Acoustic live performance

Here's an acoustic improvisational performance with a few riffs and melodies from standards. Thanks for listening and enjoy. Performed 11/22/2020 in the afternoon.

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/1722193324618661

Student becomes Le Better

So my buddy just got back from Coachella and said he had a blast. He said he spent a lot of time playing ukulele and when we jammed today with both of us on guitars he was significantly better. He can actually jam with me and improvise (albeit at a beginners level). The fact that he can keep playing and jam for extended periods of time without running out of ideas or getting hand cramps means he's made an important milestone in his guitar playing. I want him to work on songs too. He's been doing Sum 41's With You on uke and the first little short tune I showed him how to play on guitar was the Adventure Time Theme.

Pretty cool that he can jam out now. I was doing a lot of jazz stuff based around his improv. I also did a lot of chromatic stuff based on jazz harmony changes and it sounded really good. I think he underestimates the fact that he can jam a lot better now. Now we just need the bass player (our friend) to actually play the bass sometime. 

I've been talking to a drummer and and a guitar player about doing some collaboration. I also want to work with my former band's singer on stuff. He's in New York but I was thinking I could just send him tracks and have him do the production end of everything.

The good thing is that my friend is getting better which means I might have somebody to play music with. it also shows that my teaching has had good results. There's a chance that he could surpass me one day on the guitar. I better keep up my chops! Haha.

Exciting! 

Accepting my role as a guitar teacher

So I've been working with my friends day after day it seems like on teaching them guitar. I think I'm coming to terms that I'm now a guitar teacher to about 3 different people right now. I'm teaching two friends guitar on their acoustics and one other friend bass. At first I wasn't really down because I noticed nobody was practicing but now I see that they're more motivated to play everyday. I told them that they need to play everyday even if its only 15 minutes a day, that will still make you 15 minutes better than if you didn't play.

It's pretty hard teaching 3 almost complete beginners. Now that I'm taking it more seriously I'm thinking about creating lesson plans. One of them is super serious and wants to come over everyday to play. He has the most potential as a band member and collaborator but I'm interested in working with all of them because they're my super good friends. The whole band thing wasn't as serious as it is now, its taken a super long time to get to this level.

But yeah teaching is rough. In the beginning they struggle with basic things like C major chord at the nut, barre chords, and scales. I'm having my friend come over tomorrow to work on stuff and I'm thinking I should have some kind of work out plan.

For example I could show him minor pentatonic scale (in A minor, 5th position, seems easiest there), folkie chords at the nut (C major, G major, D major-Adventure Time Theme), and finger exercises. I think if he could learn and understand all that in a few hours that should give him more to practice. So far he's been working on a Red Hot Chili Peppers song that is way too difficult for him. I don't want to discourage him but at the same time I think having him work on something difficult is in a way making him practice. Maybe I'll look up some easy Beatles song or something, something that uses all folkie chords at the nut. That might give him more of an incentive to practice more, if he has an actual song to play over and over.

It's an added responsibility and at first I wasn't too down for it because I have to teach and I'm not getting paid to do it. But in the long run I'd have band members and musical collaborators. It all depends on how fast they can become good. I feel like my friend that comes over a lot is going to improve pretty quickly. He understands somewhat in that he can find notes that sound pleasing using his ear. The other guys have to work at it harder. His music tastes are more alt rock, classic rock than the other guys who are mostly only interested in metal music, core to be exact. So it makes sense that his ear is more developed.

But yeah teaching guitar is hard, exhausting. I'm suppose to be having fun jamming but instead I'm teaching these dudes the finer points of guitar playing and musical comprehension. Fun. Maybe I should consider becoming a real guitar teacher and getting paid for it? Like working for a music store or teaching in my backyard? Just an idea for now. We'll have to see if my students become anything first. Then I'll know that I'm talented as a teacher as well as a player.

I feel like all my teachers were mostly online players. Most of the guitar teachers I had were usually too strict or too focused on music theory for my tastes. I prefer to play a lot, sometimes just jamming and improvising mostly and there's a lot of teachers especially jazz teachers that will teach you a lot of jive-things that are just not important at all and instead you can just focus on playing the songs and finding your style. That's not to say that a great educated teacher is bad, in fact you should always have one if you're a serious musician but at some point you learn technique and basic fundamentals of music theory. I'm not on the same harmonic level as a classical trained musician but I can understand jazz chord progressions and stuff.