I asked her what the problem was and she said that she didn’t feel like doing it.

What universe exists where that has any valence whatsoever?

Our lives are filled with distractions, work, responsibilities, noblesse oblige, fun, joy and caca.    How we handle it is what makes up the quality of our lives.

All that happens when you put something off is that it hangs over you like the sword of Damocles and shadows any other thing you might be doing.   It decreases the amount of joy that you can take in any other endeavor.   It spoils your fun, dammit.

Nothing takes the stress away more than getting done what you have to get done.   After that you can truly relax.   You cannot relax with it hanging over you.   Get out of the shadows.

Make a list of the crap you have to get done.   Prioritize it (by that I mean list it in terms of importance, deadlines, etc) and then start ticking it off.

When you get to the end of the list, go have a martini, champagne, go for a run, whatever it is that gives you joy.    You just did something for them, now do something for yourself.

As a matter of fact, you can use that reward/carrot thing as a way to get yourself off your ass.  Promise yourself that once you are done, you are going to have/do/see/ whatever gives you the most joy.

I know that I frequently don’t feel like practicing, but if I just get up and do it first, I end up not only enjoying it, but doing it longer than I thought that I would.

Everyone knows what is right; what is the right thing to do; what you should do, so just do it.

And yes, sometimes it feels great to just compartmentalize it and then go fishing.    That’s okay too, unless that’s what you do everytime.  

No decision is the worst decision you can make.

Now get off your ass and go do what you promised you would do.

7 Bad Habits to Avoid When Learning Guitar

After envisioning yourself playing the guitar for the last few years, you've finally taken that all-important first step: you signed up for lessons! What are some habits you need to avoid when taking on this musical project?

Skipping Lessons

From time to time, emergencies arise, and you simply cannot perform your daily routines. However, in general, you need to work toward keeping up with your lessons. Even if you wind up going only two weeks without a single lesson, you might be really surprised to see how much it affects you. If you do have to cancel a lesson, try to reschedule it for some other time during the week to make up for the time that you lost.

Limiting Your Range

If you pigeonhole yourself into a specific type of music or song, you might never find out where your real skills lie. After learning the basics of guitar playing, ask your instructor if he or she can teach you some other types of tunes. Getting out of your comfort zone can be an excellent skill.

When you see professionals play the guitar, you likely notice that the position of their hands has a lot to do with the success of their musical skills. Therefore, you need to ensure that your hands are always in the right positions, whether it is to hold up the guitar or to strum the notes. Listening to your teacher and watching professional videos online both help you to accomplish this goal.

Stretching Those Fingers

It's almost a fact that people simply do not like warm-up exercises. They want to get right to the heart of whatever they are doing, but you really need to take these warm-ups into account. Not only will they help you to play better, but they can also prevent you from damaging your fingers. One of the best finger exercises to do is the "Ring to Little Finger" stretch. This stretch consists of fretting the first fret of the sixth string with your ring finger. Sound the note and then play the second fret of the fifth string with your little finger. Then play the first fret of the fifth string with the ring finger and the second fret of the fourth string with the little finger. Carry this step-like pattern across to the first string; you should end with the little finger on the second fret. This will keep your fingers nimble and strong.

Out-of-tune Guitars

In order for you to be a proficient guitar player, the equipment that you are using is extremely important. Even the best guitarist in the world is going to have trouble jamming those tunes if his or her guitar is out of tune. Like any professional, you need equipment that is appropriate for your purposes and in top shape.

Author Jason Harter is a therapist who uses music as a tool to connect with his therapy patients. He also enjoys blogging and is a contributing writer for bestschoolcounselingdegrees.com

Taking a breath between words must be carefully chosen in order to deliver a vocal that is both powerful and natural, but to break up a word with a breath will simply take the listener out of the experience.

For example, if you are singing “we all live in a yellow submarine (breath), yellow submarine (breath), yellow submarine (breath).”    You naturally breathe in the places indicated.

Now imagine how much less effective the delivery would be if it were to be sung like this:  “we all live in a yel        low subma      rine we all live        in a yel        lowsubma rine”    with breaths in all the spaces.

You see?

If you must breath or pause, do it in the same kind of place you would do it if you were in conversation with someone.

I know I said this before, but talking to Bonnie Raitt years ago, on the way to a recording session, she told me that the way that she figures out how to deliver her songs is to first speak them.    She says it helps her to hear how it would sound best being sung.

Several years ago, I was invited by the town of Punxsatawney, Pennsylvania, to sing the national anthem on ground hog day.  

In my experience, most everyone sings the national anthem as though it were some kind of physical demonstration.    They try to hit all the notes with the same kind of physical effort they would use to lift weights.

I decided to try something different.   As I drove across the state, I kept speaking the words to the anthem.   I tried to imagine how I would say those words if I were talking to them.    I spoke them over and over again for several hours, trying different inflections and different pauses.   

Finally, I felt that I understood the words and the way to deliver them so that people would hear the words and not just the effort it takes to sing that song.

When I arrived at Gobbler’s Knob, there were about thirty five thousand people there, including an honor guard of Green Berets.   It was freezing, so I, as a California boy, was wrapped up like a homeless person in all the winter clothing I could borrow.    The honor guard looked at me askance, to say the least.

The time came and I walked out on the stage, amongst all the Ground Hog board in their top hats and tails, and approached the microphone.   I sang acapella and I delivered that song like I never have  delivered a song in my life.

I made certain that everyone listening heard and understood the poem that inspired the song, and  it worked.    The crowd was completely hushed and then at the end, they broke into several minutes of cheering.   As I walked past the Green Beret honor guard, they stood at attention and saluted me.   It actually brought tears to my ears to receive that response.

And I was invited to come and sing the anthem again in a subsequent year.   The only time they have ever invited someone to sing the anthem more than once.

And all this because I paid attention to the words and listened to how I would say them if I were trying to communicate them to someone.

Try it.

I was completely knocked out by Katie Noonan (www.katienoonan.com).    An Australian artist, I can’t believe that she hasn’t been here before, as she has an enormous amount to offer the discerning listener.   Evidently, she is quite well regarded in her homeland.   We would be wise to do the same.

She brought a rare elegance to the stage and sang with such remarkable control it was almost as if I had never  heard anyone ever sing before.   Every note was a joy to hear and her piano accompaniment was exquisite.   And what was more remarkable was how effortlessly and musically she floated through the key centers in her  compositions.

At a folk conference the music tends to be homophonic, so it was very refreshing to hear the key center move through such surprises, and the choices she made were very satisfying ones.   Go see her while she’s in America.

Another performer I really enjoyed was the unorthodox and multi gifted Mark Ettinger.    As I was looking at him, I thought, “why do I know this guy?”   

It turns out he was one of the Flying Karamazov Brothers, the juggling phenom of the past couple of decades.   In case you still don’t know who I mean, they were the jugglers in the Seinfeld episode when Jerry lost his Friars Club jacket.   Those guys.

As it happens, Mark is quite a gifted songwriter and the songs he writes are not your usual fare.  

Interesting topics, unique chord progressions and even some very fun choreographer make for a very enjoyable performance.   He brought so much joy and commitment to his performance, he literally affected my performance that night.   I told you, you learn everytime you see someone, but when you see someone really good, you learn even more.

You can tell by the songs, the topics and the presentation that Mark is bright and original and a thoughtful fellow.   No one gets enough of that and one show by him, wasn’t enough for me.

Music performance isn’t the only thing that happens at the Folk Alliance International conference.  

There are concert presenters, managers, agents, and representatives of all the ancillary businesses that music creates.   Not to mention luthiers.  

As this was in Toronto, I left my Brazilian Collings D2H at home and brought my trusty Taylor 810ce, so I had to stop by and play some of the new offerings that Taylor Gujitars (www.taylorguitars.com)  brought with them.   They are making some incredible guitars and you must check them out.

If independent luthiers are the way you want to go, please look up Ron Belanger.   He brought some amazing guitars to the party and I loved the look, the sound and the playabililty of them.    He is an outstanding luthier and deserves to be recognized as such.   www.ronbelangerguitars.com  

Next year the conference is in Kansas City, MO and if you can swing it, you should most definitely come. 

The conference is  an enriching and joyous celebration of acoustic music and the community of live performers, singers and composers.  

As Jumping Jack Flash said, “it’s a gas, gas, gas!”

First off, I try to only do one showcase a night, Friday and Saturday.   I then do everything I can do to invite everyone that I believe might be interested or with whom I am interested in making a connection.  By doing only one showcase a night, I am essentially guaranteed a good crowd for each show.   This makes a good impression on the folks who come to see you and even those passing by the room.

Secondly, I see as many people as I can at these conferences.    It’s good networking and you always learn something, from every single performance that you see by anyone, amateur or pro.  I keep saying it and it keeps being true.   Not my fault, it’s just the way it is.

Thirdly, while I am there, if there is any way that I can be of assistance to anyone else who is there, I do it.   Not because I expect something back, but because it just sets up a good vibe, good karma, whatever you want to call it.  It’s just a better way to be and it becomes its own blessing.    As the old enema joke goes…”it couldn’t hurt”.

Next, on the plane home, I go through the Folk Alliance Program Guide, which lists every attendee with their mailing address and email address.   I circle every person that I met and if I can remember something particular about the interchange with that person, I annotate it.    I also circle every person that I wanted to meet that perhaps I didn’t get a chance to, as well as every person that I wished had attended one of my showcases.  Those people would include all with whom I had personal contact, all DJ’s, Venues, Presenters, House Concerts, Agents, Managers, Press People…you get the idea.

Then when I get home, I email each and everyone of them and thank them for coming to the show, or for coming to the conference, or something.   What I don’t do is lie or fake it.  Whatever I write is really what I think, thought, did, etc.   Nothing is more resonant than the truth, so that’s just one more reason for sticking with it.

Every DJ that I met or didn’t meet gets an individual post and the promise of a CD.  I don’t usually give away CD’s at the conference unless someone specifically asks for it.   It is better, more impactful and usually more effective if you follow up the conference with a post and in that post allude to the CD that you are going to send to them.

Think about it.   These people go home with a ton of CD’s that they didn’t ask for.   How much time do they give those?   Some folks might give them a real shot, but my instincts tell me that they give it a cursory listen if at all, somewhere down the line.

My approach is to meet them, perform for them or not, then email them and then send them a CD.  Then send them a follow up post in a week or ten days and ask them if they received the CD, and then in a few weeks do a follow up about work or air time or whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.

I send out all the CD’s within four days of being home so that me, my post and my CD will be fresh in their minds.   There are a lot of wonderful singers, songwriters, guitar players and entertainers out there, so whatever you can do to distinguish yourself with your audience can only help.

That’s what I do.    If you think of some other stuff that you do or should do, please let me know, as  I’d appreciate it.

As she has a beautiful voice, she loves using it as much as we love hearing it.   But as a songwriter you must be cognizant of how much information a person can process.    She left no breathing spaces in her songs, as each melodic line just spilled into the next one. 

As I listened, I realized that I wanted a little space between the lines of the songs, just some little breather before the next line  started.  

Now I agree that one can use no space as a device in writing, but I found it uncomfortable by the end of the song.   Not to take anything away from Adele, of whom I am an ardent admirer.

I just believe that one can always strive to write the perfect song and one of the things a perfect song requires is space.   

As an example, my old friend John Hartford wrote a song called “Gentle On My Mind”

The verses were a waterfall of tumbling words and phrases, to wit the first line of the song is:

“It’s knowing that your door is always open and your path is free to walk…”

After which there are two full bars of instrumental before the second line.  “That tends to make me leave my sleeping bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch”   (and yes, I always was uncomfortable with that second line, but that’s another story).   

If we had hadn’t had that breather, we could not have accommodated that song.    Look at “Honky Tonk Woman” by the Stones…

“I met a gin soaked bar room queen in memphis”   then two bars of melody before the next line.    That kind of space leaves us time to consider the lyrics and for them to have the impact that we  want.

I think it was my pal, Cliff Eberhardt that first got me thinking about space after I played him a new song called “Suicide Blonde”.    It’s a waltz and one line just spills into the next, because that is what the melody did as I was writing it. 

He suggested I leave a little space between lines, but I didn’t know how I could do that without bringing down the momentum of the melody.   Then I realized that by having just one more bar of 3/4 at the end of each line, I could give it the breath it needed and also maintain my melodic momentum.

A good melody pulls you along and has both a rhythm and an arc that promises it’s going somewhere and then when it gets there you have a satisfying payoff for the listener (and the composer).

Take a look at your melodies and lyrics and see if they wouldn’t benefit from creating some space for the listener to digest and appreciate your, ahem, genius.

The fact of the matter is, in this economy, in this day and age, few musicians could actually ply their trade and also pay their bills without the generous support of Road Angels.

These generous and wonderful souls pick us up at the airport; put us up; create concert situations that allow us to present our music to their friends; make people buy our CD’s; and embrace us a family.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but regardless of what the ticket price might be, I am still making roughly the same amount each night that I always did—except it is forty years later and every single day I pay more and more for less and less.  As do we all.

It is more expensive to be on the road than it has ever been—don’t even get me started on the gas price hike.  It was .35 cents a gallon when I started.   It is TEN times that much at least these days, as you well know.

Meals, gas, the evil tolls that proliferate across our open highways and the cost of a hotel room all eat into what you might bring home at the end of a tour.   I am not whining, just reiterating what we have to do.

And that makes the role of these Road Angels all the more wonderful, amazing and necessary.    These  people that you and I know who give us not only a place to stay and all that goes with that, but they are so gracious about it.

I just want to stress that these folks need to be recognized and appreciated; celebrated and commemorated by all of us Road Warriors.   We have a debt to these people that we can only repay by making our homes as open to needy travelers as they have.

Share the bounty that you have been blessed to receive.   I plan on doing the same.

And now back to our regular broadcasting…

Gonna grab some exercise, get a shower and load up.   We have about a two hour drive to La Grange to play at the Bugle Boy for the first time.    Here’s hoping our performance at SWRFA last fall will give us enough buzz to gather an audience.

We have the Urban Campfire in San Antonio Saturday night and Sunday into Austin for the Open Ears series and a few days in one place.

The Bugle Boy is a great place to play.   Wonderful people, wonderful sound system and though we had a small crowd it was definitely an enthusiastic crowd.    Everyone in the audience picked up at least one CD, so that was gratifying.   

The Texas music scene is such a nurturing one.   You feel really appreciated and respected here, which of course, leads you to doing a better show.   We have to figure out how to make California a more nurturing place.    I mean, they are nurturing there, but not like here.

One thing I want to remind road newbies, is to pick up something to eat before you go on stage, as in most small towns there is no place open by the time you get off stage.   I try to eat a really late lunch and then pick up something light on the way to the gig or after the sound check, unless the venue is providing some backstage sustenance.

I don’t like to eat after 8 pm (it helps to keep your weight down if you don’t eat after 8), but when you are performing, you don’t have much opportunity to do anything else.

Today, we are in San Antonio, where we just had lunch at La Fonda—fantastic Mexican food.   Really, if you are coming to San Antonio, then have a meal here.   Great staff, historic location and truly great food.  

More tomorrow after we do our Open Ears matinee in Austin.

As a matter of fact, I will be doing it the first Friday in January, as I have done for the last five years.  I hope that all of you can come.  And there’s room, as Dr Who’s Tardis, it is bigger on the inside than on the outside.

In any event, I got there early and tried to be an inobtrusive as possible.   My old acquaintance was sound checking, so I didn’t bother him.

After his set I went up and said hello to him, starting with my name and a reference to jog his memory, as I have changed considerably since my salad days.   He shook my hand as he stared blankly at me.    I felt a little like, “what a fool believes” for a moment, and then decided it didn’t matter.   He had written some good songs and I told him so, then went back and sat down to hear the rest of the evening.

As you know, I am a firm believer that when you participate in something like a this, a shared evening in an intimate club, that you have a responsibility to be as considerate of the other acts as you would have them consider  you.  

Consequently, I always stay and see the other act or acts.   If it is a huge arena, it doesn’t really matter, as no one will notice your exit or discourtesy to the other acts; but in a tiny club, peopled with the musicial community, it is simply bad form to do your set and then leave as soon as possible.

To my amazement (though I really should know by now),  my old acquaintance to no notice of the host or his set.   He didn’t stay for any of the next set, but he did go outside and talk loudly with his cronies utterly ignoring the host—in this case Severin, and his set.  And then disappear into the night.   It’s rude folks…just rude.

So I’m putting this out to you.   When someone invites you to be a part of their intimate evening in a small venue there are several social considerations that are not to be ignored.

First, courtesy to the other acts.   Don’t go longer than your allotted time; don’t stand around in front of the stage talking after your set, as other acts have to set up; and don’t leave taking your entourage with you in your wake.   

One of the ways this community grows is to expose our audiences to each other.   If someone likes what you do, you are not going to lose them if they also like another act you are performing with.   And their fans may end up liking you, so there is a reciprosity that nurtures the entire community and not just you.

Okay, the rant is over.   Thanks for reading this far.   And by the way, I bear no one any ill will here; I just think that this has to be said now and again.