Many of my Guitar playing friends and Guitar students laugh when I suggest taking up the Uke. To me, what I have noticed in my 20 odd years of teaching Guitar, is that Guitarists(especially male) tend to want to learn a particular style of music and sound like their idol. Women generally just want to… [Read more…]
November 8, 2011
1- Count. Always, always, ALWAYS start tapping your foot BEFORE you start playing. Sub-divide the beats, 1 AND, 2 AND. Guitarists, especially self-taught, TAB-bers tend to “feel” rhythms instead of counting. If you don’t know where the “One” is, in every bar and how many bars are in each section, you are guessing. Ask a… [Read more…]
April 8, 2011
Here’s a great article by Chad Mundt. Some of these tips apply more to Bassists but most apply universally to any instrument. 25 things I Wish My Music Teacher Told Me on Day One 1) In order to master an musical concept, you must understand not only what it sounds like, but what it looks… [Read more…]
January 21, 2011
#1- the Guitar is tuned to mostly Fourths. You probably already know what a Fourth sounds like, you just can’t put a name(and the corresponding Interval or distance) on it. Open E-A, A-D, D-G and B-E are all steps of a FOURTH. The only 2 strings that are not a Fourth apart are G-B(3rd-2nd). Understanding… [Read more…]
December 21, 2010
From Captain Beefhearts Radar Station http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/10com.htm 1. Listen to the birds That’s where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren’t going anywhere. 2. Your guitar is not really a… [Read more…]
November 22, 2010
Handwound Tele Bridge Pickups by Dave Leddin Here’s a comparison of 2 different models; the CLASSIC tele bridge and the CBS tele bridge. I’ve had the CBS tele bridge on my Sparrow Twangmaster for about a year. It’s a great sounding pickup with none of the harsh bite that many stock tele bridge pickups exhibit. I recorded this… [Read more…]
November 9, 2010
Featuring a veritable who’s who of the Vancouver underground scene including Chopper/Deadcats, Tony Bardach/Pointed Sticks, BertMan/Motorama, Dusty Doug Smith/Cadaver Dogs and Cal Thompson from the Muscle Bitches. Update: rumor is that a reality show is in the works for the LGA. Stay tuned. http://www.straight.com/article-358674/vancouver/guitar-army-aims-own-show http://www.myspace.com/littleguitararmy vanc sun shedoesthecity http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66029935066 http://www.straight.com/article-269641/mikmi
November 5, 2010
What Should I Know About the Nashville Numbering System? I hate Country Music. I hate math. I’m not crazy about systems either. #1 -It has nothing to do with Country Music. It was first developed by Studio Musicians. Nashville is a big Recording studio center. The Musicians more than likely had a Jazz or Classical… [Read more…]
November 5, 2010
The word “System” right off the bat, scares most people. CAGED is a simple way to cover the 5 basic Chord/Scale shapes (It applies to scales too). If you look at chords and scales, they are the same basic information. A triad Chord, is just 3 notes(I,III and V) in the Scale. Thinking… [Read more…]
October 4, 2010
What is the Nashville Numbering System? The biggest problem with the Nashville Numbering System is the name. It’s scary, so let’s start off by clarifying, Nashville was a major recording center, the musicians that invented this system were professional studio players that need a simple way write charts and transpose(change key). Standard Musical Notation(Piano music)… [Read more…]
April 27, 2012
0