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The gift of music

12/26/2011

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    A couple weeks ago I was in the Caribbean on a cruise. I love that part of the world for many reasons, not the least of which is the music I hear there. Music is joyous and vibrant there and is a big part of the everyday lives of the people. I heard a steel pan band (sometimes referred to as steel drums) that was absolutely fantastic, a five-piece band that included lead, tenor and bass pans plus a drummer and a percussionist. Their t-shirts proclaimed them winners of a recent contest on their home island of Antigua and they exhibited an infectious confidence that made it impossible to keep from dancing as they played covers of calypso, reggae and popular tunes. It again made me reflect on the differences in cultures and how that relates to not just the love of music, but the need to play.

 

Unfortunately – and I’ve stated this before in this space – I think that the playing of music is not celebrated nearly as much as it should be in our modern American culture. Put simply, if music is part of a person’s every day life, as it is in the Caribbean, the propensity to play music is strong. There is often a pretty large disconnect between listening to music and the actual, personal experience of playing music in our society. Sure, we hear music regularly on television and perhaps even in our schools if we have children of that age. But is it something that is related to on a personal level? That is – when we hear a pop star sing a tune can we imagine playing that song ourselves?

 

Here’s what I mean. In our culture we celebrate sports, perhaps to an absurd degree. But in spite of that, most of us have thrown a baseball or tried to put a basketball through a hoop. In some small way we feel a bond to the professional players by doing this even if we’re not consciously aware of it. The swish of a basketball going though the net is a rare occurrence for most of us but it is very satisfying and when we see the great Ray Allen of the Celtics put in yet another three-pointer we can relate to the actual experience. Can many of this say this about watching and hearing our favorite performer play a guitar and sing a song? Why is this?

 

My theory is that still, even in these modern times of (I hope!) acceptance of various interests and lifestyles we still do not put enough emphasis on our children learning to produce music. Even if a kid learns enough about a flute or a saxophone to play in a school band, do parents give the proper amount of positive reinforcement? How many dads and moms secretly or not so secretly dream of their kids becoming sports stars? And how many dream of their kids becoming musicians? Sports is macho, manly, aggressive and supposedly teaches life lessons. Music is wimpy, weak and the province of those kids who don’t have the physical skills to succeed in sports. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but I’ll bet you’ve been confronted with this attitude at some point in your life. Hopefully, not from a parent.

 

I’m not trying to be disparaging to youth sports – really, I’m not. For many kids it has great value. My point is that many of the same values can be taught with music, with one very important difference. Music is a life-long pursuit and regardless of our ability level it can bring huge satisfaction at any age. Can we truly say this about competitive sports?

 

Perhaps I’m totally off base on this, if you’ll forgive a sports analogy (!). But I don’t think so. In the many decades of teaching guitar I’ve noticed a direct correlation between exposure and celebration of music at an early age to the success a student finds. Many, many times I’ve asked students who have been struggling with basic musical concepts such as basic rhythm if they were exposed to music or they or their relatives played music growing up and many more times than not they say no, music was not something that was a part of their early lives. I absolutely believe the struggles they have are directly related to this. And the inverse is true too. I’ve heard from students of all ages who learn at a fast rate that music was a big part of their formative years.

 

That steel pan band on Antigua had an interesting make-up. The lead player was a man who appeared to be in his mid to late twenties; the tenor pan player was a girl who appeared to be in her mid teens; the bass pan player was a woman in her thirties or forties, as was the percussionist who played congas. The drummer was the senior member – he appeared to be in at least his sixties and maybe older and his playing was filled with drive and passion. They all played with small smiles on their faces as they rocked to the music. Their joy was infectious. My guess is that every one of them learned their instruments at an early age and their friends, families and everyone who hears them play is in awe of their abilities. And I’ll bet they pass on their love to playing too.

 

Peace & good music,

Gene

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Annoying little things....

12/7/2011

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A student was complaining about the back of the neck of his guitar being “sticky.” I knew exactly what he was talking about because I think we all experience that sticky, nasty feel from time to time. It is difficult to ignore and definitely affects how well I play and my guess is that many others feel the same. This is much more of a problem in the summer here on Cape Cod when we have to deal with hot, humid weather a lot of the time. But some people just have sweaty hands and they have sticky guitars necks pretty much all the time. A guy who used to play in a band with me had this condition to the extreme and I wouldn’t even let him touch my guitar because of the way it would feel when he gave it back.

This is one of the small but significant annoyances that go along with playing the guitar but fortunately it is one that can be dealt with. I am a big, big fan of the Virtuoso guitar cleaner and polish (available on this site on the accessory page and through my online store, www.capecodacousticsstore.com) and the cleaner will restore that silky, fast feel to a neck in no time. Avoid using regular furniture polish though – all that will happen is that the guitar will feel good for a little while but soon it will be even stickier than before and that stuff is often difficult to remove.

Another annoyance that students ask me about all the time is “string noise” when fingers are moved on the fretboard. This one is harder to solve. In fact, I have a wonderful recording of Julian Bream, classical guitar genius, and you can hear plenty of string noise as he plays. So I guess if a master like Bream cannot avoid it then I shouldn’t be all that concerned. Do NOT use a product called String Ease that is sprayed on the strings to make them slippery. Yes you eliminate a certain amount of noise but you will also kill the vibration of the strings almost immediately making buying a new set of strings necessary. I don’t really know why they market this stuff; perhaps it is aimed more at electric guitars for which string resonance is not as much of an issue? Also avoid flat wound strings, which do not exhibit any string noise but sound dead and terrible on an acoustic, plus they put a lot more tension on the neck than is safe. They were originally designed for hollow body electric guitars used by jazz players who in many cases actually want that bassy, non-resonant sound.

The fact is, even with careful technique to avoid scraping your fingers along the strings as you move there will always be some string noise. All you can really do is minimize it.

I’ve talked about this next one before in my Tip of the Week, but another thing that can drive a guitarist crazy is a string that suddenly makes a snapping or clicking sound as you tune, raising the pitch considerably and well past the tone you’re trying to tune to. Then you loosen the string and the same thing happens. It makes it almost impossible to get that one string (or perhaps a couple) exactly in tune. Having good quality tuners on your guitar can help with this (I love Gotoh 510s and use them on my primary guitar) but that little click happens because the groove in the nut is just slightly to narrow for the string. A qualified guitar tech can carefully file the groove to negate the problem but do NOT try this yourself because unless you are very, vary careful you will open the groove too much and lower the string so it buzzes when it’s played. A better solution is to go to your local hardware store and buy some powdered graphite. Next time you change strings apply a tiny, tiny bit to the groove in the nut. Be careful not to apply too much as it will spread onto the fingerboard and is difficult to remove. However, just a tiny bit will make the string slide through the groove smoothly, making tuning a much easier and exact process. This problem seems to manifest itself with guitar that have nuts made out of plastic or the manmade material called Tusc. A perfectly cut natural bone or ivory saddle will not have this problem. Installing a bone nut also will improve the sustain and overall tone quality of your guitar, too.

The last thing I wanted to mention should seem logical but is often overlooked. Getting back to the Curse of Sweaty Hands, be sure you take the time to wash your hands and dry them carefully before you play. Most guitarists (myself included!) don’t do this enough and the result is drastically shortening the “life” of the nice new strings you just installed. I feel very strongly that guitars should sound the best they can and fresh strings are the single most important way to ensure they do. You want them to last as long as they can because a $2k guitar can sound like one that costs $200 if the strings are gunked up and dead. There is some debate about the practice of wiping down strings after you play – some guitarists feel it only serves to push minute bits of dirt and dead skin (ewww!) into the wraps and kills the string faster; others, myself included feel that running a clean, dry cloth both over and under the strings can only help make them last longer. Your call on that one!

We all have enough challenges in our playing technique, trying to make our guitars sound good. Dealing with these little bugaboos will surely make the guitar a joy to pick up and play, at least until you get to the hard part of that new song you’re learning!

 

Peace & good music,

Gene

 

 

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In praise of Paul Simon

12/2/2011

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_   From time to time I get students who are, like me, huge fans of the music of Paul Simon. They request specific songs and I do my best to teach Paul’s guitar arrangements and every time I do I’m reminded of his genius. I sincerely believe that when the Lady Gagas and Kanye Wests have been long forgotten, Simon’s music will remain part of the fabric of American popular music. Just like Lennon and McCartney, Simon understands the value of solid melody and lyrics that speak to us on many levels. I recently saw a You Tube video of a very young Paul Simon being interviewed about the songwriting process by oh-so-smug-and-smarmy Dick Cavett (and in his case, I was reminded that self-satisfied pseudo wit and intelligence are distasteful in the extreme). Paul was trying to explain to Cavett how he comes at the process and the musical choices he makes. He was in the middle of writing his classic “Still Crazy After All These Years” and had come up with the first part of the song but was trying to construct the second half, the part that begins, “four in the morning, crapped out, yawning, longing my life away…” (what a great line!) and his quest was to use two notes that had yet to be used in the song. This is part of what he is all about – never be satisfied with simple repetition – move into new sounds and break the mold. I don’t think Cavett had a clue what Paul was talking about but any musician would know exactly what he meant.

That clip is worth watching. See if you can find it. It also brought to mind his wonderful appearance on Saturday Night Live at Thanksgiving when he walked out on stage in a turkey costume and with a totally straight face, sang “Still Crazy.” You always know with Paul that while he’s deadly serious about his music, he still knows that he should never take himself too seriously. How can you not admire that?

I remember going to see his movie “One Trick Pony,” which is the story of a marginally well known musician on the road with his band and trying to not cave in to the commercial demands of his record label. It is a “small” movie and somewhat clichéd in parts but the music is absolutely sublime and I’m sure many elements were totally autobiographical. Worth seeking out on Netflix. And that album, although not a huge seller contains some of his best work.

His relationship with Art Garfunkel is complex, to say the least. I think he still harbors resentment that “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” is still mostly identified with Garfunkel even though Simon wrote it, along with 95% of the other classic music they recorded together. However, they both understand the love their fans have for the music that is forever linked to the two of them and they put aside their differences from time to time to perform, often for good causes.

Simon has never been one to sit still, musically speaking and with the 25th anniversary of the epic “Graceland” album this coming year, Simon will be going out on tour again with many of the members of the band that made that album, including the unbelievable Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It is not well remembered now but shortly after that album was released Simon was accused of exploiting the South African musicians, which was a patently absurd claim. But it affected Simon deeply and always a very private person, he became even more reclusive. In any case, the tour was a huge success and every list of the best albums in rock music always includes Graceland – as they should. I hope to see the reunion tour next year!

What that album did was introduce millions of people to what we now call World Music, the melding of musical influences from around the world. You have to wonder if there had never been a Paul Simon (or Bob Marley for that matter) whether we would have the wonderful multi-cultural music that is heard today.

He followed that three years later with “Rhythm of the Saints” and while that album didn’t have quite the commercial success of  “Graceland” it offered the sounds of the streets of Brazil, more of the African influences played by musicians from many countries on that continent, all coming together with Simon’s wonderful melodies and lyrics.

What has always struck me personally about Simon’s lyrics is their deceptive simplicity. Any songwriter who can conjure up vivid images with very few words has to be classified as truly great. Over and over I’ve said to myself: oh, man, I wish I’d written that! “…diamonds on the soles of her shoes. Well, that’s one way to lose these walkin’ blues.”  Just one example….

When my daughter turned 16 I could think of no better way to express my feelings than some of his lyrics, that I wrote in her birthday card:

“I’m gonna watch you shine, watch you grow,

Gonna paint a sign so you’ll always know,

As long as one and one is two,

There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you.”

I get choked up just writing those words now! 

So, thanks Paul. 

I can’t wait to hear what Paul Simon will come up next.

Peace & good music,

Gene

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    Gene Bourque

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