Update on Thrawn Lesson - new fingerings

I went over the fingerings from my ORIGINAL POSTING of  General Thrawn's theme from the Star Wars universe with student who requested this tune. The fingering up in fret 18 didn't work for him. 

So I've revisited, added some new fingering charts & a slowmo demo video. JPGs sheet music plus link to video found here

Personally I prefer locking on to one string vs introducing string crossings.  But maybe there's an advantage for new learners in prioritizing close finger placements.

The original tabs i found showed the frets 18>10 sequence (Bar 44) on string 1. So that's high Bb note to D note (2 ledger lines above staff). My previous instruction was to anchor the sequence on the D note on String 2, Fret 15.  He felt Frets 18: 15 was too hard to get fingers around.

The second way is to use String 1 as anchor, slide it up from 17>18, and place index on Fret 19 of String 3 to play the D. That only gives a 2 fret spread, and a minimal difference in string spacing between String 2 vs  3.

Taking another look at this has given me a chance to refine the closing sequence at Bar 49. Original tabs show all on String 1, 10>3,6>11,10>3,6>11, 10,9, 3-3. 

Ok, so 3 & 6 are a G note and Bb note (1 ledger line above staff). 10 is D note, 2 ledger lines. We know that G note  is Fr 12, Str 3, and Bb is Fr 11, Str 2. That let's make a sort of squeezed C chord formation over the 3 high strings. 

After playing the Bb, flatten the middle finger to catch Fr 11 on Str 1 for the D# note, which is the Tab 11.

Then you might as well play the  final descending line as written in the Tabs. You need to move to a C# for Tab 9, which is a simple slide down of 1 fret.  Then just keep going down to the Bb & G notes on Str 1. The 3-3 formation comes pretty easily as a 1st position fingering, so just keep as is.

Here's the DEMO VIDEO (thumbnail at left). I've tried to find an angle that shows left & right hands. Slow tempo, but actually the theme is super slow any way.

To Fret or Not to Fret - About Vibrato

From our Four Strong Winds lesson comes a good opportunity to visit a topic from the fingerpicking world, which is whether to pick the note as the open string versus  put a finger down on a fret to sound the note.

It all depends on the effect you want or need. In 4SW, there are a lot of sustained notes. Guitar doesn't handle sustain well, nylon strings hand sustain worse than steel strings. (Maybe a chorus effect on an amp or some kind of pedal. But not everyone has that setup. And I don't know anything about electric guitars.)

Violin as a stringed instrument can kind of faux infinite sustain by drawing the bow in long strokes back and forth over the string.  Mandolin can faux long sustain a long time too with tremolo. There's of course tremolo on guitar, but it's not top of the new learner's tool kit.

A simple technique we unplugged guitarists can use is vibrato. (Other string instruments, including ukulele, can use vibrato also.) This is that slight tremble where the note goes up and down in pitch by a micro tone. Singers do it by controlling air flow thru the diaphragm. String players do it by rotating a sort of flattened fingertip a very short distance back and forth over the note within the fret box.

There are variables that contribute to nicer vibrato. I recently replaced my string set, and vibrato came a lot easier on certain strings.

Some times you'll see players almost wiggle the whole instrument in the neck area against the fretted string, like they are trying to wring the last millisecond out of the note. And maybe they are!

There are a couple of spots in 4SW where you land on an open D and/or open G for a held note. (Verse at 'We've been thru that a hundred times or more,' and Chorus, "I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way.') 

You could also opt to play these D and G notes by fretting them. An open string note can't be fretted, therefore vibrato'd. But a fretted string can.

Two other merits of  a fretted vibrato note are: 1. it slows you down and reins you back from rushing. And 2. something is happening visually, creating the useful supporting 'illusion' that the song is still in motion, that a tone is being carefully considered and played, even if it doesn't ring a ton longer than the open string.

Open string notes are of course wonderful, they ring beautifully.  But this may not be the best solution every time.

I've posted a few short video clips on YouTube to show the same phrase with open strings, then with vibrato on fretted strings. Start with Clip 1, 4SW phrase in Verse ending on Open String video, and the remaining 3 clips should autoplay:

To Fret or Not to Fret Clips, YouTube

Fretted strings can also *sometimes* have the advantage of not requiring a string crossing, thereby helping you to minimize chance of a mistake.  But in this case, going from 4th string E to fretted D on the 5th string, you do have to cross strings.  With a bit of practice, you will develop the muscle memory to  start the reach for the 5th string D, also glancing at the neck, to ensure you hit the right string.

There's nothing wrong with playing the open D almost as a pull-off from the 2nd fret E note. But you are making a choice to just let the open D ring and die off when it wants to, rather than having more control over it. Ultimately the choice is yours.

Good talk!

Four Strong Winds play-along, Jan 2023 Patreon post

Sad news of Canadian singer songwriter Ian Tyson's passing.

Perhaps the most identifiable song he wrote & performed was Four Strong Winds.

That song vaulted into the stratosphere by Neil Young & Nicolette Larson's cover on his 'Comes a Time' album. Or as other half says, allowed Ian to retire comfortably to his ranch lol

If you want to have one classic Canadian campfire song in your pocket, this is it!

I've worked up the elements to a tutorial/playalong in a Patreon post. 

It has jam tracks for with simple fingerpicked melody on guitar, guitar strum and the tracks together so you can hear how they sound together.

Also lyric sheet with chord charts. as well as hand notated sheet music for the melody,  to avoid any potential claims of copyright violation. I won't do  the melody notation for every song but I wanted to offer it in this case. In further posts, I will  tell you the source of the sheet music, maybe include a partial  image like this so that you can get an idea of how complex. 

There are also tips on playing certain sections, instrumentation, and more.

Here's the link to the Patreon post: FOUR STRONG WINDS.

Cheers.

Music stand hack

 Guys, here's a visual on how an oversize cardboard piece supports longer  pieces of music on your stand. You're welcome!

Type size & page breaks - hurdles to learning

Who all appreciates big print?

Student who had a concussion last year had trouble focusing with one eye. Made choices for larger print for her.

But who am I kidding, we all appreciate larger print.

Music publishers make obvious choices about print sizes to produce a book more cheaply. Type size and page breaks are not chosen optimally for musicians.

When a complicated section goes over the page or a repeat gores back to Lord knows where, that becomes a node where students give up.

Even lyric sheets could be laid out with clearer breaks between chorus and verse.

AND ONE MORE THING, I don't like sheet music that goes over 3 pages.  Even if taped together, it flops off the stand. I'd rather sheet music run long north to south, in a legal page size type format, if that means it doesn't go over as many pages. But these are the limitations of anything mass produced on paper.

Two pages in total are best. Fair pages are doable, but you have to rig up a support for your stand. I've used a cut down bankers box (example, see next post), a duplo blocks box.They often get recycled on me during a Christmas purge and aren't there when I need them, and the cycle begins again.

If you own your own music, you can copy the master, then cut and paste the copy to  work better for you.

Ultimately when learning a piece, you have to be able to form a 'map' of the piece in your head. That's what large type and thoughtful page breaks allow you to do.

Anyway, that's what I will prioritize in my Patreon lessons: large print & page break that make it easier to internalize a piece.

Full tutorial for this coming later this month,

Addition to Yon Forest tute

Quick note: I've added a lyric sheet with multiple verses to the tutorial album. 

This sheet also has uke chord fingerings marked on.

First verse shows where chord changes occur over lyrics. Apply pattern to the number of verses you choose to use.

New Patreon page - starts with Christmas uke play-along, 'Down in Yon Forest

I've been hesitant to build traffic to the home studio. Close family member came down with covid 10 days before Christmas. Second (positive) finally gone today, a full 15 days later. And this person was careful too, up to date on shots, etc. Not to get public health political, but it's not over.

So have decided to put fully supported play-alongs online for Patreon subscribers. I'll keep putting up little hints and tips on the socials. But I guess this is reasonable with respect to the amount of time that goes into them. Here's the link to my Patreon page. Here's the Yon Forest post.

My first Patreon post is a Christmas play-along for uke. I've done it on banjo uke. It's a slightly lesser known tune, ' Down in Yon Forest.' Canadians will perhaps recognize as a Bruce Cockburn Christmas offering.

It's adapted from Steve Kaufman's Smokey Mountain Christmas. Steve has 2 volumes of this, 1 for guitar, and 1 for mandolin/violin. I just adapted the notes and chords for ukulele.

The collection includes a breakout solo for the instrument on each song. My play-along includes finger-picked melody and chording files, as well as a combined clip. I also did a separate set for the solo part. Found a new app for combining audio files, BandLab. I'm kind of analog for doing it on phone. But it's working great for me on computer.

The main song is pretty easy, altho in Dm with the Bb in it. Here's a link to jpgs taken on phone cam for partial screenshot of sheet music. Album includes jpg of charts of chords used, as well as chord 'map,' which shows the order of the chords in song. Also a badly aligned video clip of the solo. 

The book is well worth it, with fresh arrangements for what can be over-played Christmas tunes. You can get the book or ebook on MelBay.com.

My goal is to post something fresh to the Patreon once a month. It's a toe in the water. See what you think!

And by all means shoot me a note if you have a play-along you'd like to see, or an explainer developed.