How many of us really feel that our tuning habits are as good as they should be? Our ultimate tuning guide introduces the impatient meditation, a fresh, multi-pronged approach to tuning, designed to enhance your cognitive focus, hand health, ear strength, and fretboard awareness as well as maximizing tonal accuracy. Electronic tuners are great, but we shouldnt have to rely on technology to save us.

Usually, Im skeptical of anything that promises to transform your playing with these three secrets, or offers five tricks to become a fretboard super ninja overnight, and so forth. Playing guitar is an infinitely complex endeavor, with countless interlocking variables and a vast repertoire that would take even the most talented musician many lifetimes to master.

In the end, there are few shortcuts. But adopting some effective tuning methods might just qualify as one genuinely transformative, near-instant innovation.

It will literally enhance your control over every single note, and lies at the heart of broader guitaristic mastery. So this lesson is aimed at beginners and advanced guitarists alike - even Hendrix struggled with his tuning sometimes.

We all fall into lazy habits, allowing the compulsion to jam right now to override our better judgement. This results in much undesired dissonance, both literal and cognitive - the imperfections nag away at us, interrupting our flow, sapping our focus, and misbalancing the music.

We fret about whether to squeeze in some frantic peg-nudging, but even this is no guarantee of improvement (adjusting on the fly is a fine art).

Its all right for pianists, who have a whole category of musical employment devoted to their every tuning need. Us guitarists have to do things ourselves... and we still endure the stereotype of doing them lazily (How can you tell when a guitarist is out of tune? His hand starts moving).

While we should definitely hit back with jibes of our own (Why are so many guitarist jokes one-liners? So the rest of the band can understand them), we must also become masters of the tuning process, a complex, conceptually rich area of enquiry that connects together many aspects of musical perception.

Yes, electronic tuners are great, but we shouldnt have to rely on gadgets to save us when it comes to something so basic. In any case, tuning is a fascinating area of enquiry, connecting together many aspects of musical perception and providing consistent spark to the creative imagination. Gaining ear confidence will filter through to our whole sound while deepening our appreciation for music in general.

I actually think were the lucky ones. Pianists, like most other instrumentalists, dont have to pick all this apart so much, and theyre missing out. Its consistently fascinating, and the ideas found here can give anyone creative inspiration.

The whole tuning process can even be re-conceptualized as a ritualistic act of mental, musical, and manual preparation. Or just a time to chill out before you play. Either way, its a lot more than just winding some pegs...

The impatient meditation isnt an exact tuning method - its a way of approaching tuning. We aim to maximize flexibility, efficiency, and tonal precision by running through four concise ideas, which, taken together, allow us to balance the quirks of the guitar with the demands of the music at hand.

Were probably impatient, so heres the tl;dr version (all tabs below):

Get an overview: Slowly strum through the open strings and 12fr natural harmonics, taking a deep breath and focusing in on the sound to get a rough idea of where things are at.

5str fret-matching: Get your A as in as is required, and tune the open strings to notes along it (2fr/5fr/7fr/10fr). Then, tune a selection of fretted As on the other strings back to the open A.

Quick checks: Sample from three other methods to shore things up - melodic fret-matches, natural harmonics, and chordal checks. Try out key passages from your own music too.

Musical focus: Strum the 12fr harmonics, and take another deep breath. Relax your mind, acknowledging any nerves, and then calmly orient your full attention towards the music at hand.

If you familiarize yourself with the strengths, weaknesses, and incongruities of each individual step, you will quickly build an intuition for when and how to deploy them.

Ideally, youll end up narrowing down, honing in on the most concise, pleasing phrase combinations for your own instrument and incorporating them into your playing routines.

A pristine, top-end Strat will be a different beast to the rickety nylon-string you found behind your friends couch, and we should be able to adapt to any axe we come across

Or, for that matter, any other instrument. A pristine, top-end Strat will be a different beast to the rickety nylon-string you found behind your friends couch, and we should be able to adapt to any axe we come across.

Using a tuner wont help you compensate for the latters intonation issues, and besides, some songs on the former will sound better when left a little deliberately messy. The ideas below, when combined, help you know what you want, and should allow you to near-optimally tune virtually any guitar.

We can utilize tuning time to foster broader musical improvement too. Since the process will always be part of our playing routines, I figured we may as well also use it to enhance areas such as ear strength, cognitive focus, fretboard awareness, and manual dexterity. Its also a fantastic way to build up core conceptual understanding around the physics of string vibration and the nature of aural perception.

All Ive really done here is sample the best of a few tuning methodologies already in use, combining their strongest elements with a few minor adaptations and additions.

So it isnt really my creation; at least no more than I could say invented my own style of cuisine yesterday by throwing together the tastiest things I found in the fridge with a dash of seasoning. Ive incorporated feedback from friends, students, and the wider musical world too.

Theres an extended 10,000 word version of this article on my website, going in deep on the strengths and weaknesses of existing tuning techniques and explaining how this approach seeks to build on them.

We analyze James Taylors microtonal stretched tuning and trace the design of guitars fretboard to the epic mathematical treatises of Chinas Ming Dynasty, while also learning from ancient Vedic musicology and 21st-century theoretical physics. Tunings fascinations are in its interconnectedness.

This is more about the how than the why. For the extra-curious, the full breakdown is on my website, with detailed musical and technical discussion. And I cant stress enough - this is an approach to tuning rather than an exact method. Learn from it, pick out what you like, and stay flexible.

At first glance, four steps may seem like overkill (lets be honest, youre probably wondering if you can be bothered to internalize them all). But the combination is designed to foster efficient, intuitive self-learning, which always saves you time in the long run (...and often the fairly short run too).

Anyway, using all four each time isnt the best approach - once youve tried everything on the menu, youll know quickly what you want next time.

Youll be surprised at how fast you can speed things up without sacrificing on accuracy. Running through the checks can become second-nature, and, unless things are a complete mess, tuning may only require a few seconds.

It just tends to be taught badly (or barely taught at all) - theres a whole lot of tuning-themed nonsense on the internet. Sitting down to learn things properly will permanently give us both a broader and finer control over our music, while also making everyone around us sound better.

- Get an overview: First, play the open strings and the 12fr harmonics in slow sequence, getting a rough feel for where things are at. Consider the music at hand, and also what imperfections the guitar itself may have. Take a deep breath, and really zoom in on the texture of the sound. (Unless it really sounds awful... in which case just get on with the next steps).

- Concert or relative? Decide whether you want to tune to exact concert pitch or not. If you do, match your A string to an external reference tone (maybe download the clip below to your phone). If you dont, just make sure the A sounds and feels about right, and matches any other instruments in the room.

- Fret-matching: Roughly fret-match the other five open strings to notes on the A, and then flip things round, matching the open A to fretted tones on the other strings. Pick evenly, and if youre playing through an amp, use a clean, mid-boosted tone. While you can of course check all the As against the reference tone, we should seek to develop the ear too.

Always use the under-tug-up method - i.e. go lower than the target, tug the string around to remove slack, then raise the pitch. Pull it in all directions, being firm but avoiding sudden movements. Ensure the A and D strings sound particularly happy with each other. And if you have a whammy bar, be sure to shake out any string-stick.

Pros and cons

+ Minimizes error compounding (they dont carry over between strings)+ Quick to run through, and gives strong, clear volumes+ Gives you an concise overview of the guitars intonation quirks Misleading if reference string is corroded, damaged, set too high, etc

Now, we use a mix of quick checks to shore everything up. We can sample from several different methods, including melodic fret-matching, natural harmonics, and octave-heavy chord shapes - some of which also work as hand stretches. Find which chords and phrases suit your guitar best:

- Melodic check phrases - like an enhanced 5th fret matching'

Pros and cons

+ More interlinked than the classic fret-matching approach+ Avoids the familiar tuning cliche with quasi-melodic movements+ Opens up your general awareness of when open strings can be used Somewhat harder to play than the classic fret-match method Phrases may never settle with each other on badly-intoned guitars

- Natural harmonics checks - avoiding the deviant 7th fret

Pros and cons

+ Beating N.H. resonances bring out overtone detail clearly+ We avoid the 7fr harmonic, which is actually slightly sharp+ Sweeps at the end are great when you know the right sound Quieter, more complex: takes your ear a while to zoom in Can fail to highlight nuanced intonation issues

- Octave-heavy chord checks - beyond just open Emaj

Pros and cons

+ Places the frequencies in a more musical context+ Can add in key chords from your upcoming pieces+ Usual major shapes arent ideal due to temperament issues+ Increases your familiarity with high neck positions+ Some of the shapes function as hand stretches too (e.g. 07950) Complex for the ears, which can mislead us in many ways Can get chaotic on guitars with shaky intonation

- Necessary imperfection: Notice how each check method produces subtly different results? e.g. high-fretted notes may sound sharp, or the G and B strings might never quite seem to settle with each other across different chords.

This is to be expected - no instrument can ever be tuned perfectly. As we will see, factors like inharmonicity, build flaw, and temperament deviancy mean that theres no such thing as a perfect tuning.

And in any case, lots of guitar music can sound better with a little mess and crunch, ranging from Delta blues and 12-string folk to free improv and plenty of classic Hendrix.

Lap slide players use all variety of microtonal tweaks, and Tommy Emmanuel sometimes likes to detune his G string slightly a trick also used by his blues forebears. Above all its about finding a sound that works for you (and the audience).

- Adding emotive context: Take another deep breath, and briefly call to mind the sentiments you want to get across with the music. Think about the most important passages in your first piece.

Strum through each chord or phrase slowly and evenly, considering their immediate effects on you. Are undesired frequencies dampening the emotional power? If so, try to isolate and correct them.

The best way to balance the imperfections is to focus on the physical locations of the music. e.g. If youre mainly playing low down the neck, make sure tuning here takes precedence over hyper-accuracy in higher positions. You may have to find compromises, especially on stiff-action guitars. Keep adjusting until youre happy the audience will ultimately be grateful for it.

- Gathering yourself: Once youre satisfied with your sound, take a third and final deep breath, and rake firmly upwards through the 12fr natural harmonics. Take both your hands away from the strings, and empty your mind for a few seconds as you exhale.

Again, try out different meditative methods to see what works - you can hum a chord tone, silently count to eight, or even tense and relax your whole body in time to the rhythms of your first piece. (Never forget one of the key lessons from guitar history: people dont care how weird you look as long as you sound good.)

The uniqueness of each individual situation means there are always countless interlocking considerations. Each guitar is different, with varying imperfections to be investigated, taxonomized, and balanced, and each performance brings disparate musical, physical, and social demands. In the end, all aspects of musical perception are interconnected.

There are less immediate factors too, ranging from healthy guitar setup and effective restringing to building skill at retuning on the fly. Ill leave it up to you to adapt all this to non-standard tunings - its an ideal opportunity for some intuitive conceptual exploration, pushing your mind up a level as you get into the processes of modification and recombination.

And its vitally important that we place all this in the context of wider musical learning. For one thing, we must strengthen our ears over time, as this will drastically speed things up (this applies to pretty much everything else in music too).

We should also learn some of the science, visualizing how strings vibrate and seeing the fractional distribution of natural harmonics along them. See the full article for exercises, explanations, etc.

And if I have stumbled on any original insights, I ultimately owe them to the tutelage of Guy Harrup, the late, great jazz master of Bath, England, and Pandit Shivnath Mishra, my sitar guru in Benares. Guy, my first teacher, guided me through many different tunings with a relaxed, open-minded attitude, while the Pandits wordless lessons helped open my ears to the vivid, infinitely detailed world of sruti (Indian classical microtonality).

The impatient meditation, cooked up in honor of my two gurus, was (hastily) named for its attempt to maximize accuracy and minimize lost jamming time through some efficient, calming sonic focus.

Tuning up really can become a reliable way of bringing harmony to your mind as well as to your guitar, but lets be honest: it would be kind of strange to feel no impatience at all while preparing to jam (apologies to any enlightened Buddhist monks reading this).

See the original post here:

The ultimate guitar tuning guide: expand your mind with these advanced tuning techniques - Guitar World

In his first year as Google chief, Pichai earned a base salary of $652,500. LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images

From employee walkouts to congressional grilling, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has faced his fair share of adversity in 2019 as the public face of one of the worlds largest tech companies. But on a personal level, the Indian-American executive has had a great year, scoring not only a title bump, but also a giant pay raise.

Earlier this month, Pichai was appointed as CEO of Googles parent company, Alphabet, in addition to his existing responsibilities at Google. In that role, Pichai will receive $2 million in annual base salary starting next year, a company filing last Friday revealed.

SEE ALSO: 2019s Top 7 Tech IPO FlopsAnd Those Set for a Major 2020 Rebound

Although $2 million is within the range of what CEOs of comparable tech companies make these days (Per Equilar, CEOs of the largest U.S. companies made a median $1.2 million in 2018), Pichais Alphabet compensation package is an infinite jump from what his predecessor, Google cofounder Larry Page, earned in the same role: $1.

It was a common practice among tech entrepreneurs in Pages time to pay themselves a nominal salary and store most of their fortune in company stock to show their commitment to shareholders. Other notable CEOs who earn a $1 base salary include Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, Twitters Jack Dorsey and OraclesLarry Ellison.

As CEO of Alphabet, Pichai will oversee about 30 specialized tech subsidiaries in addition to Google, including self-driving unit Waymo and AI lab DeepMind.

Also starting 2020, Pichai will receive a hefty $240 million in performance-based stock awards over the next three years, the largest award package Google has granted any executive.

Pichai, a materials engineer educated in both India and the U.S., joined Google in 2004 as a member of its management team. He climbed corporate ranks all the way to CEO in 2015. In his first year as Google chief, Pichai earned a base salary of $652,500. His total compensation skyrocketed the following year when Google approved a $199 million stock award package for him, the largest in the companys history at the time.

In addition to net paycheck, Google also spends generously to keep its CEO safe. Last year, Google recorded a $1.2 million expense under an account called CEO personal security allowance, which covered Pichais day-to-day security costs, use of company private jets and so on.

The security allowance in 2018 was almost twice the cost of the previous year due to a security upgrade in response to a violent shooting at YouTube (a Google subsidiary) headquarters in April 2018.

Read more here:

Google CEO Sundar Pichai Is the Most Expensive Tech CEO to Keep Around - Observer

I have tried not to get personal in this column, which I have been writing for the past 30 years. However, at holiday time, I am torn between two religions. So, forgive me for a little personal history.

I had the best of both worlds. My mother was Christian a Lutheran and my father was Jewish. Although my father was a very famous physician, we had to leave Germany or end up in a concentration camp and be exterminated. Through some good graces of a very high Nazi official, we were able to leave Germany just in time at 11:30 p.m. Dec. 31, 1938.

When I was a little girl, we celebrated both holidays Hanukkah with a menorah candle holder, in which a new candle was lit every day for seven days, and Christmas with a fir tree with candles. Both had to be hidden in my room so that no one could see them, or we would be shipped off never to be heard from again.

Later, in America, we always had a Christmas tree with electric lights. I do not know what happened to the menorah.

Sunday is the beginning of Hanukkah, when Jewish families around the world will light the first of eight candles in a menorah. An additional candle is lit each of the next seven nights.

The holiday commemorates the victory of a band of Jewish fighters, the Maccabees, over the oppressive Syrian king Antiochus more than 21 centuries ago. After the battle, the Maccabees went to their temple in Jerusalem to pray and found that only enough sacred oil was available to light the menorah for one day. However, a miracle repeatedly occurred, and one days supply lasted for eight days. Today, the lighting of the Hanukkah candles symbolizes that event.

For each of the eight nights of Hanukkah, therefore, an additional candle is inserted from right to left, or until an eight-candled menorah is aglow. After the first candle ceremony, it is traditional to sing songs, play with the dreidel (a spinning top), open presents and eat latkes (fried pancakes) and other fried foods.

Because of the importance of oil to this holiday, it is not surprising that fried foods are the traditional choice. One of these, latkes, made with grated potatoes, originated in Eastern Europe in the 16th century.

Many of the Hanukkah food traditions had their roots in the foods of various European regions. In Greece, loukomades, which are deep-fried puffs of dough dipped in honey and sprinkled with powdered sugar, are the Hanukkah fare. Historians believe that these pastries were more like the cakes eaten by the Maccabees. In Turkey, zelebi, snail-shaped deep-fried pastries, are served at Hanukkah, while in Israeli, sufganiyot, jelly doughnuts, carry on the tradition. Deep-fried spiral-shaped pastries are also popular at Hanukkah in Spain and Morocco.

Most Jewish families, however, serve latkes on the first eve of Hanukkah. There is a three-fold symbolism behind this tradition. Made initially of flour and water and fried in olive oil, these pancakes served as a reminder of the food hurriedly prepared for the Maccabees as they went to battle. The oil in which the pancakes are prepared symbolizes the cleansing and rededication of the Temple after it was defiled by the pagan Assyrians.

The third significance of latkes, which was added in medieval times, symbolizes the small fried cheesecakes the widow Judith served the Assyrian general Holofernes before she cut off his head, thus enabling the Maccabees to defeat the Assyrians. As the story goes, if Judith had not fed Holofernes so well and given him so much wine that he fell asleep, he would have had the Jews slaughtered.

Originally, Hanukkah was a very solemn festival. During the Middle Ages, however, it evolved into a joyous family festival. This was about the time deep-fried pastries and, later, latkes became the traditional Hanukkah foods.

The word latke is Yiddish for pancakes. Kartoflani platske are still the words used in Ukraine for potato pancake. Because their daily diet consisted of potatoes and bread, the Jews wanted to include a special dish cooked in oil to symbolize the miracle of Hanukkah. This potato pancake, already served by Ukrainians with goose for Christmas, seemed a good and relatively inexpensive choice. Since Hanukkah falls at the season when geese were plentiful, goose fat was an obvious and inexpensive substitute for the original olive oil.

Over the years, the original recipe for latkes has been expanded to include various other ingredients. Although latkes can be made with sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots and even cheese, I still prefer the taste of the brown, crisp potato pancakes.

True aficionados of potato pancakes argue over whether a medium or large grater is better for the potatoes. Modernists prefer a food processor or a salad shooter. I prefer the latter, but I still remember grating my knuckles in addition to the potatoes on a hand grater while helping my mother prepare potatoes for pancakes.

Latkes also can be served as an accompaniment to meat, or as a luncheon dish by themselves. They can be eaten plain or fancy with sugar, applesauce or sour cream.

Potato pancakes are also very much a part of German cookery. My mother usually prepared them on Saturday for lunch. I remember many times sneaking an extra potato into the batch mother had laid out for me to peel and grate so that I could have an extra pancake. Potato pancakes were, and still are, one of my favorite foods.

The following potato pancake recipe has been handed down in my family for several generations. To give a more delicate flavor to the pancakes, I occasionally substitute the finely minced white part of a leek for the onion.

Latkes (Potato Pancakes)

5 medium potatoes

1 medium onion

1 large egg

2 tablespoons flour

Salt and pepper, to taste

Vegetable oil, for frying

Peel the potatoes and keep them in cold water until grating. Grate the potatoes alternately with some of the onion. (The onion will help keep the potato mixture from turning dark.) Place the potato mixture in a fine mesh colander and press out as much liquid as possible. Put the potato mixture in a bowl and blend in the egg, flour, salt and pepper.

Add oil to the depth of 1/8 inch to a large skillet and heat it over medium heat. Spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of the potato batter into the hot oil and flatten the pancake with the back of the spoon. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes per side, turning only once, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately with applesauce, sour cream, sugar or preserves. Serves 4.

Visit link:

Hilde Lee: Latkes bring an ancient miracle to mind on first night of Hanukkah - The Daily Progress

Future Purchasing has for some years been recognised by many in the procurement world as the leading consulting firm in terms of deep, useful and intelligent Category Management IP. That ranges through guidance, tools and techniques, training and support to implementation programmes. Every couple of years, the firm has also produced an in-depth report based on an extensive survey, and the 2019-20 Global Category Management Report was launched recently at ProcureCon in Barcelona. As the firm says:

This 4thEdition brings together the foremost technical and behavioural skills that facilitate breakthrough levels of team performance. We have distilled the insights of 350+ procurement professionals and highlighted the top practices that will transform long-term value.

The respondents came from many countries and industries to provide input to the report this time around, and the final product provides a valuable guide to progress across sectors, as well as lots of practical advice on how to implement and maintain a successful CatMan programme.

One interesting finding this time is that the gap between the leaders and the followers appears to be widening. So the best organisations are getting more out of CatMan, and have successfully embedded it in their procurement strategies and widely across their organisations. On the other hand, many still struggle, with stumbling blocks ranging from a lack of resources or skills, to limited acceptance from stakeholders or poor planning and project management of programmes.

That all means, according to the detailed analysis carried out under the leadership of Professor Marc Day of Henley Business School, that the best are getting more than three times the value impact of CatMan compared to the also-rans. The statistical analysis behind the numbers also identifies pretty clearly the really critical factors, with 4 key indicators of CatMan success and 23 top practices that will help any organisation move towards that leadership status.

Theres also a Foreword from Malcom Harrison, Chief Executive of CIPS, who explains the importance of category management as a key tool in the procurement armoury, and explains how it fits into the revised CIPS educational syllabus. He points out that procurement professionals need strong inter-personal skills, project and programme management understanding, and a general business awareness if they are to deliver successfully along with the strong core of specialist procurement knowledge, including that connected with category management.

Ultimately, category management is a tool for delivering business and competitive advantage. Some are making the most of its potential; others are clearly not. Whatever your maturity and understanding at present, wed thoroughly recommend you get hold of the Future Purchasing report and take a look. You can download a preview immediately and request a copy of the full document here.

Read more from the original source:

Mind the Performance Gap New Future Purchasing Category Management Report Out Now - Spend Matters