The 3 Secret Problems Of Jazz (And Jazz Is Not Alone)

The 5th person sending me the NPR / Kurt Ellenberger post about the difficulties of being a jazz musician, was the tipping point for me writing a post I’d held off on for a while.  I don’t play Jazz but I’m an improvising musician who went through a rigorous Jazz pedagogy, so take please take … Read more

Thinking, Knowing And Learning

The difference between information and knowledge The deepest educational experiences that I’ve had all occurred at the school of hard knocks.  As a student in a traditional music school, I had blocks absorbing information that didn’t seem relevant to what I was doing because I didn’t see how it could relate to what I wanted to … Read more

The Music Industry Tailspin, Shark Tank And A Blackie Lawless Quote Showing Why It Doesn’t Matter

I saw a great article last week on Business Insider.com where Michael Degusta tore apart the Bain analysis of the global music industry turnover and replaced it with a revised analysis focusing on the recorded music industry revenue in the US with values adjusted for inflation.  Here’s what he came up with (based on the … Read more

New Interview With Miroslav Tadic, Technical Difficulties And What’s Next..

Hey everyone, As I write this I’m brushing my teeth and getting ready fro a trek to Midtown to find out how bad the Logic Board blow out on my Macbook is. Since this book holds my recording and notation software and a number of other things needed on a daily basis by me – … Read more

New Guitar-Muse Post On Video Game Session Playing Is Up Online

Hi Everyone, Just a quick update.  I recently contributed an article to Guitar-Muse about my experiences playing on some video game sessions for composer Mike Reagan.  You can read all about it (and some tips for breaking into and getting through that session work) here.  I’m also working with Miroslav Tadic to finish up some … Read more

Hot Rodding Your Minor Arpeggios – Or A Little Theory Goes A Long Ways

Hey everyone! This post is tangentially related to the Modal Arpeggio posts that I’ve put online so I’ve adapted the title just like I’m going to be adapting the arpeggios in the post. .  ”Minor minor on the wall….” Let’s look at a 5-string A minor arpeggio: . . Now there’s nothing wrong with this … Read more

Update – New Guitar-Muse Soloing Article, New Tracks Et More!

Hi Everyone! I just wrote an “instructional” post for Guitar-Muse about soloing that’s coming more from a self-pedagogical/ philosophical/ motivational standpoint but talks about the factors determining when a song needs a solo and how to develop your own voice when soloing.   It works off of some of the ideas I’ve written about here … Read more

“It only takes one apple” or why customer service matters

Hello everyone! I’ve written before about my recent relocation, but I had something come up in the move that highlights the importance of every contact we have with other people.  The Digitech Space Station The XP-300 is one of my favorite effect pedals of all time.  The A/D/A wasn’t great, and it was the exact … Read more

Moving With Musical Instruments By Mail

As I’ve posted before, I just recently moved from South Pasadena, CA to Brooklyn, NY.  I did a similar move back in 2006 when I moved from Boston to go to CalArts in Valencia, CA and in both cases people were shocked when I said that I mailed everything. Had I already owned a car, … Read more

New Interview With Ola Strandberg Of .strandberg* Guitarworks Is Now Up On Guitar-Muse

Hey everyone! Just a quick update.  As one of my side gigs writing columns for Guitar-Muse.com, I recently interviewed Ola Strandberg of .strandberg* Guitarworks.  Ola makes really cool custom models for players with ergonomic features and self designed parts (like bridges) that he uses in his builds. In the interview, he talks about a number of cool … Read more

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 49 other followers