Mobius MegaBlog

After a successful event last year, the German Tap-Event continues —

The “Ars TapGuitar 2007″ is an international Tap-Guitar-Festival in Germany, organized by the Neue Akademie Braunschweig, and taking place on October 20th, 2007 in Braunschweig, Germany.

On the preceeding Thursday, October 18th, there will be on Introductory Event, a lecture with the topic: “The Musical Possibilities of the Tapguitar”

Executive tapartists of the Concert Event on 20. October will be Adam Fulara solo, André Pelat Trio, Jim Lampi-Duo and Mathias Sorof Projects. One goal of this event is to bring the music ,created with tapping, to a broad audience.

The event is supported by the following organizations:Kulturinstitut der Stadt Braunschweig,
the Stiftung (Donation) Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz, and the Niedersächsische Lottostiftung (Lottodonation).

A DVD of last year’s event, “Ars TapGuitar 2006,” is available now.

For details please visit the festival homepage, at http://www.ars-tapguitar.de

In years past, Mobius Megatar published the **MegaTapper News** over several years, and it was very popular, containing articles, lessons, interviews, and news bits of interest to two-handed tappers around the world.

But in the press of moving to the mountains, setting up the shop all over again, installing and programming our new CNC machinery, and getting back into making touch-style basses, the newsletter fell to the wayside.

Well ….

It’s baack!

And better than ever. Delivered by email, in an easy to read format, the first issue of the MegaTapper News carries –

** An article on ‘motors,’ which are simple, repeating left-hand patterns so you can chug along while playing melody or improvising with the right hand.

I remember talking with Frank Jolliffe years ago — he was once well-known in the two-handed touch-style field, and he’s a great improviser — and he told me that, although it appeared that he was improvising with both hands, in actual fact he was switching his attention quickly back and forth, and he had a lot of left hand ‘motors’ to keep going while his right hand improvised.

So I made a study of ‘motors’ and discovered seven different kinds of motors, and breaking it down simply like this, it made it easier to learn one at a time.

I’ve actually written lessons about these motors, and it just so happens that the first one is being published in the new Mobius Megatar newsletter, first issue going out this week.

** Plus you’ll discover an intriguing series called (Easy Touch-Style) ‘Chordology’, which will make chords, and chord substitution and re-harmonization clear and easy, using a simple and new way of looking at chords and harmony.

** Plus … Tappy Tips … and more!

So if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to sign up for the free MegaTapper News here –
http://www.megatar.com/english/news…newsletter.html

Here’s to speedy learning, music, and fun. It makes life more enjoyable!

Good News!

Now available online — an instrument demo, with songs, to provide an overview of how the instrument is made, so that you can see and hear it in use. The video not only shows how easy it can be to play two-handed touch-style, but displays our most basic instrument, the TrueTapper Eclipse.

The Eclipse is a high-end, quality instrument with brilliant sound, so that any professional musician can feel completely comfortable using it for studio recording, with all essential high-end features included. However, the Eclipse is priced so affordably that any student with a summer job can obtain the instrument.

The video also shows U.S. Manager Traktor Topaz playing two songs. (The second song is an improvisation on the same chords as the first song.) This performance shows several of the techniques that are easily learned using our ‘Easy Touch-Style Method.’

And so, for your elucidation and entertainment, we present –

PS: This is the same instrument that was used in the earlier ‘Easy Touch-Style Method’ video. However, this video was not recorded on the Mobius Space Station, which had been rented out for a party for Google executives.

The walls have been begging for attention, and so …

(1) Insulation guys check the work order:

(2) Insulation installation … all tidy!

(3) Shiny stuff to keep the roof real cool, man:

(4) Whoah! Mongo insulation!

(5) Walls covered, Jesse Senior and Bob put stuff away:

(6) A toast to the new walls:

(7) And watching out for cats:

It begins to resemble a shop.

Stay tuned. More to follow.