The Blog

Hi Guitarists,

It’s been a long time coming. Heartwood Guitar is finally moving to a new server today, which will bring you lightning-fast browsing.

Over the next few days, you may see some funkiness while we make the transition. For example, subscribers to the strum pattern videos currently have no way to cancel via the My Accounts page. If you need to cancel, just email me at [email protected] and I’ll take care of it for you.

Also, the Help page is down (what help is that?!).

In other news, we should be able to accept subscriptions to the strum pattern videos again soon. Thanks for your patience.

Rob

What an amazing video:

Anyone who’s played a harmonic on the guitar knows that string vibration is a magical, mysterious phenomenon. I’ve heard it compared to a moving passenger train. As the countryside flies by, your teacup is rattling on your saucer: That’s one kind of vibration. But the whole traincar is vibrating too: A second vibration. The traincar is also swaying as it moves: a third vibration. And the entire train is coursing through s-curves in a winding valley: A final, huge vibration.

In the same way, a plucked string has many different layers of vibrations happening simultaneously: The whole string is moving side-to-side, which creates the fundamental tone that our ear is drawn to. But smaller vibrations—the traincar and teacup vibrations—create overtones that are hard to pick out, but without them our plucked guitar strings would sound more like electronic beeps.

What blows me away in this video is how huge those “teacup” vibrations are. I figured they were tiny, humming wiggles, barely perceptible even if we could slow them down. But apparently, our strings wiggle like sidewinders. Incredible.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in trying to hear those subtle overtones in your guitar’s notes, play a harmonic on a string, then pluck the open string. Listen for the sound of the harmonic quietly ringing behind the loud fundamental pitch.

I’ve been in mad-scientist mode this past weekend, making some changes to the site design. What day is it? Where did all these dirty dishes come from?

Let me know if you think the work was worth it.

What’s Hot

There’s now a list of the most popular songs, both on the web and on this website, in the sidebar of the chord charts.

Like and Google +1 Buttons

You can now share your favorite blog posts, chord charts, and other pages on this site with your friends on Facebook.

Also, I’ve added Google +1 buttons, Google’s answer to the “Like” button, on some pages. Your friends will see pages you’ve +1’d when they sift through Google search results.

Navigation Bar Redesign

I made the navigation bar at the top of the page smaller, making more room for the vastly more interesting stuff below.

“Q” was not for “Quiet” on April 30th, when we descended on the Q Cafe for the 2011 Spring Coffee Shop Jam. The show featured my guitar students, and the students of my friends Brady and Mark, who teach bass and drums. The Coffee Shop Jam is always incredible, and this was no exception: Moments of epic grandeur, quiet beauty, terror….

Photos by Seattle photographer MKM Photography

I played on about 30 of the songs, and rehearsed many of them just a handful of times, so I had my own moments of terror. One came halfway through the second show, when I realized, with about four bars to go, that I’d neglected to sufficiently practice the solo to my student Jack’s cover of Green Day’s “Holiday.” It was in a different key than I was used to, and in the heat of the moment, I blanked. Is it in 8th position? 9th position? What key is this song in, anyway? This is not what you want to be thinking when you’re on stage.

Despite my occasional “jazz chord” and “avante-garde improvisation,” I was happy with my performance, and the students were in their typical fine form. I usually feature the younger kids on this blog, since their skills and passion are so striking. But today I want to share two performances by older students that stand out in my mind:

Here’s Claire doing a gorgeous cover of the Avett Brothers’ song “Shame”:

And here’s Gary singing “Pilgrim” by Steve Earle:

“That’s great Rob, but where are the kids?” you might say. Oh, OK, here’s Jack rocking that Green Day song. No making fun of my solo. Musicians are sensitive people.

“Dude, this music is lame,” you say. “How about some metal played by an overcaffinated 11-year-old and a student drummer pulverizing his teacher’s jazz kit? And let’s have the kid freak out at the ending and use a mic stand as a slide.” OK, you asked for it…

You can see all the Jam videos here.

And here are some great photos taken by my wife, Meg.

I love getting fan mail from musicians using my strum pattern videos.

it’s me again, Rob, but really i have to tell you that your videos have changed my guitar playing life…after 45 years of playing the same old DDUUDU (nice enough in its way), i really have all sorts of new rhythm options thanks to your videos…it all just comes together perfect, chord charts, lyrics, strum patterns and the videos. 

so here i am in Paris and it’s after midnight and i can’t stop.  got that Redemption Song rhythm into Stand By Me and i am grooving.  syncopation, who knew????

thanks thanks thanks.

The following is an excerpt from Rob’s Totally Awesome Guitar Teaching Handbook.

When was the last time you were terrified trying something new? I’m not talking about the fear of sharks at your first surfing lesson. I mean trying something you really want to do, but you’re worried that Jah had other intentions when he doled out your aptitude. Perhaps it was dancing lessons, auditioning for a band, deciding to write a novel, or going on your first date after a bad breakup.

Many beginning guitar students will have the same kind of fear. They’re often courageous adults who were told in elementary school that they have no rhythm, or are tone deaf. They’re coming to you because they’re still searching for a way to make music despite discouragement, and they’re hoping you can point the way. Empathizing with them—feeling what they feel —will help you teach them.

One way to empathize is to recall a comparable time in your life. You may have to dig deep. Kids risk failure all the time, but as people mature, they tend to find their path and then cruise it—seat back, one hand on the wheel. Even if you’re a dedicated life-long learner, it might be hard to remember the last time you were scared of being bad at something.

I got reacquainted with the fear of failure when I started singing lessons a couple years ago. I spent my first lesson mortified at all the unpredictable sounds I made. Afterwards, I remember recovering in my parked car soaked in sweat, staring at the dashboard, feeling like a vulnerable kid.

I recall that moment when I start lessons with a new student, reminding myself that while it’s just another day of work for me, it might be one of the scariest things they’ve done.

What do you think: How necessary is it for a teacher to empathize with their student? I’d love to hear some stories.

You can learn more about Rob’s Totally Awesome Guitar Teaching Handbook here.

My 11-year-old student Connor had quite a week. Last Tuesday he appeared on TV. And on Saturday night, he gave an electrifying performance with his fellow metalheads at the School of Rock Presents: Classic Metallica show.

Never have I seen Connor so energized. He had me pumping my fist in the air, screaming the lyrics with him.

A couple vids from that night:

Yesterday morning I joined my 11-year-old guitar student Connor at The Seattle Channel’s studio to watch him perform for the show Art Zone with Nancy Guppy. Nancy had contacted me a couple weeks ago looking for a rock guitarist to perform on an episode dedicated to young local artists. I sent her links to some of the videos from my 2009 Coffee Shop Jam. When she saw Connor’s explosive performance of “Death Nightmare,” she knew she’d found her rocker.

Connor had to do some scrambling to get ready for his TV gig. For one thing, in the past year Connor’s been revising his old songs, adding long guitar solos featuring new skills he’s developed. “Death Nightmare” in its current iteration is a sprawling, 5-minute epic. But Art Zone limited performances to 3 minutes. Uh-oh. Previously, when I’ve tried to nudge Connor toward making his songs more concise, I’ve been shut down. I may as well have been telling Michelangelo that he’d chiseled David all wrong.

Connor will be joined by an actor, flutist, hip-hop dancer, and magician.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that Nancy Guppy did what I could not. Connor was more than happy to hack up “Death Nightmare” for the promise of TV stardom. When I saw him next, he’d already figured out how to shorten the song to a crisp 2:45.

A tougher challenge Connor faced was performing for a TV camera. When you’re playing in front of a cheering crowd, it’s as if you’re connected to them by electric wires: Their energy pumps you up. But playing for a video camera is like playing into a black hole that’s sucking your energy into space. The only solution is to be your own generator.

I posed this problem to Connor by showing him two photos.

“You’re used to playing for this,” I said.

“But next week, you’ll be playing for this.”

“It’s not that you don’t have an audience,” I told him. “It’s just that you can’t see them. You’ll be playing for hundreds of people, and they’re going to love your music. But they’ll be invisible. How do you play for an audience like that?”

“I could imagine them,” said Connor. Bingo. For the rest of the lesson, Connor visualized cheering fans while playing “Death Nightmare.”

It was great to see Connor relaxed and having fun on the day of the shoot. He chatted with the friendly film crew, noodled on his guitar between takes, and hammed for the cameras like an old pro. Well, maybe not that old. Toward the end of the filming, Connor reminded the crew that while he digs 80’s metal, he’s still a kid of the cell phone era. On one take, Connor finished his song and then Nancy rushed in for her post-song interview, yelling “That ROCKED!” and holding up a lighter. Connor looked at her as if she were holding a banana.

You can watch Connor perform this Friday at 8pm on The Seattle Channel, streamed live here. It’ll also be available in the archives if you miss it.

Also, if you’d like to see Connor perform live, he’ll be playing and singing a few Metallica songs at the School of Rock Classic Metallica show on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 6:30pm at Studio Seven. $10 advance, $12 at the door. Details here.

Finally, in case you haven’t seen this, here’s Connor playing “Death Nightmare” at the 2009 Coffee Shop Jam. Hold on to your hairnets.