Hello to all Two things I’m trying to get a lot better at this year are keeping up with my email correspondence and being better at juggling all the different tasks that seem to need to get done. For whatever reason, it seems the busier I am, the more I actually get accomplished. Not really sure […]
So far our discussion on determining a key of a song has been somewhat biased towards major keys. There are, obviously, songs that are in minor keys and this is where developing your ear can be a great asset. Remember when we talked about key signatures a few posts ago? Well, truth be told, even […]
Okay, so we’ve made it clear that the starting and ending chords, while good indicators of the key to a song (particularly if the starting and ending chord are the same), are certainly not infallible. What else can help us figure out what key a song is in? Sometimes it’s the use of a chord […]
Okay, since we’re talking about playing songs with other people, I couldn’t have asked for a better question to use first! Here we go: Hello David; I have a question for you – how can you tell what key a song is in? I thought that it was in the key of the first note […]
…a new one just begun… A belated “Happy New Year” to all! The holidays and last few weeks of December tend to be, for me anyway, a time of reflection. And for whatever reason, I’ve been reflecting a lot on all the music I got to play this past year – whether solo performances or […]
(left to right): Joel Schick, me, John Roche, Jeff Brownstein, Greg Nease, Nick Torres, Kyle Roth, Helena Bouchez, Karen Berger, Kathy Reichert Hello to all! Even though it’s been the better part of the week, I’m still recovering a bit from last weekend’s show at Dewey Memorial Hall. It was a lot of fun, not to […]
I first met Todd Mack when I was writing The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Bass Guitar. Todd owns and runs Off The Beat ‘N’ Track Recording Studio and he helped me to produce the audio CD that accompanies the book. Todd is also a musical artist, with a long history of performing, songwriting and […]
It’s hard to believe that we got word on this gig back in January or February and now it’s less than a month away! Time is, indeed, slipping away! You can read more about this show on the Gigs and Performances page. Please come and share in this celebration of music, friendship and fun! Looking […]
No, you’ve not accidently logged onto www.worldscutestcats.com or whatever. Still me. Still here. This is Charley (on the left) and Lily, our two cats. Karen took this shot a month or so ago. Cute, aren’t they? The cool thing is that this isn’t posed. Rather, it’s very representative of what they are like normally. You’ll find […]
Once a year, I have the pleasure of taking part in what we call the Riverside Jam. Essentially, the Riverside Jam is a group of friends (and friends of friends) who gather together for a weekend of music-making and merriment. It’s been going on since the year 2000 and if you’d like to hear about […]