TapperMike

Joy To The World - Three Dog Night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFypAB7nYGA

Bah it isn't like these titles haven't come up more then a few times. Everybody wants to have fun tonight - Wang Chung http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoXu6QmxpJE

A few things of note. I'd left my chord/melody playing behind several years ago. Since you started this topic I've been re exploring that aspect of guitar playing. So thanks for that. If you can.... find a bassist. A duo is fine for smaller more intimate settings and a bass player will free you up so you aren't always supporting the melody line with a harmony. Also bassists generally have smaller ego's. They are easier to get a long with then say another guitarist or a vocalist where considerations have to be made for what song to play and who does what. And on a final note.... Writing your own arrangements isn't as hard as it might seem at first once you get the hang of it. It can be a lot faster then trying to find the material already completely written out in tab as well offer a creative opporitunity akin to improvising itself.

Acoustic uprights don't fair to well in any settings. They are hard to mic and don't travel well. Acoustic electric basses like El Captian 's don't last long. The braceing doesn't survive well against the string tension. If you are looking for something with some (little) acoustic properties that amplifies well go for a u-bass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfffmBWCry0 The also have developed a special string for a more electric sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JzF-5k0pog

I hate mechanical beeps. Especially if the beep is not in tune or even in key with what I'm doing. I find a simple soft kick, snare or side stick a lot more bearable. I won't put it on all the beats. It depends on the song but usually it's either One and Three or Two and four.

The beatles ballad stuff always works well and there are a number of jazz legends who have recorded them. A few selected Sting songs such as Fields of Gold, Shape of My Heart. Norah Jones would work really well but I'm not aware of any solo guitar transcriptions. It's always nice to have something contemporary in the mix. Unfortunately I'm no help with that. I don't follow contemporary music maybe Jack Johnson A lot of soloist jazz performers I've seen (keys, guitar) invariably have to sing a song during the show. They don't sing all the songs but they will sing an occasional song. Usually when one carves up the amount of time to play instrumental music the voice can be weak. That's fine. Sing a song softly and then move to another or at least have some conversation with your audience to let them know you are human.

If you are a classical style player it doesn't hurt to throw classical gas or an occasional classical song into the mix. It often gives you credibility with the crowd. I would avoid doing a whole set of ...classical standards as it may disenfranchise your listening base.

Some will take work, that's for sure.. There are several "schools of thought" for fingerstyle or combinations there of in the soloist guitar performer world. When I started playing fingerstyle soloist jazz there were very few resources for actual material yet endless books on how to play fingerstyle. I developed my own approach and started building my own arrangements it was a lot of work. http://lickbyneck.com/ has a huge assortment of pieces arranged for fingerstyle. The .exe isn't dangerous but I prefer reading in guitar pro format as opposed to the method used. I realize band in the box is the bane around here. Nonetheless you'll never find a larger collection of lounge type songs then the biab member users have and.... biab has a chord solo feature that will insert functional harmony against the melody in a few different jazz styles. I used to be in the hospitality biz and for a few years I'd work at these restaraunts in hotels. The slower nights still had live entertainment either duo or single performer. Many would bring backing tracks with them for drums and bass. Many biab users do this as well. They'll take biab backing track or an output of the biab file (midi. mp3 with them to a gig) Band in a box chord soloist is work. As it's primary function isn't to simply hand you an arrangement but to show you what is possible in arranging for fingerstyle. If you have some fingerstyle soloist experience it can enhance your experience but still you may need to fill things up and make minor changes to the arrangement to fill things up. It's a great tool for learning not always the best tool when you want something you can quickly add to a repetoire. The fingerstyle arrangements (I'm sure they are out there) for Guitar Pro are well hidden. It seems they were more popular with the powertab and tabedit community. Many of those have vanished as well. Most chord melody transcriptions now are in pdf format. All those things being said. I kind of stumbled on my own arrangement practices with simple sheet music like Wikifonia unfortunately wikifonia was closed down when funing for the material ran out. I'll also use biab and rather then go with the chord sol feature devise my own arrangements. I stumbled upon chord/melody the same way as Tuck Andress. After being in many bands I was in a position where I was accompanying a singer alone which required me to revise my treatment of chord/bass arrangements. Then one day I happened upon a melody and started harmonizing it. There used to be a vast community ahd huge archives for powertab aimed at fingerstyle/soloist guitar but they too have all been diminished. As well a smaller comminity for tabedit. Most current stock tab editors (guitar pro etc) will open these older ptb and tef files. But you'll do a lot of surfing the web to find fingerstyle transcriptions. I've honestly been thinking of assembling a collection of favored transcriptions however I don't feel comfortable linking to them online for legal reasons.

lounge jazz doesn't bode well with classic pop/rock. If you want to play jazz improvisations or interpertations of pop/rock then you will want to ease the audience into it with timeless jazz standards. Every jazz musician should have a copy of "The real book" If you start with Autumn Leaves and Fly Me to the Moon here are some songs I played regularly when on the jazz circuit. All of Me (there will never be) Another You Sunny All the things you are (kern) Afternoon in Paris A nightingale sang in berkley square Blue Bossa The shadow of your smile Bye Bye Blackbird Mahna De Carnaval (also known as black opheus / day in the life of a fool) Close to you (bacarach) The Boxer (simon and garfunkel Norwegian Wood. I'm thinking of more but getting distracted playing them.

There are professionals who do work out with metronomes for recording and practice. And there are professionals who don't. In an orchestral situation a conductor becomes the metronome. Having spent quite a number of years as both a session player and a live performer I can say when I was gigging 4 to 6 nights a week within a limited musica framework (style) I didn't need one. However when I composed music for my band to play I would often work things out by recording the entire thing out by myself with a drum track. As well when I explore genre's that I have less familiarity with I'll also use them. Drummers like Steve Gadd do use metronomes. He uses it to control his ability to put the hit on, before or after the beat. Jazz musicians also use metronomes and are taught to at major learning institutes everywhere. Larry Carlton often takes a three month break from playing guitar after coming off tour. He doesn't touch the instrument during that time. When he returns to playing he goes back to the metronome to bring his chops back. In regards to tempo changes in a piece http://colorinmypiano.com/2010/09/03/rallentando-ritardando-whats-the-difference/ Sibelus offers this feature http://www.sibeliusforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1979 Getting back to timing for a minute. I'm a multi instrumentalist. I play guitar, bass and synth. In the electric/acoustic realm stringed instruments with a fixed bridge say a telecaster or les paul for example have a faster attack then an acoustic instrument or those with a floating bridge. When going from one to another the differences in timing are slight but noticable. When going to an upright bass from a telecaster the differences in attach time are more recognizable and it takes a certain amount of adaption if you are going from one instrument to another. In the electronic realm there is a wider disparity in attack to reaction based on the properties of the sound selected and the device used for the process. The speed limit for midi is 1ms. Which is in a perfect universe going from one hardware keyboard to another. That is the top end. The bottom end can be as much as slow as 200ms. when going from the original source (my fingers) to the output Here is why I don't use 13pin (roland gr/gk type systems) though I have several. I currently own a roland ready strat, Godin Freeway SA and Godin Multilac ACS SA. I've had almost every incarnation of guitar to midi conversion from the 80's till the GrO9. Inside the unit even the more current GR55 the internal delay time is about 30ms which is significant enough to break out the metronome and learn to play slightly ahead of the beat so when it finally comes out it's on the beat. When going to a hardware (non computer) midi device it jumps up to 60ms. 60 is a far cry from 1ms. When taking that same midi signal and sending it though a usb to a computer the conversion process of midi to usb and then usb back to midi can leap excessively again requiring one to break out the metronome and get an even further jump on the beat. Now,, when you are working with a daw hosted on a computer (yes even mac's) midi operates as interrupt. That means the midi signal comes along and tries to interuppt the processor to send the signal through the processing stage. If the computer is too occupied running other processes (even on multi-core) the midi signal has to wait before it can go thru the host and then the actual virtual instrument. Not to mention any post proccessing such as effects to be returned. Which can mean an irregular time for the signal to be processed. Even if you've done all your metronome work and have gained a sense of timing for the standalone sound, once the computer has to process all the computer functions and all the daw functions the timing can be even more significantly offset. This is why quantizers are so popular in daw's it allows for time correction after the fact to deal with the irregular timing due to the way the signal is processed. It is completely unlike working with a hardware workstation. This is why major studio's and touring artists use muse receptor. http://www.museresearch.com/community/artists.php Because receptor does only one thing. Handles plugins for significantly reduced latency and takes the pressure off the daw/main computer for recording. I don't own receptor. Even with a really fast computer I still have latency issues. If I only played one non computer instrument and played it every night at gigs it wouldn't be as much of a concern. However I don't play one instrument. And sometimes it can be a spell between me picking up a specific instrument like a conventional electric bass. At which time I do need a metronome to bring my timing back up on that instrument so I'm not ahead or behind the beat. As well There are professional musicians who do not practice even after 20 years of being together and it shows in thier performance. The Who had a huge reunion after a long hiatus and because they didn't practice the first couple of concerts failed miserably. Led Zepplin's Live Aid when they came back without practicing was also abismall. It took decades for Jimmy Page to get back to the levels he had back in the 70's. Eric Clapton has stated publicly that he can't perform much of the music he made in the 80's because he's losing those abilities. Technology is technology and humans are humans. We are not a steady state of being. our abilities rise and fall and sometimes rise again. Some are content to do the same things we've always done but even that over the long haul does not mean we have low and high tides in our performance. We are not mp3 machines. There are those who challenge themselves and rise and those who set forth challenges they can't rise to but still hold out hope for. In my life I've seen talented young people wither through stanation. Late bloomers rise to the occassion and everything inbetween. People get into playing a music for a variety of reasons. Whether it be that a parent wills the instrument onto the childs psyche, a wish for personal expression, a desire for positive attention and occassionally as a means of exploration. These reasons can change overtime. Initially I started taking on other instruments for both financial compensation and a sense of belonging in a group. When everyone is a guitar player sometimes you can accomplish more by not being another guitar player. People also write and perform music for different reasons. Music has a place for the artisan, the craftsman and the explorer. To deny any one of these is to deny music itself. If you one has decided on which of these to be then it's not up to anyone else to deny them the opporitunity be it monetary or personal gain. And if as a consequence the music becomes part of the musical landscape then we are all enhanced by the experience it brings to us.

Low hanging fruit. Change the World - Eric Clapton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kntzQiaFzOQ

Any World (that I'm welcome to) - Steely Dan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-06CgvTG-7I I feel remiss about not posting more Steely Dan in this thread.

Sometimes a cheaper vsti can save the day when more expensive ones fail. I recently had to add a bass part for an old timey folk song. I tried the bass instruments from IK Sample Tank and that wasn't working. I tried the "real" basses from Rolands Dimension Pro and that wasn't working. DSF electric and acoustic basses weren't happening. In short I went through 150 different basses from about 10 major plug in companies and then started to think I'd be tweaking the mix till hell froze over for the bass to set right. Finally I found what I was looking for in Luxonix Purity when I happened upon EB soft finger.

Quite franly, with the exception of advanced jazz theory in dark corners I don't see theory advancing. Rather I see the exact opposite from educators. Let;s revisit the 1-4-5 for a minute. I was taught in both intro to music theory and by some very short term jazz teachers that all rock was based on I-IV-V and that to figure out a song all I need do was identify which chord was the tonic. Trying to develop my ears and reading ability I tested it on several rock standards. It didn't take long to figure out someone was either lying to me or didn't have the correct information. I'm not the only one who has been taught these things. Gene Simmons of Kiss once remarked that he had only the crudest sense of harmony in the early days of kiss and as his career advanced he began to study theory which had a negative impact on later songs because they became to homogenized specifically because he was trying to write songs that fit the theory models regarding "How to play rock" as taught by non-rockers in colleges across the land as part of the curriculum. Earstwhile non accredited schools such as Berklee or MI seem to get somethings right. I "hang" at a local coffee shop that has a clientele of mostly college students. And being a musician I'm always curoius to what is being taught in music studies programs. The music theory classes have not changed in 40+ years as far as I can tell and I've read the text books as well looked at the lab assignments for the students. Quite frankly I find the school is doing a diss service to the students with the information they provide as the material is less then a reflection of real life type composition studies. I've tried to keep an open mind to things through the years and have a vast collection of songbooks and instructional music material however. What is taught in many book for formalized study is a far cry from the reality of what is recorded by "popular artists" Eventually I gave up on there being a unified music theory and am still trying to rid myself of the methodology expressed by theory. I've actually found it more advantageous to study music and do my own analysis from actual artists as a method to form theories or launching pads for my own musical ideas. While it's more demanding then simply accepting institutionalized belief systems, it's also more personally rewarding.

Music is not pedigree, it's not geaneology it's not science and it certainly isn't universal. Listen to any middle east music, indian, or south pacific traditional chinese or japanese music and you'll find completely different scale systems as well they have distinct theories on time and note relationships that are not shared with western music. Music is part craft, part art. It is not a game of reductionism so that a would be theorist can sort into a specified catagory like collecting butterflies. 20th century music wasn't a product or byproduct of seralism. Much of what developed was built upon itenerant musicians. People who had a crude sense of harmony and melody and were not restricted by the dogma set forth in classical music. As the idea developed as "It sounds good to me lets us it" they eventually developed into standardized approaches. When documenting these approaches quite often classical musicians were used for transcription and analysis. The classicalists would try homogenize by reductionism without a full grasp of the "jazz" traditions. Scott Joplin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Joplin didn't study seralism. Neither can one attribute serialism or the study of classicalism to the works of W.C. Handy or those who followed along his path such as Robert Johnson. One of the most proliphic writers of the 20th century could neither read nor write nor play chords and yet is considered by many to be America's greatest songwriters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin American popular music took the passages it did for the most part without need nor direction from the classical field. Each successive generation has been influenced but not limited to earlier generations. Everytime someone starts yammering that it all comes from classical and ends with classical I have to laugh. b5 subs didn't come from classical music. Blues progressions did not come from classical music. ii-V modulations were not derived from classical music. As I stated earlier music is not science. Along that line Music Theory is not Scientific Theory. However If someone wishes to be held as a credible source in the realm of music theory then that person must use the scientific method. The Scentific method does not start with an assumption and then tries to force a belief from that assumption. Instead it looks at the evidence and makes deductions based on facts. So far the facts show that there is no direct lineage with classical theorums such as serialism based on the bodies of work by popular artists. The artists themselves do not state that they used this construct in the formation of the songs they right. Facts don't change to fit a theory. Ergo rather then trying to force a broken theory with no concrete evidence to back it up.

This may not be the response you were looking for. The "scene" is different everywhere. In California it is a pay to play system - http://www.laweekly.com/2010-11-04/music/to-pay-or-not-to-pay-to-play-the-sunset-strip/ I've known many who have gone to California and tried to work their ways up through the bar scene to the big time. Only to come back broken in spirit and destitute. Some of them (Kid Rock, Sponge) finally had a shot at the limelight only after returing. But they never would have made it as far as they did without doing the SoCal scene. On the East Side of Metro Detroit. It's the old boys mafia network. When a bar owner is looking for a band to fill a spot they...don't bother listening to the CD (though you are still expected to have one) They don't bother looking in entertainment circulars. They ask other bands what they think of you. If another band doesn't know you or doesn't like you....You aren't getting the gig. Playing the East Side as a career means joining an already established east side band and using that bands credibility to launch yourself from. Stay for a few years and try to leave on good terms. Even if there are severe personality conflicts don't show it. On the West Side it's all about cultivating the audience. You may get straglers who aren't chasing after their three or four favorite bands and when the opporituntiy comes. It better not be wasted. I live on the west side. I've had the good fortune to work at popular night spots in various capacities when not gigging which has allowed me to see and hear the best the west side has to offer. It is a challenge if your music does not match the cultural (or lack thereof) influences that the venue caters to, It means a lot of glad handing. If they've never heard of you before it's up to you to make a lasting impression so that they remember you next time. I've seen more acts then one can imagine through the years. Being great, and engaging the audience on and off stage still might not be enough for a return gig. Managers are seen as an act of desperation locally. When you get a manager be expected to play at shotgun weddings, retirement parties and bar mitzvah's. Also...... it wouldn't hurt to get to know Jan Hutchinson

Someday Soon - Ian and Sylvia Tyson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fM_jnS-MjY

I have a soundcloud account but it's used for anything but my musical exploits. A long story too much to get into here. Tuesdays Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysP_X_CmE_s

Does this help? http://tappermike.com/mike/chro8.html BTW, checked out your soundcloud page. Really great stuff. Would enjoy hearing your originals as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbP1K-bQB6g

Come to Michigan. The climate is similar and so long as you don't work in upper middle class areas they tend to be very friendly and compassionate.

Starland Vocal Band - Afternoon Delight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4b3w6a9cSk

Here's a lost 80's track Jane's Getting Serious - Jon Astley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ghHKhbZik

White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0

The River - Bruce Springsteen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6R77eGx8xM