Herb Smith, Guitar Performance & Instruction

Thanks to The Farley Center

2008-04-29T09:11:00.012-04:00

This past Friday was a busy one for me, as I had to play at two different places in Williamsburg for Williamsburg Place/The Farley Center. The first was a dedication for The Farley Center, followed by a dinner at the Woodlands Conference Center, a few miles away. The Farley Center, according to their web site is dedicated to helping people "overcome substance use disorder".

The settings at both places couldn't have been nicer. I played outside in front of The Farley Center for the dedication, set in their enclave of impressively designed buildings amid a beautiful forested area, and the day was just perfect — sunny and seventies. Later, at the dinner in the Woodlands Conference Center, I got to sit next to a huge window overlooking a wooded hillside, complete with waterfall and play the guitar. My kind of living.

My thanks to Gina Thorne and the Staff, and especially the patients and alumni at The Farley Center, all of whom had very kind words.

Lessons at a New Location

2008-04-14T12:18:00.003-04:00

If you haven't heard, AL&M is moving to a new location, where they won't have space available for guitar lessons. I have nothing but nice things to say about my association with AL&M, but life goes on. I wish Tommy Parker and the staff of friends I made there all the best.

I have moved all of my AL&M students to Morningstar Music Learning Center (mmlconline.com) in the Pembroke area of Virginia Beach. Morningstar is owned and operated by Wesley and Marianne Stevenson, who are also musicians themselves and very nice people with sincere, lofty goals. My studio there is easily four times the size of my old one, informative posters relating to the guitar cover the walls and once again, I feel at home. If you live in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area and would like to take lessons there, please call me (757 377 9498). I'll also continue to give lessons at my home in Olde Towne Portsmouth. Morningstar also offers lessons in piano, bass, violin and fiddle.

The Scales of Progress

2008-04-01T09:03:00.015-04:00

One of the most important technical aspects of learning to play the guitar is practicing scales. Having said that, I can envision many of the readers of this blog forming that "I smell excrement" look on their faces, wondering if they want to read on at all. (I DON'T LIKE that teacher! He makes me plays scales!.... harumph!)

We guitarists see other people playing grand things, or hear grand music in our heads and want to cut right to the chase, and practice those grand things directly. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line after all, right? This can seem to make scales look trivial, even a waste of time. Over and over I've heard from students (and thought myself on many occasions) that playing scales is boring... like, uh... TOTALLY.

But the reality is that practicing scales will enable you to really be able to play those grand pieces that you want to play. They lay the groundwork that give you the chops. Moreover, practicing the tricky passages that arise in any piece of music without laying this groundwork inevitably leads to the frustration that comes from playing something over and over maybe hundreds of times, and never being able to consistently pull it off.

So here is a problem I face as a guitar teacher: I have to ask myself what is it about playing scales that turns students off, and what can I do about it. It's my job after all to help students learn, help them keep the interest they brought to the lessons in the first place, and hold their attention all the while.

So where do I start? First of all, I have to grant that practicing scales can very frustrating. Many students tend to take a haphazard approach to scales, feeling almost as if it's something that they have to do because they've been told how necessary it is; otherwise they'll feel guilty. So they spend a few minutes running through them mindlessly, with or without the metronome, hear some good passages, some mistakes, wrap it up and tell themselves they'll come back tomorrow and it'll be better. On to that piece I really want to learn! But when tomorrow comes they do the same thing, never really grasping what it is they can accomplish with scales.

The Exciting Truth About Scales: Empowerment!
That's right, playing scales empowers you! Plain and simple. A huge cause of the frustration of scale playing is that they expose every
flaw in your technique. Who wants their flaws exposed? How do you deal with the frustration of exposed flaws? There's only one way — with honestly. If playing scales exposes flaws, let's face those flaws honestly and dissect them. 100% of the flaws that are exposed here have one root: somewhere there is tension. Tension in the fingers, the hands, the wrist, the elbow, even shoulders or back.

Monitor Thyself
So what can you do to ease this tension? Make an honest assessment of yourself by monitoring every aspect of your technique. There is no reason fingers, hands, or wrists should feel any differently when they are positioned on the guitar, then they did when they were hanging loosely at your sides. Let them hang, and feel it. THEN, bring them up to the guitar again and allow that same feeling of ease.

When playing your scales, honestly and with constancy, monitor yourself for tension. You'll find it somewhere. Deal with it and relax it. Are your fingers really as relaxed as they can be? Is there tension in the back of your hand? Your wrist? Your Elbow? Only you can find it and relax it. Find that part of your brain that will let it go and feel the effortlessness. If I ask you to freely wiggle your fingers away from the guitar, you can do it easily. That is how it should feel when you're fingering the fretboard. Think of the great players you've watched play the guitar. You see a sense of ease even in the most difficult of passages. That's what makes them great players. How do they do it? It sounds like an oxymoron, but it's because they have worked to honestly assess the tension, let it go, and felt the ease. And they did this work S-L-O-W-L-Y. So slowly that they can't possibly make a mistake.

Try it. (Again) S-L-O-W-L-Y. Suddenly, you're overcome with a true lightness of touch that you'd never had before, and feel the real ease that truly empowers you with confidence, ability and certainty. Playing scales in this way enables you to learn what it really feels like to play the guitar well (and easily!).

NOW, armed with that feeling, that sense of tension-free ease, go off and enjoy playing grand pieces! Learn those pieces equipped with the ability and experience that make it easy to play the guitar well, difficult to play it poorly!

(As always, I invite you to write me with any questions or comments concerning this blog. Click here.)

A Great Night for a Great Cause

2008-03-13T09:06:00.006-04:00

I got a letter today in response to a guitar gig I did a few weeks ago along with my sometime partner (and terrific vocalist), Dawn Newsome, written on behalf of the staff and Trustees of the Virginia Living Museum (VLM). The event, the Bacchus Wine and Food Festival, is an annual fundraiser for the VLM. Just approaching their beautiful building in Newport News, widened my eyes, but then walking through the front door gives one that sense of entering into an extraordinary environment. According to VLM Executive Director, Page Hayhurst, "The Museum serves more than 250,000 tourists, family members and school children each year," with "a contribution to the local economy [of] approximately $9 million annually." I can believe it. It truly is a beautiful place, with a fascinating website (linked above). I didn't get to see nearly as much as I plan to on my return trip.

The festival was sold out to 700 attendees this year, the wine was flowing along side a toothsome spread, and smiles were everywhere. On top of all this there was live music(!) played throughout the museum's various rooms. I always enjoy playing in this kind of setting with people simultaneously enjoying the music and all the milieu has to offer. We gave out a ton of business cards, and of course I always like that.

In her letter, Ms. Hayhurst was kind enough to say that our performance "added another delight for our supporters" and that the VLM's development department has "added [our] name to the Museum's recommended entertainment listing." My thanks Ms. Hayhurst, and the staff and Trustees of the VLM. We loved it as much as you did.

"Make Haste Slowly"

2007-12-07T11:20:00.013-05:00

I got an email from a prospective student today with a common problem that many of you may recognize. Here is the original letter (with name changed) and part of my response:

Hi Herb,

Thanks for the reply. I am self taught and been playing for 12 years with all the books and a few lessons. I have been tinkering with Leyenda and Bourre in e minor for years and can do bits and pieces but would love to master them someday.

Ron

Ron,

I know just where you're coming from when you say you know bits and pieces of certain pieces, without learning them in their entirety. I'm just guessing that you've kind of "plateau-ed" in your learning and playing. This happens with a lot of people who study classical guitar and is perfectly normal. I think I can be a lot of help with that. I've been doing straight guitar gigs -- all guitar solos, no singing -- of three to four hours for many years. I did a three hour gig last night with no music in front of me. I don't tell you this to toot my own horn, but only to convey that i know how to learn an entire piece, without the understandable frustration that can build up with practicing a piece over and over without seeing any real progress in learning the entire piece. Honestly, you're just the kind of student I'm looking for.

Sincerely, Herb.

Whether you're playing the classical guitar, or your favorite songs, knowing bits and pieces of music without being able to play them all the way through is a common problem. With all the new instructions, ideas and thoughts that go into programming the brain to learn the motor-memory that it takes to learn an entire piece — oh, and with good hand positioning and technique, keeping it in time and trying to be musical — it's easy to be overwhelmed. When I learn a new piece, I go about it the same way I would if I were a beginner — I play it so slowly that I can't possibly make a mistake. It works every time and has the great added benefit of helping one towards the ideal of total concentration. Once you can do this it's only a matter of speeding up incrementally — but again at a very slow rate. You've probably heard the phrase "Make haste slowly". It certainly applies here. I've tried to learn pieces too quickly before and have always been dogged afterwards with spotty performances of the particular piece. Sometimes when I feel "hot" I may get through it okay, but at other times being sloppy and unsure. Whenever I take the trouble of "making haste slowly", as partially defined above (and as I always do now), I learn much more quickly(!) in the long run, and am much more prepared to pull it off when I have to on a gig. It's a tortoise and hare story. The tortoise wins every time.

Guitar Instruction

2007-11-19T11:35:00.004-05:00

Recently I've had a few people contact me about guitar lessons. I had given guitar lessons in the past but hadn't taught in a number of years, concentrating mainly on practice and performance. I was once a guitar instructor at Tidewater Community College for music majors. A couple of months ago I decided to start taking on students and I've had a great time teaching. So far I've been blessed with students who actually practice and listen to instruction well and I'm seeing great improvement. It has had unforeseen benefits for me as well. My own focus in my playing has improved sharply. It has gotten me to "practice what I preach" and has helped me become a better "practicer" and ergo, a better player.

I think of my style of teaching as intuitive and it is based on teaching students to learn to really focus on what they are doing. It sounds simple, and it is, but how often do we really focus in our day to day lives? It takes practice, but it is applicable to any aspect of life. I recently read an article by web guitar guru Jamie Andreas on what she calls "perfect intention". Perfect Intention, as she describes it is hearing music "being played by someone who is investing every particle of themselves into every note, the totality of their physical, mental, and emotional selves". That's a pretty heady statement and it describes well the kind of focus I'm taking about. If you'd like to read Jamie's full article, click here.

I truly believe that anyone can learn to play guitar and I base my teaching on aiming for this kind of perfect focus and applying it to the guitar. If it has a spillover effect on other aspects of your life, so much the better. Learning the guitar is a lifelong experience. A very fun and rewarding lifelong experience. If you really want to learn to play the guitar and this brief description of my approach appeals to you, I hope you'll contact me.

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