Funky Fingerstyle Guitar
Since the original 2009 post is outdated, I have made 2 NEW walkthrough videos showing how I do my process. Check these newer videos out, and be sure to get the current “7 recording tools” cheat sheet.
ORIGINAL 2009 POST:
Hey friends! After several requests, I figured I’d write this once so that it is easily accessible, and hopefully will save at least one of you some hours of frustration.
Since the original 2009 post is outdated, I have made 2 NEW walkthrough videos showing how I do my process. Check these newer videos out, and be sure to get the current “7 recording tools” cheat sheet.
ORIGINAL 2009 POST:
Hey friends! After several requests, I figured I’d write this once so that it is easily accessible, and hopefully will save at least one of you some hours of frustration.
Since the original 2009 post is outdated, I have made 2 NEW walkthrough videos showing how I do my process. Check these newer videos out, and be sure to get the current “7 recording tools” cheat sheet.
ORIGINAL 2009 POST:
Hey friends! After several requests, I figured I’d write this once so that it is easily accessible, and hopefully will save at least one of you some hours of frustration.
Since the original 2009 post is outdated, I have made 2 NEW walkthrough videos showing how I do my process. Check these newer videos out, and be sure to get the current “7 recording tools” cheat sheet.
ORIGINAL 2009 POST:
Hey friends! After several requests, I figured I’d write this once so that it is easily accessible, and hopefully will save at least one of you some hours of frustration.
Greetings Friends.
I am writing you from my little home in Jackson Heights, New York. I have been home for about a month and in case you didn’t know – it is always quite a whirldwind of “settling down” after touring for 6 weeks. It’s so exciting to travel, meet new people and play so much music that well….coming home – at least at first – kinda sucks.
However, there is hope. 🙂
It’s funny, the barometer the world and language puts on things. Since I got to play with Tommy Emmanuel on the tour, I got many compliments, many supportive happy emails from friends and fans happy for my successes and ever evolving career and adventures in music. And, I can beat my chest and tell em all that I sold a bunch of CD’s too 🙂
Here’s the part that is funny: no single event makes me happy, really. I found the video below and realized when I heard it, that yes – happiness inside me springs up without a cause.
I know, it is counter intuitive. But – the gigs, the success, is not where real happiness comes from. In fact, it can lead to suffering if I don’t deal with it properly.
In retrospect, quite often I have found myself walking down the street. Or on a set break on a gig, I am just simply, happy. Clinging to “events” like articles, tours, performances, money – can actually lead to unhappiness if one develops a “clingyness” to them.
It’s easy and typically human to think that “when I have this great stuff happen, I am happy – which must mean that when I don’t have it I’m not”. I.e. – we tend to think the causes of happiness are outside ourselves, rather than inside.
The subtlety of this ego trip can be much like a child after opening the last present on Christmas morning; the gifts didn’t really make the kid (you) happy if he feels disappointed that there are no more gifts! It can actually be very disappointing on Christmas morning to hear “that’s all there is” when you want more.
On tours as people shower me with praise after a gig I must ask myself in that moment, and often do – “what about this is making me so happy? Is this an addiction?” – not to blow it off, but just to watch myself, my reactions and my compulsions.
It might looks like my “gig” is guitar playing but the real “gig” in life is to see reality clearly without an ego distortion.
Adyashanti on Causless Happiness:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpHBgWqchxM]
I find that my true joy, the true pleasure , happiness, and upliftment comes from simply listening, watching, breathing – whether I am on a gig or not. It sneaks up on me when I least expect it. It is not really based on outer things. Bliss can happen in the checkout aisle at the grocery store for cryin’ out loud!
Confused? Don’t be. Go for a walk in nature and just let happiness sneak up on you!
Friday was a real highlight and milestone for me, musically, career wise and personally. I got to perform with maybe the most beloved and incredible guitarist alive, Tommy Emmanuel. But performing with him was but one final moment in a day where we got to know each other and become friends. I got to absolutely re-live the thrill of being a kid and taking guitar lessons! A true friendship and mentor/protege relationship was set into motion. Most guitarists would give anything for this rare wonderful opportunity that I have had.
At 9:30 am, Tommy jumped into the hotel lobby and just embraced me with a big bear hug. “How ya doin’ brotha!!!” he said with his Aussie twang. We had a few laughs and I was cautious to let him unwind, but no…he asked me immediately up to his room. In a matter of seconds he showed me his guitar and played for me. It was like youtube came to life 12 inches away from my face. My jaw hung open. And, it was interesting to see what he packed, how he packed…after all he is THE road dog.
We went downstairs and had lunch and talked about more…relationships, road strain, but most importantly – communicating to an audience through music. He’s so passionate about this stuff! I bounced ideas off of him, and over lunch he gave me lots of great advice, especially this – “what other people think of you is none of your business!”. He’s describing the strength to forge ahead with one’s mission and not even think about others approval.
He took me back to the hotel room after lunch for rehearsal. I suggested “Tenderly” which we played together on the concert. Tommy was very specific about how I should accompany him, and showed me ways to get the melody to sing more. As he got the melody to sing he says “brother, that’s the difference between 80 or 800 in your audience!” We fooled around playing “On Broadway” and then, I just had to ask him about his tunes. We played “The Hunt” together and he was cracking up as we did it! Then we played “Tall Fiddler” and on both tunes he showed me spots I did not quite have 100% right.
We left for soundcheck and here is where I got to see his sheer mastery. He brought me over to his stage setup, which was so much simpler than one could imagine, and plugged in. I stood 2 feet away in the empty theater. From the first note, BOOM it sounded stellar and he just looked at me and said “no time to screw around, I want a sound and I want it NOW!” and cackled with laughter. I got a mini concert right there, just him playing for me and it was ridiculously…well, Tommy, right there 2 feet away, kickin ass, just like in concert.
Backstage, he said I’d come up after “Mombasa” his guitar percussion feature. Here’s where it turns into the guitarists hilarious LSD nightmare. You are backstage listening to Tommy play in front of 1400 people, just the most incredible stuff you’ve heard in your life….and then you realize that you have to follow up and play after him. I sat backstage and laughed at the sheer madness of it. Thank God for all the gigs in my life where I actually was nervous, because this was so ridiculous, all I could think was “well you wanted it, now you got it. Time to make music!”
As he called me out, there was nothing short of love, support and a grand introduction. Once I got on stage, all was cool…I performed “Superstition” and “Chameleon” and rocked out as hard as I could. I think the people really dug it.
Tommy then joined me for “Tenderly” which I heard the playback of about an hour ago – and it was MAGIC.
It could not have gone better! To have the opportunity, visibility and recognition of playing for and with Tommy is a real “name booster” in the guitar scene, but add to the mix that I got yet another music master to take me under his wing….that makes it a double whammy! Thank you God, Universe, Source!!! And thank you Tommy!
Pictures, videos and audio clips will be posted as soon as they are processed by the concert promoter, but thankfully it was all captured in HD and great digital audio as well.
I am smiling right now! Until next time…
– Adam
Greets friends! I finally have a quiet peaceful moment here in Cologne, Germany. The past 2 weeks have been loaded up with a combination of solo concerts, festival gigs with award winning vocalist Sabine Kuehlich, and 3 recording sessions for our upcoming duo album, tentatively titled “Girl Meets Guitar”.
If you have read any of my posts, you’ll know by now that I am fascinated by the mind & spirit. And while it has become quite “pop” to mention the movie “The Secret” I have spent time investigating the individuals interviewed in the movie.
Since discovering affirmation & visualization techniques I have literally watched my own life unfold in amazement as the visions of my mind pour out into the material world and become “real”. (Actually the vision is just as real, but this way others can see it, and hey it’s fun to materialize stuff!)
Now one of my big questions is “am I thinking big enough?” Why do I ask this? Because I watch in amazement at some of the achievements of others – and no, this is not a “keeping up with the Jones’ ” type thing – it is an inquiry to see how much better I could do.
A few days ago I met a man named Peter Finger. (He’s a guitar player – great name, huh?). Peter not only a fabulous player but he runs the record label “Acoustic Music” which will be putting out the new duo CD.
Peter gave us the tour of the “Acoustic Music” building in Osnabruck, Germany. I eyeballed the building, and thought silently to myself about the vision and imagination required for what he was about to present.
So, in short – he runs a successful record company, plays about 15 concerts a month himself, has a world class recording studio in the building, runs a guitar magazine, organizes the “Open Strings” festival, has a concert stage & series throughout the year, has a guitar shop in the building – and oh by the way, he builds his own guitars too.
WHEW!!!! The lesson I received was – THINK BIG! How much bigger can I think? Are my limits real or imagined?
I was literally in shock for a day wondering how one person could do all this – but all of these accomplishments start as visions or ideas. This was an inspiration of what is possible with a big broad vision!!
So are you shooting for the moon, or are you just shooting for “down the street”? Are you going for it or just getting by? It’s time for all of us to think bigger and bigger, and set fulfilling goals.
Until next time…
Funny, over the last few years making music got more easy, more fun, and my fans like what I am putting out there more than ever. What the heck happened?
I couldn’t put my finger on whatever I had realized and still can’t fully do so, but I saw a youtube vid the other day that may help explain it.
The video was called “where mind meets matter” by Dr. Bruce Lipton. It is a 17 part vid that everyone should watch (yep, a long playlist) but the crux of what he talks about is that Newtons “mechanistic” model of the universe is not 100% on the money.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB81L9zGLjE&hl=en&fs=1]
What is the mechanistic view, and what does it have to do with music?
Well, there came this old notion that the universe and our bodies are like watches or machines, that can be taken apart, the gears & springs can be looked at, replaced, repaired and put back together.
Well, life is not that simple we are finding. Spirit defies that in certain ways. The magic of the parts blending and springing forth from source is something far more utterly complex than an “assemblage of separate parts” working like a machine. Modern day medicine and new ideas of healing are on a more quantum level than a mechanistic level.
I always wondered as a music student about melodies written by master composers. One note, two notes, three notes – and bang! It could be Mozart without a doubt. Something invisible, some binding force behind the notes is evident in the spirit behind the music. Take the notes apart and you can’t find the spirit – much like a human body.
Here are some ways I have discovered this recently in music:
– Recording my new CD. One or two (or three) songs were heavily edited, several takes pasted together (I am sorry to say). While they are correct and beautiful, they do not possess the “life” of a take played straight through with some rough edges made smooth. Different feeling altogether, at least for me.
– I’d always feel out of whack musically if I practiced just technique or just scales or just one aspect of music in a disconnected way. Any technique or idea MUST be practiced in conjunction with the “life force” and joy (groove) in the music otherwise it doesn’t apply in real music
– Techniques fall into place if you make the life force the primary objective! (Beauty, groove, melody)
Music reflects life and life reflects music. Now I see why my greatest teachers (and Bach by the way) insisted on musical, loving, spiritual solutions to problems. Mike Longo my teacher would tell me “your answer is technically correct, but not spiritually correct”. He’d show me musical things that would make me laugh from deep in my belly and tickle my intuition! 🙂
Of course intelligence and technique must be learned, but in the right way – in a way that connects to spirit!
More to come on this fascinating topic!
