Morten & Ludvig
Finally spring is starting to show itself here in cold Norway. My little Ludvig, who is now 7 1/2 months old, got on some sunglasses that I thought made him look like a little biker! heh:)
Line & Ludvig
I made silly faces and noises to provoke this smile. Not from Ludvig, he was already smiling, but from Line.. 
It’s very common that guitarists are inspired by sax players. That’s probably a very important reason to why the guitar went from mainly having a comping role in the early jazz big bands, to being the important solo instrument that it is today.
Can we phrase like sax players?
I personally have said that one of my goals is to sound like the saxophone legend Kenny Garrett on the guitar. It’s a silly statement, but there is something about the energy, the phrasing and tonality, and that kind of raw sound he has that I just totally dig!
Anyway, the breath controller, even how great a device it is, doesn’t really make the guitar sound even close to a saxophone. However, it does make me phrase in a slightly different way. Just by having control over the dynamic of a tone AFTER it has been picked, makes me want to hold, and shape, some of the tones longer than I would without it, and that simple fact gives the improvisations more depth, more space.
What I DO think it makes the guitar sound VERY similar to is the AKAI EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) made famous by Michael Brecker. I remember hearing him play that thing live many years ago, and one of the highlights were his solo section, where he at one point played with a heavily distorted guitar sound, really tearing it up! Heh, I guess the sax/guitar inspiration relationship goes both ways! 
Here’s a quick take I did with the breath controller. It’s just a small solo improvisation, but you get an idea of what the thing can do.
By the way, did you notice at 1:06 that I bend the tone downwards? I did a video a long time ago describing how to do this, you can watch that video here, it’s a really cool little trick that almost no one uses.
As of now, there is no easy way to hook up a breath controller. I think it should be, so I am going to find out if anyone could build me ONE box that I could just plug the mouth piece into, and that’s it. Right now I’m going through many devices, it’s a drag, it’s expensive, and I rarely bother going through all the hassle of hooking up the thing when I play gigs.
I’m thinking – if there was a cheap and easy way to hook up a breath controller, wouldn’t just about every guitarist on planet earth want one? Or is it just me?
MortensLessons.com
