Highlights of renowned guitarist Rex Bell playing several tracks on “Hallowed be Thy Name” (from Steve Kuban’s album “The Lord is My Tower”). [Read more…]
I’ve been studying and teaching music for over 40 years. Today, I teach guitar and banjo lessons throughout the East Bay in communities like Danville, San Ramon, Concord, Walnut Creek – the whole East Bay.
I teach guitar students much more than simply how to strum a few chords on a guitar. Reading music, variations on a theme, scales, composition, orchestration, road skills, playing with ensembles, soloing… it’s a long list! The more we learn about the brain, the more we discover about how music lessons and education help brains & people development in wonderful ways.
The Brain – Research has shown that both listening to music and playing a musical instrument stimulate your brain and can increase your memory. Research suggests that regularly playing an instrument changes the shape and power of the brain and may be used in therapy to improve cognitive skills. Hearing it and especially playing it. Music affects mood, creativity and a wide range of synaptic activity in the brain – many areas of your brain start firing and communicating with other parts of your entire nervous system.
Camaraderie & Sacrifice – Good friends are just one of life’s “must have” experiences. Sharing dreams, disappoints and accomplishments help to extend emotional range and maturity. Putting self aside for the greater good of the band is invaluable for personal development.
My friend, John Harper, who does the online marketing for The Harper Team Realtors in San Ramon CA, created this great promo for me using a sound track that I recorded with my RGS Ensemble.
Whether you live in Concord, Walnut Creek or Danville, or San Ramon – I can help you take your guitar playing to the next level. I provide guitar lessons for all ages and levels of skill.
Enjoy the promo – playing guitar like a pro is Mission Possible!!!
I notice the stores are already putting out the Holiday displays. Keep your eye on this site for upcoming gift specials.
Renowned guitarist Rex Bell plays a rock solo (a la Jimi Hendrix) on “For The Lord Is My Tower” (from Steve Kuban’s new album “I’m Calling Out To You” –Rex’s headphone mix only)
If you want to play like a pro, learn from a pro. Guitar lessons for beginners up to and including expert guitarist in Walnut Creek and Concord CA. In fact, anywhere in the East Bay. Let me help you take your guitar playing to the next level.
I was giving a guitar lesson to a guitar student in Concord CA the other day who wants to become a world famous Christian music performer – lead guitar of course. As we worked on chords and technique, we also discussed how to use the guitar to express different types of emotions. As an example, I introduced my Concord guitar student to Pure Joy by Chris Falson.
This great worship songis in standard lead sheet format and demos great usage of jazz chord changes with an upbeat contemporary pop Christian groove. Download sheet music for Pure Joy You can listen to an mp3 of the sheet music at the very bottom of this post – but you can listen to Chris perform it by accessing it through the Amazon Carousel above the sound file..
Chris is a singer-songwriter, studio musician, composer, producer, entrepreneur, church-planter, touring artist, published author, teacher and inventor, having co-written several patents on interactive digital media distribution.
Now playing: Chris Falson – Pure Joy #nowplaying — LightDigitalNOW (LightDigital) (@LightDigitalNOW) Sat Jul 7 2012
With 8 solo albums to date, Chris has performed all around the world for audiences of between one and one hundred thousand. Some of the highlights include Wembley Stadium, The LA Coliseum, Shea Stadium, a bell tower in Burglen and for Pope John Paul’s visit to the US in ’93.
He has written songs and or composed/produced music for film, TV, advertising, gospel choirs, recording artists and musicals. Some of his credits include Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, Without a Trace, Star Trek, Castle, Brothers and Sisters, Las Vegas, Yes Dear, Punk’d, Ron Kenoly, The Oslo Gospel Choir, Avon Breast Cancer, Blood work, Tavis Smiley and the CSI franchise.
He is the founder/president of Sounds Dangerous and a partner in IBN Sports and 3DRevolution
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Finger Picking & Blues Guitar Lessons in Alamo, Danville & Concord CA.
For all those who love a simple finger picking guitar solos, try out this 16th Century English melody also known as “What Child Is Born.” Notice it is arranged in traditional standard music notation and tablature which shows you where to locate your left hand fingers for each chord. Download Greensleeves Sheet Music
Muddy Waters was one of the fathers of Chicago blues guitar and key figure in the history of the blues. He was a master guitar artist, a great guitarist. His unique style on guitar revolutionized a new era in music and had a major impact on both blues and rock musicians.
I prepared a typical Muddy Waters 12 bar blues in key of E and is in four four common time but with twelve eight feel. Download Muddy Waters Sheet Music You can listen to it below.
Enjoy and if you need help, please feel free to contact m.
Working with some of my guitar students in Concord and Walnut Creek CA recently, I took the time to show them some A-minor chord variations for guitar.
One of the first chords you typically learn when taking guitar lessons is the open A-minor chord. To add some enhancement and color to songs using the A-minor chord, try the following:
On your first down strum (Beat 1 of 4 beats per measure) remove your left hand 3rd finger. Now string 3 has no finger. This changes chord name to A-minor 7th. Cool sound but now brace yourself.
For second down strum on your guitar slide your left hand Am7 (A minor 7th) formation up two frets known as a whole step. This creates a lush and very rich but dissonant sound known as a Bm7/A. When you see a slash after chord name, the letter name to the right of slash indicates the bass note thus the open 5th string is known as the “A”.
Then on final strums on beats 3 and 4 of this simple one measure pattern you must do following: Put your left hand 2nd finger on fret 5 string 4 and your left hand 3rd finger on fret 5 string 3 and with strumming hand strum downwards from 5th string. This will give your guitar a rich sound with the open strings. This guitar chord is known as an A-minor 9th.
You can apply this to any song where you have 4 strums for A-minor. An example would be Bob Dylan’s “Knocking On Heavens Door”. The song starts by two down strums for G and for D and then goes to 4 strums for A-minor. Then it does two down strums again for G and D and finishes with 4 strums on C. That’s the complete song.
Try playing it on your guitar with the A-minor chord formations and I think you’ll love the sound by adding the variation to the song.
Want a free guitar lesson on this and other cool chord variations, email me and let’s get started (new guitar or banjo students only).
So back in the day when I was performing a lot with my local San Francisco Bay Jazz Quartet known as “Jazz Express”, we’d normally do Sunday brunches at local restaurants in the Bay Area. We were hired by a young chef to play at his establishment – John Bradley Café also known as J.B.’s Café in downtown Concord CA.
We played standard jazz selections like “Take The A Train: and “Take Five”. We played every Friday evening 6-9p.m. outside. Big crowds would gather. The Jazz Express Quartet consisted of local Bay Area musicians.
One Friday night John Bradley said – here is your last check! No more live music because the BMI/ASCAP crew paid a visit and measured out his square footage and said he would need to pay about $2000 in royalty fees which will be distributed to all the composers of the different jazz standards we performed by great composers as Duke Ellington, George Benson, Coltrane, Jobim and etc. I told John in one week each band member will compose 5 original compositions and we will perform all originals.
And that’s how J.B.’s Café came to life. Enjoy a listen
Just finished giving free hour guitar lesson in Pleasant Hill CA. I’m one of the few musicians that drives to your home to teach beginners to advanced guitar, bass and banjo lessons.
I met mom while driving in Pleasant Hill. She spotted my guitar-advertising-wrapped car and honked to get my attention. We pulled into parking lot to talk about guitar lessons. She has a 12 year old son whom wants guitar lessons and she wanted to start him on acoustic nylon string Spanish guitar.
I suggested to loving mom that you need to get an electric guitar and amp package by Fender at Guitar Center which comes with a 30 day refund policy. Then she told me that she wants to learn acoustic guitar for singing and asked if could she take lessons at same time. I’m one of the few teachers that will allow two family members to take lessons at the same time for same price and told her first lesson is free and then purchase one month’s lessons and then get an extra months lessons for free. She was so excited and went to Guitar Center in Concord and purchased both acoustic guitar kit and Fender Electric Kit package. And they are so excited and loved the introduction lesson.
Their hour free lesson turned into a two hour free lesson. I always give students extra time for no extra charge if they need it.
This post is like my Line 6 floor pedal (mentioned later) – crammed with features (things on my mind!).
A quick shout out to a student – John Hill, who is a now a great blues musician. He plays at many churches in California: Oakland, Modesto, Antioch, Pittsburg, Fairfield, Vacaville and Sacramento.
Guitarists in bands like the Allman Brothers or the Gypsy Kings play in different notes – intervals of usually thirds or sixths or 5th’s or even octaves. For example in the key of C major if one guitarist is playing a C, another can play a 3rd up counting C as the tonic or the root note. That would be E. It adds rich tonal color to the music.
At Berklee College of Music, I performed as a guitar and music arranger major 3 days a week with 20 piece guitar ensemble. Chair 1 and 2 were the most difficult charts with lots of syncopated notes and then chairs 10 – 20 were just simple half notes and quarter notes and chord charts.
We performed songs by Chicago and big band jazz charts. We performed with a 5-piece sax section, a 5-piece trombone section and a 5-piece brass section where each part played different notes as harmony. What a great sound. This is part of the inspiration behind forming the RGS Rock Ensemble.
Every month my guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin and uke student rehearse with celebrity friends from the Greater San Francisco Bay Area including East Bay communities like Oakland, San Ramon, Dublin, Danville, Walnut Creek and Concord to jam ina big theater venue.
I score out three guitar charts, one for rhythm and beginner and one for intermediate lead guitar and one for advanced guitar along with music charts for drum, keyboards, bass guitar , percussion and saxophones. If you want to get into writing music for all instruments (over 650), then check out “The Art Of Music Copying “ and “ Music Arranging “ by Don Sebesky (if you can find a copy!)
Below is the rock ensemble performing Hip To Be Square, a great Huewy Lewis and the News classic rock pop number which hit #1 on Billboard Magazine.
It features guitar solos by me and Adam Gabriel. Guitar students played the melody. The original soundtrack had no horns so I came up with horns using power music arranging and composing software known as Sibellius. It allows you to type in a complete score and then have it played by other instruments. You need to be able to read music and know some music theory to use a program like this.
Our rendition of Hip to Be Square (at the end of this post) features Orestes Vilato, ranked in the top ten percussionists in the world for Latin Music. Listen to all the polyrhythms he does and how he uses stick dynamics. At the end of song Adam Gabriel does some great blues lead fills. I’m doing all the screaming rock fills using a Line 6 Spider Amp and Paul Reed Smith Guitar with whammy bar and Line 6 pro floor pedal with Volume Pedal as well as built in Wah Wah Pedal – ya gotta love all the add-ons!
Hip to Be Square performed by RGS Rock Ensemble