Dr. Dave’s Guitar / Music Blog

I have to agree with whoever first said “the future ain’t what it used to be” - and I don’t mean “so where are the flying cars?” Let’s talk music instead.

Right now you may be one of the millions of us getting inundated with email from the NAMM show about all of the “unbelievable, incredible, amazing, must-have new gear” that is now replaced the “unbelievable, incredible, amazing, must-have new gear” that showed up last year. You might even welcome these emails. After all, even if you can’t afford some of this new stuff, dreaming is still free, right? But how much of this stuff do we need? I’m thinking here of the “real cost” and not just the price tag. Lots of this new gear is resource-intensive to produce, and the main customers are those who will throw out older resource-intensive stuff and get the new stuff. I am NOT saying that progress in music gear needs to stop, but I do question how much truly NEW there is to justify this enormous show even once a year, never mind twice.

At a time when most people can have a better recording studio on their phone than the Beatles had for Sgt. Pepper, I am still waiting for the “huge surge of creativity” that the technology is supposed to “unleash” - and by THE technology, I mean of course THIS YEAR’S models.

A major problem is that many of us are either working long hours to keep our jobs to be able to afford this gear, or spending all of our time looking for a job to be able to afford to eat. It seems to me that the greatest gift that any of us could get right now is some time, and some peace of mind, to use what we already have. Many of us may find that we already have all of the gear we need, just not the time to use it.

My last post on Karan Andrea’s very cool singing course for guitarists generated the most email I’ve had yet. The comments and questions mostly fell into two broad categories:

1) I don’t want to learn to sing, I want to spend my practice time improving my playing,

and

2) The singing I want to learn is how to scat while I play the same line on my guitar.

These are both great ideas, but singing is the one way to do both. Learning to sing properly doesn’t necessarily mean taking over chores on the mic. A well-trained singer should be able to sing back something they have heard, and also to sing the music they hear in their head. Singing back what you have heard is the best way to pick up songs and solos (and will save you a fortune in music and tab books), while singing back the music in your head is how you scat while playing. The amazing scatting of George Benson or Tommy Emmanuel, both of whom can sing the lines while playing them at breakneck speed, all begins with learning the basics of reproducing sound with the voice - singing.

It is no coincidence that one of the greatest guitarists who have ever lived - Eddie Lang - began his musical education with solfeggio, learning to sing and notate the basics of music before studying any instrument. This later translates to being able to play back anything you hear or read on any instrument. In Eddie Lang’s case it allowed him to master the violin, banjo, and finally guitar. Virtually anyone who heard him play called him the greatest guitarist they had ever heard, and his partner Bing Crosby called him “The greatest musician I know.” That was an incredible statement to make about a guitar player in the early 1930’s, but his sheer musical inventiveness was a main reason that the guitar became a accepted as an important popular instrument.

If you want to take one major step in improving your guitar playing this year, take a singing course. And as I said in my last post, Guitar Player Wanted - Vocals a Plus with Karan Andrea is the best course I have found. Its big advantage is being taught on the guitar by a guitarist, so that the sounds you reproduce are those played on this guitar. This is a huge advantage when you are trying to learn songs played on the guitar, or to play your own ideas on the guitar.

A NOTE ON YOUR FEEDBACK: You can comment on my posts by writing to me at DrDaveBlogFeedback@gmail.com. Your email is confidential and I will NOT put you on a list of any kind. I delete each email after I read it, so if you want me to reply by email please say that explicitly in your note; otherwise I will respond on the blog, keeping your name confidential. I have disabled comments on the blog due to security concerns, but if you would like me to enable them to discuss any of the posts, please write to me and let me know.

Can you sing? Or wish you could? Maybe want to take your act out of the shower and onto a stage? If so, you are about to meet your new best friend, Karan Andrea.

It’s no secret that gigs are scarce these days, and any extras that you can bring to an audition give you an edge. Just being a good player isn’t enough; more and more it’s good vocals that make the difference. Even if it’s just an evening of jamming with some friends, the person who can sing is guaranteed to be called for the next one.

You would think that any interested guitar player would learn to sing at least well enough to provide harmony vocals, but in fact most guitar players are reticent about opening their mouths on stage. There are good reasons for this: most of us have no idea of where to start to learn; many singers present their art as a “gift you must be born with”; and many of us have had terrible experiences when we first tried to sing, turning us off the whole idea. Even worse, some of us have tried singing lessons only to find that the teacher wanted to make us operatic singers, or required us to have a piano at home just to practice our exercises.

My personal quest has taken me through four different CD-based courses, with mixed results, but now I have finally found one that is head and shoulders above the rest: Guitar Player Wanted - Vocals a Plus with Karan Andrea.

What’s so special about this course? First, it is taught by a guitarist who began at square one just like many of us - nervous to sing a note and wondering where to start. The difference is that Karan Andrea stuck with it through several different methods, and combined the best of each into this single, comprehensive course. Everything is taught from a guitarist’s perspective, and all exercises are done over guitar accompaniment, which makes a huge difference if you don’t play piano. Finally, having been there herself, Ms. Andrea gives you hints and encouragement that speed your progress along smoothly.

All of the basic concepts are covered in plain English in the DVD lessons, including really important information on producing good tone and not over-burdening your vocal cords. You don’t have to take notes because the included booklet contains all of the important points in an easily readable format, so you can see exactly what you are learning in each of the exercises, or remind yourself of how to keep from tiring your voice. Finally, the CD contains all 22 exercises which will give your voice a real workout, and through which you will be able to track your daily progress. And I highly recommend tracking where you are each day since your progress is quite likely to far exceed what you expect.

I have worked with this course for some time now, and I can tell you that it definitely works. The exercises are superb, and cover more material than all of the other courses I have investigated combined. They cover a very smooth transition from warm-ups to more targeted work, and the progression is well planned to avoid strain while maximizing benefit.

You can find more information and buy this great course direct from Karan Andrea on her website.

I highly recommend this course. I will be using it myself for a long time to come. Thank you Karan Andrea!

This is my last post for 2011.

For 2012 I wish you JOY, FREEDOM, and PEACE.

And please,

Don’t let anyone take them away from you.

Don’t take them away from anyone else.

I have some great tips on effective practice on my new course 50 Theory Tips You Must Know, but somewhat ironically I can’t share them now due to copyright. Those of you who have been reading the blog for some time may have already seen a few of them. So since I know that many of you finally have some time to spend with your instrument, I thought I’d pass on a very interesting tip from classical guitarist Raffi Altounian, who is a faculty member at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

The Conservatory’s newsletter contains a number of tips from Raffi, and here is his #4:

4. Don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t possibly get it wrong.

I read this at an appropriate time as I am learning a long set list in a relatively short period of time. It is tempting to play a song until I get it right and then move on, but the next time I play it I may or may not nail it, and those aren’t good odds for a public performance. So taking Raffi’s advice a step further, I have divided the list into songs I can play perfectly pretty much every time, and those that need work. It’s the second group that I work at, playing each one as many times as I can until it gets boring and my playing gets dull, then I move on to another, then back when that one gets dull. I usually cycle between three songs a session, but my goal is to get those three solidly into my fingers. Then I can add them to the ones I can play and move on to three others. It sounds like a long way to learn but in fact I’ve gone through the list much faster than I had planned.

Remember: you get one chance to get it right on stage, so keep that in mind as you practise. Besides, it’s much more fun to play a song when you can nail it!

I am happy and very relieved to tell you that the final version of my course 50 Theory Tips You Must Know has been delivered to Truefire.com - much later than I had hoped, but at least it is done and it looks great.

50 Theory Tips You Must Know is a complete course in practical music theory taught from a guitarist’s perspective. I don’t like to use the word “theory” for this type of material because it sounds too speculative or cerebral, but it is the only single word we have for it. As one example, rather than give you a chord chart or list of chords, I teach you how to create all of the different types of chords for yourself, with as many notes and at any position you want to play. I remember when I was first learning the guitar and got my first chord book that most of the chords didn’t sound quite right in the songs I wanted to play, even though they were the “right” chords. It’s almost a rule that your favourite songs will use chords that aren’t in standard chord books. That actually makes sense, because one thing a good songwriter wants to do is to create a unique sound even when using standard chords, so the distribution of the notes is critical.

That’s just one example out of, well, 50. Topics range from finding the notes in any scale to the simple theoretical basis of CAGED to an easy way to learn all of the modes to how to practise effectively. The course was a lot of work but also a lot of fun to put together. I had wished to have it ready before the Xmas season but instead I learned a lot about dealing with video editors. Good stuff to know in any case.

I will let you know as soon as the course is available. It will be sold by Truefire and I will give you the link to the course as well as to the sample videos from it.

Happy Holidays to all of you who get holidays, and for those of you who don’t, enjoy the peace and quiet at work!

With so many of us caught in the financial crunch this year I want to pass on some inexpensive gift ideas that can truly delight and even change your life.

Today’s tip: Try a new pick.

Each pick has its own feel and its own sound as it interacts with your strings and your playing style. Having used heavy picks for decades, I’ve been experimenting with very thin picks this past few weeks and it has been a great ear-opening experience. I noticed an immediate increase in the speed of my playing, but I also got a snappier sound in my rhythm playing that I absolutely love. All this for the price of a pick!

I got this tip - and the pick - from Robert Conti when I reviewed his Precision Technique DVD. I will admit that I was skeptical about moving to a super-light pick, but considering that Mr. Conti is one of the fastest and cleanest players on the planet I thought it was worth a try. Was it? Well, I will probably never go back to even a medium pick again. (And in case you are wondering, the few weeks that I spent working on the Precision Technique in the course of my review really did speed up my playing while keeping it totally clean.)

Of course as Robert Conti warned me in a note that accompanied the DVD, no one pick is perfect for everyone, but I think that experimenting with different picks is the least expensive way to change your sound and your playing, and have a lot of fun doing it. And if you are thinking of giving picks as gifts there are some really fun ones that feature legendary players and bands, ones made of unusual materials, and even glow-in-the-dark models.

A good place to start looking for cool new picks is Jim  Dunlop’s  site. I’ve used Dunlops for years and still do. Great picks. Another one I have come to love are the Cat Tongue picks, which have the best grip of any pick I’ve tried. Elderly Instruments carries them, as do most music stores (same with most of the Dunlops).

So remember that you don’t have to spend big bucks to get big results. And if you are getting some time off during the holiday season, a new pick is a great addition to some quality time with your guitar!

Today I am thrilled to tell you about an outstanding artist, who - if there is any justice in the world of music - will be very well known very soon. His name is Giacomo Fiore.

For the past two days I have been listening and re-listening to Mr. Fiore’s three fine albums and I am convinced that he is a wonderful artist whose music will appeal to lovers of both classical and fingerstyle guitar. I know quite a few classical guitarists who dabble in fingerstyle, and some fingerstyle players who have learned a few classical pieces, but Mr. Fiore is one of those rare artists equally comfortable in both styles. His performance of classical pieces is world-class, as are those of fingerstyle ones, and both styles converge in his own compositions which are the finest blend of the two styles that I have heard yet.

I am so impressed with Giacomo Fiore that rather than doing a single album review I have done my first Artist Profile that gives and overview of the work of this fine artist so far.

Check out my Profile of Giacomo Fiore. You will be very glad you did.

We all need calendars, and now there is one that you will really enjoy all year: Classic Guitars.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Robert Shaw’s fantastic guitar book Electrified and raved about the incredible guitars that are pictured in it. Well Mr. Shaw also publishes a calendar with images of beautiful guitars that should brighten up any day. Rare, vintage, electric, acoustic - all sorts of great guitars that any guitar lover would love to receive over the holidays.

You can order the calendar directly from Robert Shaw’s web site.

Kinloch Nelson clearly has an excellent ear for guitars, and that is good news for all guitar lovers. His new album Kinloch Plays Tunnel 13 and other Petros Guitars is a veritable showcase for the beautiful instruments of Bruce and Matt Petros. Not only are these instruments astonishing in their richness of tone; they also have a great story. Reclaimed from the timber of a 120-year old tunnel, this is wood with a magnificent second life.

Bruce and Matt could not have wished for a more gifted and sensitive artist to present these wonderful instruments to the world. Kinloch Nelson is both a gifted performer and a brilliant arranger who can do wonders with virtually any song. The combination makes for a terrific listening experience that any guitar lover will cherish again and again.

Read my full review and find a link to samples from this wonderful album here.