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!

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.

This post if for the jazz guys, and possibly those that want to venture into jazz territory. I talked about repertoire yesterday, and today I was asked by a friend to put together a list of the most popular jazz standards that might be called at a jam session…this is what I came up with, and I thought of sharing it with you. Comes without saying that this list is by all means incomplete and dictated by my experience with jazz jams.  Feel free to add your suggestion in the comments section!

A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Sqare

Agua De Beber

Ain’t Misbehavin’

All Blues

All of Me

All of You

All Or Nothing At All

All the Things You Are

Alone Together

Angel Eyes

Autumn Leaves

Beautiful Love

Billie’s Bounce

Blue Bossa

Blue Monk

Blue Moon

Body and Soul

But Not For Me

Bye Bye Blackbird

C Jam Blues

Caravan

Chelsea Bridge

Cherokee

Come Rain Or Come Shine

Cry Me a River

Darn That Dream

Days of Wine and Roses

Desafinado

Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Donna Lee

Doxy

Easy to Love

Embraceable You

Estate

Everything Happens to Me

Everytime We Say Goodbye

Fly Me To The Moon

Foggy Day

Four

Gee Baby Ain’t I Good to You

Gentle Rain

Georgia On My Mind

Giant Steps

Girl From Ipanema

God Bless the Child

Good Bait

Green Dolphin Street

Have You Met Miss Jones

Here’s That Rainy Day

How Deep is the Ocean

How High the Moon

How Insensitive

How Long Has This Been Going On

I Can’t Get Started

I Could Write a Book

I Didn’t Know What Time It Was

I Get a Kick Out of You

I Got Rhythm/Rhythm Changes

I Hear a Rhapsody

I Loves You Porgy

I Remember You

I Should Care

I Thought About You

I’ll Remember April

I’ve Got You Under My Skin

If I Should Lose You

If I Were a Bell

Impressions

In A Sentimental Mood

Invitation

Isn’t It Romantic

It Ain’t Necessarily So

It Could Happen to You

It Don’t Mean A Thing

It Had to Be You

Jitterbug Waltz

Joy Spring

Just Friends

Just One of Those Things

Killer Joe

Lady Is A Tramp

Laura

Lazy bird

Like Someone In Love

Love For Sale

Lover Man

Lullaby Of Birdland

Lush Life

Mack the Knife

Maiden Voyage

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

Misty

Moanin’

Mr. P.C.

My Favorite Things

My Foolish Heart

My Funny Valentine

My Little Suede Shoes

My One and Only Love

My Romance

Nardis

Nature Boy

Night and Day

Night In Tunisia

Now’s The Time

Old Devil Moon

Old Folks

Oleo

On A Slow Boat To China

On The Sunny Side Of The Street

One Note Samba

Over The Rainbow

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Prelude To A Kiss

Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)

Round Midnight

Satin Doll

Scrapple From The Apple

Smile

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

So What

Softly as In A Morning Sunrise

Solar

Someday My Prince Will Come

Someone To Watch Over Me

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Song For My Father

Sonnymoon For Two

Speak Low

St. Thomas

Stella By Starlight

Stormy Weather

Straight No Chaser

Sugar

Summertime

Sunny

Sweet Georgia Brown

Take Five

Take the “A” Train

Tea For Two

The Man I Love

The Nearness of You

The Night Has 1000 Eyes

The Shadow Of Your Smile

The Very Thought of You

The Way You Look Tonight

There is No Greater Love

There Will Never Be Another You

They Can’t Take That Away From Me

Things Ain’t What They Used to Be

This Masquerade

Time After Time

Tune Up

Watermelon Man

Wave

Well You Needn’t

What is This Thing Called Love

When I Fall In Love

When Sunny Gets Blue

Work Song

Yesterdays

You and the Night and the Music

You Don’t Know What Love Is

You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To

In my experience as teacher I have found to be a divide between the guitarist that is obsessed by theory and scales and that who is just interested in learning songs with no real interest in knowing how this songs are created.  I always wondered why  the second category were happier about their playing…

We spend as musicians most of our time learning theory, techniques and we often wonder how these fit in with ‘real life’….a lot of times we forget that tunes and musical pieces/compositions should be the goal of what we do. All these exercises and music theory studies should be a way to better perform and understand the tunes we know and write.

I always suggest to all my students to always keep an updated list of all the tunes they know (or they can busk), and a folder with all their original material, from the completed tunes to the ‘work in progress’ type material.

Keep writing and learning new tunes: this will give you a sense of purpose  in your studies and also it will be a test for all the techniques and theory you have learnt…

Good luck!

Before we start the list, I want to point out something a lot of inexperienced sight-reader miss out. Before you start playing anything, scan the page in front of you…make sure you read the title, author, tempo, style, what key the tune is in, time signature (is it in 4/4 or 6/8?) and noticeable changes throughout the chart (key change, tempo changes, rehearsal marks, difficult passages…).

1. Read just the notes, disregard the rhythmic division, and imagine the value of each note is a quarter note. use a metronome and start from very slow, increasing the speed when you feel confident. Watch out for those ledger lines!

basically this bit of music:

will turn into this:

2. Read just the rhythm. On guitar try to mute with your left hand and pick the correct rhythm, possibly singing along to it. I find that lightly humming the rhythm helps my ability to sight-read the value of each note.

so the same bit of music:

will now turn into this:

3. When practising sight reading, always try to use a metronome or read along to a track that matches your level in terms of speed. I often use Abersolds (I am sure the jazz guys know what I mean) or a transcription of a solo to play against the original…not only I practice my sight reading, but I am going through new material and learning new tunes.

4. Make every opportunity to read in group or to join a band where you have to read (theatre company, big band, classical ensemble). the amount of focus you have when playing with other people is difficult to achieve when practising by yourself, possibly with many distractions around you.

5. Look for the direction of the notes, the curve of the phrase, learn to recognise reoccurring patterns (like scales, intervals), reoccurring chord progressions (usually a G7 will be followed by a C chord of some kind). Knowing a bit of music theory will help you here.

Overall, I have found that the rules for reading music at a decent level are not many, but it is a skill that can be easily developed with a bit of constant practice. If you want to develop your music reading skills try and set aside 20 minutes a day where you just read music you have never seen before. I assure you , if you follow the tips we covered, it should not take long before you see a noticeable improvement.

I highly suggest these books to cover your reading needs:

Reading Studies for Guitar (positions one through 7 and multi position studies in all keys)

Advanced Reading Studies for Guitar: Positions Eight Through Twelve and Multi-Position Studies in All Keys (Advanced Reading: Guitar)

This will contain:

1. Samples of your music:

At least 3 full tracks from  your latest album ready to go. Also I have found handy 3-4 shorter 30 sec samples of your best tunes that are quick to attach and email.

Make sure your MP3's are fully tagged (use this: http://www.mp3tag.de/en/) and the files contain your name, song title and site:

ARTIST_NAME_SONGTITLE_www_ArtistName_com.mp3

2.  Pictures:

A few small, medium size and a high-res picture of you (must be great professional promo shots!), a pic of your logo or band logo if you have one, and album artwork (again in 3 sizes) of all your discography.

3. A well written and appealing biography written in different lengths:

- Long version with a lot of detail of what you have achieved in the past, and your vision and goals for your career.

- Medium version – two or three paragraphs, this is usually what you see on the Net in a Bio page.

- Short version 1 paragraph…it must be great, appealing…imagine one paragraph that contains your bio and your vision.

- One-liner – one compelling line, that must say everything about you and your music.

4.  Press and quotes from reviews: 

Scan anything meaningful that you have in terms of press and appearances on magazines and newspapers, plus one big page/file (like a word file) were you summarize your press
and best quotes from these articles. Put in there endorsements and anything that people said about your music (even comments on your Myspace page if you think they are great!). Think outside the box here.

5. A Links page:

A document (again a word doc or plain text will be fine), where you have all your important web links (Myspace, twitter…) ready to be copied and pasted anywhere.

6. Showreel

If you plan to put this material on line (and make it into a EPK or electronic press kit) I suggest you to have a showreel ready, make  it a mashup of performances, pictures slideshow with your music in the background, and the odd interview section where you talk about yourself and your music in first person.

In a few words, any time somebody requests something to do with you as an artist, think 'will I need that again?' if the answer is yes, make sure you leave a copy in this 'press kit' folder on your desktop. And if you are out of inspiration, just browse the web and don't try to copy, but try to improve what you see and like in other artist's pages.

www.musiced.about.com/od/beginnersguide/a/injuries.htm a good article on types of injuries and how to avoid them.

www.handfootcare.com/hand_warmup.htm very graphic page on small but great exercises to warm up your hands and keep them in tip top shape.

www.musicianshealth.com/stretches.htm some more exercises.

www.hhsbands.com/forms/breathingexercise.pdf#search='exercises for musicians' some good stuff on breathing and more.

www.alexandercenter.com/pa/ Alexander technique for musicians

www.japanshakuhachi.com/handcareformusic.html Tips on how to care for your hands, a valuable asset for every musician.

www.hearnet.com/ Great resource for earplugs, tinnitus remedies and more.

exercise.about.com/library/bltravelworkout.htm some easy exercises to do when you are traveling and have no equipment.

www.dontlosethemusic.com/home/ great website on noise level awareness.

www.hear-the-world.com/  another website about hearing awareness backed up by some impressive names.

       First of all there are a few dualities we have to explore: are we a leader or a sideman? Solo artist or band member? Do we find work for ourselves or would we rather be part of a team?  Do you want to be a jack-of-all-trades or the best at just one?

       Do you have a product to ‘sell’ or are you all form and no content?? This could be a CD, a book or even just a song you really believe in. Maybe it is time for you to start writing your own material rather than covering somebody else’s or mimicking parrot-fashion your idol, or the ‘in’ act of the moment. You always stand a better chance to make it with your own material, and believe me the rewards are much bigger, especially from a personal point of view. You can record your own album or demo at home with very little gear, so no excuses there.

       Another misconception I seem to hear many times, is that a musician has to be only a performer to be called a musician…actually some of the most well established guitarists I know are not only performers, but also writers, teachers, producers and more! This is why well rounded musicians stand a better chance to make it. Overnight fame very rarely happens. Most artists concentrate on developing different ‘streams of income’ or earning a living through a combination of session work, writing, producing, and any other music opportunities that may present themselves. Networking is a key element in all this and nowadays it is easier than ever with social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook. Having said that, nothing beats going to live gigs, meeting face to face and building long lasting relationships.

       Building a Mailing list is vital if you want to keep your connections alive! These could be for people that like your music and are your fans, or clubs where you want to play, recording studios, management companies, and more. Keep those email addresses in a safe place, and don’t be afraid to use them!

       After all that, I must say must say that one thing is still true: follow your instincts!!

A short list of websites where to find gigs/work in the UK as a musician:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/categories/music

http://uk.music-jobs.com/welcome.php

http://www.starnow.co.uk/

www.gumtree.com – Pick your town and search in their musicians' section.

www.myspace.com – Musician exchange  section

http://www.lastminutemusicians.com/

http://www.bandmeup.co.uk/ – band looking for venues venue looking for bands

http://www.musician-manager.com/en/

http://www.soundshed.com/default.asp

http://www.musicteachers.co.uk/

http://www.joinmyband.co.uk/

http://www.musofinder.com/international.php

http://bandmix.co.uk/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic/industry/