Last week saw DOJ officials once again entering the Gibson guitar manufacturing plant in Tennessee there they proceeded to confiscate pallets of wood, guitars, and other assorted guitar-making materials.  The raid was apparently in response to Gibson’s alleged use of “endangered” trees for its guitars.  Use of such wood would be a violation of the Lacy Act, which states it is “illegal to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any plant, with some limited exceptions, taken or traded in violation of the laws of the U.S., a U.S. State, or relevant foreign law

An example of such a tree would be Indian rosewood, which is apparently outlawed as an export or import for manufacturing purposes by the Obama administration.  Where the situation gets particularly interesting is that in 2009 First Lady Michelle Obama personally exported a Gibson guitar as a gift to the First Lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.  That guitar’s fretboard was made from…wait for it…a piece of Indian rosewood.

So if the Obama Department of Justice is storming the gates of the Gibson plant in Tennessee, how long before it turns its attention onto the illegal guitar-contraband carrying First Lady?

The banjo has been a typically stylized instrument whose sound instantly conjures up mentally challenged hill billies ala Deliverance. Sure, she sings country music but her music is so plastic and poppy that it can hardly be called country. So what’s up with the banjo? Is she trying to be more country or is it something else?

On a rather different end of the music spectrum you have the band Mumford and Sons. They are a pretty traditional rock band who use a banjo. Their music is a bit different in that they actually put depth to their tunes.

Recently while at church I was talking to the highschool aged kids and one of them (whose favorite music is screamo) had said she would love to hear a hardcore or screamo band who use an electric banjo but that she couldn’t find one.

I know of an indie band called the All Girl Boys Choir who have a banjo in their band so I gave the student from church their album. It wasn’t screamo or hardcore and the banjo wasn’t electric, but she loved their tunes.

So all this got me to thinking. What’s up with the banjo? A few years back I noticed the Ukelele was making a big come back and now it’s everywhere. Will we be seeing this with the banjo as well?

I did a bit of an experiment last year with google adwords and did an ad for the All Girl Boys Choir and used the phrase Banjo Rock as a key word. Several thousand people did google searches for indie rock bands with banjos in their music.

Prior to enlisting in the army, I had only played two instruments and they were guitar and harmonica but while in the army, I thought I’d give keyboards and mandolin a try. I bought my first Casio keyboard not long after I was stationed in Germany. It was a small one that only had about 2 ½ octaves and the keys were about the width of my fingers. It wasn’t anything all that impressive, but it was certainly good enough to learn and practice on. So I did just that. When I was in my room on base, I would run it through some guitar pedals and into my small guitar practice amp. It actually sounded pretty good run through my chorus, flanger and delay pedals, but In the field though, I would just use the headphone output.

The keyboard Used AA batteries and consumed less battery power when you used headphones instead of the built in speakers. The best thing about it, though, was the fact that it fit very easily into a duffel bag. When preparing for going out to the field, I would wrap some clothing around it to try to protect it from some of the abuse that might come its way. For the most part, that was quite effective in preventing damage to it. Unfortunately, at one point one of the black keys broke off of it. I was able to tape it back into place with black electrical tape and it actually worked okay. So no harm was done really.

After the day of training in the field, some guys would play cards, read magazines or just do whatever to pass the time. I would be there with my keyboard with the headphones plugged in, getting my practice. It’s funny how much more you value practice time when you have so little time available for practice and yet when you have a lot of time available to you, you sometimes slack off.

My point here is that if a person really wants to practice, he will find a way to make the time. I would also find ways of getting that extra practice later, after I finished my three years in the Army. Years later, I started to do more singing, instead of being just an instrumentalist. That meant that I had to learn lyrics. On my one factory job, I was a machine operator and had to suffer through the monotony of monitoring the production machinery as various parts would be spit out at the end of the line. The only thing that really required any thought was the startup procedures and knowing what to do when things went wrong.

So once the production machinery was running, I would sneak a peak at the lyrics for a song I had typed up, printed out on a piece of paper and kept in my pocket. I would pull it out real quick, read a line of it, put it back in my pocket and say the line over and over in my head. Then a little later, I would do that with the next line. By the end of the day, I would have the lyrics for the song completely memorized, and I did it all on company time. I was fully capable of thinking about the lyrics to a song while I watched parts come out of a machine. The job was far from rocket science.

In those eight hour stretches of monotony which I called my job, I was able to learn the lyrics to a number of songs. Then I would go home and practice singing them while playing my guitar. It was always easier for me to memorize the music for a song than to remember the lyrics anyway. I was fortunate to be able to do the more difficult task while getting paid. So, to sum it all up: do what you have to do to get that extra practice in. There are a lot of ways to do it. Martin makes the Backpacker acoustic guitar, which is great for taking on camping trips or trips anywhere for that matter. I used to bring a guitar to work on my one job and got an extra half hour of practice on my lunch. There are many ways you can get your practice time in. A keyboard in a duffel bag is just one of them.

I am a sucker for acoustic guitar and used to love getting to hear the acoustic guitar championships on the radio in Seattle. So when I happened on to the arts and crafts fair in Port Canaveral and met Don Soledad and his wife Lisa selling seashell crafts and music, I couldn’t resist trying it out. Lisa promised me the music was passionate and so on Valentine’s day I had to take it home to entertain my husband. Don Soledad will be playing at the Grand Opening ceremony for the Port Canaveral Arts and Craft Fair at the Cove on March 1,2001.

Musical Instruments Played by Don Soledad on the Camino de Seda Album

Don Soledad plays a flamenco guitar, mandolin, palmas and cajon on the Camino de Seda album. Note, there are no lyrics to this music, it’s just lively easy to listen to music. He plays a Conde Hermanos flamenco guitar on three of the tracks and luthier Lester DeVoe flamenco guitars on several of the other tracks. If you don’t know flamenco guitar music, it is really rich resonating guitar music in the mid keys, that sounds like a deep colorful humming. Acoustic guitarists like Don Soledad are noted for their impressive fingering and chord work.

Band Members that Play with Don Soledad on the Camino de Seda Album

People that accompany Don Soledad include Kai Eckhardt on electric fretless bass, Scott McGill on electric bass, Matt wood on electric fretless bass, Eduardo Berrios on congas and bongos, cajon played by Behzad Habibzai, djembe, clambells and rainstrick played by Anthony Darmona, Frank Basile plays drums and Francico Vila plays cello on Autumn’s Aire.

Songs on the Camino de Seda Album by Don Soledad

Here’s my take on how the tracks on the album sound—

Puerta Isabel starts like sun glinting on water then quickly turns into a syncopated tune.

Camino de Seda is like a rich and lively road trip.

Amanecer is a thoughtful piece like walking through the Florida woods.

Bahia de Media Luna is a gentle tender piece perfect for staring at the moon, then takes up into a lively volleyball game.

Pasatiempo, a tango, is most danceable,

Sunday Afternoon has a well-fed contented feel.

Alameda makes you want to clap along.

Autumn’s Aire is a Elliot Casillos arrangement that has the feel of paint by numbers or playing a game of solitaire, measured and calm.

Be sure to check out Don Soledad’s web page or have a chance to see his band on Mar 1st, 2011 at the Port Canaveral Cove Arts and Crafts show.

I remember when I first started out learning guitar. When I knew very little, it seemed so exciting to learn some new technique, song or bit of music theory. There was so much out there to learn and that learning process, for me, was fun. Some people don’t like to practice or have very little discipline as it would pertain to practice. That’s not really my problem. Mine was boredom. So I would practice one technique, and once I got bored, I would practice a different one. It broke up the monotony and I still got more practice.

I would sometimes be in the process of learning some songs and would get bored with the songs I was learning and practicing. So then, I might break that up with practicing some scales. Sometimes I would just improvise things a swell. That often led to the creation of one of my own songs. To make things interesting, I would also take one of the new techniques I was learning and tried to use it in a song of my own. I was applying the knowledge I was accumulating. That was fun for me as well.

Sometimes learning a new instrument can bring back that old spark. Learning a new instrument kind of recreates the days when you were learning that first instrument and sort of recreates the enthusiasm you had back then as well. It even regenerates the enthusiasm you had for the instruments you already play. I would learn a new song on an instrument I am beginning to learn and it would sometimes give me an idea on guitar or some other instrument I was already playing.

One thing I’ve done was play around with some ideas on one instrument and start to compose a song. Then I would try it out on another instrument to see what it would sound like. I really enjoyed that and transposing from one instrument to another really helped to reinforce my knowledge of not only music theory but of both instruments as well. Sometimes I would compose a song on guitar and then try it out on keyboards. I might then expand on the song when trying it out on the keyboard and it would sometimes turn out to be more of a keyboard oriented song, in the end.

Sometimes we get bored by not making progress fast enough. I recently became interested in the recorder. I got a soprano recorder and began tinkering with that. It sparked my interest in recorders in general, so I then got an alto recorder. I picked up some sheetmusic for them both. So then I started to play around with transposing some of the sheet music from the soprano recorder to the alto recorder.

I do a lot of internet related stuff and I cover a lot subjects related to music. On my sites, I have guitar lessons, keyboard chords, recorder scales and songs, banjo chords, harmonica songs and so on. I might do one project like creating charts for the soprano recorder scales and then move on to something else like mandolin scales. This whole thing keeps it interesting for me. Just as I begin to tire of one thing like recorder scales, I might transpose some songs for harmonica. Once I tire of that, I’ll move on to something else. In the end, it all broadens my knowledge of music and keeps it all interesting and fun for me.

There are different things you could do just on one instrument. Like guitar, for instance. You might play around on the acoustic and get bored. Then you can tinker around with your electric guitar. Even on the electric guitar alone, you can play around with your effects units. The great thing about the newer effects pedals is that they have so many effects built into a single pedal. The Zoom and Line 6 pedals are just a couple of examples of that. Many of the built in effects can be used simultaneously and can be edited and stored on the device. This gives you so many sound possibilities to play around with. That could rekindle some of that interest or enthusiasm you may have been lacking as of late. The point is that you don’t have to get to the point where you are no longer practicing your music or lose all of your interest in it. Sometimes all you have to do is try something new.

McKee begin playing guitar at age 13, but was initially not impressed by his lesson teachers. His cousin, however, inspired him to continue playing and at 16, he earned his GED and dropped out of high school to devote more time to guitar. He has a large following on youtube, and at one point held the #1, #2, and #3 Top Rated spots at the same time.

McKee was initially fascinated by Metal bands like Dream Theater and Metallica, but after watching a Preston Reed concert, he began to shift towards acoustic music.

Justin King

King began playing guitar and drums at the age of 14, after he dropped out of his public high school in Eugene, Oregon to study painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. He became interested in acoustic guitar when he was 19, and at 20 released his first acoustic cd. He is recognized as a pioneer in the genre for his tapping techniques.

Antoine Dufour

Dufour hails from Quebec, Canada, and began playing guitar at age 15. He was initially discovered after having success at the 2005 and 2006 Canadian Guitar Festival’s Fingerstyle Guitar Championship. Like McKee, most of his followers find him on Youtube. He is most well known for his use of natural and slap harmonics, and the complexity of his music.

Used with permission

While some might think a pipe organ or at least subdued guitar playing would be more fitting to express the merciful intervention of Almighty God in preparing our redemption, the lowly shepherds found tremendous joy in the angelic announcement. They had so much joy, “… they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:16 AV)  Since happiness and joy comes to my mind when I hear banjo music, I easily picture the shepherds running to Bethlehem as Banjos We Have Heard On High rolls along in my hearing.

You can sense the happiness as the song continues to invite you to share in the joy of the angels, shepherds and Magi who welcomed Christ the King. The banjo playing quickens to heart and mind the excitement of the offer of new life as the lively music permeates the piece.  If you are like me, you will be replaying it.

Another thing I enjoy about the piece is that its not dependent upon past Christmas melodies. I have also authored a few songs, but when it comes to Christmas music my mind seems to borrow from measures of known tunes. To the best of my knowledge, this is not so with Jed Marum’s Banjos We Have Heard On High.

Numerous positive comments have been posted since the song was uploaded to YouTube in early October of 2008. Perhaps it has, with its down-to-earth strains, caught the attention of some who might have become tired of the usual Christmas musical fare.

But is it reverent? Considering Psalm 150, it most certainly is. Though the banjo is not specifically mentioned, it could be listed there in ancient form by a different name. Consider at least the first paragraph of Thumbnail History of the Banjo by Bill Reese.

After spreading the good news of the Advent, upon returning to their flocks perhaps some of the shepherds picked up string instruments and made joyous praise unto God. That thought is not far fetched. After all, David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, was a skillful harp player and was originally a shepherd.

Currently, the song appears in Marum’s CD album, Ain’t No Goin’ Back. I honestly hope, if the Lord tarries and permits me to live here, that one Christmas season I will be in a store somewhere and hear Banjos We Have Heard On High. Hopefully the human powers that be in music will see this inspirational song has merit.

It’s funny how some internet related projects seemed to have come out of nowhere. Sometimes I would even end up doing something I could never have foreseen myself doing. One example was a project I did with a blind artist and guitarist from the UK, named Terry Hopwood-Jackson.

Terry was a blind artist who had actually had a documentary done on him regarding his painting. It was quite interesting. Terry had actually been a painter for years but had lost his vision as an adult and is now totally blind. It didn’t stop him from painting though. His work was displayed on a website along with the works of other blind artists. You’d be amazed how some of their works look. You would never know that some of them were blind by looking at their art.

One day, while sorting through my e-mail inbox, I came across an e-mail from Terry. He had logged onto my website DrPsychotic.com and was checking out the guitar lessons portion of the site. Unfortunately, all of the guitar chord charts are visual chord charts that are only viewable by those with sight. So, if you can’t see the images, the charts would be of no use to you. Terry suggested that I create a website that would use numeric chord charts, where each number would represent the fret that the guitarist would press down on to make the chord. There would be a series of 6 numbers, from left to right, that would represent the 6 strings of the guitar. The numbers would represent the frets pressed down on and an X would represent a string not being played.

At the time that Terry had initially contacted me, I had recently completed a guitar chord book that not only provided guitar chord charts by key but also dealt with the theory behind chord construction. So I decided to use some of the concepts I used in my chord book and combined that with the numeric chord charts suggested by Terry.

It was lengthy project that consisted of me creating the website and Terry being the blind tester of the site from the other side of the Atlantic, or across the pond, as some in the UK might say. I would complete one key at a time, upload it and Terry would test it from his end. He would inform me of any typos or mistakes on my end or ask me for clarifications on anything that he felt I didn’t explain clearly enough. I’ve been doing the music thing for so long, I often forget how I may have to break things down to make it easier for a beginner to understand. Terry was a great help in that process. Plus, he had the screen reading software on his end and he was an actual blind person. So who else could better test it?

I had actually become so accustomed to putting chords down by using visual charts that using numeric charts was somewhat of a challenge for me. I would have to have the guitar in my hand and figure a lot of the chords out as I went along. However, with any accomplishment of rising up to a significant challenge, there comes a great feeling of satisfaction upon its completion. That’s exactly how I felt at the completion of this particular project.

Terry was also a great help in promoting the site as well. He had contacted a number of blind organizations in the UK and contacted a number of blind websites to try to get them to link to the new site. Mel Bay Publications was one site that linked to it. I was totally blown away by that. When I first started out in music, I got a lot of beginner books from Mel Bay. So to have them actually link to a site I created just amazed me.

The guitar4blind.com website hasn’t really made me any money to speak of but the fact that there are now people who are blind that are able to learn guitar chords off of the Internet now as a result of my efforts is great. Sometimes you have to do things just to try to make a positive difference int the world. So, though I put a lot of effort and time into the site, just knowing that some blind person out there is able to learn how to play guitar on the Internet for free, because of me, gives me a great feeling of satisfaction. You see, you really never know what kind of a difference you can make. Or, as a wise man once said: “You might not never know.”

If you know someone who is blind or visually impaired and would like to leran guitar online, please refer that person to guitar4blind.com. To see some of Terry’s paintings, go to: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/theartsight/

I recently discovered the beautiful music of an emerging talent by the name of Martha Liz, a Los Angeles acoustic guitar singer song writer. With positive feel good songs like “My Resistance” (already featured on KSBR 88.5 FM in Orange County) and “Just Because You Can” Martha is doing her best to warm and win the hearts of pop indie fans.

Martha likens her sound to a little mix of Enya, Dido, Norah Jones and similar others. I would have to wholeheartedly agree. Some of her musical influences include: Sheryl Crow, Mozart, Radiohead, and many more.

While listening to her music, you’ll find a pleasant rich fullness to her voice, a sweet genuine beauty that is unique and stands solidly on its own as one of a kind. There is an honest vulnerability in her work that authentically touches the heart.

Martha has had the pleasure of working with greats such as Leon Russell and is currently working on an album (mostly piano based this time) which she hopes to release in a January 2011 show. I’m sure she’ll achieve this goal and make for a great start to the New Year!

Please check out: Martha Liz Official Website and Martha Liz’s MySpace Page. You can purchase Martha Liz’s Music on iTunes as well.

I hope you enjoy it!

Joie Schmidt © Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved.

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Dreams of the Heart – volume I by Joie Schmidt is available:

  * Volume I: Amazon Kindle, Adobe Reader, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iBooks

Dreams of the Heart – volume II is available:

  * Volume II: Amazon Kindle, Adobe Reader

———> Stay tuned . . . vol. II will soon be available on iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iBooks!

(*In memoriam of the tragedy in Japan all proceeds from – volume I – sales will go to the relief efforts until 3/11/12)

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For more beautiful music:

• Switchfoot: Every Breath is a Second Chance
• Mat Kearney: You Pull Me Closer to Love
• Kings of Leon: Use Somebody, Someone Like You
• Relient K: You’re Essential to Survive, I’m Gonna Love You All My Life

Do you have a story, poem, artwork or photography you’d like to share? Please check out this site to earn limitless income for life: Triond

In 1821, Mendelssohn was introduced to J.W. von Goethe, with whom a remarkable friendship blossomed between the elderly poet and the 12-year-old musician; and to whom he dedicated his Piano Quartet No. 3 in B Minor in 1825. He set a number of Goethe’s poems to music; a couple of his compositions inspired by Goethe include the overtures Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Op. 27, 1828) and the cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht (Op. 60, 1832).  Only aged 16, Mendelssohn would display the full extent of his technical and melodic ingenuity with his String Octet in E-flat major and his Overture to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream a year later. These two works are the most well-known of his early works.

In 1829, Mendelssohn arranged and conducted the first performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Berlin Singakademie.  The performance, which earned his widespread acclaim at the young age of only 20, was instrumental in the revival of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music throughout Europe.  

His success in Germany led to extensive travel all over Europe. Mendelssohn particularly gained a strong following in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist; and his ten visits there (aggregating about 20 months) would form a significant part of his adult career. Mendelssohn conducted his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor at the London Philharmonic Society on his very first trip to England in 1829. London was also where he premiered and conducted many of his major works including the Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave) and Symphony No. 3 in A Minor (Scottish Symphony) (Op. 56, 1841-1842), both of which were inspired by his visit to Scotland and the latter dedicated to Queen Victoria; and Symphony No. 4 in A Major (Italian Symphony) (Op. 90, 1833).  He also published his first book of piano music called Songs Without Words completed in 1830. Later, the popularity of his oratorio Elijah firmly established his reputation as a composer whose influence on English music equaled that of George Frideric Handel.  On his final visit in 1847, he was the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4 and conducted his Scottish Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra before the Royal couple.

Popular works written over the last decade of his life include the Variations sérieuses (Op. 54, 1841), the Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major (Lobgesang) (Op. 52, 1840; Hymn of Praise), the Piano Concerto No. 2 in D Minor (Op. 40, 1837), and the absolutely beautiful Violin Concerto in E minor (Op. 64, 1844), which is admired for its warmth of melody and for its vivacity. He wrote incidental music to the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream that included the well-known Wedding March in 1843, 17 years after the overture.  The tradition for playing the “Wedding March” at bridal processions originated from its performance at the wedding of the Queen Victoria’s daughter  in 1858, 11 years after Mendelssohn’s death at the age 38 in 1847.

Though Mendelssohn’s musical works was regarded a conservative compared to his more flamboyant contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz, they had stood the test of time, and are still being performed to this very day.

More classical music treats:

• Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-tempered Musician
• Ludwig Van Beethoven: The Extraordinary Genius
• Hector Berlioz: Truly Fantastique
• Johannes Brahms: The Classical Romantic
• Frederic Chopin: The Poet of the Piano
• George Frideric Handel: The Harmonious Tunesmith
• Franz Joseph Haydn: Father of The Symphony
• Felix Mendelssohn: The Midsummer Night’s Dreamer
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Wunderkind
• Franz Schubert: The Great Lieder
• Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest