Guitar Playing - Technique vs. Feeling - What's important?

Written by Edward D Cupler


For many people, when they hearrepparttar word technique applied to guitar playing, it brings to mind someone spending long hours practicing scales and chords, getting their fingers to work like precision machines that play each note perfectly without fail. With no more feeling than someone doing calculus.

Onrepparttar 143384 other hand, whenrepparttar 143385 word feeling is applied, people might think of a smoke filled room in which every face has a story to be told, andrepparttar 143386 guitar is a means of extracting every pent up emotion inrepparttar 143387 room. The MC is an old blues man that has felt every hardship life has to offer and he now turnsrepparttar 143388 pain into musical notes that cut deep intorepparttar 143389 soul of every person inrepparttar 143390 room.

So what's important? Both! I'm not saying that everyone needs to haverepparttar 143391 technical ability of a Malmsteen, nor do I think that everyone should be filled withrepparttar 143392 blues like a Stevie Ray Vaughan. I do however think that a guitarist should haverepparttar 143393 technical ability to play however they feel. Technique and feeling are both important and neither should be ignored. Listening to Malmsteen, you can easily feelrepparttar 143394 intense emotion in every note. His playing isn't just a blaze of notes; it'srepparttar 143395 sound of someone who has mastered technique torepparttar 143396 point where he doesn't have to think about it. His playing has become free ofrepparttar 143397 constraints and limitations allowingrepparttar 143398 emotion to createrepparttar 143399 music. Byrepparttar 143400 same token, listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan you hear allrepparttar 143401 feeling you would expect from a great blues player, but Vaughan also had great technique that makes this possible. Without great technique his playing couldn't flow effortlessly and his playing would become choppy and restrained. Like Malmsteen, Vaughan's technique allowed his guitar playing to become free of constraints and limitations, allowing emotion to take precedence inrepparttar 143402 creation of his music.

So how do you learn this? Well, if you're alive there will always be something to stir up some passion in you. Injustice, religion, love, hate, movies, books someone else's music. History gives us thousands of years worth of great stories and literature to draw from. The news we hear every day can be enough to get us worked up. All you need to do is harness these feelings and let them become a part of your music. This is where your technique must get torepparttar 143403 point that you're not thinking about scales, modes, and chord theory or alternate picking styles and bending each note with perfect pitch. This is where you must draw a distinct difference between practicing

The History of Orange County, California

Written by Southern Calilfornia Real Estate Agent John Middlebrook


Orange County, CA History

Orange County, California is located onrepparttar West coast of what was calledrepparttar 143383 New World inrepparttar 143384 1500's, known today asrepparttar 143385 United States. The history of Orange County, California began when God maderepparttar 143386 earth, includingrepparttar 143387 land of Orange County. Archaeologically, Orange County rock formations date back to at least 225 million years ago duringrepparttar 143388 "Age of Reptiles" (Source). Moving ahead,repparttar 143389 American Indians dwelled in Orange County untilrepparttar 143390 period of Spanish colonization inrepparttar 143391 late 1700's. American Indians hunted and gathered food. They also moved from place to place searching for food. Their local government was monarchial. Leadership was handed down from one generation torepparttar 143392 next within one particular family. A group of counsel members were also appointed to help govern. The two major groups of American Indians in Orange County were thought to originate fromrepparttar 143393 Shoshonean family. They came to be known asrepparttar 143394 Gabrieleños andrepparttar 143395 Juaneños because of their proximity torepparttar 143396 San Gabriel and San Juan Capistrano Missions (Source).

Inrepparttar 143397 late 1700'srepparttar 143398 Spanish set out on a military campaign to colonizerepparttar 143399 West coast ofrepparttar 143400 New World. The Spanish expeditionary leaders sought to rapidly transform California's American Indian population into Spanish citizens to strengthen ties to Spain. In 1769, Gaspar de Portolá, becamerepparttar 143401 first Spanish military leader from Europe to officially explore and write aboutrepparttar 143402 territory of Orange County. He named many of its rivers, mountains and valleys afterrepparttar 143403 Catholic Saints (Source). The Spanish Empire wanted to colonize quickly onrepparttar 143404 West coast ofrepparttar 143405 New World because their enemy, Britain, was preoccupied onrepparttar 143406 East coast withrepparttar 143407 Revolutionary War from 1763-1775. The Spanish promised to give land torepparttar 143408 American Indians in exchange for their support of colonization. This wasrepparttar 143409 opposite ofrepparttar 143410 British, who were opposed to assimilating American Indians intorepparttar 143411 British colonies. The Spanish also encouraged intermarriage between Spanish soldiers and American Indians. For example, Jose Antonio Yorba, born in Spain in 1746, from whom Yorba Linda in Orange County was eventually named, became a corporal under Gaspar de Portolá duringrepparttar 143412 Spanish expedition of 1769. Yorba married an American Indian byrepparttar 143413 name of Maria Garcia Feliz at Monterey and had two children. One boy drowned at age six, and another died in his mid-twenties. Yorba's wife also died early in 1781. Yorba then married a 16 year old byrepparttar 143414 name of Maria Josefa Grijalva, an older daughter of another Spanish military leader named Juan Pablo Grijalva who eventually receivedrepparttar 143415 highest rank inrepparttar 143416 Spanish expedition in California and who also founded Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana (Source).

Whilerepparttar 143417 Spanish military was busy colonizing California for its resources,repparttar 143418 Spanish Christian missionaries migrated to California to convert American Indians into children of Christianity. Father Serra fromrepparttar 143419 Christian Franciscan order, an order best known for its vows of poverty, traveled with other Christian missionaries funded byrepparttar 143420 Spanish Empire andrepparttar 143421 Jesuits from Baja California to build missions and teach American Indians Christianity. On November 1, 1776,repparttar 143422 Franciscans builtrepparttar 143423 first modern building of Orange County, known asrepparttar 143424 San Juan Capistrano Mission, which becamerepparttar 143425 seventh mission of twenty one in California (Source). Father Serra soon fledrepparttar 143426 mission after it was built because of opposition byrepparttar 143427 American Indians. However, he came back and began to teachrepparttar 143428 American Indiansrepparttar 143429 Christian religion and because language was such a significant barrier betweenrepparttar 143430 Spanish and American Indiansrepparttar 143431 Christian missionaries taught American Indians practical job training skills such as tanning, wine making, blacksmithing, small business operations, and ranching (Source).

Christian missionary life took place inrepparttar 143432 midst of a very aggressive military campaign byrepparttar 143433 Spanish Empire. The Spanish military was trying to colonize large amounts of California real estate in hopes of eventually taking overrepparttar 143434 New World. To date there seems to be more bad reports depicting howrepparttar 143435 American Indians were treated withinrepparttar 143436 Christian missions than there are good reports, but it is important to note thatrepparttar 143437 most powerful force inrepparttar 143438 colonization of California wasrepparttar 143439 Spanish military and notrepparttar 143440 Spanish Christian missions, even thoughrepparttar 143441 Christian mission did becomerepparttar 143442 most widely recognized historical icon going back to that time in Orange County history. Some Christian missionaries created laws that were very bad, including demandingrepparttar 143443 American Indians not leaverepparttar 143444 missions once they were converted to Christianity. Many runaways were hunted down and forced into slave labor atrepparttar 143445 mission after conversion. However, most ofrepparttar 143446 Christian missionaries were frustrated byrepparttar 143447 idea of American Indian labor used byrepparttar 143448 military andrepparttar 143449 settlers. Many American Indians joinedrepparttar 143450 missions willingly. It has also been discovered that atrepparttar 143451 highest point of missionary development in California, many American Indians worked only 4-5 hours a day and spentrepparttar 143452 rest ofrepparttar 143453 time in choir, mass, instruction, and worship (Source). The problem was thatrepparttar 143454 Christian friars atrepparttar 143455 highest levels viewedrepparttar 143456 new American Indian converts, or neophytes as they were called, as spiritual children and not as equal and capable leaders. Thus, American Indian social growth was stunted as they were not recognized as equal citizens. However,repparttar 143457 California mission period did not last long enough to really establish a mutual trust betweenrepparttar 143458 two cultures.

The missionary period in California lasted less than two generations, conservatively from 1776-1833, but probably not even that long. It is difficult to understand how much influencerepparttar 143459 Spanish military and war factions had inrepparttar 143460 operations ofrepparttar 143461 mission. There was alsorepparttar 143462 problem of disease brought byrepparttar 143463 Spanish torepparttar 143464 American Indians. The majority of American Indians were not killed by violence, but rather were decimated by three major epidemics, two of which were breakouts of small pox and measles, and both had no cure atrepparttar 143465 time. These periodic outbreaks caused many American Indians to doubtrepparttar 143466 Christian faith (Source).

Between 1776-1821 Spain remained in sole control ofrepparttar 143467 real estate in Orange County and California with hardly any land concessions to individual families. There were one or two exceptions. One military leader Juan Pablo Grijalva received title to some California lands. During this time period, small bands of British, Russian and French traders also came torepparttar 143468 region to trade withrepparttar 143469 missionaries and American Indians. In 1810, a major change occurred whenrepparttar 143470 Mexican and Spanish governments began fighting for land. In 1821 Mexico beat Spain and declared themselves an independent nation. The following yearrepparttar 143471 Mexican flag replacedrepparttar 143472 Spanish flag in Orange County (Source). Almost immediately afterwards Mexico took awayrepparttar 143473 promise of land fromrepparttar 143474 American Indians and gave land to certain petitioning individuals who could show that they had enough resources to build a dwelling onrepparttar 143475 land in less than one year and who could cultivaterepparttar 143476 land forrepparttar 143477 Mexican government (Source). American Indians were deeply upset over their lost promise for obtaining land and were no longer happy about living inrepparttar 143478 missions. Since Spanish resources were spread thinly across North and South America duringrepparttar 143479 fighting, supplies going torepparttar 143480 missions became scarce. The missions and American Indians were left to fend for themselves. Immediately many missions in California were abandoned andrepparttar 143481 churches fell in ruins (Source).



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