"I'd love to be able to play the guitar like you, where do I start?" Well, about 30 years ago. And I'm still a long way from being satisfied. Grrr & humphf.
There is no doubt the kids pick up new things faster than us grown ups, including the guitar, but it's not a lost cause. To adult newbie guitarists looking for advice on how to play the guitar I say "learn how to sing." Huh?
It's about engaging an audience. People like to hear what they already know. Okay, this precludes any new material from ever entering the greater collective, but let's leave that out of the equation for now ;)
If you can play a three chord song and sing in tune, you'll get an audience. Even if you keep that audience to your mate, your dog, or the bedpost, you'll get an audience. If you can play the theme riff to "smoke on the water", you won't get an audience, in fact, you might get a smack on the back of the head, and you'll deserve it...
If you can sing, then playing & singing a 3 chord song is about as hard as learning the theme riff to "smoke on the water." I don't need to remind you which I consider more valuable.
So, get a guitar, learn how to strum some chords, once you know three chords, you now have at your disposal approximately 1 million songs you can play...learn how to sing a few!
Most importantly, learn how to play the whole song, from go to whoa. And play it from go to whoa everytime you play it. The scourge of the guitar world is half-song playing guitarists ;)
JAW
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Monday, 8 June 2009
What's happening June 2009
I found myself at home, the three kids in bed, the missus out for several hours - food in my belly, kitchen cleaned up...no guesses for what happened next ;)
Now for the past month or so I've been putting any "spare" time into finishing the solar guitar amp. It is basically finished, just some paint and trim and other non-essential, but essential items to go. Recapping the project - 12VDC battery, recharged by a solar panel on the side, using car stereo speakers and amplifier, in a lightweight but sturdy box that also acts as a seat.
So interesting notes since I last mentioned it:
* my 5W solar panel that I've had for 5+ years has definately lost some oomphf. It used to be able to kick out about 400mA, now only about 300mA. Not a problem though, just a shame - the continuous power use during operation is about 600mA at an acceptable backyard volume, peaking to maybe 1.5A. So for every hour that I play, it needs to get full sun for about 2 hours.
* I decided to keep it simple with the solar regulator this time - a Schottkey diode to stop the battery discharging at night (Schottkey diode has about a 300mV forward volt drop, as compared to a normal diode 700mV drop) - and 5W 15V zener diode to cap the battery voltage to prevent overcharging.
* I was running just a Behringer reverb pedal to "open up" the sound a little, and tweaking the EQ on the guitar. I ran into two problems - the output voltage on the reverb pedal was a bit low for the car amp and I couldn't get a good mid balance on the guitar EQ. I've always had a problem with the mid frequencies, it's the way I play the guitar. The mids are always overpowering, but very notchy - it's like when I hit the G string I strike it twice as hard as any other. The solution - I put a Behringer 7 band graphic EQ after the reverb pedal. This boosted the signal into the car amp, and allowed me to better balance out the frequency response. Worked well! The Behringer effects pedals are pretty good, they appeal to the electronic engineer in me. They are digital based effects rather than analogue, which means they are cheap (the real work is done in software an mass produced bit of hardware) and you don't have to compromise the effect due to hardware, just write good software!
But, I digress...as always...the kids were in bed, the missus out and I didn't have anything to do on the amp...not to mention I had already played my repetoire recently; so I took to thinking about some arrangements.
First up I had sitting in the back of my mind Ben Lacy's cover of "Let's Dance". Absolutely brilliant; I've always been a bit of a Bowie fan. I didn't have much reference material, 2 youtube videos that weren't close up and pretty poor quality, and another youtube video of someone who played the main riff, but he was flatpicking it. After about an hour I had worked out some of the basics of it, but was dissapointed that I wasn't getting very far very fast. I decided it would take a lot of time to transcribe, and that time is not something I have in abundant qualities.
Next I switched to Naudo's "Stand By Me" which I had already transcribed some of. I played it back, watched some more; but again, it just wasn't coming to me, so I stopped.
So I went right back to my 20 year project - a solo instrumental fingerstyle cover of "Dark Side of the Moon", which I'm a few songs done already. I'm tweaking up Brain Damage and Eclipse; when I did them say 10 years ago, I was still a bit "classical" in my playing and the melody wasn't on top like it should be. I've got a new approach now which is better, I played it through a couple of times, got a bit bored of it, so thought about tackling a new one: "Time".
I'd already worked out that I would drum the intro similar to how I do "Come Together", and that was working out quite well. There is more than enough detail on the web about the song, looking at tabs helped out with the chords and notes, didn't even need to listen to the song. The verse is F#m, A, E. I started playing it in my style, and it was so easy, and sounded great! Slipped in the Sus4 where needed, some basic lead frills, again so easy! Even the chorus Dmaj, Amaj, through in a C# bass, Bm just worked straight out of the box. I love it when it is easy! ;)
I noodled it for about 30 mins before thinking about the solos - they are very distinctive, and are *definately* required as part of the arrangement. Hmm, that's where it got hard.
About then the missus came home and I stopped. I'm a little bit excited with "Time" however, which is a great way to be when you are looking for arranging something new and different!
JAW
Now for the past month or so I've been putting any "spare" time into finishing the solar guitar amp. It is basically finished, just some paint and trim and other non-essential, but essential items to go. Recapping the project - 12VDC battery, recharged by a solar panel on the side, using car stereo speakers and amplifier, in a lightweight but sturdy box that also acts as a seat.
So interesting notes since I last mentioned it:
* my 5W solar panel that I've had for 5+ years has definately lost some oomphf. It used to be able to kick out about 400mA, now only about 300mA. Not a problem though, just a shame - the continuous power use during operation is about 600mA at an acceptable backyard volume, peaking to maybe 1.5A. So for every hour that I play, it needs to get full sun for about 2 hours.
* I decided to keep it simple with the solar regulator this time - a Schottkey diode to stop the battery discharging at night (Schottkey diode has about a 300mV forward volt drop, as compared to a normal diode 700mV drop) - and 5W 15V zener diode to cap the battery voltage to prevent overcharging.
* I was running just a Behringer reverb pedal to "open up" the sound a little, and tweaking the EQ on the guitar. I ran into two problems - the output voltage on the reverb pedal was a bit low for the car amp and I couldn't get a good mid balance on the guitar EQ. I've always had a problem with the mid frequencies, it's the way I play the guitar. The mids are always overpowering, but very notchy - it's like when I hit the G string I strike it twice as hard as any other. The solution - I put a Behringer 7 band graphic EQ after the reverb pedal. This boosted the signal into the car amp, and allowed me to better balance out the frequency response. Worked well! The Behringer effects pedals are pretty good, they appeal to the electronic engineer in me. They are digital based effects rather than analogue, which means they are cheap (the real work is done in software an mass produced bit of hardware) and you don't have to compromise the effect due to hardware, just write good software!
But, I digress...as always...the kids were in bed, the missus out and I didn't have anything to do on the amp...not to mention I had already played my repetoire recently; so I took to thinking about some arrangements.
First up I had sitting in the back of my mind Ben Lacy's cover of "Let's Dance". Absolutely brilliant; I've always been a bit of a Bowie fan. I didn't have much reference material, 2 youtube videos that weren't close up and pretty poor quality, and another youtube video of someone who played the main riff, but he was flatpicking it. After about an hour I had worked out some of the basics of it, but was dissapointed that I wasn't getting very far very fast. I decided it would take a lot of time to transcribe, and that time is not something I have in abundant qualities.
Next I switched to Naudo's "Stand By Me" which I had already transcribed some of. I played it back, watched some more; but again, it just wasn't coming to me, so I stopped.
So I went right back to my 20 year project - a solo instrumental fingerstyle cover of "Dark Side of the Moon", which I'm a few songs done already. I'm tweaking up Brain Damage and Eclipse; when I did them say 10 years ago, I was still a bit "classical" in my playing and the melody wasn't on top like it should be. I've got a new approach now which is better, I played it through a couple of times, got a bit bored of it, so thought about tackling a new one: "Time".
I'd already worked out that I would drum the intro similar to how I do "Come Together", and that was working out quite well. There is more than enough detail on the web about the song, looking at tabs helped out with the chords and notes, didn't even need to listen to the song. The verse is F#m, A, E. I started playing it in my style, and it was so easy, and sounded great! Slipped in the Sus4 where needed, some basic lead frills, again so easy! Even the chorus Dmaj, Amaj, through in a C# bass, Bm just worked straight out of the box. I love it when it is easy! ;)
I noodled it for about 30 mins before thinking about the solos - they are very distinctive, and are *definately* required as part of the arrangement. Hmm, that's where it got hard.
About then the missus came home and I stopped. I'm a little bit excited with "Time" however, which is a great way to be when you are looking for arranging something new and different!
JAW
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Arranging: concepts
Arranging pop and rock songs for solo instrumental fingerstyle is not as difficult as you would think, and it can really help you develop your skills. Here is a brief strategy that I use:
Choose a song. Sounds like the easy part, but not always the case. Some songs are crying out to be fingerstyled. Listen to the song; see if you can pick out a good simple repeatable beat/bassline, a simple melody, and nothing complex in between. Some songs may have a very distinctive riff that wouldn't fit with the melody, and leaving out the riff would just not be right. The songs that I have arranged aren't necessarily songs that I particularly like, but they are ones that I noticed would suit the style.
Now, why invent the wheel? A well known pop/rock song will have been tabbed out several times over, do an internet search for "<song> tab" and you are bound to find the chords, words, tabs, somebody who has nutted out the solo. Muck around with any tabs you find to see how accurate they are. Another good source of info is midi files, believe it or not. You can open up a midi file in most tabbing software, and it will show you the tab. I quite often use this for getting the melody for the voice. You'll have to fiddle around with midis; they are usually made up of several channels, often the song will wander in and out of channels depending on what the author was trying to achieve.
I will typically work on the bassline to start with, get something that is easy to play but is in line with the song. You really want the bassline to use as many open strings as possible - E, A, D - because if you are racing around a melody up high, you won't be fretting low F's. Try changing the key of the song to fit more into what the guitar is set up for. You can also try a non-standard tuning; I've used Drop D a few times for songs that spend a lot of time needing D.
If the song has a distinct bassline/beat then try to match it. If it doesn't, then just playing the root bass note in the chord on the beat is an easy out. But try to mix it up a bit, through in double striking a note, or on the 3.5th beat in a 4 beat bar hit that bars root bass note and then hit the bass note for the next bar. Listen to Naudos basslines, they are great. Mine are simpler; what you need to achieve is filling up the bottom end frequencies.
Next tackle the melody. Start basic; just pluck a single note lining up with what the singer is singing. The bass might be important, but the melody is critical - your audience uses the melody to lock in and follow the song. The melody causes the words of the song to pop into their heads and gives them that enjoyment you get when you hear an instrumental version of a song you know. Get the melody as spot on as you can.
Fill the melody out where you need to, double or triple notes plucked at the same time to accentuate parts of the song that need it. This is where playing a nylon string comes in handy; it is easier to vary the volume, sound, timbre of each note than on a steel string. You want to make sure the melody is loud, remember, it is what the listener is focussing on.
Invert your chords where you need to, to ensure you get the "coverage" that you need for the bass and the melody. For example, if you wanted to play a first string 5th fret high A, then rather than fretting up an open A X02220, go for a root 6 A 577655. You've still got access to the bass A note (on 6th string), but there is that high A you need.
Add some mid, but don't let it drive the song. Certainly don't let it overpower the melody. I've been using a lot of little strums, say on the 3rd beat mimicking a snare drum. Traditionally fingerstylers would arpeggio fill in a mid; I still use that a lot to break the song up, but it feels olde school to me. The little flicking/stab, across 2 or three strings in the chord adds a "modern" and percussive feel, less "classical". Don't be afraid to sound out your melody in that mid flick - you can't flick and pluck at the same time. (Okay you can, but that technique is too advanced for me ;)
Now that you have built up a song, don't be too repetitive. Make little changes to keep it different and lively between each verse. You'll find that most songs are the same thing over and over, it is the words that makes it, but since we aren't using words, we've got to do something different to mix it up. Play one verse an octave up...or an octave down. Cut out a verse altogether if it is sounding too repetitive. Include any solo or bridge that the song has, even if it is just as much work doing an 8 bar bridge as doing the rest of the song. If there seems to be nothing you can do to make it more interesting, then cut it down to half a song and medley it up back to back with another song by the same band.
Write it all up in a tab editor as you go, primarily so that you don't forget the good ideas you've had. In an editor like powertab, you can play back the tab. I find this very useful to "test" ideas, for instance a tricky bass line/melody resolve that I'm having a hard time trying to play. Type it in how you think you want it to be, play it back and tweak it until you think it sounds good, then learn it!
Experiment, try some percussive body tapping, but don't let it "segregate" the song; as in, tapping should be part of the sound, not one sound-then that sound-then this sound. It will come out stuttery. Apply that rule to the entire song, the whole thing should be fairly continuous, not suddenly a few notes plucked then massive strumming and repeat. Of course sometimes this is needed for the song, but as a whole, the song should be reasonably smooth.
Well I hope I have give you some good ideas and inspiration for turning that classic old rock song you loved as a kid into a cool new instrumental solo fingerstyle cover; record a video and post it on youtube and send me a link!
JAW
Choose a song. Sounds like the easy part, but not always the case. Some songs are crying out to be fingerstyled. Listen to the song; see if you can pick out a good simple repeatable beat/bassline, a simple melody, and nothing complex in between. Some songs may have a very distinctive riff that wouldn't fit with the melody, and leaving out the riff would just not be right. The songs that I have arranged aren't necessarily songs that I particularly like, but they are ones that I noticed would suit the style.
Now, why invent the wheel? A well known pop/rock song will have been tabbed out several times over, do an internet search for "<song> tab" and you are bound to find the chords, words, tabs, somebody who has nutted out the solo. Muck around with any tabs you find to see how accurate they are. Another good source of info is midi files, believe it or not. You can open up a midi file in most tabbing software, and it will show you the tab. I quite often use this for getting the melody for the voice. You'll have to fiddle around with midis; they are usually made up of several channels, often the song will wander in and out of channels depending on what the author was trying to achieve.
I will typically work on the bassline to start with, get something that is easy to play but is in line with the song. You really want the bassline to use as many open strings as possible - E, A, D - because if you are racing around a melody up high, you won't be fretting low F's. Try changing the key of the song to fit more into what the guitar is set up for. You can also try a non-standard tuning; I've used Drop D a few times for songs that spend a lot of time needing D.
If the song has a distinct bassline/beat then try to match it. If it doesn't, then just playing the root bass note in the chord on the beat is an easy out. But try to mix it up a bit, through in double striking a note, or on the 3.5th beat in a 4 beat bar hit that bars root bass note and then hit the bass note for the next bar. Listen to Naudos basslines, they are great. Mine are simpler; what you need to achieve is filling up the bottom end frequencies.
Next tackle the melody. Start basic; just pluck a single note lining up with what the singer is singing. The bass might be important, but the melody is critical - your audience uses the melody to lock in and follow the song. The melody causes the words of the song to pop into their heads and gives them that enjoyment you get when you hear an instrumental version of a song you know. Get the melody as spot on as you can.
Fill the melody out where you need to, double or triple notes plucked at the same time to accentuate parts of the song that need it. This is where playing a nylon string comes in handy; it is easier to vary the volume, sound, timbre of each note than on a steel string. You want to make sure the melody is loud, remember, it is what the listener is focussing on.
Invert your chords where you need to, to ensure you get the "coverage" that you need for the bass and the melody. For example, if you wanted to play a first string 5th fret high A, then rather than fretting up an open A X02220, go for a root 6 A 577655. You've still got access to the bass A note (on 6th string), but there is that high A you need.
Add some mid, but don't let it drive the song. Certainly don't let it overpower the melody. I've been using a lot of little strums, say on the 3rd beat mimicking a snare drum. Traditionally fingerstylers would arpeggio fill in a mid; I still use that a lot to break the song up, but it feels olde school to me. The little flicking/stab, across 2 or three strings in the chord adds a "modern" and percussive feel, less "classical". Don't be afraid to sound out your melody in that mid flick - you can't flick and pluck at the same time. (Okay you can, but that technique is too advanced for me ;)
Now that you have built up a song, don't be too repetitive. Make little changes to keep it different and lively between each verse. You'll find that most songs are the same thing over and over, it is the words that makes it, but since we aren't using words, we've got to do something different to mix it up. Play one verse an octave up...or an octave down. Cut out a verse altogether if it is sounding too repetitive. Include any solo or bridge that the song has, even if it is just as much work doing an 8 bar bridge as doing the rest of the song. If there seems to be nothing you can do to make it more interesting, then cut it down to half a song and medley it up back to back with another song by the same band.
Write it all up in a tab editor as you go, primarily so that you don't forget the good ideas you've had. In an editor like powertab, you can play back the tab. I find this very useful to "test" ideas, for instance a tricky bass line/melody resolve that I'm having a hard time trying to play. Type it in how you think you want it to be, play it back and tweak it until you think it sounds good, then learn it!
Experiment, try some percussive body tapping, but don't let it "segregate" the song; as in, tapping should be part of the sound, not one sound-then that sound-then this sound. It will come out stuttery. Apply that rule to the entire song, the whole thing should be fairly continuous, not suddenly a few notes plucked then massive strumming and repeat. Of course sometimes this is needed for the song, but as a whole, the song should be reasonably smooth.
Well I hope I have give you some good ideas and inspiration for turning that classic old rock song you loved as a kid into a cool new instrumental solo fingerstyle cover; record a video and post it on youtube and send me a link!
JAW
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
I played for John Lennon! ;)
...so anyway, last Saturday when I took my daughter to keyboard lessons at the local music store, while waiting for her lesson to finish (where I spend the time playing various guitars on the shelf), I got to play for John Lennon, and not only that, he said I was pretty good ;)
Okay, so it wasn't really John Lennon but the John Lennon look-a-like/tribute band musician Marcus Cahill, who happens to live in the area and was running the store at the time. I had a brief chat to him about what he does, and why he was working in a music store. No suprises - he gets good gigs overseas, and makes reasonable money, but here in sleepy Perth Western Australia there isn't much demand for his talents. I got the impression that doing some work in a music store was not about trying to make ends meet, but rather to give him something to do during the day!
There's a couple of interesting tidbits to derive from that. That it is possible to carve a living from being a not-specifically-world-famous musician. That if you are prepared to continuously travel the world you could probably be fulltime run off your feet performing. But if you just want to live in a suburb, in a city - even if you have enough money to live on - there isn't enough work to keep your hands busy so you may as well have a second job.
I don't have aspirations to be a working musician, I quite like my day job (okay, maybe not everyday, but on a whole, my day job brings me a sense of satisfaction.) It is good however to see that for those who do want to be a working musician that it is possible to achieve, but maybe have a backup plan just in case you don't make it - or you *do* make it and just want to live in a suburb, in a city and live a "normal" life :)
JAW
Okay, so it wasn't really John Lennon but the John Lennon look-a-like/tribute band musician Marcus Cahill, who happens to live in the area and was running the store at the time. I had a brief chat to him about what he does, and why he was working in a music store. No suprises - he gets good gigs overseas, and makes reasonable money, but here in sleepy Perth Western Australia there isn't much demand for his talents. I got the impression that doing some work in a music store was not about trying to make ends meet, but rather to give him something to do during the day!
There's a couple of interesting tidbits to derive from that. That it is possible to carve a living from being a not-specifically-world-famous musician. That if you are prepared to continuously travel the world you could probably be fulltime run off your feet performing. But if you just want to live in a suburb, in a city - even if you have enough money to live on - there isn't enough work to keep your hands busy so you may as well have a second job.
I don't have aspirations to be a working musician, I quite like my day job (okay, maybe not everyday, but on a whole, my day job brings me a sense of satisfaction.) It is good however to see that for those who do want to be a working musician that it is possible to achieve, but maybe have a backup plan just in case you don't make it - or you *do* make it and just want to live in a suburb, in a city and live a "normal" life :)
JAW
Friday, 8 May 2009
Play plugged in
I did some more work on my home made battery powered amp last night, and did some test plays. Apart from a resonant frequency rattle in it (will fix another night) it was quite faithfully reproducing the guitar signal, resonably flat frequency response, good power output - but you know, I immediately felt dissapointed. After playing a few songs, playing with the reverb effects and the EQ on the guitar, I came to a conclusion that I have known for a long time but finally admitted to myself: I'm not good at playing plugged in.
About 99% of my time I play unplugged. Over, say, the past 30 years, my fingers and ears have learnt what I need to do to get the unplugged sound I want. How hard to pluck the bass, where to position relative to the soundhole for a tone, that sort of thing. Sure it varies from guitar to guitar but very quickly you can adjust your playing to suit the sound you are chasing.
I've always wanted, or hoped, that if you had a good guitar with a good pickup then the plugged in amplified sound would be exactly what your ears are hearing, just louder. Well it's not, and you know, I don't think it could ever be. Maybe if you had an external microphone with the same frequency response as your ear, located near your ear, piped into an amplifier that was completely faithful to the signal (ie flat frequency response), maybe then it would sound the same, but amplified.
Last night I decided I should stop fighting, and start learning. Given that the amp you are using has a mostly flat frequency response, so not boomy in the bass, or too much gain in the middle - well even if it is - you should be able to compensate firstly with some signal processing and secondly with your playing.
What I found first was that with my reverb effects at any setting, on or off, I couldn't get the sound I wanted to hear. Secondly, playing with the graphic equaliser on the guitar (bass, treble and adjustable frequency midrange) I couldn't get the sound that I wanted either.
Frustrated I played some different songs, suddenly I played a song on a setting that didn't sound so bad. I started varying my playing to enhance the sound further - playing very delicately, where normally I am quite forceful and rough. I found a sound I was happy with. Smiling, I moved to another song and you know what, couldn't stand the sound again. Experimented with different playing, still no good. Tweaked the EQ, tweaked the reverb...got a bit better.
I came to the conclusion that I don't know my instrument when plugged in; everytime I have recorded a song I always edit afterwards in software to compensate back to the sound I want. I need to learn how to get a live sound from the guitar frequency response adjustments, with reverb settings (to make up for the lack of the natural room response) but importantly my playing style.
See, the electric guys don't have this problem, they are always plugged in, and invariably going through some effects. The sound is what they learn from the word go. Us acoustic guys don't get that inbuilt training.
I haven't spent enough of my guitar life playing plugged in. It is time I remedied that.
JAW
About 99% of my time I play unplugged. Over, say, the past 30 years, my fingers and ears have learnt what I need to do to get the unplugged sound I want. How hard to pluck the bass, where to position relative to the soundhole for a tone, that sort of thing. Sure it varies from guitar to guitar but very quickly you can adjust your playing to suit the sound you are chasing.
I've always wanted, or hoped, that if you had a good guitar with a good pickup then the plugged in amplified sound would be exactly what your ears are hearing, just louder. Well it's not, and you know, I don't think it could ever be. Maybe if you had an external microphone with the same frequency response as your ear, located near your ear, piped into an amplifier that was completely faithful to the signal (ie flat frequency response), maybe then it would sound the same, but amplified.
Last night I decided I should stop fighting, and start learning. Given that the amp you are using has a mostly flat frequency response, so not boomy in the bass, or too much gain in the middle - well even if it is - you should be able to compensate firstly with some signal processing and secondly with your playing.
What I found first was that with my reverb effects at any setting, on or off, I couldn't get the sound I wanted to hear. Secondly, playing with the graphic equaliser on the guitar (bass, treble and adjustable frequency midrange) I couldn't get the sound that I wanted either.
Frustrated I played some different songs, suddenly I played a song on a setting that didn't sound so bad. I started varying my playing to enhance the sound further - playing very delicately, where normally I am quite forceful and rough. I found a sound I was happy with. Smiling, I moved to another song and you know what, couldn't stand the sound again. Experimented with different playing, still no good. Tweaked the EQ, tweaked the reverb...got a bit better.
I came to the conclusion that I don't know my instrument when plugged in; everytime I have recorded a song I always edit afterwards in software to compensate back to the sound I want. I need to learn how to get a live sound from the guitar frequency response adjustments, with reverb settings (to make up for the lack of the natural room response) but importantly my playing style.
See, the electric guys don't have this problem, they are always plugged in, and invariably going through some effects. The sound is what they learn from the word go. Us acoustic guys don't get that inbuilt training.
I haven't spent enough of my guitar life playing plugged in. It is time I remedied that.
JAW
Friday, 24 April 2009
What's happening April 2009
I haven't put in much guitar playing recently, again it's all work work work, family commitments and a two week holiday in my country retreat (okay, I've got a guitar there, but I don't play it much). Generally it's a bit of a low spot in my life for guitar playing, which is a shame but reality, guitar playing is just a hobby. As I've always said "working sure takes a big chunk out of your day".
I'm practising "Head over Feet" every now and then when I get a guitar in my hands; it's finished and memorised, but I struggle to play the solo cleanly. I've really created something difficult for myself there, how very Bohemian of me ;)
I'm still building my battery powered amp, and it is nearly finished. I've actually played through it and it's not bad. Coming off a battery it is absolutely noise-free, I found it a bit boomy in the bass, I was hoping for a very flat frequency response. I specifically built it "funny shaped" to try to address resonant frequency issues, but I've built it light weight with thin walled material so that is probably where resonances are coming from. However, it didn't have a back panel on it at the time, I plan on making it an infinite baffle enclosure and stuff it with wadding so that should flatten things out. Already though, it is looking to be a good amp. Very powerful as well, and yet, not very hungry on the juice. I was measuring a peak of about 1.5Amps (at 12VDC) for a very acceptable loudness in my shed, ie, I couldn't hear the sound of the guitar in my hands, only the amplified sound. On the 7.2Ahr battery that means the battery will last much longer than I could play for!
I'm going to have to confess something here however, I'm in a mode of denial, escapism and fear. I've wanted to start playing publically for well over a year now, and I'm sure that I am good enough for it. But fear has caused me to be constantly finding excuses. At first it was because I couldn't get a good sound out of my guitar. So I bought a new guitar. Then it was that I couldn't get a good plugged in sound, so I shopped around for amps, and found quite a few that were nice. Then I said "but it has to be battery powered for the street", which none were. Since I had previously built battery powered amps in the past, I took to making my own. And I have dragged it on and on and on. It is very close to finished, there is no reason why it couldn't be operational next week. But see, that means that I have to start performing ;)
Once I am performing, I know I am going to love it. That is a double edged sword, because I will want to do it more, and practise more, and all that other stuff which takes away from my family and work. That scares me a bit as well.
But fear is not a good reason to not do something, and a bit of self control to avoid getting obsessed is good for the soul.
...one day, soon, okay? ;)
JAW
I'm practising "Head over Feet" every now and then when I get a guitar in my hands; it's finished and memorised, but I struggle to play the solo cleanly. I've really created something difficult for myself there, how very Bohemian of me ;)
I'm still building my battery powered amp, and it is nearly finished. I've actually played through it and it's not bad. Coming off a battery it is absolutely noise-free, I found it a bit boomy in the bass, I was hoping for a very flat frequency response. I specifically built it "funny shaped" to try to address resonant frequency issues, but I've built it light weight with thin walled material so that is probably where resonances are coming from. However, it didn't have a back panel on it at the time, I plan on making it an infinite baffle enclosure and stuff it with wadding so that should flatten things out. Already though, it is looking to be a good amp. Very powerful as well, and yet, not very hungry on the juice. I was measuring a peak of about 1.5Amps (at 12VDC) for a very acceptable loudness in my shed, ie, I couldn't hear the sound of the guitar in my hands, only the amplified sound. On the 7.2Ahr battery that means the battery will last much longer than I could play for!
I'm going to have to confess something here however, I'm in a mode of denial, escapism and fear. I've wanted to start playing publically for well over a year now, and I'm sure that I am good enough for it. But fear has caused me to be constantly finding excuses. At first it was because I couldn't get a good sound out of my guitar. So I bought a new guitar. Then it was that I couldn't get a good plugged in sound, so I shopped around for amps, and found quite a few that were nice. Then I said "but it has to be battery powered for the street", which none were. Since I had previously built battery powered amps in the past, I took to making my own. And I have dragged it on and on and on. It is very close to finished, there is no reason why it couldn't be operational next week. But see, that means that I have to start performing ;)
Once I am performing, I know I am going to love it. That is a double edged sword, because I will want to do it more, and practise more, and all that other stuff which takes away from my family and work. That scares me a bit as well.
But fear is not a good reason to not do something, and a bit of self control to avoid getting obsessed is good for the soul.
...one day, soon, okay? ;)
JAW
Talent versus Persistence
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
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
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