MIKE SPRIGGS | ||
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Plays: Rhythm & lead guitar, vocals. Musical background: Beatles, Beatles, Beatles! I’m not joking actually. I had fun learning music and I still do. I taught myself guitar through two books entitled “ The Complete Beatles Volumes One and Two”. Each book shows you to play the notes on the guitar to every Beatles song. Some fabulous chords are used in their songs as well as amazing vocal harmonies. For me this was a fantastic way to learn music. In high school I joined my first band, The Originals, and together we won the CFNY Music Search contest representing Canada at the New York New Music Festival in 1990. I joined The Dawgs a few years after that and together we have since accomplished many goals such as recording and completing a CD comprised of original material. Staying together for 10 years means we have fun. Best known for saying: "For a million dollars, would you…" Influences: For guitar it would be the melodic feel of David GiImour from Pink Floyd. For our tiring on stage choreography I would have to go with KISS. Songwriting and vocal harmonies I love the old stuff with The Beatles, Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly.
Most likely to order: One Timbit. Role within the band: I love vocal harmony! I have always thought that has been my major contribution. I love finding a harmony and adding it to a song where there was no harmony before. I love both Rythym and lead guitar. You have to know when to bring it up and then bring it back down. The best musicians in the world will judge a player by when he’s not playing. Most embarrassing moment on stage: Forgetting words mostly. If you forget a chord, you can just muffle the guitar. If you forget notes on a solo, you can cheat by just bending the %#$% out of them. When you forget the words there’s not much you can do but do some James Brown imitations and keep smiling! What I like most about playing with The Dawgs: The camaraderie, band weekends, the highs, the lows, the in betweens, but mostly the energy shared between the band and a packed dance floor. Performing with the Dawgs has enabled my musicianship to continue improving in a fun and professional environment taking my enjoyment of playing music to a higher level. Mainly I love playing and creating music and I enjoy the friendship of the members of the team that I do those things with. That’s not easy to find. It’s as simple as that. Gear (for you fellow guitarists out there): I play an American Strat and a Guild Songbird. I use a 2 12 Marshall cabinet. I have a rack set up powered by a Rexx 2150 Power Amp. My preamp is a dual channel Rexx model 602 giving me my clean and my dirty sounds. My effects unit is an Alesis Quadraverb. I use a rack mounted dual channel Proco RAT that gives my dirty lead and my clean lead. I use an Arion Stage Tuner as well as a CryBaby Wah Pedal. |
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