Category: Articles
Stephen Fry on the Importance Of Classical Music
Most excellent speech.
Bell Notes – The Selmer Mark VI, Bombs & Church Bells
Amazing video…..
iOS Device for Looping (ala Brecker)
Electronista had this article up about musician getting rid of all this effects pedals in favor of an iOS device.
British street performer and musician Dub FX says he’s considering getting rid of the range of effects pedals he usually uses — to loop his voice and other instruments in the process of creating his beatboxing-based songs — in favor of an iPhone, thanks to the recent release of Loopy v2. So enthusiastic is he about the program that he has posted an unpaid video tutorial for the app
Ok, this isn’t exactly a Michael Brecker using an iPad for looping…..but imagine if he were alive and had access to stuff like Dub FX has. Imagine what else he could have done with Song for Barry. Technology is amazing.
Charlie Parker’s Gravesite and Inverted Mordent
Dear all,
I’ve finally got some free time to post some information about Charlie Parker’s grave-site & pictures of Parker’s gravestone in a new article in Bebop Cookbook series: Charlie Parker’s Grave & Inverted Mordent in Bebop Improvisation. There have been some discussions regarding the appropriateness of the inscribed saxophone in Parker’s gravestone (some claimed that it looked more like a tenor saxophone). So check out the photo to judge for yourself:-) Biographical Outline of Charlie Parker’s Life, also newly added into Bebop Cookbook, is a bit longer than the timeline-format initially planned. I sincerely hope that these articles will be somewhat useful to some of you.
Regards,
JK
Carbon Fiber Necks?
“Custom-made high-quality saxophone necks, made of top quality carbon fiber and water-resistant epoxy resin coated with ultraviolet-light-resistant polyurethane, are designed by musician/engineer Antoine Lefebvre and Zen Composites. For any wind instrument, composite materials may replace copper to produce stiffer, lighter and shock resistant bodies, which may be particularly attractive for large brass winds and saxophones”
Except that saxophone necks aren’t made of copper…..I don’t think. Interesting stuff though. Wonder if it sounds better than the plastic saxophones….
The Future Of “Jazz”?…..I Hope Not
I seriously hope this sorta of stuff is not the future of music. I mean…..it is just stupid….
Sad State Of The “Grammy Awards”
Remember when the Grammy Awards used to hand out awards to great performers. Those days are gone. Seems that the Grammys have axed a bunch of categories
“The people who run the National Academy for Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) have been getting an angry earful from musicians upset by the academy’s decision to drop Latin jazz, Cajun/zydeco, and 29 other categories from next year’s Grammy Awards.
The awards for best Classical and best Classical Crossover albums have been axed, too, along with categories in every musical genre — all part of a major Grammy overhaul, announced in April. But it’s the elimination of Latin jazz, as well as other ethnic-music categories, that has triggered a wave of criticism and protests from musicians and other NARAS members in the Bay Area, New York, and Los Angeles. Big names like Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, and Herbie Hancock have joined the chorus calling on the Recording Academy, as it now calls itself, to reverse its decision..”
So we are going to see the same crap get awarded. If anyone had doubts, the whole LA area now is completely devoid of creativity now. Hollywood cranks out great hits like Jim Carey in Mr. Poppers Penguins, unfunny shows like “the Office”, and now the Grammy awards just wants to pat itself on the back for producing compressed crap they call music.
Terrible.
Last Friday Night
There is a good reason for posting this….other than it has Katy Perry in it. It’s towards the end……something when the parents get home and Uncle Kenny….
Sibelius Takes The Lead
Yes, a lot of people use Sibelius. They make a good notation package. Some prefer the flexibility that Finale offers. But what about if you want to make music on the go? Say, on an iPad. Well, you really can’t…….yet…..but….
Avid just released Sibelius Scorch for the iPad, which is a step towards making scores on an iPad. Scorch allows you to take all your Sibelius scores, view them, transpose them, play them. But not, it seems, do any editing. At least not yet. For people with a lot of Sibelius scores, this $5 app sounds great. People with Finale scores……we seem to be out of the loop….again.
Hopefully this first release of Scorch will be followed by a some sort of Sibelius for iPad that allows editing. I would think that if they have transpose, display, ability to view individual parts, and play back that actual editing would be fairly easy to do…..
The Future
I think this is where music is heading. Sure, there will be lots of people playing “traditional” instruments, but we will be a rare breed.
Wind Instruments and Sickness
The NY Times has an article out titled The Claim: Playing a Wind Instrument Causes Respiratory Infection.
“For years, scientists have noticed that people who play wind instruments seem to be at greater risk of chronic sore throats and airway inflammation. Some research suggested that saliva and microorganisms might build up in the mouthpieces, then get blown deeper into the instruments.
But until recently, scientists did not know whether the germs could breed and survive long enough to sicken someone playing the instrument a day or two later.”
Basically, yes, germs can survive a day or two and you might get yourself infected again. Bottom line is that you should clean your stuff out if you are getting sick or are sick…..and well, AT LEAST when you change a reed.
John Adams Commencement Speech
You need to read this. Composer John Adams Julliard commencement speech.
The arts, however, are difficult. They are mind-bendingly and refreshingly difficult. You can’t learn the role of Hamlet (no less write it), you can’t play the fugue in the Hammerklavier Sonata (no less compose it) and you can’t hope to move effortlessly through one of Twyla Tharp’s ballets without having submitting yourself to something that’s profoundly difficult, that demands sustained concentration and unyielding devotion. Artists are people who’ve learned how to surrender themselves to a higher purpose, to something better than their miserable little egos. They’ve been willing to put their self-esteem in a Cuisinart and let it be chopped and diced and crushed to a pulp. They are the ones who’ve learned to live with the brutal fact that God didn’t dole out talent in fair and equal portions and that the person sitting next to them may only need to practice only half as hard to win the concerto competition.
And the wonderful, astonishing truth is that the arts are utterly useless. You can’t eat music or poetry or dance. You can’t drive your car on a sonnet it or wear it on your back to shield you from the elements. This “uselessness” is why politicians and other painfully literal-minded people during times of budget crises (which is pretty much all the time now) can’t wait to single the arts out for elimination. For them artistic activity is strictly after-school business. They consider that what we do can’t honestly be compared to the real business of life, that art is entertainment and ultimately non-essential. They don’t realize that what we artists offer is one of the few things that make human life meaningful, that through our skill and our talent and through the way that we share our rich emotional lives we add color and texture and depth and complexity to their lives.
And there is a LOT more. Worth reading.
The Blind Man Who Taught Himself To See
Great article…
Daniel Kish has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike. And navigate the wilderness alone. And recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. How? The same way bats can see in the dark.
This makes me wonder what else a human can do. Perhaps in music classes, if students were required to wear blindfolds, it would develop their “ear” faster and better? Or maybe we all should have some sort of class which we have to do things completely without sight.
I know when I listen to music, I really have to pretty much close my eyes to listen. I can’t really multitask and listen to something. Nor can I listen to stuff while driving as a lot of my attention goes to the music, the brain picking apart what I’m hearing…..even if I have heard it many many times over. It’s like other things, sight, etc, are interfering with my listening.
Pitch Axis Theory
Chordal instrument players are good to follow for figuring out how to solo to chord changes. Here is a little intro to what guitar players call “Pitch Axis Theory”. To me, it’s more of soloing to tonal centers, but potato or po-tat-o….