Becoming a Professional Musician in Today’s Market

July 17, 2010 in Uncategorized

Photo by James Wheare, Flickr.com Depending on who you ask, this day and age is either the best time in history to be a musician or the worst time in history to be a musician.  Crazy?  Let’s examine the facts: CONS According to some, it has become increasingly difficult to find gigs.  Many musicians could work 7 nights a week 30 or 40 years ago.  That’s rare now. CDs and mp3s have made music a constant soundtrack to our lives.  People are CONSTANTLY listening to perfect recordings.  In this environment, people are sometimes less likely to go listen to live [...]

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Great Basin Jazz Camp Student Combo, Part 2

July 16, 2010 in Jazz Recordings

I coached the “Birdland” Jazz Combo this year at the Great Basin Jazz Camp. We had a great time at camp this year, and my combo was a dream to work with!   The kids did a real nice job at our final concert tonight, and I told them I’d put up the recording for them to be able to check it out.  Some  of these students will probably make a career in music for themselves someday! I feel privileged to have been able to work with such a talented group of students.  We had a great time.   Thanks [...]

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Great Basin Jazz Camp Student Combo Recording

July 15, 2010 in Jazz Recordings

It’s been an honor teaching at the Great Basin Jazz Camp for the third year in a row. I’ve had a lot of fun giving clinics, leading rehearsals, and playing in faculty jazz groups all week. I’ve had the pleasure of leading a student jazz combo, the Birdland Jazz Combo, which had it’s first gig tonight! We played at the Twin Falls Municipal Band Shell at 7pm tonight. We had a full rhythm section (piano, guitar, drums, and bass) as well as 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxes, one bari sax, and 5 trumpets. It’s more like the size of [...]

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Rhythmic Ideas for Improvisation, Part 1

July 14, 2010 in Learning Jazz

Have you ever wanted to increase the rhythmic interest of your improvisations? Try using hemiola and over-the-bar-line rhythmic patterns to try some new ideas. I have been teaching at the Great Basin Jazz Camp all week, and I consulted with several other faculty members on this article. Tom Goicoechea is an excellent young drummer on our faculty. He was a great help in writing this article. I also consulted with Devon Yesburger, a talented young pianist who attends Berklee College of Music. He is the youngest member of our faculty, and he has a very bright future. Finally, I consulted [...]

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Left-Hand Comping Handout: St. Thomas

July 13, 2010 in Learning Jazz

Learn Jazz Standards is a website for all instrumentalists, and even vocalists; however, given that piano is my primary instrument, I will occasionally put some piano articles up. Also, piano is the most useful instrument for all musicians. There is a reason that all music majors take “piano proficiency” rather than “banjo proficiency!” All jazz musicians should study harmony on the piano. In my opinion, one of the best ways to teach jazz piano is to teach voicings first. If students learn good jazz voicings for the left hand and for both hands, then a good jazz sound will follow. [...]

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Very basic Left Hand Comping Handout for Piano

July 12, 2010 in Learning Jazz

I’m on faculty as a piano player at the Great Basin Jazz Camp at the College of Southern Idaho this week. Bruce Forman and Carl Saunders are the artists-in-residence at the camp, and Dr. David Joyner, Wayne Bliss, and several others are here as well teaching. It’s been a great learning experience, and I’m having a great time teaching and playing at the camp.  I came up with a comping handout for the students to help them learn about left-handed voicings. Here is the handout for you!  You should transpose these two voicings into all 12 keys after you learn [...]

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Meditation by Antonio Carlos Jobim

July 10, 2010 in Jazz Standards

Mediation is a nice bossa nova. I like the tune, but it’s connected to a painful experience for me. The first time it was called on me I was playing piano with trumpet player Carl Saunders at a jam session. I didn’t know the tune at the time (or a couple others he called), and I was pretty embarrassed. I’m a big fan of Carl, and I wanted him to respect my playing. I vowed to learn a ton of standards, and the result is this website! This tune is played most commonly in the key of C.  However, lots [...]

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Perdido-with a Sleeping Lead Tenor!

July 8, 2010 in Jazz Standards

Perdido is one of my very favorite jazz tunes. It’s such a simple tune, but it’s got a great melody, and the changes are just fun to blow on. It’s not very hard, and it’s very accessible to most beginning jazz musicians, but also a favorite of many advanced players. I really fell in love with this tune when I jammed with Bruce Forman and Carl Saunders at the Great Basin Jazz Camp in 2008. I was on the faculty of the camp, and they were the artists-in-residence. Carl and Bruce both came in with the shout chorus in perfect [...]

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Daily Jazz Quote

July 8, 2010 in Uncategorized

You may have click an extra time to view the quote. This page updates automatically every day!

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This Day in Jazz History

July 7, 2010 in Uncategorized

You may have to click on this page an extra time to view. What happened on this day 25, 50, or 75 years ago? This page updates automatically daily! This Day in Jazz History   from allaboutjazz.com

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