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What’s your entertainment thinking about?

11.29.13
Dale
· Blog · Gigs and Gigging · Random Thoughts

I can’t believe I never published this!!!

I wrote this post last year – before I told anyone we were pregnant with Abby, at a gig that was kinda killing my soul just a little. Anyway, I had a lot of fun with it, and I hope you like it too:

I’m at a gig right now. I’m writing instead of focusing on the job. I’m still doing great, don’t worry. Folks are talking, dancing and in general enjoying themselves. I do my people watching at gigs that I don’t have to think too hard about. Here’s some things I’m musing about as these folks go about their celebration:

I don’t care what you saw on television. When you’re confronted with a microphone in public, don’t tap the damn thing. That just makes you look dumb. Scratch the screen if you really don’t know if it’s on or not. Tends to annoy people a lot less.

When that microphone starts to feed back, don’t cover it. That makes it worse.

Pregnant women throwing up is hilarious.

That orange that’s not an orange, but rather a chocolate thing, and you smash it and it’s a buncha pieces? Those are dumb.

Couples that keep their finances seperate freak me out. Makes no sense. Either you’re supporting each other as a unit, or you’re just dating. Kinda.

Jimmy Buffet is kinda boring. I like Brian Adams though. How are those 2 ideas related? Bite me.

I want a CR-V.

I wish the soundcheck feature on iTunes was better.

That’s all I got. I think I’ll sing a few songs now – – – hold on…

Professional people fake hula dancing pleases me. Make a video and post it as a response below!

That is all. Imma go sing now. Do your job well, you guys.

Happy Thanksgiving, You Guys!

11.28.13
Dale
· Blog

That is all, you jive-ass turkey 😉

Save 2 dates! Big weekend, Dec 20-21!

11.20.13
Dale
· Blog · Things on Thursday

Buncha stuff happening over the next month or so – so I’m going to get a ton of cornbread stuffing ready to keep the energy up for all the exciting things on the way –

This upcoming weekend I’m super humbled and honored to be inducted into the Chicago Filipino American Hall of Fame – It’s going to be a super great night with a ton of great people. I’ll be sure to post about it!

Next up is the big weekend in December! The 20th will be the holiday kickoff for a campaign to promote/get the funds together for a full length spring release – Dale Tippett Jr w Tin Lolita will be at Hops & Barley’s thanks to my friend and long-time Something Beautiful supporter Dave Carlson, who is the general manager for Hops as well as Nite Cap. Super people, killer food, night not to be missed – as well as the next night:

December 21 is Chicago rockstar Matt Wolf’s birthday party, featuring Skull Fogger, 5 Minus X, and Something Beautiful. We’ll be at YOTI in Mt Prospect.

So that weekend is going to kick some ass – but mine, mostly 😉

Db Chord Voicing Lesson

11.14.13
Dale
· Blog · Chords · Guitar Lessons · Voicings

If I needed to be glib about it, I’d tell you to read what I had to say about Eb and Bb and shuffle it around a bit. But I think today I’ll be helpful. You’re welcome.

Db is one of those chords I don’t remember having to learn. Probably happened because of a church song. I probably played it like this:

-x-
-x-
-6-
-6-
-4-
-x-

And I probably played it like that because power chords are pro. Just sayin’.

Anyhoo, if you need a short answer, I would say do it like this:

I grab this shape using my first finger on the A string for the root, then my pinky barres the B, G and D strings. The ~~fat~~ muscle on my pinky gently mutes the high E string, excusing me from dealing with any unwanted noise.

This way is also good:

-x-
-6-
-x-
-6-
-4-
-x-

Learn up on it by fingering an A7 with your 3rd and 4th fingers, then slide that up and use your 1st finger to grab the Db on the A string. This one can be nice, especially if this isn’t your only flat chord. This version of the voicing strips it down, feels like an A7 chord, and can be pretty slick when slid in or out of.

On a side note, before I started writing this series, I totally went and tried to grab one of these for purely intellectual reasons:

-4-
-6-
-6-
-6-
-4-
-x-
SCREW THIS.

I worked out a couple different finger configurations and was still just left thinking to myself, “why would anyone do this?” The answer of course is “because nobody’s telling them otherwise”. What a pain and a waste of time. What this ‘is’ is an A-shaped barre chord (because it looks like an A cowboy chord). They’re just not useful until you start subtracting notes from them to make them playable in a song. So hop up, reduce it, then rock out.

You can do another one by using a C shape:

-x-
-2-
-1-
-3-
-4-
-x-

Learn this one (like Eb) by playing a C chord using your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers. Once you got that good and comfy, slide up a half-step and drop your 1st finger on the G string. Your incredibly powerful 1st finger’s chubby bottom-side will mute the high E string, and you might throw your thumb over the top to shut the low E string down. Otherwise, you might do this:

-x-
-2-
-1-
-3-
-4-
-1-(thumb)

And you got a nice Db/F sound to give a little depth.

Enjoy these, and we’ll get out of major chords, and start talking about minor chords, 7th chords, and all that jazz. Sometimes literally…

If you don’t find yourself worth your own time, then you might need a new you…

11.13.13
Dale
· Blog

Sometimes I give myself a chuckle. This platform lets me make big quotation sections, and I figured I’d GB Shaw it today:

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

I personally don’t, but some people that come visit don’t want a guitar lesson, so here’s my favorite phrase from tomorrow’s lesson on Db:

Your incredibly powerful 1st finger’s chubby bottom-side will mute the high E string

It tickled me rereading it. Hope you like it a second time tomorrow!

Hey, Tuesday!

11.12.13
Dale
· Musings · Random Thoughts · Wee Wednesdays

Took Addi in for report card pickup today – she’s doing real good, and I’m super glad and proud of her. She can be a total space cadet sometimes, but if anything, that only delays whatever agenda Nikki or I happen to have. By and large, she’s a super sweetheart, and I’m so glad to have her 🙂

Are the works of children protected under copyright law? Here’s ponies or something aiming their farts at each other, for all I can tell. This ain’t addi’s. but it’s AWESOME. I would love a dramatic reading of the story, if you got the time…

Barre Chord Cheats and Hacks Lesson: Major and Minor

11.11.13
Dale
· Blog · fretbored friday · Guitar Lessons · Voicings

Ok, so while the barre chord as-such is the last thing you should grab, you should know what one is and what it’s parts are. That way, when you start seeing unfamiliar chord symbols in a chart, you should be able to be able to pick out the most effective voicings for yourself.

Let’s do it in G! Here’s the big, dumb barre chord:

-3-
-3-
-4-
-5-
-5-
-3-

From the top (high E string) to the bottom (low E string) we have G, D, B, G, D, G. You’ll notice that we only have three note names: G, B and D. The repetition of these notes across the voicing is a great way to make reduction decisions, as far as simplifying down to its most necessary components. When you’re dealing with a plain old vanilla major chord, you really only need 2 notes. In this case, G and B – the root and third. Here’s a 10th chord voicing:

-x-
-x-
-4-
-x-
-x-
-3-

If you need the simplest possible minor chord, you can just flat the third, and you get this:

-x-
-x-
-3-
-x-
-x-
-3-

You can substitute a tenth chord voicing when you got NO clue what else is going on in the chord. If you need a quick augmented chord, play a major tenth and let the rest of the band deal with it – for a diminished copout, use a minor tenth. Just grab the shape and put your first finger on whatever the root’s name is. Booya.

Of course even when cheating, you need to at least know where the root of the chord is. So you do need to learn what the names of your frets are.

Learn it from Desi Serna. I’m not dealing with it. Click this sentence for links.

The second most infuriating barre chord is this one for Bb:

–1–
–3–
–3–
–3–
–1–
–1–

I filled out the barre, giving you an extra 5th at the bottom. Here’s the notes, High to low: F, D, Bb, F, Bb, F. We got 3 note names: Bb, D and F – root, third and fifth, respectively. If you gotta fake a major or Augmented chord, just play root and third. Here’s a tenth chord voicing of that:

–x–
–3–
–x–
–x–
–1–
–x–

And here’s the minor tenth:

–x–
–2–
–x–
–x–
–1–
–x–

If you gotta fake minor or diminished, grab that. These keep your sound from getting too thin by comparison of the chord shapes you’re already comfortable with. It still thins your sound a little, but it’s better than grabbing two close high notes or a power chord.

It’s like Game Genie for guitar! Have fun cheating at guitar, you guys!

A Book for Kids by Jack Thomas

11.05.13
Dale
· Blog

Look, you guys, it’s free – and Jack Thomas is one of the most hilarious people I know, so I just got my copy – you should grab one too. Did I mention it’s free? If someone walks away from their computer, jump on their iTunes and grab them a copy too!

More downloads increase the visibility on iTunes, so give Jack a hand – won’t cost you a thing, and you’ll get a chuckle out of it anyway!

HERE’S THE LINK!!!

YOTI, Haloween, Kids, et al

11.04.13
Dale
· Blog · Musings · Random Thoughts

Happy Monday!

I hope you’re reading this at a cubicle – that makes my Monday morning pajama-party all the sweeter! Did you take advantage of the time change? I didn’t but, I’m pretty sure this is the temporal arrangement that my body prefers…

Have some pictures!

The kids have been great the last few days, since they have a bucket of candy, though it wasn’t all super easy the whole time for them. Aiden resisted dressing up –

but once he realized that people were giving him candy, he was unstoppable.

Addi was Fanky Stein from Monster High:

The best part was when she popped the bolts off of her neck at the end of the night. Apparently, 3M makes surgical grade neck adhesives. Adorable.

Abby was a fuzzy pink monster!

She slept almost the entire time we were out – made me only kinda regret that her costume was like thirty bucks… A sleeping baby is a happy baby, though, and that thing didn’t breathe, so she was super warm out in the rain and everyone had lots of fun.

I like to pretend that Nikki went as a zombie apocalypse survivor the day before the outbreak. I went as a clone of myself (how meta).

Now Saturday night I was at YOTI in Mt Prospect with Something Beautiful. It was our first show with the backing tracks instead of a drummer in a few years, so as far as I’m concerned, it took a minute to readjust to the level of precision I had to play with, but we did really well, I think.

Big thanks for Skull Fogger for coming out Saturday night, and to Scars of Armageddon for supplying amps, and Rock in Chicago for promoting and coming to hang out!

Ab Chord Voicing Lesson

11.02.13
Dale
· Blog · Chords · fretbored friday · Guitar Lessons · Voicings

If you want the short answer, go read the F chord post and move it up 3 frets. IMHO it looks like this at its best:

-x-
-x-
-5-
-6-
-6-
-4-

You should be able to do this all day long. Occurs to me that you might see it’s resemblance to a power chord as well as a barre chord, but it’s somehow neither, right? I KNOW! that’s what makes it rock. The note on the G string, in this case C natural, is the major third of the chord, giving it the quality of being major, yada yada… Anyway, this is a great way to throw an Ab chord ito your vocabulary.

Now the fun ones.

-x–x–x
-1–1–1
-1–1–1
-1–1–1
-3–x–3
-4–4–x

So there’s three more. These are pretty easy to grab, very grokkable, and sound more like a cowboy G chord without cramping up your hand or forcing you into a full barre chord.

For the first and second voicings out of these three, I’d suggest grabbing a cowboy G chord with your 3rd and 4th fingers on the two lowest notes. In this case you won’t be using your 2nd finger for anything, so try not to look like you’re flipping the bird at your audience. Try and keep it low, near your first finger which is barring the B, G and D strings.

The only variation in the second voicing is the lack of the note C on the A string. The voicing is still major though, since we have a C note on the B string, first fret. This one might be faster to grab though, depending on the situation you’re in.

The third voicing however is definitely my favorite. If I’m not in the key of Ab, or I’m on the last couple counts of and Ab in a progression, I’ll grab this one. It creates a sense of a moving bass line, and I think it’s just pretty. You’d see it on a chart as Ab/C, but that doesn’t matter. It’s pretty rare that a slash chord really matters on a chart. I should probably write about slash chords sometime. They blow the beginners’ minds, and annoy those of us who were planning on doing them anyway.

Play well, you guys.

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