Fredrik Strand Halland ….A Young Man With A Future
Heart of Gold Entertainment Presents
A Night Of Young, Gifted Musicians
The Knitting Factory, August 9th at 8PM
***
Hollywood is a tough nut to crack. People in Hollywood see everything which passes as entertainment and either love it or shrug it off. Mostly they shrug it off and forget about it the next day. The artists go on to the next city and venue.
This writer has seen the best of the best in Tinsel Town and Thursday evening was pleased to have been invited to see a collection of very young guitarists at a gathering at The Knitting Factory.
Throughout the evening, the level of playing increased as one after another, these young men took the stage and strapped on their instruments. This writer will admit he was amazed at the level of guitar playing he was witnessing.
Then….at 11:22 PM, the last young man stepped onto the stage. I thought to myself, “This is the kid I’ve heard so much about. Let’s see what he can do.”
Mr. Bill Boyrer (Heart Of Gold Entertainment) announces that this last act is a young man which has come all the way from Norway. His name….Fredrik Strand Halland.
***
He is dressed in shorts, sandals, a t-shirt and a pork pie hat. He is thirteen years old with longish blonde hair and blue eyes that twinkle with the faint hint of a smile as he gazes at the Hollywood audience and checks his gear, adjusting the pedals and switches which have become all too familiar appliances with today’s modern guitarists. There is a terrible hum and the young guitarist stops it instantly. He shows no fear and I am amazed at his absolute calmness in what must be to him….strange territory.
This writer is upstairs by the sound board in the center of the room as the set begins. The soundman adjusts the keyboard and finally brings it into the mix. Fredrik sings “The Telephone Song”, a cut from his forthcoming CD and an original piece of material. When the solo comes, I watch as this young man starts to play. No leaping or jumping around like so many other performers feel it necessary to do, just flat-out good playing.
Keeping the energy level high, Fredrik performs another original song, “It’s A Beautiful Day”. This song is a real stomper and the audience starts moving toward the stage sensing there is something happening they don’t want to miss.
As Fredrik continues his show with his pedals to the metal, the audience moves in closer and closer until the young player can almost reach out and touch them. Now they want a closer look at this handsome young player from abroad. The photographers are having a field day with Fredrik, who appears blind to everything except the music. He has the audience in the palm of his hand. Then he plays “Purple Haze” and it is amazing that Fredrik plays it almost exactly as Jimi played it and even plays Jimi’s solo from the record, note for note. Then to top what he has just done, this young player rips his own solo and has the audience screaming for more.
It’s obvious that Fredrik has studied Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and the other great players who preceded him. That’s natural. The amazing point is that he plays with such dexterity and clarity. His choice of notes is far beyond the norm and he exhibits pure soul. One can simply look at Fredrik and tell he “feels” what he plays. Amazing for one so young!
One song this writer thought was a terrific showcase for Fredrik’s playing ability was “Kentucky Derby”. Obviously the Norwegian sense of humor working as this song is so fast that one can not count the tempo accurately, yet the young man plays it with such stunning clarity and speed, it is simply amazing. The audience is stunned.
Fredrik’s aplomb and stage courtesy shines as he introduces his band. He introduces the keyboard player who has played exceedingly well all evening, Harold Dahlstroem. Then, with a big smile, Fredrik introduces “The Boss”, Frank Halland on bass. (Frank is also his father and one of his teachers.) Then, last but certainly not least, he introduces his powerful drummer, Zsolt Meszaros. This mighty rhythm section has done well by Fredrik all evening and he shows he is grateful.
Fredrik closes the show with “Texas Flood” and a song called “Look At Little Sister”, showing he can combine real Texas blues with good old rock and roll.
There is absolutely no doubt who owned the stage this evening. Though the other young musicians performed very well, Fredrik took control of the venue and showed the audience with his presence, attitude and talent, that you don’t have to be American to play the blues.
Fredrik Strand Halland is rapidly becoming a star in Norway. Hopefully his star will shine throughout the rest of the world.
Thank you Fredrik….your performance was worth the wait.
John Rhys/BluePower.com
Photo by: Hugh Holland
Click here to go directly to Fredrik's site!
hey. i came over the site yesterday and i sent him a mail on mike@fret2fret.com with several questions. i got a reply less than 24 hours after, but i'm still not sure if i dare waste my money on this... looking for a bit more info too...
his reply:
The concept is based on a very clever memory technique which lends itself
incredibly well to the fretboard. There is a very special sequence of notes
which is found everywhere on the guitar. You are taught this sequence and when
to use it. It is very clever, very quick and due to it's very nature, almost
impossible to forget. The software is presented in a type of interface and is
viewed on your PC. It can also be printed out. You are able to download the
system as soon as you have paid for it and you are sent a CD containing a hard
copy of the system and the 115,000 guitar tabs which are text based. There are
also 28,000 guitar pro tabs on the disk.
Hope this answers your questions.
I also sent an email to Mike and never got a reply.
As you and the other blogger, I would also like to see some sample of his methos before I buy, and if he does, he has a sale.
It's bogus or he would do more than rant and rave for 3 pages without giving a single example of the process. Buyer beware. Until I find an unbiased review, I'm not touching his product with a ten foot pole.
heres the "secret"....the notes on a guitar follow a patern. A, D, G, C, F, A#, D#, G#, C#, F#, B, E, and back to A. This pattern goes vertically down the fret board. Make up a story to memorize it. Just Remember that at the 5th string you need to take the note before what the pattern would suggest. ie. a D, instead of a D#. There you have it.
Hey all, I thought I would go out on a limb here, since PayPal does protect the buyer, I thought I would go ahead and try this out. However, an hour after I have paid and I have received NOTHING! The only thing I got was an email from PayPal saying I paid. STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY, STAY AWAY! He's after the money and that's it. Obviously the info is SO TOP SECRET....it DOESN'T exist!
See also the uncyclopedia article on fret2fret: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Fret2fret
And this discussion: http://4-ch.net/music/kareha.pl/1119526037/
Hi Guys: Well, I "fell for" the tempting ad and paid the $27.99 and (as one of the earlier comments states) it really is simple. It's almost TOO simple. But like lots of powerful things (like learning to type) it sounds simple (Just put your fingers on the keyboard and think the letter onto the screen) learning and using are two different processes. Any tool sitting in a draw will not be useful - it's potential lies in the form and function of the tool and the skill of the user. Fret2Fret...worth it? ($35CAD - Canadian dollars for me) - Yes.
But, then again, I can type at over 80 wpm, and when someone told me (After years of hunting and pecking) that is was worth the $48 for a Typing Program. My first thoughts were the same as some of the other commentors - "I'm not gonna risk that kind of money" Now, when it comes to learning intuitive skills (like typing or playing the guitar), I invest - not in the software - but in my own ability to learn.
Thanks to Fret2Fret - and some time and some serious practice, I expect to be buzzing along the fretboard, just as I buzz around the keyboard typing this comment. Cole in Canada.
It is just a mnemonic to learn the sequence ADGCFA#D#G#C#F#BEA plus a tiny little bit of information. If someone would teach you the mnemonic Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears for the strings of the guitar, would you pay for that as well? Would you recommend buying it, if the person who taught you the mnemonic would promise people gold mountains? Or are you Mike Slaiter himself on holiday in Canada?? ;-)
Hi there.. came across this a few days ago, and at first, I was pretty sure that it was fake !.. So I did a little research to see what it was all about..
Apparently if you look on the ebay ads for it,the pictures in the ad are hosted on the same server as the actual program, so all you have to do is get the server name from the picture by looking at the source, then look at the server in your browser.
So why Don't you check it out yourself free of charge !!!
check out this link, and just chose the fret2fret.exe in the bottom of the page and then click 'browser download'..
http://www6.streamload.com/Nodes/Node.asp?cxInstID=25259315&nodeID=224841
And Voila !..Nice and Free.. and it's actually working !, but of course it's not worht the $28, but it's a good start...
I hope this helped u All !
Thanks, I went and got it for free. I read the story, went up and down the fret board a few times and now I know what notes I am playing. It works! The story is so wacky it has to work and I find myself laughing as I realize what note I am on.
However, it certainly does not give you the ability to play. You still have to know your scales and put in lots of practice. But even knowing scales, I have found myself getting lost on the fretboard many times. Especially when trying to move around too much. This tool will help to find the right note to start on wherever I am at on the fretboard.
So, his advertisement is very missleading in that he says you will be able to play any song you want and be able to know that you are playing the right notes. Knowing what notes you are playing does not make them right.
So I think it's a bit of a rip off if you pay the $30 for it. Then on the other hand I guess you have to look at it like you are buying the free guitar tab that he sends to you. Assuming he sends it and it is worth anything. I've seen a lot of bad guitar tab before.
Hope this helps someone.
I downloaded the free one that someone graciously posted the url to, and boy am I glad I did. This thing is hardly worth the time it takes to download. Ok, the memorization technique is somewhat intriguing, but anyone can come up with their own little song and dance to do that. However, the ADGCF sequence goes all to pot across the fret board when you hit the B string due to the half-step down for tuning. While he admits this in the app, he gives you a way to correct the issue, but it still doesn't work out up and down the fret board. Don't waste your money on 5 flash driven screens and get the freebie.
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Hummm.. I'll go and check it out myself and see if I can get it free to...
also if anyone want to check out my FREE lessons on My site about learning the fretboard here's the link...
http://free.hostdepartment.com//m/mself61/
I'm not promising you'll learn in one hour (I know of no man who has leaned to play a song "like a pro" all the way through in "one hour") but I do beleive my system is pretty good. I should be using it more myself...lol PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE !!!! "we'll not learn anything by looking for shortcuts" Monte Self
Hello. I've just done an HND in guitar where I was lucky enough to be taught by some of the worlds top professionals, improvising was a major part of the course. I got the free version from link kindly posted and I'm not sure if you can price this. On it's own it's utterly useless. However the principle and memory technique is useful as it employs various parts of your brain making it a stronger part of your conscience. When soloing a key thing is using scales that posses the same notes as the chords you're playing (obviously you can step outside but it's a good idea to resolve on a strong note that defines the character of the chord you're playing over) having an intimate knowledge of where each note lies and what lies around it will help for A) Letting you know straight away where scale start and end points are, and B) where you're going when you step outside that scale pattern and what scale you could then be playing into. This is quite a sterile way of playing though, truly great improvisers, the likes of Van Halen, Jeff Beck and some of the guys Mike lists improvise by ear and feel not just by theory knowledge alone. Their awesome perception of pitch, melody and most importantly TIMING lets them move effortlessly from one note to the next. They can hear that, when on any given note, what a note a tone away from that will sound like etc etc, this comes from experience and listening to records and learning licks from other guys, jamming, I think it's a process of building and experimenting then a touch of creativity to create something new. Some people, for a bunch of reasons, are better than others at this. So, if you want a lazy way to be "a pro" then no, there's obviously a shitload more to it, but if you're a competent player, know some scales etc and want to feel more confident about the fretboard I reckon it's worth learnin for free.
oh dear, glad i didnt pay any money for this! the method for memorising the fret board is at best rather obvious and certainly does not deliver what it says in the advert (after 30 mins of reading a few flash screens im yet to turn into jimi hendrix). I found it much easier just to rember where Es and Fs are as well as all the tuning notes on the 5th fret. from here you can find all the B's and C's are (there just under or above the e's and f's) and from there quickly find the rest. fancy charging £30 for a poorley wriiten, silly little story. feel kinda ripped getting it for free!