Latest Guitar purchase consultations ,Tab Orders and Reviews Dec. 2008-Feb.2009

Thanks for your input and wisdom on the purchase of my Custom Bil Mitchell OM Guitar. Your suggestion on Honduran Rosewood is something I would never have thought of and, based on my own homework on Honduran Rosewood (after your suggestion), it looks like a homerun choice. Thanks for traveling with me to the luthier to review the guitar and pick the right appointments for the guitar. I am now more confident, and with your “blessing” I made the right choice.

I can’t wait to start receiving the tab you’re working on from my list I forwarded to you. I know you’ll pick the songs that best suit my capabilities and will enjoy playing, as opposed to any old song I may not have my heart in to play. With my constant travels here and abroad it’ll by like taking lessons from you transcontinental.
Ken Hagedorn, Wantage, NJ

That's YOU on guitar??? !!!! ???
Holy smokes! That's great!!! Will the site allow me to move one of those tunes to my home page?
http://www.bigbluegill.com/profile/BruceCondello   Bruce Condello President and Co-Creator of:  http://www.bigbluegill.com/ 

"Close your eyes and listen to John Sheehan's songs. It's practically impossible to not imagine yourself walking through a thick fencerow hoping to spook up a ringneck pheasant. The first time I heard his music I imagined what might have happened if Segovia met Knopfler on an ice covered pond for some fishin' and pickin'. Calming, yet upbeat...I think John Sheehan's got it pegged. Really good stuff. "Bruce Condello

"The slide work in "Trout and day lilies" is phenomenal and has me on a Zeppelin flashback!" Bill "Musky" Mod ,Antioch Il.

" I  found 'Faces of the Past' purely by accident. I googled "guitar tablature" and ended up on a site with that song. I liked the way it sounded and could almost figure it out on my own but couldn't quite get it. So here I am asking for the music. Am looking forward to learning and playing it."

Best regards, Jim Moncur, Clear Lake Shores, TX 

Kevin Moloney from Michigan  inspires John to discuss composition techniques:

If you don't mind, can I ask some advice?
I started playing guitar relatively late (age 18), although I had been playing piano and organ since I was six.  I switched from keyboards to guitar because I couldn't get the feeling of a bent string on a keyboard.  Also, because I'm a lefty, I figured I'd never be able to "flip" a piano like I could flip a guitar.
I still love keyboard music, especially older boogie-woogie piano, and classical pipe organ (Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, I think, was the equivalent of rock in its time, and the ending, with the mix of suspended and the transition between major and minor chords still brings Goosebumps when I hear it).
As for guitar, I've never taken lessons.  Pretty much it's all self taught, listening to others play and copying them.  That has pretty much become mixed in my head as a bunch of riffs that I can piece together, but I don't really feel like I "own" the instrument like I should.  I have written some songs that are unusual and really cool, but they are very scripted, and stiff.  At one time, I was really good: I listen to stuff I recorded in 1986, and, while the occasional goof came out in the first take (there were never any second takes) and I ask myself...how did I do that?  But now I feel like everything I play sounds the same.
Have you ever had to deal with this, and how did you overcome it?
Thanks.  You are an inspiration.
Kevin

Nice email Kevin. I am a real Bach enthusiast as well.
Do you play in open tunings at all? How’s your knowledge of Scales ,modes and chords? Chord scales etc.?

 I’ll try to say some pertinent things about my way of learning music that I hope will be useful to you. Approaches can be purely intuitive (going by sound only and not knowing the notes you’re playing )  , writing in a standard genre which has it tendencies, or by combining intuitive ideas with  rational developmental ideas like key changes ,changes in mode, meter ,tempo and other devices.
   As far as 'Trip to Spain' is concerned ,it was the result of ‘making up’ my own tuning .I knew that an A minor chord was composed of A, C and E notes so I tuned the strings of standard  tuning to their closest A minor note. This tuning being somewhat ‘flubby' I moved everything up a half step to a tighter Bb minor. The lesson for me here was ‘make up’ a tuning and work out somewhat unusual sounds that are easy to find. An intuitive ear approach.

 With 'Beauty Road' and 'Sleepy Eyes' I started in a tuning I was limited in; Eb which is really just commonly played Open D or Open E.
With my desire to find the right tightness for my guitars setup and gauge strings( D was too flubby and E was too tight) Eb solved the problem. When I ran into trouble developing these two pieces I switched back to standard tuning ,developed a chord progression that complimented what was already done and then went back to Eb tuning and found ways to play those chords. A knowledge of transposition learned at school was put to use. A combination of intuition and rational thought process was developed with this method.
  At other times I learn a few tunes by other artists and after a few nights of dreams start finding ways to disguise them into my own songs. LOL
With standard tuning songs I usually just start feeling out a mode or scale and look to develop phrases or themes sometimes just developing chord progressions sometimes working from riffs or developing melodies. A really cool way to play is think  a rhythm and then work out the pitches  and riffs that fit the rhythm. This helps developing ideas that can be altered later to be more effective or achieve a better balance.
It is very important to hear the music coming out of your inner ear as opposed to thinking it .Also write and play within your means honing anything  difficult or not relaxed into a better more communicable  phrase.
Hope this helps you or better yet inspires you again!
John  

(It was on ) ( "Notes for suburbia" ) that I discovered the 5" Ricercare " . I often listen because it is great!
Friendly
J.C. ,France

That CD is really great. Thanks. Of all the tunes O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is one of the most beautiful
guitar songs I've ever heard. You did a really nice job on it. There are parts of it where it sounds like you are losing yourself in it and it really blossoms. In case no one told you, you are a heck of a guitar player!!
Thanks again-
Rick Conte, Lambertville NJ

 You are an EXCELLENT guitar player, and I do know my guitar players!  Been playing since 1980.  Would like to purchase tab for "Trip to Spain."  Would like very much if you could sign the tab. I have PayPal, for your convenience. You definitely rock, Sir!
Kevin P. Moloney ,Metamora Michigan

Rebel Red says:
"The song "Modern Man" is a hit!"

Robert Clinton review :
Great album!
The song "THE CLIFFS OF MOHER" struck a nerve.
Robert has some photos of the beautiful Ireland ,Cliffs of Moher (moor) in a studio in Sugar Loaf NY.

Daniel Flores Review:
" I heard about Mr. Sheehan while looking for acoustic music on Rhapsody, I've also seen him on several you tube broadcasts.  Love his music and hope to learn and hear more from him.

Wedding Music Testimonials:

John,
Thanks so much for making our wedding ceremony perfect, you were awesome! I'm so glad we used you, you really added a lot to the ceremony .
Thanks again!
-Sara and Matt

Aloha, John!

Anyway, we too thought the wedding went off perfectly, and we couldn’t have done it without you, especially. The ceremony music set the perfect mood and everyone was complimenting us on “the guitar dude”. :)  When we first saw you at Andre’s way back we both got a very good feeling about you, and on the day of, you and your music created the romantic and relaxed atmosphere we were going for. It goes without saying that we would love to help in building your wedding clientele any way we can.

We look forward to seeing you at Andre’s again too! We’ll be there soon...first Friday of every month, right?

Mahalo (thank you) again!!!

Jaime (& John)