DEC GUITAR NEWSLETTER, issue no. 2
2008 Nov 29
WELCOME to the 2nd installment of the DEC guitar newsletter! This issue is going to deal with 1. The fastest guitarists ever! 2. For those that are now writing music in your lessons - I've got a paper dealing with how you can develop your motives (definitions below) 3. Being able to find notes on the fretboard. Have a happy thanksgiving!!!
1. The fastest guitarists ever - who you should definitely type into youtube and watch them play. Some are not necessarily the most tasteful, but they are all amazing! Feel free to share your opinions with the group.
Fusion/etc:
1. John McLaughlin
2. Steve Howe
3. Al Dimeola
4. Joe Satriani
5. Alan Holdsworth
6. Slash
7. Jimi Hendrix
8. Jeff Beck
9. Steve Morse
10. Eric Johnson
11. Robert Fripp
Metal:
1. Michael Angelo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rutyA12z3Ok
2. Paul Gilbert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES1RypBww_g
3. Yngwie Malmsteen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj3ec2cCaJw
4. Van Halen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_lwocmL9dQ
5. Buckethead
6. Randy Rhoads
7. Rusty Cooley
8. Kirk Hammet
9. Dimebag Darrell
10. Steve Vai
11. John Petrucci
12. Chris Broderick
Jazz:
1. Jimmy Bruno
2. Pat Martino
3. George Benson
4. Django Reinhardt
5. Larry Coryell
6. Scott Henderson
7. Kurt Rosenwinkel
8. Frank Gambale
9. Bill Connors
10. Daryl Stuermer (Jean Luc Ponty)
Music Theory:
Developing motives - what does that mean? A motive is a small piece of musical material that sort of defines the melody in a piece of music. The first "happy birthday to you" is a motive, and every time the words are repeated, the motive is developed. What does "develop" mean? It means to take a motive and have it undergo some sort of musical process. My favorites are: 1. Sequencing - taking the motive and starting it on a higher or lower note. 2. Augmentation/Dimunition - stretching/shortening the rhythmic values of the motive. 3. Retrograde - playing the notes backwards (starting from the last note and ending on the first) and 4. Inversion - a mirror image of the notes; example - if the note goes up, the inversion goes down. For those who want to know a lot more - ask for my pdf on "variation techniques."
A Couple of Papers...
Finding notes on the fretboard
Chords that go along with a scale
Snippets of Wisdom: taken from Jamie Andreas and his guitarprinciples.com
Excerpts from "Climb Every Mountain"
I am in the business of building excellent guitar players, and so, I must convey a certain truth to them along the way, one that does not seem to be obvious and sufficiently appreciated by most people. It is this: it is relatively easy to achieve about 80% of anything. It is relatively easy to develop ourselves to about 80% of proficiency in any field we may choose. If you want to become a computer programmer, a business person, own a restaurant, be a carpenter, be a musician, anything, you can study it, get experience, and become "functional". Most people that bother to develop something useful (and most do, being forced as we are to "make a living") achieve this
level.
But to become really good, to start to rise above, and noticeably so, the average person doing what you do, THAT takes a whole different kind of effort, and a whole lot more of it. Most people do not do this in their particular field. Most people really are, when it comes down to it, content with doing what they "must", and keeping their standards and goals low enough to avoid too much demand and discomfort. That is why the age old lament of all employers is "you just can't find good help anymore". Yes, because the #1 goal of most people is to DO as little as possible and GET as much as possible. That is the formula for mediocrity. To put it simply, it is easy to be mediocre, that is why so many people are achieving it.
We are all climbing a mountain. In fact, we are climbing various mountains all the time. Becoming a guitar player is a mountain, and every piece of music you work on is its own mountain. It is easy to work on a solo, a song, or a piece, and get it "pretty good". You know, 80% of the notes are there, so hey, leave me alone, what do you want, ALL the notes! Come on, I would have to REALLY work hard on it to get that! To bring a piece of music from 80% to 90% is an incredibly demanding process. Climbing that mountain further and further is the essence of being an artist, no matter what your field of endeavor is.
Yes, that is the truth. It is easy to get 80% of the way up the mountain, any interested party can do that. Closing in on that last 20%, well, that separates the men from the boys, as they say. Here is the thing to understand: every step forward and upward required to move past the common crowd will most likely require as much as ALL the effort previously put out. The higher we climb, the more we must exert for every inch gained, but every inch is precious, and worth more than everything before it. The gap between 99% to 100% is, in fact, infinite.
Songs that are being worked on in lessons:
It Don't Mean a thing
Stairway to Heaven
Moonlight Sonata
Moonlight and Satch's Boogie - Joe Satriani
The Dave Matthews Band
Villanova Junction - Jimi Hendrix
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