May Special

I've decided to continue last month's special is "camp" guitars.  These guitars are being discounted because they are used or have minor cosmetic damage to them.  Nicks, scratches, small dings, things that impact the look of the guitar, not the way it plays or sounds.

We have three guitars available and in stock.  All three play well and sound good, and since they're a little damaged, you don't have to worry about taking your "good" guitar to the camp or cottage.

So if you're looking to get an inexpensive guitar for the camp or cottage, or just want a low priced guitar to learn on, come in and see our selection.

Women's Class

I have been requested to teach a class for women only, and have agreed to do so.  The class is scheduled for Wednesday, May 16^th at 6:30pm.  Women only!  Those interested in attending, please contact the store to confirm.  The class will be free, I'm just looking to get an idea of how many might attend.  Those who will be attending are asked to bring an acoustic guitar.  Do not worry if you don't have one, I have several that can be used.

If your guitar has not seen use in a while, I would request you come early so I can look it over and restring it or make adjustments prior to the start of the class.  The class is going to be roughly an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half in length with refreshments afterwards.

For more information, contact us at the store via email or at 902-637-1691.

Jam Sessions

The acoustic jam for April had very low attendance, but that can be explained by the approach of that large wind storm we had at that time.  I believe that May's jams should be better.  The electric jam was well attended as usual.

Sorry... there are no photos for the last two jams.  We'll get back into the pictures this month.  Additionally, we're thinking of video taping some or all the jam for web publication.  If anyone has any issues with this, please let us know.

The current schedule is as follows:

Acoustic:

            May 6th

            June 10th

Electric:

            May 20th

            June 24th

Tell your friends, and invite them out to a jam session.  Come out yourself and bang away on your fiddle, learn something new and meet new friends and players.

Pictures are available for viewing on the BBM website at http://www.barringtonbaymusic.com/jams_gallery.html (we are looking into the possibility of video taping a jam, and placing the video on the website in the future as well.)

Guitar Chops

I've had a request from one of the readers to introduce music and techniques for our brothers (and sisters) on the low end: bassists.  This is not a simple task, while guitar and bass share similar tunings, they are very different beasts and the techniques for either don't always translate in the way you'd expect.  I have found that bassists are required to know (consciously or unconsciously) more about scales than is necessary for guitarists, especially those like me who play mostly rhythm.  Bearing this in mind (and my own desire to play more lead) I'm going to brave the depths of scales and do my best to support those of you on the low end.

At the electric jams I've noticed that there's a bit of unfocused energy, a lot of random playing, until someone hits upon a riff or song that others know, then it's jammed on for a while.  I, myself, am just as much to blame as any.  However, it seems to me that everyone should be able to jam on some blues styled music.  Does this mean you have to like the blues?  No.  It just means that you should know some blues basics, and you probably do without even knowing you know.  Most modern rock, punk, and metal is blues influenced.  Clapton, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, all of these bands and more started with blues riffs that became rock or metal anthems.  AC/DC is STILL heavily blues influenced.

So this lesson is going to be sort of a combination guitar and bass lesson.

BLUES BASICS

Let's start with some blues and blues scale basics.

Starting in the Key of C which has no sharps or flats (I'll explain Keys at a later date), we have the musical alphabet of:

C D E F G A B C

Starting with C as 1, D is 2, E is 3, etc.  Blues is based around the root note ("C") and the fourth ("F") and fifth ("G") above it.  This applies to the blues no matter what Key you are actually playing in.  If we say we want to start on "G" as the root our fourth and fifth notes are "C" and "D".  While most players are familiar with these three chords, it should be easy to build a blues progression with them.

The most common and probably simplest form of Blues is called "12-bar Blues", for the simple reason that there are 12 bars of it before it starts over.  Starting with a 4/4 time (4 beats per bar), our blues pattern looks like this:

G/G/G/G/C/C/G/G/D/C/G/G (each letter is equal to 4 strums or beats) then repeat.  So to further explain, there are 4 "G"s at the start, each "G" is going to be strummed 4 times before moving to the next "G", so you are going to play "G" 16 times before moving to the "C". 

BLUES SCALES

Using the G/C/D progression from above requires that we learn a couple of scales.  The "G" Minor Pentatonic and the "G" Blues Scale.  These two are very similar with the exception of one additional note in the Blues Scale.

The word Minor refers to flattening the third note, or playing it a half step (one fret lower) than would be normal in a Major scale.  Pentatonic is taken from "penta" (Latin for 5 - think pentagram), tonic for tones, so Pentatonic is 5 tones or notes.

G A B C D E F G

G Major Pentatonic is based on the root, plus the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th notes, making a G Major Pentatonic: G/B/C/D/F then starting over at G again 

| 1 | | | |

1 2 1 | 1 1 3rd fret (the numbers refer to the finger to play the note with)

| | | 2 | |

| 4 3 3 | |

| | | | 4 |

G Minor Pentatonic is similar with a flat 3rd note making it: G/Bb/C/D/E (the small b refers to a flat sign).

So starting at the 3rd fret on the low E the pattern looks like:

1 1 1 1 1 1 3rd fret

| | | | | |

| 3 3 3 | |

4 | | | 4 4

G Blues is like G Minor Pentatonic, again adding one more note, a flat 5th.  G Blues is G/Bb/C/Db/D/F

1 1 1 1 1 1 3rd fret (note the addition of the A string 4th fret and G string

| 2 | | | | 6th fret).

| 3 3 3 | |

4 | | 4 4 4

For the bassists out there, refer to the notation on the four strings farthest to the left.

With that out of the way, let’s focus on the bass.

Using that scale we're going to talk about "walking" bass lines.  A walking bass line is a very common bass line in blues and jazz.  It's usually played with quarter notes (1 beat) per note and goes up and down the scale note by note, seeming to "walk" through the song.  There are several ways to create a walking bass line, and I'm only going to touch upon one, which I'm going to call "Pacing" because it's going to go up for 4 beats and down for 4.  This walk will take us through a couple of different scales notably C Blues and D Blues.  Other notes can also be added to change the "flavour" of the notes or as passing notes when moving from one scale to another.

G :|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|-5-3-----|---------|

D :|---------|-5-3-----|---------|-5-3-----|-----3-5-|-----5-4-|---------|

A :|-----3-5-|-----5-4-|-----3-5-|-----5-4-|-3-6-----|---------|-----3-5-|

E :|-3-6-----|---------|-3-6-----|---------|---------|---------|-3-6-----|

G :|---------|-----5-7-|-----3-5-|---------|---------| *

D :|-5-3-----|---7-----|---5-----|---------|-5-5-----|

A :|-----5-4-|-5-------|-3-------|-----3-5-|---------|

E :|---------|---------|---------|-3-6-----|---------| 

* The last bar is one quarter note then hit again and let ring for 3 beats.

While this is a simplistic bass run, it does explain the walking bass line and gives you a starting point in creating your own lines which suit you (and the music you play) better.

Tech Talk

This month we'll talk about the differences between active pickups and the more common passive pickups.

What is the difference between active and passive pickups?

Passive pickups use a magnetic source of energy and relatively large coils of wire to generate their signal. Active pickups use smaller coils of wire and have a preamp built into the pickup to boost the signal. The upside to active pickups is that the smaller coils in them make active pickups far less susceptible to outside interference and as a result they are very quiet. Also, with active pickups the output and EQ of the pickup can be changed and shaped by changing the parameters of the preamp. All active pickups operate off of a battery to power the preamp. Alternatively, most guitar players feel that passive guitar pick-ups have a more organic tone and a wider dynamic range. The end result is the vast majority of pickups sold are of the passive type.

Can active and passive pickups be mixed?

They can be mixed but most often they are not. This is because the component values for active and passive pickups are different and it makes wiring a guitar or bass with both more difficult. There are exceptions though in both after market and factory guitars. The most common active pickups on the market are EMGs, used most notably by Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society), though he is not the only one.  Most manufacturers will use 500K ohm potentiometers or pots for volume and tone controls when in a guitar with humbucker pickups.  Single coil guitars like Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster models and their clones tend to use 250K ohm pots for volume and tone.  Guitars with active pickups will drop that to 25K ohm because there isn't the need to filter out as much unwanted background noise.  This is what makes it difficult to put both into the same guitar.

How do they sound?

The majority of guitars available on the market have passive pickups as stock, for no other reason than they are cheaper than actives.  A number of companies produce active pickups, EMG being most popular, but Seymour Duncan, Wilkinson, and Ernie Ball MusicMan, and several others also make active pickups.  Since most of us have guitars with passive pickups in them, we know first hand what these sound like.  What most don't know (or don't realize) is that different pickups in the same guitar can sound drastically different.  A "bright" sounding pickup in a "warm" wood guitar like a mahogany bodied Les Paul may sound fantastic where a "dark" sounding pickup may sound "muddy" and lacking distinction.  PAF-style or vintage output pickups won't sound good with high gain distortion, but will sing with a light touch of overdrive.  How does this apply to active pickups?  Simple.  There's no difference, or at least nearly none.  Active pickups tend to swamp out the differences in type of wood, and sound the same in every guitar.  There will always be exceptions to the rules, and there will be subtle differences between a Gibson Les Paul with actives and a cheap plywood copy.  The good thing is that if you put actives in every guitar, you'll sound the same no matter which one you play.  The bad side is that you'll always sound the same.  Also on the downside is that active pickups, because of the 9v or 18v powered preamp, tend to not have much clean tones.  Even played without any distortion or overdrive on the amp or from a pedal, the sound will still sound like there is.

A lot of people like active pickups and as many won't use them because they don't think they sound as good as passives.  As with everything based around music, it all comes back to personal preference. 

If you're interested in more information about the types of pickups available, drop by Barrington Bay Music and we'll give you some options.  We also do installations and repairs.

Rentable Space

I've been approached by a local band to know if I'd be willing to rent out the store (after hours) for practices.  I haven't made a final decision as of yet, but I'm curious how many bands are looking for jam/practice space and whether this would be worthwhile.

If you or your band are looking for a place to jam or practice, contact me through the store or the website with your information and preferred days, and if there's enough interest I'll draw up a schedule and fee structure.

Barrington Bay Music
(902) 637-1691
www.barringtonbaymusic.com