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 The Greg Howard Songbook 
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
jluebke wrote:
I've spent a bit of time with Greg's new Song Book, and I've got to say it's a great resource for the Stick community. To me, the book really fills a gap that exists in the current Stick literature by being less of a 'Stick Reference Manual' and more of a complete, integrated approach towards getting better at the instrument. Maybe it's because it's more similar to the way I originally learned instruments when I was younger – via playing increasingly complex songs and arrangements rather than jumping right into charts of LH chords, etc. . . . Fundamentally, I like the songs & they're fun to learn. I'm enjoying my practice time more than ever. Thanks again Greg!

Thanks for the kind comments, Jeff. Glad it's working for you.

I'm revamping my own website, which is still far from complete but at least it's active. There is ordering info on there now, and basic info about the book at:

http://www.greghoward.com/news/

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Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:38 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
I've made a playlist of the songs included in the songbook and have been listening to them while reading through the book. As a life-long classical musician (voice and guitar), I had always been led through each piece of music by a literal interpretation of the song. I began to rebel against that when I took up the Stick - developing my ear and learning through listening and improvising.

My musical life had been split in two.

Well, as they say, the chickens came home to roost this summer when I was asked to play for the wedding of a friend. They requested all classical music - instrumental, and played on the Stick! Here I was, confronted with this challenge to perform music of which I had (at best) a casual familiarity (hearing this stuff on the classical radio station, or in a book store...), on an instrument with little or no standard repertoire. On top of that, it was an instrument on which I am (by choice) functionally illiterate. Fortunately, I was able to find a classical "Fake Book" and learn some Stick-istic interpretations of these songs and the wedding went off without a hitch (well, ok - maybe ONE hitch! ;) ).

Everything comes around again to Greg's Songbook - I have been listening to his recorded works for over 16 years, trying to pick up how to play these great songs. Now, I have the literal works in my hands.

I created the playlist from my collection of his CDs (the only song he hasn't released on CD yet is "Blues for the Status Quo," but I was able to capture the audio from the live video he posted on YouTube this summer!), and have been sitting here this morning with a cup of coffee, listening and reading. Time for reflection and anticipation!

This is a happy moment for me, as it feels like my two musical worlds are coming together!

Thank you, Greg!


Take care,

Paul


Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:41 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
grandstick wrote:
I've made a playlist of the songs included in the songbook and have been listening to them while reading through the book. As a life-long classical musician (voice and guitar), I had always been led through each piece of music by a literal interpretation of the song. I began to rebel against that when I took up the Stick - developing my ear and learning through listening and improvising.

My musical life had been split in two.

Well, as they say, the chickens came home to roost this summer when I was asked to play for the wedding of a friend. They requested all classical music - instrumental, and played on the Stick! Here I was, confronted with this challenge to perform music of which I had (at best) a casual familiarity (hearing this stuff on the classical radio station, or in a book store...), on an instrument with little or no standard repertoire. On top of that, it was an instrument on which I am (by choice) functionally illiterate. Fortunately, I was able to find a classical "Fake Book" and learn some Stick-istic interpretations of these songs and the wedding went off without a hitch (well, ok - maybe ONE hitch! ;) ).

Everything comes around again to Greg's Songbook - I have been listening to his recorded works for over 16 years, trying to pick up how to play these great songs. Now, I have the literal works in my hands.

I created the playlist from my collection of his CDs (the only song he hasn't released on CD yet is "Blues for the Status Quo," but I was able to capture the audio from the live video he posted on YouTube this summer!), and have been sitting here this morning with a cup of coffee, listening and reading. Time for reflection and anticipation!

This is a happy moment for me, as it feels like my two musical worlds are coming together!

Thank you, Greg!


Take care,

Paul

Thanks for a nice post, Paul. If I can help people learn how to play Emmett's amazing method, then that's the best. Great that you're passing it on to your son. A musical method like Free Hands expands with each new student, as they bring their own music into it.

Emmett personally taught it to hundreds of people, and also indirectly through his book, and can watch it grow through generations. Must be a good feeling.

Now to the recording...

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Mon Oct 26, 2009 7:54 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook - with Classic 10-string
I thought it might be helpful to people who were considering the book for use with10-string Classic tuning to see exactly what was involved in adapting it to that tuning, in case they want to give it a try.

----------------------------------------------------

Using the book with 10-string Classic

The letters on the beginning of the staff show you which strings are marked for the notes A is your second string.

All of the Keymaps and Key Guides will work for you, as you will read them from the D string to the F# string (the top 5 of the 6 strings).

Some of the songs don't use the lowest melody string, so you can play them at the same fret positions. They are:

Del Mar
Requiem for Persephone
Where Are You Tonight
Cross Country
Blues for the Status Quo

Some songs only use the lowest string occasionally, so you can make the following changes:

"Adrift" (measure 13, leave out the low B or play an F# at fret 7 on the B string with finger 1)
in measure 14 you will have to find some different notes for the melody
repeat these for measure 29 and 30
After that at 42 you will have figure out some other part
Leave out the low harmony at 57, 60 and 83

For the charts and exercises, here is what you can do.
When the melody is low enough play it up an octave, two frets higher and one string higher than written. If the highest melody string isn't used in the chart you can do this easily.

"Morning Song" at measure 49 until letter C and also the Coda you should play one octave higher.

"Blue Ridge" is mostly on strings A-F#, only a few notes in measure 58, 93 and 94 are unplayable

"Quince Street", You can play the B section 5 frets lower and use the strings as they would be on your instrument until measure 41 (starting with the C#)

"Sangre de Cristo" doesn't use the top string at all, so you can play that up an octave (add 2 frets and 1 string position to what's written on the page)

"El Chicle" is the hardest to adjust because of the octave melody. Learn it first just playing the high notes of the melody part.

"Goya's Dream" you should play one octave higher (doesn't use the highest tring in the chart)

"Blues for Ayman" you can play 5 frets lower on the strings as written.

--------------------------------------

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Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:58 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
Got Greg's book in today's mail, so it's a good day!! I'm a MR player, so I'll let you know how the "+2" goes. These are some of my all-time favourite Stick tunes, so if Greg's book doesn't help my reading, nothing will! Thanks for the huge effort that must have gone into this, Greg (and Glenn)!

I have to correct Mr. Brosky's math. When he says "17 words over", he actually means "21". So that's +2 frets and +4 words.

So I think I'll have a late night session Adrift...

Jim


Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:30 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
Jim Meyer wrote:
Got Greg's book in today's mail, so it's a good day!! I'm a MR player, so I'll let you know how the "+2" goes. These are some of my all-time favourite Stick tunes, so if Greg's book doesn't help my reading, nothing will! Thanks for the huge effort that must have gone into this, Greg (and Glenn)!

I have to correct Mr. Brosky's math. When he says "17 words over", he actually means "21". So that's +2 frets and +4 words.

So I think I'll have a late night session Adrift...

Jim

Hi Jim,

I look forward to hearing how it goes for you MR folks. If it's really a huge hassle I'll know I have to make an MR version sooner rather than later.

A couple people have found some really subtle mistakes in this first printing (in addition to some obvious ones). I'll be sending out a complete eratta to everyone who has the first printing very soon. I think I have your email addresses, but if you're not sure, please feel free to write.

There are around 15,000 notes in the book, so it seems inevitable that there will be a few mistakes in the fret numbers, finger symbols or string markers.

The good news is that there are no wrong notes (so far), so if you find something that looks a little wrong (a bad fret number for example) use the pitch as your guide.

Thanks to everyone who has put their eyes on it so far.

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Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:20 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
Hi Greg,
Just logged on to here for the first time in a while and saw that you have finished your book. Awesome news, you can expect an order from me as soon as I have fixed my car and revalved my Trace Elliot. Hopefully by then I will be able to get it with the accompanying CD.
Cheers
Evan


Fri Nov 06, 2009 6:57 am
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
Well ... I put the book to good use last night. I had a "private party" gig and for this one, I had to take some of the heavier (for lack of a better word) tunes out of my set list and go more mellow straight Stick. I needed to fill a couple of hours and needed to add some extra tunage so I started from the top of the book and played "Del Mar" and "Requiem for Persephone." It was really cool. I took a couple of arrangement liberties but for the most part stayed true to what was written. It was StaffTab put into practice and it all went really well.

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Sat Nov 07, 2009 4:11 pm
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
evanharris wrote:
Hi Greg,
Just logged on to here for the first time in a while and saw that you have finished your book. Awesome news, you can expect an order from me as soon as I have fixed my car and revalved my Trace Elliot. Hopefully by then I will be able to get it with the accompanying CD.
Cheers
Evan

Hi Evan,
Great to hear from you. Forget about the car, it can wait. The amp, I understand.... I'm working on the CD, but its still a few weeks off.

At this point the book is only available from me and SE. I have no plans for broader distribution just yet.

gpoorman wrote:
Well ... I put the book to good use last night. I had a "private party" gig and for this one, I had to take some of the heavier (for lack of a better word) tunes out of my set list and go more mellow straight Stick. I needed to fill a couple of hours and needed to add some extra tunage so I started from the top of the book and played "Del Mar" and "Requiem for Persephone." It was really cool. I took a couple of arrangement liberties but for the most part stayed true to what was written. It was StaffTab put into practice and it all went really well.


And Glenn,

Glad to hear it went well. Looking forward to seeing your charts out there soon, too.

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Sun Nov 08, 2009 6:50 pm
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Post Re: The Greg Howard Songbook
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


Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:16 pm
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