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GuitarSite.com Guitar News Weekly Edition #93, June 5, 2000 |
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SUCCESSFUL SOLOS Guitarist's book has 'secret recipe' By Helena Dowd Union Grove - A village man was so impressed with a guitar instructor's method of practice, he persuaded the guitarist to publish a book they say reveals the "secret recipe" for becoming a great guitar soloist. When Union Grove resident Chuck Rathmann first saw Jim Crimmins play guitar at Green Bay's Artstreet festival five years ago, he said to himself, "I'm going to study with that guy."
What Rathmann didn't know is that the two would publish their own guitar instructional manual together this year. The book, "Rockin' Jimmy's Daily Guitar Workout," is now being sold through music stores and over the Internet. Although Rathmann had been playing guitar for almost 20 years, he was awed by Crimmins' command of the instrument. After Rathmann learned Crimmins' method of practicing scales and arpeggios to build guitar soloing skills, the instructor asked him to help create a book describing his approach to teaching guitar. Crimmins, who has been playing professionally about 25 years, modestly calls himself a "a pretty good guitar player." He has been working for over 20 years on developing this method, culled through observing the techniques of many guitar virtuosos, including Eddie Van Halen. Players such as Van Halen make it look easy, Crimmins said, but their ability to move up and down the fret board is more a matter of how they practice than the talent with which they may have been born. "I put it together, and Chuck, who was one of my students, motivated me to expose this to not only my students but to as many people as we can," said Crimmins. "It reveals the secret recipe that people have been looking for. I sell a lot of guitar books at my store, but I see people searching for a method to let them play fluently up and down (the) fingerboard, or seeking to try to perfect it." Crimmins developed his jazz/blues style through formal study at the Grove School of Music in Hollywood and the Milwaukee Conservatory of Music. He also had studied privately with George Pritchette, guitarist for Buddy Rich. After moving to Los Angeles, Crimmins' skills landed him gigs with the Blues Brothers Band and with Albert King before he returned to his native Green Bay. Besides playing with a band, Crimmins now works with 40 to 60 students each week at Guitar Cellar in Green Bay. Rathmann, who has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, had experience in marketing through work with communications agencies in northeastern Wisconsin. He coordinated the printing of the 36-page book, which sells for just under $6. He even started his own company, Rathmann Communications, to publish the book with intentions to sell serial publication rights at a future date. In the meantime, Rathmann had changed jobs, moved from Green Bay to the Milwaukee area, got married and, in 1998, moved to Union Grove. He works as a marketing manager with Crispell-Snyder, a civil engineering firm headquartered in Elkhorn. Rathmann and his band, Progressive Blues Project, played at Union Grove's Super Saturday this year with only two weeks of practice beforehand. An organizer of Racine's Riverfest saw the performance and has asked the band to play at next year's event. This summer, the first print run of 2,000 books came off the presses at Spake Printing in Elkhorn. The book is available at Just Having Fun Music in Burlington, and at George Breber Music in Elkhorn. Rathmann and Crimmins negotiated with distributors and several major music retailers and are selling to retailers in the Midwest through trade shows and other means. The publication is also available on the Internet at Amazon.com. and J.K. Lutherie. "This book fills a real hole in the market," he said. "There are a lot of thick, encyclopedia books of guitar scales and chords. There are also 'method' books of guitar theory and instruction. But there has really never been a book describing exactly how a guitarist should go about practicing scales and arpeggios to build strength, flexibility and soloing prowess. Every musician is supposed to practice scales and arpeggios. But how? Which ones?" Designed for intermediate to advanced players who may have come to a roadblock in improving their skills, the manual can help them make the connection to how the fret board works. That connection has a physical aspect, which is the key element in the book. The physical skills are what matter "in the moment," when a guitarist is in the spotlight, Rathmann said. Several fingerings of the major scales starting from the sixth, fifth and fourth strings are listed in the book. These lock together into patterns up and down the neck, allowing guitarists to quickly create fluid and expressive solos in the various modes of the major scale. The guitarist who uses this method should learn to create phrases by going smoothly up the neck. "You'll be able to express yourself a little more easily because you have the physical ability," Crimmins said. "There's no way around this; if you want to be a good guitar player or a great guitar player, this is what they do. They may have learned it from other players. It's been kind of a secret from the public. Now it is exposed for everyone to enjoy. "Most guitarists' solos sound choppy and stiff. By using this book, that problem is eliminated," Crimmins said. "George Pritchette gave most of the scale fingerings in the book to me at my first lesson. He listened to me play for a minute, wrote out these exercises and told me to practice them three to four hours a day or don't bother coming back." Both players recommend studying with a teacher in addition to practicing the exercises described in the manual. A teacher can encourage the student as well as provide incentive to practice during the week, Rathmann said.
From: http://www.jsonline.com/news/racine/nov99/guitarr28112799a.asp
Get the Secret! Contact Chuck Rathmann: rathmann@wi.net
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