Bill Jones Music Studio

Guitar Pro 6

2011-12-28T19:41:00.001-08:00

I asked for guitar Pro 6 for Christmas, and I got it! For those of you who are not familiar with this software, it can be found at the following web location: Guitar Pro Website

I've been searching the web for locations where I can download guitar Pro 6 files. The best site located so far is GPROTAB.NET. The content of files on this site are to be used for private study, scholarship or research only.

As I listen to these songs, I realize that some of these recordings are recorded using a keyboard as an input device rather than a guitar. This sent me down the trail of looking for an “audio to MIDI” conversion device that would allow for guitar input into a program such as guitar Pro 6. One of the best devices that I discovered was the Sonuus Midi Product, the i2M Musicport Signal Converter (see AMAZON). I foresee this device going on my next years’ Christmas list!

For copyrighted songs, the place to go is mySongBook. It's discussed at the guitar Pro website as well. These are professionally done guitar Pro files that have paid their just due royalty fees. They can be downloaded for a price. As I listened to a few demos, it became apparent that they were using a real guitar for input of the guitar parts. They probably are using the new Sonuus device mentioned above.

What am I going to use the software for? While it's nice to use this software to learn popular songs, I also find it quite useful for practicing guitar chords and scales. These types of files are not copyrighted and are available at many guitar TAB web sites. Also, I'll probably use the software to document my own songwriting.

Check it out! It's pretty cool.

Performing “Sing Along Christmas” at Zion Lutheran

2011-11-27T18:29:00.001-08:00

Will be performing at the Women of Faith Christmas Dinner this week. Singing and playing guitar, the program will include: Mary Did You Know by Mark Lowry, One Small Child by David Meece, as well as several traditional Christmas songs for all to sing along with….
Zion Lutheran Church on Facebook
http://www.zionlutherantippcity.org/

The gig bag book of scales for all guitarists

2011-11-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

Compiled and edited by Joe Dineen and Mark Bridges
copyright 1997 by Amsco publications
Can be purchased at Guitar Center
Started working with this book the other day. I was using a combination of playing scales on my guitar and recording audio files in Cubase. Once the scale was recorded, you can then loop what you recorded and play that scale over and over again. An interesting alternative is to play the scale starting the third off of where the recorded note starts. This generates thirds and forces you to become more familiar with the various fingerings. Scales will help build finger strength as well.

10 PICKING POINTERS

2011-05-01T18:46:00.001-07:00

right-hand muting -- an example would be if you're playing power cords on the 654 strings and you do not want the 123 strings to sound, they can be silenced by resting the rest side of your right-hand palm on them.
right-hand staccato -- the idea here is to use the pick to mute the string. Here's an example, using an open string try to shorten each note without speeding up. This is done by bringing the pick to rest on that string just before you strikes again.
movement from the wrist -- this recommendation confuses a lot of people. Basically when they say the pick from the rest they're actually referring to a forearm motion not a up-and-down wrist motion. but just keep in mind, that you don't want into motion with the fingers or with the elbow.
dynamics -- this word means to play louder and softer and can be achieved by striking the string harder or easier. A good exercise would be to play a steady series of notes, striking the fourth note a little harder to assist in keeping your tempo
tone -- picking near the bridge is a bright metallic sound but picking near to the neck gives a warm jazz the sound.
approach -- use alternate picking. This allows for faster picking technique as well as helping you stay in rhythm and on beat.
timing -- speaking of the beat, it's always good to play with a drummer. This can be either MIDI files, your favorite metronome, are just tapping your foot.
versatility -- The most common flatpicking method uses strict alternate strokes (down, up, down, up); however, some players opt for a less
articulated effect, where the picked note is followed by hammer-ons or pull-offs. . There are many other types of picking styles. One is called country style were use both the pic and your finger. Another style is called two-handed tapping. Be comfortable in switching between these styles.
dimension -- picks come in all sizes and dimensions. Make sure you find one that fits your playing style. I would suggest experimenting with different shapes and thicknesses until you find one that feels just right for you.
practice -- set aside time in your day to practice. You'd be surprised at how much better you will become my focusing on picking techniques exclusively.

Here are my recommendations for programs that help build picking techniques:

Guitar Pro 5

Here are my recommendations on books that describe picking techniques at a much more detailed level. These books will take you to that next level of playing skill that you are looking for

Speed Picking - Frank Gambale (Paperback)

Back In The Studio–Playing with Pitch Correct

2011-02-01T13:41:00.001-08:00

The plug-in “Pitch Correct” automatically detects, adjusts and fixes light pitch and intonation inconsistencies in monophonic vocal and instrumental performances in real time. Steinberg Cubase 5 has a plug-in that is a real blast to use. I was running a few experiments today.
My first experiment was to open up two vocal tracks. Using pitch correct, I set the controls to C major, and sang a familiar tune I then went to the next vocal track and sang harmony to that familiar tune. Pitch correct forced the harmony to stay in tune and in the correct key.
My second experiment was to do a full song . The song was "My Bonnie lies over the Ocean". My goal was to sing in perfect pitch. I recorded the guitar and the melody line at the same time. Of course, I had pitch correct on my voice. The key was G major. Pitch correct has the ability to be set at a strong level or at a more moderate level. This makes the adjustments to the voice less mechanical.
When I get better at using this plug-in I'll release a public domain song on MySpace. It really does force you to sing in tune.
Bill

Got Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 for Christmas

2010-12-27T18:15:00.000-08:00

Technorati Tags: Software,Dragon Naturally Speaking,Christmas

I got the program for Christmas that allows you to talk your blogs. Not real sure what I want to talk about but it sure is a lot faster to type it! I hope to get back to blogging about music composition as well is my own recording studio creations.

My last gig went well on Christmas Eve. I sang without microphones or amplifiers. It felt really strange singing out into the open space of the church, it felt like I was singing into a pillow. Feedback from the family in the congregation was that it was plenty loud enough.

Well, just wanted to try out the new Christmas toy. It seems to work very very well. In fact, since I trained it just a few minutes ago, it has only made two word errors. The software really is quite amazing. Merry Christmas to all.

Bill

Singing and playing guitar prior to Christmas eve service

2010-12-02T16:56:00.001-08:00

Just got asked by the choir director at Zion Lutheran church to sing a few minutes before Christmas Eve service. I haven't picked out the songs yet but I am planning on bringing a microphone and my amplifier so I won't get drowned out by the larger than normal crowds.

Bill

An Example of Song Form or Why are Templates a Good Thing

2010-11-27T19:06:00.001-08:00

Once the VERSE background is established then you can copy the harmonic part/bass part to VERSE_B and layer on a fresh lead guitar. Next, a good CHORUS is created and then duplicated to the second occurrence of CHORUS. The BREAK is always difficult to create because it must fit the style of the song and yet give a break to repeating melodies in the VERSE and CHORUS sections. The INTRODUCTION and END are normally melodic variations of the VERSE. A lot of times, it’s easier to just use fade in and fade out for the intro/end.

What Makes Templates a Good Thing?

Why should you use templates? Well, it’s as simple as this. When you come into the studio you are excited to create something. If you have to establish a song form, find drum tracks the complement each other, and establish which instruments you will use your enthusiasm will be gone. If you don’t have any zip in your step, your creativity will be over and a song will not be created. With templates, a song can go from idea to posted on MySpace in just a few hours. And it will be fun also!

Cubase Studio Notes: Adding Inserts to the Stereo Out Bus

2010-11-27T19:05:00.001-08:00

Cubase Studio 5.5 comes with a project assistant utility. This is a series of templates. One of those templates was for mastering your final mix-down files. I am use to using an external program for mix down but wanted to see what I could do inside the primary Digital audio workstation (DAW). Well, when the template opened up it also opened audio plug-ins for Stereo Enhancer and VST Dynamics. I normally attached this to inserts associated with each track but this was different. They were linked to the Stereo Out Bus. I could not find how they were attached. After much reading I finally discovered that they are attached inside the MIXER utility. Just go to the “E” button on the far right and that lets you access the VST Output Channel Settings. Here you can add inserts for all audio flowing out of the Stereo Out Bus.

Uploaded New Instrumental Song to MySpace/BillJonesMusicStudio - “It’s My Blues”

2010-11-27T19:04:00.001-08:00

I just recorded and uploaded a new instrumental song to www.MySpace/BillJonesMusicStudio called “It’s My Blues”. I was experimenting with my noise canceling headphones. They allowed me to hear much better and set the input equalizers for my guitar sound to be much more balanced and leveled. The song is the typical 12 bar blues pattern with variation. The break section goes to the IV chord to setup a nice return back to the tonic and a repeat of the theme developed in the first 12 bars of the song. Lots of jazz chords of course, was using A minor, D9, B13b9, E11, and other transitions chords… melody “chords” are used in several places. All is improvised with just a few takes. Creation time was approximately 2 hours.

The song fits my mood for the week as well. It has been a very blue week at work with lots of stress. Thank goodness for my studio to distract me. Hope you all enjoy the song…

Bill