The other night I was playing a show with my daughter Lexie, and one of the acts who were playing before us suddenly became aware that I was there in the audience. She right away was having tuning problems, and called out to me saying” you’re the one with the genius ears, can you help me tune?!” This was so funny, and I actually had her tune up right from my seat, as she then told a story about being backstage at a show many years ago, and how everyone had to pass me their guitars so I could tune them for them!
]]> Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:00:39 GMT This is not just your typical “guitar maintenance” blog, rather, it’s some of my reall hard-earned knowledge from some real-life experiences for me! After all, out acoustic guitars usually mean a fairly sizable investment, and they can be touchy and rather tempermental at times, especially due to climate variations such as temperature and especially humidity.
]]> Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:50:25 GMT As time goes by, especially during your most formative years, who your key <i>influences </i>are start to really take shape, and become of great importance. It&rsquo;s hard for me to imagine my playing as being influenced by anyone else, but I guess it&rsquo;s sort of like imagining being raised by different parents&hellip;pretty much impossible! I do know that if I had been influenced by different players, it would&rsquo;ve meant that my &ldquo;tastes&rdquo; would&rsquo;ve also been completely different, and my <i>choices </i>in music would be wildly radical from what I chose to do after all.
]]> Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:46:39 GMT There certainly is nothing fake about the statement that “music is the universal language” and it’s amazing how some of these international “encounters” can really stay with you, and always mean a lot to you as your life goes on. These experiences have always stayed with me, even many years later. I suppose it’s because it’s such an incredibly “moving “experience…I mean think of it, going to a strange and foreign land, and you encounter people who may not even speak your language, but the minute you all strap on those guitars you’re not only speaking the same new language, but your communication is complete and immediate, and you are immediately “linked” by your mutual love of what you’re doing, which is making the music you love!
]]> Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:44:41 GMT I just can’t say enough about how much I really love the entire teaching process. There are the very young, the very old and everyone in between! It just always seems to have a rewarding side to it…regardless of the age or the ability of the given student. I know that lately I have been able to come back to teaching the very young, innocent and extremely impressionable students I love to teach so much. After the death of my first daughter at 14, it was a very long time, many years in fact, before I could even look at another child, let alone teach them guitar, or have them do anything that Gillian so excelled at. So it’s a very big step for me to even be doing this kind of teaching again in the first place.
]]> Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:50:41 GMT Last night, my daughter Lexie and I had a truly &ldquo;all-acoustic&rdquo; gig, in which there was <i>completely </i>no sound reinforcement at all; no mics, no P.A., no amplifiers, nothing, and it still ending up sounding so nice that you could hear a whisper, and the most subtle of notes from my guitar. I guess this is what they try to achieve in those great concert halls from a sound perspective. I can recall playing at the Tyrone Guthrie theater in Minnesota with Eric Andersen in the &lsquo;70s, and it was reputed to have this same kind of &ldquo;you can hear a pin drop&rdquo; kind of natural sound there, and in fact, we have even played there completely devoid of any amplification back then!
]]> Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:15:29 GMT Whenever you have to audition for a gig, it can be a “loaded” situation to say the least. Every gig, every person, every audition is completely different from the next, and you really can never know what to expect when you show up! That is of course, unless you actually know the people involved, and that the deck is already “stacked” in you favor as you try out for the gig. Even then, though there will no doubt be some surprises waiting for you, as I believe everyone is looking for something “new” from you regardless of how much you think they “know” you. Perhaps it’s just because they like to feel that “power” they hold over you, or if they just like to mess with you, but in the end an audition seems to always “feel” like an audition!
]]> Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:11:22 GMT This &ldquo;need to play&rdquo; is a very serious matter however, and if you have this kind of primal urge within you, it must always not only be fulfilled, but you must never lose track of its importance to you and your well-being. All the other stuff, such as being a &ldquo;rock star&rdquo;, &ldquo;making it&rdquo; and all the other trappings of &ldquo;success&rdquo; really should have nothing to do with any of it. If you are a <i>real </i>artist, the only caring you should actually have is satisfying that &ldquo;need to play&rdquo; and the need to make your music say more for you, and for what you&rsquo;re really all about!
]]> Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:51:15 GMT Certainly, it&rsquo;s always great to get paid for doing live gigs and recordings, but there are actually times when it really &ldquo;pays&rdquo; for you to do gigs <i>and not get paid! </i>Yes, some people would call this &ldquo;paying your dues&rdquo;, which of course, we all have to do, and I certainly did, but my most effective way of describing what can take place in a career is &ldquo;just when you think you&rsquo;ve paid your dues, you get another bill!&rdquo;
]]> Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:34:37 GMT There’s nothing like being able to make some great “finds” when it comes to vintage guitars. I have been doing this since around 1966, and show no signs of letting up. One thing that certainly amazes me is how so many things that you’d think were totally gone, continue to “turn up”, even in some of the most unlikely places! Of course, also with economic times the way they are today, more and more cool and rare items are resurfacing everywhere, since folks simply need the money!
]]> Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:16:25 GMT Even though the popularity of solid-body electric guitars is as big, if not bigger than ever, more and more players have been seen using hollow-bodied electric guitars in many circumstances. I know that I recently have become very attracted to them for their kind of sound, playability and really the sheer challenge of playing such an instrument.
]]> Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:01:00 GMT We were playing a special tribute concert to the memory of Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and as a tribute to the music of The Band, in general. Each of us had pretty direct connections to Levon and the other Band members, and had either played with them or produced them or simply known them in one capacity or another.
]]> Wed, 04 Jul 2012 00:01:00 GMT I cannot emphasize enough the true importance of ear-training and &ldquo;hearing the changes&rdquo; in a song. This is really the only way that you will know you are <i>growing </i>in a musical way, and even though some people obviously are keener at it than others I believe it&rsquo;s an ability that we all possess!
]]> Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:11:58 GMT &ldquo;Sitting in&rdquo;, or doing a spontaneous kind of &ldquo;jam&rdquo; with someone else is a true art form, ad can really be used as a great learning tool. It can <i>also </i>make a real difference in terms of you being heard at &ldquo;the right time and the right place&rdquo; as far as getting more work is concerned, and as far as helping to spread your (hopefully good!) reputation! I know that for many, many years I used this kind of situation to my great advantage, especially when I was young and so <i>needed </i>to be heard, and so needed to spread the word about my playing abilities.
]]> Fri, 29 Jun 2012 09:42:39 GMT Basically, it&rsquo;s really &ldquo;all been done before&rdquo;, but maybe not by <i>you. </i>It&rsquo;s important, even during your early years to experiment as much as possible with the new sounds you can either create <i>with </i>your guitar, or with &ldquo;outside&rdquo; influences, too! I can recall that it seemed that as early as I could play a guitar, I was immediately experimenting with all kinds of different sounds and various creative ideas. I remember experimenting with &ldquo;mixed media&rdquo;, such as using a tape recorder playing sounds to go along with our live playing, Theromins, radio playing and miked during our concerts and of course, a controlled use of feedback. I also used to, and still do, experiment with playing the guitar with various objects that percussively hit the strings.
]]> Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:21:24 GMT