Change It Up For Progress

It's funny how progress can sneak up on you for the strangest reasons.

I've had the luxury of being able to play my guitar at lunch time at my work.  It has been a lovely diversion, and a wonderful way to augment my practice/playing time.  Eighteen months ago I moved offices to one where business operations continue over the lunch period, so I began to practice exclusively on finger style technique - to be more quiet and unobtrusive.  Up until this time, I would always practice strumming with a plectrum.  Well, it was a difficult transition, but I made the best of it day, after day, after day.

Well, about a year after changing offices, I sat up one day and realized that finger style guitar had suddenly become 'easy' for me.  Wow - breakthrough!  As I looked back over the time in the new office, I realized that by using finger style I had come to intuitively feel the timing of some difficult songs which had continued to elude me when I approached the songs with strumming.  It was a really cool realization.  So now, when I'm struggling with the timing of a song, I will switch to finger style in order to get a better feel for the timing.  Another thing that happened as I focused on finger style was that I came to use finger style in  a more spontaneous fashion based on what I was hearing in the music.  Again, boy golly.

Another small thing that has paid some big dividends has been playing ukulele, well, Guitalele to be more precise.  With 6 strings and baritone uke tuning, I can play the same fingerings as the guitar, you just have to adjust the pitch for singing by transposing a bit lower, or changing the capo placement.  Playing the uke has given me a different feel to my guitar playing, again, a more spontaneous, more rootsy feel, which I can carry over to my guitar playing.  I think it's a combination of (1) not using a plectrum, and (2) a different 'feel' of the instrument.  It has made me listen to my playing more carefully, and then experiment with the sound to make a pleasing outcome, and in every case it sounds much different from simply strumming the ol' guitar.

Two small things that have paid off huge dividends over an 18 month period.

Music Is Hard Work

I've heard it said that the guitar is one of the easiest instruments to learn to play, but it's the hardest to master.  Well, I can't confirm the saying completely because I've not tried every instrument, but I can surely attest to the fact that it is hard to 'master' the guitar.

I started playing guitar in December 2007, the same year that I turned 50!  Well, actually, I bought my first guitar in 1986 and tried to learn some children's songs for my kids.  After a 2 or 3 years with some practice and without a lot of progress, I hung up that old Anjo guitar and it gathered dust for nearly 3 decades.  Oh, I sorely wish now that I could have back all those years I could have been playing and progressing.

For the last 7 1/2 years, I've been very motivated to try and master the guitar and become a good and entertaining musician.  I've practiced 1 to 2 hours per day on average.  I've set goals for myself, and as a result, I perform very regularly in hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons - all unpaid gigs, but all very rewarding.  All of this personal practice and live performance has helped me to hone my guitar-playing skills to the point that I can watch a video of a performance and not puke.  But I feel like I have so far to grow, I feel so very far from being a 'musician'.  I suppose there are newbies that hear my playing and think I'm good, and I get lots of feedback from the audiences that they enjoy the songs; but when I hear a really accomplished musician perform with the guitar, I realize that I've got a long, long road ahead.

Over the past few months, I haven't been recording videos - I've been focused on trying to get a better 'mastery' of my finger style technique and things like Travis picking.  I've been working on mastering about 10 songs side-by-side, and feeling like I'm almost stuck.  I think I'm close to the top of the hill, and I expect to get recording some of these songs soon, but the last 5 months have sure been hard slogging.

I realize that there are very, very few child prodigies - and most people put in a vast number of hours in mastering the instrument, and even then only become masters of some of the possible musical styles within the realm of the guitar world.  I wish I could have those 30 years of un-played practice back - and failing that, I wish there was a magic wand for guitar excellence.  But then, I guess mastery would not be special, would it!

Over the past few years, I've become lighter with my strumming, I'm using finger style more often, and I'm practicing my songs better before I try and perform or record them.  My next step is to start memorizing songs, so that I don't have to rely on the song sheets so much.

It's not an easy road, but it is a highly rewarding one.  The personal therapy of losing yourself in the music is terrific.  The satisfaction of seeing eyes light up, toes start tapping, hands clapping - this makes it all worth while.

Moving Towards Entertainer - A Journey

Here’s my little story of moving towards ‘entertainer’…

Well, after I completed my personal Song-Of-The-Week challenge for the 2012 year, I was pulled away from recording for most of 2013.  I was exhausted from the SOTW challenge for January and February, then followed a lovely month-long vacation trip to NZ, then followed by losing my recording studio when a daughter came home for 6 months.

After the 2012 SOTW challenge, my next big personal challenge was to get a couple of friends together to perform at Porchfest in September of 2014.  I had started playing guitar back in December 2007.  Well, I spent a couple of years hacking away at the guitar back 30 years ago trying to learn some children’s songs for my kids – and never had much success at that time.  I started performing in prisons, retirement homes and hospitals about a year after I started learning, and this has been my #1 motivator.  I love to see the smiles as people enjoy the music.  The Porchfest challenge was a big step in three different ways: (1) It’s a music festival, not a ‘captive audience’; (2) It would be a group effort – a band of sorts; and (3) It would need to be amplified.  All ‘firsts’ for me.

So in the Fall of 2013, I was able to pass the first hurdle – talking two good friends into joining me in this Porchfest adventure – so now I had a drummer and a female vocalist.  I started picking songs for a 3 hour set and I started practicing like crazy!  By March we had agreed on the set list of 20 songs and we scheduled monthly practices for the three of us together starting in May.  My co-vocalist and I practiced once a month for April, May, and June (we couldn’t do more frequent practices including the drummer because he lives a 2 hour drive away).   I was spending a couple of hours every day working on the songs by myself.

I realized fairly early on that I’d need to amplify the sound in order to get a good mix and volume.  So I started researching after Christmas, and started out with buying a good, portable PA.  I went with the Yamaha Stagepas 600i with 10 mono inputs into the mixer.  Great sound quality.  Lots of headroom.  Great local dealer and service.  Nice and portable.  I got a great deal on the carrying cases for the speakers, and they’ve been a real lifesaver.  I’ve been very happy with the Stagepas and it will serve well for many years, I’m sure.

But as big as this investment was, it was just beginning.  I was fortunate to receive some very nice hand-me-down speaker stands for free.  I already had a good vocal mic, an AKG D-5 and mic stand, but I ended up buying 2 more D-5 mics and 3 more stands.  Aftermarket pick-ups.  Cables.  Looper.  I’m looking at it as a long-term investment, because I’m sure we’ll get lots of use out of this gear, but all together  it all made a big hit on the credit card!

In the Spring of 2014, after getting the PA system,  I started playing a monthly retirement home gig – solo.  It was a great way to practice performing plugged in, and it helped me to polish up the set list and gain more confidence.  On June 28^th our trio boldly set out to play a live gig at the invitation of the local Farmer’s Market.  That was a real eye-opener.   I used a Zoom H4N to record the full 2 hour gig, and we sounded good - but we quickly realized that there were lots of issues for us to work on.  My vocalist and I stepped up our practices to every 2 weeks, and we kept up our monthly full ‘band’ practice.   And of course, a couple of hours practice every day for me.

Wow.  Is it ever a lot more complicated to get 3 people sounding good together!  Trying to work out vocal parts that are effective; trying to get a groove that fits well; trying to get the sound mix right – it’s certainly much more work than getting a solo guitar/vocal performance sounding good.  I guess the payoff is that the group sure sounds sweet together, once everything is all worked out.

We ‘rocked the porch’ on a beautiful sunny day for Porchfest.  I recorded the whole thing on both H4N and video recorder, and we really sounded quite nice.  All that practice certainly paid off.

I’m really glad that we started practicing early.  I’m glad that we had that early Farmer’s Market gig – it was a great ‘test’.  I’m glad that I recorded all of our practice sessions – it helped us to iron out the rough patches and focus our practice.  I’m glad for the solo gigs at the nursing home – these made me feel more confident.  I was really glad that we had someone (a pro) take care of our sound mix – one less thing to worry about.

Now the real question is ‘where do we go from here?’

SOTW 'Lessons Learned'

I've learned alot from the Song-of-the-week personal challenge.  Researching, preparing, and posting a new song every week helps you grow both knowledge and skill sets rapidly.  I hope you can find a lesson or two from my journey that will help you on your musical path:

1. Recording works wonders - the process of voice recording combined with systematic problem-solving is an amazing way to realize rapid growth in guitar skills and musicianship.

I’ve really learned through this challenge that recording is indispensible practice tool.  I’m sure that I’ve learned more skills and grown in my musical and performance abilities more in the past 52 weeks than I have in the previous 4 years all put together.  It is SO easy when we’re sitting on a comfy sofa in the cozy family room strumming away, to fool ourselves into thinking that this sounds ‘pretty darn good’.  It is shocking to hear the results when you set up a recording device – the video/webcam/recorder doesn’t lie.  That’s a bit painful at first, but when you take that recording and methodically set about to ‘fix’ the sharp and ragged edges – that’s when you see amazing results. 

Honest self-analysis is painful and harsh, but when it is combined with systematic, objective problem-solving – practice sessions begin to pay off with huge dividends.

2.  Learning songs gets easier - the process of researching, preparing, and practicing a new song for performance becomes easier, more efficient, and less time consuming the more frequently you do it.

I guess another way to say this is that the process of working up new songs is a skillset in itself.  The first few weeks were time intensive, but the work-up process became easier as the weeks went by. 

3.  Research pays off - performing a new song from memory alone is never a good idea. 

It’s amazing how often I remember the wrong melody or the wrong timing – and it usually sounds bad.  This usually happened with the songs that we play around the campfire – we think we know them, but we don’t often remember them accurately.  The voice recorder doesn’t lie!  I found that the more I researched a song – checking a variety of artist renditions, studying sheet music – the better the end result.  This is a classic case of a little short-term ‘pain’ for some long-term ‘gain’. 

4.  Listening is golden. – it’s not about strumming patterns, it’s about listening to how you want the music to sound. 

I’ve been finding that the more I listen to the soundtracks of the songs I’m learning, the better I’m able to emulate the desired sounds.  It used to be all about finding the right ‘strumming pattern’.  Now I just close my eyes and listen to the music and try to imitate it – it really works.

5.  Tone is in the left-hand technique – sloppy fretting hand is a recipe for poor tone. 

It is essential to keep a constant and watchful eye on the left-hand.  It’s so easy to get sloppy with technique, and it’s important to have the fretting fingers up close to the frets, with all strings sounding cleanly.  I used to think I had pretty good fretting technique until I started playing fingerstyle.  Again, the recorder doesn’t lie.  You don’t get ‘good tone’ with sloppy fretting-hand technique – period.  There were many times I had to slow down the tempo in practice and use the ‘perfect practice makes perfect’ principle.  It’s a bit tedious to have to be so careful and precise, but good tone demands it for sure.

6.  Variety is the spice of life – pre-plan it.

I used to just strum away loudly and keep going at it until the song was done.  A guitar teacher taught me years ago that I need to vary the right-hand techniques and the volume/intensity between verses in order to make the music interesting and appealing.  The only problem was that the recorder quickly showed me that I was introducing far less variety than I thought I was.  Now when I’m working up a song, I carefully pre-plan how I’m going to use variety, I practice it thoroughly, then I use the recorder to double-check the result.  The result – more spice!

7.  Breathing, don’t just ‘do it’ – good breathing needs to be pre-planned too. 

Some songs are more forgiving of sloppy breathing than others, but songs like ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ made me realize that I needed to pre-plan the best spots to take a breath when I was working up the song.  This has improved my musical phrasing, and made things more fluid.

8.  Pitches are not just for baseball – accurate vocal pitches need to be practiced. 

I am not a trained vocalist.  It’s important for me to practice the pitch intervals in the songs that I’m learning, so that I am spot-on pitch.  When I don’t practice, the pitch can be a little off.  This is increasingly important for unfamiliar songs, and for songs where the tempo is fast and the interval notes have to be hit quickly and forcefully.

9.  Vocal independence – sing and let the guitar ‘fill in’.

 I find it especially hard to have a smooth vocal flow when I’m playing fingerstyle.  Perhaps it’s because I’m relatively new to fingerstyle, and strumming is more my comfort zone.  My tendancy is for the vocals to sound stiff and child-like, almost like I’m trying to vocalize based on what the guitar is doing (which is exactly what I’m doing).  I found it helpful to practice the vocals separately – a capella - and then later begin filling in the guitar very softly.  The more I’d practice a song, I could gradually increase the volume of the guitar.

10.  Tone is in the Right-hand – ‘less is more’. 

In the past, I’ve been a fairly heavy-handed strummer.  That can work Ok when you’re accompanying a group of singers, but it doesn’t always bring out the best tone.  I’ve come to learn that often less-is-more.  I’ll still do some strong strumming for variety, but I’m finding that the more minimalist and gentle approach often coaxes out better tone from my guitars.

My only disappointment is that I was hoping to get a better handle on musicality in my performances.  I think the problem is that the weekly challenge format is not really conducive to achieving the ultimate musical product.  A comment I received on this was “maybe somebody should cover the SAME song for 52 weeks” 

At least I think I have a roadmap to success in musical excellence:

• master the technical aspects so you can let go and feel it;
• memorize the song so you don’t have to think about it;
• create a visualization or character so you can ‘tell the story’ better.

I’ve got a long road ahead, but I’ve got lots of hope.

December SOTW Summary

It was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster sweeping through the last 4 songs.  I love the Christmas songs and carols, and it was really hard to narrow down the to-learn list to just four.  Oh, well there's lots left for next year.  It was exhilarating to realize that I've almost successfully completed the posting of one song per week for 52 weeks - YAH!  On the down side, it was sad to think that the challenge is nearly over.  Also funny, because I can jolly well keep on recording a song every week, but it feels like a chapter is closing, somehow.

Anyhoo, December's songs:

#48  Christmas In Killarney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1wK2IqgVww

#49  Mary's Boy Child
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHd78VfCSHQ

#50  Do You Hear What I Hear?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmglAqC3DAI

#51  Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_rsdM8dn7c

#52  The Parting Glass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQlHvFD_vTk

November 2012 - SOTW Update

Another good month.  These songs all required learning new techniques, and where quite time-consuming work-ups.  They were alot of fun to do, though, and I got alot of joy out of sharing them.  Among the feed-back received was that there was good emotion in these songs.  Finally.  I'm not so sure why, but it might be in part because I was more comfortable and really enjoying myself.  Some other suggestions were to not be afraid to belt out the voice, and to try singing a little bit higher in key, because my voice sounds better in the higher register.

Here are November's songs: 

Week 44: Stand By Me, Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, 1961
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Maw-GBbOvPA

Week 45: I Loved Her First, Walt Aldridge, Elliott Park, 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L577uFRRMU4

Week 46: When I'm Sixty-four, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, 1967
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTy_moe71ag

Week 47: House Of The Rising Sun/ Amazing Grace Medley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3HgDT_q-jU

Crazy.  Now this song-of-the-week challenge only has three Christmas carols and a New Year's eve song left to complete.  Wow!  What'll I do next?

October 2012 - SOTW Update

Wow - a very wide range of genres this month indeed.  All are challenging in their own way: the oldies start to sound boring quickly, so they need lots of variety.  The Rock n Roll song is really hard to make it sound RnR without the back-up band and electric guitars, and all.  The Rich Mullins song has both an almost impossible range from lowest to highest notes, plus fast tempo and almost no place to catch a breath, and on top of all that rather odd timing and phrasing issues.  What a workout!

One comment that I got that I think I need to give some thought to - my Diction is quite precise - perhaps I could sacrifice some precision for passion.  I'll have to think about that a bit.

Here are the songs for October:

Week # 40: When The Saints Go Marching In, Luther Presley, Virgil O. Stamps, 1937
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3JIrGb08-Q

Week # 41: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hank Williams Sr., 1949
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n8618NzE9M

Week # 42: Hanky, Panky, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, 1963
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3V53DbTzgk

Week # 43: If I Stand, Rich Mullins, Steve Cudworth, 1988
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whr0tYbFg5c

Amazing to think that snow and Chrismas carols are only a few weeks away!

September 2012 - SOTW Progress

Busy month.  Lot's of things going on, like my eldest daughter's wedding.  Where did those 28 years go to?  Anyhooo, the song-of-the-week project moves steadily along...

I posted quite a bit of fingerstyle material this month.  The consistent feedback was that I should focus on developing vocal independence from the guitar work.  Some of the right-hand work could be a bit smoother - mostly a case of 'practice makes perfect.'  I think it is the price for working hard to try and introduce variety, complexity, and interest into the performance


Here are September's songs:

Week # 35: The Water Is Wide, traditional English Folk Ballad - author unknown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Gv4xyPWmo

Week # 36: King Of The Road, Roger Miller, 1964

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWuBTkCKNmw

Week # 37: People Get Ready, Curtis Mayfield, 1965

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FojPLz3BMTk

Week # 38: Where Have All The Flowers Gone, Pete Seeger, 1955

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD5Dy1bCz_k

 

Week # 39: I'll Fly Away, Albert E. Brumley, 1929

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob8O_uK6dX0

August 2012 - SOTW summary

Still struggling abit with the vocal/guitar mix here and there, but just a little tweaking needed.  I'll have to learn to be more aware while I'm recording.

I took on a couple songs this month that really needed a signature intro riff - now that was a really BIG challenge for me to learn, let alone get anywhere near smooth, let alone get it anywhere near smooth WHILE recording.  Lots of takes, lots of takes!

I've been getting quite a few comments lately that folks are starting to see more expressiveness.  Interesting.  I certainly know that as I listen to the recordings, I am less frequently repulsed and embarassed - I guess it's all good.  

Week # 31: Swing Low Sweet Chariot, traditional negro spiritual - author unknown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n33kXAzYL8

Week # 32: Cat's In The Cradle, Harry Chapin, 1974
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQOBkEazkc0

Week # 33: The House Carpenter, traditional English Folk Ballad - author unknown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2K3sKCNQV4

Week # 34: Redemption Songs, Bob Marley, 1979
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fZOpl71T4

I'm ready for the cooler weather.  Hard to believe there's only 18 weeks left.  Wow.

July 2012 - SOTW Progress

A little news on the technology front - bought a new mic AKG D-5.  This is allowing me to capture my unplugged Taylor DN8 with the condenspor mic and use the new mic for vocals.  Still mixed into the Audiogram6 interface.  To my ear, and that of listeners, it seems the Taylor has a far richer tone.

A few weeks have been discouraging.  It's Summer - not as many comments from folks.  Oh well what can you do?  I have decided that I need to work to better promote the YouTube channel itself.  I've been relying on traffic from the AcousticGuitarForum, but I think it's time to do a little 'marketing'.

I've been adding more descriptive history and commentary, and people seem to be enjoying the backstory in YT.  I've also started adding lyrics and chords consistently.  In the long-run, it should result in more web hits.

Here are June's songs:

Week # 26: The Devil's Train, Mel Foree, Cliff Carlisle, 1947
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIuuoXDwVKs

Week # 27: Red River Valley, author unknown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6H1TFHNXMk

Week # 28: English Folk Ballad, author unknown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFndjjYy4_E

Week # 29: Puff The Magic Dragon, Leonard Lipton, Peter Yarrow, 1963
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGfXAlsgqDM

Week #30: Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Harold Arlen, E. Y. Harburg, 1939
1st try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6DL6IKCaoM
2nd try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W8I8nurx7Q

The dog days of Summer, here we come!