Rock Star After 30? Dream On…

I hate the month of August.

Well, hate is a strong word that suggests lingering bitterness through the other eleven months, which isn’t the case. It’s just that every August the weather is hot & dry, most of my guitar students are on vacation, so the finances are a bit more challenging to keep afloat. It’s the best time to go on vacation, seeing the free time in my schedule, but you don’t get paid when you’re self-employed, so taking the time off when most of the students aren’t around to pay you makes for limited options

But that’s not why I hate August!

I hate it because my creativity takes a vacation when I have the most time to exploit it. See, all year I fight for free time to pursue something artistic. Having the teaching practice along with a mortgage and bills cuts into the dream scenario of simply making music all day, uninterrupted. And dating? At some point you gotta let that cut into the schedule too. How else are you going to find inspiration for your sappy love ballads?

So August rolls around and I’ve got all this free time to write some new songs, polish the old ones so I can fill my narcissistic well, posting them online. I sit down to work and…

Nothing.

Creative burnout. Not sick of playing…I still practice every day. But creating? Time crawls almost as slow as a day in my final months of sixth grade. Don’t look at the clock…don’t look and the fifteen minutes will pass quicker to recess. Don’t look! I look…surely ten minutes have passed…nope. Two minutes.

I’ve come to accept the August burnout for years now. Batteries need to be recharged, so I go to China, Burning Man, camping. I’m typing this blog in Dorrington, a beautiful mountain town in Calavaras County, CA. No street lamps, the stars are bright through the trees, which rustle after advance warning from the winds coming from the mountains. It’s beautiful, peaceful, calming. I can even hear crickets in the distance–and it’s not sound editing for my movie. They’re real, dammit!

And it fuels my depression.

Because I’m closing in on 40. Still a number of years off, but I can’t help wondering about this musician thing I’ve so passionately pursued since high school. The love is still there, I get up each morning to practice (or blog about it, as I’ve been doing lately), but…what’s the point?

The point has always been to do it. What other reason do you need? Join a band, rehearse, chase down gigs in crappy dive bars on weeknights. Haul gear to creepy neighborhood to find said dive bar. Play to a couple friends, go home, sleep and repeat. Then the band breaks up, creative differences, can’t get the record deal that you know is a scam bank loan from the record label and don’t really want it.

But I’m fighting for the place where I can make a decent living (I don’t have to be on Mtv Cribs–just a decent house with my own yard!) so I start or join another band and repeat the experiment with different variables. Make a demo, make a website, post on MP3.com, start a Myspace page, beg the world through various scams & spams to visit said webpage and spread the word about my band’s genius. A few great gigs here and there to packed clubs and street fairs, but nothing with any consistency. Band gets burned out on the lack of payoff for the work invested, a year or two and another micro era passes.

I haven’t been in a band in two years now. Not that I don’t want to perform…I just can’t get motivated to pursue the rehearsal, ass-kissing promoters grind for something that isn’t a sure thing. Or join a band with meglomaniac songwriters or singers who want me to bring my twenty plus years of experience to THEIR ideas without returning the favor. Because they’ve got “connections” you see–even though I need to work for free in the meantime. I’ve got stacks of CDs of what I think are really cool songs, so why not start my own band? I’m not a cute twentysomething with an acoustic, singing about her asshole ex-boyfriend? My stuff is not “appropriate” for the clubs in town…too rock, too electronic.

Release more CDs? Christ, I’ve spent upwards of twenty grand over the years, recording music, paying some engineer with the ears to make it sound professional. Pay the session players, pay Oasis to press CDs…and pay them extra to make 1000 instead of 500 CDs because it’s such a good deal…until you realize you have six boxes of them sitting in your closet. Yes, the tunes sell online, but nowhere near what it cost to make them. Not to mention Apple/iTunes taking their 30% off the top.

Not to mention the culture of entitlement that feels music should be available to download for FREE. Because it should be about “the music”, not recouping your investment and expenses. So everyone gets paid, many others get freebies…I make a little Slurpee money here and there. I love Slurpees, but this deal ain’t looking so hot.

God, what if I had a chance to go on tour? Never pursued that myself. That would have meant giving up my teaching practice for an unknown future. Perhaps it was a mistake to take on the mortgage eight years ago, but the finance advisors said it was a good idea for the long term. Start saving for retirement NOW, get the compound interest happening. The grownup gene kicked in and made me practical–but in a mutated way…

Mutated because despite the need for financial stability I’m still obsessed with pursuing the most unstable career in the arts. I keep writing music, scored my first short film recently. Creative satisfaction is found regularly. But what the hell do I expect to accomplish at this age? Mtv? HA! I’m well past the 18-25 demographic fence they’ve insisted on reinforcing. I can’t rehash sexually provocative dance moves, don’t have washboard abs.

I’ve got some cool, blue eyes, though.

Mainstream media wouldn’t touch me unless I achieved commercial success in that early twentysomething window. Then, maybe, I’d be allowed to pursue the career into my 30s…maybe 40s if I’m Madonna.

Stardom??? Jackass photographer mobs standing outside my home at all hours, my face slurping a frappachino in People Magazine? People I don’t know wanting all the details about who I’m dating? Fans CRYING and losing all composure when they see me (Hey–I’d appreciate the respect, but come on…) Could there be a worse hell?

I’m writing all this music, swimming in the satisfaction of CREATING. But then I look at my friends building lives and families. I think about the relationships I might have inadvertently squished, the girlfriend not wanting to be involved with a guy who doesn’t already have a “professional” paycheck coming in. Christ, he’s in his 30s and he’s still thinking he’ll be a rock star? A film composer? And he’s not even in Los Angeles?

But I’m in Marin County, I argue. It’s sort of close to L.A.

Maybe the real issue is that I’m considering the need for grownup things. Marriage? Kids? I’m not so desperate that I’d jump into the first available opportunity in that department. But when more than one person suggests you might be damaged goods if you haven’t been married by 40 you can’t help being a little worried about whether or not your focus has been out of whack this whole time.

Even though I think I’d enjoy settling into the grownup things most of my friends have attained I still worry. Would I still have time to pursue this dream? Or would the responsibilities of supporting a family require me to find a better paying job than my current teaching practice could offer, one that involves long hours and no passion?

What is there to change direction to? Pursue a whole new career? Sure, if I could find something that brings equal or greater happiness than the things I’m doing now. But even though I’d rather get paid to create movies or music all day I take enough satisfaction in teaching guitar and developing my mini business of guitar schwag. Still…there’s this tiny (so tiny I’m not sure it’s there) part of me that wishes I’d wake up tomorrow and say, “A doctor! I need to help sick people!” Then I’d suffer through medical school, run up six figures in bills, but I’d have a cool salary in my specialty waiting for me when I graduated.

I remember that line in The Breakfast Club where Emilio Estevez asks, “Are we going to become our parents?” I’m in my thirties, my parents had me in their early twenties. I feel like I’m fighting to avoid becoming my parents without really knowing what I’m so afraid of becoming. I mean, my parents are cool! I should be so lucky to turn out like them.

Anyway, this is what I do every August. I’m so damn happy the rest of the year pursuing creativity when I hit this month. Then it suddenly feels like a massive, lifelong exercise in futility and I wonder what I’m doing it for. Fame? Might be cool at a few moments, a miserable prison the next. Money? Of course. Happiness? I think that’s what predominantly drives me. But as I approach 40 and the lack of a, I don’t know, mainstream validation fails to kick in I worry about whether I’ve made the right decisions.

Or maybe the problem isn’t with me at all…I’ll continue this rant in a blog next August.

22 famous guitar/bass riffs…

..that I’ve had to teach a million times.

And will have to teach a million more.

Always requested by students, regardless of age.

1. Stairway to Heaven (I’ll bet you’re shocked!)

2. Crazy Train

3. Smoke on the Water

4. Sunshine of Your Love

5. Iron Man

6. Dream On

7. Back in Black

8. Daytripper (well, I MAKE them learn it–but they’ve heard it.)

9. Purple Haze

10. La Grange

11. Smells Like Teen Spirit

12. Sweet Child O’ Mine

13. Money (everyone likes the bass riff)

14. Under Pressure (more bass)

15. Another One Bites the Dust (Does John Deacon realize the power he has?)

16. Don’t Fear the Reaper

17. Message in a Bottle

18. Walk This Way

19. Something Green Day (For years it was “When I Come Around”, then it was “Brain Stew”, for the past few years it has been “Holiday”.)

20. Layla…usually the Derek & the Dominoes version, but the the acoustic one is never forgotten.

21. The Spirit of Radio. Well, they want to learn it once I play it!

22. Sweet Home Alabama.

How the heck do I write a guitar solo?

I make just about all of my guitar students learn how to improvise and play guitar solos, regardless of age or musical taste. It’s amusing to see how much terror it inspires. They look at me like I’m crazy…only playing guitar for a few months, learned the major scale ten minutes ago and I want them to solo???

Then I get the purist students who want nothing to do with that “shred” stuff. They want to learn how to make music–not show off. They don’t get off the hook either. Once I make my pitch, they’re happily improvising away, making the music I promised they’d make from the beginning.

YOU want to solo! You’re drawing on a sound canvas, deciding what musical colors and shading you want to express yourself with. If you listen to enough music across genres and bands you realize an effective solo can range from the amazingly simple (Green Day’s “When I Come Around” jumps to mind.) to the wildly amazing (much of the 80s metal still haunts us older folk.) I’ve never understood the guitarist mindset that distinguishes RHYTHM guitarist from LEAD guitarist. There’s only GUITARIST, playing one note or multiple notes at different times. You do what’s right for the song, free from any labels about what sort of guitarist you are or are supposed to be, IMO. If you don’t like shredding, no problem…make a statement with a simple melody. If busting out every technique under the sun brings you happiness, then far out, you rock–go for it! There’s room for all!

The question is how to write a solo? Soloing takes two broad forms: Improvising and Composing. Each method has its own followers, pros & cons, etc. Some guys like Yngwie Malmsteen pretty much improvise everything they play while dudes like Neal Schon or Eddie Van Halen write solos that are played mostly the same way every time they perform them. How about I outline a few ways to get your own solos happening?

First thing’s first, you gotta learn scales. The major scale is really the most important one, as it’s the gateway to advanced scales and theory, but the pentatonic scales are most popular in blues and rock (not to mention easier for beginners) so you might want to start there. You’re gonna have to get yourself some lessons, buy a scale/riff book or DVD or do a web search…the information is easily available to those who seek it. Then come back to this blog in a couple months or years and I’ll tell you the secret of music and how to make those scales Guitar God-like.

Well, sort of.

Fact is, learning scales is a lifelong pursuit. You don’t master them, but hopefully that means you never get bored of them either. Take the blues, for example. It’s pretty much done to death, all of us busting out the same Stevie Ray/BB King/etc. riffs. But some other dude comes out of the woodwork like Popa Chubby or Sean Costello who jolt the riffs in a fantastic way that restores your faith in the genre. That leads to the first tip on creating a good solo…

Steal riffs from other players!

Hey, you can’t play your scales back and forth and call it a solo. Well, Ace Frehley did in “Love Gun”, but that’s the exception*. The way I see it, if you steal riffs from one person, you’re plagiarizing, but if you steal from all sorts of people and blend it together it’s research! You can’t learn in a vacuum. Music evolves from the music before it. Study your history well and take guitar playing into the future. For starters, check out my blog on the blues station I created at Pandora.com to pick up new blues riffs.

A common problem with aspiring soloists (aside from the back & forth thing above) is that they play continuously, coming up with a constant stream of riffs that have no connection to the beat or the music behind it. You ever try to have a conversation with someone who did all the talking, talked over you, wouldn’t let you get in a word? Spoke without using commas or periods in their sentences? It turns into a steady drone and you tune out the meaning behind the words. Same thing with guitar solos so tip #2 is to play less!

Whenever my shredder students go crazy, trying to fill up every available space with notes I tell them to play half of those notes, filling in the remaining notes with either SILENCE or sustained notes. It’s amazing how the music suddenly creeps into their playing. I’ve heard other teachers teach soloing by thinking of making a speech or telling a story. “Speak” in sentences, long ones, short ones, loud and quiet, etc. Dynamics are huge in music, something typically forgotten as beginners pick so hard the string threatens to break. Here’s an experiment…try soloing as quietly as you can.

Another experiment to try is the one note solo. How many ways can you express yourself with one note? On guitar there are quite a few ways: Pick it hard or soft, slide to it, hammer to it, pull off to it, whammy to it, bend to it. Get a good drum track or jam track to back you up and you figure out even more ways to solo off one note. Then expand the solo to…two notes!

Another solo tip…practice to jam tracks. I’ve got a few freebies here for starters. Scale practice can get boring practicing alone, though don’t forget many guitar legends got to be legendary without using backing tracks. But still, why not take advantage of the resources now available. Practicing to jam tracks is a great way to build soloing confidence.

Maybe some of you already have chops but still have issues with writing solos. Before I had quality recording software I’d just play back jams from band rehearsals and solo over them until I had something I liked. Or maybe I’d get lucky in rehearsal and lock into a main riff, doing slight variations off it. Doing solos in my home studio, I’ll loop, say, a few measures of a solo (pretty easy to do in Logic Studio) and keep improvising over it until I stumble across something I like. Then I refine that riff until I’m happy, hit record, then off to the next section of the song. Or occasionally I’ll record several solos and with the power (hell, the MAGIC) of digital editing I’ll compile the best pieces of each take into one monster solo. I think the big tip here is that I DO IT. When it’s time to write a solo the goof-off switch gets turned down and the focus switch gets turned up. Then I just do it. I’ll push for a solo that makes me, I don’t know, proud…or happy. But if it’s not coming together the way I’d like I either come back to it later or simply record something temporary that will be replaced later…or maybe I listen to it later and end up keeping it.

I mentioned the broad concepts of composing solos versus improvising them. It really comes down to personal preference. I like to improvise in jam situations, but when it comes to original tunes I feel more comfortable writing something that will sound cool (to me) every time I play it. Of course, practicing you’re going to be improvising quite a bit anyway, so the question is whether or not you want to bring that into performance situations. You need to answer that yourself, but remember that music is an artform many others. There’s no proper way to express it, there’s no finish line, no mastering anything. There is simply creating.

There are other blogs with soloing tips in the “Musician Articles” subcategory of this blog, if you crave more information.

*He also did the extended solo to “Shock Me” on Kiss Alive 2, which got me to pick up my first guitar as a kidlet in the 70s, so he gets a pass go!

Guitar Jam Track–Pitch Axis

Made myself a jam track to try out the Pitch Axis theory…that one you hear quality guitar folk like Satriani talk about. Basically a series of drum grooves with a bassline in A–just an A note, jammin’ in different ways. Practice any scale or mode over it that has A in the root, blend scales, try it all.

Might also want to jam A chords over it in different inversions, along with any other theory you’ve come across. Maybe work on your arpeggios over it, etc.

Get the track here.

Then if you’re looking for a some cool rhythm & chord lessons you should check out my poster.

Novato! Crime! 7-11! Young Punks Out of Control!

I did a little blog last month about a round of crimes that hit Novato in the same day or two, one of them being at the 7-11 on Diablo and Center Road. A few weeks ago I had a student (a doctor who works in the medical offices down the street) make an offhand comment about how she hates going to that 7-11 because there’s always this creepy “gang element”  that turns her off from going inside. Then today I’m talking to another student’s Mom about how he was going to walk from Hill Middle School to Marin Music, where I teach guitar, a couple blocks down from this 7-11. The idea was to get a lesson after school. But the Mom changed her mind, reflecting on the negative vibe she’s gotten from the same 7-11. She said she broke up a fight between two kids and couldn’t get into the store because the cashier had locked the doors, not wanting to get involved. She also mentioned how the Hill students congregate in front of this 7-11 every day after school, many of them putting off the vibe of wanting trouble.

I walk there occasionally from the music store and haven’t had any problems, so perhaps the opinion on this location varies by who tells it. Still, it makes me wonder what the hell is up with this 7-11. It’s surrounded by apartment complexes…do people in apartments commit more crime? Sounds silly.

A simple solution would be to park the police in the 7-11 parking lot every afternoon.

Parenting–Getting Your Kids to Practice

I might be repeating stuff from my recent blog about whether your young ones are ready for guitar lessons, but I think I have a few more things to say about getting your kids to practice in general, whether they’re seven or seventeen. But first, a story!

This tween starts taking lessons with me last Fall. Good kid, friendly, likes Guitar Hero, which turned him on to quality guitar players like Slash and Buckethead (not sure when guitarists started dropping their real names…) He’s practicing my material the first month or two, he’s asking me to teach him his favorite riffs, which gets me all motivated because not only do I like the bands he’s requesting I’m fired up that I’ve got someone who wants to be there.

Then the roadblocks kick in. He he starts showing up with his guitar so out of tune it’s clear he didn’t practice it–though he says he did. Maybe he’s telling the truth, though playing a guitar that out of tune seems kind of like watching a poorly bootlegged movie. He stops bringing his guitar picks or papers from recent lessons, which drives me freaking NUTS! Well, occasional forgetfulness doesn’t bother me–these are kids we’re talking about…they’re not in the military. But I was taking karate classes when I was a teen and we were taught immediately to respect the teaching room, show up to class with our uniform on properly, bowing when entering the mat, etc. We quickly developed respect to everyone about the study of karate, from the room to the instructor to our fellow students. To regularly show up without, say, my blue belt was unheard of! I fantasize about making colored belts for my lessons and making students bow the same way because I treat my lessons with that much respect and I expect the same from them. Ideas…

This kid, however, seemed to have that basic respect removed from his system. I mean, he was still a nice guy, but he was just so insanely chronic about NOT being prepared for anything. He took a few months off and returned for lessons last month. First lesson back, no papers, no pick, guitar wildly out of tune. I started off by reviewing some chords we’d done before he stopped and he was so completely in the dark about them it was as if the previous lesson never existed (it did–I take notes on each student as to what I teach every week), but again, I cut slack because it has been a few months. The next week he came back and I tried to review the chords…he still couldn’t play them, not because they were too hard but because he didn’t practice–teachers learn to tell the difference. I gave him what must have been my fifth or sixth lecture on being prepared and what the problem was…didn’t he want lessons? Of course, he replied. So what’s the problem? “I don’t know.” was the response.

Didn’t surprise me a bit. What parent hasn’t heard that response, much less a teacher? In fact, I can’t remember the last time one of my “parental” lectures changed a student’s behavior. But I make them anyway because…because I care, darn it! I hate having my time wasted, even if I’m getting paid for it–which might be part of the reason I attempt the lecture as well. I generally don’t like to give up on a student…hence the fifth lecture.

But I was ready to give up on this one, as the frustration had pushed into a zone where neither of us were having fun. I talked to his Mom about it, how I felt we’d reached a point where she was wasting her money on lessons. She wanted to push it for another month, promising to talk to him, but she called back this morning, reconsidering after discussing it with him. He admitted he wasn’t happy with my lessons, told her he didn’t like what I was teaching, which really bothered me because I’d spent so much time teaching him his favorite band riffs and flashy techniques he’d said he craved. But ya see, when he came in unprepared, not having a clue what he wanted to do next I–being guitar teacher extraordinaire–drew on my monster archive of lesson ideas. But because I can’t download his subconscious guitar wishlist I’m suddenly a bad teacher.

Then Mom mentioned how he argued that he didn’t need lessons, seeing how his Guitar Gods didn’t need lessons to become God-like in their skills. AAAAAAAA!!! He thinks Buckethead–an amazing guitar virtuoso–got to his technical proficiency by noodling in his bedroom without any focus! How do you argue with teenage logic? You don’t. Well, you try, hoping the longterm lessons take root over time. But on the spot change might be a little more difficult…

I’m not sure why I’m detailing all of this, other then because it’s fresh in my head. It’s certainly not  unique. I deal with duplicate kids like this almost every day, up to six days a week. It’s part of the job. It seems no matter how talented you are as a teacher you simply can’t make a student learn if they don’t want to learn. And yet I keep trying with these kids, week after week. There are moments where it seems futile, I’m functioning more as an overpaid babysitter. But then there are the kids I run into bagging my groceries or emailing me several years later. They thank me for the lessons, tell me they’re still playing or maybe they quit for awhile and found their way back to it, review their old lesson plans. So maybe I’m teaching even when it feels like I’m not teaching? Hmm…

I understand not every student is preparing for a career in music, by the way. It’s about growth, trying something new out, exposure to the arts. On top of that I understand that the desire to learn can be thwarted by the difficulties of the instrument. Kid wants to play Green Day and he can’t even coordinate his hands to play a single note. Will his/her motivation kick in once the basics have been mastered? I’ve seen it work both ways.

Doesn’t look like I’ve lived up to the title of this article yet. How do you get kids to practice? I’ve been teaching for fifteen years and I keep hoping to find the magic pill so I can run a Super Bowl ad along with the ones on erectile dyfunction…”Ask your doctor about TalentX, the number one prescription for getting your kids motivated to practice.” Then parents start overmedicating their kidlets in hopes that they get motivated enough to do everything else: Homework, yardwork, wash the dishes. Ha!

I’ve learned a few things as far as tips to get your kids into a steady practice routine…

1. Two possible practice routines: The same time every day for the same length of time (set a timer?) or break it into chunks. Say, ten minutes before school and ten minutes before bed–or whatever. Ten minutes is the length of two cartoons, not a big stretch, maybe less daunting than trying to practice for twenty minutes. Make sure there are goals in this practice, such as a new piece or a new scale to improve on.

2. Get involved. I know you’re busy. Job, daycare, sports, quality time with your spouse??? But all due respect, expecting six-year-old Bobby to take to the instrument and not wanting to “push” him is cheesy pop psychology, in my opinion. It’s like not wanting him to do sports so he won’t feel the “pain” of losing. Insane. You’re a parent–so be a parent! Sit down and watch him practice, review the teacher’s lesson notes to make sure he’s practicing what the teacher suggested. I’m not saying threaten all sorts of punishment and scream all abusive at your kid to practice, I’m just saying you need to be firm that this is a commitment that needs to be done. If this results in too much stress and you’re afraid your child will grow up to write a Joan Crawford-styled memoir then YES, drop the music lessons and try another activity. But music teachers don’t want to babysit your kid for half an hour a week, they want to TEACH, which means building on the lessons, not repeating the same lesson month after month.

99% of all students under ten would rather be doing something besides music lessons. Yes, I’m pulling that statistic out of my rear end, but ask other teachers what they think! It’s exciting to think that your child could be a prodigy, the next Mozart, maybe end up with a profile on 60 Minutes about his musical genius, but most of them are doing this because you’re making them. I think that’s great! You’re exposing them to the arts. But the younger they are the more likely you’re going to be supervising every second of their practice. If you want to maximize their chances of progress you’ll need to progress with them.

3. With motivation this challenging you’ll need a steady stream of cool music for them to practice. Hopefully the teacher is prepared with a decent songbook and/or songs to teach. But it’s challenging to keep up to date, with pop culture changing so fast. Keep up to date on your child’s music, film and television entertainment. I’ve taught Hanna Montana songs (translating the singing parts for guitar), Spongebob, Dora the Explorer, Indiana Jones. Hopefully you’re exposing your family to lots of different music, considering all the Internet options, not to mention normal radio and CDs. I ask kids what kind of shows they watch and hopefully they mention something I already know. If I don’t, I can dig up the them from a clip on Youtube and do a little homework before the next lesson.

4. Make your child perform at family functions? I’m still thinking about this one, not sure if it’s a good idea in all cases. But telling your child at Thanksgiving that he’ll have to play Jingle Bells for the family before Christmas dinner could offer a motivational kick in the butt. I have student concerts on occasion, and last July I got a bunch of students performing in the town’s 4th of July Parade. Performance pressure often encourages preparation.

5. How many activities is your child involved in? Overachieving isn’t for everyone. I remember trying out a five-year-old for a month and it was a monster struggle. The Dad mentioned he was also doing piano and another sport or two–and I’m sure video games were in the equation somewhere. Dad pulled him from the lessons saying, “He’s not taking to guitar as easily as the other stuff.” Dad leaves and I’m slamming my head in frustration.

In the end, your best efforts could still get you something similar to my student above… he just doesn’t want to do it. Maybe it’s an age thing, the young one can’t handle it, the teenager doesn’t want to handle it. The important thing is that you’re giving it a shot, exploring new ways to inspire your kids.

10 BAD Guitar Playing Habits of Beginners…

Things my guitar students do that make me secretly dream of setting them on fire.*

1. Not tuning up your guitar before practicing EVERY TIME. Or at least, being too lazy (WTF???) to tune when it’s obvious one string is way flat and another is way sharp. People don’t play their guitars like that, you say? Then you’ve never been a guitar teacher!

Tuner! I recommend my students get this Korg tuner when I’m teaching at my local store, Marin Music. It’s cheap without being too cheap and lets you tune to any note without confusion for those days you want to experiment with drop D and metal tunings. No, I don’t work for Korg–though I should be getting paid for promoting them. Gotta figure out this affiliate marketing stuff…

2. Not wearing a guitar strap. And tighten that strap so it doesn’t fall off your shoulder. You want the guitar in the same place every time you play, the neck pointing UP instead of DOWN, the body of the guitar up against your body, not sliding flat on your lap.

3.Sit up straight! Slouching is bad for your posture and will result in back problems down the line…so my chiropractor says.

4. Cut your fingernails! I guess this one’s debatable, especially if you’re studying classical guitar. But I’m thinking of the guitar kids who want to bust out rock & blues, Slash and Zakk Wylde insanity or even suffer through one of my campfire songs and seeing their nails I ask if they just got a manicure. Long nails (in the fretting hand, anyway) are the enemy of guitar playing! Chords, string bends, all sorts of things become difficult or impossible if they start going past the fingertips. So keep those suckers trimmed below the fingertip!

5. Holding the pick wrong. I know, it’s a personal thing and there’s no “right” way to do it. But if you go by what the majority of the players are doing to play well there IS a “right” way to do it that reduces your learning curve, with your thumb and index finger. Quit holding it with your thumb and ring finger or I’m going Sister Mary Agnes on you and taking a ruler to the offending wrist!

(I’m talking about rock & blues guitar, btw.)

6. Playing “Back in Black” and calling it practice: It’s practice if you’re learning it for the first time. But if that’s all you’re playing three months down the road (along with “Stairway”, “Crazy Train” and that Kansas riff) then you’re goofing off. Play it a couple times to keep it in the long term memory then get yourself into some new things to practice or your motivation will stagnate.

7. Trying to learn every scale instead of the first scale WELL: Hey, cheers to you being motivated in this department. But scales aren’t music; scales are TOOLS to make music. You don’t go buy every tool at Home Depot before you know what job you want to accomplish, do you? Learn how to make cool music with one scale in one position, maybe even one octave of that position. Then expand the scale in one key across the neck, focus on techniques within that scale, etc. The other scales aren’t going to disappear, they’ll be waiting for you when you reach that plateau in your major scale or pentatonics (most teacher recommended starting points) and you crave new sounds.

8. Not learning rhythm: Playing whatever song you want, any chords or licks you want without understanding the rhythm in what you’re doing…it can be done. Nothing wrong with having fun–guitar isn’t all about practice and overcoming weak areas. But if you’re hitting a brick wall in what to strum or your shred solos are all the same Van Halen triplet style then you need to get a handle on some advanced rhythms to keep yourself motivated. Check out my blog on improving rhythm guitar for some suggestions.

9. Not learning complete songs: Guitarists love to goof around with the intros to famous songs instead of learning the whole tune. I fall into this trap regularly and need to police my efforts. And some songs on guitar don’t sound right by themselves (IMO, a common problem in rock and blues music because it’s not very solo guitar oriented), they need the other instruments to sound better. But you can’t keep your band with you 24/7, so a better alternative is to learn some solo pieces. Fingerstyle and classical guitar books are usually top places to find such music. I like this book by Jon Finn called One Guitar, Many Styles that is full of solo guitar pieces in rock (including some monster tapping pieces), blues, jazz and classical…actual songs, not just a few clever riffs.

10. Not listening to music regularly: I manage to fit this into lots of blogs because it’s that important. How do you expect to get motivated if you don’t listen to music? What if you listen to a new genre of guitar music and discover an obsession with learning it! Buy CDs, explore samples on iTunes or CD Baby, seek out Internet radio stations where you can choose what genre you want to hear.

*Come on now…YOU’VE thought about treating your kid like Hendrix’s Monterey Pop Festival guitar more than once!

Sight Reading Music for Guitar Players

Today I will admit two things that will probably make you close this blog:

1. This blog won’t teach you how to read music. That’s like saying this blog will teach you karate…too much info for one blog.

2. I’m not a very good at reading music…but if you’re taking the time to read this I’m probably better than you!

But don’t close it yet! I’m going to make the pitch why you need to learn notation if you’re dedicated to guitar and I’ll even offer up a few resources for places to get started.

You know that joke, how do you get a guitar player to stop playing? Put sheet music in front of him? I think this joke should become obsolete! Guitarists need to take responsibility for their musicianship and learn at least basic sight reading to interpret melodies and rhythm. WHY, followers of tablature may ask?

1. Because it’s the language of music. You want to move to another country that doesn’t speak English and go, “Eh…I’ve got my translator book here and the locals speak a little English, so I don’t need to learn another language”? You miss out on a wealth of opportunities, friendship and learning by doing that. Same thing with music, as you’ll attract a higher quality of musician to your circle if you can interpret notation.

2. Don’t even think about trying out for school bands or orchestras knowing only guitar tabs. I know, guitar isn’t a big orchestral instrument, but as the popularity of the instrument continues more teachers are adding it to get students involved in music.

3. Admit it, the ability to hear what a new piece of music sounds like just by playing it is a pretty cool skill to have.

4. I bought a book once on odd time signatures for bass. Opened it up, NO TABS! Fortunately it came with a CD and I had a good ear, but I wasted a lot of time playing that CD over and over, when having reading skills (which I’ve acquired since) would have gotten me to the finish line much faster.

5. Session work? A paying client calls you in, wants a specific part. “Here, check out the music and we’ll start recording in ten minutes.” The music likely won’t be in tablature.

6. A drummer friend calls, “DUDE! We have a gig at an upscale country club tonight. Money! Food! Audience! But our guitarist woke up with the flu! Can you fill in for him?” Your first response might be, “You crazy? I don’t know your songs!” to which he’ll respond, “No problem–we’re just reading charts.” So you go to the gig, read the first chart and bust out the song as if you’ve always been part of the band.

I’ll be honest, I’d probably screw up number six if given the opportunity. My sight reading chops are a tad on the weak side for playing casuals. But if I were given the same charts a day or week in advance? No problem, I could invest a little extra time on the melody and changes without having to drop everything else in my life and show up comfortably prepared. But that’s because reading is among the many goals I pursue in music, along with guitar techniques, bass, singing, recording, film scoring, etc. Other players–perhaps YOU–might only be interested in guitar, guitar, guitar, in which case you could become a first class sight reader and play anything on the spot perfect the first time you play it.

What if you’ve written a tune you need played a specific way? You want to keep calling out the changes as you’re rehearsing it? Let the keyboardist improvise when you have a melody picked out? Nope…you write out exactly what you want so there’s no room for noodling. And be prepared to do the same when a chart is handed to you.

If you’re still reading this far, thanks–especially considering that I’m not going to teach you how to read on this blog! I can’t, ya see. It’s not something you explain in a quick tutorial and presto, you can read. Like normal reading, you need to learn the alphabet, start with See Spot Run and graduate to the grown up literature. But if you’ve got ten minutes to spare check out this cool intro tutorial I found on Youtube that explains how the musical staff works. Go ahead…I’ll wait.

Alright, you’re back. To actually put all the “Every Good Boy Does Fine” stuff to use you need to get a “method” book that starts with easy notation and gradually raises the bar. Here are some of my favorites:

Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method: This is book one of a seven book series. A lot of cheese here, classical and folk, so it might not be your thing. But this is a classic sight reading method that is STILL in print after decades, so that says something about its’ quality and popularity.

Wolf Marshall Guitar Method/Primer: My favorite for introducing students to reading music.

Hal Leonard Guitar Method

A Modern Method for Guitar: This one’s a bit more hardcore, aimed at folks who want a theory AND sight-reading intensive. I’ve never studied it, to be honest, but I’ve heard players like John Petrucci recommend it and I’ve glanced through the pages enough times to put it in my own to do list someday.

There are other method books as well, but the only recommendation there is to avoid sight reading books that also include guitar tab because it’s too tempting to cheat. The above books start with simple scales and melodies, moving into more complex stuff, adding chords, etc. Along the way I’d also recommend a series of books Hal Leonard puts out: Easy Pop Melodies, More Easy Pop Melodies and Even More Easy Pop Melodies. Each of these books has around twenty classic songs from The Beach Boys to Queen to Nirvana, all written out in chart form, basic chords and the singing part translated into guitar notation. You can use these charts in band situations as well if your band wants to tackle cover songs. They’re not exact translations of the original songs, giving you the opportunity to create your own strumming patterns and such without worrying about the complexities of the original parts. Turn The Beatles “Can’t Buy Me Love” into a reggae song, a metal tune, etc. I put on a student concert once and had one of the bands do Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”. They FREAKED when I first handed them the chart, but once I explained this version would involve lots of distortion and wailing they got on board and took it as a humorous interpretation. I fooled them into learning!

From there you can get yourself some fake books, big huge monstrosities with hundreds of songs prepared similar to the Pop Melody books above, basic chords and melody.

The cool thing about sight reading for guitar is that you don’t have to completely master it before you start seeing the benefits. Five minutes a day will sharpen your skills, develop your understanding of rhythm and get you interpreting basic tunes that will inevitably come your way. I had a student once who wanted to learn Jingle Bells and I didn’t have it anywhere in tablature. I found a piano book with the tune and we figured out the melody line (the top row of notes), which is basically the part everyone knows. Saved by the skills!

How to Find the BEST Guitar Teacher

You just found him. Problem solved!

But if you’re outside my teaching zone of Novato, CA you’re going to have a monster commute every week. And since you can toss a rock up in the air above any music store and have it hit a guitar teacher, you’ll have no problem finding one closer to home. The real question you need to ask is how to find a GOOD one. Guitar teachers aren’t licensed, you see. You get young punks who learned a few AC/DC songs thinking they can teach–and they can…AC/DC songs, that is. Then there’s the guy who has a music degree and understands every weird nuance about theory from classical to the present, but he’s got the personality of a piece of driftwood.

I remember a new guitar teacher arriving at my store years back. Competition! He was very skilled, recently graduated from a known music school. I was feeling very intimidated until I started getting all of his students. Not stealing them…they were switching to me because he was teaching them stuff like sweep picking and modal soloing in the first month of lessons. I’ve got a mellow teenage girl walking into my room asking, “Can I learn how to play this Doors song?” because she didn’t want to learn the heavy metal riffs he was throwing at her.

A great teacher is a combination of skills, people ones and musical chops. This creates a subjective situation where one size doesn’t fit all. I consider myself to have reasonably good people skills, able to rap with young kids and folks in retirement about guitar, even getting them to laugh at my dumb jokes. But I still get students who are so abrasive in personality that I realize there won’t be a teacher/student connection there and have to politely tell them I’m “unqualified” for the job. Some students even come in “knowing everything” and wanting to debate everything I’m showing them or telling me they didn’t practice my lessons because they “had more important things to practice”. Fortunately there are more teachers for them to try.

As a beginner you have a challenge in not knowing which teacher would be the right one for your needs. Are these lessons for your child? For yourself? Do you have prior experience? Are you seeking advanced knowledge in a specific area or looking to fill the general gaps from years of being self-taught? Preparing these questions in advance will help you get a better idea of whether you’re talking to an actual instructor or a guitar player hoping to make a few bucks in his spare time from his normal job.

(Though to be fair, I have a friend who works for Wells Fargo who still smokes me on guitar, despite being too busy to practice most of the week–he’s that good. He takes on an occasional weekend student and knows how to teach. Exceptions to everything!)

Where do we start looking for the BEST teacher? The local music store! The Mom & Pop ones, of course. Guitar Center, to their detriment, doesn’t offer music lessons…a good thing, actually, as I don’t think a corporate chain could really develop and maintain a roster of quality teachers. Teachers at music stores likely have experience and they’re being watched by the store’s owners for quality control. If they see the same kids coming in every week, month after month, it suggests the teacher is good at holding their interest. Not to mention they rap with the teachers between lessons and know their personalities and skills well.

Some people judge a guitar teacher by their playing skills. If he’s a great player he must be a great teacher, right? Well, maybe. But surely you know people who are amazing at what they do yet are total jerks with no social skills? Same thing can apply to teaching. Then you have folks like myself who score movies, explore techno and other stuff that makes you wonder if I even play guitar. And the answer is YES, I play it every day, always learning, always planning new lessons to share with the kids. You don’t want to narrow your search to only guitar virtuosos who spend 24/7 practicing. Really? Yes, really. You want a teacher who’s passionate about the instrument and excited to teach it.

Craigslist is a massive hodgepodge of talent, psycho wannabe hacks and me, as I advertise there occasionally in the Bay Area. You see a lot of students offering lowball prices in hopes of building their student base. Hey, they might be good teachers and you’ll score lessons on the cheap, but you also might be risking your money on amateurs learning how to teach for the first time at your expense.

Questions worth asking any teacher:

–What styles do you teach? “Anything” is not a good answer because it’s BS. If you get this answer then you’ll follow up by asking what styles he teaches most.

–What styles do you play? As in, what kind of band are you currently playing in? If s/he says he’s in a jazz trio and you want rock lessons you might find your rock lessons getting a little too jazzy. But don’t close the door too fast, as a jazz player is probably well versed in theory and other worthwhile guitar skills that might be perfect for what you want to learn.

–Do you teach how to read music? Not an essential in today’s world of guitar tablature (simplified sheet music designed for guitarists), but if you or your child is orchestral bound then the skill will be needed.

–How much/how long? The obvious questions with less obvious answers. My average lessons are half an hour, which doesn’t seem like much, but for the kids it’s perfect. They can’t sit in a chair and deal with the complexities of guitar for longer than that on a weekly basis. And what would I do in an hour lesson? Teach MORE stuff that the kid won’t have time to practice with other family obligations. For grownups and serious students, hour lessons can be great, depending on their schedules and motivation, but half an hour offers a chance to answer questions an present a solid piece of information to study for the week.

Price is across the board. In my area, we charge $30 for half an hour (the singing teachers get more), give or take a couple bucks. I’m in Marin County, what can I say? Other cities are less, but again, I advise skepticism at someone charging ten bucks an hour. Not rejecting them–just skepticism.

As you ask these questions you should be getting a good feeling about the teacher, a combination of “yeah, this guy sounds like he knows guitar” and “This guy seems pretty cool and easy to talk to.” Sure, Rambo might be a great guitar teacher, but I’d find him a little intimidating to study with! The teacher’s online music samples are worth checking out too, with the precautions mentioned above. Once you take the plunge I’d give the teacher 2-4 lessons to impress you. You should be walking out of your lessons energized, focused on what you need to practice, excited that someone is leading you down the guitar path.

Quick word about that guitar path…it’s alright to question the teacher’s methods, but don’t assume that you know EVERYTHING about what you need. I regularly get students who tell me they want to be the next Jaco Pastorius or Joe Satriani. I teach them the major or pentatonic scale to get the ball rolling and they come in the next week ignoring that, instead fumbling poorly through some goofy arpeggios, not having any idea what they’re doing, except that “it’s what the shredders do–teach me that!” I tell them we’re working in that direction, but it takes time…and I get criticized for not teaching what they want. There’s a give and take in the world of music instruction. Once you’ve made your decision to trust this teacher with your learning you need to give him a little space to do his job and accept that you don’t know everything, which is why you’re there in the first place. Or perhaps this falls into what was mentioned above and the relationship isn’t a good fit. You thank the instructor for his time and continue the search elsewhere.

While you’re considering a private teacher, maybe I can interest you in some of my guitar fashions and wall decor? Get the learning started BEFORE you get the learning started.

Keith Song: “I’m Still Learning” (electronic reggae?)

Posted a cool new tune up at the Myspace page called, “I’m Still Learning”. It starts off like a straightforward reggae tune, but then I have to throw in some assorted techno knick-knacks because I can’t help myself. And being a victim of 80s hair-metal I couldn’t resist busting out a show-off guitar solo, but I think it came out pretty cool, reasonably melodic.

Any of you wondering what I do when I’m not dispensing guitar lessons or local commentary are welcome to check it out.