The Practice Room

In Case Gig Bags

I have a gig bag which has a few things going for:
 - It’s cheap
 - Maybe that’s all it has going for it.

I’ve been hearing about a new line of gig bags from In Case that seem to have a lot more going for them. (“Cheap” is not necessarily one of those things, but you can’t have everything.)

The company calls their bag “a seamless integration between a soft bag and a hard case.” Inside its water-resistant nylon outer skin is an “ultra light impact deflection shell”, which sounds like something the Navy SEALs would use, but in fact gives your guitar a layer of rigid protection that other gig bags lack. (If you’re used to fleeing gigs in a hail of empty beer bottles, this is definitely the bag for you.) 

There’s shock-absorbing foam padding under the deflection shield, around the edges and in a support under the neck. At the butt end of the bag there are special rubber feet designed to “diffuse the shock of a vertical drop away from the metal strap pin.” All this reinforcement does not mean the In Case can be checked with baggage when you fly; it’s still a gig bag, after all, even if it’s a monster gig bag.  The bag has a gear compartment, too, for your fake books, laptop, lunch, etc.

There’s also an integrated, concealable backpack rig with chest strap and waist belt – again, helpful if you’re fleeing the scene in a hurry, although I’m not speaking from personal experience here.

In Case gig bags come in two flavors: the Slim Bag, for one instrument, and the Dub Bag for two. They’re made for either electric guitar or electric bass. An acoustic guitar design is on the way. You can buy them through the company’s web site – go to www.goincase.com and click on “In Case Music”. While you’re there, check out the other cool stuff they make – back packs, iPod cases, Skate bags – even a shoe bag for your limited-edition sneakers.

PS: Special note to John Mayer fans: He and In Case have collaborated on a gig bag design, due out soon, called “INCSVSJM”. Not as slick a name as “The Road Master” or “We Lug Guitars” or even “John Mayer’s Gig Bag,” but I guess he knows what he’s doing.

Why watch the "Evolution of Dance"?

Why have 26,000,000 people watched this guy's video? I did pick up a few dance moves.

Maybe if those 26,000,000+ watched some of our teacher jams on YouTube.com, the world would be full of better players! Be sure to rate the teachers you like the most! We've had more than 120,000 people stream these teacher videos.

Lots to say

Country star Vince Gill is getting ready to release a four-CD package, "These Days," consisting entirely of new material - 43 songs, from traditional country and bluegrass to jazz and rock. Guest musicians on the project include Amy Grant (Gill’s wife), Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Rodney Crowell, Phil Everly, the Del McCoury Band, Emmylou Harris, John Anderson, Lee Ann Womack, LeAnn Rimes, Gretchen Wilson, Guy Clark, Trisha Yearwood, Bekka Bramlett, Michael McDonald and Buddy Emmons.

Gill started off playing guitar and banjo in bluegrass bands when he was in high school. He turned pro when he graduated and went on tour, first with bluegrass bands like Boone Creek and Sundance and later with country rock band Pure Prairie League. Along the way he picked up fiddle, mandolin and dobro. After 15 years or so of knocking around he had his first big solo hit, “When I Call Your Name,” and he’s done pretty well for himself in the country music field since then.

Good advice from Henry Kaiser

From the introduction to guitarist Henry Kaiser's instructional video, Eclectic Electric:

“…My most important "messages" are:

• BE YOURSELF. Don't try to be somebody else. Your grandmother should be able to recognize your playing if she heard it on the radio.
• TAKE CHANCES. Don't be afraid of risks.
• BE ECLECTIC AND BROADEN ALL YOUR HORIZONS. Try new things!
• PLAY WITH FEELING AND COMMITMENT. Music is not about notes, it's about feeling.
• IMPROVISE! “

Twelve misty mountains, six crooked highways, seven sad forests, three balls and two strikes

From the Nashville Tennessean:

Bob Dylan in Baseball Hall of Fame

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- Bob Dylan has played at historic Doubleday Field - music, that is. Now, he's back, and for good, just a block down Main Street in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The museum has added the baseball episode from the famed singer-songwriter's weekly music show, "Theme Time Radio Hour," on XM Satellite Radio to its archive, it was announced Wednesday.

The one-hour episode contains Dylan singing an a cappella rendition of "Take Me out to the Ball Game," along with classic baseball-announcing calls, such as Curt Gowdy's description of Ted Williams' home run in his final at-bat with the Boston Red Sox.

It also contains several original baseball compositions, including Buddy Johnson's "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" and "The Ball Game" by Sister Wynona Carr.

The CD will be added to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library archive, which features more than 10,000 hours of recorded audio and video, and will be available for researchers.

Gimme that song!

This week a British company, UBC Media Group, announced technology that would allow you to use your cell phone to buy any song you hear playing on any digital radio station. Trials will begin next month and, if all goes well, a full consumer launch should come in a year or so.

A new cell phone will be required, with a dedicated chip and a ‘Buy’ button; they’re expected on the market soon. You listen, you click your button, and a copy of the song goes into your phone while another waits for you at home for your computer or iPod.

UBC produces and broadcasts digital radio in the UK; they’ve recently entered the US market. It’s safe to assume that if this works in England, and if nothing changes in the digital radio business or the music downloading business over the next two years or so, this idea could come to the US. Two big ‘ifs’.

Free music lessons

WorkshopLive has teamed up with the Salvation Army and Berkshire Life to offer free music lessons to young people in the Pittsfield, Massachusetts area. The students learn through our web based learning platform, using computers provided by Berkshire Life.

The Salvation Army Pittsfield Corps’ Kids Music Feast Program runs for twelve weeks. The kids range in age from 10 to 17; for many, this is their first exposure to music lessons. This is a pilot program which all of us hope will become an ongoing project.

The classes are run by the Army’s State Director of Music and Gospel Arts, Band Master Bill Rollins, who himself first learned music at the Salvation Army as a child. He went on to get degrees in music from the University of Cincinnati and the Boston Conservatory. Interns from Berkshire Community College also lend a hand.

Good Practicing Habits

Practice makes perfect. We gotta do it. So I thought I'd touch upon some of the most important practicing habits we all need to form. This is, after all, "The Practice Room!"

Developing good practicing habits is essential for every player. "This is old news," you might think, but this advice can't be reiterated enough. What are good practicing habits? There is no single answer to that question, but rather a long list of advice that comes from experience. (Other people's and mine.)

1. Consistency is key. It is better to practice half an hour every day than 4 hours on one day, once a week. Regular practice helps you memorize music and muscle movement more quickly. Part of consistency is maintaining the same practice syllabus over a certain amount of time. Once you have put your exercises together, practice them until you have mastered them. This can take weeks or months, depending on their level of difficulty and on how much time you can invest. For example, if you play guitar and you are practicing the blues scale, practice the scale in all five positions in varying tempi. Let's say you set your goal at a 120 beats per minute, practice the scale until you can comfortably play it in all five positions at that tempo. Only when you have mastered a particular scale at a set tempo, should you go on to the next scale. (Or whatever it is you want to practice.)

It is important to stick with a practicing plan, even though it might get boring at times. Try to focus as hard as possible on the music that you are practicing, don't allow mistakes to creep in. If mistakes happen (and they will), correct them and practice until they disappear. As a jazz saxophone player once told me: "Don't allow mistakes when you're practicing. The time and place for mistakes is when you're on stage."

I know this sounds counterintuitive, but what he meant was that practicing requires all your mental  concentration and awareness, while playing or improvising on stage should be spontaneous and intuitive, the result of all your hard work during your practicing sessions.

GO FOR IT!

Peter, WL Content Manager

Ear-stretching with Nonesuch

Back in my youth I considered Nonesuch Records to be home primarily to classical music and those first two LPs of Scott Joplin rags that Joshua Rifkin put out. No more – now they offer people like Bill Frisell, Shawn Colvin, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Ry Cooder, Wilco, Steve Reich, Ali Farka Toure, and Pat Metheny. (If there’s a unifying principal that ties all of these artists together, it must be some combination of high artistic accomplishment and low commercial potential.) They have an internet radio station playing Nonesuch artists which we talked about in The Practice Room last year, and it’s a great way to sample their catalog.

Lately I’ve also been enjoying their blog, www.journal.nonesuch.com. Right now there’s a post that they borrowed from David Byrne’s journal, all about album covers and the usually mistaken impression that they somehow reflect the sentiments of the recording artist. (Did you know that the cover for The Mothers of Invention’s Burnt Weeny Sandwich was originally designed for an Eric Dolphy album?) Byrne suggests that a downloadable equivalent would offer a lot more information than can be squeezed into a CD booklet.

I also enjoyed “What I’m Listening to Now” by David Harrington to the Kronos Quartet. I’ve never heard of most of the people on David’s list (Homayun Sakhi, Rhoda Scott, Nils Okland, Kemialliset Ystavat). There are a few familiar names, though (Woody Guthrie, Stuff Smith, Pablo Casals, Noam Chomsky – what? Noam Chomsky?). Not sure my ears are this big, but I’d be willing to try.

And ear-stretching is the point, isn’t it? Your taste will stagnate if you just listen to your old favorites over and over. Sooner or later you’ll wear that stuff out. (Much as I used to love the Allman Brothers, I really can’t hear “Statesboro Blues” more than once a year anymore.) When that happens, you’ll have to stop listening or go hunting and at some point, no matter how old or young you are, the stuff on the radio won’t do it for you any more.

That’s why I’m always on the lookout for music that has escaped the cookie cutter. If you are, too, Nonesuch is worth a look and a listen.

PS: If you like David Byrne’s article, follow it up with search on “world’s worst album covers.”

The Greatest List of Greatest Live Albums Ever?

From the family of Bill Graham Productions  on Wolfgang's Vault blog:

We’re into live music at the Vault, so it’s no surprise that we’re into live albums too. But we have major disagreements over what are the best live albums of all time, which nearly erupted into a brawl last week, which prompted me to write this blog entry. Top lists are bull**** anyway – it’s not really "the best live albums", it’s "my favorite live albums".

So who cares what I think? Maybe you do, maybe not, but I am compelled to share my list with you after nearly getting knocked over arguing about it with my fellow Vault inhabitants.  In order of performance date (I love them all):

The Rolling Stones / Get Yer Ya-Yas Out (1970).

The Who / Live at Leeds (1970).

Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys (1970).

Allman Brothers Band / Live at Fillmore East (1971).

Live Johnny Winter And (1971).

Led Zeppelin / How the West was Won (1972).

Grateful Dead / Europe 72 (1972).

Lou Reed / Rock N Roll Animal (1973).

The Band / The Last Waltz (1976).

Neil Young / Rust Never Sleeps (1979).

Am I still living in the 70s? Yeah – because THE MUSIC WAS BETTER, and still is today.

Mr. Paul Caruso

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Wow, I can't argue with these guys, but then again it's all the music I love being listed. Anyone for Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Blues Traveler or someone else under the age of 50?