Tue, 31 Oct 2006
I think this is so cool. Kevin’s been through a lot in his life and he decided that he needed to give himself a break and have an adventure. So he decided that he’d take a solo trip to Japan. His wonderful wife fully supported this idea. Kevin started researching his trip months ago so he wouldn’t waste any of his experience.He’s documenting his trip with photos every day And I have to say, he’s becoming quite a photographer. There are a few shots that look like typical tourist photos, but there are an aweful lot of photos that make you go “Wow!”.
Since we’re both computer geeks (I’m a former programmer and Kevin is a networking/hardware/operating system guru) we both appreciate the fact that he’s updating his flickr photo blog daily. So every morning I can see what my brother saw yesterday in Japan.
This is so cool. Kevin, You rock!
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[/ramblings] department
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Mon, 30 Oct 2006
I just put the first coat of shellac on the new Cocobolo dulcimer and the colors are insane! This is the best looking dulcimer I’ve ever made.
That’s so cool!
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[/music/lutherie] department
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Sun, 29 Oct 2006
I’m almost done with the dulcimer that I need to finish this week. Then it’s full time onto my OM cutaway guitar.
The bocote binding came out really nice.
The cocobolo back looks amazing
The fretboard went on last night
And it’s looking great
The flash kind of washed out the colors in this photo. But the inlays look really good. The fretboard is really black
The next step is to attach the headstock. Then it’s time to start the finishing process.
The next photos you see will be of the completed instrument with the finish on it. It should look amazing.
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[/music/lutherie] department
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Fri, 20 Oct 2006
Wow, What a couple of weeks! We were getting ready for the bluegrass festival, we added an extra rehearsal last friday (was it only a week ago today?) and then did the festival on Saturday. On Sunday Merja and I went downtown to the Auburn Antique Street Fair on Sunday and just walking around wore me out. I guess the last couple of weeks are really starting to catch up with me.Then it’s back to teaching. I’m starting to pick up some more students, in fact, I had 2 new students just on Tuesday. I just got a call a few minutes ago from Michael at Lake of the Pines Music with another potential student. This will make 3 at LOTP (4 starting in November) and 20 at Music And More.
It’s starting to feel like a real business and that feels great!
Dulcimer Build
Now that the Bluegrass Festival is done I need to get back to work on the dulcimer I’m building.
I finished the fabrication on the fretboard today. The fret slots are all cut.
And the underside of the fretboard is hollowed out to make it more resonate:
although with the grain of the bocote it’s hard to see that the fretboard is hollow.
AND SPEAKING OF GRAIN!
I wiped some alcohol on the wood to show what it will look like with some finish on it.
Check out the grain on this fretboard:
And here’s the view of the side of the fretboard:
Then I routed out all the binding channels and installed the first binding edge
This is the first instrument I’ve made where I bent the binding at the same time as the sides. The fit of the binding is so perfect. It really makes binding the edge much easier.
OK, enough of this computer stuff. Time to get back to work.
See ya!
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[/music/lutherie] department
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Tue, 17 Oct 2006
I started the day with my guitar clinic. We went over ways of expanding our “bluegrass vocabulary” of guitar riffs.
Then came the kids band. I cannot tell you how proud I am of the job those kids did. Several people came up to me afterwards to tell me how good they were. They were expecting a “kids band” to be pretty sloppy. But these kids were TIGHT. I think we stood up to any of the professional bands that played that day.
Here’s a great shot of our “Special Guest Rhythm Guitar Player: Josh Matthews” playing his heart out.
Sean and I did a barn burning version of Red Haired Boy in the middle of the set.
After the show I had just enough time to eat something and then get set up for the slow jam I was leading. This photo doesn’t show the dozen or so people who were just listening to the music. But we got them to sing anyway.
It was a blast! I’ve said this a hundred times already but I’ll say it again:
I’m so proud of those kids.
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[/music] department
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Mon, 16 Oct 2006
The Bluegrass Festival Was Awesome
1:00 I had my guitar clinic which I called “Increase your bluegrass vocabulary”. It’s a clinic on how to build bluegrass guitar solos by thinking of each riff as a vocabulary word. Eventually, the goal is to play solos as easily as you can construct a sentence. While I was pretty proud of the analogy of riffs to words I think it just confused a lot of people. I also think that I was a bit nervous and I let my thoughts wander more than I’d have liked.
But overall it went well. I had handouts and we eventually had about 8 people show up to the clinic and several of them asked about guitar lessons. I think it was a success.
Then we had the final rehearsal for the kids group “The Placer County Porch Pickers”. We had a bit of drama that had us a bit frightened. Our lead guitar player and a friend were wrestling around at school and Ben fell to the ground and slammed the back of his head against the concrete. He was out like a light.
His dad came to our Sunday rehearsal to let us know that Ben was in the hospital with a concussion. So we decided that I’d take all his solos and "The Show Must Go On" Well, the next day I talked to Ben and his mom on the phone and Ben wanted to try to do it. So they showed up just before our rehearsal, played the gig, and then went home to rest. Ben, the whole band hopes you’re feeling better and that you heal up soon.
So the band did their set and I have to say that we rocked the house! I don’t think that the audience was expecting a band of kids to sound so good. We were easily as professional sounding as the paid performers. Lexy’s voice was in top form, Meghan brought tears to the audience’s eyes with the song "Traveling Soldier", Sean played some serious mandolin solos, Josh lead us into “In The Pines” perfectly and hit his solo riff right on time and Ben held it together with a rock solid bluegrass rhythm.
A lot of people came up to me afterwards to let me know how much they enjoyed the performance. I lost count of how many times I was able to say “I’m so proud of my kids”.
I have to brag a bit. 3 of the 5 of the kids in that band hadn’t played bluegrass at all just 2 months ago. I’m really proud of the work they all put into the band.
Then I had a bit of a break so I had a moment to get some food. But the next act was some clog dancers so I really didn’t get a chance to hear any of the bands. From 5:00 to 6:00 I lead a Slow Jam at the upper stage. We had a great time, we got a lot of folks to sing along and I met a few more potential students.
Hey Barry The Bass Player! If you read this then give me a call or email me at greg@gbguitars.com We need to play together some more.
By this time it was getting late and the rest of the gang wanted to go out for dinner so we packed it up and headed over to The Club Car for dinner. I was tempted to head back to the festival to hear some of the bands but it had been a long day and we were all pretty tired so we headed on home.
Jam Sessions
Several of the folks I met at the festival asked me about jam sessions. The two that I know of are:
My Slow Jam: I run a slow jam at Music & More on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7:30 pm. The next one will be November 7th.
My friends Betty and Terry host a jam session every Tuesday night at “The Wild Chicken” in Loomis. The Wild Chicken is a coffee shop at the end of Horseshoe Bar road in Loomis. Park in the same parking lot as the railroad station. Their jam goes from 7:00 until 9:00. It’s a good jam and if I wasn’t teaching on Tuesday evenings I’d be there every week.
So the festival was a success and everyone seemed to be having a great time. I met a lot of potential students and I’m looking forward to hearing from them, setting up lesson times and working together. I saw a lot of passion for music in general and I always enjoy teaching passionate people.
What I’m listening to today:The Bill Monroe CD Box Set
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[/music] department
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Mon, 09 Oct 2006
I’ll be participating at the Auburn Bluegrass Festival on October 14th. First, I’m the musical director for the kids bluegrass band which we’re calling the "Placer County Porch Pickers" The PCPP consist of :
- Sean Robinson, Mandolin (Age 15)
- Alexus Lyons, Vocals (Age 16)
- Ben Anderson, Guitar (Age 16)
- Mehgan Lange, Vocals and Fiddle (Age 10)
- Josh Matthews, Guitar (Age 8)
I’m also going to be doing a guitar clinic at 1:00. The clinic is called "How to increase your bluegrass vocabulary" The title comes from something that John Moore said in a clinic I went to. He said "When I’m playing I’m not thinking of every single note that I’m playing just as when I’m talking I don’t have to think of every word in the sentence. I just have a concept of what I want to say and then I say it. When I’m soloing it’s sort of the same thing. I know where I want the solo to go and I play it but I’m not planning out every single note."
So I thought "Well that’s great John, we would all like to solo as easily as we speak. But how do you get to that point?"
Well I ended up developing a practice technique where I think of individual licks and phrases as my vocabulary words. I then specifially practice moving from one riff to another in a completly composed fashion (Not at all improvised) and from that I end up increasing my vocabulary enough that when I’m actually soloing I have this vast selection of "words" of riffs to pull from.
In my clinic I’ll be providing handouts with examples of riffs and how to build solos from them. I hope to see you there.
AND THEN, as if I’m not busy enough, I’ll be leading a slow jam at 5:00 at the bluegrass festival.
And speaking of slow jam. We’ll be having a slow jam at Music & More at 7:30pm this Tuesday. It should be fun.
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[/music/playing] department
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Wed, 04 Oct 2006
It just gets better and better
This is NOT a bad beat story. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DruLeeParsec [Tc Qh]
DruLeeParsec: calls 150
jpin109: folds
Lensova: folds
Chashang1: raises 150 to 300
DruLeeParsec: calls 150
OK, not so bad, let’s see what I get
*** FLOP *** [Kc Qc Qd]
Oh Baby! I flopped a set of Queens
Chashang1: bets 300
Thank you
DruLeeParsec: raises 750 to 1050
Chashang1: raises 750 to 1800
DruLeeParsec: raises 750 to 2550
Chashang1: raises 750 to 3300
DruLeeParsec: calls 78 and is all-in
Ok, My set of queens better be good.
*** TURN *** [Kc Qc Qd] [Td]
Even Better, Now my set is a full house
*** RIVER *** [Kc Qc Qd Td] [Qs]
Holy Cow! It’s 4 of a kind!
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Chashang1: shows [Ks Ad] (a full house, Queens full of Kings)
DruLeeParsec: shows [Tc Qh] (four of a kind, Queens)
DruLeeParsec collected 5931 from pot
DruLeeParsec said, “Wow!”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5931 | Rake 0
Board [Kc Qc Qd Td Qs]
Seat 3: Chashang1 (big blind) showed [Ks Ad] and lost with a full house, Queens full of Kings
Seat 4: DruLeeParsec showed [Tc Qh] and won (5931) with four of a kind, Queens
Times like this make almost make it worth 2 weeks of hands like 4 6 offsuit.
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[/poker] department
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