Guitartastic… (Collage de Stubs 05/06)

were the years of 2005 & 2006. My "Triad of Guitar Ascendancy" (that's copyrighted, but feel free to quote it) includes Eric Johnson, Tommy Emmanuel, and Pat Metheny; in these two years I was able to see all three of them. Over one weekend I saw Tommy play twice and also attended a four hour workshop where it was Tommy and about fifteen of his truly dedicated fans in a small jazz lab.  He started the workshop off by saying "Let's bless the room" and launched into Amazing Grace, and I was overwhelmed. I can't describe what it's like to be sitting about 3 feet away from Tommy when he starts playing in a room so quiet you could hear a mouse breathing. 

The Pat Metheny Group show was the best I have attended out of the five times I've seen him. He started the show by playing "The Way Up" which is an entire album in one song. That song is among the most important American compositions of the last ten years and it's truly meant to be heard live. In a time of ever shortening attention spans, a single composition that lasts nearly an hour (and not by trick or gimmick, it's a fully developed piece that should be that long) is a criticism of the current culture and a perfect response to the hit single mentality of the music business. I think the song has relevance outside of music as well, since anything worthwhile in life takes time and attention.  Not one to short change the audience, the group commenced to perform for an additional two hours featuring songs from every era, including tunes like "Lone Jack", "Song for Bilbao", and "Are You Going With Me". It was a very satisfying experience and I was lucky enough to talk with and get an autograph from Antonio Sanchez (drummer), Gregoire Maret (harmonica, vocals, percussion), and Nando Lauria (guitar, percussion, vocals) after the show.  

Billy Idol is much better in a smaller venue as compared to when I saw him in 1986 at Reunion Arena. Having just released what I think is his best studio album thus far, his set list was quite good as well. It was general admission but we got there in time to have spots right against the stage on Steve Stevens side. Aeyong had her first near-groupie experience as she seemed to spark a little interest from Steve and he smiled at her several times during the show. I managed fist bump from Billy during "Dancing with Myself"  and was content with that :).  

Finally, in 2006 we got to see a full length Eric Johnson set at Juanita's in Little Rock. I have previously posted a detailed review of the 2007 show, and the 2006 set was similar. The sound levels were a little bass heavy and loud overall, but it was still great to see Eric live (from 5 feet away). As Eric was walking offstage, I was able to get him to sign a Guitar Player from 1986 that I had kept all these years (see honey, sometimes being a fanboy packrat pays off) (ok, it was just the one time). 

Oh, Sweet Nectar (Collage de Stubs 2003/04)…

Didn't realize how much I missed live music until Steely Dan took the stage at Smirnoff/Dallas in 2003. The notable shows were the acts we had never seen live before including Eric Johnson, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Sarah Mclachlan, and Norah Jones.  The most enjoyable show for me was easily the Rush 30th Anniversary Tour show. Well documented with a DVD shot in Germany, this tour show was over 3 hours long split into two sets and featuring deep album cuts from all their various eras. Just a great show on all levels from the set list, to the sound, to the production (lighting, sets, etc.) and as usual the videos were always entertaining, whether serious, atmospheric, or funny.

Also notable was the Eric Clapton Crossroads festival where I got to see Eric Johnson, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Steve Vai, Robert Cray and many other great players.  Too bad it was a festival and all the sets were short. In a bit of self-indulgence (kinda the theme of the site just this once, promise) I pasted a screen capture from the Crossroads DVD showing me in the audience during the Saturday show which featured EJ among others. (That's me behind the Crossroads ticket stub) (Damn, I look good) Fleetwood Mac was also especially good, due in part to great seats, but mostly to the band just being really tight and well produced.  They also had a great set list and I must admit that I didn't miss Christine McVie as all of my favorite FMac songs are by Buckingham and Nicks. Steely Dan and Sarah McLachlan (MIA on the ticket stubs since they were internet tickets, wahhhh) were both great shows as well, and we were both very happy to finally see them live. I had been wanting to see Steely Dan for over twenty five years (FMac too) so it was great to finally get the opportunity.

Sting was a bit of a snoozer, unfortunately.  He was good on his first solo tour in 1985, and I imagine the "Soul Cages" tour would have been great as well. At this point he is going on about 3 albums in a row that have more forgettable than great songs, so the highlights were mostly his older material and the Police stuff of course.  He did play "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic", so that was great to hear.  

The End of an Era (Collage de Stubs 87-92)…

Here are the dying gasps of my teenage concert going years and a lone Metheny show from 92 when I was stationed in Kentucky and lucky enough to attend a show in Louisville. With the exception of the Metheny show, I wouldn't attend one concert from 1988 through 2003, mostly due to the remote bases where I was stationed. After transferring to Oklahoma for school in 2003, we decided to try and start seeing more shows in OKC and Dallas. I've now decided that no matter where I'm posted, I will try very hard to attend shows with bands/artists that I really like.

Metheny, Hedges, Punk-o-rama, (Collage de Stubs-86)…

Highlights for this year were seeing Metheny again (I had seen him in 84 with the group and on New Years Eve 85 with Ornette Coleman but have since lost the stubs), seeing Michael Hedges twice, and seeing Rush in a better concert environment (Reunion Arena vrs the Cotton Bowl) for their Power Windows tour.  PIL and Big Audio Dynamite were a blast, and I enjoyed all the Bronco Bowl shows. REM was a bit of a snoozer and Michael Stipe was in full prick mode.  He was unhappy about some fans getting a little rowdy in the front and said something like "you guys are going to calm down or I'm stopping this show right now".  A bit full of himself to say the least.  

Jimmy Page, Rush, Police, Yes, et al(83-85)…

After posting the tokalicious (that's a medical term, don't trouble yourself…) Rush stubs, I realized I had kept most of my concert stubs over the years and they were just languishing in a dark box for none to grow envious of see. I decided to give them a little photoshopin' (worthy of the arts & crafts club if I do say so) so here is the first collection of stubs from the 1983-85 tour seasons. I must add that I have unfortunately lost a few of my ticket stubs over the years (most notably from this time frame would be Van Halen on the Diver Down tour with Dave instead of the Samster).  Nevertheless, most of the most notable shows I saw in those years are on display here. Please share your concert photos, ticket stubs and hemp clouded memories from back then if you care to.

 

Read ‘Em and Weep…

Here it is folks, proof that I will be close enough to pinch hit on Alex's Taurus pedals if needed. Check out which row we're on if you doubt that assertion. Can I get a hell yeah? Yes, yes I can.

A co-worker I'll refer to as "Mike" (not his real name)  (that would be Michael) "wanted to see them" so I am honoring that request. Suffice to say that they are under more security than the gold at Ft Knox (if you believe in that sort of thing) and any attempts to displace them from the possession of yours truly would be catastrophic for all concerned (we're talking biblical; you know, cats & dogs living together, total chaos)…

(and now we do the dance of the gloat)

(what's the gloat, you ask?)

(it's a very rare species of north american mammal with a predilection for smoky environments and dangerously high decibel levels)

(the first pic is of the gloat's natural habitat)

and zee tickets… 

Police in Dallas? Make that a double…

I think it's fairly well known that the best time to hit Ebay for concert tickets is at the last minute when desperation has set in on the part of the seller who needs to make a sale but has probably got a limited field of truly motivated buyers since most dedicated fans get their tickets well in advance.  We already had tickets for one show but had heard about so many people attending multiple shows (I know one guy in California who's seeing them three nights in a row) that we decided to take advantage of their two night stint in Dallas. We had good floor seats for Wednesday, so we figured we could get some less premium seats for Tuesday which would make the second show still something to look forward to.

Part of this rationale is also based on this potentially being the last time we'll ever see them (it's been over twenty years between shows already). Since tonight was the last realistic night to get tickets that could be mailed fast enough to reach the buyer in time to make the show, I figured it was worth a look. And yes, there were several good options available, and we managed to get two tickets in the lower stands at half the box office price. Ebay can take away, but sometimes it gives. All I know is I am going to triple the number of times I have seen the Police live, and I never thought I'd be able to say that. I've heard very positive reviews from the other longtime fans who have seen the most recent shows, so I'm stoked to say the least. 

Our seats: 

 

 

(yes, I am gloating)

(no, I wasn't the first person to come up with the seat diagram idea)

(yes, they were gloating too) 

(no, I'm not ashamed)

(funny how much our seats look like the Grand Canyon and the inside of our car)

(yes, my head is that big. it has to be to house my enormous brain)

(yes, I can continue to parenthetically answer unasked questions for as long as it takes)

(yes, I meant it)

(no, I won't do anything for love)

(Meat Loaf will)

(but he won't do that)

(he's a bit of a hypocrite)

Vampires are Alive!!!

This is so bad it's good. Apparently it's Switzerland's entry for the Eurovision song contest, which makes it even better. It seems a vampire's supernatural powers include some sweet dance moves. Hey, sometimes you just GOTTA DANCE (he shouted with an effeminate lisp). I wonder how many of those dancers have been out of work since the "Thriller" video? So, what's with the fire breathing and affection for horses?  I guess these are some of the lesser known vampire traits  (along with the twinkly toes).  It's a little too happy for an undead anthem; besides if you follow the "rules" most vampires like classical music. Yep, that's true. And no offense, but I expect my vampires to have names like Marius and Count Dracula. DJ Bobo doesn't quite have the undead ring to it, catchy though it is. 

Concert Review - Eric Johnson in Little Rock, June 14 2007

Eric played Juanita’s restaurant/club in Little Rock, which I think has become a running summer gig for him as this is at least the 3rd year in a row he’s played here. We got here early again like last year and I made sure I posted myself in front of his mic/pedals for the next 1:45 until the show started. It was worth it as I was able to stand about 5 feet away for the whole show.

Eric’s stage and pedal setup is the standard that most of us have seen. It’s really not much different from the guitar geek circa 2001 diagram, although specific models may change he’s still using the same sorts of pedals, etc. In the amp dept. he had the two Fender Twins and the Marshall double stack with apparently new Hendrix signature heads based on other reports, although I couldn’t see well enough to tell (wouldn’t know what I was looking for from a distance anyway). He didn’t have the Allen/Heath mixer on stage this year, but he did have a couple of echoplexes on the floor (which I didn’t see last year, but they could have been obstructed by the mixer).

I couldn’t figure out all his pedals but he did have the memory man, fuzz face, a Radial Tonebone Tube Overdrive that was labeled as an “Eric Johnson Custom” and looked like a modified classic model by the coloring/size. He had a small mxr pedal with script text that may have been a phase 90 but I couldn’t read it well enough; a TC electronic chorus/flanger, the cry baby, and the multitude of a/b boxes. He had another pedal sitting over by his jbl eon monitor (stage right) that may have been the chandler tube driver but I couldn’t see it well enough to tell. I may be leaving one or two things out here.

He played the black signature model for the whole set except for the three song acoustic set in which he played his Martin EJ signature model. He used his Dunlop Jazz III picks for the whole show as far as I could tell. It was nice and loud again although I think I benefited by not being in the direct axis of the amps this time (they were aimed a little more off center this time). I still think the bass was mixed too loud, but it may have been where I was standing. Eric’s tone was a little lost in the mix for me. I brought my earplugs but never felt like I needed them, and they would have just accentuated the bass more so I left them in my pocket.

Performance:

Set list (there may be an omission or two and the song order may be a bit out of sequence, but it’s relatively close as I tried to write these down during the set):

1. Soulful terrain - great opener, just a classic EJ tune
2. My Back Pages
3. Trademark - he opened this by joking about the show featuring jugglers, acrobats, monkeys, and snake oil salesmen. He then alluded to how that was what this song was about but I think I may have missed something
4. Country - (the unnamed as yet instrumental) commented on how they had seen George Jones’ tour bus and it got them in the mood for some country
5. Morning Sun - my sequence may be slightly out of order here
6. Brilliant Room - i think he introduced this by saying they had just finished recording this at home and he hoped they would be releasing the album in the next 6-7 years (he was joking). he said they hoped to have a new album out “soon” (so, that means 2-3 years probably )
7. Manhattan - very well played, and I was glad to hear it as he didn’t play it last year
8. Dusty - beginning of three song solo acoustc set
9. Song for Life
10. Once Upon a Time in Texas (?) - hadn’t heard that before, but I think that is right. This set was played on the Martin EJ signature and he sounded fantastic. I was thrilled to see him play Dusty from that close and those of us in front we’re probably the only ones who could really see what he was playing as he was sitting down. Unfortunately the crowd was well inebriated and growing restless during the set so I don’t know if he’ll want to continue this.
11. Columbia
12. New Song - couldn’t understand him when he said the name, but I liked it.
13. SRV
14. Austin - great tune, beautiful chord changes and a great melody, I hope it appears on the next album. He played the coolest arpeggio sequence during the solo.
15. Desert Rose - he had played fast all night but I guess he was warmed up at this point because he was really wailing on this guitar solo, although I know he typically really goes for it on this one
16. Guitar Solo - similar start to last year with a very beautiful slow intro with some great melodic chord changes with a clean, warm tone which eventually fused into a faster portion with a little overdriven but more punchy and not so sustained tone which eventually culminated in the classic lead tone and the intro to Cliffs. I’m not sure but I think he cut off early because he faced Tommy Taylor (who had been playing some light percussion as texture) and waved his arms out to the side like he was saying stop. He started playing a more lead tone and it looked like Roscoe had to hurry to get his bass back on and get ready for Cliffs
17. Cliffs Of Dover
18. (Encores)Spanish Castle Magic - very extended jam and Eric and Roscoe had some great interplay where it looked like they were goading each other on a bit. Whatever problem he had during the guitar solo seemed to have been forgotten by the end.
19. Righteous

The show was a little shorter this year with a few less encores, but I think it ended up running about 1:40 total. Tommy and Roscoe both played fantastically as usual. I apologize to them both in admitting that as a guitarist I can’t resist the call of Eric’s fingers on the fretboard, but I did try and pay a little more attention to their playing this year. The only downers were the people who were there more to party than to listen to a great band. I had a drunk middle aged woman behind me who tried to shove her way to the front and then was upset because no one wanted to let her up (everyone up there had been standing there for almost two hours to reserve their spot. She would periodically let out a scream which just showed that she wasn’t listening at all to what was being played. Unfortunately about half the crowd was that way. There was one guy who held up a napkin which said “Play Cliffs of Dover”, which he unfortunately held up right after Eric had played Cliffs. Don’t know if he was so drunk he didn’t realize what he had just heard or if he was that clueless about EJ. I don’t know if EJ and the guys cared about that or if it made a difference. It was still a great show and they all played fantastic. I think Eric said they would come back next year. (the two pics are from the Birmingham show the next night, courtesy of ByTor1975 from the EJ forum. I didn't bring my camera, so this as close a pic as I have now. The biggest difference is the stage there is a bit more roomy than Juanita's).

Concert Review - Norah Jones in Little Rock, June 7 2007

We saw Norah at Robinson Center Music Hall in Little Rock last night, and came away impressed.  She brought the cast of regulars with Adam Levy on guitar, Lee Alexander on Bass, Andy Borger on drums, and Daru Ota on nearly everything else.  She opened her set solo, singing a more West Texasish version of "Come Away With Me" while playing a red Fender Mustang through a Fender Princeton amp.  It was a statement of confidence in her ability to play guitar that she would start off that way, although the band did join in after the first verse.  She continued with "Those Sweet Words" another favorite of ours from her second album before launching into several songs from her new album with the occasional tune from her first two albums thrown into the mix.

Many of the older songs have been altered like the aforementioned opener, which is a characteristic of many bands with jazz backgrounds. Underneath the pop pinnings and glamorous looks, she is really a player and has a great band to back her up.  "I've Got to See You Again" was even more jazz-centric and featured her spreading her improvisational wings on the keys. All the players impressed, but we were especially captivated by the versatility of Daru Ota. We had seen this same lineup in OKC in 2004, and at that time she mainly provided backing vocals and the occasional incidental percussion (at least as far as I remember it). This time she played bass (very well, mind) on several songs, as well as keyboards, flute, percussion and of course vocals. She reminded me of one of the multi-instrumentalists in Pat Metheny's band that has to cover all the additional instruments that the others can't. 

The band shined as usual with Lee Alexander holding the bottom line on electric and acoustic bass as well as several songs on guitar. Andy Borger was predictably good and added some variety to the mix with vibes and some other percussion. Adam Levy was usually his understated self but let go with some Scotty Moore-ish wailing on "Creepin In".  I wish he would do that more often, but I guess his style is primarily understatement. 

In all aspects Norah was even more polished, confident, and articulate than when we last saw her. And she was great then.  Her voice was full, pristine and mesmerizing during the whole show. She is more and more willing to stretch out and improvise the melodies as time passes without falling into the diva trap (vibrato, ridiculous scales up and down) so common with popular singers.  She was very competent on guitar and got a very pure fender tone out of her equipment. She shined on keys, mostly piano with a little Fender Rhodes thrown in.  During "Election Day" (the melancholy anti-dubya tune which got a lot of approval and laughter) they brought out a tiny little piano that set on top of her Yamaha, and she played a few lines on it while playing chords on the full size. It added a little sonic cheekiness as well as displaying her talents without showing off too much.

I should also mention that the production was spot on. Everything from the sound mix (with the exception of about 30 seconds of fender amp distortion/moodiness) to the lighting to the stage design was excellent. The stage design/lighting did a great job of conveying the moods of the songs. I recall one tune where they had the band in monochrome grayish spots and they doubled the same spot on Norah while she was also lit from a foot spot that was orange. It made her more three dimensional against the silhouettes of the band. These kinds of techniques were continuous throughout the show and really help set the mood. Concert production has really advanced in the time frame since I first started attending shows over twenty years ago.  I've especially been impressed by the shows of Norah, Sarah McLachlan, Rush and a few others over the last few years. It makes the ticket prices much more tolerable when you consider how complete a show you're getting.

With this tour, Norah has proven that she continues to grow in all aspects as well as adding new abilities to her repertoire.  The band is a very well oiled and polished machine that has benefited with such an extended period of time together. Definitely worth seeing if you're a fan of either Norah or adult contemporary with some jazz & country thrown in.

Innovation - Touchscreens

Microsoft has been making the rounds with a new touchscreen technology (article & video) that will debut later this year, mostly in commercial applications. It's somewhat reminiscent of the interface shown in "Minority Report" a few years ago, where they would manipulate images and video with their fingers on a screen. It will eventually make it to the home user (good luck guessing how much it will cost) although it will probably be several years. This is going to be a much more intuitive way of using a computer, much like the way you would handle items on your real desktop such as a pen, paper or photos. It also allows multi-user access so that multiple peope could sit around a surface and interact whether it's playing games, ordering food at a restaurant or something more creative. Very cool.

Movie Review - Pirates 3

The same cast of characters from the first two movies returns with the addition of several Pirate Lords played most notably by Chow Yun Fat and Keith Richards (in the role of Jack Sparrow's father, although I couldn't immediately tell a difference from his last Stones appearance, and I kept waiting for one of the other pirates to call him Keef). The story is a bit confusing as it consists of a meeting of the same Pirate Lords, the release of a mythical creature called Calypso, attempts to free Jack from Davy Jones Locker (the world of the dead?) and the battle(s) to gain control of the chest with Jones heart in it, control of the Black Pearl, control of the high seas, etc. I think there were at least three sides in the movie with the British Navy as one, Davy Jones & crew as another, and then the collection of the main characters as the third. 

The problem is that at any given moment one group is in league with another, someone from one group betrays the others and crosses sides, etc. After awhile I gave up on understanding where the plot was supposed to be going and just enjoyed the action and humor. Johnny Depp just seems made for this character and he is consistently funny throughout. The action sequences and special effects are as good as they come and although the movie was little too long at 2:45, the time went by fairly fast. If you consider yourself a fan of the first two, it's worth seeing in the theater once. If you weren't, this won't win you over. I give it a mild thumbs up.

Book Review - Cryptonomicon

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - A B&N browse and pick. The story is a few years old (I think 1999) and jumps back and forth between World War II and the turn of the millenium. It centers around a few main characters in WWII and their descendants, and it's focused on the cryptological (then) and information security (now)business. The cast of characters includes a kind of cryptological savant, a marine grunt, spies, treasure hunters, damsels in distress, lions, tigers, you get the picture. Ok, mostly it's about the spy business from the side of cryptographers (go figure with a title like Cryptonomicon) Stephenson shows quite the touch at handling the science (which he appears to be quite versed in) as well as offering a plausible and interesting plot. He also does a good job of handling multiple plot lines as he jumps back and forth between past & present and between different characters. This is often a risky venture and very few pull it off while maintaining the urgency of the story (George R.R. Martin has very succesfully written his entire Song of Ice and Fire series with this technique). Perhaps best of all, he is very funny in the most geeky sense of the word. Some of the metaphors he uses to describe a painful or exasperating experience are laugh out loud funny. I don't know how much of the technology described is real, but it all sounds convincing when he describes it. I really like his writing and will be reading his other novels when I get time.

Mac - So Far, So Good

After 3 days of migrating files, installing updates, downloading new programs that can't be transferred to the Mac from Windows, etc., I am finally getting close to functionality with my new system. I type this post from Wordpress running on my new Mac, and it was relatively painless. As is typical for me with computers in general, I can't describe the exact steps of how I got here in that I think most of the web server specific installs were already completed the first time I started using wordpress, but I did install a couple of programs that were necessary for me to interface from my Mac. I think it was MAMP and XAMPP that did the trick, although other than downloading, installing and turning them on, the actual functionality was lost on me. I'm guessing they were necessary for me to be able to actually run Wordpress from within my Mac browser (Safari) but anything they do is essentially under the hood as far as I'm concerned. The beauty of Wordpress is that once you get it installed, it's really no more difficult to use than a word processor/web browser. Which is nice.  Now that I'm getting close to having all the programs I had previously (whether using the same program for OSX like my Native Instruments soft synths, or using an equivalent like Transmit for FTP in place of Cute FTP which I used on the pc)  I can start delving into the Mac specific stuff as well as getting back to my routine of practicing guitar and writing music. My initial experiments with my music programs have been promising as they have installed with ease, and so far they have sounded better to my ears (with a nod to subjectivity) while putting absolutely no load on the quad core system I'm running now. More to follow. 

Mac - Anticipation

For all my fellow circuitheads, today is one of the more geektastic days that comes along every once in awhile. My new desktop computer is in a Fedex truck as I type this and it should be on my doorstep sometime today. Even more exciting is that it's an Apple Mac Pro which is my first Mac ever and it's basically geekmas in May. I know I'm going to suffer some sort of letdown because I can only think of all the great things that will come along with this system and I'm not concerned about any serious technical hurdles. In fact, my hope is that it's going to run so much smoother than my Windows PCs have that even if there are some glitches or temporary problems they will seem inconsequential compared to all the advantages of speed, efficiency and ease of use. 

The only negative right now is that where I live Fedex is consistently problematic in their deliveries.  UPS is like clockwork every time, delivering everything before noon without fail and that's with probably a couple dozen of deliveries in two years.  Fedex makes home deliveries in my area from about 40 miles away and it always seems like the driver is unfamiliar with the process (I live on a military base) and it usually adds a business day or two to the delivery because they often give up at the first sign of difficulty. There are multiple entrances to our base but they are not all open all the time. In the past, if a driver pulls up to a closed gate they usually just turn around and say they couldn't get in without trying to call and find out if another gate is open. Hopefully that won't happen today. If it does, I probably will have to wait four more days because of the holiday weekend. I don't know if it's because Fedex uses independent contractors (and therefore gets different drivers unfamiliar with the area more often) or what because they do seem to be the only carrier service that has this issue (DHL also has never had a problem).  

Musician - Muscle Memory

This is a concept that has application in every aspect of our lives, from tying shoes to writing your name to even more specialized activities like playing an instrument or flying a plane.  Perhaps more appropriately called "Motor Memory" this process is what happens when you repeatedly engage in some movement or activity to the point where you can do it without thinking any more. It starts the day you're born where you gradually learn to form words and speech based on hearing others talk. Later you use it to learn how to walk, throw a football, drive a car or type on a computer. We can all remember when we first learned how to type by hunt and peck until we hopefully learned the standard typing position to the point that we can type without looking at our hands.

It's been discussed and studied a great deal but it is still not fully understood. One theory contends that motor meory actually involves several different processes involving the brain, motor neurons, skeletal muscle, neurotransmitters like acetylcholine and serotonin, and other undiscovered processes.  One study found that brain trauma patients suffering from a degree of amnesia could be taught a new procedure they would retain while they forgot the process of learning it. For example, they could be taught to shuffle a deck of cards, but they wouldn't remember learning how. This lends credence to the idea that multiple systems are responsible for motor memory and not purely the brain. 

My specific interest in the topic is how it applies to learning and improving on the guitar. I find that learning new techniques or songs on the guitar is not only dependent on the amount of practice but also on the total duration in weeks, months, and years that I am regularly pursuing this new technique.  I think most experienced players and teachers agree that 30 minutes of daily practice will do more to reinforce new concepts than 3 hours once a week.  However the process works, it takes the body time to react to the mental and physical changes that are occurring to facilitate the new movement. Although there is a great deal of commonality in guitar techniques compared to the difference between playing guitar and needlepoint, there is still usually some degree of new learning involved in any new song. It's especially obvious when learning a completely new technique like an Eddie Van Halen or Tommy Emmanuel song when all you've been playing before are Bob Dylan tunes. 

Usually learning new things on the guitar is very gradual and it's often hard to tell that you're making progress even if you are.  One of the great joys is when you seem to make a sudden jump in capability overnight. Whether or not this phenomenon is more a subjective interpretation of the player, it does still seem to occur occasionally.  I liken it to the process of wiring a house during the construction process. The payoff is obviously instantaneous between the days or weeks of work and the first time that you switch on the lights after the wiring has been completed. The interesting thing is that it seems that the motor memory process continues to work after you stop practicing a technique. I feel this must be true because I have had some unavoidable gaps in practicing due to travel and temporary duties but I have often found that I am able to make a jump in my progress once I return to practicing again. 

The other great thing about motor memory is that it seems analagous to paving roads in your nervous system.  I played guitar (albeit poorly) for a few years as a teenager, but essentially didn't play at all for over fifteen years. When I decided to start playing again, I found that I was still able to form chords and play certain songs that I had learned all those years ago and although it took me a little while to get calluses on my fingers, the process of "re-learning" chords was nowhere near as difficult or time consuming as the first time. It seemed like I still had those neurological pathways in my body, but that they just needed to have some weeds and debris cleared off before they were as good as new.  Within a month of dedicated practice I think I was back to my original level of competence (not saying much, but even so) from when I quit playing all those years before.

Movies - The Golden Compass looks good

In the realm of fantastic fiction directed at children/young adults, Harry Potter is the reigning champion by any yardstick. J.K. Rowling doesn't have a monopoly, however. I grew up reading C.S. Lewis and Lloyd Alexander before I moved on to J.R.R. Tolkien in my early teens. If it had been written back then, I'm sure I would have read Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. I have actually picked these novels up at the bookstore several times but  never got around to reading them. By all reports it's in a similar vein to Harry Potter but with a more adult sensibility to it.  Riding the wave of cinematic success of HP, LOTR, and Narnia the first novel has been made into a feature film and there's a really cool looking trailer here. I'm looking forward to this now and I'm more inclined to read the first novel before I see this.

Molehills

I'm sure everyone of us has many opportunities in their professional and personal lives to interact with people who tend to focus on the irrelevant. The old saying "making a mountain out of a molehill" is unfortunately still valid.  In my work especially, I deal with mostly adminstrative medical evaluations for employment and it seems to be a near daily occurrence that someone in the process will decide to focus on a point that is trivial to everyone else in the world (except them) to the exclusion of the truly important issues at hand. In my line of work, it's often more trouble to put someone in their place as opposed to just patting their hand until they go away and dump their molehill on someone else.

On a related subject, it's painful yet sometimes fascinating that you will get patients who are much more concerned about some administrative aspect to their exam as opposed to the fact that you are telling them they need to change their lifestyle or they're going to die before their 60.  The typical response you get is something along the lines of "Ok, I realize that I'm overweight, hypertensive, diabetic and at imminent risk for a fatal heart attack in the next five years if I don't stop smoking, overeating, drinking, not exercising, etc. But is this going to keep me from working overtime this weekend? Because I really need to pay for that new bass boat."  Not to mention people who get upset because it's such an inconvenience for them to come into the clinic once a year for 2-3 hours to have an exam that is a condition of their continued employment.  Most of them don't consider that their health should be more important to them than it is to us, but that's usually not the case. The unspoken but very common philosophy is work until you die, even if you could extend your life by twenty or thirty years with a few lifestyle choices. 

Movie Review - Spider Man & Shrek 3

We saw Spider Man and Shrek 3 this weekend and in both cases, I suppose the third time isn't as charming as hoped for. If you liked the first two of each, then these aren't completely forgettable, but they both suffer from where they occur in the series. I think we've seen all we need to see of both these series now (although I'll be surprised if there isn't a least one more sequel for each). Spider Man 3 - a little too long and too many villains. This movie suffers from trying to do too much and thereby gives too little attention to anything, leaving you wondering at the end exactly who was that Sandman guy, and where the hell did the black gooey stuff come from? And why couldn't it wait until the next movie? I'd say it's worth a rental, but you may want to save your theater money for something else. It does look great, though.

Shrek 3 - is at least visually impressive as they have managed to continue the graphics improvements with technology to the point that some things in the movie look very convincingly real. Unfortunately, the charm of the first two movies gets a little lost in this movie in which Shrek and Fiona are much more mainstream characters, reminding me of some sitcom roles as opposed to the rude and abrasive (and more entertaining) Shrek from the first two movies. The best roles (and lines) in this movie are for the minor fairy tale characters;  Donkey and Puss-n-boots are also underutilized.  It's still worth a rental (in about 6 months) unless you've got kids who will probably demand to see it in the theater. I really wish they could do an R-rated Shrek. If you pushed the vulgarity, sarcasm and exploited the twisted fairy tale idea to its limit this could be really funny. Sadly, that'll never happen.

A common theme in many sequels now is that they all benefit from the newest technology and manage to surpass their predecessors on some audiovisual level, but that is often the only objective goal they seem to have in mind. Look at the Star Wars prequels, for example. They all surpassed the original trilogy from a tech standpoint, but they all were found lacking in script, dialogue and characters. I'm unashamedly a techno geek and I will often watch a movie that is otherwise forgettable if it looks cool, but I'm really starting to tire of the tendency to treat story and dialogue as secondary. Why can't we make great looking, epic movies that also remember the importance of storytelling at it's most basic level?  The Lord of the Rings trilogy is an example of how you can do both although they had the benefit of a great story to start with.  I often wonder if all the tech advancements have been a positive for the movie industry. A great story begins and ends with words and unfortunately in a visual medium this is sometimes an afterthought.

Practice makes permanent

We've all heard the old axiom that practice makes perfect, but that's only true if your practice is perfect.  Most people associate practice with repetition, and it's true that some is necessary when working on a part that is technically challenging.  But it's vital that you are repeating the right parts and for the purpose of improving your weak points, and not just going through the motions. 

The best advice I have ever gotten about practicing is that you should take a song you're learning, and only play the song at the speed which you can execute it flawlessly. Think about that for a minute.  When you practice a song you will eventually get to a part of the song which is difficult for you. Instead of trying to play the song at full speed and fumbling over the difficult passage each time you go through it, you need to slow down. 

A good phrase to describe this is "isolate the difficulty".  You should choose a difficult section and focus on playing only that section at a much slower speed over and over until you can play it perfectly with the correct rhythm even if you still can't play it a full speed. You will be amazed how quickly your fingers can learn to go from half speed to full speed once you learn the part well at half speed. It's certainly much faster than trying to learn something at full speed and fumbling over it every time.  Steve Morse wisely expresses the idea as "To play fast, first you must play slow". 

My two favorite tools for "isolating the difficulty" are an audio player program called the Amazing Slow Downer and a tab program called Guitar Pro.  The ASD allows you change the tempo without affecting the pitch, although you can change the pitch if needed to match your tuning. It also  allows you to isolate any section of the song you want to practice repeatedly.  I'll save those sections so they are always easily brought up for practice, e.g. the solo section of "Back in Black".  Guitar Pro is primarily a tab based tool for learning songs, but it is also has the capability to import midi, powertab, tabledit, and ascii files. It also features a sample engine called the RSE or realistic sound engine which results in more realistic guitar and bass sounds.