steelstringcheese

In the previous Teaching Guitar article, I related the importance of defining clear objectives. The progressive attainment of goals gives your student a measurable rate of success, and validates their decision to spend money and time on lessons. One excellent way to incentivize your students to practice is to schedule regular recitals.

There are two types of recitals; let’s call them public recitals and performance workshops. Public recitals are full-blown concerts, open to the public. Performance workshops are a chance for your students to showcase their current work to each other, and learn from each other’s struggles.

Here are just a few advantages to hosting a public recital:

• You are reinforcing your image of legitimacy in the eyes of your students and parents. By going beyond inviting students into your lesson studio and organizing a major event off-site, you show that you are serious about what you do.
• You are putting a firm deadline on your students’ projects. Not only are they preparing tunes, they’re preparing them by a specific date, and they know they’ll be under scrutiny on that day.
• You are putting a face on progress. Not only are your students learning progressively more difficult material, they will have printed programs, video footage, etc. of their past achievements.
• You are advertising! Your recitals are community events. Family and friends in the audience who might know someone interested in lessons will be previewing the results of your service. You also may be forming alliances with local venues and organizations.
• Your students aren’t the only ones under the gun. Recitals test your ability to manage your students’ progress and organize public events.

To stage the recital, you’ll need a venue. School auditoriums,lodge meeting halls and community centers are possible choices are likely to not cost anything. If you begin with an empty hall, however, you’ll have to fill the seats through an aggressive invitation campaign — sending letters home, emailing students’ families, and encouraging your students to spread the word. Local news outlets may allow you to submit a press release announcing the event. Another option is to work with retirement homes, schools, malls, or parks to stage the recital where there is a built-in audience. In the case of retirement homes and schools, you are performing a service, so both your studio and the community benefit. Malls and parks often host craft fairs or holiday events, and don’t mind providing a space for martial arts demonstrations, school choir performances, fashion shows, and so on. Contact mall management or your local parks and rec department. One possible problem with these venues is background noise — secure a small PA system, just in case. Also, in parks you must be concerned about weather. Band shells and tents are ideal.

After securing the venue and setting a date, you need to select repertoire. Work with each student to select something you know they are able to prepare in time with some effort. One or two pieces are okay, more than two are overkill. The best pieces sound good as solos. If a student’s main focus is the rhythm part to a metal tune, it might not sound recital-worthy when taken out of context. Some tunes, like jazz or folk songs, make excellent duets. You can create a quick arrangement which has student and teacher taking turns playing the lead voice and accompaniment. If you can coordinate two students in preparing a duet, even better. Those students who aren’t able to prepare anything beyond a simple rhythm part could play along with the original recording; or you can help him assemble a band. The latter option, however, can be difficult to pull off, especially with a deadline. Make your students’ recital pieces the central focus of their lessons during the weeks leading up to the event, and put them through a few dry-runs. During a dry-run, everything is rehearsed as performed, complete with the entrance and bow at the beginning. Error correction takes a back seat to simply getting through the performance.

By the day of the show, you’ll need printed programs. They should include all your students’ names, the names of the pieces they’ll be performing, a note of thanks to the providers of the venue and anyone else who helped make the show possible, and your contact information. Also, secure refreshments. You can bring your own, or have parents send some.

Dress up for the show. If you’re comfortable in a tie (or dress, ladies), go for it; but don’t do anything that seems unnatural. If your students are all rock stars, perhaps something more appropriate might be your cleanest stage attire. A black tee and blazer with fashionable jeans, for example — something a rocker might wear to a press conference. Most of us would fall somewhere in-between. During the summer, I’ll wear a breezy collared shirt with khakis; during the winter, a v-neck and corduroys. The message is “I care enough to look good, but I’m not going to a job interview.”

Introduce the show briefly and enthusiastically. Thank everyone for coming. Congratulate the students on a fine season. Encourage picture taking, but urge that flashes be turned off. Remind the audience that refreshments are available. Thank the hosts. Plug your website. That’s it. 80 percent of those in attendance are probably in a hurry to get things moving, so oblige them. After each performance, lead the applause from offstage.

I’m sure none of these suggestions are new to piano and band teachers, but guitar instructors don’t seem to offer public recitals as often. Do so, and you’re a step above most teachers in your area. If you have suggestions, leave a comment.

In my next post, I’ll describe your second recital option — the performance workshop.

This is the one instrument besides guitar that I actually do practice. A few years ago, I began getting calls from students wondering if I taught banjo. I figured that by learning the instrument, I could satisfy my lifelong curiosity while also satisfying a need for a local banjo instructor. Since then, my modest teaching schedule has always included at least one beginning banjo student. And it has been loads of fun learning a new instrument.

One of my students is just beginning to learn how to sweep, so I put together this exercise for him. It consists mostly of simple, three-note arpeggios, requiring that only two consecutive notes be swept.

If the entire concept of sweeping is new to you, give this a try. Note the picking directions in bar 1 and continue simile. Be sure that you do not reset your picking hand between notes that share the same stroke direction. A properly executed sweep is one single motion, like a slow strum.

Sweep Study 1

Don’t ask me how, but earlier this week I stumbled upon this video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante:

Usually, I stay out of any “rules/sucks” conversations that accompany these types of videos; but in this case I succumbed to the temptation to respond to those who seem to think Frusciante represents the highest echelon of virtuosity:

Meh. Jazz cats call this “nerfing it up,” meaning it’s fairly easy stuff you play to impress those who don’t know what you’re doing.

One user, epz1123, responded typically:

If it’s “fairly easy”, then I’d like to see you do it as flawlessly as frusciante.

Challenge accepted. While the kids slept this afternoon, I took the chance to offer my best interpretation:

Epz1123′s responded with a backhanded congratulations, remarking that Frusciante’s playing contains more emotion. The whole concept of what makes a performance emotional (how do you measure it?) is something I’d like to revisit in an upcoming post. My point in this exercise was merely to illustrate that just because you cannot play something, that doesn’t mean it takes a virtuoso.

One of the guitarists who had the greatest impact on my early development was Frank Gambale. His career was the epitome of fast track: After graduating with honors from GIT, he began teaching there in the early 80′s. Shortly thereafter, he found work with Jean Luc Ponty and Chick Corea. It was his gig with the Chick Corea Elektric Band that cemented his reputation as a first-class shredder; still he maintained respect for crafting gorgeous lines at any speed.

Here’s Frank in the DCI instructional video, Monster Licks and Speed Picking, from which I learned a lot about intervallic soloing. This is during the height of his Elektric Band phase.

Incidentally, if anyone out there can connect me with a luthier who can replicate that setup, I’d be grateful.

If you noticed any similarities between his phrasing and that of a jazz saxophonist, it’s no accident. He said that his style grew out of a specific interest in emulating saxophonists. You’ll often see this in great guitarists — an interest in learning whatever possible by transcribing other instruments.

Here’s Frank recently. You can still find him performing electric fusion, but he has also branched out into more acoustic territory.

We’ve heard this in plenty of country tunes; and thanks to indie artists like Beck and Cake, it’s been represented in the rock world. Here it is in the hands of a guy who can play jazz:

To me, steel guitar produces the most luxurious sounds in music. Its round tones, glissandi, volume swells, and the way a crafty player can bend inner voices to transform harmonies are all contributing factors to my infatuation with the instrument.

When I worked in music retail, we once took a pedal steel in a trade. I sat with it for only a few minutes, but marveled at the way notes in a scalar passage could be coaxed out of adjacent strings, rather than across a single string. I suspected I may be a quick study, if I could just get my hands on one; but money has held me back from ever trying. Of course, isn’t that the case with any instrument we wish we played? My current interest in the banjo might have been partly inspired by my earlier interest in pedal steel, because they both use string skips extensively.

I couldn’t wrap up today’s post without a link to Alvino Rey, whose use of voice to modulate his signal preceded Frampton by decades:

It’s not a string instrument; but it’s so cool, I couldn’t resist its allure. I tried picking it up for a few weeks, then felt overwhelmed by the demands it made on my lungs.

Jazz is a snob’s art form as it is; but playing bebop on a flute puts you in an elite inner circle, and sends the unspoken statement, “I’m too cool, even for Jazz.” Here’s a very clever arrangement of “Donna Lee:”

To me, there is hardly a more stereotypically jazzy groove than the waltz; and I can’t imagine any instrument better suited for jazz waltzes than the flute:

That last guy was a Brit named Tubby Hayes. Check out his saxophone work as well. He seems fairly under-appreciated, particularly in the States.