For two weeks in September 1948, the Miles Davis Nonet, a semi-informal group of young jazz musicians coming of age in the early days of bebop, played a live set, about an hour or so long, of newly-composed music that would ultimately be a significant contribution to the evolution of ...
Our brain is a fantastic learning machine and we still don't know everything it is capable of. However, it still has it’s limitations. To maximize efficiency in practicing, we need to understand those limitations and work around them. One of the biggest shortcomings of our brain is its ability to ...
Hey, it’s 2013! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and vacation. Thank you to all the readers here who have read, commented, and shared the posts from this website since it launched in late October last year, and thank you especially to those of you who purchased music! ...
If you don’t use a metronome then I am sorry to say you have been practicing inefficiently this entire time. The good news is that It’s never too late to start using one! Having a metronome in your room is like having a drill sergeant next to you who is ...
Warming up a something that is often both misunderstood and neglected, so let’s quickly clear up a few misconceptions about this crucial component of effective practicing. If practicing prepares you for performance, then warming up prepares you for practice. A musician’s warmup works similarly to an athlete’s warmup, which usually ...
Transcribing is the process of hearing something and figuring it out, either by writing it down or learning it on your instrument. Transcribing is a great skill to work on and has all kinds of practical benefits: Transcription is ear training in boot camp mode. You have no choice but ...
An unfortunate reality in music is that a lot of kids get burned out playing their instrument. Some drop out while they are still sounding good, perhaps due to boredom. It was never explained to them how to build reachable goals so without a plan, a roadmap if you will, ...
"Good artists borrow, great artists steal." This quote is often attributed to Igor Stravinsky, a composer who was heavily inspired by Duke Ellington's music and who's music Ellington himself was an admirer of. It's appropriate here not just because of the connection between the two composers, but because of the ...
Johnny Hodges was a major player of the swing era and was a key component in the establishment of the Duke Ellington sound. He was a master of the alto saxophone and had an incredibly distinct voice on it. I'll probably post more about Hodges in posts in the future, ...
