Friday, June 29, 2012

Awwww, Isn't he cute?

My son from a year ago...
And the singer...

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Recent R&B Session...

Some of the guitars were my $99 Squire...


And beware, I just picked up an $89 used Squire, it's already appearing on some tracks.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Cool Site - Flatpick Apprentice

This guy is "sharing my efforts to attain flatpick guitar competency" on this cool site with pdf's and rhythm mp3's at different tempos.

Flatpickapprentice

Print the pdf's if for no other reason than for sight-reading practice (and pick up some bluegrass licks along the way.)

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Drop Two's Notated

With all the video lessons posted about drop two's I wanted to give you a visual aid to remind you why they exist.

In the image below you can see how the first, stacked Cmaj7 chords are quite hard to play on the guitar. If not impossible. On piano no problem. So drop the second note from the top in the stacks on the left down an octave to create a new and improved second chord voicing that you can really rap your hand around.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Drop Two Chord - Lesson 27 (Altered Chords)





Third inversion Drop two chords on the bottom four strings...

G7 - 13 14 12 12 x x
G9 - 13 14 12 14 x x

G7b9 - 13 14 12 13 x x
G7#9 - 13 14 12 15 x x

G9#5 - 13 14 13 14 x x
G9b5 - 13 14 11 14 x x

G7#5#9 - 13 14 13 15 x x
G7#5b9 - 13 14 13 13 x x
G7b5#9 - 13 14 11 15 x x
G7b5b9 - 13 14 11 13 x x

When moved up and down all 12 frets that's ANOTHER 96 chords!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The Drop Two Chord - Lesson 26 (Altered Chords)


Second inversion Drop two chords on the bottom four strings...

G7 - 10 10 9 10 x x
G9 - 10 12 9 10 x x

G7b9 - 10 11 9 10 x x
G7#9 - 10 13 9 10 x x

G9#5 - 11 12 9 10 x x
G9b5 - 9 12 9 10 x x

G7#5#9 - 11 13 9 10 x x
G7#5b9 - 11 11 9 10 x x
G7b5#9 - 9 13 9 10 x x 
G7b5b9 - 9 11 9 10 x x

When moved up and down all 12 frets that's ANOTHER 96 chords!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Drop Two Chord - Lesson 25 (Altered Chords)



First inversion Drop two chords on the bottom four strings...

G7 - 7857xx
G9 - 7877xx

G7b9 - 7867xx
G7#9 - 7887xx

G9#5 - 7878xx
G9b5 - 7876xx

G7#5#9 - 7888xx
G7#5b9 - 7868xx
G7b5#9 - 7886xx
G7b5b9 - 7866xx

When moved up and down all 12 frets that's ANOTHER 96 chords!

Crazy Pedal Giveaway...

Check it out here.

Video here.

Monday, June 11, 2012

The Drop Two Chord - Lesson 24 (Altered Chords)


Root inversion Drop two chords on the bottom four strings...

G7 - 3534xx
G9 - 5534xx

G7b9 - 4534xx
G7#9 - 6534xx

G9#5 - 5634xx
G9b5 - 5434xx

G7#5#9 - 6634xx
G7#5b9 - 4634xx
G7b5#9 - 6434xx
G7b5b9 - 4434xx

Cheap Guitar God - Stella


Made by the Oscar Schmidt Company originally. Played by Leadbelly and Charlie Patton. Doc Watson and Kurt Cobain started on Stellas.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Drop Two Chord - Lesson 23 (Altered Chords)


C7 - x 13 14 12 13 x
C9 - x 13 14 12 15 x

C7b9 - x 13 14 12 14 x
C7#9 - x 13 14 12 16 x

C9#5 - x 13 14 13 15 x
C9b5 - x 13 14 11 15 x

C7#5#9 - x 13 14 13 16 x
C7#5b9 - x 13 14 13 14 x
C7b5#9 - x 13 14 11 16 x
C7b5b9 - x 13 14 11 14 x

Friday, June 8, 2012

How Long Should You Practice?

Great article here.

Linked from Mark Wein

Three Jazz Guitar Songs That Changed Me...

And what I practiced after that...

Joe Pass - Night and Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5uBmznvTgU

Wes Montgomery - Tear It Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iteKJQRXsno

George Benson - Affirmation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUXRELGO9kk

Thursday, June 7, 2012

The Drop Two Chord - Lesson 22 (Altered Chords)



C7 - x 10 10 9 11 x
C9 - x 10 12 9 11 x

C7b9 - x 10 11 9 11 x
C7#9 - x 10 13 9 11 x

C9#5 - x 11 12 9 11 x
C9b5 - x 9 12 9 11

C7#5#9 - x 11 13 9 11 x
C7#5b9 - x 11 11 9 11 x
C7b5#9 - x 9 13 9 11 x
C7b5b9 - x 9 11 9 11 x

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Inside Out DADGAD

Here I talk about being creative and thinking outside the box. A DADGAD tuning is a standard tuned guitar (EADGBE) with the 6th, 2nd and 1st string tuned down a whole step, but with this tuning I started at standard and tuned the other three strings down a whole step instead or EGCFBE. I ended up with a very strange tuning that yields some cool ideas.


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The "Free Range Groove"

A groove using 16th notes but with accents of three.



The chords in the progression are...

E5 - x79900
C#m7 - x46600
Bsus - x24400
A2 - x02200

Lowden F22 Guitar

Elixir Acoustic Guitar Strings - Light
http://www.amazon.com/Elixir-Strings-Acoustic-POLYWEB-Coating/dp/B0002E1NNM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1338763632&sr=8-6

Dunlop Nylon 1mm Pick
http://www.amazon.com/Dunlop-Nylon-Standard-Picks-Black/dp/B0002D0CHQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338763743&sr=8-1

Monday, June 4, 2012

Friday, June 1, 2012

Intro to the Standard Folk Groove


This is what I call the "Standard Folk Groove" a very useful pattern for folk, country, rock and bluegrass.

1 2&(3)&4& - d du udu (d=down, u=up)