Fargo Rock City and the Imperfect Art

In addition to 'Geek to Guitar Hero' (written by Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick) I mentioned earlier in the year, I have read a few more music related books. I actually read 'Fargo Rock City' because its author, Chuck Klosterman, was recommended by Skolnick. The main subject was "hair metal" (made popular in the 80s by bands like Motley Crue, Poison, Guns 'N Roses, and the genre is my "guilty pleasure") However, it's not purely about analyzing the genre. Instead, it's interwined with his personal experience growing up in rural USA. It's more about why a rural kid like him enjoyed the music and how hair metal became part of his life. I actually like to write in this style, i.e., how I like some pieces of music or musicians from a non-technical standpoint. I won't give a 10 to this book because he's kinda contradicting himself: on one hand this book is supposed to point out the value of hair metal. On the other, he kept saying how silly this genre was, e.g. how boring the guitar solo were. Nevertheless, it was a good read for my recent trip. And I learned a few good albums: 
- Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Vincent was the guitarist of KISS and this was the first album of his own band. Even though KISS was a big name (Skolnick idolized the band!) I've never really listened to them. Their most popular song, "I wanna rock 'n roll all night", was bubblegum pop to me. Well, maybe KISS was better than I thought or Vincent got much better after he left, this album rocks! His guitar was OVER the top but he could play! Looks like I wasn't the only one influenced by Mr. Klosterman. Check out this review (and from the comment section you could also see a lot of detractors. Maybe I'm a sucker for shredding even if it's mindless)
- Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dreams. One of my former bandmates wanna cover Smashing Pumpkins and at that point the only song I've heard of was 1979, which sounded too pop to me. If I've heard of this album, I would have agreed with him. They could play heavy too.
- Korn, the Paradigm Shift. It's released just now in 2013 so of course it's not mentioned in the book which was written much earlier. The book did have a chapter about heavy music after hair metal and grunge died off and mentioned Korn. The most interesting fact was that members of Korn denied influences by rock/metal pioneers, which could be true. Anyway, I think Korn was over the hill after they released the "Best of" album. Subsequent ones have never been able to match that level of quality. However, each of their albums after that certainly have their moments. I mean, I usually listen to the whole album once: enjoying it instead of stopping in the middle! This one I will listen to a few more times for sure.

I picked up this book, The Imperfect Art:  Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture by Ted Gioia, from a 2nd hand book store in the summer. Just like the title, his book was also imperfect. He was fixated on a few ideas that he repeated over and over. Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed reading the book and those were good points. They might not "deserve" a whole book though. Obviously, the main idea is that jazz is imperfect because of its nature: most of the performances have improvisation. Melodies and harmonies were made up on the spot and thus the musicians didn't get a chance to "perfect" those parts. Another thing I recall from the book was to dismiss the notion that being primitive made good music. It's a myth that early jazz musicians wasn't formally trained and couldn't read music and that made them good. That I learned long time ago. Hey, I wasn't formally trained and couldn't read music (a while back) and that didn't make me good musician!

Looking forward to reading more music related books in the coming year.

A Jim Hall story

The great jazz guitarist Jim Hall passed away last week. It was a sad day for all jazz guitarists, musicians and listeners in general. And I have a small story to share: years ago I lived in Manhattan and went to jazz performances whenever I can, which means 3-4 times a week. I made a friend during a show at Smoke (in uptown) on a week night, probably a Monday as I remember not much people were in the audience. If you know me, it should be very surprising that I would become friend with a complete stranger at a public place. Well, that's one of those rare occasion. Turned out we have the same name. I worked at a bank while he was a lawyer. Both of us loved jazz guitar. Both of us played too. He had way more experiences than I did but he stopped at that time because of carpal tunnel while I just started from scratch, knowing nothing about guitar playing, let alone jazz. We went to shows together from time to time before I moved. He told me his biggest influence was Jim Hall. What's so great about Jim Hall's playing? It's best explained by another guitarist Rez Abbasi on this NPR show. His playing is not dazzling like Pat Metheny or Stanley Jordan. Instead, his brilliance is quite subtle: you gotta listen to how he interplayed with others, like Bill Evans, Ron Carter, Sonny Rollins. In fact, Hall's playing got so highly praised that I bought Sonny Rollin's "The Bridge" LP, which was literally in heavy rotation on my turntable.

RIP.

Fretboard radius and Jaguar pickup switches

I have owned basses and guitars for more than 10 years but not until I bought my MIJ Fender Special Thinline Jaguar I learned that not all guitars have flat fretboard. In fact, the Steinberger Spirit and Squier Jaguar I owned before didn't have completely flat fretboard like my Yamaha flamenco guitar. Here is a video explaining why classical guitar has flat fretboard:

The flat(or "curvy")-ness is measured as fretboard radius. My new Jaguar has a smaller fretboard radius, i.e, less flat (or more curved) which makes it easier to play chords. I guess it matches the natural tendency of finger placements better.

Another thing that my new Jaguar puzzled me was the set of switches and knobs for the 2 pickups, which is rather unique. Fortunately I found this good page that explains Jaguar's pickup switching system very well.

Application of Conti/Jacobs licks

Heard "Wives and Lovers" on KCSM earlier today. I've recently transcribed Grant Green's version so I knew it's a different version and confirmed later when the saxophone joined. Still, I heard quite a bit of Grant Green influences. More importantly, a lot of licks from Conti and Jacobs' books were present in the solo! It's a great example of how to "speak" in the bebop language. I've just looked it up. The track is from Bob DeVos' new album, Shadow Box. I also enjoyed another of his Burt Bacharach cover, the Look of Love from his other album, DeVos' Groove Guitar!

Uproar Festival

This is a really awesome name for a rock concert. I'm not familiar with most of the bands on the bill though. And it's a weekday on which I have guitar lesson so I only got there after 8:30pm to see the last two of the 3 "main stage" bands. I gotta admit that I went because the venue basically gaveaway the tix (I paid $0.75 as a reward for buying full-priced tix for the Black Sabbath concert last month) I am actually quite interested in hearing the other main stage band who played before I arrived, Coheed and Cambria. I knew about this band via an unusual mean: one of the preset guitar effect on my Pandora is named after them and it sounded powerful (what I call "machine-like") The first band I saw was Jane's Addiction, even though I won't call myself a fan, I have a lot of respect for the band as they are original. And they always sounded "big", excessive if you will but that rocks! All 4 members of the band did. And of course I paid the most attention to the guitarist Dave Navarro, then the sexy dancers on some of the songs >:) The primitive sounding song with only drums accompanying vocal, and the acoustic "Jane Says" added variety to the set.

Alice in Chains is another band from roughly the same era. I still remember the days when MTV featured both band heavily. That's the heyday of Grunge. Personally I have a love-hate relationship with Grunge: I played quite a bit of songs by Grunge bands with Several of my bands 'coz (1) they are usually not too hard, (2) most bandmates know some Grunge songs and few would opposed to playing them. Nirvana's Lithium is kinda like the rock-equivalent of jazz standard "Satin Doll." On the other hand, Grunge was the beginning of the end of heavy music. Thrash metal reached a new height when the biggest names in Thrash, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth joined force for the Clash of the Titans tour. The tour was supported by a up-and-coming Grunge band, it was a symbolic moment: Grunge would take over Thrash from then on. And after the Grunge fever was over, the whole genre seemed to go down with it. A lot of serious metal bands went on hiatus for 10+ years. Guess which was that up-and-coming band who played on Clash on the Titans? Alice in Chains, of course! That said. I'm not a hater of Alice in Chains as a huge Thrash fan. On the contrary, I enjoy listening and playing Alice in Chains' songs, by choice! I like Soundgarden too but Alice in Chains is my favorite Grunge band. The worst thing about Grunge was that guitar solo took a backseat (or completely disappeared!) Not for Alice in Chains though. Jerry Cantrell is one awesome and unique guitarist. Too bad I have never seen them live with the original lineup. As most rock fans know, their front man Layne Staley passed away. The band reformed with a new vocalist William DuVall. The band started the set with the powerful "Them Bones." Then alternated between classic material (incl. "Would," "Man in the box," "Got Me Wrong," "Rooster" but no "Heaven besides You") and the songs from the albums after DuVall joining the band. It's actually easy to differentiate: DuVall is also a guitarist and plays on the songs when he's part of the band. He'd put down the guitar for the old songs. The drummer decorated his bass drum with big letter LSMS as a tribute to the Layne Staley and former bassist Mike Starr, who has also passed away. Good gesture. I enjoy both the old and new songs and I think DuVall is a good musician in his own right. Keep on rocking!

Check out these reviews (1, 2) of Uproar.

Black Sabbath Tour 2013

I've been to concerts of most legendary hard rock/heavy metal bands, including Metallica and Van Halen. However, I have never been to a Black Sabbath concert, arguably the first ever heavy metal band. I first listened to them ~1989 via a "Best of" cassette. Ozzy had left the band long time ago and had huge success as a solo artist at that point. I missed their reunion ~1998. I decided I mustn't miss this latest reunion again 'coz you'll never know if there'll be another. Ozzy is 64 already and Tony Iommi has just gone through cancer treatment. I bought the $40 lawn ticket at Shoreline Amphitheater. To be honest, I have never been a big fan of that place. The only concert I remember watching there was the one by Depeche Mode. You basically either sit on the lawn or stand up. Not to mention the horrible traffic in and out of the pricey parking lot. Fortunately I was close enough to bike there. Still, the lawn area was way too far to see Ozzy, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. Shoreline clearly understood this shortcoming and tried to remedy by aiming camera at them and project the live feed behind the band on stage (and also on big screens at the lawn) which is better than nothing. Back to  the music: the set list included every Black Sabbath classic I wanted to hear: War Pig, Iron Man, Paranoid, N.I.B.... etc. Plus a few songs from their latest album, 13 (their 13th studio album), which was a present surprise. Ozzy's vocal was a bit shaky. For example, he didn't seem to be able to find the key on 'Children of the Grave.' It's quite possible that dumping water (on his heads and the audiences) like he always does messed up his monitor though. Check out this discussion by previous concert goers (which was a response to a poor newspaper review of the first concert of the tour)

Still, I was so glad that I went. They are the one and only Black Sabbath.

Julian Lage and Larry Koonse

This concert is yet another followup to one I wrote about in the uncommon instrumentation post. These two guitarists are half of the Seasons Guitar Quartet and this performance was part of the Stanford Jazz festival. The concert was divided into two halves: the first half featured just the two guitarists with one carrying the melody while the other playing accompaniment. From my seat I could only see Larry Koonse's hands and it's fun to watch him switching between playing lines with counterpoint and chords in the accompaniment but I gotta admit two-guitar-jazz is not for everyone. I mean, there were moments I wish there were a complete rhythm section (bass + drums) and that's exactly the format of the 2nd half :-) Lage and Koonse took turn playing with the all-star rhythm section of Larry Grenadier and Eric Harland. And one could clearly hear the difference in their styles: Koonse is more in the tradition of bop/hard-bop while Lage's playing showed more modernism. Both are equally enjoying to me. Last but not least, legendary drummer Louis Hayes (who played with heavyweights like John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor) came on stage and jammed with both guitarists on the tune "Blue Monk." What an inspirational performance! It will be the tune I learn next.

我的結他雜記: 5 Must Know Major ii-V-I Outlines for Guitar

不得不承認以前一直忽視了教jazz licks的文章，以為要學怎樣作就無須記人家的；當然，近年已完全改觀：好lick要多學，好文要多讀，例如這篇教5個短(指二個小節長)major ii-V-I licks的就寫得十分好，Matt Warnock解釋了結構及組成的音的功能。仔細聽，這些都是爵士樂手常用的樂句，Robert Conti的教材也有提到一些。

Oon

I wrote about a few concerts that featured uncommon instrumentations 2 months ago. Well, the story didn't end there: I was free last Sat and it's one of those rare weekends in the bay area where you don't see the biggest name playing in town except for John Pizzarelli and his wife at the Yoshi's. However, a pair of names caught my attention immediately: Ariane Cap and Paul Hansen, a.k.a. Oon, the bass and bassoon duo that performed at Solo Bass Night 5. They played at a music studio (the type that offer music lessons on various instruments) in Benecia, which is way north of where I usually hang out but the one hour drive was totally worthwhile. Both instruments were not known for their ability to carry the melody on their own for extended period of time so it's quite an unusual experience to hear only the two of them accompanying each other the whole 1.5 hr. The low to mid-high range of bassoon actually sounded very melodic. And the use of two hand tapping on the bass provided more than just interesting bass line but also full and rich sounding accompaniment. Another thing I enjoyed was original compositions. Of course they picked interesting songs to cover, e.g. Dear Prudence (Beatles), Stella by Starlight (Jazz standards), Ginger Bread Boy (Miles Davis) to name a few. One interesting story heard from the show: the organizer has a kid who studied at the music studio (I guess they are all Benecia local) The teacher strongly recommended her kid to listen to CDs by Bela Fleck and the Fleckstones, a group led by banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck that played some innovative jazz. It turns out Paul Hansen was a member of the Fleckstones on two of their albums. So, the kid finally saw a Fleckstone playing live at his teacher's studio! 

The new Yellowjackets bassist

I listen to jazz radio a lot. Usually the DJ plays a bunch of tunes and then introduces all players/groups of them. I wasn't listening carefully the other day but I did enjoy one of the tunes and I heard it was a new one from Yellowjackets. The DJ also mentioned a few players' name including one with the last name Pastorius. I didn't realize they are "connected" at that time until I went to the Solo Bass Night 5 concert, which was promoted by Bass Player. The promoter mentioned the next one they are going to would be Yellowjackets at Yoshi's, featuring Felix Pastorius on bass. All bass players know that Jaco Pastorius is the all-time greatest jazz/fusion bassist. However, I didn't know he has a son, Felix, who also plays jazz bass. I listened to the new Yellowjackets CD and also went to the show because I'm very impressed. (BTW, Felix joined the Yellowjackets as a replacement of long-time member Jimmy Haslip, who was interviewed by JazzTime for their article on the demise of smooth jazz that I mentioned before) I actually don't hear too much "smoothness" in the new CDs and at the concert. Another thing it got me thinking is: what is it like to have such a famous parent, the greatest ever on his/her instrument, and also playing the same instrument? Another one come to my mind immediately was Ravi Coltrane. It's easy to see that on one hand having a famous last name help one gets connected but on the other hand it must have brought an immense amount of pressure as well. I am very curious how they deal with it. I always wonder whether having a member in the family that is a great musician helps one's own playing or not. (In the case of Felix Pastorius, his father died when he was 5 so I supposed he has to figure out his father's stuff via records and video like everybody else) This interview with him was a really good read.

我的結他雜記: Pentatonic licks

Every guitarist knows how to play the A minor (same as C major) pentatonic scales. So every guitarist could play some sort of solo lines using that famous "box" fingering. Here is a good article from Guitar Player that explains how to apply the pentatonic scales against different chords, other fingering and example licks. It's a must-read!

我的結他雜記: Berklee Jazz Guitar Professional Certificate

 花了差不多兩年時間及六千多美元（已加價至七千），終於完成了總共五堂的Berklee Jazz Guitar Professional Certificate。相信網友最有興趣知道的是：到底值不值？實在不容易答，尤其是在花了六千多元以後。就個人而言，原先期望學完之後可以在band stand上看著lead sheet就能即興，現在發現是不切實際的期望。事實上，近期我的練習焦點和Berklee Jazz 101/201所教的有點背道而馳：除了major scale(Jimmy Bruno的5 shapes)，我並沒有花太多時間練其他scale，諸如bebop, pentatonic, harmonic/melodic minor及其modes；Berklee導師建議從唱片學licks，我目前則主力「死背」Robert Conti/Sid Jacobs/Joseph Alexander教材的licks and phrases。 頗為肯定的是，Berklee所授的基礎長遠來說是用得著的。有理論解釋，licks也易記一點；我在練熟licks之後，下一步（幾年後吧）也打算多練一些Berklee教的scales。

今天的我遇到兩年前的我，我可能會說：這五堂所學到的音樂及結他知識終身受用，可謂無價。為交功課而狂練的練習曲（chord伴奏，chord melody，爵士作品head及transcribed solo）及「預作扮即興」solo，都令我技術增進不少。不過，如果負擔不來，也有很多其他更便宜的渠道學到這些知識，練到這些技術，只是沒有這麼「一條龍」吧。又或者採用折衷辦法: 只上一堂Jazz 201，201基本上重温大部份Jazz 101的東西，如果對ii-V-I chord progression及一般scales/modes已有認識，Jazz 201應該跟得上；就算沒有，即管先死記死練一個學期，反正教材在一年內可以慢慢重温，到時才攪清楚究竟亦可。

我的結他雜記: Berklee Chord 201 and Jazz 201

一年前寫了一點Berklee上堂後感，原來頗有網友賞面賜讀。如今又上多兩堂（Chord 201，Jazz 201），也想再和大家分享一下。

Chord 201在三個月前完成，很慚愧，已忘記一大半。最深刻印象的課題如下：
- Chord 101教過triad，是大家熟悉彈鄰近三條弦那一種，更準確來說是closed triad；open triad是最低及最高音分得更開，彈鄰近三條弦就不行了，所以難度高一點，但做出一種開揚的聲音，值得練習和使用。有時為爵士standard編chord melody，不需全用四個音的chord，可試試用三個音的open triad。
- Chord 101已教過inversions，而Chord 201除了重温、加強練習還有應用。Chord 201其中一個重點課題是編chord melody，如果melody的音是chord tone的話，只需直接彈以該音為最高音那個chord inversion即可。即使melody的音不是chord tone，先找出最鄰近但較低音的chord tone及以該chord tone為最高音那個chord inversion，然後應用以下替代公式：Two replaces one, four replaces three, and six replaces five.
舉例：C大調的曲，chord是G7，melody音是E，E最鄰近較低的chord tone是D(5th of G7)，彈drop 2 G7的話選以下這個inversion: 3 b7 R 5 (B F G D)，再由E代替D（Six replaces five），彈B F G E的chord。
當然，除了maj7/min7/dom7這三種由major scale衍生的chords之外，Chord 201還教了眾多其他scales較少見的chords。
- Chord 201亦有和伴奏相關的課題，一個重要的概念是voice leading，指的是由甲chord轉乙chord時，從乙chord各個inversion中，選擇一個使用鄰近甲chord tones的，聽起來就順暢得多。
另一個導師常提及的概念是chord scale，例如C大調彈G7，Cmaj7及Dmin7等等就是來自同一chord scale，也就是所謂harmonized scale。當一首歌長期（幾個bar）用同一chord時，只彈該chord以至inversions覺單調，可以彈chord scale其他chord，該堂有不少示範曲可作參考。
最後想提的也是伴奏使用的Basic Brazilian Rhythm Patterns，那是用手指彈的。該課亦附有一些用手指彈的練習，對平常只用pick的學生相當有用（當然，對我這個常用手指彈的也十分有用）

至於Jazz 201，心態和Jazz 101有點不同，因為已改變急於求成的想法，不再期望在上畢該課後就能即興自如；正如老師所強調，他教的是學習練習爵士的方法，對我們的期望是「畢業」後有能力自行探索。Chord 201, Jazz 101/201都時常提及color及tension這些概念，至今總算有少少得著：老師說爵士即興就像畫畫，調色盤在面前，爵士樂手就像畫家使用不同顏色配搭創造作品。Chord Scale Theory入面每個chord有多種對應的scale，就是不同可供使用的顏色；明白到這一點，就不用太心急全部練熟，就算只得一兩種顏色，也不是不能畫畫，只是單調一點而已；總之要有個起點，其他顏色可慢慢加入調色盤。之前相當困惑的是：每種chord都有個「大家庭」，例如major有major7(#11), major7(#5), minor有m7b5, m6, m9b5, dominant更有7(#11), 7b9b13, 7b9, 7#5, 7alt...等等，連用甚麼scale也記不來，更遑論彈！還有一些令我大惑不解的概念：implied harmony和secondary dominant，即是見到某chord，不彈對應的scale，而彈對應另一個chord的scale，暗示另一個chord；我完全不懂如何運用。原來以上幾樣，需要融會貫通；讀過其他教材（如Sid Jacobs的Mel Bay's Complete Book Jazz Guitar: Lines & Phrases, Joseph Alexander的25 Major ii-V-I licks），尤其是看過Robert Conti在他DVD中的示範，茅塞頓開！他的示範如下：伴奏的彈unaltered chord（如min7或dom7），他彈的是對應altered chord（如min7b5或7alt）的licks，完全無問題（反之亦然）。其實altered就是添加tension，靠這些key以外的音，也就是所謂"outside notes"吧。音樂不外乎就是加tension然後resolution（到I chord, 用chord tones）

其實Jazz 201不折不扣是Jazz 101的延續，所教的均建基於101已學過的scales及概念，例如101教過harmonic minor的5th mode（即Mixolydian b9b13），201除此之外另加melodic minor的幾個modes: Lydian b7, Locrian #2, 及常用於dom7th chord的altered scale. 101教過dominant bebop scale, 201就教了major及dominant b9b13 bebop scale, 除了無結他手不識的minor pentatonic, 201教了major b6及dominant 7 pentatonic.101教過的Diminished scale, 201再深入探討，並提供一些常用lick/pattern的例子，這一課的內容和Robert Conti及Sid Jacobs所教相若，印證爵士教材大體上萬變不離其宗。其餘幾堂則是建基於這些知識以上，分析幾個非一般ii-V-I 的chord progressions，例如Rhythm change，及the Coltrane matrix（即採用John Coltrane名作Giant Steps的progression之曲子）提起Coltrane這位爵士史上影響極深的巨匠，201除了剖析在Giant Step progression的即興手法外，也借另一首Coltrane名作Moment's Notice探討Coltrane的風格；201探討的還有殿堂級結他手Wes Montgomery的風格。最後介紹以ECM公司旗下音樂人（如Pat Metheny）及其作品為佼佼者的現代爵士風格，教了一些在slash chord即興的手法。想成為一個全面的爵士結他手，以上所講的都值得鑽研一番，幾年的時間是少不了。

The week of uncommon instrumentations

I have been to my fair shares of rock/jazz/classical concerts. Most of them were small combo (with bass + drums as rhythm section), large orchestra or common solo instruments (violin/cello/piano/guitar etc) The past week was really special: I saw performances that featured:
- a guitar quartet
- solo electric basses
- 6-string electric bass + basson
- sax, 6-string electric bass, drums and percussions

1) Seasons Guitar Quartet
The performance was at JazzSchool in Berkeley (not to be confused with Berklee College of Music in Boston which has the famous jazz program) I have heard of the JazzSchool for a while but have never been there. Turns out it's on the same block as Freight and Salvage, which I went for the Mimi Fox/Martin Taylor concert last time. The concert was in the "basement" (you know, the type of room with windows near the ceiling that can be seen from the street if people crouch down), which was small but cozy, making the performance an intimate one. I was glad that I bought ticket in advance 'coz it was sold out when I arrived. It's funny that sometimes you think it's such a big event that everybody would go but many empty seats left. And the opposite happens too. It seems to me that such a unique event would be able to attract most jazz guitarists in the community and thus deserves a bigger venue and more promotion. Oh well. What do I know? I do know about their music since last year though. It's because of the "Guitar Heroes" exhibition at New York MET museum from 2011, for which master luthier John Monteleone created a set of 4 heavily decorated archtop guitar.  Monteleone commissioned jazz guitarist Anthony Wilson to write some music for this quartet. The piece was performed using these guitars and was recorded and released on CD. I read about all these on the web and listened on Rhapsody. After that, Anthony Wilson started touring the country with 3 other guitarists to play the music plus some more arrangements. To be honest, among the 4 of them, I've only heard of Julian Lage, a up-and-coming jazz guitarist, before. Of course, I see the appeal of playing jazz on 4 guitars, with different lines interleaving, and tons of harmonic possibilities. Unlike a string quartet with 2 violins, 1 viola + 1 cello, the 4 guitars in the quartet all have the same range and are all capable of playing from low to high, which I found really interesting as both an amateur violist and guitarist. For a review (of the performance by the same group in LA) by professional music critic, please read this.

2) Solo Bass Night 5
I consider myself a bassist even though I rarely play (twice this year so far. Just jammed with bandmates for a brand new song 2 weeks ago!) so I couldn't believe I missed Solo Bass Night 1-4 (the event has been on hiatus for 5 years though. I could only find info about No. 2 from 2006 here.)I have seen bassist-led groups performed before (Stu Hamm, who played rock/fusion, and Edgar Meyer, who played classical.) I've also seen bassists played lengthy solo. However, it's a first time for me to see a show in which the majority of the pieces featured nothing but a bass! The opening bassist, Dave Grossman, played a few Bach pieces transcribed to his 6-string electric bass. I could see it's really challenging. He was followed by Ariane Cap, who showcased her masterful two-hand tapping techniques. It got even more interesting when she was joined by her bandmate, bassoonist Paul Hanson (their group is named Oon!) This unusual pair of instruments complimented each other very well. Next, the show went back to one-man-band, 11-string master Jean Baudin. He created music with complex texture and layers using his bass, effects and loopers. Finally, the most famous performer of the night, Michael Manring, got on the stage. Ironically, his bass has the least strings, four only! Still, his technique was "visually dazzling" as he kept flipping the levers on his specially designed bass which allowed him to change tuning at will. To be honest, this constantly changing tuning didn't result in great melodic music in my opinion.

3) The Rhythm Collective
This was the 2nd time I went to concert at the (relatively) new SFJAZZ center. This band is also named as a "collective" (was SFJAZZ Collective last time. It always reminded me of the "How I met your mother" episode that made fun of an architecture firm who named themselves as a "collective") and also led by SFJAZZ resident musicians. This time was saxophonist Miguel Zenon, whom I saw with a more established musicians years ago. Now he has become a big name himself. Don't be fooled by the name of the group though. Their music is not all about rhythm. It's also very melodic (think Oye Como Va, the piece that concluded the show, made famous by Carlos Santana of course.) In fact, it showcased another application of 6-string bass, namely, the ability to accompany with strumming complex chords, played by Aldemar Valentin.

The San Francisco bay area may not be the capital of music like New York but no one can discount its attractiveness a great variety of musicians to perform here.

我的結他雜記: first Flamenco lesson

學Flamenco結他的念頭有了好幾年，不過這兩年忙於上Berklee的爵士結他課才暫時擱下。還記得最早接觸西班牙結他，源於十幾年前在香港坐雙層巴士樓上，聽兩位學生哥分享結他心得，他們先談major及minor，我都不感陌生；但接著他們又提到西班牙結他就是混合major及minor，對我相當新鮮；現在想來，他們指的應是Mixolydian b9b13，和natural minor差不多，但用major 3rd（似major scale）及minor 2nd。

言歸正傳，其實教Flamenco結他的老師比起教rock的少得多。我之所以找到這位老師，是因為他在本地Flamenco（歌及舞）協會開班。好不容易找到他的聯絡方法，請他教單對單。約好的地方是他的studio，該詞既可解作工作室，又可解作寓所，事先毫無頭緒；去到更是搲頭：地址是downtown一間餐廳！心想難道在台上教，即學即表演？原來老師的工作間位於餐廳後樓梯一角。一開始，讓他看看我那支thinline electric acoustic nylon guitar合不合格，除了細聲一點，問題倒不大。然後再請教一下正宗姿勢，原來和古典不盡相同，反正古典我也是自學，話改就改。接著叫我彈些東西，我當然事先預備了幾首，包括Tarrega的Lagrima(Preludio)以及Malaguena，不大見得人，只是讓老師了解一下程度罷了。

正式開始教彈第一首！他指正了我的右手姆指及中食指的彈法（雖然比起pick更常用，我的fingerstyle實在有限公司）然後逐個逐個bar的教，教了8個；原來Flamenco傳統是靠模仿來學，不是看譜，以前在西班牙學的窮等人家，連書也不會讀呢。之後再教8個bar的arpeggio，可以和以前那8個連續使用；原來表演Flamenco guitar就是把不同的pattern（第一首不是一曲而是一個名為Solea的pattern）自由組合，我想多練的話不久的將來應做得到（起碼不像即興爵士般遙不可及）而且強迫記憶，不會依賴睇譜，拿起結他就表演多麼有型呢！說不定有助防止老人癡呆。

Al Molina, Strunz & Farah

An old schoolmate was in town. She's a huge jazz fan and immediately thought of me, "famous" for going to live jazz. Of course I (more like fellow performers in the bay area) didn't disappoint. Before the first show, I took her to Guitar Center on Van Ness for sheet music (the selection is small but still interesting enough) We also had oyster from the Swan Depot on Polk for our happy-hour. Then we drove to Brisbane (a city that I'm not familiar with. I've only been to Cow Palace to saw Twins' concert there years ago) and the 7 Mile House (which I've never been to but learned that it has been in business for 160 years, even earlier than the 100 year old Swan Depot!) However, when I arrived, I almost thought I was in the wrong place: it looked run-down and small. And I was hesitated to go in with my friend. In fact, if she's your typical HK chick, I would have left immediately. She's a seasoned world traveler though and actually convinced me good stuff is found from hidden gems like this! Man, she couldn't have been more correct. First of all, it also "doubles" as a sports bar with several games on big TV (baseball, hockey and basketball playoff!) Second, the food was pretty good. We shared a bowl of seafood. We were really surprised that all tables were reserved on a Tuesday night (we sat at the bar) When music started, we knew why: trumpeter Al Molina and his bands played top-notch jazz. His show was a tribute to great pianist Horace Silver. We sat so close to the trombonist that I could actually read his sheet music (and I did!) I found that the solo order for each instrument was written on the sheet music. I hesitated to write that down with my band but not any more.

The second show was at the world-famous Yoshi's, the one in Oakland. Avant garde jazz bassist William Parker was playing at Yoshi's SF, but I'm more interested in the world music/new Flamenco guitar duo Strunz & Farah (accompanied by a percussionist and a flautist/clarinetist) I have seen them live before but they have a huge catalog and also have new music coming out soon. I was impressed. So was my friend.

Chick Corea and the Vigil

I gave a hint that one of the two concerts I attended during the weekend was Chick Corea. He is certainly one of the biggest names in jazz today. You could be pretty sure it would be a good show. Indeed, I saw him with his group "Origin" many years ago. While I didn't find the music spectacular, it was a good show nevertheless. Same for one of his more recent album, Five Peace Band Live. I'm more impressed by his piano duet with the young Hiromi. He is the type of musicians that makes the others play better. He seems to be in a even better physical shape than I saw him last time. And I also enjoyed the music better this time.

One thing I really like is instead of drawing attentions to himself, the big star, he made the whole band shine, especially the up-and-coming guitarist Charles Altura, as well as the horn player Tim Garland. As a guitar player myself, I paid a lot of attention to the former. Here's a video of him playing with his group:

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In addition to playing the same ES335 with Chick Corea, he also played a nylon acoustic and sounded great on it too.

I am really looking forward to hearing the new album from this group.

Mimi Fox and Martin Taylor at the Freight

It's one of those special weekend that I went to back-to-back awesome concerts. I'm writing about the 2nd one first. As a student of jazz guitar, this one featuring Mimi Fox and Martin Taylor is a must-see. Both of them are not only great performers but also teachers (Here are links to one of Mimi Fox's book and Martin Taylor's online school) Living in the Bay Area, I'm fortunate enough to go to Mimi Fox's concerts quite a few time (even a free performance at Stanford Shopping Center. I also remember very well the jazz organ fellowship gala that featured her as the guest. Mimi Fox lives in the Bay Area. As an aside: this year's gala will feature the amazing organist Tony Monaco playing at Stanford University!) About the famed European jazz master Martin Taylor, I actually first heard of him from my days as a devoted audiophile 15 years ago (Still am but spent less though) He recorded for Linn, the company known for high-end audio equipment. I got more familiar with his music after I was invited to join his online school. (Long story: one of the early success in online jazz instruction was Jimmy Bruno's Guitar Institute. I was a student there and learned quite a lot from Mr. Bruno. See my prior posts on this topic. Sadly, JB and the company who built the site parted way and the latter found Martin Taylor as sort-of "the replacement teacher") I went through his introductory video on the idea of utilizing the 10th (one octave above the 3rd. This was the first time I heard of such idea. (Here's a link to an interview of him on YouTube in which he explained it. I didn't end up joining though. I've never seen him performed live until today. This is one of the concerts that could sell itself simply because of the names on the bill. When I saw these 2 names, I didn't even bother to check if they are accompanied by a group or just playing with each other or solo, I knew no matter what it's gonna be awesome and I was right!

The set started with Mimi Fox playing solo guitar. I've listened to her latest album so I knew what to expect but still it's much better watching her live. It's cool to watch her right-hand technique: hybrid picking with a pick and also the ring finger. Sometimes she would hide her pick and use the thumb to play bass lines on the 6th string while hitting other strings with the middle finger for harmonics. She played mostly her Heritage archtop (I'm familiar with Heritage because Alex Skolnick of Testament also plays Heritage. HK's Tom Lee TST Showroom has a Heritage archtop) and also a flattop acoustic with a vintage/custom look, which is not a common choice for jazzers) She played "500 Miles High" (a Chick Corea tune and also a hint for the other concert I went to :P) on it. Other memorable pieces included Wes Montgomery's "Four on Six", "Moonlight in Vermont" and Beatle's "She's Leaving Home" from Sgt. Pepper.

Then came Martin Taylor. His style was quite different from Mimi Fox. His playing was more "densed" than Mimi Fox, meaning he played more chords (using the "latin" fingerstyle patterns taught in Berklee Chord 201!) and had a heavier emphasis on the rhythm parts. This video of him (from his younger days) explained it well:

In fact, he did play "I Got Rhythm" last night! I didn't just enjoy the music but also learned a great deal. I think I get a better understanding of his "scaffolding with the 10th" idea watching him demonstrating it in person moving up and down the guitar neck. It seems quite straightforward to apply too: if you could play the chords of a tune in drop-2/drop-3, the thirds (or the 10ths) would be quite obvious on the neck. He made melodies out of these quite a bit. Another idea I saw him using was embellishing the original melody, like what he did with "Georgia on My Mind." Coincidentally, it's the same idea Mimi Fox taught in the book I linked to above! Of course there are a lot more to learn from Mimi Fox's performance too, like her repeat usages of sequences against different chords in the progression (taught in Berklee Jazz 201 Week 3)

Finally, they jammed together on "Blue Bossa" (a must-learn tune for any jazz guitarist. In fact, it's the 2nd tune to improv on at JB's old guitar institute. I wonder if it's still the same for his current school!) and then "Blues for Two" written by Fox (can you believe the topic of this week's class at Berklee's Jazz 201 is blues? Yes, they did substitute quite a few chords of the basic 12-bar blues form!) I actually like Martin Taylor's playing more in this setting where he played more single-note lines while Mimi Fox was comping.

So I skipped my normal practice time to go to this concert and it's totally worthwhile! (And hopefully I would win the drawing I entered for the Peerless Martin Taylor signature model Virtuoso archtop guitar that is being given away! He played the same model last night.)

我的結他雜記: Wrong note?

The worst fear in me regarding improvisation is playing wrong notes. I spent a lot of time learning what scale/lick works with which chord. I worried about playing them wrong. Oh well, are wrong notes that bad? I bet everyone has tried correcting a wrong note by playing the right note next and found that the end result didn't sound that bad. In fact, the great bassist and teacher Victor Wooten said something really simple but may not be obvious: "You are never more than a half-step away from the right note!" Check out this video in which he explained:
And in this video he actually played a solo using all wrong notes and sounded good!

我的結他雜記: Decoding KORG

I have been using my KORG Pandora PX5D for years with the presets only but I've decided to really look into its amp modelling capability. It used a bunch of cryptic names. I guess it's because KORG doesn't want to pay the original manufacturers the right to use their trademarks.

This is what I was able to guess and google:

• TWD1X12 1x12” guitar combo covered in tweed cloth, should be Fender Tweed Deluxe
• TWD4X10 4x10 guitar combo but designed for bass guitar, should be Fender Bassman
• BLK2X12 2x12 guitar combo indispensable for country or blues players, could be Fender Twin Reverb
• UKBLUES UK-manufactured vintage stack guitar amp head, could be Marshall 1962 Bluesbreaker
• US HI-G 100 W guitar amp head covered in snake skin from 1991, could be Mesa Boogie Mark IV.
• US MDN High-gain guitar amp with an eye-catching metal plate, could be Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier

Geek to Guitar Hero

The title doesn't referred to me, of course, but the great guitarist Alex Skolnick, best known for playing lead in the thrash metal pioneer Testament. This is actually the title of his recently published memoir. In general I don't read much biography but I did read a few about musicians, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix (I still remember I had to kill time while waiting for female classmates at the library so I picked up Miles' biography) This is a little different because Skolnick is still alive and wrote the whole thing by himself. Testament is one of my all-time favourite band. I "discovered" them after listening to Metallica and Slayer and magazines raved about them being a thrash metal band of the same caliber. Their album at the time was "Souls of Black" and I was immediately hooked and bought their prior and subsequent releases. Alex Skolnick's unique style of guitar solo was one of the reasons I'm attracted to their music. And I subscribed to his Facebook page, on which he promoted his book. I wanted to read about the beginnings of his band and his guitar study and the book certainly didn't disappoint.

The book basically covered his childhood (not a very happy one because he didn't fit in with his family and school) to present, primarily focusing on his experiences from his first stint with Testament. I felt somewhat connected to his stories because he grew up in the SF bay area (Berkeley) He mentioned a lot of local places (e.g. Yoshi's!) and bands that I'm familiar with.

There are quite a few episodes that I found most interesting from this book:
When Alex asked for advices from his guitar teacher Joe Satriani whether he should join Legacy (renamed to Testament later because the name was taken already), Satch encouraged him to just play like himself. So he decided to bring the standards of the best hard rock guitarist that inspired his playing to thrash metal, which he initially didn't think his style would fit in. And he did it!

Even though I think "Souls of Black" is an ass-kicking album (may not be as good as "Practice What You Preached" but close), Alex didn't like it that much. He revealed that they did the album just to get enough money from the record company to support their touring. And he thought it's a step back from "Practice" that they should not have made. Rushing to do "Souls" might have cost them the opportunity to become as successful as the "Big 4" (of thrash metal: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax) In fact, according to Alex, the band wasn't as successful as I imagined. They played in a lot of small clubs after their heydays of playing in big arenas, mostly opening for the biggest names in metal. Now I remember going to one of Testament's concert at a small SF venue called Trocadero Transfer in mid-90s. They certainly made less money than I thought. Alex mentioned few guys from the scene were able to afford buying houses in the bay area. You see sports car in rock music videos a lot but he was no where close to buying his dream Ferrari. After his Pontiac Firebird was stolen, he drove a Corolla instead and sang high praises for it! My experiences with cars is a parallel to his: going from a sports car to a compact car that is also based on Corolla :P

His book mentioned a few lesser-known but great jazz guitarist: like Lenny Breau and Tuck Andress (p.286) I first learned about Lenny Breau while driving in Toronto and listened to its local jazz radio station several years ago. His style was so fascinating that I had to look him up on internet once I got to my sis' place.

Alex wrote some of Testament's early songs using the less-common scale (actually, mode) Mixolydian b2 b6, taught by Satriani earlier. I learned this from Berklee and they call it Mixolydian b9 b13 (b9 is the same as b2 and b13=b6) and wrote a post about its fingering here.

He mentioned there was a song for which he came up with a rhythm guitar part that both he and the other guitarist in the band (Eric) couldn't play well and the producer almost hired a session player for the recording!

A few more things we have in common: we both enjoy the writing of Haruki Murakami. Alex quoted Murakami in his book. We both disliked the disappearance of guitar solo from metal during the grunge era. It's one thing to have your own style that doesn't rely on guitar solo. It's another to imitate bands that don't have guitar solo because you can't pull it off anyway. We both moved to New York, even though in my case, it was just a year but there's no better place for a jazz guy than NYC.

His book actually didn't say much about what happened after he left Testament. I found out he recorded quite a bit of music, for example, with violinist Joe Deninzon on an album titled "The Adventures Of Stratospheerius", and formed the fusion band Attention Deficit that released 2 albums.

I wish he wrote a bit more about his days at Newschool studying jazz but he was living a low-profile life then and may not have much interesting stories for most readers. Nevertheless, it's a fun read. Highly recommended!

Live music = Excitement!

Took a break from live music because of holidays and my trip back home (other than jamming with friends) but resumed last month as soon as I was back. The SFJAZZ center, the first one dedicated to jazz in US, opened last month. Too bad I have yet to visit it or attended any concert from the opening week and after :( On that 1/25 and 1/26 weekend, there were actually several appealing concerts, including the ones at SFJAZZ, the International guitar night (featuring the great guitarist and educator Martin Taylor) but I had to pick the one by Joe Lovano US Five. Saxophonist Joe Lovano is THE most prominent jazz musician today IMO. His new releases of recent years have all been exciting: with new compositions and young players, including the charming bassist (who also sings vocal with her own group but not US Five) Esperanza Spalding and an unusual duo of drummers. Check out these video:

Why two drummers? I brought it up with my drummer buddy and he wasn't impressed but a NPR blog post has a deep discussion on this very topic.

I consider Testament my favorite band (ranked about the same as Pink Floyd and the Beatles) and I've been to many of their concerts since 1991, about every other year except during the time that their vocalist Chuck Billy had health issue and the band was inactive. I felt guilty when I was on the fence knowing they would play in SF, the opening night of their tour promoting 2012's hugely successful album "Dark Roots of the Earth." (Man, I'm becoming an old man, or my "old man :P" not wanting to pay extra fee, to LiveNation and long/late/costly drive/parking......) I checked LiveNation the night before and tickets were still available so I took a gamble and decided to buy ticket at the door and fortunately I was able to (also found free street parking) Kinda felt bad 'coz Testament should have sold out the show in their home town. I was able to get in early enough to hear the first opener, a local band called the Butlers. Their style is more hard rock/glam than thrash. They played some covers but was quite enjoyable overall. And they've got some friends from local metal bands played as guest on stage with them. The metal brotherhood rocks man! The 2nd opener was Australian band 4ARM. While the vocal is metalcore-ish, I definitely hear thrash metal roots in their guitar playing. Their lead guitarist Johnny Glovasa could shred! And his Ibanez XPT sounded and looked totally awesome. Next was long time thrash metaller Overkill. I don't know why but this band deserved to be much bigger than what they already are after thrashing hard for 20+ years. Their lead vocalist Bobby Blitz has one of the most devilish voice in my opinion. And D.D. Verni was THE bassist I wanted to sound like if I play thrash. Listen to his bass on "Nothing to Die For" on the album "The Years of Decay" and you'll know why. This album ranked high on my list of great metal albums. I screamed the loudest when they played "Elimination" from that album (yeah, that's where I learn the word from in late 80s) Finally, Testament came on stage. I kinda worried about their guitarist Alex Skolnick 'coz he posted pictures of the cold med he had to take before the show. Well, when the spotlight is on, he played (and sang backing vocal) like his usual great self. Since it's for promoting the new album, they played a lot from it, which were all great songs on par with their classic albums. What a show! I was glad that I didn't miss it.

For a fan of jazz and Chinese music like me, Ultra World-Xtet's music combined the best of both worlds! I decided I had to go to their concert after watching Gary Schwantes' solo on YouTube. He is the band leader (saxophonist and dizi player) I've never seen a Westerner playing dizi, the Chinese flute, which was also the first instrument I seriously trying to learn. The rest of the group played drums, bass, guzheng and yangqin, respectively. Some might imagine the awkwardness of fitting the sound of Chinese instrument to jazz music but there was none. It sounded very natural, like they are supposed to be played together. I found both guzheng and yangqin players to be masters in playing Chinese music on their instrument but at the same time adopted quite a bit of improvisation skills from jazz. The encore was the Chinese-new-year-of-Snake-appropriate "Golden Snake Dance." (Yeah, everyone who played Chinese music have learned it)

我的結他雜記:Improvisation with arpeggios

In addition to practicing licks, arpeggios are also part of my daily routine. I understand their importance. The million dollar question in my mind has been: how am I supposed to apply them during improvisation? I've recently come across two helpful resources:

- Making Music from Arpeggios: a free lesson written by Will Kriski

- 25 Major ii-V-I licks for Jazz Guitar: an e-book written by Joseph Alexander. Even though all are 3-4 bar licks, the author made it quite clear how the notes came from arpeggios.

我的結他雜記: Chordal Pattern System

I just watched this video about a system for learning jazz guitar:

The reason I mentioned this is I think it is related to my current studies: (1) the "old-school" way of Robert Conti who taught licks, complete solo as well as the underlying rationale/tricks. For example, it mentioned the "move up 3 frets" trick taught by Conti. And (2) the theory-centric way of Berklee from which I'm taking a class on chords (not just 4-note 7th chord but a lot of triads too)

I am reading his blog.