Rockin' Oakhurst Elementary

I just returned from an important 8:30 a.m. gig with a 6.5 year old student name Bennett. Bennett was assigned to give a black history presentation to his 1st grade class. He gave his presentation on Stevie Wonder. Bennett loves Stevie Wonder. (I think it is evidence of good parenting.) His teacher knows that Bennett is taking guitar lessons, so she suggested that he perform a Stevie Wonder song at the end of his presentation. Bennett and I decided on Ebony and Ivory, which is actually a Paul McCartney song that he and Stevie Wonder recorded as a duo.

Nailing a Dmaj7

To prepare for this performance, I copied out the first 8 bars of Ebony and Ivory, which can be easily played with just two chords. In working on the song, Bennett learned how to play a Dmaj7 chord and how to use a capo, which he placed on the second fret to match the key of the recording. (The actual chords alternate between Emaj7 and F# minor. With the capo, Bennett alternated between Dmaj7 and E minor.) We practiced the song for two lessons, worked up a nice little arrangement, and then I met up with Bennett's parents this morning for the big show.

When we walked into the classroom, Bennett looked forlorn. He was already standing in front of the class with all his classmates seated in a circle around him. By the look on his face, you'd have thought he was being offered up as a sacrifice. There was a great show of relief on his face when he saw his parents and his guitar teacher walk through the door.

Bennett had certainly done his research and knew his stuff, although he needs to work on his delivery. He had made a large poster with all sorts of Stevie Wonder facts, and he kept his back to the class as he read from the poster. His mom, who was recording a video, pretty much got a video of Bennett's back for about 10 minutes of presentation.

When Bennett said something about Ebony and Ivory, I knew that was my cue. Like any good guitar tech to the stars, I had already tuned his guitar and added his capo. We sat down and began playing. Bennett nailed it! I couldn't have been happier with his performance. He got a big cheer at the end, and then some of his friends asked for his autograph after his presentation. Sadly, no one asked for my autograph.

Proud Parents

This morning was a big deal for Bennet, but it was a treat for me, too. I was so proud of how he played of his presentation in general. It was a lot of fun to put his guitar lessons to use in a real world setting. Bennett sometimes asks me when he's going to be a good guitar player. As far as I'm concerned, considering he's only 6 years old and has been playing for a year (maybe less), Bennett is already good. He has a good sense of rhythm and sings on pitch (when I can get him to sing). He didn't miss a beat today. Most importantly, he's excited and curious about the guitar. If he keeps on practicing, his natural talent and enthusiasm will take him far.

More Than Chords

Lately, I've come to realize that I am more than just a guitar teacher to some of my students, particularly the youngsters.

Last Saturday, a 9 year old stopped in the middle of his lesson and asked, "Have you ever had a friend you went to school with, and then he went to another school, and now it feels like you hardly know him anymore, like he's different?" That sure made me pause! I literally thought to myself, "What would Mister Rogers say?" We talked about it for a little bit before picking up our guitars again.

Thinking about this student led me to reflect on other young students. A 7 year old girl draws guitar pictures for me, one of which is currently stuck on my fridge. An 8 year old boy always moves his chair close to mine and constantly touches my leg with his foot, like I'm some sort of totem. Next week, I'm going to come to a 6 year old student's school to help him play part of Ebony and Ivory for a class presentation on race. His mom told me that he is super excited about this.

Maybe some students open up like this because their guitar lesson is a safe place. I'm about as non-threatening a teacher as you'll ever find – picky about the music, but friendly and encouraging. Their 30 minutes with me is separate from the rest of the world. It's something that their friends don't do, and often there is no parent around. Maybe they feel like they can say things in their guitar lesson that they may not be able to say at other times.

I have to be mindful of my influence as a teacher and an adult figure. I thought I was just teaching chords and music reading, but something else has been going on.

Got Rhythm?

Every morning, I spend about 20 minutes playing scales and arpeggios to warm up my fingers. Guitar is a little different from most instruments in that there are several ways to play any given scale. For example, on the piano, there is only one middle C. On the guitar, there are several middle C's sprinkled around the fretboard. Similarly, there are several different fingerings for a C major scale on the guitar, depending on where you start on the neck. I use 5 basic patterns to play any given scale. If I were to play all my scales and arpeggios in all 12 keys, I'd be worn out by the time I finished warming up, so I warm up in a different key every day, moving my way through the circle of 4ths. Today happened to be my "C" day. It'll be F tomorrow and B-flat the next day, etc.

I recently began to apply this "key of the day" concept to I Got Rhythm, by George and Ira Gershwin. The melody isn't the most fascinating string of notes you'll ever hear, but the chord changes are extremely important in the jazz world. There are many variations on "Rhythm changes," and there are several tunes based on Rhythm changes. (By the way, a new melody written over a set of chord changes to a previously written song is called a contrafaction. Now you know.)

Since I play my warm-ups in a different key every day, I've also begun playing I Got Rhythm in the key of the day. I'll play the melody, play the chord changes, outline the chord changes as arpeggios, and then improvise. When I began this little adventure, the key of the day was G-flat, so it got off to a slow start!

I'm already finding this to be a tremendously valuable exercise. My transposition skills are improving. The song is filled with ii7-V7 progressions to work through. Some keys force me to find licks in chord shapes in which I'm less than comfortable. Just as with scales and arpeggios, I plan on working through Rhythm changes for a long, long, long time.

2014 Goals

In my last blog article, I outlined my goals for the next 10 years. In support of those long range goals, here are my goals for 2014. I have some other, smaller goals, but these are the main ones.

Weigh 195 pounds. I feel like my weight is finally (finally!) under control. I've been maintaining about the same weight since September. This year, I plan to make a final push and get it down to a healthy 195 pounds. My strength is improving, my resting heart rate is nice and low (in the 50s), and I feel good in general. While I am feeling quite healthy, I would like to actually look like I work out. I've been going to the gym regularly to add strength training to my cardio work. I'll continue to do that, and I'll tighten up my diet a bit.

Establish the NWUUC band and children's choir as regularly anticipated parts of Sunday services. This is in support of my goal of eventually building the job from a 15 hour per week position to a 20 hour per week position. The adult choir is a well established, cherished part of the music program. My hours increased this past year from 10 to 15 hours. I'm spending most of the additional hours on building the children's program and the church band. Those two new programs are keeping me busy, but once they are well established, I'll be ready to add more to NWUUC's music by either adding another program or by expanding the band and the children's choir.

Maintain a roster of at least 20 guitar or ukulele students. My long range goal is to have 30 students, but if I added so many students all at once, I wouldn't be able to handle the schedule and still juggle my other responsibilities. I have 13 students now, so I need to add 7 more to meet my goal. I generally add only one student each month, but I have a pretty good retention rate. I'll just keep building my roster slowly.

Add another event planner to my list of regular clients. I finally managed to get my foot in the door with a good event planner. I'm hoping that having one major event planner as a client will make me more attractive to others.

Become more comfortable with unaccompanied guitar improvisation. One of my long range goals is to improvise comfortably in the style of Joe Pass. I've been improving in this area, but I have a long way to go. I've been approaching this skill haphazardly, improvising unaccompanied on random songs. This year, I'm going to focus on a handful of songs and get really comfortable with them. Through my lessons with Dave Frackenpohl, I've learned that I can make good progress on improvisation in general if I focus intensely on one or two songs at a time.

The Next 10 Years

I started playing guitar 10 years ago. To make a long story short, I was a professional trombonist until an overuse injury ended my brass playing career. After a hiatus from any kind of performing, my wife (now my ex) gave me a guitar for Christmas, and I was immediately hooked. Even as I was struggling with my first chords, I was planning a new career as a guitarist. I originally intended to play folk and Celtic music, but I drifted toward jazz, which is my main focus.

When I decided I was going to become a professional guitarist, I drew up a list of goals for the first 10 years. My overall goal was to become an "entry level" professional. To me, this meant attaining a skill level that was high enough that I could do a good job at gigs. It also meant that, while I wouldn't necessarily be the first call player in Atlanta, I would develop enough connections to keep me gigging on a fairly regular basis.

I'm rarely satisfied with my playing, but I would like to pause for a moment and be grateful that I met my 10 year goal. I'm not a world beater on guitar, but I'm pretty good. I sight-read extremely well. I gig steadily.

Okay, the moment is over, and it's time to look at the next 10 years. This is my overall goal: To become a well established freelance musician making a comfortable living as a performer, teacher, and church musician.

That's a pretty broad goal. Maybe it's more of a mission statement, but it can be broken down into several goals. To be a well established performer implies an increasingly higher level of musicianship, so the most important goals to me are in the area of musical development.

These are my goals for 2024:

• Play an average of 2-3 good paying gigs per week.
• Maintain a roster of 30 students.
• Increase the NWUUC Music Director job to 20 hours per week.
• Memorize 100+ jazz standards.
• Comfortably improvise guitar solos in the style of Joe Pass.
• Become a good scat singer.
• Become a competent piano player.
• Become a competent ukulele player.
• Be financially stable enough to take 1-2 yearly vacations.
• Live in a rented house, big enough for a studio space, in a quiet, safe neighborhood.
• Comfortably maintain a healthy weight of 190-200 pounds.

Having all these goals without devising a way to meet them is no good. I've broken each of these goals down into separate steps, but I won't include them here, otherwise, this would be a really, really long article. I'll break down a few choice goals into steps in future articles.

Getting this far was a blast. It was 10 years well spent. Time to get busy and make the next 10 years even better.

Christmas Lullaby

I enjoyed a special Christmas treat when my mom sang Peggy Lee's Christmas Lullaby with me in last night's Christmas Eve service at NWUUC. 

Let's backtrack.

When I was a kid, Mom was a professional musician, singing folk songs and strumming her guitar at public and private events. For public shows, Mom and Dad would take my brother (Darren), my sister (Cheree), and me along. Darren and I would often perform a handful of numbers with Mom. Dad would run the sound system. Cheree was too young to sing with us, but she would dance in Mom's guitar case and keep us all entertained. (Our parents took us to gigs to perform, but I imagine another reason they took us was so they wouldn't have to spring for a babysitter.)

Those performances were special times. Looking back, we weren't exactly playing in huge venues. We were on the mall circuit, and we would often play at local churches and small festivals, but that was big time for us kids. I felt like a star! I'm mainly a jazz musician, but I still have a deep love of folk music that can only stem from this treasured childhood experience.

Mom has been visiting for the past few days and has heard me practicing Christmas Lullaby over and over, so she learned the song by osmosis. We arrived at church early so I could make sure the sound system was set up. After a quick soundcheck, I ran through the Christmas Lullaby and heard Mom harmonizing. She sounded pretty, so I asked her if she wanted to sing it with during the service. Mom immediately agreed. We sang through it a couple more times and were good to go. She sounded great in the service. It was a real treat to sing with her.

Things have come full circle. The last time I performed with Mom, I was the short one, and she was the one holding the guitar. It was a special performance on a special night.

Tick Tick

I teach an adult student who has been playing for about 11 months and has been making steady progress. Her movement from chord to chord is becoming more fluid, she has a couple "go to" strumming patterns that work in 90% of the songs she wants to play, and she has a natural affinity for fingerpicking. To help her move to the next stage of her playing, I've been preaching metronome work.

We had a good laugh today when she said, "The metronome messes me up."

Right now, my student has trouble strumming steady quarter notes along with a metronome set to 80 bmp. However, she can count out loud in time with the metronome, no problem. She can also tap her guitar in time with the metronome. After she counts out loud and taps, she is then able to strum to the metronome. So, that's the exercise…count with the metronome, tap with the metronome, and then strum with the metronome. I've given her one-bar combinations of quarter notes and eighth notes to play, but I've asked her to always start with the quarter note exercise.

This may sound like a remedial exercise, and I know for certain that my student doesn't enjoy this, but it's absolutely essential to develop a sense of rhythm and time. It's the only way you're going to play well with others. Even if you're a soloist, you're going to need to keep a steady beat, otherwise people will find it challenging to listen to you.

Whether you want to be a killer lead player or a rock solid rhythm player, practicing with a metronome is the most efficient way to improve your technique. Once you are able to maintain a steady beat and stay in sync with the metronome, you can make friends with difficult lines or chord changes more easily. First, you start the metronome at a tempo at which it is nearly impossible to make a mistake. It may be an excruciatingly slow tempo, but that's okay. You want to start super slow, so that you are properly training your muscle memory. Get it right in slow motion, and you can then incrementally get it right at speed. Just start at a nice, easy tempo. Practice a problem area until you can play it correctly. Increase the metronome speed by 5 clicks and repeat the process. You will eventually run into a speed at which your technique finally breaks down. Remember the top speed at which you could play with control. The next time you practice that spot, start 10-20 clicks slower than your top speed and build from there. It won't be long before you can sail through that lick or those tricky chord changes.

My student has told me that she has no rhythm. I beg to differ. She has an undeveloped sense of rhythm, but it's in her. All she needs is a metronome and a few minutes a day focusing specifically on tempo.