My musical instruments (Part 2)

Continuing our series of "stuff I use to make music and stuff", we progress to part 2: the harmonica.

The harmonica (or, as I will often refer to it for the remainder of this post, the harp) is actually the most recent instrument I added to my arsenal of sounds. Obviously, damn near everyone has blown some air through a harp at one time or another in their lives, and I've messed around with them for many years. But it wasn't until about five years ago that I really got into playing them, and it was only three years ago that I got a full set of good harps to call my own. Therefore, I will make no claims to have any type of mastery of this sound-making device, compared to how I feel about my guitar or bass skills, or even keyboards to a degree.

However, for the type of music I do, virtuosity is not required. My harp playing is inspired by Neil Young and Bob Dylan, who both use it in the same way I do: as an accompaniment to the guitar. Using a special holder, I can strap the harmonica to a holder which goes around my neck, and hence play guitar, sing, and be able to do solos on the harp while I'm not singing.

Why bother playing harp at all? Well, I like a little flavor in music, and harp is another taste of sound for my listeners. As you know, I've spent much of the past few years performing live as a solo artist, and after awhile of just playing guitar and singing, it's nice to have a whole other type of sound to break up the routine. Plus, it's one of the few things that you can play while playing another instrument. That's important, as a live player.

The harp makes a brief appearance on my album. I play it on the song "Falling Down", which I'm including here for you to listen to as an example. The harp solo is after the first chorus, about 1:15 into the song.

Why do you call it a "harp"?
It's not just me. There's a story about why this appellation became popular; you can read it if you want. But it goes back to the 1800s, so it's far from new. In any case, the big distinction is really the type of music you play. If you're playing rock, folk, or blues, the name "harp" is much more acceptable. If you're using a harmonica as part of a classical ensemble, it's probably best to call it by its proper name. Since my harp stuff is folksy rock, I call it a harp. No one's ever thought I was referring to the large stringed instrument that you pluck, so I guess it's okay to keep calling it that.

For the purpose of this post, I'm only going to talk about one kind of harmonica: the blues harp, more properly known as a 10-hole diatonic harmonica. There are several other kinds, but for my type of music, this is the one you need to know about.

Why do you need so many of those things?
Harps are unlike most instruments in that they are preset to a particular key, which is usually etched on their surface for easy identification. So, if a song is in D major, you'll probably choose a D harp to play over it.


Note that in the upper corner, you'll see the key of the harp... in this case, D.

Those of you who are musically inclined will know that D major is diatonic to B minor, so if I'm playing in B minor, I may also use the D harp. And (getting super geeky for a moment), you can also play in all the various modes of music. Playing a D harp in D will give you the standard Ionian mode, while playing a D harp over an Em accompaniment will give you a Dorian mode, and so on.

You blow. And you suck.
Even though there are 10 holes in a blues harp, each hole is actually connected to two different reeds (the elements that produce the sound). Blowing into the hole will give you one pitch; pulling air into the harp through the same hole gives you another one. This is very important for any type of expressive playing, and it's crucial for the two main types of playing: straight harp and cross harp.

Straight harp is using the harp in the standard key it's meant for. Cross harp offers you a bluesy sound that's in the Mixolydian mode, with a flat 7th note. Using the same D harp as mentioned above, I can play straight harp in D, or I can play cross harp in A. It's always a fourth above (aka a fifth below) your standard key. Here's a handy little chart to tell you what the cross harp key is for each diatonic key:

Key of A: Straight: A, Cross: D
Key of B: Straight: B, Cross: E
Key of C: Straight: C, Cross: F
Key of D: Straight: D, Cross: G
Key of E: Straight: E, Cross: A
Key of F: Straight: F, Cross: Bb
Key of G: Straight: G, Cross: C

I know this isn't always easy to understand, but hearing it should help a lot. Therefore, here's a short video I just made for you to help explain it better.



How the #&*% do you bend notes???
Ah, here's the part that took me awhile to learn. As a person who didn't have experience with any kind of wind instrument, I wasn't at first aware that your embouchure (the way your lips are shaped in touching the instrument) makes a big difference. This is something you just need to practice until you figure out. Basically, I adjust the angle of my lips against the harp, and the note bends like magic. Again, you need to spend some quality time with your harp until you get it, because no amount of reading about this will help. As Nike used to say, just do it.

What kind of harp do you use?
There are lots of great choices out there, and any reputable brand will be fine for you. When I got into playing, I chose to get a set of Hohner Special 20 harps. First, they're made by Hohner, who have been making harps since the 1850s. Second, many of my heroes, including Dylan and Neil, have used these for their music, which I figured made them good enough for mine. As opposed to buying one harp at a time (and constantly bemoaning that I didn't have the right one for a particular key), I went out and got a set of seven harps for each diatonic key (A through G). It included a nice carrying case and some other accessories. You can usually find these at music stores or online retailers. The model of Hohner I chose, the Special 20, is not very expensive at all. A quick look around the web says these things go for between $20-$30 each, and you can often find full kits like mine for under $200. If you're a fan of the particularly well-known harp player, John Popper of Blues Traveler, he's another guy who uses Special 20s. They are really fine for nearly all harp techniques.

Well, that's it for this part in my musical instrument series. In Part 3, we'll talk about the many great instruments I used in the studio in the making of my debut album.

My musical instruments (Part 1)

I've had a good number of people over the past few years ask me about the gear I use to make music. You may wonder why I've hesitated to answer them. The reason is pretty simple, but it's not what you probably think.

Some musicians seem to want to keep their gear secret in order to keep their sound unique by not allowing other people to copy their setup. That couldn't be further from the truth in my case. First, I don't think that using the same guitar as another person is going to necessarily allow you to sound anything like that person. Music is a personal expression of creativity, and the sound you produce comes more from your soul, your brain, and your hands than from any specific guitar, bass, keyboard, and so on.

No, the reason in my case is that when I'm not being a musician, my career is based in the music products industry. I've not been forthcoming with the gear that I use because I don't want people to think that I'm merely being a shill for the manufacturers who make the instruments I play. Well, the fact is that I have no association at all with those companies, and my reasons for using their gear is simple: they work well for my music.

For this part, we'll focus only on one instrument, albeit the most important one to me: my main acoustic guitar, the Martin D-18V.

Martin D-18V: A living legend


Those of you who have listened to me playing live in Second Life, on Ustream, or elsewhere, have all heard this acoustic guitar. Each of the hundreds and hundreds of live shows I've done over the past few years have been fueled by my Martin. And on my debut album, the Martin D-18V is heard on "Falling Down", "Thanks Anyway", "The Sands of Redondo", "Always Tomorrow", "Waxing Gibbous", and "Waiting for This". In fact, "Waxing Gibbous" is the D-18V all by its self, and it really shines on that track. You can hear clips of all of this stuff, by the way, at the music page on my site.

So, what's so great about this guitar? First, it's a Martin, and C. F. Martin & Company was started in 1833, and have ever since been known as the world's premier guitar manufacturer. Like fine wines and vintage cars, most Martin guitars tend to increase in value as they grow older. My particular model is a Vintage Series D-18, meaning it was built to the specifications Martin used before World War II (hence the "V" in the model name). I'm a big believer in not having many things, but making sure the few things I have are of high quality. That sentence was written to justify the list price of this incredible instrument, which currently has a suggested retail price of $3349.00 USD. Ouch.

There's a neat story about how I got this instrument. A friend of mine writes reviews for magazines, and this guitar was one that was hand-selected for his review. He liked the guitar so much, he bought it, but shortly thereafter found another Martin that he wanted. Not being able to justify owning two high-end dreadnought guitars, he decided to sell the D-18V, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to get it from him.

It's an amazing instrument. The D-18 is a dreadnought... the largest of the acoustic guitar body shapes, so it's loud and proud. The sides and back are made of solid mahogany, while the top (the most important part of an acoustic) is solid sitka spruce. The fretboard is ebony. My Vintage Series model uses a tortoise-shell pickguard, which I like better than the newer black version. It also uses tortoise-shell on the guitar's binding around the body. The D-18 is one of the world's most beloved acoustics, and has been used by an insanely cool list of people, including Jerry Garcia, Neil Young, Jimmy Page, Elvis Presley, Joni MItchell, and many more. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that a huge portion of the world's most well-known acoustic guitar songs were played on D-18s.


Joni Mitchell


Neil Young


Jerry Garcia


David Gilmour


Jim Croce

if you want to know more about the D-18V, I recommend you look on the Martin site. For the next segment of my gear exposé, I'll be telling you a little about the Hohner Special 20 harmonica. Coming soon!

Report: the Zak Claxton Sicky Fun Show (03.20.10)

Sickly me.

Ask any musician, and he or she will tell you that realizing you're too ill to do an imminent performance is about as shitty a feeling as there is in the world. But that's what I had to acknowledge when I awoke today. Yesterday, I felt something coming on, and both my son and my lady had been ill this week, so it was pretty much inevitable that it would hit me eventually. And hit it did; I felt like hell last night, didn't sleep well, and got out of bed today with the distinct impression that someone had been beating my entire body with tire irons last night. Making matters decidedly worse was knowing that I had the fourth episode of my Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show at noon, live on video, and had invited a good number of people to check it out.

Singing was out of the question... my voice is just above a croak at the moment. My first inclination was to cancel the show entirely, but I just really, really, REALLY hate canceling shows under almost any circumstance. I just do. It bums me out.

Instead, with about an hour to go until the start of the show at noon, I had an idea that I wasn't sure was going to work or not: instead of a show with music, we could have a show where we talk about music. Now, I think it was Frank Zappa who said that talking about music was like dancing about architecture, but with my only other alternative being a note apologizing for my absence, I gave it a shot.

My first talk show
Not having anyone to interview or otherwise talk to except myself, I briefly entertained the idea of a call-in show, but I decided that could get really boring, really fast for those not talking. I decided to instead have a little discussion of my musical influences, and did some quickie graphics of a number of artists/bands that have been important to me. The list was what any of you who know me would expect, and included Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Bowie, the Police, and others.


All about the cootie train! w00t w00t!

It actually seemed like my little audience was having fun. First and foremost, we had some serious music fans there who understood a lot of the arcane little references that I'd point out from time to time. Anyway, it took my mind off of being sick and feeling all the self-pity that goes along with the aches and pains of whatever virus decided to camp out inside of me. I'm really glad I went on the the show. And now, it's chicken noodle soup time.

Saturday 3/20: Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show Ep. 4

Saturday March 20, 12:00 noon PDT
Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/zakclaxton

Some of you have seen it. Many more have not. But in any case, the Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show is my 100% live video show on Ustream. I've been hosting the show every other Saturday, and it seems to keep getting better as I continue to figure out what the hell I'm doing with a live Internet TV program.

The show consists of a little bit of nonsensical babbling, and then some live music performance, with just me and my acoustic guitar and voice, and some harmonica when the mood strikes. It's fun, irreverent, mostly silly, and is a good way to spend an hour of time on a Saturday. Come as you are.

Notes Shack (03.14.10)

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE SHOW NOW! (Note: includes some profanity and adult themes, but mostly just singing and stuff.)

Ah, the Notes Shack. I play there about once a month, and in terms of being the most kick-back, enjoyably relaxed places to see (and perform) live music in SL, it's probably on the top of my list. Today was very fun, though in completely typical Notes Shack fashion, there were some issues. Untolerable Bohemian was supposed to be performing before me, but apparently spilled tea in his computer right before the show (ouch!), so I arrived to a mostly empty club.

No big thing. We had a good number of Zaksters there to make it fun, and a few folks who I'd never met before to make it feel worthwhile in terms of exposing new people to my original music. And, as I said, all was fun. I did a couple of tunes I'd never done before, and at least one other than I hadn't done in a long time. The mood was mellow yet happy, and I think the tunes reflected that.

Notes Shack set list from today's show...
*Polly (Nirvana)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
The Needle and the Damage Done (Neil Young)
Summer Breeze (Seals & Crofts)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
*What Are You Like? (Indigo Girls)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
†After the Goldrush (Neil Young)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Things Behind The Sun (Nick Drake)
The Sands of Redondo (Zak Claxton)

*Indicates the first time I've performed these songs in SL.
†First performance of this song since Friday, April 25, 2008.

Big thanks to the folks who helped support my show today!
Mexxs Roux, Diana Renoir, Triana Caldera, Aurelie Chenaux, Kat Claxton, and Krakov Letov!

The making of a new song (part 2)

Last night, my great friend Bunny, the very talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who played drums and other instruments on my first album, was in my neighborhood and dropped by, and on a spur of the moment whim, I had him perform percussion on this demo. I didn't have any actual drums for him to play, but we pressed a Sparkletts 5-gallon water bottle into service, and it was fine for the purpose.

Some of you may recall last October, when I posted a demo song I was in the process of writing. Well, I don't believe in forcing songs out like squeezing toothpaste through a tube. It's got to flow out if/when it's ready, and in the five months since then, there's only one element that's been added to this song: a melody. Since Bunny was around and I wanted to capture that melody anyway, we rolled some video.

No words? No title? No problem.
One piece of advice I'd give to aspiring songwriters: don't expect everything to always come together at once. Sometimes it does, and you should feel pretty damn appreciative when that happens. But often, you may have a musical idea but are lacking in inspiration for an appropriate lyrical theme. Other times, you might have a killer melody, but haven't quite wrapped your head around the harmonic structure of the tune. In any case, that shouldn't stop you from working on the tune! If you wait until everything is perfect, you might spend a lifetime waiting and get very little music created in the meantime. Right now, I have a good vibe for this tune, but no lyrics yet. They're in there somewhere, but again: I can't force them out.

Record, record, record.
Do not assume that you're going to recall from memory some musical snippet you came up with six months earlier. Record those ideas! By recording and listening to your incomplete compositions, you may be able to refine the song in some way that you wouldn't have done otherwise. Even if the song is perfect as-is from day one, you don't want to run into the very real possibility of forgetting the bridge, or the intro, or whatever. One note: I can indeed notate music well enough to just write it down, but the act of playing and recording it gives me a better reference, and I've been known to lose the little scraps of paper that I've used to write songs. Not good. By taping it, I have a reference point that won't get accidentally thrown in the trash next to yesterday's lunch.

Share your ideas with trusted friends.
While I believe that most songwriting is a lonely activity, it's great to get some early feedback from people you know and like. Especially since Bunny will end up playing drums on this song when we go back into the studio, I wanted to use the opportunity to allow him to become more acquainted with the song so by the time we go to record for real, he'll have the vibe internalized. Also, a guy like Bunny will have no qualms about telling me if a song is or isn't up to par, and it's better to hear this early on than after you've committed to it.

So, that's all for this round. I'll eventually be inspired with a lyrical theme that fits this music, and it's likely that the next step will be testing out the tune live in front of an audience. And when that happens, my dear reader, you will hear about it here as well.

SEE THE VIDEO

Three songs at zakclaxton.com

I just did an update over at zakclaxton.com and added three song that you can listen to in full. Previously, I'd only had 30-second samples of the each song on the album, but I decided it was a good idea to give people a better taste of the complete songs. The reason I'm doing this is simple: selling music is a pain in the ass. Lemme tell you why.

1. You can't suck.
People tend to not listen to things and say, "Oh my GOD, that sucks! I must buy it immediately."

2. People think music has no value.
I had this discussion with a young guy awhile back. He said, "Music should be free, bro." I calmly asked him why he felt that way. "Dude, it's just music. People make it because they like it. I shouldn't have to pay for it." Gotcha, so because I enjoy the process of making music, it has no value. Perhaps if I gave the impression that creating a new song was painful and depressing, I'd be able to sell more albums, I guess.

3. People hate new music.
They do. Look, I love lots of old music. I've purchased tons of stuff off iTunes that was recorded before I was born (which was about 700 years ago). But I've also found that when I open myself up to hearing new stuff, there's a LOT of great new music out there... you just have to look off the beaten track for it. But still, when most people are parting with their hard-earned $0.99, they're probably going to make sure they have that Led Zeppelin or Stevie Wonder tune missing from their collection rather than take a chance on someone new. Hey, I can't blame them.

4. People steal music.
Don't look all shocked. They do. They get on peer-to-peer networks and download music files illegally, from someone's hard drive or server that they've placed there illegally. A side result of people becoming comfortable with stealing music is that it reinforces their perception that music has no value... see #2 above.

5. It's really hard to get noticed as a musician/songwriter.
This is nothing new; it's always been hard. You think there are a lot of ways for musicians to get noticed these days, with plenty of places to be discovered on the web, not to mention traditional promotional tools like radio play, getting on soundtracks, in commercials, and so on. Well, these are two problems. First, being on ReverbNation or MySpace or the like means only one thing: you're one of seemingly 10,000,000 other jerks trying to be heard. And in trying to get played on the radio and so on, you're also one of many, many artists trying the same thing. Again, this has been true since the first days of recorded musical entertainment. It is what it is.

6. It ain't easy being indie.
People who are signed to record labels get the benefit of the label doing marketing and promotion for them. Most independent musicians like me get... nothing. So, it's completely up to the artist him/herself to do things to make people aware of their music.

So anyway, back to my original point: I had the realization that I was doing myself a disservice by keeping my music so tightly reigned in. I can't imagine buying a song I haven't heard in full, and the samples at iTunes and on my site and my blog and so on just aren't enough. That's why you can listen to three complete songs on the front page of my site now. If you like them, go to iTunes or Amazon or somewhere you buy music, and buy them. And yeah, I made that part easy too; the ZC site store has direct links to all the online retailers who carry my stuff.

Anywhoo, enjoy the tunes. And, if there's anything else you think I should be doing to get these songs noticed, please do let me know. I'm happy with the way things are going with this album, really happy, but I also don't want to skip by any opportunities that are out there.