Article - Randy Rhoads Guitar Seminar, Feb. 2, 1982

[Randy Perry]

Randy Rhoads Guitar Seminar
Music City-Greensburg,PA 2-2-82

This came courtesy of Matt Ross' Diary of an Axeman web site. And Matt says that this is brought to us by Ironface166 of randyrhoads.tk


Announcer: Randy Rhoads, from The Blizzard Of Ozz, has taken some time out from touring to come down here. Basically, the whole idea of the seminar is for all of you who are musicians in bands to get a feel for the music industry, ummm, pretty much know what you’re getting into. Talk a little bit about guitar, o.k. Uhh, ya know, feel free to ask any questions about, ya know, musically in theory or anything like that. Whatever’s on your mind, that’s the reason he’s here, is basically to help you out, ya know. Whichever situation you’re in, playing or anything, so think if you have any questions.

Randy Rhoads: Well, uh, the one thing I can say is, I just..the last one we did was the first time I’ve ever done this, so this is the second. So don’t expect me to just come out and start handling this really good, because it’s…actually I’m very nervous about speaking in front of people. So, I mean, ya gotta help me out with the questions and if there’s anything, I can help ya out, I’d be glad to do it.

(Pause/Silence from audience)

RR: So..(Chuckles)

(Laughter from crowd)

Announcer: Everybody had a million questions to ask me about him, go ahead, go ahead man.

Fan: Uh, what line of effects do you use when you’re playing out, say in concerts, or…?

RR: In..in the concerts?

Fan: Yeah.

RR: Well, I have a pedalboard and in it there’s Distortion plus, a 10 band equalizer, they’re all MXR, by the way, a chorus, stereo chorus, cry baby wah pedal and, umm, a Roland volume pedal. I used to use them all a lot more, but now our sound man is starting to add a lot more up front, so I don’t really use them all as much as I used to. Just sometimes. I use them more for quiet rhythm parts just to enhance the sound. I don’t really use any echoes or anything for leads…ever.

Fan: Do you have a pre-amp built into your guitar?

RR: No, I have Distortion Plus on the board and, uh, I just keep that on all the time, ah, just straight Marshalls.

(Mumbles from crowd)

RR: Sorry?


Fan: Is that how you get all that distortion?

RR: Yeah, see, if you play and you use Marshalls..I had to change the speakers over to Altecs Cause they’re a very bright, clean speaker. Yeah, because the celestions are really dirty anyway and if you start adding a fuzzbox to them, it’ll sound terrible.But I, uh..I like that added treble and dirt to it.

Fan: Do you have any trouble with, like, from high pitched feedback?

RR: Yes. Oh, the guy at the last was..just asked me about that. It’s not so much a squeal, I don’t have that problem. But I have a lot of problems with, uh, if you let go for a second, it’ll feedback. I mean. You’ve gotta play so that you’re covering your pickup and if you want to do something quiet, I have to either use the volume pedal or I have to click off the fuzz, because it will squeal. I mean, I, I got used to playing that way. Ya know?

Fan: What kind of music did you start playing and how long had you been playing before picked up with Ozzy in another band?

RR: Well, I was 7 and I’m 25 now. Umm, I don’t know what I was playing when I was 7. I just played the guitar. I mean, uh, one of the early things I remember was like, I was strumming, umm..is it Malaguania? When it, Teste Ecke and I thought I, it..like that was really good, cause I could switch an E chord and strum it fast. It was just anything, ya know? It was an old Spanish guitar. And, umm, then I just started playing anything, like Gloria or Louie, Louie or whatever was out on the radio.
And to the second part of that question, I met Ozzy when I was 22. I’ve been with him since then, so it’s about 2 ½ years now.

(Mumble from crowd)

RR: Can you speak up a little?

Fan: Tommy Aldridge, is he…

RR: Oh yeah, Tommy’s a great drummer.

Announcer: Go 'head.

Fan: Uh, do you use a special tremolo in that, in your, ah, flying V you use, or is, does certain company make that or’s that just….

RR: Well, the main flying V is the white one, if you’re seeing..is a Charvel. It says Jackson. Everybody thinks, “What’s a Jackson?â€Â

[zachrockafellow]

Thanks for this! We should get the audio for this up on the site! (It may already be, but I don't think I've seen it anywhere)

[Randy Perry]

Can you imbed that into this page so you can listen to it - and read it at the same time?

[hempdiddy]

Does anyone find it odd that Randy made a mistake in explaining the intro to Diary of a Madman? It's in this section:

RR: Now the intro to that is the same chord.

(Plays intro to “Diary Of A Madman")

RR: Which is A major 9th.

(Plays A major 9th)

RR: Switch to A minor 9th.

RR: Got a G bass.

(Plays G bass note)

RR: To F.

(Plays F)

RR: A major 9th.

(Plays A major 9th)

RR: Which is a 7th. You have a 7th at the end. A major 9th would be an F sharp at the end.

(Plays F sharp)

RR: That's all there is to it. Unless you want to learn any of the middle parts of it..

In this section of the seminar, he is explaining the very first intro (clean sound) of Diary of a Madman. I've listened to the actual audio of the seminar here, so I know thats the part he's talking about. Anyway, after the F chord in the intro, he says to go "A major 9th" with a "7th at the end" which is "an F sharp at the end".

Well, I can't believe it, but that's wrong and not what he is playing nor what he played on the record. The chord he's playing is an E major 9th with a 7th at the end which is a D. That's what he's playing and that's the chord that appears on the record.

It's strange that he's playing the E major 9th with a 7th but calling it an A major 9th with a 7th. Honest mistake or purposeful misinformation? Randy was known to occasionally mess with the press and pull a prank by kidding about something, but I can't imagine that he would purposely do that to a bunch of kids in an instructional seminar. I mean, he was a teacher after all.

My vote is for honest mistake. Do you agree?

[GUITARIDOL5682]

Could it just be Randy's accent making E's sound like A's vice versa ? .I'd have to hear the seminar to make my own mind up. But i don't think he'd make a deliberate mistake with 'like you say' him being a tutor/teacher.

[hempdiddy]

No, I'm certain it's not his accent. Furthermore, he describes the final note as a "7th at the end" which is "an F sharp at the end" and that's not correct. He's playing a "D" note at the end.

[Paul Wolfe]

I'd say it's an honest mistake. He also mentions omitting a lick from Crazy Train that is on the record because it sounds sloppy live. The kid asks him to play it and he says he just fakes it... I'm sure that when he wrote the song he did it because it sounded good but he couldn't reproduce it to sound right and just dropped it.

I can't imagine Randy purposely avoiding a true answer about his playing.

In Rudy's book he mentions a 'kid on the street' asking Randy to show him how to play Goodbye to Romance and after Randy showed him the kid says, no that's wrong and plays it like the record. Randy simply forgot how he did it originally. He was human, after all.

[stealaway]

I´ve had the tape of this seminar for 12 years or more... I almost wore the tape out, so nowadays I only listen to it like maybe once in a year or so... The CD vesion somewhat cuts out in the middle as it´s put in 2 parts...I think I downloaded it from here, or RR.TK. It´s really good that we have this kinda things, to remind us...how he was, with fans and all...

[Lara Coimbra]

I listen to this audio on youtube like twice a week...
I don't know why... I'm really amazed by the way he talks.