The Guitar Study Newsletter for 7/24/2002

By Darrin Koltow

Greetings once again from MaximumMusician.com. This is Darrin Koltow, webmaster of MaximumMusician.com, bringing you more ways to make your playing sparkle and swing. 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.

Why not tell a friend where you get all this cool guitar knowledge? They can sign up at www.MaximumMusician.com .

In this issue:

== Some advice for beginners ==
== Stagefright ==
== New software for beginners ==

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== Some advice for beginners ==

I'd like to share a letter that a Guitar Study newsletter reader sent me recently. It's advice for a beginning guitarist. It answers questions like, "What should I be studying?" and "What do guitarists who are committed to becoming excellent study?" To be precise, the advice in the letter is directed to a beginning jazz guitarist. But, I feel the advice applies to all guitarists who want to have a thorough understanding of music and of their instrument.

Here's the letter, with the CAPITALIZED letters added by the writer, not me:

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Hi Darrin. This is off the Net. It seems pretty good for a budding student.

Practice scales in the context of songs.
Know the keys.
Learn each chord scale.
Learn the modes.
Learn the ARPEGGIOS. (Broken chord notes.)
Watch melody cut through the changes.
Notice the use of the 3rd in the moment chord.
KNOW THE MELODY.

Best regards,
J.B.

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[Here's my response to the letter]

Hi, J.B. Thanks for sharing this nugget of guitar wisdom. I wish I knew who wrote it so I could give the author credit. I understand and agree with most of it. It stresses that *noticing* certain aspects of music is important. I think that's important, too. Being aware of *everything* that affects our playing is important.

Practicing the scales in the context of a song is crucial. Playing scales "dry," with no connection to any chords underneath, is not making music. As for knowing the keys, this could mean a lot of things. It could mean reciting all the notes in any key from any starting position with no hesitation. For example, I say to you, "Gimme all the notes in Ab major starting from note F now!" You say, "F, G, Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb." If you hesitate or delay at all, I rap your knuckles with a metronome and make you sing, "Feelings" in a frat house on Sunday morning.

That's just *one* way of interpreting the advice to "know the keys." It doesn't even involve the guitar, or music. It's just a theory thing. Let's get musical now. What does it mean to "know the keys" as it applies to *playing* guitar?

This means a *lot* of things. It means knowing the chords in a particular key. For example, I say to you, "Play the chords in D major, using the cycle of fifths, starting on the note B, on string one." You give me a dirty look, and then play chords D major 6 (remember the B is on top), G major, C# diminished, F# minor, B minor, E minor, A major, and back to D major," all on string one.

This is just one way of meeting the "know the keys requirement." There are lots of other ways to go about understanding a particular key or all keys. Some important things to remember about learning keys are: knowing the possible chords in a key, using those chords in a musical way -- in a chord progression, understanding some of the many ways of playing melodies over those chord progressions, reading how more experienced musicians came to understand keys. And, however you plan to understand keys, make sure each exercise you work through is fun and meaningful for *you.* For example, this could mean merging an exercise with a favorite song in some way.

As for the other items in the list, pay close attention to the ones that are CAPITALIZED. Arpeggios and melodies are especially important to understand, and are also some of the most engaging things to play. Playing arpeggios and melodies over 2-5-1 and other common progressions shows you how to solo, and how music works.

So, there you have it in a nutshell: one committed guitar student's view of the most important things to know to learn the guitar well.

== Stagefright ==

Here's a letter from another reader, who talks about stagefright, finding open mic opportunities, and related stuff.
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Darrin:

I appreciate receipt of your weekly newsletter. If I may, that you thank the recipient for subscribing is a classy touch.

Should you need an idea for a future column, please consider the following.

I am an accomplished guitar player. Much of what is offered to aspiring players on the Internet is not appropriate to the advanced players. Nonetheless, I get a charge out of the material. There is one area that has been largely ignored: the value to one's musicianship of playing regularly in front of an audience.

I don't believe anyone would seriously debate the issue and it seems self-evident. What is not so self-evident is FINDING THE AUDIENCE. Complicating the picture is the near universal fear reaction to playing in public. This is my longwinded way of making the case for teaching advanced players methods for finding audiences and/or playing, alone, in front of others.

Now Darrin, this may seem too elementary to address, but I assure you that it is not. Many advanced players have not found ways to appear in public: lack of "open mic" fora, lack of other guitar players of the same or better skill level with whom to play, and/or sheer fear. Anecdotally, I have found that advanced players who are playing (usually professionally) in public go some ways to sabotage other players simply because the newbie may appear to be their future competition! (Rarely is there a "WOW" reaction. Rather, it's "OH NO.")

It comes down to this: what can advanced players do to attract other players of equal or better skill? My hypothesis is that at that level, advanced players are all pretty much self-aware of their repertoire requirements and will seek out other like-skilled players with whom each may advance their musicianship. But how do you get them together? Is the serendipitous meeting all one has?

If you have the time, would you please respond? I respect your opinion and value your insight.

Yours,

D.W.

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Hi, D.W. Your thoughts on playing before an audience and with others at a similar skill level clearly illustrate problems that guitarists committed to excellence have. I want to thank you for offering this as a possible newsletter submission. My thoughts at this point are not necessarily to produce a full article from this, but to point out to the other readers of the Guitar Study newsletter the problems you brought up.

My feeling is to want to solve these problems. Some thoughts come to mind immediately for addressing the issue of finding other players of a similar skill level. First, the Internet is fast becoming a place where guitarists can effectively network, "hook up" and jam. It's not only possible for guitarists who live close to one another to meet through the 'Net, but there are online jam sessions as well. GuitarWars may be one place to check out for such sessions.

We can break these problems down further, to get a better handle on them. One part deals with feeling: it can be emotionally wrenching to perform alone in front of an audience, and also to have a fellow player "sabotage" us. The other part is practical: where do you find fellow players and where do you find open mic sessions?

- Fear -

First, the feeling part. You know, this problem of feeling uncomfortable performing *with* and *in front of* other people can be summed up in one word: fear.

Fear can be your buddy, though -- especially if you give it a new name, like "anticipation." Instead of "I'm afraid of playing 'Tears in Heaven' for my friend Lou, because he'll tell me I suck," we can say, "Forget Lou. I feel a sense of *energetic anticipation* thinking about playing 'Tears in Heaven' for my bed-ridden Aunt Rose, because she's quite a music lover. And, although we've always been close, I've never played for her before."

Stagefright can be licked, negotiated or melted away using lots of techniques. Taking drugs is not one of them, but reminding yourself why you love playing guitar *is* one of 'em. You don't have to worry about *any* kind of fear when your desire to play a tune that makes your heart soar is at the center of your attention.

The next time you have the chance to perform for somebody or with somebody, and fear starts to creep in, do this: make a list of things you love about playing guitar. Or, if you've already made a list, add to it, or read it aloud to yourself. This could be as simple as a list of songs; notes about solos by Eric Clapton; the rush you feel when you hear the opening lick to "Smoke on the Water," or the opening notes to "Moon River." I promise you that if you take just a few seconds of your attention away from your fear, and give an honest, strong effort to making this list, your fear will become anticipation, and you'll *want* to go ahead with the performance.

You can use negative motivation to overcome fear, also. That is, use fear in a conscious, directed way to get you to conquer your stagefright. Do it like this: ask yourself, "Wouldn't it be horrifying to let this stagefright continue for the next ten years, and make me miss hundreds of opportunities to build my chops to the maximum? What learning opportunities has my stagefright *already* cost me?"

Asking questions like these is especially effective for the situation where you fear playing with someone else because you think he's better than you. Man, when you take lessons from a teacher, what the heck are you doing but playing with someone who's better than you! A major boost to your chops comes from playing with people who are better than you. You learn so much from such experiences. Keep this in mind the next time "I don't want to play with John because he's been playing for 10 years and I just started" comes up.

Ask yourself other powerful, attention-changing questions like, "When have I beat fear in the past? How did I do it?"

Here's another thing to pay attention to instead of your fear: do you know of *any* great guitarists who have stagefright? There might be some, and there might be some who say they have stagefright but it's actually a wee bit of nervousness. The point is this: you *cannot* become the best player you can be unless you perform *for* other people and *with* other people. I don't want to get into the "should" trap, here, and tell you what's best for you. I only want to relate an observation you've probably already made for yourself. Here it is again: pro-level guitarists, and musicians, would not have become pros without performing for other people and with other people.

Here's a link that will show you how others have dealt with stagefright. If that link doesn't work, enter use the following search parameters in Google.com's search engine: "group:*music* insubject:stage fright"

So much for the feeling aspect of live performance. Now, how to find *places* to perform. What open mic sessions are there in your area? Who else knows about them? How can you use the 'Net to find these places? How much does it cost buy a banana in Zimbabwe? Just checking to see if you're paying attention.

- Finding open mic opportunities -

If I were unfamiliar with an area, do you know what I would do to find an open mic opportunity in the area? Find a guitar shop, music studio or any place that sells stuff or gives lessons to musicians, and ask a manager there what open mic places there are. Also, such stores usually have a bulletin board with notes and business cards of people seeking and offering gigs and talent. It's possible that some open mic clubs might actively promote themselves with advertising that's plainly visible in the music store. They may also advertise in the local freebie entertainment guides like Creative Loafing, that music stores carry.

Other tips on finding open mic opportunities: churches and coffeehouses. Songwriter and performing guitarist Alan Horvath recommends these places over those that serve alcohol, for obvious reasons. Read Alan's sage, road-tested advice on finding and performing in open mic places.

Coffeehouses can be a lot of fun to play in and attend. Besides churches and coffeehouses, I'd investigate college campuses, too. Look for flyers in and around the college's restaurants, dining halls and hangout joints to find open mic ops. Dig the college newspaper, too.

Some other ways for finding open gigs: Online, Musician.com has a gig finder search engine. Openmikes.org is a good, growing list of places across the country. Call your local jazz or college radio station and ask about open mics or gigs.

== New software for beginners ==

For the beginners out there, we have a new product you might want to check out: Play Guitar, by Naftali Lahav. PG starts with the basics and moves you up to performance-quality skill. Learn how to hold the guitar; left and right hand positions; plucking and how to read standard notation and tab. It uses a tab system that's easier than standard tab.

Check it out at http://www.MaximumMusician.com/BookCatalog.htm

And for you chord lovers out there, the Guitar Chords ebook is available now.

Have a terrific week. Learn, grow, listen, and create. There's music inside you waiting for you to give it life.

Play Guitar. Feel Good.