3 posts tagged “book recs”
As a singer-songwriter I've learned that there are three aspects, or skills, of the craft that need to be mastered before one can be truly good.
You should be able to use your voice well.
You should be able to write well.
You should be able to play your instrument(s) well.
Most performers I've seen live are good at one or two and at least passable with the third skill. Two out of three is not bad because it takes a good deal of work to get to that point. However, to be considered a triple threat we singer-songwriters should really develop and master all three skills to be our best. I took guitar lessons for one year-- twelve years ago-- and that's what I sound like when I play the guitar. So now I'm working to improve this skill.
Recently I read an interview (by Derek Sivers, CD Baby founder) with touring musician extraordinaire, Amber Rubarth. After reading about the hours of practice a day she puts into her music I was inspired to go on a search for a tutorial-style book to work on improving my guitar sound. After a couple hours at bookstores and then my local library I finally picked up this gem: The New Complete Guitarist by Richard Chapman.
I'm only about fifty pages into it but I love that it is very visual and packed with information about my instrument (an acoustic-electric cutaway). It also includes info about other types of guitars with historical tidbits. It's like the music book equivalent of the TV show Good Eats. Hey, I might even learn why the guitar neck's 12th fret has double dots. Does anyone really know about that?
Another thing you may not know is that this is February Album Writing Month. If you're interested in the challenge of writing fourteen songs in twenty-eight days let me know so I can add you to my watch list. If you want to follow my writing progress, here is my page: fawm.org/fawmers/madeline/
Happy music making!
You should be able to use your voice well.
You should be able to write well.
You should be able to play your instrument(s) well.
Most performers I've seen live are good at one or two and at least passable with the third skill. Two out of three is not bad because it takes a good deal of work to get to that point. However, to be considered a triple threat we singer-songwriters should really develop and master all three skills to be our best. I took guitar lessons for one year-- twelve years ago-- and that's what I sound like when I play the guitar. So now I'm working to improve this skill.
Recently I read an interview (by Derek Sivers, CD Baby founder) with touring musician extraordinaire, Amber Rubarth. After reading about the hours of practice a day she puts into her music I was inspired to go on a search for a tutorial-style book to work on improving my guitar sound. After a couple hours at bookstores and then my local library I finally picked up this gem: The New Complete Guitarist by Richard Chapman.
I'm only about fifty pages into it but I love that it is very visual and packed with information about my instrument (an acoustic-electric cutaway). It also includes info about other types of guitars with historical tidbits. It's like the music book equivalent of the TV show Good Eats. Hey, I might even learn why the guitar neck's 12th fret has double dots. Does anyone really know about that?
Another thing you may not know is that this is February Album Writing Month. If you're interested in the challenge of writing fourteen songs in twenty-eight days let me know so I can add you to my watch list. If you want to follow my writing progress, here is my page: fawm.org/fawmers/madeline/
Happy music making!
I am really glad about the addition of groups! There are a lot of good ones being created. Oh the possibilities of what could be. That's what I want 2007 to encompass: possibilities. But that's not all. Getting things done is a goal of mine as well. I spend a lot of time mentally planning things, but I realize that nothing is going to get done unless I take that next step and DO it.
Do focus on music
I'm reading ten to twenty pages per day in this book:
I should be done in a month. I'll post a short review of it as I did for this one:
Do focus on music
I'm reading ten to twenty pages per day in this book:
I should be done in a month. I'll post a short review of it as I did for this one:
While handling a bag of dry cleaning this evening, I managed to, without the aid of a stapler, staple my middle finger to the bag by puncturing my skin approximately one cm from the tip of my middle finger. The staple went through any guitar callous I had, and back out again and in my knee-jerk reaction I managed to close it (you know, the way it looks when stapled to something normal). It was not painful until I pulled it out. I pulled it out because after I told my mother what happened and she saw her daughter stapled to a bag of dry cleaning, she wanted to a) go grab a knife to open the staple, and b) put rubbing alcohol on my stapled finger to "kill the germs." *cue scream of terror*
So I decided to get over my fear of removing sharp metal objects accidentally inserted into my skin, and take matters out of my own hand before she returned, opting to risk tetanus and whatever other germs were hanging out on the staple. I do hope the ice and makeshift paper towel bandage wrap will stop me from dying at some point during the night.
Typing this entry sucks. I've hit backspace 100 times already. And I did not reach my word goal for today. :(
In other news, I finally received my books from Amazon, two months after ordering them. If I can't type for the next day or so, at least I'll have something interesting to read.
