Straight shooting with Smits

GuitaristNation.com recently did an interview with Guitarist Jeff Fiorentino of Jfrocks.com.  We talk about Jeff a lot here and at Smits on Google.  Nothing more needs to be said about Jeff Fiorentino other than the fact that he’s a true guitar icon on the internet.  I applaud guitarist nation for their fantastic interview.  Jeff isn’t an easy guy to get to open up and speak out, but they did it, and did it with some really insightful questions too.

Click here to read the Jeff Fiorentino Guitarist Nation Interview.

http://www.guitaristnation.com/2010/10/07/interview-with-jeff-fiorentino-of-jfrocks-com/



Below is a list of the 5 people or things that at this moment in time I think really ROCK!!.  Some of them are funny and some are serious, either way you wanna “slice” it, it’s my blog so it is what it is.

The short list for the impatient among us:

1. 1.  Guitarist Jeff Fiorentino of jfrocks.com - Because he’s changed the guitar world for the better.
2. 2.  Zooey Deschanel - Zooey Deschanel is a positive influence in a rehab infested Hollywood.
3. 3.  Sliced Bread - Because it’s supposed to be so good and all.
4. 4.  Triumph the insult comic dog at the Star Wars convention - Just because – Why not?
5. 5.  Ice – Blog entry was written on a HOT day in Boston with 95% humidity, Ice ROCKS, believe me!!!!

Everything here in this blog is “my opinion” of course!!!

1. Guitarist Jeff Fiorentino of jfrocks.com

This Los Angeles guitarist is a guitar idol to Thousands of guitarists of all ages all over the world. (including myself) Jeff in many ways has changed the way guitar is taught, but also for countless players he’s changed their perception of how the guitar can be played and used.

I’m in the process right now of writing a story on Jeff Fiorentino for the guitar magazine that I write for and contribute to.  I thought I would add some things here in this blog that probably won’t make it into the article.

Let me start by saying that I thought a lot about who or what to put at number one on my list.  In fact I almost put Zooey Deschanel here at number one because of the positive influence that she is and or has the potential to be to Millions upon Millions of young people.  It was a bit of a debate but I changed my mind at the last minute and put Jeff Fiorentino 1st and Zooey Deschanel 2nd on my list.

(sorry Zooey don’t take it personal!!  I’m currently doing an article on Jeff for an upcoming unknown greats issue of my magazine, so I kind of almost had to put him 1st. But off the record you’re really number 1. )
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Truth be told Zooey Deschanel is of course far more of a household name than jfrocks Guitarist Jeff Fiorentino is. Big duh there right?!! But just because you may not know who Jeff is, that doesn’t mean that others don’t. Trust me on this one, most die hard guitar freaks that haven’t been living under a rock for the last decade know who Jeff Fiorentino is.

Our magazine may be doing an unknown greats issue soon, and jfrocks.com’s Jeff Fiorentino is at the top of our list. Although with visitors to his website in the 10′s of Thousands annually he’s hardly an “unknown”.  But just in case you don’t know who Jeff is or what he’s done over the past few years, read on and I’ll give you a clue!
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Los Angeles guitarist Jeff Fiorentino among other things is the owner and writer of a popular guitar music and instructional website called jfrocks.com.  Jeff’s probably best known among Van Halen freaks as the go to guy for anything Eddie related on guitar.  Jeff’s Van Halen guitar lesson series changed every guitarists freakin’ life when it came out about 6 years ago.  Jeff knows how to play Van Halen better than Van Halen knows how to play Van Halen, and he taught half the guitar world how they can do it too, and properly I should add.  But that’s just the tip of the iceberg with Jeff, he’s much more than some Van Halen guy.  He’s a Jazz trained guitarist that cut his teeth doing some hard core improv jamming in NYC in his late teens.

Jeff Fiorentino is a guy that’s not only changed the way the guitar is approached, but also how we teach music in general. His methods of instruction have been picked up by and used by countless music schools and instructors around the world.  His tips on songwriting and structure have helped countless players write music quickly, effortlessly, and well.  He’s also done a lot of ghost writing for artists over the years that “YOU” have in your CD collection.

Let’s just say that if you want to learn how to write a song he’s probably the guy you want to sit down with. 10 minutes with guitarist Jeff Fiorentino talking about songwriting techniques will probably change your life for the better if writing music is what you want to do either for fun or for a living.

I got to meet Jeff about a year or so ago in his home town of Pacific Palisades California.  I’ll type more about that later, but for now let me share some fun facts I found out through my research for the article, which included talking to some of Jeff’s close friends and family in Los Angeles via phone and email.

Let me begin by saying that Jeff is the guy that most die hard guitarists and teenaged dude guitar heads know as the cool riffing guitarist from their favorite TV commercials, radio spots, and of course the legendary jfrocks.com, which is without a doubt the most innovative and cool guitar instructional site on the net.  But beyond all of that I’ve included below some fun facts that maybe you didn’t know about jfrocks Jeff Fiorentino since he’s not too much for talking about himself. (Which is a pretty rare find in narcissistic Hollywood. I’ve interviewed some real self absorbed Hollywood A-holes over the years, and I can tell you that Jeff Fiorentino is NOT one of them. This guy has his head screwed on straight.)

4 Guitarist Jeff Fiorentino facts:

1. Jeff lives in Los Angeles, CA near the beaches in Pacific Palisades, which is a tucked between Santa Monica and Malibu for those that have no clue where that is. It’s not a bad location, I sure wish I lived there.  As most of his following knows, the majority of the jfrocks.com music and lesson materials are produced at Jeff’s home studio in Pacific Palisades, or at his sound engineer’s studio deep in the hills of Trancas CA, which is really just the north side of Malibu for those not familiar with the area.

2. Jeff has been playing guitar since he was 4 years old. His father was his first teacher but Jeff began formal guitar and music studies in summer programs at Berkely school of music in Boston MA at age 12. He would stay with an aunt for the summer out there so he could take the classes. Jeff then studied Jazz improvisational guitar in New York City in his late teens under Jazz sessions player Kevin Jones. (Jeff used to improvise Van Halen and Jimmy Page like solos into jazz jams for fun during these early sessions. Coincidentally this very skill would prove useful in his session career in Hollywood later on down the road, where he was the guy they called when they couldn’t get Eddie, or Jimmy.)

3. (this one blew my mind totally when I found this out) Jeff donates a lot of time and money to music and arts education around the country. Jeff also teaches guitar workshops in both New York city and Los Angeles, mostly teaching abstract music theory and creative thinking in songwriting.

As a footnote to this I found out that Jeff also works with a gifted group of kids at a school for the arts in Los Angeles. These kids are genius IQ and brilliant musicians ranging in age from 12 to 17. When asked about these students Jeff has been quoted as saying, “If they can think it, they can play it.” “It’s absolutely amazing, and I’m honored they want me to teach them.” “They chose me, they demanded that I come back, so who am I to say no.” end quote

These kids have a regular music teacher, but I’m told that Jeff is sort of their Yoda for lack of a better word. Jeff teaches them to think outside the box and use their smarts to their advantage, often taking them on outings to explore various creative concepts, or to meet their favorite players in the studio for a real life lesson in music. The kids adopted Jeff as their mentor after he gave what was supposed to be a one time class to them as a special guest. Now he teaches them 2 times per month if his schedule allows for it.

(He volunteers his time to do this by the way which I wasn’t surprised at all by, this is a very generous guy.)

4. Jeff has done background guitar work on countless radio spots for Los Angeles radio stations over the years, and his riffing has been used in more than 100 national TV spots between 1996 and 2004. Including ads for GM, Nissan, and Miller. Jeff has also ghost written songs for more than a dozen artists.  Jeff’s primary session work these days is doing what’s called clean up work. This means he fixes other people’s junk and makes it better. (off the record I wish I could get Jeff to come over and clean up some of my lousy demo stuff.)

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In my book Jeff Fiorentino of jfrocks.com (among many other things) tops the list of people that really (well for lack of a better word) ROCK!!

He’s not just a performer or a studio guy banging out TV spots or indi film music for a quick buck. Jeff has done more as far as education and getting young people interested in being more than just cover song jukeboxes than any other professional “Hollywood” player that I can think of.

His website, jfrocks.com attracts both guitarists interested in exanding their knowledge of the instrument, and also guitar music freaks that don’t play guitar at all but love to crank up, download and purchase the awesome guitar music that Jeff and his crew crank out for the website’s lessons.

Jeff Fiorentino has stepped up to the plate, which is something music and art of any kind always needs someone to do. He decided that rather than just take up space he’d give something back. And he does in a huge way, in fact it’s a way that’s changed the way Thousands if not Millions of guitarists including myself both approach and create on the instrument.

Jeff and his cast and crew over at jfrocks.com work hard putting together entire songs and lessons based on techniques and styles. Jeff teaches people concepts that they need to understand to be a professional player and not just a schmo with a guitar strumming some chords. This guy is teaching people to be innovative, thinking, musicians. Which in my opinion the world needs more of.

On top of all of that Jeff has written, produced, and starred in more than 40 guitar instructional DVD and CD products which are distributed all over the world. Jeff Fiorentino is a big deal outside the USA, so when I say all over the world, I mean all over the world. The Japanese, Australian, & UK following makes up about 40% of the site’s traffic.

The jfrocks product line is just amazing. The older stuff is a little lacking in the editing department, but the content is great so it more than makes up for it. I own every single title including some rare stuff that I emailed them about and they actually sent it to me!! Most guitarists either have Jeff’s DVDs, or they include them on their must have wish list.

Of course no tale of guitarist Jeff Fiorentino can be complete without mentioning a very famous showdown and a masterful product line that a certain guitar legend (who will remain nameless, but his name soundes like “eddie van Walen”) forced Jeff and his group to stop distributing. It’s a long story that’s really legendary all over the internet in many VH related guitar forums so I won’t tell it, but I will say that it was a sad day for guitar indeed when that little incident happened back in 2004 or 2005. We ALL hope that Jeff and Eddie can work it out someday so that we can see that stuff again, and younger players just learning now can get to take advantage of it. I know I know copyrights blah blah blah

One of the things that makes Jeff both a legend and someone that stands out as a teacher is that he’ll take a song like “Brown sugar” from the Rolling Stones for example, and say, “hey, lets see what would happen if Van Halen or Hendrix did a remake of this song.” “how might it sound”. It’s like an acting class almost, but on guitar. This is what teaching is about in my opinion, and the opinion of countless others as well. It’s about giving students creative ideas to expand on. Teaching isn’t about just showing off for the sake of it, or giving the student the answer without letting them explore the possibilities. Sadly this is what most guitar instruction online and on DVD is these days.

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OK, number 2 is Zooey Deschanel. Like I said earlier Zooey almost made number one on my little list here.

(For the record I’d like to state again that I actually think Zooey is kind of tied for first with Jeff rather than some sort of distant second. lol )
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So, why is Zooey Deschanel on my list and my number 2?? … Well I’m Glad you asked.

BECAUSE SHE’S AWESOME!! SHE TOTALLY ROCKS!!  And she just doesn’t seem to be a drugged up club hopper like a lot of Hollywood is these days. And man that’s refreshing to see.

I pride myself on being a predictor of rising stars. I’ve never been wrong yet!! I know she’s doing lots of stuff right now from what I’ve read, and it’s easy to play Monday morning quaterback, but I predicted a long time ago that she was going to go pretty far when I saw her in Mumford. Trust me I’m never wrong about this stuff. Honestly, I don’t even think her career has begun to scratch the surface of where it’s going yet. Mark my words people.

Now enough crystal balling let’s move on.
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From what I’ve read Zooey Deschanel, not unlike number 1 on my list is another one of those “Hollywood kids”. Either with a parent, or grandparent or all of the above in the business in some way behind the scenes or in front of the camera. Heck for all I know they all know each other and I could have killed 10 birds with 1 stone when I ran into Jeff in that grocery store. I have no idea. Like I’ve already said their world is a Million miles from mine. When I took that trip to LA I felt like I was on another planet.

In Zooey’s case, since I haven’t been following her career that long per say, and I haven’t met her, and I’m not writing a story on her for my magazine, I’m going to simply make some observations and offer an opinion or two, rather than what I did for Jeff which was rattle off facts and first hand experiences.

Let me start by saying that I think Zooey Deschanel is a fantastic actress, and I think that she’s very pure in her art. I don’t see that she’s just looking for a quick buck or “fame”. I think she really just enjoys what she does, and I really respect that sort of thing.

I also think that Zooey is really a very positive and influential actress and role model. People that influence others in a POSITIVE way interest me a great deal, and I think there’s a shortage of them in this world right now. (I also think that Zooey is just a really cool friggin name by the way. Even though I know it’s a reference to Franny and Zooey, the name to me still sounds like a slip and fall accident of some sort. lol.)

My prediction is that over the next few years we’re going to see a lot from this girl. I mean A LOT!! I hope however that she keeps her feet on the ground. I’ve seen it happen so many times with actors. They get some success and their career seems to go up and up, and so does their ego and problems.

In college psych we learned that when famous people start to lose touch with the common person or get a god complex of some sort then that’s when drugs and alcohol start creeping in. I don’t have to name any names here, we call all turn on the TV any day of the week and see this play out.

Now, I’m not a movie expert, I’m not a Hollywood know it all or anything like that, but it seems that young Hollywood is all about rehab and nightclubs and people famous for really doing nothing other than taking up space.

Zooey Deschanel is a refreshing change from the usual junk that I see when I turn my TV on, or go to the movies. She just seems like a great girl, I don’t read a lot of bad press about her doing stupid things, and from what I can see I think she probably trys to avoid doing stupid things, which leads me to speculate that she’s probably pretty bright. (another point for Zooey)

People don’t need to try to be role models. All they need to do is set a good example, and Zooey is doing that by not being one of these rehab morons. It’s as plain and simple as that.

In my opinion, Zooey’s success is probably in no small part the product of a happy home, great parents, or both. It’s just a guess on my part, who knows maybe her parents beat her or something and I’m wrong (LOL) but I highly doubt that’s the case of course.

I know that one of the things that Jeff from our number 1 slot told me that he credits a lot of his success with is his awesome parents, and their willingness to sacrifice and send him to schools and good teachers to hone his craft etc.

If we look at some of these ”rehab” actresses (as I call them) out there that are supposed to be role models we often can link it back to poor parenting. So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Zooey Deschanel probably came from a decent home with intelligent parents.

I don’t know about any of this in Zooey’s case for a fact. But I can say that she’s certainly talented, and getting a lot of work, which puts her firmly in the public eye. I think that kind of public attention demands some level of responsibility from the celebrity, and Zooey seems to respect that and not blindly teach our children by example that it’s OK to drink and drive etc.. After all it’s a good idea to remember that we’re a society that does what celebs tell us to basically. While I find that fact very sad, it’s also very true.

In my opinion Zooey Deschanel should be the inspiration for younger kids, certainly NOT the rehab idiots that I see all over the place now. Or even worse these reality MTV star people that to be honest I still can’t figure out what they’re good at or why anyone even cares about watching them do nothing for hours and hours. It’s a sad reflection on our society really.

You never really know what the future holds but I’m pretty sure that Zooey Deschanel has her act together enough to never turn into one of “those girls”, and I’m very interested to see the path that her career takes. My prediction is that it will take her very far.

(I’ll post some more follow ups and observations later on down the road as I get this blog rolling along.)
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3. Sliced bread

OK, now it’s time to be funny. So that’s right number 3 on my little list to open this blog is sliced bread. All of my life I hear people say, “That’s the greatest thing since sliced bread”. Well number 3 is “sliced bread”

For those of you keeping track that means that both jfrocks guitarist Jeff Fiorentino, & actress Zooey Deschanel are better than, or at least cooler than, sliced bread (in my opinion)

But hey let’s face it, they both kind of rock!!

Jeff for influencing so many guitar players, and musicians in a positive and useful way, (and living in a very cool place that I wish I lived) and Zooey for her potential to influence many young actors and actresses in a positive, non-rehab oriented sort of way.

This by the way also means that the other 2 items on this list, while pretty cool, are not better than “Sliced bread”, Jeff, or Zooey.
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4. Triumph the insult comic dog at the Star Wars convention.

I’m usually not a huge Triumph the comic dog fan, but I have to say that when they took it to the Star Wars Convention it was hilarious. This of course is not really a serious one or one that that’s particularly going to save the world, but it is one of the 5 things at this moment that I’m really liking.

I think the moment that summed it all up was when he asked the idiot in the Darth costume “Which one of these buttons do I push to call your parents to come pick you up.”

That’s a good nutshell look at a 45+ year old man in a Darth Vader costume, and a pretty darn funny one too.
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5. Ice.

Yes ice. At this moment it is over 95 degrees and humid where I am as I type this, and I’m in dire need of some ice. If you have some ice please email me a picture of it so that I can visualize being cooled off.

Like I said in the title, this post is about the 5 things that I like, “right at this moment”.

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Until next time