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New eBook: Contemporary Blues Chords and Comping, Out now!

Gianni — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:46:18 +0000

Contemporary Blues Chords and Comping

Buy ‘Contemporary Blues Chords and Comping’

E-book securely with Paypal $19.95

An in-depth exploration of the twelve bar blues, from classic R&R grooves to the most Modern Blues and Fusion sounds, following a journey through different comping styles and techniques.

I have written this book to provide a variety of comping ideas for blues guitarists of all levels: most of the material comes from my experience in playing countless blues, jazz, and funk gigs, and hours of listening to and transcribing from the classic records, trying when applicable, to explain with simple harmonic concepts why I use a chord instead of another.

The ebook is a digital download in the popular Pdf format (70 pages) and includes a recording of all examples in MP3 format.

Click here to download the Contents table and a sample of the book with Mp3 recording free!

Also, buy ‘Contemporary Blues Chords and Comping’ in Physical Format (yes, the old style book that you can touch!) and eBook at lulu.com, and Amazon.com (coming soon) just click on the links below!

Posture, Warm ups, Stretching and Health for the Working Guitarist.

Gianni — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:28:26 +0000

As a working guitarist, sooner or later you will be confronted by tension in your upper body and shoulders. I always try to teach to all my students how to avoid tension and explain how warming up before a session/gig and sitting/standing correctly can make a huge difference in how you will feel at the end of it.

We always forget how playing an instrument, lifting gear, or sitting all day to practice or teach can be a physically demanding task, and I don’t know any athlete that does not warm up before a performance, so why shouldn’t we?

The following is a great video that explains how things work in the upper body:

This is a great set of warm ups and massages by guitar master J. Petrucci:

If tension should arise, a great way to release is explained in this video:

I hope this was helpful, feel free to add a comment below if you find more useful videos!

Check List for the forgetful Guitarist

Gianni — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:23:07 +0000

I usually play 150+ gigs a year in different styles, in different settings, sometimes playing ‘dep’ gigs, where you might not know what you’ll be doing until the last minute, it is easy to forget stuff at home (I have done so twice last week…).

I have created this check-list to make sure this does not happen again, and I decided to share it with you. As you go through the list, get the stuff you need and put it in a big pile by the door.

So, What do you need to bring to tonight’s gig…?

GEAR:

What GUITARS will you play Electric, Acoustic, Hollow Body? Will you need more than one guitar? Go through the set-list in you head.

Do you need PEDALS/PEDAL-BOARD?

Do you have enough GUITAR PICKS?

Do you have all the CABLES you need, plus spares?

Do you have a bag with REPLACEMENT STRINGS, GUITAR CABLES, ACCESSORIES (BATTERIES, CLEANING STUFF, SLIDES…), AND MAINS POWER EXTENSIONS/MULTIPLE PLUGS?

Did you pack a TUNER?

AMPLIFIER(S), or Head+Cab, Plus all Cables?

Will you SING at tonight’s gig? MICROPHONES+MIC STAND +XLR CABLES+LYRICS!

Will you need to MIC UP YOUR AMP/ACOUSTIC GUITAR? (EXTRA MIC+MIC STAND+XLR CABLES)

Will you need EARPLUGS? More than one set?

Will I need a MONITOR or any part of a P.A.?

MUSIC:

Do you have a PRINTED SET-LIST with all the TUNES IN THE RIGHT KEYS?

Do you need to read music/Lyrics? (MUSIC STAND WITH LIGHT, CHARTS)

Did you take the music (CHARTS/ AUDIO TRACKS) with you?

OTHER:

Do you have clear DIRECTIONS TO THE VENUE, address+contact number, and a CONTACT NUMBER for some of the band members?

Do you have COINS TO PAY FOR PARKING?

Is FOOD provided, or do you need to bring it with you? (you’ll be surprised how sometimes you might be playing in the middle of nowhere…)

Do you have the right clothing? Do yo need to bring formal CLOTHES+SHOES!!

Do you need any paperwork/Documents (INVOICE/CONTRACT/INSURANCE/EMAIL PRINTOUT)?

You can download this in a printable poster to print out, as it might be a good idea to hang it up in the room where you keep all the equipment.

>DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE CHECK-LIST<

I hope this helped! Feel free to add more in the comment section below if you feel I have missed something.

Most useful guitar chords to learn

Gianni — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:17:13 +0000

I get often asked, especially by beginners, which are the most useful guitar chords to learn when approaching the instrument for the first time. I always thought the open chords where a good guess, as they appear on most famous ‘sing along’ pop tunes…but I never really knew exactly which ones.

That’s where the the guys from www.jumbojimbo.com come to our help.

They have done a ranking for the chords that appear on all the tunes and chords they have in their database. Turns out that the top ten chords are (drum roll please…)

1 G

2 D

3 C

4 A

5 F (bar chord)

6 A7

7 Em

8 Am

9 E

10 E7

This is a capture of the original page so you can see exactly the chord shape. Click on the picture to enlarge.

In the original page, you will be able to see the full rankings for more complex chords.

Bebop Guitar: Practice the most famous Charlie Parker’s Tunes

Gianni — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:27:27 +0000

I bumped on this fantastic video by an exceptionally skilled fellow guitar player who stringed together some of the most famous Charlie Parker’s heads to create a montage for (I guess) practice purpose.

I though this was a great idea and you can find it right below.

I will definitely use this video for my practice routine and to keep these tunes up to scratch…this sort of approach kills two birds with one stone, as you add material to your repertoire, and clean up your technique. Thank you to ‘kevinthebeagle’ for posting this video on his channel.

You can find most of these melodies in the following books, which I own and highly recommend:

Charlie Parker Omnibook: For C Instruments (Treble Clef)

Charlie Parker for Guitar: Note-For-Note Transcriptions and Detailed Performance Notes for 18 Bebop Classics

Google tribute to Les Paul

Gianni — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:30:00 +0000

Good to see today that on the main page of Google.com the logo had been replaced by a playable guitar, in occasion of Les Paul‘s birthday.

If you click anywhere on the strings, it will redirect you to a search for Les Paul.

Also by clicking on the keyboard icon, you can use the computer keyboard to play and record what you ‘strum’.

How to setup your electric guitar

Gianni — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:33:43 +0000

Yesterday during a gig I dropped my beloved Fender Stratocaster ‘head on’, and I could tell right away that the neck had moved and the whole setup had gone out of the window. Rather than taking the guitar to be setup I did a bit of research online and decided to give it a go myself. I had done this before, but never did the whole process from start to finish. I must say the following video shows every step in such detail, you cannot get it wrong!

Thanks to Pbsguitar for porting this great video. My Strat is back in great shape.

Ted Greene Talks about Lenny Breau and his Techniques

Gianni — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:25:55 +0000

In this series of videos Ted Greene, shows some great ideas on harmonics produced by the right hand and other techniques made popular by guitar giant Lenny Breau…some really unusual stuff, and unique sounding chords. I especially like how adding the harmonics creates ‘cluster’ voicings, often very difficult to play on guitar.

Fantastic stuff.

Autotune for guitar?

Gianni — Sun, 15 May 2011 08:53:47 +0000

I am not sure what this is going to do exactly…I am sure it will tune out-of-tune guitars (the existing version of Autotune already does to an extent, so does the polyphonic version of Melodyne). I guess we will have to wait and see.

I am sure, this Antares ATG-6 will spark some controversy.

Not a lot of information on the company’s site as of now. Just visit this page and you will see all there is to see:

http://www.antarestech.com/atg6/index.shtml

Looking forward to see if Antares is going to change the rule of the game, like they did for vocals.

Great lesson on Pentatonics from Scott Henderson

Gianni — Fri, 13 May 2011 08:22:41 +0000

Great to find stuff like this online, in a few minutes, Scott Henderson explains how to use the old pentatonic shape and create new sounds.

To summarize, here he uses the minor pentatonic shape starting from the root, 2nd and 5th of the key of the moment. In the example in B he uses B, C#, F# minor pentatonics. After that he shows some polyrhythms and rhythmic ideas.

I suggest for further reading:

Contemporary blues Soloing ! click here to purchase it in our shop.

Pentatonics (Inside Improvisation Series, Volume 2) by Jerry Begonzi

Pentatonic Scales for Jazz Improvisation (The Ramon Ricker Jazz Improvisation)