GUITAR WORKSHOP WITH KARL STRAUB--TEN IDEAS TO MAKE YOU A BETTER GUITAR PLAYER

TEN IDEAS TO MAKE YOU A BETTER GUITAR PLAYER
OPEN TO PLAYERS OF ALL LEVELS
Karl Straub's Guitar Workshop is Thursday, Jan. 19, 7 pm at NOVA Music, 12704 CHAPEL ROAD, CLIFTON, VA 20124

http://www.novamusiccenter.com/categories/Workshops/

"BROKE DOWN GUITAR," A SHORT ROCKABILLY PIECE.


KARL STRAUB'S HIGHLIGHT REEL, A FEW DIFFERENT STYLES OF GUITAR PLAYING


The purpose of the workshop is to show you how to be a better guitar player. Most guitar instructional books and DVD's show you how to play specific licks and songs, but without knowledge of certain fundamentals, many guitarists stay at the same level regardless of how many licks and songs they learn.

This workshop will give you a pile of practicing and playing techniques that will improve your playing right away, and keep you improving from now on. Straub will pass along tips about technique and practicing he has learned in 27 years of professional experience playing rock and roll, country, jazz, classical, blues, and folk guitar.

among the topics discussed--

HOW TO PRACTICE FOR MAXIMUM BENEFIT

BUILDING SPEED WITHOUT BUILDING SLOPPINESS

PLAYING IN DIFFERENT KEYS

PLAYING ALL OVER THE GUITAR, NOT JUST THE FIRST THREE FRETS

EAR TRAINING-- IF YOU CAN'T HEAR IT, YOU CAN'T PLAY IT
CLEANING UP YOUR LEFT AND RIGHT HANDS

HOW TO TURN SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS INTO ACTUAL MUSIC

HOW EVEN A LITTLE MUSIC THEORY CAN MAKE YOU A BETTER PLAYER

Karl Straub has a Music Education degree, and almost 30 years professionally performing, recording, and writing. His songs have been recorded by numerous local artists, and he has played guitar with Last Train Home, Eric Brace, the Grandsons, the Graverobbers, the Kennedys, Little Pink, and Exit 10.
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GRADY MARTIN WITH ARLIE DUFF, "ALLIGATOR, COME ACROSS"

Once again I find myself apologizing about not posting for a good long spell-- but ladies and gentlemen, I've been recording, writing, and practicing! These things take time.

Every time I feel like taking a break from practicing, I listen to Grady Martin, and it's back to the woodshed again. I saw something about this cut in a post from Deke Dickerson on the Grady Martin tribute site-- Deke was right, as usual. It's a killer, and interesting because it has a couple short breaks in Grady's fiddle-influenced "oblique counterpoint" style (heard sometimes on cuts with Red Foley) and then a more boppin' and manic solo later on the record, after it kicks into high gear.
If there's a recording that more handily illustrates how country guitar mutated from hillbilly to rockabilly, I haven't come across it. And I suppose this is as good a place as any to say it-- as great as Carl Perkins, James Burton, Cliff Gallup, and Scotty Moore are, Grady may be the hottest rockabilly lead guitarist of all.
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GLEN CAMPBELL, "GALVESTON" SOLO

Glen tears it up on "Galveston."

Nice changes on this tune, one of Campbell's most lyrical numbers, and an interesting solo. We only have Glen around for a little while longer, sadly, but let's not forget how great his picking is. Even if you ignore his many hits, I say he's for the ages just on the basis of his playing. (I'd even be willing to put him in the pantheon for his twelve-string playing alone.)
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DANNY GATTON, "HEARTACHES BY THE NUMBER"

There's tons of bootleg Gatton floating around, but this clip got my attention because I particularly love hearing Danny on classic country shuffles-- in this kind of vein, he's less likely to drift into the face-melting "warp factor ten" mode that everyone seemed to want from him all the time.

Good lord, has it really been almost a year since I've posted here? Sorry about that, but unfortunately life got in the way of my continued blogging. Just wanted to remind everyone I'm still here.

(At least some of my excuse is many months of woodshedding and various recording projects-- one of these days I'll have news about the recordings I've been doing.)
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TOMMY TEDESCO, "TEA FOR TWO"

I've been listening all week to Tommy Tedesco's gut-string playing on the old "50 Guitars" albums, then I found this gem (in a totally different vein) from Tommy's "Twangin' 12 Great Hits" album. Back when I was trying to figure out how the guitar should be played, I'd be listening to Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel, Wes Montgomery, and other jazz cats, but I also never got tired of the twang--

Twang could mean surf, or country, or rockabilly, or Les Paul, or any number of interrelated guitar styles. After a while, I realized that a lot of the playing on TV shows, movies, and albums from that era was these anonymous session guys, and a lot of the twangy playing that had a little more jazz sophistication was by Tommy.
There were others, too, of course, and probably many excelent pickers I haven't heard of, but Tommy shows up a lot once you start looking for him. I would guess this album was another one Tedesco didn't think too much of, but I'm happy to hear Tommy in a twangy vein any day. I'm sure that Tedesco was a major influence on my attempts at mixing twang with sophistication. Maybe it can't be done, and if it can be done, maybe I'm not the best guy to do it, but it still feels like a noble experiment to me. I'll keep working at it!
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WALTER HAYNES, "PICK ME UP ON YOUR WAY DOWN," WITH CHARLIE WALKER

Please excuse my ignorance, but can anyone identify this steel player?
(thanks to Dave Van Allen for determining that the mystery man was
Walter Haynes. Now I need to find more Walter
Haynes.)

(thanks to Bob Adamcik for turning me on to both this song and Charlie Walker.)
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BILLY BYRD W/ ERNEST TUBB, "THERE'S A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING IN TEXAS"

I couldn't find a clip of Leon playing this song, but here's an older one with Billy Byrd. Unfortunately, Byrd doesn't play a lot on this tune, and you don't get tons of shots of him as in some of the best clips, but what little you get is characteristically fine.

I just did a transcription of Leon's live 1965 version, and thought I'd put this Byrd version up for comparison.

memo to Alex-- do you know of a video clip of Leon playing this song with Tubb?
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