D.I.Y. guitars!

          So I have always thought it would be really cool to build my own guitar! But then I realize that I know nothing about building anything, unless you count those salt and pepper shakers from 7th grade woodshop.  And if you ever researched building guitars you will find that it is a lot of detailed work and fine craftsmanship. However I stumbled across a website that shows you how to build a cigar box guitar (or banjo or uke etc...).  Popular especially in the depression these were simplified instruments that were made out of items found around the household, most often cigar boxes, but other items as well. Most of these were simple  due to the fact that they were built most often because the person was unable to afford an actual guitar.

Both pics from the gallery of cigarboxguitar.com

  Today of course they can be as fancy as you are able or maybe take it up a notch and electrify it!     

Isn't this beautiful? And its electric!

  What I was most amazed to discover is how many great guitarists got their start on a cigar box guitar! Everyone from Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Albert Colins, Hound Dog Taylor and Buddy Guy all started playing with a cigar box guitar before moving up to a regular guitar.  I don't know about you, but I think I found my winter project! 

          Check out cigarboxguitar.com for your own project plans, to see more photos from the gallery or to learn more about the history of the cigar box guitar!
Happy Strumming!

www.blueravenmusic.com

Exercise for couch potatoes!

When I ask students why they didn't practice the typical response it get is "I was very busy last week".  Life can get hectic and no doubt that at times being "busy" is a legitimate reason for lack of practice time.   I will often follow that question with "did you watch TV or play video games last week?"  I can't really think of anyone who has ever said "No, nope!... not at all".

My point is that we often fool ourselves into thinking that we don't "have" time when in reality we don't "make" time.  It is true that we may have to sacrifice some "entertainment" time to practice, but the in the grand scheme of things having the skill of making music will be far more rewarding in life that any episode of a silly "reality" TV show.

This brings me to my "reality" as a teacher.  I know that even if my students are practicing regularly the odds are that they are still going to spend more time in front of the TV than practice time with the guitar.   So what I am proposing today is an exercise to help develop your guitar skills whilst mindlessly watching that video box. 

I want to emphasize that these are supplemental exercises and not a substitute for actual focused practice time.   

Much of guitar playing relies on muscle memory that is developed by repetition.  Take chord switching for example.  As guitar players we are always trying developing quicker and smoother chord switches no matter what skill level we have. For beginning players just switching from a G to a D chord is a difficult task to achieve let alone being able to switch "on beat" with the music in real time. 

So while you are sitting in front of that TV you can hold your guitar and practice switching between two chords that give you trouble.  You don't have to do anything with your strumming/picking hand.  Just quietly go through the repeated motion of switching the chords or even try just one chord at a time (ie. like those pesky bar chords!).  You can also expand these exercises to include scales too.  Slowly walk up and down a scale of your choice carefully placing each finger down on the correct fret.  These exercises work on both acoustic and electric guitars just fine, however, with an unplugged electric guitar you can also incorporate the picking hand with out making too many disruptive sounds.  

Again the purpose of these exercises is to improve your muscle memory of chords and patterns on the guitar through repetition.   This is NOT a substitute for real practice time, but it is a good way supplement your practice and make use of time that is not usually productive.

So next time you turn on the tube grab a guitar give it a try!

Practice vs. Playing

The next time you sit down to play your guitar, ask yourself this question: Am I playing or am I practicing?  Confused yet? Didn't think there was much of a difference, don't worry you are not alone! When people tell me they are in a rut, then I will often ask them that question. So what is the difference? Is one more important? The answer, to become a truly well rounded musician you need to spend time doing both.
Practice is when you are focusing your time on expanding your skills and ablities on your instrument.  Playing is when you go through the songs you already know or maybe even  jamming or experimenting with making music.   Both Playing and Practicing have there place, but I find that most people who are in a rut are doing only one of these two aspects.
 I have two students, A and B, (wow this is starting to sound like a math problem) Student A sits down and works on scales and learning new skills, learning new songs, but maybe not commmitting them to memory.   Student B plays through his song list memorizing songs and just having fun, often playing the same songs with other people.  Both students feel like they are in a rut and both are missing a vital part of  playing music.
Most of the time I see people with the problem of the student B. They like their instrument, they like playing, they enjoy playing the songs they know. They will sit down and play through the songs they have learned a few times a week maybe look up some tabs on line, but never really focus any of their time on expanding there skills.                                                                                                                                                                                Sometimes I encounter the opposite when a student does practice dilligently, but doesn't "loosen up" and spend some time playing for fun or experimenting. Sometimes a player who is more rigid like this will have a harder time feeling the rhythm and playing with other musicians.
So the best way to solve these problems is start by practicing first. Practicing will still be the most important part of the equation, because this will build the skill set that you will bring to the table when playing around and experimenting. And when it comes to down to it consistency is much more important than quantity. 15 minutes of actual practicing daily will get better results than 1 hour once a week.   Of course more time will get you better results. Some professional musicians practice 4 to 5  hours a day, every day! You will want to set aside a time, maybe even make it an actual appointment,  i.e. every weekday at 7 pm. Then when 7 pm rolls around you stop what ever you are doing, video games, tv, internet, and practice.    For those of you who practice diligently try take some time to improvise or be creative at the end of your practice sessions.

Beginner Metronome Exercise

As a music teacher, an area of practice that I often see students overlooking is rhythm. It's too easy to fool yourself into thinking that a song or solo sounds fine when you are playing alone. The problem arises when you start playing with other people and it becomes difficult to establish and maintain a rhythm. But luckily this is a problem that can be remedied! All you need is a metronome and as little as 10 minutes of time before each practice session to really lay a solid foundation for great rhythm.    
A common mistake that I see all the time in lessons is trying to play the piece too fast (myself included!) Often this comes from trying to get whatever you are playing to sound like the finished song. When you  play slow its hard to hear the familiarity in the song, this is where the comments like "it doesn't sound like anything," come from. But playing slow is important, it keeps us from practicing in mistakes, something that happens a lot when playing faster than our ability to cleanly execute the song . It comes down to that if you can't play it slow you won't be able to play it fast! Simple idea, but sometimes a tough one to incorporate into our practice.
Using a metronome with whatever songs you are practicing is a good idea but builing a solid rhythm foundation starts with something even simpler! 5 to 10 minutes of scales with a metronome done several times a week will really help you understand and feel rhythm.  Begin simple, by using a major scale  (any key) and setting your metronome on a nice moderate setting of 60 to 80 beats/minute.  Work with quarter notes then 1/8th notes and progressing onto triplets as your rhythm becomes stronger over time.  

We have included a diagram of a major scale pattern. This pattern can be played starting at any fret. The starting root note is played with your 2nd finger.  The Red circles represent the root notes in our video example we have used the 'A' Major scale. The first root note of this scale can be found on the  6th string, 5th fret. Then play the pattern accordingly. 

Summer Specials!

There is still a summer special going on at Blue Raven! Sign up for a month of lessons for only 49.00! Youth guitar lessons are only 29.00 for the first month! This goes for all instruments and vocal lessons! give us a call today! Current students if your refferal signs up receive a 10 credit for the month! (1 credit per month per student please!)

Week of the young child!

Blue raven is signed up to help out with Week of the young child. Stop by today (Sunday, april 11) and see the studios, meet a couple of the teachers and have a cookie! www.nebraskachild.org for more information and other participating studios!

The End of the Year, the beginning of our Blog!

Hi and welcome to the blog for Blue Raven Music Studios, located in Lincoln NE. We decided to start this blog to keep our customers up to date on the changes happening around the studio, feature some of products and services and also start to get to know our students better! We plan on featuring a couple of students a month that attend lessons at the studio. Eventually we will also have some video of our students and teachers playing, so everyone can see the wealth of talent that comes to Blue Raven everyday.

For those of you new to Blue Raven Music studios I'll give you a little background info! The Studio was started earlier this year (2009) in February by Matt and Jennifer Richardson. Matt had been a guitar teacher for around 8 years and decided that he wanted create a new environment that would be an open, welcoming place for students of all ages to attend for lessons. They found a vacancy in a building in the college view area that offered a neighborhood with lots of green space, a thriving network of business and extremely important to Jenny a coffee shop and shoe store. So with the help of great friends and family they signed the lease and started transforming the space into something that looked more like a teaching studio. Just about everything in studio (Floors, walls, ceilings) has been given a makeover!

We officially opened for business March 4th with the front room in operable condition. Many of our students probably still remember the hallway being blocked off with those plastic under construction curtains and if any of you had to go back to use the bathroom we are truly sorry for that mess! Matt taught a full studio in the afternoon and evenings while spending the days working on the studio with Jenny. Those were some very tiring days! Towards the end of March we had our first teacher, Mark Leeker (guitar), start getting students and teaching out of Studio 2. After about another month or so we finally got the 3rd studio set up. We then had another great teacher join us, Brian Gerkensmeyer (Bass and Guitar). In June Jenny started teaching a special guitar beginners class for kids starting at age 5. For the next few months we slowly kept working on things putting in the finishing touches and expanding our definition of the studio. Phil Dake joined on as the beginning drum teacher, working with snare but after the new year we hope to have him on a full kit! In August we purchased an electric piano and got Julie Douglas to start teaching piano (kids, adults and jazz and blues improv)! Our newest teaching addition has been Tom Adkins Banjo, Mandolin and guitar player.

Our newest addition to the studio has been an adding on a small retail side. Many of our students were running into problems of breaking strings or needing tuners or beginning instruments. we decided to provide our students with a small selection of teacher approved items that would help with their learning. Our products are selected to be affordable and of a good quality that would enhance learning. We don't want to be a full blown music store, but we do want our students to have the convenience of carrying their favorite strings or pedals, etc...(more about this in a later post).

That just about covers our first 8 months! We are still in the process of working on the last room, which we hope to have finished within the next month. Then we will take a very LONG nap! And burst into next year at full speed!