JasonShadrick

Now that I have started to settle into the beauty of a self hosted blog, I thought I would share some of my most popular posts with links to their new location.

Twitter Guitar Directory – By far the most popular area of the blog.  It started with this post about who I felt were the most valuable people to follow.  After a while it was made obvious that 10 was far too few, so I expanded it onto it’s own page.

Kurt Rosenwinkel – I came to appreciate Kurt’s playing fairly late. In this post I discuss his influence on me and have some cool links to other Rosenwinkel related material on the web.  Also check out the post about his Village Vanguard set.

7th Chord Inversions -These posts to me have the most long term value.  I plan on having more guitar specific lessons and handouts appear here on the blog.  Since I am also getting back into teaching, these serve a dual purpose.  If you would like to see certain topics covered in lessons, please let me know.

Mick Goodrick – This is by far the post that brings in the most readers via keyword searches.  Mick is a bit of an enigmatic figure in the guitar community. His teachings and writings are legendary, but he is grossly underrepresented in recorded output.

Grant Green Solo on “Cool Blues”- This is one of my favorite solos by Grant.  He swings so hard and is so melodic over the blues.  Well worth learning and playing over and over and over…..

12 Websites that Will Make You a Better Musician Part One and Part Two – I thought there were some websites out there that could easily make people better musicians if used properly.  If you have anything to add, please let me know.

How I Learn Tunes – One of my favorite posts, but the process is constantly evolving.  I am going to rework this into a slightly simpler version for a well known guitar magazine.

Thanks for checking these out and if you have any topics you would like to see covered, please let me know in the comments below.

This is an article written by David Smolover, who is not only the founder of The National Guitar Workshop, but also Workshop Arts Publications, DayJams and WorkshopLive.  As you can tell, he is a busy guy and knows a lot about guitar education.

How to Find the Perfect Teacher

Finding the right teacher is the best way to insure success in any endeavor, not just learning to play an instrument. Unfortunately, we have been conditioned by our school systems to accept the teachers they put in front of us. So often when we actually do have a choice like selecting a private teacher, we fall back into the habit of accepting whoever is available.

The first thing to do is truly examine what you want to accomplish. Do you want to play Beatle tunes? Do you want to work on your improvisation skills? Do you want to learn how to read music? WHAT DO YOU WANT? (If you don’t know, well then we have another set of problems that we’ll discuss later.)

Let’s assume for the moment that you do know what you want to accomplish. Then it’s time to locate and interview the teacher. Remember you are the customer. It’s your money and it’s your right to select whomever you want. Steps to take:

1. Referrals are a good place to start. Ask a friend who’s playing you respect and find out where they studied.

2. No friends. Sorry. Go to small live music venues and if you find a player you like ask them: 1) if they teach, or 2) can the recommend a teacher.

3. Too young to go to clubs or too old to stay up that late. OK. Visit the local music store and ask questions about their teachers. If you find a likely candidate, ask to set up an interview. The storeowner may look at you funny, but you’ll survive.

4. No likely candidates at the store. Onward. Call the local college music department. As them who are their most popular faculty members. Then ask if they teach privately. Almost all of them will. Ask for contact info and then set-up the interview.

5. Last resort. Hang out at the local coffee shop and stop everyone caring a guitar. Remember anyone making their living as a guitar teacher gets up at 10:00 and goes for coffee around 11:30. They have very few friends and no social outlets, so they’ll be happy to talk with you.

The Interview

Remember. Be honest about what you want to learn. Don’t try to please the teacher. It’s their job to please you. Ask them to specifically tell you how their approach will help you accomplish your goal. Ask them about their educational background. How long have they been teaching? Here’s the most important question. Ask them what kind of student do they most enjoy teaching? Does that sound like you? If so, sign-up. If not, keep looking.

If you don’t know what you want to accomplish or if you’ve been playing a long time and you’re not improving, then this is what you have to discuss with the perspective teacher. Honestly describe your playing. Ask to play with the teacher if words fail you. Then say, “OK, how can you help me?” If the answer sounds like good and it’s not a canned response (i.e. All my students ……) then give it a shot.

The most important thing to remember is that it’s your money, but it’s also your responsibility to find the right teacher.

Original cutting edge music for large ensembles in a jazz context has been in short supply lately.  Of course you have Maria Schneider’s music, but as great as it is Maria’s music lacks that inner fire for me.

Darcy is a very well respected composer who comes from the Brookmeyer School (He studied with Brookmeyer while at NEC).  He is the leader of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, one of the most original large jazz ensembles to come around in recent memory.

Recently, Darcy released “Infernal Machines”, the debut studio recording from the Secret Society (purchase it here).

Not only did this interest me because of my interest in his music, but Darcy was very open about the deal with New Amsterdam Records.  The terms of the contract are very artist friendly:

• The artist retains full copyright of the recording
• Proceeds from the album are split 80% Artist and 20% Label until the recording cost are recouped. After that it becomes a 50/50 split.

You can read the whole agreement here.

However there are some downsides, such as no advance.  All costs related to the recording of the album are 100% on the artist.  To me, this could be a glimpse into the future of the recording industry.  As most of you know by now, the traditional artist/label relationship doesn’t exist as we know it.  In order to make the music industry more viable, there needs to be a paradigm shift in the business of making music, and I think NA Records and Darcy are going in the right direction.

Please check out/buy a copy of Darcy’s new album.  For those of you who feel big band jazz is all about Glen Miller and Count Basie, then you NEED to buy it.

As you can see I have made the move to a self hosted website.  This has already been a decision I now can see I should of made much sooner.

In the coming weeks I have some lessons prepared that I will post in addition to the normal guitar, music business and (hopefully) other interesting topics that you have come to find here.

Thanks for sticking around and let me know if there is anything here that I can do better.

As one of the leading guitarists in the Jam Scene, Jimmy Herring is a purveyor of all things guitar.

I first heard of Jimmy from one of my guitar teachers who had given me a copy of an Aquarium Rescue Unit CD.  At that time I was really into bands like Gov’t Mule, but I had not come across Jimmy yet.  After listening to the quirkyness of ARU, I was sold.

This year at National Guitar Workshop we have the great fortune of not only bringing in Jimmy for our Jam Summit, but also Oteil Burbridge.  Many, many people have inquired about this and it is sure to be an amazing time.

Both Jimmy and Oteil are educated musicians who really know how to convey musical concepts.

Recently a guitarist on Twitter forwarded me a link to a video of Jimmy playing a Steve Morse tune at a student concert at GIT.

Click Here to see the video.

As you can see, even back in ’85 Jimmy was quite the developed musician. The other guitarists in the video aren’t slouches either.

After I booked Jimmy and Oteil for the Jam Summit, I started to do some research to see what kind of videos are out there.  Here are some of the better ones I found.

Here is a short video of a clinic that Jimmy gave at the Atlanta Institute of Music.

Shawn Lane with Aquarium Rescue Unit:

Jimmy sitting in with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon:

Great Short Documentary on Oteil: