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Inquiring minds want to know...

7/31/2013

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Questions, we get questions. That was the tag line from a television commercial years ago. I know what they meant. I’m asked all kinds of things by my students and readers of this blog. While it’s flattering to think that I have the answers all I can really offer are opinions. Here are a few questions I’ve heard lately.

How often should I change my guitar strings?

Well, the short answer is – as often as you can afford to. If there is one single thing you can do to improve the sound of just about any guitar, it would be to change the strings. This is especially obvious if you live in an area like I do that features hot, humid weather. Even those of us with the best personal hygiene (i.e., clean hands!) have to deal with sweat when we play and that will turn those chiming, crisp sounding strings into something akin to the sound of rubber bands in no time at all. Not only is this annoying (and slightly depressing!) but it can also effect your playing. When your ear adjusts to sound of dead strings it’s easy to get a bit sloppy in your technique. You may overlook thuddy tone that could be corrected by better finger placement. You may play harder than is necessary to try to compensate for the dead tone and lack of volume. Bad habits to be avoided, for sure!

So change those strings! If I’m backed into the proverbial corner, I guess my answer to how often would be at least every two to three months if you play daily. But much shorter intervals may be necessary. You spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on that guitar. Doesn’t it make sense to keep it sounding the best it can? Spending less than you do for lunch at a fast food restaurant for new strings is an investment in musical pleasure.

I’m taking a trip and I want to take my guitar. Can I bring it on the airplane or should I check it with my luggage?

Hoo boy, that one is tough. There have been long discussions about this on the various guitar forums but there is no general consensus. Supposedly, in the U.S. there is a new law that requires airlines to allow passengers to use their guitar as a carry-on item. That law may be in place but with all the stress of modern air travel – including dealing with the pushing and last minute positioning as the plane is beginning the boarding process – you very well may encounter a surly ticket taker who refuses to allow your guitar on board as a carry-on. I’ve seen this happen (not to me, thankfully) and it is an ugly scene.

Ultimately, it is just a crap shoot. My own observations over the last year or so of air travel is that most of the time guitars make it on board. I think you can up your odds of success by using a padded gig bag instead of a hardshell case but of course there is some risk of damage involved. We’ve all seen the guy who brings on an overstuffed “carry on” suitcase and with the strength of someone who should be a professional wrestler, try to jam the thing into the overhead compartment. I certainly don’t want my poor guitar to be anywhere near that! But you are also running a slight risk of that cranky ticket taker STILL saying no, you must check that guitar. Now you’re in real trouble – that poor guitar in a gig bag cannot be expected to survive the brutal treatment that luggage receives from the baggage handler gorillas. If you haven’t seen this video (very funny but very sad!), check it out:

United breaks guitars!
So take the chance if you’re a gambler. I know that I feel pretty lost without my guitar if I’m going to be away for more than a week. Or better yet, if you know you’re going to travelling frequently, invest in one of the latest “travel guitars” on the market. Some are surprisingly good sounding and easy to play, and will easily fit in the overhead. Some are even designed to collapse via a hinged neck and fit in a special oval shaped padded case. In any case, I sincerely wish you luck and would love to hear from any readers with recent air travel with guitar experiences.

More questions and answers in the next few days.

Peace & good music,

Gene

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Guitar student stumbling blocks

7/26/2013

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Periodically in this space I like to address dilemmas some guitar students face. Here are a few I’ve seen lately. Hopefully, these hints will help readers who are facing similar issues. Most I’ve mentioned before but they bear repeating.

Beginners always have to get past the first big hurdle of playing the guitar: fast chord changes. A steady beat from the beginning to the end of a piece of music is essential – and gratifying for both the player and the listener. While there are some “tricks” that players discover along the way (with the help of a good teacher, hopefully ;~) ), things like keeping fingers close to the neck between chords and avoiding moving fingers unnecessarily, the single biggest essential skill to master is thinking ahead. This is easier in some songs than others of course. Tunes that stay on one chord for a number of measures allow the player to relax a bit and be ready for the next change. But some songs move rapidly through a series of changes. In those cases a player MUST think ahead constantly and be ready. Which brings up the next essential.

I call this my “basketball theory.” The first time you pick up a basketball and throw it toward the hoop you most likely miss. And miss and miss and miss some more. Then finally a shot goes in. Hmmm, you think, not bad! So you continue to shoot and gradually your success rate increases. You’re not sure exactly why, but you know you’re doing something different.

Well, this is exactly the WRONG way to practice a piece of music! Sure, pure repetition may yield results but by being analytical about your playing you can solve problems much faster than just depending on repetitious practice to make things better. Which finger is almost always the last one you put down? Well, that is the “problem finger.” Focus on that one the next time the chord shows up and assuming your have the overall chord placement memorized, the other fingers will miraculously fall into place almost from the very beginning.

But getting back to the basketball theory, what you should do (versus repetitious and mindless physical activity) is break the song down. Instead of practicing the song from beginning to end over and over, and most likely make the same mistakes over and over, work on individual lines of the song, i.e., limited sequences of measures. When you can play one sequence of say, four or eight measures without stopping, attack the next limited sequence of measures. Then, go back and put the two sequences together. Move on to the next section and repeat.

The take-away point here is that you can’t solve a problem until you know what it is! Stopping, finding the difficult chord, then continuing is not going to make things better and in fact may make them worse: you may end up stopping automatically and essentially practicing (reinforcing) your mistakes. Then – and I speak from the experience of watching hundreds of students struggle with this – it is actually more difficult to break the habit of making the mistake, than locating the problem and dealing with it in the first place!

If you’ve read this far you may be thinking – yeah, right, Gene. Easy for you to say! But please believe me when I say that I still deal with the issue of difficult chords as I’m sure all guitars do regardless of their level of experience. Some songs will always challenge me and there are a couple I force myself to use in performance and when I jump into them I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen.

It would be much easier to just play tunes that I know I won’t screw up. But I know I won’t improve by taking that road. Yes, there have been some mini musical disasters. I just hope I remember to break the song down when I get home, focus just on the difficult passages and then – and only then – try again to put the whole thing together.

Peace & good music,
Gene

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Oh man, that was awkward!

7/22/2013

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In a perfect musical world, you show up for a gig with all the right equipment either loaded and ready to deploy (or better yet, already there and waiting for you), set up and play to an appreciative audience, put on a good show and the proprietor is there with your pay at the end of the engagement. Maybe the show went so well that you are booked for more. Everyone is happy, satisfied and you remember why you started performing in the first place. Unfortunately, those gigs are not as common as we hope.

Awkward, annoying and sometimes downright embarrassing things happen in the real world of work-a-day musicians. Last weekend I experienced one and it brought to mind a few others things that I thought readers of this blog might find helpful, especially those who are just beginning to play out or do it so infrequently that glitches come as an unwelcome surprise.

So, I arrived at my gig and began unloading equipment. But soon a vehicle pulled up – loaded with musical equipment. The driver got out and approached me.

“Uh…. Are you playing tonight?” asked the man.

“Yeah, I am,” I said. “This was booked a few months ago.” Fortunately I had my phone with me and could show him the emails from the person doing the bookings confirming the date.

“Well, I played last weekend and they asked me back for this weekend,” he replied. “I’ll go find someone and figure it out.”

This was an embarrassing situation, to say the least. Long story short: As far as the owner of the place was concerned and according to their web site schedule I was definitely the scheduled performer. No only that, the other musician was under the impression he was also playing at the end of August on a night that I had confirmed! How this whole mess came about I have no idea – the other people at the establishment who supposedly are in charge of the bookings claimed no knowledge of the mix-up. In any case, I did the gig and as per the adamant declaration of the owner, I will also play the date next month. I asked the lady who does the bookings to PLEASE be sure to email or call the other guy and reiterate that he was NOT booked on the other date. I will most certainly follow up on this before the gig!

In almost four decades of performing as a single and with various groups this is only the second time this has happened to me. I guess the take-away here is simple: always confirm your gigs. You can be sure I will be more diligent about this in the future.

Here’s another one that is tough but all too common:

“Hey man, I play the guitar, can I sit in with you?” or even worse, “Hey man, can I try your guitar?”

OK, at the risk of sounding like a jerk, the answer to question one is almost always no. The person asking may be a fine player – but I don’t know that. I take great pride in my performance, my material is well learned and well rehearsed and a stranger sitting in is never going to make for a professional performance. Also, no self-respecting pro musician would ever ask such a thing because they understand the parameters I just mentioned.

Question 2: Absolutely, no freakin’ way. Unless of course you are Eric Clapton (not in your mind – Eric himself!). Usually a goodly amount of drinking has preceded this request, making for a huge risk to your guitar. Again – no REAL musician would EVER make such a request.

Of course, if you happen to see Eric sitting at a table it is perfectly fine to ask him to play a few tunes – ha!

Now this last one may be my own issue but I think many professional musicians feel the same way. It’s about trying to get paid at the end of the gig. Even after all these years and hundreds (thousands?) of gigs I find it awkward to ask for my pay. A good manager makes sure that the performer doesn’t have to go through this and is right there at the end of the night with cash or a check. But I would estimate that perhaps only 50% of them fall into that category. The rest are either too busy (and frequently annoyed that they have to stop what they’re doing to pay you) or in some cases almost resentful that you need to be paid. Amazing, but true! I’ve even played gigs where the manager was literally hiding in some dark back room when I came looking to get paid. Some even want you to come back a day or more later to get paid. This is entirely unacceptable and when I ran into this years ago at a chain of restaurants that were unfortunately very numerous and hired acoustic groups and performers I quickly made the decision to forget about playing any of them after a couple ugly incidents. In one place I was even underpaid with no explanation. Bad on me, lesson learned.

So here are your take-away points today, folks. Always confirm your gigs. Act in a professional manner and expect the same from others (but don’t be surprised if that is not the reality of the situation). And always, always count the money!

Peace & good music,

Gene

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Vegas, Jim, Ginger and gigs

7/18/2013

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Just a few tidbits today. I think maybe it’s too hot and humid for me to put together anything longer!

My Vegas trip was entertaining and fun, as always. I heard some good music in lounges at various hotel/casinos but nothing that knocked my socks off, so to speak. At the Paris Hotel and Casino where I stayed I did hear a very good dance band who were fronted by a young man and woman (singers) who were excellent. The best however was the bass player who really knew how to set the groove – and hold it. What impressed me the most was their virtually non-stop playing. Just as soon as a tune would end the drummer would set the beat for the next tune and they’d all jump in. This is a very instructive thing for players who are in bands. Granted, the idea was to keep people on the dance floor and a non-dancing engagement is somewhat different but (and I know I’ve mentioned this before) it is vital to not waste time between tunes when you’re performing, regardless of the style of music you play. Audiences tend to have a limited attention span. If a performer wants to talk to the audience, fine. But diddling around with equipment, mindless noodling on an instrument, excessive tuning and private banter on stage are turn-offs to audiences. Bottom line: if a performer acts like he or she WANTS to be there, the audience will react in kind.

I received a great email from a reader yesterday. He had read a blog entry I wrote some time ago about some of my favorite concert experiences. It seems he was also in the first row at a wonderful concert we both attended at Muhlenberg College back in 1970. He had a much clearer memory of details of the concert but we were in agreement that both the Byrds and Santana were excellent. He went on to relate his enjoyment of a recent solo concert by Jim McGuinn (aka Roger), leader of the Byrds. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but it is always heartening to hear about great musicians from that time who are still on the road and still making great music.

Some have weathered the years better than others however. Last night I watched a new documentary about drummer Ginger Baker. It was fascinating and well worth checking out if you have the opportunity and are interested in the history of British rock music. Ginger comes across as funny, unpleasant, occasionally violent and abusive, brilliant and dumb at the same time, even pathetic on a certain level, but undeniably brilliant musically. It was interesting to hear musicians like Eric Clapton and others proclaim that Ginger was and is the best, not just as a rock drummer but also as a jazzer, saying that generally recognized great drummers like Keith Moon and John Bonham were not even in the same league as Baker. Wow.

And on a personal level… I have three gigs scheduled for the next three days, first the Friday night buffet at the wonderful local Coonamesset Farm, my usual Saturday morning gig at the Daily Brew Café and on Sunday morning, a special “folk service” at the Waquoit Congregational Church. You would assume the church service would be the easiest but in fact that has turned out not to be the case – the lady singers have required no less than three rehearsals. So in terms of money on a per-hour basis this one is, shall we say, somewhat less than profitable. However, my hope is that I will gain some karmic balance after a few nights in Sin City!

Peace & good music,
Gene  

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So you STILL play the guitar?!

7/5/2013

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End of the week random thoughts as I get ready for my trip to Vegas next week. It’s not music related, but I’m hoping to hear some music when I’m out there. Sadly, finding quality music in that town is much more difficult than it used to be. Sign of the times, I guess. But there are a few other things to do in Vegas! Anyway…

There was an interesting thread recently on one of the guitar forums with the title: “So, you STILL play guitar?” It seems the person who began the post ran into a friend from many years ago who asked this question with a smirk, implying that playing the guitar was a trivial and possibly immature pastime that was not worthy of pursuing. Of course the other members of the forum were outraged and supportive of the person who made the post, as you would expect. I read through the thread and just kind of smiled and shook my head. I suspect there are people from my own past who might ask the same question. At least I can justify it (assuming such a person was worthy of a response) in that I get paid to teach and perform but it does bring up some interesting questions regarding the perception of what we do.

I think that at best, many non-musicians view playing the guitar as being roughly equivalent to playing tennis or chasing a golf ball around – a harmless, leisure time activity that makes the participant feel good. There is one big difference however. Playing a musical instrument by its nature affects others. No one cares or pays much attention to how far you hit a golf ball but when we play guitar other people can sometimes hear what we do. Knowing this often affects how we play, for better or worse. We are “putting it out there” and for some players that is a scary thing, even if the listener is family member or friend.

The trick is to reject value judgments. If we’re lucky the listener is supportive and encouraging and doesn’t that feel good! So if you find yourself in a situation where someone is dismissive of your playing and asks that question just answer: “Yeah, I do and I LOVE it! Maybe you should give it a try. It’s never too late, even for an old guy like you!” Ha!

And on the subject of rejecting value judgments, I recently had to do that myself. I was asked to provide guitar back-up for a “folk service” at a local church. I did this at the church a couple years ago and could not last year but the lady minister asked again, so, “a gig is a gig” as my dad used to say, and I agreed. It is not exactly a lucrative engagement, to say the least (!), because it involves three rehearsals along with the service. The song leader this time is a professional musician I’ve known for years, an excellent jazz drummer who will be singing but not playing. He is very organized and thorough and he delivered a song list to me before the first rehearsal. That list has changed somewhat in the last couple weeks but it is comprised of old Peter, Paul and Mary tunes, a couple gospel numbers and even Joni Mitchell’s classic “Circle Game.”

My first reaction when reading the list was – hoo boy, couldn’t they come up with something more interesting? Those tunes are trite and tired. But then I came to my senses. No matter what, it is my job and my responsibility to do the best performance I can and to help out the singers, none of whom (with the exception of Stan the leader) are musicians. And you know what? By the end of the second rehearsal it began coming together, especially when a woman and her very young daughter showed up wanting to perform the gospel tune “Wade in the Water” ala Eva Cassidy. They gave me a lead sheet and although the changes sound a bit too much like “Hit the Road, Jack” (that will be running around in my head when we play it at the service), the results were pretty damn good!

The service will be fine, I’m sure. I pledge to do my best and stick with the standard changes on the tunes. And who knows? Maybe spending all that time in the church rehearsing will have some positive karmic effect when I sit down in front of the roulette wheel at the Bellagio!

Peace & good music,
Gene

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