Guitar Jam

Adventures in Guitar with Ronny North: It’s the Holidays Again!!!

By Ronny North
The holidays are always a weird time to work when you’re in the music business, especially when you’re in the middle of a project.

Right now I’m in the middle of finishing up my new CD and we’ve also been offered a bunch of shows that we’re now reviewing to see what would be the best opportunities for us.

When the holidays come that also means that band members have to have time off to go do family things and sometimes leave town if they’re family lives in another state. This means down time.

On this note, my drummer was leaving for a week to spend the holidays with his family in Maryland. We already knew when he was going to be gone so we made allowances for it and kept the time clear of any band stuff and shows. Sure enough, four days before he was going to leave we get an offer to play a big industry showcase on the day he was flying out. It was a great chance to show our stuff for the industry folks but there was no way to do it.

We also got a few other offers as well during our down time but we couldn’t take them. It was a bummer at first that we couldn’t do the showcase but in the end it fell through anyway so it was not a big loss.

Since we were down, I figured I’d finish up the new CD since I had the time and that we could mix when my drummer came back in a week.

I was recently watching the Gene Simmons reality show and he said something that I thought sounded a bit weird when I heard it but actually makes sense. He said if you worked through weekends and holidays you gain a ton of time to get way more work done. Even though it really does sound crazy it does make some sense. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about weekends off and vacations when you can but if you’re really striving to get something going and you’re not an established artist already you need to take advantage of all the time you can get to make your dream come true.

As I write this on Thanksgiving Day you will know that I’m one of the people who is always working on my career as an artist. It definitely causes trouble sometimes with my love ones but this is what I do.

Let’s look at what I’ve done today: My day started off with an early round of Thanksgiving golf with my Dad, brother and my friend. After we finished I came home and dove into returning band e-mails and filled a few orders that we received on my website (packed stuff for shipping). I also got some stuff ready to be shipped to a few magazines and radio stations that have requested promo stuff. Between all of this I answered more e-mails and returned Holiday greetings from fans and friends.

I got a lot accomplished. Later this weekend I’m going to work on things for the new CD in my studio. I am going to take my thing to the next level and to do that you have to put in the work. Later I’ll be doing Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

Nobody says that you can’t enjoy the holidays and get some work done too.

Next week I dive into my NAMM preparations. Now that’s a whole lot of articles waiting to be written. Stay tuned…….

Diamond Pedals Releases The Halo Chorus

Press Release
Diamond Guitar Pedals has added an analog stereo chorus to its line of hand built guitar pedals. The Halo Chorus uses a dual path configuration to provide both pitch and phase modulation effects that can be individually dialed in by the user to build wide, evolving soundscapes.

Tones ranging from subtle spatialization to deep modulated swirl are possible with the simple four control setup. Both mono and stereo operation is completely auto-configurable depending on the inputs and outputs that are plugged into, with true bypass on all inputs and outputs. An expression jack allows foot pedal control of modulation speed for rotating speaker-like effects, with speed indicated on the two-color LED even with the effect in bypass.

A phase switch is provided for stereo use that allows control of relative phase between its outputs, particularly useful for correcting phase differences between two different amplifiers, or as an effect in its own right.

Premium Panasonic capacitors, metal film resistors and audiophile Burr-Brown opamps are used to provide a pristine signal path and extended frequency response that complements electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and keyboard applications. Internally regulated operation at 15V provides additional signal headroom, and a 'killdry' switch can be set for use in parallel FX loops.

The Halo can be powered either by the provided AC adapter or from many pedal power supplies.

Diamond Guitar Pedals are available at dealers in more than 15 countries worldwide. All pedals are backed by a 5 year manufacturer warranty.

Specifications

• Technology: NOS analog bucket brigade delay
• LFO: 0.2 Hz to 10 Hz, sine or triangle wave
• Switching: full true bypass switching of stereo inputs
• Powering: 18 to 24VDC, internally regulated to 15VDC
• Size: 4.7 x 4.7 x 1.0 inches

Sound samples of the Diamond Chorus can be downloaded here.

The Daily Picks

Legendary Blues Guitarist Robert Lockwood Jr. Dies (BB)

Clapton Tour Returns to North America in 07 (LD)

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a Hot Ticket (CJam)

George Harrion Mini-Lesson (Guitar Noise)

Fingerstylin': Buon giorno, Signor Carcassi!”: Classical Guitar Music with Arpeggiated Patterns

By Mike Roberts
In our last adventure, we brought our right hand arpeggiation skills into the realms of folky rock and bluegrass. With some American music in our fingers, it’s time now to cross the Atlantic, turn back the clock a couple hundred years, and explore the music of Italian classical guitarist Matteo Carcassi (1792-1853).

Carcassi was a virtuoso player, but he wrote many pieces for beginners. He also wrote a classical guitar method book which is still widely used today. In fact, Carcassi’s method was my introduction to the world of classical guitar, back when I was an unruly teenager channeling Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani. The exercises in the Carcassi method are simple enough to be playable by neophytes, but rich enough in musical goodness to hook a jaded rocker like the 16-year-old Mike. They are also perfect illustrations of the right hand arpeggiated patterns we have been studying. Even if you’re not an aspiring classical player, these little pieces are worth a look; you’ll find all of these patterns and chords in American vernacular styles as well.

Carcassi’s pieces often use only a fragment of a chord, taking our stripped-down fingerings from “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and stripping them down even more. Because the fingerings can be so different from the standard ones, it’s easy to lose any sense of which chord is being implied in the music. However, virtually every arpeggiated chord is drawn from, or is very similar to, a standard fingering. Hence, I’ve included the full, standard fingering of each chord above the music to show you how Carcassi’s fingerings relate to the standard shapes.

Otherwise, the rules here are the same as last time: your left hand fingering is the same as the fret numbers in the tablature (with index equaling 1, middle 2, etc.), except where noted with a numeral between the standard staff and TAB staff. I’ve given a range of possible tempos; be sure to start on the slow side when you bring in your metronome. (Notice I said when, not if! Come on, it’s good for you.) 

The rest should be pretty self-explanatory, but if anything needs clarification, please e-mail me and let me know. Enjoy!

Click on image for full view:

What to Practice:

1) Learn the chord shapes from each exercise before attempting them with the right hand patterns. Notice that Carcassi often uses different pieces of a single chord, or changes just a single note—usually the bass note (i.e., the lowest note). You don’t have to memorize every little variation, but do be aware of what chord you’re playing as you move through each exercise. There are a lot of classical guitarists who play beautifully but have no idea what’s going on under their fingers. Don’t be one of them!

2) Learn all three exercises, and check out the Carcassi Guitar Method if you’re hankering for more.

Next Week: More goodness from Signor Carcassi.

See you then,
Mike
www.hotmike.com
E-mail Mike: [email protected]

Berklee Announces Concert Touring Course

Berkleemusic, the online extension school of Berklee College of Music, has announced the release of a new online music business course for their winter term. Concert Touring, authored by industry veterans John Czajkowski (Bruce Springsteen, Shania Twain, the Strokes, Oasis) and Jeff Dorenfeld (associate professor of Music Business/Management at Berklee and former personal manager of Boston) provides working musicians, aspiring artist managers, booking agents, publicists, concert promoters and entrepreneurs with a detailed overview of the complete touring and music merchandising process, from start to finish.

"It's essential for anyone with a career interest in the music business to have a thorough understanding of how the concert touring industry operates," says Debbie Cavalier, Dean of Continuing Education at Berkleemusic. "This course covers the essentials: assembling a management team, different types of industry deals, alternative streams of income, and what happens specifically on a show day. Concert Touring complements our existing online music business curriculum perfectly."

Concert Touring is enrolling now for the winter term, which begins on January 8th.

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The Daily Picks

Jeff Healey Opens New Club in Toronto (SSM)

Controversy Over The Auction of Tosh's M-16 Guitar (JG)

CD Review: Guitar Heroes "Butchering The Beatles" (IGN)

Live Review: The Killers in the UK (YP)

Gear Review: iAXE 393 USB Guitar (SS)

Industry Insider: The Entitlement Mentality

By John McGlasson
Anyone who plays guitar knows that just learning the basics can be a grueling process, and if you want to do something new and unique, you have to make that the centerpiece of your life. I get cds in the mail every week from artists all over the world, but mostly from here in the US, cds from artists who've worked very, very hard to do something new with the instrument, with varying results, though most of them seem to share the same feeling; entitlement to fame and fortune.

This business is unlike any other on the planet, and it's changing so fast that nobody knows the formula for success right now, we're still discovering it. Yet many artists' mentality towards the label's role in their success hasn't changed much, they want a label that'll pay big money to produce and promote their work, they want money from the label to live on so they can create more music, and they want the label to pay to keep them on tour endlessly, regardless of sales. they want the label to continue spending based solely on a belief in their talent. These things aren't going to happen folks! It's a different biz today, sales are much lower for everyone, digital has not really exploded yet, so it's not a viable source of income thus far, and profit margins are lower because of the higher promo budgets required to sell less cds than before.

Labels want/need to sign artists that already have a well-produced cd ready to go, and some form of marketing in place. Unless you're an artist with good name recognition nationally, it's not likely that a label will be willing to put out the money to record you, regardless of talent or ability. So how much are you willing to spend on yourself? When you solicit the label, are you sending them a poorly produced 3 song demo, or are you sending them a slick, well-produced cd that's market-ready? Have you run your own magazine ads, done your own grass-roots marketing, your own press and publicity work?

Artists get themselves into debt by allowing a label to do all these things for them too soon in their career. Many labels are willing to put out this cash for the artists early on, because every dime of spending on the artists' behalf is recoupable by the label, (most labels anyway) which generally holds 100% of cd sales until the often on-going promo, production, and manufacturing budget is recovered, which often doesn't happen, resulting in zero for the artist. Once the label feels a release has run it's course, the spending stops, but the artist's debt remains. Once the contract ends or the relationship ends for whatever reason, the debt remains, and the label often owns the cd, leaving the artist worse off than they were before signing, even if they benefit long-term by having their disc in the label's catalog. Even more common is that the artist would owe the label another album at that point and be in default.

So what's the point? Why can't you just do it yourself? It's yet to be proven if you can or not. The odd thing is, if more artists would spend their own money producing their own records, making their own slick website and presskits, running a few small ads in strategic magazines, and sending out hundreds of cds and presskits to build name recognition, labels would be alot quicker to get involved, it's like jumping on a train that's already rolling rather then using up the fuel to get moving. If you can create some name recognition on your own, a label will be willing to pick it up where you left off, spending alot more money then you could alone, and using the power of the label and distribution to take you to the next level, or two. Good labels have their own fanbases that you share once you become part of that team.

The most important thing to remember is that this biz is gambling, pure and simple. We can lay out the most brilliant marketing plan for the most brilliant artist with the most brilliant cd ever made, we can spend twice the money than the plan called for, and it still may fail. All the talent, hard work, drive, desire, motivation in the world doesn't guarantee you're success, so try to keep in mind why we do this. If it's for money, I'd say not to bother. Money is a bi-product of success in this biz. Many artists have success from the outsiders' point of view, but have no money and/or large debt. Play because you love to play, play live because you love to play for the people, make records because you like the sound of them, because things are too uncertain right now to plan your retirement on cd sales.      

John McGlasson is a life-long guitarist, producer, and founder of o.i.e. Records, Ltd., a musician-oriented independent record label based in central Illinois.  

Marshall Ships MC212 Cab

Press Release
Marshall is now shipping the MC212—an affordable, UK-built extension cabinet suitable for use with a full-sized guitar amp head.

This new 2 x 12" 130 watt cabinet features custom-voiced Celestion speakers, a birch ply baffle and is extremely compact. It operates in either 4 Ohms mono or 8 Ohms per side in stereo.

The MC212 is currently available for a U.S. MSRP of $429.

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The Daily Picks

Hendrix Strat To Be Sold On Dec. 4th in NYC (WP)

Bonamassa Rips The New Gen of Players (GP)

Billy Corrigan Goes Guitar Crazy (AV)

Gilmour To Release Sid Barrett Tribute (GW)

Artist to Watch: Jamie McLean on The Jamcast - Session 2

In Session Two of our interview with Jamie McLean, Ken and Jaime discuss his approach to soloing, how he became a vocalist, and then Jaime tells the story of how he landed in the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and why it changed his life.

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