Saturday, June 28, 2025
Geef ik nog steeds gitaarles in Heeze?
Jazeker! Alleen, ik post hier niets meer omdat ik dit nu op mijn facebook pagina doe. Je kan ook een keertje mijn persoonlijke pagina bezoeken. Deze website blijft voorlopig wel online. See you / talk to you / write to you SOON! 🎸🤘
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Bandcoaching Eindhoven en omgeving
Het is belangrijk om te realiseren dat een paar goede muzikanten bij elkaar nog lang geen goede band zijn. Daar is veel meer voor nodig. En daar wil ik jullie graag mee helpen door objectieve feedback en constructieve kritiek.
Mijn bandcoaching gebeurt in de repetitieruimte van de band, waar we onder meer naar de volgende punten kijken:
- timing en groove
- dynamiek
- arrangement
- samenspel
- performance
- sound
- songwriting
Ik verzin dan vaak passende oefeningen die niet alleen bestaan uit het (goed) spelen van het repertoire, maar die specifiek gericht zijn op de uitdagingen van de band. Meestal gaat het daar om ritmische oefeningen, het effectieve begeleiden van een solist, of om een vorm van samenspel waar iedereen (nog meer) rekening houdt met de partijen van de andere muzikanten.
Als je geïnteresseerd bent in een vrijblijvende afspraak, neem dan contact met mij op:
mathiasguitar@gmail.com
Monday, August 28, 2017
Collins Live Experience @ 't Boerke in Rijen
Finally another show coming up! We've added quite a few new songs to our setlist, so come and enjoy two hours of music by Phil Collins and Genesis!
When: Friday 22 September 2017
Where: 't Boerke, Hoofdstraat 72, Rijen
Doors open at 20:00.
Tickets via http://collinsliveexperience.com/
When: Friday 22 September 2017
Where: 't Boerke, Hoofdstraat 72, Rijen
Doors open at 20:00.
Tickets via http://collinsliveexperience.com/
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Collins Live Experience @ Keymusic Eindhoven Sound & Light Show
Keymusic Eindhoven invited us to perform at their Sound & Light Show. Of course, we gladly agreed because we obviously love playing shows, and, beyond that, it was an opportunity to use their latest sound and light equipment.
This video of our version of 'Mama' by Genesis gives an impression of our show at Keymusic. The video and sound quality isn't great (because it's just a recording from a mobile phone) but the vibe is right and we had a blast playing that song. I hope you can feel it too :)
This video of our version of 'Mama' by Genesis gives an impression of our show at Keymusic. The video and sound quality isn't great (because it's just a recording from a mobile phone) but the vibe is right and we had a blast playing that song. I hope you can feel it too :)
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Leerlingenconcert: voor het eerst in Heeze!
Sinds begin van het jaar hebben we onze lespraktijk in Heeze, en nu is het zo ver: het eerste leerlingenconcert in Heeze!!! Zangleerlingen van Iris Wiesner en gitaarleerlingen van Mathias Lang join forces en treden gezamenlijk op.
Wanneer: zondag 2 juli van 15:00 tot 18:00
Waar: 't Perron, Schoolstraat 48, Heeze
Het wordt een gezellige middag in het restaurant van 't Perron met alle stijlen, van jazz tot pop/rock, en zelfs klassieke gitaarstukken worden ten gehore gebracht. Kom gezellig langs en geniet van de muziek!!!
Wanneer: zondag 2 juli van 15:00 tot 18:00
Waar: 't Perron, Schoolstraat 48, Heeze
Het wordt een gezellige middag in het restaurant van 't Perron met alle stijlen, van jazz tot pop/rock, en zelfs klassieke gitaarstukken worden ten gehore gebracht. Kom gezellig langs en geniet van de muziek!!!
Monday, April 10, 2017
Fusion Project
Some time ago I met up with old friends of mine from Vienna (Austria) to work on a fusion track that we used to play at live shows many years ago, but we never made a decent recording. So we decided to finally record that piece after all those years and that's the result. Enjoy!
keys - Maalo
drums - Richard Hal
bass - Georg Berner
guitar - Mathias Lang
keys - Maalo
drums - Richard Hal
bass - Georg Berner
guitar - Mathias Lang
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Impressions from the latest shows with the Collins Live Experience
I'd like to share with you some impressions from recent shows I played with the Collins Live Experience. I feel like the band is growing together and we're having good fun on stage. Have a look at some recent video material:
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
First show with the Collins Live Experience: looking back
As announced previously, last Saturday I played the first live show with the Collins Live Experience. We are a 12-piece band including horns and backing vocals, and it was a pleasure to hear and see everybody perform at their best. We were lucky to work with the guys from MilleniumSound, who provided their sound and lighting equipment. They reserved the whole afternoon to work on the light show and to get the best possible sound for the audience and for us on stage. So we basically had one more final rehearsal on stage, while they optimized their settings. This left us with a very good feeling, and we could enjoy our dinner before the show in a relaxed and confident atmosphere.
When we finally hit the stage everything went as smoothly as during rehearsals, with the additional energy that you get from a great audience and from the live sound and light show. We played our 90-minute set as if we had been playing it for months, and all of us were very pleased with the result. I'm grateful to everybody who worked hard to make this such a rewarding evening!
So we can't wait to play our next show on 12 November in Podium 10 in Bladel (NL). Join us for another great evening with music from Phil Collins and Genesis!
When we finally hit the stage everything went as smoothly as during rehearsals, with the additional energy that you get from a great audience and from the live sound and light show. We played our 90-minute set as if we had been playing it for months, and all of us were very pleased with the result. I'm grateful to everybody who worked hard to make this such a rewarding evening!
So we can't wait to play our next show on 12 November in Podium 10 in Bladel (NL). Join us for another great evening with music from Phil Collins and Genesis!
 |
| All photos in this post © by Martijn van Dijck |
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
First Live Show - The Collins Live Experience: Saturday 29 October 2016
Hi everybody,
I'd like to announce the first live show I'll be playing with the Collins Live Experience:
When: Saturday 29 October 2016, starting at 9:00 pm
Where: Gemeenschapshuis de Schans, Schoolstraat 1, Westerbeek (NL)
Free entrance!
We spent the last few months looking for the right people to make the band complete, and we've rehearsed a 90-minute set of Phil Collins and Genesis songs. I'm really pleased with the result and I'm looking forward to a great evening. Join us and enjoy a 90 minute live show with songs by Phil Collins and Genesis!
I'd like to announce the first live show I'll be playing with the Collins Live Experience:
When: Saturday 29 October 2016, starting at 9:00 pm
Where: Gemeenschapshuis de Schans, Schoolstraat 1, Westerbeek (NL)
Free entrance!
We spent the last few months looking for the right people to make the band complete, and we've rehearsed a 90-minute set of Phil Collins and Genesis songs. I'm really pleased with the result and I'm looking forward to a great evening. Join us and enjoy a 90 minute live show with songs by Phil Collins and Genesis!
Friday, July 15, 2016
Student concert Saturday 16 July 2016
Hi guys,
the end of the school year is approaching quickly, and of course we'll have another student concert!
When: Saturday 16 July, starting at 19:30
Where: Café Kraaij en Balder, Strijpsestraat 79, Eindhoven
It will be another great evening full of guitar music of all styles!
I also invited several special guests:
Join us for another cozy and inspiring evening!
the end of the school year is approaching quickly, and of course we'll have another student concert!
When: Saturday 16 July, starting at 19:30
Where: Café Kraaij en Balder, Strijpsestraat 79, Eindhoven
It will be another great evening full of guitar music of all styles!
I also invited several special guests:
- Ellenor: voice and guitar, original songs
- Jos and Wynand's Cowboy Blues: guitar-duo, rough semi-acoustic blues
- Sander Borgers: voice and guitar, original songs
Join us for another cozy and inspiring evening!
Friday, July 1, 2016
Start recording!
I've been preaching this to my students, but I realize that I haven't yet written about it: recording yourself! Nowadays it has become so easy to do that, and I can promise you that it is a valuable tool that helps you to become a better player!
But let's go slow; so why should you record yourself at all?
There are many reasons. I'll try to convince you giving you the ones I find most important:
If you play or practice by yourself you need to focus on a lot of things (what is my right hand doing? what is my left hand doing? how do I sound? how is my timing? etc.), but you can't listen as carefully as you can when you lean back and listen to a recording. Listening to a recording of yourself can be very confronting: suddenly you hear that annoying string that keeps on ringing after that bend; or you hear that your chords are always slightly before the beat, which may sound a bit hectic; maybe it turns out that you're not locked in with the drums at all; is the sound right for the song? You see, there are so many things that are important and that you often can't really judge well while playing.
When listening to their recorded solos, many players realize that they keep on repeating the same phrases over and over again; that their timing isn't the way they thought it was; or that their solo could really need more pauses to make it more interesting.
A similar thing is true for rhythm playing. Experienced players feel when they're locked in with drums and bass, but even they might be wrong sometimes and find out that they want to do the take one more time after listening back to the recording.
The bad news is that for most players, recording themselves will reveal shortcomings of their technique, their timing, etc. The good news is, now you know about it and you can finally do something about it. And hey, after all that's the only way to improve!
I hope that by now you agree that recording yourself does have advantages. Of course it's much more fun (and also more helpful) to be able to make a backing track over which you can try your licks or your rhythm vamps. Or there is that terribly difficult break that you've been trying to play with your band, but there's always someone losing the beat. In the latter case you can just program and/or record that break and practice it at home. And at the next rehearsal you'll be fine, and you can even tell who's the one that needs your backing track to practice at home!
What you need to do all that is a computer, one of the many commercial or free/open DAW software packages, and an audio interface. Simple USB audio interfaces with one or two inputs have become quite cheap, and most of them come with a limited version of some commercial DAW software. So if you have a computer, it is enough to buy a simple audio interface (including the software), and you can start recording and making your own backing tracks.
Apart from becoming a better player (we all want that, don't we?), recording yourself also has a great advantage in finding a band, or finding jobs as a musician. You can present yourself on the internet and people can check you out. If you make some youtube videos, it's easy to get in touch with other players around the world, and often this is the way new projects start. If you don't want to film yourself (think about why), you can still upload audio files on soundcloud to present yourself and get in touch with others.
Finally, if you've reached a certain level, you can also earn money if you're able to produce high-quality recordings at home. And you don't need a lot of expensive equipment for that. When other people ask me to play some guitar tracks on their songs, more often than actually going to a studio, I'd have them send me a recording of the song, I'd record some guitar tracks at home, and send my tracks back so they can put them in their mix.
Enough said, get yourself a USB audio interface with some DAW software and ... start recording!
But let's go slow; so why should you record yourself at all?
There are many reasons. I'll try to convince you giving you the ones I find most important:
If you play or practice by yourself you need to focus on a lot of things (what is my right hand doing? what is my left hand doing? how do I sound? how is my timing? etc.), but you can't listen as carefully as you can when you lean back and listen to a recording. Listening to a recording of yourself can be very confronting: suddenly you hear that annoying string that keeps on ringing after that bend; or you hear that your chords are always slightly before the beat, which may sound a bit hectic; maybe it turns out that you're not locked in with the drums at all; is the sound right for the song? You see, there are so many things that are important and that you often can't really judge well while playing.
When listening to their recorded solos, many players realize that they keep on repeating the same phrases over and over again; that their timing isn't the way they thought it was; or that their solo could really need more pauses to make it more interesting.
A similar thing is true for rhythm playing. Experienced players feel when they're locked in with drums and bass, but even they might be wrong sometimes and find out that they want to do the take one more time after listening back to the recording.
The bad news is that for most players, recording themselves will reveal shortcomings of their technique, their timing, etc. The good news is, now you know about it and you can finally do something about it. And hey, after all that's the only way to improve!
I hope that by now you agree that recording yourself does have advantages. Of course it's much more fun (and also more helpful) to be able to make a backing track over which you can try your licks or your rhythm vamps. Or there is that terribly difficult break that you've been trying to play with your band, but there's always someone losing the beat. In the latter case you can just program and/or record that break and practice it at home. And at the next rehearsal you'll be fine, and you can even tell who's the one that needs your backing track to practice at home!
What you need to do all that is a computer, one of the many commercial or free/open DAW software packages, and an audio interface. Simple USB audio interfaces with one or two inputs have become quite cheap, and most of them come with a limited version of some commercial DAW software. So if you have a computer, it is enough to buy a simple audio interface (including the software), and you can start recording and making your own backing tracks.
Apart from becoming a better player (we all want that, don't we?), recording yourself also has a great advantage in finding a band, or finding jobs as a musician. You can present yourself on the internet and people can check you out. If you make some youtube videos, it's easy to get in touch with other players around the world, and often this is the way new projects start. If you don't want to film yourself (think about why), you can still upload audio files on soundcloud to present yourself and get in touch with others.
Finally, if you've reached a certain level, you can also earn money if you're able to produce high-quality recordings at home. And you don't need a lot of expensive equipment for that. When other people ask me to play some guitar tracks on their songs, more often than actually going to a studio, I'd have them send me a recording of the song, I'd record some guitar tracks at home, and send my tracks back so they can put them in their mix.
Enough said, get yourself a USB audio interface with some DAW software and ... start recording!
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Book review: 3 Shape Fretboard by Gareth Evans
Gareth asked me to review his latest book 3 Shape Fretboard, which I gladly did because I'm always interested in new educational guitar books, not least because I spend quite a bit of my time teaching students. The book is about learning to play and understand scales on the guitar. The emphasis is on understanding as opposed to just memorizing dots on the fretboard. You learn to think in intervals and to immediately see these intervals on the guitar. You'll go through all important scales, like the major scale and its modes, harmonic and melodic minor scales, and pentatonic scales. All scale shapes are reduced to three basic shapes that you will manage to find very quickly everywhere on the fretboard, no matter what scale or key you're in. It takes some effort but working through that book will give an immense boost to your scale and fretboard knowledge.
If you want to know more about the book and what I think of it, please read my complete review on Gareth's site (scroll down to "3 Shape Fretboard" and click on my name).
If you want to know more about the book and what I think of it, please read my complete review on Gareth's site (scroll down to "3 Shape Fretboard" and click on my name).
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Duo Irida @ Dutch Design Week
MUSIC & JAILFOOD
Duo Irida (Irida - vocals & Mathias Lang - guitar) play at the Dutch Design Week.
When: every day from 17th to 21st of October 2015, between 15:00 to 17:00 (approx.)
Where: Hallenweg 9, Eindhoven (NL)
Enjoy our music with some fine jail food!
Duo Irida (Irida - vocals & Mathias Lang - guitar) play at the Dutch Design Week.
When: every day from 17th to 21st of October 2015, between 15:00 to 17:00 (approx.)
Where: Hallenweg 9, Eindhoven (NL)
Enjoy our music with some fine jail food!
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
How To Spice Up Your Blues Solos
Hi guys,
I wrote an article on how to make your blues solos more interesting by adding notes outside the blues scale. The article got published on GuitarTricks.com. Here's the link:
Spice Up Your Blues Playing
Enjoy reading!
I wrote an article on how to make your blues solos more interesting by adding notes outside the blues scale. The article got published on GuitarTricks.com. Here's the link:
Spice Up Your Blues Playing
Enjoy reading!
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Duo Concert: Irida and Scuff Jack @ Stage Music Café Eindhoven
Hi everybody, I'd like to announce a concert:
Irida & Scuff Jack @ Stage Music Café, Stratumseind 25, Eindhoven
EASY Sunday, 27 September 2015
19:30 Scuff Jack: Singer-songwriter with guitar and scuff-board!
20:30 Irida: semi-acoustic R'n'B from Austria!
Irida - vocals
Shidhi Bouwman - backing vocals
Rebecca Lydia - backing vocals
Huseyin Demir - backing vocals
Peter Huber - trumpet
Mathias Lang - guitars
Bob Willemstein - bass
Marco Toro - percussion
Irida & Scuff Jack @ Stage Music Café, Stratumseind 25, Eindhoven
EASY Sunday, 27 September 2015
19:30 Scuff Jack: Singer-songwriter with guitar and scuff-board!
20:30 Irida: semi-acoustic R'n'B from Austria!
Irida - vocals
Shidhi Bouwman - backing vocals
Rebecca Lydia - backing vocals
Huseyin Demir - backing vocals
Peter Huber - trumpet
Mathias Lang - guitars
Bob Willemstein - bass
Marco Toro - percussion
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Melodic Theme Guitar Contest
Hi guys,
I entered a guitar contest by David Wallimann. It's about coming up with a good and catchy melody over the backing track provided by David. It's not so much the competitive element that attracts me to such contests, but the fact that they are always good for meeting fellow guitarists. It's very interesting to see and hear how others approach such a task, and it's also good to get feedback on your own work. Please check out this post of mine for more deeply philosophical thoughts about guitar contests ;)
I thought it might be interesting to share with you how I come up with ideas for what to play. I work the same way when I do studio jobs for other people. So I get a mix-down of the song I'm supposed to play on, sometimes accompanied by a lead sheet showing the song's structure and the chords. Then I would just listen a few times, but without consciously concentrating on the music, more like listening to background music. I keep on doing this until some phrases and ideas pop up in my head. Sometimes this goes quickly, other times I need to listen a lot of times. But for me it's important to just "let it happen" without trying hard to find something. This will usually give results that I'm more satisfied with. After filling up my head with ideas I start playing along with my guitar to see how I can realize those ideas. I will discard some, come up with new ones, and as soon as I think that I got something good I start recording. This will definitely not be the final take. At that point I'm just collecting ideas for listening back and choosing. I would usually record 3 to 10 takes, and the higher the number of the take, the more similar the takes become, that's at least the normal development. Depending on how much time I have, I would listen back and then just sleep over it, listen back the next day, record a few more takes, and ultimately decide which one will be the final take. Of course, sometimes I would combine several takes, if I only like certain parts of the different takes. I don't do this, however, when I record videos (such as for the guitar contest), because with the video I prefer a single take. In that case there are always things that could be improved, but it's also healthy to give up perfectionism in certain situations. Of course, for expensive studio productions you get paid to be a perfectionist!
Anyway, here's my entry. Enjoy!
UPDATE: Sebbe, one of my students, also entered the contest. Check out his version!
I entered a guitar contest by David Wallimann. It's about coming up with a good and catchy melody over the backing track provided by David. It's not so much the competitive element that attracts me to such contests, but the fact that they are always good for meeting fellow guitarists. It's very interesting to see and hear how others approach such a task, and it's also good to get feedback on your own work. Please check out this post of mine for more deeply philosophical thoughts about guitar contests ;)
I thought it might be interesting to share with you how I come up with ideas for what to play. I work the same way when I do studio jobs for other people. So I get a mix-down of the song I'm supposed to play on, sometimes accompanied by a lead sheet showing the song's structure and the chords. Then I would just listen a few times, but without consciously concentrating on the music, more like listening to background music. I keep on doing this until some phrases and ideas pop up in my head. Sometimes this goes quickly, other times I need to listen a lot of times. But for me it's important to just "let it happen" without trying hard to find something. This will usually give results that I'm more satisfied with. After filling up my head with ideas I start playing along with my guitar to see how I can realize those ideas. I will discard some, come up with new ones, and as soon as I think that I got something good I start recording. This will definitely not be the final take. At that point I'm just collecting ideas for listening back and choosing. I would usually record 3 to 10 takes, and the higher the number of the take, the more similar the takes become, that's at least the normal development. Depending on how much time I have, I would listen back and then just sleep over it, listen back the next day, record a few more takes, and ultimately decide which one will be the final take. Of course, sometimes I would combine several takes, if I only like certain parts of the different takes. I don't do this, however, when I record videos (such as for the guitar contest), because with the video I prefer a single take. In that case there are always things that could be improved, but it's also healthy to give up perfectionism in certain situations. Of course, for expensive studio productions you get paid to be a perfectionist!
Anyway, here's my entry. Enjoy!
UPDATE: Sebbe, one of my students, also entered the contest. Check out his version!
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Donna Lee
Hi guys,
I'd like to share with you my transcription of the theme of Donna Lee by Miles Davis. I know it has been transcribed a zillion times and you can also find it in the Real Book, BUT there are two reasons why I still did it:
I based my transcription on the 1947 recording of the Charlie Parker Quintet.
So, why on earth would anybody want to learn that song from almost 70 years ago? Well, first it's a great technical work-out. It's not easy to play the piece at the original tempo (around 220 bpm) and make it sound good at the same time! Second, it teaches you a lot of great bebop licks that you can use for your own improvisations. But in order to be able to re-use those licks, you must try to understand over which chords / chord progressions they are used. So try to find the II-V-I's and all other characteristic progressions that also pop up in many other tunes, and see what Miles Davis and Charlie Parker came up with.
As usual, start slow, and always listen how it's supposed to sound, because the notation doesn't show everything. I recommend you take the original recording, slow it down, and play along until you nail it, then increase the tempo, etc. Anyway, here's the tabs, have fun!
You can also find a pdf-version in Tabs&Sheet Music.
I'd like to share with you my transcription of the theme of Donna Lee by Miles Davis. I know it has been transcribed a zillion times and you can also find it in the Real Book, BUT there are two reasons why I still did it:
- There are some errors in the Real Book
- The fingerings for guitar are tricky, and it's very important how and where you play it to make it swing
I based my transcription on the 1947 recording of the Charlie Parker Quintet.
So, why on earth would anybody want to learn that song from almost 70 years ago? Well, first it's a great technical work-out. It's not easy to play the piece at the original tempo (around 220 bpm) and make it sound good at the same time! Second, it teaches you a lot of great bebop licks that you can use for your own improvisations. But in order to be able to re-use those licks, you must try to understand over which chords / chord progressions they are used. So try to find the II-V-I's and all other characteristic progressions that also pop up in many other tunes, and see what Miles Davis and Charlie Parker came up with.
As usual, start slow, and always listen how it's supposed to sound, because the notation doesn't show everything. I recommend you take the original recording, slow it down, and play along until you nail it, then increase the tempo, etc. Anyway, here's the tabs, have fun!
You can also find a pdf-version in Tabs&Sheet Music.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Neal Morse + Mike Portnoy in the Effenaar Saturday 18 July
Mike Portnoy is one of my favorite drummers, and he comes to Eindhoven next Saturday! I guess I can't miss that. I've last seen him in Cologne with the Winery Dogs, this time he comes with Neal Morse. They'll be playing in the Effenaar. See you there?
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Student Concert Sunday 21 June
I happily announce another concert of my students!
When: Sunday 21 June 2015, starting at 16:00
Where: Café Kraaij en Balder, Strijpsestraat 79, Eindhoven
As usual there will be a very mixed program, ranging from guitar solo pieces to pop/rock songs played by a group of students. And we also have two female singers supporting us! After the student concert there will be more music with some special guests joining in. Hope to see you all there!
When: Sunday 21 June 2015, starting at 16:00
Where: Café Kraaij en Balder, Strijpsestraat 79, Eindhoven
As usual there will be a very mixed program, ranging from guitar solo pieces to pop/rock songs played by a group of students. And we also have two female singers supporting us! After the student concert there will be more music with some special guests joining in. Hope to see you all there!
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Tracking for new Fusion Project
I'm happy to announce that I've got together with two old friends of mine (Maalo and Richard Hal) to record some fusion tracks. We've played together as a live band many many years ago, but now we live in different countries, so we're getting back together as a virtual band. Everybody is recording in their own (home) studio, and we're sending tracks (and videos) back and forth.
We just started with a bloody difficult piece that we used to play as an intro to our show, but we never recorded it. I needed to sit down and figure it out again, because it's been ages since I last played it. Anyway, below you can see me tracking, just with the drum track, more will be added later. Hope to be able to show you more of our stuff in the near future!
We just started with a bloody difficult piece that we used to play as an intro to our show, but we never recorded it. I needed to sit down and figure it out again, because it's been ages since I last played it. Anyway, below you can see me tracking, just with the drum track, more will be added later. Hope to be able to show you more of our stuff in the near future!
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