25
Jun 13

My Fifth Anniversary

I took my first electric guitar lesson with Jim Goelitz at Kagan & Gaines Music five years ago today on Wednesday, 25 June 2008. It has turned out to be a life-changing date. I’ve continued to take weekly lessons except when I’m out of town or when Jim is on vacation. When I started out, I had no idea where learning to play blues guitar might lead.

Learning to play the guitar turned out to be more challenging than I had imagined, but I also found that with each day I improved. I’ve always enjoyed learning new things and never found practicing a burden (just a challenge at times to fit in a busy day). Even when I felt frustrated learning a new chord or riff, I was encouraged by the knowledge that if I kept practicing I would eventually get the hang of it. And I always have–even if it took longer than I imagined it should have.

Almost two years ago on Friday, 29 July 2011, I attended my first weekly class with the K&G ensemble–ably led/taught by Jim Goelitz. Participating in that group has accelerated my learning process and expanded my skills in many ways. It’s also–as others in the group agree–the highlight of my week. Since I joined the group, we have performed in public six times. I would like to have more opportunities to perform and hope we can find some new venues.

It’s hard to describe what I’ve learned in the last five years. I’ve learned to play scales, chords, riffs and songs with increasing ease. I feel a much greater facility on the fretboard and an increased comfort level when playing with the group. I’ve long thought of myself as an introvert, so performing in public in front of people is quite a stretch of my previous identity. Performing is still a source of anxiety, but it has diminished considerably. Jim has often encouraged me to “dig in” and play with “more attitude,” especially when soloing. I’m working on letting go of my usual sense of restraint. I’ve come up with a new musical motto: “It’s Time to Get Nasty.”

I feel a sense of accomplishment with what I’ve learned in the past five years and have even begun to think of myself as a musician and a guitarist. Music is a lifelong path. I’m often reminded of how much I still want to learn and know that will always be the case. It’s one of the appeals of playing music.


29
Oct 11

Milestone: My First Gig (10/29/11)

I got to the Pine Avenue United Church in Chicago about fifteen minutes early and sat in the car trying to meditate and calm myself. I had never played guitar in public before and had only played with our Kagan & Gaines ensemble for a couple of months. For the previous couple of days, I’d been extremely nervous about this event. When I saw Jim Goelitz, my guitar teacher pull up, I went to the door with him. He had brought three large guitar amplifiers from Kagan & Gaines.

Lawrence Brown, our bass player, is education director of the church, so he was already there for the youth outreach program, which lasted all weekend. Justin Young, our drummer, was also already there. Jim and I set up the amps in front of the stage next to where Justin had set up his drums.

The room was a large auditorium-like space the size of a basketball court (there was even a hoop at the end opposite the stage). Near the stage were a number of folding chairs and behind them were folding tables and chairs.

The program started a little after 3:00. Six young women did an interpretative dance to a couple of modern recorded gospel songs. Then four young people from another church did a mime interpretation of two gospel songs. They wore black robes and white gloves. Stark white makeup highlighted their facial expressions.

I’d been nervous that Alex Scaramuzza, guitar, and Mickey Johnson, vocal, hadn’t arrived, but they made it before it was our time to go on. I was relieved our group wasn’t first on the program. It gave me a chance to get used to the space and the audience.

We started with an instrumental, Jimmy Smith’s “Back at the Chicken Shack.” Then Mickey came up and we did “The Thrill Is Gone” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “My Girl,” and “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” Even though it wasn’t on the planned set list, Mickey announced Otis Rush’s “Feel So Bad” and we played that after “Thrill.”

He obviously likes that song, and he used it effectively to get the crowd going. He had suggested playing it at our practice the previous evening. Fortunately, I had an intuition to go over the chords yesterday and so I was able to get through it OK. I played almost the entire set without music.

As our final number, Jim picked “Equinox,” the John Coltrane jazz tune, which I felt weakest on. Fortunately, Jim and Alex played the melody. I’m still having trouble with the timing on it. Once Mickey left, the audience started to disperse. They especially responded to “My Girl,” recognized the instrumental lead-in, and sang along.


13
Jul 11

Blues Ensemble Class Announced

The big news at my guitar lesson today was that Jim Goelitz has finally organized a blues ensemble class. It will meet Fridays from 5:00 to 6:00 starting August 5. He gave me a CD with the thirteen songs we’ll prepare. It’s quite a diverse selection with pieces by Albert King (“Crosscut Saw”) and B.B. King (“The Thrill is Gone”) as well as by musicians I don’t know. I’m really psyched. This is very timely and is just what I’ve been wanting. Jim had been trying to start an ensemble for some time. Some of the students were in a previous jazz ensemble with Jim.

We spent most of my lesson going over aspects of the first three songs we will work on. He gave me a chart for Otis Rush’s “Feel So Bad.” I plan to take the CD on our upcoming road trip to listen to at least a couple of times. I’m sure I’ll be listening to those songs a lot in the coming weeks.


07
Jul 11

A Big Step: Playing with Others

This was a Big Day for me: it was the first time I’ve played my guitar with other musicians. I went over to Jeff’s at 8:00 and after his friend Cesar arrived, the three of us played together for an hour or so.

It didn’t go as badly as I feared. I didn’t feel embarrassed or humiliated and while I was probably tense, the atmosphere was loose enough that I had fun. I played some reasonably good leads, but had trouble (as I had anticipated) keeping my place when I played rhythm. In part it was so loud with both the bass and drums in a basement room that it was hard to hear the chord changes.

Jeff would pick a song, and usually said what key it was in. Mostly I wasn’t familiar with the songs. He did a version of Albert King’s “Crosscut Saw” that was in a different key than I was used to, but at least it was a familiar song. For one song, Jeff sang the notes of an accent lick he wanted me to play. I managed to figure out the notes, which pleased me.

On the whole, I felt it was a successful experiment, at least from my point of view. I hope Jeff will be interested in repeating the experiment, though Cesar took his drums home at the end of the evening.

About 10:30 we headed over to the Harlem Avenue Lounge, which has an open mic blues jam on Thursdays. Jeff signed up to play and strongly encouraged me to sign up. I had taken my guitar home to avoid that possibility. Because I was still recovering from a bad cold, I was really pushing it to go at all and should probably have gone home to bed. However, I hope eventually to get up the courage to sign up and play.

I’m glad I went. It was a fun time, and it was good to hang out with Jeff. He knows a lot of the Lounge regulars. I asked him when he first started playing, and he said in junior high, when he was about 12. I wish I’d started that early. At one point in the evening, he mentioned playing with Junior Wells. I’ll bet he’s got a lot of fascinating stories to tell about the guys he’s played with over the years.


25
Jun 11

My Third Anniversary

On Wednesday, June 25, 2008, I took my first electric guitar lesson with Jim Goelitz at Kagan & Gaines in Forest Park (a nearby suburb of Chicago). Except for a few gaps of a week or two, I’ve taken a lesson every week since then.

For the first year or so, I took an hour lesson, but then cut back to 30 minutes for reasons of economy. Having a weekly lesson to prepare for has been important in helping me maintain a regular practice schedule. In the beginning I practiced 20 to 30 minutes a day–most days. More recently, I’ve tried to practice at least an hour (usually in two 30 minute segments). Sometimes I practice a total of 90 minutes, but other times I miss a day. I usually average around five hours a week and always wish I could manage more. I’m convinced that more playing time leads to more improvement.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been playing guitar for three years. In some ways, I still feel like a beginner. Given how much there is, potentially, to learn, perhaps I always will. At the same time, when I look back, I can see how much I’ve learned so far. Scales, chords, riffs, techniques or music that once seemed challenging, if not impossible, I now can play comfortably. There are always new challenges, but fortunately I love learning new things.


30
Dec 10

Learning from Listening to Music

When I was focusing on learning to write short fiction and took several writing workshops, the writer-teachers often expressed dismay that aspiring writers didn’t read enough good fiction. How could one learn to write without reading a lot?, they wondered.

If you’ve ever spent any time around young children, you know that one of their primary paths to learning is imitation. They pay keen attention to what’s going on around them and soak up every detail. It seems natural for them to “practice” the behaviors and activities they see adults doing–until they can do them as well.

Adults who want to learn any art form or creative activity would do well to remember the example of children. Instructional media, teachers and classes contribute to learning, but a key element is paying attention to good examples of the art one seeks to master.

Just as aspiring writers need to read, study and deeply experience good writing, so do aspiring musicians need to listen widely and deeply to the music they care about. Since I started taking guitar lessons, I’ve listened to music much more often than I used to–even though I’ve always enjoyed and loved music. Listening to music, especially blues by the masters, nurtures and encourages my love of the music and also helps me learn to play the music better.

Now that I’ve learned to play a little, I hear music in a different way. The more I know how to play, the more I can hear in the music I listen to. At the same time, I’m also trying to hear new things. What is that riff? How is the guitarist playing that passage? Could I play that?

My teacher has had me do Music Listening Analyses to encourage me to focus on certain elements in a song. In the process, I’ve listened to songs over and over. There is always more to hear. Even a relatively “simple” song has so much going on in it that it requires multiple listenings to absorb it deeply.

Whether listening for an analysis or just listening, it’s important to pay attention to the feel of the music. Music isn’t an intellectual exercise, nor is it just a matter of good technique. The ultimate goal is for “technique” to fall below a conscious level and simply play out the feelings.

Since I started taking lessons, I’ve also gone to hear live music more often. I find it helpful to see what a guitarist is doing as I’m hearing the music. However, I often can’t tell what is going on even as I’m looking, because it happens too fast.

Before I took guitar lessons, I hadn’t given any thought to ear training, but it’s obviously as important to playing music as finger training. Fortunately, listening to music I enjoy is never an onerous assignment.

In a sense, listening to music is also a form of goal-setting. I don’t expect ever to play at the level of blues mentors like Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker or Hubert Sumlin. However, as I sail over the wide seas of music, they are like the North Star, a point of orientation that guides me and keeps me on track.


11
Aug 10

Guitar Lesson

I started working up “Blues Break in ‘G'” on Monday. It’s the third of the songs in G in Kenny Sultan’s Introduction to Acoustic Blues (2001, p. 26) and is a continuation of “Step It Up And Go.” I went over it in my lesson today with Jim Goelitz. I was confused by a chord fingering that Sultan suggested, but Jim said the way I was fingering it was better. There are still some rough spots when I play the song, but it’s mainly getting my fingers used to slightly different patterns. The songs have a very different feel than those in E and A and overall seem easier.

We also talked about chords and Jim introduced me to the concept of “half-stepping” into a chord change. It’s something I had often heard in music and even played, but I wasn’t familiar with the term. It consists of leading in to a chord change by playing a chord a half-step (one fret) above or below the next chord. This adds interest to the chording.


25
Jun 10

Second Anniversary

Friday, June 25, 2010 is the second anniversary of my first electric guitar lesson with Jim Goelitz at Kagan and Gaines in Forest Park, IL.

When I began taking lessons, I had no idea what I was getting in to. In retrospect, I was very naive and seriously underestimated the length of the learning curve. In spite of the years I’d spent listening to blues, I didn’t realize how challenging it was to play blues. It’s not just a matter of learning a few chords. The most common 12-bar blues form is based on “only” three chords, which might sound simple, but then there are such matters as string bends, vibrato, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, riffs, rhythm and all the other things that contribute to the tone and sound of the blues. Putting all that together in an improvised solo is an even bigger challenge.

On the one hand, I thought initially that I would be “farther along” (whatever that means) than I am. On the other hand, I can clearly see that I have learned a lot and can now do things easily that were difficult or impossible before. One of the things that has kept me going is that I can tell that the more I play (practice, practice, practice), the better I get. Practice really does work. At the same time, I’m constantly reminded of how much I still need and want to learn.

Sometime in January, I started working on songs in Kenny Sultan’s book, Introduction to Acoustic Blues (2001). In spite of the word “introduction,” it’s not a book for beginners. I’m glad I didn’t attempt it any earlier, though I did learn the “Blues Shuffle in E,” “Single String Shuffle” (in E) and “Shuffle in A” in the early months of my lessons.

Since the first of this year, I’ve been practicing the first seven songs and still don’t feel like I’ve mastered them. I’ve definitely improved and can at times get through some of them without stumbling, but they all need more practice. There are a couple of songs (“Unknown Blues” and “The N-B Blues”) that have a few gnarly, knuckle-busting measures that may take months more to play reliably. However, I enjoy what I can play so far and look forward to improving.

One of the satisfactions of learning this country blues style of music is that the songs are intended as solo music (one plays both bass and melody), so they sound appealing without other musicians. I also want to learn what it takes to play with others, but practicing a bass line from a song isn’t as satisfying on its own.

At the moment my primary focus is learning these fingerstyle blues, but I’m also working on a parallel track of preparing for–someday–playing with other musicians. I continue to fantasize about performing both solo and as part of a group. On the fingerstyle solo track, my model is early John Lee Hooker. On the blues band track, my models are Albert Collins, Howlin’ Wolf and Magic Slim and the Teardrops. I can’t imagine playing at their level, but that’s what I’m aiming for.


23
Dec 09

Albert Collins and the Icebreakers: In Concert: Ohne Filter (1985) [DVD]

I finished watching Albert Collins and the Icebreakers: In Concert: Ohne Filter (1985) on DVD. It was the first of two 60-minute concerts Collins did for the German TV series Ohne Filter. It was good musically, but it wasn’t well shot, especially for anyone interested in Collins’ guitar playing. The use of red lighting wasn’t well suited to the TV cameras and the shot selection was often not what I would have liked. They often focused on someone other than the player who was soloing and didn’t show enough of Collins when he was playing or showed him from an angle that obscured his hands on the guitar. The 2003 Ohne Filter concert has similar problems, but was more successful.

Among the songs Collins played were “Listen Here,” “If Trouble Was Money,” “Skatin’,” “The Highway Is Like a Woman,” and “That Thing I Used to Do.” Southside Johnny joins the band on some numbers. I admire Albert Collins enormously and am a huge fan of his tone, so I’m glad I saw the DVD, but I don’t need to own it.


05
Sep 09

Music Listening Analysis

My guitar teacher, Jim Goelitz, suggested that I listen to songs I’m interested in learning and do a music analysis of them. He said this would be good ear training and would help me learn to pay attention to more elements of the music. Based on his input, I developed a form that I use to record my analysis. The elements include the name of the song, the composer, the performer or band, the instrumentation, the time signature, the tempo, whether it’s “swing” or “straight” rhythm, the form of the song (e.g., 12-bar blues), the key of the song, the chords in the song, and the tuning. I also add the source album, release date, record label and length of the song.

On early recordings such as those of Howlin’ Wolf on Chess Records, it can be a challenge to hear all the instruments. It can also be difficult, especially in the beginning, to hear the chord changes and work out the progression. It’s much easier on recent recordings where instruments are on separate microphones. To determine the key, I work my way up the neck of the guitar until I find something that seems to fit. I missed a few at first, but have gotten better at it. It’s a very useful “exercise,” but requires having a good teacher.