Jonathan Harnum's Blog, page 39
April 10, 2016
Sweet New Metronome You Feel Instead of Hear
Check this one out! What a great idea, especially the ability to synchronize the beat across a group. How about 75 of them for a concert band? Or 20 for a jazz band? Maybe they would cut a deal for large orders like that. I’d ask them, if you’ve got the money. Or even four or five for quartet/quintet groups.
Learn more at their site.
April 8, 2016
Frank Zappa’s Black Napkins
Watch the video below this one of Zappa performing Black Napkins on the Mike Douglas talk show in 1976. Incredibly expressive playing and some serious chops. Check out this YouTube playlist for more gems. There is currently a very cool Kickstarter happening (only 5 hours to go!) that involves access to ALL of the Zappa archive (video below the first video).
Alex Winter has a saweet! project ahead of him. Only 5 hours left to get in on it, so hurry! If you don’t know about him (and many don’t, alas), here’s a tiny little taste of one of the most intelligent and interesting musicians of the 20th century. Check it.
April 7, 2016
Drive By Preachers: Om Johari
Vocalist, guitarist, and all-around interesting powerhouse of a woman, Om Johari is one of the many stellar musicians who shared their experience of practice with me.
Om is a founding member of Hells Belles (a female AC/DC cover band), is currently rocking out with RE-ignition (punk/reggae in the style of Bad Brains), and now is trying to get another interesting project recorded.
Om’s latest project is producing an album with Drive By Preachers, and they need a paltry sum to get this album out. Help them out if you can. Below is a snippet of what they’re trying to get out into the world. Sounds cool to me. Great rhythmic grooves in this teaser:
Om used a brilliant strategy to help get her guitar chops together, make some money for her efforts, and pass the flame along, too. She required her students (7 the first year, 17 the following), to learn one cover tune per month, for which she’d play backup guitar. With a concrete goal like that, and students who depend on you, how could you not practice? This allowed Om to cover song structure, chords, lyrics, and all the other musical elements with her students while learning the guitar part at the same time. She said it was really effective. I say it’s a genius idea.
Want to know what her guitar chops look/sound like? Here’s a full length video of Om in action, singing and playing on her song Drums, Bass & Guitar:
April 5, 2016
Create (and Understand) Polyrhythms
Polyrhythms happen when two different meters or patterns are combined to make a more complex pattern. It’s an old technique, used in traditions all over the world, but West Africa is one of the hotbeds of polyrhythms. You can hear it in most Djembe music, including this modern take below with Nigerian master drummer Baba Ayo Adeyemi.
One way to understand polyrhythms is to mess around with the Polyrhythm Beat Generator. There are lots of pre-sets, but I really like the combination of 1, 3, 4, and 10.
Spice up your practice by creating a polyrhythm, and practicing your scales and scale patterns over it. You’ll be amazed at how much more fun that is than scales alone. Try it!
Before you go mess around, check out this modern interpretation of West African Polyrhythms dating back over 1,000 years. Arranged by Don Swanson and featuring Nigerian master drummer Baba Ayo Adeyemi.
And here’s a great explanation and super playing that goes deeper into polyrhythms from CK Ladzekpo, a teacher (UC Berkeley) and musician from Ghana. If nothing else,check out the crazy interesting bell rhythms they get going at the beginning of video 2.
Thanks to blog.dubspot for the graphic at the top of the post.
March 23, 2016
You Have Never Heard An Instrument Like This
Check out the instrument Javier Bustos invented and plays. Haunting sounds that would be great in a horror flick. What a cool idea.
March 21, 2016
March 20, 2016
How Sleep Will Boost Your Abilities (Yes, all of them)
Check out Sara Mednick’s talk about sleep’s role in memory, learning, and living a healthy life. She’s got an excellent book out, called Take a Nap! But if you’d like a shorter version, check out chapter 41 in The Practice of Practice. Nearly every world-class musician I interviewed for the book took naps regularly, usually after the main practice session of the day. It works, and Mednick explains why.
Here’s what author Phillip Roth said about naps:
SIMON: Is there something you’re taking more time for now that…
ROTH: Yeah, naps. Let me tell you about the nap. It’s absolutely fantastic. When I was a kid, my father was always trying to tell me how to be a man. And he said – I was maybe nine – he said, Philip, whenever you take a nap, take your clothes off and put a blanket over you and you’re going to sleep better. Well, as with everything, he was right. And so I now do that and I come back from the swimming pool I go to and I have my lunch and I read the paper and I take this glorious thing called a nap. And then the best part of it is that when you wake up, for the first 15 seconds you have no idea where you are. You’re just alive. That’s all you know and it’s bliss. It’s absolute bliss. So, I suggest – you’re still working but your time will come.
SIMON: That sounds like great advice.
ROTH: And take your clothes off.
March 18, 2016
Keith Emerson (1944-2016)
Wonderful post on Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, from Rich Brown over at “Good Music Speaks.”
Sadly, I learned that keyboardist and composer Keith Emerson died this past week from what the coroner has determined was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was suffering from depression and anxiety mainly over some nerve damage in his hands hampering his ability to play keyboards. It seems that depression got the best of him and he committed suicide. He was 71 years old.
Emerson was part of the progressive rock super-group named Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I am regrettably a very latecomer to the ELP party. The band formed in London in 1970, with Keith Emerson on keyboards, Greg Lake on bass and vocals, and all sorts of percussion played by Carl Palmer. I really don’t know what rock I have been living under, but I had only heard a few of the songs of ELP that would play on the classic rock radio stations. Things like “Lucky Man” from…
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March 17, 2016
What Miles Meant By “Do Not Fear Mistakes. There are None.”
Hear how Miles Davis lived the words attributed to him: Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
March 13, 2016
Take a Sonic Trip with Genadi Tkachenko
Check out Ukranian vocalist Genadi Tkachenko. His practice has resulted in an amazing range, both pitch-wise (high to low), but timbre-wise, too. Wow! Start at 2:04 if the video doesn’t go there automagically.
