[VIDEO] Robots versus Stylists: the Battle Continues

Hi everyone. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Epic Kwanzaa, Fabulous Festivus, Happy New Year, and all that.

Lots of time off means lots of guitar playing. So we come to the epic battle between robots and stylists.

What?

[Video] Adapting Picking Patterns, or Radiohead’s Got Rhythm

When I was a young man in university, I thought I was an alright guitar player. My friend Pat, who was learning to play guitar at the time, came back from one of our work stints having added Radiohead‘s Street Spirit to his repertoire. I would be damned if I could have some young upstart thinking he was actually better than me, of course. Naturally, I got him to show me how to play it.

Radioheeeeeeeed

Being a new guitar player, Pat played Street Spirit with a pick / plectrum, and with all down-picks. As we say in the sciences: an elegant solution, this was not.

[Video] Ralph Murphy on Songwriting

Found this lecture by Ralph Murphy last night, and was really impressed. Mind blowing, actually. The way he talks about it, success as a songwriter has very little to do with music. The more important aspects are targeting women in the midst of their morning routine, and presenting the performer as a winner.

In the first half of this lecture from the Loyola University New Orleans, Ralph talks writing for 7am vs writing for 10pm, presenting winners, correct use of pronouns, and the six forms.

From the Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting website:

Murphy has served as President of The Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy and has been a NARAS National Trustee and President of the Nashville Songwriters Association International. As well as serving as Vice President for the International and Domestic membership Group of the American Society of Composers Authors an Publishers, he also has served on the Southern Regional Writers Advisory Board of ASCAP, the Songwriters Guild of America regional advisory board and is a member of NSAI, NARAS, CMA, CCMA, SAC, SGA, and ASCAP

[Video] A Day To Remember – Original Jazz Arrangement

Oh WordPress.com, how I’ve missed you. And oh how patiently you’ve waited for me to return to you, with your spam folder filled with nonsense comments, and all-new menus.

To business!

I have been having a bad day. Not as bad as Steve Jobs, perhaps, but decidedly far too much time spent in a doctor’s office, thank you very much.

Upon my return home this evening, I decided to muck around with some jazz chord voicings that I’ve been lifting from All Jazz Blues, and some lead licks that I copped from a PowerTab of Django‘s Sweet Georgia Brown, which I downloaded last night prior to falling asleep on the couch with my guitar on my chest.

This dude, is THE dude

Why Your Demos Suck, or Building a Stereo Field While Improvising – Part I

So songwriting in a guitar band is a shouting match, and whoever shouts or cranks their amp the loudest during band practice gets their song learned or rehearsed. Or, songwriting solo means your demos are want ads for musicians to play your songs or collaborate. If your demos suck, expect to spend a lot of time in your basement by yourself, wondering if there must be something wrong with the music you write, and how you’ll ever be able to move out of your mom’s basement. You’re 35, for god sakes.

Odd Time Signature Wars – Episode I – A New Hook

Dale Campbell is a talented solo musician, with great technique on an acoustic guitar. In this video, he makes a few salient points about counting out odd time signatures as a means to expand your writing base.

Yeahhhh; counting? I’m pretty against counting. And you can be too. 

Undermining Musicology & the Legacy of Barre Chords

So I don’t even know why, but I seem to have found myself beginning to read into some thesis & lectureal documents on alternative rock. Papers with names like Exploring modal subversions in alternative music (McDonald, 2000) and The Influence of Guitar Distortion on Harmonic Construction in Alternative Rock (Driesprong, 2011). I guess it’s fun to take everything you’ve learned whilst working on your Ph.D in music, and try to apply it to music that wasn’t written by people with Ph.Ds, but the results probably won’t be, um, good.

If I Were A Rich Man [MP3], and the Epiphany

What a day. My house is both spotless & dreadfully quiet right now, and I am exhausted. I dropped my iPod this afternoon, and now when I turn it on, it greets me with a frowny face and a URL for Apple Support. Oh Apple, how cheeky.

I have a new recording to share. I actually finished it late last night, but a strange thing happened before I had a chance to write it up & post it. You see, we had a really wet snow last night. And when I went to fold my laundry, I found that a portion of that awesome wetness was dripping in through my exterior wall into my bedroom. Needless to say my attention was required until the wee hours of the morning, and I slept on the couch. Likewise, today was spent rendering my home impeccable such that I might host representatives of the condominium management company for review about what to do. But I digress.