much as you can, leave it on when you go to sleep is another idea...obviously giving it time, you got to give it time and if condense that time, say into working for half an hour with a short break and another half an hour with another short break and so on you might pick up some of this time you feel you need to.

"Your second question was about the sheet music and it's available, it's called 'Steve Howe Guitar Pieces', and there are eight pieces available."

From:  Brad Metheny

I quit playing guitar in '83 and started again in '95. Although I've had some training on other instruments, the 16 years I've been playing guitar has been by ear. I have never concerned myself too much about applying theory to the guitar and have relied on my ear to tell me what works and what doesn't. People that I have played with have told me that the ability to play that way is a gift, but I envy the players with a broad based musical knowledge and the ability to sight read and compose in that way. Despite my backwards approach to guitar, should I consider relearning the instrument at this late date? Also, how much of a part does the mechanics of theory play in your own compositions and of those with Yes.

"Brad, thanks for writing. I don't think it's ever too late to pick up the guitar and start relearning or advancing your ideas on the guitar because if you made a start then you pick up where you left off. As for the mechanics of theory playing, it's a big part of the guitar. It's not so much what note you play but where that note is that you're using on the finger board because they duplicate so much. So it's always good to understand theory but feel that it's a route towards something, not a route to a wall, that's a wall around you that says you've got to do everything like within their structure, it's more learn the structure and then break the rules."

From:  David Lucitt

Can you tell me where you learned to play and if you have any practice tips on playing? Also can you tell me what you think it takes to be a great musician playing guitars?

"I learned to play in a house in London where I was born and I just sat there and practiced and pretended I could play and copied things, and that's really how I learned to play, by ear, by looking at chord books and by listening to guitarists for ten years. The only practice tips I can suggest is utilizing the major, minor, and diminished scales, and mixing them up and playing them between one octave and another, to start in E and work up until you're up to E, crossing between minors and majors and diminished, it's quite fun.

"To be a great musician I guess you've got to be about three things, you've got to be dedicated to that to that instrument, you've got to be more akin to that instrument; you've got to be ambitious, and you've got to be very prepared to sacrifice your time and therefore other people's time around you so that you can pursue that goal and only then will you know how much you've sacrificed."

From:  Lasse Svenson

I now own a guitar Gibson SG/Les Paul Custom '61. When I bought it the former owner told me that you had own it in the early 70s. Is that a possibility? On the case there is a pair of backstage passes why the story seamed to be true?

"I'm sorry but I don't remember ever having owned an SG Les Paul Custom, a 1961 that I think you imply. Therefore I don't think it's possible that was my guitar even though the backstage passes convinced you. The only SG guitars I've owned is an EB6 bass, and a mid-80s SG for a short while. I'm pretty sure, sorry that guitar wasn't mine."

From:  Mark W. Moore

Steve, at times your lyrics seem to revolve around a theme that this life that mankind is presently persuing will also be our downfall. Personally I have the strangest mix of spiritual optimism and the aforementioned sense of a major event that will alter mankind's role hear on earth. In "Too Much Is Taken and Not Enough Given" it seem so and also "The Fall of Civilization". What if anything would you like to say about this.

"Within the breadth of two songs in my career I do touch on, particularly in 'The Fall of Civilization', obviously a pessimistic view that things aren't going very well. I wouldn't think that 'Too Much is Taken and Not Enough Given' falls under the same message, really, I think in that song I'm really thinking much about the give and take in human relationships as much as the pressures on the land. But 'The Fall of Civilization', yes, is a document, a comment if you like about the potential of disaster. My wife Jan actually wrote those lyrics and I put them to that music, and constructed the music with Keith West, my old friend at a time when that song seemed to shout quite nice nicely and that me singing about it had some relevance."

Also did you write "One Step Closer" when you were in ASIA. Again I felt your energy in the message of loneliness and this was a source of relief that if someone so talented and seemingly happy was lonely also my loneliness was easier.

"I actually wrote that many years before I was in Asia but the song came up in Asia and became refreshed. Yeah, it did have a feeling of loneliness but actually it was a loneliness about two people being together and them not quite understanding yet what love it."

From:  Laurent Leze

I often tried to play 'hybrid picking' (pick+middle and ring finger), but it's hard. Do you know some easy exercises (or some pieces) to start that kind of playing which might be the most universal in fact. You don't seem to have nails on your right hand. Do your fingertips naturally strong or did you 'practice' their strength ?

"I don't know whether there are any easy exercises that anybody can tell you, you've just got to play what you call hybrid picking, or fingerpicking; maybe try it with a thumbpick. Don't worry about your nails, I don't have nails anyway, use a plectrum if you want to get that sound, or use your fingertips."

From:  Bill Shannon

Steve, you have influenced EVERYTHING about the way I play guitar. This column shows your obvious dedication to guitarists and guitar as an art form. I believe I now can play "Clap" successfully, but it took four years and a lot of calluses. Two questions: How did you ever compose that masterpiece in one single night? Did you write from beginning to end, or did you piece little sections together?

And, I also play by ear, like you, but sometimes I cannot seem to find an original chord phrasing or "location" on the fret board to begin creating something new-are there any methods you could recommend to find something fresh and unique? Do I really have to read all of those little black dots?

"I'm glad you've mastered 'Clap'; I recall that I wrote 'Clap' when I stayed up very late the night Dylan was born on the 4th of August, 1969; I certainly did write it that night. There were parts of it which had some formulation possibly. I can't really think that I knew exactly where they came from but certainly that one night they did all formulate.

"About finding original chord phrasings locations on the fingerboard...that's a tricky one, I really don't know what to suggest. Don't look at the fingerboard, that's another idea. Explore your fingerings so you move your fingers into different places, and try it with an open string, or try it a semi-tone higher with two open strings, it's just a question of fooling around with the guitar. That's what it's there for, to fool around with."

From:  Bill Birge

Listening to your music and watching you play, your lead guitar work has been much more than just "jamming". To me you have the ability to tell a story within the context of the music. Knowing my scales and improvising has brought me a long way, but how do I bridge the gap into constructing the "telling of a story" rather than an awesome jam session? Thanks so much Steve for responding to all your fans out here!

"Thanks for your letter. How you bridge the gap into what you call telling a story rather than an awesome jam session, I think what you need is an introduction; you need to think in your own mind that you're about to play and there's going to be some time for you to play in and that the first thing you've got to do is just get into it. It's not a question of immediately being dazzling and surprising, sort of finding a route into starting your solo. So I suggest you take a melodic approach, look for something in a melodic style that helps you ease into the improvisation. So it's really just picking a note and seeing how it works and if it doesn't try another one. So it's finding a place to start that solo from and an understanding of building the solo so that it's going to start building towards the end, or wherever you want it to but certainly a sense of control. That'll give it a sense of control, starting from a logical, sensible movement of notes, then moving onto improvisation. Good luck!"

From:  Pete Mininni

This is actually a statement, not a question! "It's guys like Steve Howe that make me believe...There is a God!"

"That's a very spiritual statement, thank you very much, Pete!"

From:  Tracy Garday

Can you tell me a little about a song called "Sketches in the Sun"? It seems like you like that riff a lot. Also saw you in San Diego, very hot show, it was good to see you together again.

"'Sketches in the Sun', yes I did originally play that on the "ASIA IN ASIA" concert, and then in GTR, and of course it came out in HOMEBREW. Yeah, I've had a lot of fun with that tune, I do like to play it, I played it on NIGHT OF THE GUITARS also. Glad you liked the show, and good to hear from you, Tracy."

From:  John B. Chenoweth

I'm a guitar teacher and a big progressive rock fan. I'm especially interested in your right hand approach to "Mood for a Day" and "Clap". I've played these for years but I originally used a thumb pick so that I could play the fast scale parts with alternate picking. Recently I've switched to hybrid picking. But from seeing you in concert it appears you're using your bare right hand.

Also, I recently purchased a transcriber from Reed Kotler Systems, Inc. Used with a PC it allows you to record music from a CD and play it back at 1/2, 1/4....1/12, etc original speed without changing pitch!

I'm a fan since THE YES ALBUM!

"John, on the two tunes you mentioned I use different styles of playing. 'Mood for a Day' I play with my fingers, not nails so much but my fingertips in a more flamenco or semi-classical style, and 'Clap' I play with a plectrum between my first finger and thumb and pick mostly with my second finger. That's how I do it. It's a personal thing, mainly it determines what sound you make so your last part of your sound is being designed by your plectrum. I use Fender medium heart-shaped one that are white and I believe Fender discontinued them, but I do have them, various friends of my have some stocks of them but if Fender cared to they could release them and do a tie-in there.

"I'm fascinated to read about the transcriber software that you've got on your computer, it does sound like good fun being able to slow it down and keep it in the same pitch; it doesn't even drop an octave? Great!

"Hey hey, a fan since THE YES ALBUM, that's way back, good one! Bye."

From:  Stanley Geiger

I have always wondered what made you gravitate to playing hollow body or semi- hollow body guitars. I have tried out several ES-175s and have had problems with feedback. Do you have some trick for keeping the feedback to a minimum, especially performing live?

"Surprisingly I've not had this problem everybody has with fullbodies on stage except using an L5, I've found that Gibson didn't steer clear of feedback. The 175 has always been great; I'm using an ES5 Switchmaster at the moment. There's a parameter of bass end you can have on the amp. If you have maximum bass then you're going to get a lot of feedback. If you go somewhere in the first third of the bass then you should be all right. Get the amount of bass you want with the pickups as opposed to just from the amp. Feedback must be controlled by a volume pedal mainly and this I've always done, it comes natural to me, it may not to other people. I'm glad very much that you like the sound that I get out of these kind of guitars, the semi-hollow and the hollowbodies."

What goes into choosing which guitar on certain songs? I noticed the 345 on "Siberian Khatru" but the 175 on "Starship Trooper". Are the dynamics that different?

"I've often been asked what makes me choose certain guitars for certain tracks or certain performances so there's not really a hard and fast rule but there is something that happens when an idea is formulating you play on a particular instrument and I find that it either stays or it goes onto another kind of instrument, often jumping from an acoustic to electric, so it really depends on when it gets recorded, if that sound gets established then I want to reproduce that sound on stage as close as possible and I can't always do that. Sometimes I might just go out of my way not to, but for the most part my Yes performances have usually been about duplicating some of those sounds that are actually on the record. Quite often I find doing it with a guitar is more fun than doing it with the effect if there is one, and also I do like the guitars that I use. There is a dynamic in them, certainly the stereo, and these guitars I only prove to myself that they work for the songs that I use them in, there's no other guidance, it's just an idea I've got about using my collection, I suppose. "I used guitars on each album in the '70s and I played all of FRAGILE except 'Heart of the Sunrise' on the ES5 Switchmaster, so not the Switchmaster on stage is being to play some of the 175 music which is really a breakthrough. Not that I haven't often duplicated that guitar, with the Super 400, the Gibson Les Paul Custom, and THE Les Paul have all stood in for the 175, and now the ES5 does it very well. I have fun doing things, there's not a hard and fast rule that I'll always do that but it's a goal I've got to reach and then decide if in fact that there's a compromise I'd rather make."

From:  Claude "Sport" Jensen III

My grandfather introduced to Chet Atkins a device to amplify the strings of a guitar he in turn showed to Les Paul. (so the story goes). His name was Claude Jensen but folks called him Buck. Thanks for the evening of Feb 26 [1998] and many years of music.

"Thanks, Claude. You mentioned Chet Atkins, great, and of course I presume you're referring to my concert in Hilton Head so that's nice, thanks so much! It was quite a unique concert, partly because of the instruments I had with me, I always find limits are a challenge and I really did enjoy those concerts. Bye."

From:  Kevin Hoover

I wonder what you think about the evolution of your guitar sound. In listening to songs from the YESSONGS and YESSHOWS albums and those on KEYS TO ASCENSION I hear a much more delicate timbre. Do you think you will again rage with that heavy, cutting sound? Also, I'm curious what you think of guitarist Martin Barre of Jethro Tull.

"Kevin, you touch on a delicate area where guitar sounds are not a constant thing between a guitar and amplifier, they don't stay the same for year after year, or I might revisit the YESSONGS period, and even YESSHOWS, I was using 15 inch speakers, one wouldn't think they broke up or distorted anymore than my 12 inch do now, in face less so, but as to what a technical person's answer to that question would be, I wouldn't disagree with you, you're astute. Particularly around the UNION times there were times when I'd get my sound a little cleaner, often when I'm working with another guitarist who maybe is going to be heavy and dirty so I do tend to get very spiky sometimes and like that double pickup Gibson sound that's clean but many people in rock music use. I like the distortion to be just right and I like there to be distortion; in other words that makes the electric guitar suit moments and of course I appreciate that other times you don't want it. It's just getting that balance between getting a natural sound and an overdriven sound and that's constantly changing. And it changes when I guitars, when I stick a Fender in it it changes in a different way, distorts at a different rate. So there's quite a lot that I'm always juggling with and the technical thing about getting the distortion right is always with me. Yeah, I'm there with you, I'm having a go at getting the right level of it to suit me, I hope you like it too.

"And, Martin Barre is a fine guitarist and a nice guy."

From:  Andrey Chistyakov

I'm from Russia and like everything you do. Thank you for tremendous aesthetic pleasure you give the people with your work.

"It's nice to hear from you, Andrey, from Russia, I'm glad you enjoy my work so much and it gives you so much pleasure."

From:  Kyle Thompson

Will Yes ever tour Southeast USA? I live in Jackson, MS, and have never gotten to see Yes (I'm 19, so it wasn't until the TALK tour that I ever discovered Yes). Second, can you give us any information on QUANTUM GUITAR?

"Kyle, yeah, it would be fantastic to get to all the different corners of America and the southeast should not be neglected. Jackson, Mississippi, New Orleans, down there...we used to play there very regularly, we used to play New Orleans every tour and it's beyond me why we don't continue to do that, but these are the forces that play. Let's hope we get back down there to see you soon. "QUANTUM GUITAR is an instrumental album where I kind of do some of the things I've always to do like record 'Walk Don't Run' and 'Sleepwalk' from the '60s, and also strangely enough mix that with some short and very different structural pieces that I was writing together as a suite. And then of course as things would have it they were rather lumpy on their own but somehow perfectly suited to make QUANTUM GUITAR have my usual style of instrumental work, these shorter pieces of varying structural design and then a couple of guitar classics, so I hope you like it very much. Bye!"

From:  Dennis S. Reilley

I recently had a discussion with my teenage son and he asked me who I felt the greatest guitar player is. Now that took me all of 1/100th of a second to answer. Unfortunately my 16 year old said, "who?" After shaking my head and signing him up for music appreciation class I proceeded to pull out YESSONGS and played "Yours is No Disgrace" and "Starship Trooper". He now understands why I don't think Slash is the greatest guitar player.

Again thank you for the pickin' and I hope you travel to southwest Florida for some solo performances soon.

"Dennis, thanks for your email. I like the story you told me and I thank you for your compliment about the live guitar performances, they're held within. Slash is a great guitarist but it's very hard for any of us to be 'the greatest'. The fact that you think I am is nice in itself but obviously what I feel is that there's a lot of ground to cover. The guitar offers a tremendous opportunity to different people and therefore there will be classical, flamenco, jazz, rock, folk, steel-there will be all the styles of music that one can mix together, and the ethnic, and the world music, and the local music where I am in Argentina, picking up some Argentinean music, tangos no less. I would really like to get down to Florida and do some solo concerts because I love St. Petersburg and other places like that, so watch out [in the future]."

From:  Steve Dame

I am a great fan of Steve's from the 70s ad would like him and his fans to be aware of a new force coming in the Midi guitar world. Please let them know about the MIDIAXE: http://www.midiaxe.com.

"Thanks for sending me your warnings of MIDIAXE coming, that's quite a good name, let's hope that it's as good as its name if not better. Midi was thought to be unwieldy for the guitar and most people went other routes. That doesn't mean to say somebody couldn't make the breakthrough, let's hope it's MIDIAXE."

From:  Jose Carlos de Meo

How did you come back to Yes after seventeen years? What happened to Trevor Rabin, is he gone forever?

"What happened with Trevor is that after that TALK album there was a division about the direction that the band wanted to go in. I was then asked if I would rejoin, Rick was going to rejoin, although he was nestled in the group for two years he really didn't join so much, and now I hope you've seen us on stage with Billy Sherwood and Igor Khoroshev."

From:  Dale Scheneki

Being a guitar instructor I am always trying to help educate my students in the non-musical areas of playing guitar, particularly in dealing with guitar equipment and setups. One of my students recently asked me if I could write you to ask about your touring setup during the FRAGILE and CLOSE TO THE EDGE days. Could you give some specifics concerning guitars, amps, and pedals you took on tour during this time period? I do have your Guitar Collection Book which I found very informative.

"Hello, Dale! The FRAGILE amp setup on stage was just one Dual Showman as far as I remember, a volume pedal might have been a Fender, they made one that looked like a Sho-Bud, or it might have been a Sho-Bud by then or some such volume pedal, a couple of boxes--a wah-wah, might have been a Vox in those days, and then a Marshall distortion box, sustainer box. But by the time I got to CLOSE TO THE EDGE I had the Dual Showman still standing on its end with the speakers above each other, the amp on top, with the echo unit of the day, in both tours, may have been Echoplex but might may have been Binson Echolets. But anyway, CLOSE TO THE EDGE I not only went stereo on that tour, and had one pickup coming out the Dual Showman and one coming out the Fender Quad. So the steel came out of the Fender Pro, or Quad, and the main guitar and the back pickup of the stereo came out the main Dual Showman. So I was using the Dual Showman or Fender Quad, or maybe it was a Pro, I don't know. I was using 175, the ES5, and the ES345.

"The only distortion pedal I had besides the Marshall, which was all out distortion, [was] a maestro fuzz booster box, which was a slightly triangular shaped box with a round switch on it, and this I usually had in boost position and it just boosted the sound of the guitar for solos, I recommend that on most guitar rigs really, some sort of booster switch that gives you a lead sound. I'm glad you like the book, thanks a lot. Bye."

From:  Rob McGillis

I've been seeing much on the net concerning various Steve Howe performances on video, namely at the Montreaux, Switzerland festival and his solo on ABWH. Can I purchase copies of these somewhere?

"Rob, I hope at some point to get round to tidying up my video collection of performances from places like you've said, in Montreaux and various other places. I have these under my control and am able to do it, it's just a question I haven't done it yet, sorry! In the meantime there are ways of getting 'Montreaux' from a company in Japan called TAMT."

From:  Paul Daniel Jones

When your tour with Yes you play some of Trevor Rabin's music. How do you feel about playing music from another incarnation of Yes? And, how do you actually go about learning all the nuances of someone else's song?

"Paul, on the UNION tour because I didn't want to play on 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' I didn't, but I played some other music, 'Rhythm of Love' and other things and now the way I feel today snatches from the fact that when I joined the band we were playing 'Time and a Word', 'Astral Traveller', songs like that, and so I'm quite used to playing other material. But I would say the '80s is not so much the material I'd like to play although there are things from UNION and songs here and there...like now I'm playing 'Rhythm of Love' and 'Owner of a Lonely Heart', I don't play the guitar solo, Billy Sherwood has got that one together. As far as the nuances on somebody's else's song it's really up to interpretation but maybe you don't need to do that with a song like 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'; it could be developed, it could be rearranged, but the way it looks at the moment it's pretty much like it is but I get a guitar part in C# at the end, and that gives me a little time to stretch out. The rest of the time my left hand's hardly moving, but that isn't such a bad thing always."

From:  Keith

I work at Martin guitars and said hi [to Steve when he was visiting the Martin facility]. Do you play Martins or just trying out the best guitars made?

"Hey Keith, glad we ran into each other at the Martin Guitar factory. Since 1968 I've been playing Martin Guitars. They've been my main [acoustic] guitars from then really until now. In recent years since the early '90s I've been playing a guitar made in Holland by Theo Scharpark called an SKD. This guitar has a very round orchestral sound and I enjoy playing that very much. But I still use my .0018. Recently I was doing three solo concerts in America earlier on in the year and I used a Martin SOM 45 for all the six string acoustic work that I did on those concerts. So that gives you an idea, I'm still playing Martin, I still love Martin, I still think Martin is the best big production acoustic guitar that there is. So keep knocking them out and keep making them good."

From:  Clyde

I had the pleasure of seeing you perform with Yes in Tulsa, OK. Thank you for including "Diary of a Man who Vanished"! Regarding the studio version, were the guitar parts (tone, playing style, and effects) a tip of the hat to some Chet Atkins; instrumentals, which were in the same vein? Is there a chance you and Chet would collaborate?

"I'm glad you liked the show we did in Tulsa and the selection that I played that night in my solos spot. Of course the original recording of 'Diary of a Man Who Vanished' was done with three Fender Strats, they were all playing the same thing within different octaves, or different parts of it. Primarily it was a Fender Strat playing Chet Atkins style and I like that sort of Buddy Holly and the Crickets sound that I got on there and that's really why I used it. I had that Stratocaster stolen that I actually played that on. But bar that there was some difficulties with that guitar and I found Stratocasters to be better than the one I had there, I think it was a '64. But aside from guitar detail the way I played it was to get that Chet Atkins approach but I never really found it appropriate to go to a Gretsch and mimic him in that way, I don't play a Gretsch like Chet does. So I was experimenting there, really using that Start for sort for that Crickets, that Buddy Holly sort of sound, so I just go for little character sounds. Chet and I have met on a few occasions and it's been my privilege and he's been very a humorous and smooth character, and I admire him tremendously. I wish him all the best at the moment."

During rehearsals do you first play through the numbers with one guitar then later decide which different ones to choose? Is the guitar on which you might compose the piece wind up most often the guitar on which you wind up recording and then performing the piece?

"I'm not sure whether you mean for a tour or before we've recorded the music but let's assume it's for touring. Obviously by then I'd know which guitars I was playing on various numbers. If it wasn't then we were in a writing period of rehearsing then, yeah, I would be dabbling different guitars just to find out how they suited a number. Usually an instinct, some guiding light comes to me and says play this play this on a...and then my mind goes to the guitar. Obviously it has to be within reach, it has to be in current use, unless I bring out instruments like I have recently, like I've brought back into play the ES5 Gibson Switchmaster, so I can decide through experience with different guitars which sound. I might hear a song and think that it just needs 12 string guitar, so if it needs a 12 string then I'll either use a Rickenbacker or a Steinberger, or if it's an acoustic I'll use my Martin or my Levin.

"So really the choice of guitars are infinite, I could talk about it for ages and just keep telling you what I think it might be. It is some instinct based on my guitar collection and the knowledge I have of it, of the kind of sounds. When I hear a song sometimes it's easy: I can either hear a Gibson sound or a Fender sound, I can hear an acoustic sound, I can hear a steel, I can hear a sitar, I can hear a mandolin, I can hear all the guitars I play but only one of them to start with will seem right and I'll texture it a little bit more. But usually I'll go for a guitar that makes me think I can play in the way that I want to on that song, and like 'Parallels' I was playing a Strat, but I don't often play a Strat, I played them in ABWH a bit. So just different kinds of moods, different kind of textured music just requires a different knowledge about the guitar that you're going to add before you add it, which ain't easy.

"As far as whether I compose a piece on a particular guitar, that's not too much of a hard and fast rule, most of my music is composed on acoustic guitar and I certainly would think that it moves off to another guitar sometimes depending on what I'm writing on. Sometimes I write on an F-hole acoustic guitar because that's really where I started. A lot of the time I'll use a folk guitar like a Martin, or I'll use a Spanish guitar. Some of the things I write on Spanish end up vice versa so there is a point at which the tune gains a sound, and that is when it's recorded, although I'll change that later, because I've done that with 'Corkscrew', loads of tunes, I've done it with 'Diary of a Man Who Disappeared', I've completely changed it around and gone acoustic when it was electric."

Do you have selected presets in your effects rack and settings on your amps for each guitar? Or can you pretty well leave the amp settings as they are for the whole show?

"On the effects rack, the presets on those purposely are changed during the set, but we don't change the settings particularly on the amps, we get a general setting for the amps but we do change wheat goes into them from time to time, like for phase reasons, when I'm using the stereo guitar we have to change over to the other channel so that we can use the guitar to be in phase. That's a whole interesting area about using two speakers and certainly about using the stereo guitar, you have to be very careful you don't end up with two speaker cabinets that are out of phase with each other otherwise your guitar will sound like a razor blade."

On "Arriving UFO" from TORMATO, you get some particularly unearthly sounds from the guitar during the instrumental section close to the end. The song really has a neat "textural atmosphere"--was as it mostly 'live'?

"If I had those sounds now myself I might remember something about what made them but at the time there was a fair bit of Electro Harmonix gadgets going around, that was a company producing guitar effects, and they had envelope followers and stuff like that, and that could be quite close to where we are. I don't recall using a bow at any time but getting funny noises out of the guitar is part of what a guitarist must do and I've done a little of that myself. Quite often we try to keep the live basic guitar to come back in at different times and get a good atmosphere going and that's something that happens on all the records I've done where the original guitar has usually one or two places where it's really vital then I can overdub and change the textures of other parts."

Was there an obvious reason for leaving out DRAMA, TORMATO, and GOING FOR THE ONE material from the OPEN YOUR EYES show?

"That show didn't contain any DRAMA or TORMATO material. TORMATO has been neglected by Yes for a long time. GOING FOR THE ONE, [we were later] doing 'Wonderous Stories' though at the earlier part of the OPEN YOUR EYES tour we weren't. Jon is quite up to sing 'Tempus Fugit' but the point is we can't do all of the material all the time but I know that we rely somewhat on some material all the time. So eventually Yes might get out of this pattern and play from pockets in its career that haven't been very well exploited on stage, like DRAMA and TORMATO. They have been on the list; believe me, TORMATO tracks like 'On the Silent Wings of Freedom'.

"Thanks, Bye!"

From:  Richard Jay Baruch

Do you recall a show you did at either Nassau Coliseum or Madison Square Gardens In New York where Yes played a medley of excerpts of older material? I think near the beginning you were using your ES175 but near the end of the medly you played your ES345. Can you tell me what amps and speakers you used to get such a nice tone from your guitar?

"Richard, thanks for writing. We played at Nassau and Madison Square Gardens on numerous times, in around 1978-79, I would reckon though the amplification and equipment didn't change that much between those two years, certainly the 175 and the ES345 were heavily in use. It's more likely I played a medley on the 175, on the stereo I can't remember doing that. But at the time I was definitely using what I'm still using, which are Fender Twin Reverbs, I had two of them on the floor on the round stage, and then I had extension speakers going over to the bass, to Chris, and I'm not sure if the other cabinet was actually used for me when I stood at the edge of the stage so I could hear myself.

"I'm glad you liked that nice tone I get from the guitar, that's something I always hope for and I'm never too sure it's really there, but I'm glad to hear that you think it is."

A few years ago I discovered the beauty of hearing Lester Young. I've always thought you sounded a lot like him on the guitar solos you played for "Close to the Edge" and "Siberian Khatru" on the TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS tour.

"I'm touched that you found some comparison between Lester Young and some of my work around the CLOSE TO THE EDGE time on the TOPOGRAPHIC tour you mentioned. I do enjoy each tour having a different position for the solo so I kind of reinvent things like 'Siberian Khatru' and 'Close to the Edge' a little bit and 'Yours is No Disgrace', 'Starship Trooper', those longish sort of solos I tend to redesign every year that I'm playing them, partly because I can't remember what I played last year! I all honesty what I do is that I look at the original record and decide how much this year I'm going to take from it, and before the tour I was looking at 'Close to the Edge' and not really wanting to expand it very much because I like the way that's so concise on the record, but I'll hopefully make up for that by stretching out another solo. I like to make it feel fresh by bringing something current to it. Of course I have a record of these solos and I do go back, and I relearned the 'Siberian Khatru' solo a little further into the grooves so that I knew more of the original solo then I usually have played, and that gave me a lot of pleasure playing that.

"I'll tell you a story abut recording that particular solo, at the end of 'Siberian Khatru'. I tried lots of solos in the studio and none of them seemed to really have any particular style about them. So I said, I know what, turn me off in the track, don't let me hear what I'm playing. Let me just play from a feel point of view of what I think I'd like to hear. So they said, that's different, we'd not done that before, so they switched me off, and they put the tape on, and it came to that moment and we heard nothing, I just played, and only I had a sense of what I played, only I had any idea of what I was doing because nobody else could hear it. And they all sat there and they said, we'll have to play it back to you, what's that's like, and I said, yeah, and we played it back, and it was the solo that you hear now...so there's a story."

Also I heard somewhere that you were writing another book, is this true? IF so, what will it be about and when would it be completed?

"There are a couple of book projects in progress and neither really are at a stage to announce them other than to say that there is some progress made primarily on one book that's a collaboration not dissimilar to how I collaborated with Tony Bacon on my first book, 'The Steve Howe Guitar Collection', this time I collaborate with a couple of guys and we investigate mainly one period of time in music. Another book that I have is a highly personal book about advice and views and peculiar insight into the working mind of yours truly insofar as the way I work and the techniques, the experiences I've had that have taught me to do things in a certain way so I'm considering passing that on as a sort of handbook to musician's survival, mainly to help them survive mentally and also to help them to use time very, very carefully and not actually ever waste time, and maybe the book will end up being more about how not to waste time. Obviously I would say in the near future as a completion date for initially the main book I told you about and some time in the near future for my handbook."

From:  Dan

I am going to finally play 'Clap' if it kills me. Is there anything you would suggest a person do to get the fundamental picking technique that makes 'Clap' what it is?

"Thanks, I seem to have written a guitar piece to challenge a lot of people and I'm very pleased that 'Clap' still is on the agenda of pieces to tackle after having written it 29 years ago! I slightly know the feeling because I play it very often and it's not exactly an easy piece to play even when you know how to play it. But it came to me that magical night. "To get that fundamental picking technique you've got to start with something really easy: pick a tune, like I pick something like 'The Glory of Love' by Big Bill Broonzy, and maybe that's not easy enough for some of you; it might be though, because it's really only C, G, C, C7, F, your basic three chords in C, and once you get the idea that you're going spread your fingers and part of it is going to play it's just a question of practice, so get practicing. Practice playing a bass part with your thumb then try to do some other things with your fingers. No matter what they are, they'll start you off. And basically then eventually after some time you'll be able to play 'Clap'."

From:  Mike Ulrych

I love your music, especially THE STEVE HOWE ALBUM. Are transcriptions of it available? Do you frown upon people like me who have to have a transcription of a song in order to play it?

"Mike, thanks for writing. I'm glad you especially like THE STEVE HOWE ALBUM, there really aren't any transcriptions available although I do have 'Double Rondo' and the interpretation of Vivaldi's second movement of the lute concerto in D though not commercially available. I certainly don't frown upon people who would seek a transcription, that's very commendable and admirable a goal because I don't read them but I would have liked to have done and therefore I will note your interest. I do remember now that 'Surface Tension' from that album is part of a CD ROM project that I'm doing so since you're on the Internet you may hear about this as it comes out from Beyond Music; it's a CD ROM and it features Yes and solo material, sort of explored a bit by me, you see me playing bits and other stuff, and more about that later as it comes out, though we are hoping that it will come out this year. The only other available thing is the 'Steve Howe Guitar Pieces' which is eight pieces transcribed, sometimes people say not satisfactorily, or not accurately, but I do commend Mick Barker for his work, and at the time he played it to me as he'd written it and I thought it was right, unless it went wrong in the copy. Thanks."

From:  Michael Bell

I have learned how to play a few of your pieces and it was not an easy task. I was in a London music store in 1982 and came upon "Steve Howe Guitar Pieces" transcribed by Mick Barker with notes from you. Although the book helped me in many ways it still was somewhat of a disappointment because there are quite a few passages that are simply not correct. [Also] why was there no tablature? Please consider releasing a complete book of your guitar music, the way you play it (with tablature). It is so frustrating when you want to learn how to play something and the music isn't available or isn't correct.

"Thanks for your correspondence and I'm glad that when you found the 'Guitar Pieces' transcriptions you were pleased at that point. To say there are some mistakes or errors or something's incorrect, I can't really dispute that because I can't read any of it anyway. But having said that Mick Barker read them off the music and played them to me to make sure there wasn't anything fundamentally out of order. So I can't say any more that that.

"The fact that there was no tablature was really the conception in the time frame when we did that in 1979, was that we didn't know that tablature was going to continue to grow in strength, and Mick didn't do it anyway. It's nice of you to request a complete book of my guitar music, that is something that is not beyond possibility, and that the CD ROM of Yes and solo material will give you a lot of insight, will give you music and tablature and you'll be able to see me play pieces like 'Surface Tension' and various Yes pieces. I do appreciate of course that if one's going to go to the trouble of having music that it's right. That would also please me immensely. So thanks again, Michael, and I take your points and will endeavor to make sure that future musical publications are of a higher standard."

From:  Peter Northcote

I am a very successful guitarist in Australia. I do the bulk of session work in my city and play in most of the better bands here. I have become successful in my career. I have but a question I hope you may be able to enlighten me with. I work too much, my health is bad. I've stopped meditating and worst of all, I am losing the desire to sit and practice/play guitar. I do have plenty of creative outlet, but...

Dear Doctor Steve, did you ever go through a period of this nature and if so, what is happening?

"Peter, you sound like you do need a little bit of assurance. It sounds like you've had a lot of things going on for you that are very good, maybe much like my son Dylan who's now nearly 29, he's very, very busy running around, he's drumming, and he's very much in demand. Similar to you things like health seem to be an issue that complicates life and don't we know it. So you've got to start making the right decisions from your health from the moment you wake up. Just wake up one day and eat sensibly all day long. Eat things that are good for you. Don't eat anything that's not and that means eating naturally, if you want to get a balance through your food and you need to. Whether you meditate or not you've got to be in the right place to meditate, and I don't mean in your head so much as physically as well, there's got to be a place where you feel you can do it, so don't demand so much of yourself and slip back to meditation just occasionally, maybe.

"Maybe you're thinking that to be a great guitarist you're constantly be playing and inspiring yourself and in some ways that's not really true. I think that you go along the road and there are times you feel like, hey, you're not getting anywhere and you haven't developed and hopefully what comes is a desire to move on and it happens gradually, it doesn't happen in one day, you don't notice the change, it isn't suddenly that the sun's always shining for you, it's just suddenly that you've set a motion in your mind to make an effort, and therefore that effort takes time. So you could get back to the things that you enjoy, play the guitar for fun, don't practice, don't study, don't do any of those things, only play the guitar when you think, 'I'd like to play that tune.' I sit and play anything I like and I think that freedom I've allowed myself goes from the trivial to the complex and therefore I find myself playing something silly like 'Apache' by the Shadows or I might be playing something challenging that has foxed me. But I must say when I get things like that I usually write something of my own that carries a little of the same sort of mood, if you like. You've got to take the opportunities that come with the music. The music is only the beginning of it, it's what you do with the music that's really important. So take the emphasis off of so much of what you're playing as what you could think of doing with what you play; in other words take a tune and sit with it a while and see if you can enlarge it, maybe it needs expanding some. Be objective about your own playing, be your own producer. All of a sudden turn away from your possessive love for your own work and be critical, be your own critic, and in some way then you need that balance. But the main thing is to believe that you want to be out there playing the guitar, I mean you better weigh that up seriously but it should be your main consideration.

"Bye, Peter."

From:  Krzysztof Kopek

What is behind the Yes name, who came up with the idea and the circumstances of it.

"I've been told, though I've heard many contradictions, that Peter Banks thought of the idea. It's a positive short word, short names for groups are quite good and a common word. I don't know what's behind it really but it certainly added a certain positive quality to our title, enhanced of course by Roger Dean and his use of the bubble logo and various other logos that Yes use occasionally."

At what age did you know for sure that all you want to do in the future is play the guitar? I'm in college and years are flowing by really fast, however my love is playing the guitar. I don't know which way I should go 'cause there are so many starving students out there.

"I believe that it was two years before I had a guitar that I really made up my mind I was going to be a guitarist. It sounds kind of strange but at the age of 10 I wanted a guitar and I think I wanted it more than anybody really knew. But also because I was not all that forthcoming in shouting for what I wanted maybe I had to prove my determination by going on for two years that I wanted a guitar. My parents then responded kindly and then nurtured my interest with the guitar tow years later by helping me to buy the Gibson 175 that I still play. I note that your 14 hour nonstop guitar is somewhat of a record, I think that might be above mine. I remember one smoky night in Chelsea, in London, in 1967, I did sit down and play all night, and loved all of it.

"But what took me by surprise was your quite realistic mentioning of there being so many starving musicians out there. I know a few musicians who wouldn't recommend that their children go into music. My children have, two of them at least, and they're learning also that it's not a money earning proposition until such time as you become hardworking and able to communicate with the industry so that you get paid, basically. So there are some hazardous routes, it's not like a job that anybody guarantee you money. Usually when people guarantee you money you don't get it. You might get some of it, but there again I'm not really painting a pessimistic view because I've seen money come in at different levels all my life and when I was in Tomorrow we were getting 75 pounds a week: that was a small fortune in 1967. In the '70s Yes had some very good money and similarly in the '80s but what's difficult about being a successful musician is doing the right thing with any money that you get because usually what you do with it is spend it and there's no end to what you think you can buy even if you aren't really relatively extravagant.

"But be that as it may, whatever you do will take another toll that the money does quickly and it doesn't come easily although it always sounds good on paper. The other thing is that you'll have to make sacrifices as an individual therefore on other people: the people around you, the people you love not always being there but there are many jobs that involve that but one of them is playing the guitar-or the bass, or the drums, or being a singer or any sort of musician or entertainer or lorry driver or milk man, there's all sorts of versions and levels of being away but being a musician does demand dedication to your art and being very, very good, and being capable of sustaining that also. So I think really get it together, get going on it, and find out what you can do, and take up every opportunity you can, don't turn down something because it's a bit cheesy, or a bit off, or a bit sideways, just do it and find out how you dealt with it because before you know it that could be your big thing."

From:  Kelly C. Robertson

With your ability it would be great to see you either write and orchestrate a large scale piece, or perform pieces that were written for your talent.

"Hi there, Kelly, thanks for your email. I'd love to work with an orchestra, at various times it looks like I'm going to and then sometimes either get in the way or they get thwarted in some respect. This is one of the things you have to be persistent about in your career in music is always keep the same idea even if it doesn't happen the first or tenth time,. So working with an orchestra is a great thrill, really sort of straightens me out, and I feel very keen to work with an ensemble like that."

From:  Mark W. Moore

During the UNION tour in Phoenix, AZ, I left a folder of some photos of artwork with Rick for you. Did you ever receive it?

"Mark, thanks for your correspondence. Honestly seven years back on the UNION tour I don't remember the particular folder you mentioned, I'm sure it was good and I'm sure it won't go to waste in some way. Possibly you still have a copy yourself."

From:  jaomedina

I'd like to know the songs where you use the Portuguese guitar and tell something about the instrument.

"This Portuguese guitar came to me via my sister Stella who bought it for me in the '60s. She went to Spain and found that little guitar and brought it back and she said, 'I bought you're a Spanish guitar,' and I saw the case and said I don't think so. And she said, 'No, it's a Spanish guitar, I bought it in Spain for you,' and pulled it out, and not wishing to diffuse my joy at seeing the guitar my only dilemma was that this wasn't a Spanish guitar, it was later I'd discovered it's actually a Portuguese guitar, and yes, I play it on a lot of songs, on more songs than I use on stage, but I use it on stage for 'Your Move' and 'Wonderous Stories'. It's also on TOPOGRAPHIC and 'And You And I', it's coloring and jangling along with other guitars in numerous other occasions, even on some of my solo projects."

Do you have any recordings of the Portuguese guitarist Carlos Paredes, and why does Yes insist on not coming to Portugal? We abandoned cannibalism years ago.

"About Carlos, no, I haven't got his guitar records, I'd like to know a little about that. Your humorous comment about our visit to Portugal seems curious to me as well. Let me explain that this year we didn't even go to Spain when we were in Europe which I would like to say to anybody from Spain made me very cross. Apparently though it wasn't our fault or the agent's fault, that in fact promoters were not able to come up with compatible arrangements for us. I hope that changes now that we've shown our strength in Europe again and now the Spanish promoters will all seriously consider bring Yes or Steve Howe to Spain.

"And of course cannibalism did die out a very long time ago, that's assuring, isn't it? So there you are."

From:  John J Murphy

How likely would a reunion between you and Steve Hackett might be? I would much rather see a duet album (especially an acoustic one!) than a reunion of the entire GTR lineup.

"John, thanks for your enthusiasm about GTR. Nothing's ever ruled out although I daresay that we both think that forming a group anything like GTR would be something we wouldn't do again, certainly together.

"Similarly you follow that in line with that idea some sort of duet record would be nice with Steve and I and that's really quite a valid point and I think Steve and I are both taking note of that. Outside influence's for forming duos isn't beyond my appreciation although of course there are many ingredients that somebody outside a relationship has no idea about at all. But I know that Steve and I have a lot of respect for each other and that's why anything could happen."

From:  Jonathan Lee

I was wondering if you have ever considered working with Steve Hackett again. Perhaps something a bit more expansive, music-wise? The two of you sounded great together and I'm sure others would love to hear another collaboration. I for one would love to hear an all-acoustic album from you and Mr. Hackett.

"Jonathan, thanks for your note and I'm glad you've enjoyed the GTR project so much. Did you get the live CD that came out on King Biscuit Records? Steve and I have spoken a few times over the years and I think we've felt that for other reasons than musical it's best to leave GTR kind of where it was although I never discount anything and the doors are always open I think at both ends for an idea. I don't think we'd want to form a group like that again together and I think would endorse that feeling, that the complications involved in that were mainly the reason for its demise. Steve's a fine guitarist and we did sound good together, so who knows."

From:  Scott K. McGregor

How did the material for KEYS TO ASCENSION 2 come together? I really think it's some of the finest material Yes has recorded.

"Scott, the way that KEYS 2 studio tracks came together, basically at the end of '96 Jon, Chris, and Alan did some demos of some songs that later in November of the next year we reworked and completed into that music by me having the opportunity to write in some pieces like guitar tunes and other ideas later that Jon would sing on, and bits of songs and cowrite of course with Jon on 'To the Power', that was our one to one collaboration. Basically that's how that material came together, then we recorded it in Billy Sherwood's studio in L.A. in just five weeks; I think the first ten days was doing backing tracks and things and we had quite a successful run at recording in that period, though there were some physical problems but the way we constructed the record was just how people make records today anyway and it doesn't mean you need a thumping great studio with isolation booths. But we had isolation and enough space to do that record."

I'd also like to know if you're a fan of or appreciate Pat Metheny's work. He uses the Coral Sitar and other types of guitars that you use to compose with. He also uses the Roland GR-300 series guitar and I wanted to ask you if you own one, ever used one, like its sound, and plan to write with it some day?

"Of course Pat Metheny's work is extremely good and my son Dylan is always remind me when he has a new record out, and have I checked it out, and I usually do. Of course like many guitarists we share common use of guitars like 175, Coral Sitar, and the Roland 300 series. Occasionally these guitars come out of my collection-I'm thinking of the 300, I think that's the blue machine, and the 700 as well and I also have Stepp, a digital midi guitar. But I don't know, after the guitar GTR work I did with Steve Hackett I very rarely used guitar synthesizers since then except for some library projects for film and television I've done where I can do something very simple with a guitar and a string pad. So sometimes the use just comes along and I'd like to give more time to it again myself, I've had lot of fun in there, I had a lot of fun in GTR with songs like 'When the Heart Rules the Mind', the whole album had midi guitars, Roland synths all over it, so I'm glad you're still enjoying it."