Displaying items by tag: Ron Reis

Everybody has a favorite guitar player…well, almost everyone. We have those licks we learned from our favorites. That’s how we get a vocabulary of ideas. For me, I have gone through phases. I played along with recordings of people like Stevie Ray Vaughan and The Allman Brothers Band. That gave me a good foundation in lead guitar.

The only problem with this scenario is you only end up stealing ideas from other guitar players. Since we play with our fingers, we fall into convenient patterns that fall nicely on the fingerboard of the guitar neck. You end up playing via muscle memory a lot of the time. This becomes almost like a reflex to spew your favorite licks out again and again. You end up repeating yourself.

Lately, I have been listening to a lot of Jazz. However, I have not been listening to that much in the form of Jazz guitar. What or should I say who have I been listening to? Horn players for one. They play melodies. Guitar players do too, but again we fall into patterns. A lot of these are the same ideas recycled. The other issue is most guitar players have no formal music education.

Most guitar players don’t read a note. They learn from their friends, videos and magazines. Some take lessons but even that has limitations if the teacher is essentially uneducated. Horn players know how to read for the most part. They struggle through beginning clarinet books starting sometime in grade school. Those books are written by people who understand music. Horn players learn intelligent musical phrases, so they play intelligent musical phrases.

Another instrument to listen to is piano. The average piano player has a chord vocabulary that exceeds most really good guitar players. They understand harmony. Unless, you go past the basic chords on the guitar, there are limitations. Part of this also is due to the tuning of the guitar. Some voicings are extremely difficult on the fingerboard. Having said that, you can still learn how to play hipper chords than you find in the guitar books some of us started out with.

Drummers can point you in another direction regarding rhythm. Most us can’t even count bar lines, myself included sometimes. This is important! Where is one? If you don’t know, learn!!! All playing music actually requires is the right notes at the right time. That’s it! Rhythm is 50% of that equation, and at times even more. You can actually get a lot of cool rhythmic ideas from piano players too.

Now, this sounds like I am bashing my favorite instrument and its players. I am not! I am simply stating facts here. Listening to other instruments just might help you find your voice on the guitar. Another concept to explore is actually playing another instrument. Drop me a line if you like, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Until next month, ciao.  

One of the first things we learn as guitar players are chords. You know…..here is a G…..here is a C and so on. But what are chords? Chords are harmonies. The notes in the chord come from the scale they are derived from. If we take the C chord, it comes from the C major scale. You spell that scale C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C…...easy, no sharps or flats. If we take the first, third and fifth notes of that scale, that is how we come up with the notes in a C major chord. Major is the “default” setting for chords. If it just has a letter in the chord description, it is a major. You can have a sharp or flat added but unless it is designated something else it is major.

So how does this information help you? Well, unless you like only playing the same chords over and over again, knowing this is freedom. The chains are lifted. Once again, chords are harmonies. The guitar is like a choir in many ways. Each string represents a voice. Six strings, six potential voices. I say potential because you don’t need to play six note chords all that often. You only need three notes to make a chord. We have six string, but you can do so much with the D, G and B strings alone. These keep you much in the same are that the right hand of the piano would occupy. The bass guitar represents the left hand of the piano. This is not the only approach, but it is so versatile to use this ideology.

A good mental exercise is to take three adjacent strings and find all the major voicings on those strings. Three note chords are called triads. Let’s start on the bottom three strings, E. A and D. Find the lowest voicing you can find on the neck with the three notes of a C chord. The notes are the 1, 3 and 5 of the C major scale or C, E and G. Try this. The first voicing you should find is G on the third fret of the E, C on the third fret of the A and E on the second fret of the D. That is a C major chord.

One thing you may have noticed is that C is not the lowest voice in the chord. So far most of the chords you have learned have the root on the bottom of the chord. The root is the note the chord and/or chord are built from. There are three versions of a triad. Root position is the root on the bottom, in this case it is C. First inversion is the third on the bottom, in this case it is E. Second inversion has G on the bottom, which is the fifth. Find all three version on the bottom three strings.

That was not too hard, right? Now you want to take the fifth note of the scale and do the same. This means you take G and do the same thing with a G major triad. The same rule applies. You use the 1, 3 and 5 of the G major scale. How do you know what those notes are? Scales are just notes going up a ladder. You “scale” a ladder. It is imply climbing one note at a time, letter by letter. There are only seven notes in the musical alphabet, and when you get to G you start over back at A. the trick is that you need to know what scales have sharps or flats. I mentioned the circle of fifths in my last article. There are many images on line you can look at. Do a search for “circle of fifths image” and voila.

My next article will address the circle more directly, in the meantime, try this exercise on all four adjacent groups of three strings on the guitar. That is learning twelve voicings, after the twelfth fret everything repeats. Next article I will give you the key to unlock twelve times that since there are twelve keys. If you have any questions, drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will help you understand. Peace, and I am going to try to get off my butt and start a YouTube channel giving more visual displays of what I mention. If you wanna drop a line to say hello, please do. Until next time, ciao, RR.  

Wow…one more time…WOW! This is one gifted trio and is such a pleasure to watch live. Harold is one of the younger generation Cuban Jazz pianists on the scene. Cuba has had a reputation for delivering some fine Jazz musicians, even though they are less known here in the states. We can thank the Cold War for that. Thankfully that is over. The doors are open again and we need to realize that the best things coming from Cuba are not cigars and rum. Those are nice too, but man…the music is incredible!

Harold is a piano player who has the chops of a Classical player. He also has the rhythmic sense of salsa in his soul. He took this rather student-model looking upright piano and made it dance, baby. A while back I envisioned the piano as a drum set. It is by far, the best harmony instrument out there…but there is a reason why it is often described as a percussion instrument. Rhythm is infectious. It makes you dance, move, scream, etc. The pulse should affect the listeners heart rate. Rhythm controls you. Harold Lopez-Nussa was in command of this, but he did have some serious help.

Younger brother Ruy Adrian was on drums. This young man is one of the finest drummers I think I have ever seen in my life. I am by no means exaggerating. You could isolate the drums and it would be a show. His playing was never overstated either. He played exactly what was needed, which at times was a lot. The music demanded a lot of rhythmic interpretation. Harold’s piano playing already has a ton of rhythmic diversity, the drums added another layer. Watching him play the cajon made my hands hurt. He really put everything into his playing.

Gaston Jova played upright bass. He was described as a “brother from a different mother.” That is a cliché, but I feel that is how the group functions. They are very much a musical family. Gaston is the laid back, jovial kid brother. His playing was very relaxed but very commanding.

Old Town School of Folk Music is such a great resource in the city of Chicago. Not only do they provide education, but entertainment as well. This was in the smaller hall on the east side of Lincoln Ave. This provided a warm, intimate setting. It was general admission and since I was there early…guess who sat in the front row? If you guessed me, put yourself down for a shiny gold star! I was less than 20 feet from someone many consider truly on top of his game. This young man has a serious musical future ahead of him. Take note.

What a fun band! Carl Finch has been leading this band since 1979 and they have achieved a cult status to some people. This is the band that played David Byrne’s wedding. I would describe them as a polka hybrid with a great sense of humor. Having said that, they are no joke...they are a very serious band.

It is time for Oktoberfest so why not celebrate with a polka band, right? Seems appropriate. The band, Brave Combo, hails from Denton, Texas. They are actually not really just a polka band. They blend a lot of genres into a melting pot of entertainment.

Carl Finch leads the band, but they don’t really have a front person, per se. Rather, it is truly a group effort. Finch plays keys, accordion and guitar as well as handling a chunk of the vocals. He also wore a rather festive red hat and looked like he was the time of his life on stage.

Bubba Hernandez is the bass player. He is a long-time member but has actually been in and out of the band. He is one half of a very strong rhythm section. He also handles vocals in both English and Spanish. The other half of the rhythm section is drummer Alan Emert Mansfield. Very solid and dynamic is how I would describe his playing. Finch couldn’t ask for better support.

Jeffrey Barnes was on sax, clarinet and flute and helped out with some vocals too. I heard some vintage licks of all types from Barnes. I think his strongest voice was the clarinet, followed by the tenor. Funny how I always thought clarinets were always these squeaky instruments of torture. They just need to be played in the right hands.

Danny O’Brien on all things brass related rounds out the lineup. He looked the part of an Oktoberfest celebrant. He also played some nice horn licks. He also had a great hat.

Beer mug holding contests were also part of the show, Bubba clearly the winner (Finch cheated a bit). Great show, but the crowd was small and the sound also could have been better. The vocals were buried in typical Chicago Metal Club fashion. Here’s a clue for soundmen in Chicago…let’s hear the vocals! Ugh…this seems to go way back in history of clubs here. When you are not mixing a Metal band, and the singer isn’t screaming…turn him or her up! Part of the reason they are screaming is the fact that you have the drums and bass too loud!

Rant over. It was great show that should have had been better advertised. This is a band that has a strong cult following and should have packed the room. So, keep an eye on the local music calendar and go see Brave Combo. And don’t forget to support live music whenever you can.

I had asked to cover this play. “Monger: The Awakening of J.B. Benton” is Her Story Theatre’s fourth play in their “Chicago Sex Trafficking Cycle” series. It is an important topic that needs far more attention than it receives and playwright Mary Bonnett’s play helps in bringing this serious problem to the forefront. I did not expect to walk away with as much as an education on the subject as this play provides. The title does give some foreshadowing, but the journey from there is a dark one. The word “monger” is defined as “broker” or “dealer”. In this case, the monger’s deals involve people, specifically young, under-aged women.

I don’t give away storylines as a rule, and I will choose to remain true to that. Just know that the material is hard-hitting and does not hold back any punches. What I really want is for you to go see this play. This is not a light-hearted, Friday evening good time. This is something real. Most of the time, we look to escape reality. This brings you back. In this play that is inspired by true events in Chicago, Bonnett explores the underworld of sex-trafficking using composites of people she interviewed and uses actual posts that comes from online chats by actual participants in this vile, shadowy world in making up some of the story's dialogue.

There are three actors in this one-act play. The set is simple. The room is small. The music is sparse. The play is well-acted, directed and conceived. The script is powerful. These are the precise pieces needed for Director John Mossman to present this important story in the most perfect way.

I give Bonnett a lot of credit for tackling a topic like this. Too many people look the other way. Too many men play the “Bro Code” card when it comes to things like this. Covering for your buddy is something that is almost taught from father to son, another topic touched upon in the storyline. The idea of “Oh, he’s just being a guy” is pretty common and undermines the serious tragedy as sexual abuse towards women – in any way. And I know this problem is way more common than statistics would indicate.

Ira Amyx plays the role of J. B. Benton. I am not sure how much he is actually awakened in this story but there is some serious education thrust into his head. How he processes that information is up to him. Amyx does a great job and is very believable playing someone far less likeable than an ongoing crippling disease. The unpopular character is a challenging role and Amyx skillfully meets that challenge.

Joshua Zambrano plays his son Eddie and plays the role of the misfit kid really well. This was another tough role to play, but Zambrano finesses his way through it like a seasoned pro. Jamise Wright plays Ruth Edwards, a mother who was going through great emotional loss. She becomes the woman she portrays with an undeniable captured honesty.

The saddest part of the story is, unfortunately, based on actual events. It is uncomfortable to watch (you’ll know the scene), but really adds a sense of awareness and urgency to the table that is necessary in making Bonnett’s point. It’s a scene many need to see this for different reasons. This play should be seen everywhere. A provocative play such as this might prevent a lot of harm on a lot of people in the mindfulness it raises on sexual abuses. Young men need to learn respect for women. Young women need to learn respect for themselves. Sounds simple, right? Well, if it is…then why does this evil still exist?

After the performance, Mary Bonnett and Marian Hatcher of the Cook County Sheriff Human Trafficking Division addressed the audience. This punctuated the story’s reality. Hatcher is a survivor herself and shed some more light on the dark subject. I am not going to say anything else, other than…go see this influential play.

Haunting, educational and a story that will resonate with its audience and encourage action, I highly recommend “Monger”.

The world premiere “Monger: The Awakening of J.B. Benton” is being performed at Greenhouse Theater Center in Lincoln Park through September 30th. For tickets and/or more information visit www.HerStory.org.

I am new to Guy King. But I caught him at Blues Fest doing a solo set and was knocked out. He is all about the Blues with a heavy dose of Jazz and Soul. Wanted to hear more, I got a chance to check out him with his band at SPACE in Evanston Monday night. I was very impressed.

King was born in Israel but made his way to Chicago. His repertoire seems pretty broadly based. I hear so many varied influences in his playing and song choices. King is a multi-talented individual. I am not sure what is actually better, his voice or his guitar playing.

King’s voice seems to run the range of the deep Blues to Ray Charles. His style is very polished. I can’t believe I never really heard of him before seeing him at Blues Fest. Maybe I did but dismissed the name because it sounds like he just combined the names of two Blues legends. Perhaps his name could possibly serve against his success. What’s in a name? Well, first impressions are everything and sometimes that works for or against you. Having said that, I think he will do well in this business.

His guitar playing is top notch, and man, can he phrase! I never found him to repeat himself all that much, as he displayed a great vocabulary of chords. I hear a lot of Wes Montgomery voicings in his music. King also uses his thumb instead of a pick ala Montgomery. That may seem like a limitation, but the tone you get by doing that is much warmer than using a pick.

King’s band was great, and they had to be keeping up with a such a gifted performer. One very solid drummer, one adventurous bass player and a great keys player kept the music flowing. Nobody stepped on anyone else’s toes. It was clearly King’s show. A very nice balance of dynamics kept his fans reeled in. I plan on seeing his act again when I can. It would be interesting to see him with his Little Big Band. King turned out to be a really nice guy, too. I said hello to him after the show and he was quite approachable. That is always a good thing. Like I always say, go support live music whenever you can. It is much better in person.

Music Theory is often a touchy subject in the guitar world. A high percentage of players will tell you it isn’t necessary. I am one of those who clearly disagree with this philosophy. The more you know about music, the better. If all you do is learn a song, you mic the analytical process which helps you digest the music a whole lot better.

The first thing to understand is harmony. Some people will say scales. They are really both the same actually. Scales are merely the link of notes that are related harmonically. A scale is just a harmony. That’s where studying the circle of fifths comes in really handy. There are twelve notes which gives you twelve keys. That means there are twelve points that can be considered the root of the harmonic structure. Key and scale are almost interchangeable. Think of key as a set of notes that can be called upon within a certain harmonic framework. The scale just puts them in ascending and descending order.

Harmony is what explains how scales and chords are connected. The note that the key is named for is the center of activity. The whole thing is based on a pattern discovered by Pythagoras. It is all mathematics. The way frequencies are related. Frequency is the speed at which the air is moved through vibration. That is why some notes sound better than others when played together. Actually, that is subjective but there are harmonies that are considered more pleasant than others. When Pythagoras figured this out the notes were not equally spaced. Some keys were more dissonant than others. Later musicians developed the idea of equal temperament. That means that all twelve tones are the same distance apart. There is not hierarchy. This comes together clearly when you study the circle of fifth’s.

This may be a bit of a difficult concept to understand. Having said that, a little bit of knowledge goes along way. You don’t really need to understand the exact math to understand music. Knowing how keys relate is, in my opinion a must know piece of the musical puzzle. The nice thing is that theory applies to all instruments, not just the guitar. This helps with arranging songs for your band, writing, learning new material, etc. If you have any questions about this or have any other topics for future episodes of For the Guitarist drop me a line. My e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thanks for reading and don’t be afraid to think while you play.

Ray Benson has been leading this wonderful group, Asleep at the Wheel, since 1970. The band falls into the Western Swing category pioneered by people like Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys. Their newest album is dedicated to Wills and is called Still the King. Their latest stop – The Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago.

Benson carries on the tradition with the twin fiddles. As a fan of The Allman Brothers Band, I had to see this for myself. This is where Dickey Betts got the idea for the harmony guitars that made them famous. Katie Shore and Dennis Ludiker handle the job admirably. Shore also handled lead vocals on a few tunes. Ludiker doubled on mandolin and did some background vocal work.

The band has David Sanger on drums and Josh Hoag on Bass, compiling a very solid rhythm section - very much in that Texas tradition. Professionals make it look easy. Both musicians did exactly that.

The rest of the band includes Eddie Rivers on steel guitar and sax, Connor Forsyth on piano and background vocals and Jay Reynolds on sax and clarinet. Each member added melodic and harmonic coloration to the swing line up that put a bit more focus on the fiddles.

Oh, wait…what about Benson? Ray Benson sings a lot of the lead vocals and plays lead guitar. I found him to be quite the guitar player. Rhythm guitar is actually what he did more of than anything, but he did play some tasty leads. I really found him to be rock solid and he had an outstanding chord vocabulary. His vocals are strong and low, very Texas.

The band was formed in Austin, Texas, a place made up of a real pot pourri of music. Actually, Asleep at the Wheel is that all by themselves. At times, their sound was that of country. At times, we can hear early Rock and Roll. At times, there were even hints of Swing. There were even moments of Jazz improvisation with solos being traded all around. One could really appreciate this band as a musician or just a music lover.

A lot of familiar songs were in the set. “Route 66” is a staple of their repertoire. I love their version of the Bobby Troup penned classic. “Nobody Here but Us Chickens” is a great old song from Louis Jordan and it fits in well in their set. “I Taught the Weeping Willow How to Cry” is another familiar tune. A surprise to me was “Hot Rod Lincoln”. Well, maybe it shouldn’t have come as that much of a shock, but I haven’t heard that song in a while.

My only complaint is…you guessed it…I wanted more! What can I say? One set was not enough! I am still glad I saw them, of course. Old Town School has a nice little theatre and I love going there. Also, the band almost always does a meet and greet after the show, which is nice. Go see more live music...whenever you can!

In my estimation somewhere around 90% of all musicians can read music to one extent or the other. I would also venture to guess that 90% of all guitarist read very little or not at all. This is why a lot of serious musicians look guitar players as some sort of lower life form in many ways. Should we even care? If you wish to communicate ideas via a piece of paper, you just might want to be able to do that. If not, carry on without it.

I want back to school almost three years ago to obtain a degree in music. I was forty-eight years old and thought…piece of cake, right? The only problem is even though I have a very good knowledge of theory and how to apply it to the guitar, I am still a rudimentary reader. I need to commit everything I know to memory. In the end, you should do that anyway, depending on the musical style. When you are learning a song, it is much easier if you can read. If you write a song, it is much easier to hand a piece of paper to someone than explain the whole thing.

I had a conversation with Jazz guitarist Pat Martino a year ago. He said once he started writing, he needed to learn how to read and write music. This accelerates the learning process. A high percentage of Rock musicians never do this. This is especially common with guitar players. Some of us almost wear this as a badge of honor. A lot of music has been passed down through aural traditions. Most of the folk music of the world was passed down from generation to generation. This follows story-telling patterns that existed before books were not just for the elite social classes. Nowadays, most of us can read a newspaper or a book or just about anything…...but…...there are still are guitar players out there…including myself...that struggle at reading music.

Is this really important? Some of my favorite musicians never read a note. Does that make it right? Some of my favorites read very well. It is a common thought that the paper gets in the way…somehow limiting your expression. If that were true, every Classical piece would sound exactly the same. I have recently listened to the same overture played by two different orchestras with different conductors. They were almost like two distant cousins with only very little family resemblance. Musicians are still going to add their own interpretations. The paper gives you notes, and dynamics, etc. There is a lot more. The way the dynamic marking “forte” has many variations and levels.

The paper serves only as a guideline. It is like a road map, another good thing to be able to read. For the same reason too…not getting lost. I am not a fan of being lost playing something. I like to know where I am at all the time. I am pretty good at improvising but that doesn’t always work.

Lead sheets are an effective compromise between the reader and the non-reader. I am getting pretty comfortable with that as long as I don’t need to read the melody. Me personally, I want to do better. The next few episodes of “For The Guitarist” will be addressing this. Since, I myself am at a student level in this capacity, my attention will be well focused on how to make this work. This doesn’t need to be as hard as it seems to be. I appreciate your thoughts and drop me a line if you like at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. anytime. Peace, RR.

Welcome to “For the Guitarist.” I am Ron Reis. I have been playing guitar for around forty years, studying theory for over thirty and teaching on and off for over twenty. This column/blog is aimed at all things related to our six-string friend. My guitars have been the best therapists I have ever had. When I need to calm my “monkey brain,” the best thing I can do is pick up my guitar.

Many people underestimate the meditative power of music. As a performer, you get lost in the music. As a listener, you are drawn into someone else’s thoughts and ideas. If you combine the two, you enter a state of nirvana. Music is one of the highest forms of communication. Real musicians do not play together. They carry on a conversation. They bounce ideas off each other’s heads. The audience gets to listen in on this exchange of sonic imaginations. I have even witnessed the two forces interact.

I saw The Grateful Dead in 1988. The last song they played in the second set was a Buddy Holly song, Not Fade Away. The beat was stolen from Bo Diddley. Bop, Bop, Bop...Bop-Bop. The crowd assumed the rhythm of the song. The band left the stage…the crowd kept the beat going for what seemed like five minutes…singing the chorus over and over. I was absolutely amazed. This was communication…real…honest…communication.

Not every musical situation gets this accomplished at that high a level. There should always be a mutual exchange. Both entities give the other what they need. How does this relate to playing the guitar? Well, it seems to me that should be the ultimate goal. Becoming successful on a financial level playing music is a wonderful idea. Having said that, most of the people that actually do are “performers” and not always “musicians.” There is a huge difference.

My goal with “For The Guitarist” is to help point the way. I do not claim to know everything on the subject. The idea is to assist in a somewhat guiding way, while learning for myself as well. I will discuss topics from theory to equipment and everything in between. I am also open to suggestions on topics for future articles. Anyone who likes can contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to drop me a line or two. I am serious about this, but let’s have a little fun too…the more fun the better!