Your Own Style

At a certain point, you go from trying to learn to play a genre to learning to play tunes. Really, this is the true way of it. If you want to play Wes Montgomery, start playing his tunes. If you want to be Bob Wills, learn Bob Wills' music.

But style is everything. These players that came before you who defined a genre or sub genre have their own influences, but ultimately at one point stopped covering their heros and started playing like themselves. This is where so many get lost. Either they jump too  late onto their own style or they never do it at all. 

Almost never do we jump too early onto our own style. Because we are constantly influence by our surroundings, developing our own way of speaking through our music is never something we can start too early on.

To use the bandwagon analogy again, if you get on the wagon early, you are still on the wagon. Too late, you've missed.

Conclusion: Stop covering. Play tunes they way you play them. Add all your experience and influences up and give the sum over to your instrument.

The 13 People you meet in the Community Musical's Pit Orchestra:

This is a response to a Facebook post I saw about this blog:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-fagan/2014/03/the-13-people-you-meet-at-community-theatre/

As you may know, I work every year in the pit orchestra at my local community theater (notice where I put the 'r' there; that's the way it's spelled!).  Enjoy.

1. Director (who isn't in charge of music): She would like to have a say in the 90 cuts that litter the rehearsal room floor, but the "Music" Director just doesn't need another dance number to prepare for.

2. Pianist: She's the one who goes to every audition, rehearsal, and staging. She also has played more notes by the end of the show than many of the actors will ever sing.

3. Veteran: This person has played in every single production since the theater group started. His/Her notes are likely still etched on the music from the first run of Oliver.

4. New Family: This is the young couple with possibly one on the way that swear up and down both of them will still participate when the baby comes... We'll see...

5. Bass Player: He's a high schooler who's mother knows the director and the director was desperate. He can read music, but would rather someone just yell out what key they're in.

6. The Handle Bar: He is either a trombone player or a tuba player. Somehow, out of every bit of improbability, he looks good. Like the star of a cigarette commercial from the '80s good.

7. Mr./Mrs. Infinite Wisdom: Sometimes this is the same as the Handle Bar. No matter what is happening in the music or in politics of the musical, they have an overly wise and insightful comment that makes everyone stop and think...awkwardly.

8. The I-Play-Everything: This person usually is a woodwind player. They play flute, clarinet, some clarinet no one has heard of, and anything else they can lug into the pit.  It isn't uncommon for them to play one instrument while another lies in their lap.

9. The Guitar Player: They never played a anything more than chords before this show.  Now, taped to every other page is hand written guitar tab.  They also forget to look at the conductor for the majority of the show.

10. The Percussionist: This is not the trap set player. They bring as a minimum three large timpani, at least one xylophone, and four bags stuffed full of noisemakers, some of which were found at a kitchen store.

11. The Setup/Teardown Person: This person, regardless of any personal life, comes two hours early, setups up everyone's chair and stand (somehow correctly), lays out the cables for mic'ing and stand lights, and then after the show stays two more hours to make sure everything is put back correctly. We love this person. We pick up their check at the after party.

12. The High Schooler: She (and it always is a she) is the flute player (and it always is a flute player) who came because she wanted the extra line on her college application. Now, she might be looking at how much her flute will go for on craigslist.

13. The Reader: Their part has 57 measures of rest in each of the 38 songs in the book.  They brought along in their gig bag a mystery trilogy.  By the last night of shows, they are about to finish their stories... again.

Lent Writing Challenge 1 of 40

So, in addition to multiple other personal things I'm doing for Lent this year, I've also decided to challenge myself in song writing.  I've never really done much song writing before. But, I've always wanted to.  In order to jump start myself a bit, I'm going to do 40 songs, 1 a day, through Lent.  Since today is Ash Wednesday, I've started early.  Take a listen:


Copyright 2014 by Danny Fowler

Guitar vs. Ukulele: Personal Reflection

A week ago I spent Wednesday through Sunday at my first national music event: The Folk Alliance International Winter Music Camp and Conference.  I can't tell you how much of a blast I had.  Not only did I learn a ton, but I felt like a very respected member of the teaching staff for the camp.  Tons of friendships and contacts were made, and a new step in my career was made.

Over the last week since then I have had two out of three gigs and tons of time trying to absorb the many notes that I took that week and made since.  I've already logged something close to thirty (that's 30) hours this week in music between playing, practicing, and writing.  In all of this, I have also been reflecting a lot.

In particular, I've been reflecting on my time spent on guitar vs. my time spent on ukulele.

Honestly, I love both instruments, but as a musician I am constantly forced to do two things very well:  Play my instrument and create an image.

I can play both guitar and ukulele well, but ukulele comes much more naturally to me.  It seems like everything from rhythm to melodies lay out in a much more logical way.  Which is crazy, I know, given how similar the instruments are.

As for image... Well, let me just say that one of my favorite gigs, Headrush, talks more about my ukulele music than about my guitar.  Even my mom likes my ukulele more than my guitar.

I don't want you to get the idea that I'm giving up guitar for ukulele.  Far from it.  My work at my church alone will keep me playing guitar quite a bit every week.  Add in the musicals I do and the fact that I just really like playing jazz guitar, and I'll be keeping up with it.

But, as my forte performance instrument... I've decided to finish the Koolaide and go full on with ukulele.  I'll be focusing more time on that instrument and working more and more on the arrangements for my gigs.  I'll also be doing some recording and notation which I will share with my blog here.  The end goal: Building my brand as a ukulele player.

~Danny

Finger Nails

Most guitar and ukulele musicians realize that nail care is a part of being a good musician.  However, very few of us play often enough to need to think beyond just keeping yourself well groomed.  I know of a several musicians that keep a nail care kit that has a clipper and a file in their case or gig bag.

But what happens when you play a lot?

Well, by a lot I mean two or more hours a day, every day.  That is close to what I average.  Some days, it seems more like I will get a four hour day in.  This can be rough on your nails.

The way I strum ukuleles is by using the top of my index finger for down strums (and the pad for up). Even on nylon strings this can wear down a finger nail quickly.  In addition, I noticed recently that when I play guitar, I tend to graze that same nail across the top of the strings even when I am using a pick!

It is because of this that I started asking the wonderful ladies in my life about nail care.  Guys, you won't believe the amount of good info the ladies have on nail care.  It's kind of impressive!  After this "research", I've come up with a few habits that guitarists and ukuleleists should have when it comes to nail care:

The 4 Nail Care Habits of Effective Musicians

1. 1. Moisturize - You'd be surprised how much just keeping your hands well moisturized will help with your nail health.  
2. 2. Vitamin E - Using a nail specific vitamin E application will keep the nail bed healthy and strong.
3. 3. Trim Them Often - Everyone's nails grow at different speeds.  If you are like me, you should plan on trimming them weekly, not just when the "need it".
4. 4. Hard as Nails - Lastly, when you find out that you have a nail that gets worn more than the others, use a product called Sally Hansen Hard as Nails with Nylon. It will keep them hard and won't wear off near as much as the nail itself.

Other Tips

A lot of players use the press on type of acrylic nails.  Everything I have read about them makes me cringe.  The talk is that your nail will eventually get a fungus and fall off.  I'm guessing you don't want that.

If you really need the longer finger nails for picking (and some do), my advice is to go to a salon and tell them you are a guitarist/ukuleleist and that you need only one hand (or so many fingers) done with gels.  Gels will last a while.  Once you are used to them, you can probably invest in the equipment (lamp, applicator, etc) to do them at home.

Of course, all of this is for your right (picking) hand.  For your left hand, the best thing is to keep them short and clean.  I've had students before who had longer finger nails and liked getting them done up.  Hell, Dolly Parton performed with strangely long nails!  But, you aren't Dolly Parton.  Odds are, if you have longer nails, they are getting in the way.  Make the sacrifice and cut 'em down.  You'll thank me later.

~Danny

Folk Alliance Music Camp: Getting Closer

As I've been getting closer to the February Music Camp, I've been refining my Swing Guitar Lesson and getting more and more excited.  Then, the other day I get in contact with one of the organizers and discover that not only will I be giving a workshop on Swing Guitar, but I will also be doing one on Swing Ukulele (as well as leading a few Ukulele jams).

No details are set yet, but I've already had to send in a synopsis of each lesson.  The trick was, I'm don't really have the Ukulele workshop written yet!!!


Now, I'm scrambling a little to get my draft finished so I can iron it out.

The cool thing is, I've never really thought about Swing Ukulele the same way I do Swing Guitar.  Because of the regular repertoire inherent in the Ukulele culture, which is very saturated with swing tunes as much as it is with folk and classic rock, I've always felt Swing Ukulele was sort of a natural part of any Ukulele player's repertoire.

But, now I'm really looking at it.  I'm breaking down what I do already and what I find myself working on in this genre.  What I'm finding is that there really are some differences between just playing Ukulele and playing Swing Ukulele.  What is even more astounding to me is the amount of differences I've finding between Swing Guitar and Swing Ukulele!

Eventually, I'll post a lot of my findings and ultimately my lesson here.  But for now, I think I need to concentrate on writing and polishing both lessons and getting ready for the upcoming awesomeness of the Folk Alliance Music Camp!

~Danny

Practice Log: Day 1

All together, I only got about 2 hours of practice yesterday.  Usually, on Wednesdays I get an extra hour and a half of work with my praise band.  But, due to incoming weather, we chose to cancel the worship service and rehearsal.  But, I'm not counting it as one less than my goal.  I'm counting it as two more towards my goal.

Finding the time is going to be a challenge.  Three hours of playing when there isn't a gig or a group rehearsal can be daunting.  I'm betting on the key being setting up specific amounts of time to work on different concepts and tunes.  Also, focusing on getting 2 hours daily of practice each day and them gleaning the extra time from gigs and performances will grow me towards my goal rather quickly (seeing as gigs can be as much as three hours long by themselves).

A good breakdown right now might look like this:

1. Warm up (15 min)
1. Finger Exercises (5 min)
2. Scales/Shapes (5 min)
3. Arpeggios (5 min)
2. Chord and Harmony Exercises (30 min)
3. Tunes (60 min)
1. 10 to 15 minutes per tune
2. Focus on Harmony, Melody (single note), bass lines, and lyrics
3. Make sure to put it all together at the end
4. Warm down (15 min)
1. Same as warmup at a lower speed.

I'll try to have some tunes and exercise examples in the coming days to illustrate better what I am working on.

~Danny