JasonShadrick

A few weeks ago I had the chance to sit down with Joe Bonamassa and talk about his new album, Dust Bowl. This was a new type of video for PG. The focus was squarely on the new album with Joe demonstrating some sections with a few of his 20+ guitars he lugs around the country on his never-ending tour.

And yes, this is a REAL ’59 Les Paul

As you can tell, things have been slow around here. That is mostly because writing for Guitar Edge and Premier Guitar has taken up a lot of my time. A few weeks ago I went to the Crossroads Festival in Chicago and recorded a few videos. The first one below is with one of my all-time guitar heroes, Jimmie Vaughan.

I met with Jimmie before his CD Release Party at Buddy Guy’s new club. Not only was Buddy there, but Jeff Beck also showed up to celebrate his birthday. The next night I met up with Pete Huttlinger to record to lesson videos:

The rest of the summer I will spending getting settled into my new house in addition to cranking out lessons for GE and PG. I will also begin teaching at the Marion Music Academy this fall, so if you are interested in lessons, send me an email and I can get you the info.

As you can probably tell if you have been to my blog before, I am a big fan of guitars and workshops. In my opinion, the benefit of being surrounded by like-minded guitarists for an extended period of time is invaluable. Even private lessons fall short because you are only exposed to one teacher. This year Austin Peay State University is holding their first annual summer guitar workshop and competition. Christopher Davis (who is finishing his Master’s Degree at APSU) forwarded me the info and it looks like it is going to be an amazing event.

The Facutly will include:

Stanley Yates

Stephen Aron

Richard Smith

Bill Pilburn

Roger Hudson

And several more.

This workshop will be focused on classical and fingerstyle styles and will be held on the campus of APSU from June 27 through July 3. Each day will be a mix of masterclasses, lectures, ensemble rehearsals and performances. The cost for the workshop is $550 for a residential student and $390 for a commuter student. I have been doing workshops and logistics for these types of events for years and I don’t think I have EVER seen a quality workshop that is this great of a deal. If you are considering going to study guitar in college, you MUST do everything you can to attend this workshop. I really wish I would of had something like this available to me before I started my freshman year at MSU.

I am sure my guitar teacher felt the same way.

(pic via Made Underground)

I know, many blogs give you these type of posts, but I found some cool and interesting links I really want to share and I figured this would be as good as place as any to do so.

Here goes:

Alex Skolnick writes a great blog and recently has been posting about how some of his favorite songs have horrible lyrics.

I recently have been becoming an avid reader of AudioTuts+. Ear training was always difficult for me in school, so I was very happy to see them to a roundup of the best ear training websites around. My personal favorite is IWasDoingAlright.

Christopher Davis is not only a great classical guitarist, but he runs one the best guitar blogs around. To celebrate my recent move back to the Motherland (Iowa), here is an interview Christopher did with Iowa Luthier John H. Dick.

I have sung the praises of The Bad Plus here before. Ethan Iverson is usually to blame for their excellent blog, Do The Math. Recently, he posted a in-depth interview with Cedar Walton and a transcription of Walton playing “I’ll Remember April.”

Every musician has a particular way that they warm-up before a practice session or a gig. Guitarist Cameron Mizell outlines some of his favorite exercises in a recent post. I think this week I will write up some of my favorite exercises as well, since I just got a new copy of Sibelius.

Hopefully you take a minute and check out these posts. If you like them, leave a comment and let them know.

When I first started playing guitar my family couldn’t afford lessons right away so I relied on the monthly magazines for most of my early instruction. Then one day a friend of mine loaned me a VHS tape of John Petrucci’s Rock Discipline.

It was over.

It might be hard to believe, but I was quite the rocker in my youth. I wasn’t at all familiar with Petrucci, or Dream Theater but I had never seen anyone play guitar that fast and was able to explain it that clearly. Since then I have seen a few really great DVD’s and a LOT that weren’t so great. Below I have listed my top 10 all-time desert island instructional videos. I encourage you to check one out that maybe you think you wouldn’t be into. Netflix has a lot of these on hand and also check out your local library for hidden gems among the copies of “Gone With the Wind” and “Howard the Duck.”

In no particular order:

John Petrucci: Rock Discipline

Even  though this earns a spot on this list for sentimental reasons, the information that John gives is incredibly solid. He covers many topics that guitar teachers everyday go over and over with students. In later years I viewed this from a purely technical standpoint since my musical tastes were changing. If you need to really get some technique together, this one is for you.

Pete Huttlinger: A Guitarist’s Guide to Better Practicing

It is a constant and never-ending journey to make your practice time more efficient. Going through 6 years of music school really helped me, but that isn’t for everyone. You can tell Pete spent a considerable amount of time practicing and thinking of how to improve his methods. In this video he talks about everything from making arrangements to working with a metronome and even some killer right hand fingerstyle techniques. I make all of my students watch this to not only see what is possible but to see how a world-class guitarist keeps on pushing to be the best.

Danny Gatton: Strictly Rhythm Guitar

There are very few guitar players who I could sit and watch play rhythm guitar all night. Danny Gatton is one of them. He has a complete mastery of his instrument that few musicians ever attain. Throughout this video his guitar sounds like a B-3, a fire truck and at times a hurricane plugged into a Twin set to stun. Even for the sheer “Wow” factor, you should have this around.

Eric Johnson: The Fine Art of Guitar

I first heard of EJ when I saw the video of the G3 tour he was on with Satriani and Vai. Eric’s music was infinitely more interesting to me at the time than the other two guys, so I saved up my allowance and bought this (at the time) two VHS set. It was amazing to see the facility Eric had and his playing really internalized the sound of the Pentatonic scale in my ear. The biggest thing I remember taking away from this was that I needed to be WAY more accurate with my bending.

Jim Hall

As one of my earliest and most important jazz guitar influences, Jim Hall’s music spent a lot of time in my CD player. This DVD has him playing some trio pieces and then taking them apart. I have been lucky enough to see Jim give a masterclass and this is an important document of how a legendary musician thinks about music.