Something Beautiful
Live Wire
Ages: 21+
Price: $ TBA
Four-band night? EPIC. Come on out and see Something Beautiful with Air Raid, Miles From Exile, and Testimony
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Something Beautiful
Air Raid
Miles From Exile
Testimony
Archive For
SoB @ Rock in Chicago’s Summer Metal Showcase
Video: Nobody Told Me
Here’s some video of me with Tin Lolita, playing at 6 Corners BBQ Fest, at the NAC tent.
This was a hell of a show, I was getting over some kind of fever, and you can see me get a little dizzy at the end. Felt real good to play though, and the audience was great. Matt and Michelle from Skull Fogger were in, and this vid was shot by Danielle from FlyingSaucerChicago.com
Several songs are up for download at the facebook page – not including this one, but go check it out – and by all means, tell somebody!
Muting: The Notes We DON’T Play
You know, sometimes we spend so much time playing other people’s music that we feel like we’re not spending any time developing our own style. I felt that way for a while – even when Something Beautiful is gigging a lot, I play more churches and private events than anything, and can easily fall into the loss-of-personal-identity trap. But after looking at my own playing, compared to how other guitarists around me play, I realized that all that playing was generating my own play style all along. It’s not necessarily writing that develops the style, it’s almost exclusively the playing that does it. Putting the hand in position, figuring out what feels good or easy, setting goals on learning new techniques – that stuff.
So after looking, I see that my playing is acoustic guitar based. I started learning on my dad’s acoustic when I was 7, and went on to write a ton of songs, even metal songs, on acoustic guitar. I gravitate back there not only because I’m comfortable there, but because I tend to play the drum parts I want to hear on the strings while I play a song. It gives me a sense of playing with an ensemble, and fills the imaginary space in my head when I need to understand how a song might feel when the rest of the band comes in. At solo acoustic gigs, I use the percussive effect of a heavy stroke on the muted strings to act as a snare drum on beats 2 and 4 – once an ensemble is added, I remove the heavier strokes and bring in the reigns on my right hand. An example of the artifacting of my right hand can be heard in What You Do, a song I play with Tin Lolita.
In that song, I’m still playing harder on beats 2 and 4, but I play notes and fills instead of the muted strings – which is why I’m writing, so lets get to it.
Start by playing less notes.
Being able to stop a string from ringing, using the left hand enables you to hit the strings a lot harder with a lot less danger of hearing notes that are outside of the chord – undesirable ones, of course. It also allows you to focus attention on to one note within the voicing. Gives a sense of motion. Sense of motion is a phase you’ll hear a lot in these guitar articles I’m writing. Just saying.
So what you should do is grab an open cowboy chord – any will do – and start removing notes by slightly lifting the fingers on your left hand. This is a tiny movement, but I find it rather essential. If you must, grab an E chord and lift the fingers you’re fretting with so you’re muting those strings. You’re left with 2 open E’s and a B string. Hit all six strings hard, and listen to the harmony. Press harder with your first finger, adding the G sharp – hit em all again, and listen to the change in the harmony. Add a finger, remove a finger, use your left pinky to mute the high E or B strings, and listen to all these variations on the same E chord just by taking a note out here and there. Moving or removing low notes gives a sense of bass motion, and moving or removing mid or high notes gives a sense of melody. It’s kind of like what you want to hear on a piano, but it’s all under your single left hand.
A word for beginners:
One of my least favorite questions is “which version of the chord should I use?” – I know it’s a valid question, becauseto the beginner, every variation on every chord is a new chord. What I want you to think about, and know – is that every finger variation in the above paragraph is still an E chord.
Best example – and most frequently asked about by scrubs, is which G chord:
Well, let’s all just agree to stop asking – they are both fine, pretty much the same, I don’t care which one you use. Just use whichever one is more comfortable, depending on what chords are around them, and call it a day.
Glad I put that one to bed 😉
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Happy Monday, Everybody!
As I write, it’s about 9am here, and I couldn’t be gladder to be here on the couch. Whole last week was an absolute bloodbath – I think that’s the right term for it. 9 straight days of performances, so busy that I couldn’t even stop in to say hi to you guys!
Needless to say, that by Friday night, I was in bed with a fever, couldn’t move, and was absolutely miserable all around. That was terrifying, since I still had 6 performances between Saturday and Sunday, the first of which being the Six Corners BBQ fest show.
After MUCH negotiating with my protesting skin, we loaded up to the Northwest Arts Connection tent, and Auggie promptly broke his kick drum pedal, which explains the beginning of this video:
A couple times during the set, my vision started going fuzzy, and it was a bit of a struggle, but we had a TON of people out dancing, and overall it was a great show, by all accounts. And it was a welcome change of pace from the twenty-some-odd hours I spent during the week rocking out with 200-ish screaming kids with this band:
All told, I crammed 16ish performances into 9 days. I’m not all recovered yet, but my chores ain’t gonna do themselves, and my work ethic is riding high so I gotta take advantage of that while I have the chance.
I’ve got tons more to say about all this, especially since it was my first Father’s Day the next day, and Nikki really hit a homer! I’m finna do it justice, so for now, why don’t you stop by the facebook page and click the free downloads button to grab a couple free songs?
Dale Tippett Jr w Tin Lolita – SAVE W GROUPON!
Dale Tippett, Jr W Tin Lolita
Six Corners BBQ Fest – GROUPON DEAL HERE
Ages: ALL
Price: $5.00
Playing at the corner of Milwaukee/Cuyler in the Northwest Arts Connection tent – 5pm! Come on out, get some great food and check out ALL the awesome stuff happening at 6cornersbbqfest.com and save money by getting admission AND drinks from Groupon!
Veterans Event
Irving Park Baptist’s Gospel Trio
TBA
Ages: All
Price: FREE
Once in awhile it’s nice to go sing a few songs with the ladies of Irving Park Baptist Church 🙂 If you’re into that sort of thing, come back soon for details!
Directions TBA
Irving Park Baptist.org
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Something Beautiful
Demo Collection
Dale Tippett Jr
Meatstravaganza
So we’ve been talking about it forEVAR. Trying to get the capital together to do the big pig roast at Meatstravaganza has been a goal that was finally met this past year by Best in Show award winners Steve and Sheryl Grimes.
Too rad, really.
Not sure how many people made it out this year, but it was a major success. Me and Nikki hosted, and after a lot of people got done needing a buncha stuff from me, I got to dancing n singing – as is my custom.
All in all, I’m just thinkin bout the day, and playing with the photo blog template thingy my nerdy girl made… It’s a free download. Here’s a link 😉