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 The Greg Howard Songbook 
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
Brett Bottomley wrote:
Glenn's above post inspired me. In my afternoon practice I decided to take the first 2 tunes from the songbook and play them in the hallway of my school "sightread". Well sight-reading more than one staff is VERY SCARRY to me, and in fairness I was not really doing it (I really need to fudge/fake a lot in the left hand in order to read the right. But I WAS ABLE to get through the tunes (well something like the tunes). So the Stafftab worked for me. I'm really psyched to work through more of the book!!

It's funny I read music almost everyday (simple reading mostly) yet I am a terrible sight-reader
(and I always will be), I think it is something I will always have in my practice routine. Why? I don't know, habit? But I think it's more than that, I think the mental process of sight-reading music can be uniquely pleasurable (much like reading a good book) I guess it's just a fun mental/musical exercise. It is pleasurable when no one is around and the worst feeling in the world when I have to do it in public. LOL

Brett

Hi Brett,

I'm really glad to see your enthusiasm for the notation. I never intended StaffTab to be a sight-reading system, there's just too much information for that.

But David Brosky suggests one way to get used to the notation: put on the recordings and follow along with the charts. They're pretty true to the recordings, especially on the Stick Figures tunes, where there's less of a head/solos/head structure.

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Tue Nov 10, 2009 2:04 pm
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
Hi Brett, & Greg thanks for the shout out. I was just preparing this post.....

"Everybody needs a little time away, from the one that you love" - Chicago from "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" - well, I'm not talking about your significant other, but the love of your life-your Stick!

I recently gained four hours a week ( my daughter's JV basketball practice) to devote to Greg's book. but of course I couldn't bring my Stick, so.... I packed a CD player with Stick Figures, a set of headphones, and The Book.

If you listen to the CD and read along, concentrating on one element, either the music as you normally read it, the fingering symbols, or the string choices, intellectually you can get your mind around a piece, and be comfortable with it mentally, before you add the complexity of fingers to strings, timing, and coordination between the hands.

In your mind's eye, already project yourself playing the piece, and by placing your fingers on the life size KeyMaps (tm) innovation, you can get a tactile feel of where the notes, the spacings, and the intervals are. Also, you can just look at the StaffTab (tm) to see where the notes are occurring, and on which strings they fall following along with the music.

We are extremely fortunate for Greg's herculean work here with accurate transcriptions and for revealing his fingerings and placement choices. At first, reading the liner notes on Stick Figures which states "No edits or overdubs", is daunting. The wonderment and awe fades to "I'll never be able to play this!", but wait... with this book you can! Greg gives you a guided tour "to look behind the curtain" which doesn't dissapoint as to his harmony structures, voice leading, choice of scales and notes in the transcribed solos, use of varied rhythmic devices and values, and consistency in his solos and songs.

Where this book really breaks new ground is to cause a paradigm shift to enable Stickists to be able to figure out Stick music. It has been tough in most part due to the overlapping of the strings in the melody and the bass. Sure you could make an educated guess, or an "un"educated guess using deductive reasoning ruling out notes that could just not be played that way. For example, if you have had the fortune of seeing Greg play, he will play High on the Bass Side and play off those notes on the Melody side, ie. when he does a Balalaika emulation or a dual line like the horn break in Stevie Wonder's in "Sir Duke".

The harmonic progressions in Greg's songs are also revealed here. Take "Blue Ridge", it starts with the bass leading in 1/2 step intervals with the 3rd in the bass on the first chord, then a 1/2 step up to the Dominant or flat 7th off of the V chord, and then another 1/2 step up going to a Major,( not harmonized scale minor), II chord. all over a repeated but not in any way repetitive melody note...
- two words- Sheer Genius!

We also have to be grateful for the transcription accuracy. If you have ever tried to read tab off the net, you know what I mean. Every gliss, 1/4 note rest, and dotted eighth is neatly in its place so what you hear on the CD is what you can play yourself. All the grace notes and "staggered" triplets are there too (see "Morning Song") honestly, I never saw the former and had only a good hunch on the latter. Examples here are all the ascending and descending riffs and held legato pedal points in "Adrift".

Another approach to The Book, is to help learn song structure. The forms of music may be considered in at least two aspects, the shape of the musical design as a whole and the texture of the music from moment to moment. "Morning Song" can be analyzed in these ways- First, "horizontally" to look at how the piece flows overall- the chord changes and tonal centers, or Secondly, "vertically" looking at each beat and discovering the contrapuntal nature of the notes in relationship to each other on each single beat. it is a exquisite example of beautiful counterpoint harmony to play and learn from.

The Book succeeds on so many levels, all which can be revealed just by a set of phones, a CD or mp3 player, and some time to spend with it.

Dave Brosky


Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:01 pm
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
dbrosky wrote:

The harmonic progressions in Greg's songs are also revealed here. Take "Blue Ridge", it starts with the bass leading in 1/2 step intervals with the 3rd in the bass on the first chord, then a 1/2 step up to the Dominant or flat 7th off of the V chord, and then another 1/2 step up going to a Major,( not harmonized scale minor), II chord. all over a repeated but not in any way repetitive melody note...
- two words- Sheer Genius!

Hi David,

You're words of praise are very kind, but if there's genius at work here, it's in the instrument and the tuning, and the Free Hands method. The open-voiced chords in the left hand are a spectacular accompaniment tool, and the way they overlap into the melody (especially into the Baritone Melody) is a big part of what you hear on the Stick Figures tunes, especially.

"Blue Ridge" is absolutely one of my favorite of my compositions. Some of my tunes are composed in my head and brought to the instrument, but this one definitely grew out of The Stick itself. It's hard to believe I wrote it more than 22 years ago!

I'll be playing it tomorrow for the FredTap concert.

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Fri Nov 13, 2009 6:22 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
Since I don't have any official recordings of it, I thought I should post the video of "Requiem for Persephone" from the FredTap II concert. for those of you who have the songbook.

The introduction is not in the written chart (didn't want to scare anyone off from learning what is basically a pretty easy tune). There are some embellishments and a few wrong notes, but overall it's pretty close to the version in the book.

I hope you like it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0tUSqPR32k[/youtube]

For more info about the book, please see:

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Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:08 pm
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
I've been sitting down with this book almost everyday, and for a beginner it's a fantastic resource. I really can't say enough good things about it. It's very easy to read and follow, and the lessons at the beginning of each song are extremely helpful. I feel like I've made a lot of progress in just a short time. I can't recommend it enough.


Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:12 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
JSanta wrote:
I've been sitting down with this book almost everyday, and for a beginner it's a fantastic resource. I really can't say enough good things about it. It's very easy to read and follow, and the lessons at the beginning of each song are extremely helpful. I feel like I've made a lot of progress in just a short time. I can't recommend it enough.

Hi Jim,

It's great to hear this. I was a little worried that the tunes would be too hard for someone who really was a beginner to deal with. Thanks for posting.

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Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:06 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
greg wrote:
JSanta wrote:
I've been sitting down with this book almost everyday, and for a beginner it's a fantastic resource. I really can't say enough good things about it. It's very easy to read and follow, and the lessons at the beginning of each song are extremely helpful. I feel like I've made a lot of progress in just a short time. I can't recommend it enough.

Hi Jim,

It's great to hear this. I was a little worried that the tunes would be too hard for someone who really was a beginner to deal with. Thanks for posting.



I personally find it very helpful to use songs as goals in learning. I can't play say the bass line and the melody at the same time, but I'm able to use the bass root and play the melody. To me, this book is very helpful because you can build yourself up through songs. I can really hear the progress when I'm working through something.


Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:43 pm
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
JSanta wrote:
I personally find it very helpful to use songs as goals in learning. I can't play say the bass line and the melody at the same time, but I'm able to use the bass root and play the melody. To me, this book is very helpful because you can build yourself up through songs. I can really hear the progress when I'm working through something.

This is all really nice to hear, Jim.

As Steve has said, I don't think anyone produces these kinds of materials for the financial reward, so the best reward is hearing from students that it's working.

For anyone interested, there's a special deal going on a book and selected CDs for the rest of this month:

http://www.stickist.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2401

and SE has the book as well:
http://www.stick.com/features/book/

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Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:40 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
MATCHED RECIPROCAL VERSION coming soon...

Hi everyone,

I've begun in earnest to try to wrap this up. 3-4 weeks and it should be done. The Matched Reciprocal version will work for 10 and 12-string MR. with 12-string MR you will simply not use the lowest melody string.

The MR versions of the original Baritone Melody charts have been presented almost exactly note-for-note, finger-for-finger, either down one string and up 2 frets, or down 3 frets on the same string. There are just a few changes to some of the solo lines here and there, and an occasional chord shift (down an octave), but otherwise the charts are the same, and learning them will teach you the same fluid melody technique.

Thanks to everyone who bought the Bari Melody version of the book (works with Classic 12 as well). Work on the companion CD is also moving forward, with early June for release...

I will most likely not make a Classic 10-string version of the book this year. I'd rather focus my energies on new aspects of Stickness, of which there are many bubbling to the surface. New tunings, new tunes, new sounds...

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Mon Apr 05, 2010 12:19 pm
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