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!