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Dr Zerner’s Guitar Lab #1

Warm-ups & Stretching for Musicians

This is the first episode of my YouTube series Dr Zerner’s Guitar Lab or DZGL for short. I decided to dedicate it to warm-ups and stretching since this is the first thing a musician is supposed to do as a part of their practising routine.

I see that there are way too small number of videos addressing this part and it’s way too important to be neglected so I put high priority on that especially from the perspective of a person who has the misfortune to suffer from back and hands problems due to spinal distortion and excessive work on a laptop in non-ergonomic conditions.

This series, along with all the playthroughs and covers that I started making on weekly basis, are produced thanks to my Patreon supporters so if you like what I do, consider supporting me there – memberships start as low as $3 per month: Alexandra Zerner on Patreon

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Dr Zerner’s Guitar Lab #0

Dr Zerner’s Guitar Lab is an education YouTube series that I started several months ago and at the moment, there are already 16 episodes released. Due to the huge amount of work I had to do in the last months which also included moving to another place to live didn’t leave me enough time and energy to take care of my website. Luckily, now I have finally managed to find some and I decided to start by posting all the episodes here.

The pilot episode is just about me explaining the concept of the series and what things I am going to address in the series. Now when I watch it, it looks funny to me but this is normal given my lack of experience with making videos and talking in front of the camera back then. Not that I am now an expert but I think I manage to make every video better than the previous which is a sign of improvement.

This series, along with all the playthroughs and covers that I started making on weekly basis, are produced thanks to my Patreon supporters so if you like what I do, consider supporting me there – memberships start as low as $3 per month: Alexandra Zerner on Patreon

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Opening for Dream Theater

I still remember that moment when a friend of mine gave me a cassette with “A Change of Seasons” back in 1995 and I played it on the stereo at home. I was mesmerised by what I heard. It took some time to process it because it was something entirely new and I haven’t heard such music before. This album is still one of my top favourite albums by Dream Theater. What I did then was to go and get every album they had and listen to them like crazy. Then another friend showed me the music video of “Lie” and I was standing there with my jaw on the floor, knowing that I want to play progressive rock/metal and to get a 7-string guitar (which I also wanted because of Steve Vai, of course). I kept learning everything I could – riffs, solos, chord progressions, odd time signatures – it was like an endless sea of possibilities in music. At one point you’ve got a metal riff, then you run into a dramatic melodic chorus, then a jazzy part, a keyboard solo, psychedelic parts, impossible unisons and weird chords… basically everything that I wanted to excel in but somehow I could never mix it all together. This is the story of how Dream Theater became one of my top favourite bands ever. They became a reference of where I am heading with my guitar playing and composing despite that it looked completely untouchable.

Then one day I was told that Dream Theater will come in Sofia after a couple of months and probably there is a chance for them having opening acts. I didn’t need any more reasons to update my EPK and send it. During the coming months, I kept having nightmares to remember (pun intended) of me playing with them and failing spectacularly, or forgetting my stage clothes, or my guitar, or getting late for my appearance… Then I got the approval and I lost my speaking ability. Just imagine all the years of worshipping a band and suddenly you’ve got the chance to open for them… I can’t deny that the coming months were some of the most stressful periods in my life at all but this gave me the energy and the focus needed to practise until my fingers hurt.

Then the day came, my heart was pounding and I was all shaking even on the soundcheck. Everything was happening like in a dream. The evening was arriving inevitably and then the moment came – I was there on the stage, again like in a dream. The piano intro starts and I don’t hear it very well for some reason. Then I hit the first chord and… I realise that I hear nothing else but my guitar, very, very loud. That’s the moment I saw my music career crumbling down like a house of cards and falling into infinity. How am I supposed to play such music without hearing the band at all…?!? My nightmares were about to come true and this frightened me like I’ve been chased by mad cannibals. Fortunately, I got myself together and started walking around the stage, hoping that the rest of the stage monitors emit something more useful and this is what saved my life.

Luckily, I’ve got video material from this concert that was edited by my drummer and great friend Victor Alexandrov and yours truly, so there you go:

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Interview with Peter Boogaard

Last week I was invited by Peter Boogaard who has a radio show called Met Peter in de Ether on the Dutch Radio Aalsmeer. It’s actually the second interview that I am having with Peter and I am happy to be invited again. We talked about my new album Opus 1880, the process of making it, challenges, guest musicians, and of course, the terrible scenario with PledgeMusic bankruptcy. Click on the picture to go to the interview link.

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Collaboration with Sevi

On the 9th of March, I took part in the promo concert of the new album by Sevi – “Follow Me”, wherein I participated as a guitar player, keyboardist, and arranger. One of the biggest challenges in this album was the orchestration that I made for “Sweet Escape”, which is the last track of the album – a dramatic piano ballad with a full symphonic orchestra, building up during the song. The piece was performed live with a piano, cello, and two violins from The Strings (on the cello is Nora Kalcheva, who also recorded her part in “The Sound of Dreaming” from my new album “Opus 1880”). The album of Sevi is available on all the digital platforms.

On the concert, which happened in Sofia Live Club in Sofia, Bulgaria, I played both guitar and keyboards on the track, called “Fade Away”, which was a very interesting experience since I haven’t done such an instrumental change in the middle of a song on stage before. Here are a few shots from the show:

  • Photo credit: Sofia Live Club
  • Photo credit: Viktoriya Vucheva
  • Photo credit: Viktoriya Vucheva
  • Photo credit: Sofia Live Club
  • Photo credit: Viktoriya Vucheva
  • Photo credit: Viktoriya Vucheva
  • Photo credit: Sofia Live Club
Opus 1880 - Artwork
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New Album “Opus 1880” is out!

My new album “Opus 1880” is officially out!
It was released on the 23rd of September and it’s available for listening on YouTube:

Signed CD & HD Tracks:
Order here

T-Shirts:
Order here

Digital distribution:

iTunes
Spotify
Amazon

Tracklist:

Disc 1

1. Overture (feat. Ivan Ivanov)
2. Chaos of Cards (feat. Angel Wolf-Black)
3. The Oracle (feat. Angel Wolf-Black & Ivan Ivanov)
4. Mirrors
5. Quest of Light (feat. Angel Wolf-Black)
6. The Sound of Dreaming (feat. Angel Wolf-Black, Mistheria & Nora Kalcheva)
7. Questions (feat. Angel Wolf-Black & Ivan Ivanov)
8. Letter to Nowhere (feat. Angel Wolf-Black)
9. Diamind
10. Pinch of Time (feat. Angel Wolf-Black)
11. The Missed Dance (feat. Angel Wolf-Black)

Disc 2

1. Desaturation Point (feat. Bobby Koelble)
2. Master of Lightning (feat. Angel Wolf-Black, Ivan Ivanov & Iavor Pachovski)
3. The Other Side of the Sky, Pt 1 (feat. Svetlana Bliznakova)
4. Unfairlytale (feat. Gretchen Menn)
5. Cumulonimbi
6. Dolphins (feat. Misha Iliev)
7. Electric Kisses (feat. Franck Hermanny)
8. Sensosphere (feat. Ivan Ivanov)
9. Five Gardens
10. The Other Side of the Sky, Pt 2 (feat. Svetlana Bliznakova)
11. Youtopia

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Altitudes (Jason Becker) | Backing Track by Alexandra Zerner + Line 6 Helix Presets

Last week I posted my long awaited cover of Jason Becker’s “Altitudes”:

 

This video had an enormous success reaching 11,000 views in less than 3 days and passing over 27,000 for a week, which makes it my most successful video so far and it’s extremely motivating for sure.

I’ve been asked a lot about how I made this cover, so I wrote an article about that here but it turned out that many people are using Line 6 Helix as I did in this video so they were asking for my presets. I decided to post this article where I will upload my Helix presets, but I will also upload the backing track that I did entirely on my own from scratch because it’s my favourite Jason’s track and I wanted to recreate every bit of this masterpiece. Also, I want to give you all the opportunity to play Altitudes using a decent backing track instead of all those midi files on the internet that are full of mistakes and can ruin your attitude, so enjoy and share!!!

Alexandra Zerner | Line 6 Helix Presets | Jason Becker

Altitudes (Jason Becker) | Backing Track by Alexandra Zerner

 

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Altitudes (Jason Becker) | Cover by Alexandra Zerner | Behind the Scenes

It’s been a long time since I’ve done my last cover and it was about time to change this absence and what better way to do that except doing Altitudes by Jason Becker?

Back in 1994, my first electric guitar teacher enlightened me about Jason Becker and I was mesmerised by his works. Altitudes instantly became my favourite track of his, also became an apotheosis example of something that I would probably never be able to play, so I started learning Air instead – it seemed more approachable but when I reached the fast sections, I gave up. Many years later, after I did my cover of Perpetual Burn, I decided that it’s time to give Altitudes another try so I slowed it down and started listening closely, passage by passage, learning every phrase note by note, using all of my knowledge about how Jason plays, what sorts of fingerings and shapes he uses.

I kept watching all the covers of Altitudes that I could find on YouTube and there were some very good ones like the one by Gus Drax and Richie Allen – they boosted my inspiration even further. During the process of practising, I had to do corrections many times because I kept hearing phrases that I’ve learnt wrong. Plus, I realised that Altitudes is actually harder to play than Perpetual Burn despite the fact that it may look quite the opposite at first. This is the reason I spent significantly more time practising (2.5 years) compared to Perpetual Burn (2 years).

As you might know, in 2016 I won Nili Brosh’s A Matter of Perception Melody Contest and this is how I became an EMG Pickups Artist but I also got a wonderful addition to the prize – a white Ibanez signed by all the members of the jury – Nili Brosh, Jason Becker, Greg Howe, and Marco Sfogli. For a long time, I didn’t dare to play on this guitar since it was sacred to me but later I realised that it’s a pity to leave it collecting dust on the stand so I gave it to a luthier to fix and protect all the autographs and decided to use this guitar in my cover of Altitudes, as I plan to use it for covers of tracks by the other members of the jury.

Less than two months ago, the guys from Line 6 were so kind to give me a Helix LT during the Female Guitarist Round Table Discussion together with the awesome Jennifer Batten, Gretchen Menn, Nili Brosh, Nikki Stringfield, and Yvette Young, hosted by Chad Boston. I must admit that the Helix is a wonderful piece of gear so I decided to use it in my covers since it offers a wide variety of sounds and tweaking options, it’s super versatile and easy to use.

So, that’s the background story of my cover of Altitudes. If you have any questions, feel free to comment and I will do my best to answer you.

Enjoy and share!!! 🙂

 

 

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