TUAW had a great article last week. An interview with the guy who created the startup sound on Macs, Jim Reekes. It’s amazing the amount of math, thought and stuff that went into this. Long live the Cmajor startup sound. [Continue]

Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica have created WolframTones, which takes “simple programs from Wolfram’s computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music.”It’s free, but, not really music to me. I’d much rather listen to solos and tunes generated with Band in a [Continue]

harry63 writes “I know that we can never practice scales, arpeggios, theory, etc. enough. However, how does one practice the musical or “soul” aspect of the music? I feel my playing is more a series of notes that are theoretically correct and not yet “soulfully correct.”" Hmmm…..listen to recordings and find [Continue]

SaxMan0216 writes “I’m a big fan of big bands and instrumental blues sorts of things. I was searching on the net recently for some tunes and I came across a song done by the Stan Kenton band (apparently in 1976). It’s a Bari sax feature in what I’ve found to be the typical Kenton feature [Continue]

John Greschak composes music based upon the mathematical properties of various mathematical objects (Hexahedrons, Tower of Hanoi, pentominoes). He writes computer programs to realize devised algorithms and uses the results of these processes as source material for musical pieces. Greschak’s newest addition, Platonic Dice: Dodecahedron for 12 [Continue]

bluesupanddown writes “The whole approach to learning jazz in America seems to be under a shroud of mystery. Every answer I get seems to be a riddle instead of an answer, so, I am going to start posting my questions. Right now I am stuck on bebop. The only people that I know to listen [Continue]

BIABfsg writes Jerry Bergonzi Solos Setting Standards by Miles Osland, Publisher: Dorn Publications, Inc. Jerry wrote down his thoughts regarding transcriptions book that “Even to an accomplished musician the transcription is lifeless unless he hears the artist articulate it and listens to his time feel….” I assume that [Continue]

While cruising the internet, I came across Musictheory.net. Very Nice site! Covers a lot of stuff from basic “Here is the staff and clef” to building chords. It even has trainers on it, where you can do ear training, chords, just about everything. Great! And, to top it off, it was done by a PERCUSSIONIST. [Continue]

KCBS had a little story on a San Francisco Symphony Website for Kids. It is a very well done site that uses Flash in a tasteful way. It is fun, and informational. Highly recommended for kids! [Continue]

A while ago, someone recommended reading Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. I was interested, and it was only like $10 through Amazon.com. I’ve finished reading it. For the second time. It’s 81 pages contain some very philosophical ideas that musicians and teachers can use. I must admit, I have always been [Continue]

One of my students today somehow got a copy of “Straight No Chaser” that some other teacher produced on Finale. On the bottom of the sheet they had two blues scales. One was the blues as I know it, D-F-G-G#-A-C which they labeled as Minor Blues. The other was something like D-E-F-F#-G-A-C which was labeled [Continue]

This is part two to a great Coltrane dissertation that was submitted by The-End. The Expansion of "Coltrane Change" For compositional and improvisational purposes, the author of this article has developed a system to expand the possibilities of "Coltrane Change" by altering the quality of tonic chords (Example 9), altering the dominant chords [Continue]

There has been a lot of interest in John Coltrane recently. Some guys at Guitar.com had a discussion going. The following submission by The-End is part of a disseration for masters in music. There are some mp3s here for it as well. Enjoy! John William Coltrane (c. 1926-67) John Coltrane's one of major tenor players [Continue]

I just picked up a copy of Jack Sneidman’s 1001 Jazz Licks – A Complete Jazz Vocabulary for the Improvising Musician. It is available from Jazzbooks.com right here. True to form, it does contain 1001 licks/patterns, none of which seem to be repeated. The books is divided up into 3 major sections: Essential Licks, Stylistic [Continue]

I just recently bought David Liebman – Tenor Solos which is a CD cut of David Liebman playing while doing Vol. 19 of the Aebersold Play-along series. It features David Liebman playing tenor on all 8 songs, and transcribed solos for 6 of the 8 songs.For $9.95, it’s a great value. David Liebman is a [Continue]