Archive for 2009 - Page 30

Meet bassist Phil Wain, our player in the spotlight for September 22nd, 2009. Bio: A fretless specialist who loves his Wal bass, Phil sees music as a spiritual exercise and strives for those moments when the music plays him. He can be seen in a variety of settings on the London gig scene. His heart is in jazz but he...

Bassist Esperanza Spalding performed at the White House for the Obama family in early 2009, celebrating the music of Stevie Wonder. This video clip includes her performance of “Overjoyed”. Spalding is currently on tour and will continue to be through December of 2009. A complete tour list is available from her web site.

Music lawyer Donald S. Passman has updated his “industry Bible” with an upcoming seventh edition of All You Need To Know About the Music Business, to be released November 17th 2009. If you’re a musician and are not familiar with this book it should be on your list. Passman gives extremely relevant and organized advice on how to navigate in...

Bassist Rufus Reid will be playing on guitarist Roni Ben-Hur’s upcoming release, Fortuna. Reid commented that “It is always a pleasure to make music with Roni Ben-Hur, anytime, anywhere!” Fortuna will be released on October 13th 2009, and is available for pre-order. You can check out some of Reid’s playing with this video of him performing “Come out and Play”:...

There are 2 elements that are helpful to gain fluency in all keys, making transposition much easier. The first is, learn fingerings avoiding open strings as much as possible, so that interval and visual mapping is consistent. The other is to learn to think by the numbers; think of each pitch not as its letter name, but as its numerical...

Today’s featured video showcases a nice duet between bassist Edgar Meyer and Nickel Creek’s Chris Thile. The recording took place on October 24, 2008 at University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall.

Evan Kepner takes us through his first in a 2-parter lesson, Thinking in Minor. Don’t miss Jon Burr’s incredibly popular lesson on Learning Tunes Quickly. Ray Riendeau is raving about… NPR. Our Player in the Spotlight is Steve Uccello. Damian Erskine covers Target Notes in his latest installment of Ask Damian Erskine. Videos Linley Marthe: Solo at New Morning Marco...

Bassist and composer Alexis Cuadrado will be debuting “Noneto Iberico” on Friday and Saturday October 2nd and 3rd in at The Jazz Gallery in New York. “Noneto Iberico” is a nine movement composition to be performed with nine musicians which was commissioned by the Chamber Music America-Doris Duke Foundation “New Works” grant program. It blends both Spanish flamenco music with...

Bassist Mark Griffiths, who currently plays in the legendary UK group The Shadows, has developed a series of retro-guitars to be sold by Sue Ryder Care Charity. The name of the new instrument line is The Ryder. The Ryder has ten different models available: four solid bodied electric guitars, one semi-acoustic, two acoustic, two classical guitars and an electric bass...

Do we really need words for this? I don’t think so.

Profile has expanded their tuner/metronome line to include the new PT-2800, a mini clip-on tuner. The PT-2800 features a gigantic bright multi-colored LCD that should be visible from the headstock in any lighting condition. The best part is that it changes from red to green once you’re in tune. You can get your strings in shape at a glance! The...

U2 just kicked off their first stadium tour in the USA on September 13th since 1997 (the end of the Popmart Tour). Their other tours since have been confined to arenas, but now U2 has broken out with the biggest concert stage ever built. The band’s US debut was at Soldier Field in Chicago, as a continuation of their 360-degree...