Over the next several months, I filled up my iPod Touch to capacity by creating new song ideas with Garageband. I had already purchased an iRig to use with Amplitube, so I was able to easily and instantly start recording my guitar into Garageband.

I found it to be a fantastic tool for capturing new song ideas. The ease of use and quality of sounds – though, the amp simulation doesn’t sound quite as good as with Amplitube – made using Garageband a no brainer. No longer did I need to consider spending the extra cash to upgrade my Amplitube app so it would have 4 track recording capability. I now had an 8 track recorder, complete with drums, bass, synths, etc.

Recently I purchased a new iPad 2. What a thrill it was to see that I could download the Garageband app that I had already bought for my iPod Touch at no extra charge! Another no brainer!

Since I’ve had my new iPad with Garageband, I’ve been having a blast recording new song ideas.

Here is a video from my YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/naturalGtr, that I recorded showing how I use Garageband on my iPad to create a background track to jam along to. Enjoy!

Turns out the same thing is true no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Locking your knees is a bad habit, yet we do it way more often than we are aware.

Now, I’m not expert in the matter. All I know is that I had been experiencing some pretty intense knee pain in my left knee in the last several months. At times it was so bad that I nearly collapsed as I was walking. I went to see a chiropractic doctor who told me that, because I was locking my knees and not walking or standing with good posture, I was creating musculo-skeletal strain on my knees. The doctor had me begin some squatting exercises to strengthen the muscles that interact with my knee, and of course, she did some manipulations as well.

The result has been significant. I now go for long walks on a regular basis without a bit of pain. What’s more, I am much more aware of how I tend to lock my knees almost all the time. With that awareness I can change those actions.

One way that I noticed this, in regards to how I play guitar, is that, when I stand and play guitar, I usually stand with all of my weight on my left leg and with my knee locked so I can have my right leg and foot available to constantly monitor my volume and other pedals on my pedal board. That burden and pressure becomes even greater when you have a 10 pound Les Paul strapped across your shoulders!

With this knowledge and with these exercises I am developing an awareness and a muscle tone that is enabling me to perform with proper posture and saving my knee from unnecessary wear and tear and possible further knee injury. Now, if I could just get somebody to lug all my gear around for me!

Before the concert, in the beautiful sun-lit all-glass atrium, the students of the children’s guitar program performed whilst patrons were treated to fine complimentary hor dourves and deserts.

Tickets for the benefit ran $45. We were told that a “small” portion of the proceeds of the ticket sales went towards the children’s guitar program.

Minimalistic was the stage set up. 4 seats, almost like “mini” piano benches, along with 4 music stands stood lonely on the stage. I met a student, seated on my right, who, I believe, introduced himself to me as “Bob”. I made friends, as I was attending the concert solo, and bored him with stories of my life prior to the show. Great seats – In the middle, in the middle, which was quite amazing as I bought my ticket a mere 25 minutes before the show. The auditorium, which seats a few hundred people, was filled to about 90 percent capacity. There probably wasn’t a bad seat in the house, and I really enjoyed mine.

The acoustics were tremendous. Even the subtlest of sounds emanating from the guitarists was perceived without trouble. No amplification was necessary. As is typical for a classical music concert, the audience sat quietly, aside from a few coughs here and there. Fortunately, nobody’s cell phone went off. But, it was like a water balloon about to break, for, as soon as the ensemble finished each piece or suite, the crowd burst into uproarious applause – giving, at the end, a standing ovation and receiving in return an encore performance.

Of course, the performances were absolutely breath-taking, flawless and virtuosically stunning. What really amazed me was the trading off of parts. The sound was just woven together so exquisitely. You just didn’t know where the next note was going to come from at times.

However, there were about 2 or 3 times in the Pavane of the Capriol Suite that I noticed somebody played a wrong note. I tried to look and see if any of their faces turned red from embarrassment to see who it was, but not a shade of difference. What I did notice was William Kanengiser, who was sitting on the outter right, was looking a little bit perturbed. It seemed almost an uncomfortable moment. I wondered if he was getting upset with the culprit. Maybe it just went with his MO. He seemed to be the most physically expressive of the bunch. This led me to believe that he may have been the conductor as well.

I also noticed that these guys tuned their guitars incessantly throughout the entire performance. I was both inspired by their ability to do this while playing and distracted – taken out of the moment. I think they are probably much more sensitive to tuning issues than the common listener, and could probably ease off a bit on that. Sometimes, when tuning between songs, it left long uncomfortable pauses, and sometimes I just couldn’t tell if they were tuning or starting the piece. I can understand, though. Playing guitar myself. Keeping those classical guitars in tune is a challenge! What was hilarious was that, after the concert, a young boy brought his half-size guitar to them to autograph, and Scott Tennant wrote “Tune Up!” before signing his name!

The performers used a few techniques that I must embarrassingly admit that I’ve never seen before. Though I have seen Jimmy Page play a Les Paul with a violin bow, I’ve never seen a classical guitar player use one. I mean, I’ve seen the Kronos Quartet using them on crystal glasses before, but I hadn’t seen this one yet. What I did see for the first time was the technique of tapping of the fingernails on the sides of the guitar to produce a percussive sound. Very nice. In fact, one of the guitar players – Scott Tennant (sitting on the outter left) – seemed like he had something on the top side of his guitar that he tapped on – something to protect the finish from getting scratched up, I suppose. One other technique I’ve never seen before is that of sliding the picking finger along the string while playing the note. What I liked most about that effect was that they used it very sparingly.

They opened their program with the Overture to Il Barbiere de Siviglia – a safe step, and followed that up with the  six-movement Capriol Suite by Peter Warlock – a bit more adventuresome.  William introduced the next set of pieces, Music from the Time of Cervantes – and gave a little bit of background for each piece. It was quite interesting, but I must say that I’m not really sure if his introduction or explanation had any impact on how I heard the pieces. Of course, this may be because I am not familiar with the story of Don Quixote, which is what the pieces were about. It did make me reconsider taking the offer to play in a local production of The Man of La Mancha, however. I really enjoyed the spanish flavor of those pieces. A lot of rasgueado there, my friend.

After an intermission they began with a more modern suite – ironically named the Antique Suite, by Ian Krause. This was really cool. It was like watching classic movies on a TV that’s on the fritz but not being annoyed by it, rather seeing something new in it. This was where the violin bow was introduced. Bravo! Next, I was very pleasantly surprised. In my senior recital in 1992 at the University of Minnesota, my fellow guitar students and I performed Leo Brouwer’s Cuban Landscape with Rain. I haven’t heard the piece since, but then again, I don’t go to a lot of guitar quartet concerts. I didn’t know it by it’s Spanish name, Paisaje Cubano con Lluvia, as it was listed in the program, so I was delighted when they began to perform it. It nearly brought me to tears it was so beautiful. As one of the current guitar students aptly observed, they performed it much better than we ever had.

Lastly, they finished with the “Carmen Suite” by Georges Bizet. That was just a lot of fun and very beautiful – a great capping off to an already wonderful program. I thought the entire program was a great balance of old and new – very well rounded, and there was obviously nothing too difficult for these guys to play. Like any great concert, it left me feeling inspired and wanting to be more excellent in my pursuit of guitar performance.

After the show I got to get their autographs in my program guide and got to express to them how much I really enjoyed Cuban Landscape with Rain and being taken back to the days of my senior recital. It was a nearly perfect afternoon.

Another debut was the song Can’t Wait, written by Steve Pederson. Here is a video of the song from the gig. Please stop by the YouTube channel for Steve to catch more videos from the gig.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome The Steve Pederson Progression.

Guitarist Steve Pederson is known for bringing you music that engages the mind, body, heart, and soul.  He now invites you to follow the musical progression that develops as he and his compadres create a unique blend of classical, blues, rock, jazz, and inspirational genres.  Be sure to get in on the ground level to support this musical project and be a part of the magic as it unfolds!

The first gig will be at the RootsRoom, 5203 N Kimball in Chicago, on Thursday, January 28th. Doors open at 8:30 PM. Among those that will be a part of the progression are Rick Heath (singer/songwriter/guitarist) and LeTroy Jackson (amazing vocalist). See you there!

I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of the crew that is making the RootsRoom happen. My job has been working on the website. As an active participant, the owner has granted me the opportunity to perform at the RootsRoom every 4th Thursday of the month. My first gig there was actually on November 12, 2009 operating with the title Midwestern Roots: Steve Pederson and Friends. That evening, I had Lennell Reynolds join me on percussion, David Fowlie on vocals and harmonica and Jerome Collins and Sara Balsom on vocals.

After having my first rehearsal with Rick Heath today, I’m eagerly anticipating the upcoming gig on January 28th. I’ve got at least a dozen original tunes that we’ll be performing, and Rick has some original material that we’ll be adding to the set as well.

Overall, I’m pretty excited about this opportunity at the RootsRoom. It’s challenging me to grow in several areas as a performer. As a musician and as a songwriter it’s giving me deadlines, forcing me to finish my material. With a cover charge at stake, it’s challenging me to make sure my material is worthwhile. As a producer I have to make sure that the entire show flows smoothly and makes sense.

We’ll see you at the RootsRoom!

I did a bit of shopping around online first, of course, and discovered this brand of pedal board called Pedal Pad. What really drew me to the Pedal Pad is the two-tier level thing they have going on. The problem with putting pedals behind other pedals is that it makes it hard to stomp on the pedals in back (activate/deactivate) without the pedals in front interfering. Putting a flat pedal board up at an angle helps a bit, but this solution is really the best. With this kind of set up, the pedals in back are elevated well above the pedals in front.

It was really actually kind of fun determining what size pedal board to get and how I would arrange everything – laying out pedals and measuring tape on the floor. I got the 28 inch wide board. They also make a 38 inch wide board, but that seemed too big for my needs. As you can tell from this picture, I have room on the top level for another couple of pedals (like maybe a Fulltone Tremolo pedal perhaps?) There is also a space open on the bottom level for my MXR 74 Vintage Phase 90, which is currently in the shop (and has been for almost 2 weeks!) getting a DC jack installed.

A couple new additions I got to throw in to the mix are the Ernie Ball 6166 Volume pedal and the Boss TU-12EX tuner. So, the chain goes like this: Wah -> AC Plus -> Tube Screamer -> Phase 90 -> Micro Vibe -> Volume -> Delay -> Chorus. It’s really a sweet set up.

As for cables, it was really hard to find the right size cables with right-angle plugs. Monster cables were just way too expensive for me. Instead I bought a Planet Waves Cable Station cable kit. It comes with 10 feet of cable and 10 right-angle plugs. I was really amazed how simple it was to use this.

As you can tell from the photo, the metal plates inside the board still have the blue plastic wrap covering on them. I left it on there for the simple fact that I just don’t want silvery metal reflecting light in my face when I’m on stage with spotlights shining down on my board. That was one design snafoo I didn’t really understand. I was planning on spray painting these metal plates black, but when I saw they had plastic covering on them, and you can’t buy spray paint in the city of Chicago anyhow, I figured problem solved.

One other item the board did not come with was any kind of foam in the cover to keep the pedals from moving about in transport. The board did come with a long strip of Velcro, but I didn’t really want to use that. My wife picked up a couple of blocks of 2 inch thick foam from JoAnn fabrics for about $7 each, and we were set.

One of the options that you can get with the board is a power supply, but it takes up quite a bit of real estate on the board. I already had a 1 Spot power supply, so I’m just using that and making use of the space for my expression pedals.

The board cost me about $250, which I felt was a great deal. I had considered the possibility of designing and building my own board, but that just seemed like another project that I really didn’t have time for. Shipping was free. You have to order this board directly from the manufacturer. I didn’t find any retailer that carried them. However, when I spoke with them, they said they were preparing an order of about 200 of them for Musician’s Friend.

I did get a little freaked out after I ordered the board. I had tried to contact them before I ordered the board. On their web site it said they would respond within 24 hours. They didn’t. I then went ahead and ordered it anyway. Their website is not super polished. In fact, when ordering, I think I was redirected to another web site. After a few days I hadn’t received any kind of confirmation email, and my account just continually said that the order was processing. After several days I got concerned and decided to call. Later that day, to my relief, I received a very friendly and apologetic phone call. It’s a small operation, and the guy had been out of town. He assured me I would receive an email with shipping info and such. Several days later I still had not received it. I was getting a bit impatient. I was driving home from an appointment one day and thought it was a mistake to order from them and thought about cancelling the order. When I got home, there was my pedal board sitting in it’s unopened box in the living room. All was forgiven.

I am totally loving this board. Sturdy construction. Sharp looking. Now, it only takes a minute to set up – just open the case, plug the power in, plug the guitar in to the wah, plug the Chorus into the amp and awaaaaayyyyy we go!

Yesterday I had the awesome opportunity to introduce my church to a new congregational worship song that I wrote called Great is Your Name. Not only was it a privilege and an honor, but it was also a lot of fun. The sample that I have below is just guitar and vocals. When we performed it live yesterday, the band really filled out the song – giving it a rich full sound. Given the sound of the band, I felt a little bit like Tom Petty. It was pretty cool. I was grateful to get a lot of positive feedback about the song.

Here is a sample of the song: This is the chorus.

(I have a sample of the song here, but I’m having trouble posting a link to it the way I want. I tried the Audio-Player plugin for WordPress, but it doesn’t seem to work. I’ve also tried inserting the media file into my post, but nothing shows up. I’ve found the online help documentation and support forums useless, so if anyone has any practical solutions, they are welcome here.)

Since I’ve been working on the committee to get the RootsRoom up and running, though, I thought I would check it out and see if it would be something that we could use as background music at this club. I’ve been giving it a listen, and I find that it is very well done and very interesting to listen to.

The strange thing about it, though, is that the music that is on the CDs doesn’t really seem to match what the packaging would lead you to believe would be on there. First of all, you have the title – World Acoustic. Then, on the cover, there is the picture of a sitar and some type of non-Western drum and, as I said, the subtitle stating that it is 3 CDs of essential acoustic beats. All this, to me, sets the stage that I’m about to hear a lot of music that I may not be accustomed to. Certainly I should expect to hear some sitars and other “unusual” sounds – perhaps even some stuff that I might find out of my league and hard to comprehend. I’m expecting to hear cultural music from places like India and other places in the middle or far east. I’m expecting to hear non-traditional, non-Western acoustic sounds and rhythms. Sounds like fun, right? Not only do I expect to hear some “obscure” music, but for some reason I expect that the recording quality to not be that great either. I expect maybe these would be recordings that somebody made with a hand-held, battery-powered MP3 recorder that they brought with on a journey high atop the Himalayas or in the dark jungles of South America.

That’s not really what you hear…at all. First of all, the recording quality is top-notch. It sounds like all the music was recorded and mastered in high-end professional studios by very talented musicians. As for the music, well, it sounds very Western. It sounds just like the kind of stuff you would typically hear on a smooth jazz station in a big city.

As for the instrumentation, it didn’t seem like I was exposed to anything new. Most songs featured steel-string acoustic guitars. I don’t think I heard one sitar on the entire collection. Drums and percussion were standard sounds that I’d heard before. It sounds like at least half of the drumming and beats seem to come from drum loop synthesis as opposed to live musicians. It doesn’t sound bad, but to the trained ear, you can tell the difference. Plus, there was more than just acoustic instruments on there. A couple of songs had electric guitars. Though it is not an electric instrument, the soprano saxophone doesn’t usually come to mind when I think of the world acoustic genre. A couple of songs had vocals, but not your typical verse-chorus type stuff, but a bit more like Pat Metheny, where the vocals were there more for effect.

Both my wife and I, and the folks at the RootsRoom, found the music very enjoyable to listen to. It’s very interesting and even inspired a few new ideas of my own. It’s rich and complex and satisfying – like a cup of coffee. This music will not get you jacked up, and may not be quite as addicting, but I would definitely give it a listen. I’m sure you will enjoy.