La Patrie Concert Cutaway with Carlos CP-1 High End

Amazing gig tonight. At this micro brewery I play on Thursdays, I'm usually done by 9:30 PM because most folks have eaten, drank and split by that time (Ladies night at the Railroad Blues just down the street). But, every now and again, the place is rocking until 10:00 PM (My "official" quitting time). I played until 10:15 tonight. There were two huge groups in, one of which was a group of Harley tourers. Lots of fun.

It just so happened that tonight was the first night I decided to play an entire gig with my new La Patrie Concert Cutaway, which I have now put the Carlos CP-1 High End co-axial undersaddle pickup in.



As much as I love my two Anthony Murray concert classicals, I just can't perform any serious gigs with them anymore. I compose way too much stuff that goes above the twelfth fret, and playing my set on a non-cutaway is simply more trouble than it's worth now. The La Patrie is the perfect solution for me.

You may notice that I have a metal wound G string on the guitar. It works better on this instrument with the Carlos - a nylon G wolfs out for some reason, sounding twice as loud as the rest of the strings. I'm thinking it may be the compensated saddle. I'll use it this way for now, but I may find a fat, uncompensated saddle and see how that works, but the nylon G was simply unusable. Like I say, at least twice as loud as all of the rest of the strings (Which balance perfectly). The Carlos is... highly strung and temperamental, I'm afraid. Like this girlfriend I used to have who was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Beautiful, but touchy.

One nice fringe benefit is that, since the Carlos CP-1 is so incredibly sensitive and has such a ridiculously wide dynamic range, the super thin German Spruce top on the Murray made it difficult to control - it would feed back way too soon, and my ham-fisted playing made it a.. er... "challenge" to hold an interpretation together. The thicker Cedar top on the La Patrie gives the CP-1 plenty of dynamic range - more than any other nylon string system out there for sure - but it provides more control (And, fewer feedback problems) as well as a darker, woodier tone. One of my regular listeners said, "It sounds just like an acoustic guitar!" Exactly. The Godin Grand Concert Synth Access guitar with the RMC Polydrive does not sound acoustic - it sounds electric - but I like that: It will remain my main axe for the forseeable future. The La Patrie/Carlos CP-1 setup will just broaden my tonal palette.

On a tangentally related note, the fretted Glissentar has a solution now too, which I will work out in the coming months. What I need there is more gain and tone control, so I'll use the preamp of the Lexicon Signature 284, which will up its anemic output (Which is a result of the semi-solid nature of the guitar, and not a shortcoming with the Carlos CP-1A Professional pickup). For that I'll need to get 1) another Signature 284, and 2) a Lexicon MPX-1 to replace the MPX-G2. Should be fun: I love to play with gear. But... it will be expensive. *arg*

I also now have an endpin in the La Patrie, so I'll be able to play it standing up.



I did a few gigs standing up a year or so ago - and I want to get back to that - but I need to re-arrange my rehersal space (Spare bedroom) to allow me to practice standing again. One of the things I learned to love as a rock guitarist was playing standing up, and for big stage gigs (Hey, I can dream) there is nothing like it. Mucho fun.

I also have a truss rod in the La Patrie, so I can FINALLY use extra hard tension strings on an acoustic. Now my dream of using the same D'Addario EXP44 sets on both electric and acoustic guitars is finally a reality. Hooray.

*****

Finally, I am going to Tucson to play at El Ojito Springs tomorrow, so no more posts until next week sometime.



Hope it's not too hot in Tucson... Then again...

Read More

Modal Mastery: Metronome Addendum

One thing I neglected to mention so far is the type of metronome I use for this project. Back circa 1990 I got two of these diminutive Seiko DM20's and have used nothing else since.



After over fifteen years, I'm only on the second set of batteries!

*****

What I like about the Seiko DM20:

1) The beat range goes up to a logical 250 BPM.

Many digital metronomes only go to 208 BPM, which is a holdover from the mechanical metronome days - it used to be that 208 BPM was as fast as a mechanical metronome could reliably go. Korg metronomes max out at 208 BPM, which is why I use Seiko. I am already at 210 BPM in the Modal Mastery series, for example, and I find it much easier to play at alternating strong/weak eighths than to keep track of strong/weak/weak/weak sixteenths. Once 250 BPM is reached you'll have to go to sixteenths, of course, but 208 BPM is just too soon, IMO. At 250 BPM, for instance, you just divide by two and return to 125 BPM and select the sixteenth subdivisions. I just think it makes more sense.

2) Subdivisions of eighths (which I'm currently using), eighth triplets, and sixteenths can be selected.

I don't need fancy, schmancy subdivisions of odd numbers, or of subdivisions with an element de-selected, I just need the basics, and this has all of the basics. 1, 2, 3, 4. 5. 6. and 7 can be selected without subdivisions, though, should you want to work with those. It's just that, at 250 BPM maximum velocity, you'll run into limitations if velocity is what you are working on.

3) They are super easy to use.

Because it does not have a bunch of arcane functions, the DM20 is intuitive to use right out of the box.

4) They are about the same size as a stack of four or five credit cards.

I just toss one into whatever gig bag or guitar case I'm using, and I always have one with me.

5) The batteries last for... for... for... ever... ever... ever...

*****

The problem is, of course, these Seiko DM 20's haven't been made for many years. Not to worry: The same old metronome in a sassy new package (I FINALLY figured out how to embed an image in a hyperlink, so you can click on the image to go to Amazon):



Ta, daaaa! The DM series is now up to 70 (It was only 10 and 20 when they first came out). I just ordered one of these, so I'll update this later and let you know how it works.

*****



Bad things can happen if you lose track of the time.

Read More

More Milestones

This is pretty cool:



15,000 is small potatoes in the larger scheme of bloggers - especially some of those politicos - but for a little niche music blog it's kind of neat. It took over a year to get to 5K and less than eight months to add 10K more, so my traffic has increased quite a bit (From 10-20 per day to 30-40 per day).

*****

Got some cool gigs coming up:

Monday 03/26 I'll be at the Railroad Blues in Alpine from 8-10 PM.

Thursday 03/29 I'll be at the Edelweiss Brewery just down the street from 6:30-9:30 PM.

Then on 04/01 I'll be in Tucson, AZ at El Ojito Springs from 7-9 PM.

*****

The Modal Mastery project is coming along nicely. I have gotten into the thirds now, and my velocity is comfortably in the 200 BPM range. I'm going to take a break from that series for a while until I catch up. Got some guitar blogging to do anyway.

*****

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz...



and a man's fancy turns to...

Read More

Modal Mastery III: Six Weeks to Mastering Fourths and Fifths

This is the hurdle. Fourth intervals are the mother bear since they require flanges (Laying fingers flat across two strings) to execute. Now, I'm not putting fingerings on these patterns because there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat here. One decision you have to make is whether to project finger 4 forward from three when it needs to traverse two major seconds on a string, or whether you want to allow fingers one and two to make the first second (Versus one and three). The other issue is when to play three notes on the G string versus only two. I'll allow you to work out which logic you prefer, as I did the same thing, and experimentation helped me out quite a bit, so it will do the same for you.

I'm just finishing pattern one from the previous entry, so I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but I want to establish the patterns for those who may work faster than I do, and so with this entry the ambitious can extrapolate the rest of the six week chunks. For the record, I've nudged up against 200 BPM during pattern 1, so that goal is completed.

Here are the fourth patterns:



And the fifths:



Good luck with these. They are quite a challenge. It was several attempts before I managed to get through these for the first time with free-style (No metronome) plectrum technique, but when you do, you'll be ahead of over 90% of the guitarists out there, because I hear these patterns in almost nobody's improvising (Alan Holdsworth is a notable exception).

*****



That's actually quite clever of Elvgren: Note the Tory Gate entrance to the dog house, and the Kanji characters above it. The dog, of course, is a Shi Tsu. Sure, it's a mixing of Japanese and Chinese influences, but quite nice nonetheless.

I spent an inordinate amount of time in a dog house that looked just like that back when I was married. This year marks the blessed tenth anniversary... since I divorced her.

Read More

Modal Mastery II: Five Weeks to Mastering Seconds and Thirds

This regimen is divided up into six week chunks (Though, I hardly ever manage to do a form every day), so the basic competence stage is really just the first seven days of this six week series addressing second and third intervallic patterns through the mode forms. It just so happens that playing the mode forms linearly is the first "pattern."

I really have no idea what classical guitar teachers do with scales in terms of pedagogy - I had a classical guitar teacher give me the position-shifting "Segovia Scales" once and I realized they were illogical, so I blew them off - but what I developed through this method was the ability to improvise modally like Al Di Meola and Paco DeLucia do: That is the goal here. In other words, the idea isn't to have as a goal only the technical ability to play linear passages in composed pieces solidly, but to master the mode forms by applying patterns to them so that one can improvide lines in any modal form. A higher musical goal, IMO.

Also, if you go through this series you will have developed an integral view of the entire fretboard in your head, which as a composer of music for the guitar, I find to be indespensible. Those goofy Segovia Scales won't do that for you.

Here are the first two weeks' patterns:



And the next three weeks worth:



As you can see, there is a logical and systematic pattern developing here. I actually copped these patterns from real Al Di Meola licks and just organized them into a systematic modal exercise series, so these patterns are really the basic building blocks of that kind of an improvisational style (I'm sure Al - I call him "Al" because I've met him before - practiced patterns just like this). Remember, I came up with this when I was a twenty year old student at Berklee playing with plectrum technique. I got plenty fast doing this too.

Now, these patterns are a lot longer than just playing straight through the mode forms, so the system will have to be foreshortened to keep to the ninety minute per day goal. This is quite easy to do. To cut the system in half, all you have to do is play up the pattern in one position, and down the pattern in the next higher or lower position (Depending on whether you are working up or down the neck). To cut it in half yet again (Which will end up being just 25% of the original system) we will be playing down the fingerboard at one metronome setting/using one right hand fingering variation and then up using the next lower or higher metronome setting and the next right hand fingering permutation. So, in actual point of fact, these patterns will take less time to play through (I did two mode forms of pattern one today).

At some point here you will reach critical mass, and you will break through and get close to your natural trained maximum velocity - when I did this with plectrum technique I reached that point going through pattern two here - and that is a great feeling. Already during this project I've gotten from 184 BPM to 196 BPM, so it's coming, but I'm not there... not quite yet.

*****

In honor of St. Patrick's day I give you the most gorgeous example of Irish colleen in recorded history:



The Quiet Man is, like, my favorite John Wayne movie of all... for some reason.

Read More

Modal Mastery I: Seven Days to Basic Competence

Back in my rock and roll days I went through a phase during which I spent several hours per day playing scales. In fact, I spent so much time on mindless scale exercises that it became a hindrance to other aspects of my musical development. This poisoned my outlook so much that when I switched to traditional guitar, I vowed never to waste so much time on scales again. Well, never say never: I've recently been running into some technical limitations with respect to single line playing, and there is no way around the problem other than to put in a lot of time playing scales with a metronome. It's not so much velocity I'm after (I have a ridiculously slow natural maximum, so that would be fruitless anyway), but strength and solidity. Scales can give you that like nothing else.

*****

One of the nice things about being a mature musician is that you know how to practice smart, versus just practicing hard: Having been through the scale work before with plectrum technique, I know exactly what I need to do with alternating finger technique to get the desired results in the least amount of time. What you have to do is break the elements down and go through the permutations in the most efficient manner possible.

For the modes, there are the seven basic two-octave forms - those things are constant between plectrum and finger-style techniques. The right hand is exactly twice as complicated with finger-style technique though: Instead of having just upstroke and downstroke beginnings to deal with, there is rest stroke, free stroke, starting with i, and starting with m. With twenty-eight basic variants to deal with, you can easily see that getting bogged down is a real danger.

In order to avoid getting hopelessly mired in endless variations, it is necessary to combine the permutations into a single routine. The first step - the preliminary phase - is to make sure you have the seven two-octave in-position mode forms securely under your fingers.

*****



These are the forms I'll be using. You should get to the point where you can comfortably and effortlessly play through these seven mode forms at 120 BPM (As though this page was a piece of music) before proceeding.

*****

Once you have the forms under your fingers, then it is seven short 90 minute sessions to basic competence. Doing one of the forms per day ought to be no problem for even time-starved players. Here is the schedule:

DAY 1:

Form I: Ionian

01) Play from position IX to position I and back using rest stroke starting with i at 120 BPM.

02) Play from position IX to position I and back using rest stroke starting with m at 110 BPM.

03) Play from position IX to position I and back using free stroke starting with i at 100 BPM.

04) Play from position IX to position I and back using free stroke starting with m at 90 BPM.

Here, you can see that I have combined metronome work on a single mode form with all four right hand permutations. This is the basic pattern, which we will now repeat.

*****

05) Play 01 at 80 BPM.

06) Play 02 at 70 BPM.

07) Play 03 at 60 BPM.

08) Play 04 at 50 BPM

*****

Now, we will start to accelerate back to 120 BPM and beyond. Remember to allow only one finger on the fretboard at a time. The reason for this will becaome apparent when we start playing patterns in step two.

09) Play 01 at 40 BPM

10) Play 02 at 50 BPM.

11) Play 03 at 60 BPM.

12) Play 04 at 70 BPM.

*****

13) Play 01 at 80 BPM.

14) Play 02 at 90 BPM.

15) Play 03 at 100 BPM.

16) Play 04 at 110 BPM.

*****

Now we are right back exactly where we started from.

17) Play 01 at 120 BPM.

18) Play 02 at 130 BPM.

19) Play 03 at 140 BPM.

20) Play 04 at 150 BPM.

*****

I knew going in that my maximum comfortable velocity was circa 180 BPM, so at this point I start proceeding by increments of 5 BPM.

21) Play 01 at 160 BPM.

22) Play 02 at 165 BPM.

23) Play 03 at 170 BPM.

24) Play 04 at 175 BPM.

*****

And at this point I start increments of 2 BPM.

25) Play 01 at 180 BPM.

26) Play 02 at 182 BPM.

27) Play 03 at 184 BPM.

28) Play 04 at 186 BPM.

*****

My goal for this series was to be able to comfortably play eighth notes at 190 BPM (By day seven), so from here I proceed in increments of a single BPM. Depending on your natural maximum velocity - I have the slowest maximum of any guitarist I've ever heard of - you'll start slowing at whatever is 30 BPM below your natural max.

29) Play 01 at 187 BPM.

30) Play 02 at 188 BPM

31) Play 03 at 189 BPM.

32) Play 04 at 190 BPM.

*****

I started this project about ten days ago, so I'm well into the second phase now. During this first phase I kept a diary, and my failure point when I started was 184-186 BPM. By the time I finished I had increased that to 192-194 BPM, which is positively screaming for me.

One thing to keep in mind is that natural maximum velocities are genetic: If you are slow, there really isn't much you can do about it. These maximums vary not only by individual, but - as a percentage - by race as well. I'm a Caucasian of northern and western European ancestry, and we - as a group - tend to possess the lowest natural maximum velocities. Southern and eastern Europeans are by and large faster, and the negroid races posess the quickest velocities of all. There are always exceptions of course, but Paganini and Liszt were both southern/eastern Europeans, and I can think of no transcendental virtuosos who were northern/western Europeans. Al Dimeola, Paco DeLucia et al would tend to confirm this, but Ingwie Malmsteen seems to be an exception. Then there are people like Andre Watts and Stanley Clarke, who effortlessly reel off impossibly fast and smooth linear passages that also require incredible strength. It isn't fair, I tell you, but it is reality.

I learned about this years ago when I was a runner, by the way: There are two general types of muscle fibre - fast twitch and slow twitch - and they can function in two possible ways - aerobically or anerobically. Fast twitch anarobic guys become world class sprinters, while slow twitch aerobic guys become marathon runners. The perfectly balanced kick ass at about 10K.

I have all slow twitch aerobic muscle fibre, so I can run forever, but at a snail's pace. That translates perfectly to the guitar for me: I can jam for ten hours, but I can play no fast licks. I was much faster with a plectrum, but the slowness of my baseline - and everybody's baseline "speed limit" -is manifested in rapid alternating movements like fingers, arms, and legs going back and forth.

The idea here is simply to minimize my weakness in the area of single line playing as much as I can, not to join Paco DeLucia, Al DiMeola and John McLaughlin (Another exception) to form a quartet of Guitar Monsters.

BTW: If you have a lower natural max than I do, I'd really like you to contact me. I'm convinced that I'm the slowest guitarist in history. There ought to be an award for that!

*****



A reward like that would do nicely.

Read More

Axial Fugue: Toward a Fair Copy (Pt. 2)

OK, this little booger is in the bag now.

*****



We are at the beginning of the second half of the development here, and the c finger is required on the top system. After that, however, it's right back to orthadox traditional technique again.



Primary to making these things readable is consistency: I have the right hand indicators at the stem end of the note all the time, and the left hand indicators at the head end. Sometimes it is not possible to put the left hand finger designator numbers to the left of the note head because of crowding. Traditionally, this was solved by reducing the number of measures per system, but I select the numbers of measures per system to reflect the phrasing. So, I just put them where they will fit some times (Such as the final measure of the middle system here).

The pitch climax is the c-sharp in the last measure of this page, and so the fifth position is as high as the piece ever gets. Quite conservative in that respect, actually.



Here at the beginning of the recapitulation is the original Sergei Taneiev inspired contrapuntal combination that I wrote at the beginning of this project. Since I have been using my c finger since I was a steel string player, the alternating a - c on the second system is not as difficult as one might think. The repetitive pattern is actually quite natural feeling. Getting the left hand fingers into position smoothly is another thing entirely, though.



What I plan to do is learn the piece by sections: Learning the exposition will make the counterexposition easier to learn, learning the first development area will make the second easier to learn, and all of that together ought to shape my technique up for the recapitulation.



The recap is also in two parallel parts, the second of which is more developed, as you can see, so that will make for six bite-sized chunks. I figure one every month or so and in six months to a year I'll be ready to debut the thing. Grave, of course.



"Well, there you have it. There it is." as the line from Amadeus went.

I have posted both of these wretched, blasted PDF's on my Fileshare Page for those interested (In addition to the urtext and a MIDI to MP3, of course).

*****

I'm feeling quite a bit better today, and if I can just manage to get to sleep without any NyQuill tonight, I ought to be back to my practice routine tomorrow. That would be perfect, as the new year's first major gigs are coming up soon.



"Hi Ho, Silver!" Indeed.

Read More