Clipmarks | Rustee's Guitar collection

Five Things to Forget About Being a Better Guitarist

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:12:41 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

It seems strange to me how many incorrect assumptions and teachings there are about becoming a better guitarist. Here are a few things that are often NOT true.

1. You should be a well rounded player and learn lots of different styles of music to become a good guitarist.

Segovia (the classical guitar master) wasn't well rounded - he didn't waste his time to master jazz or bluegrass for example.

2.You should be able to play all the techniques of the guitar.

Van Halen did tapping but not with all his fingers as others have done.

3. Teaching yourself is the best way to be original.

Besides, how will you know if what you are trying to do is original if you don't learn about what has already been done?

4. To be GREAT means I have to be BETTER than everybody else.

This is not the Olympics.

5. You need natural talent to be a great (or even a good) musician.

Beethoven was, of course, a master, but did not enjoy the fruits of any natural talents.

He was not a child prodigy like Mozart and Chopin were.

Tags: music, guitar

Why Aren't You a Better Guitarist? - 20 Necessary Concepts

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:05:01 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: www.ibreathemusic.com

1. Educate yourself!

2. Listen to more music.

3. Turn your musical frustrations into an asset in the form of a motivating force.

4. Believe in yourself.

5. Understand that becoming a better guitarist means becoming a better musician as well.

6. Surround yourself with better players (or at least with those on your same level.)

7. Find out what inspires you and soak yourself in that.

8. Define your purpose.

9. Define exactly why your purpose exists in your mind.

10. Create a strategy!

11. Imagine yourself having the skills that you desire.

12. Define what you plan to do with your musical skills once you have them.

13. Find out how your favorite players reached their goals.

14. Don't compare yourself to others.

15. Make sure you are practicing efficiently.

16. Play with others in a band or some type of ensemble.

17. Measure your progress.

18. Do not pander to your strengths while ignoring your weaknesses.

19. Discipline yourself.

20. NEVER GIVE UP!

Tags: music, guitar

Ancient Greek Music Theory - Modes

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:36:36 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

The Greeks had developed a complex system of relating particular emotional and spiritual characteristics to certain modes (scales). The names for the various modes derived from the names of Greek tribes and peoples, the temperament and emotions of which were said to be characterized by the unique sound of each mode, which included the Ancient Greek subgroups (Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians), one small region in central Greece (Locris), and certain neighboring (non-Greek) peoples from Asia Minor (Lydia, Phrygia). Thus, Dorian modes were "harsh", Phrygian modes "sensual", and so forth.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

The very word music, itself, comes from the muses, the daughters of Zeus and patron goddesses of creative and intellectual endeavours.

It is important to note that the entire study of such things by the Greeks was less a formula for the production of playable music than it was a mathematical and philosophical description of how the universe, in general, was perceived to be constructed—the stars, the sun, the planets, all vibrating in harmony.

Yet, it is equally true that once formal descriptions of consonant intervals were in place, there followed, rather naturally, descriptions of what notes should be played in succession to be "correct" scales from which "correct" melodies might be formed. These scales were called modes, and they were crucial to the further development of western music.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Plato and Aristotle describe the modes to which a person listened as molding the person's character.

The effect of modes on character and mood was called the "ethos of music".

Tags: music theory, history, culture

The Chord Scale

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:27:35 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: This is also helpful in putting together simple progressions, or even whole songs.

Clip Source: www.ibreathemusic.com

Harmonized Major Scale

Plain C major scale:

We start out by harmonizing the major scale with thirds that are diatonic to the scale (diatonic means part of the scale). Below I included the resulting interval starting from each scale note:

If we add another third on top we get all triads within C major:

By adding another third on top we get all 7th chords within C major:

I cannot emphasize how important the above really is. Here lies the answer to questions like "How can I transpose this tune?" or "How can I improvise over this chord progression?".

Again, forget about the fact that we used C major for demonstration and take a look at the formula for the individual chords:

Imaj7 IIm7 IIIm7 IVmaj7 V7 VIm7 VIIm7b5

This means that if you know the single notes of a major scale you also know which chords the scale contains.

Tags: music theory, guitar

Koyunbaba - Presto

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:06:20 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Written by Carlos Domeniconi, an Italian born composer currently living in Germany; although this piece is Turkish in influence.

Another facet of this composition is that the guitar is tuned to an open tuning, C#minor, which isn't very common in classical guitar.

Clip Source: youtube.com

[Video]

William Kanengiser: Presto from Koyunbaba (Carlo Domeniconi)

Performed by William Kanengiser, from his Mel Bay DVD, "Classical Guitar and Beyond".

William Kanengiser is also a member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ). http://www.lagq.com

Tags: classical music, guitar

Concierto de Aranjuez - Adagio

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:07:53 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Note that this is 1 of 2. I'll leave it to you to listen to the 2nd half (which I didn't clip), but that's where the dramatic climax is.

Clip Source: youtube.com

Kaori Muraji - Rodrigo - Concierto de Aranjuez, Adagio 1/2

[Video]

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

The Concierto de Aranjuez is a composition for classical guitar and orchestra by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is probably Rodrigo's best-known work, its success establishing his reputation as one of the foremost post-war Spanish composers.

The second movement, the best-known of the three, is marked by its slow pace and quiet melody, introduced by the English horn, with a soft accompaniment by the guitar and strings. A feeling of quiet regret permeates the piece.

Eventually, a climactic build-up starts.

Some say that the second movement was inspired by the bombing of Guernica which happened in 1937. In her autobiography, the composer's wife Victoria maintains that it was an evocation of the happy days of their honeymoon, and a response to Rodrigo's devastation at the miscarriage of their first baby.

Tags: classical music, guitar

Ancient Chinese Bells

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:32:15 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

The importance of that discovery grows when we realize that it took the West a thousand years to develop the cathedral bell, and we didn't have it until the middle ages. Bells are very hard to make, yet China had these remarkably sophisticated Zhong bells during the Golden Age of Athens. The bells produce a rich tone, they take far less bronze to get it than a cathedral bell, and then they deliver two sounds for the cost of one.

It's easy to look right at something that's very sophisticated without seeing the sophistication. It took us eighty years to catch on to these remarkable, but unassuming, bells. The best inventions are like that. In the best inventions, elegance masquerades as simplicity.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

Just after the turn of this century, archaeologists started finding curious sets of bronze bells in tombs throughout China. They range from 2000 to 3600 years old, and they have an odd shape.

They're called Zhong bells. Thousands of these bells had been unearthed by the late 1970s, and their strange secret still hadn't yet come to light.

The secret was actually seen and missed in 1957 when the National Music Research Institute in China played a set of these bells in concert.

The E-bell was missing in one octave. But then a player found he could get that sound by striking the C-bell on its side.

But twenty years later, Chinese musicologists, examining a set of these bells, discovered that every bell in the set had the same property -- it had two tones, either a third or a minor third apart. Then they found that many of these bells even had marks on the side to show players where to strike the bells to get the two tones. Each bell was, in fact, meant to be two bells in one.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

Tags: music, history, china

The Most Ancient Technology of All

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:54:13 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

Its function is to put reality in terms that make sense. That means dramatizing what we see -- transmuting it into something more than what's obvious.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

What's the oldest technology? Farming came late in history. Before farming, settled herdsmen and gatherers made clothing, knives, tents, spears -- but so did nomads before them. Go back further: archaeology tells us that pictures and music were among stone-age technologies. Some really magnificent cave paintings survive, along with evidence of rattles, drums, pipes, and shell trumpets. Even the Bible -- the chronology of the Hebrew tribes -- identifies musical-instrument-making as one of three technologies that arose in the 7th and 8th generations after Adam.

Music is the most accessible art, and -- at the same time -- the most sophisticated. In almost any age, or any society, music-making is every bit as complex as other technologies.

Music is clearly as old as any technology we can date. Couple that with the sure knowledge that whales sing -- that the animal urge to make music precedes technology, and I offer music-making as my candidate for the oldest technology of all.

Tags: music, history

Soundclick Guitarists - Michael Silvestri

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:29:40 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Excellent recordings from a professional.

Clip Source: www.soundclick.com

Michael Silvestri plays instrumental classical and original acoustic guitar music.

99 songs available

Michael Silvestri guitarist

Tags: guitar, music

Soundclick Guitarists - Allar Plays Tarrega

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:24:23 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Tarrega is considered to be the father of modern classical guitar, and my personal favorite.

Clip Source: www.soundclick.com

Allar Plays Tarrega

Those recordings are made at my home. All those pieces are made or transcribed by spanish guitarist Francisco Tárrega

20 songs available

Tags: guitar, music

Soundclick Guitarists - Superhuman

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:16:00 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Free to stream or download...one of my fav's.

Clip Source: www.soundclick.com

"Superhuman" is an instrumental project by guitarist/composer Dave Kelly from Ireland. Fast, furious and highly technical, this is virtuostic metal with brains. Influences are broad, ranging from metal and rock through to techno and classical.

» go to the music page for more

Tags: guitar, music

Guitarist - Philippe Bertaud

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:10:06 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: This Frenchman turned Texan gives the best interview I've heard on this show...very funny! And of course he's a great player too.

Clip Source: www.kuhf.org

The Front Row, 08/03/2007

We meet, and hear, Texas-based French guitarist Philippe Bertaud, whose repertoire combines European classical tradition, Brazilian rhythms and American jazz & pop influences.

Listen Download

Tags: guitar, music, downloads

Classical Guitarists - Enric Madriguera & Mitch Weverka

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:36:28 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Madriguera brings an 8 string guitar. There's also a somewhat humorous conversation about fingernails.

Clip Source: www.kuhf.org

The Front Row, 05/31/2006

Guitarists Enric Madriguera and Mitch Weverka stopped by the KUHF Performance Studio today.

Audio here.

Tags: guitar, classical music, downloads

Classical Guitarists - Andrew Zohn & Richard Todd

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 03:14:45 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Zohn plays a piece by a Brazilian composer and a tango by Barrios, while Todd plays 2 lute pieces by Bach.

Clip Source: www.kuhf.org

The Front Row, 06/01/2007

Guitarists Richard Todd and Andrew Zohn stop into KUHF's Performance Stuido for a preview of the final recital at this year's Classical Minds Guitar Festival.

Listen Download

Tags: guitar, classical music, downloads

Classical Guitarist - Peter Polujin

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 01:12:02 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: He plays 4 pieces in all. Exceptional performance!

Clip Source: www.kuhf.org

The Front Row, 05/25/2006

Classical guitarist Peter Polujin has been living in Houston for five years but, will now move to Canada. As he prepares to depart the Lone Star State he'll be presenting a farewell recital. He stopped by Studio 3-C to play a little of his program for KUHF listeners. . .

Audio here.

Tags: guitar, classical music, downloads