Hick by Association

Daddy: Day Two

2011-12-10T14:42:00.000-06:00

Much more tired today. Jenny only got a little touch of sleep last night.

Diapers don't bother me near as much as I had expected. Smell or sight. They always used to, but not now. I'm guessing there is some sort of off switch in us for when it is our baby. Cecily was the first child I ever changed and it wasn't hard even at first. The toughest thing is keeping her legs under control when I'm working. She's still a kicker. (Soccer player?)

We had our first pediatrician visit today. All went well. She's already gaining a little from when we brought her home. She went' from about 6 lbs 15 oz to 7 lbs 1 oz. We were told that they can loose as much as 10% of their birth weight (she was 7 lbs 11 oz brand new). At two weeks, she should be passing her birth weight.

Sleep is a luxury, but I can't seem to find myself partaking a lot when it's daylight. I've been a stay-at-home-husband for almost four months now and I have this need to work when it's daylight. So, I do dishes, laundry, cooking, and cleaning all day long like I did before. Only, it isn't near as efficient. One, because I'm so tired, and two, because every time Cecily makes a noise I run to investigate.

Cecily seems to be doing great. She's awake when she should be and sleeps most of the day. Feeding is regular at about 3 hour intervals and she's going through diapers just about how she should. I don't want to jinx it, but I think we got a calm(er) one.

~DB

Daddy: Day One

2011-12-09T09:45:00.000-06:00

I say day one, but Cecily was born almost four days ago now. Today is the first full day at home, no nurses, just me and mommy. So, officially, this is my first day to be daddy.

Tired doesn't really describe it. Not because it's more or less than tired, but it's different. I could sleep or rest if I really went at it, but with her in the house I feel a little more motivated to be awake to hear her cry if she needs us.

Coffee is good. It helps.

Two things that I didn't expect in parenthood:

1) How easy it was to change diapers. Of course, we are not to the point where she is doing the really nasty cottage cheese ones yet, but the chocolate syrup ones new borns produce are still pretty bad. But, I'd never changed one before and it was surprisingly easy to do (and to stomach).

2) How automatic the protection urge is. That's a bad description: "protection urge". It's more like this need to make her happy. She's not only old enough to really smile yet, but I still work really hard at it in such an automatic way.

Overall, it's going well. Jenny is fine. Cecily is fine. Our dog, Fibber, is confused. Life is good.

~DB

The Trophy Husband

2011-09-27T11:44:00.000-05:00

Now that my wife is the bread winner for the family, I really like kidding her with this term. It isn't entirely accurate if you consider I'm just more of a "house husband" than a trophy.

In the month or so that I've been unemployed I've made a lot of strides coming into my new role at home. I'm still on the job hunt, but with the economy as it is, I'm not putting a lot of stock into being able to land a job that would either reverse the role or make it easier to be working when baby comes.

I do keep busy. Running a home is a full time job as I am finding out. I can't imagine how some people (my wife and I included) can pull it off without being home all the time. No wonder cleaning services are still in high demand.

Aside from just cleaning and laundry, I also have been devoting time to developing my music skills and working in my woodshop. Both of these are passions of mine and I'm blessed that I can put myself into them. The good thing is that I can offer lessons on guitar and ukulele and build things to sell online. So, income, albeit small and infrequent, is still there. Who knows; with time and effort these may turn into full time jobs themselves and get me and my wife closer to getting ourselves out of the suburban rut.

~DB

Unemployment, Here I Am

2011-09-10T17:00:00.000-05:00

As of August 25th, my previous employer no longer found any use for me. I was given the week before hand to tie up loose ends and clean out my desk. After seven years, I am no longer an insurance agent.

For my wife and I, this hasn't been too much of a shock. We had planned our finances in such a way that if one of use lost their job, then we would be able to survive for a while. Currently, we're doing fine.

For the last two weeks, I've spent adjusting to a house-husband life style. It is a little bit of a change, but overall the days aren't too boring. I am amazed at the amount of things that didn't get done around the house when there was no one to do them. The house is as clean as it has ever been (except for today since it is a weekend and I take those off).

In the mean time, I'm filing for my unemployment benefits and job searching. While in the search mode, I'm also trying to do a little bit of small business work. Guitar and woodworking being as much a part of my life as they are, I'm doing my best to find an income using those skills.

Five biggest surprises of Unemployement:

How much cleaner the house is day to day.
How little you actually get from the state (I don't see how mortgages can be paid with this)
How much I don't really miss work.
Everyone has been super positive about the outlook.
How great my wife has been with this.

Until I find gainful employment or I get an adequate income from self-employment, I'm pretty sure my wife and I will be making it okay.

~DB

Pause

2011-08-23T10:13:00.001-05:00

I'm taking a week pause. I've had some serious life issues crop up that need dealt with. I'll be back to a weekly next week.

Annoying Questions

2011-08-16T10:52:00.000-05:00

My wife and I are expecting our first child in December. Since we let the news out, we've been blessed with a lot of words of encouragement and excitement. For the most part, advice has come from those that we have solicited it from. However, as new parents we are getting our fair share of annoying comments and questions.

If you happen to discover that someone you know is pregnant (or, for dad's, their wife/girlfriend is pregnant), here is a list of questions that will annoy the parent to be:

Is it a boy or a girl?

If we knew and wanted to tell you, you'd already know.

What are you going to do about -insert pet's name-? Does he/she know?

The pet is part of the family and probably knew before we did.

Did you/she have morning sickness?

Do you really want me to talk about puke?

When are you buying the SUV?

As new parents, we probably don't want to spend $30,000 when we have a perfectly reliable and surprisingly room sedan already.

Make sure you buy -insert product name-!!!

First, if you really think we need it, we'd love for you to buy it as a shower gift.
Second, if we really think we need it, we would register for it as a shower gift.
Third, again, new parents = no money.

Have you realize how much your life is going to change?

Really? 'Cause we figured we could just leave the kid at home when we wanted to go buy hookers and cocaine and setting off on a cross country tour of America's favorite gutters.

How do you/does she feel?

Uh, mom is PREGNANT! If she weren't feeling sore, bloated, somewhat nauseated, and had gained a lot of weight resulting in emotional self image issues, then we would probably be too worried to be having this conversation with you right now.

Since mom is a vegetarian, are you going to raise the child that way too?

Um, it is a baby, not a bumper sticker on a VW Jetta. If it wants a hot dog, then it get's a hot dog.

Have you thought of names yet?

Of course we have. Would you like the complete list or just the to five hundred?

I bet mommy is hot in this warm weather.

Honestly, if it was February and 30 below mom would be warmer than the rest of us.

When's the baby shower?!?

Let's be nice. We can't expect our friend who is doing us a huge favor and service by throwing us a baby shower to feed hundreds of people. We'll probably have less than 30 people there. If you were on the list (and the list was already made, and invites sent), then you'd know.

I like the name -insert combination of random letters and characters here-! Are you going to name it that?

Uh, we want our child not to be made fun of in grade-school/life/blogs.

Are you excited?

Don't ask me this question because I'm just excited enough to punch the next person who does.

Along with that, I guess it is only fair to list things that I want to talk about:

How are you (daddy) doing?

I'm pregnant too. Maybe I don't look it, but caring for a mommy all night after 9 hours in a cube takes a lot.

If you need advice on -insert useful item here (like strollers)- let me know.

Honestly, I don't want you to pick it out for me. What I need is the pros and cons of what you had/have and advice on selecting the best one for my family.

Put me down on your babysitter list.

As long as I don't have you marked as a pedo-bear, this something I will love you for.

I would like to get you a gift, but don't need to go to a party. Where are you registered?

Thank you. The party always seems to be about the attendants and not mommy, baby, or (especially) daddy.

I read this book when I was pregnant. I'm not going to bore you with why, but I'd be happy to write down the accurate title and author for you should you choose to look into it.

Thank you for not talking to me at length about a book I have never read.

New daddy, would you like me to buy you a drink?

Yes, let me get a kitchen pass from mommy and I'll meet you at the bar.

Our family is so excited for you. If you would like, we would love to have you over for dinner some night before and maybe sometime a few weeks after the big day.

I love you.

Thanks for thinking of my family during our... uh, this sentence is not going as planned... yeah. Anyway, thanks!

~DB

XKCD Passwords

2011-08-10T08:16:00.000-05:00

Damn that's funny.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/password_strength.png

I'm Fed Up with Being Scared

2011-08-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

Five years ago when my wife told me when we first moved in together that she wasn't in favor of having a television in the house I told her I didn't understand. I think I do now.

We went local TV-less about two or three years ago when the old CRT TV I had through college finally went out (to the recycling center). Since then, our primary video entertainment has been Netflix on a flat panel computer monitor. We don't get news or weather at all without internet.

No news is good news. The only news I get now is what I choose to read. And I've got to tell you, I've been avoiding even news networks as of late because bad news is all I can find. It seems to me if there is not a twist to the story that makes Joe & Mary American scared for their way of live, then it isn't newsworthy.

I heard a joke the other day on a comedy radio station that is now popular here in KC. They comedian (who's name escapes me) was commenting on terrorism. He defined terrorist groups as those groups who use fear to change the way that a group of people act and carryout their daily lives. So, by that definition, I'm going to go ahead and call out CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, FoxNews, and any other major network. Sure, they are only "reporting" the news... Yeah right, and the suicide bombers only showed up on time...

~DB

Rethinking

2011-08-05T10:44:00.000-05:00

I've been tossing it around in my head that a blog with a name like this is not the best place to be trying to pass along knowledge on music. So, I created a new blog: www.CircleOfFrets.com. There I'll be posting on several different music related things. Hopefully, getting one lesson out a week with a mix of different cool things here and there.

As for this blog, I'm keeping it as my own little soapbox. I'll do my best to live up to the name when I can.

~DB

My New Girl

2011-04-18T08:55:00.000-05:00

New is a relative term... I'm still trying to zero in on the details, but I know this so far:
Early 50s Gretsch Syncromatic (likely at 100).

Coming Soon

2011-04-14T12:31:00.000-05:00

After working it out a few ways, I've finally got a few things drafted up to post over the coming weeks.

First of all, I want to get a song posted up on banjolele that actually shows it playing. My review before didn't have enough actual audio of the instrument. My bad.

Then, I'm going to be starting a series of posts on how to use scale shapes to learn the ukulele's fret board. I've been toying with this one for a while, and I really want to get it going now. This will likely be a 5 post series that will include some topics like tonal centering and basic key theory.

Also I want to put up tabs to an arrangement I worked out for "Satin Doll". I played it at the KC Ukesters a few months ago and I've gotten a lot of good feed back. Enough that I want to share it. This will be a hard one for me because I'm not really good at putting rhythm into notation yet. Just not enough practice at it. And "Satin Doll" is a very rhythmic song.

All that to come!

Free Ukulele

2011-04-13T06:31:00.000-05:00

(I didn't even get the first day right for blogging every day. Ugh.)

This coming Monday (April 18th), there is going to be a KC Ukesters meet-up at the First Methodist Church of North Kansas City from 6:30 to 8:30pm. At the meeting, Guitar Syndicate will be giving away a Lanikai LU-21!*

It is a jam style meeting so there will be playing and lots of music. This is a great group to get involved in if you are thinking of learning or want to just have a group to play with.

Church address: 2100 Howell St, North Kansas City, MO.

~DB

*Must be present to win. No purchase necessary.

Busy Weeks

2011-04-11T15:07:00.000-05:00

The last couple of weeks have been amazingly busy. I've been volunteering for my church and that has taken a lot of my time. Add to that the normal house chores and I've been perpetually exhausted.

That said, I do intend on following up on my Goldtone Banjolele review with a song or two. In addition, I want to start posting my arrangements of a few songs up. I've got one already completed in PowerTab and another one that I want to get put down. Both translate well to the baritone tuning so I may post them with.

Also, I recently started teaching a guitar student and have found myself pondering teaching music a lot more. I'll be refining some of that for blog posts.

In the mean time, I'm out to the KC Ukesters monthly meeting tonight and I'm going to be hosting one next week!

~DB

P.S.: New goal: A post a day. Let's see if I can keep that up day to day!

Baritone Ukulele Strings

2011-04-10T17:22:00.000-05:00

I'm working through a few sets of strings on the new baritone banjolele and I'm in need of venting. As a novel idea, I started off with a set of strings supposedly able to be tuned GCEA like a soprano (as opposed to DGBE like the baritone normally is). Well, I've been through a set of Aquilla's and a set of Hilo's with no luck.

Both sets have broken strings as I tuned them in. Now, I know that I need to let things stretch before going to the regular tuning. But, I was about a fourth down when the strings started breaking. Almost all breaks happened at the bridge (where the knot is tied to secure the string).

Unlike regular ukulele's where you tie around the bridge, on banjo ukuleles you knot then slip that through a grove on the bridge. This knot tends to pinch the string which weakens it. So, when going for the higher tuning, which means higher tension, the string is going to break.

So, I'd guess that on regular ukuleles, your good. But on banjoleles, those just don't work.

~DB

Goldtone Banjolele Review

2011-03-30T07:53:00.000-05:00

I just got my Goldtone in the mail about a week ago and got this uploaded yesterday. Hope you enjoy the review and feel free to ask questions!

What's in a Uke?

2011-03-24T09:24:00.001-05:00

I recently went back to lurking and occasionally posting on Ukulele Underground's forum. I had given it up months ago when I got sick of two things: 1) The useless, non ukulele thread games (like "This or That" or "What are you listening to right now?!?"). And 2) The bigotry of the some ukulele enthusiasts.

Bigotry is a harsh word and has a much heaver negative context than should probably be used here. I only do it because it bothers me so much.

I guess I should explain what I mean. There are a couple of issues in the ukulele world that seem to threaten some people's lofty ideal of what a ukulele really is. Mostly, these are things concerned with tuning. Standard soprano and concert ukulele tunings* are what is called re-entrant tuning. Top to bottom, you have a G, then go down an to a C, then up the scale to an E, then finally to an A.
The other acceptable tuning is with a Low G for the first note.

Now, as with the guitar (or any other stringed instrument), there are an almost infinite number of alternate tunings. It basically is whatever you can imagine and whatever you can get strings for. Most tunings follow two basic methods. The first would be tuning in intervals (such as fifths like violin or fourths like a bass and part of the guitar). The second would be arpeggiated as a chord (such as the chord "G" on the banjo). There are others, but these are the basic methods.

Okay, now that I have explained the issue, here is my thoughts on it:

Although, I do see the validity of respecting a standard tuning as the basis for identifying chords of a particular instrument, a ukulele tuned in anyway that you want it to be tuned is still a ukulele.

I myself have posed questions on experience with different tunings and been railroaded with comments such as:

"If you want to tune it like a mandolin, go buy a mandolin."
"I hate low G tuning. If it isn't re-entrant tuning, it just doesn't sound like uke to me."
"Baritone ukuleles aren't ukuleles. They are small tenor guitars."

That last one baffles me. I'll pose that what makes an instrument an instrument relies more on the luthiers/manufacturers producing that instrument coming to a common understanding. This is more important than a few novice or even professional players' opinions.

Funny thing is that I would say the banjo-ukulele (banjolele) is a different instrument than a ukulele and some who have posed that last view point have done so with their signatures showing that they own a banjolele (musicians like to brag about their instruments by listing model numbers in the descriptions).

~DB

* Tenor Ukuleles are usually tuned here as well, however there are many more classically accepted tunings such as G and D tuning.

Acoustic Awesomeness

2011-03-11T10:36:00.000-06:00

Since I started playing guitar back in junior high, I've spent a lot of thought about the differences in acoustic and electric instruments. When all of my friends were drooling over the Chinese copies of Fender Strats, I was looking at flat top Martins and even lower end Alvarezes (of which I've owned one for nearly fifteen years) and appreciating even the machine workmanship.

Now, as I've grown up and learned not only more about music but also more about wood working, my appreciation has grown for hand built acoustic instruments.

I will make one qualification: I have seen several very well built pure electric guitars. And a good player can make an electric guitar sound beautiful. But, so often the electric guitar is dominated by the tone deaf. It has been said (and this applies to both the acoustic and electric guitar) that "to a large extent guitar is the official instrument of posers." (Quoted from a guitar forum.)

Recently, I've been wanting to upgrade myself to a better guitar. Not that the three that I have are not doing their jobs. But, I've had the thought that I want a one stop guitar to be able to play everything I would need. Ultimately, I want to get to a point where I have one guitar that is my "workhorse" (or what I gig/practice with) and one as a backup. That's right, I have G.A.S.* but only want two guitars!

Since I started thinking along these lines, I've been searching for a new guitar and this is what made me want to post today. I've found several amazing luthiers around that are custom building archtop guitars and the fact is they are the best quality instruments that one could buy. And, if you get an archtop (full hollow) you can get the best of both acoustic and electric.

A couple examples for you:

Wilkie only shows his mandolins on the site, but you can get a peak at his archtop by going to Jazzguitar.be and looking through the "Building an Arcthop Guitar" post. It is amazingly good forum post.

My only real problem at this point is saving up the money to purchase one of these instruments. Although the quality of the insturments is amazing and you really do get a good deal, they aren't what I would call "cheap". You can pick up some for as little as $2,000, but when you are spending that money and they are spending that time, upping it to $4,000 or $5,000 is definitely worth it..

~DB

* G.A.S. stands for Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. A similar condition I suffer from is U.A.S.: Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome.

Another Video Coming Soon

2011-02-24T20:00:00.000-06:00

I put a youtube video out before Christmas of me playing my version of Jeff Daniels' (yes, that Jeff Daniels) song "If You're Comin'". I've been wanting to do another one but I just haven't figured out what I want to do.

I was going to do my version of "Satin Doll". But, then I did it at the KC Ukester's meeting in February. It wasn't that I did it badly. It was actually one of the better times that I had done it in front of people. It was more that it started a wave of comments about the 1983 Hyatt walkway collapse. Apparently, that was the song that was playing when that disaster happened. Kind of ruined the song for me. I can't play it without thinking of that catastrophe.

But last night I started working on a new version of an old standard and it just lays extremely well on the ukulele's fretboard. I won't give it away. But, I'll have some time to work it up over the next few days and I'll be posting it as soon as I can.

Along with the video, I'll be posting the actual how-to here in a nice little PDF. I got requests on the Jeff Daniels song, but since it was a singer/songwriter composition by an artist that I respect (and who can afford far more powerful lawyers than I) I didn't want to post up a how to. However, with this song that I'm thinking, it is an American standard and I'm pretty sure I can get away with posting my very own arrangement.

~DB

A Good Month

2011-02-15T12:07:00.000-06:00

I had a good time last night with a group of people known as the Kansas City Ukesters. Out of all of the possible things I could have done with my wife on Valentines Day, I ended up taking her to a ukulele jam. How dorky could I be!

The previous weeks have been good to me musically. Like I've said before (or at least implied), I am not a professional musician. I get to play a lot and I get to learn a lot. I am constantly learning more every time I play. And lately, I've been playing a lot.

Scales have been the big part of my practice time. Running those and moving on to some book lessons has been my core goal on guitar. Finally, last night while playing with the ukulele group, it was starting to gel in my fingers. Granted, I was playing my tenor uke and not guitar, but I could tell that the work was paying off.

Last week, I stayed home ill one day and after sleeping for half of it I started working through a couple of songs using 3 and 4 note rhythm voicings. Suddenly, the Real Book started to open up to me quite a bit! I was playing things I could barely suffer though before.

Now, I'm trying to think ahead on what I can add to my workout to get me to the next level. God knows I don't want to plateau here, but I'm prone to doing so if I don't get myself a new goal quick. My idea so far is to start working on chord melodies.

Chord melodies are the heart and soul of jazz guitar. If you aren't comping along with a group when you play jazz guitar, then you are typically playing chord melodies. Right now, I reading up on different approaches to creating them for myself. In the mean time, I've found a few good resources on my favorite forum (Jazzguitar.be/forum) to get me playing these and getting the technique under my fingers.

So, guitar practice is shaping up like this:

Scales
Arpeggio work (from a book)
Mickey Baker book one
Comping practice (I pick up and sight-read a song from a lead sheet)
Chord Melody work

I'll post more details on chord melody as my confidence gets a bit better. In the mean time, if you are following along with me, keep up on those scales! They work!!!

Jamming with Generations

2011-01-24T10:38:00.000-06:00

This last weekend I chaperoned a group of youth from my church to the 2011 Missouri WOW youth conference. Basically, this is a big concert for kids in youth. There are a couple of workshops, but mostly it is centered around three worship concerts.

Two observations that I had:

First, the variety of tastes within the youth of today when it comes to music is about as wide as it is with adults. With three different bands in attendance, I witnessed a very surprising amount of youth not really enjoying all of the bands. One band, Praiz, seemed to be mostly hip-hop based. Another, Lost and Found (which I really liked), was entirely acoustic guitar and piano (and several delicious puns!). The last, Family Force 5, was a more thrasher metal, pocket-full-of-shells meets Christian hard rock band (one of our chaperons loved them). I couldn't get a unanimous like on all of the bands from anyone one person I talked to.

This was kind of encouraging. To see that not all of our musical future will be one sided is a great relief to someone like me. I like variety. Sometimes thrasher metal is what I need. Others, I need corn-ball acoustic. Sometimes a little fat blues. Variety is good.

Second, I'll have to preface. I brought my ukulele along. I did this because last year there was a ton of down time and a few kids who brought musical instruments or played piano at the church that we were staying the night at. I figured at least I'd get to keep my practice up (if not on guitar). But I did get to play a little with some kids. I discovered something that I should have remembered from when I was a kid: teenagers don't know how to jam too well. Mostly power chords and songs I'd never heard. And, it wasn't a pass-around-the-lead as much as play-a-few-rifts-if-I-can-remember-it. I'm not complaining as much on this as I am observing something. Hopefully, in the future I can remember this and figure a work around.

Lost and Found

As I said, I liked these guys for a lot of reasons. In particular, they were just good guys. Very personable. During a break-out session (what WOW calls their seminars, which weren't really seminars) they answered a lot of questions with extremely corny puns rather than direct answers. Even the kids who didn't get the references (Scone on!).

One kid even asked if he could join the band. The guys (Michael and George) said, "Sure, did you bring your instrument? If you brought your instrument, come on up!" I promptly grabbed my ukulele and headed up while the kid came up too (he ended up not having and instrument and just wanted to dance on stage). Mike and George let me set in on a couple of songs and seemed to genuinely enjoyed jamming briefly. I had a freaking awesome moment playing with the pros. Hopefully, their genuine-ness wasn't limited to being nice to the dork with the uke.

I learned something then too. When someone asks you what key you would like to play in, don't say "any key". Because they are going to pick the absolute worst key for you to play in (in my case "E", which is not the worst, but pretty unfriendly to the ukulele). Regardless, I at least knew my scales well enough to not follow the chords but just take a solo while they comp'd.

Now, though, I'm exhausted. Stein Auf!

~DB

How I Practice Scales

2011-01-21T11:17:00.000-06:00


Stomberg Master 400

Finally getting around to putting this down for you all. Again, this changes a little bit as I get better at what I'm doing and know more of what is important. After quite a bit of thought, this is what I do.

Step one (as with everything I do) is to pick a key to work in. That's it. Just pull it out of the air. You have 12 to choose from so just pick one. Go ahead. If you can't think of one, then choose "C" (that's what I'll be working it for examples). Then, the next day/week/month pick the next one in the Circle of Fifths.

I only work one key in scales per practice session (usually one a week) because it helps me internalize them completely rather than blasting myself with every key all at once. My mind is too simple for that kind of stress.

Scales and Modes (Jimmy Bruno Style)

Most guitar teachers will want you to learn modes and each scale that goes with it. Personally, I've been using the shapes that Jimmy Bruno has available free on his website. These keep your hands from switching positions a lot and will help you start to see the fret board the same way a piano player sees the key board.

Note: You WILL NOT be starting on the root note of the scale. Play the fingerings like they are shown. For instance, JB's shape 5 in the key of "C" you start on the "G" (6th string) and end on the "A" (1st string). The theory here is to make the notes practical rather than making you remember all of the modes.

Coils

These are useful little sequences where you will reinforce your knowledge of the shapes for a given key. Basically, you play the scale/fingerings in groups of 2, 3, and 4 (but you can extend that to six or more). Here's an example for groups of two:

Click to enlarge.

And for three:

Click to Enlarge.

Thirds

I started doing scales like this when I played trombone in high school. It's a great interval training exercise. Basically, you skip a note then go back to the note you skipped, then skip a note and go back again. Here's the sequence in "C" on the 5 finger:

Click to Enlarge.

You can change this to skip two notes and back or even three if you would like. Try that just to give yourself a headache sometime. (Special note: I know that the intervals are really "thirds" in the musical sense. This is just the name that was told to me when I first started doing them.)

Skipping Notes

I'm not really sure what these are called. They aren't arpeggios since you don't stick to the specific chord you started on for the root and they aren't pentatonics (we'll do those later). But, they are good for stretching out your fingers and mind. Basically, skip every other note. Here's the example:

Click to Enlarge.

Obviously, in the examples above, you should be doing both the ascending and the descending patterns. I didn't put the descending examples in for you because I figured you could figure that out. However, a good method of practice is to get some manuscript paper and a pencil and write all of this out for each key you work in ascending and descending. It is good theory practice and will help you read intervals in sight reading later.

I also tend to do pentatonics with my scales as well. But, those can be a pretty big amount of theory in and of themselves. For now, I'll just say do the major and the minor in the same positions (slightly different fingerings) as the 5 fingerings before. Later, I'll delve into the specifically.

~DB

Note: Jimmy Bruno is a wonderful guitar teacher and I very much encourage your to join his site and take lessons from him. That said, the basic theory of the 5 shapes/fingerings are his idea. I only share them with you because they are freely available from his website without cost. All specific content I know that I've had to pay for through the Jimmy Bruno Guitar Institute and Jimmy's newer website, JimmyBruno.com, I cannot without breaking copyright provide to you. Again, I encourage you to join JmmyBruno.com yourself and get his stuff. It is well worth it.

Plugging Along

2011-01-13T09:44:00.000-06:00

Finally, I'm getting into a daily rhythm of playing guitar. It's getting to be better than brushing my teeth twice a day! Okay, I'll admit that it's kind of a gross comparison... But the important part is, I'm making a habit of playing daily for at least an hour.

Here is my routine:

Scales

Jimmy B's 5 fingerings
Arpeggios
Coils
Blues Boxes

Sight Reading

I'm using Sight-Reading for the Contemporary Guitarist by Tom Dempsey (recommended, but don't bother with their scales forms)

Lessons

Mickey Baker Complete Course in Jazz Guitar
Swing & Big Band Rhythm Guitar - Charlton Johnson
Various internet lessons

Licks

These I pick up from web sites

Songs

Rhythm Changes
This week's song

Ukulele (if I have more time to fill up)

Scales
Blues boxes
Songs/progressions

As you can see, my focus has clearly shifted. I still love to play and enjoy playing my uke, but I'm focusing on what I need for the upcoming summer season. Which is going to be rhythm guitar all the way. I will be adding more ukulele stuff since that seems to get a lot of attention from folks. As much as I like jazz guitar, I think I'm a bit of a rarity.

I've also changed the set up a little to one key a week. For instance, this week if the key of "F" (decided because the lesson in MB's that I'm working on is in the key of "F"). This will ground me in a key for a while to make sure I'm absorbing it better. All this combined with continued research on music theory and I'll be coming along nicely.

As for my blog posts, I'm paid up on the domain name for another year (thanks Google auto payments!) so I'm not going to be changing to another, more appropriate title. Which, I don't think I really care too much about. I'll probably get bored at some point and start posting about politics again. (Seriously, the hell is with the Phelps family? How is it that they are still getting attention?)

I think I'm going to take a step by step walk through each of the daily steps that I'm working on and get more music up on the posts. I'll call these "lessons", but they will likely be more of me working stuff out in my own head by talking it through. Sometimes I need to do that. In the mean time, I'll keep chunkin'.

~DB

Theory and Practice

2011-01-07T10:00:00.000-06:00

I'm constantly amazed at the amount of music theory that I know versus how much I can actually do. Theoretically speaking, I know how to play jazz guitar. Practically and technically speaking, I don't have the proficiency at all. It is started to get to me! Theory just isn't practice.

It kind of makes me think of how Hogwarts students must have felt in Deloris Umbridge's class when they were learning theoretical approaches to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I know, that is miles away from a normal thought, but kind of the same thing. Could you imagine taking a class on how to play piano and being told not to touch a single key during the entire course? Useless, right?

Bottom line is theory can be useful and make your mind understand what your fingers and ears are doing, but in the long run you have got to have the practice. So I'm keeping up on practicing. In fact, I spend a lot of down time (when I don't have access to a guitar) thinking about ways to make more use of the hour or so a day I get to piddle across the fret board. I even think up ways of keeping me interested and making sure I'm putting in my hour a day no matter what. (As I typed that, I was fully aware of the fact that last night I took a night off from guitar and didn't so much as look at the case! I'm such a hypocrite.)

To make my time more useful when I do get to play, I try and work out some of the hard stuff and the busy work ahead of time. For instance, I'm working through Mickey Bakers book (I bet you are getting sick of reading that by now) and some of the lessons are just redoing the lesson before in a different key. So, in my down time I transcribe that out by hand. This is good theory work, but it also keeps me from spending thirty minutes of practice time writing.

Right now, my practice time consists of Scales, Sight Reading, Progressions (chords and soloing), and Song Work. I actually get through it all together in about an hour and half if I try to do it all. There are a few things within each that I have added or built up as I've gone along just to reinforce what I'm doing. Such as when I work scales (in a different key each day) I don't just play them straight, I also play them in coils of 2, 3, and 4 note runs (see Guitar Grimoire: The Exercise Book). With progressions, I try to play them in all of the voicings that I know. These little extras help reinforce what I know and push me towards catching up with my musical knowledge (and ego).

~DB

All Keys or No Keys

2010-12-29T10:50:00.000-06:00

One of the unfortunate things about being human is that eventually you get sick. I don't mean head-cold sick either, I mean the making-friends-with-the-toilet-bowl kind of sick. Two nights ago, I came down with the worst sickness I have ever had in my entire life. If this is what dying feels like, then I want no part of it. Seriously, if you ever get food poisoning (which is what I'm attributing this to, but it could have just been a stomach bug), then my hear will definitely go out to you. I know your pain!

That said, during my recuperation yesterday (Monday I was still too weak to think), I got to spend a good portion of my day working through the lessons in my current guitar books. I cheated quite a bit an moved ahead in Swing & Big Band Guitar looking at what was to come and trying to get myself out of the 5 fret chords used for major rhythm chords. I have this to say: Good method, but I feel shot gunned on keys.

I've heard this approach before from a few people (Charlton Johnson, Joe Pass, and Jimmy Bruno to name a few) and though I understand the concept I can't agree with the method. Basically, the assumption is that a musician will play (eventually) in every key. Even the weird ones like A#. While this is good practice, reality is that you play in a lot less keys than what are offered. And mostly, it is dictated by style.

In pop music, the most common keys are F, C, G, D, E, & A (or their harmonic minors). Occasionally you will get away from those standards, but that is usually done with a capo. In jazz, we go the other way around the circle and have the most common being C, F, Bb, Eb, & Ab. Whenever there is a change out of that key, the chords you use are movable rhythm or drop 4 chords which can easily be transposed up and/or down the neck. The trick with jazz is the modulation in the songs (which happens a lot) that can give you chords in almost every key. It is this point that I believe the above greats are teaching too.

Capos: Making guitarists sound like they can play in key since 1640.

Now, certainly it makes sense in a jam session situation to know how to play in all keys. Suddenly someone starts playing "Avalon" in G# (because they want to be difficult) and you need to know how to keep up (to save face and show him that he won't get the best of you on keys; the little twit). Also, my experience with musicals has shown me that key changes can and will be random and make no musical sense*, so you need to be able to keep up.

What I propose is a more even keeled approach to learning how to play in all keys. There are a couple of goals that I have for myself on ukulele and guitar and playing in all keys is definitely one of the main goals. To figure out how to achieve that, I also need to look at some sub-goals that will help define what I mean by "playing in all keys".

Accompanying (Comping) on basic changes
Basic solo skills
Ability to think, not just read notes/chords and know what I'm playing
Chord knowledge (inversions)

It sounds like a lot, but I have a plan for this! It goes back to this every day lesson plan that I have had in my brain and written down a dozen times (and scrapped every time as well). Basically, it is like making sure you play your scales as a warm-up. I have a set list of things that I need to accomplish on my guitar (or ukulele if I'm playing that instead) which tackle (and let me think) in one key at a time and help my brain learn things one step at a time. I'm getting long winded this morning so I'll outline it and come back to muddle through some explanations and details later.

Danny's Daily Music Practice Routine
(Start by picking a key/note of the day; for each day, work your way around the circle.)

Find It on the Fret board (every one)
Play its scales (major and minor only)
Jimmy Bruno's 5 fingerings
Arpeggios across the 5 positions
The 5 Blues Boxes
Chord Progressions (rotate inversions)

ii-V-I
I-vi-ii-V

Play along to the chord progressions using simple solos

That's all for now... I'll fill in more details later.

~DB

* Musicals are no longer written or arranged by musicians (not in 80 years at least) and those doing the writing and arranging are likely vocal "musicians" who hate people who can actually play an instrument and therefore want to make the little dots as complicated as possible.

Mery Christmas

2010-12-23T11:11:00.000-06:00

I've been phoning it in at work all week. Seriously, it's dead right now. Not many buy insurance when there is Christmas shopping to do. On the bright side, the weeks to follow will be busy because everyone will suddenly realize that they can't afford their credit card bill and will be looking to save money anywhere they can!

On that note, I've been doing two things a lot: reading about guitar and music theory and surfing the net. In the spirit of the Holiday season, here is an article from Walstreet Journal that I believe sums up my (and my wife's) view of the new shiny iPads.

Why I Don't Want an iPad for Christmas

~DB

P.S.: Oddly enough, I hadn't picked up my ukulele in a week until last night. I don't know what came over me...