So, if you have been paying attention you know that I have been seriously stepping up my game in teaching Guitar.  Simply put, I want to be the best guitar teacher in Denver (and the world, for that matter).  I want my lessons to be the most engaging, dynamic, exciting, productive and stimulating lessons available.

To that end I have done all the aforementioned things: Subscribe to Sheet Music Direct for the the most accurate tabs available; Subscribe to Troy Grady’s Cracking the code for the best insight into practical picking hand technique; Acquisition of a 50″ monitor to display, videos, sheet music and tabs, using Guitar Pro to create tabs that are unavailable or simply inaccurate; and the list goes on…

Enter Guitar Pro 8!

Well regarding Guitar Pro, they have also upped their game and it looks like they have become an absolutely indispensible tool for my teaching!   Arobas Music with their Guitar Pro software has just implemented audio file addition in the new Version 8.  Now, “why is that a big deal?”, you might ask.  Well, for me its a game changer.

Now, I no longer have to stomp on my Page Flip in an attempt to keep our tab properly flowing with the music that is played by a separate application.  Within Guitar Pro 8, I can *perfectly sync* my tabs to the audio file.  Sorry, but that is just too cool!  By doing a little editing, I can get the tab to perfectly follow any tempo changes and weirdness that happens.  Especially with older music that was not recorded to a click.

For example, my latest project is aligning my personally created, note for note bass tab of Blinded by the Light, by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.  Recorded in 1976, this song is definitely NOT on a click!  This song starts at around 140 BPM, but drifts as high as 145 BPM and as low as 136 BPM.  How do I know that?  Well, because when I edit the tab to the music, Guitar Pro 8 will TELL ME what the tempos are between sync points.

Awesome!  Amazing!  Game Changing!  My students no longer need to flip pages while they play.  I no longer need to worry about stomping a pedal to keep a tab flowing with the music.  I can now put that tab up on a 50″ monitor for the entire room to see and I can actually pay attention to MY STUDENT again instead of worrying about “driving”.  Yay, Double Yay and Super Yay!

And of course, you can slow down the song/tab too.  You can also pitch correct or transpose a down-tuned song.  You can loop sections.  Guitar Pro is awesome.

Get Guitar Pro 8!

I will be encouraging all my students to get a copy of Guitar Pro 8.  Instead of printing a file, I can give them the GP file that I have created and they can play it at home.  They can also use it to actually write their own music as well (just like the students who introduced me to Guitar Pro many years ago.  Thanks Dom and Harrison!)  And as an added bonus, the wonderful people at Arobas Music have graciously given me a discount code for all my students, past and present, to save 50% when buying Guitar Pro 8 from the Arobas website.  Hit me up, get the code and save 50% now on an absolutely indispensable teaching / learning tool!

And for the record, I am NOT receiving any kick backs from Arobas.  Guitar Pro 8 is simply an awesome piece of software and I believe every guitarist and bassist should own a copy!

So now, if you will excuse me, I have some serious work to do!  I need to import all the audio for all the songs I have already tabbed out in Guitar Pro!!!

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So for years I have been fighting with guitar tuners.  I tune my guitar, the tuner says its in tune.  But it does not SOUND in tune.  I mean, its not completely out of tune, but there are subtle wobbles in the chords.  They are just not right…

Now, if you’ve been playing for a while, you know that even a brand new guitar can benefit from a professional “Setup”.  And I used to even have my guitars setup twice a year!  Once in the Spring and once in the Fall, as the temperature and humidity levels changed.  So intonation was definitely not my problem.

I would tune my guitar with my “trusty” Boss TU-2 tuner, a staple on many a pedal board.  But if I put my Snark Clip On tuner on the headstock it would say I was flat!  What?!?  Ok, so tune the guitar up ever so slightly, then the Snark would say I was in tune and the Boss would say I was in tune.  But just one hair higher and now the Snark said I was in tune but the Boss said I was sharp.  AGH!!!

And its not as if I did not try other tuners.  In fact, I have burned through at least 10 over the years.  The Boss TU-2, a giant Intellitouch tuner, one of the first clip-ons, a newer Intellitouch PT10, a Snark, a Super Snark and a Snark Super-tight, a bizarre Planet Waves strobe tuner that you held over the strings – weird!, the tuner that is built into my very nice LR Baggs Venue preamp,  finally I tried the D’Addario PW-CT-12 NS Micro Headstock Tuner.  Heck!  I even used Tuning Forks!  THEY ALL SUCK!!!!!

Have you ever had this problem?  Let me explain to you why….

Why most (almost all) tuners suck

If your tuner uses LEDs to tell you how sharp, flat or in tune you are, your problem is right there.  Why?  Because tuners have “tolerances”.  That simple.

As I was investigating this problem I decided to write a couple tuner manufacturers to ask them about their Cent Tolerances for the LEDS.  If you don’t know, the term Cent is a gradation of tuning.  There are 100 Cents in every Minor Second, or Half-Step.  That means if you are 50 cents sharp, you are exactly between two notes on our 12 tone scale.  So the question is, exactly what is the tolerance of each LED in regard to Cents?

So I asked D’Addario about their PW-CT-12.  They wrote me back and told me that there was a +/- 2 cent tolerance with their LEDs.  So that means you could have one string that says its in tune but is -2 Cents flat, and another string that says its in tune but is actually +2 Cents sharp.  A difference of 4 cents.  Definitely not a lot, but to my ear, enough to make a difference.

So then I wrote Snark.  Here is what they sent me back: “We are very sorry we do not publish cent information. ”  Well, ok then!  Last time I ever use a Snark!

It was at this point that I began to think about the Tuner that I use in my Pro Tools rig.  Its a strobe tuner and it actually tells me exactly how many cents sharp or flat I am.  Why can’t there be a tuner that works like that??

The Ultimate Tuner

Well there is a tuner that works like that.  Well, almost*.  Ever heard of Peterson Tuners?  They make mechanical strobe tuners that range up to $4500!  Wow!  That is a LOT of money for a tuner.  But if you are working in mission critical situations where the tuning has to be exactly right, then that is what you need.  A strobe tuner.

A strobe tuner works by…. ok, yeah.  So I was going to try to explain it, but it’s so complex, I think I am going to have to refer you to this wikipedia article.    This video from Peterson explains it pretty well in just under 4 minutes. But here is the gist of the wiki article: “…As such, extremely fine tuning can be obtained, because the user can tune to a particular partial within a given note. This is impossible on regular needle, LCD or LED tuners. The strobe system is about 30 times more accurate than a quality electronic tuner, being accurate to 1/10 of a cent.”  Thats pretty much all I need to know.

So I finally bought myself my first Peterson tuner, the StroboStomp HD.  This thing is sweet. Very large, easy to read display.  You can even change the colors to suit your taste (mine is set to green, of course).  Tuner is very bright and very easy to read, even in sunlight.  (However!  I will let you know NOT to wear polarized sunglasses as the LCD display will appear completely blank to you.  This seriously freaked me out during my first gig with the StroboStomp.  Thought it was broken until I took my sunglasses off.  Whew!).

Well, I fell in love with the StroboStomp so much that when I was finally ready to buy a new clip on tuner, I ponied up the dough and bought the StroboClip HD.  Now, I do believe that this is the most expensive Clip On tuner on the market.  While $69.99 really isn’t that much for tuning perfection, it really does feel weird when the closest competitor comes in at $53.49 and they work their way down to a mere $16.99.  But I don’t care.  I am tired of being “close, but no cigar” with my tuning.  I am telling you right now, I will never buy another tuner again.  It’s a Peterson Strobe or nothing.  Because not only is it the most accurate tuner on the market, but it gets even better!  Hang on….

“How do you make a guitar sound like James Taylor?”

So, I was reading an article by a famous Recording Engineer / Producer who was discussing how to get the best sounding tracks when recording.  He rhetorically asked the question: “How do you get a guitar to sound like James Taylor?”  The answer: “Hand a guitar to James Taylor.”  His point being, to record a great sounding track, it needs to be played by a great sounding player.

So it turns out Mr. Taylor has a website and even has some instructional videos on it!  One of those videos is about how he tunes his guitar, and let me tell you, its more than a little unorthodox.  But who is going to argue with the venerable Mr. James Taylor!  Not me.  Apparently, over the years, Sweet Baby James has figured out that he likes his guitar tuned as follows:  Hi E -3 Cents, B -6 Cents, G -4 Cents, D -8 Cents, A -10 Cents and Low E a whopping -12 Cents!  How weird is that?  Now, he does mention that he often uses a capo. And we all know that capos tend to pull strings sharp.  So that is definitely a factor for him.  But what I find odd is that the number of Cents flat is different for each string.  Interesting.

“Sweetened” Tunings on the Peterson Strobe

So I was already impressed with my tuning improvements the minute that I bought the StroboStomp HD for my pedal board for my electric guitar.  But it was when I bought my new Gibson SJ-200 and got the StroboClip HD that I was really blown away.  I had read about “sweetened” tunings for years.  Everybody (?) has heard of the Buzz Feiten Tuning System, right?  Well, Buzz compensates for intonation issues that are common on guitar by actually adjusting the Nut itself.  Buzz Feiten nuts are carved to different lengths just like the saddles on an electric guitar are set to different positions.  And so Buzz Feiten systems require a tuning that is slightly tweaked from normal.  A “sweetened” tuning, as they call it.  Well guess what Peterson Strobes have?  Sweetened tunings!  So I set my StroboClip to the Acoustic Guitar sweetened tuning and man!  Wow!  Every chord rings perfectly in tune with no wobbles.  Amazing.

And so then I set my StroboStomp to the Electric Guitar sweetened tuning.  Same result.  Awesomely intonated chords with no wobbles or weirdness.  I am so blown away.

Conclusion

Well, if it wasn’t already obvious, the conclusion is that a real strobe tuner will get you more in tune than any LED based tuner you have ever used.  I know Korg is great, but do you really need to tune all 6 strings at once?  And with that little 3 segment LED to tell you how out of tune you are, I am afraid to see what their LED segment tolerances are.

I will never buy another tuner besides a Peterson Strobe.  Not only does it get me better in tune straight out of the box than I have ever been in my 40+ years of playing, but it also includes a bazillion sweetened tuning for just about any instrument you might own.  Ukulele, Banjo, Dobro, Steel Guitar, Sitar, Oud, even orchestral instruments.

So why don’t you put your tuning in the hands of a company that has focused its entire existence on keeping you properly in tune for well over 50 years.  Buy a Peterson Strobe!  I guarantee you will not regret it! 

*Ok, so why did I say “Almost”?  Because the Peterson StroboStomp and StroboClip unfortunately do NOT tell you how many cents you are sharp or flat.  I have requested that they include this option in a future update.  I guess we will have to wait and see if they ever implement this awesome upgrade.

Again, sorry for the lack of updates through 2020 and 2021.  Was so busy teaching, had no time for updates!  Yeah, thats my story and I’m sticking to it!  Really, slamming busy and some issues with the website that I wanted to resolve before doing more posts.  Took a bit longer than I had hoped.

But we’re back!  And BOY have we had some fun over the last two years.  We have really expanded the library.  Some deep dives into Country with Colter Wall and Tyler Childers, to name a couple.  Some serious Metal with Slipknot, Trivium and Rivers of Nihil.  A lot of new to me 90’s music with Foo Fighters, Sheryl Crow and Sister Hazel.  Classics like Tom Petty, Def Leppard, Scorpions, and more.  And some brand new, completely off the wall … what?  Progressive rock?  Experimental rock?  I don’t even know what to call it!  Meet King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard!  And many more!

A couple highlights….

Fire – Black Pumas : Super sweet new band with a retro vibe.  I think I am the first to create a complete, note for note tab for the baseline.

Armageddon It – Def Leppard : When my student asked for this song, I thought, “that is the stupidest song Def Leppard (whom I love) has ever written.”  Well the lyrics are still very stupid.  But it turns out that the guitar part(s) for this song is(are) very cool.  It changed my opinion of the song.  And it made its way into my Funnerest Guitar list!

Dark Necessities – Red Hot Chili Peppers : Thanks Flea!  I finally have a song I can slap confidently!

Surf Rider – The Lively Ones and Pipeline – The Ventures : Finally some real surf music!  Just the thing for my new Fender Stratocaster!  Thanks Manda!!

Roxanne – The Police : Always loved this song.  Since I first heard it, late at night, on the radio in around 1980.  Always wanted to learn it.  Finally had a reason.  Thanks Jack!

Anyway, so yeah, super lots of new tunes.  About 240 new songs in the last 2 years actually.  So here is the list (Guitar, Bass, Ukulele and Voice):

We have seriously stepped up our online game.  Arvada Guitar has been doing online lessons to as far away as London and Chile since 2016.  But of course EVERYONE had to go online in March of 2020.  So we upgraded some gear to be able to provide a more comprehensive and immersive online experience.  New audio interface to plug real microphones and my guitars into Zoom, Discord, Skype and Google Meet.  New software to internally route audio from iTunes, Reaper, Logic, YouTube etc.  Upgrade of our Interwebs connection so that lagging, buffering and bad connections would at least not be coming from our side.

We added about 200 new songs in the space of the last two years.  I will be posting a new blog shortly illustrating our latest deep dives into Blues, Surf, Metal and more.  Also subscribed to SheetMusicDirect.com, the best resource for high quality guitar and bass tabs.  We’ve also been using GuitarPro to create high quality tabs for songs that are not commercially available.

When students began returning in person, we added two new air purifiers to the studio.  We also added a 50″ video monitor to display tabs, charts, instructional videos and more to the in person experience.  Now when a student forgets their binder, we still have a way for them to follow along.  And I can drive the screen with my trusty PageFlip Firefly bluetooth page turner.  Fun!

I will also be posting a blog regarding my quest for a decent tuner.  Yes, you would think that a tuner is a tuner, right?  Not so much.  in fact, not much at all.  But the good news is that I have FOUND MY TUNER!  Actually, two tuners to be precise.  One on the floor on my pedal board, the other a clip on for my acoustic.  If you are sick of tuners telling you that you are in tune but your ears keep telling you that you are not, just hang tight.  I will come to the rescue shortly.

So lets see… Pandemic, online and in-person lesson upgrades, hundreds of new songs taking our Teaching List to almost 1300 songs,  tuner heaven… yep, thats about it for now.

Woo Hoo!!!  If you are one of my students, you should know the name Troy Grady by now! (“TroyGradyTroyGradyTroyGrady!“). Well I am super excited to let you know that Troy finally has his “Magnet” back on Kickstarter!  The Magnet is Troy’s brilliant device designed to hold your cell phone just above your guitar’s strings to allow you to closely video your picking hand to determine good and bad techniques.  Troy has built an empire around this device by bringing in the world’s best pickers to capture their technique for the world to see and analyze.  Sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it?

Well, I think it is.  I have been playing and studying guitar for about 40 years now.  In all that time, the vast majority of exercises and techniques have focused on the left hand (of a right handed guitarist).  Almost NO ONE has focused on the intricate techniques of the right hand employed by master guitarists.  Troy Grady was the first guy in my reckoning that has dedicated his life and study to right hand technique.  Thank you Troy!

A quick search of YouTube will bring up some of the most informative, entertaining guitar technique videos the world has to offer.  Just type in Troy Grady!  I suggest typing in “Cracking the Code Episode 1” to get started.  But Troy has many one offs that I have found infinitely useful and informative like “4 Fundamental Movements“, “Bulletproof USX wrist motion” as well as in-depth looks at the traditional Guitar Pick, the 351, and the Jazz III.

So I am super excited to get my hands on some magnets for both me and my students to use!  If you are a guitar player and have a cell phone, $49 is a small price to pay to be able to see and understand something you otherwise might never have known.  I wish this opportunity was available 40 years ago when I started playing guitar.  Again, thank you Troy Grady! And thank you Scuzzy, for turning me onto Troy those couple few years ago.  “Have you watched Troy Grady yet?”  “Have you watched Troy Grady yet?” “Have you watched Troy Grady yet?”…

Arvada, I hope you know how lucky you are to have a truly world class choral director at Arvada West High School!

Pro Tools is indisputably the industry standard recording software used in every pro recording studio worldwide.  The studios may also use other software, but if you want to be compatible and competitive in the industry, you better be running Pro Tools.

But at the same time, Pro Tools is extremely expensive in comparison to other DAWs, they often release production updates to their software that feel more like Beta versions, and the fact is that compared to many other DAWs, they offer less functionality for that expensive price.  They have also forced users into various paths that either limit their functionality or cost 4 times what their lower performance systems cost.

Well, I got pretty excited when they released Pro Tools | First.  A free, trimmed down version of their flagship software that could give my students a taste of the real world.  And, you know, I even overlooked the bugs / functionality changes that suddenly occurred between updates.  But when Avid announced that they were going to begin CHARGING money for Pro Tools | First, AND they were going to a subscription based format, and jacked the price to actually OWN the software to incentivize users to use the subscription service, well, they pretty much lost me.

I will definitely be buying Logic when I get my next computer upgrade.  But for now, I am running Reaper.  (update, already got Logic – still evaluating)

I learned about Reaper through a student a couple years ago.  I wasn’t really impressed with the interface, but I figure that is simply a matter of getting used to it.  People who use something other than Pro Tools tend to not care for the Pro Tools interface, though I find it very clean, streamlined and user friendly.

Did I mention that Reaper is only $60 for non professional users?  Yeah.  $60.  Sold.

For my use in teaching, Reaper is great.  A default slider for playback speed is right in the main window.  Nice.  Set that to .8 (80%) and just drop songs into Reaper and they play back at 80% speed.  Really nice.

Not the biggest fan of the plug-in window, but who cares.  It still works.  And it only cost me $60 instead of $600+++

Forget Pro Tools.  Get Reaper.

First off, I worked on a recording project with a student who is making an EP.  Fun!

Then I worked with another student who is focusing on soloing and music theory in preparation for his own recording project.

Then I worked on “I love you” by Billie Eilish with a student.  Very cool, super moody and intense song.

But here is where it REALLY starts to get fun….

I worked on some K-Pop (Korean Pop, for those not “in the know…” with a 12 year old student.  Gotta love BLACKPINK Stay!…

Then I worked on some super heavy, drop tuned 7 string metal with another student.  Rivers of Nihil, A Home!

And I finished up the night with a tasty CCM tune, Mighty Warrior by Elevation Worship!  Love the Jesus Jams!

Now that is a cool day of teaching right there!  Thanks to my most awesome students who continually keep me up on the latest tunes!

Slammin, as usual!  Busiest summer I have ever had here at Arvada Guitar.  So, a little behind on my maintenance duties.  Thanks to my awesome students who keep bringing me killer new songs to play!  Also thanks once again to Chris Maunu and the Arvada West Choirs for allowing me the honor of accompanying them for the 6th year in a row.  Some cool new song adds, thanks to the AWest Pops 2019 Concert.  Here is what we added to the Arvada Guitar Teaching List in Q2 of 2019.  Gee, looks like there’s a few!

Songs added to the Guitar list…

I Just Want To Make Love To You – Foghat

Rockin’ In The Free World – Neil Young

Million Reasons – Lady Gaga

One Voice – The Wailin’ Jenny’s

Bury Our Friends – Sleater-Kinney

Hold Back The River – James Bay

Hate To Say I Told You So – The Hives

Jumpers – Sleater-Kinney

Caught Up In You – 38 Special

Gimme Three Steps – Lynyrd Skynyrd

You’re Somebody Else – Flora Cash

Cadillac Cowboy – Chris LeDoux

From Eden – Hozier

Gentle On My Mind – Glen Campbell

Shake Me – Cinderella

You and I – Viktor Tsoi & Kino

Blue Suede Shoes – Elvis Presley

It’s Not Me It’s You – Skillet

Modern Day Cowboy – Tesla

Nobody’s Fool – Cinderella

I’ll Be Your Man – The Black Keys

Gold On The Ceiling – The Black Keys

Songs added to the Bass list…

Somebody to Love – Queen

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, as performed by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

Ain’t No Man – The Avett Brothers

Songs added to the Vocal list…

Let It Be – The Beatles

Songs added to the Soloing list…

Somebody to Love – Queen