“A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves.” – Herbie Hancock
“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” – Thelonious Monk
“I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession. If you can, then it ain’t music, it’s close order drill, or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.” – Billie Holiday
“You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it!” – Art Tatum
Just one more post on some of the amazing wood we have been acquiring lately…
This is a beautiful chunk of ¼ sawn Cedar, perfect for our archtops. Hard to find!
Western Red Western Red Cedar has long been utilized as a soundboard material by classical guitar makers for its vibrance and clarity of sound. It is extremely light in weight compared to spruce and the tonal result is generally a slightly louder, more open response.
It may only be March, but here’s an early taste of summer. A cracking version of Summertime with Kenny Burrell on guitar and Grover Washington, Jr. on soprano sax. Kenny sets up a great and simple dorian riff in the intro that just falls into place on guitar – one to add to my list of future transcriptions.
With the recent passing of Etta James, “Honeyboy” Edwards, Hubert Sumlin, Gary Moore, Willie Smith and Clarence Clemmons and with the aging of blues legends like BB King, Buddy Guy and even (yikes!) Eric Clapton it seems like the blues is on its way out – only to be read about in history books, right?
NOT EVEN CLOSE!
Believe it or not, the blues is alive and well and growing in popularity every day.
T his weekend, the Wall Street Journaltried its hand at music theory, and it wasn’t pretty. (NPR ran a similar story on Monday’s episode of All Things Considered.) In the article, WSJ writer Michaeleen Doucleff claims that “science has found the formula” to why Adele’s ballad “Someone Like You” makes everyone cry, and it’s not that it’s sad or Adele’s a badass or anything like that.
Music is the universal language of mankind – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Importance of Music Theory:
Music is a Language - You learn a new hobby and it’s expected that there will be some form of learning curve. If your new hobby is building model trains, certain terminology is needed to speak the language of trains. Music is no different.
During my writing each day of Black History Month I wanted to share with my readers the glorious past of the ghost of the greats that made this month so near and dear to my heart. I am proud to share this article because I love the story of the crossroads. It is a story about the great Delta bluesman Robert Johnson.
C.Flitney
