Triple-o

The first strumming exercise in Hal Leonard’s book “Country Guitar” is Sweet Dreams. The chord progression contains G/C G/B and G/A which looks pretty good with those stepped bass notes.However when I strummed those chords they all sounded the same. I could see it if it was a “boom chick” rhythm but it’s not. Maybe a bass player is meant to play those bass notes? I certainly don’t sound like those TV and radio cowboys “strummin’ away on the Prairie” but I am old enough to remember a few of them before they were replaced with gamblers, marshals gun slingers and a wealthy rancher. Guess I need to find a video of “Leroy and his Tele ”. Can you heard the difference playing them?

I think G6 refers to a luxury jet the Gulfstream G650 and living the good life. The 60’s band “The Doors” recently caught my attention. IN My OPINION their songs are like many others bands where they have one or two really great lines like “Riders on the Storm” or “Light my fire” and “Swim to the Moon”. Then the lyrics drift and lines crisscross with nonsensical meaning. But those few lines repeated is all that really matters. So, I believe it’s pretty obvious that in some music genres the lyrics are the least important element. It’s the way words sound that matters.Its the instrumental riffs or the vocal refrains. John Fogerty is a good example, the way he pronounces some words with an accent and that accent clings to the grey matter more than the word itself. The human brain is apparently easily distracted by rhythm and dynamics of the song.Most of the time does anyone really hears the lyrics. “The End” and “Peace Frog” by the Doors have lyrics that to me have the flickering signs of someone who’s brain is rollin’ and tumblin’ like patterns in a kaleidoscope.

I was amazed how easy this process is to do. It sounded really difficult. I started with an easy song from Steve‘s guitar course “Greensleeves” in Am and transposed to Dm. I wanted to see how the “emotions” of the song changed. Not much to my ears. I think Am Dm or Em would all sound good. When I first looked at Steve’s version I initially thought it was in the A melodic minor scale.But I soon came to the conclusion that two sharps he used were probably taken just from the D7 and E7 chords in his harmony. It wouldn’t have mattered but it did force me to learn about minor scales and why there are 3. Again I thought is was going to be some mind-boggling theory but it turned out to be a simple explanation about leading tones. The melodic scale only has the sharps descending and reverts to the natural minor when ascending. I see no reason to revert to the natural when ascending and I read where that’s really more of a suggestion. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cIAkSy0I1Dw

Lyrics from “You Don’t Know My Mind” song writer Jimmie Skinner Blue Grass music is something I enjoyed listening too once a year at the “Blue Grass on the River Festival”. I would have never bought a fiddle or banjo; however I did buy a Blue Grass music book years ago “I looked right at the facts there and I might as well been completely blind” because after a quick glance the book just gathered dust. Now I dusted it off and I am really surprised to see there’s a lot of “Blues in BlueGrass” something I would have heard Bill Monroe say numerous times had I been listening. Now I am finally reading the book and “ I am grinnin like a mule eaten briars”. I am taken aback to see the pentatonic scale and blue notes in a BlueGrass music book. https://www.bluegrassnet.com/songs/you-dont-know-my-mind https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ounBrUxr8O0&app=no_hover&persist_app=1 https://www.jwpepper.com/you-dont-know-my-mind-11191123e-623046/p?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21067806853&gbraid=0AAAAAD_TNXJ_y14oSKFqr88vPM6m KQ6nX&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0qnPgOz4lQMVxSdECB0YsxtdEAQYAyABEgJda_D_BwE My version is transposed to E with swung quavers and slides. I couldn’t help but notice when Jimmy Martin sings this song he cuts out the verse with “Judfe and plear ” I was curious about the pronunciation of “judge and plea” Hal Leonard’s BlueGrass Guitar by Fred Sokolow step by step lessons and 18 songs

I thought E harmonic was E #F G A B C #D and E Dorian had #F and #C

This month 55 years ago Jim Morrison was found dead in a bathtub in Paris. He was taking a vacation and not with the band. His girl friend was already there.. His estate went to his girl friend.Two years later Pamela was dead of an heroin overdose. Her family inherited and then the Morrison family sued and the Morrison estate was split fifty-fifty between the two families.This band was different than most in the fact they equally shared the royalties. The Paris investigation ruled natural causes from heart failure. No apparent signs of drug use.The police did take the temperature of the bath water because they knew what this usually meant when drugs were involved.The bathtub was sold and is somewhere in a Paris in a Hotel. The stories about the “Doors” is about as interesting as it gets.There are numerous interviews with Band members. Books and a movie are available. Some question the Stone Movie. There are many interesting side stories like the history Venice California where Jim and Ray started talking about putting together a band. Perhaps you might even enjoy the book “The Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley. It’s not about the Doors but is connected. I am really surprised that was no autopsy. No one ever requested a “Moonlight Drive” to exhumed his body for further examination to “Penetrate the evening that the City sleeps to hide”.

Assuming you’re not very good at Jazz and not sure what you can do with the “Real Book”. Take a look at “All The Things You Are” on page 22. Then look at the music below. https://sheetmusiclibrary.website/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/All-The-Things-You-Are-Guitar-And-Tabs.pdf The Bbm7 could be a problem,it is for me but I think you could just eliminate the Db or play it as a melody note. Comment on what you would do. I am just guessing. PS when you look at the key signature and see 4 flats just look at the next to last one shown in this case the Ab and that gives you the key.

I remember years ago looking at sheet music sites and they would mention C3 or C4. I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.I didn’t really know anything about guitar music being written 1 octave higher than it sounded. It been pretty confusing lately trying to figure out this middle C stuff. It all started recently when I came across a tiny 8 below the treble clef on some music. I didn’t realize there were all these Cs or why the guitar was different and the problems there would be with guitar notation if something wasn’t done. I had heard about middle C on the piano. I thought they were just talking about the C key in the middle of the keyboard.The site below answered my questions. https://www.study-guitar.com/blog/middle-c-on-guitar/

This is almost funny; some heritage guitars are Gibson inspired “Lesters”.Some would argue they are even better. The funny thing is they are made in Kalamazoo in the old Gibson factory.They are not cheap but not as expensive as the Les Pauls. Speaking of Gibson I see where one of there more recent guitars bodies has a “Tulip” design vs the “Devil Horns”. They had one small problem and was that PRS owned that design.The guitar was designed by T McCarty when he was at Gibson and PRS bought all of his patents. Not sure how they settled this but they apparently did.

The other day I started to wonder how do song writers pick a key. I thought the key just depended on the singer. That Kinda made sense but it had a few holes in it. So I stared looking for answers. What finally made sense was the following three reasons, 1. vocal range 2.instruments 3. The emotions of the song. So what I knew about a few chords carried over to keys. C…happy Am …sad G…serious https://ledgernote.com/blog/interesting/musical-key-characteristics-emotions/

“Winding my way down Baker Street” I expected to find Sherlock Holmes at 221B but not the case. I stumbled into Raphael Ravenscroft. He’s the Saxophone player you hear on “Baker Street”. Raphael was a session player hired by Gerry Rafferty. Just another story about a session player “making a song great” and walking away with $53 dollars for his time. Probably the most famous saxophone solo of all time. There was some disagreement over who wrote the riff. It probably was Rafferty but it wasn’t new.The same riff can be heard on “ Half a Heart” released in 1968.And of course again in 1997 when Lisa Simpson played it. Her mentor of course was the famous saxophone player “Bleeding Gums Murphy”. What about Gerry Rafferty? He writes songs like Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. What really got my attention was his bands name “Stealers Wheel” a rock band formed in 1972.It seems the name comes from his money problems with his music producers. A cycle of theft. “Clowns on my left and jokers on my right” if I didn’t know better I would have bet he was raised on the banks of the Potomac. But hey, I could be just “stuck in the middle with you”.

“The meeting place for young people” The Star Club in Hamburg. The club must have been the indoor “Woodstock”of the early 1960s.When trying to figure out why Liverpudlians seem to have started their careers in this club I came across another strange band name “ The Liverbirds” my first thought was Liverpool ( Liv- r -pool) but I was wrong it was ( Ly-ver) “Liverbirds” .The worlds first all girls Rock and Roll Band. They like the Beatles moved the “MerseyBeat” to Germany. They have an interesting story and at the same time a sad one. When Jimi Hendrix met them he was curious to learn which one was Mary seems she “rolled the best joints”. They always wanted to play in the states but ended up turning down their change to open in Las Vegas because the club insisted they play top-less. The “Female Beatles” looks like America lost its change to meet a talented group because of some dolt. But what about the name “Liverbirds” it turns out to be another story about the “ Muddy Pool” I’d never heard. The Mythical Birds protecting sailors and the residents of Liverpool. Two 18 ft copper birds with wing spans of 24 ft. Chained down so they can’t fly away, if they did the River Mersey would burst its banks. Those “Scousers” continue to amaze me. Oh one more thing; when the Liverbirds (band) met the Beatles John Lennon told them “girls can’t play the Guitar” which turned out to be a great motivator for them to prove him wrong. And yes the copper birds protecting Liverpool have names Bella and Bertie. PS.Why Hamburg? The Reeperbahn and die sundige Miele.

The law of unexpected consequences hits home. Recently when working on a lesson that required reading and playing in the 5th and 12th positions I found that I was struggling. I’d been playing certain etudes so much that were based on patterns and shapes I unknowingly was losing my ability translate whet I was reading to the neck.I also got into the frame of mind that playing the 5th position meant staying in that small section of the neck, forgetting that all it really meant was what fret your index finger is on when you start and not limiting where you can play. Ironically by going back to Mel Bay lessons for practice material I rediscovered his F,D and A shapes that unlocked 36 chords mostly inversions on the neck.I always wondered why Mel never mentioned the CAGED system. I knew he was a Jazz players and they used that system back in the 1940s. it took another 35 years to reach the majority of players.The shapes Mel taught may actually be more useful to me. That material is in his lesson 4 book. Now I know the importance of paying attention to note names as you practice and not just shapes.

I just learned that Pete Best wasn’t the only drummer that left the Beatles. The Beatles went through 6 others. I also didn’t know that in between drummers Paul McCartney filled the position. In the beginning the Beatles didn’t think a drummer was necessary for their band. A German tour forced them to find a drummer and a Bass player so Stuart Sutcliffe was the “fifth Beatle”. He never left Hamburg when the tour ended .His dream was to be a painter.He died in 1962 from a ruptured brain aneurysm Pete Best claimed it was Stuart that actually came up with the name Beatles. Stuart’s girl friend was the one who suggested the ‘Mop Top” haircuts. I always thought of this story in terms of money.Pete had the winning “lottery ticket” only to lose it before the lottery office opened. It turns out instead of earning hundreds of millions he did end up with about 9 million dollars thirty years later from the Beatles Anthology released in 1995. PS. Stuart’s photo is among those on the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts album cover.

Last night I came across “Chitlins Con Carne” in the 6 th edition of the “Real Book”. I looked to see if anyone transposed it to guitar. (Below) When I first glanced at the sheet music it looked pretty simple so I started to play it. Man, did sound bad. Then I realized I had grabbed my slide guitar tuned to open G. Once I had the right guitar I tried again. That’s when I noticed the melody notes ….they are minor 3rds and sorta octaves with the the higher octave flattened along with a flat 7 th in between. A C7#9 chord. Then after a few minutes by chance I noticed the small 8 hiding under the treble clef. (indicating to play an octave lower) Thats puzzled to me. Now this song suddenly took on a new light.I also never seen “swing quavers” written on music. Good thing I remembered “Encounters of the Third Kind”. Still working on the first page but it will have to wait until tomorrow after normal practice. https://www.exeterguitarlessons.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/chitlins-con-carne-KennyBurrell.pdf https://rockremnants.com/2017/08/05/song-of-the-week-chitlins-con-carne-kenny-burrell/ Edit. The little 8 under the treble clef may not be telling me to play 1 octave lower it may be telling me that this guitar music is written 1 octave lower now the “piano music” it was Transposed from. So I can be played as written.