John Dierckx

In the past days I have been approached for guitar lessons by people  that have time on their hands during the summer holidays and want to learn some more guitar or that would normally not be able to fit in guitar lessons in their busy schedules.

If you know one of these and are thinking about gifts:
 a 4+1 voucher guitar lessons may just be the perfect gift.

Prices vary depending on the duration of the lessons:

•  4+1 * 45 minutes $120  (4* $30 plus free fifth lesson –>
  $30 discount)
• 4+1 * 60 minutes $150   (4*$40 plus free fifth lesson –>
  $40 discount)
• 4+1 * 90 minutes $240  (4* $ 60 plus free fifth lesson –>
  $60 discount)
• 4+1 *120 Minutes $300 (4* $80 plus free fifth lesson –>
  $80 discount)

You can download and print your gift voucher here >>> and contact me for booking in your lessons: 03 3424232 / 027 480 3371 or johnmusicnz@gmail.com. Please advise you are using a gift voucher.

What a glorious day today and listening to a cool session at Smalls in New York at night while enjoying the sunshiny day here in Christchurch. 

Smalls was created in 1993 by jazz impresario Mitch Borden, a former nurse and the son of an art-gallery owner. The original Smalls was a raw basement space that quickly became the late-night hangout numerous established and upcoming  jazz musicians to play and shared their musical legacy with an eager and dedicated younger crowd. Many of the well-known musicians of the current jazz scene cut their teeth at Smalls during this period. The list of musicians who played at Smalls at that time is enormous and includes such luminaries as: Brad Mehldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Josh Redman, Brian Blade, Sam Yahel, Roy Hargrove, Peter Bernstein, Mark Turner, Omer Avital, Jason Linder, Sasha Perry, Chris Byars, Ari Roland, Ned Goold, William Ash, Zaid Nasser, Spike Wilner, Grant Stewart, Larry Goldings, Joe Magnarelli, Guillermo Klein and Norah Jones among many, many others.

After September 11th, Smalls wastemporarily forced to close. However in February of 2007, musicians Spike Wilner and Lee Kostrinsky partnered with Mitch Borden with the goal of restoring Smalls. The club has been renovated and a full bar is now in service. The comfort and feeling of the club is amenable to after-hours hangs and the music again goes all night.

What’s better, through life stream you can watch the music live there and enjoy established and young musos doing their thing.

I suggest you checck it out as well here>>> or go ond see what’s happening at the moment via the live stream here >>>

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With some students having composition assignments at school this seems like a good set of tips from someone that knows what he’s talking about. 

The songwriter behind hits by Fergie, Beyoncé, Colbie Caillat, and more, opens up his box of secrets…

I’ve written songs for quite a while now, over two decades, and I still get a kick out of it. I used to write eighty to a hundred songs a year but it seems like success has only made me work harder—last year I wrote and recorded a hundred and eighty songs, and this year probably just as many.

Read the rest of the article here >>>

George Benson is still one of the guitarists I look up to a lot. His fluid style, fat tone and incredible rhythm are what make me tick. I was pleased to read the following announcement through the Jazz Network Worldwide. 

On Guitar Man, Benson’s mastery of the guitar is demonstrated in a variety of styles and settings, all with legendary jazz roots. The opening track “Tenderly” is a solo guitar track that serves as a reminder that Benson is one guitar man with sufficient technical and interpretive skills to be a band unto himself. The second song is an intriguing rendition of Lennon and McCartney’s “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” Along with Benson on nylon-string guitar and Garfield on piano are guitarists Paul Jackson Jr. and Ray Fuller; bassist Freddie Washington; drummer Oscar Seaton, Jr. (who regularly tours with Benson); violinist Charlie Bisharat; and flutist/clarinetist Dan Higgins. All come together to create a fully orchestrated sound that casts one of the most simplistic of the Beatles’ early love ballads into something full-bodied and engaging.

The remainder of the set consists of either solo guitar tracks or Benson backed by the aforementioned five-man team, which lays down an easygoing rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour.” Benson delivers the lyrics in his own engaging vocal style that includes a healthy dose of his trademark scatting guitar accompaniment.

Other highlights include a rollicking version of the Champs’ 1958 instrumental hit, “Tequila,” followed a couple tracks later by “My One and Only Love,” which opens with a 16-bar solo jazz guitar intro that segues into a sweet vocal ballad. Benson delivers a playful straightahead rendition of “Paper Moon” with the quartet, followed by a solo guitar rendition of “Danny Boy” (one of the few times, if ever, that a guitar sounds like bagpipes). In the final stretch, Benson and Garfield set up a lush guitar-and-piano arrangement of the smoky standard, “Since I Fell For You,” with Benson once again stepping up to the mic for an emotional delivery of the song’s impassioned lyrics.

Benson has never been one to shy away from innovation or experimentation. For this guitar man, putting a jazz spin on pop standards – not just on this recording but throughout his career – is less of a taboo when you’re willing to dispense with labels and the limitations that come with them.

“People categorize things because they need to find someplace to put them on their shelf,” he says. “It’s all music to me. I think a lot of pop tunes that were very big in the United States many years ago were recorded by jazz musicians playing in the background. Most of the Motown records were recorded that way. Those guys were jazz musicians who were living in Detroit and were called to do a job, and they did it very well…I try to do the same thing. I try to make it sound like it’s natural, because to me it is. There are only two kinds of music, good and bad. There are a lot of things in between, but they’re eventually going to fall on one side or the other of that equation.”

George Benson will be touring in support of Guitar Man. The live shows will feature Benson’s masterful guitar playing, and Benson and his band will be performing classic George Benson hits along with an acoustic presentation of a few songs from Guitar Man.

Confirmed dates below (additional dates TBA):

Oct. 1 – Austin, TX – The Riverbend Centre
Oct. 2 – St. Louis, MO – Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center, University of MO
Oct. 14 – Phoenix, AZ – Sage Court, JW Marriott
Oct. 16 – Atlanta, GA – Symphony Hall
Oct. 19 – Englewood, NJ – Bergen Performing Arts Center
Oct. 20 – Morristown, NJ – Mayo Performing Arts Center
Oct. 21 – New York City, NY – Town Hall
Oct. 23 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre

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Guitar legend Steve Vai has opened up an online 24/7 streaming video channel called GuitarTV.com, featuring non-stop programming of guitar performances, guitar lessons, live broadcasts and more like links to online stores like amazon.

It is linked too facebook, twitter, has a newsletter and all in all very feature rich. Thriugh virtual strings you can learn more about the performer you are watching, get tabs, buy songs on i-tunes, learn more and buy their amp models and guitars and even upcoming concert tickets all from and through the site.

So go and check it out at Guitartv.com>>>

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Recently I have been following several discussions on what is commonly referred to as shredding, not in the least because one of my good friends called me a shredder even though we were playing jazz. The questions central in several of these discussions was: is shredding a waste of time or not?

Shredding?

It is good to keep in mind that guitar shredding is not understood in the same way by everyone: some associate shredding with simply playing very fast and others reserve the term for fast playing in a metal context.

I will go for the broader term, if only because that covers a broader spectrum and gives this post and others to follow on the subject matter more room to maneuver  in. So for the sake of this post and hopefully subsequent discussion, I will understand shredding as playing fast to extremely fast runs regardless of the style of music. 

I will add the following qualification though and that is that I see shredding as not just playing any fast series of notes but a meaningful series. Some will regard this as playing in key, I will just keep it as a meaningful series of notes. I listen to people like Michael Brecker or David Liebman both amazing saxophone players and they sometimes play outside, for the guitarist one could think of people like Frank Gambale, Mike Stern or Scott Henderson.

In the rock genre people like Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert spring to mind, in blues you could think of Stevie Ray Vaughn or Joe Bonamassa, gypsy jazz players like Stochelo Rosenberg for the acoustic guitar or what to think of John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Larry Coryell or in the more traditional styles of jazz guitar, people like George Benson, Joe Pass, Pat Martino.

I think we can conveniently say that whatever style of music, there will be those that express themselves with fast played runs and some that use lesser notes to convey their message, and than there is at all times a category of people that think they can impress and entertain by fast for the sake of fast and use shredding as a means to get recognition. I also guess that that type of recognition swiftly fades: what would you like to hear after a concert? “Wow you are fast and technical” or “wow your music really touched me”. When shredding is done for the sake of fast, it will become boring without a doubt, just as slow for the sake of slow becomes stale at some point as well.

Shredding is a waste of time proponents

I cannot help but feeling that those who think that shredding is a waste of time are those that are not able to when asked for it, and in all fairness some circumstances require a bit more notes than others.

It seems to make no sense to equalize fast playing with soulless and senseless. here’s one such response:

To paraphrase Shakespeare; “It is a sound made by an idiot. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” What about melody, rhythm, sensitivity, feeling and interplay and empathy between musicians? But I know these are boring old fart qualities for all you young whippersnappers. These days it’s all about speed, volume and excess. Can’t use it myself. As Lowell George (but you won’t know who I’m talking about any more than I’ll know who Dimebag Darrell is (I do, but that doesn’t mean to say I advocate it)) said – it’s not what you play, it’s what you leave out.

While there may be some obvious truth in all this, there is also the matter of expression. I compare it to people: speak to a Frenchman or a Spaniard and you’ll notice (despote all these wonderful language lessons) that it is very hard to keep up with the speed. In fact when I returned to the Netherlands for a short intermission, even though Dutch is my first language, I found it hard to keep up as  I am now used to the slightly slower pace of Kiwi English.

I guess so it is to some extent with to shred or not to shred. It is in part a matter of personal taste as to whether or not to use fast playing as part of how you want to express yourself.  I personally do not see anything wrong with playing fast at times and it would be shortsighted to dismiss it all together. Yet most often the people that do just that are those that cannot do it even if they wanted it.

Shredding is not a waste of time

I see myself in this category but with a very distinct but. I separate shredding as part of my practice regimen from how I express myself, as that may differ widely from occasion to occasion.

In my practice regime shredding in all styles of music plays an important part. Not because I see fast as an ultimate goal but because being able to do fast enhances my technique and moreover  have found that practicing shredding has had considerable impact on how I am now able to execute music also on a slower pace. If your technical boundaries are further away it makes it so much easier to execute those other passages with greater confidence and accuracy, being able to make every note you play count.

Using theoretical knowledge I have found that some of the harmonically dull arpeggio studies, scalar runs and pentatonic stuff gets a completely new life when applied in a different less obvious context. It is great if you hear certain faster lines in your head and you are actually able to execute them while improvising, and this applies for my rock playing, my jazz playing and at times even when I am playing in church.

When done with taste there is nothing wrong with playing fast, blisteringly fast even, but it is not the be all and end all. At the same time shredding and the practice thereof has helped me improve overall and if you want to keep growing as a guitar player I would not rule out anything new. I remember well how I could fall back on tapping techniques where I could not keep up otherwise in a gypsy jazz setting, how I found very similar licks in both my gypsy jazz study material and my heavy metal lead guitar materials. It is really amazing to see what happens to blistering fast pentatonic riffs when applied in a jazz context or when you play those longer and shorter arpeggio riffs over a jazz standard or in a modal jazz piece using chord substitution theory. Most off all it has substantially contributed to my accuracy especially in an improvised setting.

In fact I think I will make August the shredding month.

Some examples of what I consider tasteful shredding

And ok one more

I am off now got quite some more work to do.

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Polkadots and moonbeams, one of my favorite jazz standards.

The month of June is, if only because of the colder weather and so on the month of the blues at Renaissance Man Music School. This month students that are interested are putting extra time in the appreciation and playing of the blues as part of their foundations. For each that will mean different things, different artists, but the underlying theme is the same.  

For me personally, blues music has an important place in my musical life. It is one of those genres I grew up with: my father and as a result all of us used to listen to blues men like Big Bill Broonzy and other of the delta blues men.

Later on there were the heroes like BB King, Muddy Waters and it was when studying music it soon bame clear how foundational blues music for any modern player, whether it be jazz or modern blues or such genres as rock and metal and yes even when we think of funk, soul and r&b. In fact I do not think here is one modern guitar player that has not been in one way or another influenced to some extent by blues music, be it from a technical, an improvisational or an emotional/lyrical perspective.

I guess this version of Red House by grand master Jimi Hendrix says it all.

And I remember how blown away I was by Texas blues grand master Stevie Ray Vaughn.

So: look forward to more posts, licks, lessons all centered around the theme of the blues.

And off course let me know who your favorites are?

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The following patterns and licks are aimed at building speed and strengthening the left hand and use groups of notes /motives in the key of G.

Exercise one is a legato way of playing the G major scale using three per string

This is a great way to start building some extra strength in those fingers and you will find it is a great way to build some extra speed as a result of all the legato notes. In the next tab I wrote down the same scale but the beat is now divided in groups of 4 (sixteenth notes), go this a go as well, the rhythm will give things a different feel.

Clever use of the different legato techniques will help you build speed, the following lick is an example of how this could be approached, using motives.

Again also in sixteenth notes

These licks will work of course great over a G chord, but I suggest you try them as well over the minor parallel Emin chord, or over the A minor chord and the C major chord.

For those that have been paying attention: the lick was derived from Steve Vai‘s blazing lick in “I would love to”

Around 2:47 the lick starts in a blazing speed!

Finally for some additional strength building here a final legato lick sliding up the neck.

The lick is hard work on the muscles if not used to it so don’t overdo it.

Also: work out some scalar patterns for yourself and see what you can do with it. And at all times do try to go faster than you can handle. You will find that over time your speed will get higher. One way to do this is by practicing a certain) series of licks and gradually build up the speed to the max, that will be your starting point for the next time and do the same again.

Have fun.