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Look, sometimes you wake up one morning and then realize it’s been eight months since you last sent a newsletter. So you decide to write a new one.
Go Take A Lesson!
I’ve been making a lot of progress on guitar lately, mostly thanks to the fact that I’ve been taking actual, weekly guitar lessons with a new teacher. You know what’s a good way to quickly get better on an instrument? Take lessons!
As a kid, I was fortunate to have parents who could afford to get me private saxophone lessons. In college, weekly lessons—sax, woodwinds, piano—were a consistent part of my music undergrad. Then I graduated and stopped taking lessons entirely. In retrospect, it was a pretty big missed opportunity. I had valid reasons - I was broke, lessons cost money, I figured I had enough musical knowledge to just teach myself. But with the benefit of hindsight, lessons would’ve been worth the investment.
As I learn the guitar fretboard, I’ve been working my pentatonic shapes up and down the neck, like so:
The pre-inked dots on that fretboard make that look more confusing than it is, but I’m guessing any guitar players out there will know this one. You go up 1, then slide up and go down 2, then slide and go up 3, then slide and down 4, up 5, down 1, and then in G at least, you can go up 2. After you’ve got that down, flip it upside-down: down 1, up 2, etc. Then, do it stepwise groups of three, then in groups of four. Then go every other note. The possible permutations are endless.
The fact that I can write all that and see it clearly in my mind on the fretboard is such a huge leap for me! And while there are a billion YouTube lessons about pentatonics and the CAGED system (and those might be sufficient for some folks), I didn’t really do the work to get it under my fingers until I started taking lessons.
So, this is my story for all of you. Hopefully it’ll inspire some of you to find a teacher and take some lessons. Or it’ll just give you a good pentatonic exercise to play with.
I’m guessing there are some guitarists out there, so if you’ve got any good daily exercises you like to do, I hope you’ll let me know. Maybe I’ll share any good ones in my next newsletter.
The Songs Are Strong
Strong Songs Year Four is two thirds of the way complete. I’ve put out a bunch of episodes, including multi-song episodes on Beatles covers by artists like Ray Charles and Earth, Wind & Fire, “Strong Solos” from the likes of Sonny Rollins and The Spin Doctors, the music of The Legend of Zelda, and interviews with top L.A. session guitarist Andrew Synowiec and Portland tango masters Alex Krebs and Andrew Oliver.
I’ve put out single-song episodes as well: Mastodon’s “Blood and Thunder,” The Cars’ “Just What I Needed,” Jimmy Webb & Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman,” Tori Amos’ “Silent All These Years,” a Patreon-exclusive look at the sounds of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” and just today, “Help Me” by the great Joni Mitchell.
I could regale you with lessons learned and epiphanies earned making those episodes, from a climb up the side of Rock Mountain, to a fast-forwarding tape-deck tour of The Cars’ musical development, to an attempt to plumb the narrative ambiguity of Tori Amos’ lyric writing, but… well, I wrote about all of that stuff back when I published those episodes, and it’s already August, so I’ll just talk about the Joni Mitchell episode.
I had such a good time making today’s episode about “Help Me,” a song I’d heard dozens of times but had never taken the time to properly transcribe or study. It’s got this free-flowing complexity that is usually fun to talk about, because it lends itself to metaphor. Yeah, there are unusual phrase lengths and bars of 3/8, but it never feels as though Joni sat down and said “I think this phrase should be two bars, and then this next one should be three bars, and then let’s do some odd meter stuff!” I would imagine she just began strumming the guitar and bit by bit, the song took flight.
I put a lot of work into learning the parts and re-creating the performance, and that, too, was a delightful process. Tom Scott’s band L.A. Express accompanied Joni on “Help Me,” and each individual player contributed strong ideas. Larry Carlton’s chiming chordal chandeliers, so artfully played on his signature 335, are probably my favorite individual instrumental element, but the collective ensemble sound is really the thing. From Joni’s fluttering acoustic guitar intro all the way to the spiraling, grooving fade-out, “Help Me” is what it sounds like when six musicians breathe as one.
I hope you all enjoy the episode, and that it inspires you to go and listen to some Joni. You can find it in the usual podcast destinations, and of course, on the Strong Songs website.
Music Recommendations
I have listened to one billion albums since my last newsletter and there is no chance I could possibly list them all here, but here are a few things to check out.
Efterklang - Altid Sammen - A lovely album from a Danish group I’d never heard, recommended in the Strong Songs Discord listening club. Beautiful stuff, with lots of inspirational textures and arrangements.
Jimi Hendrix - Axis Bold as Love - As part of my guitar practice, I’ve begun to learn some Jimi parts. His introductory solo on “Little Wing” from Axis is a Guitar Center staple, and has been a great introduction to the intuitive, brilliant way he approached the guitar.
Osvaldo Pugliese - Esta Noche de Luna - Making the tango episode got me listening to all sorts of tango artists, and my favorite two are probably Pugliese and Juan D’Arienzo. You can’t go wrong with any of the albums in the tango playlist I made, so go check those out.
Franc Moody - Dance Moves - Another listener recommendation. I had never heard Franc Moody and this album just really works. A bit of Jamiroquai, with more of a guitar focus. Nasty little riff on “Super Star Struck.” Great for going on runs.
Cory Wong - Power Station - Speaking of runs, Cory has been a staple for my morning runs for most of 2022. This album is great fun, and the Sierra Hull track near the end (“Over The Mountain”) features some gorgeous wind ensemble writing.
Tracy Chapman - Self-Titled - “Fast Car” is one of the best (strongest?) songs ever written. I don’t have a lot more to say, but this is a really good album.
You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown - 1990 Cast Recording - I have such a long history with this musical. I performed the part of Shroeder when I was in elementary school (he read Robin Hood instead of Peter Rabbit). Many years later, I played the reed book in the pit for a production at the high school where I was teaching. It’s such a hip, well put together show. I’ll probably talk about it on the podcast at some point.
Yo-Yo Ma & Bobby McFerrin - Hush - I grew up listening to this album on CD, and I returned to it after talking about McFerrin’s a cappella “Blackbird” cover on Strong Covers, Vol. 2. What a record this is. I still knew it by heart.
Wilco - Summerteeth - I love Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but I’ll also always have a place in my heart for Summerteeth. I’ve been contemplating a Wilco album for a while, and have been spending some time listening to both albums. I’m not settled on a song just yet, but it’s been a nice listening experience. I also loved hearing Jeff Tweedy on Ezra Klein’s show, and have his book on the “to-read” pile on my virtual bookshelf.
Mary Lou Williams - Self-Titled - My buddy Carmen Staaf got me back listening to Mary Lou, when she came on the show to talk about jazz piano a couple years back. The character Margo on the silly but enjoyable Apple TV show For All Mankind is a big MLW fan, and it’s nice to see her get some more visibility in popular media. She swung so hard, and was such a creative player.
Onward
Thanks for reading, listening, and following along with my work this year! And sorry to take such a long gap between newsletters. I continually go back and forth between offering a subscription tier of this newsletter (maybe a monthly video game essay? Or something musical?). More on that front at some point, perhaps.
I’ll leave you with this pic of Appa investigating Court and Spark. She likes Joni’s music, and also apparently thinks that whoever owned this record before me smelled interesting.
Take care and keep listening -
~KH
8/12/2022
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