I’ve been practicing my guitar a ton lately and sometimes it feels like I’m never going to “master” the pieces that I’m trying to learn. Sometimes I think that I have gotten it down and then a complete mind fart happens and I can’t remember how to play it and have to re-learn. After thinking about this a bit, I realized that I go through, what I call the four stages in learning a song. Stage 1: Learning This is the initial site reading of the song, either by tab, regular notation or just jamming along with it on CD or iPod. I the progress to a point where I can play the piece fairly well with the music in front of me. Depending how many times I’ve heard this song, I can progress pretty quickly in this stage. Stage 2: Fixing and Polishing This is where I need to sit down and work on certain parts that might have given me trouble during site reading. I still don’t have it memorized and maybe not playing it at a slower tempo. By the time I’m finished with this stage, I’m playing it at tempo and it’s pretty much memorized. Stage …
latest update
In a previous post, I did a review of Bruce Cockburn’s performance at the Swallow Hill Folk and Roots Festival last March. I also posted my report to CockburnProject.net and found an interesting addition to my review by someone called Audrey. Audrey had some really good “inside” information regarding the circumstances surrounding Bruce’s performance. Apparently, Bruce’s normal stage crew wasn’t there to set his rig and so there was a bunch of “fiddling” around trying to figure out what was wrong and Bruce’s in ear monitor was also on the fritz. Plus, with the long delay Bruce had to keep focused because there was a curfew and if they went over that curfew, there would be fines. Therefore the reason why Bruce wasn’t engaging the audience like I mentions. Anyway, thanks to Audrey for shedding some light on the situation and knowing what I know now, I’m even more grateful for Bruce’s performance. He could have thrown in the towel and just showed up but he still played a great show. THANKS Bruce!
Had an interesting conversation with a friend last weekend. We were watching YouTube showing each other different guitarists that we dig. I showed him some Michael Hedges and William Ackerman videos,which then led us to a conversation about open tunings. I explained to him that Hedges and Ackerman used/use alternate tunings almost exclusively. He said, “meh” When I pointed this out, he seemed unimpressed and maybe even lost a bit of interest once I mentioned open tunings. The first thing he asked was why not just learn/write the song in normal tuning; adjust yourself to the instrument instead forcing the instrument to adjust to you. Interesting point but I had to disagree and explained that many of these songs would be impossible to replicate in standard tuning and if you could play it in standard tuning the mood or feel of the piece might be adversely affected. He nodded as if to agree but not totally convinced. His background is as a progressive metal guitarist and in his experiences, he has witnessed some players tune to an open tuning and just bar everything for every song. To him, that is a shortcut or cheating. I agreed with him to some …
Good news for all of us TE fans out there! A new live 2 CD set, “Center Stage,” is set to be released April 29th. Recorded October 2007 in California, “Center Stage” is a compilation of 3 nights recording and the word is that there is a HD DVD coming in the following. According to CDP, some previously un-recorded songs will be featured like “Ruby Eyes.” DISC 1 1. The Finger Lakes 2. Papa George 3. Train To Dusseldorf 4. I Go To Rio 5. Nine Pound Hammer 6. Old Town 7. And So It Goes 8. Jolly Swagman 9. Sukiyaki 10. Happy Hours 11. Ruby’s Eyes 12. Beatles Medley 13. Mombasa DISC 2 1. Workin’ Man Blues 2. Georgia On My Mind 3. House of the Risin’ Sun 4. Amazing Grace 5. Story of Little Boy 6. Tall Fiddler 7. Cowboy’s Dream 8. Morning Aire 9. Initiation 10. Lenny Bro’ 11. Questions Certified Guitar Player is pre-selling “Center Stage” for $15.95. I’ve already placed my order, have you?
I’m a “how’s that work” or “Let’s see the guts” type of guy when I see new gadgets. This now includes the Gibson “Robot Guitar” and it’s self tuning mechanism. I have heard about this new gadget and haven’t looked into it too much until news.com had an interesting pictorial with descriptions on “Taking apart the robot guitar.” I’ve seen similar contraptions that can be installed on existing guitar but it’s nothing like the robot and requires some serious routing. It was pretty cool to see how Gibson hid the electronics to keep the guitar looking authentic. The machine heads are pretty bulky in the back and looks like you will need a bit of training on how to use it. Pretty cool but seems like a gadget that I can do without.
