That's right, not just another pretty face with a guitar website - also a workin' musician. The Katz head into jam #20 tomorrow at Oasis in Place Concorde (Windsor, Ontario, Canada). We JumpKatz host the thing, and what a blast it's been since last fall, and going strong. Every week features a different guest who wails with us - tomorrow it's vocalist Kim Atherton.

You wanna see Guitar-eze action all afternoon, that's where I'll be.

It's s'posed to be a blues jam, but lord knows we stretch the limits a titch (or two). With a 300 song repertoire, 12-bar alone would be a little confining. But we have lots of great players (blues and otherwise) show up every week, so it's never a dull moment. Last week positively rocked with Brian Smith on harp and vox, Dave Williams on keys, Dave Whitehead (Keef Riffhard), oh man, some of the combos up there were hot. Also lots of sax players tend to show up so if you're a lover of horns come on out. I always get to throw in a little slide guitar which is fun even though I hold the guitar a bit too low to really be effective.

The week before (Superbowl Sunday) was extra-neat because guest Tom Lockwood and I both brought National Steel acoustics for some howlin' acoustic slide guitar. Tom specially tuned down to open-F for me so I could sing easier... What a night that was, football and all.

Got an article published which extolls the virtues of open tuning in general and Guitar-eze in particlular.  Jump to Guitar-eze - the Easier Way to Play Guitar - Really. It tells it all.

 

Say hi in our guest book and leave a comment.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, if you haven't noticed I'm keeping an off site blog also - it's a more general promotion of open-D and other open guitar tunings for that matter.  Find it at http://open-d.blogspot.com  .  Later.

To Cin, who signed the guest book, but hasn't yet taken the plunge on Guitar-eze - I've checked hundreds of sites and their "free" lessons.  Some are okay, I guess - some I don't get at all - how is watching a guy strum and sing a song a "lesson"?

 

I guess some of the whiz-bang online effects are okay, but the key is - guitar can and should be SIMPLE - that's right - SIMPLE.  Why these sites that purport simplicity and ease have to look so complicated is beyond me.  Tabs especially freak me out, to be honest.  One thing about Guitar-eze from www.easierguitar.com , it's designed to be easy. 

 

Especially if you've already had some exposure to guitar.  If you have that "hold the guitar like this" stuff down... if you know the staff and the names of notes... making the flip to open-D will be a breeze.  Even if you don't Guitar-eze is pretty darn simple - you're playing a major chord right away - you can see the triad right at your fingertips - you can build new chords from that major base.

 

Guitar-eze is a beautiful thing!

 

Talk to all of y'all over the weekend - and keep those comments comin'.

I’m on a mission.  To convert. 

 

To convert guitar players and aspiring guitar players to open-D.  It’s the tuning so important to guitar in the last number of decades, but too often, so overlooked by the mainstream.  Standard tuning has a stranglehold on the business of learning guitar.  The reason, to me, remains unclear. 

 

As a starting point, an open tuning is clearly the logical choice.  What easier way to begin to play guitar, but with an open, major chord?  How much more confidence could an aspiring guitarist (of any age, but more on that later) need than to be able to play a nice sounding chord without putting finger to fret?  That’s what you get when you start with an open tuning.

 

My personal story went like this.  Frustrated novice guitar player (“novice” for years on end!).  Gets nowhere with guitar for years.  Does research (i.e. reads guitar magazines).  Realizes many of the greats played in alternate tunings (K. Richard, J. Mitchell, E. James, R. Johnson, R. Cooder, J. Page, etc, etc.).  Re-tunes guitar until he finds one that works – open-D.  Presto!  Light bulb comes on, a better guitar player is hatched.

Open tunings are mentioned, frequently enough, in magazines articles, transcriptions, books and the like.  But very seldom or never have I seen an outright promotion of their use as a stand-alone approach to guitar (my god, even Keith switches to standard tuning every now and again!).  And open-D, the most logical of all starting points, is rarely mentioned at all.  I have yet, in 20+ years of public performance, have anyone come up to me and say – “How about that – you play just like I do, in open-D”.  People do come up, but the comments are almost always, “You sure use some funny chord positions” or “Are you playing in a different tuning”.  Amazingly, many guitar players associate “open tuning” with “more difficult”.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Sure, to make the transition from standard tuning is a bit of a learning curve, but once you’re there, POW!  You’ll never want to play any other way (although just adding proficiency on an open tuning to your standard tuning is a giant leap).

 

Which brings us back to beginners.  No matter what the age, a beginner, whether 6 or 60 years old will find open-D an easier way to start playing guitar.  It is so obvious.  Focus on the strum without any fingers on the fretboard, and then work your way up to one finger on the fretboard (the basic major chord in open-D is just one finger).  What a way to develop early confidence.  The truth is, and I am living proof, you would never have to make the flip to standard tuning.  But if you wanted to, it’s just small tweak up to standard – sort of drop-D tuning with three other minor adjustments back and forth, to and from standard E A D G B E, to D A D F#   D.

 

One question that arises – why open-D, then, of all the potential starting points?  The absolute simplest choice may be, for easier understanding of theory, keys and harmony might be open-C   C G C E G C, but that gets a tad floppy sounding, as the guitar strings are so slackened.  Going the other way to open-E     E  B  E  G#  B  E might be going too far the other way, though it’s used.  Open-D seems the perfect choice!  For singers wanting to accompany themselves, of course, it becomes an issue of vocal range tied to the guitar tuning.  A capo may be in order.

 

I’m such a fervent believer in open-D, I’ve written a book – Guitar-eze A Simpler Approach to Playing Guitar, with a companion Chord Book, as well as a website http://www.easierguitar.com and a blog http://open-d.blogspot.com dedicated to helping guitarists and aspiring guitarists see the light.  Who knows?  Maybe some day open-D will be known as “standard tuning”.

Post-Valentines and if you've had enough gooey chocolate and flowers, well - so have I.

 

People are finding us and our guest book which is cool.  Keep those comments comin'.

 

One thing I hope we get from Guitar-eze is some "players" - it's great to introduce open tuning to newbies, but for someone who already knows a bit of guitar, Guitar-eze is a real eye-opener.  That and singers - guys/gals, I'm tellin' ya, you want to play along to yer singin', there's no better way.  Just ask J. Mitchell (well she's all over the place but mainly, I understand, open-E which is just a capo away from our open-D base.

 

Any thoughts? e-mail

 

Oh yeah, our former site guitar-eze.com is disabled though you may find it still in searches.  Trying to have it directed here to www.easierguitar.com