Listen Hear, Inc.: Blog

Greetings,

I received an e-mail recently in response to my request for blogging subjects. I have included the some of it below because the writer made some great points on which I will share my opinion.

"Good morning, Music Guru, (What a great start!)

…For me, the past couple of months have been just a big (ol’) plateau, what with the normal beating-head-against-wall stuff that happens… What I have learned is that, even if you have to take several steps “backward” the key is to keep playing anything at all, not give up on yourself, and not quit; besides, the benefit of going back is that you learn how stuff that was hard or impossible a month or a year ago has “become” easy, which is a great confidence booster and really shows that there IS progress. Believe me, I almost walked away on a couple occasions, but I am just too (darned) hard-headed—and, I’ve wanted to play too badly for too long.

I think a lot of people get frustrated and quit before they give themselves a chance at music in general as well as their specific instrument. And as you may remember from when you were learning a million years ago, guitar is hard—on the fingers as well as on the brain."

Yes, the learning plateau happens to everyone. As a matter of fact, I have seen some musicians never go beyond a certain plateau. Others are learning all of their lives and their music shows that growth, but times of slow progress happen to everyone.

Sometimes I have felt that the effort is not equal to the reward. I have stopped playing for weeks at a time because I simply did not want to play any of the same songs or soloing concepts.

I started taking lessons from Barry so that I could rid myself of a several particular plateaus in my playing and understanding. There were concepts of improvisation that were just driving me crazy. What is interesting to me though is that I was on target with a few ideas and how I have been redirected is not terribly difficult; the new concepts just did not occur to me.

I believe that the writer suggesting we go ‘backward’ in our studies is a great idea. I often suggest it to students who have stopped practicing some songs when we add new songs. We need to visit old obstacles in the new light of greater skill that has been acquired with other concepts and songs. I am certainly going ‘back’ to quite a number of songs that I had real trouble playing as long ago as nine years. NINE YEARS!

A serious study of any subject is filled with twists and turns that lead us to both obstacles and solutions. The only motivation we have is to know we will be better tomorrow if we practice today.

-Justin

Today was lucky lesson number seven. I guess that makes sense.

Anyway, I have officially gone off the deep end and have no idea what I am doing. I actually have some clue, but it is one of those instances where being able to truly understand the concept I am learning is just inches away from my grasp.

Do any of my students have moments such as mine? Let me know!

We looked at a few of the tunes that have driven me crazy over the years. Tunes like:
A Night in Tunisia,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vcinmbH4SE

Woodyn’ You,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg1fkxWEvDs

and Well, You Needn’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I2uUcZPfJs&feature=related

I am excited to think about how much better I will sound playing these tunes in the coming months.

Even though the path is becoming clearer, the level of practicing and work skyrocketing is becoming clearer too.

Think of this: I now understand that I should think of the vii, iii, vi as the ii, V, I in a minor key, making Gm7b5 to C7#5 the ii – V of Fm which is the relative minor of Ab.

Exactly!

-Justin

P.S. I will be abandoning my lessons as fodder for my blog. Let me know if there are any music related subjects that you would like to read about and I will put something together for you. Thanks.

Well, if that doesn’t beat all. I have spent years trying to get my wig straight about improvising over certain tunes, Four being one of them. Today, I finally sounded like I was playing over specific chords and keys and not like random junk.

Sure, there is plenty more work ahead, but at least I do not feel like an idiot anymore.

Now, I just need to get a practice schedule and agenda together. This will help my practicing be more efficient and focused.

-Justin

This week, even though I have had very little time to practice, has produced a few small breakthroughs. Where we are taking one scale and using it in a number of different ways has become something that makes much more sense now.

Recent practices have been rather exciting for me because I am starting to hear myself make musical sense without developing a headache from all of the thinking. This is not to say that I am trying to avoid thinking, but rather that my previous and inefficient efforts required more thinking than absolutely necessary.

One of the concepts that give me trouble is the ‘Always from the One’ concept. This is not like the timing concept that I give to beginning student who are trying to connect their chords. This concept about thinking of everything I play from the point of view of the current chord’s root note or naming note.

This concept is not very difficult over a single chord vamp; which is why I need to practice it this way first. Playing on a tune with new chords every two beats at 220 BPM is difficult. Frankly, such a situation is usually impossible for me to sustain.

A song we have started to work on is Four.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf9Oh1odVec

I have played what is called the Head of this tune for years. The Head is just the melody and chords of the tune before and after any improvising or solos. It is one of the tunes that I have wanted to sound competent on for just as long and I am happy to be working toward that long awaited goal.

-Justin

Musical mileage from a single idea was the subject of this week’s lesson. The general concept is to use a musical idea in a number of different ways so that the lines I play will have a smoother flow.

We started with the Blues Scale, which was not my choice, but is probably a good idea. Students that are working on soloing have heard my Minor Pentatonic/Blues Scale rant. I will not write it here, but let’s just say that I avoid playing these two in their natural state.

I am using these scales from different key centers and the sounds are greatly different from what one usually hears, especially from guitarists. This is exactly why I wanted to take lessons from a player of a different instrument.

Learning ‘guitarisms’ is very important at the beginning and intermediate levels of playing. There is much more to attribute to the difference in sound from a saxophonist and a guitarist than just their instrument’s sound. Playing concepts fitted to a different instrument’s physical structure will give a player unique ideas outside of what will feel most natural on one’s own instrument. If you are interested in this pursuing this idea further, the best way to do so is to play a transcribed solo from a different instrument such as piano, saxophone or trumpet.

I was also given a CD of rhythm tracks over which to play. I have suggested this for all students working on soloing concepts because one must hear the notes being played in some sort of context. Notes by themselves to give us an idea of a harmonic background, but this background is most likely the simplest background available in our minds. It can certainly be no more complex than those harmonic ideas to which we are already acquainted.

To me, all of this is really exciting to be playing and discovering. I am very pleased with all of the new sounds I am getting from such a familiar group of notes. Better mileage indeed.

-Justin

I am less confused now. The exercises are as difficult and awkward as I imagined. For those of you who might know what I mean, the patterns are: ascending/ascending; descending/descending; ascending/descending; and descending/ascending. I am not so great at the last two because I have avoided them for years.

Also, as masterful as I might feel at times in regard to my guitar playing abilities, there are some other things that just kill me. The other weak spots in my playing that we are working to eliminate are: being able to play any scale or key in one position, I am fairly good at this already; and being able to change keys over a certain number of beats through all twelve keys. I am terrible at the second part.

I have a few students working on scales. I do not suggest working on scales until you can play a number of songs of varying difficulty, open chords, barre chords and have an actual reason for learning scales. ‘My friend told me I should learn scales’ is not a good reason. ‘I want to learn how to create solos’ or ‘I want to be able to create melodies’ are good reasons.

By the way, scales and chords consist of the same bits. Scales are just played as single notes, and chords are played in clumps. This is why it is important to learn both eventually.

Now I just need to practice every day. We all know how difficult this is to achieve.

-Justin

I am confused already. It may have been that my lesson was at 8:30 this morning. I could have been distracted knowing that I had a dentist appointment later today. Maybe I just do not know what I am doing.

As all students should do, I e-mailed my teacher a few times today to clarify some points about my homework. I was having trouble understanding the practicing patterns. There are four, and like the exercises that I give my students, there are really two just, but reversing them creates four exercises.

In a nutshell, my homework is to play a four note sequence, up from the lowest diatonic note on my instrument, in a particular key. One of the patterns is to play from the first note to the fourth; then the second note to the fifth, the third note to the sixth, and so on until my head explodes.

Then I do this in reverse as well as with the other keys, whichever keys are on the list that I left at work. As well as one other pattern that will also be reversed. The patterns are also on the same sheet that I left at work.

Oh, yeah, and with guitar, one must also play in the seven positions.

-Justin

Today, I had my first lesson with Barry Marshall. I really liked having someone just tell me what I needed to know rather than having to figure out everything myself.

He challenged my understanding of a few common musical concepts. It was interesting being asked questions that I could not answer. It was not as though I had no idea of what he was talking about, but rather that I was being shown new perceptions of common musical tools.

As an example, usually when discussing keys, we are told that the key of C contains the notes: C, D, E, F G, A, and B. Correct information, but this is content. The underlying principle, one which I learned today, is that a key signature is: the number of accidentals needed to make a major scale. In the case of the key of C, the response to this principle is: zero accidentals. As I was told; you know it, but you do not perceive it in this principle-based manner.

The basic premise of Mr. Marshall’s teaching seems to be actually defining concepts of music and using these concepts as tools. This opposes the usual avenue of piling on content without considering principles of thought that allow for expansion of concept and usage by the student.

I agree with this manner of teaching because it is essentially teaching a path of thinking. I, however, need my path of thought lengthened as we all do now and again.

-Justin

Whew! What a day! I did sleep late, but I still arrived on time and we were ready to play at 7:15am. Oddly, the temperature dropped a bit as the sun was rising.

We did receive positive feedback from runners and bystanders. I hope we get to play again next year.

There were quite a few runners this year. I think there were more than last year, but I have not learned how many yet. The organizers are doing a great job and I am especially glad that they are interested in having music groups along the course. Last year, there were four bands and this year there were six.

Let me know your thoughts of this series of blog installments. For the next event, I will use fewer days to write about. I think a daily update for the entire course of preparation is a little slow for reading.

Thanks,

-Justin

Yes, I know that today is the thirty-sixth day, but I did my math wrong and I have no excuse. Plus, 37 days are just not as catchy as 36.

I have a contingency plan for rain. Since we are located at a bank with a covered drive-through, we will just setup there. We will not be very visible from the road, but we will definitely be heard.

I went through my packing lists today and I have all of the stuff ready to go. Now I just need to be sure I get up a 5am.

In case you are wondering which sort of items would be on a musician’s list for a gig; here is my list:

Personal Rig

Amp
Amp Stand
Amp/JamManCable
AmpFootSwitch
EQ/AmpCable
EQPedal
ExtensionCord
Guitar
Guitar Stand
Guitar Strap
Guitar/AmpCable
JamMan
JamMan/EQCable
MicGooseNeck
Microphone
MicrophoneCable
Music
MusicStand
Picks
PowerStrip
Tuner

PA System

Bass/MicCable
CabinetMicCables
Cabinets
ExtensionCords
Hand Truck
KickDrumCable
KickDrumMic
KickDrumMicStand
MixingBoard
MonitorMicCables
Monitors
OverheadCable
OverheadMic
OverheadStand
PowerSourceCables
PowerStrips

Miscellaneous

Amp Cover
Bike?
Business Cards
Canopy Tent
Checks
EarPlugs
Folding Table
Food
Germ-X
Jacket
ReStringTool
SmallPartsBag
Songlists
StringPack
Tarp?
Transparent Tape
Water

Oh yeah, and a van.

-Justin

I made more lists today. There is a twenty-seven item list just for me. This seems a bit silly, but when you break things down into the smallest parts, there seem to be quite a number of them. I even have ‘Picks’ on my list. Funny thing about getting older…

Tomorrow is ‘Packing Day’ for all of the stuff to be arranged and ready for loading. As well as string changes and cable testing and other seemingly small but ‘gig-killer’ concerns. Imagine showing up at a gig and not having the setlist, or picks!

I am concerned about our current weather conditions. I hope we have not been through all of this writing, practicing, planning and rehearsing just to have the gig cancelled because of the weather. I was informed several days ago that if there were any questions concerning the weather that we are to go ahead as planned until further notification.

Let’s hope for the best.

-Justin

I spent a bit of time working on improvising today. Not over any of the tunes on the list, but using essentially the same ingredients.

I made the set list for the gig on two pages with a large font size. This makes it easier to see when it is taped somewhere near the floor; such as on a monitor.

In case you do not know, a monitor is a wedge-shaped speaker cabinet that faces the musicians onstage. Big name musical acts use in-ear monitors that are like super wonderful ear buds like one uses with an mp3 player. They are super wonderful though, and expensive too.

I did get my first lesson scheduled for next week with Barry the musician I mentioned a few installments ago. I will probably get clobbered with information.

There are just a few more days until the gig. I hope to see some of you out there.

-Justin

I set up the PA today and worked on amp and effects routing. Sounds really exciting doesn’t it? Well, it is not really very exciting, but I do not want any surprises at 6:30 Saturday morning.

I programmed two songs into the JamMan. I made a list of about ten songs and after thinking a bit, I decided to eliminate some of them because I think I can program them on-the-fly just fine. Others were eliminated because the parts that I would have programmed were not very interesting and would create the potential synchronization issues. I just did not consider them to be worth the risk.

I am a bit interested to learn if the extra controller for the JamMan is as much fun as it would seem. With it, I can program multiple sections of tunes and switch between them during a performance. There are a few tunes on our list that would be great candidates for such an arrangement.

-Justin

Tonight’s rehearsal was very long. I should have eaten before we started; oh well. We did play through the entire list. It was much more fun with the whole group.

I need to have my guitar and JamMan levels high in the monitor mix. We tried a few tunes with me setting loops and we would get out of sync. These guys have been playing long enough that I am sure that the problem is not a lack of skill.

I think what I need to do over the next couple of days is practice setting up the PA with all of my stuff. I want make sure that I have all of the signal directions and levels sorted out before the morning of the gig. We need to be at our locations by 6:30AM; a very early time for musicians.

I had an interesting experience today. I played a 1964 Fender Stratocaster; which was recently purchased for more than $15,000. Frankly, I was more impressed with this than the $50,000 Martin that I held a couple of years ago. The Martin was new; the 1964 Fender is definitely not in production anymore. The rarity makes it more exciting.

-Justin

I feel more confident today that we have enough prepared material for our allotted time. Although, the bass player gave me an indication that he might request a pass on one tune.

I am still concerned that I will not notice the time until the end of our list and then realize that I have no tunes and twenty minutes left. However, I suspect that this is just my mind playing games with me; a bit like the nightmare of finding yourself in the middle of your school’s hallway with your trousers at your ankles.

I did not do any programming of the JamMan today because I wanted to play straight through the set as I will during tomorrow’s rehearsal. I also have the onset of my allergy season and I cannot think very well.

Tomorrow should be a hoot.

-Justin

Practice today was sporadic. I am just so happy to have some time off that I just do not want to put in serious time practicing. I did play a few tunes that had been troublesome just so I can keep them fresh.

I will play through the entire set tomorrow (Sunday) in preparation for Monday’s rehearsal with the rest of the group. I might even program a few tunes in the JamMan just to see how it goes during rehearsal.

-Justin

I have the PA system secured for the gig. It is a simple, but loud pile of parts. Sound dissipates really quickly outside, so a good deal of power is needed to carry a clear sound. We do have the advantage of a building being behind us. Then again, it will probably cause a reflected and delayed signal to be sent to the band. That would make life difficult.

Personal rehearsal today was really fun. I am really getting along with the JamMan. I should map out some programming ideas over the weekend to be ready for rehearsal on Monday and hopefully a second rehearsal during the week.

I noticed today that playing the set took longer than it has in recent sessions. Two reasons for this would be: a) some time spent thinking, looping with the JamMan, and playing a song or two more than once; and b) the songs just being longer because I am improvising over certain sections as planned for the gig.

As I have mentioned in previous installments, I am careful not to practice improvised sections more than necessary. The reason for this is that I do not want what I play to sound ‘tired’. The idea is to practice these sections just enough to know which ‘ingredients’ I will be using during the performance. This lends a by-the-seat-of-the-pants feeling to what I am playing, but not being completely cold to my harmonic context.

Incidentally, I would like to have our performance recorded in video for both archiving purposes and for the learning experience of observing the performance as only video allows. I am not sure how ‘high-tech’ I want to go with this idea.

-Justin

Working with the JamMan today gave me a better idea of which tunes I can program on-the-fly, and which tunes I need to program and save.

Some of the tunes were tons of fun; others were just better sounding with the extra ‘playing’. There are some tunes that start really well when I program the JamMan on-the-fly because you can hear one part, then another part come in later.

As with most items, there are some extra parts available. I can use a footswitch connected to the JamMan that will allow me to change between programmed loops. This is especially useful for tunes with more than one distinctly different section such as a verse-chorus-verse arrangement.

Anyway, I plan to use this as-is until after the Ten Miler gig. I do not think that I would get the footswitch in time and I certainly do not want to get too bogged down into programming and not enough time maintaining my song memory.

Going blank on a gig is not cool!

-Justin

The JamMan arrived today! I used it for some practicing and it is relatively easy to use. I also used it in some lessons this evening and I was really pleased with how seamlessly I could incorporate it into a simple demonstration for students.

Using it during my personal rehearsal, I was able to setup a backing guitar part to the main part of some songs that I will be performing. I will be able to create long loops and overdubbed ‘tracks’ so I can use it through an entire song. Maybe I can accomplish this within the next ten days.

I do wonder how well the other two players will be able to adapt to me using the JamMan. I also need to try running it through a PA system to see how I can handle it.

Practicing will much more effective and exciting now; I may even develop some material for solo gigs.

-Justin

I played one song today; forty-five times. I have been frustrated with this tune for quite some time. As a matter of fact, there are two or three tunes with the same changes as this tune that I do not play to my satisfaction either. These situations are what I am seeking to resolve through the lessons I plan to take that I mentioned a few days ago.

I remembered at lunch today that I was supposed to secure the PA system this morning.

Oops!

By the way, I picked up some roses for Angela because today is our anniversary. I went to Lynchburg Florist & Antiques at 3224 Old Forest Road; $14.95/Dozen-Cash and Carry. I mention this because the flowers are fresh; they were wrapped in a presentable manner with a bow, and a much better value than what I have acquired anywhere else.

Just so you know.

-Justin

P.S. We went to Milan, an Indian restaurant on Wards Road.