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The bass-ic facts

1/31/2012

I’m fortunate to have as a very good friend a man named Andy Groag. Andy is a bass player primarily although he also plays rhythm guitar and sings. Andy and I have played in various groups for better than 30 years and although we haven’t performed together in a while it’s always fun to get together with him for some casual jamming and of course the discussion always turns to the old days, music we’ve heard recently and the overall state of music these days.

We got together last Friday evening in my studio, the first time we’ve played together in better than a year. Just like riding a bike, as they say – we immediately communicated musically and had fun playing mostly old blues and country tunes. Andy is a solid player. Our tastes are a bit different in music; I like jazz and while Andy can put down a reasonable walking bass line if the jazz tune is blues-based he really doesn’t care for the structure of more complex compositions. This is just fine – we all have our preferences.

When we’re playing those old blues and country tunes however he is almost always right there with the changes. Thinking about the experience later I was reminded of the importance (necessity, really) of a bass player being rock solid with the roots of the chords in a song. Most of the time a good bass player will begin whatever line he or she is going to play with the root of the chord when a change happens. This establishes the sound of the chord right away. What follows are often other chord tones, usually the 5th of the chord being used immediately after the root or in the next couple of beats. The 3rd of the chord should show up soon too because that establishes whether the chord is major or minor. If a chord last for a couple measures a good bass player comes up with a line (usually involving other notes in key) that leads in a logical manner to the next chord change.

In order for a guitarist and bass player to sound good together there has to be a huge amount of trust. This is especially important if the guitarist is going to try to improvise for some amount of time. Building an improvised solo is difficult enough without worrying about whether or not the bass player will be there with the correct roots of the chords on the changes. If the person improvising is even a little worried about that not happening it is both stifling and scary, leading to a solo that sounds either disjointed or the opposite: very simple because the soloist feels bound to establish the sound of the chord or melody instead of coming up with something more creative.

This is not nearly as much of an issue when soloing over another guitar, if only for the simple reason that the other guitar is playing chords rather than single notes as does a bass player. That full sound of a chord – even if the change is late or even wrong – fills in a lot of gaps in the overall sound and this is “safe.”

From the bass players’ point of view this responsibility can be somewhat boring at times. Listen to some of the best known classic rock and blues tunes and you’ll hear the bass player repeating a line over and over, or even a single note again and again. Good bass players get very bored with this very quickly and naturally want to play something more daring and creative. And that is REALLY where the trust comes in. If you’re fortunate enough to play with a bass player for a long time and know his style and the lines he’s apt to create you can plan for them, or at least not be surprised when they happen.

Quite a few years ago I happened to hear an excellent local jazz guitarist named Jim Robitaille http://jimrobitaille.com/and a bass player. Jim is a great jazzer whose style tends to run toward the more modern jazz styles of people like Jim Hall and Pat Martino. That means he takes chances when soloing – lots of them! But on that first occasion and the times I’ve heard him since in the guitar/bass setting I was blown away by the tight, logical harmonic complexity that the two instruments achieved. It was obvious that Jim was absolutely confident in his bass player’s ability to hold the chord structure together so he could solo at will. This is the essence of making music with another person.

So if you have the opportunity to play with a bass player don’t be shy about gently suggesting he hit those roots and chord tones if he isn’t doing it consistently. The result will be some darn fine music not matter how simple or complex the song may be. Yes, it’s fun to just jam away and hope for the best but if both players put thought and effort into the experience it can lead to bigger and better things, and BOTH players will be better for it.

Peace & good music,

Gene

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The choke factor - does it really matter?

1/25/2012

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One of the biggest challenges I face as a guitar teacher is relaxing my students. At their very first lesson, regardless of their level of ability and experience I do my absolute best to help them relax and assure them that it is NOT a test when they come for their lesson each week. My job is to help them get better – not to criticize and make them feel bad about their playing. I am partly a cheerleader, I guess. Hopefully, every student leaves his or her lesson both excited about playing and at least somewhat pleased about the progress they are making.

But I also warn them of one thing. They will never, ever play as well at their lesson as they play at home. As the weeks go by most students accept and understand this but there’s no denying it can lead to some frustration. “I’ll show him this time!” some of them probably think. And then they make some mistakes – small ones usually – that fluster them and that’s when I have to assure them that it really and truly doesn’t matter. I’ve been teaching guitar a long time and I can tell by the way their hands move whether or not they’ve understood the concepts. The end product is not nearly as important as understanding.

Playing in front of anyone, from just a spouse or a friend all the way up to standing on a stage is a very naked experience. Its fun but it’s scary too. One thing I always try to impress on students is that there is a fundamental disconnect between the player and the listener. The player may be going along fine and suddenly a chord change isn’t quite perfect or a bad note or two is played. I’ll bet if someone hooked the player up to some medical device that measured heart and respiratory rate they would see an immediate jump in those things. Oh my God, the little man inside our head says! I totally screwed that up! The listener knows that and it proves I’m not very good! AAARRGGHH!!!

But here’s the disconnect: It is highly unlikely that the listener has a clue what a Bbm7b5 is supposed to sound like! Assuming the most basic reference point – the rhythm or beat – is not broken the listener will immediately forgive and forget any small boo-boos.

In fact, most of the time the listener is a bit of a cheerleader too. They want the player to succeed and on the most basic level there is at least a tiny bit of awe that the player is doing that very naked thing: making music. If you doubt this, go to your local bar on karaoke night and watch the performer’s friends cheering them on in spite of what might be a somewhat shaky performance.

My very first performance on guitar in front of a large number of people was during my first year of high school. I was “volunteered” to play a song during a concert by our high school chorus down at a local middle school. To say I screwed it up would be a major understatement. Making matters worse was another member of our chorus was a friend of mine who was a much better player than me and he was the one who had taught me the song! So I knew I was being listened to by not only all my peers in the chorus, a few hundred middle schoolers but also a guy who was way more advanced than me, and most likely should have been the one doing the song.

I finished the song and the kids clapped loudly but I wanted to crawl back to anonymity at the back of the bass section. Oh God, I thought, maybe I should just give this up. But then a strange and wonderful thing happened. We finished the concert and many of the younger kids and even some of my peers told me enthusiastically how much they’d enjoyed my singing and playing. Whaaaa??? Even my buddy the guitar player was nice enough to give me a compliment (although it was something of the back-handed variety if I recall… perhaps he was regretting not stepping up when asked as I was?).

I learned a couple things that day although it took me some time to thoroughly digest them. First – that someone who doesn’t play guitar is not nearly as critical as I’d suspected they would be. And – given that fact – it didn’t really matter all that much how many times I screwed up. But most importantly, a few hours later the experience actually began to feel…. good. I liked performing! And I made a vow to get better.

Since that day over 40 years ago I have played in front of just about every type of audience you can imagine, from a few uninterested bar patrons to crowds numbering in the many thousands at festivals. And everything in between. I know some days will be better than others, playing-wise. I don’t let that throw me too much anymore. In fact the biggest regrets I have are when I play as well as I can and there are very few people there to hear it. That is one of those ego things though, which I’ve talked about in this space in the past and I’m trying to eliminate.

Of course we all want to play to the best of our ability, especially if there’s anyone listening. It can be really frustrating and even depressing if all the hard work of practice doesn’t result in a perfect performance. When one of my students seems to be feeling that way I encourage them to look back: Could you play that music at all a week or a month ago? Sometimes I even urge them to record their playing, then put away the recording for a month or so. Then listen to it. I can almost guarantee that results in a more accurate way to measure progress.

So go for it. Play as well as you can but try to focus not just on what you’re doing wrong but also what you’re doing right.

Peace & good music,

Gene

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The last five of my 10 from '10

1/16/2012

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Continuing with looking back at 2010 in music, guitars and more…

6. The local music scene. Time was that you could hear live music in many venues. That began to change back in the 1970s when that horrible cultural curiosity called Disco entered the scene. Bar owners quickly realized that a one-time investment in a sound system was way better than paying a live band on a weekly basis. What was lost when this happened was an intangible – that wonderful connection between the musician and the audience. At the same time a separation between audience and performer was happening at the upper levels of commercial music.

Thank goodness that there were still performers and audiences who understood the value of an up-close musical experience. In the last few years there has been a growing variety of live music venues and some very creative ways to enjoy the experience. “House concerts” are one such venue. The idea is simple but brilliant. Open up your house to an informal concert by local musicians, many of whom have very few opportunities to play in front of a live audience. A low admission cost or even passing a basket for contributions allows players to put a few bucks in their pockets and the host to cover expenses.

In our town there is even a place that has taken this to the next level with a very nice little stage and sound system set up in an intimate but comfortable area of their home. They bring in local and semi-well known acoustic musicians and everyone loves it. I just hope the Town Fathers don’t deem this just too commercial an enterprise to continue without permits. Church “coffee houses” are making a comeback and ironically, even those bar owners have figured out that a regular open mic can bring in some cash on a traditionally slow night. Bravo! I so hope this trend of live music on the local level continues.

7. The demise of the local music store. This saddens me greatly. But just like your local hardware store, drug store and small food market, it has become all but impossible for a small music store to compete with mega online retailers or huge companies like Guitar Center who combine both the online model with huge retail outlets.

The major guitar manufacturers see the writing on the wall too – they make it almost financially impossible for a local store to secure a dealership without the store committing to a huge opening order that in some cases must include items that are very difficult to sell. Even if they do this, it is common practice for younger players to go in, beat up on some guitars and then go to one of the mega online retailers or stores to buy, leaving the local store with guitars that have dings and dead strings.

As with most things, it just comes down to money. The major outlets make deals with the big manufacturers and in many cases offer guitars at retail for the same price as the local store must pay, wholesale. And the margins continue right down to the smallest item. A basic rule of retailing is that the smaller the item, the higher the margin. This is really the only way to stay in business. A local store must count on doubling their money for things like strings, picks and capos but the big guys still sell those items at 30% - 40% off list because they do such huge volume they can afford to.

So the only way the small store can survive is summed up in one word: service. A well run local store has an owner and employees who are knowledgeable, friendly and willing to go to just about any length to make a customer happy. This is hardly ever the case in the big places and of course, forget about it with online sales. So I hope the small stores realize that days of grumpy owners and employees with their noses in the air, musically speaking, are gone. It would be a shame to see the small stores disappear but sadly, that seems to be the way its going.

8. Older students. Now that I’m back to teaching full time I’ve noticed a wonderful trend. I’m seeing many, many older students who perhaps played guitar in their youth and want to take it up again now that they have the time and can stretch their budgets to afford it. These are a wonderful bunch; they are here because they want to be, not because they had to learn a musical instrument way back in their school days. So they come at it with passion and are committed to practicing.

I’ve also seen quite a few older students who have been playing right along but finally feel they want to take things to the next level. I still get younger students of course and I welcome them but these older players are more pure fun for me to teach and I love how they feel great gratification as they finally master the guitar or advance.

9. Home recording. As with everything electronic the advances in home recording are beyond great. Today you can buy a simple, small digital recorder with built in mics, record your playing, then upload your music to a computer and with a program like Garage Band or other simple mixing/editing programs create a very good master that can then be transferred to CD or even sent via email to your friends and family.

If you’re willing to spend about a grand you will have a home recording studio that can produce recordings that rival anything that is commercially available. I just think back to the fact that ALL the Beatles recordings were done on four-track analog machines and wonder what the genius George Martin could have done with their music if he had even a fraction of the technology we take for granted today.

Plus, home recording is downright fun! If you haven’t tried it, invest a few bucks and get going. Just do your best to resist the newest and greatest device that is sure to come along – next week!

10. The “Karaoke Effect.” When karaoke appeared ten or so years ago I thought it was pretty lame. Get a few drinks in you, then go up and sing along with recorded back up tracks of “Jeremiah was a Bullfrog” or “I Will Survive.” Kinda pathetic, I thought. But I finally realized something. No matter what, it was getting people to not only make music (giving them the benefit of doubt…) but it also made audiences more accepting of the effort that goes into performance. The bottom line, for me anyway, is that although you will never, ever see me up there belting out “Old Time Rock n’ Roll” I think to some degree karaoke has made listeners even more appreciative of good performances. OK! Everybody! “I did it myyyyyyyy waaaaaayyyy!”

So there it is. I welcome comment about these things I listed.

Peace & good music,

Gene

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Top 10 from '10 - the first five, anyway

1/12/2012

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It’s probably a bit late for a 2010 “best of” list but here’s mine. Not “best of” really but more like Gene’s 10 Somewhat Relevant and Hopefully Interesting Observations of Trends and Other Stuff from The Past Year! Here are the first five, in no particular order.

1. Digital tuners get even better and less expensive. I have become a huge fan of the Snark tuners, which like many of the latest generation of digital tuners, work by sensing the vibrations of the guitar. What a wonderful thing! If you play acoustic guitar and don’t have a built in pick-up, gone are the days when you had to try to balance a tuner on your knee so the internal microphone could “hear” the strings. Just clip the Snark (or other similar tuners) on the head of your guitar and quickly get your guitar in tune. Plus, at less than $20 you can afford to keep one in your guitar case and one lying around where you play! Just a great little tool and in my opinion, a necessity if you’re serious about how your guitar sounds.

2. Boutique guitars. There are more small volume guitar makers out there than ever, many of them doing spectacular work. There is even a growing group of medium size makers like Collings, Huss & Dalton, Dana Bourgeois, and others who produce enough instruments to have dealers, i.e, not building strictly by order. I think this is wonderful because it not only means there are a growing number of players who appreciate fine handmade guitars but it has also inspired the big boys like Martin, Taylor and Gibson to offer limited edition fancier versions of their fine regular models. While none of these guitars are inexpensive and there is an entirely separate question of long-term value, a guitar maker recently said to me: “I think we are truly in a Golden Age of guitar making.” And I agree.

3. Cheap guitars. On the other end of the spectrum are the many choices in inexpensive guitars. Now more than ever a recreational or beginning player has some great choices. Companies like Epiphone, Recording King, Eastman, Ibanez, Alvarez, Yamaha and many more offer guitars with fit and finish, appointments and great set-up that guitarists had to pay twice as much, or more for a couple decades ago. I am very, very impressed with Austin guitars and have sold quite a few in the last few months, both acoustics and electrics. They sound and play like much, much more expensive instruments. Said it before and I’ll say it again: Over my many years of teaching I have see bad guitars do more to discourage people from playing than all other causes combined. Today the beginner only has to worry about the basics of good sound, rhythm, and other basic musical concepts without having to fight with their guitar. Hooray!!!

4. They call it Americana. This rediscovery of American acoustic music by a younger generation is wonderful. If you had to define Americana I guess it would go something like this. Country, old-timey, blues and traditional music played with a bit of rock sensibility. But that doesn’t really accurately describe what groups like the Avett Brothers, the Civil Wars, Gillian Welsh and David Rawlings and many others are doing. I confess to being a bit cynical about some of this; groups like The Band where doing pretty much the same thing 30 years ago, and when Gillian Welch, dressed in a baggy cotton dress she no doubt found at some thrift shop makes a statement like, “Ah was just readin’ mah Good Book back stage….” before she launches into a tune about tearin’ the Still House down, I do gag…. just a little bit. But hey – the music is basic and for the most part honest and often easy for an intermediate level guitarist to play. What’s not to like, really?

5. The vast and almost endless supply of music information on the internet. This blows my mind, as we used to say in the Good Old Days. If you want the words or chords for just about any song that exists, you can find it almost instantly. However, as with everything on the internet, take what you find with a pretty big grain of salt. In many cases the chords you’ll find are a basic sketch of what the artist is playing, or in the worst cases not even close to being correct. But I regularly use what’s available out there to avoid having to write out lyrics or even to get an idea or two for presenting a specific musical concept to a student. Believe it or not, back in the 1980s I used to write out just about everything for each lesson. Whew! Now I can spend my and the student’s time on playing and learning. Just understand that there is plenty of sketchy, incomplete and even downright wrong information online. That’s why you need a guitar teacher, right?!

Next time, the other five trends/observations from last year.

Peace & good music,

Gene

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Moving forward, or keepin' on, keepin' on

1/7/2012

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The past year has been quite eventful both in the world of guitars and for me personally. I'll be talking about the guitar world next time but for now you'll have to listen to me ramble on about just what the heck it is that I do every day.

I’m pleased to say that I have a great bunch of students ranging in age from 10 to a gentleman in his mid 70s. Their abilities run the gamut from raw beginner to quite advanced and they keep me on my toes, musically speaking but also in another way. Part of my job is to teach them to play the guitar of course, or rather to teach them to teach themselves. But I never can forget that they are here because they want to be – not because they have to be.

It’s essential that I exhibit enthusiasm and encouragement. This is usually not a problem but sometimes I have to do a very fine balancing act. How hard to push a student is part of what I think about when I do my daily lesson planning before I begin teaching. We all have “good days” and “bad days” in our lives and I have to take that into account when a student who seemed to be doing fine comes to his or her lesson and just cannot even come close to playing what I presented in their previous lesson. Did I throw something at them that was well beyond their ability? I certainly hope not. Sometimes that does happen but not very often. I wouldn’t be much of a guitar teacher if I set my students up for failure. Or is it just a case of the student being tired or just plain cranky? If I sense this is the case I’ll take things very easy and perhaps we’ll go back and play something that the student knows well. The idea is to help them focus on what they CAN do, not what they can’t. This usually works.

Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances too. I can’t think of a politically correct way to say this so I’ll just be blunt. Occasionally I get a student whose weight prevents them from playing. If you have to hold your guitar a foot or more out it is all but impossible to reach around the neck. Learning correct hand position is difficult enough for someone with normal weight; a large person just can’t look over the guitar to locate the fingers correctly – or in most cases, reach around the neck at all. I’ve gone back and forth over this problem for years. Do I just tell the student straight up that the guitar probably isn’t their best choice of an instrument to learn or do I just keep my mouth shut? The few times I’ve encountered this issue over the last few years the student figures out pretty quickly that things are just not going to work out. But when they sadly announce they are going to stop lessons (with the reason usually unstated but completely obvious) I can’t help but feeling bad. Did I do enough to help them? Is there some way for an obese person to play the guitar that I don’t know about?

Then there’s the opposite problem: a student who is progressing fairly well but never seems to learn a song much past 80 percent of his potential. This can be quite a delicate situation. I certainly don’t want to dampen his enthusiasm. All I can really do is point out a simple fact of playing music. It is a far, far better thing to play a song that may be less challenging and play it as close to perfect as possible than to play something that’s complex but filled with mistakes. My approach is to point this out gently but frequently. Often times a funny thing happens. The student plays a complex piece that is unfortunately sloppy and filled with mistakes and bad technique for their spouse, significant other or friend, and the response is not exactly overwhelming. Then the student plays something rather simple, but played with confidence and perfection. The response from the listener is great. Lesson learned! Nothing succeeds like success, someone once said. I always know a student with great enthusiasm but somewhat shaky technique has gone to the next level, attitude-wise, when he casually plays a snatch of a tune he knows he can play well before he tackles the more difficult piece. What always follows is a new-found determination to clean up what he already knows – and be more diligent about the “little things” in new pieces I present.

As I’ve mentioned in this space before, sometimes ego rears its ugly head and I confess to having little patience with this. Strange as it may sound, every once in a while I get a new student who goes to great lengths to let me know that he really doesn’t need guitar lessons (yes, really – they actually say that!) but just needs to brush up or slightly expand his self-described expansive knowledge. Compounding this unpleasantness is the fact that this person is really, really bad at…. listening. To anyone but himself anyway. I suspect that what he really wants is not guitar lessons. He wants affirmation. I guess what he’d like me to say is, Gee, you are so great a player that I couldn’t possibly teach you anything! This is really a no-win situation. If I present something that is advanced and difficult and he can’t play it, his ego is bruised and he either is P.O.ed or lets me know he didn’t really want to learn that anyway – or both. If I offer something that he can play without much effort, it only proves what he’s already convinced himself of: that he is just an awesome player and really doesn’t need guitar lessons. Fortunately these types of students are rare but they do show up from time to time. They usually don’t last long. Which is just fine with me!

But what keeps me teaching guitar, after all these years, is a much more common type of student. He comes to me with little playing experience or a fair amount but he is excited and hungry for knowledge. He knows that learning the guitar can be a life long pursuit but he knows how to keep the experience in perspective. I absolutely love seeing students like this progress and sometimes I get the added bonus of making a new friend.

So I guess all I’m trying to say is that I know I’m very fortunate to be teaching and playing guitar. Some people dread going to work every day. I can’t wait to go out to the studio, look at the schedule and check my notes and plan what I’ll be presenting or working on with my students. As long as my fingers still work and I can hear music, I’ll keep doing it.

Peace & good music,

Gene

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Yes, more random rambling

1/1/2012

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Again caught most of the recent PBS special on James Taylor and Carole King the other night. This is just a fascinating overview of their work but also of the music scene in Los Angeles back in the 1970s when The Troubadour was the place to see and be seen in the singer/songwriter scene. Great comments by Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Steve Martin (!) and many others. And of course some wonderful recent live performances and vintage ones by James and Carole. James is certainly a complex and somewhat strange guy but there is no denying he possesses overwhelming talent. His finger-style guitar playing is unique and complex too – like many great musicians he makes it seem effortless but anyone who’s tried to figure out his tunes note-for-note knows that his style is very difficult to replicate precisely. Just great playing and songwriting and when this PBS program is re-broadcast, by all means try to catch it.

I recently saw the new George Clooney movie, “The Descendents” and the music is wonderful. It takes place in Hawaii and the entire soundtrack features various examples of slack key guitar playing, something that I confess to knowing little about. In most cases it sounds like the guitars are tuned down quite a bit to various open tunings. I had a student a while back who was in the military and had been stationed in Hawaii for a while. He really got into slack key and told me that in some cases “secret” tunings are handed down from generation to generation, which result in some beautiful music. If you’re of the opinion (as I was, I guess) that most of Hawaiian guitar music involves weepy sounding slide guitar and ukuleles, you’re in for a very nice surprise if you see that movie (which was excellent, by the way).

The mom of one of my younger students called me just before Christmas, all excited because she had ordered one of the Esteban guitars for her son. I bit my tongue as hard as I could stand and said, oh, that’s great! I’m sure he’ll enjoy it! Not wanting to rain on her parade I couldn’t bring myself to tell her those alleged instruments from that character’s company are the worst examples of shoddy guitar making I’ve ever seen. Almost impossible to tune, with fret edges that are sure to slice up fingers and a sound that is little better than a cigar box with strings, I’m amazed that he’s still in business. But hey, maybe I’m just jealous. To the innocent first-time guitar buyer, his “shtick” is pretty convincing. Maybe if I’d had the foresight to buy a black shirt, sunglasses and a black hat and learned to play “Malageuna” nice and fast, and booked some time late at night on cable TV, I would be rich and well known too! Esteban is nothing more than a bad joke among real guitarists but I think we all wish we’d known what he obviously knew: that inside many people lurks a secret guitar player!

But on a brighter note (pun intended!).....

Just purchased a 1960 Gretsch Double Anniversary hollow body electric guitar. It is in amazing condition for its age except for one small piece of binding that will need to be replaced. I’m a sucker for this particular model. A good friend of mine back in high school had one and it was the first good electric guitar I ever played. He ran it through a Guild Thunderbird amp (all tube, of course). Wow, what a great sound from those vintage HiLoTron pick-ups. As best as I can tell the entire guitar has original parts although one Gretsch web site says the HiLoTron was not introduced until the mid 60s. I’ll have to do more research on that. In any case, the sound is pure George Harrison and hitting that wonderful first chord from “A Hard Day’s Night” is pure ecstasy! I haven’t decided yet whether or not I’ll list it for sale – my rule for all guitars I acquire, no matter how much I like them. I don’t play a lot of electric these days but I’m thinking about trying to get something of a Americana/roots kind of band together in the next few months so that guitar might hang around for a while. We’ll see.

I hope everyone has a happy, peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year, filled with new musical adventures!

Peace & good music,
Gene

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The bass-ic facts

The choke factor - does it really matter?

The last five of my 10 from '10

Top 10 from '10 - the first five, anyway

Moving forward, or keepin' on, keepin' on

Yes, more random rambling

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