Skype/Gmail/Facetime video guitar lessons now available. FREE INTRO LESSON! PAYPAL now accepted. International customers welcome.
EMAIL KARLSTRAUB@HOTMAIL.COM FOR DETAILS.
Guitarist Karl Straub ("a world class original on electric guitar"-- CD BABY) can now do SKYPE lessons in various styles-- COUNTRY, FLATPICKING, WESTERN SWING, BLUES, ROCKABILLY, ETC.
The Karl Straub Combo (stripped down version for increased intimacy) will be performing Friday, March 30, at D.C.'s hip newish venue @Thehamiltondc. Ariel Francis (keyboards) and Jerry Del Rosso (bass) will be my support cats for another one of those rare shows where you'll be able to hear the lyrics. Don't miss Karl Straub (830 stage time) opening for Little Feat veterans Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett. Doors will be opening at 7 pm, and unless you ate dumb flakes for breakfast, you'll be standing there with your wallet when they open. (Is that too aggressive? I'm never sure how far I can go with this promo material.) @The Hamilton has a website with excellent FAQ, photos, etc.
for info, click on bit.ly/Ha5CA2 (MORE)
March 22, 7:00 - 9:00 PM
NOVA Music Center 12704 CHAPEL RD., CLIFTON, VA 20124 (not as far away as you think) "HOW I LEARNED TO PLAY ROCK AND ROLL, PUNK, ROCKABILLY, COUNTRY, JAZZ, BLUES, CLASSICAL, WESTERN SWING, BLUEGRASS, AND FOLK GUITAR, AND LIVED TO TALK ABOUT IT"
Guitarist and Music Educator Karl Straub has led a checkered career. He has played many different styles professionally and spent more than thirty years studying the connections between different musical genres. Karl has shoehorned Monkees guitar licks into Thelonious Monk pieces, watched his audience slam dance to pop songs written when Jimi Hendrix's parents were young, and played Yardbirds fuzztone guitar while being pelted with enough fake blood, glitter, and chicken bones to stop his wah-wah pedal from working.
This workshop is partly a history of American guitar styles, and partly a master class on how to mix these styles together. Straub will talk about how slight adjustments to your playing can take you from psychedelic rock to blues to country to jazz faster than a Lady Gaga costume change.
Karl Straub has a Music Education degree, and almost 30 years professionally performing, recording, and writing. His songs have been recorded by numerous local artists, and he has played guitar with Last Train Home, Eric Brace, the Grandsons, the Graverobbers, the Kennedys, Little Pink, and Exit 10.
The great and vastly underrated Nokie Edwards, killing it on this classic
tune by Juan Tizol and Duke. Nokie is sort of a cross between James Burton and Les Paul, plus fuzz. I've never heard a player blend country, jazz, blues, and trashy garage fuzz more seamlessly than Nokie. When he was really cooking, he erased the boundaries between these styles-- and always melodically.
I've spent countless hours ripping off other players, but I spent so much time listening to Nokie in my formative years that he is probably as much a part of my playing as any other influence. In those days this cut was like a bonus track on out of print vinyl- an album of the Ventures with Bobby Vee. It was worth listening to that whole album to hear Nokie play in this vein for a few minutes. http://youtu.be/ipaLgxkDnOc (MORE)
GEORGE BARNES, complete transcription "CHICKEN IN THE ROUGH."
This is Barnes's jazz version of the fiddle tune Chicken Reel, a traditional piece heard in many cartoons and movies, Foghorn Leghorn, etc. It's three minutes of Barnes soloing, from his rare-as-hen's-teeth "COUNTRY JAZZ" album. It's pretty much a guitar lesson in every bar. D.C picker Jim Stephanson told me that Danny Gatton learned every lick on this record years ago. I sell this transcription for $15.00. Email me for info, karlstraub@hotmail.com.
SKYPE/GMAIL/FACETIME VIDEO LESSONS AND TRANSCRIPTIONS. INTERNATIONAL ORDERS WELCOME.
"Cool Blues," by Charlie Parker. live Combo with Jim Stephanson.
"In a Mellow Tone," by Duke Ellington. live Chicken Fried Swing, with Ira Gitlin.
"Stone's Rag," traditional fiddle tune, solo acoustic demo.
Karl Straub teaches guitar privately in Arlington, Virginia. For information about lessons, go to guitarteacherkarlstraub.blogspot.com You can email Karl for additional information at karlstraub@hotmail.com. For those who live elsewhere, Karl can also do "virtual lessons", where he answers questions and provides transcriptions and guitar exercises tailored to the individual player. If there's a guitar lick, solo, fill, chord, etc. that you can't figure out, email Karl and he can help. It's now possible for Karl to record a video of himself playing and explaining musical examples. These can be sent to the student in email, and even put on an Ipod/Iphone. If you are interested in doing a lesson this way, please email Karl with an explanation of what music you want to work on, and he can give you a cost estimate.
I encourage people to print out the musical notation examples as a single copy for personal use. Other use is forbidden without written permission of Karl Straub. Feel free to link to my material.
HOW TO USE THESE LESSONS
Transcribing has its limitations, and even to get an incomplete representation of what someone played can take tons of time. I've noticed that when I make transcriptions for my students, they often ignore a lot of the articulation suggestions I put in, because they are struggling just to read the notes. For these reasons, I've decided to streamline my transcriptions, leaving out some of the fussier and more obsessive details. In spite of this, I still feel they are among the more accurate ones you'll find on the net. Please feel free to email me (karlstraub@hotmail.com) or post comments about any mistakes you find, along with questions or suggestions. I suggest you use the transcriptions as a rough guide to the recordings, and do plenty of listening to the originals. Sometimes I'll record my versions, usually I suggest you listen to the originals.
USING THE LESSON MATERIAL in some cases, I offer specific suggestions about how to use the material in a lesson. In the absence of anything specific to a particular lesson, here are my general recommendations.
1. If it's at all possible, work through an entire lesson. When your schedule makes it impossible for you to do this, there's a lot of value in taking small pieces (even just a couple bars) and practicing them repetitively. I recommend practicing things in sets of ten. This means picking out some amount of material that you can play correctly ten times in a row. In some cases, you'll get a technique exercise. In others, you may hear an idea that you can use to expand your vocabulary. 2. If reading is frustrating for you, even tablature-- keep these ideas in mind. Even a good reader is going to fumble reading some parts; reading is just plain hard sometimes. Try to use your reading skills in conjunction with listening-- reading becomes more fun when you can look at notation and hear it in your head. When necessary, use the notation more as a doublecheck reference than your primary source. Just make sure that you doublecheck to make sure you're playing something as written. No doubt most of what I've come up with can be improved upon, but the key is to clarify your musical thought by forcing yourself to play what is written. When you can do that, feel free to embellish what I have here. It's fun playing what another great guitarist played-- but it's only an interim step.
My name is Karl Straub. My training is in music education, but I am also a member of that most admired of all categories, the self-appointed Internet pundit and radio host. If you need someone to play Telecaster, or to bloviate, or both, I'm your man!
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