Kim Ware is what it sounds like when you give the drummer a guitar.

I am not so much into girl singers lately, but I got propelled to the Good Graces myspace page after reading  Coxon Le Woof’s comment on the fact that she makes music you can fall asleep to.

Now I’m fully aware that it could sound like I’m implying that the work of Kim Ware is insipidly dull. But that’s not what I mean. It’s more that it’s the kind of reflective record you’d best appreciate in the dark, late at night. Where some records are communal experiences, this strikes me as one that should be played alone, behind drawn curtains.

I am not really a communal music listener either. I can hear music with other people but when I really want to listen to music, and immerse myself in it, I would much rather sit in a quiet room, or garden, all by my self, and preferably with the help of earphones drown in the music.

The Good graces is that kind of Saturday-morning-quiet-coffee-before-the-kids-get-up kind of music.

Mostly vocal and acoustic guitar with other instruments woven delicately in like  layers and shading around the two main lines of sound.

Over at their myspace page there is a sampling of Kim Ware and the Good Graces music, plus a write up about how this record happened.

It is pretty much along the lines of what happens when you give the drummer a guitar - which a delicious twist in my opinion. Go and visit, listen and if you enjoy it, Buy it.

You wouldn’t think so, but just sitting at a computer or playing your guitar, or combining both of these activities in a frequent manner could do your body a lot of harm.

You would think that injuries would occur either from accidents or from extreme activities like sports and what not, but you would be mistaken to think that.

As I am writing this, I can feel my shoulders tensing, and as they tense I just know that the next stage is a stiff neck and so on.

Apparently, it can be a lot worse than that. Rob Hampton, a guitar teacher had little  nagging feelings like that in the beginning of May, payed no attention to the signals his body was giving him, until it was obvious it was nothing that could be ignored

By the time the Jam rolled around, my arm and shoulder were feeling pretty tight and sore. Normally I would have rested, but there was no way I was going to sit out of the Jam-I had a dozen students counting on me to back them up.

I limped my way through the show. A week later I went hiking, and the pressure of the daypack on my shoulders caused numbness and tingling in my left hand, and sharp pain up and down my arm. My right arm started hurting too.

I spent the hike totally horrified. My mind raced as it pursued one catastrophic scenario after another: I’d have to stop playing guitar. My rock climbing days were over. I had to wake up from my dream job and go work for Microsoft, using voice recognition software. My arms would shrivel to twigs and I’d be shunned by women for the rest of my days…

It wasn’t a slipped disc or pinch nerve or anything as dramatic - it was a combination of poor posture, muscle tension and a bit of an over load of the muscles - the result was that rob was pretty much out of commission for 6 months as a result.

One of the ways to learn how to use your body properly, and which is great for musicians is Alexander technique.

If you would like to pursue this further, here is the link to the American Society for the Alexander Technique

From there FAQ page

How can the Alexander Technique help me?
The Technique offers you a way to streamline what you do, making your activities less stressful and more pleasurable. You come to understand how your body can move most efficiently. As you learn to move more easily, you make surprising improvements in how you look and feel. As you learn to apply Alexander’s principles, you practice an effective, lasting method of self care.

What is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique is an intelligent way to solve the common movement problems that cause chronic pain and stress. It is a way to notice your movement habits, release compression and move with ease and expansion. A proven self care method, it is a set of skills that you learn to relieve pain, prevent injury and enhance performance.

Check it out.

(I probably should to)

An instructional video by John McCarthy. I thought that this was a good contrast to stringfellows post

This from Rock House, But John mentions that already….

An Ebow is an effect that replaces a pick, basically a sustainer (allows notes to be held longer), but creates sounds on a guitar to reproduce other instruments, such as violin, cello, and even bagpipes as seen in this video demonstration.  Beautiful sound and amazing playing.  Enjoy!

This is Don Ross and other than wanting to share his music with you  I wanted to get you to look at his nail and tell me if you think they are his own home grown nails or are they artificial.

This has never really crossed my mind as a possibility, but if you are playing acoustic - what do you use - a pick? Your finger tips? Your finger nails?

What do you do when they break?

I was reading Pickstroke, who has posted an article about guitar players using artificial nails. I don’t know why I am so surprised  by this - it completely makes sense….