The Guitar Study Newsletter for 7/17/2002

By Darrin Koltow

Greetings once again from MaximumMusician.com. This is Darrin Koltow, alabaster webmaster of M'M, bringing you more tips to enhance your guitar playing. First, I want to thank you again for signing up for the Guitar Study newsletter at www.MaximumMusician.com. You can unsubscribe any time using instructions at the end of this email.

You know, your buddies are pretty upset that you haven't yet told 'em where you get all this cool guitar knowledge. Tell 'em to calm down, get a grip, and sign up at www.MaximumMusician.com .

In this issue:

== The Power of Making Music ==
== Jazz Guitar Resources ==
== A bit o' Blues ==

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== The Power of Making Music ==

I introduced a topic last week and didn't give it the attention it deserves. That topic is music therapy, or, "how to feel great through making music." What I want to do is offer some tips for making music to feel great. We'll answer questions like, "What is Music Therapy? What can it do for me? And where can I learn more about it?"

- What is Music Therapy? -

From the initial research I've done on music therapy, I would define it as "a way of feeling good through music." I would go further and say that music therapy is a way of helping people help *themselves* feel good through listening to music and more importantly, through *making* music. You know, even people who cannot hear can make and benefit from music, through creating rhythms and possibly other means.

How do the experts of music therapy actually define it? To answer this, I went to the home site of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), at http://www.musictherapy.org. In their FAQ they write, "Music therapy is the prescribed use of music ... to effect positive changes in the psychological, physical, cognitive, or social functioning of individuals with health or educational problems. "

That's some high-falutin stuff, there, right? I don't mean to put them down. I just want to get a grip on some down-to-earth, "show me, don't tell me" definitions of music therapy.

Music therapy can be the guy coming home from work, and parking in an empty lot before he drives home: he's stressed to the max thinking about a coworker or boss, and he doesn't want to bring any rage home with him. He pops in a James Taylor or Atlanta Rhythm Section CD, or maybe something from Les Miserables. He then closes his eyes, and sings his lungs out.

For me, music therapy is prying myself away from a music exercise that isn't going too smoothly; taking a deep breath; reminding myself that stress can be good, but that I don't need to be *this* stressed; then, putting on a fave CD track. Maybe I'll listen to a bit of AC/DC, Back in Black. Maybe it'll be something from the soundtrack to E.T., the Extraterrestrial. Maybe something from Beethoven's 9th. Maybe some Miles Davis.

The result of listening to this music is a transformation and a transportation: I'm transformed from this limited, tense, mortal creature who can only see problems in front of him, to a host, representative, or manifestation of Much Greater Powers. I'm transported to a place beyond worry and fear. Sometimes it looks like the beach. Sometimes a castle, and sometimes a place that exists only on a movie screen.

But, back to what the experts say.

What can music therapy do for you? It can reduce your stress; help you concentrate or study; put you back in touch with significant achievements in your life you may have forgotten about; stimulate the creation of problem-solving ideas. According to the AMTA web site mentioned previously, it can even help mothers as they give birth to their babies! I'm not making this stuff up.

Rather than ask what music therapy *can* do for you, ask what it's *already* doing for you. Don't you automatically turn on the radio when you go about certain daily routines like physical exercise? What about when you fall asleep at night? Some people listen to music then.

Maybe you flick on some Mozart or Enya when you're cramming for that Art History exam. In other words, we already use music to feel good without consciously realizing it. Ever use music when you're talking to someone you've never met before, and the room is just way too quiet for those awkward pauses in conversation? Oila: music as social lubricator. We're all using some form of music therapy already. The question is, how do we use it more effectively? How do we consciously use music to get more of the benefits we get from music now?

- Your musical prescription -

I want to hear how *you* use music to feel good or to solve a problem. How is music medicine for you? How have you used *making* music to help you or someone else feel good? Do you sing lullabies to your kids? Do you sing a soothing song when you hear something go bump in the night and you need to investigate it? (Remember when Sigourney Weaver sang that little ditty when the Alien was trying to kill her, at the end of the first movie?) Do you sing or play a certain song to remind you of someone special that you miss? If we can get some good examples of how you use music to feel good, we can share it in this 'letter or on the site, to show others how to feel good by making music.

-- Make music. Feel good --

What are some specific musical activities we can do to produce a greater sense of fulfillment -- for ourselves and others? First, let's knock out activities we wouldn't do. That's easy.

Scales. Unless you are a robot, you're probably not going to play only scales all day long. I know how important scales are, and I know that practicing them can even be enjoyable from time to time. But producing satisfaction and contentment from *music* means making music, and playing only scales is not making music. Play those scales over a chord progression -- even if you have no clue about what scales are "correct" for a certain chord progression.

Another thing not to do: overplay. When you get tired or frustrated, take a break or stop. Record your frustrations in a music journal, grab a sandwich and see a movie. Then come back, refreshed and committed to figuring out why your playing is more masochistic than therapeutic.

Don't play sloppily. When you put only half the effort into an exercise, you'll get out only half -- or less -- of the results. Plus, when you don't respect an exercise enough to do it correctly, that disrespect has a way of creeping into other exercises and even into areas beyond your playing.

Okay, enough of the negatives. What activities involved with playing *do* provide a kind of therapy, a sense of well-being and wholeness?

Play with others. According to the AMTA FAQ, "...individuals develop a greater awareness of others by singing together." Emphasize the "together" here. This idea applies to playing guitar, too. Yes, there may be shyness when playing with someone new, but the moment two different guitars produce one sweet sound, something magical happens -- a connection. I had a lot of chances to play with a former teacher, and I never stopped being amazed at how good it felt to comp chords while he soloed over 'em. I would play those same chords at home and the thrill just wasn't there -- unless I recorded the chords and soloed over the playback.

Rhythmic involvement. Tap your foot. *Move* your body. Shake your tail feather when you play, baby. When you put more of your body into playing, there's more of you that gets to appreciate and jazz up your playing. Dig this quote: "It has been my experience that practicing with a strong sense of rhythmic involvement, no matter what the tempo, lends incredible excitement and meaning..." - Dale Reubart, performer and professor of piano at the University of British Columbia.

Compose your own, including improvising. When I made the change from transcribing by listening note by note, to *composing my own solutions* based on what I was hearing, I felt released from a long, solitary confinement. It feels so good to hear yourself playing music that you wrote, and singing words that you wrote, that composition should be a mandatory part of every music student's curriculum. This goes for musicians in classical, jazz and other idioms, too.

Sing. Dig this URL: http://www.applesforhealth.com/AlternativeMedicine/sfthoi4.html. On that page, here's what I found: "Researchers have found singing can take some of the pain out of being sick." Also, "Sunny Hadder, a music therapist, says [making] music [including singing] can elicit verbalization, increase relaxation and comfort levels, reduce blood pressure, fear, stress and pain perception..." This therapist was referring to people in the hospital, but the benefits apply to anyone.

I think many of us know intuitively that singing feels great. But, we forget that when we're playing guitar. If we're learning the chords to a song and strumming along without singing, we're missing out on some juicy, powerful vibrations. Sing! If you don't like the words or the melody to a tune, make your own. (See the Compose Your Own paragraph.)

- Where to learn more -

Where can you go to learn more about Music Therapy or Music Empowerment? A great staring place is the FAQ you can get from the alt.music.therapy newsgroup. To get to the FAQ, surf to groups.google.com. Select the Advanced Search option. Enter FAQ in the subject box, alt.music.therapy in the newsgroup box, and "music therapy" in the exact phrase box. The result you get should be the FAQ.

In this FAQ, the following are some of the topics covered: Music therapy - a brief history. What is music therapy? With whom is music therapy used? What happens in a music therapy session?

The American Music Therapy Association mentioned previously, is another resource. Their site has a FAQ, quotes, links, a list of schools that will train you to become a music therapist, and a really cool "Artists" page. On this page are descriptions of selected artists and others in the recording and music industries. Each artist has promoted music therapy awareness in some way. Artists included here are pianist Robin Spielberg, guitarists Stanley Jordan, Pat Martino, Craig Chaquico, and others.

== Jazz Guitar Resources ==

I got a letter recently from a Guitar Study reader, requesting a list of resources for Jazz Guitar. Well, here you go!

I pulled some of the following from my links page. Check these out:

One of the best resources is the newsgroup rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz . You can read from and post to the group with your newsgroup reader, or by going to groups.google.com, and entering the group's title in the search engine. The home page for this group has an *excellent* FAQ on it. It's at http://users.wpi.edu/~kgh/rmmgjFAQ.html. Learn what books jazz guitarists read, what types of guitars they play, and lots of other pointers.

Jazz Guitar Online has links, lessons, resources to find a teacher, and more. Published by a pro jazzer: http://www.jazzguitar.com.

At http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jazz_guitarthere's a group called "jazz guitar" that has almost 1,600 members. According to the list description, this group has "...been in existence since 1995...Our members come from all over the world and range from beginners to professional players, booking agents, enthusiasts, writers, listeners, promoters, press, recording companies, video producers, fans..."

I just checked out Topica.com's offering on jazz guitar. There's one mailing list there that seems pretty good. Get a free account at Topica.com, and enter this in their search engine: "jazz guitar." In the results that come back, pick the one that reads, Jazz Guitar Practice Tips. This is put out by a fella named Clay Moore. He puts some practical stuff in his tips.

Brent Stuntzner has a good site for transcriptions and luthiery: http://www.stuntzner.brent.org/default.html

Also, bear in mind that Google's excellent search engine will provide the most popular results when you enter "jazz guitar" in their search engine. In other words, the results you get from them for such a search ought to be pretty useful.

If you have questions about any of these jazz guitar resources, send me an email.

== A bit o' Blues ==

You can't escape without me giving y'all a bit of Blues homework. There will be an exam next week. Those who fail will have the top three strings on their guitars tuned down one half step.

*REMEMBER TO SET YOUR FONTS TO COURIER TO READ THIS PROPERLY. IF YOU DON'T, I'LL TURN YOUR GUITAR INTO A KAZOO. CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE READING THIS*

|----------------|----------------|
|----------------|--6-------------|
|-----------5-7--|--5--8-7-5------|
|----6-7---------|--7--------6-7--|
|--8-------------|----------------|
|--8-------------|----------------|
   Q E E ER E Q     Q  E E E E Q

|--------------|--------------|
|----------6---|-8-9-8-6------|
|------6-7-----|-7-------6-7--|
|-5--8---------|-6------------|
|-5------------|--------------|
|--------------|-6------------|
  Q  E E E Q*    E E E Q E Q

|--------------6-|-6-5-6-5------|
|--------4-5-8-5-|---------8-5--|
|-5-7----------5-|--------------|
|-8--------------|--------------|
|-7--------------|--------------|
|----------------|--------------|
  E E ER E E Q E   E E E E E Q*

|---------------|----|
|-6-6----6-6----|-6--|
|-7------6------|-5--|
|-6------5------|-7--|
|---------------|----|
|-7------6------|-5--|
  E E QR E E QR   W

Here's what those letters stand for:

E: Eighth note
Q: Quarter note
Q*: Dotted quarter
W: Whole note
ER: Emergency Room. (Just kidding). Eighth note rest
QR: Quarter note rest

This little ditty will improve your skill at playing the all important ii-V-I progression in CAGED position 1 (form C). (The actual key is F.) And, you'll get some Bluesey sounds to make playing this *fun.*

== Guitar Chords ==

There are more Blues, more fun, more chords in the Guitar Chords ebook. It's available now at http://www.MaximumMusician.com/chordbook.htm .

Guitar Chords teaches you harmony and chords on the guitar in a way that's engaging, musical and fun. Learn to substitute and combine chords; play Jazz, Rock and Blues progressions; transpose songs; put chords to a melody; play major, minor, dominant and other chords all over the fretboard; apply fingerpicking, alternating bass, arpeggios, and much more.

I'd like to keep writing, but I want to send this 'letter off to you, and then play some guitar, darn it. Have a terrific, therapeutic, Bluesey, shmoozy week. Remember to send in those Power of Music (therapy) stories.

See you soon.

Play Guitar. Feel Good.