I am available for group lessons with a special emphasis on:
Team Building Exercises
March 21/07:
There are Seven Modes of the Major Scale. Work on one intensely each day of the week.
Guitar Motivation
tm
March 28/07:
Know why you play. Is it ego gratification through recognition? Is it a venting of anger, or deprived attention? Or is it an expression of something you can't express otherwise?
April4/07
Work with only one note. See and hear how it relates to every chord you know.
I want to touch on my reference to 'sport psychology'- and fitness strategies and briefly show you their relevance.
1.People "play" sports and "play" music, yet both involve hard work and discipline.
2.Both are forms of self-expression which require a balance of spontaneity and structure.
3.Both demand a degree of mastery over the human body
4.Both sports and music are performed in front of an audience-thus present an engagement of excellence, and experience of fears, and excitement.
Paraphrased from-"The Inner Game of Music" by Barry Green
April16/07
Go to opposite extremes with your improvisation. Play only diatonic 'perfect lines' then try free, atonal, randomn,outside sequences.
May 18/07
Use all the elements of music and life when you play, not just notes.
Here's a simple example of this: Take the Green Day song "Good Riddance" As is often the case with internet Tab postings, one guy did it and everyone copied and pasted his version. Now while his note choice is ok, the chord naming is blatantly wrong. The chord called C9 is actually a Cadd9- a chord with a whole different sound and implication. However you might have looked up C9 in a book or chord finder program and come up with entirely the wrong sound.
Let me give you a second example because it happened to me just recently at a jam session. The student brought a 'chord chart' for the song "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton. Now this is also a very simple song but really exemplifies the confusion that exists in not understanding a little theory. The song contains a chord called D/F# which means a D chord with an F# as the bass note- basically an inverted chord. However, this person in their charming naivete played only an F# chord completely leaving out the D chord as in fact it wasn't even in the chart! You musicians with some knowledge can now all cringe in unison. This is a completely diatonic song and an F#Maj chord doesn't even exist in the key! A little knowledge found on the 'information super-highway' can be a dangerous thing,
These are just a couple of basic examples out of hundreds.
Use Caution with Internet Tabs and Online "Teachers"
June 22/07
Though a song is comprised of sections and parts, like a book's chapters, try to perform the song as a whole statement.
FIRE IT UP!
May 19/08
When you play by yourself play like you are playing
in front of a Master.
