A mate of mine who has been pushing me recently about my webstuff - responsible for me setting up Jawmunji.com - "Do it now." "No." "If you don't, I'm going to do it." "Argh, okay, okay." - told me I need to find out what people want, and give it to them. He's far more an "internet entrepreneur" than I am. I've always given people what I like, and what I think they like...but it's a good question, what do people like?
If you were to use my youtube viewcounts as a guide, then most people are after classical and folk...but that doesn't sound right to me.
The reality is that Jawmunji.com exists because I like to ramble on about fingerstyle guitar stuff that interests me. And my mates keep it interesting by challenging my rambles, and giving me new ideas for new rambles. (I'm back to only 3 mates now, according to my blogger subscriber list, the other 18 got left behind at wordpress. I miss you guys)
But hey, one of the rambles I have called time and time again is - "play for an audience!" One of the subtleties in that statement is "know what your audience wants".
So my mate created for me a survey. It will be interesting to see what us fingerstyle guitarists - and the people who like to listen to fingerstyle guitarists - are the most interested in. So head on over to the survey, it's pretty short and sweet, I'll report back later on what the verdict is! :)
JAW
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
What's happening March 2011
Okay, everything has been moved onto jawmunji.com...I'm not sure I like the layout, but that can change later. I particularly don't like the lack of links to old blog entries - Blogger only uses "labels" unlike wordpress that had categories and labels - and the archive blog widget on the side isn't all that useful. Worse still, the search widget just plain doesn't work. I'm pretty sure it is something to do with exporting from wordpress to blogger, but I don't know. Fortunately the global search engines look like they've caught up with the site, but now all the pages are at the bottom of a search list...will be a while before they work their way up to replace the wordpress ones I reckon!
Meanwhile, the guitar playing front is quiet. Since getting Super Mario Theme out, I've spent most of my time just playing the things I am currently enjoying; stuff like "Sunshine of your love", "Another one bites the dust", "Breathe/Time" and "Wish you were here." Not focusing on my songs in-the-works, just having fun. Sounds nice? Well, I thought over the weekend I should revisit some of my old tunes. Because one day I will be doing some gig work, and I need to keep them fresh.
I played about two bars into "A Whiter shade of Pale", which I love but haven't played for about 6 months. I couldn't remember it! Argh! I had to go back to my tab (lucky I write these things down) and refresh myself. Rusty, and even after playing it through twice it was no longer "natural". A few more plays should fix that, I hope.
So that's another reason why I need to have a regular gig. Just to make sure I play every piece I know on a regular basis! That might sound a bit strange and dumb, but as with everything, you do the stuff you like, and ignore the stuff you don't for as long as possible. Maybe it's not even stuff you don't like, it's just stuff that isn't as much fun as other stuff.
In other news, since I haven't been playing much recently, my left hand pinky is actually feeling almost normal again. Perhaps it's just time, perhaps it is less stress from less playing; either way I'm pretty happy about it. I've even been tentatively doing root A-chord pinky barre formations up the neck again. It's my favourite way of doing a root 5th barre chord (uses just two fingers). I'd been using "standard" barre + 2-3-4 versions for the last several months, not as quick nor as adaptable. I promise not to go too hard with it though, just use it here and there, okay? :)
The future. I guess anyone who's been following me for a while has worked out that I like information to be shared; I like to teach anything useful I've learnt myself to others. I love to see someone respond to one of my youtube videos having learnt from my tabs. What I've been missing for a long while now, and what I've wanted to do for a while, is actual video lessons. Work through songs phrase by phrase, showing the phrase tab and talking through it.
I've done three lessons in the past, all three still exist on the internet (somewhere), but they were a bit clumsy and not very well produced. I've now got myself a nice HD webcam - I shot my Super Mario Theme on it - which will do quite nicely for lessons.
There are some challenges. I've got some software I used in the past where I can do overlays and stuff, it's time consuming but do-able. There are copyright issues, and I'm going to continue to look into it. With copyrights comes costs, I'm hoping the advertising here will offset those (and any other) costs. There is my ability to do lessons, but just like if you look back on my very early youtube videos (please don't) I'll get better the more I do.
The main challenge is time. My work life and family life has grown to consume all available time. I'm typing this during my lunch break. I'm hoping in the next few weeks to try out my lesson skills at "Here Comes the Sun"; both a great starter for fingerpicking newbies and a pretty straightforward one for me to begin with.
Watch this space!
JAW
Meanwhile, the guitar playing front is quiet. Since getting Super Mario Theme out, I've spent most of my time just playing the things I am currently enjoying; stuff like "Sunshine of your love", "Another one bites the dust", "Breathe/Time" and "Wish you were here." Not focusing on my songs in-the-works, just having fun. Sounds nice? Well, I thought over the weekend I should revisit some of my old tunes. Because one day I will be doing some gig work, and I need to keep them fresh.
I played about two bars into "A Whiter shade of Pale", which I love but haven't played for about 6 months. I couldn't remember it! Argh! I had to go back to my tab (lucky I write these things down) and refresh myself. Rusty, and even after playing it through twice it was no longer "natural". A few more plays should fix that, I hope.
So that's another reason why I need to have a regular gig. Just to make sure I play every piece I know on a regular basis! That might sound a bit strange and dumb, but as with everything, you do the stuff you like, and ignore the stuff you don't for as long as possible. Maybe it's not even stuff you don't like, it's just stuff that isn't as much fun as other stuff.
In other news, since I haven't been playing much recently, my left hand pinky is actually feeling almost normal again. Perhaps it's just time, perhaps it is less stress from less playing; either way I'm pretty happy about it. I've even been tentatively doing root A-chord pinky barre formations up the neck again. It's my favourite way of doing a root 5th barre chord (uses just two fingers). I'd been using "standard" barre + 2-3-4 versions for the last several months, not as quick nor as adaptable. I promise not to go too hard with it though, just use it here and there, okay? :)
The future. I guess anyone who's been following me for a while has worked out that I like information to be shared; I like to teach anything useful I've learnt myself to others. I love to see someone respond to one of my youtube videos having learnt from my tabs. What I've been missing for a long while now, and what I've wanted to do for a while, is actual video lessons. Work through songs phrase by phrase, showing the phrase tab and talking through it.
I've done three lessons in the past, all three still exist on the internet (somewhere), but they were a bit clumsy and not very well produced. I've now got myself a nice HD webcam - I shot my Super Mario Theme on it - which will do quite nicely for lessons.
There are some challenges. I've got some software I used in the past where I can do overlays and stuff, it's time consuming but do-able. There are copyright issues, and I'm going to continue to look into it. With copyrights comes costs, I'm hoping the advertising here will offset those (and any other) costs. There is my ability to do lessons, but just like if you look back on my very early youtube videos (please don't) I'll get better the more I do.
The main challenge is time. My work life and family life has grown to consume all available time. I'm typing this during my lunch break. I'm hoping in the next few weeks to try out my lesson skills at "Here Comes the Sun"; both a great starter for fingerpicking newbies and a pretty straightforward one for me to begin with.
Watch this space!
JAW
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Hello. Welcome.
Hello and welcome to Jawmunji.com. Why are we here? Mostly, to organise all my Jawmunji stuff into one place! Previously I had a blog, a website with tabs, an ftp site for mp3, videos on youtube and a site and sevenload and mojo24...well, it was silly. So here we are, (soon to be) all in one place. A very Googley place.
You may also notice that there are ads here. Sold out you say? Well, as some of my regular old blog readers would know I've talked about giving away stuff for free, and how I have had a donation page for about 4 years and well...it doesn't work. To all my friends who have donated in the past, thank you. Now, you don't need to. Advertising will take care of things. Enough that I will be able to buy new strings...and if one day a guitar manufacturer decides to give me a guitar if I promote it, well, they will be the best guitar manufacturer in the world! :)
Business as usual. I'll be blogging, and adding new songs to youtube...but everything else goes here. Youtube is just too big and widely used and Googley to boycott; it brings in listeners. But here is where you get the "value add", this is where I'll put the stuff that hopefully is useful to you, or brightens up your day a bit.
It will be a while before the move is complete; in the meantime, thanks for coming!
JAW
You may also notice that there are ads here. Sold out you say? Well, as some of my regular old blog readers would know I've talked about giving away stuff for free, and how I have had a donation page for about 4 years and well...it doesn't work. To all my friends who have donated in the past, thank you. Now, you don't need to. Advertising will take care of things. Enough that I will be able to buy new strings...and if one day a guitar manufacturer decides to give me a guitar if I promote it, well, they will be the best guitar manufacturer in the world! :)
Business as usual. I'll be blogging, and adding new songs to youtube...but everything else goes here. Youtube is just too big and widely used and Googley to boycott; it brings in listeners. But here is where you get the "value add", this is where I'll put the stuff that hopefully is useful to you, or brightens up your day a bit.
It will be a while before the move is complete; in the meantime, thanks for coming!
JAW
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Fingerstyle "Time" by Pink Floyd progress lesson
Here's a little video primarily for Ryan but for anyone who is interested. "Time" by Pink Floyd played finger flicking :) I'm still not all that comfortable doing video "lessons", but like all things you just have to do it, get on with it, and eventually you'll get better at it.
It's about 10 minutes long, and no, I'm not actually singing in there, it's more like strangling a cat (that's why I play the guitar) :)
Yes, I'm still "developing" my skills as a lesson presenter, one of these days I will get around to posting proper lessons...watch this space!
2017 Update: Although this is not a lesson as such, I played through Dark Side of the Moon again. I also mumbled more about "Time" and some changes I've made over the years
JAW
It's about 10 minutes long, and no, I'm not actually singing in there, it's more like strangling a cat (that's why I play the guitar) :)
Yes, I'm still "developing" my skills as a lesson presenter, one of these days I will get around to posting proper lessons...watch this space!
2017 Update: Although this is not a lesson as such, I played through Dark Side of the Moon again. I also mumbled more about "Time" and some changes I've made over the years
JAW
Monday, 31 January 2011
Hold onto that bass note...
...or don't; the choice should be up to you, not up to your skill level. One of the standout features of good fingerstyle players for me is that they will hold onto a bass note if it should ring throughout a measure; even if it is difficult to do so. You can spot the beginners, all credit to them "I played the note!" but the note lasts about as long as it takes for them to refret to the very next plucked note.
Holding onto bass notes can be challenging. For simple in-chord stuff, you can normally fret the whole chord, giving you the bass note and plucking melodies in the chord per measure, before changing to the next chord. When the melodies start moving out of chords sometimes it becomes difficult to hang onto that bass note. Here are some options:
Holding onto bass notes can be challenging. For simple in-chord stuff, you can normally fret the whole chord, giving you the bass note and plucking melodies in the chord per measure, before changing to the next chord. When the melodies start moving out of chords sometimes it becomes difficult to hang onto that bass note. Here are some options:
- More practise :)
- Don't hold onto the bass note play it staccato, but do it on purpose to make sure it sounds like an accent, not like "I couldn't hold the bass note".
- Rework the fingering so you can find a position to hold the bass note more easily.
- Rework the arrangement to something simpler you can play.
- Adopt a different technique that allows you to hold the bass note; for instance:
- Naudo Style middle finger bass note: for example, instead of playing a full first finger barre chord E shape or A shape, play the bass note with your middle finger. Ringy and pinky fingers can do normal stuff in chord leaving index finger able to play on or _behind_ the chord root position. (There are other features of this technique; it's not strength taxing, you can more easily mute strings in the middle of the fretboard, it is easy to pivot around your middle finger...not to mention your middle finger is pretty strong and normally "wasted" in a normal chord formation. Leaving your index finger, typically a very quick and agile finger, for "under chord" work is quite sensible.)
- Thumb over bass notes. I refer to this as bad technique, but it isn't really, it's a very handy technique :)
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
What's happening January 2011
The earlier reports of the death of "What's Happening" are greatly exaggerated :)
Over Chrissy I took two weeks down South, and then another (working) week up North, so over three weeks I played the guitar maybe twice, for about 15 minutes each time. I was happy to use the break as a test for the left pinky, which has continued to remain "injured". What I can report is that it got better, but after the three weeks I sat down for an hour and it started to go bad again. Just a dull pain when I stretch it too far, or put a lot of pressure on it. Luckily my brain is working again unlike the first time when I did the damage, and I thought "this is starting to hurt a bit, I'm going to stop now" and did.
So the left pinky injury summary to date is:
* If you are playing something difficult and it is starting to hurt, *DON'T* play through, stop, play something different, approach the piece slowly over days/weeks, build up to it.
* Stretching for me hasn't really been effective for this particular injury. Stretching definitely helps avoid cramping when you are playing too hard and muscles are tensing up, but it has made basically no difference to the pinky. I find if I'm relaxed during a session then after the first two songs I'm warmed up; those first two are my stretching.
* Rest, time and not pushing it too hard is slowly, - v e r y s l o w l y -, improving the finger.
Meanwhile, I love playing Super Mario theme! It is a zero flick song, it's all standard fingerwork. Since creating quite few flick-style pieces recently I (a) didn't think I'd enjoy just plucking ever again and (b) felt that too much flicking was becoming boring. Trapped! But this piece is a lot of fun to play, bright and chirpy. Difficult, I won't kid you, but doable. I put two maybe three instances of left thumb bass fretting, I don't like putting it into songs because it is "bad technique". The two occasions I do it there was no real other way to achieve what I wanted. Trust me, when I've worked out a measure I will try and try and try to get it using standard techniques, and if that fails I might first try to rework it, and as a last resort I'll break into the bad techniques ;) There is one part where I bass thumb the 2nd on 6th and two note harmony 5/6th on top two strings, sliding down, holding the bass note. Difficult, I don't get it every time, but great when it works out. Song is otherwise ready for video though, I think you'll like it, must dust of the camera and get recording!
I'd actually forgotten about "Take me Back" until a few days ago. Did I mention I have a list of all the songs I can play sticky taped to the back of my guitar? Once I start playing a song I remember exactly how to play it and what to do...but I can never remember all the songs I can play! I hadn't written that one down yet, so forgot about it. Heard it on the radio and remembered it is still in my production line! It's a pinky hurter, so I'm taking it easy on that one, just once a session is enough.
On the gig front, not good news. Finally got back from one cafe "I don't have a spot for you" which was good at least now I know. Other pubs and cafes yet to get anything firm from. Lunchtimes is as good as out, nobody wants that. If I want lunchtime, it will have to be busking. I'm not amazingly keen to go busking again, but if it ends up being that well it's better than playing to the bedpost and dog.
Since lunchtime gigs are out, and it will need to be evenings (cutting into family time which I wanted to avoid), I may as well open the floor to any venue nearby. There are open mics in a few places within 10kms from my house, but I dunno, open mic is bands, and singers, people doing stand up comedy. Does a bloke playing fingerstyle guitar fit into a place like that? I should go check one out to get a feel for it, but again, cutting into family time.
I've sent out a request to one nearby venue that could be alright, currently not doing live music, but who knows. Yet to hear back.
Also sent an email to another Perth fingerstyle player, Andrew Ellis, he has a regular session and apparently has "guests" from time to time, I could be a "guest"...again yet to hear back.
I tell ya, if this were my profession I'd be starving on the street!
Anyway, welcome back to ramblings. If I ever say I should stop rambling again, remind me that this is a blog about rambling :)
JAW
Over Chrissy I took two weeks down South, and then another (working) week up North, so over three weeks I played the guitar maybe twice, for about 15 minutes each time. I was happy to use the break as a test for the left pinky, which has continued to remain "injured". What I can report is that it got better, but after the three weeks I sat down for an hour and it started to go bad again. Just a dull pain when I stretch it too far, or put a lot of pressure on it. Luckily my brain is working again unlike the first time when I did the damage, and I thought "this is starting to hurt a bit, I'm going to stop now" and did.
So the left pinky injury summary to date is:
* If you are playing something difficult and it is starting to hurt, *DON'T* play through, stop, play something different, approach the piece slowly over days/weeks, build up to it.
* Stretching for me hasn't really been effective for this particular injury. Stretching definitely helps avoid cramping when you are playing too hard and muscles are tensing up, but it has made basically no difference to the pinky. I find if I'm relaxed during a session then after the first two songs I'm warmed up; those first two are my stretching.
* Rest, time and not pushing it too hard is slowly, - v e r y s l o w l y -, improving the finger.
Meanwhile, I love playing Super Mario theme! It is a zero flick song, it's all standard fingerwork. Since creating quite few flick-style pieces recently I (a) didn't think I'd enjoy just plucking ever again and (b) felt that too much flicking was becoming boring. Trapped! But this piece is a lot of fun to play, bright and chirpy. Difficult, I won't kid you, but doable. I put two maybe three instances of left thumb bass fretting, I don't like putting it into songs because it is "bad technique". The two occasions I do it there was no real other way to achieve what I wanted. Trust me, when I've worked out a measure I will try and try and try to get it using standard techniques, and if that fails I might first try to rework it, and as a last resort I'll break into the bad techniques ;) There is one part where I bass thumb the 2nd on 6th and two note harmony 5/6th on top two strings, sliding down, holding the bass note. Difficult, I don't get it every time, but great when it works out. Song is otherwise ready for video though, I think you'll like it, must dust of the camera and get recording!
I'd actually forgotten about "Take me Back" until a few days ago. Did I mention I have a list of all the songs I can play sticky taped to the back of my guitar? Once I start playing a song I remember exactly how to play it and what to do...but I can never remember all the songs I can play! I hadn't written that one down yet, so forgot about it. Heard it on the radio and remembered it is still in my production line! It's a pinky hurter, so I'm taking it easy on that one, just once a session is enough.
On the gig front, not good news. Finally got back from one cafe "I don't have a spot for you" which was good at least now I know. Other pubs and cafes yet to get anything firm from. Lunchtimes is as good as out, nobody wants that. If I want lunchtime, it will have to be busking. I'm not amazingly keen to go busking again, but if it ends up being that well it's better than playing to the bedpost and dog.
Since lunchtime gigs are out, and it will need to be evenings (cutting into family time which I wanted to avoid), I may as well open the floor to any venue nearby. There are open mics in a few places within 10kms from my house, but I dunno, open mic is bands, and singers, people doing stand up comedy. Does a bloke playing fingerstyle guitar fit into a place like that? I should go check one out to get a feel for it, but again, cutting into family time.
I've sent out a request to one nearby venue that could be alright, currently not doing live music, but who knows. Yet to hear back.
Also sent an email to another Perth fingerstyle player, Andrew Ellis, he has a regular session and apparently has "guests" from time to time, I could be a "guest"...again yet to hear back.
I tell ya, if this were my profession I'd be starving on the street!
Anyway, welcome back to ramblings. If I ever say I should stop rambling again, remind me that this is a blog about rambling :)
JAW
Monday, 24 January 2011
It's good to be back!
I'm still here, it's good to be back!
Know any good guitar blogs? (other than mine :)) I'm thinking something slightly above "I finally nailed a C-chord!", but maybe not as life-changing, fundamental concept re-aligning as Adam Raffetys blog (not a dig at Adam, love his stuff, but often leaves me feeling overwhelmed and underpowered to take onboard any of it).
Hit me up for some topics this year too, I've got a blank slate at the moment. Nil mentioned "Thumbpick or no Thumbpick", a good subject - I'm still musing over some discussion points.
JAW
Know any good guitar blogs? (other than mine :)) I'm thinking something slightly above "I finally nailed a C-chord!", but maybe not as life-changing, fundamental concept re-aligning as Adam Raffetys blog (not a dig at Adam, love his stuff, but often leaves me feeling overwhelmed and underpowered to take onboard any of it).
Hit me up for some topics this year too, I've got a blank slate at the moment. Nil mentioned "Thumbpick or no Thumbpick", a good subject - I'm still musing over some discussion points.
JAW
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