Musical Year in Review

I just took a minute to read my end-of-year post from one year ago today. With the 2013 specifics taken out, that post pretty well summarizes 2014 as well. Playing and seeing music has become my primary interest. It's what I want to do with all my free time. I love my guitars, my mandolin, and my basses. I love them all and play them all. Specific musical highlights from the past year are as follows:

• Rosewood is still more fun than I could have believed possible. We probably averaged a gig per month, and that should continue into 2015.
• Darling Wife's birthday plans for me, starting with the Martin factory tour, and ending at the Nazareth Music Center, made for a very special 50th birthday. It's a day I'll never forget, and the HD-28 still takes my breath away. I'm pretty sure I've played it every single day that I've been home since getting it. I don't think I've ever had a "prized possession" - that is, something you'd run into a burning building to save. I now have one.
• We watched and played music in Ireland!
• The acoustic jam meetups are still a lot of fun - both for the music and for the friendships we've developed. And don't look now, but there's a new meetup we'll be attending on Saturday night.
• The 2014 Phila Folk Fest was another highlight, both for the music and the people we camped and jammed with. We're still fine-tuning things, but we're in for the '15 Fest.
• We saw some fantastic performances. Tommy Emmanuel, Natalie MacMaster, The Mavericks, Nickel Creek, The Steep Canyon Rangers (not to mention countless others at the folk fest.) There's so much good music out there.

As far as goals for 2015, I don't have anything specific - just to keep going on this path. Play as much, and with as many people as possible. Get better on the guitar, the mandolin, and the bass as best I can. See as much good music as possible.

What I'm Working On

I've been writing about instruments and gear and standing up vs. sitting down. But what am I playing and working on?

Flatpicking
(Which just means playing single notes with a pick.) I'm playing scales and bluegrass/fiddle tunes. I'm concentrating on good right-hand (picking hand) technique and playing cleanly. I'm not exactly trying to be a bluegrass guitarist (not that there's anything wrong with that), but they're fun tunes to play, and I feel like they're also good exercises. "Red Haired Boy", "Big Sciota", and "Whiskey Before Breakfast", etc., are just plain fun.

Strumming
I'm playing a while bunch of strumming songs, mostly because they're fun and sound good - but also to work on right-hand technique. I've been working on a bunch of Neil Young songs, because his right hand is like a metronome. "Sugar Mountain", "Heart of Gold", "Old Man", "Like a Hurricane." Also John Mayer's "Daughters", REO Speedwagon's "Time For Me To Fly", and a number of others. Ever since Christmas, I've been playing most of these songs on both 6 and 12 strings.

Fingerpicking
Here's where I'm doing the most learning. With flatpicking and strumming, I'm trying to reinforce good technique and replace decades of bad habits, and polishing things I already know. Fingerpicking is a much more recent thing. Here's what I'm working on now:

• Babe I'm Gonna Leave You: I've had this down pretty well for a little while now, and it's one of my warm-up songs. I like hearing the chord progression, so I'm happy to play it for a bit to warm up the fingers.
• Don't Think Twice It's Alright: Classic Dylan - though I wouldn't really call myself a Dylan fan. It's a fun progression, and I can play it, though maybe not at speed.
• Landslide: The Fleetwood Mac classic, and also a Rosewood staple. It's easier than I thought it would be, and I have it pretty much down.
• Green, Green Rocky Road: Here's where things get challenging. This is the song from Inside Llewyn Davis, a move we all *loved* (both the movie and the soundtrack.) The YouTube lesson, from Dave van Ronk himself, is here. It's the first song I've tackled where the thumb is playing rhythm, and the fingers are playing melody on the treble strings. It initially feels like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time - just impossible. But after maybe 10 days of a *lot* of slow repetition, I can play most of it passably well. This is *very* exciting.
• Windy and Warm: This is a long-term project. I first heard it from Tommy Emmanuel, and later learned that it goes back to Chet Atkins. It's another "thumb and fingers doing different things" song. I can fumble through the main riff kinda/passably well. But, as I say, this is a project. If it progresses, it will be over a period of time.

Seagull 12 String

I've had some bonus money from work burning a hole in my pocket, and also a little Christmas cash. So when Darling Wife asked what I planned to do with it, I told her I was thinking of using part of it on a 12-string guitar. She's often mentioned that she loves the sound of a 12-string, and told me I should do it.

I didn't need to be told twice, and quickly figured out the right one: a Seagull Coastline S12. It's quite inexpensive (as guitars go) and highly rated. Not only that, but this is basically the 12-string version of the Seagull acoustic I already have (that's currently for sale on Craigslist.) It's a fantastic guitar, and sounds like a *much* more expensive instrument than it is. Also (and this is worth a lot in my house) - it's Canadian made, in La Patrie, Quebec. I'm sad to let my 6-string Seagull go, but with a Martin in the house, it's just one 6-string too many.

Santa delivered the Seagull 12 on Christmas Day, and I've been playing it as much as possible ever since. The full shimmery sound you get from is distinctive and very pretty. I've been playing strumming songs pretty much exclusively on the 12.

There's much more I have to learn about a 12. Flatpicking and fingerpicking sound and feel weird. Maybe there's a way to do it...or maybe it's just a strumming guitar. I'll research. But regardless, this is a keeper, and has a place in the rotation.

And now I can officially say that I don't need and don't want any more guitars. (Stop laughing, I'm dead serious. For the moment.)

Pickup in the Mando

Part 2 of my post about getting my babies back from the shop involves the mandolin. I got an L.R. Baggs Radius pickup installed. It was recommended to me both by a friend and by the guy at the shop. It's externally (i.e., non-permanently) mounted, so I could remove it if I wanted to. The pickup is stuck to the surface with a putty, and the cord goes into a small unit that's attached with a bracket.

Darling Wife's initial reaction was, "I don't like the look of it." I don't mind it at all.

The permanent installation option would have been to drill a hole through the end-pin and mount sensors inside the body. Then you would plug in the cord through a socket in the end-pin. But that's (obviously) a much more involved installation process. This was quick and simple.

I plugged it in at the shop to test it, and then again at home. It sounds great - like an amplified mandolin, with nothing else added or subtracted. I can't wait to hear it through the PA.

Most of all, it's good to have the mandolin back in the house. I'd missed playing it.

Standing with the Martin

I got my babies back from the shop today, and I couldn't be more pleased with the work. I mentioned yesterday that I've been standing up all week while playing the Recording King, and had really enjoyed it. Today, now that I had the Martin back with a strap button installed, I would see if I could also play the Martin standing up.

I'll confess now I was a little nervous. It felt so good and natural playing the RK standing up - what if the HD-28 didn't feel as good? It's a bigger-bodied guitar, and maybe too big to stand up with? I tried to reassure myself as I drove home - I've seen countless pictures of countless guitar players standing up playing dreadnaughts, and looking natural and comfortable.

It turned out not to be a problem. I took a leather strap off one of my basses, put it on the Martin, put it on and played it - and it felt *perfect*. So I spent the rest of the day playing - strumming, flatpicking, and fingerpicking. I suppose I could be biased, but you won't convince me it's not the best sounding guitar in the entire history of the world.

In all seriousness, I don't think I will ever play an acoustic guitar without a strap again, whether sitting or standing. As I noted yesterday, all the posture issues of hunching over the guitar simply disappear when you stand up with it. But when I sit down with the strap, the guitar is still in the same position as standing, so the posture issues also disappear then. This is a nice little discovery.

Bonding with the Backup

As mentioned yesterday, I have two babies in the infirmary. (Thankfully, they're ready to be discharged, and I'll bring them home tomorrow.) With no Martin and no mandolin in the house, that means my backup (the recently-acquired Recording King RO-310) has gotten a *lot* of playing time in the past week. I can honestly say that I'm happier than ever with it.

There are some significant differences between it and the Martin. First, it's a smaller-bodied guitar. It's "000" sized, where the HD-28 is a bigger "dreadnaught" style. (A chart of Martin body sizes is here.) That means a different sound, and it's also a difference in feel when you're standing up and playing it.

For the past week, I've been playing exclusively standing up. I started out just to test if I could actually do it - and found out that I not only could, but that I prefer it. I'm aware that my sitting posture holding a guitar isn't great, and standing up with it makes that issue disappear. I also really like being able to walk around while practicing, instead of being rooted to one spot. When I get the Martin back tomorrow, it will have a strap button, so I'll be able to stand with it. But I know the bigger-bodied dreadnaught will feel different, and I'm very curious to see if I'll like it.

Another difference between the guitars is the tone woods. The HD-28 has rosewood back and sides, and I simply *adore* how it sounds. The backup has mahogany back and sides, like the Martin 18 series (D-18, 000-18). It's a good sound too, just different...maybe drier. It's supposedly the tone wood of choice for fingerpicking.

A surprisingly big difference is the nut width. The HD-28 is 1 11/16 inches wide, and the Recording King is 1 3/4. Those are the two most common nut widths. I recently saw a thread on the Acoustic Guitar Forum, asking if you could really tell the difference that 1/16 of an inch makes. My answer is that you definitely can. I noticed right away when I got the RK that it took me a little time to adjust to one guitar after playing the other. My fingers would land just a little bit "off". I wouldn't call it a problem - but I absolutely do notice the difference, and I do have to adjust from one to the other.

So after a week of intensively playing the backup, I'm curious what it will feel like to sit down with the HD-28. And to stand up with it. Stay tuned for a full report.

The Infirmary

My mandolin and my Martin have been in the infirmary (i.e., are in the shop for a few minor modifications) for the past week, and I'm itching to get them back.

The Martin is in for one simple thing: a strap button. Martin doesn't install strap buttons in the factory - I guess enough people want their guitars without. (If you don't know what I mean by a strap button, look at this.) It's possible to attach a strap to the headstock (for example, here), but I'd rather not do that. And I want to play the Martin standing up - hence the trip to the infirmary.

It's a quick and simple operation. I did it last month on the Recording King acoustic I got in September. The part costs a few dollars. You drill one hole (very carefully!), screw it in, and you're done. But I'm sorry, I'm not taking a drill to my Martin. Nope. I want a guy who's done it 100 times to do it. The tech will also give it a check-up and a string change while he has it.

The mando is getting a pickup installed. See the pic at right from Rosewood's latest gig at the bakery. Sandy's been fooling around with the banjo, and we broke out the banjo/mando lineup for the first time in public. (That's our friend Don joining us on the bass.)

I'm playing the mando into a microphone, which is a little awkward. The mic has to be positioned correctly - then I have to stay still to get a constant volume. It would be much easier to have a pickup and just plug into the P.A. I'd hear this unit recommended by people I trust, including the tech at the shop.

Again, this is something I could probably order online and install myself - what I like about this pickup is that it doesn't involve permanent modifications to the instrument (i.e., drilling holes and installing something inside). But I'd rather someone with experience do the job, so it will be right the first time.

I'm excited, and am looking very forward to getting my babies back and testing the mods.

Mandolin in Ireland

I'm so far behind in blogging that I'll never catch up. And I'm not even going to try. It's not that there's nothing going on - just the opposite, there's so much going on that I don't know where to start. All my recent blogging effort has gone toward documenting our Ireland trip - and thankfully, I can now say that's complete. So it's back to writing about music.

I mentioned in my last post that I decided to take the mandolin to Ireland. That turned out to be the right choice. A number of people brought acoustic guitars, and they took up a lot of space in the airplane overhead compartments and in the bus. I'm glad I had my nice little easy-to-stow mando.

A couple of nights in the hotel bar, people got their instruments out for a jam session, and they were some of the funnest moments we had there. We were given a back area in the bar, and there were 5-6 musicians (plus a number of our tour-mates listening and enjoying pints of Guinness and Irish coffees.) I had my mandolin, there was a fiddler, and everyone else had guitars. We went around in a circle picking songs, and I've progressed far enough on mando to be able to follow the chords on most songs.

We were given a list of jigs, reels, and fiddle tunes to learn for the trip, and I always picked one of these when it was my turn. It was fun and sounded great, with the mando and the fiddle playing melody while the guitars played the accompaniment.

The other mando highlight was on the steps of Slane Castle. The band played one song at the end of our castle tour (as the castle is the site of a huge annual rock concert), and they invited all the musicians on the trip to join in. Don told me to grab his mando (as he was playing his guitar), and we played Whiskey in the Jar.

Oh, and of course I now have an "Ireland" sticker on my mando case.