At the IBMA in Nashville

I am writing this from the lobby of the Renissance Hotel in Nashville, TN. We are down here for the annual IBMA business conference, representing the Wernick Method; here to answer questions and spread the word about jam classes. So far it's been slow, nobody has answered the ad in the program. But we are still here. The library is right across the street, and so we spent some quality time there catching up on things.

Ran into Jed Clark yesterday...one of the few people I ever met on Facebook, he plays lead guitar in a band called The Roys. Hopefully we will meet up when there's some time to pick. We also met up with Ira Gitlin, the very first Wernick Method teacher, and had a nice long chat.

Parking in Nashville is a headache...Of all the parking garages, several were full this morning, one was not clear how to pay for a spot, and the one we ended up with was $10, up 4 levels....with no elevator. Hopefully we will get in the library garage earlier tomorrow and we will be all set.

This year the hallways are open to the public, which is supposed to let people conduct their business without having to register for the conference. So this year we are in the hallways, waiting for someone to see the ad in the program and call for an appointment....Like I said, it's been slow so far. But it's only Tuesday, things may pick up later.

HoneyTone belt amp

I got a new toy in the mail today. Meet the HoneyTone belt amp. 

This thing is only about six inches tall. It is designed to go on your belt, and allow you to practice your electric guitar, or play in a quieter setting. It also has a headphone jack for silent practicing.

Even came with a vintage 9-volt battery (not sure if that's a selling point). You can also plug it in, a good thing since it seems to drain the battery quickly.

Here it is clipped to my pocket. I will be using this when I take Bill Kirchen's electric guitar class at Augusta this year. A room full of regular size amps would be a little overpowering, so he recommends using these little amps. Clipped to your belt, you can walk around without dragging a guitar cable.

This also works as a portable speaker for an mp3 player. You only get one channel, so audiophiles may need a stereo/mono adapter. But I played Flatt and Scruggs all afternoon with no trouble.

The sound is fine, a little tinny from such a small speaker cone, but very acceptable for practicing. Not bad at all for $20.

Practice Space

A musician can never practice too much. The problem is, you are not usually inclined to.... There are a number of reasons, one can be a lack of suitable space to practice. If every time you want to practice some one else has to accommodate you, you can get a subconscious urge not to bother them. This combined with laziness and lack of discipline will lead to long spells of no practice. Not good. 

This is the space in which I practice, also known as my room. I had several options to choose from, but only this one is heated.....The Kentucky K150 mandolin on the couch is a good entry level model. I bought this so I could  teach a mandolin student, and have picked up some mandolin in the process. I also keep a banjo and guitar in here, just for practicing.

I share this room with a younger brother, which is an issue with nice instruments and equipment. I have told him in no uncertain terms that touching any of this stuff means big trouble. The risk is worth it though, no one is bothered when I practice up here.

Here you can see one of the nicest tools for a practice space to have. A $90 portable DVD player -  for instructional videos, as well as CDs. This makes a lot of equipment unnecessary - no external speakers, TV, CD player, etc. It can even run off batteries for a while. Instantly turns any room into a practice area.

Here we have the most compact and easy to use virtual strobe tuner I have found. The lights go around in a circle, clockwise is sharp and counterclockwise is flat. The faster it goes, the further off you are. THe trouble with strobe tuners is  their precision and lightning speed can be hard to interpret. That is the problem with the Petersen tuners (which are also very accurate); the display is a pattern of squares scrolling up or down...which is it, up or down? It can be hard to tell. This one is very bright and easy to read; batteries last awhile, but the power button is very easy to trigger so don't shove it into a bag or you may run the battery down.

A good chair and a guitar stand, definite must-have. The guitar was my grandfathers, an old American-made  Epiphone with a deep ringing woody tone. I keep it here just for practicing, the CA guitar goes with me on the road. 

Inspiration comes from many places; here is one of them on my wall. This is a newspaper clipping from our first jam camp with Pete Wernick "Dr Banjo", at the Merlefest music festival in Wilkesboro, NC. We have attended all but one of the camps since 2003, and now we are setting these up all over the country with many different teachers. The clipping is faded now, but still serves as a reminder of where I've been.

Here's the view out my window. Not a necessity for practicing, but it lights the room quite well, and is nice to look out on while you are playing scales or boring exercises.

As a practice space,  it works pretty well for me. I keep a log of the hours spent, and I am able to keep at it for an hour every day.