Classical Guitar Lesson: BWV 996 Courante (Bach)
Thu, 09/04/2014 - 3:59pm
"The Bach Lute Suites are a never-ending source of musical inspiration, but they're also very challenging." - Jason Vieaux
In this advanced classical guitar lesson from his online school, Jason Vieaux goes over the courante section from Bach's "Lute Suite in E minor" (aka BWV 996). The courante (or corrente, coranto, or corrant depending on what language we're using) refers to third section of the piece and is characterized by triple meter dances from the Renaissance and the Baroque era.
Bach typically wrote in two styles, French and Italian, and would utilize different spellings to differentiate between the two countries. So for this case, we use the French spelling of courante for this characteristically French piece.
Bryan Sutton Recording New Guitar Lessons
Tue, 09/09/2014 - 11:03am
Bryan Sutton is in the ArtistWorks studio this week recording new lessons for students of the Online Bluegrass Guitar School. We announced this in the Forum a while back and Bryan's students immediately jumped at the opportunity to suggest topics for the new lessons. Bryan has been taking everything into consideration and had a very productive first day recording on Monday recording many new guitar lessons which all look and sound fantastic. Click here for a little clip of him playing "Whiskey Before Breakfast" in the studio.
There's so much to come, and we are as excited as you are to get it to you. Stay tuned!
Bryan Sutton is in the ArtistWorks studio this week recording new lessons for students of the Online Bluegrass Guitar School. We announced this in the Forum a while back and Bryan's students immediately jumped at the opportunity to suggest topics for the new lessons. Bryan has been taking everything into consideration and had a very productive first day recording on Monday recording many new guitar lessons which all look and sound fantastic. Click here for a little clip of him playing "Whiskey Before Breakfast" in the studio.
There's so much to come, and we are as excited as you are to get it to you. Stay tuned!
Equation of Finger Safety
Fri, 09/12/2014 - 10:11pm
Topics: guitar, paul gilbert
I learned an important lesson about ceiling fans this morning.
Do not change your shirt (with your arms in the air) when you are standing near a low-hanging ceiling fan.
My third finger got whapped pretty hard. Fortunately, it's still attached and functioning.
Maybe all that rhythmic bending made it strong enough to withstand the impact of a large, fast-moving wooden blade.
ROCK!
Paul
New Andreas transcription by Josh Bennier
Sun, 09/14/2014 - 10:51am
Topics: Andreas Oberg, guitar
Hey all,
Just got back to Sweden after a fun writing camp in Palma, Mallorca with great producers and friends.
The very talented transcriber Josh Bennier from Australia, just sent me a new transcription of one of my solos. Some of you might already have checked out his work, since I posted his "My Romance" - transcription. This one is another solo from the same album that I'm featured on with the Marian Petrescu Quartet, "Thrivin’ Live At The Jazz Standard". It's my solo over the Oscar Peterson tune "Cakewalk". There are some quite fast lines in there, Josh did a great job gettin' it all down on paper. Also very nice of him to be willing to share it with the rest of us. Enjoy!
Best Regards Andreas
Beatles for Marlon
Sun, 09/14/2014 - 6:25pm
Topics: paul gilbert guitar
My boy, Marlon, is three weeks old now, and that means it's time to start introducing him to The Beatles. He seemed to like "Here Comes the Sun," "All I've Got to Do," "If I Fell," and "I Want to Hold Your Hand." He complained a bit about "Day Tripper" and "I Should Have Known Better," but I think that is probably because I didn't sing them well enough.
I've got a lot of music to play for this boy. I can't wait to get to "2112" by Rush. But that may take a few years.
Rock and Roll,
Paul
Bryan Sutton Fall Tour 2014
Fri, 09/19/2014 - 1:29pm
Topics: bryan sutton, guitar
Hey Everybody,
Here I sit in what will be a significant part and representation of my "home" this fall, a hotel room. This is a nice hotel room, though. It's also connected to a fun show. Hot Rize will play A Prairie Home Companion this weekend. This is a live radio show I listened to just about as long as I've listened to the Grand Ole Opry! We're headed to rehearse in abut 45 minutes.
Hot Rize will tour a good bit this fall. I'll do more and more VEs from hotel rooms like the one I'm in as the tour progresses. I'm really glad I can do these with my iPad. I'll try to update everybody from time to time with various blog posts or videos. I hope to see some of you out on the trail as well. We most always make our way out front after shows to meet and greet.
I feel very fortunate to be part of this band so I'm basically looking forward to the tour. I don't tour like this all that often, but it seems like every few years, some neat opportunity comes up and this is one of them. I'm one of the lucky professional musicians who don't have to spend all their time on the road. HINT - It's really not glamorous... it's a lot of 4 am wake up calls after hitting the pillow at 2 am. You can check out our tour dates at hotrize.com or bryansutton.com. A funny thing that really happens is I forget my room number sometimes. After you stay in hotel rooms a certain number of times in a row, they all look the same, and I really can't remember if it's 145, or 311, or maybe 222... wait, that was last night!
Natural Wood from a Fluorescent Pink Tree
Sat, 09/20/2014 - 10:28am
Topics: guitar, paul gilbert
Some guitars are so eye-catching, that the guitar player doesn't even need to be in the photo.
Long Live 1987!
Paul
Chuck Loeb's Journey to Jazz Improvisation
Mon, 09/22/2014 - 2:09pm
My trajectory towards jazz improvisation began roughly when I was about fifteen years old.
Before then I was steeped in the world of rock, blues, pop and folk music. I would teach myself guitar by listening and copying songs and licks from my favorite artists. I ruined my fair share of vinyl records this way - dragging the needle over the same spot until I got a particular phrase or chord progression under my fingers. I also took an occasional guitar lesson from local teachers, and annoyed my older sister's guitar playing friends until they would show me their licks.
But then one day I heard some music playing in the local record store. The music had the sound of a rock band, but with these other-worldly rhythms, and an amazing array of new notes!
"What is this?!?" I asked the owner of the shop. He told me it was a new record, Inner Mounting Flame by a group called The Mahavishnu Orchestra, led by the amazing guitarist John McLaughlin. I went home with a copy under my arm.
Bryan Sutton talks Hot Rize
Thu, 09/25/2014 - 5:01pm
Hot Rize first hit the bluegrass scene in the late 1970s coming out of Boulder, Cororado. "I wasn't part of it then, I was 5 when they made their first record," says Bryan Sutton, who's been playing guitar for the legendary group for over 10 years now.
The original lineup was Tim O'Brien on mandolin, Nick Forster on bass, Pete Wernick on banjo, and guitar player Charles Sawtelle. Throughout the 1980s, Hot Rize became as big as a band could get for bluegrass at that time. Then at the height of their success, they disbanded. They later enlisted Bryan Sutton to play guitar with them after the tragic loss of Charles Sawtelle. We spoke with Bryan when he was in our studio recording new guitar lessons for his students here at ArtistWorks, wanting to get his unique perspective having gone from being a fan to being in the band.
"What they brought was a bit of a return to a tradition. It was the early 80s and you had a lot of very 80s type influence on bluegrass - things were getting a little louder, electric bass was being used. Hot Rize did have electric bass, but they also wore suits every time they did a show, and they sang around one mic which was really cool and retro at the time - nobody was doing that. Being from Colorado they kept poking at the Southeast, that was the big market to break for any bluegrass band, and being from Colorado they were sort of at an uphill battle.
Martin Taylor: The Secret of Internalizing Music
Fri, 09/26/2014 - 6:02pm
Topics: guitar, Martin Taylor
"I never write with the guitar, I just imagine it in my mind." - Martin Taylor
"When it comes down to it, this [guitar] is just a piece of wood - the music doesn't come from there, the music comes from within us. I often think of the guitar as the loudspeaker of my mind. The reason I play guitar… is because it's the nearest way I can get everyone to hear the music that's going on in my mind. It's the best way I can really express that. But when it comes down to it, it's a piece of wood - the music doesn't come from there, the music comes from within.
