FACETIME LESSONS starting in 2017

Hey all Grove Guitar Friends:

In all my years of teaching students from around the globe that study at

Trinity Western University (located in Vancouver, Canada), I can now reach

 out to them and others through FACETIME or SKYPE technology. In 2017 I will be adding this opportunity for my expertise to be open to students all around the world. 

It's quite simple to use and in our busy lives and seemingly ever shrinking world 

it's a wonderful opportunity for me and students of the guitar that either know of me through the university or through live and session work that I have done. 

For information on lessons contact:

chesterton1965@gmail.com

Rockband Class at Fort Langley Guitar Lessons+

I am starting a Rockband Class in the Fall 2016 for guitar and bass students in my studio here in 

Fort Langley. It will be a weekly one hour class in forming a Rockband and rehearsing and performing in that context. With the lack of opportunities for kids and adults to play and perform 

this will be a great class to be involved in and a good test to see if you have the knack for performance and working with other musicians in a band. 

Use a Metronome.

I have spent at least a few thousands of hours playing and practicing with a metronome in my life as a guitar player. The benefits are nothing short of staggering and I would recommend it to any and all that play guitar and want to improve.

Music can be simply defined as 'notes in time' and that definition should compel me as a musician to take the 'time' part of the equation seriously. I remember a very famous respected studio musician saying that "notes are secondary", and that, from a modern perspective gives 'time' a little more weight and importance than 'notes'.

Using a metronome can be challenging at the start. To have a tempo or beat clicking in your ears as you play will take some time to get used to. Start off with simply hitting one note per metronome beat as you ascend through a simple pentatonic scale and then you can graduate to two, three or four notes per metronome beast in the future.

I use the metronome to practice scales, chord rhythm, song parts, and to develop speed and good phrasing in melodies and guitar runs. I usually practice with slower speed settings so my playing remains flawless but some guitarist really push the tempo to play as fast as they can for the purposes of their style of music.

If you buying a metronome, find one that has a pleasing sound that you will be able to listen to for hour without irritation or ear fatigue. I like small metronomes that can travel with me easily and that have the tone of a woodblock.

If you get to the place where you're playing music professionally, there is no way to avoid playing to some kind of metronome, so follow Vinnie's advice below.

Make the metronome your friend, not your enemy.

Vinnie Colaiuta (drummer - Sting)

Overdrive Pedals vs. Distortion Pedals

Let's start by defining 'Overdrive' and 'Distortion' in the context of guitar pedals and the sound created when using them.

'Overdrive' is essentially everything from sound of an amp being slightly pushed to break up to the crunch and distorted warmth of a cranked tube amp.

'Distortion' is usually everything including, and above and beyond that ceiling of the typical gain that on 'Overdrive' pedal has.

All of my gain or boost pedal on my pedalboard would fall under the 'Overdrive' definition of light to medium gain with natural and traditional amp qualities.

The reason I employ Overdrive instead of Distortion pedals in my setup has a lot to do with the style of music that I tend to play, the dynamic response of Overdrive pedals, the option of stacking multiple gain pedals, and the clarity and more articulate tone response. 

Let me unpack these four reasons:

Style - If your not playing heavy metal, grunge, thrash or a style that needs over-the-top gain and sustain, distortion pedals can sound thin, buzzy and less articulate than overdrives. I play mostly rock and pop live shows and session and find that my guitar will cut through the mixes better if I use less gain on the pedals and try to highlight the natural and transparent sounds of a tube amp at that slightly broken up setting. I can achieve high gain sounds if I need them by combining two overdrives together.

Dynamic Response - With an overdrive pedal I can clean up my sound by softer picking or using the guitar's volume control. I find that I can use a lot more dynamic control with overdrives that help with building with a songs dynamic range. Distortion pedals tend to give you too much gain to dial up or down dynamically and tend to compress the overall sound. 

Stacking - I stack my overdrives all the time in order to use the distinct and special tone qualities of a couple of pedals in combination to achieve new sounds. I might use a mid-range heavy overdrive with a full range overdrive to a cut through a mix for soloing. I might use the gain of one overdrive to push another overdrive over-the-top to get a 'fuzzface' type of sound. 

Clarity - Even though it's a lot less forgiving, I tend to turn down the gain of my pedals for the sake of clarity and articulation. A lot of the great guitar albums of the past have had this same mindset and approach to recording and tone, and I the results are generally a more punchy, defined, and distinct sound quality in both live and studio situations.

Try some A/B comparisons at a local store and find out what fits your playing best.

Adult Guitar Ensemble/Band

The fastest growing segment of my guitar studio is adults finally taking the time to learn the guitar in their busy, hectic modern lives. This guitar ensemble/band class is the result of that interest and will push the adult students a step further into live performances.

My Top Ten Favourite Guitar Albums

Here's a list of my all-time favourite guitar albums. 

1. Ah via Musicom - Eric Johnson

2. High Tension Wires - Steve Morse

3. Talk To Your Daughter - Robben Ford

4. Wired - Jeff Beck

5. Room 335 - Larry Carlton

6. Guitarland - Tim Pierce

7. Letter From Home - Pat Metheny

8. Escape From Hollywood - Hellecasters

9. Jacaranda - Trevor Rabin

10. Neck and Neck - Chet Atkins/Mark Knofler

I hope you have some favourites you can share with our Blog followers 

Tips for Great Guitar Solos

Here are some tools to use and strategize with when your trying to come up with ideas for guitar solos and nice lead lines in the context of modern music. None of these are mysterious or unreachable for even beginner guitar players. We use other similar and related templates to help us in other areas of our work, school, sports, and lives; so this can be considered the guitar-solo template.

Music as conversation:

My favourite soloists in music always seem to have an inate sense of what the other 

instruments in a song are doing and how to converse with them in a meaningful way. 

Even though they (guitarist) might be the prominent soloist in the band, they seem to be looking to play off something the bassist, drummer or keyboardist is doing underneath or to the side of them.   

Melody playback:

Great guitarists always use the songs melodies and themes to help come up with

solos and lines. I like to learn some of the vocal melody lines at different locations on the

fretboard and sneak them into my solos, lines and riffs. Sometimes it helps to use melodic content

as your start the solo or as your move up higher on the neck and build to a high point in the solo.

  

Rhythmic changes:

Many beginning guitar players make the mistake of being too predictable. Lead lines that 

always start at the top of the bar or always on the on-beat can often sound uninteresting

and unimaginative and leave the audience unmoved. It's important to mix things up with 

lines of unequal length, starting on the off-beats and playing over the bar-line. Adding 

triplets, rhythmic hick-ups and space between lines can add a fantastic amount of

dynamics, tension and excitement to your playing.  

Linear vs. Positional:

If positional playing (in one scale form) is putting me in a musical rut or not working in a 

specific song I will try a linear approach (playing on one or two strings). Sometimes

a small adjustment of that type will put you on a fresh path to new inspiration or

just on the path to what the song really needs. 

Chord or Target tones:

Just as horn players and piano players love to play lines that include arpeggios, triads and 

chord tones, many guitarist avoid this approach because it takes a fair amount of fretboard and

theory knowledge. A solution is to start with simple small triadic shapes on the 1st 3 strings and

highlight those in lead lines. A perfect example of this is the solo in 'Comfortably Numb'.

Phrases and sentences:

Way to many guitarist solo with musical run-on sentences. Try to leave some blank space

at the end a lick or phrase, like a period at the end of a sentence. I might try to play 4

phrases for an 8 bar solo or think of a solo as a musical poem. It will help create those

wonderful story lines we hear in classic solos. 

Space or "Air":

Don't be afraid to leave space and air in your solos. Sometimes the best thing to do 

when you want to play is to be silent and listen to what's going on around you in the

music. Try for 25% less notes in your solos. 

I hope this helps you to at least begin to strategize and think about soloing in different ways.