Jason Becker



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UPDATES

03 September 2001
*Showtime Tabs added

17 November 2000
*Air Tabs added

09 August2000 
*Message Board added 

08August2000
*Guitarist Poll added 
*Videos added

22August 99
*New Page Design
*Jason Becker's new website.

23February 99 
*The whole Perpetual Burn album in .RA format 

29December 98 
*Jason Becker's 1998 Article 

6 March98 
*TABS!!! 
*Read Pat Becker`s (Jason`s mom) email about Jason. 

12February 98 
*See Jason`s letter to Toby 
*Visit Toby`s Jason Becker Page 

8 January98 
*Jason tells about his last album Perspective 
*Exercises from Jason Becker (from crabbyagain) 
*An openletter from Jason Becker

Jason Becker is in my opinion one of the best guitarists ever. After his first solo album "Perpetual Burn", and his work with Marty Friedman in "Cacaphony",he suddenly came down with ALS (Lou Gehrig`s disease).At the time he was on tour with David Lee Roth.

He recently had an album out which was called "Perspective".He was very succesful with this album even though he was out of conditionat the time.Micheal Lee Firkins played some part in this album.
And I should say he must be theonly one who can play that very song like Jason.By the way the song I`m talking about is "End of the beginning".

So if you would like to hea rgreat compositions and brilliant technical playing, you better check this guy out because he is really incredible.He has incredible control over all tecniques and I really mean it. Especially his sweep pickingis one of the finest sweep picking techniques that I have heard (along with Neil Zaza and Frank Gambale).If you want to hear how he executes those sweeps, check out Altitudes from his solo album "Perpetual Burn".

Jason Becker also has an incredible maturity in the composition and phrasing departments. You should listen to Altitudes, Air and Opus Pocus to hear what I`m talking about. His work with Marty Friedman in the band Cacophony is one of the best duets in rockguitar history(others may be Racer X, MVP,and Greg Howe & Richie Kotzen).He used to play guitars with maple fingerboards.He used H-S-S configurationfor his pick-ups. He also has a guitar with numbered inlays.And I believethat he also used Carvin guitars and Carvin amps on the album "Go Off"with Cacophony (strangely enough, the guitar he used on that album hada rosewood fingerboard.).

More Personal When I first heard his name Iwasn`t playing electric guitar.I was very impressed by his playing. The beginning part of "Altitudes" was the beginning of my inspiration by him.Than we heard the bad news.He wasn`t able to play guitar anymore because of a disease. But he is with us most of the time with his music played in the guitar shop.

His second album came out.Thatwas the very happy moment for all of us here. His music is his feelings,I could hear that. Now I`m giving guitar lessons, and recording my songs.I`m teaching guitar and playing his music to the new students.I think that is what immortality is.

Pat Becker`s (Jason`s mom)email about Jason. I saw the web page and printedit out for Jason. He read the whole thing and loved it. It's very cool.Jason is the strongest person I know. Many people are working on gettinghim set up on the computer and trying different programs and making everything compatible to his needs. He worked on it last Saturday for a few hours.When he was able to type on a keyboard, (using his eyes) the first thing he typed was, "show me how to make music." He is unbelievably patient andhas more faith than
anyone I have ever known.

Here is what Jason tells about his last album Perspective
Primal: Primal was one ofthe most fun songs to record because every musician was very inspired.Everyoneseemed to know what I wanted without me telling them too much.My guitarpart was recorded at home on my 8-track.I was so weak that when I liftedmy arms to play they shhook.I was inspired by Gabriel`s passion.

Rain: I wrote Rain at rouglythe same time I first felt my disease. It wa just a lazy feeling in myleft calf. It was written on a rainy day, believe or not.I recorded iton my friend, Mike Bemesderfer`s 8-track recorder. I never intended toput it out, so I just played it straight through without nit-picking. Ihad a little keyboard part on it, which was later replaced by Danny Alvarez.

End Of The Beginning: Most of End of the Beginning came to me on a warm afternoon while I was halfasleep. When I fully woke up it took a lot of concentration not to forgetit. I put it all on tape with guitar, which was a big strain at this point.I wanted it to have orchestral sounds, so Mike Bemesderfer helped me picka computer and synthesizer and gave me lessons.This is how much of thisalbum was written: on a Macintosh with a music program called "Vision",and a "Proteus 2". Let me say that I had always thought that computersand music didn`t mix. In some ways that is very true but I could not havedone this album otherwise. As with everything it`s the person behind thecomputer that makes it or breaks it. I could have as many tracks and asmany different instruments as I wanted. Some parts I could play with myright hand because it still had some strength, but some parts were justphysically too hard. The computer allowed me to slow everything down. Irecorded all of the album using this method except Rain, Blue and MeetMe in the Morning. It sounded very good, with most of the feelings I wanted,but most of the sounds weren`t quiet real enough, and I wanted some livemusicians. THis whole song was played by real musicians. There are no violinists,but all of the string parts were played by a keyboardist, Danny Alvarez,using violin samples, Micheal Lee Firkins`s part was recorded at my house.

Higher: The first of Higher was written on guitar. The second half was inspired by a Bobby McFerrinand Voicestra concert, so it was a thrill to have two members of Voicestrasing it.

Blue: I wrote Blue on my4-track in March 1990. I was staying in The Nelson Place motel in Vancouverwhile recording with David Lee Roth. Once again, I no way sirree Bob intendedthis to be put out, so I recorded it straight through with no punches.I used an Ibanez guitar and a Fender M80 practice amp with a foot switchfor clean and distorted tone. This allowed me to relax and just flow withthe song. My mood was very excited yet very afraid. My left hand (the fingeringhand) had just started to have the lazy feeling my left leg had, and Iwas limping. Playing guitar was slightly harder. Mike Bemesderfer talked me into using it on the album. With Mike`s portable, digital studio wewere able to record the rest of the musicians at Rick Walker`s and my house.Also, without affecting my performance he was able to get rid of the awfultape hiss from my rhythm and lead tracks.

Life And Death: Life andDeath was the last song I wrote out of the nine on this album. The titlespeaks for what was on my mind at the time.

Empire: One day I wantedto try to write a stupid song. What came out was the main theme to Empire,which I think is ore a weird combination of peace and war. Go figure. Itis played by Mike Bemesderfer on what looks like a space-age clarinet.My guitar doubles the koto. It was salvaged from an old casette.

Serrana: I thought the melodyto the intro of Serrana left something to be desired so I had my fatherlearn it backwards and then we flipped it around. Most of the trumpet partsare from a live guitar solo that I used to play when I was in the band."Cacophony". It was not written for my girlfriend, Serrana, but I thinkher name is beatiful and it fits most of the song.

Meet Me In The Morning: Meetme in the Morning was recorded in January 1991 for a complitation albumon "Guitar" label. Bob Dylan was the person who made me want to be a musician(besides my dad) John Stix talked me into doing this. I didn`t want tobecause my playing was noticeably weaker. My left hand would siffen ifI tried to play too fast, and my right hand would shake. I couldn`t reallydo dinger vibrato, so I had to use the tremolo bar. Even so I am happywith it. Many times in music if you are given limitations it expands thecreativity. A perfect example of this is a twelve bar blues progression.It is incredibly simple and seemingly limited, but there are infinite waysto play it. For this song, all of mmy control and speed were taken away,and that made me think and feel different and fresh. I must thank my dad for teaching me Dylan songs and my uncle for jamming blues with me whenI was young.