Practice,practice,....fringing practice

"Scales, Chords And Confusion"
School started in earnest the next week. And it was overwhelming. But in I dove in head hands and feet. We would have sight reading and ear training everyus week the whole year long. Here I really got to know the teachers and fellow students.....as hard as it was.....I was in 6 string heaven.....I would be standing in line at Cindy's in the morning waiting for a cup of Joe...listening to some guy talk about going to the beach...all the while noodling on his guitar ...playing stuff I couldn't even imagine....I'm thinkin...beach,,,yea,,I'm gonna sit home and practice all weekend....God help me I suck!!!!
I met with Frank my guitar teacher and it was mind boggling. His sweep picking..what can I say...In fact that was the first thing he got on me about. How I picked,how low my guitar was and how I anchored my pinky to the guitar body...He pointed out that all these habit were counter-productive to proper technique. I would spend the next 3 or 4 months trying to unlearn this bad habit. I would eventually, and in time master the sweep picking.
GIT ran 12 months,sort of like a trade school, split into 4 quarters with a two week break between each. For the whole year we would daily sight reading and ear training master classes as well as the other core classes. Along with hours and hours of practice in the little rooms we would have workshops, concerts and seminars. Our first day in sight reading we met the teacher Charlie Fector...a top to bottom goof ball character.
Charlie was an Ivy League graduate...having earned a degree in...of all things..Geography. After school he somehow wound up in LA and would design and write the sight reading course. He was the ultimate "Frat Boy".
Funny as hell. He made what could be a dismal class tons of fun. I would never become the monster reader that he hoped for, but he would teach me well and learning to "run the chart" would one of the most important skills I would take away with me. This week I would meet the rest of the teachers, Danny Gilbert who would always bust me first thing in the morning while teaching Fingerboard Harmony(the chord class)..."Steve...what's the third of Bb...??.....Dude..it's 9 in the morning...I don't know...yet!!!(it's D minor)..Les Wise who would literally paper us to death. He was also the Bop guy, with a near encyclopedic knowledge of BeBop and was a walking history lesson on the lives of guys like Miles Davis,John Coletrane and Charlie Parker. The students would describe his guitar tone as "Couch cushion against the speaker" all bass and nothing else.
Bob had advised me to not take on a job for at least the first 6 months, saying the learning curve would be STEEP. The teachers had told us all that there was no way we could ever absorb all the information we were going to handed. So they were pretty cool about "progress". And they had stated that we could count on..burn out at some point..there were several suggestions on how to deal with that...the beach being one of them. I had enough income to keep me going( barely) for that first 6 months and it was a good thing because it was tuff going there at first.
My wife had sold Mary Kay cosmetics prior to leaving Alaska so I set her up to continue in LA. Had I knew then what I know now about the products,type of business Mary kay was I would have supported her even more. But as time would pass she would quit and sell back all the product back to the company. Support at home would become less and less.
I came home from school not long afterward to find her throwing up..you got it, we were going to be parents...I was going to launch my music career and become a father at the same time.!!!.
Back in school,almost from the get go I was branded the "Blues Guy". Being steeped in it and a natural at that style. Plus what some don't know is I've played the harmonica nearly as long as I have played the guitar.
From the first week in school I started jamming with the other students during the "live" performance classes.
I became friendly with a third quarter student named Billy. Billy was quite a bit older than most of the students and had grown up in LA. He was married to a singer and had recorded a 45. This being the days of vynal. I didn't realize that you could independently record and press your own. I was constantly asking question after question about the music business,how to get signed,royalties,tours, how to break into the studio scene. No one could really give me a strait answer..because there isn't one. The music business is unlike ant other. There is no "career" path. And back then there wasn't. Billy would have me come along on some of my first gigs in LA and blow the harp..he would NEVER let me play guitar...odd.
I finally had purchased my first rig. I had bought a Ibanez semi-hollow body guitar that could cover the more Jazzier things I'd be learning and had taken my strat to this local guitar shop called "LA Guitar Works" to get it hot rodded. LA guitar works was located not far from the school in a court yard full of funky little shops. It was run my two oriental guys who could do just about anything you wanted with a guitar. I'd go there and Jimi one of the owners would be customizing some guitar. There were all kinds of cool,weird, and wonderful looking things hanging off the walls.He customized my strat with a new neck,new pick-ups and a floyd rose trem system.This guitar would become my trade mark..It was my first strat...painted a redish purple color..I had brought it to Jimi and he had replaced the pickups with Seymore Duncan Hot stacks and a Jeff Beck humbucker in the back,,a black pick guard..crome knobs..the floyd...and here was the birht of "RED DOGG! my trusty weapon of MASS ROCK AND ROLL DESTRUCTION. Like the rest of my rig,,this guitar would see me thru tons of gigs 2 albums and a tour..and never let me down!!!! One of my favorite guitarist and influences was Carlos Santana..he played Mesa Boogie amps. In Alaska they were nearly impossible to find. You had to order direct from the factory back then and it was a year and a half wait. In LA there were only 2 stores that carried them and usually only 1 or 2 at a time. I had wanted one for years. I remember when I walked into the store that had one..I asked about it..The clerk went"Yes we have one would you like to play it....?" I said " No I wanna buy it!" I walked over and saw that it had reverb,EQ and an EV speaker..SOLD..1500.00 in 1983..ouch but that amp would see me thru gig after gig,a tour and two albums..little did I know...My rig also consisted of the first generation rack mounted multi effect units..chorus,compression,distortion,delay...I bought a road case for the Boogie and a rack for the effects...I was ready to rock..although it would take me quite some time to develop "My" sound..all the part were there.
The core classes at GIT were divided like this, the first 6 months were Single string technique and Fingerboard Harmony (along with tons of other stylized classes..blues,rock,country etc) these two courses led to Jazz Improv and Chord Melody..basically you learned all about scales and chords...then you spent the last of the year learning what to do with them..."Like.."Where do I put a Melodic minor Scale?"..The teacher were constantly sitting in the little practice room with for or five other students and playing "Real Book"tunes...The Real book was the standard for Jazz tunes..a Real Book chart is a simplified version of a song..chords and a melody line, easy to follow...and they were illegal...never paying royalties and usually sold on the street...I bought two..smartest money I'd spend for years..I got the Real Book and the Black Book..the second having the more modern and fusion type stuff in it...Weather Report,Pat Methany,Steely Dan...I still have them and they have made me a lot of money over the years. The cool thing about sitting with an instructor and playing tunes is you got a chance to see how they would approve soloing over the "changes"..it was fun and educational.
As the weeks rolled by I became utterly steeped in all things guitar.I would spend 8 to 12 hours a day at school and then go home sit in front of my TV with my Rockman,head phones on,guitar plugged in and school books in front of me and practice for 5 of 6 hours a night. I was absorbing information by the boat load. I was beginning to understand music on a level that I would have never done back home. It was both liberating and frustrating at the same time. I was learning to place a name and a number to sounds I had heard my whole life..Intervals..notes that make up scales and chords..became my friends..a minor second..was the theme to "Jaws"..as the big shark creeps up on the skinny dipping young chick..
Here Comes The Bride" became a perfect 4th..."Meet the Flintstones" is now my introduction to the major 5th..and the NBC Peacock theme was a major 6th...I began to find myself standing in elevators..going...hey..perfect 4th...I'd hear a bell and try to guess....Bb...A...hear the sound in my head and hit the same note on my guitar...I began to understand the difference between those three chord families that Joe had mentioned my first day at school.
My lessons with Frank were killer as well although he really didn't teach me "licks"per se he had a way to explain theory to me that made sense. His picking exercizes were totally transforming my playing and approach.
There were always cool things happening around the school. There would be "Special Quests" show up at a moments notice. The school would keep this under wraps till they would anounce it to the the school just prior to them showing up..That year I'd see Robin Ford, Geddy Lee and Neil Pert from Rush, Herb Ellis,Larry Coryel(one of the founding fathers of fusion)Wayne Watson(Manhatten Transfer)Eric Johnson(who would greatly influence m later)Steve Vai, and Steve Morse would show up twice that year, first off a tour with his band "The Dixie Dregs, then coming off a an acoustic tour with John McLaughlin, replacing Al DeMeola , to play with John and Paco Delucia...who he said could pick faster with his thumb than most guitar player could with a pick!!!Dean Parks would put on a seminar on how to use distortion boxes with EO pedals, Seven string Canadian wizard Lenny Breau would teach there(until his untimely death near the end of the school year) The guitar player who had just come off a tour with the Jackson's came in and played the frets off the guitar(the guy was left handed and ripped upside down with the big strings facing the floor,something I had never seen before and didn't know could be done). Jennifer Batton who was an early GIT grad and would later tour with Michael Jackson put on a seminar all about two hand tapping. She had taken Eddie's technique and run to moon with it. Steve Lukather from Toto was always around.
Tommy Tedesco's monthly seminars were always great. He was always bringing someone from the studios with him. Tim May,Dennis Budimuir,Dean Parks ...He once brought Jay Graydon who had played on countless pop sessions including several Steely Dan albums..he was funny as hell. By this time he had gone from session work to producing..Al Jareau, Manhatten Transfer...and get this...he told us all 2 years before it happened he was producing a serious pop album with( of all people) Donny Osmund.(that took some convincing but sure enough Jay produced a funky album with the guy and re-birthed his career some years later)..and Tommy himself had a million stories..
As school moved on I began to notice a "thinning of the ranks" students started dropping out. I think the reason for this was several reasons. For one Hollywood was plain and simple a very harsh place to live,and if you were young, naive and given to partying the place could swallow you whole. Many of these kids were away from home for the first time..and trouble followed. Some couldn't handle the curriculum. By the end of the first quarter 25% of the class had dropped out. By the 6 month break nearly half had. When I did finally graduate it would be with less than half of the students that started. Sad really. There was a building pressure on me to check out as well,what with a pregnant wife,no income and her hating LA. But I knew if I quit I would live to regret it. Drawing from my past and the "difference between growing up and growing old"is to never quit,never back down and never take No for an answer..the "Walk to the End of the Road" that was birthed in me back home would carry me thru all the trials I would face there...From Declaration...I was beginning to enter..."Distress and Development"....
Although I was learning and learning there was so much to still understand and it was frustrating. As the teacher warned there would come a "wall" sooner or later. I finally hit it. Some time after the 6 month break and school had resumed I was in a video class and I got up after 45 minutes..standing there I could not tell you what I had just learned. Finally my brain just went "Enough"....So for the next week..I took a powder..I went to school during the day but instead of 12 hours it was 8 I went to class,played with the other students, continued to attend live performance classes. I'd go home,eat dinner.watch TV and not touch my guitar. By the next week I felt clear headed and focused once again.
Not long after my "mental Vacation" I was sitting in a video class and strumming my guitar. when I looked down at the Jazz chord I had learned years and years before. I never knew what it was,I used to go ask some of my friends what it was,even the ones who had studied theory couldn't tell me...then that day I looked down and suddenly ......POW...the lights came on...I knew what the chord was...it was another "Magic Chord" moment!!!
All the pieces of the puzzle came together! Falling from the haze to create a beautiful mosaic before me...the months and months of practice,learning,confusion, faded away!!
I had come out of the dark into the bright noon day sun..my moment of arrival...I looked down at that chord and thought.."If I never make dime one at this ,knowing what I know now will make it all WORTHWHILE!!!! I looked down at the fret board and no longer saw a confusing mess of wires and wood..I saw a symphony of harmony..a lattice work of intersecting notes and lines..perfect..like a chorus of angels..notes that sang in wonderful harmony..sitting along side notes that were sexy and sultry..lush symphonic chords that would draw you in along side with heavy metal power chord that embodied all the abandon of the rock music I had grown up with...all living harmoniously together right there under my fingers...I felt like I had been in love with a beautiful woman all these years but could not understand her language..I suddenly understood all she wanted to give me... her whispers in my ears all these years had become clear as a bell....!! I had crossed over Jordan and now stood basking in the promised land..the door had opened.. it would fundamentally alter my entire musical life forever..I also realized that at that moment...I knew and understood...more than many of my guitar hero's, all my friends back home and as time would go on.. find myself a member of a select group..few and far between..who had crossed over as well....I was free..and somewhere in Heaven..I think God was smiling..and saying...."Good...Now Go Out And Play!!!!!!"