After the last post on listening and guitar it’s time to focus upon one of the world’s greatest listeners, Evelyn Glennie, the Scottish virtuoso percussionist who has been profoundly deaf since age 12.
This does not inhibit her ability to perform at the international level. She regularly plays barefoot for both live performances and studio recordings, to better “feel” the music. Glennie contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She claims to have taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears.
In the photograph at top we can see Evelyn with English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith who uses some highly unusual and enlightening techniques. Here is Evelyn discussing how to listen with your whole body rather than simply using your ears.
Indeed, this is a highly valuable lecture for any musician and the reason I’ve included it here on the Jamorama guitar blog is because of the highly tactile nature of the guitar – especially the electric guitar – and how the guitar as an instrument makes such a tight connection possible between physical approach (strumming, fretting, vibrato etcetera), the intellectual (musicality) and the emotional. Remember there are no rules and no right or wrong – we all hear differently, we all play differently! Groove to the beat of your own drum.
If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation where having your guitar with you to practice or warm up on just wasn’t possible, the Shredneck might solve that in future instances. Touted as the ‘ultimate practice and warm up tool for guitarists’ if frees you from the need to have your ‘full sized’ guitar with you at all times.
It’s small enough to tuck into your bag and whip out on the train, bus, at the office, in front of the TV when you have a moment to spare to work on your guitar techniques. Kitted out with strap knobs it also allows you to warm up when gigging so you’re ready to rock when it’s time to go on.
While it does have tuning pegs, they’re not intended to be used like those on a standard guitar. Instead, you use them to alter the string tension to replicate the feel of your guitar in effect allowing you to practice on your guitar without actually having your guitar with you.
This headstock also doubles as the body of the guitar so you can grip the Shredneck, keeping the neck steady while you practice your licks. As you can tell it’s not your usual guitar but with the first 7 frets of a guitar neck, you’ll have plenty to work with.
You can work on your fingering techniques, from those lightning quick lead runs, chords or just simply warming up in anticipation of playing your ‘real’ guitar. However, it’s not really set up for working on your picking technique as there is no place to pick the strings in the same way you would on a standard sized guitar.
The guys at Shredneck are passionate guitarists and as such don’t make claims as to any medical benefits of using the Shredneck – as other ‘hand exercisers do’. Instead they see it as the closest thing to playing the guitar without actually playing the guitar. With the ability to always have a guitar on hand, you can continually work on your playing techniques to increase your effectiveness when it comes time to play the real thing.
Check out this video to see Sonny Lombardozzi run through some exercises he uses on the Shredneck to stay primed.
In this post we look at an old but very relevant article by Ben Edwards from the early Jamorama days in which he discusses why it’s important to keep track of your progress.
An old piano teacher of mine used to record my playing at different times throughout the year. At the end of the term she would give me a tape that contained a selection of pieces that I had played running from work that I had completed early in the year to the things that I was working on at the end of the term. I would take this tape home and I would play it to my friends and family. People listening to the tape would say, “Man, you’re getting good”.
This did two things for me. First of all, it made me go back to my teacher for more lessons, so it was definitely a good move on her part. Secondly, it made me practice more because I could see the benefits of working on something over time. Basically, the progress that I could hear on the tape motivated me to get even better.
I strongly recommend you to start recording your practice sessions for future reference.You will be surprised of what you hear and how much you improve with the past of the time!
Eddie Van Halen was born in the Netherlands in 1957, his brother Alex was born two years earlier in 1955. They, along with their family emigrated to The United States in 1965. They belonged to a musical family and both were trained to become concert pianists. However growing up in California exposed the Van Halen brothers to popular music and soon they wanted to become rock stars. Initially Eddie wanted to play the drums and Alex the guitar; however Eddie’s paper route interfered with his practice and his brother quickly became better on the drums. With his older firmly ahead of him in drumming ability Eddie chose to learn the guitar.
After high school had finished the boys played gigs in and around their home town of Pasadena, CA. It was on this circuit that they meet singer David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony who along with the brothers made up the quartet that would become Van Halen. While playing in a club in L.A., Van Halen was spotted by Gene Simmons. Simmons wanted to produce a demo for the band, but unfortunately the demo flopped and was rejected by all the major studios. However a year later at the same club Van Halen was spotted by a producer from Warner Records. He signed them on the spot and soon after in 1978 Van Halen’s self titled album was released. The band had a string of platinum records until 1985 when rifts in the band forced Roth to leave the band.
However the bands momentum couldn’t be stopped. They quickly signed new singer Sammy Hager and the juggernaut that Van Halen had become, continued.
Hager was with the band for 11 years and this period saw one of the bands albums (5150) go to number one, which was a first for the band. In the late 90′s Hager quit and Roth returned briefly for the release of the bands Best Of album. But time had not healed the wounds and Roth was quickly replaced by Gary Cherone, the former front man for the band Extreme.
It is through the band Van Halen that the musical genius of Eddie Van Halen has been exposed. His wild style electrified audiences and created a legion of guitarists keen to mimic his playing. The most commonly referenced song when people talk about Eddie Van Halen is Eruption. Eruption is well known for its distinctive introduction which includes the most well known example of double handed tapping. This technique involved Eddie using both his right and left had to fret the guitar, and using a tapping motion to make the guitar sound out.
This technique was not new, some players had experimented in the 1950′s but Eddie Van Halen redefined the technique. He added speed, accuracy, distortion and a box full of various effects to the mix creating a style that would become an essential tool of rock guitarists for years to come. Also the popularity of Van Halen’s guitar based, solo laden rock caused many other bands to copy their style. It caused a period in music where nearly all popular rock music displayed some degree of virtuoso soloing. This musical trend has been heavily influenced by Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing.
And here is a more recent live version of “Eruption” (Seattle, 2007); published by Youtube user TeamDZ:
Today we are going to have a look at practicing versus playing. You may be wondering what this means exactly.
To simply define it; playing is when you are out on stage or in the studio by yourself or with a band. Practicing is when you are in a room by yourself or with your band getting ready to play a gig or record some music.
Practicing is important. If you never practice you will never reach a high level of skill and you will not get a tight sound with your band. When you practice you should concentrate on playing correctly and in time. These principals should be followed whether you are playing with a group or in your room by yourself.
Though you should try and be as accurate as possible when you are practicing, when it comes to playing you should feel free. Meaning that when playing live you should be in the moment and ignore mistakes.
It is important to remember the distinction between practicing and playing. You should always be trying to improve with practice, but when you are on stage playing you shouldn’t be worrying about playing perfectly. You should be worried about putting on an energetic performance, playing hard.
Some times musicians can fall into the trap of over-practicing. You do this when you spend too much time practicing and not enough time devoted to getting yourself out there and playing your songs.
Many musicians are perfectionists and they feel that they can never be ready to perform. You need to ignore the little problems when you are deciding whether or not to play a gig. Work had to fix any problems but don’t stress out about them.
In conclusion get out there and play your instrument in front of people. You can iron out problems as they come up but don’t forget to keep motivated and play hard.
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