Category: Articles

Music Education and Brain Development 101

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Music Education and Brain Development 101

But what transpires inside the brain (and which areas are affected) during music education? How does this early stimulation & nurturing translate into better scholastic performance? These relatively simple questions continue to be the focus of intense research efforts by developmental neurobiologists.

So let’s start our first column with the 30,000 foot and cellular perspectives. Research strongly suggests that music education causes the simultaneous and continuous stimulation of many brain regions. New connections (“wiring”) between brain cells are formed. Through ongoing music education, the wiring also benefits students in other academic domains.

Which areas of the brain are “recruited” during music education? The short answer is all major regions. Let’s review how the brain is organized and how each region is engaged during music education.

Also check out the Music Empowers Foundation
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Lessons in Manliness from Charles Atlas

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Lessons in Manliness from Charles Atlas

Lessons in Manliness from Charles Atlas:

This is just PART of the article. Great for anyone who wants to continue to improve themselves (*cough* like EVERY MUSICIAN)

Lessons in Manliness from Charles Atlas

Turn your weaknesses into strengths.

Charles Atlas was born Angelo Siciliano in Acri, Italy in 1893. When he was ten, his family immigrated to America, and he landed on Ellis Island not speaking a word of English.

Little Angelo swore he’d do great things, but his prospects didn’t look too promising. He was a skinny, sickly, slope-shouldered boy–easy pickings for the bullies in his tough Brooklyn neighborhood. Coming home one Halloween night, a bully beat him with a bag of ashes, knocking him out for an hour. “It seemed like he was beating the brains out of me,” Atlas recalled. When he came to, Atlas lumbered home, crawled into bed, and said a prayer, telling God he’d never let another man beat him.

 

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RAT Stands – The Jazz Stand

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on RAT Stands – The Jazz Stand

Just when you think you have seen everything there is to see in a design…..someone comes along and blows your mind. That is what happened when I came across RAT Stands The Jazz Stand.

The Jazz Stand is a totally cool, full sized, portable music stand. I mean, seriously, check it out. It’s $149, but it would sure beat the hell out of having a Manhasset stand taking up space in the back of the car.

Articles, News

Survival In The Music Business

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Survival In The Music Business

Let’s face it, the economy sucks. And it’s not going to get better anytime soon regardless of what the idiots in DC promise. How does a musician survive then?

Musician Wages.com has an excellent article with some pointers.

My own pointers would be NOT to put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t “just” play Tenor. Or alto. Play as many as possible. You never know when you might get that baritone sax and soprano sax gig. If you can’t afford all the instruments, at least own mouthpieces and reeds that you are comfortable playing those instruments on. For example, I don’t own a Bari, but I do own a bari mouthpiece and reeds.

Another pointer, be flexible in your playing styles. Know how to shape your tenor sound to a good mock Boots Randolph if the gig requires that. Or a more classical style. Not every gig requires your full on Michael breaker 1980s sound.

Another pointer…..double. It is essential. Try to get one or two instruments close to your main instruments level. Theater gigs can help play for rent, etc. You never know when someone is going to need a sub for the latest production of “Wizard of Oz”. Clarinet and flute have to be in your bag of tricks. A double reed will open additional doors.

Another pointer….be fluent with technology. Know a music notation program. Know about DAWs like ProTools, logic, reason, Ableton, GarageBand, reaper, etc. You don’t need to be a certified expert, but know how to open and record something in the program or programs. I see way too many musicians who have no clue how to do anything with technology. They perhaps know how to do three things but that is it. Showing that you can be useful to people in music tech can lead to possible studio work behind the console…..which generally pays more.

Another pointer…..know how microphones work. Seriously, I am amazed at the total lack of understanding of how a microphone works and where it should be placed. Sound guys are generally the worst at knowing where to properly put a mic, mainly cause most of them are rock and roll guys. Know where to put a mic on your sax, or flute. Practice playing into one (you’d be surprised how many people once they start playing drift away from the mic). Know what you sound like through a mic.

There are probably other pointers/tips I’ll add if I think of them, but these are ones that I have used that have kept me employed so far in the business.

Articles

Sheets Of The Week Suspended

Posted on By ericdano 8 Comments on Sheets Of The Week Suspended

Ok, you guys can thank leftyviv (Leftyviv“>leftyviv@gmail.com) for this. Basically, he wanted to know the secrets of improv so he could be awesome on his/her audition…..in less than a week. I replied that I didn’t know how he/she played, but to listen and have space. And they replied that they were disappointed because I had nothing more on the subject. I replied that there was no way to actually triage one’s ability to improvise in less than a week….and that there were plenty of things on the net that they could use. They replied something to the effect that I wasn’t being nice, etc, etc, etc.

Listen, dood….stuff is out on jazz-sax for free. Arrangements that people have done and posted on YouTube. Heck, I see these things circulated on Bittorrent and Usenet. That’s not being nice? Free isn’t nice?

Second, dood…..I don’t take song requests. And I posted as much. That’s not being mean. Or rude. I’m not going to sugar coat it for you. If one of my students asked for it, and I feel it’s good enough to post, I might post whatever. I have like 1000 pop sheets I’ve written out. Including “Moves Like Jagger”. Go find that somewhere for saxophone somewhere else. But I’m not going to take a request from Username1236@prodigy.net who can’t form a proper sentence.

Third, dood….WTF do you want me to do? Write you a solo? Teach you the blues scale? Show you some licks. There are plenty of places out there for that, including here. So you suck at Billie’s Bounce. Go practice. Look at Charlie Parker’s solo(s). Or Cannonball. Or whomever. A major part of soloing is knowing the language. You have to listen and practice it. I totally HATE when some whinny kid wants this that and the other thing. Now. For free. From the internet. Buddy, it don’t work that way. If you want to go cry about stuff, go to like SaxontheWeb or something. There are a lot of posts/users like you there. A few real cool guys like Tim Price, Steve Neff, and Pete Thomas frequent there. I’m sure they will steer you towards some free or paid stuff that they have done. Steve Neff has some cool Blues Licks you can buy for $10.

So, guys, you can thank Leftyviv for no sheets this week. Or maybe the next couple of weeks. I did get “Rumor Has It” by Adele done, and was scheduled for posting today. But…nope. And I think I was going to put up “Rhythm Of Love” by the Plain White T’s or maybe a Mumford and Sons song. But…..nope.

Articles

Superscope Elevation (Stay away…..zombies!)

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So I get the Jamey Aebersold jazzbooks emails. In their latest “Economic Stimulus Sale!” one, at the bottom something got my interest. Elevation Software play-along offer. Hmm…sounded interesting. So I decided to go to the site, www.superscopetechnologies.com and check it out. Downloaded the demo for Mac…..and then the disappointment happened.

$149 for this piece of crap? That is all I can really think of after using the demo. Let me list the disappointment for you shall I?

1. Drag and Drop works….but not for AAC (m4a files) formatted files. So, anything that you get off of iTunes or perhaps have already ripped into AAC format (which is BETTER than mp3) won’t work with the program.
2. The IMPORT dialogue box is NOT mac like at all. I dunno where they got it, but it looks like a Linux box. So, I don’t have access to my sidebar favorites, nor can I use my Default Folder program to navigate to my files.
3. The program crashes like it is in a demolition derby. I mean, I maybe got it to work twice correctly. And I’m still on 10.6.8.

So, why would I spend this much money when programs like The Amazing Slowdowner, or Transcribe! can do what this program does at half the price. And they don’t CRASH! And support AAC files.

People, avoid this software at all costs. AT ALL COSTS. DO NOT GET IT. STAY AWAY. Imagine it is Zombie-fied and going to eat your brains if you download it.

On a side note, I kind of wish Jamey Aebersold would release his play-alongs in a APP format that includes the books and a way to slowdown/speed up, record, and put the songs in other keys. I think Aebersold is missing and/or has missed the boat in this. Instead of selling physical CDs and books, embrace technology. Make an iPad app that has say volume 1, with the tunes, with a metronome. That perhaps you can drop out the piano and bass or whatever. That you can change the pitch and speed of. That sells for the same price in the App store. You’d sell more, and you would ditch the printing and cd costs. The 30% or something Apple would take is easily less than what it actually costs to make the books, cds, and do the packaging.

Articles, Reviews

Posts on John Coltrane’s improvisation approaches, Coltrane Changes, and some improvisation ideas

Posted on By 2 Comments on Posts on John Coltrane’s improvisation approaches, Coltrane Changes, and some improvisation ideas

Dear Jazz-Saxists,

Greetings~

Not long ago, I began to write some casual posts relating to Jazz improvisation ideas and approaches, about Coltrane Changes, John Coltrane, and some off-the-cuff ramblings in my little site at www.jkchang.com.  These posts, collected in the “Dialogue” series, were really fun to write (and I hope they are also fun to read as well~), including:

Incorporating the Sound of Nicolas Slonimsky’s Pattern no. 626 in Jazz Improvisation

-Some ideas and approaches in creating “pure” or “quasi”of Nicolas Slonimsky’s Pattern No. 626 sound.  These ideas are less “analytical”…more like my own ways (aka shortcuts) to manage Slonimsky’s materials in his Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns

John Coltrane’s employment of “The Bebop Lick” in his Coltrane Changes lines in Countdown and Giant Steps

-listening/compiling Coltrane’s employments of “The Bebop Lick” in his Giant Steps & Countdown to list few manageable variant.

Beyond Patterns: Sculpting Jazz Improvisation Lines with the Diminished Scale

-discussing few approaches and ideas to create Diminished Scale sound….for example, using layer approach…etc….to provide few ways, in addition to the usual “here’s your scale”, to execute this wonderful symmetrical scale.

Incorporating Motives of Super Mario Bros. “Underground” Theme in Jazz Improvisation

-a personal post about getting some improvisational ideas from Super Mario Bros.’s “Underground” theme…(although it might appear to be an “Ode to an-incredibly-horrible-gamer”….)

John Coltrane’s Improvised Line in Milestones as a Model for Incorporating Sequential Patterns in Jazz Improvisation

-a personal favorite! This post is about using Coltrane’s improvisational line as a phrasing model to handle lots of sequential patterns in a single improvised line.

Incorporating Dissonance in Jazz Improvisation

-few general ideas on spicing up our improvisations with some juicy dissonances.

More on Coltrane Changes

-ramblings on Coltrane Changes.

 

Have fun reading them~ and please let me know what you think~

 

Regards,

 

JK

Articles

Drumwalker 3000

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Drumwalker 3000

I’ll do a lot for a good gag. And here is one such birthday gag. A Drumset merged with a Walker. A Drumwalker

Articles

Technology is infringing on classical music?

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Technology is infringing on classical music?

This author has some very old school ideas of how we need to listen to music. Basically, ban any electronic devices in a concert. Sure, ok, I can see muting them…..no one wants some a**holes ring tone interrupting Beethoven…..but banning them outright?

I think a better idea would be to engage the audience, maybe have an APP or something that is following the music. So you could see the score, or maybe what a particular instrument is playing RIGHT NOW or maybe have an interactive guide that has analysis of the piece as it is being played that can be highly detailed or simple enough for a rock drummer to understand.

Running away from technology is guaranteed to kill any type of music. They need to embrace it, and look for new ways to engage the audience when they are there, and to draw in new people into classical, or any type of music (except for maybe Country……and Dubstep……and some Rap…….and…….no that’s it)

Articles

What Killed The C-Melody Saxophone?

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on What Killed The C-Melody Saxophone?

Csaxophone.com has a great article up about C Melody Saxophones. Actually, it was taken without citation from wikipedia. Shamelessly copied. Shame on you sirs!

The article on Wikipedia isn’t the authoritative narrative of the rise and fall of the C-Melody. In fact, the author(s) of the Wikipedia article say “However, it is important to note that production ended for purely financial reasons, and not because of any inherent flaw in the design or poor manufacturing standards. C melody saxophones were as good as the reputation of whichever company manufactured them.” and continue with this assertion “the “Big Band” era had started in the early 1930s and anyone who wanted to learn the saxophone was interested primarily in soprano, alto, tenor or baritone because this would, potentially at least, allow them to play in a Big Band, and Big Bands did not feature C melody saxophones in their instrument line-up. As a result there was no consumer demand for C melody instruments”.

I wonder if that is really the reason. If, as they say on Wikipedia, that the instruments “were as good as the reputation of whichever company manufactured them” then, why wouldn’t Pros use them? Wouldn’t it have been a whole lot easier to have a big band that had two C “tenors” and a slightly smaller C “alto” and a slightly larger C “Bari” in the section? I mean, writing for them would have been a lot easier. I would reason that there was something else that prevented the adoption of the C-Melody by Professionals of the day.

Another Wikipedia article says “settling upon instruments alternating between E? and B? rather than those pitched in F and C, for reasons of tone and economy” and “The C soprano saxophone was the only instrument to sound at concert pitch.” More fuel on the fire.

I know people who have C-Melody saxophones. They play crappy I think. Partly because the rest of the saxophone world has advanced in the 80+ years since the hay-day of the C-Melody. The sounds are different. Sort of like comparing a guitar sound and strings to modern guitars. Similar, yes, but different. Or maybe lets use a car analogy….naw.

So what killed the C-Melody then? Was it that companies just didn’t produce quality instruments? Was it (as I suspect) that they sounded crappy even if they were high quality? Was it the Big Band that killed them?

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