Guitar

Passing Inspiration Forward

For a few years I have practiced outside my NYC apartment in the building hallway. I do this to get away from my laptop and also enjoy natural reverb!

Moments ago, I heard little guitar strings getting plucked outside my door by someone else.

I sensed that I was being summoned, so I opened my door to see who it was.

A little boy named Matthew (age 7) got a mini guitar for Christmas.

His family lives 2 apartments down the hall…he’d been inspired by hearing me play out there.

I asked him if he liked Michael Jackson, and his face lit up. “I love Michael Jackson!”

I asked them to wait one moment at my door. I came back out with a gift in hand. I handed him & his mom an “I REMEMBER MICHAEL” CD.

“WOW!!!”

As I gave inspiration to this little guy, I was reminded that this is what it’s REALLY all about – passing inspiration forward.

Gear Outside, Tone Inside

By Adam Rafferty 40 Comments

I get a lot of questions about my guitar “tone” in my videos.

Ok, yes it has improved since I first started posting videos. But, this brings to mind a very valuable music lesson I once had from my mentor which I’d like to share with you.

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Coffee and Music With a Side Order of Brains, Please

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

Greets Gang!

I am freshly caffeinated just out of Starbucks where I received my first “dose” of Holiday Music on the stereo.

As I sat and listened I really enjoyed one of the Ella Fitzgerald tunes – I believe it was “Winter Wonderland”. Awesome, bluesy and swinging.

Following that, some syrupy more modern version of a Christmas song – sung by a female vocalist came on. Ugh. Someone went to the studio to “do their Holiday album” with no concept, no brains, no juice and no soul. I repeat: UGH.

All I could think was “where are the brains behind this music?”

It was perfectly executed, perfectly recorded and mixed…but when you heard it, it was simply a waste of time.

For music to be successful and truly good – it’s not the choice of tunes that counts, and it’s not even the technical perfection. Great music requires something more.

There’s a deeper communication in music, and that’s when the musician has dug deep into themselves, found something really special that really resonates with their core being. After finding this “core resonation”, a true musician practices, refines, crafts something worthwhile, and delivers this to the listener.

It has a great value for the listener, and was not acquired easily or by trickery. It’s like cooking from scratch vs “just add water.”

What comes to mind is the “breakdown” of the 3 musical stages of development:

Imitation
Realization
Maturity

The imitative stage can be seen in a talented child. One can become a highly evolved imitator yet never “get it”. Many pro musicians get stuck here.

You’ve probably heard many professional musicians, bands and producers everywhere playing a very slick and perfect type of music, but with little “character”. That’s imitative music. The kind you hear on TV ads.

The other 2 stages – “realization” and “maturity” dawn upon the musician who keeps digging and bases their music on sound concepts and principles rather than copying.

When you hear the sound of a musical personality, like the old blues singer croaking out a tune, or Andre Segovia’s guitar touch and tone, or Paul McCartney singing “Yesterday” you find yourself saying and knowing “this is great!!!!” That’s “realization” and “maturity” that you are hearing.

That’s self knowledge – coming through the medium of music. Kind of like…if Rembrandt painted you an apple…it would likely be a masterpiece!

That’s the good stuff. It arises from practicing deeply and honestly.

So now….git to work!

Little Changes – Big Difference

By Adam Rafferty Leave a Comment

A lot of the time, we want to improve something in our lives – be it our musical ability, career, body weight, financial life, etc. I was reminded of a very valuable lesson just the other day.

My buddy’s wife is a physical therapist and she kindly showed me a few easy exercises to improve my posture. After years of hunching over a guitar and a computer, I need chest opening / stand up straight type routines more than “iron pumping” exercises.

She showed me some very easy exercises simply offering a little bit of resistance. I noticed that her posture was great. I asked her if she worked out and if so, what she did.

“I’ve just been doing these exercises with my patients for 25 years. That’s all.”

Wow. That inspired me to do the simple things she told me to do….but of course the key is to do it every day!

This reminded me of something Jack Canfield mentioned in one of his programs. Sometimes little changes in life can feel like nothing, but over time they really amount to a big change.

If you were driving straight and just did a one degree turn, eventually that would totally change your direction and bring you somewhere else, right?

Making big changes too suddenly can cause upset; for example in the musical realm if you completely change your technique, you can really hurt yourself! If you make huge changes in your personal affairs, you often experience upset…it’s good to go slow!

Hopefully this will offer you encouragement to not look for immediate results, yet have the courage to make small changes to achieve your dreams. See the benefit of doing something slightly new – over time – to achieve a new result.

It may be a new piece you are learning, a scale on your instrument, a new language, a new workout routine, meditation, reading, better eating habit.

Don’t look for results right away…that’s like planting a seed and digging it up the next day to see if it sprouted.

Be happy with an itty bitty small change in a habit, and watch where that takes you over time!

Longo’s List – 10 Study Areas of Music

By Adam Rafferty 34 Comments

Music is a tricky thing to criticize. Criticism can be good – in terms of listening “critically”. We all like different things in music, and hear things according to our tastes.

Of course, I need music to ultimately make me “feel good” when i hear it, but here’s a very objective list to help you “picture” the elements of music.

When I started “apprenticing” with my most important teacher, Mike Longo – former pianist and musical director for Dizzy Gillespie, he told me to take out a piece of paper and make the following list. We did this at lesson #1.

I’d like you to do this with me. get a piece of paper out yourself and make this list. If you only read it, it will be a “nice idea”. I want you to have the list in front of you on your music stand!

Make a heading at the top of the page that says “Guitar“.

This can actually be any instrument, or any style. If you play “Fingerstyle Guitar” put that at the top of the list. This list, when finished will be your main areas of study.

Next, write a line down the middle of the page and make 2 subheadings under the top heading.

“How To Play” and “What To Play“.

Next, under “How To Play” write:

Touch
Time
Tone
Technique
Taste

Under “What to Play” write

Harmony
Melody
Rhythm
Counterpoint
Form

“What to Play” can generally be written on paper in a book form – it’s “information” much like a cookbook.

“How To Play” is a bit more elusive….some chalk it up to “feeling” but it’s much more than emotion. It’s intuition and experience. More on that in another post.

These 10 areas of study pretty much cover all of it! So, if you are working on one area, be content with that and just work on the one area.

As you listen to yourself and others, or any music at all, try to think critically – have all of these 10 areas been covered?

I often hear fingerstyle guitar music lacking in the “melody” area. Or if there’s a full evening of rubato improvisation, maybe “form and rhythm” are weak or missing.

Personally I had to deal with “touch” and “taste” when doing the I REMEMBER MICHAEL cd…those were the weak spots during my creation process.

Or, when I practice the Bach E Major Prelude, it’s still in need of better “technique” and fingerings.

I’m telling you this so that you can see I try to stand back from what I do, listen, think, and improve my own music.

So there’s always room to improve and grow for all of us!

Remember – when you listen critically you are not attacking a “person” , whether it’s yourself or another guitarist.

You are just simply verbalizing which area of the “music” (not the person) could stand improvement.

Now….git to work!