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

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

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

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

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

Barre chords are chords which use your first finger of your fretting hand placed all across the fretboard, holding down all six strings.
Barre chords are often moveable which simply means you can play the same  chord shape to create different chords. It is possible to play a whole song by using the same barre shape, all depending on the chord sequence of the song.
Most beginners will start off by learning to play open chords, since they tend to be easier. Once they will start using barre chords they may experience some trouble getting all those six strings to sound clear. Most beginners do not realise that you do not need to play all those six, guitar players will use often only four strings out of a six string barre chord, it all depends on the sound you want.

For this article I will give you one useful barre shape: It is the shape which forms the open E-chord. This shape can be used for moving chords up and down the fretboard. Here is the E barre shape starting at the fifth fret creating a A chord:

E ——————–
B ——————–
G ——–6———-
D ——–7———-
A ——–7———-
E ——–5———-

Look at how you leave out the top E and B string, you do not play them at all! The chord gets its name from the Root note which is found on the low E string at the fifth fret. Move the whole chord shape where the low E becomes an open string. The A and D string will both be fingered at fret two and the G string is fretted at the first fret. Recognize the E shape now? This is where the barre chord gets its name from!

Okay, now move the chord shape back to fret five and use four fingers to play the chord, no need to barre with your first finger. Your first finger in used to play fifth fret on the E, use your other three fingers to play the rest of the remaining three fretted strings. Once you have the chord underneath your fingers ( you may have to move your wrist a little to get the chord to sound clean) start moving the shape up and down the fretboard to create different sounds. Remember the low E string is where the chord gets its name from. This exercise is also great for learning your E string all across the fretboard.
Be patient at first, your main goal is to get the chord to sound clear and clean while you move up and down the fretboard. No need to rush things as you will master this shape in time, just relax and enjoy the different sounds you can now create with this new chord shape.

Happy playing and hope to catch you soon again for more.
Eddie