Welcome to...
"Micro-Lesson 045" 

This micro lesson covers a Smooth Jazz Melody Line in the "Key of E Major"

This Micro Lesson revolves around applying a smooth diatonic jazzy melody within the tonality of Major in the key signature of "E Major." The melody idea is completely diatonic, yet operates around a common set of seventh quality chords producing a modern contemporary jazz effect. The progression is all seventh chords as; "I, III, IV, II, V, I." Comprised almost entirely of eighth-notes the feel of the line is performed in straight time. This is more evident to styles like smooth jazz, pop-jazz, or contemporary music rather than to jazz with a swing, or traditional jazz meter. Learn the line and gain the speed, (goal tempo is a quick 140 b.p.m.), with a metronome. Enjoy!


Micro Lesson 045: "E Major" Smooth Jazz Melody

Courtesy of Bobby Borg on the SonicBirds Blog

There are literally hundreds of tips on making it in the music business, and we all know how overwhelming that can be. If you're wondering which ones you should try to integrate into your daily life starting today, these 15 basic guidelines – from marketing to networking to self-affirmations – are all you really need to focus on right now to get started. With the right timing and a lot of luck, you just might strike it really big.

1). Focus on your craft first. Put in your time, and be great. Write amazing songs and be amazing onstage.

2). Give fans a reason to care about you. Help them identify something important about themselves in your brand.

3). Strive to make the audience want to emulate you, both onstage and offstage, with your genuine poise and personality.


4). Promote your music both online and offline, and never stop telling people that you exist. Promotion is an ongoing process and not a one-time task.

5). Hang out with like-minded people. Support other bands and form powerful alliances.

6). Create the clique of the future. Remember that the musicians you know now will likely be heavyweights later (and you'll be best friends).

7). Learn how to bring in income on your instrument (give lessons, play weddings, produce local artists, etc.) so that you don't have to kill yourself for too long at some random, energy-draining day job.

8). Set yourself up for the long haul so that you can maintain some level of sanity and calmness. Not being able to pay rent every month can make you desperate. And desperation is repulsive.


9). Have a vision and a clear strategy to get where you want to go.

10). Stay away from the haters. Remember that haters are vampires and will drain your spirit.

11). Always stay positive and never whine!

12). Believe in yourself for many, many, many years.

13). Wear a smile and always be nice. People hire people they like!

14). Develop an exit strategy, but execute it only when you know you’ll have no regrets.

15). Be grateful for loving music. Always remember that having a purpose in life is one of the greatest gifts that you could ever have.

Welcome to...
"Micro-Lesson 044" 

This micro lesson covers a 70's Rock Riff in the "Key of B"

This Micro Lesson jams out a classic sounding 70's Rock Riff. These riffs were found in dozens of hits from the 70's. This sound was generated using combinations of the Blues based Boogie-Woogie phrasing with more of a straight-time feel combined with arpeggios and Major Pentatonic. Many 80's bands continued to use this same approach in several hits of that era. The Boogie pattern starts our riff with a suspended triad punching through measure 2. The end of the riff applies combined use of both Major Pentatonic, as well as, B7 arpeggio. Enjoy!


Micro Lesson 044: "Key of B" 70's Rock Riff

  GuitarBlog:
Open "G" Tuning

This weeks GuitarBlog explores the use of playing in,"Open G Tuning"

This week on the GuitarBlog we will cover the classic, "Mississippi Delta Blues Guitar," and, "Keith Richards," tuning of, "Open G." This tuning applies the following note pattern across the open string sets, (D, G, D, G, B, D). One unique aspect associated with this particular open tuning is the use of a note other than the root of the related open chord (G) as the lowest string's bass-note. In the video, we will take advantage of that with our chord patterns and with the progressions that we develop. Enjoy the video!

GUITAR: Open "G" Tuning




Related Videos:

Long before I went to the Musicians Institute (and actually studied composition and the harmonic structure of things), I was writing music. 

As young as 13 yrs old, I used to spend hours making up songs in my parent's basement (my jam area). And, when friends would come over, or when I would go to somebody else's house and jam, I always tried to get my buddies to play my songs. Luckily, more often not, my friends actually liked those tunes and sometimes we'd play them for weeks and months on end, (some for years).

Unfortunately, in my generation, there were no home recording set-ups. For us, home recording was crude and mainly consisted of using something like a "Boom-Box." The terrible microphones within those units sure didn't produce very good recordings, but it worked well enough to start documenting our ideas.

The studio environment was certainly out of reach to teenagers like me and my friends. And, it would be many years before I would ever had the chance to step into a "real" recording studio and lay down professional tracks with great mics and an experienced engineer.


THE EARLY DAYS OF HOME RECORDING 
It wasn't until 1990 that I was able to finally save up my money and purchase a Tascam "Porta-Studio 424." Along with the Tascam, I purchased a "Roland R8" drum-machine. It was at this point where I began to finally have the very "basic" home studio environment I always wanted for recording. Since I wanted to constantly create rehearsal tracks and document my ideas, the simple set-up of that Tascam and the drum-machine became my "Dream-Team."

Since nice microphones were still very expensive, I used to rent good mic's when I was able to have enough material together to actually do some recording. For general use, I purchased a cheap $20.00 mic from Radio Shack to get my demo work organized. It surprisingly worked not all that bad. And, it was during this period where my writing really began to grow and develop.

DEDICATION 
As you can gather, in my era, dedication was the key factor to writing and organizing music. It wasn't difficult to be a dedicated young musician. I liked composing. Jamming two or three nights a week wasn't difficult. Nor, was booking and heading off to a gig. But, when it came to being able to actually start recording the songs - so they sounded decent, there were certainly financial restrictions that got in the way of doing things professionally.

One of the first serious original bar-bands I played in took up a very determined long-term commitment to doing some studio recording. We opened a "band bank account." We saved the money from all of our gigs. We sold t-shirts and worked our butts off to fund a recording project. After months of saving, we went to a local studio and met with a producer /engineer. His studio was really nice. He seemed like a great guy and his gear was outstanding. Then, he handed us his "basic project" fees for doing our six song demo! Yikes.

Instead of going the pro-studio direction, we paid a local soundman we used often and he recorded our demo on 1/4" tape. As you could imagine, it was pretty uninspiring. So much so, that the band fell apart shortly after the, 'make-shift' recording project.


THE PROFESSIONAL RECORDING PROJECT 
After spending the 1990's working with other bands, singer /soloists, and songwriters on their original recording projects, I decided I wanted to write an albums worth of material and start recording it professionally. Starting in 2003, I went into the studio to record the first songs.

Taking on a self-funded solo project was a huge commitment of both time and finances. It didn't take long to blow through thousands of dollars in the studio. And, the whole experience taught me a lot about being highly dedicated and organized for the studio dates.

I made detailed charts for the guys in the sessions and I created audio recordings for them explaining the structure on the song, along with rough demos of each songs' feel. My goal was to save time and costs in the studio by being able to get in and get out in good time.

After three years of recording, mixing and all the rest of the details - I finally had my first professional CD in hand in the year 2006.

The experience taught me a lot about the ways of the recording studio, being organized, using mics, using effects and tracking instruments. Most of all, it helped me to better understand 'how' to take the songs that I composed in my home music room and get them to sound 'better than I ever imagined' through the magic of the recording process.

Unfortunately, the entire procedure cost me a ton of money and made me fully aware of how important it would be for me to be able to eventually do all of that in my own home studio.

BUILDING A HOME STUDIO 
For me, I could tell that the future of recording was definitely in having my own studio /facility. The best way I could see this happening was to invest in building my own place from the ground up. I did a lot of research and met with dozens of people. Headed off to the bank, re-did my mortgage and over the next 3 years built a dedicated building on my property to act as my own private studio. Some people thought it was a crazy pipe-dream, but in the end, I was able to pull it off, I built it and in six years from now it'll be paid off as well.

Some people have asked me why I took to the effort of building my own place. And, the reasons may not be reasons that relate to everyone, but they certainly relate to me. My idea was based upon the fact that I love writing music and I write a ton of music. However to me, (personally), writing without recording the song, is like completing half a job. The composing (to me) is only the beginning. Notating a composition on sheet music is only the "blueprint." But, taking that composition and setting it to a beat, with backing parts, bass and keyboard... now that is really getting it somewhere.


THE MAGIC OF RECORDING
There's a certain magic that happens when a song goes from a series of loose ideas, to a chart in sheet music, to finally being recorded - parts layered, mixed and mastered. For me, hearing my piece recorded 'finished' as a song, is probably a lot like an architect actually touching a building that was sketched out on paper years prior. Finishing the recording process completes the song for me - finally making it, "real."

Recording a song, documents it - etching it in stone forever. Jamming a piece in a rehearsal won't do this. Playing a song live doesn't do it either. Even recording a piece live off of the stage can't do it for me. There's just something magical about the studio.

Maybe it's all of the time dedicated. Perhaps it's all of the care taken to perfect the ideas, the layering and the mix. Whatever "it" is, for me composing just isn't complete until I can hear the "final product" polished and perfected from the studio.

So, in wrapping up this weeks blog, I want to offer the suggestion of not stopping your songwriting process at dreaming up a riff. Don't stop at a verse and a chorus. Carry on to shaping the piece from start to finish. Then, jam it with your band-mates. Organize the form and eventually take it to the studio and record it. Layer parts, organize the arrangement and make it real. Sure, it can be a lot of work, but the end result is well worth all the effort. And, the best part is... even if you never sell the song and take it to the bank... at least you can listen to it in your car!

- Andrew Wasson

Earlier this month, we took a look at some of the music industry’s winners of 2014–namely, Taylor Swift, Dr. Dre and the unusually large group of successful acts from the U.K. and its former colonies, not counting the U.S.

Today, we’ll consider those who didn’t fare quite so well over the past 12 months. Among them: Robin Thicke, Apple, (or, at least, its music business interests) and last year’s two top earners in music, Madonna and Lady Gaga.

Let’s begin with…

Robin Thicke:
Last year, Thicke earned three Grammy nominations for his album Blurred Lines and its title track, which was certified 6x platinum. The effort also garnered four Billboard Music Awards–not to mention the superstar status that had eluded him throughout a reasonably successful career previously.

This year, however, opinion swung against him as a chorus of critics declared ”Blurred Lines” video misogynistic, overwhelming the accolades the song had racked up. He even managed to alienate his wife, who filed for divorce this year; his next album, Paula, an ill-conceived effort to win her back, sold a measly 24,000 copies its opening week. That’s a drop of 86% from the debut of Blurred Lines.

It seems that Thicke flew too close to the sun. His followup to Blurred Lines didn’t hold up to its predecessor without the contributions of Pharrell Williams–the main reason Thicke’s career-making single did so well. Williams also turns out to have the sort of teflon image that Thicke apparently doesn’t. That’s one sign of a true superstar.


Apple Corp.
The tech giant’s $3 billion purchase of Beats earlier this year is the main reason Dr. Dre is one of the music industry’s big winners of 2014, providing the bulk of his $620 million payday, the biggest single year earnings total of any musician in history.

But for Apple itself, at least when it comes to music, the past year has been anything but a clear win. Digital track sales dropped by 13% as streaming jumped 42% year over year, according to Nielsen’s midyear report. That’s bad news for the iTunes Store, the behemoth that made Apple arguably the most important company in music over the past decade.

The acquisition of Beats–and its Beats Music streaming service–seems to have been an effort to solve that problem by creating a true Spotify competitor. As currently constituted, though, Beats is anything but: at the time of the Apple deal, its subscriber count was said to be “in the low six figures,” an order of magnitude smaller than Spotify’s 50 Million users..

Apple is reportedly hoping to integrate Beats Music with future versions of iOS, which may help grow that number rapidly. But given the mixed results of iTunes Radio, there’s little reason to believe that Apple can turn Beats Music into a Spotify killer. That makes its $3 billion purchase quite a risk. Coupled with the U2 snafu, this year hasn’t been Apple’s best when it comes to music.


Last Year’s Queens of Pop
In 2013, Madonna was music’s top earner, pulling in $125 million; Lady Gaga finished second with $80 million. This year was a completely different story. Gaga dropped to No. 30, taking in $30 million, (a staggering 62% drop in income);

Madonna fell off the list of the world’s highest-paid musicians altogether. Acts like Beyonce and Taylor Swift surpassed the aforementioned divas, both in terms of earnings and global mind share.

Madonna’s departure actually isn’t necessarily a bad sign for her career. In recent years, she’s followed a boom-and-bust pattern: touring extensively and reaping nine-figure paydays, then taking some time off the road before going out again. Right now, she’s in the former stage, and didn’t play a single show in our June-to-June scoring period.

Gaga played 24, significantly more but nowhere close to her totals during her top earning years. There’s a bit more reason for concern here. Though fans loved ARTPOP, it didn’t achieve the sort of mainstream acclaim her previous efforts did.


The ensuing tour grossed $83 million over 74 performances; on the surface, that’s a comparable per-show rate to the $227 million she took in over 200 dates starting in November 2009–but that total included a period before she had achieved peak popularity.

At the end of her ARTPOP Ball tour, which drew heavily on the album of the same name, Gaga sold 50,453 tickets and grossed $7.8 million at two Tokyo shows; in 2012, she sold 96,550 tickets for a total of $18.3 million over three nights, a better performance any way you slice it.

There’s no doubt she’s got an incredibly dedicated fan base and still has a bright future on the road, but she’ll need to nod a bit more to the mainstream with her next effort if she hopes to regain her peak earning form.

As Andy Williams possibly once sung, "it's the holiday season, with the whoop-de-do and hickory dock... and the creeping obligation to get your shopping done early".

In an effort to help you avoid the now traditional, last minute, "shopping center stampede," here's a list of eight gift ideas for guitarists on your list so that you can be back home and enjoying a cold one on the sofa in no time flat...



- Ditto Looper X2: 

With the Ditto Looper X2, effects maestro TC Electronic's Corp. has delivered a powerful looper in a compact package.

A USB connection means you can transfer loops to and from a PC, while the FX switch allows you to add speed altering effects to your loops. Finally, there's an an impressive five minutes of loop time and 24-bit audio, resulting in great sound reproduction.






- Dunlop "PrimeTone" Guitar Picks:

These plectrums from Dunlop are predominantly aimed at articulate, fast players that need a pick to match their style. Primetone picks are made from Ultex, hand-finished and have the option of imprinted grips to prevent slippage.













- D'Addario Planet Waves American Stage Instrument Cable 10 Feet:
American Stage cables are built to ensure that your tone comes through exactly the way you want it. Planet Waves uses audiophile-quality wire that's made in the USA and designed to reproduce the natural tones of your instrument with zero interference. The plugs are made by Neutrik in their state-of-the-art facility in Lichtenstein in accordance with Planet Waves' patented specs. The exclusive Planet Waves In-Line solder process creates a permanent bond between wire and plug, making a clear connection with incredible strength and durability. Using only the finest materials, custom designs and precision USA manufacturing methods, American Stage delivers a professional performance cable. The result is pure, natural tone. 



- Orange Crush PiX CR20L 1x8" 20-Watt Practice /Bedroom Amp:
Looking for an affordable combo amp with a unique look and killer sound? The Orange Crush PiX CR20L fits the bill perfectly! Covering the range from clean to overdrive, the Orange CR20L is the perfect amp for any style of music you play. A built-in headphone output is perfect for your late night practice sessions. And an aux input lets you plug in your MP3 or CD player so you can play along with your favorite songs and bands. Stand out from the crowd with the Orange Crush PiX CR20L!



-  Boss DR-3 Dr. Rhythm:

Great for jamming or practice, the DR-3 Dr. Rhythm lets guitarists and songwriters add incredible-sounding drums to their music. This ultra-affordable drum machine includes some of BOSS's best acoustic and electronic drum kits and a selection of bass sounds. Great for jamming, the DR-3's Rhythm Progressions and multiple variations make it easy to create a realistic-sounding drum track for any style of music. And with Total Sound Control, you can tweak your kits to perfection.




-  Focusrite Scarlett 2i2:
Focusrite didn't stop at stellar sound quality and flexible routing with the Scarlett 2i2 - you also get the Scarlett VST/AU/RTAS plug-in suite featuring Focusrite's acclaimed Scarlett compression, reverb, gating, and EQ! These plug-ins give you access to the vibe of classic Focusrite studio hardware with the flexibility of software processing. Factor in the included Ableton Live Lite 8 production and performance software, and you've got a complete music production suite that's ready to go whenever inspiration strikes. Start making music today with the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface!



-  Audio-Technica AT2041SP Studio Pack:

Here's a genuine recording mic value! The AT2041SP Studio Pack offers two versatile 20 Series condenser microphones for use in home, project and commercial studios. Equally at home with digital and analog recording devices, the two included studio condensers deliver remarkable specs and superior build. The critically acclaimed AT2020 side-address condenser is ideal for vocal and instrument applications, while the new AT2021 small-diaphragm condenser is a natural for all acoustic instruments, overheads, hi-hat and piano.





- Mackie 402VLZ4:
The Mackie 402VLZ4 is, first and foremost, a Mackie mixer. It houses two of Mackie's premium-quality Onyx mic preamps for natural, transparent sound, and one stereo channel. Its mic/line channels are equipped with a 2-band EQ. Signal routing is easy and flexible. On top of all that, the Mackie 402VLZ4 is built Mackie-tough - trust this mixer to perform even in the most harrowing situations.