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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

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Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee interview in Frets Magazine

Fri, Mar 31, 2006@11:14AM | comments removed/disabled

[Rush Beat On Different Strings]

Frets Magazine is the premier magazine for acoustic guitar players. The Spring 2006 issue contains a short interview with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee where they talk acoustic guitars. The most interesting tidbit is when Geddy is asked about whether he plays with a pick or with his fingers:

Lee: I play with my fingers and I pluck out bass lines. Acoustics, when you slap them, sound just great. They growl. You can get a nice chunky sound out of them.

Lifeson: Geddy's bass playing is so melodic and that comes from playing bass parts on an acoustic guitar. He would play bass lines right on the acoustic, but he would come up with a lot of guitar parts too. "Closer to the Heart" for instance—he wrote that opening picking part. I heard it and said, "That's so cool—show me that!"

Lee: I forgot that I wrote that lick. He's got a good memory for that kind of stuff. Now that he mentions it, I do remember putting that song together.

So Geddy wrote the opening guitar portion of Closer to the Heart. I'd never heard that before. Cool.

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