Understanding Guitar

One Beginners’ Efforts

I saw this post on WonderHowTo.com and I thought that it was clever. Now, obviously, it is not practical but it is still a need idea with cool, interesting results.

Check out the Candle Metronome:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-a-metronome-with-a-candle-50393/

Do you know how to drive a stick shift car or anything with a manual (normal) transmission? If you at least understand the concept of driving a manual transmission car then you’ll probably understand the following analogy.

My guitar education feels like I’ve been stuck in first gear with my engine over revving to making up for the lack of gears. I’ve occasionally made it to second gear but either way I’ve been pushing hard and I feel like I’m not getting very far. I feel like no matter how hard I push each practice session I can only get so far — never where I want to be…

I’ve got two more prepaid lesson left at The Music Room. While they’ve been great, I’ve decided not to renew with them. It is important for me to mention that my teacher is/has been excellent but I feel like I should have progressed further than I have. I attribute this not to the teaching but my inability to focus as much time on guitar as I’d like. Quite simply, guitar is over-occupying my time (even though I want to put in more time). I figure if I’m not in weekly lessons I can focus a little more on other things (like Design Patterns or how Firefox works)… In addition to guitar…

My guitar studies will continue and I will continue to run Understanding Guitar.  My plan, in regards to The Music Room, is to take the “ad-hoc” options. With this option, I’ll have to call in to schedule an appointment every week or two. I’m considering this plan a half self-study, have lessons plan.

My wife and I got back from vacation last weekend.  We had gone to Mexico for 8 days and for the entire 8 days I didn’t touch a guitar. I had a surprising desire to play and fiddle on a guitar. Ultimately, I did make it the entire eight days without going though guitar withdrawal.

Now that the vacation is over, I’ve been trying to get back in to the groove of daily guitar practice. Even though while I was on vacation I wanted to play guitar, it has been a challenge to go back to my guitar routine (not to mention my work and general-life routine).

I started by re-practicing most of my “harder” material. I only had to go back a few pages in my book. I started with a slower tempo and was able to play though the Ode To Joy without a problem. The Ode To Joy was a milestone marker for me. I quickly worked the tempo back to what I was playing it at — 95 BPM.

After Ode To Joy, I picked up where I left off. I progressed further and I’m now in to playing the High E, B, G and D strings while sight reading whole, half, quarter and eighth notes. That is amazing progress for myself. A few weeks ago I had huge trouble with just the High E and B strings (while sight reading)… I was always fumbling either my fretting or picking hand and screwing something up.

I am also suppose to memorize the following pattern as it is suppose to help with finding chords and other musically important information.

A C E G B D F

In upcoming posts, I’m hoping to be able to explain why memorizing this pattern is useful. From what I understand right now, it has to do with chord theory. Keep an eye out for more in this.

Earl Klugh is a very good Jazz Guitaist. The videos are worth a listen. From my perspective it is important (and interesting) to watch videos like this to understand what can be done with a guitar. I listen to a lot of Staind, Tool and similar type music but guitar music like this is also important.

Earl Klugh -- Living Inside Your Love 

Earl Klugh -- Rayna

(I can’t embed the above videos because embeding is disabled.)

I’ve decide to take “learning” guitar in a different direction. I’ve been thinking about my previous post and decided that I want to focus a bit more on the basics of reading music and playing sheet music. While learning to play music like Staind, Cold, Tool, etc. is what I ultimately strive for, I think that I will only get there if I build a good base by starting with basic sheet music.

Given this I was hoping to get recommendation on different books that cover introducing playing guitar.  I don’t want something too simple but not too hard either. After all, I need to rebuild my hands up as it has been a while since I was playing.

Currently, I’ve got a couple of books including “Guitar for Dummies”, a book titled something like “Guitar for Beginners: The Fender Method” and a Mel Brooks [??] book.  But there are a lot of different books out there, all with a different method of doing things.

If you used one and would like to recommend it, please post it’s title (and if possible author) below. I would greatly appreciate it and it would be interesting to hear what people have tried. Likewise, if you tried to use a book and it didn’t help you or it was frustrating to read/utilize please post that too. What is bad is just as important as what is good.

Thank you

Are you familiar with the Song “Handlebars” by the flobots? If you aren’t, I’ve posted it below:

The reason I’m mentioning this song is because, first, I love it. I don’t know why, but I’m addicted to it. I love the trumpet solo that is in the song.

A local radio station, Q101.1, here in Chicago created a parody of the song called C Section Scars. While whether the song is tasteful can be debated I think it is funny and worth sharing… Listen to it below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If you’d like to download it, you can get it from: http://www.q101.com/airstaff/shermanandtingle.aspx

So I’ve always liked the Jaws theme… I’m pretty sure that most people (over 18) are familiar with this little tune.  Now, when I say tune I’m talking specificity about the trademark lead introduction piece; not the entire thing… I’m not even sure that there is an entire thing… Besides the point right now…

Anyway, I put together some music tabs for the song / introduction – this was done quickly and may not be perfect, but my wife said it sounded right…  So enjoy!

• Jaws Theme as TuxGuitar File
• Jaws Theme as PDF File

If you set up your TuxGuitar properly (you need a soundbank installed in to Java) you can have TuxGuitar play it for you — and you can practice with TuxGuitar.

Here is a YouTube video that I found with the theme in case you want to hear the ‘Real’ version or if you have no clue as to what I’m talking about:

I’ve been considering signing up for a course with “MusicianUniversity.com” for the past few days. However, I’m kind of on the fence and would like some feedback from the public…

Has anyone taken a course with Musician University? If so, I’m looking to learn about your experience and your thoughts on the course you took.

I’m specifically interested in taking the course called: “Guitar Songwriting: writing Songs, Riffs and Chord Progressions”

I’ve been working on the song for my wife (as it is known) and I have come to a road block with the progression / song… I’m not sure where to take it or what to do next. I’ve come up with a few things, but ultimately I simply don’t yet know enough to write a song — at least a song worth keeping.   Anyway, this is why I’m interested in taking the course…

Pretty much any feedback or thoughts would help. Thank you in advance!

Quick follow up update:  tsubibo found this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080415072326AADYEe

The post is asking about a Better Business Bureau for the Netherlands, which is where MusicianUniversity.com is based out of. According to the post, the user has been trying to get a refund, presubmably because they didn’t feel that the services were to par.

If someone can counter this, I invite you to leave a comment at the bottom.

I am going to try to check out a local community college for what I’m looking for… I’d rather play it safe then waste valuable time and money…

On the radio this morning, Q101 mentioned that tomorrow (April 19th) is record store day.

I found this interesting… First, I  didn’t know that there was such a thing. I looked it up on the internet and sure enough, it exists.

http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home  [Note: The site sometimes has trouble loading]

Stop by your local record store and pick up something in support!  Record stores are still alive and well! (According to an interview with a Local Chicago record store manager, they do pretty well even in a world where CD and MP3s dominate — mostly because of DJs.)

Play this for two minutes (not 99 as the music says), it will exercise your fretting hand and your picking hand much. (Click Image for a larger Rendering).

After you try this, please post a comment on what you think. Was it hard? Was it easy? Does your hand hurt too much to leave a comment?