The School of Feedback Guitar Blog

My post yesterday dealt with the the rush to share songs. This is the situation where everything a professional musician writes ought to be heard. I realized today that I made a mistake. I didn't clarify the process I had in mind about how professional musicians go about sharing. Here is a very typical way to do that:

1. Write it

2. Record it at a professional studio (Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio in Chicago, is $600 a day but add another $700 if you want to work with Steve. Crazy.. This is what pops up when you click on Steve Albini's picture. Abbey Road doesn't even list their prices)

3. Mix it

4. Master it (aka, send it off to an engineer who does the final touches)

5. The label/benefactor then markets it in preperation for the release.

6. Release it.

7. Tour the hell out of it, unless you are Paul McCartney or Brian Wilson.

When a person has unlimited label support  it is easy to do the above, as long as they don't mind being in the studio all the time. There are also guys out there like Randy Rogers who skirt this sort of idea. Randy apparently writes so many songs that I imagine that he doesn't have time to go through this process. I don't know for sure. From what I can gather, he tries out his songs on audiences whenever he writes them. This is really smart. Bonus that he also has a bunch of songs just sitting around and he can pop out at the right moment. 

What other ways are there to share?

Put up a Myspace page. Do a website with a simple mp3 player. You can just ask your friends over and play songs for them (bribery is kosher). You can play for your spouse. Lay the song on a pet. Force it upon everyone with a megaphone on top of a car. You can go to open mics. You can do just about anything. So share if you have songs bursting out of you, dammit!

There is a wise saying: You have make some space if you want something new in your life. I think this is true with teaching guitar and getting more clients. If you want more clients, you gotta make some space for them.

Sometimes, in between lessons, I'll sit in my studio without any distractions. I'll lock the door. I'll try to say to myself "Man, I really could be teaching right now." Doing this can have some interesting effects. First, it definitely preps the mind for teaching, and helps to give a bad-ass lesson to someone I like teaching anyways. Second, it's never a bad thing to think that we could be more successful (maybe in my opinion). If it goes well and works, then hey who can argue with progress?

Sometimes the temptation of filling that time with Twitter, blogging, computers, or whatever is too intense, and yeah I'll just dive in. I still recognize that I need my mind to be ready and relaxed. Doing that means emptying the space to make room for something more important, like teaching, being with friends, playing music, and having money to eat food. Food is good for the stomach. I'd rather eat than not eat. Therefore Twitter, you will get second priority.

Making a space and refusing for it to be filled with anything other than what I want (clients for me. What do you want?) tends to re-enforce the idea that I am here to teach too. The less I think about teaching during the day can means the less I find a rhythm. With any luck, I stay far away from the computer, and I just teach. Empty the space of time-wasters, fill the space with students, mentally if not physically. Maybe it's just dumb common sense, but still worth a mention.

Picking up a guitar and starting from scratch is hard. One of the first challenges someone faces is to learn how to play a chord clearly. For example, the third, or ring, finger, it can be a little bit lazy and touch the string below it. Like for instance if you were playing a E Major, the 3rd finger could be touching that G string below it, and thus muddle the most important note of the chord.

One goal that every beginning guitarist could aspire to is to make every note last at least five seconds. What helps this process is refusing to be on the pads of the fingers. It's more about being on the fingertips. I have found that 95% of people I tell this to, in private lessons, warm up to the idea. Being on your fingertips works simply because there is less margin for error. Smaller area to muddle around with, too.

UPDATE: 12-18-09'

Each string should have sound for at least five seconds, just like the video below.

This blog entry's purpose is to describe and clear up any confusion surrounding how guitarists commonly name chords. If you have ever been confused about why "C" and "C Major" are the same exact chord, this entry is for you. I'm using the root note "C" throughout this post. Sometimes there are fingering differences because of the root note. "E Flat Major" for example is easiest to finger as a barre chord, and an open E Flat Major is difficult, though not impossible, to have as an open chord. This post is also a bit technical, so you have been warned if details like this bore you.

One final thing to take notice of:  Any "X" that you see on the chord chart means that if you can help it, try not to play that string.

Major Chords

In guitar, "C" and "C Major" always mean the same thing. "C" means that you can play a "C Major," and vice-versa. Choose whichever way to play this you like, but the most common way to play a "C" looks like this:

There is one other thing worth mentioning. If someone asks you to play a "C Chord," as opposed to a C or C major, they are basically hinting for you to play an open, or non-barred, C Major chord. This is exactly like the chord above. However, when someone wants you to play a barre chord, chances are they will be far more descriptive. For example, a "C Major Barre Chord" could mean this:

Do you remember how "C" and "C Major" are interchangeable? It's the same with barre chords. If someone says "C Barre Chord," I think you can safely assume that someone wants you to play a "C Major Barre Chord."

Minor Chords and Power Chords

If someone asks you to play a "C Minor" or a "C Minor Chord," it means only one thing: Play a C Minor chord any way that you can, barre or not. Minor chords are a little more exclusive than major chords. They are just a tad bit more rare on the guitar because there are more common open chords that are major. It's hard to play a "C Minor Chord" without playing the barre. Honestly, I just get the job done any way I can:

Power chords are the same as barres; A guitarist will normally ask you to play a power chord, specifically.

Upon further reflection, I think using MS Paint probably wasn't the best idea to make these diagrams. I think I am going to resolve to make these on Illustrator next time. Oh well. DiY Forevs!