Thursday, October 13, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Scales around your Barre Chords
Friday is GUITAR PRACTICE: Within a week, the scales & chord progressions using Barre Chords should start feeling more and more natural. That's when you start to pay attention to musicianship, like using vibrato/tremolo with each scale degree, tempo and technique. Don't forget posture, and holding your guitar correctly, with the bottom between your legs, your thumb behind the neck at all times, ensuring stamina, and being aware of proper body mechanics so you don't fatigue easily, or cause injury.
For June 17th, start with tuning to the piano/keys, then do the fine tuning by ear (see previous blog for TUNING)...
Go over scales in first position (starting on the E string, 3rd fret with the finger #2: G major/A major/B major/C major (2 octaves)
Then, go over scales in second position (starting on the A string, 3rd fret with finger #2: C major/D major/E major/F major (2 octaves)
Barre Chords & Double Barre Chords -- all the way up the neck, playing rock progressions in all keys (I - IV - I - V / I - IV - I:V:I)
Monday, June 13, 2011
South California Purples CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY
CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY
Robert Lamm - keyboards, lead vocals
Terry Kath - guitar, lead vocals
Peter Cetera - bass, lead vocals
James Pankow - trombone, percussion
Lee Loughnane - trumpet, percussion, background vocals
Walter Parazaider - woodwinds, percussion, background vocals
Daniel Seraphine - drums
These recordings are from the final night of a run that featured Chicago Transit Authority opening and closing a show that also featured sets by The Youngbloods and Colosseum in between. These remarkable sets capture the band riding high on the great success of their debut album and performing that material, along with some of the songs destined for their second album, which they were recording in Los Angeles that same month. Many of the songs that established the band are here and remind us that this was once a band with serious musicianship whose wide-ranging creativity was both aggressive and inviting. The group had an undeniable flare for writing captivating pop songs, but it is the lengthier, more experimental material that is most impressive here. Terry Kath's sizzling neo-psychedelic guitar playing is simply outstanding on these sets and reveal exactly why Jimi Hendrix himself was so impressed. Blood, Sweat & Tears (with founder Al Kooper long gone) was the other horn band experiencing great commercial success at this time, but Chicago had a gutsier sound, and in many ways were fulfilling the promise of the original Al Kooper-led version of that band. Chicago would become progressively less adventurous with every album, but in 1969, they were one of the most confident, diverse, and just plain exciting bands on the planet.Terry Kath - guitar, lead vocals
Peter Cetera - bass, lead vocals
James Pankow - trombone, percussion
Lee Loughnane - trumpet, percussion, background vocals
Walter Parazaider - woodwinds, percussion, background vocals
Daniel Seraphine - drums
Following sets by The Youngbloods and Colosseum, Chicago returned to the stage to close this run with one of the most incendiary sets of their career. This performance is astonishing and it displays the original band performing at a staggering intensity level.
Appropriately enough, Chicago begins with "Introduction," the pile-driving Terry Kath composition that opened their debut album. Not surprisingly, this song features powerhouse guitar playing from Kath and this raw, highly energetic blues-oriented number fuses elements of blues, jazz, and rock into a style uniquely their own.
Tight, perfectly executed renditions of Lamm's "Listen" and a new Kath composition, "The Road", follow. By this point, the band is fully fired up and they dive into an incendiary performance of the Spencer Davis Group hit, "I'm A Man." The only cover song featured on their debut album, this features all three lead singers (Lamm, Kath, and Cetera) taking a turn on the vocals and Kath absolutely blazing on guitar. Although Chicago's version of this song features lyrics as they misunderstood them, rather than the actual words Jimmy Miller and Stevie Winwood originally wrote, their version of the song blows away the fine original, particularly from an instrumental standpoint. It's no wonder that their arrangement, minus the percussion interlude within, became yet another hit for the band.
The set continues with "South California Purples", another pile-driving guitar tour de force for Kath that utilizes long in and out fades of the horn section, sailing over a bluesy bottom created by the tight rhythm section of Cetera and Seraphine. "Beginnings," a near perfect blend of pop and jazz, with a gradually emerging Latin beat comes next. This features an infectious lead vocal by Lamm, plenty of seventh chords and outstanding solos from Pankow on trombone and Loughnane on trumpet. It's no wonder that this song became yet another belated hit the following year.
Rapidly reaching the end of time constraints, the band acknowledges the staff at the Fillmore West by thanking them for their hospitality and informs the audience they have time for one more song. They close the run with the highly adventurous Pankow composition, "Liberation." Originally recorded live in the studio with no overdubs during the first album sessions, this magnum opus version is even longer and much more exciting. Taken in context of the times, this is quite experimental and covers a lot of territory. It begins in a style reflective of the Stax/Volt era, with punchy horn charts and a get-up-and-dance feel to it. Within a minute or two, it soars off into a powerful jam with Terry Kath absolutely blazing. The musicians are performing at an incredible level here. For the rest of this 17-minute blowout, Kath doesn't let up for a second and the band propels him into the stratosphere. This seriously heavy jam gradually increases in tempo and eventually gets so intense that it explodes into a wall of feedback-laden dissonance, not unlike the spontaneous feedback compositions that closed many a Grateful Dead show during this era. But even out of this wall of noise, they keep going. Following the breather they took during Kath's guitar pyrotechnics, the horns join back in. They approach the situation harmolodicly (a musical theory developed by the legendary Ornette Coleman) and the band ventures into free-jazz territory. This eventually morphs into a lovely little sequence where Kath sings "God Bless You and Goodnight" before they begin an eloquent transition back into the opening theme. The tape stock literally runs out on the final note, capturing all but the final few seconds of this monumentally exciting performance.
Chicago was certainly a product of the times. Their early music was often message oriented and political, but the experimental nature of their approach and the great diversity among their early material made them different. Although it may seem hard to believe in light of where they ended up going in the decades to follow, they were actually groundbreaking in 1969 and even the word "revolutionary" applied at the time.
Few debut albums of the era contained original music of such a consistently high caliber and the fact that theirs was a double album stands as a testament to their undeniable creativity. These Fillmore West sets make it perfectly clear that their early success was no result of studio enhancements or gimmicks. This was a live band that was more than capable of backing up the promise of that debut album onstage.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
NurseReview.Org - Psychotherapeutic Agents Updates (lesson 1 pharmacology)
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
care to listen to my songs? click below, also cut & paste the other websites to see and hear more...
Rita Taylor Guitar Practice: Give a listen to my songs on www.ilike.com
http://www.rhapsody.com/rita-taylor/out-of-blue
http://www.myspace.com/ritataylorband
http://www.rhapsody.com/rita-taylor
http://www.rhapsody.com/rita-taylor/out-of-blue
http://www.myspace.com/ritataylorband
http://www.rhapsody.com/rita-taylor
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Give a listen to my songs on www.ilike.com
http://www.ilike.com/artist/search?artist_qp=Rita+Taylor+Band&x=12&y=14
Friday, March 4, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
About Rita Taylor
Singer/Songwriter
Primary Musical Genre: Rock
Secondary Genre: Pop/Jazz
Contact Info: Rita (520)360-7893
Tucson, Arizona
Email: rtexpress357@ymail.com
"For a traditional, Americana pop-rock style...her lead vocal is sincere, communicates emotion to the listener...good use of imagery, in the category of such pop listings as Jewel, Sarah McLaughlin, and a wide range of singer songwriter artists." --Taxi A&R Staff
Artist Information
BIO: Rita's "go to" Guitar has been the YAMAHA acoustic she got in Seattle when she lived there for 3 years in the late 70s-80s and got her start as "street musician" at the Pike Street Market.
Writing for Rock Ensemble (and a horn or two) since age eleven, Rita started playing out at an early age with childhood friends from the neighborhood in her garage in New Jersey. She played both Electric guitar and Drumset in those early bands, and still perceives that role as most freeing, being able to express herself going from one instrument to another. Influenced from early 60s Pop and WW II Jazz Standards, Rita made the transition to 70s Rock like a champ. Her Ballads have truly become Rock Anthems, and the jazzier songs have made her indeed Progressive. By the early 90s, her lyrical style had become pensive and obviously ample in the new light that would be thrown upon every aspect of her life, and in the wonderful glow that the world would begin to wear for her. Always a message of hope, even in a love-lost, Rita sees the highest good in circumstances and continues to write music inspired by life, love and limitless wonderment. Now, with all the neccessary copyrights in order, Rita is capable of entertaining with 5 to 6 hours of original music to choose from, both Acoustic and Electric. Leaving two working bands behind in Tucson, Rita has relocated to Sedona where she found time to play drums for Ryan Van Band, then full-time with The Sammy Davis Band for the last year and a half. Enjoying some well-deserved 'down time' after a motorcycle accident, Rita has returned to work as a Registered Nurse after taking some time to heal and re-group with her own music endeavors. Finally catagorizing her body of works, Rita has breathed new life into her songs, and has started to re-tool them with Daryl Carter in Sedona. They're now on simmer on the front burner. She considers it an honor to be copied in any form. Being called "a musician's musician", Rita regards this as the highest complement from one of her peers, and hopes to continue to inspire others to pursue their love of music by demonstration.
Since the time of this writing (2008), Rita has returned to Tucson where she continues to immerse herself in auditory gratification and although working for a living, would be pleased to find a good fit with other local musicians to continue playing out and including others to record and work on original material.
InfluencesWith influences ranging from Tom Petty to Bonnie Raitt and from Joni Mitchell to Yes, Rita lives for pop melodies and Guitar and Bass hooks.
Equipment ListInstrumentation for solo appearances:
Rita (guitars, various mics, programmable Boss DR-5 drum/Bass machine, Harmonicas)
Writing tools include: FENDER Telecaster Electric Guitar and TAYLOR Electric/Acoustic (short scale) 710 CE L9 series; FENDER Musicmaster Bass; YAMAHA PSR-240 Midi Keyboard; YAMAHA Clarinet; Native flutes; Hohner Harmonicas; 5-piece TAMA Swingstar Drumset (with VIC FIRTH Dave Weckl signature sticks); SHALLOCK conga & bongo set.
Singer/Songwriter
Primary Musical Genre: Rock
Secondary Genre: Pop/Jazz
Contact Info: Rita (520)360-7893
Tucson, Arizona
Email: rtexpress357@ymail.com
"For a traditional, Americana pop-rock style...her lead vocal is sincere, communicates emotion to the listener...good use of imagery, in the category of such pop listings as Jewel, Sarah McLaughlin, and a wide range of singer songwriter artists." --Taxi A&R Staff
Artist Information
BIO: Rita's "go to" Guitar has been the YAMAHA acoustic she got in Seattle when she lived there for 3 years in the late 70s-80s and got her start as "street musician" at the Pike Street Market.
Writing for Rock Ensemble (and a horn or two) since age eleven, Rita started playing out at an early age with childhood friends from the neighborhood in her garage in New Jersey. She played both Electric guitar and Drumset in those early bands, and still perceives that role as most freeing, being able to express herself going from one instrument to another. Influenced from early 60s Pop and WW II Jazz Standards, Rita made the transition to 70s Rock like a champ. Her Ballads have truly become Rock Anthems, and the jazzier songs have made her indeed Progressive. By the early 90s, her lyrical style had become pensive and obviously ample in the new light that would be thrown upon every aspect of her life, and in the wonderful glow that the world would begin to wear for her. Always a message of hope, even in a love-lost, Rita sees the highest good in circumstances and continues to write music inspired by life, love and limitless wonderment. Now, with all the neccessary copyrights in order, Rita is capable of entertaining with 5 to 6 hours of original music to choose from, both Acoustic and Electric. Leaving two working bands behind in Tucson, Rita has relocated to Sedona where she found time to play drums for Ryan Van Band, then full-time with The Sammy Davis Band for the last year and a half. Enjoying some well-deserved 'down time' after a motorcycle accident, Rita has returned to work as a Registered Nurse after taking some time to heal and re-group with her own music endeavors. Finally catagorizing her body of works, Rita has breathed new life into her songs, and has started to re-tool them with Daryl Carter in Sedona. They're now on simmer on the front burner. She considers it an honor to be copied in any form. Being called "a musician's musician", Rita regards this as the highest complement from one of her peers, and hopes to continue to inspire others to pursue their love of music by demonstration.
Since the time of this writing (2008), Rita has returned to Tucson where she continues to immerse herself in auditory gratification and although working for a living, would be pleased to find a good fit with other local musicians to continue playing out and including others to record and work on original material.
InfluencesWith influences ranging from Tom Petty to Bonnie Raitt and from Joni Mitchell to Yes, Rita lives for pop melodies and Guitar and Bass hooks.
Equipment ListInstrumentation for solo appearances:
Rita (guitars, various mics, programmable Boss DR-5 drum/Bass machine, Harmonicas)
Writing tools include: FENDER Telecaster Electric Guitar and TAYLOR Electric/Acoustic (short scale) 710 CE L9 series; FENDER Musicmaster Bass; YAMAHA PSR-240 Midi Keyboard; YAMAHA Clarinet; Native flutes; Hohner Harmonicas; 5-piece TAMA Swingstar Drumset (with VIC FIRTH Dave Weckl signature sticks); SHALLOCK conga & bongo set.
Along Comes Mary
Every time I think that I'm the only one who's lonely
Someone calls on me
And every now and then I spend my time in rhyme and verse
And curse those faults in me
And then along comes Mary
And does she want to give me kicks , and be my steady chick
And give me pick of memories
Or maybe rather gather tales of all the fails and tribulations
No one ever sees
When we met I was sure out to lunch
Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch
When vague desire is the fire in the eyes of chicks
Whose sickness is the games they play
And when the masquerade is played and neighbor folks make jokes
As who is most to blame today
And then along comes Mary
And does she want to set them free, and let them see reality
From where she got her name
And will they struggle much when told that such a tender touch as hers
Will make them not the same
When we met I was sure out to lunch
Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch
And when the morning of the warning's passed, the gassed
And flaccid kids are flung across the stars
The psychodramas and the traumas gone
The songs are left unsung and hung upon the scars
And then along comes Mary
And does she want to see the stains, the dead remains of all the pains
She left the night before
Or will their waking eyes reflect the lies, and make them
Realize their urgent cry for sight no more
When we met I was sure out to lunch
Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch
Someone calls on me
And every now and then I spend my time in rhyme and verse
And curse those faults in me
And then along comes Mary
And does she want to give me kicks , and be my steady chick
And give me pick of memories
Or maybe rather gather tales of all the fails and tribulations
No one ever sees
When we met I was sure out to lunch
Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch
When vague desire is the fire in the eyes of chicks
Whose sickness is the games they play
And when the masquerade is played and neighbor folks make jokes
As who is most to blame today
And then along comes Mary
And does she want to set them free, and let them see reality
From where she got her name
And will they struggle much when told that such a tender touch as hers
Will make them not the same
When we met I was sure out to lunch
Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch
And when the morning of the warning's passed, the gassed
And flaccid kids are flung across the stars
The psychodramas and the traumas gone
The songs are left unsung and hung upon the scars
And then along comes Mary
And does she want to see the stains, the dead remains of all the pains
She left the night before
Or will their waking eyes reflect the lies, and make them
Realize their urgent cry for sight no more
When we met I was sure out to lunch
Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch
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