Recent Studies: Music Instruction Makes High School Kids Smarter, Better Students

Later next month, millions of Florida high school students will get some time off for summer break. However, three months without school doesn’t have to mean dead-end jobs and days in front of the TV. Some very exciting new research shows that high school students can take up one simple activity this summer that will actually help make them smarter—and do better in school: studying music. The Ft. Lauderdale guitar teacher Dyce Kimura is excited about this research, and as a result, is offering a sizeable discount on guitar lessons to all high school students.

Weston, FL (PRWEB) May 18, 2012

In one study reported on in the medical journal Neuroscience Letters, musicians and non-musicians of the same age and sex were required to perform complex sequences of finger movements, while their brains were scanned using magnetic resource imaging (which detects the activity-levels of brain cells). The non-musicians could make the movements ok—but the musicians’ brains expended less energy. In other words, the brains of musicians are more efficient at making skilled movements.

The positive effects on the brain are seen outside the laboratory, as well. According to one renowned brain doctor, “The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling—training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attentional skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression.” Needless to say, these skills will help any student in high school and college, and afterwards, in the workforce.

And it’s not just that music lessons help boost intelligence—they are actually better than other methods. One research team reported that “music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science.” As we know, America is continually falling behind other countries in math and sciences—perhaps, in part, is because we have been neglecting our music studies, as well.

Dyce’s Weston guitar lessons for high school students are available to sale directly to students, or can be purchased as a gift by their loved ones. Absolute beginners are encouraged: Dyce’s impactful, easy-to-understand teaching style focuses on getting students to play great-sounding grooves from lesson #1.

This Weston guitar teacher provides lessons at his state-of the-art studio in Fort Lauderdale, convenient to Miami, Weston, Parkland and Fort Lauderdale. He also conducts Skype blues guitar lessons and guitar lessons for the absolute beginner, available to anyone across the globe.

Dyce Kimura is a top-flight musician, providing Weston guitar instruction. Furthermore, Dyce is hip to all of the latest music technology trends, breaking artists, and contemporary gear. (Before Dyce began teaching full-time, he was an in-demand session player in Miami’s competitive studio scene, recording with scores of hip-hop, rock, blues and Christian artists—and is a nationally-recognized blues guitar authority.)

For more information on giving the gift of Fort Lauderdale guitar lessons for your college student, contact Dyce at (786) 457-3687 today.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/5/prweb9522015.htm

Art and Music and Theatre

This week, we turn the tables. While Ken is out on his first “Life of Ray” celebration, his wife conducts the interview. Her subject? Ken Reif. 

Rebecca Reif: Who are you?

Ken Reif: My name is Ken Reif, I am an artist, actor in the improv group Antigravity Experiment, musician and Art Critic At Large.

Tell me about your first experience with the world of art.

I started drawing by copying the drawings from Mad Magazine and my parents sent me to a local painting studio in South Holland, where I learned the basics.

Where did you study after that?

I became very interested in art during high cchool and also was very interested in music. so i began to draw portraits of my favorite musicians.

Who did you receive encouragement from to continue on your path to art?

Mostly my friends. My parents wanted me to get involved in a career that made money.

So did you give into your parents wishes?

Well, it was a compromise. They were willing to pay for college but only if I seeked out a career in advertising illustration as apposed to a career in fine art.

Where did you attend?

The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and Columbia College…It opened my eyes to see the world through an artist eye. to see the world in color, shape and composition.

Explain this to me.

Well, when I look at objects now I see how they relate to each other and I’m always looking at them as if they are a part of a composition, almost like I turn objects that are three-dimension into two-dimension — how a three-dimensional object would look on a 2 dimensional surface.

Who are your main influences as artist?

Monet, Van Gogh, Modigliani, the German Expressionist and especially Chuck Close.

Out of all these impressionists, you include Chuck. Why?

Van Gogh and Modigliani were not impressionist, though they were influenced by impressionists. They are more a link between impressionist and modern art, but one thing these artists have in common they are very strong painters. They use very bold colors and they’re fearless in their style.

Do you consider yourself a “fearless artist”?

I strive to be. I like what Chuck Close says about inspiration. He says “inspiration is for amateurs the rest of us go to work,” meaning if you’re serious about your art, if you have to wait around for an inspiring thought, it may never come. I find inspiration in the work i am doing and get my new ideas from that work and the world around me.

What projects are you currently working on?

I am doing illustrations for a children’s book, working on paintings for upcoming art shows and fairs. This will be my first show at the “One of a Kind” show and am working on getting my inventory completing for that project.

Are you affiliated with any art organizations?

I am a current art member of the Oak Park Art League and was past president of the board of directors at OPAL.

Where can the Patch reader go to see your art? 

At the Oak Park Art League, Trattoria 225 on Harrison in Oak Park, also the Next Picture Show in Dixon. I have two murals in Oak Park, both on the CTA Green Line embankment in Oak Park. You can also see my work at www.kenreif.com and on my Facebook page.

Tell us about your first experience with the world of music?

I have always been enamored by the sounds of any kind of guitar, be it acoustic or electric. I’ve had to figure out how to make those sounds come alive.

How? 

I am a firm believer that if you really want to do something you will find a way. I do not believe in nature talent, desire is the fuel that lights the fire of creativity.

OK, now tell me this, any guitar lessons?

I took a couple of years of basic guitar. then I learned most of what I know on the job training in bands…I play bass guitar mainly, some slide guitar. I currently play bass for Jimbo Delta. This band is made up of Jim Parks, who plays lead acoustic/resonator guitar and myself on bass.

You can see Jimbo Delta at Reggies, 21st and State in Chicago on the first Friday of month from 5:30-7 p.m. You can also check out www.jimbodelta.com; The Antigravity Experiment will be performing at the Open Door Repertory, Harrison Street and Ridgeland Avenue in Oak Park, on June 8th at 8pm. Jimbo Delta will also be performing at this show. 

Like the painters mentioned above, who are your musical influences?

Jimmy Hendrix Lou Reed, Captain Beefheart, Brian Eno and most recently i have gotten into Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

If you could play in any of the above musician’s band, which one would you choose to play bass for?

Probably Lou Reed, because you could be the most creative as an individual, especially if you were a part of the Velvet Underground.

Tell me about your first experience in the world of acting?

My wife encouraged me to get involved in acting. I have friends who are involved in improv and were interested in forming a group. They were second city trained actors and are quite good at what they do. I am new to the world of acting and learning from them.

Finally, how do all of these art forms  relate?

Well like the name of this column “It’s All Art”, they all have their own compositions and it is my goal in art to make art that evokes emotion. They are all a vehicle to that end. 

This article is dedicated to the memory of my life long friend Ray.

The McKintree Boys

MEMBERS: 

Mark Ashley (upright and downright bass, vox); David Dickey (fiddle, mandolin, vox); Scott Ellis (drums, bodhran, percussion.); Adam McIntyre (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lead vox).

CITIES OF ORIGIN:

Riverside, Redlands.

UPCOMING RELEASE: 

Self-released EP (Summer 2012).

KINDRED SPIRITS:

“Groups like Flogging Molly and the Young Dubliners influence us musically, but we are also inspired by our families and our kids, our social work and our faith. A couple of us are history geeks, too, so singing about battles, famines and oppression drawn from the journey of Ireland is pretty cool for us,” says Adam McIntyre.

WEBSITES:

www.themckintreeboys.com; www.facebook.com/themckintreeboys; Twitter:@McKintreeBoys.

Sure, Irish music is rambunctiously fun but you don’t have to wait for Saint Patrick’s Day to celebrate the atmosphere that Irish music can create. This genre of music has a constant energy that always promotes enjoyment as you sit back, grab a pint and enjoy the show with friends. With The McKintree Boys you’ll find plenty of incentive to go out for some Irish inspirations.

The McKintree Boys’ music and influence comes from more than a mere inspiring artist; Irish history is intertwined with the band’s birth. Adam McIntyre especially holds onto a bit of family history in conjunction with the band’s musical inspirations. “My great (something or other) grandfather Robert McIntyre came to America from Northern Ireland in the mid 1800’s on a coffin ship . . . as thousands did to try and escape the Potato Famine (which I sing about in one of our originals, ‘Old Pat Henry.’)  I’ve always enjoyed my research into his story and journey here from Ireland (as well as his father’s journey from Scotland) so it seemed a natural fit to try something like this,” says McIntyre.

“We play a lot of traditional tunes but we like to play them loud, raucous and electrified. I think that when people come to a pub, especially to see some music, they want to stomp their feet and raise their glasses. Our music provides that kind of an atmosphere. That’s why we do the shows in the turn-of-the-century garb,” says McIntyre. Nothing is more legit than a group of Irishmen who look the part of their ancestors and play songs about the past.

You can find The McKintree Boys at Killarney’s in Riverside this week as an initiative to bring a permanent Irish presence to the IE because ironically, Killarney’s doesn’t have a whole lot of Celtic tunes playing under it’s roof. “It’s my hope that we can book other Celtic themed bands in the future and make Sunday ‘Celtic night,’” says McIntyre. “I’m really looking forward to it as we will be playing in a manner that is similar to how they have done it in Dublin for centuries. Just some guys playing their hearts out around a table.”

The McKintree Boys at Killarney’s Restaurant Irish Pub, 3639 Riverside Plaza Dr., Riverside, (951) 682-2933; www.killarneys.com/riverside. Sun, May 20. 7pm. Free.

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Hogan’s ‘Pain’ is our pleasure

4 stars (out of 4)

It’s nice to have talented friends. Kelly Hogan has collected dozens of them over the years in a career marked as much by her personal generosity as her remarkable singing voice, and ace songwriters such as Vic Chesnutt, Robyn Hitchcock and Stephin Merritt step up with some durable tunes on her first studio album in 11 years. But it’s what Hogan does with the songs that makes “I Like to Keep Myself in Pain” (Anti) such a landmark.

The album stands at the crossroads of soul and country, with drummer James Gadson and keyboardist Booker T. Jones providing subtle flourishes that elevate the arrangements (check out Gadson’s yodeling on the title track). The secret weapon is Scott Ligon, Hogan’s longtime collaborator in various Chicago-based projects, who like Jones and Gadson plays exactly what each song needs — no more and no less — on everything from country guitar to vibraphone.

• Related

• 

  Kelly Hogan gets to show them what she’s made of

Everything is cued by Hogan’s deft touch as a producer, arranger and singer. Her voice dominates the album, often with grace and subtlety, but with startling power when needed. Her backing harmonies take the place of strings and horns, adding shadow and color to the songs, notably the wordless vocal hook in “We Can’t Have Nice Things.”

She never oversings, a sign of an artist who’s not just belting out notes, but telling a story. On the remarkable 3 a.m. confession, “Daddy’s Little Girl,” written by M. Ward and sung from the perspective of Frank Sinatra apologizing, sort of, to his daughter Nancy, Hogan sings barely above a whisper, letting each word linger like smoke curling from a cigarette. Next to this piece of theater, Chesnutt’s “Ways of the World” stands as deeply personal Southern-gothic memoir, the story of a girl very much like the young Hogan who grew up fast out of necessity. Hogan’s last-gasp “I knew what had to be” is chilling. Just as gripping is “Golden,” the sole original, a tour de force sung to a disheartened friend that subtly shifts from empathy to anger.

It adds up to a midcareer classic for an artist whose talents have long been appreciated but never really captured on her own album. “I Like to Keep Myself in Pain” works as both a career summing up and a fascinating introduction to one of the most accomplished, underappreciated vocalists of the last two decades.

greg@gregkot.com

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Message in the music: Here for NATO, new voices plan 3 concerts – Chicago Sun

By THOMAS CONNER
tconner@suntimes.com

May 17, 2012 6:42PM

• Reprints

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 01: Tom Morello (C) of the rock band Rage Against the Machine marches with Occupy Wall Street demonstrators during a May Day rally on May 1, 2012 in New York City. Demonstrators have called for nation-wide May Day strikes to protest economic inequality and political corruption. (Photo by Monika Graff/Getty Images) R:MerlinGetty_Photos143637221.jpg

THIS LAND IS OUR LAND: A CENTENNIAL CONCERT CELEBRATION OF THE
LEGENDARY
WOODY GUTHRIE

FEATURING: Tom Morello, the Klezmatics, Holly Near, Toshi Reagan, Son del Viento, Jon Langford, Bucky Halkner, Kevin Coval and more

♦ 8 p.m. May 19

♦ Metro, 3730 N. Clark

♦Tickets, $26-$56

♦ (773) 549-4140;
metrochicago.com

OUTERNATIONAL

WITH: Graham Czach, Los Vicios de Papa and the Employees

♦ 9 p.m. May 18

♦ Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace

♦ Tickets, $7

♦ (773) 478-4408;
abbeypub.com

BAREFOOT SUMMIT

FEATURING: Tom Morello, Louder Than a Bomb, Chicago Afrobeat Project, Mucca Pazza, Anna Soltys, Rebel Diaz and more

♦ May 18-21

♦ Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park

♦ Free

♦ Note: Permits for Barefoot Summit are still under review.

Article Extras

Updated: May 17, 2012 9:40PM

This weekend, some of the best new voices in protest music will be gathered in Chicago, occupying several events (official and otherwise) to sing their dissent in the shadow of the ballyhooed NATO summit. Speaking through hard rock, klezmer, Afrobeat, banda, Norteno, marching bands, jazz, country and, yes, traditional folk, these protest singers seek to both venerate and explode the Woody Guthrie-Bob Dylan, lone-wolf-with-an-acoustic-guitar template of musical protest.

“No successful protest movement in our nation’s history has existed without a great soundtrack,” says Tom Morello, 47, guitarist from alt-rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, now solo as a socially conscious folk singer under the name The Nightwatchman. “The music behind the Civil Rights era, the anti-Vietnam protests — some of those artists were also chart-toppers. These are different times. Occupy has a great soundtrack, but it’s being played around the campfire and on the city hall steps right now. When I played Zuccotti Park last fall, I was just one of six artists that day. I played [other Occupy events] in Vancouver, in Bristol, in London. The nights were filled with song.”

In 2011, Morello released a one-two punch with the albums “Union Town,” featuring pro-labor rallying cries old (“Solidarity Forever,” “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night,” “Which Side Are You On?”) and new (“Union Song,” “A Wall Against the Wind,” the title track), and “World Wide Rebel Songs,” featuring fierce, original battle cries about class, equality and justice from a distinctly working-person’s point of view (“Save the Hammer for the Man,” “The Dogs of Tijuana,” “It Begins Tonight”). The full-length albums were released within two months of each other — the former based on Morello’s contributions to the protests against the anti-union bill delivered by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the latter inspired by many of the same grievances that fueled the Occupy demonstrations. “World Wide Rebel Songs” just spawned a new documentary, “World Wide Rebel Tour,” released in 42 different versions targeting that many countries and native languages.

As a result, Morello has been adopted as something of a pied piper by Occupy groups. In March, Occupy Austin participants marched (actually, danced) across the Texas capital’s downtown and gathered outside Morello’s official showcase at the South by Southwest music conference. Morello quickly wrapped his indoor performance, for conference attendees only, and took his guitar into the street. Cops pulled the plug on his sidewalk PA, but Morello kept going, strumming his acoustic guitar and singing “This Land Is Your Land” and speaking to the crowd via the “human microphone.”

“I love it when they pull the plug,” Morello says. “I’m always ready for that. You want the crowd to get bigger and rowdier? Pull the plug.”

On May 1, Morello organized and lead a “guitarmy,” a legion of several hundred strummers, which marched through New York City streets and, in a sense, declared the opening of protest season.

“For the Occupy movement, this winter was our Valley Forge,” Morello says. “We’ve gone through spring training, we’re entering the election cycle and the upcoming recall vote in Wisconsin, there’s a push-back against austerity in Europe — it’s going to be a great summer for people power.”

Hey, Woody Guthrie

Morello’s next salvo will be in Chicago, where this weekend he plans to participate in numerous events scheduled around the NATO summit, including the May 19 Woody Guthrie tribute concert.

This July would have been Guthrie’s 100th birthday, and the year is filled with centennial conferences, concerts and other events around the nation paying tribute to the folk icon (woody100.com). Chicago’s concert this weekend is not an official centennial show (that comes next month, see sidebar); it is produced by portoluz, born out of the ashes of Hot House, and is part of their yearlong series of events about labor, “WPA 2.0: A Brand New Deal.”

“We created this series when we started talking about how it felt important to look at events in light of the question of the economy — in a post-2008, pre-99 percent language,” says portoluz executive director Marguerite Horberg. “2012 came around, and we listened to the rhetoric about the G8 and NATO coming to Chicago, and it sounded very limited in its description of sort of anticipating that everybody who might have an objection to these groups must be some black bloc anarchist. … We thought celebrating Woody Guthrie would be a great way to talk about creative protest, to have fun and give people something to do besides go to jail.”

Morello, like most contemporary singer-songwriters, found Guthrie’s work through others. Raised in the Chicago suburb of Libertyville (“on 7-Eleven parking lot heavy metal,” he says), he segued through punk rock and hip-hop before later in life hearing Bruce Springsteen’s stark, acoustic “Nebraska” album.

“That music is as heavy as anything ever made with a Marshall stack,” Morello says. “I started digging through his influences, and Woody was one of them. I discovered in his catalog such incredible honest and poetic reflection of his life and times. . . . Woody was the original punk rocker, there’s no doubt about that. He really lived his life and music, lived and played in accordance with his convictions of liberty, equality and justice for all. It’s definitely one of the things that motivated me to start doing my solo-acoustic-protest-troubadour routine. It’s a powerful idea that all you need is an acoustic guitar, three chords and the truth and you can be on the front lines of people’s struggles around the world.”

Morello now calls Springsteen “a friend of mine,” and has collaborated with him on several occasions. Morello’s snaky guitar lines appear on Springsteen’s latest album, “Wrecking Ball,” and Morello has joined the Boss on stage several times.

Outernational relations

Morello plans on attending and participating in several of this weekend’s citywide demonstrations, and he’s already made headlines as the center of a controversy over a march by National Nurses United workers. Last week, the city yanked the permit for the march, scheduled for May 18, citing Morello’s participation as constituting, in the mayor’s words, “kind of a rock concert.” Morello responded on Twitter: “Why is Rahm Emanuel so afraid of The Nightwatchman??”

“The day it was announced I’d be playing there for the G8 protests was the same day Obama moved the G8 summit to Camp David,” Morello says, chuckling. “I’m wondering if it was a coincidence. Maybe the Nightwatchman was too much for him.”

Even some of Morello’s proteges will be in town.

“Todos Somos Ilegales (We Are All Illegals),” a new album by Brooklyn punk band Outernational, features Morello on both the title track and a mariachi-flavored cover of Guthrie’s “Deportees.” The set, mixing rabble-rousing fight songs with native Mexican music styles, is a concept album about the human costs of American immigration policies along its southern border, and for the last few weeks (after also participating in various Occupy events last fall) the band has been touring back and forth on either side of the Rio Grande and points west. They play Chicago this weekend, too.

“It’s been wild and wooly,” says Outernational singer Miles Solay, from a tour stop in Arizona. “It’s an incredibly militarized and polarized situation, up and down the valley. There are neo-Nazis, Minutemen, vigilantes out here. … The idea that any human being in 2012 is deemed illegal is obscene, absurd and obsolete to me.”

Guthrie’s song, “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” details a 1948 plane crash, specifically the way the victims, mostly migrant workers, were dehumanized by being unnamed in official reports: “You won’t have your names when you ride the big airplane / All they will call you will be ‘deportees.’”

Outernational didn’t plan the song to be part of a full-length album. “I told [Morello], ‘How about we do this Bob Dylan-Joan Baez bit from the Rolling Thunder Revue, when they sang ‘Deportee,’” Solay says. “Let’s do it as a duet. We pulled it together one afternoon at Tom’s house, this Mexican-folk version. That’s what kickstarted this particular record. It was just supposed to be an EP, but we wound up telling this whole story.”

The band’s other full-length, “Welcome to the Revolution” is due later this year. But first, they’re touring the immigration songs — and joining Morello in Chicago (possibly at the Guthrie tribute, too) for a busy weekend of protest music.

“There’s a lot to learn from that guy,” Solay says of Guthrie. “He wrote in a very different time period and we are different people, but there are a lot of parallels between this tour and what Woody did. He was out there on the front of things. Singing your message at the exact time people need to hear it most — no one should take that opportunity for granted, man.”

Read more and hear songs by Morello and Outernational online at blogs.suntimes.com/music.

Jazz Guitar Corner: Four Ways to Practice Drop 2 Chords Through the Cycle of 4ths

Holly Holmes and Matt Warnock

Learning to play dominant 7th chords and Drop 2 chord voicings is essential in the development of any jazz guitarist.

While both of these concepts are important to have under your fingers, running them through exercises such as inversions or chromatically across the neck, although productive exercises, can sometimes lead to boredom in the practice room.

Because of this, one of the ways I like to practice and teach these chords is to run them through all 12 keys by using the cycle of 4ths. With this approach, you not only get all of these chords under your fingers, but you see them used in a progression that moves across the entire neck, you learn to alternate inversions within the context of multiple keys, and you begin to see how these inversions relate to each other when applied to a multi-key cycle.

In this article, we’ll explore four ways that you can practice Drop 2 chords through the cycle of 4ths, learning all four inversions of these chords in 12 keys along the way.

For the sake of space, I have only written these exercises on the middle four strings, so make sure to take them to the top and bottom four-string sets as well when you explore these exercises further in your practice room.

Cycle of 4ths

The cycle used in this exercise to move through all of the 12 keys is called the cycle of 4ths. For those that are familiar with the cycle of 5ths, this is just that cycle but moving in reverse. As the name suggests, each interval between two different chords in the cycle is a Perfect 4th, which continues through all of the keys until you return to your starting note.

Here is how the cycle looks starting on the note G.

G – C – F – Bb – Eb – Ab – Db – Gb – B – E – A – D – G

Notice that each chord moves down by the interval of a Perfect 4th, creating the Cycle of 4ths mentioned above.

This sequence is beneficial for practicing chord voicings, as compared to simply playing them chromatically up or down the neck, because it forces you to think about which chord is next in the sequence, as well as allowing you to move between multiple inversions as you progress through all 12 keys in the cycle.

Now that you have a short background on the Cycle of 4ths, let’s take a look at how you can use this cycle to learn and practice Drop 2 Dominant 7th chords.

Root Position and 2nd Inversion Drop 2 7th Chords

We are going to start these exercises with a root position G7 chord and work it through all 12 keys using the cycle of 4ths as seen above.

When doing so, a pattern starts to emerge, which is the alteration of root position (tonic in the bass) and 2nd inversion (5th in the bass) chords as you move down the neck. Knowing this can help you memorize this exercise and quickly find the closest next chord in the sequence.

Here is how this exercise looks on paper. Once you have it down starting on G7, try starting this same exercise on all the other 11 7th chords in the sequence and work your way around the cycle of 4ths from all 12 possible root notes.

One of the cool side effects of alternating root position and 2nd inversion chords is that you can do the reverse and it will also work out on the fretboard. So, you can start this exercise on a 2nd inversion chord, such as C7 in the example below, and then alternate 2nd inversion and root position chords around the cycle of 4ths to cover all 12 keys on the neck.

This means that you if you learn the root-2nd inversion alternating exercise, you have already learned the 2nd inversion –root position alternating exercise at the same time, effectively getting twice as much bang for your buck in the woodshed.

1st and 3rd Inversion Drop 2 7th Chords

You can also work on drop 2 chords through the cycle of 4ths by alternating 1st (3rd in bass) and 3rd (7th in bass) voicings down the neck.

In the following example you can see that the first chord, F7, is in 1st inversion and the second chord, Bb7, is in 3rd inversion, with this pattern continuing down the neck through all 12 keys in the cycle of 4ths.

In the same way that you double-dipped with the root position and 2nd inversion chords, if you start this exercise on the 3rd inversion and alternate it with the 1st inversion you can work your way through all 12 keys in the cycle of 4ths without having to learn anything new.

Here is how that would look starting with a Bb7 chord in 3rd inversion.

After you have explored these chords by starting in different keys, adding in rhythmic variety and bringing them to a tune that has these changes, such as “Jordu” or the bridge to “Rhythm Changes,” try applying these same exercises to Drop 2 chords on the top and bottom four strings of the guitar.

Running 7th chords through the cycle of 4ths will not only help you get these drop 2 chords under your fingers, but they will help you to see your neck better and train your ears to hear this commonly used bass movement, cycling in 4th intervals, all of which can help you reach the next level in your development as a jazz guitarist.

Do you have a favorite way to practice Dominant Cycles? If so, share it in the comments section below.

Photo: Leandro Couri

Matt Warnock is the owner of mattwarnockguitar.com, a free website that provides hundreds of lessons and resources designed to help guitarists of all experience levels meet their practice and performance goals. Matt lives in the UK, where he is a senior lecturer at the Leeds College of Music and an examiner for the London College of Music (Registry of Guitar Tutors).

Related

Lick Library Releases ‘Blues Guitar For Absolute Beginners’

Lick Library brings you the definitive DVD for learning blues guitar, presented by the top guitar teacher Danny Gill.

This new DVD will give the essential basics to playing blues with step by step easy to understand lessons and two professionally recorded guitar jam tracks included to help you practice what you’ve learnt.

The guitar lessons on this DVD introduce you to the basic rhythm involved with playing twelve bar blues. Danny shows you with crystal clear close ups of both of his hands the essential 12 bar blues and triplet shuffle rhythm patterns, pentatonic major and minor scales, barre chords, 12 bar soloing, blues bends and other techniques to aid you in playing killer blues licks. He also talks about the importance of blues phrasing, call and response, and even when to play nothing to draw the listener in. With Danny’s thorough and easy to follow lessons you will soon be making these scales and notes come to life. Blues Guitar For Absolute Beginners (RRP £19.99) -

Also in this series are Lead Guitar For Absolute Beginners and Rhythm Guitar For Absolute Beginners both by Danny Gill. Get these and hundreds of other guitar lesson DVDs online at Lick Library.

Dyce Kimura’s Summer Guitar Lessons Offer College Students Advantages in …

Parkland Guitar Instructor Dyce Kimura

From your first lesson, I will have you playing. And, I will inspire you to keep on playing. The guitar is not an easy instrument to play; but if you aspire to be an accomplished player; I can get you there.

Parkland, FL (PRWEB) May 13, 2012

According to multiple university reports, there are many benefits of studying music—even for the beginning college-age student. For one, the country’s top Fortune 500 CEOs agree that arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American education—and more importantly—better prepare younger workers for the 21st century, according to a recent Business Week article.

Studying guitar (and music in general) allows students to better grasp patterns, make connections, and understand mathematics at higher levels. According to one recent study, “The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians.” This anecdote was recorded in a well-regarded book making the case for including music education as a core subject in all American public high schools.

Also, the impact of studying guitar goes well beyond college and the first job. Practicing music makes adults healthier. “There were significant decreases in anxiety, depression, and loneliness following lessons. These are factors that are critical in coping with stress, stimulating the immune system, and in improved health,” according to Dr. Frederick Tims.

As former President Bill Clinton stated, “Music is about communication, creativity, and cooperation, and, by studying music in school, students have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their lives, and experience the world from a new perspective.”

Dyce’s Parkland guitar lessons for college students on summer break can be purchased as a gift by parents or friends. Absolute beginners are welcome, too: Dyce’s easy-to-understand teaching style focuses on getting students to play great-sounding grooves right from lesson #1. Dyce’s Parkland guitar instruction is provided at his state-of the-art studio in Fort Lauderdale, convenient to Miami, Weston, Parkland and Fort Lauderdale, or online via Skype.

Dyce Kimura is a top-flight musician, and Parkland’s guitar teacher without equal. Dyce is hip to all of the latest music technology trends, breaking artists, and contemporary gear. (Before Dyce began teaching full-time, he was an in-demand session player in Miami’s competitive studio scene, recording with scores of hip-hop, rock, blues and Christian artists—and is a nationally-recognized blues guitar authority.)

For more information on giving the gift of Fort Lauderdale guitar lessons for your college student, contact Dyce at (786) 457-3687 today.

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Palma Violets (No 1270)

Hometown: London.

The lineup: Sam Fryer (vocals, guitar), Chilli Jesson (bass, guitar), Pete Mayhew (keyboards), Will Doyle (drums).

The background: Palma Violets, who have been together for only a matter of months and have been playing a series of secret gigs around their home area of south-east London, are one of those bands about whom a lot of fuss will be made in certain quarters of the music press. The kind of band that will elicit declamatory headlines with biblical overtones alluding to Stone Roses song titles, suggesting that – finally – here comes something that will wash away the ordinary opportunists who’ve been clogging the system for too long and bring back all the things that have been missing. They will be received like heroes, messiahs, even hailed as the resurrection.

We saw them last week supporting Alabama Shakes at Glasgow’s King Tut’s – where Alan McGee famously had a quasi-religious epiphany of his own on that fateful night in 1993 when he stood at the front of the stage during an early Oasis gig and decided, there and then, to sign them to Creation – but we were a little underwhelmed. We couldn’t see anything particularly unusual, let alone radical or revolutionary, in their look – four 19-21 year olds dressed relatively neatly, in jackets and jeans, with haircuts that could feasibly appeal to fans of the Libertines’ shabby chic – and we struggled to hear anything in their sound that might make a difference. But then, that’s why Geoff Travis, boss of Rough Trade – the label that has just signed Palma Violets based, rumour (soon to acquire the status of legend) has it, on one song – is a genius. At the very least, it explains why he runs a company involved in nurturing raw talent. Either that, or it confirms he is able to turn something less than spectacular into a commodity that a lot of people want.

Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Bernard Butler are three such people. They were among the audience members who turned up to see the band play at the Great Escape over the weekend. Butler has even, this early on, been mooted as a producer for them. Getting the right producer might be the move that makes the difference. We talk a lot in this column about the amazing new hip hop and electronic musicians-technicians who operate solo, many of them from America, some from the UK, . But there’s nothing to say a traditional band couldn’t hook up with such a person, who could help transform their music into something extraordinary. It used to be expected that four adventurists would join forces with a studio visionary to find new ways to present vocals, guitar, bass and drums. From the Beatles with George Martin to Joy Division with Martin Hannett and Radiohead with Nigel Godrich, it was a matter of course that a producer would be used to turn base matter into gold. Listen to Joy Division live – they were staggeringly powerful, for sure, but it took Hannett to turn that driving energy into something that would endure for decades. Crucially, he helped them break with tradition.

Palma Violets need a Hannett. Like Joy Division early on, they are being added to that ancient dark-rock lineage that began with the Doors and the Velvets. Meanwhile, the singer’s voice is being compared to Jim Morrison’s and Ian McCulloch’s – with some of the shrieking fervour of Wu Lyf’s Ellery Roberts – and the keyboardist makes a shrill noise that recalls exponents past (Ray Manzarek) and present(-ish; basically, whoever plays organ for Spiritualized). The sound rarely roams from garage-rock-psych and strives to achieve the epic and intense.

Just as much as the music, there is excitement about Palma Violets signalling the Return of the Band as Gang, four lads who grew up together and have that raffish, roguish air of Albion miscreants about them, with frontman Fryer and bassist Jesson, who wields his fringe with violent flamboyance (warning: berk alert), as a new Pete’n'Carl. Anyway, the whole thing is steeped in convention, their performance and music a series of gestures handed down from generation to generation. Maybe that’s one way of extending rock’s life, and a viable one at that. Whatever, Palma Violets are one of those back-to-basics types that will make some listeners sigh “Ah, at last. We haven’t had one of these for a while”, as if having a new version of something old and familiar is something to treasure. We’re not going to damn them, just leave you with a sense of vague puzzlement that This is What People Want.

The buzz: “One of the best support acts I have seen in a very long time” – stereoboard.com.

The truth: They’re no Palma chameleons – but with the right producer, they could shape-shift and amaze.

Most likely to: Change the way we think about 70s confectionery.

Least likely to: Change the way we think about rock.

What to buy: Rough Trade will be releasing a single soon.

File next to: Doors, Bunnymen, Wu Lyf, Libertines.

Links: tumblr.com.

Friday’s new band: Two Inch Punch.