An arrival to a beginning!

I just finished my degree at Gonzaga University. It was quite the trip and I definitely learned a lot along the way. My final requirement was an hour long recital of classical music from several different time periods. I will be uploaded descriptions of some of the pieces that I played for that recital and some of my thoughts about the different pieces. Special thanks to my guitar teacher Dr. Paul Grove for guiding me through the process and helping me improve in so many ways!

This photo is from my Junior Recital from October 2014
Photo credit by Danny Chastain

Here is a link to the videos that I have posted from my senior recital. Thanks for reading and watching!

Joe Hooper's Senior Recital at Gonzaga University

What's up readers? I'm still here.

I haven't posted for awhile and figured that it is about time that I do. I have been working hard on material for guitar recital that I have coming up. I am working on finishing up a degree in music and am required to do two recitals. The first one is half of an hour's worth of music and the other is a full hour. It takes a lot of work, but I've been learning a lot too.

Here are a few of the things that I've been up to:

I played guitar for a university choir in this huge church setting. The piece was simple but had an interesting rhythm that required some thought on my part. It was fun overall.

I've tried a number of different strings. After a few tries including these Sevillas, I came back to some Augustine Imperial Blue (hard tension). They work fairly well for my style of playing and they are relatively cheap compared to other strings. I have thought that I might try a medium tension again, but we'll see.

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Well, gotta go for now. I plan on posting in the near future, so keep an eye out for more.

School + Coffee = Less Time + Less Sleep

My "serious" studying face

I have been very busy getting back into the fall semester of school. Needless to say, a lot of coffee has been consumed and sleep is getting rarer during the week. Still, I hope to have a one take video of a guitar arrangement up on Youtube soon. The hymn recording of Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus is a multiple take with the best sound taken from one of the video recordings. So it is still a "live" video, but the best scene and best sound were edited together, therefore making it a "not truly live" video (in essence, a one take soundtrack and one take video track were put together from the same video shoot). The next hymn that I have been working on arranging will hopefully be shot in one take and the sound from the video will be optimized from that same video shot or recorded on a separate recording device at the same time as the video. Hope to get it out there soon!

Click my name below to go to my Facebook page!

~Native Guitar Joe~

A Few Things I Hope to Accomplish Soon!

I find that views like this one in this picture of a nearby lake help my frame of mind when it comes to thinking of ideas for new songs. I have been using a small idea (i.e. a short melodic line) and building on it. The end result has come through a process of recording each instrument myself on a separate track and then rearranging parts of it. I plan to solidify some of the tunes that I have put out on NativeGuitarJoe-Youtube and sell them on iTunes when I can. I hope to create an actual physical CD to give out and sell too. Currently, I have one album available on iTunes called A Lonely Road Together.

Other ideas I am working on are related but not on the same line as my flute/guitar music. I am slowly but surely putting together guitar arrangements of hymns that I hope to compile into an album. These are simple arrangements that should be fairly easy to play and learn for those interested. You can view an example of my work on Youtube here: Tis' So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

The other project is song work with my bro. Josh. He and I have put together several recordings and released them on Youtube. The pain of licensing and copyright has caused us to take most of them down. (It can cost a lot to have them licensed properly) The one left up (Revelation Song-Youtube) is still covered by our license, but it too will expire and then we'd have to pay to have it up longer. The best and easiest solution is to write songs and put them up, thereby skipping any copyright issues and fees. We'll see where all of that ends up!

Well, just an update to my musical musings and direction.

Native Guitar Joe

I just released a new guitar/flute song on Youtube!

Here is my latest song! Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day here in the US. Enjoy!

-Joe Hooper

Dread scales? So did I... For guitar that is.

Guitar scales have been tough for me to learn. Even though I have an understanding of how they work, that doesn't always translate into practical fretboard knowledge. So if you are like I am and scales seem impossible to memorize, here is a glimmer of hope.

Think of your understanding as a puzzle. You've got most of the pieces, but the picture just doesn't make sense. Those missing pieces are out there! And if you can find them, they might save you years of frustration. These pieces might be in a instruction book, a YouTube video, or as in my case, a professional guitar instructor. I had a breakthrough in my own learning process in regard to scales that I hadn't been able to understand on my own. It was my guitar instructor who supplied the missing piece. (In short, that there is a "rhyme and reason" to the patterns of scales in relation to chords;)

The bottom line? You might be on the threshold of breaking through to a more satisfying experience as a guitarist, but it might take a bold step on your part. Maybe you should take those guitar lessons that you've been talking about for years! Go ahead and explore instructional videos on that one skill or technique that eludes you.

Hope you feel inspired! Now go get your guitar! Lol

Native Guitar Joe

Coffee and music!

So, there is this cool little coffee shop in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, that has an open mic on Monday evenings. The shop is called Calypsos Coffee & Creamery. I had the opportunity to play a few flute songs for them last monday, and had a great time doing it. If you want experience playing in front of people, open mic nights are one way to get that. Plus, you can get a great cup of coffee and listen to the other musicians, poets, etc.

This is the latte that I had on monday eve. They make some pretty cool designs! Calypsos roasts their own coffee, and what I've had has always been pretty smooth and flavorful. Definitely worth checking out if you are in the area.

-Native Guitar Joe-