Acoustic Guitar Player

Pat Metheny came to the fore in the 1970’s playing with the brilliant vibraphone player Gary Burton.  Many music enthusiasts listened to the contemporary jazz that was recorded by producer Manfred Eicher in Europe on the ECM label. 

In this youtube video Pat Metheny is playing a guitar made by Canadian Luthier Linda Manzer, a brilliant luthier that has also built guitars for Bruce Cockburn,  the great Canadian singer guitarist.

Pat Metheny is playing Nora Jones’s Don’t Know Why that he reorded on the solo album One Quiet Night.  Pat Metheny plays various styles of hybrid jazz and other acoustic styles.  He is known for his musicality, meaning it doesn’t just sound lot a lot of notes going nowhere.  There are few guitarists that I have heard in contemporary music that are as musical.  When you listen closely to this song and compare it to the original, you’ll realise how clever Pat is.  He also wrote the song that David Bowie sang in the movie ‘The Falcon and the Snowman’.  Note how he has reharmonized the song at about the 3 minute level.

Pat Metheny and people such as Eberhard Weber, Chic Correa, John Abercrombie, Ralph Towner and Keith Jarrett introduced many people to a style of music that could have easily been ignored. They aded a freshness to music. Thirty years later he is still making new valid musical statements. His recent work with Bass player Charlie Haden is incredibly beautiful, the album Beyond The Missouri Sky recorded in 1997 is essential listening if you are a guitar player that likes chords, melody and guita arrangements.

In this guitar tutorial I cover Chord triads using 7th chords.

Have you ever found that when you are playing guitar that your chords sound a bit BIG and that you’d like to create a bit more space for the other players? Here’s a great solution.

I learnt a lot of things from the great Jazz Guitar Player Ike Isaacs when he lived in Sydney.  One thing that he taught me was how to play triads.  His reasoning was that they were more mobile and it was easier to move a three note chord.  I find them very useful for playing fingerstyle accompaniment and it’s really easy to add a few extra bass notes here and there to make it even more interesting.  On a semi acoustic guitar like a Gibson ES 175 they can sound gorgeous. These day I play an Ibanez 105N and they sound just as sweet.

 This exercise is based totally on seventh chords, working through the cycle of fifths ( in reverse) , as soon as you start ataying it your ears will tell you where it is going.  I’ve started it  up on the 12th fret at E7.  You may like to start at bar four of the exercise just to get used to it, and when you are ready then move up to the twelfh and work your way down.

 The pattern goes E7, A7, D7, G7, C7, F7, Bb7, Eb7, Ab7, Db7, Gb7, B7.

 The fingering I use is fingers 1, 2 and 4 on the first chord then 2, 3, 4 on the next one etc

You will notice I’ve left out one of the chord notes in every chord, the 5th, but note how the seventh chord still retains its basic sound.

For the Printable downloadable version click Using seventh Triads for guitar chord playing

Guitar players and other musicians get a little musically stale, you know that feeling when you feel absolutely and totally uninspired?

One of the reasons is that it’s easy to be disorganised, sound familiar?

Another is because you’re playing the same thing over and over.

Some weeks ago I started writing a few variations on a a blues scale, things that I use unconsciously, so I thought I’d share them.  G Blues sits very nicely on the acoustic guitar.  Don’t worry if you can’t read music dots, the guitar tab is there as well and is easy to follow.

The G blues Variation that I have done is not a song. It is some scalar (new word…I just made it up) ideas that can be used over a straight blues that consists of G7, C7 and D7. Easy enough.  You’ll notice I haven’t written so the ascend and then descend, I’ve added some little twists to make it more musical.  I know many guitarists that play real hard at scales to get faster and faster and faster and faster…then eventually they play themselves off the map because they are “Great Scale Players” but are musically numb. As I’ve played for so long and have suffer every musical ailment I think a little more about what I put out. 

 The standard Blues scale, what I refer to as a Minor Blues scale is G, B flat, C,  D Flat, F

The things I put on my blogs are very good resources, the other guitar players that can play well realise this and many of the visitors don’t realise what they are getting here for free, there’s years of work offered here.

To download the printable version click G Blues Scale Variations Free Tab and Notation

I generally don’t write about clasical guitar as I stick pretty much to steel string. But I think it’s important to be aware of all the different styles and approaches. So I have decided to post about Narciso yepes. Narciso is one of my all time favourite classical guitar players.  This youTube is a standard song called Romance, a song that can be played beuatifully if the player concentrates properly.  Although it is a reasonably simple guitar piece, and has been interpreted by many players of very different skill levels, there is still plenty of room for interpretation.

I first heard Yepes in the seventies playing the music of De Falla and also Rodriguez.  He died in 1997, he was Spanish and played the ten string guitar.

Any piece of music in the hands of the right person can be beautiful

John Butler is one of the great contemporay guitar players that manages to be be cool enough to fit nicely into the contemporay acoustic rock market but is well respected by his peers.  He’s no slouch as a guitarist, is very popular in Australia and bridges the gap between styles. You’ll often find his music categorized in the music shops under roots. He uses technology extremely well and can overdrive an acoustic guitar but it still sounds musical. His years busking has helped him develop a style that has confidence and strength. He uses a number of open tunings on the guitar, for those that are unfamiliar with what that means, quite simply: The guitar is tuned differently, this creates a number of new tonal possibilities that are not physically possible in normal tuning. John was born in California.

This song is called ‘The Ocean’

Andy McKee is definitely one of the most interesting guitar players I’ve heard since Michael Hedges.  There have been quite a few guitar players that have attempted to do the Hedges style of open tuning/ percussive /hammer-on pull off approach but what I like about Andy is his ability to keep it musical.  A good test of music is to close your eyes and see what it sounds like.  There are many flashy guitar players out there but Andy’s guitar playing stands up by itself unaccompanied. 

Hats off to the man. acousticguitarist.wordpress.com

There are also other interesting resources, articles and videos at my other guitar blog that specilaises in acoustic guitar. acousticguitar.wordpress.com

Many guitar players that I have met have managed to play at very high standard but due to life’s circumstances they found themselves in situations where they virtually stopped playing guitar.  It could be because family, disillusionment with the music industry, health, substance abuse, or many other scenarios that can leave a musician feeling uninspired. Over the period of time that I have played guitar, even though I have an incredibly deep passion for music, I personally have found that have been times that I have drifted away from music. As a guitar player you often find yourself ‘between jobs’ and this is the time when a lot of life’s challenges and diversion get in the way of music.  Many of the things I discuss in my blog posts, I have never seen addressed in music books or discussed openly by most players. I have decided to write about this because I recently got together with a very good guitar player that I played with just under twenty years ago, he all but stopped playing for a number of years, this for me is a fantastic thing because good players need to play and it is a loss to all of us when they don’t.

So here are a number of things that I think will help some of the players that have stopped playing, ease back into music.

1. Find some recordings that will inspire you to play.  Make sure they are not too complex.
2. Clean up your guitar.  Get rid of any old dirt on the fretboard
3. Change the strings; I recommend going a gauge lighter
4. Make sure your instrument is set up well
5. Allot some time to practice.  Formalise it by writing it down and stick to it

Stay there for the whole session, turn off the mobile, unplug the sign, and put a note on the door

6. Do some simple exercises to get your fretting hand going
7. Do some picking exercises (fingerstyle or plectrum) to get the picking hand going
8. Write a short list of songs that you used to play.  Make sure they are not too complex, if need be get some simple charts just in case your memory is a bit foggy
9. Don’t waste time playing snippets of music that you can’t really remember, this could dishearten you; you may end up getting frustrated
10. Be really focused but keep as relaxed as possible
11. When you finish, make sure you finish on a song that you can play reasonably ok
12. Write a plan for your next session and stick to it

There are many other things that may be useful but the ones listed above include most of the aspects that require attention, these include: 

A good working instrument

A plan

Techniques

Mental attitude

Have you ever been to watch a guitarist play and he/she spend so much time frigging around on the stage before they start playing the first song that you are already wishing you hadn’t bothered going to see them? Regardless whether it be blues, classical, rock or whatever style, it’s darn annoying.

Some  players are fantastic at chatting and tuning up before they start, they have got it down so that it’s become part of the act.  This sort of skill you are born with or it comes from years of performing.  If you don’t have this skill, there are a number of things to consider. 

Here’s a list of what you need to think about:

• Are you there early enough?
• Have you checked out the room?
• Do you know where the power points are?
• Are your cables long enough?
• What PA system is available and do you know how to use it?
• Have you done a set list?
• Is there a place you can tune up quickly nearby?
• Do you have spare plectrums and strings?
• Is your guitar in good working order?
• Do you have spare batteries if you need them?
• Do you know the tunes well enough to be performing?
• Is your mobile off?  Unless it’s part of the act

These things listed above are part of a long list of things that need to be considered if you are performing in public.

And the BIG one:  Don’t ever practice the song you are about to play on stage before you play it… I’ve seen this so many times.

And do a sound check if humanly possible and tune your instrument properly

I first became aware of the guitar player Jorge Strunz in 1976 when he played beautiful and blistering speed guitar on the Caldera album, the jazz rock (for lack of words) band from South America.  Some years later I was pleased to hear that he had teamed up with the Iranian born guitar player Ardeshir Farar. The blend of the two styles together worked beauifully.  Flamenco has middle eastern roots, so the combination of the two players was bound to work.  This tune has a hand drum and violin accompaniment.  These guys are ‘as fast as’,  but maintain a sense of melody regardless.  If you haven’t heard them, you are in for a treat if you appreciate magnificent guitar players. 

As guitar players, I think we need to be in awe of these guys, because if you play guitar you would probably realise how good they are. I’m tempted to say ’shred’ hre and there but they are very musical and take the listener through so many phases in this one song.  I own there first few solo albums on vinyl….they are not going anywhere and I consider them irreplacable.

Philip Catherine may be unknown guitarist to many people but he was the guitarist that joined Focus (Hocus Pocus) after the great Jan Akkerman left. The following video shows him in in action on what loks like a Lowden guitar.  Nigel Clark is a superb guitar player from Scotland. Another great Scottish player worth investigating is Martin Taylor.

These guys are serious.  Some of you readers may remember the incredible duets that Philip did with Larry Coryell on the Splendid and Twin House albums of the 70’s. Some of plectrum guitarists greatest in action

This is a brilliant duet that exemplifies how beautiful two guitars of different styles can work together, still play fast and sound musical.  Coryell’s playing in this tune, when he takes a guitar break reminds of the great player from Belgium Philip Catherine.  It’s a very fine line always, playing at a very high technical level but trying to keep musical.  Playing fast is not hard at all, being musical and playing fast is hard.  It requires technique, restraint and the correct use of both speed, space and phrasing.

The late great Joe Pass is a perfect example of someone that has mastered improvisation on the guitar.  Although he didn’t play straight acoustic guitar, he was a master of the semi-acoustic, what’s a few different shaped sound holes amongst friends anyway. I first bought the Joe Pass guitar books over 30 years ago now.  What is really important to recognise is that we don’t necessarily play the same style as a person/guitarist but they can still inspire us, give us a new resource to draw from and help us to develop as guitar players.

 The tune is “All the Things You Are”. 

Some people are intimidated by great players. But I find all good players inspring, regardless of style because they show us a potential that we may not have ever considered.