a change in blogging habits

Just a heads that in the next little while I may not be making a daily post (or 5-6 week like I often try to do). Instead I'm going to be focusing on working on the bigger and more important posts that I've been meaning to do for the blog.

This means that you won't see posts as often, but their content will likely be more useful. I'll probably go back to more of the shorter daily posts when I've completed some of the more important, lengthier ones (like ones for my poster).

Have a great day!

Double-check Your Music

I've had no shortage of lessons where students think they've been practicing correctly. The emphasis in that last sentence should definitely be on the word think. Often, something is wrong. Maybe it's the rhythm, or one of the notes is played on the wrong fret, whatever. The moral of the story is this: if you double-check your music, this kind of thing doesn't happen.

When to double-check your music

My general philosophy for practice is as follows:

1) Look at the music once either right before playing it the first time, or (if possible) while playing.
2) Play without the music (work towards memorization) as much as you can. 
3) Look at the music again at the end of your practice session (either on your last run through the song, or right after, to check that you're playing it correctly).

This process solves a lot of problems. First of all, by checking your music every time you practice, you make sure that you've remembered everything. We all like to think our memories are bullet-proof, but in fact they rarely are, and sometimes a few notes or a particular rhythm falls through the cracks. Then, by playing without the music you work on committing the music to memory (I write about how to do that in the link above on memorization). Finally, by running through the song once more with the music in front of you, you make sure the music is still how you remember it, and you can feel confident you've properly committed at least some part of the music to memory.

Once you feel you've got the song memorized, try playing from memory before looking at the music. If you can do that successfully for the next three practice sessions, it's safe to say that you've got the song memorized. Awesome!

Better to be careful then to be wrong

Always double-check your music using the steps outlined above, until you can confidently play it from memory. Better to be extra certain you've got things right, than to practice something incorrectly!

Double check that music!

I hate the recording process

Okay, I confess. I hate recording. I hate mixing. I hate editing songs. All of it.

I LOVE writing songs. The creative process fills me with joy, and purpose. I love doing it. But I don't like any of the work involved with the actual recording process.

I wanted to be done this album in March and now it's almost June. There have been many reasons for the setbacks, which I won't go into detail about today (perhaps that will be the subject matter for a third album, if I live that long).

I'm writing this to confess, and be honest. And to tell you the truth, I really want to quit this project, again for many reasons. But in the interest of following through on my commitment, and acting like an adult, and setting a good example, I am soldiering forward. I know I will enjoy the end product. But the process is not fun.

Yeah, I'm whining a bit here. Nobody likes a whiner. I'm just trying to be honest. And yes, I am aware that it's true that whining about the project won't get it done! Perhaps I'm writing this to show my students that you don't have to love everything you do in music to work through it. Sometimes things suck, and that's okay (this doesn't actually suck that much).

Anyway, back to work I go! Have a great day.

Songwriting Sessions: Communication is Everything

If you're going to write a song, I'm assuming you want someone to hear it (or possibly, "someones" i.e. an audience of multiple people).

If so, you probably want them to understand the song. If that's the case, it's important that your song communicates that understanding as well as possible.

Do they lyrics (if there are any) communicate to the audience effectively?
Does the music give off the right mood throughout the song?
Does the song contain the right instruments for what you're trying to say?
What about the melody? Dynamics? Structure of the song?

These are all things worth considering. Granted, some of this may work itself out naturally while you're writing the song. But if you get stuck or want to make sure your song is a good one, remember that your audience needs to be able to understand what you're trying to say.

Make sure you communicate effectively!

What Makes a Song Fun?

Every week I attempt to make a post on Friday that's:

1) music-related (obviously, it's a music blog); and
2) somehow fun

Oddly enough, I find this really hard to do, much harder than any other blog post. Perhaps that says something about what I find fun (studying languages and math are counted amongst my hobbies). At any rate...

I was asking myself, "What makes a song fun?", and this was one of the first songs that came to mind:

Then Youtube's autoplay led me to this song, which I definitely think falls under the "fun" category...

I'm a sucker for a good pop song, and I think these two songs are fantastic examples of fun songs (although in different ways - the first is more quirky, the second more straightforward). I have been known to dance around the dining room with my daughter to "Good Time."

Perhaps you don't find pop music fun. Well, even punk rockers like a good pop song! Check out my post on "retooling" (here) and you'll see what I'm talking about (spoiler: there are two fun songs I link to in this post).

Hope you're having a good time and a great day!

Growth Occurs Faster Than Decay

Your growth on guitar tends to be faster than your decay. The better you get at a song (and at playing in general), the longer you can go without practicing something.

Let me give an example to make my point.

I have been playing guitar for about 20 years. I have found that most simple strumming songs require no practice for me to be able to play them well. Compare that to a new student, who would need to practice the song on a fairly regular basis to see improvement.

From this we can also observe that the harder something is for you to play, the more often it needs to be practiced.

And so, of course, the better player you are, the easier songs will tend to be, and the less practice will be required. I don't mean to discourage practice, of course... you should be consistent with practice, and be sure to practice enough. I've written in more detail how much you should practice here.

Keep practicing and keep growing!

Wednesday Weekly Progress - May 24

Things are moving forward. Here's what's been going on for me this week:

1) Blog - ongoing:

This was a decent week for the blog. Here's what I wrote about:

Test Your Limits and Your Beliefs: Your beliefs may be limiting your ability to learn your instrument. Find out how and why, and how to eliminate any negative beliefs you may have about your ability to play music.

Songwriting Sessions: Retooling: Learn what retooling is and how to use it to improve your songwriting.

God Save the Queen!: It was Victoria Day here in Canada, so it only seemed appropriate to pay homage to our monarch.

When to Practice Slowly: Sometimes practicing slowly is your best bet to... believe it or not.. play faster! Learn more about this and when and why you should practice slowly.

Progress so far: 16.2% (these percentages are just a guess, but probably close enough)

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

Mixing did not happen as often as I'd like, but progress was made. I know now exactly what needs to be recorded again and I've made some small dents in the mixing process.

Progress so far: 95.3% - mixing in action

3) Poster for my office:

I wrote two posts about my eventual wall poster, Test Your Limits and Your Beliefs, and When to Practice Slowly. I put a small dent in my work towards the page I'm working on for how to read guitar tab, too (but it's not done yet).

Progress so far: 57.8%

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

This was the best week of practice I've had in recent months. I'd like a bit more this week, but we'll see how things go.

Keep on being awesome!

When to Practice Slowly

A lot of songs require fast and co-ordinated movements from the hands and arms. So in a sense our goal is always to play quickly. But sometimes, we need to play slowly to achieve that goal. Here are some instances when playing slowly is, strangely enough, your best bet to playing quickly and properly.

When to play slowly

1. When you don't understand the rhythm: If the song is new, or the rhythm is a bit strange, you're going to need to take some time to make sure you're doing to rhythm properly. This is especially true if you're practicing without a teacher. You need to give yourself enough time to pay attention to the rhythm, while also playing the correct notes with the correct fingers. Sometimes this means playing at half the speed of a song, or even a quarter of the speed (or slower!)

2. When you're trying to encourage a new playing habit: Most of the time, when you can't play something truly difficult, it's because your technique is off, and playing the same way over and over isn't going to change things. You need to slow down enough to make sure the new movement you're making is smaller, more relaxed, and more precise. You simply can't do that when playing quickly. Teaching your hands new muscle memory requires slow and consistent repetition, until the habit starts to feel more natural.

3. When finishing a practice session on a song: The best way to memorize the correct way to play a piece of music is to end with one practice at about half the speed that you would normally play. For some reason, this helps your mind and hands to remember how to play the piece in a more relaxed way (perhaps because it's easier to play in a relaxed state when playing slowly).

Slow down to speed up!

There are probably other instances in which you should play slowly, but those are the three most important ones that come to mind. Practice slowly at the right times, and you will find yourself playing faster than ever... odd as that may seem!

God Save the Queen!

Today is Victoria day in Canada, where we celebrate the birth of Queen Victoria. It's a holiday for us, too. God save the Queen!

(consider this a make up for Friday's lack of fun post)

Songwriting Sessions: Retooling

Definition of retool (courtesy of Merriam Webster Dictionary)

transitive verb
1: to reequip with tools
2: reorganize
3: revise, modify

intransitive verb
to make especially minor changes or improvements

Sometimes, all you need to write a song is to take an idea that already exists in some form or another, and to retool it.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

- take a chord progression from a well-known song and change the key, tempo, etc
- take an instrument normally played in one style of music (say, banjo in bluegrass music), and use it in another style of song (pop)
- take a certain concept from a song (the ways lyrics are sung or spoken) and use it in a completely different context

Here's a real-world of example of the last idea:

Original song

New song based on original song

There's always inspiration around the corner (or in the next song you listen to) if you open your ears and your mind to it. Happy writing!

Test Your Limits and Your Beliefs

You are not an unmoving stone. Your body and mind cannot and will not always be what they are right now. They will change.

If this is true, then why assume you can't accomplish exactly what you want on your instrument? Why not believe you can play any song you'd like to play, or to write your own beautiful music?

The fact is, you must test your limits and test your beliefs. Eliminating false and negative beliefs will motivate you to keep playing and practicing. The number one reason a student stops playing music is because "it's too hard" or "too much work". If music wasn't too hard, or too much work, would you keep doing it?

How to Test Your Limits and Your Beliefs

Here are some tips on how you can change your mind about what you're capable of accomplishing.

Notice what negative beliefs you have, and what kind of limits you place on yourself: What kind of thoughts do you have that are negative? "I can't do this" and "I'm not good enough" are just two examples of thoughts you might tell yourself that simply aren't true (or at least, they don't have to be). Write them down if it makes it easier to remember them.

Here are some negative beliefs that I used to have:
- 6 notes per second is fast
- playing the intro to Thunderstruck is impossible (which is about 9 notes per second!)
- writing songs is difficult and I'll never a good song
- learning songs by ear is difficult

Ask yourself what you'd really like to do on your instrument: Now comes the fun part. Make a list of what you'd like to accomplish on your instrument. Write it down, record it on your phone or tablet, or just keep remember if you've got a good memory.

I wanted:
- to play more quickly (I'm not sure exactly how fast)
- to play Thunderstruck
- to write a good song
- to learn songs by ear whenever I felt like it

Now to start working on those goals. Here's how...

Close the gap: Sometimes students think that either can play something, or they can't. And that is true in the sense that they can either play something really well, or not. But what many students don't realize is that there is a whole range of how good or bad we are at playing something. There is a spectrum of skill and you're somewhere on it!

We "close the gap" between where we are, and where we want to be, by realizing there is this broad range of skill and ability that we can cross, on our way to musical excellence. The easiest way to close this gap? Read on...

Find a way to measure your progress, then measure it!

I just wrote a post about this, which you can read here. Basically, find a way to keep track of your progress, so you can see you're getting better, and keep your motivation and energy levels high!

I used to pretty consistently practice with a metronome, so I would know exactly how well I could play something. While I don't do that as much anymore (for various reasons), it is an effective tool and one you should use at least occasionally (especially if you want to see that you're getting faster at playing something).

Nowadays I write music, and I usually find some way to challenge myself by doing that. I record my music and track my progress by listening to how good my playing really is (I've also written about recording yourself here).

Test Your Limits, Change Yourself

There is a great musician within you. It's up to you to bring him or her out by testing your limits, and challenging your beliefs. You can do it!

Wednesday Weekly Progress - May 17

Progress continues to be steady. Here's what I was up to this week.

1) Blog - ongoing:

What Should I Practice?: Curious about how to go about practicing? This short post should get you started.

Just Intonation Guitar: If you've ever felt like you can't quite tune your guitar perfectly, check out this video on a guitar with frets based on "just intonation" tuning. Pretty neat and kind of strange!

Songwriting Sessions: Where to Start: Trying to write a song, but you can't figure out how to get started? Here's a post on how to do just that.

Practice Makes Permanent: Learn why everything you do while you practice affects your playing skills and habits.

That Which Is Worst Should Be Practiced Best: Find out why you should spend the most time on the hardest parts of playing your instrument.


Progress so far: 16% (these percentages are just a guess, but probably close enough)

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

The mixing continues! I've discovered some tracks that need replacing, but progress is good, albeit a little slow this week. I expect a lot more work to be done this week based on less time restraints.

Progress so far: 95.2% - almost done selecting tracks, looking forward to mixing soon

3) Poster for my office:

I wrote two posts about my eventual wall poster, Practice Makes Permanent, and That Which Is Worst Should Be Practiced Best. I haven't forgotten about my post on how to read tab, either! It's simply the one that has taken the most work.

Progress so far: 57.4%

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

I've gotten some practice, in particular on the electric guitar and on piano, as well as singing. I need to get more work in on my acoustic repertoire.

Hope you've had an awesome, productive week. Rock on!

That Which is Worst Should Be Practiced Best

If one of your songs is weaker than the others, it should be practiced more than other songs.
If part of one of your songs is weaker than the other parts, it should be practiced more than other parts.
If some part of your playing technique is weaker than others, it should be practiced more.

You want all of your playing to sound good. All of your songs, every part of each song, all of your tricks and techniques, your bells and whistles.The only way that's going to happen is if you make the harder stuff... well, not so hard. If something is more difficult to play, that means it's going to require more practice.

This is why I say:
That which is worst should be practiced best.

(It's probably better English to say "most", but it somehow sounds more poetic and memorable this way).

The challenge lies in convincing yourself to do this. We want to have fun on our instrument, so who wants to spend lots of time on the really hard stuff, right? The truth is, you will enjoy the instrument far more if you do spend more time on the difficult parts, because those are what will really change your playing for the better.

When I was learning ACDC's "Thunderstruck", I spent about a year-and-a-half on it. I could have spent far less time on easier songs, but I wanted to improve my overall playing ability on the instrument. And boy did I ever! Learning that song catapulted my playing ability to greater heights than I ever imagined possible.

I have seen so much success following this philosophy of practice that I generally never learn a new song unless it provides a challenge, because I want to keep getting better, and because I now have the faith that I can master any song I practice. And that kind of faith is a bonus from practicing this way: you will become confident in your ability to learn whatever you want to learn, and it will make practice far easier.

So remember...
That which is worst should be practiced best.

Practice Makes Permanent

So often as musicians we hear the phrase "practice makes perfect". But one of my students once told me a much better phrase she picked up from her voice teacher:

Practice Makes Permanent

What does this mean? It means that everything you do on the instrument affects your playing. Any incorrect movements in your playing will show up later as part of your "muscle memory" (how your body remembers to play it).

In other words, make sure your habits are good right from the get-go. Don't allow any bad habits into your playing (in practice this is pretty much impossible, but you should do your best to follow it as closely as you can). Don't use the wrong fingers, or ignore the correct strumming, or anything else like that, because you don't want to get used to playing something the wrong way.

Always do your best to use the correct habits when playing. Be very thoughtful about your practice, and don't allow for mindless repetition. Mindless repetition almost always leads to bad habits with your playing technique, even if you're not aware of them!

Because practice makes permanent, don't do anything while practicing that you don't want to be part of your playing. Use proper technique whenever possible, and always pay close attention to how you're playing. This will make it much easier to learn your instrument, even if you're relatively new to playing.

Practice in two dimensions (if you don't know what I mean by this, check out my post here).

Songwriting Sessions: Where to Start

So you want to write a song. How do you even begin such a daunting task? Fear not, fellow minstrel, I'm here with some tips to get your creative juices flowing.

How to start songwriting in 4 easy steps

Step 1: Choose your instrument
Most songs are written on piano, guitar, or synthesizers/keyboards, so those are good instruments to start with. If you're starting with a melody, you could sing it, or you could play it on any instrument that you're comfortable with (assuming that instrument has the range i.e. enough different notes, that you want).

Step 2: Choose your method
I firmly believe there are no hard and fast rules for how to write a song, and I know stories of many different (and successful) songwriters who've done it in different ways. So do whatever feels natural to you. If you're writing music and lyrics, you can start with the lyrics, or the music, or do both at the same time. It doesn't really matter.

If you need more guidance, I offer some tips in the following posts:
Songwriting Sessions: How to write a song
Songwriting Sessions: Writing the music before the lyrics

I wouldn't worry too much about how you "should" write. I would just start writing (and don't stop!).

Step 3: Know what to do if you get stuck

You can always make progress with your songs. For instance, there's always something to write about (which I've written about, here). You can use other artists as inspiration, if necessary (I've written about that here). And lastly, if you really feel stuck, learn some more theory. Theory is the universal solvent that remedies all musical confusion. Learn your scales, learn how songs are structured, and learn more about music.

And if all seems hopeless...

Step 4: Don't give up!

It may seem like you'll never finish that song, but don't give up! You aren't going to get worse as a songwriter, and if you keep putting a sincere effort, your skills will sharpen and you'll get your music done.

Get started on your path to songwriting awesomeness
Pick an instrument, pick a writing method, keep learning more, and keep at it. You can do it!

just intonation guitar

This is a very interesting video about a just intonation guitar:

Believe it or not, we didn't always tune our instruments the way we do now. We use what's called "equal temperament tuning" nowadays. If you don't know anything about equal temperament versus just intonation, well, don't feel bad. Most musicians don't, and I'm still pretty new to the subject. But check this video out below if you want to learn more about it.

Have a great weekend!

What should I practice?

Every student should practice. That much is obvious. But what is not obvious is what the student should practice. While there are some basic guidelines I think I can give - you should probably be practicing at least one scale, and at least one or two songs - the specific details of your practice regimen will (or perhaps should) differ from someone else's.

Allow me to use my own practice as an example. Right now I rotate practice on about thirty or forty songs, some of which are on piano, some on guitar, some are on ukelele, and some (at least currently) only have a home on bass guitar. With that many songs it is impossible for me to practice all of them everyday. In fact, some songs I don't practice for weeks at a time!

From the theory side of things, I rarely practice my scales (except on piano) because I know them very well, but I will review them from time to time. I believe scales should be practiced by just about every musician, but I limit my practice on them simply because I have to manage my practice time carefully, and most of what I do does not require greater knowledge of scales.

Now, would I recommend most students practice this way? Absolutely not! Most students would never see progress this way. For most students I would recommend practicing somewhere between one and five songs, and to continue developing knowledge of the fretboard (keyboard, etc.), which usually means working on scales for at least five or ten minutes per practice.

Students who are more advanced could consider adding songs and developing a larger repertoire, depending on genre and whether or not the student is going to be performing. When I used to play the pub and restaurant circuit, I played thirty to forty songs every night, and so I had about one to two hundred songs that I would rotate.

In general, don't practice so many songs that you can't make good progress. I know some students who want more and more (and more!) songs, and this is bad if you can't keep up. Finish the material you're working on and then review it from time to time, if you'd like, while adding new songs.

I've talked about practice time in the past, but I'll restate it here: most students should aim for a minimum of an hour practice a week, and dedicate at least five minutes a day to working on scales. I used to spend about 30 minutes to an hour every day working on my scales on guitar and bass (which is why I know them so well).

Practice schedules can change as you get better (and probably should), and I can't possibly give a "one size fits all" approach to practice. But hopefully this gives you an idea of where to start.

Wednesday Weekly Progress - May 10

It's been a busy week (as always!) but things are going great. Here's what I've been up to.

1) Blog - ongoing:

I got a couple of posts done this week, here they are:

Know Thy Tempo: What is tempo? How do I know if I'm playing the right tempo? Why is tempo important? All of these questions (and more!) answered in this post.

Songwriting Sessions: Sometimes It's All About the Mix: Some songs need the write mix to really sound right. If your songs are lacking a little something, you should give this post a read.

Progress so far: 15.7% (these percentages are just a guess, but probably close enough)

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

The mixing begins! In what will likely be the shortest part of the process, I now get to make all the songs sound balanced and professional.

Progress so far: 95% - almost done selecting tracks, looking forward to mixing soon

3) Poster for my office:

This week I did manage to do one post about my poster: Know Thy Tempo
I've reached about the halfway point for these posts, and although I was expecting to be done this poster by summer (or late spring), my inability to set proper deadlines strikes again. Nevertheless, progress is being made and I'm feeling good about this project.

Progress so far: 57%

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

I've gotten some practice here and there on all of my instruments, so I'm starting to see a shift back towards better practice. I always practice each week - I'm around a guitar, bass, ukelele, and keyboard six hours a day most days, teaching - but lately my work on my repertoire has been lacking a bit.


Hope you've had a great week, and keep practicing!

the mixing begins!

I'm finally starting to mix the album. I have no idea how long it will actually take, but rest assured I'm excited and work is getting done. I may end up re-recording some little bits here and there (is an artist ever truly finished with his work?), but I'll do my best to just get it done.

Woohoo!

I always tend to underestimate how long a project will take me, but at least you can't say I'm not ambitious. May as well shoot for the stars, right?

Songwriting Sessions: Sometimes It's All About the Mix

Some songs simply do not have the same impact without the right instrumentation. For example, a lot of electronic, pop, and techno songs are not nearly as exciting without the synths, drum machines, and whatever other samples or electronic music is used.

Sometimes it's because the music is too simple without all the extra bells and whistles that come with a cool sample or two (or a hundred). Is this bad or wrong? Does it mean the song is bad? This is just my opinion, but I don't think it does. I think we see the same thing with rock music, too. A lot of the impact in rock music comes from heavy, distorted guitars, and loud drums. Take away the drums and the distortion and you're sometimes left with something... a little less than exciting.

"We Will Rock You" by Queen is not nearly as interesting when you're the only one stomping and clapping, but "We Are the Champions" would sound great with only a solo piano or guitar, as long as you've got some great vocals.

How to write with the mix in mind

As a songwriter, use this knowledge to your advantage. If you want a song that sounds strong no matter what, make sure that the piano or guitar part is strong enough to stand by itself, make sure you've got a killer melody, and make the song as interesting as possible.

You can also use this info to your benefit in the opposite direction: if you're feeling stuck while writing, try something simple (a simple guitar riff, melody, or what have you), and loop it. Then add something on top, and keep doing that until you feel you've got a song started.

As always, never let anything keep you from writing! Keep at it.

Know Thy Tempo

Different songs can have different tempos. The "tempo" to a song is the speed of the beat, i.e. it's usually how fast you'd tap your foot along with the song.

When learning a song there are two things about tempo that you need to keep in mind:

1) You need to know the tempo of the song.

If you're looking at the official sheet music or tablature of a song, the tempo should be clearly indicated, often with a number, occasionally with only an italian word like moderato, adagio, etc.

Here is an assorted list of songs and their respective tempos:

160 - Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry
130 - Thunderstruck by AC/DC
116 - Last Kiss by Pearl Jam
110 - More Than a Feeling by Boston
94 -  Collide by Howie Day
88 - Wonderwall by Oasis
72 - Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

As you get further down the list, your foot taps more slowly with each song (because the tempo is slower).

Listed here are the Italian names for tempo and the number of beats per minute each represents. I never use these names while teaching guitar, bass, or ukelele, so I had to actually look them up.

Tempo name and number (bpm)
Largo: 40-60
Larghetto: 60-66
Adagio: 66-76
Andante: 76-108
Moderato: 108-120
Allegro: 120-168
Presto: 168-200
Prestissimo: 200-208


2) You need to know if you are playing at that tempo.

This may seem obvious. If you're playing a song, you should be playing it at its proper tempo. Of course! And yet, so many students don't actually know whether they're playing the song quickly enough. Or, worse yet, they think they are playing the correct speed, and they aren't.

Enter the metronome.

Using a metronome, you can check if you're playing the correct tempo by setting the metronome to the speed of the song, and then playing along with it. If you can keep up with the beat of the metronome, then you're good!

Sometimes it is difficult to play along to a metronome, for any number of reasons. The song may be too fast for you, or you may have trouble following it. It may take time and practice to play exactly along with the metronome, but don't give up too easily. Every student that I've had use the metronome has gotten better with practice.

Know thy tempo

To play any song properly, you need to play it properly: the right notes, the right rhythm, and the right tempo. With time and practice you'll find learning, playing, and knowing the correct tempo will become second nature!

Thursday something or other

I'm in the midst of finishing a blog post on tempo. I haven't forgotten about the tab reading post for guitar (or bass, or uke).

Some posts require more concentrated periods of time. The tab reading post will probably take several hours of dedicated work, and I simply don't want to put that much into right now. It will get done, just not yet.

The tempo post should be done soon. I'll update here if I finish it today.

Have a great day!

no wednesday update

Still hard at work on the album. Rather than give an update I'll just refer you to the new post I made below this one.  Have a great Wednesday!

Don't Compare Yourself with Others

If you're trying to learn a song it's sometimes a good idea to compare your playing to a recording to try to figure out how to play better. This is a good idea. But other than trying to polish your playing skills, I think it's best it's best not to compare your playing to someone else's. Here are a few reasons why:

1) You haven't been playing the same amount of time: Most of the time, it's a bit silly to compare your progress to another musician, simply because you haven't been playing the same amount of time. If they've had longer to practice and to learn their craft, can you really expect to be as good as them?

Objection #1:
"But wait", I hear (some of ) you thinking. "What if I compare myself to others who did start at the same time, or compare my progress to the progress of other musicians when they had the same amount of time on the instrument?"

Well, that brings me to my second reason...

2) Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses: No two musicians are exactly alike, and that usually means that we learn about the elements of music at different speeds. Some musicians find rhythm incredibly easy and have no problem mastering it (they're rare, trust me) Some musicians learn to read music quickly. Others start with a great sense of pitch.

None of you tend to be the same, so it's not worth comparing yourself to others. Chances are you are better than someone else at something.

Objection #2:
"But wait", I hear (some of) you thinking. "What if they've been playing the same amount of time as me, and they're better than me at everything?"

Okay, let's move on to my third reason...

3) Your practice habits may be different than someone else: Okay, even if someone is better than you after playing for the same amount of time, they may have practiced more. Maybe they practice twice as much. Or maybe they've got better practice habits. Maybe their teacher has given them better ideas for proper practice than yours has (assuming you have a teacher).

Objection #3 (boy, you're really giving me a hard time today): 
"But wait", I hear (some of) you thinking. "What if we've been playing and practicing the same amount of time and with the same habits, and they're still better than me at everything?"

Okay, I'll admit it. It's possible to meet someone else who plays the same instrument who:
1) has been playing about as long as you have
2) has practiced about as much as you have
3) doesn't know any special practicing techniques or habits that you don't also know, and
4) is better than you.

So let me pull out the big guns...

4) It doesn't really matter if someone else is better than you, because there will probably always be somebody out there who is better than you:

I accepted a long time ago that I'd probably never be as good as Eddie Van Halen, Andre Segovia, or Joe Pass, all masters of their respective music genres. But I don't need to be. If I was as good as any of them I wouldn't be focused on becoming a great teacher, and frankly, I can do a much greater service to the world of music by being a great teacher than I can by being another great player.

I'm also pretty happy with my progress on the guitar, bass, ukelele, and piano, and voice. I'd definitely like to be better at all of these instruments, but that's the great thing about learning music: you can always get better.

The sooner you focus on simply getting better, the happier you'll be.

How to read music

[under construction]

This is a hub page for learning to read music. There will be links to various lessons on how to read guitar tablature, bass tab, ukelele tab, and sheet music for all of these instruments.

As of right now I am working on the page for guitar tab, which is almost functional (incomplete but useful), and I expect it to be up later this week. I will be working on it everyday until it is finished, so until it's done I wouldn't expect any large updates to the blog.

I've got to go work on my album! Almost finished selecting tracks for the last song, then I have a a few re-records of various tracks, then the mixing begins!

Opera.. fun?

I've never been a big fan of opera, but I've found a few pieces over the years that I do like, and I thought it might be fun to share them with you.

The first one you've probably not heard before. It's from Handel's Messiah, which I recommend if you're looking to get into some nice sounding opera:

The next piece, also from Messiah, I guarantee you've heard before:

You may have noticed I've been sharing a lot of older music lately. I find my tastes as far as what I want to listen to fluctuates. Next week might be all jazz or pop music. I never really know, but I do like a lot of different music, as you can see.

Have a great weekend!

no significant updates today

My apologies for the lack of updates. It's been a busy week but not so busy that I couldn't get anything done.

Next week you should see more blog posts and more about the album. Have a great week!

update on the update post: Okay, I've put a good bit of word into my reading guitar tab post, but it's still not quite ready. I'll work on it a bit more tonight and see if I can finish it!

You say you like the classics?

This is one of the oldest pieces of music I could find. Enjoy!

Wednesday Weekly Progress - April 19

Another crazy week!

1) Blog - ongoing:

I didn't get much done on the blog this past week. Between the significant work put towards my album, doing my taxes, and a few other things that needed to be done (I definitely underestimated my work-load for the weekend), I didn't post much. I would like to be posting more than two significant posts a week, but I've come to accept that I'll get done as much as I get done.

Here are this week's posts (excluding update posts and posts I haven't finished):

Love: A link to a beautiful piece of music on Easter.

Memorize Your Music: A post (about my poster, no less!) about how to go about memorize music.

Progress so far: 15.6% (these percentages are just a guess, but probably close enough)

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

Okay, not quite done. But I'm getting there, piece by piece! As with last week, I'm still in the "choosing tracks" phase of the album (picking which vocal/guitar tracks to keep, which to junk). I'm on the last song (almost there!) out of 10 right now.

Progress so far: 95% - almost done selecting tracks, looking forward to mixing soon

3) Poster for my office:

As mentioned above, I did one post about my poster: Memorize Your Music

Progress so far: 56%

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

Very little practice. but more than last week. I went through several songs for what might be my next album, and did a little work on my cover repertoire (which currently includes about 4 or 5 songs).

Have a great week and keep going no matter what!

Songwriting Sessions: Proof You Can Write About Just About Anything

Last week I wrote about the idea that there is always something to write about (which you can read about here). Here is some evidence that this is true.

For my next album, Songs for Ghosts, which I'm currently recording, I tried to briefly summarize the theme or subject matter of each song. Here's what I came up with:

Silver Knight: I wasn't good enough (or so you think)
Step Outside: take a risk, I've got your back
The Girl With The Green Eyes: I want you here
Statues: that moment was everything
Little Blond Curls: song about my son/life
Oak: I'm always here for you no matter what
Vital Signs and Fumbled Lines: life is not just flesh and bones
Fortress: let me in, I'm not afraid of your demons/bad side
Little Ones: we'll meet again
Songs for Ghosts: let go of the past

Here are some potential song themes for my third album:

- I'm not ashamed to be me
- I'm not letting fear stop me
- I need your light
- you're my Serenity
- silly song about koalas
- love is everything
- temptation is always there
- people think I'm a freak
- love is the answer
- you're going crazy
- unload your problems on me
- becoming a new person
- the price we pay for war
- you dumped me
- stop hiding inside your fake world

These could change before I finish the album, but that's not the point. The point is there are all kinds of things to write about, and if you simply write about things that are of interest to you, you will find no shortage of inspiration. So get writing! And have fun with it.

Love

God bless us all.

updates - Thursday April 13

I've been working slowly at the page on how to read guitar tablature. I'll do the bass tab page next, but it will be a little while before either is finished.

In the meantime I have a post about memorizing that you should check out by clicking here....

Album is going well, but nothing exciting to report here. I get in what time I can.. More soon!

Memorize your music

One of the most important steps in mastering a piece of music is memorizing it. Why? You can then look at what you're doing while playing, rather than looking up at your music.

This is especially important when you're trying to improve your technique on your instrument. While it's certainly possible to become a great player without looking much at your hands, sometimes you just don't know what the problem might be. That's when looking at your hands is important.

"But memorizing is hard!", I hear some of you saying...

Not at all! The key to memorizing your music is, as with many things in life, taking it one step at a time. Try the first note of the piece you're working on from memory. Usually one note is very easy to memorize. Try two. Then three, then four, and so on. Here is what I have found to be the easiest way to memorize:

How to memorize any piece of music

1) Play through what you're working on while allowing yourself to look at the music
2) Try playing the first note from memory (easy!)
3) Add a note and try playing two notes from memory
4) Repeat step #2, but only when the notes you are already playing are really easy to play from memory. In other words, don't add any new notes to your memory work unless you can easily play what you're already doing.

I go through this same process with many of my students, and almost every time they commit what they're learning to memory quickly. Sometimes they forget some of it the next time they go to play, in which case I just recommend they go through the same four steps again. Each time you do it it gets a lot easier.

When or whether to look at the music after memorizing

You should probably look at your music at the beginning and at the end of each practice session, just to be really sure you're not missing anything. I used to go back to lessons every week confident in my memory work, only to find I'd played one note wrong the entire week!

Look at the music at the beginning and end of practice until it is effortless to play from memory, and you'll memorize your work in no time, while minimizing mistakes.

Get memorizing!

Wednesday Weekly Progress - April 12

What a crazy week this has been! Here's what I've been up to...

1) Blog - ongoing:
Okay, so in light of the fact that working on my album is taking longer than I'd hoped, and since I can only do so much work on it a day (between two and four hours at most), I've gotten back into blogging. I'm trying not to let my blog work derail my progress on the album, and so far, so good (there are times now when I can blog when I can't really work on the album, i.e. when watching the kids in the morning).

At any rate, here are this week's posts (excluding update posts and posts I haven't finished):

Everything is Practice: Okay, that's not really true, but this quick little post is a great source of inspiration for practice, and seeing how easily we can practice and make progress as musicians.

Northern Sky: Just a fun little story about me and a song I completely forgot about recording.

Songwriting Sessions: There's Always Something to Write About: Do you write music? Do you think there's nothing worth writing about? Check this post out and get inspired (and get writing)!

Measure Your Progress Objectively: Finally, another poster post! Learn how to track your progress as a musician so you can be confident that you're getting better.

Progress so far: 15.5% (these percentages are just a guess, but probably close enough)

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

I'm in the "choosing tracks" phase of the album - picking the tracks for each song that I'm going to use. This involves deleting bad vocal and guitar takes, and things like that.

I'm on song 7 out of 10 right now and about halfway there. Songs 8 and 9 won't take very long, and song 10 will also take a while. This weekend promises to be fruitful because I have very few commitments all weekend.

Progress so far: 93.5% - almost done selecting tracks, looking forward to mixing soon

3) Poster for my office:

As mentioned above, I did one post about my poster: Measure Your Progress Objectively.

Progress so far: 55% - almost done selecting tracks, looking forward to mixing soon

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

Very little practice. Some piano and ukelele, and a little guitar here and there. This will ramp up once the album is done, although I do need to be practicing a bit more now.

Here's hoping next week the album is done!

Tuesday update

I'm working on a blog post about memorization which should be up within the week. I haven't forgotten about my work on the pages for how to read tab. They take a little longer to put together and so I've put my focus on some "lower hanging fruit" (easier blogposts), in the meantime.

I'm planning on chipping away some more on my album. I've almost gone through and listened to every track in every song! I've got about 3-and-a-half songs to go, with two of those being less complex tracks (i.e. less work to sort through).

I'll keep you posted. Have a great day!

Measure your progress objectively

Sometimes when we practice our instrument, it is obvious that we are getting better. But there are times during practice when one starts to doubt if getting better is even possible.

Have you ever had that feeling? It's not pleasant. This blog post is all about keeping you from ever feeling that way. Okay, maybe not ever... but the more you follow what's written here, the more likely you'll keep making progress.

How to know you're making progress (and how to keep making progress)

The real key is objective measurement - a measurement that is the same no matter who takes it. In other words, you need a way to measure your progress that lets you be sure that you are actually getting better. Here are some way to do that:

1) Record yourself: I've written a blog post about already (which you can check out here), but the basic idea is that a recording doesn't lie. If you practice to the best of your abilities, and record yourself every week or so, you should see yourself getting better with each new recording. It's a good idea to save the old ones, too. That way you can really see the progress you've made!

2) Use a metronome: The metronome doesn't lie. It keeps the beat, and it can let you know exactly how fast you can play something.

Suppose you're working on the intro to a song, and the full speed of the song is 100BPM (beats per minute). Find a speed where you can play it correctly, and then try another, faster speed. Stop when you reach a speed you can't seem to play, and write down the fastest speed you were capable of playing.

If you repeat this process every time your practice, you'll be able to play faster and faster speeds, which is proof that you're getting faster (and better) at the song.

3) Keep a log or journal (checklist, etc)


Take notes on your progress. Write about what you're having trouble with, and what seems to be going well. Do this every time you practice. This way when you look back after a weeks at your notes, you should see that some things that were difficult have gotten a lot easier.

Which of these methods should I use to measure my progress?

Use whichever methods you think will help motivate you best. Using a metronome is probably the easiest way to check your progress, and I have used one many times with great success. These days I usually record myself (since most of what I work on is part of some recording project or another), and I've been happy with that method.

Making sure you are progressing will help keep you motivated, and ensure that you keep practicing and realizing your dream of being a successful musician and artist.

Songwriting Sessions: There's Always Something to Write About

One reason some songwriters get stuck when it comes to writing is that they feel they have nothing to write about. This is total and utter malarky. Baloney. Nonsense! There is always something to write about.

Need some proof? Coldplay had a hit with a song called "Yellow". The lyrics? See for yourself:

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things you do
Yeah you were all yellow
I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called "Yellow"

When Coldplay didn't know what to write about, they wrote about - wait for it - writing about a song called "Yellow". They wrote about the song "Yellow" in the song "Yellow".

Now don't tell me there's nothing to write about. You can write about another colour if you like. Aerosmith wrote about the colour pink. Kermit the Frog sang about "bein' green". I'm sure there are plenty of songs about being blue (I'm pretty sure there's a whole genre dedicated to the subject).

I'm being somewhat silly here. You don't have to write about colours. You can write about anything:

Neil Young and the Beach Boys wrote about cars ("Long May You Run", "Fun, Fun, Fun", etc.)
Queen wrote a song about riding bicycles.

There have been songs about animals, cars, love, other songs, other people, war, peace, violence, drugs, food, bicycles, guitars, piano men, yellow brick roads, etc...

There is always something to write about. If you're serious about writing, just write about anything. If you don't like what you're writing about, ask yourself why and use that to write another song. Keep doing this over and over until you're really passionate about what you're writing.

And keep writing! Always keep writing.

big post construction

I'm working on building a page on reading guitar tablature, as well as bass tablature and ukelele tab, too. Eventually I will teach you how to read sheet music, but as most of what you will learn will be written in tab, it just makes more sense to start there.

As a consequence of making these pages, I wouldn't expect any other full posts on a daily basis. I'll probably just make one like this, at least on any day where I don't finish one of the tab posts.

And for those of you wondering... YES, I'm still working on my album. Yes, it's taking a long time. Better to do a good job and take longer, right? I'll post more about it soon. I'm still going through and picking the best vocal tracks and such. Soon the mixing begins (after a few small recording sessions, as I suspect I need to redo some parts).

I haven't forgotten about my Saturday series of posts about songwriting. I'll try to make a small post about that later if I can. (UPDATE: It's written. Check it out here.)

Keep on keepin on!

Northern Sky

As I've mentioned in the past, I used to have a band, the Union of Lanterns. We weren't around for long (that's a story for next week, perhaps), but if you pull a google search (or as I prefer, a "duck duck go" search, because they seem less controlling and authoritarian - duckduckgo.com is my search engine of choice), you can find stuff on us.

Anyway, one of my mom's favourite pastimes is searching for stuff on the band. Admittedly she doesn't do it as often these days, but she used to in our heyday. Well, imagine my surprise when she found a song I didn't even remember recording!

There was (and still is) a website, SonicBids, that allowed you to submit application for various music related contests, competitions, and gigs. Looking back on it, it seems like a bit of a money-grabbing scam that people used to swindle money out of hard working musicians. I never got anything of benefit from using the site... with one exception.

Apparently there was some sort of contest or audition to be on a "Nick Drake" compilation. I recorded the following song, "Northern Sky", in an effort to be on that compilation:

https://www.sonicbids.com/band/unionoflanterns/audio/#Northern Sky (This will take you to a different site, and you'll have to click on the "play" button beside "Northern Sky" for it to work. I couldn't think of an easy way to link to it otherwise.)

I didn't get "win" the contest, but it was neat to discover a recording that I had completely forgotten making. What do you think? Here's the original for reference:

Have a great weekend!

Everything is practice

Okay, that's not really true. Not practicing is definitely not practice. I think what I really mean is something more like "everything you do that involves learning about your instrument, and music in general, is practice".

Playing your instrument is practice (obviously).

Learning theory counts as practice.

Listening to music can be practice if doing so teaches you something new about your instrument (or something like songwriting, for example).

Tapping rhythms on your leg while waiting for an appointment somewhere is rhythm practice (although it might drive others a bit crazy!)

Imagining yourself playing is practice.

I've talked before about how there's really no excuse not to practice, and I think this short list (which could easily be expanded) is proof of that. 

Practice creatively, have fun, and practice often!

Wednesday Weekly Progress - April 5

I missed posting my progress last week. I can't remember if it was before or after I got sick, but at any rate, I'm back, and ready to update you!

There's really only one thing worth updating you on at the moment (if you've been reading my blog lately, you can probably guess what it is):

1) 2nd Album, Songs For Ghosts:

My progress here is great. I was sick for a few days and didn't do much, but I'm about halfway through the "listening/selecting" phase of the process. This is where I listen to everything and decide which tracks I think I'm going to keep, and which I'm going to get rid of. After I finish this, I move on to the actual mixing process, where I try to make the songs sound like they should.

Progress: 92% - almost ready to do the actual mixing.

I'm hoping this week to get back to more frequent blog-posting - not as much as before my work on the album, but more than I've been doing lately. It looks like this album is simply going to take longer than I'd like, in light of when I have time to work on it. Juggling my full schedule of students for lessons (I have about 60 students) with helping my wife with the kids doesn't leave a lot of time for mixing. I'm not making excuses, though. I could put more time into the album every day, but not a lot more without throwing off the delicate and successful balance that we've maintained in our home.

Anyway, have a great week! I've got more album work to do...

Record Yourself

I've just come fresh from a guitar lesson where I was recording my student. He's not even done the song (it's a recital piece that needs to be finished in the next two months), and I'm recording him. You might be wondering why I'm recording him if he's not even ready to play the song properly. Well, today I'm going to give you several reasons why I recorded him, and more generally, why you should record yourself (at least occasionally) during practice.

Why you should record yourself during practice:

1) So you hear what you actually sound like: Most students are shocked to hear that they don't sound quite as good as they imagined. I remember the first few times I recorded myself and expected a much better recording than what I ended up with.

It's hard to hear yourself objectively while you're practicing. You're too busy playing! By recording yourself, you can step back and put all of your focus on listening to your playing. Are there bad notes anywhere? Did you mess up the rhythm? It's easier to notice these things when you're only listening, and not playing.

2) You can more easily track your progress: One of the biggest reasons I suspect beginners quit playing their instrument is because they don't actually hear their progress. But if you record yourself playing the same song (scale, riff, etc.) every week, as long as you are practicing consistently, and practicing properly (more on that later), you should hear a better recording every week.

You may not be playing perfectly just yet, but you're probably getting better. I'd recommend recording yourself every once and a while so you can see that I'm right.

3) It prepares you for performance (anxiety): Yes, musicians tend to get nervous while performing. It turns out the feeling you get while recording often tends to be similar to the sensation one gets while on stage or in front of an audience. It's almost as if someone is listening!

If you've already suffered through some of the anxiety of recording, you'll be better prepared for performance.

"How often should I record?"

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules about it. Once a week is probably fine, and you can do it more often if you want to keep really close track of your progress. I don't do it weekly, but that's only because when I've finally practiced a song for long enough, I record it anyway (most of the songs I practice are for my next album or recording project).

Record yourself!

It's easier than ever to record yourself. You can use a computer, your cell phone, or even (gasp!) a camera, if you own one. I use my computer as I already do plenty of recording there, and on occasion I use my digital camera. The recording quality doesn't need to be perfect by any means - so long as you get a decent recording where you can hear what you're playing, you should be fine.

sick!

I haven't been feeling too hot for a couple of days, so things took a bit of a hiatus. Assuming I feel better tomorrow, you can expect me to return to some blog posting of sorts.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Thursday's album update

All right, I've made a lot of posts like this, and the progress doesn't seem significant enough (day by day) that I should actually be making a post like this on a daily basis.

I'm putting a serious effort into the album, but I have to do balance that with teaching sixty students a week and helping to raise three children. That tends to only leave me about three hours a day at a maximum.

Starting tomorrow I think I'm going to try going back to blogging "normally" to some degree. My posts won't be as detailed as they might be under normal circumstances, but I'll only post album updates sporadically (maybe every two or three days).

Have a great day!

Wednesday album update

Work is going well - I spent several hours last night doing more work on song four (of ten). I've still likely got a few hours on that song before I can mix it.

I'll look forward to being finished the album, but I'm enjoying the process! Have a great day!

Tuesday update

AKA there is no update since yesterday! I had some work for students that had to be done first, and as a consequence did not work on the album yesterday.

Today will be a different story, as I should have between three and four hours to make a pretty big dent. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Monday's album update

Well, things are moving along nicely:

Tracks one through three have been listened to (and appropriate tracks selected), with no mixing
Track four is almost ready for mixing, will just need a few hours selecting vocals.
Track five is ready for mixing.
Tracks six, eight and nine will not require a significant amount of listening time as they do not have many tracks
Tracks seven and ten will take quite a while to go through, as each song has at least ten different parts, with multiple takes of each (there may be 100 tracks in one!)

Progress is being made, but I've still got a lot of work ahead. There have been some demoralizing points in the process (I discovered a bunch of guitar tracks for track four are junk), but I'm not quitting! Gotta keep moving forward.

I'll keep you posted!

Don't quit!

No matter how difficult music may seem, no matter what troubles you - whether it be songwriting, playing electric guitar, piano, or harmonica - don't quit!

Don't give up on your dreams of adding to the beautiful tapestry of sound that music helps to create. Don't let go of your ambitions to make good music, maybe even great music.

Don't quit! You can do it.

thursday's album update

Whew! Sickness in the house and have been super busy. But forward progress is being made. I'm just about to try looking through the files in the third song of the album. May not seem like much, but progress is being made. I'll keep you posted!

album update - March 21

I haven't gotten a lot done in the last 24 hours, as I'm now back to teaching full time (I had last week off). I've almost gone through track 2, and I've already gone through track 1, so that leaves only 8(!) other songs to go - but some of them shouldn't take as long because there isn't as much material to wade through.

Have a great day!

Did I finish my album in time???

I had given myself a deadline of Sunday to finish mixing my album? Did I succeed?

Not even close! I often give myself unrealistic deadlines (unintentionally, of course), but these deadlines as least get me thinking creatively about how to meet them.

At any rate, I'm still pretty far from finishing the album. Right now I'm listening to the second song of the album (there are ten) and figuring out which tracks (vocal takes, guitar parts, etc) are worth keeping, and which I should delete. It sometimes takes an hour to go over ten or fifteen seconds of the song, so hopefully that gives you an idea of how much more work needs to be done.

I'll keep you posted of my progress every day! I'll try to make other blogposts in the meantime, as time permits. Have a great Monday!

Saturday's recording update

The mixing begins! My gut is telling me that I need to record exactly one more track for my album, but I can't remember what it is, so I'm going to start mixing today (if I have missed any recording, I'll find it during mixing).

I'm planning on getting a lot of mixing done this weekend. I'll keep you posted!

Friday's recording update

Since yesterday I've discovered a few more tracks that need recording - a few vocal parts here and there, and I believe two small guitar parts.

After that, I can finally start mixing! I had intended to start mixing on Sunday, but these projects almost  always take longer than I expect they will.

Next time I record music I have some ideas that will make things more efficient.

Rule #1: STAY ORGANIZED

I've  probably lost at least an hour or two to the simple fact that I haven't been organized with my recordings. I should have labeled every track as I was recording.

Rule #2: Keep a daily and detailed log so I know  where I've left off

It's been a pain trying to figure out what I did last. Detailed notes would have solved that problem and would have saved time in the end.

I'll keep at it! And just to keep with Friday's "fun" theme, here's a video that has nothing to do with my recording (but is definitely fun to watch):

Thursday recording update

I've been recording so much lately that I haven't made time for my usual blogging, but I figured I'd update you on how my album Songs For Ghosts is coming along.

So far, recording is going well! In fact, the recording portion of the project is almost complete. I have a few more parts I need to re-record (the first take wasn't good enough), but then it's on to mixing. I have no idea how long mixing will take. On my first album, Truth (If You Want It), mixing took several months, but it was a more complicated project than this one. Songs For Ghosts is an acoustic album, so mixing shouldn't be as difficult.

I may update one of my old blog posts (that's what I've been doing the last few days), but I wouldn't expect much at this point. I'll keep working on the album, though, and let you know when it's done!

Rock on! (Acoustically?)

Weekly Progress Wednesday - March 15

What a crazy week this has been! Here's what I've been up to...

1) Blog - ongoing:

Progress was slow here, but that's because I've been working quite hard at finishing my 2nd album (see #2 below). Here are the blog posts of interest from this week:

Introduction to Classical Guitar: Want to learn about Classical Guitar? Here's a short primer on it, including links to arguably the greatest living teacher of Classical Guitar (no, not me!).

Friday Fun - How Many Guitar Strings is Too Much?: I'll give you a hint: according to the video linked in this post, the answer is more than 20 and less than a million. Give up? Click the link and find out!

Songwriting Sessions: Layers: Sometimes it just takes the right layer of instrumentation or sound to get a song to sound right.

Progress so far: 15.3% (these percentages are just a guess, but probably close enough)

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

I've recording almost everything for the album! Silver Knight (one of the songs on the album) still needs a lot of work, but most of the recording is done for the other songs. At last count I had to do:

- two more guitar solos
- one more lead guitar
- a bunch of parts for Silver Knight

Progress so far: 89% - a little bit of recording, and all the mixing. Will I get it done this week? Find out next week!

3) Poster for my office:

I literally did nothing for this week (as I guessed that I wouldn't). My album is my number one priority right now.

Progress so far: 53% - no progress this week!

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

No practice this week. Everything is about recording this week! I'll get back to it when I'm done my album.

Here's hoping next week the album is done!

recording and blog updates

Here's the latest on what I'm doing. Recording has been going really well! I've got a ridiculous amount of work ahead of me, but progress is being made.

I added the bass line to my introduction to pop blog post. I doubt I'll be adding more this week as I'm intent on listening to more of my recording, and getting more done!

If I do add more, I'll update about it here.

today's updates for the blog

Hello!
I'm still busy recording and mixing my second album, Songs For Ghosts. Recording is more than 90% finished, my goal is to spend the week mixing.

As a result, there won't be much change to the blog, but I'll update and add where I can. Today I plan on cleaning up some of the posts I never finished (which I will write about here, so check for updates if you'd like).

UPDATE:  I added the chords and guitar tab to my "Intro to Pop" page, which you can view here. I'll get to the bass tab as soon as I can, but it likely won't happen today.


Have a great Monday!

Songwriting Sessions: Layers

Last week I talked about the songwriting sandwich (which you can read about here). No, it's not a special way to make a sandwich that gives you songwriting superpowers. It's really about adding layers to songs to make them more interesting.

I'm doing just that with a song I'm recording and mixing for my second album, Songs For Ghosts. It's an all-acoustic album, and with each track I need to make sure it's exciting and inviting. Once I have what I think of as the "skeleton" of a song (the basic chord progression, lyrics, and the basic rhythm track, whether it be piano, guitar, organ, etc.), I often need to add more to the song.

Sometimes I add more guitar, more voices (harmonies), random sounds or noises.

For "The Girl With the Green Eyes", one of the songs from album #2, I felt the need for a second guitar in the second verse. It was fine for the first verse. but the second verse just needed a little something to make it more exciting.

I'm still mixing the song, so I can't really play it for you in its entirety, but I'll give you a sample of the guitar from verse one, and then the two guitars from verse two. Here it is without the second guitar:


And here it is with the second guitar (the balance might be slightly off, as I haven't done any mixing yet, but you probably won't notice that anyway):


Neat, huh?

More to come on this project as it develops. I'm seeing an end in sight!

Friday Fun - How Many Guitar Strings is Too Much?

Apparently, this gentleman thinks the answer is 28, as evidenced by his twenty-seven string guitar in this video:

Have a great weekend! I'll be having my own "Friday fun" finishing recording for my 2nd album, Songs For Ghosts. Next week I start mixing! More on this soon...

Introduction to Classical Guitar

This is my introductory post on classical guitar (part of an ongoing series of posts which started here).

Quick background: One of the styles of guitar with the longest history (second-oldest, only behind folk/traditional music), classical guitar is basically the answer to the question, "What style of guitar playing sounds most like classical music?". In fact, it's pretty common to see guitarists playing pieces by Bach or Beethoven, and many other big names from older styles of music.

Who should learn to play classical guitar? If you are ready to dedicate the greater part of your waking life to playing guitar, you could do worse than playing classical guitar. Playing in this style requires significant dexterity, coordination, and musicianship. You can't just skate by with an attitude like you might with rock or punk music! And improvisation (like what you'd see in jazz or the blues) is generally not done either. Be prepared for longs hours of practice and spending many days, months, and even years on some pieces of music! 

What makes classical guitar unique? This is the style of guitar that perhaps most easily accompanies itself. You don't need to sing, and you don't need a bass, drums, a piano, or any other instrument playing behind you (although such things do happen and can sound great).

Also, virtually everything in classical guitar involves finger-picking, so this often gives the music a very distinct (and beautiful) sound.

Popular classical guitarists: Julian Bream, Andre Segovia (bear in mind these are performers, not artists, but looking up their work will give you an idea of what music you might find in classical guitar).

How to play classical guitar: Admittedly, I have very little experience with classical guitar and would by no means consider my knowledge about the subject to be comprehensive. However, I can make some recommendations based on what I do know.

First, the greatest living classical guitar teacher (and perhaps guitar teacher in general) that I know of is Jamie Andreas. Read Jamie's books, take lessons if you can. You're not likely to find a better teacher of classical guitar.

Jamie's website is: http://guitarprinciples.com/

I'll also include some basic info here (soon!) so you can get an idea of what you're dealing with when playing classical guitar. For now, check out Jamie's site!

Wednesday Weekly Progress - March 8

Whew! Time flies, I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. Here's what I've been up to.

1) Blog - ongoing:

Well, this week takes the cake, as far as lack of progress is concerned. My focus on my album (see #2 below) has definitely cut into my blogging time, but here's what I did this week:

Introduction to Folk Music: This one's still under construction, but here's a brief introduction to North American Folk music.

Friday Fun: Marble Machine: Want to see something really cool? How about marbles playing music?

Songwriting Saturdays: Songwriting Sandwich: Songwriting is like a sandwich (sort of). Find out how they are similar in this post.

Each Scale Contains Multiple Chords: Just when you thought I'd run out of reasons to give for learning scales, and for why scales are important, I find yet another one. Read it and learn your scales!

Progress so far: 15% (these percentages are just a guess, but probably close enough)

2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

Holy moly, I've been working like crazy on this. Every day has seen lots of progress, and I might actually get all of the recording done before Sunday (when I start mixing the album, in theory). 

Out of 10 songs:

- 9 songs need more vocals (but most of them are very close to being done)

- 3 songs need more guitar (but not very much)

And after that, I think I'm ready to start mixing. Yes!

Progress so far: 82% - lots more recording to do, but an end is in sight!

3) Poster for my office:

I literally did nothing for this, this week. I probably won't work on this at all next week either, but the following week should be productive. My album is my number one priority right now.

Progress so far: 53% - good progress

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

Same as last week. A bit of practice, but nothing worth mentioning. more in a couple weeks.

Keep at it!

Each Scale Contains Multiple Chords

(This post is part of an ongoing series about the importance of learning scales, which started with this post here: Why You Should Learn Your Scales)
Earlier on I made a post talking about how chords are based on scales (which you can see by clicking here). But what you may not have known is that every scale actually contains many chords!

It makes sense if you think about it:

 A C major chord (also just known as a "C chord") is the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of a C scale (C D E F G A B C) - C, E, and G.

A G (major) chord is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th note of a G scale (G A B C D E F# G) - G, B, and D.

Notice how G, B, and D - the notes to a G chord - are all in the C scale! In fact, if we take the C scale apart and take groups of three notes (triads) from the scale we get the following chords:

C (major) - C E G
D minor - D F A
E minor - E G B
F (major) - F A C
G (major) - G B D
A minor - A C E
B diminished - B D F

This is what I refer to as the "basic chord family" of C. We often denote the chords based on the scale with roman numerals, so C is I, D minor is ii (some do not use lower case letters for minor chords, but I do), etc. You end up with something like:

I - C major
ii - D minor
iii - E minor
IV - F major
V - G major
vi - A minor
vii° - B diminished

It's common to hear jazz musicians talk about ii V I progressions (which, in C, would be Dm-G-C). You get the idea.

Chords that are based on the same scale tend to sound good together. Yet another reason that we want to get to know our scales!

Songwriting Saturdays: Songwriting Sandwich

Writing a song is a lot like making a sandwich.

The core of your sandwich (meat, peanut butter, avocado, whatever floats your boat) is the core content of the song - the lyrics, melody, and the chord progression.

The extra layers or toppings of your sandwich (tomato, lettuce, honey, mustard, etc.) are the extra layers of your song. Maybe your song needs more bass, or a little more percussion. Maybe you need a horn section.

Some sandwiches are large and complex - same with songs with orchestras, electric guitars, lots of drums and harmonies, and so on.

Some sandwiches are simple (think peanut butter) - like a simple fingerpicked acoustic guitar with vocals.

What kind of sandwich are you making? Is it simple or complex?
What kind of song are you writing? Is it simple or complex?

The wrong toppings can ruin a sandwich. Peanut butter and horseradish probably don't go together (I'm not willing to try).
I'm not sure I can give a concrete example of two elements of a song that could never go together, no matter what. I've heard hip hop and country mixed together. I've heard jazz and metal although that is definitely an acquired taste, perhaps like peanut butter and horseradish.

Most people like pop music. Most people like straightforward sandwiches. You get the idea.

I'm not sure why I felt like comparing sandwiches to songs... I rarely even eat sandwiches! But I think the point is that you need to have the right elements for the right song. If you're writing the next "November Rain" (by Guns N Roses), you'd better have a great electric guitar solo (or three), some sweet piano playing, and a really good reason for making your song eight and a half minutes long!

But if you want a really intimate sounding song, something that feels really personal, perhaps you want to stick to the acoustic guitar and a few light strings. It's your call - you're the songwriter. But think about what will make your song speak to others best.

Marble Machine

Every week during lessons, my students show me cool videos. This one takes the cake this week.

Sometimes the innovation these artists have is just amazing!

Have a great weekend!

Introduction to Folk Music

This is my introductory post about folk music (part of an ongoing series of posts which started here).

Quick background: Folk music, if you include tradtional music, has been around for about as long as people have been singing songs and making music. I think nowadays when someone says "folk", we tend to think acoustic guitars and interesting musical tales about some person, place, or happening. But generally speaking, folk music tends to be acoustic and places a strong emphasis on storytelling.

Sometimes people lump in world music and traditions into the "folk music" genre, which is fine, but that is not what this post is about (mostly because I know little to nothing about that kind of music, but also because most people don't think of that when they think of "folk" music, at least not in North America).

Who should learn about folk? Do you music that tells interesting stories? Do you have some interesting stories you'd like to turn into a song? Are you a Bob Dylan fan, or do you like older, traditional music? These are all good reasons to learn more about folk music.

What makes folk music unique? Folk music tends to be the simplest in terms of orchestration; the music is often very repetitive, and more often than not pretty easy to play. It's usually the compelling story that really makes folk music stand out from other genres.

Popular folk artists: Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger

How to play folk music on guitar and ukelele: The easiest way to get started playing folk music is learning your basic or open chords [I'll have a page for this soon! I'll also include a few on this page], and a few simple strumming or fingerpicking patterns [Another page I'll have up soon! And I'll also include a sample here].

Tell me a story.

Folk music is really the music for storytellers. If you like sharing stories, whether yours or someone else's, folk music is for you!

Wednesday Weekly Progress - March 1

The beginning of a new month, and more progress has been had. Here's how I've been doing this past week.

1) Blog - ongoing: 

This is probably the least amount of work I've done on the blog in a while, but for good reason (see #2 below).

Intro to Pop Music: Learn a little about pop music (this one is under construction).

Metal Mario: What do you get when you cross Super Mario Bros. with some heavy electric guitar? This video!

Songwriting Sessions: Inspired by Other Musicians: Sometimes even big pop stars use other peoples' songs as inspiration for their own. Read more about that here.

How to Tune Your Ukelele: Do you have a ukelele? Do you need to know how to tune it? Learn how here?

Solos are Based on Scales: For the last couple of weeks I've been blogging about the importance of scales. Scales are needed for chords, solos, and many other things. This particular post is about how scales relate to solos.

Progress so far: 14.5% (these percentages are just a guess, but probably close enough)


2) Songs For Ghosts (my 2nd album):

Progress is good. Lots of recording, planning, more recording and listening. My goal is to finish recording before March 12th or so, and then do the mixing. I'm not sure this is realistic, but it gives me an idea of how much I need to do each day.

Progress so far: 77% - lots more recording to do, but an end is in sight!

3) Poster for my office:

How to Tune Your Ukelele is the only post relating to the poster this week.

Progress so far: 53% - good progress

4) Other repertoire - ongoing:

3rd album songs - Similar to last week. Did a bit here and there, but nothing much. This will change when the 2nd album is finished!

Cover songs - A small amount of practice, but not a lot. More after album 2! (Have you noticed my priorities lately?)

Keep being awesome!

Solos are Based on Scales

(This post is part of an ongoing series about the importance of learning scales, which started with this post here: Why You Should Learn Your Scales)

This is an E minor scale on the guitar:

This is also an E minor scale:

This is "Rusted From the Rain" by Canadian rock stars Billy Talent:

Listen to that awesome guitar solo (at about 2:25). Guess what? 

It is entirely based on those two E minor scales. Yes. Scales are awesome. You need to know scales to really rock like that. (Those of you looking how to play the song itself can google it, or better yet, get me to teach it to you!)

Virtually every solo you hear is based on scales. Yes, you can play guitar solos without knowing scales. You can even write guitar solos without knowing scales. But chances are, if you write or play anything that sounds good, it's going to be based on a scale.

Learn your scales. Then you can rock! (Or play jazz, country, whatever other style - their solos are all based on scales, too!)