Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

     This wont be a long post, just one to wish all my family, friends, and followers a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. :)

     This will also be my last post for 2014! But don't worry, I'll be back come January 2015 with some exciting news and events about my family! Aahhh!! :D
Good cliff-hanger, huh? ;)

     But now it's farewell to good old 2014. I've had a lot of things to be grateful for this past year. 
     Two of which are:

     My new niece!

     We welcomed my new niece into the Patterson family this year, and what a sweetie she is! Meet baby Ray! <3

Me and sweet baby Ray!

Too CUTE!! :)

    
     I also went through the Los Angeles Temple! Such a beautiful day!

Me at the L.A. Temple!

With my folks

     
     You might have seen one of these temples around and have probably wondered what they are all about. Well, look no further! Here's a really great and simple video about temples. :)

     That's all for now! Hope your holidays are full of family, friends, and awesome food! 
     
     Merry Christmas and God bless!
     -Erin :)

In the Guitar Shop: Hitting the ground running!

    

     Erin here! Welcoming you to the second episode of my "Guitar Shop" series!

     First off, I hope you've had a wonderful week and haven't eaten too many cookies, like me. (But if you need a couple good recipes I'll link them at the bottom.) 
     Second, if you're not familiar with Amy Grant's Christmas albums, get them! :)

     Now to business!

     Tip number three comes to you from my friend and previous supervisor, Andrew:

     Tip #3: "Be a super fast learner and don't mess up." And there you have it! ;)


     But really, when you're working on $3,000+ guitars right off the bat, you don't have much room for error. Yes, it would be wonderful if you could be given practice guitars to cut your teeth on, but I have found that if you think it's okay to mess up on a guitar it becomes easy to do a less than top notch job. And where's the good in practicing with that mind set? Sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a little 'fear of God' to help you do your best, right? ;)

Scoring finish

     
     I now give you "Erin's top 4" skills/traits you need in instrument building: 
     
     (In no specific order)  

•      Great hand-eye coordination  

•      Creative thinking/visualization

•      Enjoy working with your hands

•      Taking pride in your work

    

Oh, and not being afraid of
the occasional splinter

     See you at the next episode of "In the Guitar Shop"! 
     Happy Holidays! :) 
     -E 



P.S. My favorite holiday treats, from my house to yours! :)
     
Chewy Molasses cookies!

Cowboy Cookies!
My Mom's famous chocolate chips cookies! (minus the pecans and coconut) ;)
     
     
     

               
                

     

In the Guitar Shop: Jumping In!

 

    Hello all! Erin here! :D     

     I thought it would be fun to write a few posts about what I have learned in my last year working in a guitar shop!

     If you're like me and have always had an interest in stringed instrument construction at one level or another, either to build your own instrument or to do minor repairs on one of your own, then you know how hard it can be to find good information about luthiery online. So I thought I would do my part to remedy this through writing a series of posts and giving you some great links on the subject. 

@ the 2014 Anaheim NAMM show

     Not unlike my musical education, I am more of a hands on learner than a book learner. Sure, books are great, but to me they are more for subsidiary education, especially when the subject is fairly new to you. So, when I decided I wanted to get into guitar and mandolin building, I knew that I wanted to work or apprentice under an experienced builder. 

     Having a background in woodworking, along with playing guitar, I was able to more easily get a manufacturing position. 

     Tip #1: Get accustomed with hand and power tools!

     I was lucky enough to find a job with Cordoba guitars, the type of small, custom shop I was looking for. Though it may seem cool to work for big companies like Fender or Taylor you will most likely find yourself one of a hundred in an assembly line, doing the same thing every day. That may seem okay to you at first cause, heck!, you're building guitars! Right?! ;) But you will most likely burn out and be left with a very limited resume. 

Cordoba Master series
(Torres, Hauser, Rodriguez, Reyes)

     You also may know how hard it is to find online job listings for "acoustic guitar builder" and the like so I have a tip for that too:

     Tip #2: Find some companies or builders/luthiers that you like and check out there website or contact them about jobs and apprenticeships. Like with musicians in similar genres it's a small world, so once you get your foot in the door and meet some people, you'll realize how everybody knows everybody.

     So, if you are looking to work or apprentice in a guitar shop, do some research! A great resource for finding these builders is The Fretboard Journal. They have great interviews with guitar, mandolin, and other instrument builders in their magazine, but I especially like their podcasts you can listen to here or on iTunes here and here. 


     And as always, enjoy the video!! -E :)
    P.S. It's pretty awesome! ;)
    

   

New Adventures and "Luthier? What's a Luthier?"

Howdy Folks! :D

It's great to be back online after the long break!

Now, I know I told you all the news I was moving back to California but I didn't tell you the "whys" and "hows".
I got a job as a guitar builder, aka guitar luthier!

What most of you may not know about me is that I have worked construction my whole life with my father. (I even made my first guitar when I was 10 out of scrap wood. Let me tell you, it was beautiful! ;) haha!)
I know instruments and I know woodworking. So when I came across a job opening at Cordoba Guitars in Oxnard, right next to my home town of Ventura, I jumped at it!

I have now been working here for about 4 months and it has been wonderful! Our shop here in the U.S. is no big ol' production line. No, we have a shop of 5 people (including me) who build the Master series guitars and cool prototypes.

All the guys at the shop-yes, not surprisingly I'm the only lady on site ;)-are super skilled at what they do and are just great people to work with and learn from.

We have a big guitar show coming up which we're getting ready for and we are in the proses of building two beautiful limited edition Torres and Hausers.

Hauser (left) and Torres (right) w/ granadillo back and sides.

Cordoba just recently came out with some cool videos with behind the scenes of our shop. You can even spot me here and there in both videos. (I'm the one with the short blonde hair and denim shop apron.) ;)

http://youtu.be/GY3XuPrC4F4

And

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sEDApapnHs


In the shop I take the guitar once it has been assembled and will do everything from binding, neck carving, truss rods, fret boards and frets, to bridges, nuts, saddles, tuners, and setup.

I'm super proud to be a part of Cordoba; we put out some killer guitars!

And with that I will leave you with a sampling:
Enjoy!

Erin out! :)

Blurb #3: Mission, California, and Moving!

Hey all!

Well, it's been a fun and crazy summer at the Patterson house!
My little sister Sarah (one of my very best friends ever!) left on her 18 month mission for our church this summer, and though we miss her beautiful spirit, spunk, and smile in our home she is sharing them with the wonderful people of the Boston, MA area! :)

You can check out her blog at: sisterpattersoninboston.blogspot.com



After my little sister left on her great adventure the rest of my family headed down to southern California to visit with family and watch my brother Casey Patterson, along with teammate Jake Gibb, win the Asics beach volleyball World Cup held in Long Beach!

Watch out for these guys in Rio 2016!



And lastly, I am moving back to my home town of Ventura county, California!
This was an exciting yet a bit surprising change of plans and, though I will miss my friends and bandmates here in Utah, it will be great to see my old friends and go to the great jams down there again.

(Check out my facebook musician's page for a fun video of my last Utah gig with some great friends last Friday!)

See you all again in California!

-E :)

Blurb #2: Festivals, competitions, and getting more mando for your buck!

I'm back!
Back to my house, back to my wifi, back to microwaves, and back on the blog!

I spent this past weekend camping up at the OFOAM (Ogden Friends Of Acoustic Musicians) festival and state instrument competition, which was up in Ogden (as you probably figured). :)
Some friends and I decided to drive up last week to compete and see the amazing Adam Steffey and the legendary Sam Bush!

Sam Bush is well known for his rockin' mandolin and he did not disappoint on Friday, playing well into the night and cold!
I got in a good rest that night though cause Saturday morning brought with it the mandolin competition! (And for those of you who have done one but not the other, performing for an audience and play for judges presents two very different psychological challenges! The latter of which is quite a bit more stressful for me!) ;)

But I had been working towards this for months and so I was ready!...I hoped. ;)
(Fyi, I played my own arrangements of Salt Creek and New Chance Blues. Two great tunes!)

So, how did I do...?!

...yeah, other than the grubby camping garb...

I got the blue ribbon! :)
I was pretty excited to win first! I also got some great prizes like the Loar mandolin and the automatic contest entry to nationals and 5-day festival pass at Winfield!
I was also happy to be with my Mother when I got the award.
My Mom has always been such a great support to me at competitions, performances, and beyond! And so it was such a treat when she surprised me and drove up that morning to see me get my award!
Love you Mom! :)


By the way, if you are looking into buying a not-so-expensive mandolin that has good sound and build, I have to say the Loar LM 220-vs, at under $400, is great! (Most mandos only start sounding good at the $1,000 point, and then can even climb up to $10,000!)
I have to tell you I wasn't sure about it at first, but once I got jamming on it I was pleasantly surprised!
I play a Collings MT myself, which is just beautiful and hard to top, but I will enjoy playing this Loar at jams and festivals cause of its good bluegrass tone coloring, projection (which is important for acoustic jams), and playability.


The music at this festival was great, and it had some new and interesting bands that caught my ear, like: Elephant Revival (you have got to watch their percussionist play! YouTube them!), Run Boy Run (beautiful arrangements and vocals), and the Ugly Valley Boys (just plain bluesy fun).

It was a fun festival with prizes, friends, and jamming, but one of my favorite parts about it was meeting Adam Steffey and the beautiful music his band, The Boxcars, played!
Adam pulls tone out of the mandolin like Rumpelstiltskin spins gold! (...that was weird...Redo!)
Adam pulls tone out of the mandolin like no one else! He also has so much finesse and taste in his playing!
Plus, if you have noticed, he is one of the few non-tenor bluegrass male vocalists. ;)

Such a great and genuinely nice guy! (And 6'4" by the looks of it, which continues to say a lot for tall mandolin pickers.) ;)

So, now I'm back home relaxing (and thankfully showered!) and making plans to go to Winfield this September.

Until next time!
-E :)

Blurb #1: Recording, performing, and beach volleyball gold medals?!

Hi all! 

So, just a short blurb.
One of the band/duos I'm in is headed to the studio this week to lay down a few demo tracks! Finally, right?! ;) We will be putting them up for your listening enjoyment once recording and posts are finished. 

Plus, I should have a few free and freeish ;) shows I'll be playing this month which I will keep you posted on.

And now for some sibling bragging. ;) My professional beach volleyball playing brother, Casey Patterson, along with teammate Jake Gibb just won gold in the FIVB Grand Slam in Shanghai, China! We are all so proud of him and excited for more great things to come! You can read about it Here.

That's all for now! 
Make sure to check back in soon and have a wonderful weekend! :)

-Erin :)