Benefits Of Learning To Play An Instrument

I’m re-posting this as it’s very good to know what kind of effect, playing an instrument has on your daily life. We get much more from learning to play an instrument than just the ability to play a song.

Playing an instrument is a great way to learn about  problem solving, abstract reasoning, visualization, and spatial relationships. Scientists have proven that musicians actually have significant growth in the primary motor cortex, the cerebellum and corpus callosum. Pre-schoolers given keyboard instruction showed an almost 50% increase in their spatial temporal reasoning skills. Kids that take music lessons find it easier learn fractions because they understand time signatures. A study shows secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (Texas Commision on Drug and Alcohol Abuse).   Students changing schools  frequently,  find music lessons are a source of  stability.

Music is a communication skill just like learning a language, your abilities peak out around the age 14.  Even people with perfect pitch lose it by the age of 10 if they don’t use the letter names of notes(A,B,C or Do, Re, Mi). One study showed only 7% of American music students had perfect pitch, compared to over 30% of Asian music students surveyed.

Playing an instrument also has incredible stress reduction benefits. There is practically no activity in the frontal cortex of a musician playing a piece from memory! It’s almost like meditating. Pieces of music that are slower than the human heartbeat (approx 78 BPM) will actually cause your heart-rate to drop. In short, almost nothing effects as  many parts of the brain, as music.  Einstein said “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I get most joy in life out of music”

Here’s some articles on the subject Music Lessons Improve Kids Brain Developement

12 Benefits of Music Education

Kindermusik

Working.com

http://coalitionformusiced.ca/html/sec5-research/quickfacts.php

and this is from Wikipedia:

Extra-musical benefits

Some studies suggests that music lessons provide children with important developmental benefits beyond simply the knowledge or skill of playing a musical instrument. Research suggests that musical lessons may enhance intelligence and academic achievement, build self-esteem and improve discipline. A recent Rockefeller Foundation Study found that music majors have the highest rate of admittance to medical schools, followed by biochemistry and the humanities. On SAT tests, the national average scores were 427 on the verbal and 476 on math. At the same time, music students averaged 465 on the verbal and 497 on the math – 38 and 21 points higher, respectively. However, the observed correlation between musical and mathematical ability may be inherent rather than acquired.

Skills learned through the discipline of music may transfer to study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills useful in every part of a child’s studies at school, though. An in-depth Harvard University study found evidence that spatial-temporal reasoning improves when children learn to make music, and this kind of reasoning improves temporarily when adults listen to certain kinds of music, including Mozart (Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993). This finding which has been named “The Mozart effect” suggests that music and spatial reasoning are related psychologically (i.e., they may rely on some of the same underlying skills) and perhaps neurologically as well. However, there has been considerable controversy over this as later researchers have failed to reproduce the original findings of Rauscher (e.g. Steele, Bass & Crook, 1999), questioned both theory and methodology of the original study (Fudis & Lembesis 2004) and suggested that the enhancing effects of music in experiments have been simply due to an increased level of arousal (Thompson, Schellenberg & Husain, 2001).

A relationship between music and the strengthening of math, dance, reading, creative thinking and visual arts skills has also been reported in literature. (Winner, Hetland, Sanni, as reported in The Arts and Academic Achievement – What the Evidence Shows, 2000) However recent findings by Dr. Levitin of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, undermines the suggested connection between musical ability and higher math skills. In a study conducted on patients with Williams Syndrome (a genetic disorder causing low intelligence), he found that even though theirintelligence was that of young children they still possessed unusually high level of musical ability.

http://web.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=nq_10spring_inside_science

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/23/27/9240

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6447588/Playing-a-musical-instrument-makes-you-brainier.html

Learning Music as an adult- advantages

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-musical-self/201008/is-music-training-only-our-children

Music Benefits the Brain

http://www.ktradionetwork.com/health/music-benefits-the-brain/

Comments (1)

What’s stopping you?

Here’s a great article, if you are considering taking music lessons.

Thursday, 03 June 2010 12:49

Written by Blue Morris

The only difference between people who can play guitar and those who cannot is this: the people who can play guitar DO IT.

You can too.

I often wonder how many guitars are purchased each year only to be abandoned in the closet shortly thereafter. A guitar was meant to be played. A guitar wants to be played. Your guitar wants you to pick it up and play something… anything. When left alone for long periods of time, guitars get lonely. They feel neglected. Please don’t let your guitar feel neglected.

Think you don’t have enough time?

If you want to do something inspiring in your life but feel that you don’t have enough time, take a close look at the things that you do each week that are not fulfilling and stop doing them so you have more time to do what matters to you.

How much TV do you watch each week? How fulfilling are these TV shows for your life? Are you feeling inspired from TV? Watch a little less TV and you can learn to play music instead.

How many movies did you watch last month? Do you even remember which ones they were? I’ll bet many of them had little impact on your life. Instead of watching another movie that is just like the hundreds before you’ve seen, learn to play beautiful music instead.

Work less, play more

How much time do you spend at the office? How important is your job to you? What if you went home at 5pm instead of 5:30 and played beautiful music? Would your boss fire you for working standard hours? I doubt it. And if you think you would get fired for leaving work at a reasonable hour, try to find another job that allows you more freedom.

I found a job that allows me to play guitar, all day, everyday!

A couple years ago I told a friend that it was my goal in life to work less and play more. She laughed and called me lazy. Am I lazy if I love playing music so much that I will stay up until 4am playing guitar because I can’t put it down? Really, am I lazy? She now works very long hours at a job I don’t believe she even likes. I know what I would choose. Work less, play more!

Think you don’t have enough money to take music lessons?

Take a closer look at where your money actually goes. I bet there are things you spend money on each month that are not nearly as valuable to you as music lessons would be.

How much money are you spending on your Blackberry or iPhone bill? Phone bills used to be so inexpensive. Now that we have more sophisticated technology available, many of us have expensive phones, 3G service and instant e-mail. Just because it’s available doesn’t mean you need it.

For most people this stuff is completely unnecessary. Cell phone companies will try anything to get you to sign up for things you don’t need. Don’t fall for it. What’s more important to you: Instant access to e-mails that are not even interesting to read? Or playing beautiful music?

How much money did you spend on your cable bill last month? Cable used to be inexpensive, but now many of us have 100 channels and HD and it costs a small fortune each month. Cancel your cable or subscribe to fewer channels and lose the HD. Go to the library instead. The books are free and they have no commercials to waste your time.

Stop upgrading all the “things” in your life and feed your soul instead. Do you really need a bigger TV? Do you really need a new car if the current one works just fine? Sure, some people will be impressed by all your fancy new “things,” but everyone will be far more impressed if you can play music. Music can “impress” people so deeply they can be driven to tears.

When we buy new things we get a rush of excitement, but that feeling dies quickly. Music never gets old. Most people who make a real commitment to music end up playing and loving music their entire lives. I have been playing guitar since I was eight years old and I still get butterflies in my stomach when I discover something new in music, play something beautiful, or create music of my own invention.

If you have none of these fancy things in life and still can’t afford guitar lessons, call me. I am willing to take on committed students for less, as are many other teachers. Why? Because we love teaching and we hate to see a guitar get lonely.

Have you ever heard anyone say, “I regret taking music lessons”?

Music is far more rewarding than most of the things we spend our money and time on. If you’re thinking of taking music lessons, don’t hesitate. Make a commitment to spending a little money on lessons with a good teacher and some time to get through the “beginner” stage, and I can promise you that you won’t regret it. Your life will be richer for it.

Somewhere there is a guitar waiting for you to pick it up. When you do, give me a call.

Blue Morris

Here’s Blue with the Pink Flamingo Burlesque Troupe

Bluemorris.com

Benefit Shows, What is (and Isn’t) a “Benefit”

Benefit gigs are another way for promoters to get free “Talent” and Promo opportunities, without actually forking out any cash, so they seem to come up a lot. The more paying gigs you play, the more often people will invite you to play their “benefits”. Now the live music situation is getting worse, venues are removing guarantees, expecting bands to cover the promoters expenses(sound, promo,door staff) and putting on shows with 5+ bands that no-one has ever heard of, or the incredible opportunity of a lifetime; paying to play! Yes, if you sell enough tickets to your friends, you won’t owe the promoter anything at the end of the night. Music promotion is basically a pyramid scam and guess where you are on the pyramid?

Lets first take a look at who the show is benefiting. When someone’s house burns down or a musician without insurance is sick/injured and can’t work, or can’t afford funeral expenses, this is a legitimate benefit.

When a non-profit society like the Cancer soc, or the Food Bank, SPCA or Women’s shelter, this is a professional fund-raiser. Two different circumstances. The professional fund raisers should(not always) offer a fee to cover your expenses and insure that you set the date aside on your schedule. Remember that the person asking you to donate your time is (usually)on salary, with a medical/dental plan and an expense account.I have no problem playing a well promoted show for free, it’s the moving gear back and forth that bugs me. And the fact that sound and posters are often in the budget, but musicians are not.

Bands are (usually small) business’s and every business should give something back to the community that you serve.

The first questions I ask when I get offered a benefit are;

-do you offer to pay the bands(at least cover expenses or give a tax deductible voucher)?

-is the promotor, sound-man and bar/venue staff volunteering their time as well?

-Do you supply the back-line, or do you expect us to bring our own amps and drumset? If not, I usually present the “bongos and acoustic guitars option”

-exactly what time are we playing?

-who are the other acts on the bill?

-what kind of promotion will you do, how big, and what order does my bands name appear in the promotion?

Just like any other gig, don’t accept an open ended vague offer! Once you play a few hundred of them, you will see why. Playing a benefit builds good faith and gives you a chance to promote your band, true. But agreeing to play a poorly planned show can backfire on you.

I’ve played benefits where;

-the Headlining act wasn’t confirmed or takes a paying gig at the last minute

-other bands show up with no gear expecting a non existant backline

-some promoters expect bands to schedule themselves and organize the change-over between acts. No stage manager= 98% chance of clusterfuck and wasting time.

-my personal favorite, could you play for free AND pay for all of your own beer, at bar prices? Or the runner up, a pro salaried fund-raiser whining because she had to buy the band a round of beer(ever heard of writing off entertainment expenses?). So, 5 guys setting the evening aside, moving their own amps/drums/guitars and rehearsing barely rates a domestic beer each(5X@$4.00). ???

-one of the  acts is miffed at being  at the bottom of the bill and throws a hissy fit.

On the positive side, when it’s a slow news day, benefits become news! We’ve gotten quite a bit of good exposure from local media by playing benefits. It gives you a great excuse to get out there and promote yourself without feeling like a salesman.

Other artists, technicians, music biz types that operate with a “pay it forward” approach will be glad to help you. Remember when someone helped you out, expecting nothing in return(whether it was financial, information or just listening)?

Building good faith in your local scene is invaluable, but it doesn’t hurt to ask why the sound guy/poster person is considered a legitimate expense but your band isn’t!

Don’t feel bad that you are asking questions. You will have to explain to the band, what the situation is, before they accept it. My rule of thumb is, friends or worthy causes (that hopefully supply a back-line and competent sound and stage mgr.) are OK, otherwise no guarantee means no guarantee. If a paying gig comes up before the benefit(no guarantee), I’ll take the paying gig every time.

We have also played benefits that pay better than club gigs! There is no standard rate, some benefits pay expenses, some pay what you ask, some will expect you to lend you drums and amps to the other bands(without telling you beforehand), help set up the tables and take the rental PA back to the music store, too!

When the local entertainment business puts sound technicians and poster pasters ahead of talent, the musicians and the fans/clubgoers all suffer. If the Talent, the actual draw(nobody goes to gigs because the posters or the sound is great) is the only part of the show that is donating their time….it’s not really a benefit, is it?

disclaimer- I’ve played tons of benefits for worthy causes like the Women’s Shelter, Food Bank, Cancer Society, Heritage Society, Private Schools, ect. and I plan on continuing. I’m just saying that if you don’t ask about getting paid, promoters will assume you don’t care. I often waive my fee when it is a well organized show with lots of promo or a chance to play with a band we really like.

Oh, and bands that agree to play benefits, get their name on all the promo, then turn around and cancel at the last minute. Brilliant promotional strategy, but a total dick maneuver. It means my band gets to share the bill with some lame act that doesn’t care whether they look like jerks. So get all the details before you agree to a gig, on behalf of your band.

Time Signatures

Here are some great examples of different time signatures. 90% of western music is in 4/4 time, so Guitarists get used to playing to a safe natural feeling rhythm. Anything outside of a 4/4 is considered “odd”. Self-taught players have notoriously bad timing, learning to read Standard Notation requires knowing the difference between a 1/4 note and 1/16. Some players do not realize that tempo is equally important as pitch. Maybe more important! The easiest way to drastically change a song, is to speed up or slow down the tempo or change the time signature.
This is from the Pandora Radio series
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2kqiej/blog.pandora.com/archives/podcast/2007/09/meters_time_sig.html

This is a comment left on Reddit about metronome exercises. Some very good info;

Good metronome exercises (record yourself and listen back to it):
1)Clap along with the metronome on every beat.
2)Clap along on every second beat.
3)Clap a triplet feel over two beats, then on the click for the next two.
4)In 4/4 time, put the metronome on 1 and 3, and clap on 2 and 4.
5)In 3/4 time, put the metronome on 1, and clap on 2 and 3.
6)In 4/4 put the metronome on just the 3 beat, and clap 1 and 4.
7)In 3/4 time, put the metronome on the “and” of 2 and clap the 1, 2, and 3.
8)In 4/4 time, put the metronome on the 1 and 3, and clap quarter note triplets starting on 3.
9)Same as 8, but start your triplet on the 2.
10)In 4/4 time, put the metronome on the 2 for only ever second bar. Clap first one type of clave then another. (Note: each clave is a two bar pattern, and you can reverse the two measures)
You get the idea. From there, you can make up your own exercises.
Tap your foot on each beat as a help at first, but eventually, you’ll want to internalize the feel, so that on the rests, you’re actually resting.
Start with the metronome at a comfortable speed, then speed it up. Then slow it down. It’s all fine and good if you can keep good rhythm at 120bpm, but what about at 240? What about at 60? Or 30? Playing fast is hard, keeping a good rhythm at painfully slow tempos is even harder.
Make it perfect. Don’t ever shrug it off as “meh, good enough.” With music, there’s no such thing as good enough. As you get better at making rhythm, you’ll get better at hearing just how bad your rhythm is. You will never have those exercises down well enough. Work on them for the rest of your life.

Top 5 Counter-Intuitive Aspects of Learning to Play Rock/Blues Guitar

#1- Starting out with playing chords.

Playing chords that require 3 fingers to play like a C or G or Am, are pretty tricky to play at first. Starting with chords makes it easier to play a song right away and strumming is not as hard as picking individual strings. I find that starting off with single strings, low to high makes more sense. This is the way I teach my students. Most Guitar methods go high to low(e,B,G,D,A,E) but they move low to high on each string. Very confusing and unnatural. I usually split the chord into top and bottom 3 strings(E,A and D, and G,B and e). F and B7 shape chords have ended quite a few aspiring guitarist’s careers.

If you start off playing Open Chords(E,A,D,G,C,Em,Am, Dm ect) you tend to assume that Chords and scales are 2 different things. They are 2 ways to look at the same information. Players that define duties by “lead” or “rhythm” are limiting themselves to playing either chords or melodies. Guitar is the only instrument that makes this distinction.

A Triad Chord is the Tonic/Root or first degree in the scale followed by the Third and the Fifth degrees. Seeing this relationship, gives you a huge insight towards building Dominant, minor and 7th Chords. If you can visualize a Major scale, then Chords, Progressions and Modes(Natural minor esp.) should all start to make sense.

2- Learning to read ABCs or Do Re Mi.

Learning to read Piano music is probably the best, most comprehensive way to understand music theory. Unlike Guitar, you really have to understand the math of all of your scales/chords when you change keys on Piano. It takes about 4-5 years of reading standard notation, and studying the different scale positions before it makes any sense on the Guitar. Any piece can be played in 3-5 different positions and only 1 will be the perfect one for the Guitar(or you).

I never understood why conservatory and College Guitar classes insist on studying Piano, but since I’ve been teaching, I can see how relevant just being able to play the notes and chords in a C scale on a Piano, is to learning how the notes all fit together on a Guitar. Visualizing the black keys on a Piano(as whole tone or 2 fret spaces) can totally help you learn scales, modes and chords!

The piano is a much more logical instrument than a Guitar, no duplication or in-between notes and it takes weeks to go out of tune. It  just makes me feel like I’m playing table or typing.

The duplication of notes on the fingerboard means that it is very important for you to learn the names of every note! This is the only way to see the duplication, it follows very consistent patterns. But for reading or writing music, numbers work much better than letters. If you do not have perfect pitch(99% of the general N.American population has “Relative” pitch hearing), then letters A, B, C, have no quantity. They are just names, they tell you nothing about the relationships of notes, melody and harmony until you put a number on them.

3- Learning “Box” Patterns.

Box patterns give you the safe notes in a scale. I see so many players that only work within one position of one box. Every box pattern has another different box starting 2 or 3 frets above or below it. They overlap. The only way out of a box, is to learn the box next to it, to continue the scale in a higher or lower position.

Also pentatonic scales played alone sound very simplistic. There is no contrast. If you try to contrast the min Pentatonic with a minor scale, it doesn’t work. You have to balance a minor Pentatonic with a Major scale. Otherwise you will sound “stuck” in a minor Pentatonic. Learning new pentatonic positions is good(and how the Maj and min pentatonic scales fit together) but seeing how the Major scale overlaps the min Pentatonic is going to allow you to go from min to Maj, without changing positions.

I remember trying to figure box patterns out myself when I was learning to play. They really confused me because they don’t actually help you play solos or lines, it’s mainly a mapping/pattern recognition exercise. But it was presented as being some kind of magic short-cut, that would allow you to avoid reading music.

4- TABs.

Tablature makes it very easy to learn songs, scales and chords. It gives you a lot of positional information and it doesn’t take years to figure out, like Piano music.

On the other hand, unless they were written by the person that played the piece, they are often wrong. And most TABs give no timing information. That means if you don’t already know the song well enough to guess at the note spacing, you can’t learn a new song, that you have never heard. Tabs give the player almost no information about the relationships of notes or rhythm.

On the positive side, it is very easy to write TABs WITH Rhythmic info and without using special 6 line paper, they are called “Visualinear TABs”.

Teachers that use TABs exclusively, are leading students down a dead end path. Even Chord box diagrams give you much more useful info than TABs.

5- Learning the string numbers, high to low.

We usually learn the string names as E,A,D,G,B,e. Not e, B, G, D, A, E? Why do we number the strings with the farthest one away from us(hi e) as number 1? The low E SHOULD be number 1, first string. Many Bass players learn their string numbers this way.

It makes sense to call you highest e string your “high string”, why would it be the lowest number? I don’t know who’s idea this was, or if it goes back to Classical/Flaminco methods, but it just doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know anybody that visualizes scales/chords, from high to lo. The Do, Re, Mi song would sound very awkward starting from Ti, La, So ect.

Unfortunately this is the way everybody learns to number their strings so there is no point trying to change it. There’s nothing wrong with being aware that it is a stupid system though….

# Bonus- Learning to use left hand and right hand simultaneously.

Always spend time splitting exercises, chords and scales, into Left hand and Right hand. You will learn chord shapes and strumming patterns much faster if you practice them, 1 hand at a time.

and

Assuming that being able to see your left hand, will help you play.

If you CAN see your fingerboard, the position of your left arm/hand and head/neck are in a very poor position. Horn players call this “Emboucher”( the way their mouth contacts and interacts with the mouthpiece of a horn or wind instrument. With Guitar, this applies to our posture and the way we hold a Guitar as well as good right and left hand technique. The key to playing Guitar is seeing the shapes and patterns in your head, not on the Guitars fingerboard.

I often have students that tell me they can’t access their instrument or they have an injury that prevents them from playing temporarily. This is the perfect time to practice mapping the notes on the fingerboard and memorizing scale/chord shapes. Also once I see students have gained confidence with a technique, I will ask them to play it without looking.

I also like to point out, that the notes on the fingerboard will NEVER re-arrange themselves, if you look away for a minute. An important part of positional playing(knowing the 5 basic chord/scale shapes) is being able to play any note in the scale, without changing position(or looking at the Guitar/away from sheet music/charts!) Also looking at your hands makes you appear introverted. That’s fine if you are practicing, but when you are playing with a band or another Guitarist, you need to be aware of visual cues.

5 WAYS FOR BANDS TO AVOID COMPLAINING ABOUT the LAME GIG SITUATION.

Paid to play? Got stuck with the bill for the hall rental? Outraged the the sound and poster guys are considered a legitimate expense but the actual bands that customers pay money to see, get paid last and least? Paying for bad sound or Promo? It happens because musicians let it happen.

You have to ask questions when you get offered a gig. Make sure that if you expect to be paid, you talk about that first, before you talk about dates, stage times and posters. Self managed bands are notoriously slack when it comes to “taking care of business”. If the only questions you ask are; “when and where”, you should not be handling any business matters.

#1- Know what the Promoters responsibilities are. Paying for a Hall/Venue, PA/soundguy, supplying a backline, posters and stage management is the promotors job. Not yours! When a promoter asks you to play without a guarantee, ask him who’s gear(Amps, Drums) you will be using? Because moving amplifiers and drumsets cost money! Playing for free is one thing but equipment doesn’t move itself. I’d recommend showing up with acoustic Guitars and a set of Bongos at non-guaranteed shows.

From my experience, nobody in their right mind, would ask you to play a party at their residence, quote the band a fee, and then give you some lame explanation about why they can’t pay what they offered. Your average person would not have the nerve. But this happens all the time with “professional” promoters at club and hall gigs that are handled with oral agreements.

When one of the other bands that he hired, doesn’t show up(or shows up minus an amp or drumset), this is not your bands problem. We are not obligated to change our stage-time or lend gear. “Oh this band came a from out of town, do you mind if we pay them, and not give you the guarantee we promised”? Yes, I mind. That is entirely the promotors problem.

Unexpected expenses? That’s too bad, the promoter should probably have thought about that before you offered us the gig.

#2- Don’t be desperate/EASY. If you need experience, get it on your own terms. Don’t exploit yourself, thinking it will pay off eventually. It doesn’t. Sound guys don’t work for free, promotors don’t work for free, and clubs are making a profit from your hard work. It’s marginally better to be a whore, than a slut.

#3- Promote yourself. Everyone tries to, to some degree. Don’t be humble, promotors count on bands having an “awe, shucks, do you really like us?” approach. If you can guarantee a good performance and promote yourself, you will be in a much better position to deal with someone that wants to exploit you.

Think cross-promotion, never just promote one artist, event or piece of merch. Every gig is an opportunity to promote your next gig, your disc, t-shirts ect. Shameless self-promoters, are the ones that succeed.

#4- Know what you are worth. Experience is the only way to separate amateurs from professionals. There is nothing wrong with being semi-pro. Just because you have to work at a day job, does not mean that you should play for free because you don’t need the money.  If you are playing music as a hobby, then don’t ask people to pay money for tickets and a cover charge. Unless it is clearly billed as a talent show, it is unethical to charge money for something that you offer for free. Play Charity events,  jams or talent shows. If you don’t think that what you do is worth money, what are you doing on a stage?

Music is a business. If you give your product or service away, you will not be in business very long.

#5- Look up or google “offer and acceptance” and “oral agreement”. When you accept a bogus offer, with no details regarding payment, other acts, exact stage times, sound-checks or promotion/, you are the one agreeing to a slanted situation! Any promoter that will not offer an agreement in writing, is planning to rip you off. Tell them that you don’t deal with illegitimate offers. And tell every other musician/band that you know, who the shady promoters/venues are.

Building a network of  professionals, that can help you spot the unprofessional promoters, will save you a lot of time.  Clubs and promoters blackball musicians for stupid things like playing at competing venues, and playing too frequently. Musicians need to share this info, with other musicians and club-goers.

Ever notice that a large percentage of promoters are washed-up, former musicians? They know exactly what they are doing, they have been through it before. Incompetent musicians usually make very incompetent businessmen. We have to learn how to be assertive without seeming aggressive. They gave up on performing because there is too much competition from great players that will work for free. They are counting on this situation continuing!

It’s a “BUYER BEWARE” situation. You can’t complain about eating shit, when you ordered it from the menu!

Disclaimer: I have a certificate in Music Business Administration from ICA and 35 years of live performing experience.

Edit; this post seems to have reached a few forums so a few things I should clear up are;

a) Music is an Art, as well as a business. I don’t mean to imply that anyone that plays music onstage should be rewarded handsomely. When you get together with a group of people to perform a task/service that you will eventually be paid for, you are forming a business, whether you document it or keep records. The people that are paying their cover charge assume they are paying for professional entertainment. The truth is, often they are paying for professional sound, posters and promotion, but getting amateur-hour talent.

b)Wanting to avoid wasting time does not make you a ‘whore”. Part of the problem is, when a sound or poster person gets stiffed, they get the word out to all their friends. Suddenly the promoter finds it hard to hire a sound or poster crew. The fact that Metal bands don’t talk to Punk or Rockabilly bands about how they get treated in specific clubs works against all of us.

The best way to look at your job as a musician, is to detach yourself. This is very hard for creative people to do, we tend to think of our music as our baby. When you study music business marketing the first thing they tell you is to look at recordings and live performance, like a product. Very few musicians are actually motivated by money. We just want to improve at our craft and perhaps be recognized as being good at something. Demanding payment is the only way to set yourself apart from newcomers with no experience.

If you want to play for free or fun, tell people! You’re just goofin around. Your time/talent is equal to a table or a TV on the sidewalk with a Free sign. If you want to work for free, why don’t you offer to wash the club owners car with a few of your band’s T-shirts.

pedal demo

I tried out a couple of pedals from Gear Alley.

Simplified Music Theory at Gorehound Sound

advertisement

Please excuse a little shameless self-promotion:

“Simplified Music Theory for Rock, Blues and Garage-Punk Players”

I know that music theory is an intimidating subject. People assume that it requires superhuman memorization skills and that it takes years to learn. Reading and playing Jazz or Classical music can take a LONG time but Rock and Blues Harmony is incredibly simple! Learning it will NOT make you sound like a nerd, it will make you sound like YOU!  Understanding  Music Theory is mostly communication and problem solving.

Every band needs one member that understands how to build a Scale/Chord and write/arrange a Progression/Song. Whoever manages to cobble together the most information, from the back of match packs and Rolling Stone interviews, assumes the responsibility of being the bands, “musical director”. It’s usually not a paid gig but it gives you added credibility and makes you an asset to ANY band. If you have ever spent an hour, trying to figure out how 2 chords fit together, or deconstruct a song you are trying to learn, just by ear(guessing), you will understand how important this job is.

You can’t swing a cat in this town, without hitting someone that claims to be “in a band”(or a promoter, but that’s another story). Being in a band and being a musician are 2 separate things.  If you can read a clock or a calendar, I can show you how to write progressions/charts, solo effortlessly and control Tonal Gravity(the rise and fall, of Maj and min, the push/pull of rhythm).

I apply these basic skills to real life, studio/performance situations, relevant situations and contexts. Avoiding Music theory because of simple math or having to read music, could be the biggest musical mistake you ever make!

We offer group rates. There is NO READING PIANO MUSIC. Students must be able to remember the notes A-G(or Do-Ti) and count all the way to 12, no exceptions!

Understanding Intervals and Tonal Gravity will do more for you as a musician than a Berkeley or Conservatory degree.

Learning by imitation(monkey see, monkey do) limits one greatly. Can you take a song apart, you can put it back together YOUR WAY? Understanding the simple math behind music, is the best way to start sounding like You! Can you see/understand why 2 songs in different keys, are similar(or different)?.

My goal, is to help musicians and Indy bands sound more like themselves.  The whole point of  teaching theory, is to make it easy enough to be useful.

Not all Rock/Blues or even Classical or Jazz music composers, follow theory 100%. There is a point when you must trust your ears and write/play what you feel sounds good to you. Learning some basic theory won’t change the way you write/play. It just gives you more options for what you COULD do!

Controlling Consonance and Dissonance makes  your solos and progressions go where you want them to go.

FAQs for group or private classes http://sites.google.com/site/gorehoundsound/home/faqs

http://sites.google.com/site/gorehoundsound/home/lesson-policies http://sites.google.com/site/gorehoundsound/home/lesson-policies (group lesson rates apply to Theory/Band Coaching)

Rates and Policies http://sites.google.com/site/gorehoundsound/home/lesson-policies http://sites.google.com/site/gorehoundsound/home/lesson-policies (group lesson rates apply to Theory/Band Coaching)

Spider exercises

This is a really good left hand exercise. It builds independence and coordination. Most students find it fairly tricky at first but keep practicing it. This is strictly a left hand exercise.

Here’s Pebber Brown demonstrating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHE3qPvVNTI&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/user/pebberbrown#p/u/297/tHE3qPvVNTI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qQZlxFP8dY&playnext_from=TL&videos=mJWd0LBDJVc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uA3NkeO_iA&playnext_from=TL&videos=W0I_0LnuxA8

Pebber recommends practicing right and left hand technique separately as part of your practice routine. This is a good drill to do in front of a mirror or videotape yourself practicing.

Approaching your Guitar: Balance and Contrast

One of the things I  try to teach my students early is to always balance their approach to learning and playing. There are SOOOO many counter-intuitive aspects to both Music Theory and Guitar technique that you can’t always base your approach on right or wrong.

The easiest way to do this is simply, play the opposite game. Try to think of 2 extremes. For example, getting started. Should I go self-taught or private lessons with a pro? There is no right answer for this question, everybody learns differently. Some students have an incredible ear, and can rely on this more than visually having to see the information. Some students will have better problem solving or organizational  skills. Some students are comfortable figuring things out themselves while others prefer to learn by imitation. A younger student that wants to play Jazz or be a studio musician will have very different approach from an adult that wants to strum a few folk songs for friends and family around the campfire.

No matter what your goals are, you cannot approach an art form with a right or wrong, best or worst mentality. Does it matter if Dali, Mozart or Pythagorus were the best? Were they doing it the right way? What matters is that they were uniquely original.

I’ll start off with a few things any musician, beginner or experienced should consider.

Lessons: private or group? Structured or casual? Read standard notation or TABs/chord charts? Should I practice the same things, for the same amount of time everyday? Should I practice:drills or songs?, chords or scales? right hand or left hand?

To me, the main 2 things any player needs to balance are: Technique, the physical act of playing music  and Theory, the math behind Music.

You can learn to play an instrument by imitation and memorization. Monkey see, monkey do, but if you can’t look at the notes, scales and chords that you are playing as a separate entity, you are missing an important piece of info. This is the biggest advantage to learning to read music. It forces you to look at all of your chords scales and riffs separately, away from the Guitar.

So anytime you ask yourself, “am I doing this right” or “is this really the best way I could be approaching this”, try to get a range of possible answers and balance the extremes.

I use this binary, A or B method in my playing/Improvising too. If I catch myself playing to many high notes, I’ll go low. Too many single notes?, play some chords. Playing too fast?, then play slow for a while. Too consonant?, play Dissonant. Too structured?, play something random. Don’t be last one to notice that you are playing the same thing all the time. Don’t let your comfort zone get too comfortable. Contrast is always an option!