Baby Got A Groove On

Uten Gleten Nounten GlobinMy new realtor just told me the most amazing story.

We’d been chatting about teaching music to young kids, and how little kids get a lot out of whanging and whomping on the guitar strings—it might not sound like music to us, but they’re learning to play with rhythm. Then she told me this story:

“When I was pregnant with my four-year-old, I had these sensations like he was hiccupping or convulsing. I was worried he was sick—the movements were too fast to be punches or kicks.

So I went in to see my doctor, who was a naval doctor who’d seen thousands of babies. I told him what was wrong, and he said, ‘He’s probably fine. He’s just playing.’ Then he tapped a rhythm on my belly…

…and the baby repeated it.

‘When babies are in the womb, everything is rhythm,’ he said.”

Segovia Meets The Who

This was my backpacking guitar until I backed over it at a trailhead in Idaho two summers ago. The back popped off and the neck buckled, but it was somewhat intact. It sat in my basement like Norman Bates’ mother until last Saturday, when I decided it was time to drive the coffin nail home, rock-and-roll style.

I know smashing a classical guitar isn’t that rock-and-roll, but it was still a lot of fun.

Hampie Calling

Now THIS guy knows what he’s doing. I’m not worthy.

What a great shot...

How to Make a Living Teaching Guitar

Update: This article inspired a two-year project writing a book on the subject. Check out Rob’s Totally Awesome Guitar Teaching Handbook.

Someone over at Guitar Noise asked about specific steps he could take to start teaching guitar. Here was my response—a little rambling, I’m sorry, but that’s what blogs are for, right?

I’ve been teaching guitar full-time for four years. My first few students were passed on to me from a friend who teaches guitar and didn’t have room in his schedule. I also started teaching in an after-school program at a local private elementary school, showing third-graders how to play “Smoke On the Water” while they waited for their parents to pick them up.

But the way I filled my schedule was by 1) Getting a good logo, 2) Building a website with the logo on it, and 3) posting hundreds of flyers with my great-looking logo and URL all over the neighborhoods near my place—in coffee shops, gyms, stores, and on telephone poles.

A professional-looking logo immediately sets you apart from 90% of other guitar teachers. It shows potential clients you’re serious about your work. I got mine done for $200, but I would have done it even if it’d cost $10,000.

Now, my website brings in most of my clients. If you’re into computers, study up on search engine optimization. Most guitar teachers don’t use websites, and those who do still don’t do much to make their websites attractive to people searching for “Guitar lessons in Austin.” Try Googling for a guitar teacher in your town, and see what comes up—nothing that you couldn’t compete with, I’ll bet.

I’ve done other things that prepared me to teach guitar, like getting a degree in education and teaching in high school. But I think the most important thing I’ve done to make the business work—to set myself apart from most teachers—is simply to communicate my enthusiasm for teaching. For example, so often you see teachers say “I only take motivated students” in their ads. First of all, all people who contact you for lessons are motivated in some way, but no beginner knows for sure if they’ll continue to be motivated—it depends on how things go in the lessons. Secondly, the message I get from “I only take motivated students” is, “It’s your job as a student to keep me interested in teaching you.” Who’s paying who?

Instead, I tell my students, “Learning a new instrument can be discouraging. I’m going to do what I can to make this fun and not-too-hard.” Of course, the student will get more out of lessons if they practice a lot, but they know that. And I don’t mind teaching students who rarely practice. For some of my clients who are overworked during the day, their guitar lesson is a rare opportunity to relax. If I can help them take their mind off their worries by showing them how to play “Brown-Eyed Girl” for the 5th time, I’m honored.

Finally, as far as your own guitar skills go—just be clear with your students about what you’re good at teaching. When I began teaching, guitar was just a hobby for me, so I worked just with beginners. Now I have some more advanced students. Nothing like teaching to make you practice harder!

Have fun,

Rob

Some day, maybe I’ll write a book on this topic and make millions. Hmmm…then I’ll write another book called “How to teach people how to teach guitar.” Somebody call Oprah!

Blues Turnarounds

StevieI thought all you folks who read my blog would enjoy checking out a lesson on blues turnarounds I taught my Blues Workshop students today. Included are mp3’s of each turnaround—just click “Listen.”

Turnarounds, typically played during the last two measures of a blues progression, give the cycle an emphatic ending, and signal that they you’re about to head back to the beginning of the progression again (hence the name). A well-executed turnaround really makes you sound like you know what you’re doing. Drill them into your muscle memory until you can do it in your sleep (as you can see, I’ve been playing the blues in my sleep quite a bit lately).

Though I’ve written these in the keys of A and E, most of these turnarounds are moveable. To move them to a different key, identify your locator note. This note should match the note your key is named after. So if you’re playing in the key of G, and your locator note is on the first string, you’ll play that note on the first string, 3rd fret (which is a G note). Now shift the rest of the pattern to fit that new position.

Key of A

1. First part is moveable. The note on the 1st string at the beginning of the 2nd measure is your locator note.
Listen
A Turnaround 1

2. First part is moveable. Note on 1st string is your locator note.
Listen
A turnaround 2

3. Moveable. First note is your locator note.
Listen
A turnaround 3

4. First part is moveable–the first note is your locator note. Then you have to slide up five frets to start the rest of the lick.
Listen
A turnaround 4

5. Moveable–just change the chords to fit your key (chord in first measure is a I chord, and chord in second measure is a V chord). Note on 1st string, 5th fret is locator note.
Listen
A turnaround 5

Key of E

1. Easy to move if you change chords to fit the new key. Locator note is a whole step (2 frets) higher than the 2nd string note.
Listen
E turnaround 1

2. Not moveable.
Listen
E turnaround 2

Chord Chart Update

A stupendous smorgasbord of my students’ astute song selections! The following songs are either new or updated versions of previously-posted songs.

And if you’d like to see all of the songs I offer, go to my main chord chart page.

The Arrogant Worms – “Happy Birthday”
The Beatles – “Yellow Submarine”
Jimmy Buffett – “Margaritaville”
Cary Brothers – “Blue Eyes”
Johnny Cash – “Folsom Prison Blues”
– MP3’s of step-by-step explanations of how to play this song can be found on my Jam Track page.
The Charlatans – “How High”
Coldplay – “Fix You”
Sheryl Crow – “Soak Up the Sun”
Sheryl Crow – “The First Cut is the Deepest”
The Decemberists – “Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right”
John Denver – “Leaving on a Jet Plane” (in C)
The Eagles – “Already Gone” (in A)
Guns ‘N Roses – “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
Guster – “Amsterdam”
Billy Joel – “Only the Good Die Young”
Diana Jones – “A Hold on Me”
Lyle Lovett – “If You Were to Wake Up”
– Here’s a recording of my performance of this song at the 2006 Puget Sound Guitar Workshop
Nickelback – “Savin’ Me”
Sinead O’Connor – “Black Boys on Mopeds”
Brad Paisley – “Little Moments”
Pearl Jam – “Nothingman”
Tom Petty – “Wildflowers”
The Ramones – “Blitzkrieg Bop”
REM – “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville”
Rise Against – “Swing Life Away”
Son Volt – “Windfall”
Bruce Springsteen – “Two For the Road”
Steppenwolf – “Born to be Wild”
The Troggs – “Wild Thing”
The Turtles – “Happy Together”
Uncle Tupelo – “Screen Door”
Uncle Tupelo – “Still Be Around”
Van Morrison – “Into the Mystic”
Weezer – “Beverly Hills”
Weezer – “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here”
Gillian Welch – “Orphan Girl”

Phew!

Mama Said Rock Him ‘Til the Break-A Dawn

Brrrring!Every morning I wake up to music—not on a radio alarm clock, but in my head. I started noticing this years ago, and earlier this month I decided to start writing down the songs.

I’m interested to see if any patterns emerge. Will they tend to be songs with dreamlike imagery? Will Norah Jones be over-represented? How long will it take for the Beastie Boys, a decidedly non-somnolent band, to join my dawn chorus?

Here’s my list for September:

3 “Rain” by Patti Griffin
4 “You Remind Me of Home” by Benjamin Gibbard
5 Can’t remember
6 A few chords from “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix—I was dreaming I was teaching.
7 Can’t remember
8 “Today” by The New Christy Minstrels
9 “Above the Clouds” by Turin Breaks
10 “Pushover” by The Long Winters
11 “Rain” by Patti Griffin ***A repeat! And it rained two days later! Freaky!***
12 Can’t remember
13 “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service
14 Can’t remember
15 “Thrasher” by Neil Young
16 Can’t remember
17 “Stormy Monday” by T-Bone Walker
18 “Amsterdam” by Guster
19 Can’t remember*
20 Some 12-bar blues song with electric slide guitar—something I was making up on the spot. Too bad you can’t record these things. I’ve always wanted to compose in my dreams.
21 “Over & Over” by Turin Brakes
22 “Valencia” by The Decemberists
23 “This Old Town” by Tom Petty
24 “Better Be Quiet Now” by Elliott Smith
25 Can’t remember
26 Fingerstyle 12-bar blues in E
27 Can’t remember
28 Can’t remember
29 “Carolyn” (an original)
30 Can’t remember
31 More 12-bar blues in E—guess what I’ve been playing every night this past week before I go to bed.

*There seems to be a correlation between waking up to my girlfriend’s clock radio and not being able to remember the songs in my head. Either it’s so damn early (she has to get to work by 8:30! In the MORNING!) that I’m not in REM sleep, or the songs on KEXP are scaring away my little musical dream.

Puget Sound Guitar Workshop 2006

Flip our fearless leader, on the ferry heading homeI just got back from another incredible week at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop (PSGW). I learned fingerstyle blues licks from fingerpicking legend and Prairie Home Companion regular Pat Donohue, learned how to shape vowel sounds to blend my voice with other vocalists in a class taught by Kim Scanlon, and trashed my callouses in countless witching-hour jam sessions.

Highlights included singing “If You Were to Wake Up” by Lyle Lovett during the student concert (here’s the recording) and “American Idiot” by Green Day at the dance (here’s the video), caroling through the camp at 3am with Steve Baughman and Steve “Chezz” Cheseborough singing “Little Ol’ Wine Drinkin’ Me”, and floating on my back in Lake Flora in the sunshine.

The greatest lesson from this past week, though, was a reminder of people’s capacity for goodness, and of music’s ability to bring it out. I still feel like I’m floating in the lake, the world spinning around me, bouyed up by the love and generosity of my friends from camp.

Here are some photos.

Three Seconds of Fame

logoNew York’s WPIX TV station did a story on blogs this morning, and this blog was featured…well, maybe highlighted…OK, it was part of a rapid-fire montage. But I’m still calling mom.

The WPIX website uses all sorts of javascript shenanigans, so I don’t know if this’ll work, but try this link:

WPIX Video

Electric Kool-Aid Amp Test: Day 164

The amp is done.

finito1 finito2 finito3

Today I screwed the 12-inch speaker onto the cabinet’s baffle (minor hassle) and bolted the amp chassis onto one of the two back panels of the cabinet (major pain in the heinie). Both jobs required a little bit of shoehorning, but finding the right place to drill holes in that gorgeous stained cherry took hours. At least I knew that I didn’t know what I was doing, so I quadruple-checked all my measurements before I put drill to wood. It ended up going in fine. Check out the photo of the back of the amp—those four bolt heads in the middle of the upper panel are what’s attaching the chassis (the electronics part of the amp) to the cabinet.

Even though I think I did a good job, the whole thing rattles when I set it down. I figure I’ll probably disassemble it soon and try to put some kind of buffer in all the joints that can’t be glued. I’ve heard that an amp needs to be super-tight so that the only things rattling while you’re playing loud are the audience’s teeth.

It’s Sunday evening and most of my neighbors are probably home, so I don’t want to make too much noise, but I did briefly crank the amp up to 10 and play some rock riffs on my Les Paul. What a roar! This thing is a fire-breathing monster.

Of course, now I’m looking forward to my next project. Maybe a 50’s era Fender Deluxe….

Electric Kool-Aid Amp Test: Day 161

Look what arrived in the mail today. Ain’t she a looker?

18-watt amp 1 18-watt amp 2

That’s a 1×12 Marshall 18-watt cabinet made by Weber Speakers. The wood is cherry (the original cabinets were plywood covered with tolex) and the grillcloth is pinstripe (like the original 18-watts). I paid $350 for it—more than it would have cost to buy the materials certainly, but I never could have made it look this nice.

I’m hoping I’ll have some time after work tonight to put in the guts. Finally, I can finish my amp!