Guitar

Alert – You may Have Been Unsubscribed from Adam Rafferty’s Email List by Accident!

Important Information for Adam Rafferty Subscribers – this means you!!!:

If you are a subscriber to my “Guitar Mastery Newsletter”, you may have been accidentally removed from my list. To re-subscribe, please go here. This means you:

https://www.adamrafferty.com/freetabs

Huh? What Happened?

My mailing list provider Mailchimp, required me to “prune my list”. Read about it here.

When they get more than .10 % abuse complaints – that’s POINT 10 percent, they require this.

So, out of 13K subscribers, 17 ding bats called my Holiday Newsletter “email abuse”. Thanks guys! That’s enough to be more than point 10 percent.

In order to continue using use my mailing list, I had to unsubscribe 4900 people. I scanned the list and saw many of my friends and Facebook fans names.

I even had to unsubscribe one of my best friends. This was really idiotioc!

All names I unsubscribed – while they may be people I know personally, they had not ever opened or read an email – so they are what my provider calls “dead weight”.

But – you may like being on my list, and may not have read the past few mails, so this could mean you got axed.

If you’d like to stay on board with the “Guitar Mastery Newsletter” to get tabs and updates and goodies – just go and sign up again.

And, you’ll get Vitamin E Blues and other tabs for free. Vitamin E comes as soon as you sign up.

Don’t assume you didn’t get axed! And no worries – if you sign up twice, you will not get double emails.

Thanks, and I am very very sorry for any hassle!

Adam

Whazzup with the blog title “Guitar and Spirit?”

By Adam Rafferty 4 Comments

Greetings! I hope you had a wonderful Holiday and stay out of trouble on this upcoming New Years Eve!

As I sit here on a chilly, snowed in December morning I am considering creating a Podcast out of what my blog has been: a mish-mash of musical, philosophical and spiritual thoughts.

When I started my blog, my Dad warned me “stay away from the spiritual stuff, just stick to music”. However, I chose to go with my gut and mash it all together.

Why?

Oddly enough it was my Dad who gave me a copy of “Zen in the Art of Archery” when I was 15 and really struggling with classical guitar technique. He tried to show me that while it’s an outer game of guitar, archery or whatever – there is the inner game of the mind. Inner and outer are related in a mysterious non verbal way.

Later on, as I continued my music studies at college I had the wonderfully good fortune of apprenticing for years with pianist and composer Mike Longo who was Dizzy Gillespie’s pianist and musical director from 1964-71.

At a certain point in my studies, I had tackled most of the “quantifiable” work on harmony and theory. However, as I pressed Mike for more information about tone, touch groove his answers became more and more cryptic.

One day we played together and following our duet he said “You hear that ‘ring’ in your sound? That has a deep spiritual significance.”

My lessons really took on the vibe and feeling of studying with a magician more than a musician.

It didn’t take long before people started asking me questions as though I “knew” something. Teachers at college would ask me what I was practicing. From nowhere people started speaking to me as though ‘I knew’.

Mike Longo kept reminding me “what you are learning here is not common knowledge.”

Heavy! Even musicians whom I looked up simply talked to me like a peer. I’m more used to it now, but was very weird at the time.

I love teaching and explaining things. I vowed as a young person never to teach or preach hot air or bull, and I really felt sick when I had teachers who did “not know” but pretended that they “knew”.

If I can do it – that shows that I know it. If you can’t see me ‘do it’ then don’t believe me. Allow me to be transparent to your ears and eyes – and you decide what’s true for you. Take what you can use, leave the rest.

So to write a blog about learning guitar or music, I can’t leave out the personal development, the spiritual journey, the discipline, the trials, tribulation and the joys and ecstatic moments. It’s all part of the soup mix of music and life. I spend as much time on myself as a person as I do on myself as a guitarist. In actuality, there is no separation!

Sometimes you’ll get a post here about my choice of guitar strings or recording techniques; at other times you’ll get a post about the power of visualization or meditation. To play guitar well, or music well – for that matter, you need to develop yourself inside and out, from the head to the heart to the body and to the soul.

I wish I could have gotten the inner thoughts of my guitar heroes as I grew up. With the internet today, it’s possible to deliver my intimate thoughts to you – quickly and easily.

If your music is to ring of truth and touch people’s hearts, your whole being is involved. If you are to be successful, your whole being is involved. No outer “techniques” and cover or hide what’s inside. Another way to say this is “You can’t fool the Universe”.

Happy New Year, and be on the lookout for the “Guitar and Spirit” Podcast in early 2011.

– Adam

The Michael Jackson Fingerstyle Guitar Sessions – Coated Strings and Guitar Intonation

By Adam Rafferty 38 Comments

Greetings!

It’s been a crash course in recording solo guitar to be in the studio working on the new Michael Jackson fingerstyle guitar album. The studio has officially kicked my butt, but I am a fighter. Next week are rounds 4 & 5.

Recording solo guitar (or solo anything) is an entirely different challenge from recording a multi instrument track. There’s just nowhere to hide.

Imagine a dish like a stew with 30 ingredients vs a gourmet dish with 3 ingredients. The dish with 3 demands much more care and precision. Any aspect of it being off can throw the whole thing off.

I have practiced and performed this music for a while now – played it on tour, etc. The biggest issue I have dealt with in the studio so far is tuning and intonation.

Coated Strings…Fool Me Once…um…never get Fooled Again!

My bad. I had the information and tools needed to do it right, yet I didn’t. Randy Hughes – master guitar repair, setup and fret guy warned me – coated strings do not intonate well.

Even if your open strings are spot on pitch, notes get weird as you creep up the neck. Ouch. Boy did that G string go flat as I went up the neck. I didn’t realize the cause until after the session.

I like Elixir Nanoweb coated strings, basically. They never sound as good as Martin SP phosphor bronze strings, but they last longer. If I am not on the road, I’ll use Elixirs.

I also have noticed slightly less “left hand squeak” from Elixirs so I figured, what the heck – how bad can it be. So I recorded.

Additionally…I had with me a Peterson Strobostomp tuner…but used my little Korg tuner instead.

My bad…on 2 counts on string & tuner choice…

Long story short…the lessons we learn are often ones that are expensive and exasperating. I need to re-record a bunch of tunes – and I had the information and tools to avoid this, but just got a little lazy.

I repeat, fool me once…um…never get fooled again…

Other Aspects of Guitar Tuning – Your Fingerings

Tuning a guitar really well is not so simple. Some tuning problems can be avoided by changing the arrangement! That’s right – even on a totally in-tune guitar, one fingering can sound more in tune than another. This requires an insanely high degree of listening.

On my version of “Rock With You” I do melodies across the top 3 strings. Now when I play D on the 3rd string 7th fret and open B together and really listen – OUCH!!! It just sounds terrible. Yes, it’s the right notes, but listening deeper, there’s a problem. New fingerings will come to the rescue.

The same applies for squeaks. Listen for them as you practice, and you may find that there are other fingerings which don’t squeak.

So often we’re just happy to get through a piece and we don’t listen to ourselves on this level until we are in the studio and it’s too late!

In Conclusion

When you record, try using fresh uncoated strings. Stretch them well.

Before you record – listen for tuning and squeaks at home. Adjust the arrangements to minimize tuning issues and squeaks, and then go record.

Before recording a take, play different spots in the song and listen. Each song may require a different adjustment in tuning. Oh – and remember to have the patience to tune with a tuner before every take. Check out the Peterson Strobostomp!

JUST ADDED: Peterson has their strobe tuner technology in clip on tuners and even has a strobe tuner iPhone app: https://www.petersontuners.com/

Gang, my first 2 solo efforts were “commando” style – at home, with mics, background noise; music with warts and all. This time I want to give you and all my listeners the most excellent, sublime recording I can.

Ok, coffee cup is empty and post is written…time to practice.

How To Practice Guitar If You Have Just an Hour A Day

By Adam Rafferty 7 Comments

What if you have work, family or school commitments and have just an hour a day to practice guitar?

I’d like to help you out if you feel that you have limited practice time. Not everyone is a pro player and can spend several hours every day playing guitar.

Here are some tips. Let’s say you have just an hour. What’s the best plan of attack?

Don’t skip days

Even if you have an hour, don’t skip days. Do it every day even just a little. You’ll be much better off! You need to keep the mind focused from day to day.

=-=-=-=

Pre Practice Session – Have a plan. What will you work on? There are many areas on which you can focus – so choose ahead of time.

I always define what I will work on before picking my instrument up.

For example, you could practice…

a passage in a new piece or arrangementtechniquerunning old repertoireputting together a new arrangement

Part 1Start with a short warm up no matter what. See my groove scales lesson. Once mastered this takes 5-10 minutes.

Video and PDF Download – Click Here

Part 2

Decide clearly on what you will work on for the session, maybe even for the week!

Let’s say you are working on arrangement. Maybe there are some spots where you make mistakes and they are in need of fixing.

Practice SLOWLY

We’ve heard it a million times, but this is golden. I do this! It’s like a deep cleaning up of loose ends. Magically when you pick up the tempo, the music will mesh like gears if you have practiced slowly enough.

Take lots of breaks

Practice short passages in chunks. 15 – 20 minutes max. The mind learns fastest doing it this way, and it’s good for you physically too!Don’t Practice Mistakes, Practice What Works!

Important! Change your fingerings until you get something easy where you almost can never make a mistake. It’s like figuring out a puzzle.

You may need to try a few things to discover what feels right to you.

I can’t tell you how many times as a young guy, I tried to play someone else’s uncomfortable fingerings and always made mistakes, yet tried to force it.

Classical guitarist John Williams once said he finds the most comfortable fingering that he doesn’t screw up, and sticks to it. I do the same!

The Mind Needs Repetition to Learn

Once you find the fingering, it will take repeated practice to drive it down into the subconscious. All too often we think we know a piece but it falls apart when we get nervous. No sweat, just practice it more! 🙂

Remember – take breaks even when practicing a repetitive thing.

Part 3

Mental attitude. Even if after a practice session you can’t play the piece, fear not. Pros know to NOT look for immediate results, and to just put the time in.

It’s like punching your time card at work.

Come back the next day, practice the same piece, again and again. In a week, 2 weeks – you will start to see results.

DO NOT try to practice several different things in a short practice session, and don’t switch every day to a new thing. You will only skim the surface of everything.

Focus in a relaxed way, even if you have limited time. LIke a magnifying glass harnessing the suns rays to burn a small hole in a leaf, you will surely accomplish what you set out to do.

I hope this helps you out!!! Now, get to work 🙂

– Adam

Groove is Another Form of Love

By Adam Rafferty 1 Comment

I heard a fabulous youtube “satsang” talk the other day by a fellow whom I follow online named Burt Harding. He’s a lovely guy from Canada who teaches people about awareness, love and the effortlessness “being” a human “being”.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7awJTBeZfoc]

His talks are full of insights, some of which I myself have experienced, and I am sure you have too. I particularly love seeing how self realizations are similar to musical realizations.

In a day and age where music schools and computers boil music down to concrete elements, we must remember that the silent spirit in between the notes is the true life and soul of music.

Burt was talking about this idea of not really always being able to experience the now moment, even though we talk about the “now” so often. We find ourselves on a road either looking ahead to the future or back to the past. Like driving a car, we look ahead and back constantly.

What then, is the way to be in the present moment? How can we get out of this time-line way of being. Remember – the time line is not “out there” in reality, it’s “in here” – in our heads. That’s how our average waking state is, and that’s how we were created.

Burt presses the question of “how can we be present” and gives an answer.

Love takes us out of this and brings us to an entirely different dimension. Wow. Heavy information! A state of love brings us into a timeless dimension, and busts up this “timeline” paradigm completely.

We’ve all experienced that when we love someone, something, an animal, or what we do – time slips away. I myself forget to eat when I am playing my instrument, so I know this first hand.

And then it came to my mind, how I see the constant error of musicians thinking that music in reality is like it appears paper, and that a metronome with beats spaced apart makes a perfect dribble of equally spaced beats – making so called perfect time. Nothing could be “wronger” 🙂

When you slip deep into musical joy, it is another form of this love – which lifts one up out the timeline completely and effortlessly. A “timeless” dimension is perceived and presence is a glowing effortless now moment.

I then thought about so many experiences I have had – dancing with people (chicks mainly!) at college DJ parties and in an instant feeling a sense of “loving” them spontaneously. The same for musicians…I have been in clubs where I ended up on stage with musicians whom I never met before, and love was present when we played even though we never spoke a word.

Groove is one of the fruits provided by the tree of love!

It’s a “zone” I am talking about which can’t be known by the mind, it must be experienced. If you’ve ever loved anyone or anything fully – a real groove feels just like that. No future, no past….just a warm loving big fat funky “now” moment. Like a downbeat with a gorgeous tone.