Okay. I’ve never been happy with the title of my blog. It was functional, but that’s where it ended. I’ve been turning over new ideas in my head for a while now, trying to come up with something a little catchier. I’m still not 100% happy with my new name, but it is a huge improvement – and improvement is all we can really hope for…
So here it is:
(formerly the UxbridgeGuitar.com Blog)
February’s Video-of-the-Month features Philadelphia guitarist Trevor Gordon Hall. I’m guessing that he goes through a lot of strings…
While there are a lot of guitarists who incorporate “parlour tricks” into their playing, Trevor does it very tunefully with this track! Outside the Lines is from Trevor’s latest CD “Entelechy”. It is at least his third CD, but his first with CandyRat Records.
Trevor Gordon Hall’s website: www.TrevorGordonHall.com
Trevor Gordon Hall’s YouTube channel: www.YouTube.com/user/trevorhallguitar
While thumbing through the January 2012 edition of Acoustic Guitar magazine I came across two quotes on the importance of learning theory and technique and one on the importance of NOT learning theory and technique – interestingly from someone who has an excellent grasp of musical theory, but has chosen not to apply it to his guitar playing:
“There may be a time when you want to express something that’s more complex, and it would be nice to have that available to you if that were the case. And there are times when just the simplest of chords is going to be the most satisfying, and you would want to know that that moment had arrived. I think the more technique you have, the more choices you have.”
–Paul Simon
“There are so many musicians that come up, so many girls with great voices and great lyrics, and they play their instruments and they haven’t learned them enough. All they can do is work with four or five chords. That’s why I am really lucky and eternally grateful that the order of events happened in the way they did: I learned the neck up and down, and then when it came time to sing over stuff, I had a world of stuff I could throw at my voice to sing over”
– John Mayer
“If somebody walked up to me and pointed to a note on the guitar fretboard and asked me what it was, I wouldn’t have the first idea. I’ve deliberately left certain things vague about the guitar, because I like the primitive aspect of the way I play and think about the guitar. I never think about what key I’m in. I just start to play and hope for the best.”
– Elvis Costello
You are hereby challenged to find the joy in small things, because life is short and love is large.
– GraceInSmallThings.com
More about Grace In Small Things
“I thought that the professional touch that made your set was the fact that your guitar was in a proper state of tune.”
I recently played a short set at a local open mic, where a musician friend was in attendance and I received the preceding note the following day. I sometimes forget how sensitive some people are to tuning – my ear seems to be less discriminating than most. I can hear when something is out of tune, but it doesn’t grate on me the way that it does some people. Having said that, I do recognize the importance of tuning.
It actually took me years to figure out tuning. Then one day, the clouds parted and I saw the light. Not sure what the trigger was, but suddenly I “got it”. For others, tuning is as natural as breathing. But the important thing is that you must always strive to play in tune, especially when playing for (or with) others.
Every time you pick up your instrument, you should check the tuning. These days, it is much easier than when I was a budding young rockstar. You can now buy electronic tuners for as little as $15 (though I would recommend spending a little more). And while I think that you should always try to tune by ear first, you can easily check your work with the tuner.
If you get used to playing in tune all of the time, it becomes way easier to tell if you are out of tune, and you may even get to the point where you will be able to critique other performers’ tuning… Best of all, you are way less likely to annoy your audience, even if it is just your cat.
Muriel Anderson is a classical virtuoso and master of the harp guitar who, in 1989, became the first woman to win the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship. In this month’s video of the month, she teaches us how to play bluegrass:
Muriel Anderson’s website: www.MurielAnderson.com
Muriel Anderson’s YouTube Channel: www.YouTube.com/user/murielanderson
Muriel Anderson’s bio on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Anderson
If you’re like me you find it challenging to find good Christmas music to listen to. It seems that most modern Christmas recordings are trying so hard to sound “fresh” that they overlook trying to sound good.
This year a friend introduced me to a very nice Christmas album by The Lower Lights titled “Come Let Us Adore Him”. The Lower Lights appear to be something of a musical collective who focus on performing bluegrass gospel tunes and this Christmas collection is a tastefully done recording of traditional Christmas tunes with a definite bluegrass flavour.
Have a listen:
You can order the album from their BandCamp site for US$ 11.99 or for an extra dollar plus shipping you can get an actual CD which includes a free download while you wait to receive it.
(As always, I have no financial or other interest in this band or recording.)
Please, please, PLEASE, if you don’t know what to get your child for Christmas, do NOT get them a guitar.
Does it seem strange that a guitar teacher would try to dissuade you from giving a guitar for Christmas?
Here’s why:
While there are three exceptions, 95 percent of the time, giving a guitar at Christmas is a bad idea.
Unless you want an unplayed guitar sitting in your closet for the next couple of decades.
Many times when a parent gives a guitar for Christmas, its because the child already has an X-box, an iPod, an iPad, a DS, a TV, a computer, and maybe even a bicycle… so they see a guitar on the shelf at the local Stuff-Mart and think’ “Oh! Junior doesn’t have one of those! I bet (s)he would like one.”
And, yes, on Christmas morning, Junior might very well be ecstatic – with visions of musical stardom dancing in his or her head.
However…
The thing that Junior does not yet realize is that guitar is hard. Really hard. It takes a lot of work. And if learning guitar isn’t something that he or she is passionate about, it’s probably not going to happen on its own.
Here are the three exceptions:
One: Junior has been pestering for a guitar for months. Playing air guitar for hours on end and stringing rubber bands over empty tissue boxes to work on his or her chops. In this case, promise me that you will not buy the guitar from a big box store and that you will not spend less than $200 and go ahead.
Two: You have already bought Junior a guitar from a big box store and by some miracle, it is still getting played. In this case, it is probably time for an upgrade and, if you promise me that you will not buy another guitar from a big box store and that you will not spend less than $200, you have my blessing.
Three: You are prepared to take on the grueling task of being the taskmaster and forcing daily practice until sufficient skill is developed that Junior actually learns and appreciates the rewards of playing music and discovers a desire to learn independently. (This is not a bad thing, but most modern parents don’t have the time or energy for this.) Just promise me that you will not buy the guitar from a big box store and that you will not spend less than $200.
(If you have, decided that, yes, a guitar would, in fact, make a great gift, then you should probably include a tuner, a music stand, and a metronome as stocking stuffers.)
So when you see that guitar sitting on the shelf at the Stuff-Mart, just think, “Thanks, Brian,” and walk on by.
The video of the month for December is “Wandering Hands” by Owen Van Larkins. It is a very tuneful demonstration of pretty much all of the fingerstyle guitar playing techniques known to mankind – tapping, percussion, partial capo, vibrato using the capo (something I don’t recall seeing before), and both real and artificial harmonics.
Enjoy:
I posted this video last Remembrance Day too. But for me, this song captures what it is that we need to be remembering: everyday people making extraordinary sacrifices.
Lyrics:
I have seen you
Running
Full force into bullets
On a beach in FranceThere is a whole country who won’t forget
Who wonders what was going through your head
Those cruel hours that you spent
On the beach in FranceDid the loudness of the guns
Make your feet stick in the mud?
Did you think of the one’s you loved
On the beach in France?Did you think “who did this to me?”
Or were you thinking about your country
When you went running into bullets
On a beach in France?Did you scream your lovers name?
Did you sink with fear and shame
Or did you keep running into bullets
On a beach in France?Do the seashells by the shore
Still echo with the roar
Or is there peace forever more
On a beach in France?I have seen you
Running
Full force into bullets
On a beach in France
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