An Introduction To Improvisation
Posted: May 22, 2013 Filed under: The Internet | Tags: Berklee, Berklee College of Music, composition, Coursera, Distance Learning, education, Gary Burton, improv, improvisation, internet, jazz, learning, music Leave a comment »
A few weeks back I signed up to Coursera, an online organisation who offer a wide range of classes and courses in partnership with top universities and colleges. Gary Burton, of Berklee, is leading a jazz improv course at the minute, and I am enrolled on it. So far, it’s really good. Solid amounts of content in the video lectures (which are roughly half an hour long, with a new one each week), and awesome support on the forums – there must be thousands of students on the course and some seem really keen to help each other out.
Although I missed a couple of deadlines (detention!), I am learning quite a lot from the course. The way that Gary explains his thinking and methodology behind the spare-of-the-moment decisions that improvisers must make is illuminating, and even though I am not really a huge fan of his playing, I have respect for him as a musician and an educator. Some of the hand-in dates are long gone, but I don’t think it’s too late to jump onto the course and start watching some of the videos, or a different set of classes for that matter. Statistical Molecular Thermodynamics, anyone?
Covers Are Cool
Posted: April 26, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: music, bass, Guitar, smashing pumpkins, hummer, cover, youtube, riff, transcribing Leave a comment »I’ve been drafted in to play a few covers for a friend’s college band on Thursday. After one rehearsal, I’m loving it. I’ve spent a long time now focusing on the rudiments vs. improvs concepts in my playing that it seems I’d forgotten about songs. Riffs are awesome, especially these:
(note the passionate headbangers at 00:28…)
I started off playing bass with Guitar Pro 5, learning every song I could think of by getting hold of the dots for it – and this taught me finger positions, right hand technique, and a lot of timing stuff too. Although now I do see some of the downsides to reading written music, perhaps I should get back into playing other people’s music. Perhaps some transcribing.
The Quality Social Network
Posted: April 4, 2013 Filed under: Blogging, Computers, The Internet | Tags: ADN, app.net, appdotnet, facebook, internet, kickstarter, microblogging, online, Online Communities, online presence, Social media, social network, Social networking service, twitter Leave a comment »A couple of days ago I joined app.net. After getting completely fed up with seeing promoted ad-tweets in my Twitter feed, and seeing promoted crap in my Facebook feed, I started looking for viable alternatives – a simple social networking platform with a nice community, that doesn’t aim to collect data or sell ad space.
App.net, I found, is just that.
Their ‘product’ is the service (no ads, complete data control and ownership, a solid API platform with an exciting developer community…), not the user (someone to advertise at); and that means that it costs to make an account – something I initially felt uncomfortable with. However, after realizing that sites like Facebook and Twitter also need income to function, and that they just get money in a different way, I felt happy to give a bit of money directly to ADN. Instead of getting annoyed with other sites (that we haven’t payed for) when they generate revenue in a way that we don’t like, it’s important to remember why all of these sites exist: to make money.
Anyways, hit up join.app.net to find out more, and if you have an account, you could send me a message or follow me – my account name is @jakebeamish. It’d be great to see you over there! (:
A New Book
Posted: April 3, 2013 Filed under: Music, Reviews | Tags: Arts, Book, learning, Leicester College, music, Music industry, plan, reading, review, understanding the music industries Leave a comment »
I’ve tried reading several music business books over the past few years, and I’ve found all but one of them to be out-of-date; written for an industry that no longer exists in the way that it had, irrelevant, unrealistic (‘first, you need to hire a tour manager…’), or just plain boring. However, this book isn’t. Providing an in-depth but comprehensible examination of the music industries from many angles, I’ve found myself really connecting with some of the ideas proposed by the authors, one of whom I already recognized as an interesting new music thinker from a great lecture he gave at Leicester College a few years ago.
If you’re a sociologist, a musician, a music teacher, or in any way involved in the creative industries, I recommend this book. Tectonic shifts brought about by changes in technology and culture mean that we can never truly define music, or the music industries – but Messrs Anderton, Dubber, and James’ guide is a good way to get a grasp of where we are at the minute. You can pick it up from the publisher here.
Music as a Language – Victor Wooten
Posted: March 30, 2013 Filed under: Music, The Internet | Tags: bass, bass guitar, learning, motivation, talk, teaching, TED, tuition, victor wooten Leave a comment »This is a great little 5 minute TED Talk from bassist Victor Wooten. Whether you like his music or not, he seems to talk sense.
Variety Of Sound – sound affairs and audio effect design
Posted: March 2, 2013 Filed under: Blogging, Music, The Internet | Tags: cubase, home recording, logic, Music and Audio, Plug-ins, pro tools, Reaper, recording, Sound effect, Virtual Studio Technology, vst Leave a comment »Variety Of Sound – sound affairs and audio effect design
this guy makes some of the best VST’s I’ve come across – both paid-for, and free. Beautiful UIs, interesting plug-in concepts, and some really nice analogue style colouration of sound.
The Practice Of Ear Training
Posted: February 19, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: dave douglas, greanleaf, improv, jazz, learning, metronome, music, music theory, practice Leave a comment »This is a great blog post from Dave Douglas, on the Greenleaf Music page. Lots of advice about becoming a versatile improvising musician. There’s some great rhythmic metronome exercises in there.
