I think that Jazz has 3 big problems as a genre, and musicians working in that realm have their work cut out for them to move forward in the genre.

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Duo or Trio wanted for restaurant

(no pay but you can sell your cd)

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This gig scenario is actually a microcosm of the problems jazz faces as a genre.  

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First, when you drive by a restaurant and you see a sign that says, “tonight – live jazz!” have you ever turned excitedly to the person next to you and said, “Hey there’s a band playing there tonight!  I love Stella By Starlight!  Let’s go – maybe they’ll play it!”  

No you haven’t. And no one else has either.  Because you don’t go to hear the music – you go to hear John McLaughlin or whatever other player interests you - And that’s the first big problem – for the general public Jazz has become a cult of personality for players instead of focusing on songs.  

Many of the Real Book tunes date back to Tin Pan Alley.  Back in the day, Jazz players played on popular music – people went to hear the music and the band.   Remember the fire-storm Miles caused when he recorded a version of Time After Time?  He was just going back to that tradition of playing on tunes that people liked.  And yes, there’s been a lot of new music written – but as a genre the focus is still on the players.  Once you get a focus on a player, you cut your audience down to people who like players and other musicians.  That’s really problematic if you’re trying to build a career. 

No one (outside of musicians playing it or other musicians sitting with crossed arms at a gig critiquing a player hitting the changes) gives a toss about hearing Giant Steps live – they care about the energy the soloist is transmitting. The audience (such as it is) at every jazz gig I’ve been to is about 90% musicians and 10% fans.   I’ve mentioned this observation before, but in my undergrad experience I remember going to student recitals and seeing the band mindlessly getting through the head and then breathing a sigh of relief, “Thank God that’s over – now we can play some music!”  If you just want to solo with complete disregard for the song – why even maintain the pretense of playing the tune?

Mind you, the issue of repertoire is an over simplification.  I don’t want to discount that a lot of great music has been written.  While I think that is where Duke and Mingus got it right in keeping the focus on some great pieces, I don’t see any contemporary jazz composer’s gaining traction in the same way they did.   There are a number of reasons for this (including saturation of the music market), but rock music survives because people sing along with the songs and dig the rock star.  As a genre, focusing on the Jazz star is a hole that will take a long time to get out of.

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“Stop collaborate and listen”

The next problem with Jazz (as indicated by the gig listing above), is the implication that Jazz is background music.  Any type of music is no longer music if no one is listening – and Jazz is a music that demands the listener’s attention to pick up on the nuances of the performance.   People go to a restaurant to eat, not to listen to the (unpaid) band.  Or fans of the band go to the restaurant to hear the musicians play and begrudgingly order food and the 2-drink minimum.  So other than people the band has brought (in reality – the only reason restaurants book music anymore) – the other patrons there aren’t listening.  Some bands fight this by playing louder and then the patrons just eat and leave.   

Musicians take these gigs (and wedding gigs) because they need cash, but as a culture we have moved into an ADD mindset with regard to focus.  People are less likely to sit down with a record and dig though it and try to get something out of it.  They listen to 5 seconds of an mp3 stream and then move onto the next thing.

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Music and players are everywhere

As I mentioned before, the saturated music market is one of the biggest obstacles that challenges jazz as a genre.  There are a lot of players with less and less venues to play in.  So you get musicians taking unpaid gigs at a restaurant and wondering why they haven’t sold any cds (and why management wouldn’t comp the food now that the sets are done).

There’s value in scarcity and people have infinite access to music.  If you wanted to hear Miles Davis electric band play back in the day, you went to go see them.  Now you go to You Tube.  There’s increasingly fewer reasons for people to go out and see a show for the sake of seeing a show.  In general, they won’t go just because a band is playing and it’s something to do.

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“…Those were the days…”

Derek Bailey has one of my favorite quotes ever about the conservatory experience.  (I’m paraphrasing here), “As soon as bebop became a set series of formulas taught in an academic setting it went from being the vibrant searching music that it was and became a maudlin reminder of the good old days”.  

Many people associate Jazz with comfort (like sitting next to a fire with a glass of wine and listening to Sketches of Spain).  They have a nostalgic view about going to a bistro and hearing some jazz.  (Some of these people will also tell you that the LOVE Michael Bublé as evidence of a “Jazz” pedigree!?!  This is another problem where people have equated intrumentation and arrangement with a genre.) Comfort is a tough market to cultivate and maintain, but Jazz has also equated with cultured music and some people go see Jazz in the way that they go to a museum and this could be a key.

People want to be moved.

They want to center.  They want to focus.

People go to a museum to experience something.  They go to a show because they don’t want to miss an event.  They are searching for something new.

That sounds like Jazz to me.  Ellinger is right.  In terms of output – Jazz IS thriving.  But its musicians (by and large) are not and if the musicians and composers aren’t thriving – then the genre is in real trouble.

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As a genre, I think Jazz needs a re-branding.

Many Jazz musicians are already doing this.  They don’t call their music Jazz anymore.  They come up with a million other labels and get new audiences in by playing venues guised as something other than Jazz – but playing Jazz at its core.  Playing “searching vibrant” music that moves people.

Appealing to people’s mind as cultured music is a good start.  Appealing to people as head boppin’ – ass twitchin’ music that grabs the ear and moves the soul is even better.

As a label, Jazz is too broad to be meaningful to most players – but to the public that label already has associations with it.  As a genre, Jazz needs to bring new fans into the fold with songs and then wow them with the musicianship behind them.  

And it needs to happen, because it’s too beautiful a thing to let slip away.

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Thanks for reading!

-SC

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PS – if you got this far – you may also like

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DO YOU CARE ABOUT SOME BEATLES ON YOUR APPLE? MEL BAY AND SOME MUSIC INDUSTRY OBSERVATIONS

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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 do (to be fair, this was also because most of the instructors I had were incapable to presenting the information in a way that showed how it could be adapted to individual styles).  

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Much of the specific aspects of my style have come about from taking ideas or approaches that were interesting and finding ways to integrate them into what I do.  This might mean hearing a phrase or a chord progression and working it into my repertoire, or exploring unfamiliar ideas or new options in a solo or a compositional challenge.

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A big part of gaining information is knowing what questions to ask and finding the right people to initially answer them.

Gaining knowledge, however,  is knowing what question is asked, what the real question being asked is and answering them yourself.

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I say this because while I can say, “If you’re looking for a Melodic Minor application – try playing a melodic minor scale from the b7 of a minor chord (i.e. Bb Melodic minor over a C minor chord)” to a student, this is just information.  Knowledge of the concept is evident when the student is improvising over a tune and gets to a C minor 7 chord and starts playing phrases that they hear from Bb melodic minor over the chord.  It comes after playing the scale over the chord, developing melodies and phrases based on the idea and learning it on a deeper level.  In other words, when the question is asked, “what do I play over this chord?” the player answers the question.

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This is the difference between thinking and knowing.  

To think something, you only have to read it.  

To know something, you have to experience it.

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Learning

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Learning then, is really a bridge between exposure to an idea and knowledge of that idea. In an over-simplified manner, I  see learning as a process like this:

• Exposure to an idea, “Did you know that you can do this?”

• Exploration and  integration of that idea, “I’m trying to see how I can do this.”

• Knowledge of an idea, “I’m doing this.”

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The Thinking Trap

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In the process above, thinking occurs at every step between exposure and knowledge.  In other words, you can think something but know nothing about it.  This is where you get people writing scathing product reviews of things they’ve never owned or used based on manufacturer’s specs or people using dogmatic approaches to situations based on someone else’s “knowledge”.  It’s a perceptual trap to equate thinking and knowing something and for me, this has been a hard-fought and life long process of recognizing that differentiation, understanding it and integrating it but perhaps posting this observation here will save some of you some time.  

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As always, thanks for reading!

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-SC

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For those of you who are interested, there’s some further clarification for how this relates to my pedagogical approach here.

.

If you like this post you may also like:

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The Perils of Panaceas and Instant Gratification

THE 5 WORDS OR LESS RULE.

2012: HOW NOT TO REPEAT THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST (OR NOTHING EVER GOT DONE WITH AN EXCUSE)

A HOLIDAY THOUGHT THAT MAY HELP THE WHOLE YEAR

ON TALENT, TENACITY AND SELF-DEFINITION

DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE WORK

“A Tale Of Two Cities” – Or A Lesson On Managing Consumer Expectation

Some Observations On Inertia And A Cool Online App For Getting Things Done

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MUSIC BUSINESS 201: SELLING IT VERSUS SELLING OUT

On “It is what it is”

“When You Come To A Fork In The Road Take It”

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Circumnavigating The Wall You Just Hit

INSPIRATION VS. INTIMIDATION

TWO STEPS BACK OR SETBACKS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

NOW IS THE TIME OF THE CONTENT CREATOR

THE AMERICAN IDOL LITMUS TEST

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The Power Of Inertia Or Know Your Flow

STRONG OPINIONS ARE LIKE STRONG ODORS OR SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A THICK SKIN

THE INSTRUCTIONAL METHODOLOGY BEHIND “HOW NOT TO DO THINGS”

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“A MAN’S GOT TO KNOW HIS LIMITATIONS” OR LIMITING OPTIONS IS A KEY TO PRODUCTIVITY

POSSESSION IS 9/10S OF THE LAW BUT PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING OR PRACTICING PART VII

“COMMON SENSE IS NOT SO COMMON” OR WHY THE INTERNET IS PROBABLY WRONG

FOCUS, MUSIC AND THE BIG PICTURE – A QUOTE TO CONSIDER

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“THE LIMITS OF MY LANGUAGE ARE THE LIMITS OF MY WORLD”

DEADLINES ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND

SEEING THE FOREST INSTEAD OF THE TREE

FOCUS, MUSIC AND THE MARATHON MENTALITY

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Taken from Michael Degusta’s Business Insider article, “The Real Death of The Music Industry”. (http://www.businessinsider.com/these-charts-explain-the-real-death-of-the-music-industry-2011-2)

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Here are 3 interesting  (and big) observations from the DeGusta article:

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• Individual spending is WAY down.  ”10 years ago the average American spent almost 3 times as much on recorded music products as they do today….26 years ago they spent almost twice as much as they do today.”

• The market model no longer reflects reality.  ”[It] turns out that, somewhat unsurprisingly, the recording industry makes almost all their money from full-length albums [and] no one is buying full albums any more.”

• The new revenue streams can’t make up the difference in traditional sales.  ”Downloaded albums & singles have grown nicely, but we’ve already established that is not nearly enough to offset the loss of the physical equivalents….two of the big new areas [or revenue], mobile and subscriptions, appear to both already be in decline…That only leaves internet & satellite radio… Even if they maintain some solid growth, it still adds up to a pittance.”

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Here are a few thoughts I have to add to this:er

1.  It seems many of these reports treat music production like a stagnant entity when the reality is that more people than ever are making music, selling music and performing music. So, as a starting point, it’s not only less revenue – it’s less revenue distributed over MANY more people!

2.  ”Revenue” is a deceptive term.  Let’s couple the data with the fact that any online or mobile revenue is split between multiple parties.  So if your track sells for $.99 on Itunes – Apple gets $.30 right off the top.  Then the remaining $.69 is split between the label (if there is one) and the artist.  There’s a great chart here (and supporting data here) showing multiple approximations for artist revenue on multiple formats.  If you’re a solo artist – expect to pay taxes on the $.10 cents a song you’re likely to get as well).

3.  There’s no accounting for who is purchasing this music.   Most of this data in this study seems to correlate to non-musicians buying music.  So for example – where the data shows that most people don’t buy full lengths – most musicians I know do.  The biggest music collectors I know are either active or former musicians.  So 10,000 people might be buying an Usher single but a thousand people downloading a 10-track full length on Itunes or Amazon is the same number of tracks.  As full lengths are often sold at deep discounts (Ever see those weekend $5 full length deals on Amazon?  I HAVE to wonder what an artist makes off of that!) artists are making even less on the full lengths than the singles!

4.  Since touring and recorded music sales have traditionally gone hand in hand – it’s deceptive (but not surprising) that the RIAA hasn’t included touring revenue into this figure.  To play Devil’s advocate here, even that figure would be extremely deceptive as it  wouldn’t show the number of clubs/bars that have closed or stopped paying for live music.  Outside of Clear Channel acts and venues, live revenue is down substantially for live bands and even bands with followings and merch are basically breaking even in a best case scenario on tour.

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Shark Tank

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After years of not watching any TV at all, I find myself watching several shows on HULU now and one of the few I look forward to is Shark Tank (which is ABC’s version of the BBC’s equally good Dragon’s Den which ran a few years ago).  The show basically involves entrepreneurs presenting business ideas to a group of investors (the sharks) for funding.  The entrepreneurs have to get at least all of the money they are asking for from the sharks or they walk away with nothing.  It’s a fascinating show to me for a number of reasons:

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1. It provides a unique vantage point of the mind of an investor.  In addition to market and ability to scale, the investors are also looking to invest in people as much as the product.
2. It provides an often uncomfortable opportunity to see the chasm between how passionately creative people who are fully invested emotionally and financially in their product view it in the market place versus how business people view it.

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There were 2 really interesting pitches on this past week’s show.

In the first pitch – a producer came on with a rock trio looking for a $200,000 investment.  The band played the verse and chorus of a tune and the investors all dug the music but they had a hard time asking for an investment of that size for a 20% stake in the band that excluded publishing (duh).  They got an investment from Kevin O’Leary who threw out, “I like the band…I’ll make an investment for the hell of it – because that’s the business you’re in.  You’re in the crap shoot ‘who the hell know’s?’ business. I’ll offer you $200,000 for 50% of everything.  Because I could lose $200,000 six months from now – no problem.  That’s the deal.  I’ve always wanted to have a rock band in my portfolio.  I know it’s a stupid investment.  But it’s cool.  And I am not going to run the band.  I’m not going to tell you what song’s to write.  I’m giving you $200,000 but I want 50%”  

The producer countered with $300,000 for 40% Another shark, Robert Herjavec, came in on O’Leary’s offer as well saying, “For me this is a crap shoot…it’s a vanity play.  I’m a boring old computer guy.  Deep down I want to be a rock star.  I’ll throw some money in.”  So 2 sharks each kicking in 100k for a total of $200,000 for a 50% stake.  The band countered with 50% for $250,000 and neither side would budge so they walked out without the deal.  I had one thought as I watched the screen.

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The band and their producer/manager are fucking idiots.

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Now I can guess the knee jerk reaction.   Someone’s going to say, “Well it’s still a win for the band because they’ll get exposure and they’ll get some royalties for playing their song on the show…” but it’s not $200,000 worth of royalties!  Mind you – I think the sharks were dumb here as well to even entertain the idea but the band appealed to their vanity and the 2 sharks suspended all of the economic indicators that would have gotten someone else selling a traditional product torn apart on the show.   

Minus the producer’s commission and taxes, that money still would have been enough to put the band in the studio and on the road for a while, and back in the studio.  When they needed more $ (and they most assuredly would) they could have gone back to the 2 sharks for more capital.   Oh and when the band broke up a year or two later – they’re still making royalties on money that someone else fronted!!  If you find any label willing to give your original blues rock trio $200,000 with no interest in creative control – let me know and I’ll negotiate the deal for you for a very fair fee. ; )

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In the second interesting pitch, Billy Blanks Junior (son of the Tae-Bo creator) was pitching his own fitness line.  Despite having been homeless for a time (and obviously not receiving much help from his father), he and his wife have pulled themselves up, created a new product and had already gotten it professionally produced as a DVD and distributed to major retail chains.  Mark Cuban and Daymond John had interest in the idea provided that using the Billy Blanks Jr. name was no problem and that they could get a distribution deal with Zoomba.  Billy Junior said no to the deal because he misunderstood it and thought that they just wanted to sell his idea to Zoomba.  After Billy left, Daymond was so upset that Billy had shot himself in the foot that he went out after him and re-framed the deal to Billy and his wife to clarify it.  Daymond finally asked him, “Can you re-consider the deal?  Because you make me want to help you.”  And Billy Jr. (wisely in my opinion) took the deal.

Posturing for the camera?  Perhaps, but it struck me as sincere.  Watching Billy Jr’s story and his pitch I was rooting for the guy and wanted him to succeed as well.  Am I going to take one of his classes?  Not likely, but I’m telling his story here and someone somewhere else might also seek it out.  If I‘m retelling that story, a LOT of other people are doing so as well.  Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool on the planet!  Don’t make the mistake of under-estimating the power of any one person’s story (including your own) to affect other people!!

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The Blackie Lawless “quote”

In the title of this post, I talked about a quote from Blackie Lawless of the band WASP.  I have to parphrase here unfortunately as I don’t remember the quote verbatim but essentially he said, “If you want to be in this business – get out now – because there are a dozen people waiting in line at any given moment to run you over and take your place.  This business has no need for people who want to be here – it only has spaces for people who need to be here.”  

If you need to do something, it doesn’t matter what the stakes against you are.  You’re going to give it a shot.  And if you give it your best shot with 100% sincerity and execution, you will find other people who connect with it.  Billy Blanks Jr. got a deal because he had the skills and because he touched Daymond John.  It’s that simple.  If he hadn’t met him in person and had that personal connection, he wouldn’t have had that deal.  As an artist you need to connect with people, connecting with them live on your terms (rather than them finding an mp3 link in the middle of multitasking 4 other things) is still the most efficient way to do that if you can pull it off live.

Is it going to be harder to make a career now than it was 2o years ago?  Most definitely.  People are always going to want music but how you get paid is increasingly going to become an issue. I imagined corporate employment (billed as sponsorship) back around 2001 as being a viable outlet for musicians, but looking at things like Elance and seeing the laughable rates people want to pay for work – I’m now thinking now that it looks like it’s going to be virtual sweatshops (multiple streams of microscopic revenue and constant output) for a lot of musicians out there for the forseeable future.  I view that as probable rather than as bad news, but for those of you looking for a career as a working musician, the thing that’s going to make the difference for your “success” is what you bring to the table both in terms of content, connection and conviction.  

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The Diamond Dave “quote”

Regarding conviction and tenacity, David Lee Roth once had a quote about practicing where he said that you have to have that internal fire because when you’re on your 5th straight hour of practicing and you still don’t have it down, without that fire you’ll quit rather than keep working through that threshold.  Now I don’t recommend practicing anything for 5 hours non-stop in a row without a break, but that fire in your belly to push harder is your best friend.  It not only nourishes you – but it nourishes the music, other people and your career – even when the old music business model is collapsing all around you.

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Keep your chin up and your ears and eyes open!  And as always, thanks for reading!

-SC

.

If you like this post, you may also like:

.

The Perils of Panaceas and Instant Gratification

THE 5 WORDS OR LESS RULE.

2012: HOW NOT TO REPEAT THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST (OR NOTHING EVER GOT DONE WITH AN EXCUSE)

A HOLIDAY THOUGHT THAT MAY HELP THE WHOLE YEAR

ON TALENT, TENACITY AND SELF-DEFINITION

A Music Business Thought – Or What The Death Of The CD Means For You

DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE WORK

“A Tale Of Two Cities” – Or A Lesson On Managing Consumer Expectation

Some Observations On Inertia And A Cool Online App For Getting Things Done

.

“Man has the rights he can defend” or the reality of copyright protection for working musicians

MUSIC BUSINESS 201: SELLING IT VERSUS SELLING OUT

A Music Business Lesson From The Producers

On “It is what it is”

“When You Come To A Fork In The Road Take It”

.

Circumnavigating The Wall You Just Hit

INSPIRATION VS. INTIMIDATION

TWO STEPS BACK OR SETBACKS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

.

KEEPING YOUR EGO OUT OF THE SONG’S WAY

Hobo With A Shotgun Or band with a song?

SURVIVING THE GIG

.

NOW IS THE TIME OF THE CONTENT CREATOR

THE AMERICAN IDOL LITMUS TEST

.

The Power Of Inertia Or Know Your Flow

THE “NEW” MUSIC BUSINESS IS A YUGO ENGINE IN A BMW SHELL

STRONG OPINIONS ARE LIKE STRONG ODORS OR SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A THICK SKIN

DO YOU CARE ABOUT SOME BEATLES ON YOUR APPLE? MEL BAY AND SOME MUSIC INDUSTRY OBSERVATIONS

THE DOUBLE EDGED SWORD OF “FIX IT IN THE MIX”

.

THE MYTH OF PRINCE CHARMING OR MUSIC BUSINESS MANAGERS 101

COMPLEX CASSANDRA OR WHAT ELVIRA MISTRESS OF THE DARK COULD MEAN TO YOU

FACEBOOK IS THE NEW E-MAIL

WHAT ROCKULA ON NETFLIX SHOULD MEAN TO MUSICIANS

THE INSTRUCTIONAL METHODOLOGY BEHIND “HOW NOT TO DO THINGS”

.

“A MAN’S GOT TO KNOW HIS LIMITATIONS” OR LIMITING OPTIONS IS A KEY TO PRODUCTIVITY

POSSESSION IS 9/10S OF THE LAW BUT PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING OR PRACTICING PART VII

WHERE TO GET YOUR GUITAR REPAIRED IN LA OR LESSONS FOR THE SELF EMPLOYED MUSICIAN

ALUM(O)NEY OR PAYING DUES VS. BEING PAYED MONEY

MUSIC, MOVIES, MONEY AND MODELS TO FOLLOW

“COMMON SENSE IS NOT SO COMMON” OR WHY THE INTERNET IS PROBABLY WRONG

FOCUS, MUSIC AND THE BIG PICTURE – A QUOTE TO CONSIDER

.

“THE LIMITS OF MY LANGUAGE ARE THE LIMITS OF MY WORLD”

DEADLINES ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND

SEEING THE FOREST INSTEAD OF THE TREE

FOCUS, MUSIC AND THE MARATHON MENTALITY

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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 – this is a bit of a problem.  Interestingly enough on a recent Joe Gore post, I was talking about the fact that one reason I’ve stuck with Line 6 is because I like the idea of dedicated hardware.  If my only rig was a laptop rig, and I was out on the road – I would SOL right now even with time machine.  I like having a hardware unit that only does one thing.  They tend to last a lot longer over the long haul.

At any rate, as I hijack my wife’s laptop for a moment to type this – here’s a list of what’s going on and what’s coming up:

• My 16,000 + word interview with Miroslav Tadic is up online (and you can read it here).  You will probably need to read it over 4-5 sessions but I assure you that his thoughts on topics like repertoire, phrasing and pedagogy are alone worth the price of admission.  He talks about a few things in the interview that I’ve never heard any other musician going into – so I highly recommend it. (Oh and pick up his new cd as well – it’s really great!)

• A 2-part one note per string scale series is in the works.  It’s an adaptive Shawn Lane lesson that I think you’ll get something useful out of!   Some new mode lessons are on their way a well.

• Some exciting things coming next week as well.  Depending on how long this technical setback has me sidelined – expect a series of music business/motivational/personal development posts in the days and weeks ahead.

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Alright – off to the Apple store.  Please wish me luck!

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your support!

-SC

]]> http://guitarchitecture.org/2012/05/10/new-interview-with-miroslav-tadic-technical-difficulties-and-whats-next/feed/ 0 guitarchitecture http://guitarchitecture.org/2012/05/03/new-guitar-muse-post-on-video-game-session-playing-is-up-online/ http://guitarchitecture.org/2012/05/03/new-guitar-muse-post-on-video-game-session-playing-is-up-online/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 15:10:29 +0000 GuitArchitecture http://guitarchitecture.org/?p=4670 Read more]]> 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 fine details of the 16,000 + word interview (!!) I did with him last year.  Also look for a new player profile series starting with Ridgely Snow (and his Old Coats and Hats recording) in late May/early June.

The Mandorla release I’m playing on is supposed to get released in May/June sometime.  I’ll post more details when I have it.  Rough Hewn Trio tracks should be done sone and I’m collecting material for that acoustic ep I’ve been threatening to do forever.

Some cool lesson posts coming up soon as well.

Thanks for reading!

]]> http://guitarchitecture.org/2012/05/03/new-guitar-muse-post-on-video-game-session-playing-is-up-online/feed/ 0 guitarchitecture http://guitarchitecture.org/2012/04/30/hot-rodding-your-minor-arpeggios-or-a-little-theory-goes-a-long-ways/ http://guitarchitecture.org/2012/04/30/hot-rodding-your-minor-arpeggios-or-a-little-theory-goes-a-long-ways/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:57:19 +0000 GuitArchitecture http://guitarchitecture.org/?p=4641 Read more]]> 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.

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 ”Minor minor on the wall….”

Let’s look at a 5-string A minor arpeggio:

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Now there’s nothing wrong with this form.  But I find that a lot of people practice this arpeggio ascending and descending and then when it’s time to play over an A minor chord guess how they play it?

There was a time in the ’80′s where just cycling an A minor arpeggio over an A minor chord would cut it, but now it’s (yawn) boring.  So what can we do to make it more interesting?

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Start with the Top Side

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In a previous post, I talked about modifying triads to get more complex sounds.  In this lesson I’ll apply that to arpeggios.

The following is a map of alterations to show how chord tones can be modified to create other sounds.

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So with any triad:

The root of the chord can be lowered to the 7 or raised to the 9

The fifth of the chord can be lowered to the 11 or raised to the 13

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In this manner, a triad can be altered into almost any other functional chord.

In the case of A minor I’m going to change the C on the high E string to B.  This creates an A minor (add 9) sound.

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This is already a more interesting sound over an A minor chord to my ears.  But cycling the top notes of the arpeggio creates an interesting arpeggio sequence along the lines of something Tosin Abasi of Animals For Leaders might cycle (Try combining this lick with the one before it to se what I mean).

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Going under the Hood

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This modification idea can be applied to any of the notes of the arpeggio, but for a moment let’s go in the opposite direction.  

In the previous post I talked about superimposing arpeggios.  Here I’ll take the same arpeggio form and drop the low note.  

Instead of stacking ascending thirds  like so:

A [up a 3rd]

C [up a 3rd]

E

I’m going to go a 3rd below A to F.  In this example I hammer on the 2nd note and then play the rest with sweep picking.

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Over F, these notes become:

F (Root), A (Major 3rd), C (5th), E (Major 7th) and B (#11) or F Maj7 #11.

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Using F# instead:

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These notes then become:

F# (Root), A (Minor 3rd), C ( flat 5th), E (minor 7th) and B (11) or F Minor 7 b5 (add #11).

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You could also make to low note G on the 10th fret for an A minor 9 sound (starting from the b7 – G) or make the low note an E which creates a A minor (add 9) arpeggio starting from the 5th.

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For now, let’s stick with the F major 7 (add #11).  If we stack another 3rd below the F, we get D which creates a D minor 9 (add 13) sound. 

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The natural 13 with the minor 9 is truly a Dorian modal arpeggio sound.  To play a simplified version -  just play the F major 7 (#11) arpeggio above over a d minor chord.

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In the following example, I’ve added an open A string to the F major 7 (add #11) arpeggio.  Try playing this as a repeating figure which changing chords over the top of it.  It might give you a new song idea!

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Hopefully this has given you some ideas and some new things to work on.  In the next lesson post, we get back into modes and get deeper into the individual modes.

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Thanks for reading and I hope this helps!  

-SC

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PS If you like this post you may also like:

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THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO CHORD SCALES IS OUT NOW (AS WELL AS THE NEW 4-BOOK PDF BUNDLE!)

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The Modal Microscope And A Sequenced Arpeggio Approach

Slash and Burn – Creating More Complex Sounds With Slash Chords

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CREATING CHORDS AND LINES FROM ANY SCALE – A HARMONIC COMBINATORICS / SPREAD VOICINGS LESSON

AUGMENT YOUR KNOWLEDGE: SONIC SHAPES AND GETTING MORE FROM AUGMENTED CHORDS

Slash and Burn – Creating More Complex Sounds With Slash Chords

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GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 3

Getting Hipness From A Major Triad Or More Chord Recycling Part 2

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 1

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RECYCLING CHORDS PART II: TRIAD TRANSFORMATION

RECYCLING CHORDS PART I OR WHERE’S THE ROOT?

RECYCLING SHAPES OR MODULAR ARPEGGIOS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

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Some Useful Online Practice Tools

POSSESSION IS 9/10S OF THE LAW BUT PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING OR PRACTICING PART VII

TESTING YOUR VOCABULARY OR PRACTICING PART VI

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PLAY OR PRACTICING PART V

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DEFINITIONS AND DOCUMENTS OR PRACTICING PART IV

TENSION AND THE SODA CAN OR PRACTICING PART III

PROPER POSTURE IS REQUIRED FOR PROPER PERFORMANCE – PRACTICING PART II

PRACTICE MAKES BETTER AKA PRACTICING PART I

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 and you can read that here.

For those of you into the RedLnyx Trials games – you can hear me playing a solo on a track called “Come Alive ” on the new Trials Evolution game.  There’s a video for that here.  The solo starts at 1:26 or so and followed some directorial cues for what they wanted for the solo.  I’ll have a post about my video game recording experiences up next week.

I’ve mentioned Manrico Montero’s awesome Mandorla label before, but I’ve just sent a new soundscape track off to him for an Autumn-themed net release.  I have no idea how my field recording gone awry track will fit – the text for the track is:

“The ground grows cold

the sky holds it’s breath

in Autumn the bill comes due.”

so it may be ambient soundscapes – but it’s not new age by any means!  No word on release date for that yet.

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More reviews on the way.  I have a new set of monitors that I dig for the price range and I’m working with a beta version of the new Scuffham Amp update for a forthcoming review (early verdict – it’s cool!) More online lessons are also on the way.  I’m trying to get rough hewn tracks out the door and working on tracks for a new project.

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Finally, I’ve gotten a lot of really kind comments from people about the GuitArchitect’s… book series and I wanted to thank everyone for their support.  I’m happy that the books are out there and that people are getting something useful from them!

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Thanks again!

-SC

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 opposite of transparent in the signal chain.  It had 30-some presets and none of the parameters on any of them were edit-able.  So on paper  it wasn’t a great pedal but it actually had some great fx.  In addition to some nice swell sounds (you can hear it here on this Visible Inc. track)

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It had some filter sounds that ranged from wild to really musical:

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and some really cool reverse sounds.  This is from an unreleased TubTime session and a good lesson on how not to solo over a static tonic in 7.  Geoff Chase is killing on drums on all the Tubtime stuff – so a big shout out to him.  Spacestation is in the beginning and the overplaying starts around  1:09.  (As an FYI – If I remember correctly this is a Ernie ball volume pedal, Big Muff Pi, Space Station and a Guyatone MD-2 run through a Fender 4×10 Deville.)

And finally some nice pre-whammy pedal glitch stuff as well (this is actually excerpted from the same piece as the solo above!)

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Alright – anyway I used it A LOT for a number of years and even when I went to line 6 and laptop rigs it and a volume pedal were often the only external pedals I’d have in the signal chain.  The problem was the power supply connection got a little funky from velcroing it to my pedal board and it started to die on me on various gigs.  So it’s been sitting in a “to do” pile while I hoped that Digitech would get smart and just release the code as an AU or a VST.  (I say get smart because when a pedal sells for 3-400 dollars on ebay there’s clearly a market for it still – so if you already have the code it’s really not that challenging to port it over to a shell and make some money off of it.  But I digress with an aside about quibbles with Digitech’s marketing concept).

During the packing for the move, I had to make a number of decisions about what I was willing to get rid of as I simply couldn’t afford to mail everything.  When I came across the pedal – I went online and read a series of posts that said that Digitech would replace the power supplies for a flat fee of $30-$40 (I don’t remember what it was) so I called the repair center.  I had previously gotten an RMA for a GNX and they did a good job of turning it around so I didn’t expect any problems this time. It took a while to get transferred to the right department but I finally got someone on the phone.

Digitech: “Yeah?”

Me: “I’m sorry I just got transferred here – is this the repair center?”

Digitech: “Oh…yeah it is.  What do you need to get repaired?”

Me: “I just have a power supply on an XP300 that I need to get replaced.”

Digitech: “We don’t repair those anymore.”

Me: “ok…So what do I have to do?”

Digitech: “(Sighs and adopting the most dickish tone imaginable) You need to go to the web page and look for an authorized repair center near you.”

(I should mention that this is problematic for some people because having gone to the web page –  if you don’t live in an area with an authorized repair center you’re directed to the Digitech repair center – i.e. you’re SOL).

Me: “Alright – well the repair centers don’t repair all Digitech products right?”

Digitech: “That’s correct.”

Me: “(Still optimistic here) So is there a way for me to tell from the web page who will repair the unit?”

Digitech: “No you just have to call them all to see who will take it.”

Me: “(pause biting my tongue) So if I do find someone who will repair it they’d still probably have to order the power supply from you correct?” (Now finding this silly since the repair center is still involved on some level in the repair of the unit.)

Digitech: “Yeah probably.”

Me: “(Fed up) Clearly I’m taking up a lot of your valuable time.  So I’m going to let you go.  Thanks for clarifying my relationship with Digitech in the future.”

Digitech: “Ok.”

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And I threw the pedal out.

That might come across as petulant – but I decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to deal with poor customer service and what I have a difficult time conveying in the post is the sheer smarminess and exasperation of this person’s response.  

I understand that companies can’t update their products forever – but when a consumer has already purchased a product why would you expect them to go through the legwork when they eventually have to fix it? (Especially when Digitech could have easily just had some unpaid intern contact those repair places and gotten a list of who does what repairs and put that information on the website rather than just say, “Oh we’re not fixing those anymore – so go figure it out.”)

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The Line 6 Variax

I bought a AC-700 from Sweetwater when they were discontinuing the line and it was a really cool instrument – especially for tracking acoustic guitar parts at home and not having to deal with setting up mics in a noisy apartment.  When the guitar shipped one of the piezos was dead so I contacted Line 6 customer service.  The  person on the phone was really helpful.  They offered to give me a list of repair centers and when I said that I couldn’t be without a guitar for a length of time to get it repaired – he asked me if I was comfortable with soldering (I was) and then said he could just send a replacement piezo and that I could call him when I had to install it when I got them.  He actually mailed me 2 of them (in case one of them didn’t work), and after removing the bad one – the new one worked like a charm.

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Some thoughts about customer service

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So the similarity between the two experiences is that I dealt with only one person from each company.  

The difference between the two experiences is that while I will probably never own another Digitech product, I would tell anyone who asked that Line 6 is a good company and that they’re good to deal with.  

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(In a related note, I have a good relationship with Sweetwater.  Do they always have the cheapest prices?  Nope.  But they have things in stock, they’re knowledgable and they’re pleasant to deal with so when I a/b purchasing something from Sweetwater versus, say Guitar Center and the almost universally awful experiences I’ve had there – it’s a pretty easy decision.)

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Admittedly, I am over-reacting (and dealing with every other stressful reaction of a move made my desire to deal with repairing something nil) – but the lesson here is that it sometimes only takes one person and one interaction to instill or ruin good will – and it takes a LONG TIME to rebuild that good will. 

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How many times have you gone online to research a product and found someone just going off on it?  If you really care – you’ll look for other reviews but you only need to find a few of those about a company or product to move on.  Those people kill products and ultimately they hurt companies as well.  

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As a working musician – you are a business and your business will succeed or fail based on what you offer, who you offer it to and how you offer it to them – so customer service skills are essential.  

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Please take the preceding and the following as merely the incomplete and well-intentioned advice that came from years of making costly mistakes that it is.  

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• Treat every person and every interaction seriously and with respect.

• Communicate proactively and clearly and put the emphasis on listening rather than speaking.  People generally don’t know how to ask for what they really want – by listening you can help piece together what they are asking for and what they are really looking for/inquiring about.

• You’re not always going to be able to say yes to everyone or make everyone happy but if you have to say no, offer compromises or other solutions.  Be helpful.  

• Don’t assume something is clear or understood.  Actively reach out to people you are working with to make sure you’re on the same page and have the same expectations. (I re-learned this lesson again recently the hard way.  So hopefully you’ll benefit from it now!)

• Be careful of what you say and what you commit to.

• Never compromise your integrity.  Do what you say you are going to do, but don’t do anything that compromises what you are all about.

• Create clear expectations and clear boundaries.  There are people who will ask the world of you and trying to give it to them will kill you.  Be firm but fair, and set real limits on what you are trying to do.

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It’s one thing to say something on a forum or post on the internet – but a whole other thing to deal with people on a personal level.  I’ll talk in more depth about this in the future, but if you don’t already, consider putting real stock in your interactions with people.  If nothing else, in the long run it’s to your advantage to do so.

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As always, I hope this helps and thanks for reading!

-SC

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PS. If you like this post, you may also like:

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WHERE TO GET YOUR GUITAR REPAIRED IN LA OR LESSONS FOR THE SELF EMPLOYED MUSICIAN

ON TALENT, TENACITY AND SELF-DEFINITION

“A Tale Of Two Cities” – Or A Lesson On Managing Consumer Expectation

STRONG OPINIONS ARE LIKE STRONG ODORS OR SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A THICK SKIN

“A MAN’S GOT TO KNOW HIS LIMITATIONS” OR LIMITING OPTIONS IS A KEY TO PRODUCTIVITY

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Had I already owned a car, I might have looked into getting a trailer and doing the move, but since Boston isn’t a very car friendly town (as one winter of $600 in parking and tow fees attested to),  I had gotten rid of my car years ago and renting a car for that distance and time wasn’t financially viable.

So we mailed it all and then when we came back to the east coast, we did it again.  We spent about $1500 in shipping to get everything here.  Given that the estimate for a POD delivery across the coast would have been close to $7,000, the van rental would have been about $4-$5,000, I got off light.  (Mind you, if the move was a shorter distance, we probably would have gone with the POD option).

If you have to go this route I can give you some suggestions based on my experience – but keep in mind that other options may be available and/or preferable to you.

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One thing I looked into initially was freight shipping (where all of your stuff is clear wrapped on pallets, billed by weight and typically shipped by truck).  While this would have been cheaper that piecemealing the shipments as we did, it was a little too rough for the instruments.  They’d get hit with a lot of heat and while any commercially available guitar goes through the same process essentially to get to the store – it wasn’t something I wanted to risk.  The logistics of getting something freight shipped to NY and then getting it to our apartment also wasn’t feasible.

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For instruments – I’ve always used UPS.  They’re not the cheapest method of shipping – but the UPS stores I’ve been to do a better job packing than I would have.  It’ll cost you about $30 a box to do – but the shipping is determined by whichever is more expensive.  So in the case of guitars, the expense comes from the size of the box being shipped, so the weight isn’t a factor.  In once case I stuffed a heavy-duty music stand and instrument stand and it all got wrapped and shipped under the $30.  I shipped 3 basses together this way in 1 oversized box.

For my electric in a (high quality gig bag) they:

• Wrapped the entire case in thick bubble wrap
• Covered the case and the bubble wrap with an additional piece of card board (imagine a cardboard blanket)
• put it in an appropriate sized box that was well tapped and
• filled it with about 2 trash bags worth of peanuts.

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So, yes you can do it cheaper on your own – but if you don’t have that much bubble wrap or peanuts handy (or a guitar sized box) – do you want to be running around trying to deal with that?

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A note on UPS insurance:

You get $100 insurance on everything you ship automatically.  You can get more insurance BUT if you pack it on your own, they can dispute the claim because they don’t know what measures were taken to ship it.  So for that reason alone – it’s worth the $30 for them to pack it.

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Tips on shipping guitars.

• Slack the strings as much as possible before shipping them.  Strings usually break when you bring them back up to tension anyways, so if possible just take the strings off entirely and just plan on putting a new set on.   If you have an archtop style bridge you may want to lightly scotch tape it to the top of the guitar so it doesn’t move.

• If I’m shipping the guitars in a hard case – I’ll usually run a little piece of bubble wrap around the neck where the neck is resting in the case.  Even though better quality cases have a lot of padding there, I’ve still gotten neck dings from the case in tough trips.  It might be paranoia now – but it’s worth the extra second to me.

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Using the Po-O

The post office was invaluable to be in getting a lot of other things here.  All of the pedals and assorted small hardware shipped Priority mail.  In addition to the free box – the rule is: if it fits in the priority box – it ships – regardless of weight.  And I took full advantage of that.

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Packing tip: 

A long time ago at a day job I had – I was berated by a boss for not using a full roll of tape on a computer box he was shipping.  ”Tape is cheap – fixing something that fell out of a broken box is expensive.”  With the priority boxes I write the addresses in marker on the box – and then encase the boxes in clear plastic packing tape.  It addition to giving the box more support structurally (believe me I had some heavy things worked into those small boxes), it also prevents the address label from getting ripped off (lesson learned the hard way leaving Boston) and it makes the package less susceptible to rain damage.  Pedals were bubble wrapped as were expensive audio converters, headphones and other fragile items.

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Music books, DVDs and CDs (remember them?) – were all shipped media rate in boxes I grabbed from the local pharmacy. The grocery store is a good place to look for odd sized boxes – but be sure to only use boxes with canned or dry goods.  You probably don’t want all you’re clothes to stink of rotting ice cream.  The heaviest boxes I shipped cost $20 or less to ship from one coast to another.  That’s an amazing deal to me.

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A note on shipping USPS:

I don’t get insurance but I get delivery confirmation on EVERYTHING I ship.  The critical thing to know about this is that USPS isn’t well-organized with backtracking things.  So – when I shipped some priority boxes to Mrs. Collins (with – unbeknownst to me – about $1000 worth of flamenco shoes and accessories) and then misplaced the receipt – they had no way of looking up the package.

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If you have the receipt and the confirmation numbers - they can find anything

without them – you’re screwed.

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Organization is a key component to a move like this anyways.  If I was really organized this time I would have had a book, and a numbering system for each box where I could tell you exactly where anything.  The move was chaotic enough that it didn’t happen.  The plus side is that by keeping all the receipts (and the confirmation tags) – I could go through and make sure that everything got here (which it finally did).

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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 topics (Including DIY and creative commons design) and as Misha from Periphery or Tosin from Animals as Leaders will tell you – from 6-8 strings Ola’s got it going on!

You can read the interview with Ola here, or read any of my other interviews with builders and players here.

Other than that I should be picking up the last of my boxes and then unpacking.  Hopefully then I can start the whole recording/gigging/clinic cycle that is supposed to start to get unearthed in NY.  

Now about that amp….

I should have a track on a new Mandorla release in May.  New Daren Burns tracks and the Rough Hewn trio ep are both threatening to drop before the end of the year.

Back to it (assembling IKEA furniture that is)!

As always, thanks for reading!

-SC