From Engadget: “If you carry your sheet music in a laptop, AirTurn’s got a USB dongle for that, but if you’ve migrated your musical cues to an certain slate, never fear, Bluetooth is on the way. The AirTurn BT-105 will bring the company’s page turning technology to iPad, using a transmitter that attaches to standard [Continue]

By far my favorite tuner App, now for a buck. “For a limited time, we have reduced our price on iStroboSoft to 99 cents! No promotion code needed. Visit the App Store to purchase. Peterson Strobe Tuners popular StroboSoft tuning application for the iPod touch and iPhone. iStroboSoft™ offers the unmatched accuracy of a mechanical [Continue]

I’m really late in finding out about this, but Bay Area saxophonist William Trimble died on February 22nd after having a heart attack the day before. Bill was the saxophone teacher for the first 3 years of my schooling at Cal State Hayward. Thought I never really got along with him he did enlighten me [Continue]

About a year or so ago, I added Google Ads to my various websites. I chose to do a rather unobtrusive banner ad rather than something more obnoxious like everything you click on brings up a popup. Well, I finally got a check from Google. So, those clicks on ads do actually turn into money! [Continue]

PGMusic announced today that they are out with the latest, greatest version of BinaB for Windows (no new Mac version yet). Nothing really “whoa” in this version, other than if you upgrade from the previous version you can get ALL the RealTracks. Some of the highlights of the update I found interesting are: Plug-in mode….generate [Continue]

I’m not really sure what to make of this. The Eigenharp Alpha. “A professional level instrument which allows the musician to play and improvise using a limitless range of sounds with virtuoso skill. The unique design of the keys makes this the most expressive electronic musical instrument ever made. The Alpha can play and record [Continue]

The first volume of “Jazz Improvisation Series: II-V-I Jazz Lines in Fourths” is finally up in www.jkchang.com.  This volume of the jazz improvisational lines focuses upon the linear constructions based upon the intervallic value of the perfect fourth, and sporadically, the augmented fourth. The non-triadic formula generates ambiguous [Continue]

Avid/Digidesign put this up: “Apple has announced that they will begin shipping the new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard 64-bit operating system in September 2009. Avid is working closely with Apple to deliver compatible, high-quality versions of Pro Tools® as soon as possible. Please check back periodically for updates on Avid’s Snow [Continue]

Recently, I have some free time and managed to get some of my older jazz practice materials online.  The first package, “Chromatic Transposition of II-V-I Bebop Lines,” was created few years back, containing approximately 70 pages of jazz materials suited for jazz saxophonists interested in getting more of Bebop:-)  The package is [Continue]

First, they went after the Girl Scouts to have them PAY for singing songs around a campfire. Now, ASCAP wants you to PAY for a public performance of a ring tone. Yes……my mind too hit the brick wall and splattered upon reading this too. Have we become THAT concerned with money? I think it is [Continue]

I could NOT believe my eyes this morning. Band in a Box 2009 is FINALLY out for Macintosh. After being behind 7 versions (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2007.5, 2008, 2009), PG Music has LEAP FROGGED the Mac version to the latest Windows version. Amazing. And to get it all up to date on a Mac [Continue]

Not to be outdone by Sibelius, MakeMusic announced Finale 2010. Actually, lets reword that. Failing to incorporate any of the ideas presented in Sibelius 5, and failing to come up with anything new and interesting, MakeMusic announced Finale 2010. Ok, so, what is new for the $99.95 pre-order price? Not much at all. They finally [Continue]

Sibelius 6 has just been announced. I’m not seeing much that makes me go “whoa” like when they put in Parts and Score linking. The noteworthy features I saw are: Magnetic Layout Version Comments ReWire support Store (though don’t they need to police it for copyright infringement?) They also seem to have snagged some of [Continue]

This site, and my others (jazz-flute, jazz-clarinet, jazz-oboe, etc), will probably be down sometime over the weekend. Basically, this is due to be deciding to retire my huge old Dual Pentium III server with a smaller, more efficient Atom powered computer. I’m not anticipating any problems but……you never know. I think it will be [Continue]

Sad news today: Louie Bellson, a jazz drummer and bandleader who combined remarkable instrumental virtuosity with far-ranging compositional skills, has died. He was 84. According to his wife Francine, Bellson died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications of Parkinson’s disease following a broken hip in [Continue]