Today we’re talking with Rick Blincoe, who just released his first solo CD, “Don’t Bet the Farm.” You can listen at Rick’s My Space page, or at CD Baby.

Rick has been a musician most of his life, and paid his dues down through the decades as a solo and band performer. You just can’t pigeonhole Rick. His musical influences come from classical, rock, jazz, country, and he distills his musical and life experiences into thoughtful, highly listenable material. In case you’re wondering, the reason his backup vocals are so tight is that he laid down ALL the tracks for this CD, and he is equally as fluent singing as he is playing. On top of that, he also engineered the CD himself.

Now all this might sound familiar to any musician who has tried to succeed in the business, which according to Rick’s Web page can be as much a competitive sport as an art. What is unique is that Rick is the real thing. He doesn’t need to boast–his music speaks to anyone who loves the independent, well-trained, soulful musicality of an authentic artist. This is a seasoned, satisfying CD, one you’ll want to listen to again and again.

TGM: Who is your greatest unsung influence (as opposed to favorite famous
composer/performer)?

RB: This is a very tough one to answer because I am a total product of my environment, but because you used the word “unsung” in your question, it becomes a little easier. My greatest unsung influence is a friend of mine that molded my musical being at a very young age (~13 to 15 y.o.). When I was about 12 years old I started attending The University Baptist Church, on Guadalupe (the drag), across the street from the University of Texas campus. I began going to this church regularly because my Mother re-married and her new husband was a long-standing member of the church. As fate would have it, there was a circle of friends that I quickly developed that would significantly change my life and mold my thinking. All of my close friends were blossoming young musicians at UBC. Rarely did we actually “attend” church or Sunday School services, but would find some hole in the back alley along Guadalupe and spend hours playing music and discussing life. One of these friends, in particular, stood out above the rest and left me in awe of what possibilities may exist in music. His name was David Harrell. David was about one year older than me. He had long, thin, red hair and was slightly built. He always had a smile and a twinkle in his eye. David was the first person that I would meet in my life that I could truly say was a “musical genius”, and honestly, to this day, I have never met anyone else that has the total package of capabilities to match this guy’s talent. David was a sort of musical savant. He had perfect pitch, perfect recall, perfect expressive technique, and creativity. I learned so much about musical approach and concepts from David, that even now, I am still recalling things that David taught me so long ago, and they are finally making sense to me, and he is still teaching me. I haven’t seen David for more than 30 years now. The last I heard, he was homeless and mentally ill. I guess that he couldn’t handle the world and the world couldn’t handle him. It’s so sad, yet he gave me so much. He is truly one of my greatest influences.

TGM: How did they influence you?

RB: He caused me to shatter walls and eliminate paradigms in my mind.

TGM: What is your musical background (formal and informal)?

RB: Formal Training: Piano lessons from age 4 to age 10. French horn in school band and orchestra from age 11 to age 18. Music courses in High School and College (History, Theory, Composition, etc.)
Informal Training: Picked up the guitar at age 11. Used chord books and friends to learn the basics. Sat in my room for several years with a guitar in my hands. Listened to every rock-and-roll record that I could get my hands on. Gravitated to Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page’s style. Played my entire life and learned something from every musician that I have encountered on the journey.

TGM: How important is it to get a formal music education?

RB: It is extremely important to get a formal music education. Understanding the complexities and relationships between musical notes and scales provides the foundation to open up your creativity. A music education gives you tools in your tool box. Life is so short and knowledge is power. Why would one not want to take advantage of as many short cuts as possible to achieve their musical goals? Why would someone want to perpetually reinvent the wheel when there are so many new frontiers to be explored? A formal music education is simply the dynamic map that shows you what has been done and more importantly, shows you what has yet to be done.

TGM: Do you have an articulated musical philosophy? What is it?

RB: My musical philosophy is dynamic. In other words, it moves and changes as I grow. This is the philosophy that I used when making this latest CD: Keep it simple. Try to paint a picture that can have some level of broad appeal. Don’t make a CD for other musicians. Keep it real.

TGM: What are your goals as a solo musician? Collaborative musician?

RB: My goals as a solo musician is to keep the content personal and speak to those that I love. My solo work is my reach for immortality, so the message needs to endure.
As a collaborative musician, my goal is to listen more than speak and enhance more than detract.

TGM: What is your dream music gig?

RB: Austin City Limits

TGM: If you could perform with anyone, anywhere, any genre, who/where/what would it be?

RB: It would be to work with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull on any project. That would be the icing on the cake of my life.

TGM: What advice would you have for an aspiring musician?

RB: Don’t listen to all of the negativity in this world. Don’t listen to what you can’t do or why you will surely fail. When someone tells you that you will fail….it is probably because they know you won’t.

Post from: The Good Musician

the cellist was one of my longest-standing, dearest friends
it’s an excellent example of a jazz-classical-pop ’60’s mashup
that’s my black cat, Saturn, in the window
shows our corner of Topanga Canyon
great example of John Martin’s classical guitar
great example of Wilson Fisher’s writing/singing for 12-string guitar
that was my life

Listen to all the Green cuts, accompanied by photo-montages of the band and what the life of a musician was like in the ’60’s

Post from: The Good Musician

Post from: The Good Musician

Traktor Topaz put out a very cool series of lessons for the tapper, you should definitely check out his in-depth pedagogy/musicology, delivered via the “Multi-String Shopper” newsletter.

The ultra fabulous Mobius Megatar dreams of taking over the world, one tapper at a time.

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Sydney, Australia was home from 1994-96. Sights, smells, sounds, Australia has the best of just about everything. I was wildly fortunate to sing for most of that time with the Sydney Philharmonia Choir, performing in the Sydney Opera House and the ABC Orchestra studio.

Classical music was abundant, but so was phenomenal music on the rock, film, and pop scene. Here’s another link to Diesel, a.k.a. Mark Lizotte, whose work is electrifying, plugged in or not. Then there’s the Cruel Sea, headed by another magnetic singer, Tex Perkins. Australia Music Online (AOM) is not currently supported, but remains an exhaustive archive of Australian music and musicians.

Photo by Claudia Snowden and she gave me permission to use it. Just ask her.

Post from: The Good Musician

We all face situations in which we are tested. I know you do. So frankly, as a musician I always face that moment of fear prior to a concert that let’s me know I’m not going to be playing at my fullest potential. So how do I try and get the engine warm before throwing myself to the wolves? Well here’s a few pointers.

• Focus. In the meaning of the word, try to remove everything else from your mind, make it a clear pathway for absolute sole focus on your music. Ditch thinking about the audience, your teacher, your cold fingers. Think music.
• Talk to someone. I like this one, as it helps me cut through the time before a concert situation. In a band, just chat about anything but the concert!
• Tune well in advance. Tuning about half an hour ahead of your concert will relieve you from the stressful feeling you get when you’re told your on but your guitar sounds like it’s tuned in some turkish scale.
• General-Rehearse your gigs. The one biggest thing that helps me is to play my concert a few hours ahead of showtime in as close conditions as possible. This usually ends up in disaster, but I’ve always seen that a disastrous general-rehearsal results in a successful concert

The basic principle behind these ideas is to make yourself feel prepared and relaxed. If you’re in the know about conditions, can forget about externalities and can eliminate any dangers, you’re playing will have a free runway to stun the audience.

What’re your best tips for getting prepared and most of all, relaxed?

Post from: The Good Musician

As you may know, I’m of Indian origin. That said, I would like to share some Indian music with you this time around, and show you an instrument that seems to be a variation of what Westerners would describe to be a guitar: The Sarod.

The instrument is highly interesting because in comparison to the guitar, the fretboard is made of steel and the left hand needs to have healthy nails to play. You actually play by pressing the edge of your nail to the string, not your finger! This allows bottleneck-style slides (try sliding a nail edge on your guitar).

I think the best way to share with you the magic of the Sarod is by showing you another video:

Notice how the “drummer” (correctly speaking a Tabla player) and Amjad Ali Khan, the most prominent living proponent of the Sarod, play synchronised at certain passages. Most of these pieces are improvised, only the key, rhythm and certain rules that apply to the scale played are given, everything else is pure improv.

Kind of like an early form of Jam session. Have ou ever heard a Sord live? I can boast to having seen Amjad Khan himself live just two years ago. A brilliant concert it sure was.

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I’ll use this platform to present to you my favorite musical stuff, from instruments to performances, mostly guitar-related.

Today we’ll kick it off with one of the most beautiful and most talented classical gutiarists out there, Ana Vidovic. She plays a piece I played for my music baccalaureate last year. Fantastic piece: Sonatina Meridional: 1. Campo by Manuel Maria Ponce.

Post from: The Good Musician

Sure you have, and there’s a simple remedy: Keep a supply drawer. If it works in offices, it will work for musicians too. Make sure you keep it nicely organized. Some items you may need:

• Personal hand care: Nail clippers are a common tool for pianists and anyone whose nails might be a problem. Nail files are guitarists’ best friends, and some hand cream is always good to keep you sore-free.
• Instrument tools: A string winder, sandpaper for your oboe, a tuning fork, plectrums, and all those little tools you need.
• Instrument care: A good cloth or pipe cleaner and some cleaner that’s meant for use with your instrument. I keep a bottle of Martin guitar polish handy – ask your local dealer.
• General supplies: Strings, reeds, pegs/bolts/nuts and all things replaceable. You know your baby better than I do.
• Pens and Pens: Keep a good set of writing instruments. A good musician becomes a great one if he’s bold enough to write stuff in his sheet music as e practices.

Keep it all in a single, dedicated, compartmentalized, organized drawer. Trust me, you’ll feel the true power of holding an instrument if you know where the pit stop is and that service is up and running.

Post from: The Good Musician

Classical guitarists need to take care of their nails. Even the occasional finger-picker out there should make sure he has a good set of right-hand nails to achieve a major shift in tone quality.

Here’s Tips to make sure your nails are in good health:

• Get a good shaping file: A great file is The Body Shop emery board, a white nail file that’s quite rough and will help shape your nails.
• Get a big nail shiner: Also available at The Body Shop, a nail shiner usually has three different surfaces. One’s for removing ridges, the other buffs out bumps and the third part shines the nail.
• Nail ointment: As weird as it may sound, if your nails go brittle, get some nail ointment for the night. If your nails are strong like steel, you’ll never worry about picking too hard again.
• Shape it like a “T”: There are various schools of thought on how to shape the nail. My personal preference is to keep the front edge straight and perpendicular to the finger, like the top line of a “T”. Keep the edges slightly rounded, but don’t make your nail pointy or round. The T-Shape serves as a jumping board for the string. The longer the launching strip, the more energy goes behind the string.
• Keep them short: You heard right, it’s not really about having looong nails, it’s about having properly shaped ones. Finger picking always consists of a good mix of flesh and nail. That said, keeping your nail no longer than the tip of your finger will ensure you get this mix. Experiment here, as people tend to have varying softness of fingertips. I have very fleshy tips that push in easily, so I need relatively short nails.
• Groom right, destroy left: Annihilate any nails on your left hand. While your right hand is all nice, shiny and “T”-shaped, make sure you have no chance of friction with the fretboard on the left.

  That’s it. Follow these tips and you’re set to pick the strings like a maestro.

  Post from: The Good Musician

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