Intro
So how were your last 2 weeks? Mine were too crazy. This was the first time I didn’t update the web site a day or so before the turn of the month. Man, I felt like a real shirker. And on top of that, I received an email from iTunes that my podcast cover art needs to comply with their new dimension requirement and my hosting server needs to enable some functions. I don’t host it myself, so I guess that’s another thing with which I’m going to need to fiddle. If you had any interruption to your subscription, that could be why. I’ve fixed that.
Well, show 100 is fast approaching. My grand ideas about having guest interviews and such for the 100th episode may not materialize - primarily because of my time constraints. I guess I’m busier than when I was thinking about it 5 or 6 months ago. I’ll try to do something special.
Since last I was behind the mic, I have received 1 of the 2 sets of pretty pink NEON DRs that I ordered. One set was available and the other was backordered. Weird, right? The strings haven’t made it onto a guitar yet, but they’re in my field of vision and making me yearn for them and for the soon approaching spring. Spring? Yesterday we got about 5” of snow. That’s probably going to be our last “pretty” winter snow. Now, the big question is now that my strings are all but changed, did I get my hair cut? You betcha! It’s all good. I hope my strings will be fresh and new by this time next week.
Speaking of strings, if you haven’t been to your local Guitar Center recently and that’s where you buy some of your gear, you might not know that they have a String Club. I was in a hurry, when I was there a few days ago, but it looks like it’s a card you swipe when you buy strings and at some interval or $ threshold you get $5 toward your next purchase -- or something like that. I deny any responsibility for the veracity of what I just said. I gathered it from the display at the accessory counter. If I had time I’d have asked the sales person. That’s for you to do, if you buy your strings at Guitar Center.
Over the past 2 weeks Thanh had his first lesson, which you know if you read my blog. He did very well.
The countdown to Crossroads Guitar Festival NY is 33 days from my recording date. Likewise for the first of the 2 Coachella weekends and 40 for the second weekend.
Here in NJ we had a bizarre storm that lasted for a few days and unfortunately added to the mayhem in shore communities, which are still devastated by Superstorm Sandy.
Today, when I’m recording, we’re in recovery day 132. Many towns that had more beach erosion - which they could scarce afford. Some of them had replaced lost beach sand, so this is yet a further set back. It’s a shame. 5 long tern recovery committees are going to share $1,000,000 in grants from the fund and the application process is still open for a March 15 award to more more long term recovery committees/organizations to help the communities that are in need.
Don’t forget sandynjrelieffund.org if you’d like to help.
If you’re free Tuesday night, you can attend the Lou Pallo Gallery Talk at the Mahwah Museum in Mahwah, NJ. It’s part of the Les Paul in Mahwah: A Tribute ongoing exhibit.
Lou Pallo is a founding member of the Les Paul Trio. Lou and Les began performing and recording together in 1963; their relationship, both personal and professional, continued until Les's death in 2009. They played together weekly for many years at Fat Tuesdays and the Irridium in New York City.
As a tribute to his good friend, Lou produced a CD "Thank You Les: A Tribute to Les Paul," which features Lou, Bucky Pizzarelli, Keith Richards, Steve Miller, Tommy Doyle, Slash and many other music legends. At the Mahwah Museum, Lou will play, share his memories of Les and talk about the making of his new CD, which will be available for purchase and can be autographed after the talk.
This week the A, B C’s are in the Student Spotlight again and I can’t complain about the trend, the Question of the Week is about buzzing, News is about Brownie’s Return and Take Note is about PHYSICALLY feeling your music. Last time I talked about your voice and learning to play the sound you want to have. This week it’s about not emotionally or soulfully feeling your music, but physically feeling it.
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Genuine Raptor™ “R”Series guitar picks are available at RaptorPicksUSA.com. Free Raptors with a purchase of 4 or more is just another way of “spreading the excellence, one guitarist at a time.”
Raptor™ picks are a registered design. All rights are owned by Black Carbon.
Student Spotlight
In the warm glow of the Student Spotlight are the now infamous A, B, Cs. Arno, Bridget and Clairie. I was glad to welcome Arno back. His kids were sick a couple weeks ago, and then, when that coast was clear, he came down with than miserable, mutated cold that’s been knocking people out, in my area, since Christmas time. He played extremely well. Arno, you may think I forgot your ear truing, but I didn’t. I wanted to have a little mercy on you. I’ll text you what I’d like you to do by ear, later or tomorrow. Bridget, oh Bridget. She’s on fire for her guitar. According to her mom, it’s the only thing she doesn’t have to nag her to get Bridget to do. I’m smiling because it sounds familiar. And my C, Clairie is still playing assertively, way beyond her level of experience. It’s great to see her abandon self-consciousness and go for it. That’s admirable.
Beautiful work, everyone. All of these students are playing consistently well. Each of them can use a bit more focus on rhythm. Sometimes is drifts a bit, but for the most part, I’m really pleased with them.
I think I’d have had an L in the A, B, Cs, if Lani hadn’t taken a spill on the slippery wood stairs in stocking feet. She’s okay, but rather banged up. Her back was hurting and I can surely understand how she was more concerned with comfort than her guitar for the past few days. Feel better, Lani.
Question of the Week
This week's question came in from a listener, Blaire, by email and nearly the same question cropped up over the past 2 weeks from Shira. She was the happy recipient of a pretty new guitar that fits her well. It was, is there something wrong with my guitar? It’s buzzing a lot.
Well, I can’t speak to the specifics of the emailer, because I can’t examine their guitar. In Shira’s case, I can. I hope this helps Blaire and whoever else is plagued with a buzzing guitar.
I’d advised Shira’s dad about a particular guitar I thought she’d love both cosmetically and fit-wise. She was a happy chick when I saw her with the new axe, for the first time. But, as she played, it buzzed. The full size, too big dreadnaught she’d been playing up until then, didn’t buzz unless she just couldn’t get the proper pressure on a tough chord or something like that. Now she was a buzzing machine. The neck profile was not substantially different so my first fear was that it was dried out -- as many guitar are at this time, in the north east. We’ve had the heat on (when we’ve had power) since September, and countless people don’t humidify their axes, even though I go on until I’m blue. But in Shira’s case, there weren’t any protruding frets and the neck was straight and not warped or sunken. (If you don’t know how to see if your axe’s neck is warped, you need to learn.) Oh, and just because it was a new guitar doesn’t mean it’s impossible for it to be dehydrated or warped. It has to do with the environment in which it was stored.
Then, I played every fret to see if there was a high fret or series of frets. Nope.
So then, I played a bit. The action is nicely low, considering it isn’t a very expensive guitar. Most guitars in that price range have very high action and a neck angle that limits how much the neck can be adjusted to lower it. This one, had very nice action. I took a look at the gigantic of a dreadnaught that she’d been playing for quite a while. Its action was high.
Since I cannot find any fault in the structure her guitar, and it’s not dry nor warped nor sunken, I have to conclude that Shira has been picking hard, but it hasn’t been so obvious because of the high action on the dreadnaught. When she moderated the pressure of her stroke, and made sure her fingers where close to the frets which are rounded and need a little more precise pressure than the flat frets she had on the dreadnaught, it sounded fine. So, she needs to lighten up on her attack, now that she has a guitar that is of higher quality than the previous high-action one.
Blaire, I hope you’ll look into what I’ve mentioned today. If you feel your frets sticking out of the side of the neck or if you’re just not sure, take your guitar to a reputable luthier, if there’s one near you. It may need the truss rod adjusted, it might be dried out, it might be warped, or you may be playing too hard on low action. In fact the action might be a little too low.
If you have a question that you would like me to address on the podcast, please email it to me at guitartechnique@gmail.com. If I use your question, I will be glad to send you a Guitar Technique Tutor Podcast pick.
News
his week about Brownie. Don’t know who Brownie is? Then your genres of preference don’t include rock.
Eric Clapton bought the Stratocaster® he affectionately nicknamed “Brownie” secondhand at Sound City in London on May 7, 1967, a few days before Cream flew to New York to record their second album, Disraeli Gears. It was a 1956 Stratocaster® with a two-colored sunburst finish and a well-worn maple neck and fingerboard.
Eric Clapton's "Brownie" Stratocaster is significant for two main reasons. One, it was his first Stratocaster, and as such represents his move away from the Gibson guitars of his 1960s stints with John Mayall, Cream and Blind Faith, et al., and toward a longtime close association with Stratocasters that continues today. Two, it's the guitar he played on his 1970 solo debut album and on what is widely considered his most famous album and highest musical achievement, Derek and the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, also from 1970.
Brownie, which was sold at auction in 1999 and currently resides at the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle, is a 1956 Stratocaster (serial number 12073) with a two-color sunburst finish and maple fingerboard. Clapton bought it secondhand for £150 on May 7, 1967, at Sound City in London, just before Cream recorded second album Disraeli Gears.
The Fender Custom Shop now introduces a faithful recreation of Clapton’s first Stratocaster, meticulously crafted after extensive examination of and research on the real Brownie. All but indistinguishable from the original, the Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton "Brownie" Tribute Stratocaster takes you back to that pivotal period in Clapton’s life and career, with features including a three-piece alder body with off-center seam and nitrocellulose lacquer finish in color-matched two-tone sunburst, and a one-piece plain-grain maple neck with custom large "soft V" profile.
The guitar also has a 7.25”-radius fingerboard with 21 vintage-style frets, custom-shielded ’56 Stratocaster pickups with five-way switching, a single-ply parchment pickguard, a vintage-style synchronized tremolo bridge, and nickel hardware. This finish and hardware are worn to mirror the original guitar exactly, down to the smallest nicks, scratches, dings, cigarette burns and more.
The guitar comes in a special black textured vinyl Derek and the Dominos "Fragile" case that also contains several special extras, including a numbered certificate of authenticity hand-signed by Clapton, the 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition box set of Layla and
Other Assorted Love Songs, a Fender Custom Shop story and photo album booklet, and a Crossroads Antigua brochure.
MSRP is $15,000 and I have no idea what "street" will be, if there will be a "street" (less than MSRP) price at the big stores.
It comes with and I assume is set up for 10's, so if it’s not your plan to play with 10’s, have the set up done before you take the guitar home or have it delivered. If you’re considering this guitar, you should know the neck profile is a soft V. For me, it would be a deal breaker, but you cats with big hands will probably welcome it. I didn’t see the number of guitars in this limited edition, but I’d venture to say it’s going to be small.
Take Note
My take note topic this week is PHYSICALLY feeling your music. No, I don’t mean getting all soulful and emotionally caught up, although that’s not bad. Last week I had a conversation with one of my students about this and thought it would be a great topic for this segment.
If you have a decent understanding of the music you play - and I’m excluding exclusively chord strummers from this conversation - part of learning what you play and mastering it has to do with fingering. I’m sure I have beat consistency to death on this blog. One of the reasons is reinforce the exact movement every time. But there should be more to learning a fingering or even selecting a fingering when you sight read or just begin to work on music. Remember, those notes on the page are pitches. My student was talking about how there’s a slight mental jog when he moves from area of the fingerboard for one piece of music, to a different area of the fingerboard (which we call position) for another. He was saying that it takes a bit of time to reorient himself.
I encouraged him to think about what he was playing in theoretical terms as well as the sound. Theoretical terms thusly: if you’re playing a passage in a position in which you are unfamiliar or maybe you just haven’t settled into comfort with it, don’t forget that each successive finger represents a half step. So, although you may not be fully relaxed in a particular area on the neck, if you’re playing an E and the next note you need is an F#, skip a finger, it’s a whole step away. Likewise for any notes that are on adjacent strings, remember the strings are a 4th apart in pitch, except for from the G to B strings. So, if you’re playing a C with your 1st finger on a given string (excluding the G string), the F higher than that C has to be right next to it on the same fret. Try it. Try it on the 6th & 5th string. Try it on the 5th and 4th string. Try it on the 2nd and 1st string. And if you’re playing from one of those Cs to the G higher, the G is on the next string 2 rest higher because it’s a 5th. My student looked down and thought for a while. He said he never takes those things into consideration. If you have to sight read, professionally (studio work etc) or you want to enhance how your brain works if it’s a challenge for you to move from playing in one position for an extended period, and then moving to another, you need to think about it. You also need to mentally visualize the fingerboard where you’re playing. There’s a lot of growth you can achieve by not looking at your hands as you’re learning something. Listen closely for what you’re playing and compare it to what you’re reading (or in the case of music you’re playing by ear, compare it to the original, if you can.)
Are you like my student? Do you ever think, as you play, “whole step, half step, a fifth, a half step etc? If you play exercises that use intervals, do you think about what the intervals are or do you just pound away with your fingers? There’s more to mastering this instrument than brute force. PHYSICALLY feel what you’re playing. It’s going to make you a much better player.
Raptor Picks USA
If leprechauns leave little presents for people in your house, on St Patrick’s day, you might want to surprise the guitarist in your life with a 4 pack of Raptors - don’t forget that buying 4 gets you 5.
Genuine Raptor™ “R”Series guitar picks are available at RaptorPicksUSA.com. Free Raptors with a purchase of 4 or more is just another way of “spreading the excellence, one guitarist at a time.”
Raptor™ picks are a registered design. All rights are owned by Black Carbon.
If you’re not comfortable, your guitar isn’t either, so don’t leave your guitar in a cold car or basement, or a hot car or attic. Humidify if your guitar lives in an environment in which there is less than 40% humidity.
You can follow me on Twitter, where I'm GuitarTechnique. I don’t Tweet excessively.
If you're seeking expert competent guitar instruction in the Bergen and Rockland County towns in which I teach, such as Airmont, Allendale, Fair Lawn, Franklin Lakes, Glen Rock, Hawthorne, HoHoKus, Hillburn, Mahwah, Midland Park, Montebello, Montvale, Oakland, Oradell, Paramus, Park Ridge, the hamlet of Ramapo, Ramsey, Ridgewood, River Edge, Saddle River, Suffern, Tallman, Teaneck, Tuxedo, Tuxedo Park, Upper Saddle River, Viola, Waldwick, Washington Township, Westwood, Woodcliff Lake or Wyckoff please contact me. For lesson inquires, calling is best and my number is on the web site. If we can coordinate our schedules and you're a good candidate to learn to play the guitar, perhaps we can work together.
Whether you are a beginner guitarist, a gigging professional or at any level in between, a genuine Raptor™ guitar pick will catapult your playing forward. Visit RaptorPicksUSA.Com to order yours today.
Practice, have a great week, practice and until next time, I'll be doing my part to spread the excellence, one guitarist at a time. Have a nice St Patrick’s Day if you celebrate.
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