March 2012 Blog Posts (16)

I am creating a YouTube (link) performance archive of music for folk guitar that spotlights Welsh folk melodies, all of which originate from rare published or unpublished 17th-19th century collections. The guitar is Mario Casella, Catania, Sicily, c.1915, an 'early romantic' style instrument, based on a François René Lacote design, Paris, 1862; African mahogany sides, German spruce top.…

I wanted to let you know I’ve launched a fundraising campaign to finance my new CD through a great website called Kickstarter.com. I am trying raise $6000 in 29 days to pay for the production on this acoustic project. Anything you can donate, no matter how large or small is appreciated. I have many levels of thank you gifts that are a small token of my great appreciation for donations.

This project’s working title is “Just Like Home.” The album has a stripped down feel that…

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL50060B88ED577BD4

...in the early 80's american bluesman Billy Jones was the lead guitarist for an outstanding group of touring musicians who called themselves 'The Incredible Rock City Band'. ...this song is taken from…

I've started to take advice about how to build up activity on Google+, which I would like to do not just for its own sake but because I think I'm really digging the UI and I'd like to keep working on it.

So I create a circle for guitar stuff - luthiers, manufacturers, other companies or individuals that might have a G+ presence --  and I head back to the search box to look for guitar pages.  And I find some.

But the're by and large empty.  Or at least devoid of…

Arcticle initially posted on my Facebook page, The Acoustic Corner.

Photos by Mathilde Lacazette.…

http://www.monocromatica.com/netlabel/releases/tube249.htm

If you haven't read my post on the arpeggio picking exercise, it will help you understand this post a little better. The exercises for this week can be applied to both the fretting and picking hand to improve finger independence. As with the arpeggio exercise, this involves tapping or plucking either a desk, leg, or an solid surface but with different patterns. If you're practicing with your picking hand, make your finger…

Looking for a way to improve the number of frets your fingers can reach at the same time? This week I'll show you how I stretch my fingers so I can play notes that are more than four frets apart, and you can do this anywhere! Read more here: 

http://www.acousticfingerstylemusic.com/finger-stretching-for-your-fretting-hand/

Having trouble learning to play arpeggios with your picking hand? This week I'm going to show you an exercise I came up with when I first started playing fingerstyle. At the time, I found it hard to play arpeggios in a p-i-m-a pattern. My fingers just weren't coordinated enough so they all just wanted to pluck all of the strings at the same time. That's why I came up with this exercise to help train my fingers to do what I wanted them to do. This is something you can do on just about any…

Driving through the storms yesterday, I had plenty of time to think and I guess reminisce. One of the songs from Pink Floyd's the Wall came on the radio and it took me back in time. Gotta love it when that happens. It always amazes me when someone in a different country, of a different age, can write a song and it feels like it was written for you. Roger Waters to me, is a brilliant, gifted, troubled, angry man. Kind of unsettles me that his music, more accurately, his words connect with me.…

Well we just wrapped up a weekend of some Midwest touring that consisted of two shows in Iowa and one in Kearney, Nebraska…someone please remind me never to go back there! It’s amazing how every time I leave Chicago and drive somewhere this winter I manage to pick the snowstorm days! We apparently have had this mild winter, which is true, but somehow or another the day I decide leave for touring it has snow-stormed every time.  The First show…