Blog Archives

Live music, guitars, etc.

7/30/2018

Another one of those random posts today. As much as I love summer and despise cold winter weather this heat and humidity have kind of clogged up my ol’ brain but here goes.

I think in the near future I’m going to do a post along the lines of “Gene’s Favorite Stuff.” Not that an endorsement little old me is worth all that much but I’m hoping my experiences and way too much money spent on great and less-than great gear will be helpful.

A side note to that (as mentioned previously) I will be attending the huge NAMM show in Los Angeles in January where I am pretty sure I’ll discover more stuff I just have to have. These days my focus has been on getting the best, purest and most natural sound from the electronic sound reinforcement devices I use, rather than buying new guitars in search of the same. Still haven’t found the ultimate system that is both portable and affordable, however. If any readers (Tony?) would like to meet me there, January 23 – 25, I would be happy to get you show credentials as an employee of Cape Cod Acoustics. Within reason of course….I think I’m allowed to get two or three extra badges without charge. Should be a lot of fun with the latest/greatest from virtually every manufacturer in the music world on display, plus lots of free performances. Send me a message vis the Contacts Page if you’re interested.

Heard some live music a couple times in the last week or so. In both cases the players were very good. One was a duo at a local bar/restaurant and the other was at a private party where the performance of a trio was being filmed for use as a promo for their new CD release. At that one it was very cool to see both the band and audience loving the music so much. Although my wife and I were most likely just about the oldest people there it was fun to observe the energy of the event, something that I often find lacking at bars when a band is playing these days. Maybe it’s just the places I go…. Anyway, something else I found very interesting with this duo was that except for their original material, everything else they played was OLD. I mean, along the lines of Van Morrison and Allman Brothers, although they did put their own spin on the material. This further confirmed my opinion that when a band needs to default to non-original material it often is stuff that was popular when I was their age! What does this mean? I invite you to come to your own conclusions on that.

Right now and I think for the foreseeable future my guitar line up is as follows:

2017 Martin Custom Shop D-35 Seth Avett model w/Martin Gold-Plus electronics

2017 Martin OM-28 (one of the new “re-imagined” series) w/K&K Pure Western Mini pick-up

2015 Eastman AC-422ce w/K&K Pure Western Mini pick-up

2014 Prestige NYS Standard semi-hollow body electric

The most recent one is the D-35. I’ve been playing with a guy who has a truly amazing collection of recent vintage Martins and one of them is one of the now discontinued D-28 Marquis models. I’ve owned many, many Martin dreadnoughts over the years. I’d been without one for a while and his sounded so great that I found myself lusting after another although I find dreads to be a bit unwieldy to hold these days. My D-35 sounds absolutely incredible, different than his Marquis but that is to be expected considering the lighter bracing on the D-35, plus scalloped braces and an Alpine spruce top. The thing I like the most is the even response with nice crisp, clear treble and mids, making it better suited for finger-style playing than most dreads. However, I am not a big fan of the Martin Gold-Plus system as it doesn’t sound as “natural” to me as the K&K’s. So I may switch that out at some point in the not too distant future.

The OM-28 is not as in-your-face as the D-35 but is the one I reach for when I’m working out new songs for myself and/or my students. Just a classic Martin 000 size guitar in every way. Unfortunately, it tends to suffer from a certain amount of deadness when the humidity levels are high but I’ve had it long enough to know that it will improve as the weather moderates and cooler temperatures prevail in the fall. But regardless of that it’s the most comfortable guitar to hold and play that I have right now. It even made the trip to Florida with me last spring and most likely will again when we go again in the winter of early 2019.

The Prestige gets the least amount of attention but it’s a great guitar, equally at home in blues, jazz, country or rock. The fit and finish are superb and the Seymour Duncan special design P-90 type pick-ups have no “noise” whatsoever and sound just great. If you’re unfamiliar with Prestige, they are a company in Canada that assembles their guitars from components made in Korea. Based on what I’ve seen, they are identical to the Peerless line and I strongly suspect Peerless is making the parts for Prestige. These guitars although not very common in this country are worth a good look if you’re considering an electric. My only complaint is that thing is HEAVY, with a solid maple center that runs the length of the body. But that may be why it has such great sustain and sounds so good.

Which brings me to the Eastman. You know what? As much as I love my Martins – and will always love Martins generally – that Eastman actually sounds better than either of them when amplified and also damn good when not plugged in. Plus, the neck size and shape feels oh so comfortable to play. Combine that with superb action, a short-scale neck that makes barre chords easy and flawless fit and finish and it’s easy to see why this one has stayed in my stable for about two years now.

So I think I’m done buying guitars for a while. For a good, long while, I hope. Electronics on the other hand….

One final thought related to electronics and performance. That trio I was speaking of – acoustic/electric guitar, electric keyboard, fiddle, vocals by the guitar and keys players, made the best use of a looper I’ve heard maybe ever. As regular readers of this blog know I’m not a huge fan of loopers as I think they are often over-used for endless noodling by players who aren’t able or inclined to learn a lot of songs. Not so with this guitar player. He did utilize loops on just about every song but they were subtle and most importantly, didn’t last all that long. He was also very skillful at punching them in and out so they were not noticeable for the most part. Very nice. Maybe I’ll have to try a looper again (!).

Peace & good music,
Gene

0 Comments

Getting to know you....

7/18/2018

0 Comments

One of the main reasons I’ve been teaching guitar for all these years is the pleasure I get from getting to know my students beyond just a teacher/pupil relationship. No matter how much I try to keep things as loose but still as professional as possible it’s inevitable that as time passes I will learn about their families, triumphs and tragedies, even deeper things related to their personalities. This is ultimately very important because those things definitely factor into their enjoyment of playing the guitar and the success they are able to attain.

Sometimes a student will say something that absolutely cracks me up. For example, one of my longtime students was struggling with a song recently and she reported that a certain chord in the song was so difficult and sounded so bad (and it wasn’t really all that bad!) that when she was trying to play it at home her fire alarm went off! Now, I’ve heard of negative reactions from pets and spouses but never from a dwelling! We had a good laugh over that one.

I encourage my students to sing with their guitar playing, at least in the privacy of their homes if they are uncomfortable doing it in front of me. Most mumble something about not having a good voice or being nervous about it and I do my best to convince them that it is unfair and unrealistic to compare their own singing voices to what they hear on a recording. Sometimes this is understood, sometimes not. But occasionally I’ll have a student who – and there is no other way to put this – just can’t sing a lick, but they don’t let that stop them! A guy who was with me not too long ago became a very fine player but his singing was not even remotely close to being in tune. Did that stop him? Hell, no! The bottom line was that he just loved doing it and who cares what it sounded like?!? Although I would never encourage him to do an open mic and sing, all I know is that he felt good and had no aspirations of glory. Good for him!!

For a couple summers a few years ago I had a college-age young woman who COULD sing, and sing very well. She was an average guitar player but worked hard on that part of her craft and began writing some very good and very personal songs. Being a summer resident here on Cape Cod she was not going to be someone I saw for too long but my biggest problem was trying to keep myself from just listening to her for the length of a lesson. I’m not sure what happened to her as we’re not in touch but my guess is that she is doing very well in performance and I keep hoping I’ll see her name in print somewhere.

Sometimes my job is to be a sounding board as much as a guitar teacher. In the last few years I’ve had quite a few students who were dealing with some serious health issues, or had a spouse who was, and I know that their guitar lesson is as much an escape from some harsh realities as a musical learning experience. I do credit myself with being a good listener and that can be vital sometimes. It can be hard to not let those stories get me down, though. Basically, and perhaps a bit selfishly it does help me keep my own life in perspective.

There are times though that things don’t work out as well as I’d like in terms of personalities. Fortunately this does not happen very often and I’ve learned to know when to suggest a student try a different teacher. A few years ago one of my students arrived with very high expectations – nothing wrong with that – but it came out over the course of a few lessons that she was deeply scarred emotionally from a nasty divorce. This affected just about every aspect of her life from what I gathered but sadly it also affected how she approached learning to play the guitar. I was as gentle with her as I could be but she was easily rattled by even the most basic musical concepts that were essential. She did not progress as she had hoped in spite of me trying just about every technique trick I know and her frustration turned to tears and then to anger. After a few months she stopped her lessons and I’m pretty certain that she blamed her lack of success on me. There have only been a couple times over my 40-plus years of teaching that something like this has happened and for a while it upset me quite a bit but I had to keep reminding myself that there were much bigger issues in play.

There are also occasions when I misread a student’s personality. Years ago, when I taught as much electric guitar as acoustic, once in a while I had to deal with the young stud guitar player who was certain he was going to be famous and didn’t really want anything more than for me to tell him how wonderful he was. OK, fair enough. His money was as green as anyone else’s. But there was a time or two that I made mistaken assumption that a new student happened to be that sort. I had to learn to dial back my immediate assumptions and this was a good thing; a couple of those young guys were doing nothing more that hiding their insecurities with bluster. I think that may have been the point that I learned to listen better and not let ego issues on both sides affect my teaching. Best of all, a couple of those young Guitar Heroes went on to play professionally and years later told me how much they enjoyed their lessons with me, although it certainly didn’t seem that way at the time!

These days most of my students are older and I only teach acoustic techniques although I still play the electric from time to time. Older students are wonderful in so many ways but the best may be that their life experiences, which they often share with me take the “long view.” Many will trust me with personal information (which I would never reveal) that brings our time together to a higher level. I sincerely appreciate this because playing music touches a part of our psyches that should inspire something oh so simple but fragile too: trust.

Peace & good music,
Gene

0 Comments

I wonder....

7/11/2018

2 Comments

It’s too hot to write some in-depth discourse about the secrets of guitar playing as you’re no doubt used to seeing in this space. Yeah, right! So, without further ado….

Things that make me go, hmmmmm…..??

Why does my guitar sound great at certain times of day and not so good at others?

Why do so many indie rock and Americana groups seem to want to fill up space with choruses that go: Ahhhh…..ahhhhh……ahhhhhh…..ahhhhh….ahhhhhh……ahhhhh…….(etc.)? Are they not able to write any more lyrics?

In retrospect, listening to a lot of music that I grew up with and thought sounded wonderful at the time, it becomes obvious that there was a lot of garbage out there in the wonderful Sixties. Some truly great stuff, yes, but also plenty of self-indulgent clap-trap too.

And on that note, understand this: I love Stevie Wonder. I think he is truly an iconic musician and perhaps even a genius. But…. If anyone else had written “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” which is about the laziest lyric writing I can think of, that song would never have seen the light of day.

Will Taylor Guitar’s insistence out bringing out the latest/greatest bracing system every couple of years give a financial kick in the ass to the people who bought the previous incarnation of the latest/greatest bracing system?

Is it really necessary to memorize lyrics anymore? Back in the day you were considered a rank amateur if you went on stage with a music stand and read the lyrics while you played. Now, just about every performer I see uses a music stand or an IPad on a stand – or both. I’m not complaining – it certainly makes things easier and the audiences don’t seem to mind. Now if only my old eyes were good enough to read anything smaller than 18pt. print!

Are well-planned instrumental solos a thing of the past? Seems that way. Sure, when we jam with friends playing solos that go on and on are fun and a great way to hone your licks. But in performance, limiting solos to a pre-specified number of verses or measures makes a group sound tight and well-rehearsed. I blame a lot of the current trend of open-ended solos on the use of loopers. Oh, how wonderful to have a rhythm guitarist who never gets tired of playing the same changes over and over and over! From an audience perspective? Booooooringgggggg.

Why the heck can’t I get used to using finger picks?!? Been trying for over 40 years. I have a container with every variety made. Every once in a while, I pull a few out and try them. And then remember why they mostly gather dust. I am so envious of players who use them well. Ain’t gonna happen for this old guy.

Why is it that I can practice a new song over and over, get it in passable shape and perform it but if I don’t play it regularly I will screw it up the next time, for sure. But…. I recall a tune I haven’t played in many years and play it flawlessly the first time I try it?

Will the trade war with China have a long-term effect on the availability and price of instruments and music accessories in this country?

Even after all these years, being a bit nervous when I perform always results in the best performances. Being totally at ease and relaxed before I begin is a recipe for disaster, sooner rather than later. YMMV of course. It’s just one of my quirks.

I often wonder about musicians I’ve played with over the years but have lost contact with. Are they still playing? Would getting together with them be a great experience or a disappointment?

It takes a long, long time to learn to temper expectations with realities. Being the best you can be, musically speaking, is an admirable goal and probably vital in the long term. The trick is knowing just what you can be best at. Musically speaking.

Is the love of music implanted in our genetic code? I have come to believe it is. All I have to do is watch my precious granddaughter smile and dance and sing when I play.

Peace & good music,
Gene

2 Comments

Why oh why can't I predict how well I'll play?!

7/4/2018

0 Comments

My buddy Tony from Australia is a regular reader of this space and we often email back and forth about various guitar-related things, with some politics thrown in from time to time. As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I shy away from using this forum to spout my political views, although on this 4th of July, 2018 it is very hard for me to keep from breaking that self-imposed rule. Tony often offers some great ideas for subjects here and he recently wrote of playing his 48th open mic. Wow! That is very impressive indeed.

He did mention an interesting phenomenon recently and it’s worth exploring. He said he did an open mic and it went very well from a performance perspective but did another only a few days later which wasn’t quite as good.

Why does this happen? And if you’ve never performed in front of people with any regularity, you can be sure it does and WILL happen. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an enthusiastic amateur player, a seasoned professional or even a world famous star. Everyone experiences good and bad performances. I certainly do.

The thing is, if there was some way to predict when this was going to happen (the worst ones AND the best ones I mean) it seems like there would be some way to avoid or look forward to the experience. Sadly, to some degree anyway, I really don’t think that’s possible. Even obvious indicators like personal issues interfering with your musical train of thought may or may not affect your performance. Some people let issues affect them; some find solace in immersing themselves in the playing experience with great results. Sometimes you can feel just too good, too confident going into a performance and speaking from personal experience that can be a disaster if you’re not good shaking off unexpected flubs.

It should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway. Being prepared is absolutely vital. For example, I’ve always been amazed and maybe a bit envious of performers who can take the stage with only the vaguest idea of their set list. Some can do that, most can’t and shouldn’t. Have a set list prepared and even if you feel like straying from it from time to time, it gives you a foundation to build upon.

Another thing that amazes me are musicians who can show up minutes before they are scheduled to play, do a quick set-up and then dive right in. I am so not that person. I always arrive well ahead of time to make sure my equipment is operating as it should but mostly to survey the listening audience. This tends to give me confidence in what I’ve prepared or makes me realize some tweaking of that set list may be in order. Then I like to relax for a few minutes, talk with people, have a drink of some sort (usually coffee or water, my days of sucking down a couple beers before I play are long gone!) and relax.

So let’s say you do all those things and begin playing. The first song may be easy as pie or it may be a bit of a struggle. One little trick I’ve been employing for a few years is nothing more than moving my picking hand back toward the bridge a bit. What? Well, if my nerves are a bit on edge I’ve found that moving back just an inch or so where the bridge offers more resistance to the movement of the strings seems to mitigate any trembling that I have in that hand. Strange, eh? Give it a try if you find that your first song is difficult to control with your picking hand. Works for strumming, too.

Now you’re into the set a few songs. You’ve found a bit of a groove and your confidence is building. Then, from out of nowhere, someone walks up and wants to start a conversation – while you’re playing! Unless you’ve played out for a long, long time this is guaranteed to destroy that groove and even your confidence. Your choices are: ignore the person (but do smile, they shouldget the hint) or go into something akin to auto-pilot. That is what I do. I just keep playing and repeating a section of the song that doesn’t require my total attention. However, there are times when there is really nothing to do but stop and allow the conversation to commence. For a lot of years I thought this was unacceptable, “the show must go on” and all that. But then I came to realize that in a casual setting like a restaurant or bar where only a portion of the audience may be paying attention to what I was playing, they could see why I was stopping and didn’t have a problem with it. Conversation ends and I begin the song again from the beginning. No harm, no foul. I might even play it better the second time.

The thing that is most baffling to me in the vagaries of performance is this. There are times when I play my average best, which will certainly include a few “clams” as my brother the trumpet player calls them, but the audience seems to really enjoy the music and will often tell me so. That feels good, for sure.

But then there are the times when I play just about flawlessly and…. No one notices. Experience over the many decades I’ve been performing has taught me to let that go, just like I can (usually!) let go of a less than stellar performance.

So I guess that for most of us, regardless of our level of experience, there is just no way to predict what’s going to happen! Any performer who understands this and is prepared to give the best they can will do just fine, most of the time.

In closing today, I am going to break the rule I mentioned at the beginning.

We are very proud here in Falmouth, Massachusetts that Katherine Lee Bates grew up here. She was the author of “America the Beautiful.” One of our greatest physical attributes in Falmouth is the Shining Sea Bikeway, a beautiful stretch of paved surface (an abandoned railroad way) that runs from North Falmouth to Woods Hole. It traverses cranberry bogs, forests, salt marshes and follows Vineyard Sound along the coast, the “shining sea” that Ms. Bates was surely thinking of when she wrote those lyrics. I highly recommend it if you ever visit Falmouth.

There’s another line in that song that today has more significance than ever.

“And crown thy good with brotherhood….”

In these troubled times I can’t think of a better way to truly “make America great.” Because along with being “great” we should never forget to be good.

Peace & good music,
Gene

0 Comments

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me!

7/3/2018

0 Comments

As the summer heat arrives and tourist season begins in earnest here on ol’ Cape Cod we locals tend to hunker down a bit. The up side is that for everyone who lives and works here the influx of tourist dollars are welcomed. In my case, last week was a very good one: three guitars sold in one day. I guess I can relate to the mind set to a degree. I readily admit that when I’m on vacation I’m ready and willing to drop some cash. And I have plenty of useless souvenirs to prove it! Hopefully, the people who bought those guitars won’t come to view them the same way, but I doubt they will. In any case, the cash infusion allowed me to order a new Martin D-35 Seth Avett model (custom shop). It arrives today and I’m psyched, just as I always am when a new guitar is on its way. Will give a review after I’ve played it for a while.

Further talk about the issues of high humidity and what it does to guitars. There is an interesting thread going on one of the guitar sites about the effects of humidity on rosewood vs. mahogany guitars. The general sense (and I agree) is that rosewood is more affected, tone-wise, than mahogany. There was an interesting observation by a custom guitar maker that is about something I’ve experienced and don’t like one bit but never really considered.

It’s common for the action on an acoustic guitar to get worse (i.e., higher) with extended period of high humidity due to the top bulging. This guitar maker pointed out that while annoying and sometimes distressing it will probably go away when the weather moderates and drier conditions prevail.

But…. He pointed out that wood absorbs humidity fairly quickly but typically takes much longer to dry out. In other words, patience is definitely a virtue. Now, patience is certainly not my long suit. A couple years ago I bought one of the new, updated Martin 00-18’s. A sweet, sweet little guitar, for sure, super comfortable to hold and play, excellent fit and finish and it sounded great. I bought it in the winter when dry conditions are norm around here. All was well until summer came. Then the action started to get worse. And worse. I knew it was humidity related and made sure it lived in my studio most of the time where the air conditioner does a decent job of keeping the air cooler and drier. Alas, this didn’t help much and by September that 00-18 was all but unplayable. My regular guitar tech said, don’t worry, nothing is really wrong, give it time. But I couldn’t resist tweaking the truss rod, with only marginal improvement.

One of my long-time students loved that guitar and she wasn’t particularly intimidated by the high action above the 5thfret because she does 95% of her playing in first position. She told me if I ever wanted to sell it to think of her first. So I did, and she bought it (for a very good price, I might add).

A few months later I began to notice that guitar was getting easier and easier to play when she came for her weekly lesson. By about Christmas, it was perfect and sounded even better. This proves the point made by the guitar maker on that forum. Oh well, she’s in love with that little Martin and I know why, it’s as perfect an example of a 00 Martin as I’ve ever heard or played. Lesson learned, Gene.

Other random stuff. In the past month I played a couple gigs that were a study in contrast. I won’t be too specific but just want to make a simple point. Yes, I get paid to perform and I know I’m a very small fish in a very big pond but basic respect is just as important to a musician as anything else.

At the first one, the people involved could not have been nicer, thanking me profusely for doing the job, telling me how much they enjoyed the music, and most importantly, paying me (with a nice tip, too) before I played a note. And then at the end they again thanked me and said how much they had enjoyed the music, and that it had definitely enhanced the day. I really appreciated everything they said and did.

On the other hand, at the second engagement there was no doubt about my status: hired, temporary help. No one was rude or outright nasty but the vibe was distant and somewhat dismissive, at best. No biggie really, I’ve been doing this a long time and I know how the game is played. I guess if I hadn’t played the first one soon before I might not have even noticed.

The final small bit of an insult came when it was time to get paid. No one in charge could find my check and in fact seemed to be pretty disinterested in the fact that I was all packed up and wanted to go home. Finally, the check was found but the person giving it to me thought it would be fun to wave it back and forth in front of my face before it was given to me, as if it was some kind of gift that I should be grateful for. I think this person could see by the look on my face that this was unacceptable behavior. I did take it, finally, and I can say with conviction that this is the last time I will play that particular venue. Oh, and by the way, the price I gave them for this engagement was well below what I usually charge because one of my students (who was not there) is a member of the group sponsoring the event. So it goes in the world of a work-a-day musician.

But hey, let’s end this installment on the up-beat. I booked my trip to the big NAMM show in Los Angeles next January. NAMM is the trade group of the music industry and the winter show (one just concluded in Nashville) is the biggest they hold. I’ve been a member for a year or so and joined specifically to be able to attend one of the shows, which are only open to members. Every manufacturer in the music industry will be there and showing their latest/greatest gear. Plus, there are performances going on all the time and great players demonstrating the new gear, giving workshops in marketing strategies and much more. My hope is to find a new line of guitars to offer, survey the latest in instructional aids, and most of all to just hang with the best in the musical instrument world.

I’ve never been to LA and I’m looking forward to that, too. And perhaps a little detour to Las Vegas for a couple nights on the way home may be on the agenda (!).

Peace & good music,
Gene

0 Comments

Live music, guitars, etc.

Getting to know you....

I wonder....

Why oh why can't I predict how well I'll play?!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me!

Author

Archives

Categories