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Affirmation

9/19/2020

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About twenty-five years ago my Uncle Irv passed away. He was a superb musician, a trumpet player with the Fred Waring Orchestra before WWII, teacher, band director and a real character. At his memorial service his minister said something that has stuck with all these years. He said that shortly before Irv died, when he knew he didn’t have much time left, Irv said: Last night I heard God’s music. I didn’t have any idea what that meant at the time but I’m beginning to understand.
 
I just returned from another visit to one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever seen, Medicine Bow National Forest and the Snowy Mountain Range in southern Wyoming. It was my third visit to this lesser known part of Wyoming and although I’m getting to know it pretty well it never ceases to amaze me. At an observation area in the pass between the highest peaks at over 10,000 feet elevation you can see a landscape that is unchanged since people first settled there. Way to the south the tops of the northern Rockies in Colorado over a hundred miles away stand in silence. In front of you the sheer face of Medicine Bow Peak and farther away, Sugarloaf Peak stand in stark beauty. Below them are lakes and pine trees and rock formations that tweak the imagination. So what does all this have to do with music?
 
I brought a guitar along this time because I missed having one so much last year on my trip about this time. With the certainty that I’d have no problem finding overhead bin space on my flights to and from Denver due to the airlines having way fewer passengers these days I stuck my Martin M-36 in a good quality gig bag, selected a few important accessories like extra strings, a capo, tuner, picks and other stuff in a bag and stuck those in there too. Sure enough, the gate attendants and the flight attendants didn’t bat an eye when I boarded; on the flight out they even asked me if I’d like to stash it in their small coat closet. I was so very glad to have that guitar along.
 
When I arrived at my first place to stay, the wonderful Copperline Lodge in Saratoga, Wyoming I notice a guitar hanging on the wall as I was checking in. The lady who took my information said, oh yes, that’s the owner Dan’s guitar and anyone is welcome to play it. Shortly after that I met Dan Pont, and we struck up an immediate connection when he learned I was a guitarist. We vowed to do some playing together, which we did a couple of times. Now this may sound very strange, but just sitting around playing with another guitarist and swapping songs is something I rarely get a chance to do these days. There are many reasons for this, most of them my own fault. For some reason, over the years playing guitar purely for the joy it brings never seems to make it into my daily agenda with teaching, figuring out songs for my students and playing gigs (my long-time weekly gig at the Daily Brew Café is an exception in terms of pure fun….it is!) taking up my musical mind. While I have recreational guitarist friends around here we never seem to be able to get together for some reason. So those evenings of playing with Dan at the Copperline were something of a revelation, a rediscovery of an essential part of why I started playing guitar in the first place: to make a connection with another person. And that is something that’s truly spiritual.
 
As I stood on the edge of a lake high up in the Snowies, the only sound was my fly line dancing through the air as I cast. Most days up there it’s very windy but on a couple days I experienced totally calm conditions – and utter and complete silence. With almost no people anywhere near me with their attendant noise and even the birds silent the air (what there was of it at 9000+ feet!) seemed to press against my eardrums. In my every-day life back here at home there is truly never a moment, day or night, when somewhere in the distance or closer by there are sounds. You get used to that of course but your brain can’t help but commit to listening to them on some level. But up there in those mountains I felt my brain become free. And that, my friends, is truly a spiritual experience. 
 
As I allowed myself to become one with the silence a strange and wonderful thing began to happen. Somewhere from deep inside I began hearing music. Not anything I could recognize, just pure musical sounds, sometimes single notes from an unknown instrument, sometimes many musical sounds melding together. It was so all-encompassing I found that I had to remind myself to breathe. And even the sound of my breath seemed intrusive to what I was hearing. I stopped casting my fly rod and just stood there on the edge of that lake, with the mountains rising above me. It was glorious and transcendent. 
 
More than once this happened over the course of my twelve days in Wyoming. It happened along a tiny creek in the pine trees. It happened when I stopped by the side of a long, long gravel road with the prairie stretching out for miles and miles in every direction. 
 
Although organized religion was a big part of my youth as I grew older I rejected its structure and rules. Over many, many years I came to form my own very private feelings about the nature of spirituality and I never share them with anyone, even those I love because they are mine and mine alone. Over my time on this particular trip to Wyoming those feelings were confirmed. The joy of making music with a new friend, the complete silence that allowed complete vulnerability, and the certainty that those feelings of spirituality were not a delusion will sustain me in these troubled times in which we live.
 
So now I can say with more surety than ever that I am beginning to know what Uncle Irv was talking about when he said he heard God’s music. I heard a tiny bit of it. I hope I hear more.
 
Peace & good music,
Gene
 
 
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Chord "colors" and how to use them, Part 2

8/24/2020

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at those notes you can add to a chord to add some “color.” Sure, straight Major and minor chords sound just fine as they are, but after a while you may find that they sound kind of predictable and perhaps even a bit boring. In Part One of this discussion of chord colors I used the examples of adding the 6th and/or the 9thabove the root of the chord to add some interest. These are extremely common in modern acoustic singer/songwriter songs and I urge you to learn some chord progressions that use them. Something like this (again, using the key of G Major for the example because it’s so common):
 
I chord:  G6   (G, B, D, E)
 
II chord:  Am9  (A, C, E, B)
 
III chord:  Bm9  (B, D, F#, C)
 
IV chord:  C6   (C, E, G, A)
 
V chord:  D6  (D, F#, A, B)
 
VI chord:  Em9  (E, G, B, F#)
 
Ah, but then we come to the VII chord. Remember how last time I said we were going to “do something” to the naturally occurring VII chord, which is diminished? Well, in much of modern acoustic singer/songwriter type music that VII chord is changed ever so slightly to become something called the “flat seven” written as:  bVII. What is it, and why is this done? Because quite frankly I just don’t think many modern acoustic singer/songwriters like the sound of a diminished chord! Jazz players? Another story entirely. The vast majority of jazz tunes use diminished and diminished 7th chords. But not many acoustic singer/songwriters use them (although James Taylor is an example of one who does). In the most basic sense, I think that most players and listeners are most comfortable with the sound of a Major chord. So what writers have done is take the root of that naturally occurring VII chord (diminished) and LOWERED the root by ½ step. The result? A Major chord! Again using the key of G Major for our examples, this means that the VII chord (F#dim) changes into an F Major! So now the scale line triads (chords built of using ONLY notes in the key, except for that bVII chord) looks like this:
 
I:  G Major
 
II: A minor
 
III:  B minor
 
IV:  C Major
 
V:  D Major
 
VI:  A minor
 
VII:  F Major
 
 
Now, by doing just that series (without adding other colors like the 6 and 9) we have inserted one chord, the flat VII that includes a F natural…..NOT an F#, as would be found in the Major Diatonic Scale in G Major. Just that one note in that one chord (F Major) makes that chord sound “different” and certainly interesting compared to the predictability of straight scale-line chords. Try this. Play the I – IV – V – I progression in G Major  (G, C, D, G). Sounds really familiar, doesn’t it? And comfortable. Now play the I – IV – bVII – I progression (G, C, F, G). Hear how that F Major demands our attention? That’s because the root of that chord is NOT in the key of G Major. And that, my friends, is what chord “colors” are all about! It is not a radical color because the rest of the chord (A & C) are in the key of G Major but that F natural is certainly…..different. If you want to use the bVII chord in ANY key, just go to the naturally occurring 7thtone in any key, lower that note in ½ step (“flat” it!) and assume that it the “first name” or root of a Major chord. Simple as that!
 
Just how much coloring you want to add to your chords is totally subjective, and that’s where your creativity and how many chances you’re willing to take comes into play. Theoretically, you could add ANY note to ANY chord for color but you would pretty quickly discover that some sound just awful! There is a well-known story about the world premier if Igor Stravinsky’s famous Firebird Suite. Stravinsky was the first major composer to use lots of dissonance in his music (notes that clashed with the key) and the piece was so disturbing to the audience that there was a riot. You probably won’t cause a riot by inserting radical color notes into your chords, but be prepared for a negative reaction by both the listeners and yourself! This brings us to the most important part of understanding the use of “colors” in your chords: Dissonance and resolution.
 
Notes that are very close to each other, say, a half step apart, sound pretty awful to our ears. This is called dissonance. Press down on the 4th fret of your 2nd (B) string, then play your 1st and 2nd strings at the same time. Ooooo, that’s AWFUL! Dissonance occurs when two notes that are very close together are played at the same time. But here’s the cool part. If two letter named notes, say a F# and a G, are separated by some distance, perhaps close to an active, they don’t sound so bad at all. In fact, it is a color that has a lot of interest to our ears and can sound very pleasing. The most common example the Major 7th chord. A GMaj7 is made up of these notes:
 
G  B  D  F#
 
Obviously, when thinking about the note names in order being “circular” – A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, etc. we can see that inside the GMaj7 we have an F# and a G…. a half-step apart, so they should be dissonant, right? But in all the commonly played inversions of GMaj7, there is a wide separation between the G and the F#. So – when “padded” with the other notes in the chord in between you hardly hear the dissonance at all! The point is – inserting a note into a chord that is inherently dissonant when played with the next note in sequence in the key can sound very interesting IF there is some distance between those two notes.
 
But what about a note that really sticks out? One that has the potential to sound just…..wrong. Songwriters have dealt with this by “resolving” that bad or wrong sounding note in the following chord. The best example I know of this is the Beatles classic “In My Life.” Half way through third measure of the song (in the key of G Major), John Lennon who wrote the song goes from a C Major to a C minor. That C minor chord uses an Eb in it, instead of the E natural found in the C Major, which is of course entirely constructed of notes in the key of G Major. For a brief moment, that Eb inside the C minor sounds dark, disturbing….but after only two beats on that chord, John “resolves” that dissonance by changing to the best sounding chord of all, the I chord, which is G Major. Our music brains go…..ahhhhhh……THAT’S better!!! The genius of this is that the resolution is accomplished by only moving inside the chord to the next by a half-step. A G Major chord is composed of these notes:  G,  B,  D.  So what John did over the course of three chords (C Major, C minor, G Major) was only move backwards in half steps: E – the 3rd of the C Major, to Eb – the 3rdof the C minor, to D, which is the 5th of the G Major! That is nothing short of simple genius in popular music and had rarely been heard before in that context.
 
I could cite many other examples of tension and resolution, dissonance resolved by a very small change from one chord to the next. As you explore adding notes to standard Major and minor chords, remember to not lean on your new colors too much; your ears will love the variety but in the end they want to go home again. But don’t let that stop you! Fool around. Add new notes to chords. I’ll bet you’ll find some very interesting sounds and your guitar playing – and your ear – will be better for it!
 
Peace & good music,
Gene
 
 
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Chord "colors" and how to use them, Part One

8/12/2020

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As anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while knows, I am a huge fan of British jazz guitarist Martin Taylor. Not only am I in total awe of his fingerstyle jazz technique but his many videos and instructional materials convey not only his love of jazz but also his wonderful sense of humor. I just watched one in which he accepted some kind of online “challenge” to play and explain a chord. It was a joy to watch and he articulated what I feel about chord construction much better than I can, but I thought I’d give that another go because I really haven’t done a post here in a while that is purely about playing.
 
In order to understand what I’ll be talking about it’s vital that you have a decent knowledge of basic music theory. That is, knowing what a Major Diatonic scale is and how to play one. It’s also required that you know the basics of how the two most import chord families are constructed, Major and minor. Here’s how those two elements go if you don’t know already.
 
A Major Diatonic scale, that most of us know as the do-re-mi type of scale is constructed as follows:
 
Root note (the starting point), followed by the next note a whole step away, next note a whole step away, next note a half-step away, next note a whole step away, next note a whole step away, next note a whole step away, last note to Root (an octave higher from where you started), a half step away. This is a one-octave (eight notes, from root to root) Major Diatonic scale.
 
Every time you move from one fret to the next on the guitar you are moving one-half step.
 
Without going into the huge subject of constructing different types of scales on the guitar, know that you can develop a 1-octave Major Diatonic scale beginning anywhere on the neck, either moving up the neck on one string or across the strings.
 
Those two chord families, Major and minor, each have three notes in a chord. Wait a minute, you say. When I play something like a G Major chord in 1st position I’m playing six strings, i.e., six notes. This is true! But if you were to look at the names of each note in that G Major you would find that there are only three named notes: G (three of those in a traditionally fingered G Major), B (two of those), and D (just one, the fourth string open). So, all the essential notes of G Major are there: G, B, and D.
 
You would discover the same thing (three note names only) in any minor family chord you play.
 
The difference between a Major and a minor chord is the “space” or interval between the notes. Both are constructed of a Root (the “first name” of the chord), the third note up from the root, and the note five notes away from the root. These are known as the Root, the 3rd, and the 5th. Collectively they are known as a triad.
 
In a Major chord, the distance or interval between the root and the third is two whole steps. In the case of that G Major, the 3rd, which is two steps away, is B. The 5th is three and half steps away from the root, which is D. So a G Major chord is “spelled” G, B and D.
 
In a minor chord, those intervals are as follows. From Root to the 3rd is one-and-a-half steps, and the root to the 5th is 3 ½ steps, just like in a Major chord. As you can see, it’s all about the interval between the root and the third that defines a chord as being from the Major family or the minor family.
 
Martin Taylor describes the triad as something like a frame around a picture. It’s then all about the “colors” you add inside that frame to make more interesting sounding chords. Some notes sound “dark” as they relate to the triad; some sound “bright.” And this is where we get back to the diatonic scale.
 
Adding notes inside or outside the scale to an existing chord are your colors. But which colors to use? (I am making an assumption here – that you know that every song is written in a Key, which defines the notes used in the appropriate diatonic scale.) I will use the key of G Major for my examples because it is very common in songs played on the guitar, plus the notes in the key are all “natural” (no sharps or flats) except for the 7th tone. Refer back to the explanation of Major diatonic scale construction above if you’re unclear about this. So the notes are:
 
G         A         B         C         D         E          F#        G
 
If we use only those notes to construct triads (root, 3rd, 5th) beginning on each note in the scale it would look like this:
 
G/B/D    A/C/E     B/D/F#     C/E/G    D/F#/A      E/G/B      F#/A/C
 
(remember that the notes in a scale are “circular” and keep repeating after you reach the next root)
 
In music theory those chords are given Roman numerals: I , II , III , IV , V , VI , VII
 
So…. In the key of G Major, based on the G Major Diatonic scale it goes like this:
 
I chord = G Major
 
II chord = A minor
 
III chord = B minor
 
IV chord = C Major
 
V chord = D Major
 
VI chord = E minor
 
VII chord = F#diminished  (yikes! Don’t worry about this one, we are going to do something to it later!)
 
Again, if you are unclear how we come up with those chords, refer back to the list of notes in each chord above and the intervals between the notes in those chords, this will confirm what they are.
 
Now here’s good part. I’m sure you’ve noticed that many if not all the songs you know that begin with G Major (the use if the I chord to begin a piece of music is extremely common in American popular music) use some or all of the chords listed. This is no accident. We are so programmed mentally to the use of the do-re-mi Major diatonic scale for hundreds of years that those chords all sound “good” to us, for lack of better explanation! This is simply because all those chords use ONLY the notes in the scale. Any time a note that is NOT in the scale is inserted into a chord it certainly gets our attention – for better or worse. Musicians refer to the additional notes in chords as “outside” or “inside” depending upon whether or not those notes are in the scale/key. 
 
If you want to add some interesting colors to your chords, add some notes. If you use notes that are in the key, they will sound pretty benign but can be very pretty and interesting. I like to add the 6th tone above the root to Major and minor chords and adding the 2nd tone (which is technically called the 9th in music theory) is a very common in many songs these days, both in Major and minor chords. 
 
In part two of this post I will go into the differences between darker and brighter tones inside chords, where to put them, the concept of tension and release in chords, and a few other things.
 
Peace & good music,
Gene
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Musical medicine in the age of COVID-19

7/29/2020

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So here we are in an event unprecedented in our lifetimes. It’s a confusing, depressing and sometimes terrifying moment in human existence. This too shall pass, a wise person once said and I know in my heart of hearts that this is true. But in the meantime I feel oh so fortunate to have my music to carry me along. It is a balm for the soul. My guitars are my allies, my friends and they know how to reflect what I’m feeling, even if those feelings are sad. The thing is – and of course the great blues musicians always knew this – playing and singing about being sad has a wonderous effect: it lifts our spirits. Yesterday for example, when I was really feeling down for obvious reasons the classic song popularized by the Youngbloods back in the 1960s, Get Together came into my head. I’ve noodled around with that song for decades but never really worked out an arrangement that went beyond the basic I – bVII – IV – V that forms the basis of the song. I went into Drop D tuning and using my cannon, my Martin D-35 Seth Avett I dove into the song.
 
The results were a progressive exercise in opening up my musical mind to the possibilities of various voicings of those chords in Drop D. Each little addition or correction felt better and better. I wanted to be able to play the melody (which is quite simple and scale-wise with no jarring departures from the key) while I played an instrumental break at some point (at the beginning? In the middle? Both?). But the lyrics are oh so powerful and timely; they needed to stand alone with chord voicings that enhanced and lifted them, but not get in the way and draw too much attention to themselves. Those I found, I think. 
 
There will be some changes to my arrangement as time goes on and I play it in performance a few times; this almost always happens with the songs I arrange. The challenge for me it to always keep things fresh and avoid falling into an “auto pilot” kind of mode. Somehow, I don’t think that will happen with this one. It is just too powerful a song. I only hope my singing can do justice to the words, which they deserve. If I feel ready I will debut my new arrangement of Get Together on my weekly Facebook Live feed next Saturday or Sunday from my regular gig at the Daily Brew on my Cape Cod Acoustics Facebook page. If you happen to catch it I welcome your comments and feedback. If you’re a younger person who’s unfamiliar with the song, listen to it on You Tube in its original form performed by Jesse Colin Young and the Youngbloods. 
 
All this is a roundabout way of getting to the true subject of this post, which is practicing during these trying times. I confess that I haven’t much felt like practicing for practicing’s sake for a while. But when I have if even for only a few minutes and a song or two I’ve almost always felt better. 
 
As anyone who reads this blog knows, my guitar hero is the amazing finger-style jazz guitarist from the U.K., Martin Taylor. I subscribe to his Facebook page and a few days ago someone asked him if he’s been practicing much during these times of few or no gigs for professional musicians. Martin replied that he pretty much NEVER practices, these days or even before COVID-19. He said that he often thinks about music and how certain ideas would apply to songs he plays but he hardly ever puts them to use until he actually has a gig. Wow. But I guess if I had his chops I might not feel a need to practice either….I guess….  
 
I’ve heard this from other great musicians too. All I can conclude is that they have reached a place in their ability and musical consciousness that we mere mortals cannot really imagine. Conversely, I have known plenty of great players of a variety of instruments who feel it’s vital to practice hard and often. The analogy I would use would be professional baseball players, great ones, who always take batting and fielding practice every day to stay sharp. This makes more sense to me than hoping great things will happen spontaneously. On a personal level, I think of my late father, my brother, and my late uncle, very fine musicians one and all who would not think of NOT practicing. My dad was a truly great drummer who could play just about any style and I have very vivid memories of him tapping away on the rubber practice pad – never on an actual drum until it was time to perform – from when I was very young. And I know his brother, my uncle, took a very dim view of anyone who did not practice religiously. My brother John, who is an alumni of a number of famous symphony orchestras (trumpet) always bemoaned having to pick up his horn again after visiting us and not practicing. He felt that it would be days if not a week or more to get back to the place to be for performance. 
 
When the subject of practicing comes up with my students, and it always does, my standard response it to say that it’s really just physical exercise in the purest sense. Like all exercise, doing a moderate amount on a frequent basis yields much better results than doing a lot of exercise on an infrequent basis. This does not really address the question of comprehension of course but that can be dealt with; hey, that’s my job, to help the student understand the music and the right way to play it! Sometimes a student will be frustrated with a piece I give them and that’s perfectly natural. I encourage them to be sure to play something they enjoy playing during every practice session. If the current lesson is a struggle or (infrequently, thank goodness!) an outright disaster, keep trying but spend more time with the “good stuff.” It’s supposed to be fun, for goodness sake! This was a bit of a sticky point with my musical family, by the way. I sometimes think that part of the Bourque family musical heritage that goes all the way back to my great grandfather was based on the quote by one of the great Renaissance painters: “We must suffer to Create!”  I didn’t adhere to that, much to the occasional chagrin of my elder relatives in my younger days. Oh well!
 
So while we’re trying to cope and push back at the insanity and uncertainty of our world right now I think it’s vital to not even consider picking up the guitar to “practice.” Pick it up to PLAY, no matter what comes out. You will feel better, I promise. Maybe for only a little while but even a brief respite helps us regain our strength.
 
Peace & good music,
Gene
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Dispatches from COVID Cape Cod

7/1/2020

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Just a brief update on the goings-on in my tiny corner of the guitar world. 
 
No getting around it, the pandemic affects each and every one of us in ways so profound that we may never make sense of it all. Musicians and others in the arts have unique issues to deal with. Performance? Huge adjustments have to be made. My heart goes out to the musicians I know who depend upon performing as their primary source of income. The basic tenets of social distancing demand that even in best circumstances an artist’s audience is cut in half. And as most of the work-a-day musicians I know play primarily in bars and restaurants the bottom line for the venue owner comes into play. No surprise there; cutting expenses is the only way they are going to survive and suspending live music is a logical choice. No one blames them for that. As much as I hate to admit it, the old saw about music bringing in customers most likely is not true anymore. All things being equal, the risk of social interaction is not going to tilt in the direction of going to a venue just because they have live music. On a personal and local level all we can hope is that our friends and followers will support us as best they can after weighing the risk. I don’t think things are going to change anytime soon, even if a vaccine is found, which at this point is still a long way off.
 
For my part, teaching out of my studio again is going reasonably well. I take every precaution I can think of, from sanitizing every surface that I or my students come in contact with; requiring the use of masks (singing through a mask is a challenge, to say the least!); keeping a safe distance apart during the lesson; using hand sanitizer – both the student and myself – before each lesson; and requiring all students arrive with their guitars tuned up. I used to routinely take a student’s guitar at the start of a lesson, do a tuning, then give it back to them. No more. I’ve also been reiterating my long-time policy of demanding a student NOT come to their lesson if they have the slightest indication they may be getting sick, COVID-19 or anything else.
 
I’m done with remote lessons, thank God. It was a huge hassle for all concerned and marginally effective at best. But the feedback I’ve been getting is along the lines of: well, at least it kept me playing, and playing the guitar was the only thing that kept me from going crazy over the long weeks of self-quarantining. The amount of pre and post lesson work I had to do with remote lessons was at least twice what I have to do with face-to-face lessons. I do not miss that, and to be frank, it was hardly worth it money/time-wise. It was however the RIGHT thing to do when viewed in my rearview mirror. I just hope I don’t have to do it again…. or ever.
 
As I enter my second go-around of lessons since restarting them at my studio my sense is that my students are starting to feel more comfortable with the protocols, as I am. I know they are happy to be back and I’m happy to have them here and also appreciative. I did lose a few students permanently due to virus fears but I’m pretty sure new ones will appear. It’s important that all of us remember that relatively speaking, the whole situation is really quite recent, even though it seems to have been here for a long time. We’re all making unimaginable changes in everything we do and as more time passes and those changes are the new norm I’m confident that the love of making and listening to music will regain the level of importance it held only a few short months ago. I see many signs that it’s starting already, in fact.
 
Doing my weekly gig at the Daily Brew Café again has been wonderfully gratifying. Owner Kathy Hickey had always been wonderful to me and she totally “gets it” about the challenges facing musicians right now. She is a classy but tough lady whose staff is fiercely loyal and no venue owner, ever, has treated me with such respect. I have volunteered repeatedly in the last few weeks to play gratis but she insists on paying me, which has to be something of a stretch but shows what a class act she really is. Kathy loves music and knows that having live music at the Brew enhances the experience, especially now that customers can order their food and drink and sit at outdoor tables and chairs. She also understands what it means to me from a peace of mind perspective. Just as I have for the last eight-plus years, I look forward to playing there each and every week.
 
I have a couple weddings booked in September but who knows if they will be able to be held? I certainly hope so, not so much for the income (although that is nice to have!) but for the bride and groom and their families who must be agonizing over the choice of doing or postponing it. 
 
Sorry I don’t have any pearls of wisdom about guitars and playing guitar today. I just wanted to check in here an let you know that I’m fine, my family is fine and like all of us I am counting my blessings. Stay strong, stay well, saty safe – and keep on playing your guitar!
 
Peace & good music,
Gene
 
 
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The Quest for the Best (sound!)

6/9/2020

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Maybe it’s because my hearing is not as sharp as it once was but these days and for quite a few years now I have been obsessed with quality of sound. To paraphrase a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, when asked about his definition of obscenity in a court case, he said: I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it.
 
That pretty much defines my search for sound quality. In my guitars, amplifiers and most recently for my online live sessions that I’ve been doing weekly for about two months on my Facebook Cape Cod Acoustics page. This is not really something new with me on one level. I’ve known since I picked up my first guitar 50+ years ago that some guitars sounded better than others, and of course like all guitarists I wanted one that sounded good. The quest for the best sounding guitar has been long and filled with surprises, a few dead ends and a pretty much constant reevaluation of my definition of “good.” 
 
These days and really for the last ten years since I’ve been doing a single almost all the time – and therefor don’t have to worry about how others will sound when amplified – my focus and quest for sound excellence has been related to electronics. Oh, to return to the old days of just one microphone for the vocals, one for the acoustic guitar and a sound reinforcement system that was simplicity itself! Once in a while I’ll hear someone who still clings to that formula and sometimes the results are passable, even quite good. But usually there is one element that is lacking in terms of fidelity and issues such as feedback and/or being exactly the right distance from the mic are a constant battle.
 
Along with my diminishing hearing are other issues related to – gulp – my age. Gone are the days of carrying big amps and speakers. I just can’t do it, no matter how good the resulting sound may be. Fortunately, manufacturers of amps designed for acoustic guitar and vocals must be aware that a significant number of their potential customers are like me and they have been putting out some great compact and relatively light gear for the past few years. I have been using ACUS amplifiers for the last three or so years and I positively love the sound they produce. They are handmade in Italy and not too common in this country but like the great Italian sports cars, they are made with only the best components, built to deliver the optimum output and are also undeniably beautiful with hand-rubbed multi-ply birch cabinets. The one I’m using now is their top of the line model, the ACUS Onforstrings AD. It has all the power, inputs and sound shaping technology I could possibly need, although I do use a Red Eye pre-amp to boost the sound of my K&K pick-up equipped Martin guitars. It sounds heavenly.
 
Microphones are another issue that I kind of took for granted for decades. The old standby Shure SM58 and SM57 where standard equipment for just about every musician I knew and I owned them too, of course. Built like a tank, delivering reasonably good (if a bit muddy) sound and pretty good at rejecting feedback they served me well for a long, long time. But about ten or so years ago I noticed that when I did a gig that required a lot of singing my voice was pretty beat by the end of the gig. I figured that yes, this was probably another age-related issue. And then someone lent me a Shure Bets 87A low impedance mic and wow, all of sudden I didn’t have to work as hard, clarity I’d never heard was there and the overall tonality was much improved. I still use one from time to time but also like my Blue Encore 300 (even more clarity but slightly feedback prone) and my Ear Trumpet Edwina, a very cool mic that is good at picking up both vocals and guitar if placed correctly, plus it looks so retro cool! You can see this mic in action on any of the MPR Tiny Desk Concerts online.
 
I’ve talked a lot about pick-ups in past entries here so I won’t go through that again but in a nutshell, after trying many, many acoustic guitar pick-ups I keep coming back to the K&K Pure Mini for its pure, natural acoustic sound and absolute simplicity with passive output (no batteries to worry about). As I said earlier, I do use the Red Eye pre-amp to boost the signal at bit and add some treble as needed.
 
So I feel like for now at least I’m getting the sound I want. Based on what I’m hearing, anyway. But what about for those Facebook broadcasts? I won’t deny this has been a huge challenge. At first when I was doing them from my studio I tried using a nice mixer, that Ear Trumpet mic and running the signal into my Macbook Pro laptop. I tested it out with headphones and it sounded quite good. But then….. when I tried my first couple of broadcasts it turned out that what the listeners were hearing was sometimes distorted, bass-heavy and really not very good at all. I’d heard a few other online live broadcasts by both well-known musicians and some people I know and the results were variable, to say the least. After much research I learned that (duh!) what it really comes down to is how Facebook processes the sound. Apparently their equalizers and sound boosters are configured for speech, not music, and the best results are achieved with using only a smartphone! So a few weeks ago I started doing this, using my relatively new IPhone 11. Much, much better….not perfect by a long shot but much better balance and clarity with practically no distortion. I am still singing and playing through my ACUS AD, which is what the phone mic is picking up; I guess I just don’t trust a pure acoustic guitar and no amplification of my vocals. This past week I added a IRig Mic, a very cool little condenser mic that attaches magnetically to my IPhone and plugs directly into the lightning input. My phone recognized it immediately and the mic has a small gain adjustment on it that shows the optimum amount of gain before distortion. My son Matt who is a great drummer and musician and has a very critical ear (and does not hesitate to tell me where improvements need to be made, thank goodness!) said yesterday’s broadcast from the Daily Brew was my best yet in terms of sound. Hooray! 
 
As a little sidebar here, a tip for anyone who’s going to be playing in public. Even after all these decades of performance I still get a bit nervous when I play out. I figured out long ago that this is really a good thing – it keeps me focused and as long as I don’t screw up too badly I can channel that nervousness into an even better performance. Strange thing though. Doing these live remote broadcasts on Facebook are even more nerve wracking than playing in front of a big audience because I have no idea how many people (and who) are watching! So here’s my tip of the day.
 
If you start playing and find you’re a bit nervous, try strumming or fingerpicking farther back toward the bridge. Because the string will feel tighter there and you have to exert more force, you can channel that nervousness into playing harder. This totally works for me and after a couple songs I can shift back up closer to the sound hole and all is well. Try it!
 
Peace & good music! Stay strong, stay well, stay safe,
Gene
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Making Music in the time of Covid-19

5/29/2020

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Three months. That’s how long it’s been since most of us began to realize our lives were changing forever. It feels like a lifetime ago, and in many ways it was. No matter how much things return to normal, whatever that really was, none of us will ever again feel totally at ease. Sooner or later – sooner, I hope – scientists will come up with a vaccine that will halt the advance of Covid-19 but there will be warnings, no matter how effective that vaccine might be in the short term. Corona viruses figure out pretty quickly how to evolve and make vaccines less effective. But maybe we’ll be able to have a respite, for a while anyway. 
 
We’ve all had plenty of time to reflect on just about every aspect of our lives and our place in the world. That’s something that is very, very scary for many people. It gets to a central question of self-worth. Am I really all that important in this world? Who would miss me if I’m gone, and how quickly would they move on and naturally begin to bring the focus totally back to their own situation? We all have only so much emotion we can give to any aspect of our lives and with this being such an emotional time many of us realize that even among the people who love us, it would be easy for us to become not much more than a footnote. For my part, assuming I buy into this way of thinking, I think I understand and accept that. Life will go on.
 
So here is how I’m coming around more and more to that acceptance, which I guess is also a way to mitigate my fears. Music. Playing music, listening to music, sharing music, writing music, thinking about music. I’ve always had a deep emotional attachment to music, more than most people I think. It soothes my soul, it excites me, it frames moments in my life. My love of music was nurtured very early on by my parents, for which I will always be more grateful than I can express. I wish I had told them that when they were alive. 
 
There’s a line from a song by James Taylor that goes: “Me and my guitar, always in the same mood.” Always brings a smile to my face because regardless of how I’m feeling at that moment it is so, so true. And here’s a strange thing. I’ve found that lately I’m a lot less critical of my playing and singing than I was not all that long ago. That doesn’t mean I don’t try to play and sing as best I can, I just don’t get as frustrated as I used to. Maybe that’s because some part of my brain has come to terms with my mortality and the fact that in spite of my best efforts I too could become a statistic in the war against Covid-19. So I rejoice in every moment I play, no matter what comes out. 
 
I know a few of my students feel the same way, some of my musician friends too, because they’ve told me as much. Doing remote lessons via Zoom has been a challenge for both my students and myself, I readily admit that. Between technological issues and the fact that I can’t play along with them due to latency (lag time) using remote video and audio platforms it has been very frustrating at times. But I do know that the students who have been doing the remote lessons with me have appreciated having new material to play and having something out of their daily routine (scheduled lessons) gives them something to look forward to. That is something that’s absolutely vital in this challenging and unprecedented time we are living in. Like most people, I often don’t even know which day it is without carefully thinking about it so anything that breaks the monotony of our current day-to-day existence has great value. About half my students opted to not do the remote lessons for various reasons and I hope they have continued to play and find joy in doing so.
 
Starting next week I will be welcoming students back to my studio. I made this decision after careful thought. There will be protocols in place including the use of hand sanitizer before and after lessons, wiping down of all surfaces that could be touched or handled before and after each lesson, plus more detailed cleaning at the end of each day I teach. Masks will be worn at all times; I will separate the chairs we use farther apart and will no longer tune each student’s guitar at the beginning of a lesson. Most of my students including most who were not taking remote lessons will be returning. A few have opted to discontinue lessons; my guess is that those few have not been playing much and I hope they will decide to return sometime in the future. But I do have three new students starting in the next two weeks, which is great. A few have opted to continue remote lessons for various reasons. 
 
I’ve been doing something I call my Sunday Morning Live Coffee Music Sessions on Facebook Live for the last six weeks. This was another major technological challenge and it took me a few weeks to get a reasonable decent sound, fidelity-wise. I’ve learned a lot doing it – starting with the simple fact that no matter how fancy your own equipment may be, you are still at the mercy of the sound reproduction values imposed by Facebook. This coming Sunday I will be doing it from the back deck of the Daily Brew Café, my favorite place to play, continuing my string of eight years performing there. I’m really psyched for this and if you’re inclined to check it out, go to my Cape Cod Acoustics Facebook page at 11 a.m. this coming Sunday, or better yet if you’re in the area, order some food and drink and stop by. The sessions are always recorded for viewing later, too. Although restaurants are still closed in Massachusetts for anything other than take-out, the idea is to offer some music while people are waiting to pick up their orders. As always, I am very grateful to owner Kathy Hickey for giving me this chance to perform live even if the playing is only for a few people at a time. Hopefully, in a few weeks our governor will allow restaurants to reopen (with social distancing protocols of course) but in the meantime I’ll continue to do my live sessions on Facebook Live every Sunday, whether at the Brew or here in my studio. Who knows? If the reception is good about doing it at the Brew I may continue to do Facebook Live thing there even when the café reopens. Time will tell.
 
I was the subject of an article in our local newspapers (Falmouth, Bourne, Sandwich and Mashpee Enterprise) a week or so ago where I explained my live broadcasts and what I was hoping they would accomplish. Some very nice feedback and comments have come my way since the story came out, which is very gratifying. Basically what I said was that like so many musicians in these trying times, all I really want to do is play. As I said earlier, it soothes the soul. I’m more grateful than ever that guitar playing and singing are a big part of who I am. It really just comes down to this: making music takes our minds to some other place, a place of joy and constant amazement, something we need now more than ever. 
 
Be safe, be well, hug those you love if you can, be strong and stay sane. “This too shall pass.”
 
Peace & good music,
Gene
 
 
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A New World....Coping.....

4/4/2020

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It’s been a long time since I posted here. In that time, the world has changed forever. I wonder what I would have thought a year ago if I had a crystal ball and could see myself writing those words today?
 
Would I have wondered if the government had hatched some draconian plan to deprive us of our rights? With the present administration in the United States that might have seemed a very real possibility. Perhaps I might have meant the world had changed on a more personal level. Maybe I would have wondered if we had been invaded by aliens. Most likely I would have assumed world was at war.
 
And it is.
 
None of us will ever live our lives quite the same way we did before the virus. Even if an effective medicine is found to combat this insidious thing none of us will ever feel completely safe again. Our daily routines are being adjusted constantly and none of our solutions are 100% foolproof, only marginally satisfactory at best. Each day seems like the last but a bit scarier if we keep up with the news. And how can we avoid the news, and even should we? As Americans, we have always been proud of our heritage of freedom. Freedom of movement, freedom of our dreams and aspirations, and to a greater or lesser extent, freedom from fear. Now all those things and many more are being torn away and the big picture seems to indicate it’s unlikely our everyday lives and those freedoms will ever return to what they were before COVID-19. 
 
For now, the issue is coping. Small and large projects in our homes that we used to conveniently ignore or put off for another day have become more compelling. But for all of us the most important part of coping is maintaining – or strengthening – relationships. Our families are our support system, our lifelines, and friends near and far help us all realize that we are not alone in this struggle even if we often feel lonely.
 
Those of us who are fortunate enough to have creative interests are truly the lucky ones. After the Dark Ages when plagues and wars had ravaged Europe for a thousand years the Renaissance burst upon Western civilization and the arts flourished in ways that are still celebrated and cherished today. Breathtaking music and fine art burst upon the world, proof that humankind understood the healing nature of creativity and the need to express the beauty that is in the soul. Perhaps when today’s world has evolved past the fear and devastation we are presently experiencing there will be another Renaissance. But this time it will involve not just the creative arts but the fundamental aspects of humanity, in how we treat each other and how we view and care for our planet. That is one of my deepest hopes and wishes.
 
Of course as I’m sure you know, the most gratifying and rewarding way I know to help cope is playing my guitar. But here’s the interesting part. Quite suddenly I find that I’m not nearly as interested in playing songs that were frustrating before in hopes of improving them. Call that lazy if you want; I’ll probably get back to the hard stuff at some point in the not too distant future. No, now I just play things that allow me to totally immerse myself in musical moment. These things might be simple chord progressions with simple finger patterns, simple and pretty melodies, anything that allows me to really listen to my guitar. Sometimes I even just slowly strum a big-sounding chord like a first position CMaj7 or an E Major and allow the guitar to ring with the sound slowly fading away. The feel of the vibrations coming through the back of the guitar against my body is one of the most soothing feelings imaginable.  
 
A friend of mine is in the medical field and the stories she’s shared with me about what she’s dealing with on an hourly basis are chilling. I truly believe that when this crisis finally subsides all the wonderful people who put their own health on the line to help others will be viewed as the true heroes they are. My daughter is one of them.
 
That friend has also told me playing her guitar is one of the only things she has to help release the stress she faces and must deal with. It gives me a great joy knowing I’ve helped her find that release. I’ll always be grateful for not only her noble work but that she let me know her guitar playing is making her life more bearable.
 
So…..play. Play often and without any value judgements about the quality of what’s coming out of your guitar. Just rejoice in the creation of music. 
 
Be safe, be strong, be kind and try as best you can to be positive.
 
Gene
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It's movie time!

2/14/2020

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After my last post, which got a bit philosophical about the relative merits of competition in music I thought I’d lighten things up a bit. I love movies about making music, about musicians, and movies that have fantastic musical soundtracks that are integral to the film itself. Here are a few of my favorites and I highly recommend all of them. Some are well known and easy to find, some less so, but all are worth your time and effort. In no particular order…..
 
Some comedies first.
 
“Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”  This is a take-off on the Johnny Cash biopic but so much more. Sometimes crude and a bit juvenile, John C. Reilly is wonderful as a rise/fall/rise country star. The puns and inside jokes come a mile a minute, with riffs on country music of course but also Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Brian Wilson, punk rock and more. You’ll laugh your ass off, I promise.
 
“A Mighty Wind”  A lesser known gem from director Christopher Guest, and like all his comedies it does not mock his subject but laughs at and with it gently. Folk music is the theme with riffs on all the greats of the 50s and 60s, including the great Eugene Levy as a Dylan-like character. I particularly enjoyed the details, including period correct instruments.
 
“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”  Not a movie about music – it’s a comedy based on Homer’s The Odyssey (!) set in the Depression era South, but the music is absolutely sublime. And it’s really, really funny. I’ll bet I’ve watched it ten times.
 
“This is Spinal Tap”   Directed by Rob Reiner, this “mockumentary” made me literally fall out of my chair laughing the first time I saw it and I still watch it when it happens to come on. About a dimwitted but loveable fictional heavy metal band, it has become part of the music culture with many quotable lines. 
 
A few documentaries:
 
“Standing in the Shadows of Motown”  I positively love this movie and own a copy of it. It is the story of the legendary Funk Brothers, the anonymous studio musicians at Motown who created the soundtrack of our lives if you’re a Baby Boomer like me. Fabulous players all, their story is told with interviews of the surviving members (a few of who have died since the movie was made), and interspersed with footage from a concert that was held with them plus some younger singers doing classic Motown hits. Check out Joan Osborne singing “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” and “Heatwave” – the pure joy she and the Funk Brothers exhibit will bring a tear to your eye. And the amazing Chaka Khan singing “What’s Going On” is an absolute masterpiece. I can’t recommend this one enough if (like me) you love classic Motown. And along with the great music, you will shake your head in amazement at the details – and wonder why the Funk Brothers never received the accolades they deserved.
 
“Good Ol’ Freda”  This is a small movie but fascinating. It is recollections of Freda Kelly, who was the first president of the Beatles fan club in Liverpool and went on to become their office manager and secretary at Apple Records. She was also something of a mother to all of them and if you’re a Beatles nut like me you’ll find her stories wonderful.
 
“Searching for Sugarman”   This small movie became a cult classic. It is the story of a minor league Mexican-American singer songwriter named Sixto Rodriguez who made two albums in the 1970s that quickly faded into oblivion. Except in one place: South Africa at the height or apartheid. There, his albums were known and loved by every young person. A film maker found out about this and in spite of the rumor that Sixto had died in a terrible accident, made it his business to see if Sixto was still alive, and what had become of him. After a long search he was found living a modest life in the U.S., totally unaware that he was a legend in South Africa. The film maker takes him to South Africa thirty years after his records were released and the pandemonium and adoration that followed are heartwarming. The movie won a number of independent film awards, and rightly so.
 
“The Other One”  This is a  film about Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir. If you’re a Dead Head you should see it. Lots of interesting stories and some great music.
 
“20 Feet from Stardom”   The story of the fantastic but unheralded women who backed up bands like the Rolling Stones. It is a story of bias, perseverance, and pure musical talent that only now is being recognized.
 
“Living in the Material World”  A quite long and detailed doc about the “quiet Beatle” George Harrison. It’s taken a while, but George has finally come to be recognized as an equal to the “other” songwriters in the group. George’s deep religious beliefs and sincerity come through, along with some fantastic singing and playing. You’ll learn of the deep respect many other musicians, both old and much younger have for this departed genius.
 
“Miss Sharon Jones”   A modern soul powerhouse, also sadly gone, she almost single-handedly with her band the Daptones revived the interest in and performance of classic (but new) soul music. 
 
“Gimme Shelter”   Of all the movies about the Rolling Stones, this one captures the pure rock and roll core and mystique of the band. Filmed before, during and after the tragic and seminal Altamont Rock Festival, I truly believe that decades and generations from now when people want to know what pure rock music was all about, this will be one of their references.
 
“Bob Dylan – Don’t Look Back”  Another period piece that defines (as much as that’s possible) what Dylan meant and his influence in his early years. There are quite a few other docs about him focusing on his various stages of withdrawal and reemergence in the music scene but this one sets the stage for the legend. 
 
“Beware of Mr. Baker”  In the history of rock music there have been few characters as gifted, complex and sometimes despicable as drummer Ginger Baker. He never accepted the term “rock drummer” and was quite disdainful of anyone who insisted on labelling him as one; he always viewed himself as a jazz drummer. But there is no question that his drumming in the rock idiom was some of the most powerful and revolutionary ever made. 
 
“The Last Waltz”  Some call this the greatest concert film ever made and who am I to disagree? Interestingly, except for Robbie Robertson who was the one who insisted on the breakup of The Band, the other players in this greatest of all “Americana” bands hated the movie. But the performances by guests from Joni Mitchell to Eric Clapton to Neal Diamond (???? Wha?????) are great. My favorite is the blues powerhouse Muddy Waters, whose performance of his classic Mannish Boy is so powerful the other musicians on stage (including Clapton) are almost blown into background scenery. This is another one that I can’t resist watching again and again.
 
Feature films:
 
There are so many of these that I can’t come close to listing them all but here are a few of my favorites.
 
“A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help”  Nothing more can be said about these two classics that feature dozens of the Beatles best songs. Both are little dated and hokey but especially “Hard Day’s Night” captures what Beatlemania was all about. It was filmed on only about 60 days on a budget of only $150,000 in 1964. This was because the record executives were convinced that the Beatles phenomenon would quickly fade away and they wanted to cash in while they could! “Help” is pretty silly and very dated but the music? Oh, the music. There never will be anything that comes close.
 
“Crazy Heart”  Jeff Bridges plays a down in his luck former country star and he absolutely nails what it is to be on the road playing small bars and the price of fame. I love this movie so much. Not easy to find but see it if you can. And marvel at the great music and playing, and the fact that Bridges sang all the songs of his character.
 
“Love & Mercy”  This recent fictional accounting of the life of genius Brian Wilson may or may not be totally accurate but the acting is superb and the music is wonderful. Apparently Brian didn’t hate it, so it must be OK!
 
And there are so many more movies related to music I could mention. “Verlon Thompson: Sweet Dreams Do Come True”; “The Wrecking Crew”; “That Thing You Do”; “Almost Famous”; “Buena Vista Social Club”; Ken Burns “Country Music” series; “Echo in the Canyon”; “Muscle Shoals”; “Inside Llewyn Davis”….. Get inspired to pick up your guitar. Start watching!
 
Peace and good music,
Gene  
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Competition in guitar playing

2/12/2020

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Yet another interesting thread going on one of the guitar forums, this one regarding the reality and relative merits of music viewed as competition. The person who started the thread cited a story about Bach being challenged to some sort of musical contest and when his competitor heard Bach rehearsing his piece opted to slink out of town, knowing he could never compete with the master. People had lots of opinions on the thread about just what is competition between musicians. Is it purely a function of ability or “chops?” When musicians are judged by their peers or the general public is it even possible to say who’s the best, whatever that means?
 
On another thread in that same forum someone posed the question: Who is the greatest living acoustic guitarist? And of course there are many replies. 
 
Competition is part of our genetic makeup. The caveman who could bring down an animal before some other caveman was going to eat that night. And then somewhere along the line people realized that on some level competition (hopefully, not the life and death kind) could actually be…..fun. Taken to its modern extreme, that’s where we are today in just about any human activity you can name. Talent judging reality shows are hugely popular on television. So it’s just fine to judge musicians against each other and attach labels like “best” to some of them. Or is it?
 
Back when I started playing the guitar and began listening to and seeing many experienced players I certainly was one of those who would compare players and confidently conclude that he or she was better than someone else doing the same thing. The certainty of youth was to blame of course, plus the need to be viewed as having some higher sense of knowledge and taste. As the years passed I became more and more certain of my opinions and on some level I was passing judgement based on many facets of the competitive urge I thought I saw in those players – and in myself. Without being able to verbalize or even recognize it I just assumed that one thing that made a player great was his or her need to be better than their peers. Boy, was I wrong about that.
 
What started to change my mind about the relative merits of competing with other musicians became something more personal. Slowly but surely I began to realize that I never was going to be as accomplished as some of my heroes. That may sound logical and a little bit naïve but anyone who’s serious about playing a musical instrument has to get to that place if they are going to progress. In any case, it’s a bitter pill to swallow for anyone and I’ve known some very experienced guitarists who outright quit playing when that realization took hold. It saddens me to think about players I’ve known who could have taken their playing in whatever direction they wanted but took the easy way out with vague excuses like, nah, I don’t play anymore, it just doesn’t turn me on like it used to. 
 
Most of us don’t quit though and that brings me back to the competition thing. Every year there are dozens of big guitar, fiddle and banjo contests around the country. Back when I played and toured with fiddler Marie Rhines we took part in quite a few, most of which Marie won. At the time I thought it was pretty cool. Players who win the big contests at places like the National Championship contests in Winfield, Kansas and Weiser, Idaho are venerated by fellow players. This is all well and good and there is no question that these players are world-class, in a league that few of us will ever enter. The danger I think comes from believing that those winners have some God-given super powers, and that if I practice my ass off perhaps He will grant me those powers too. And how will I test those powers? By comparing myself to and competing with my fellow musicians, of course! 
 
That competition takes many forms for the passionate but misguided guitar player. Sometimes you can see it when a guitarist fires out his fanciest licks when he knows there is another guitarist listening. A player who speaks arrogantly to other players, or orders them around in a group setting is just trying to win some competition that the others may not even know they are in! A guitarist who is playing with others for the first time and has no patience with lesser players and will never stop to explain what he is playing or why he played it at that moment in time. To his way of thinking, if he did take the time those other players might become his equal and that is definitely not what he wants. He wants to win.
 
You could say these are basic ego issues, and you’d be right. Insecurity plays in the equation too. If you boil those two problems down, how does a misguided player deal with the situation? By viewing everything he plays as a competition. 
 
But here’s the kicker. Without exception, every truly great guitarist I’ve ever met, people like the jazz legend Pat Martino and blues guitar master Duke Robillard are the nicest, most modest and sincere people you’d ever want to meet. From everything I’ve seen online, my hero the British jazzer Martin Taylor is the same way. A good friend of mine who plays mandolin related a wonderful story to me recently about having a long and stimulating conversation with mandolin great David Grisman. All these players have entered the realm of knowing they are not competing with ANYONE. On the other hand, in my experience, the most insufferable guitarists I’ve met were ones who were pretty good, even excellent, but were obviously threatened by any other guitarist they may come into contact with. That threat did not exist but that didn’t stop them from acting like it did. After all these years of playing I can pretty much pick those guys out instantly and I avoid them whenever possible. 
 
I’m not naïve enough to think anything is going to change in the world of competitive guitar playing. I just don’t choose to be part of that world. The only competition I allow myself is competition WITH myself, and even that gets tiresome after a while. 
 
The player who allows himself to fail once in a while and doesn’t let it bother him too much has a much better chance at success than one who assumes a listener (whether that listener is a guitarist or not) takes some sort of pleasure or gets satisfaction in witnessing those small failures. 
 
I guess this is a long-winded way of saying I put very little stock in guitar competition in any way and on any level. To me anyway, it’s just not important. And really, it doesn’t prove very much.
 
Peace and good music,
Gene
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