Another Ibanez Jemsite Post by Moi

It's been a month since my last posting, sorry. Times flies. Sometimes I'm in playing mode, sometimes I'm in writing mode. On really good days, both.

I hurt my back and was having trouble moving around for awhile. The day after I hurt it I caught a cold. The glass definitely stayed half full though. It gave me some time to practice. All I could do was sit in one position anyway, so what was to stop me?

I'm excited to say I've had another post published by Ibanez Guitars' Jemsite. After my last post there the hits on my humble blog skyrocketed. According to my sitemeter I had hits from places I never imagined I'd have hits from — all over the U.S and Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Iceland, The United Kingdom, France, Spain, Bosnia, The Czech Republic, Egypt, Israel, India, Australia and more; even Hanoi and Islamabad (imagine!). I'm still waiting on Japan but have high hopes. I see it as a great un-tapped resource.

In this post I write about zoning whilst playing guitar. I found it a difficult subject to write about, but it's dear to my heart so I couldn't let that stop me. For those who know me well (and you know who you are), this might clear up a few things you may have wondered about me. My thanks again to Jemsite publisher Awesome Ava for her awesome (of course) support, plus her editing prowess that makes the whole thing much more readable.

Here's the link:
http://www.jemsite.com/blog/43-general/781-zoning-issues.html

My kinda' livin'.

Ibanez Guitars' Jemsite

Last week I was asked by the Awesome Ava of Ibanez Guitars' Jemsite to write a posting for their Jemsite guitar forum. I was honored. The Jem Guitar was personally designed for Ibanez by legendary guitarist Steve Vai. I had the chance to hear Vai play years ago when he toured with Frank Zappa and The Mother's of Invention (as a "stunt guitarist", according to his MySpace page). Awesome.

My thanks to Awesome Ava for finding my humble blog all the way from beautiful Tel Aviv, and asking me to write for them. I hope to add more in the future. I also hope you'll take time to look at their forum, whose readers I'm guessing are a lot younger then I.

Here's a direct link to my post:
http://www.jemsite.com/blog/43-general/763-tips-from-a-guitar-vet.html

My kinda livin'.

Music on Deaf Ears

"Evelyn Glennie is simply a phenomenon of a performer."
— New York Times

Can a deaf person be a musician? In my searches through the web for good music-related stuff (so you won't have to) I came across a video of Evelyn Glennie that I had to share with you. Glennie, a Grammy winning percussionist has been profoundly deaf since age 12. She regularly plays barefoot for both live performances and studio recordings, to better "feel" the music, and says to have "taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears".

Glennie has recorded with, among others, Bjork, Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Emmanuel Ax, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. She won Grammies for her recording of Bela Bartok's "Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion" and also for collaborative work with Bela Fleck. Amazing.

Here's a youtube recording of her playing Scott Joplin's classic Maple Leaf Rag.



Unsurprisingly, Glennie has become a much-sought motivational speaker. If you really want to hear something amazing, see (and hear!) her "How to Listen to Music with Your Whole Body".

Fret Not

I was changing my strings recently when a very bad thing happened. The screw that holds the B-string tuning gear in place on my guitar was missing, gone, AWOL. I've been playing the guitar for a long time and this had never happened to me. Even the thought of losing one had never occurred to me (charmed life). Evidently the tension of the string had been holding it in place, but when I loosened it, the gear fell off completely (causing a very different kind of tension). Apparently I unknowingly had a screw loose for a good while, and had now lost it completely. (Go ahead, insert joke here.)

This is a very small machine screw, maybe a quarter-inch to 5/16ths long, but it's a fat little thing with a very tight thread count. It could have fallen off anytime, anywhere. I do a quick search around the room I practice in. When that doesn't work I take the methodical-inch-by-inch approach. This is a Sunday afternoon. Believe me, I am not in the mood for the methodical-inch-by-inch approach. I wanted to change the strings in the first place so I could play the guitar. Football is on.

I wave a magnet over every area I can think to wave it. I dig into the couch (interesting, but no screw). Useless. I give up. I go grab a jar of screws I keep for emergencies. Nothing even close. I'm not crazy about the idea, but I grab my old National classical guitar thinking I can maybe cannibalize it. Different thread.

Off to the internet where I find the tuning keys on my guitar are handmade and hand-engraved "Fustero" tuners crafted in Spain and plated in "real gold" (sic). (My guitar is a Ramirez, also made in Spain.) A new set of similar Fusteros retails for about 300 bucks. Ugh. (More than what I paid for the old National.)

Bill Colgan, of Isle of Wight Instruments in Smithfield had been my go-to-guy for guitar repairs for years. Great guy, but he had tragically passed some years ago, still missed by many in this area. Then from somewhere in my brain (how do these things happen?) I remember someone telling me about a woman on the peninsula who had worked with Bill, and had a guitar repair shop.

8:00 a.m. Monday after a quick search, I call Fret Not Guitar Repair, Inc. and leave a message that I need help... fast. At 9:00 a.m. (she doesn't open until 9:00) Margarite Pastella of Fret Not calls me back. She won't promise she can help, but I can come by and she'll see what she can do. By 9:30 I'm off to Newport News.

Like all luthiers, she has jars and jars of screws accumulated over the years but after a good half hour she still hasn't found a match. She's fun to talk guitars with though, and helps me maintain my semblance of sanity. She offers to let me play a guitar she'd built. It was a high quality steel string. I mean beautifully made — real craftsmanship. I didn't ask how much she wanted for it, but I knew it couldn't be nearly what it would actually be worth given the time she had put into building it. Come to find out, Margarite is a certified repair lady for Martin, Taylor, and Fender too. Those companies don't give out those certifications lightly.

She finds a screw that fits. Great(!), except that the head of the screw is so small that as she put's it in, it goes right through the gear and won't hold it in place. Back to looking, and remember this was a LOT of screws to look through. More drama for me.

Finally, Margarite finds a screw that's the right size and thread count. Only one problem — it's about a half inch too long. No problem for her, she whips out a small hand saw and cuts it to length. It takes a long time to cut, too. Problem solved. Margarite had just spent nearly an hour and a half, having dropped whatever she was doing, to help a total stranger. What else do you need to know about Fret Not?

Classical Guitar Basics

Friend and student Scott Wood had a great idea. Scott is one of those IT guys who is a whiz at computer stuff and has created a new site called Classical Guitar Basics. He has kindly invited me to be a part of CGB, has published some of my posts on there, and allowed me to be a featured instructor for the site. CGB is beautifully designed and features lessons, articles, a blog, and even a participatory forum. There are also some great videos of guitarists (my favorite: Kevin Loh, aged 10, playing Bach), and links to other very good sites.

I hope you'll take some time to give it a look and bookmark it. Scott is a great writer, with a strong understanding of how the mind works as it relates to playing guitar. Let me know what you think!

Studies in Concentration

I'm always amazed at the concentration of some musicians. Tommy Emmanuel, whom I wrote about in an earlier post is one such guitarist. It is an ability to concentrate that draws listeners into the music in a way that I can't describe, but I know it when I see it. Or better put, I know it when I hear it. I do however get almost as much out of watching these two play as I do listening to them.

Here are two of the best examples. Neither are guitarists, but I had to include them anyway. Both are studies in true grace, and there's a great deal for us to learn here. I encourage you to seek out their music on your own.

First here's jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, performing live, playing George Gershwin's beautiful "I Loves You Porgy", from "Porgy and Bess".



Next, the inimitable Vladimir Horiwitz performing Frédéric Chopin's first ballade. Watch as he pauses before playing to center himself.



'Nuff said.

All My Rowdy Friends at NPR

Sunday afternoon I had the opportunity to play at The Williamsburg Winery for a function produced by WHRO, our local National Public Radio affiliate. The occasion was a one-of-a-kind event for WHRO's Leadership Circle Members. Making matters even more fun, the featured speaker for the day was Lynne Rosetto Kasper, host of National Public Radio's The Splendid Table show (syndicated locally on WHRO (89.5 FM) on Sunday's from noon to 1:00 p.m.

The Splendid Table was named "1999 Best National Radio Show on Food" by the James Beard Foundation, and "2000 Best National Syndicated Talk Show" by American Women in Radio and Television. Scripps Howard News Service distributes Lynne's advice column, "Ask The Splendid Table." Her first cookbook, The Splendid Table is the only book to achieve the food world's twin crown, The Cookbook of the Year Award from both the Julia Child/IACP and James Beard Awards. Her The Italian Country Table was named one of the best books of 1999 by Cook's Illustrated Magazine. Lynne has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Food & Wine Magazine, and Bon Appetít. Named "One of the 12 Best Cooking Teachers in America" by The James Beard Foundation, she also lectures on food and culture in Europe and America.

Beforehand I took the opportunity to have a walk around Colonial Williamsburg just when the trees were at their autumn blazing best. At the gig the setting, I thought, was perfect for my music, in a rustically beautiful hall surrounded by a whole lot of grape vines. My kind of livin'.

(Top photo with Lynne Rosetto Kasper, courtesy of Anne Peterson.
Williamsburg tree photo courtesy of the lovely Dawn.)

Guitarristas Femeninos

I have several female guitar students and thought it would be nice to include a few videos of our great female guitarists. Very good student and friend Ben turned me on to Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, and I've been in like with Gabriela ever since. She's a terrific rhythm guitar player (the unsung hero of any ensemble). Her flamenco-style tambour (or in English, beating on the guitar while simultaneously strumming) is as good as you will hear (are you listening Abby?!?):



French guitarist Ida Presti (1924 - 1967), has been called by some the greatest classical guitarist of the 20th century. Presti was a student of Andres Segovia, who called her fondly, "Ida Prestissimo". (Prestissimo, in musical terms means to play "as fast as possible".) She is probably most famous for her duets with husband/guitarist Alexander Lagoya but was a great soloist in her own right as heard here. This is a very old video but well worth listening to. Presti playing the Villa Lobos Prelude #1:



This is one of the first pieces that truly inspired me to learn classical guitar. Presti and Lagoya playing a Domenico Scarlatti sonata:



Sharon Isbin is another great guitarista. Listen to her interpretation of Vals Op. 8, No. 4 by Barrios:



There are many more I could have included here. Classical players Alice Artz and Liona Boyd, jazzer Emily Remler, and modern/pop players too like Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt and Phoebe Snow plus many more. I urge you to do your own searches for these guitarists. Send me your favorites.

A Don't Miss

House Concert
On Saturday, October 4th, we have a rare opportunity to hear two very, very good guitar players. National Flatpicking Champion Robin Kessinger will be teaming up with National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion Todd Hallawell for a house concert in Norfolk. I've spent part of the morning looking at their respective websites and listening to them on Youtube. Both come with plenty of credentials and a lot of style. Here are a couple of my favorites from the many rave reviews I've read:

“When Robin Kessinger performs, you can hear the ghosts of generations past joining in to help blend the notes from his guitar into the familiar strains of old-time-tunes.”
—Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine

"Hallawell attacks his steel-strings with the precision of John Williams and punch of Jerry Reed...an extraordinary fingerpicker"
—Andy Ellis / Guitar Player Magazine

High praise.

Robin and Todd will also be giving a guitar workshop from 10:00 to 3:00 that same day. You can bring your guitar or just show up and observe. There will be a lot to learn and enjoy either way.

I've been to a lot of concert venues in many places and my favorite's have always been the ones that have a small, intimate setting where I can listen and watch up close and personal. What could be more intimate then a house concert, sitting on the lawn? (Bring a chair.) And with BYOB no less. This is an opportunity to see and hear a couple of great players up close. At 15 bucks it's is a bargain.

For more information you can contact Mark Rhodes at 757.287.2387.

Online Lessons

I came across another good music site the other day. This one is devoted to learning, is easy to use, and thorough. Here you can find simple lessons on the staff, clefs and ledger lines, note and rest durations, measures and time signatures, key signatures, major and minor scales, intervals, etc. It also goes beyond the basics and to more advanced theory:
Music Theory

This is a very handy little tool for learning the notes on the guitar neck. Test your knowledge:
Fretboard Trainer

The same site has an ear trainer. Knowing your intervals is a must for any type of musician:
Ear Trainer

Your Guide to Jazz Guitar

Belgian guitarist Dirk Laukens has a great website for jazz guitarists and people who want to be jazz guitarists. I've been a subscriber to his forum for a few months now and find it to be a great reference resource. Forum members are polite, knowledgeable and eager to help. You can find tons of useful information just reading past posts on a huge number of topics.

The site has much more to offer beyond the forum though, for beginner, intermediate and advanced players. You can download his online, "The Jazz Guitar Chord Book" to use as a reference for instance. I recommend that you subscribe to the newsletter, and forum both. There are free online guitar lessons, a "Licktionary", guitar solo transcriptions and free sheet music. Check out the section on guitar gear, and don't miss the free jazz guitar mp3 section.

Your Guide to Jazz Guitar

Dirk also blogs about guitar:

Jazz Guitar Blog

More Cool Links

I've gotten a lot of responses from last week's posting on "Obscure Guitar Links", so I thought I'd add some more (again, so busy, devoted readers of my humble blog won't have to search on their own). The world is full of great musicians that aren't "famous", and (need I say?) full of famous musicians that are not so great. The internet is a great place to find and listen to the good ones, and also read about their approach to the instrument. Here are some more favorites for players and non-players alike:

• I briefly mentioned Jazz Guitar Life at the end of my last post. Since then I've had a chance to look more deeply. It is chock-full of good interviews with great players, lessons, and much, more. Lyle Robinson, JGL's proprietor, also blogs about guitar — Jazz Guitar Life Blog. As a plus, the layout on both pages is very well done and professional. Enjoy.

• I just discovered Adrian Legg on youtube yesterday. In this first video, he does something on the guitar that I've never seen anyone do before, playing melody and accompaniment while simultaneously tuning the strings up and down. You've got to hear this, it's only 22 seconds long:


While I'm on the subject of Adrian Legg, I was blown away by this one. Fans of Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed type playing will love this guy.

Adrian Legg's "Cajun Interlude".

• A student turned me on to Brazilian guitarist, Naudo a few weeks ago. This guy, improvising on the fly, is as pure a guitar player as I've ever heard. He seems to play the guitar with the approach of a piano player. Keep in mind as you listen, all of his videos are recorded live. Here are some of my favorites:

Earth, Wind & Fire's "September". This is such a great song. He's got a lot of moving parts going on here at once.

This one cracks me up every time I hear it. Classical guitar meets disco! Yet somehow he makes it work: Naudo playing Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".

Naudo can rock too: Toto's "Africa".

• Andy McKee may not be so obscure anymore, but still a lot of you may have never heard him. This one is great: "Drifting"

This one too: "Art of Motion"

• Luis Bonfa is hardly an obscure guitar player, but I had never heard the first of the two songs on this video. His original "The Ski Song" is followed by his most famous composition "Manha de Carnival" or "A Day in the Life of a Fool" (by its English title), and also called "Orfeo Negro" or "Black Orpheus" to further confuse things . I read somewhere that this is one of the most played songs in the world. I've heard a lot of versions and played it many times myself, but I had never heard the composer play it. What a virtuoso, here playing along with Caterina Valente:

"The Ski Song/Manha de Carnival"

It's a lot of fun for me to research these — my kinda' livin'. Send me your comments and your favorites.

My Kinda Livin'

I've played for probably hundreds of weddings in my guitar-playing career, but I've never played at one that brought a lump to my throat. That is, until now. This past weekend I had the honor to be invited to play at a very special wedding in Charlottesville, Virginia. My very dear friend Johnny Bland's son, John Michael, was the groom to his beautiful, now-wife Betsy. (Yes, that's right THE Johnny Bland, singer and guitar-stylist of Johnny Bland and the Baddadz fame!) My job was to play while people were gathering around, and being seated waiting for the show to start and then to play three pieces for the ceremony: Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and Sleepers Awake!, plus the Pachelbel Canon in D. All very beautiful, stately pieces, well-chosen by the bride, and perfect for the occasion.

The wedding was at Veritas Vineyard & Winery in Afton, just west of Charlottesville (Check out the link and be sure and look at the photo gallery on the right side of the page). We sat outside in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains overlooking a beautiful hillside full of grapevines, and into the valley beyond. You could see for miles and the day was as perfect as the couple. Hummingbirds fed at the flowers around the altar while I played and during the ceremony — I kid you not. My thanks to the Blands and the Boehms, their families and friends for having me. It was a day I'll never forget.

Obscure Guitar Links

I'm always looking around the web for guitar stuff (so busy, devoted readers of my humble blog won't have to) and lots of times I find things that would be very helpful to guitar players. Also I find things that anyone can enjoy. Today I thought I'd share a few, some aimed at students, and some for general listening pleasure:

Music Theory for Experienced Guitar Players — In spite of the word "Experienced" in the title, this is a pretty good site for anyone who wants to learn the rudiments of music theory as it relates to guitar:

http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/

The C-A-G-E-D system is a method for learning the fretboard. It is a guitar-specific system for learning the shapes of the basic chords C, A, G, E and D on the guitar and how they interrelate. Here is a site that explains its fundamentals:

http://www.cagedguitarsystem.net/

And another in a little more detail:

http://www.highcountryguitar.com/caged.htm

Dutch guitar player Matt Otten is kind enough to put jazz guitar lessons on youtube. He has a lot of good pointers for improvisation. There are good things here for students and also just for general listening:

http://youtube.com/user/mattotten

Another Youtuber, Swedish Guitarist Per-Olov Kindgren has a very nice way with the guitar. His videos can be enjoyed by guitarists and non-guitarists alike:

http://youtube.com/user/AndanteLargo

This is a piece, performed by Mr. Kindgren, I had never heard entitled Arroyos de la Alhambra (the link is to a zip file of the sheet music that you can download), by 19th century Spanish guitarist and composer Angel Barrios. I liked it so much that I found the music on the web and learned it. I taught it to super-student Sean Morse (who learned it by rote, believe it or not) and now plays it at least as well as I do (should I be mad or excited?). Still, I get great comments about it on my gigs now. It's a beauty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz1jnDe4gTE

Another Dutch player Hans Van Leeuwen, here plays something he calls Django — Jazz Meets Flamenco. The tune was written by jazz giant, pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. I just stumbled on it and thought it was great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4566DWMbyIM

I hope you'll write and tell me your thoughts about any of these, or make suggestions about others I should include in my blog.

Reader/guitarist Lyle Robinson has asked that I add this site and his blog. There's lots of really good information here:

http://www.jazzguitarlife.com/

http://www.jazzguitarlife.com/blog/

Motor Memory Musings

My last few blogs have been kind of generic guitar-related ramblings, so I thought I'd write a learning-specific blog today on how I use the idea of motor memory in learning guitar. To paraphrase late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, sometimes I don't know how to define something, but I know what it is when I see it. So allow me to rely on Wikipedia for a definition of motor memory: "(Motor) memory is fashioned over time through repetition of a given suite of motor skills and the ability through brain activity to inculcate and instill it such that they become automatic." (Click the link if you're interested in further reading.) That's not really a strict definition, but you get the idea. Think of walking — the movements are solidified in the brain and you do it without thinking. When I walk I'm not thinking "step, step, step, step". I just do it. To take this thought just a tad deeper, I could say that when I walk, rather then think "step, step, etc." I'm actually thinking of the place that I'm walking to, and with that goal in mind the motor memory kicks in and off a-rambling I go. Now let me attempt to bring these thoughts around to how I see using them in learning to play the guitar.

One Note at a Time
When I'm practicing something I've never played on the guitar, whether it be a new song or classical or chord melody jazz piece I try to remember that what I'm really doing is learning motor memory. I've read that we have two sides to our brains, one for learning and doing some things and the other for learning and doing other things. Now I can't remember which side is which and I'm not sure I care, but the fact remains. Observance and intuition tell me that when learning guitar, I have a logical part of my brain, and a musical part of my brain that play equal roles in the process; neither being more important than the other. I'm not qualified to get into a spiel on the psychology behind this, but I think there are processes where we use the two together too, and for our purposes here I'll call this aspect of thought the arbiter. (I started to say "judge", but decided that sounded so judgmental, and I try to avoid making students feel like they are being JUDGED[!]. . . picture me in black robe and long white wig and you'll understand).

The musical side of my brain is very strong willed and tries to get me to play even difficult passages "musically" right from the start. Many guitar players, myself included many times in the past, want to listen only to this side of the brain and start a process of learning that is not conducive to the kind of accuracy involved in learning motor memory. Call it The Whittle Approach. Practicing this way goes something like this: play something a 100 times and make a 100 mistakes. Practice it another 100 times and make 99 mistakes. Keep this process up and whittle the mistakes down to say, a handful. This actually can work to a degree, but experience and observation tells me that this process never really gets to the point where you acquire the confidence of playing mistake-free every time you do it (allowing for true human error of course). I may do it right when I'm feeling "hot", but not when I'm not.

Experience and observation also gave me the desire to look into the process a little deeper. Here's where the arbiter comes into play. Arbiter-Herby tells me to abandon the whittling-down method of Musical-Herby and allow Logical-Herby to demonstrate how it's really done. Forget the music for a minute. Logical-Herby knows that I can't play the second note (or chord) until the motor memory is locked in and truly knows how to play the first note. And he knows he'll never learn the motor memory required until he repeats it over and over slowly. Let me emphasize: S-L-O-W-L-Y(!). . . repeat this as a mantra for the rest of your guitar-playing-life. First note, second note. . . first note, second note. . . first note, second note, etc.

Here a beautiful thing happens: Musical-Herby (who is closely related to Show-Off-Herby) pipes in and says "Hey! I see what you're doing now! And I can do it better! (And he's right, Logical-Herby is a very uninspired guitar player.) Musical-Herby jumps all over the motion that he has just learned from Logical-Herby and plays it. . . musically! He says to himself "I see what you're trying to do here" and he does it with confidence and perfect intention. But beware, Musical-Herby also sets a trap here: he's not really lying, but he is mistaken. Musical-Herby now thinks, "okay, I can take over from here" and he starts back into The Whittle Approach. It's very important for me to allow Arbitor-Herby to jump back in and play his part, by passing the ball back to Logical-Herby and letting him do his thing. Second note to third note, second note to third note, over and over (again — S-L-O-W-L-Y) to build the motor memory that connects the passage. Then add the first back into the process: first, second, third (need I say slowly again?). When and only when, logic has taught Musical-Herby his lesson, Arbiter-Herby allows him to take back over and play it. This may seem like a bit much, but here's an important point. You are learning motor memory even when you don't practice this way. Motor memory has no opinions. If you continue to glide over the mistakes, it will learn your mistakes, and play them if you don't train it with great care.

I could go on here but again, you get the idea. Repeat this process and be stirred. Think now of what I said earlier about walking. Don't think "step-step-step". Think of where you want to go. Your goal. Where you want to go is to be able to play the piece in its entirety with motor memory firmly locked and loaded. Once you can do this, you can allow your own musical self to take over, play with confidence, and enjoy.