Guitar Blog | A Guitar Teacher's Lesson Notebook

Journal Entries23 Feb 2010 01:52 pm

Those of you who’ve frequented my blog over the years probably remember my student Connor, the 10-year-old AC/DC fanatic who writes hard rock songs about American history and his guinea pig, Spikey. I’m happy to announce that after two years of work, his EP “Too Small” is now available for sale at CreateSpace.com. You can also buy it at Amazon.com, but less of the money will go to Connor.

Making this album with Connor was such a blast. I looked at the project as an opportunity to motivate Connor to polish his songwriting and performance skills, and one skill we focused on was singing into the mic as if he were in front of a cheering crowd. It’s a huge challenge for an inexperienced recording artist to muster enough energy for a compelling vocal performance in the peaceful quiet of a small studio. If you listen to the album, I think you’ll agree that Connor “got it.”

Mixing with Connor was fascinating. He has a great ear for post-production. I always give students final say when we’re making artistic decisions, but in Connor’s case this usually resulted in a better-sounding recording. He was good at balancing the volume of the different instruments to create a nice blend, and was adventurous experimenting with guitar effects. For example, he created the helicopter-like sound in the breakdown of “Slavery” by cranking all the knobs on my BOSS Flanger pedal. I winced when I first heard the effect, but Connor insisted that was the sound he wanted. Now I love that part.

Connor’s definitely excited to make real money from his music, but I’ve been impressed with his mature handling of mom’s suggestion to donate some of the proceeds to Children’s Hospital. Connor had severe allergies and barely survived his birth, and he really seems to understand the value of giving back to the hospital that saved his life.

I hope you enjoy the music. Hold on to your hairnet!

Details

Price: $12.51
Playtime: 15 minutes
Tracks:
1. Too Small For a Giant
2. What Are You Doing For Halloween, Spikey?
3. Freedom
4. Slavery
5. Civil War
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

Video of Connor

Wild Thing – Filmed when Connor was six.

Death Nightmare – 2009 Coffee Shop Jam

Journal Entries02 Feb 2010 10:04 am

The Plague of the Black-Diamond-Question-Marks

I don’t believe in astrology, but if I did, I’d say my technology stars aren’t aligned so far this year. I’ve fixed my hacked blog, but it looks like the “fix” has now infested all my song pages with evil lines of question marks. They symbols are a web-browser’s way of saying, “I have no idea what you’re trying to display here.”

So far my awesome hosting service, www.hosting.com, has been able to help me fix things within a day. We’ll see. Thanks for your patience.

Rob

EDIT: It’s all been fixed–thanks for your help!

Journal Entries24 Jan 2010 02:19 pm

Blog Hacked

So sorry about the obnoxious ad popping up (so far it only seems to happen when people visit me from search engines). I’m de-hacking as we speak.

Rob

EDIT: My awesome web host, hosting.com, fixed the problem. They even back up my site every day, which I didn’t realize. What a relief.

Newsletter Issues20 Oct 2009 09:38 am

The Heartwood Beat, Issue 14: Strange and Interesting Rhythms

Dear Heartwood Beat Readers,

Sometimes I come across a rhythm that’s so complicated, or weird, or fantabulishously funky, that I can’t stand it. I’m at the gym on the hamster wheel, listening to this cool groove on my iPod, and I want to grab the poor guy on the machine next to me and yell, “You gotta hear this!”

100_3564 Thankfully, there are other people I can turn to, like the great drummer and teacher Mark DiFlorio (that’s him on the right). Here are Mark’s reactions to some of my favorite Strange and Wonderful Rhythms. I’ve included clips of each of the songs we discuss. They’ll open in a new window/tab so that you can read as you listen.

Rhythm #1: “Unison” by Bjork, starting at 0:20
(LISTEN)

Rob: I love that electronic instrument that comes in at 0:20—not the bass, but that other thing (who knows what it is, it’s so heavily processed). It sounds a touch out-of-sync with the rest of the song, but I can’t figure out why—I just know I like it. Is it swinging a little, or is the rest of the band swinging and it’s not?

Mark: What I’m hearing that makes it a touch out-of-sync is that the sound is layered in two parts: A percussive clicking, and a tonal flute-like sound. The percussive clicking itself is a flam, like the sound of two hands clapping not quite at the same time. The flammed percussive clicking sound happens ever-so-slightly earlier than the tonal flute-like sound. This gives the sound some length, with the tonal part of the sound happening a little later than the exact subdivision each time. This lateness is what I think makes the part “swing.”

Rhythm #2: “Rockin’ Chair” by The Band, starting at 0:16
(LISTEN)

Rob: As a follow-up, this mandolin part is definitely playing straight while the rest of the band is swinging. I love that opposition! How often do you hear musicians do this?

Mark: I hear this all of the time, especially in jazz, and music that involves improvisation. It’s often done intentionally to create some rhythmic tension, eventually to be released coming out of a solo or into another part, like the chorus. When it’s done throughout different parts of a song or solo, it gives the music a natural ebb and flow.

(Note from Rob: If you like this song, there’s more written about it than you could possibly imagine here.)

Rhythm #3: “Honky Tonk Women” by The Rolling Stones, 0:00-0:50
(LISTEN)

Rob: I don’t mean to pick on one of my favorite guitarists, but in this live performance, Keith Richards’ rhythm is too loose for my tastes. I want to shout at him, “Tap your foot,” or maybe, “Sober up!”

I’ve heard you describe some of your favorite drummers as having “greasy” rhythm because of their loose feel—what makes some musicians greasy and others just sloppy?

Mark: Technically, what makes a musician “greasy” is his ability to manipualte and control the spacing of his rhythms. A greasy rhythm is not subdivided evenly, but is always being varied while remaining within the overall parameters of the tempo.

I usually talk about greasy when referring to New Orleans drummers like Johnny Vidacovich. Johnny’s hi-hat patterns lay back with wide swinging 8th notes, and push forward with tight straight 8ths. His snare drum is sometimes far behind the bass player, while at the same time his ride cymbal is pushing ahead with the pianist.

But what truly makes a musician greasy is attitude. If you walk a straight line in life, you most likely will sound like that. And if you live in New Orleans sweating in the summers, drinking the tap water and eating red beans and rice, then that what you sound like.

Rhythm #4: “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Tchaikovsky
(LISTEN)

Rob: Here’s a counterpoint to Keith: A performance on the celesta that’s too pretty to be called “greasy.” Still, it has slight variations in tempo (and dynamics)—little ebbs and flows, like at 0:15—that I find gorgeous. What do you think? Beautiful? Sloppy?

Mark: Beautiful! Not sloppy. It ebbs and flows very naturally. I don’t think anyone is telling this conductor, “Tap your foot,” or “Sober up!” This music serves a different purpose and was created and is performed with a different intention. There is different attitude behind it.

Rhythm #5: “Red House” by Jimi Hendrix, 0:00-0:09
(LISTEN)

Rob: Aw, yeah! I taught this song recently, and hadn’t realized until then how rhythmically cool this intro is. It was a challenge to teach. How would you explain to a beginning musician what’s going on in this section? How would you recommend they count along with it, and learn how to play the rhythm?

Mark: Subdivide! I would have my student listen to this from the perspective of 4/4 and 6/8.

4/4
The intro begins with the guitar clicking on beat 4 of the pick-up measure. The bass notes are struck on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the next two measures and finally on beat 1 of the third measure.

(Listen to Rob doing this)

6/8
The intro begins with the guitar clicking on beat 4 of the 6/8 measure and then continues to subdivide along the 6/8 count.

(Listen to Rob doing this)

The drummer enters on beat 2 of the measure and groups his fill in 2’s (snare drum & bass drum), which makes counting tricky. This goes until the end of the next measure when he strikes his toms on beats 4, 5, and 6, and then starts his groove. Something like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | 1 2 3 4 5 6
  s b s b s | b s b t t t | GROOVE

s = snare
b = bass
t = toms

Rhythm #6: “One” by Metallica, 4:20-End
(LISTEN)

Rob: RAWK! I’m not a big metal fan, but I love this song. Weren’t you into metal in high school? Did you ever learn that fast double-kick-drum technique? The guitar matches the kick-drum rhythm in parts of this song, and it requires some insanely fast picking. I can’t imagine what it’s like to do it with your feet.

Mark: I was, more specifically, a “hair band fan” in high school. (Have I shown you the pictures? I must!) Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison, etc… and although the hair is what inspired me the most I did have a double bass drum pedal at one time. I never learned to use it.

I eventually stopped showering, became a hippy and never quite cultivated the aggressiveness that seems to be needed to acquire burning double bass drum chops. I’ve begun showering again.

Rhythm #7: “Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin, 0:00-1:09
(LISTEN)

Rob: You have no idea how much it grieves me that I can’t tap my foot with one of my favorite songs. What’s wrong with me?

Mark: I have good news for you, Rob. Nothing is wrong with you, and I have an answer that just might have you tapping your foot in a whole new way.

You see, this song has a quarter-note pulse (which is where you want to tap your foot), but is subdivided in alternating phrases of 9/8 and 7/8 (which makes for some weird-feeling foot-tapping). Here’s how the measures are subdived until the drums enter:

(The numbers refer to the number of 8th notes there are in the measure. Keep in mind the song begins with two 8th-note pick-ups, so you don’t start counting immediately.)

9-7-9-7-9-7-8-8-8
9-7-9-7-9-7-8-8-8-8 enter vocals
9-7-9-7-9-7-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8 enter drums

I have two options for you. Try both:

1) You can tap your foot to the 8th note subdivision, which is twice as fast as you’d naturally approach tapping your foot to this song.

(Listen to Rob counting this way)

2) Since 9 + 7 = 16, you can tap your foot on the quarter note and it will work out in the end. It may sometimes feel awkward as you will be tapping on the upbeats during the measures of 7/8 but rest assured you will be back on the downbeat when the 7 is over.

(Listen to Rob counting this way)

It’s all quarter-note foot tapping after the drums enter, and although there is a 5/4 measure coming out of the guitar solo, the quarter note pulse is still your friend.

Rhythm #8: My Wiper Blades

Rob: I love grooving with rhythms in everyday life—the turn signal, windshield wipers, industrial machinery. Do you do that too?

Mark: I groove to every sound and rhythm that I hear in the world, especially my wiper blades. Wiper blade pulses & tempos vary widely. I’ve had cars with swingin’ wiper blades, very straight and tight pulses and everything in between depending on the weather.

Recently I’ve been jamming to the clicking of the motor on my infant daughter’s swing. Its rhythm is consistenly irregular and I can only jam along with it by guestimating the unevenly subdivided pause before it repeats.

You might say it’s greasy!

You can learn more about Mark’s teaching at his Seattle Drum Lessons website.

Journal Entries06 Oct 2009 12:26 pm

Chameleon Guitar

My former student Mark alerted me to the Chameleon Guitar, a new acoustic-electric hybrid that uses computer processing to make realistic acoustic tone. I was impressed with their audio files, and then astounded to watch a video and realize that they have the body size of a typical Strat.

Journal Entries04 Oct 2009 09:18 am

We Have eBook Liftoff

thumb_1 Yesterday I launched Rob’s Totally Awesome Guitar Teaching Handbook, my guide for running a successful guitar teaching business. It’s been two years in the making. I summed up my feelings in the Conclusion, written during yesterday’s marathon of last-minute writing, editing, and battling Microsoft Word:

“If teaching guitar is about spreading joy, writing this book has been like collecting joy in a giant container. Today I finally get to tip it over.”

Writing this book taught me several things:

1) I love writing every day. I love how it wakes up my creative mind. It’s like having X-ray vision, except it’s Creative Vision: I’m more playful with language in conversation, a humminbird glistening in my backyard inspires a line of poetry–I even pay closer attention to music.

2) I love self-publishing. I probably would not have written this book had I been born 20 years earlier. Even if I could have found a publisher, royalties would not have paid for all the tea I drank as I wrote. But by self-publishing, I keep over 95% of sales (the rest goes to PayPal), which means I don’t need to sell nearly as many books to make it profitable. Plus, the popularity of my website may help me sell more books than a big publisher every could have.

3) I love teaching guitar. Putting my ideas about and enthusiasm for this job into words has driven the feeling home.

Learn more about the Handbook here.

Journal Entries22 Sep 2009 09:48 am

Teaching About Teaching

aristotle I’m spending the morning revising Rob’s Totally Awesome Guitar Teaching Handbook, still on track for an October 3 release. Writing a first draft can be a slog, but I love revising. I just turned a terrible paragraph in the book—my introduction to my Teaching 101 chapter—into one of favorites:

Old:
Teaching is a complex art, and it takes a lot of practice to be really good at it, but you’ll be off to a great start if you use the roadmap that I’m about to lay out for you.

New:
Aristotle calls teaching “the highest form of understanding.” What does that make the act of teaching about teaching? I don’t know, but it sounds like it could create a black hole.

To avoid obliterating the universe, I won’t try to teach you everything…

Much better.

Update: The Handbook is now available for purchase here.

Journal Entries18 Sep 2009 12:26 pm

Redesigned Site Live

I hope you find the new site easier to navigate and easier on the eyes. Let me know what you think, especially if you find any bugs. Thanks!

Journal Entries17 Sep 2009 08:59 am

Redesign Number 2

After a few readers said they didn’t like the white-text-on-brown-background in the last design proposal, I did some research about text readability. I was surprised to discover that there isn’t consensus, except that high contrast is good. I did find one almost decade-old study claiming that green-on-pale-yellow was most readable, but I’ll save that color scheme for my next gardening blog, thank you very much.

Here’s a more conservative design. In addition to changing font and background color, I’ve increased the body text size and navigation a bit–two changes I think I’ll keep no matter what I do.

I like the look of the original design more, but I do think this is more readable.

What do you think?

Journal Entries14 Sep 2009 08:29 am

Redesign

I’m redesigning my site in preparation for launching my eBook next month. What do you think so far?

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