It has become apparent to me, and it might even be true - no matter how much you practise and try, you cannot make up for a lack of talent. You can come close, but you'll never achieve what you weren't born with. Before we all hang our guitars on the wall to gather dust, or start flaming me for outrageously negative statements, let me explain:
First of all, you don't believe me? If it weren't the case, then all you need to do is keep practising and you could be a Tommy Emmanuel/Michael Jordan/Tiger Woods/any leader of their skill. Take Sungha Jung, he's what, 13? I have probably played the guitar for at least twice as many hours as he has in his life - probably a lot more - yet he is superior player to me.
There is that edge, something different happening in the brain, in talented people. Something that isn't learnt, it just is - like being born with the genetics to be two metres tall rather than one metre fifty. But unlike being tall, or short, which is something obvious we can see (and we're happy there is nothing we can do about it), we can't see what is happening inside a brain, and whatsmore we can get pretty close to what those talented people are doing...so why can't we push on a little further to achieve the same?
Fortunately talent isn't everything; I won't try to put a number against it, but I'm sure that an un-talented person (such as myself) who has put in a lifetime of persistence is going to do better than a talented person who hasn't. The hard slog will pay off in the end, thank goodness - otherwise nobody would bother - but watch out, when those with talent start putting the hard slog in too, well, it's lucky we have day jobs, and we're primarily playing the guitar for our personal enjoyment ;)
JAW
Friday, 24 April 2009
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Why Naudo is Best
Those who have followed my work will probably realise that Naudo is my guitar hero. I study, analyse, transcribe, re-arrange his work and spew it out myself, never to his level, but enough to satisfy me. I've emailed with him a few times, and with Juan his friend and cameraman, and of course sent him some money to further his incredible talent.
Okay, so out of all the fantastic guitarists out there, why does Naudo click with me? Well, more importantly, why did he click with so many people he became #1 most subscribed musician in Brazil on youtube before he was ousted "for copyright infringements"? Sure he is an amazing guitarist, with an incredible repertoire and he seems like such a nice gentle fellow - but let's dig a bit deeper.
Us humans are creatures of habit, and music is no exception. When we were young - and probably not so young - we would hear a song on the radio that we simply loved, and listened to it over and over and over until is was pretty much permanently burnt into our brains. There would probably be a hundred songs in your brain right now just like that , and thanks to our socialistic tendencies I bet what is in your brain overlaps with what's in other peoples brains; ie, popular songs. For starters, that's what Naudo plays - popular songs, and there will be one he plays that you love. Click number 1.
When you hear your favourite songs performed by someone else - specifically *sung* by someone else - you immediately begin comparing. Singing is such a personal thing, and such an infinitely variable thing, that the singer either needs to be singing it identically to the original, or in a way that really, really appeals to you to win you over. How many times have you heard a professional band redo a song you love "and it's just not as good as the original"? Well Naudo doesn't suffer from that problem, he doesn't sing, but he plays the melody of the song clearly enough that you know exactly what you are listening to, in fact you can't help but sing the words in your head as he plays it. And when you sing in your head, it is the voice of the original artist. Click number 2.
Then there is the gobsmack factor. Yep, plenty of guitarists have this and what gobsmacks you might not gobsmack someone else, but generally, when you see someone playing something complex on the guitar smooth and fluently, you tend to go "wow, that's pretty good" and be drawn into click number 3.
Bringing all this together, Naudo arranges these popular songs you love in a complex & stylised manner, injecting a bit of humour (love the 'whit-whews' and snippets midway through from songs such as jingle bells) but most importantly he captures the essence of the song into his arrangement. It is as true to the song, in his style, as it can possibly be. Click game over.
I've played the guitar for many years, playing what I want to hear. But now I want to play not just what I want to hear, but what others want to hear as well. Naudo is my guide, as a solo fingerstyle guitarist, how to achieve that.
Here is an example of one of Naudos arrangements I've transcribed, in video lesson format:
Okay, so out of all the fantastic guitarists out there, why does Naudo click with me? Well, more importantly, why did he click with so many people he became #1 most subscribed musician in Brazil on youtube before he was ousted "for copyright infringements"? Sure he is an amazing guitarist, with an incredible repertoire and he seems like such a nice gentle fellow - but let's dig a bit deeper.
Us humans are creatures of habit, and music is no exception. When we were young - and probably not so young - we would hear a song on the radio that we simply loved, and listened to it over and over and over until is was pretty much permanently burnt into our brains. There would probably be a hundred songs in your brain right now just like that , and thanks to our socialistic tendencies I bet what is in your brain overlaps with what's in other peoples brains; ie, popular songs. For starters, that's what Naudo plays - popular songs, and there will be one he plays that you love. Click number 1.
When you hear your favourite songs performed by someone else - specifically *sung* by someone else - you immediately begin comparing. Singing is such a personal thing, and such an infinitely variable thing, that the singer either needs to be singing it identically to the original, or in a way that really, really appeals to you to win you over. How many times have you heard a professional band redo a song you love "and it's just not as good as the original"? Well Naudo doesn't suffer from that problem, he doesn't sing, but he plays the melody of the song clearly enough that you know exactly what you are listening to, in fact you can't help but sing the words in your head as he plays it. And when you sing in your head, it is the voice of the original artist. Click number 2.
Then there is the gobsmack factor. Yep, plenty of guitarists have this and what gobsmacks you might not gobsmack someone else, but generally, when you see someone playing something complex on the guitar smooth and fluently, you tend to go "wow, that's pretty good" and be drawn into click number 3.
Bringing all this together, Naudo arranges these popular songs you love in a complex & stylised manner, injecting a bit of humour (love the 'whit-whews' and snippets midway through from songs such as jingle bells) but most importantly he captures the essence of the song into his arrangement. It is as true to the song, in his style, as it can possibly be. Click game over.
I've played the guitar for many years, playing what I want to hear. But now I want to play not just what I want to hear, but what others want to hear as well. Naudo is my guide, as a solo fingerstyle guitarist, how to achieve that.
Here is an example of one of Naudos arrangements I've transcribed, in video lesson format:
Monday, 23 February 2009
What's happening February 2009
Day job, day job and more day job. But on the guitar front, Space Oddity is done and ready to be recorded, but I haven't tabbed it out. Must tab first, people like the tab. I've always said that anything you read on the internet should have something you can take away with you, for my guitar videos that'd be the tab.
In other news I created a great resolve for the harmonica solo in Head Over Feet, in fact I played it to my missus and said "what do you think of the harmonica resolve?" she immediately said "that's great" with a straight face. I looked at her, first with a puzzled expression, then I pissed myself laughing. She's not a big fan of the guitar (20 years of listening to someone practise will do that to you). Ah, you had to be there.
Okay, I've started on Naudo's Stand By Me. It will be fairly easy in fact. But you'll need a lot of thumb independence skill, and a really steady right hand. Punters won't be able to play it, but people who will be able to play it will be able to play it, but they won't need the tab. Well...that made no sense at all. Basically what I am trying to say is that 200 people per day will download the tab, and 1 person per month will actually be able to play it ;) Not to matter, it's a bit like buying gym equipment - the act of purchase/getting something made you feel better, even if in the long run you get no return on your investment whatsoever. An attempt to buy a good physique/acquire guitar skills. It doesn't work like that ;)
See you next month.
JAW
In other news I created a great resolve for the harmonica solo in Head Over Feet, in fact I played it to my missus and said "what do you think of the harmonica resolve?" she immediately said "that's great" with a straight face. I looked at her, first with a puzzled expression, then I pissed myself laughing. She's not a big fan of the guitar (20 years of listening to someone practise will do that to you). Ah, you had to be there.
Okay, I've started on Naudo's Stand By Me. It will be fairly easy in fact. But you'll need a lot of thumb independence skill, and a really steady right hand. Punters won't be able to play it, but people who will be able to play it will be able to play it, but they won't need the tab. Well...that made no sense at all. Basically what I am trying to say is that 200 people per day will download the tab, and 1 person per month will actually be able to play it ;) Not to matter, it's a bit like buying gym equipment - the act of purchase/getting something made you feel better, even if in the long run you get no return on your investment whatsoever. An attempt to buy a good physique/acquire guitar skills. It doesn't work like that ;)
See you next month.
JAW
Thursday, 15 January 2009
What's happening January 2009
Well, not much is happening. I went to "my country retreat" over the holidays and even though I have a steel string and a nylon string there, I only played once in 2 weeks, and even then nothing new, just a refresher on all my standard stuff.
So as it stands, I'm still working on getting "Mad World" up to playable; noodling with "Head over Feet" to make sure it plays well; I'm still also noodling with "Space Oddity" which is coming along nicely.
I recently got in touch with a guy who had been playing with some of my Pink Floyd stuff and does Pink Floyd stuff of his own. I've been working on a guitar arrangement of "Great Gig in the Sky" for a long time now, it's coming along nicely but it is not high priority and it would be years before I finished it. I sent him a copy and a quick vid of my playing it and discussing what I'm doing with it, he seems keen to run with it.
I may have mentioned before that I have a long long term ambition to do a fingerstyle arrangement of the whole of "Dark Side of the Moon". He likes the sound of that and may put his hand to assisting - which means something might come out within a decade!
JAW
So as it stands, I'm still working on getting "Mad World" up to playable; noodling with "Head over Feet" to make sure it plays well; I'm still also noodling with "Space Oddity" which is coming along nicely.
I recently got in touch with a guy who had been playing with some of my Pink Floyd stuff and does Pink Floyd stuff of his own. I've been working on a guitar arrangement of "Great Gig in the Sky" for a long time now, it's coming along nicely but it is not high priority and it would be years before I finished it. I sent him a copy and a quick vid of my playing it and discussing what I'm doing with it, he seems keen to run with it.
I may have mentioned before that I have a long long term ambition to do a fingerstyle arrangement of the whole of "Dark Side of the Moon". He likes the sound of that and may put his hand to assisting - which means something might come out within a decade!
JAW
Monday, 22 December 2008
What's happening December 2008
With some summer holidays up my sleeve I've grabbed some spare time to do some guitaring...first up I came across a kiwi named Oliver Batchelor who had some responses to my videos, while checking them out I saw "Mad World", and that he had tabbed it. Man after my own heart! It was Ulli's version, copied by Sungha, transcribed by Oliver and I though, ah, why not learn a song from a tab!
It's been straight forward, a little tricky to co-ordinate, it's funny how the stuff you work out for yourself is "easy" but the stuff you are playing from a tab is "hard". Well it's not funny at all really, you arrange your own stuff in your own style, which is what comes naturally to you.
Anyway, it's played capo at 8th fret, dropped D, which makes for something interesting for sure. What it has done however is broken my spirit, or something - it has shown me that my guitar is badly intonated. I've been running fairly high tension strings on it (still coming off steel string), next set will be normal tension. That should help improve it, but if it doesn't, it will be time to take matters into my own hands.
Problem with intonation on a classical is there is no adjustment at all - playing intonation means filing up bridges and possibly nuts. I did anticipate the needs for fiddling and grabbed a couple of bone bridge blanks when I bought the guitar. I need to read up a bit more about it before I start hacking, but the physics of it is quite straight forward...
About a week ago a potential fingerstyle tune popped into the brain, usually these things happen to me in the shower. Hot water heating the brain up? Anyway, and old favourite of my missus, Alanis Morisette "Head Over Feet". I remember the missus buying "Jagged Little Pill" and noticing that one was a glimmer of hope in an album of anger and pain, not to mention it was melodically quite nice. Never got the headlines like the other songs on the album, until later. Perhaps when the world had had enough of the anger and needed that hope ;)
Had a noodle last night and whaddaya know, perfectly suited to fingerstyle. In about 2 hours I had a tab done. Just gotta learn it now.
How did I get the tab done in 2 hours you say!?
First, I youtubed the song. Found a nice acoustic version she did a few years back. Listened to it a few times. Searched internet for the chords. Easy. Couldn't quite pick the melody (have I mentioned my ability to pick a note is really poor?) so I downloaded a midi. This is a good trick by the way - normally tabs won't ever have the melody. Why bother, you sing the melody don't you? But midi files usually have the melody. Powertab can import midi files and display as tab (you have to choose the correct midi instrument that is playing the melody. Not always one, not always easy). Play the melody. Pick out a bassline, work in some chord strums. You are there :)
It's is quite hard to play, and I still need to add an outtro, possibly might try to get the harmonica solo in the middle in as well.
I'll probably do a video of it sometime early next year. Mad world will be soon too, if I can get over the bad intonation that is...
JAW
It's been straight forward, a little tricky to co-ordinate, it's funny how the stuff you work out for yourself is "easy" but the stuff you are playing from a tab is "hard". Well it's not funny at all really, you arrange your own stuff in your own style, which is what comes naturally to you.
Anyway, it's played capo at 8th fret, dropped D, which makes for something interesting for sure. What it has done however is broken my spirit, or something - it has shown me that my guitar is badly intonated. I've been running fairly high tension strings on it (still coming off steel string), next set will be normal tension. That should help improve it, but if it doesn't, it will be time to take matters into my own hands.
Problem with intonation on a classical is there is no adjustment at all - playing intonation means filing up bridges and possibly nuts. I did anticipate the needs for fiddling and grabbed a couple of bone bridge blanks when I bought the guitar. I need to read up a bit more about it before I start hacking, but the physics of it is quite straight forward...
About a week ago a potential fingerstyle tune popped into the brain, usually these things happen to me in the shower. Hot water heating the brain up? Anyway, and old favourite of my missus, Alanis Morisette "Head Over Feet". I remember the missus buying "Jagged Little Pill" and noticing that one was a glimmer of hope in an album of anger and pain, not to mention it was melodically quite nice. Never got the headlines like the other songs on the album, until later. Perhaps when the world had had enough of the anger and needed that hope ;)
Had a noodle last night and whaddaya know, perfectly suited to fingerstyle. In about 2 hours I had a tab done. Just gotta learn it now.
How did I get the tab done in 2 hours you say!?
First, I youtubed the song. Found a nice acoustic version she did a few years back. Listened to it a few times. Searched internet for the chords. Easy. Couldn't quite pick the melody (have I mentioned my ability to pick a note is really poor?) so I downloaded a midi. This is a good trick by the way - normally tabs won't ever have the melody. Why bother, you sing the melody don't you? But midi files usually have the melody. Powertab can import midi files and display as tab (you have to choose the correct midi instrument that is playing the melody. Not always one, not always easy). Play the melody. Pick out a bassline, work in some chord strums. You are there :)
It's is quite hard to play, and I still need to add an outtro, possibly might try to get the harmonica solo in the middle in as well.
I'll probably do a video of it sometime early next year. Mad world will be soon too, if I can get over the bad intonation that is...
JAW
Friday, 12 December 2008
Audiences, again
What's it all about?
Okay, so we all like to play guitar, but why? I used to enjoy the personal challenge of being able to play music and everything it involved - learning new skills, memorising songs, developing the speed and dexterity to play a tune accurately. The satisfaction of hearing a song come out from a guitar in my hands. Eventually that wasn't enough, I wanted other people to hear it. Pride and ego? I don't really think so, it's more of a case if you owned the entire world but didn't have anyone to share it with, would that be satisfying?
Playing for an audience...there are two ways of doing that I can see - play what you want to play and hope that there is an audience to suit you...or play what you think an audience wants.
Having been reasonably well accepted on youtube I have a perhaps overinflated expectation of what listeners think of me. Out of say a billion people who have had the oppurtunity to look at any of my work, there has been about a million and a half who _have_ looked...which means just over one person in 1000. In two and a half years of being there. Now if you were sitting on the street playing for random people, 1 in 1000 equates to, well, almost nobody.
To lift the odds I have decided to play more for an expected audience. I've approached that by examining what my most popular videos are, and examining the most popular videos of other players. Naudo is an excellent indicator because (a) he is an unknown - that is, nobody is searching for his videos unlike say Tommy Emmanuel; (b) he has a lot of videos of covers to form some good popularity statistics.
Oh, I probably should mention that playing for an expected audience means playing stuff that they will know. People like to hear stuff they already like. If you were a big popular artist then you can play original stuff, but the guy playing original stuff on the corner needs to be either stupendously engaging, or playing on a corner that a high number of passers by are into his form of art. Open mike is probably a good scenario, otherwise both cases are otherwise unlikely.
Another part of the puzzle is you probably need to be able to sing. This is a double edged sword. If you can sing and play guitar you will attract far more listeners in my humble opinion; but singing is a land of personal taste and has a lot of room for error. For example, when playing the guitar most people won't notice the odd non-fatal stuff up, but stuff up singing and people recognise it in a heartbeat. Then there is whether the audience likes your voice - the personal taste thing. You do kinda need to be a good singer.
To avoid singing you unfortunatley need to be able to play the guitar really well, dare I say fingerstyle covers - catch a whole song on one instrument. I recommend learning to play simple guitar and developing your voice ;) Oh, if you are a good-looking girl then that helps immensely...
I'm not sure if there was a point to all this, lets see if I can summarise:
(a) Eventually you will need to play to an audience;
(b) Play stuff that people know;
(c) If you can't play oustanding fingerstyle covers of stuff that people know, then concentrate on your singing.
I promise I will reassess these statements when I start playing to an audience :)
JAW
Okay, so we all like to play guitar, but why? I used to enjoy the personal challenge of being able to play music and everything it involved - learning new skills, memorising songs, developing the speed and dexterity to play a tune accurately. The satisfaction of hearing a song come out from a guitar in my hands. Eventually that wasn't enough, I wanted other people to hear it. Pride and ego? I don't really think so, it's more of a case if you owned the entire world but didn't have anyone to share it with, would that be satisfying?
Playing for an audience...there are two ways of doing that I can see - play what you want to play and hope that there is an audience to suit you...or play what you think an audience wants.
Having been reasonably well accepted on youtube I have a perhaps overinflated expectation of what listeners think of me. Out of say a billion people who have had the oppurtunity to look at any of my work, there has been about a million and a half who _have_ looked...which means just over one person in 1000. In two and a half years of being there. Now if you were sitting on the street playing for random people, 1 in 1000 equates to, well, almost nobody.
To lift the odds I have decided to play more for an expected audience. I've approached that by examining what my most popular videos are, and examining the most popular videos of other players. Naudo is an excellent indicator because (a) he is an unknown - that is, nobody is searching for his videos unlike say Tommy Emmanuel; (b) he has a lot of videos of covers to form some good popularity statistics.
Oh, I probably should mention that playing for an expected audience means playing stuff that they will know. People like to hear stuff they already like. If you were a big popular artist then you can play original stuff, but the guy playing original stuff on the corner needs to be either stupendously engaging, or playing on a corner that a high number of passers by are into his form of art. Open mike is probably a good scenario, otherwise both cases are otherwise unlikely.
Another part of the puzzle is you probably need to be able to sing. This is a double edged sword. If you can sing and play guitar you will attract far more listeners in my humble opinion; but singing is a land of personal taste and has a lot of room for error. For example, when playing the guitar most people won't notice the odd non-fatal stuff up, but stuff up singing and people recognise it in a heartbeat. Then there is whether the audience likes your voice - the personal taste thing. You do kinda need to be a good singer.
To avoid singing you unfortunatley need to be able to play the guitar really well, dare I say fingerstyle covers - catch a whole song on one instrument. I recommend learning to play simple guitar and developing your voice ;) Oh, if you are a good-looking girl then that helps immensely...
I'm not sure if there was a point to all this, lets see if I can summarise:
(a) Eventually you will need to play to an audience;
(b) Play stuff that people know;
(c) If you can't play oustanding fingerstyle covers of stuff that people know, then concentrate on your singing.
I promise I will reassess these statements when I start playing to an audience :)
JAW
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Solar Guitar Amp
I resurrected my solar guitar amp project about 3 months ago, I'm planning on doing the buskey thing, which only allows for battery powered amplification. I need to play to a real audience "to get to the next level". You'll have to take that on face value, I can't explain why.
Anyway, lets talk solar guitar amp.
A while back I built a battery powered amp. 12V lead acid gel cell; unfortunately amplifiers like wider voltages than 0-12V, in fact ideally they like a negative rail (have I mentioned that in my day job I'm an electrical engineer?) Anyway, car amplifiers have to use 12VDC so there are plenty of power amplifier chips for 12V. The one I built was around 5WRMS, which was pretty boring. The enclosure was small and heavy so I rarely used it.
This time I want more power. Instead of building up a amp circuit from scratch I thought I'd get one of those rice boy duff-duff car amps. I grabbed a fancy schmancy blue LED backlit type amps. I tried to get the least lairy and lowest power one but it is still 150WRMS. Man they are cheap for what they are, paid about AUD$150 for it.
The thing I was worried about with car amps is input sensitivity - car stereo equipment has quite high outputs, guitar output is quite low. It worked out well though, I put it on the bench and found a sensitivity knob on the back, wound it right up and the power level coming out of a single channel un-enclosed speaker was plenty adequate. More importantly, the unit is power friendly, it was only pulling just over 1 amp on one channel when I was belting out maximum volume. Important for battery life.
To really make the amp a talking point I've decided to mount my little 5W solar panel and regulator on it; it has been running fine for many years. Sure you could just charge up the 12V battery before each use, but where is the public interest in that?
Speakers - I've looked at car speakers, in the past it was all about 3-way blah blah all-in-one, but nowdays you can get 3-way but it is split into multiple speakers, so I'd only use the big one and chuck the little ones out...seeing as the maximum note on a guitar is about 1kHz - but you'd want more kHz for "tonal quality harmonics". The speaker usually peaks out at 3-4kHz. Should be plenty.
I'll just stick with 4Ohm speakers, one per channel. I could parallel them for 2Ohms one channel but the amp isn't recommended for that. I could bridge the amp and drive just one as well but meh, I'll drive it "just as nature intended".
So I need to build an enclosure as well. I decided seeing as it has a lead acid battery in it to start with, I should make a lightweight but extremely rugged enclosure, as it will also be my playing seat. I've got some 3mm marine ply and a lot of tassie oak strips to brace out the middle. I've got a bit of foam for a seat on top and some marine grade vinyl to cover the whole thing. I decided I would mount the two speakers in the front (complete with porting) but face them outwards slightly. This will help eliminate resonance frequencies because the enclosure is no longer regular, and will also "spread" the sound out a bit more which is useful because my legs will be in front of the speakers ;)
Anyway, it is a work in progress, watch this space!
Anyway, lets talk solar guitar amp.
A while back I built a battery powered amp. 12V lead acid gel cell; unfortunately amplifiers like wider voltages than 0-12V, in fact ideally they like a negative rail (have I mentioned that in my day job I'm an electrical engineer?) Anyway, car amplifiers have to use 12VDC so there are plenty of power amplifier chips for 12V. The one I built was around 5WRMS, which was pretty boring. The enclosure was small and heavy so I rarely used it.
This time I want more power. Instead of building up a amp circuit from scratch I thought I'd get one of those rice boy duff-duff car amps. I grabbed a fancy schmancy blue LED backlit type amps. I tried to get the least lairy and lowest power one but it is still 150WRMS. Man they are cheap for what they are, paid about AUD$150 for it.
The thing I was worried about with car amps is input sensitivity - car stereo equipment has quite high outputs, guitar output is quite low. It worked out well though, I put it on the bench and found a sensitivity knob on the back, wound it right up and the power level coming out of a single channel un-enclosed speaker was plenty adequate. More importantly, the unit is power friendly, it was only pulling just over 1 amp on one channel when I was belting out maximum volume. Important for battery life.
To really make the amp a talking point I've decided to mount my little 5W solar panel and regulator on it; it has been running fine for many years. Sure you could just charge up the 12V battery before each use, but where is the public interest in that?
Speakers - I've looked at car speakers, in the past it was all about 3-way blah blah all-in-one, but nowdays you can get 3-way but it is split into multiple speakers, so I'd only use the big one and chuck the little ones out...seeing as the maximum note on a guitar is about 1kHz - but you'd want more kHz for "tonal quality harmonics". The speaker usually peaks out at 3-4kHz. Should be plenty.
I'll just stick with 4Ohm speakers, one per channel. I could parallel them for 2Ohms one channel but the amp isn't recommended for that. I could bridge the amp and drive just one as well but meh, I'll drive it "just as nature intended".
So I need to build an enclosure as well. I decided seeing as it has a lead acid battery in it to start with, I should make a lightweight but extremely rugged enclosure, as it will also be my playing seat. I've got some 3mm marine ply and a lot of tassie oak strips to brace out the middle. I've got a bit of foam for a seat on top and some marine grade vinyl to cover the whole thing. I decided I would mount the two speakers in the front (complete with porting) but face them outwards slightly. This will help eliminate resonance frequencies because the enclosure is no longer regular, and will also "spread" the sound out a bit more which is useful because my legs will be in front of the speakers ;)
Anyway, it is a work in progress, watch this space!
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