In January 2017 there will be guitar lessons in Pudsey Library, there will be a free taster session for everyone who is interested. The day and time for free taster session will be confirmed. The lessons will be in group format but it is possible to voice your interest for One to One lessons. The lessons are open to experienced, intermediate guitar players and complete beginners. Price and options will be discussed during the taster session.
Please bring your guitar along (electric or acoustic) If your guitar needs an amp, please bring a small one with you.
For more information call me on 07796 808633 or call Pudsey Library on: 0113 37 81893
Looking forward to meet you there.
Eddie
Guitar tutor from Leeds at Jam Night News for Dec. 13th at Factory Street Studios in Bradford
Hello there, for this post a short brief about the last Jam Night, which was 29th of Nov. and some ideas for the next one. The next night will be the 13th of Dec. 2016.
The last night, which was the first one, was great: There were two drum kits on each side of the stage, the guitar-and bass amps were positioned in a circle around the stage. This lay-out creates the feel of the night being a rehearsal rather than a performance.
Music was played right from beginning (around 8.00 pm) until the end of the night. Most of the music being played was based on jams of a handful of chords and short ideas. Various people contributed ideas. At the end of the night some song structures were being played. Overall it was a great vibe and everyone involved enjoyed the ambience.
For the coming night I have a few suggestions, most of these are to avoid very long jams on just one idea.
First of all, and this is for anyone who is not familiar with the idea of what a Jam Night stands for: Jamming is basically playing music with anything which goes: Someone starts and idea and all the other musicians around, jump on the idea and contribute to that idea.
Do you need to be very good at doing such a thing? No, because there is time to explain what goes on, if some people feel left in the dark there is the time and willingness to explain to them what goes on music wise, so anyone has a change to play and be invovled.
The night is not just about creating music on the spot, it can also be about people who know a handful of songs. They may want to play these with other people, who may not know these songs but will be able to play them fairly quick.
In a nut shell the night is there for anyone, young and old, experienced or beginner, sing-song writers, instrumentalists, vocalists and rappers. The whole idea behind the night is bringing people together who enjoy playing music together and enjoy the fantastic vibe at Factory Street Studios.
For next night I have a few short song intros you may like to play along with.
All songs can be played in the key of E and it is possible to play these song in a medley kind of fashion (Start one song and then go to next one). The list is: “Purple Haze”, “Whole Lotta Love”, “Wild Thing”, “Hey Joe”, “Rebel Rebel”, “7-Nation Army” and “Come As You Are”.
You can just play the start of these songs for a few times, then progress to the next one. Play with them to see how it feels for you.
Some other songs where we could do a similar thing with are: “Message in a Bottle”, connect it with “All Along the Watch Tower” and finish with “House of the Rising Sun”.
Another one could be: “Brown Sugar” going into the unlikely sound of “Stand Bye Me”.
Now you may say “Why all old songs?” No particular reason, they are some ideas I have had a change to play with over the last few days. All these songs do have a different feel, which means we will create a different sound for each section as we progress through the songs. It is possible to do this with almost any song, it is up to you to introduce whatever song you like to play.
As far as instruments goes: I would welcome any instrument, in particular horn instruments, since we have not had that many. For all instruments which may need amplification such as guitars, basses and keyboards: No need to bring your own amp as full back-line is ready for you to play through. Of course if you like using your own amp it is possible to set it up quickly.
The address of Factory Street Studios is: Factory Street, Unit 9, Bradford, BD4 9NW.
Night will start about 8.00 pm and run until around 11.00/11.30
Any more info, call me on 07796 808633
Hope to meet you there and have a play
Cheers,
Eddie
Having a Guitar lesson break to attend Jam Night on Tue 29th of Nov. at Factory Street Studios in Bradford
On the 29th of Nov there will be a jam night at Factory Street Studios in Bradford. The studio will be open on that night for anyone who is interested in playing music along with other people. The nature of the night is open, any style is possible, all musicians are welcome from singers to harmonica players to keyboard players and drummers.
The idea of the night is to play music along with other people: You may want to play a song you know but now play this song with a full back line of other instruments. You may just want to jam on one particular musical idea, anything goes really.
The night is there for beginners and experienced players.
Factory Street Studios does have a open, friendly nature. Once you have been you may want to come for any other events. You do not have to play, you can just check out the place while you have a drink and a chat.
The night will start around 8.15 pm and will run until 10.00.
Full address of the studio: Factory Street Studios, Unit 9 Factory Street, Bradford, BD4 9NW
For more info call me on 07796 808633
Hope to meet you soon,
Eddie
Detuning For Beginners during Guitar Lesson in Leeds
The great thing about the guitar is that you can alter almost anything: You can change parts, strings, fret your strings with a Capo on a particular position of the neck or detune (some) of your strings. For this article a short outline about detuning. For those in the know it is no secret that the guitar can give you very different sounds by simply detuning a few strings. For those of you who are new to this concept let us have a look what is in store for you:
The easiest thing to do is to detune one string: Take your low E and tune it down to a D. Notice how only one string can give you such a different sound!
If you like it, why not detune you high E string as well? Tune it also down to a D, now both E strings are tuned to E, now you are ready for songs in the key of D.
A common thing guitar players in the past used to do is detune all their strings one step down. It will give you (from low to high) Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb and Eb. This tuning will still enable you to play all your regular open chords but their sound will be a little bit lower, also notice the feel of the strings: They will feel a little less tight since they are tuned lower and have less tension.
String Gauge:
String Gauge is the term which is used for the thickness of your strings. Some of you may play with very slinky strings, your high E may be an 0.08. You may like to go up a few gauges with the set of your strings, or maybe change a few strings to a thicker gauge. Thicker strings will give you more power and less twang. Try it to find out what you like.
Hope to see you soon again for more ideas about detuning and other guitar techniques.
Eddie
Beginners Guitar Lesson in Leeds: Blues Sequence Using Open E, G, A, C and D Chord
Blues is not only about playing riffs, improvising and playing solos, it is also about holding the groove together and learn to play in time.
For this lesson you will learn to play a blues sequence using mainly open chords. You will have used all those chords before. For the sound of the sequence you mainly need to play the bass strings of the chords.
The sequence is divided up in two parts: First part contains E, G and A chord. The next part uses the A, C and D chord.
Check the video to see how long you play each chord for.
Once you have the chords underneath your fingertips, and you can play them without any long gaps, check out the next part of the video: Now play the sequence along with the drum machine and bass guitar. Concentrate on your part, make sure you do not get lost and just groove along.
Once you can play comfortably with bass and drums, let us now add another guitar in the mix: This guitar will be playing riffs and harmony-and melody parts. Check out the last part of the video to see what I mean. Play along, and again make sure you can hold the groove together without loosing your place in the sequence.
Have fun and hope to see you next time for more.
Eddie
Learning to Play Solos by B.B King, Freddie King and Albert King during Leeds music lesson
When you want to learn to play a particular style of guitar playing it helps if you listen a lot to that kind of music. It may seem like an obvious remark to make but when it comes to playing blues guitar I cannot stress that enough: There are so many different styles of Blues guitar, and once you will learn about the Minor Pentatonic scale you may feel you are there but watch out: Most of those guitar players may use any of those notes in that scale but you need to listen, learn about phrasing and listen to lots of different forms of blues to see what is behind those notes.
The great three I mentioned before all helped to develop and modernise the idiom of the Urban Chicago style. The Chicago style is closely related to the development of the electric guitar too! Most of the early Blues players used Gibson or Fender electric guitars.
When you listen to B.B, Albert and Freddie you will find that all three have a lot of overlapping ideas, they can all sound so similar to each other but do not be fooled: each of them do have their characteristic styles and trademarks: Freddie’s sound is quite woody, Albert’s sound is quite stingy whereas B.B’s sound is very smooth and almost lazy. These are just general remarks as each of them could sound easily like on of the other.
Listen to other electric blues guitarists as well to see if you can hear any of the B.B, Freddie and Albert influences and sounds. Eric Clapton is an obvious example, you hear him often doing the large bends a la Albert King. Garry Moore could easily sound like any of those three. He recorded with Albert and B.B, he also played with Albert Collins who I left out here, as he was younger than the three Kings.
The three Kings are mentioned so often and out of all B.B was probably the most well-known one. Freddie did play a lot of diverse style of songs, not just the straight forward Blues material, he was also a very good singer.
Try to pick one song of any of the three and copy one solo idea as close as you can. A lot of those ideas can be played over the whole song, that is the beauty of them. The next step is to develop those ideas into your own playing.
Do not just listen to the notes, listen to what kind of emotion is behind them. Blues is about story telling, listen to the lyrics of the song and the emotion which is used to put the message across.
Again I will mention Eric Clapton who learned so well from all of this: In his non-blues music you can still hear the roots and what is behind the music.
Do not just listen to any of those three mentioned above, they are a good starting point if you are new to the blues. Listen to someone like Muddy Waters, who is very different in his phrasing and approach, his style is closer to the country blues style, but equally he is one who helped to modernise and electrify the genre.
Today a lot of guitar players approach the Blues from a Rock style approach. I guess a lot of guitar players love playing with a heavier sound, more dirty that the older guys. The heavier your sound the less subtle is becomes too. See if you can hear these differences for yourself and learn to appreciate those more primitive approaches from the 1950s. 60s and early 70s.
If you live in the Leeds area and want some help (or inspiration) with your blues guitar playing, give me a call on 07796 808633 to see what I can do for you.
If you like jamming on Blues music, there is a Blues Night every third Tuesday in Bradford at
Factory Street Studios, Unit 9, Factory Street in Bradford, BD4 9 NW, Tel: 01274 682125. No need to bring amps, just bring guitar, bass or drumsticks and enjoy!
Cheers,
Eddie
Preliminary Bass Lesson in Leeds for Beginners
For this article a few simple tips of what you can do before you actually take up any Bass lessons with a private Bass guitar tutor. There are some things you can do at home before you make start with your lessons. These tips will make the start easier and you will get more out of your lessons.
When you get your first bass check if you can hold the Bass comfortably. Sit down with the Bass and try to keep the neck in balance so the Bass does not fall down to the floor.Is it too heavy or maybe to light? Try different Basses if you can to see what works for you. For children I recommend you have a look at the www.Gear4music. com site. Look for their Kits Bass Guitars page, they have a fantastic range of 3/4 seize Bass guitars. I am sure you will find something in there you will like!
Once you have your first bass you will need to tune it. If you have bought your Bass from a pack, the pack will include a tuner. Find out how it works and make a start tuning your bass. Tuning your own instrument is part of playing the Bass (or guitar) Make a habit of tuning the Bass before you start playing. You will get the hang of it quickly.
Now you have tuned the Bass let us make a start playing the open strings. The Bass does have four strings, and all of those strings have their own musical name: The lowest (thickest) string is called an E, the next string underneath is called an A, the one directly below is called a D and finally ,the thinnest string of them all, is called a G.
Being aware of the note names is a good thing, it also makes the communication easier: You will know which string to play whenever a particular string is mentioned.
Okay, so far so good, let us now make a start playing the open E string: Rest your thumb on the pick-up (look the finger position in the image above—the Thumb is resting on one of the pick-ups ( the black piece of plastic) while the first and middle finger are being used to play the string—
Use your first finger to strike the E string from underneath. Make sure you get a nice, smooth sound. We do not want any popping string noises! Once you have used your first finger, now do the same but now using your middle finger. When you do it right you get a “walking movement”. This is probably the most important playing technique for the Bass. Play the E string over and over again using the walking movement. Once it starts to feel comfortable, move on to the A string and do the same, Similar for the D string and finally play the G string.
You are now ready to start using your fingers to fret the notes, at this point you may want to make a start with your Bass lessons. If you live in the Leeds region why not give me a call on 07796 808633 to see what I can do for you?
Thanks and speak to you soon!
Eddie
Get The Best Out of Your Guitar Playing while in Leeds and Lessons: Tips For Beginners
For so many students their guitar lesson is a source of inspiration, the weekly hour acts as a boost for their playing. Most of them probably will not play for one full hour on a daily basis, therefore the moment of the lesson can be an intense experience for them.
In this article I will highlight a few issues on how to improve your own playing.
Fingering:
Students take up guitar lessons because they want to learn to play the guitar. The lessons also act as a way to correct some of the mistakes in your playing, things you still may not get right, fingering corrections and other details. Hopefully these corrections will help your playing to improve and develop over time.
For most students the weekly lesson is a session full of various ideas, ideas they can take home and improve.
To get the best out of your playing you should take some of those ideas and work on them until you can play them as how they are intended to sound like. Any student will have their own difficulties but it is common for students of all levels not to use the right fingering. Fingering is something which is easy to correct but it takes discipline: Stick to particular fingerings for certain ideas, also get used to the method of using one finger per fret. All of this will help to keep your playing sound clean.
Mastering One Idea at a Time:
It is worth from a student’s point of view to play a song right. Most songs with have various ideas and each of them will have their own difficulties: When it gets to the chords, there are the changes. Some songs have quick chord changes while others may be slower. To get your chords to sound clean and good takes time, but for each song it helps if you can play the changes without too many gaps: You need to go over the chords slowly, play the whole idea in time ( without any speeding up-or slowing down). Chords are hard to master, you need to spend time on them, but you should not only play chords and also not just practise one idea until it is perfect. Practise all things you have learned so far as they will all improve over time.
The same song I mentioned before may also have an intro riff made up of single notes. Play these notes first slowly, then play them a little faster. Similar as what I mentioned about the chords, play all notes with the similar pace so the whole intro will start to sound like music instead of a random idea put together of various notes.
When it comes to practise, try to master each idea. Ideally master what you learned last lesson. This approach will make your playing grow, and when your playing sounds better you will want to play more so you will enjoy your guitar playing even more.
The trick is to stay with it and to iron out all the little mistakes you may have in your playing. Once you have the right approach anything you want to learn will become so much easier, it will be just another song, instead of climbing another mountain.
Have fun and hope to catch you soon again for more.
Eddie
Ukulele Talk: Which Type of Ukulele Should I Buy?
Common Type of Ukuleles:
The Ukulele family, as we know it today, contains of four different type of instruments. The smallest one is the Soprano and the biggest one is the Baritone. In between these two are the Concert, which in size looks similar to the Tenor.
The Soprano is the most common one for beginners: It is relatively cheap and small to carry.
When it comes to buying your first Ukulele please do not buy the cheapest one you can find.Usually the budgetmodels will not stay in tune very well, their tuners tend to slip which makes tuning something of a nightmare.
As with any instrument, the better the instrument, the better it will play and the easier it will be to get a tune out of it. This is especially true for the less experienced player. There is not need to buy a really expensive Ukulele [only if you are inclined that way] Something in the pricerange from £30.- to £40.- will buy you a fine instrument which will last you for a long time.
Tuning:
The most common tuning is the C-tuning which reads like: G, C, E and A (low to high). Soprano’s, Concert’s and Tenors are tuned in this tuning, Baritiones are tuned similar as the top four strings of the guitar: D,G,B and E (low to high). Because of this tuning, the Baritone can be seen as a small guitar: The chordshapes are similar as the chordshapes played on the top four strings of the guitar.
Creating an Ochestra of Ukuleles:
In the previous blog I talked about the Twin Guitar Sound. It is possible to get a smiliar sound from the Ukulele: Put together various types of Ukes and play any chordsequence or song and it will create a beautiful, full sound of matching Ukuleles. If there are any people out there who are interested in putting a Ukulele Orchestra together, please get in touch as I would love to arrange music for this type of band/orchestra.!
More Ukuleles:
Apart from the Ukes mentioned above there are two more different types of Ukes, they are less common but both of them have their own sound: One is the Resonator Ukulele, this Uke looks similar as the resonator guitar with its metal body and metalic sound. This Uke is a lot louder than the more common, wooden-type body Uke.
Another type of Uke is the Ukulele-Banjo which was popularized by George Formby. This Type of Uke does sound somewhat similar as the Banjo.
Why Play Ukulele?
The sound of the Uke is quite distintive and the size of the instrument is compact which makes it an ideal travelpartner.
A lot of people tend to think the sound of the Uke is somewhat commical. It is true, with it’s C (or D) tuning, that a Uke sounds quite bright, cheerful and less mournful that it’s fuller brother: The Guitar with it’s standard Emsus4 7 tuning.
Want to develop your Ukulele playing? Stay tuned for more special Ukulele blogs about different playing styles/techinques and using guitarcapos for your Uke.
See you soon,
Eddie
Learning to Play Boogie Woogie Piano Style Basslines a la Jools Holland on Guitar in Leeds
For this article a short brief how you can create Boogie Woogie style bass lines on the guitar. Boogie Woogie is a style of music which is associated with Blues, Jazz, Rock and Roll and Swing. The style is very diverse and sounds like fun. The best, well-known name today maybe Jools Holland but there are many, many other pianists such as Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Champion Dupree who played in a similar style.
Many beginners get at some point introduced to that typical Blues idea where you move bass notes about. That idea originates from Piano players who played in Barrelhouses in the 1920s and 1930s in the United States. Acoustic guitar players picked up on the idea and that is how it developed. By the time Chicago Blues was happening aournd the 1950s, the idea got more exciting and electrified.
The basic idea of a Boogie line is you play a particular idea over one chord and repeat this idea over the next two chords.
Here an example of a simple Boogie Bass Line based on a G6 chord
E ———————————————-
B ———————————————-
G ———————————————-
D ——————————2————–
A ———–2–2—-5—5———5—2—–
E —3–3————————————–
You can use this bass line over a G6 chord, the Root is on 3rd fret on low E string and the sixth of the chord is on the 2nd fret on the D string.
The next bass line for the C6 chord is exactly the same but it will start on the A string. Just move the whole thing down a set of strings and just play it is a similar way.
For your third chord, which is a D6 you move your whole C6 bass line up starting on 5th fret on the A string and then play the whole thing again.
As you can see, there is only one Bass line, and it is repeated over the next two chords, even the fingering remains the same as for the first chord.
The sequence is a 12 bar in G, and yes you can just play chords if you like, try using 6th chords which will give you a different sound compared to just a straight major chord.
Just experiment and play and have fun.
Hope to catch soon again for more.
If you are interested in learning more about Blues or any oher guitar style just give me call on 07796 808633 to find out how I can help you.
Thanks
Eddie