What a difference 100/500th’s can make

Check us out at www.richboromusic.com .I almost always forget that part. Not anymore. Not in 2012 buddy. That’s a resolution.

So…today’s topic falls under the heading of “Universal Advise from an Experienced Musical Legend”. Enter Joe DiVita. Joe usually enters a room with dry ice and a cape that would make David Copperfield jealous, but he really is an excellent educator.

 Anyway, here’s some great advise from Joe. And he knows his stuff from performing every  style of music from prog rock to calypso. Nailing challenging rhythms and intricate patterns takes…aw hell. Let him talk.

” Almost every lesson I teach regardless of the instrument, I always find myself saying many of the same things. Things like “A perfect pulse is of key importance”, “Do you have a metronome at home?” and “Now repeat it a million times” However, the number 1 thing I say to students is “slow down”. Every movement musicians make on their instruments is built upon smaller motions that are “programmed” in. Not only will slowing down what you’re practicing help program and train your hands and brain, it will make it easier to execute! Even if you think you can play it at a certain speed (and may very well be able to) the benefits of taking your time and re-evaluating the precise motions are plentiful. Repetition is also key, so at a slower tempo, you’ll be able to repeat the exercise or passage with greater endurance, which will build your skills stronger. It may seem boring, but your practice will be much more focused and effective – guaranteed! I had a band mate and close friend who coined the “20% slower rule”. We played together in a very progressive group for a number of years. We always played in crazy time signatures with tons of musical acrobatics. In our rehearsals, he would always remind us to practice everything 20% slower.  To this day I pass this exact advice along and follow it in my own daily personal practice -  the proof is in the pudding!”

Check out Joe DiVita on Facebook and YouTube. Mr. DiVita teaches at Coyle’s Richboro Music on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays of all weeks of the calendar year.  He teaches Guitar, Bass, Piano, Drums, Percussion, Steel Drum and possibly other instruments he hasn’t told us about. A true multi-instrumentalist, Joe’s proficiency is staggering and is a great teacher with over 10 years of teaching experience.  From shred guitar to marching band, Joe would make a great instructor to help you on your path to musical enlightenment.

What do my ears have to do with polite conversation?

Please check us out at www.richboromusic.com. Now onto today’s rant…

No matter what level of experience you have playing your instrument, chances are you’ve known how to talk for some time. And even for those of us who can’t talk, like my buddy Jim whose jaw is wired shut after a chalupa incident, we’re talking about one-on-one communication. So what are we trying to say? I’m not sure, but it has something to do with using your ears.

This ear is playing video games. Completely useless for our purposes. But next time… 

When you first get starting playing your instrument, the first thing to do is to start getting a good tone or cleanly playing your notes.  Once you get that going, we move to trying to play excersises, short pieces and songs. Cool. But…the magical part of making music for most of us is playing with other people.  That’s the stuff.  For those not fortunate enough to have a drummer living next door and a bass player on your school bus, this means playing with your iPod too. Or for those truly anti-social artists among us, hiding in a dark room away from other humans and doing lots of recording. Either way, you’ll want to start paying attention to what the other instrument is doing, even if it was you in the first place. Make sense? Me either.  

Did you ever have a conversation with someone who just waits for your mouth to stop moving so they can tell you what they’ve been trying to get out while you where talking? Sure you have. And we’ve all been guilty of it too.  The same rules apply to music. Good conversations help us learn something new about a topic or more about the person you’re talking to.  A good jam session happens when players listen to what each other is doing to take the music to a higher level of consciousness. Do you smell incense? Nevermind. Think of it this way. Let’s say you’re a stud guitar player playing with a drummer and a bassist. Classic 3-piece power combo. But you’re so involved with your amaaazing solo that you aren’t noticing that the drummer’s really trying to get this cool beat to take shape and the bassist is changing his dynamics. They’re having a moment and want you to join in. After a few passes, they give up and intently listen as you play that tapping lick for the 8th time. You missed a genuine magical moment to play together and make some cool music happen. Did you ever wonder why women value a “good listener” when naming the attributes of the ideal mate? All women are actually jazz musicians who love to improvise. It’s true. If you’re one reading this right now, don’t worry about your secret. Nobody reads this anyway.  

It takes time to become proficient enough on your instrument to play involved things and still listen. If you were a great point guard, they’d say you have great court vision.  If you were a great quarterback, you’d be able to check down to your 3rd option.  If you were writing a blog you’ve just run out of analogies.  So slow down. Simplify your stuff sometimes so you can let someone else shine and hone in on what they’re trying to do.  You’ll become a better player and be more fun for everyone else to play with. I play over people. Very loudly. Sometimes in tune. Haven’t been called to play with in 15 years. Learn from my character flaws and be a better musician. Even if you just started playing yesterday, focus on listening.   

And while we’re at it, listen to more than just what your instrument does. That means that if you’re a guitar player, try concentrating on the kick drum of a Zepplin song. Play the violin? Listen to the bass line of that Katy Perry song. The one about that time they had fun. Yeah, that one. It’ll help you appreciate what makes a whole song work, not just the one part you want to learn. 

Now go practice and have some fun.

Interesting things from the Music Lesson world any musician can steal, I mean use…

“In music theory, a leading-note (also subsemitone, and called the leading-tone in the US) is a note or pitch which resolves or “leads” to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively.“

- “Borrowed” this afternoon from Wikipedia to explain what a leading tone is so we don’t feel foolish upon being corrected.

Welcome!  We’ve been having some mild fun with our repair blog for a little over a year now and figured we could share some of the conversations, opinions (valued and otherwise) and great musical ideas that we get to gleam from fellow players and enthusiasts on a daily basis. Here it is.  And as we get this ball rolling, I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about some phrasing ideas shared by one of our customers that really hit the nail on the head. But before I get too far, I’d like to point out that we’ll be soliciting most of these ideas from our very talented in-house music instructors to give students, web site surfers and fellow players some things to chew on. They’ll be aimed at many different experience levels, but will hopefully give us all food for thought with our own playing.  I believe you can learn something from everyone.

That’s an accordion that we put new straps on. But this is the wrong blog for that.

Now back to today’s topic. Here’s the scene. I’m standing behind the counter eating the last of my Snickers bar, talking to a good young player. I eat the peanut and caramel top off the last bite first, leaving the nougat for last. In the background is another player, let’s call him Exhibit B.  Well, Exhibit B’s a great guitarist with really nice phrasing. Little bluesy, little jazzy. Kinda like a Larry Carlton with some SRV vibrato. I know, right? The guitar store hero.  So as we’re both talking and listening, the ute (did I say ute?) looks me dead in the eyes and says “You know why he sounds so good? He keeps playing the note before the one he wants to land on!” I saw the lightbulb. He walked over to an acoustic guitar (dude’s a metal head) and plays a simple blues lick. But before he resolved that little pentatonic ditty, he played the fret before and then slid up to the A. Some vibrato ensued. I might have teared up, can’t remember. My man just played a major 7th and didn’t even have to take his studded wrist band off. He then proceeded to add leading tones to all of the basic blues box moves he knew and was astonished to realize he now sounded like he’s been playing for an extra 10 years.  Sure there might be some klunkers, but experiment with finding what notes  sound right before and after your best licks resolve, and you’ll add more style points than you can imaging. It’s like Beadazzling your soul, man. Do some reverse bends, slides, whatever. It’s your playing, you decide.

My favorite players are the ones with really distinctive phrasing. The aforementioned Larry Carlton, Albert Collins, Steve Vai, Slash. These are some obvious guitar heros. I know. But they have such stylized phrasing that they can play the same old patterns and sound fresh.  As psychotically great a player as Vai is, what made him stand out to me when I first heard him wasn’t the high-drama stuff. It was how he made a basic descending pentatonic run sound like he was playing with rubber bands.

Little things like applying leading tones in your own way will help you forge a signature style. And if it doesn’t, it’ll jazz up at least one lick for you. But be careful. Excessive use may cause you to play 17″ archtops and use 13′s.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Please check us out at www.richboromusic.com or click here to contact us for lessons.