Thumbtack Awards Phil “Best of 2015”

Thumbtack Best Pro of 2015

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Thumbtack has been my #1 source of new students for about 3 years running now.  It’s free to the clients and super-affordable for me.  This incredible service gives consumers an easy way to identify local service providers with a proven track record, and get quotes before ever having to commit.  And no subscription fees!  I have accumulated quite a few positive reviews on Thumbtack (check it out):

Phil’s Reviews on Thumbtack

 

Phil Westfall Lands at Music Central

Home of Fun Style Lessons in Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Ukulele
Home of Fun Style Lessons in Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Ukulele

I am delighted to have taken one of Music Central’s two new lesson studios.  Being at ground level is a real plus.  Being Centrally located in Colorado Springs’ music scene is priceless.  And my favorite blues/lead guitarist, Cari Dell, has settled in just across the hall!

Cari Dell, one shredding lead guitarist...
Cari Dell, one shredding lead guitarist…

Living next door to Bill St. John and his fantastic family at Music Central is a wonder I couldn’t have imagined.  Needless to say, I’m ecstatic!

Bill St. John - Owner, Music Central, Colorado Springs, CO
Bill St. John – Owner, Music Central, Colorado Springs, CO

The GeezerZ Live at the Loft ! ! !

GeezerZ Live at the Loft 100513-A

The GeezerZ band rocked the Loft Venue in Old Colorado City last Saturday, and baby it was a gas!  In proper humility, we must thank Trey and Nancy Lecky’s incredible circle of friends and family.  Fantastic sound by the legendary technician George Lowis simply made the happenin’ happen!  And I am ever-grateful to (pictured from left) Jack McHenry, Trey Lecky, Mike Karzon and Ronnie Bush for the extreme fun ride they have taken me on for the last couple of years.  It just keeps gettin’ better!

Here’s Set 1 from our performance:  The GeezerZ Live at the Loft, Set 1

 

I’ve also got some video and audio from the same night, but right now, getting the media out there is my biggest problem… I really need a “mediacist” kind of person.

Amy’s Advice for Troubled Teen…

“And, if he is in the slightest way musical or into music, get him a secondhand guitar (or a version of the video game “Guitar Hero“). Every 12-year-old boy should have a guitar.” *

To Amy’s excellent advice, I would like to add that every 12-year-old girl should have a guitar…

Also, check out Rocksmith, which X-Box users will find a great tool for learning the real guitar in a cool, interactive video game-like setting. **

Merry Christmas Everybody!

* Ask Amy – Stepson’s…

** Rocksmith Review

Guitar Solo from Natalie Merchant’s “Carnival”

My friend and really fine guitarist, Gene, turned me on to this thing.  I loved it, and there weren’t any tabs of this signature solo out there at all.  With Gene’s help, I tabbed it out:  Carnival Solo — the expressiveness and tone of guitarist Jennifer Turner is truly mesmerizing… if you want the GP5 file which includes bass and chord backup, please comment here to that effect.

Dirty Road by Travis Meeks…

What’s that?  Only the coolest, insanest acoustic guitar masterpiece, by a modern Rembrandt performing in the grand tradition of great songwriter/guitarist/singers…

Behold Travis Meeks from Days of the New, doing his original song, “Dirty Road,” live:  Dirty Road Live by Travis Meeks

Yeah, that’s sweet!  But if I wanted to play it, there aren’t any tabs out there.  I’d have to make my own.  Which I did, and I did.

Truth be told, this guy Darryl Banaize on youtube played the piece so well — Dirty Road Cover by Darryl Banaize

— that I was able to read his hands and write it out in guitar pro.   Write me to request that file,  but in case you don’t have Guitar Pro 5*, you can still check out the PDF version of it — Dirty Road – Travis Meeks – Guitar Tab

What I wrote out starts at 14 seconds into the video and continues for the remaining 5 and half minutes of this super-cool, fun, doable guitar part in a special tuning.  Don’t try this one in standard.  You’d have to be an alien to play it that way.

* * *

Now, the singing is an entirely different matter.  I don’t want to put the young cat down, it’s just something I’ve observed with singers, thousands of times.  Our youtube boy is singing in Travis Meeks’ vocal range, but not his own.  Some clues to this include: raising his face to the heavens; squinting as though blinded by the Overlighting Deity; there’s audible strain in his voice on the most powerful sections of the song; missing his high note (a concert A) sometimes, only reaching G#.

You don’t have to understand notes to understand this:  If our champion were to tune his guitar down one fret lower, he would never miss that high note.  If he lowered the guitar/song pitch by just two frets (a single letter of the musical alphabet), he would sound comfortable and strong — for his own voice, the only one he has to work with.  He’d even get a little bit of that growl and gravel into his choirboy voice, which couldn’t possibly hurt, on a tune called “Dirty Road.”

 

* need Guitar Pro 5?  go here:  http://www.toggle.com/lv/group/view/kl39472/Guitar_Pro.htm  Guitar Pro 5 is free — but you can get the new Guitar Pro 6 for 60 bucks at: http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php

A Brand New Website

Hi Fun Style Music Lovers,

With grateful pride I unveil my new website.  Although much of the song remains the same, this new arrangement (design) by David Kingrey of Spokane, in WordPress, simply rocks!

 

 

 

 

 

One of my fave features is the “progressive disclosure” that David achieved, so that most of the scrolling has been banished to the Dead Sea archives of the past.  But there’s so much more.  Frankly, I haven’t had a chance to browse through it all, yet…

Your feedback is welcome, so please feed it back to me on this very forum.  This is something else I had dreamed of, the ability to post news items on my very own site.  I’ll be adding new items here, regularly and frequently.

Yours In Appreciation,

Phil