If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I broke my nail and was relegated to work on my flatpicking skills until my nail grows back. I thumbed through my Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s and found some great exercises for learning scale patterns and mixing them up to better my soloing. The only problem is that I wanted more than what the magazine was giving me. A couple of nights ago, I came across a site called GuitarCardio.com and I’m loving it. It’s a scale exercise program where you choose a key (or all keys), select a difficulty level and a starting place for the scale. A series of scales will then be given for you to work on. It’s like a workout plan for you fingers, hence the name “cardio” I’m thinking. The dynamic nature of this system sings to me because I’m not getting bored with the same scales over and over again. This program is still in it’s infancy so there are some drawbacks like the scales don’t cover the entire fingerboard, lack of customizability and no metronome, to name a few. Brad Heintz, the creator of GuitarCardio.com addresses bugs and feature requests in his …
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I have decided to start a new “series” of sorts, here at Guitar Musings. Along with giving you my thoughts and recommendations on new CD’s that I have purchased, I will also grab some music from my collection and let you know what I think. Why should all recommendations come from new releases when there is so much music to explore that has been around for years? My first selection is Bruce Cockburn’s “Speechless.” I chose Bruce because it was his playing that inspired me to study fingerstyle guitar with his signature alternating bass lines with that unwavering thumb and his melodies continue to make my draw drop. Speechless came out in 2005 and is a collection of his instrumentals throughout his almost 40 year career. I think every song on this release is wonderful but here are some of my favorites. Rouler Sa Bosse: He has been performing this live quite a bit now. Took me over a year to get that sucker down. Sunrise on the Mississippi: Great blues tune. A great example of how his thumb is independent from his entire body. Make you feel like you’re on the front porch down south with some of the …
So I’m up in the Mountains again but this time it’s for work, believe it or not. I’m here at the beautiful Copper Mountain resort for the TIE (Technology in Education) conference this week and after 5 years of coming to this conference, I have decided to present as well. My presentation will be on open source Content Management Systems. Sounds gripping doesn’t it? The guy who checked me in, asked about it and soon regretted it. He said that I “lost him at ‘open’.” I just told him it’s how to make a web page with certain types of software. He acted like he was interested and moved on to sending me on my way. I’ll give him credit though for trying. What is nice is that it will be just me and my wife for the whole week because the kids are staying with Grandma and Grandpa. No kids, unless you count my guitars which you could probably make a good argument for. Especially, considering how much I packed for them. Here’s the lowdown. I brought two guitars (Martin, Takamine nylon), music stand, a ton of sheet music, two guitar stands, and other misc things like extra strings, …
I’ve been back from camping for a few days now, had a wonderful Father’s Day and found some new life in my playing. Even worked out a couple more measures in a piece I’m writing. I was joking to my wife that, at this pace, I might finish it in another year or so. Anyway…. In my “Back To Basics” post, I mentioned that I needed to work on technique for a bit because I was stuck in a rut and needed to change my practice formula. Last weeks obstacle was focusing on one song and forgetting the others. At one point I was saying to myself, “You’ve been playing for 20+ years and you can’t play shit!” (insert primal scream here). Just a bit of unnecessary negativity to keep me from playing my best but I’m better now. Moving on….. So fresh off of my trip, I come back more relaxed and with a fresh head. I decided to write down all of the songs that I’ve been working on the last 6 months. Next thing you know, I had ten songs on that slip of paper to prove that I just might might be able to play this …
I’m off the Buffalo Peaks again for a camping trip with the kids. If you don’t know, Buffalo Peaks is in South Park Colorado, south of the town of Fairplay. Yes, it’s the same South Park that inspired the television series but haven’t run into Kyle, Stan, Cartman or Kenny… Yet. The pictures featured here were taken at the peaks and they are also featured in the banner photo for my other website. So what does this have to do with guitar? I’m contemplating whether or not I should bring that six string addiction. On one hand, I need the rest to let my hands recover but being at the peaks brings out some really good playing, especially when I’m with my father-in-law, who has a library of incredible music to listen to the whole weekend. I guess there are worse things to be pondering over. More than likely, I’ll be talking it…AHHHHHHH, who am I kidding. Writing this post, convinced me to bring it. I’m already leaving my laptop behind, I can’t deny myself both of my vices. See ya Sunday!
