Jonathan Harnum's Blog, page 52

SoundSlice: YouTube Learning Goodness

If you’re like me, you get a lot of learning done on YouTube, but isolating a passage and repeating it, let alone notating it in some way, is difficult if not impossible. Not any more! Check out SoundSlice.

Adrian Holovaty (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Guitarist and programmer Adrian Holovaty (he often plays rhythm guitar in Swing Gitan, just voted best jazz band in Chicago), with help from  designer PJ Macklin created SoundSlice.

SoundSlice is a fantastically useful tool geared towards guitarists, but it’s useful for anybody who learns by watching video. Adrian’s done many cool things as a programmer (check his site), and has an album out of his most popular fingerstyle tunes here, most of which you can also find on SoundSlice, like the Beatles tune, Yesterday. Check out the link to Yesterday for a good example of how the site works.

SoundSlice takes advantage of HTML5 abilities, allowing you to slow down video to half speed, as well as annotate using text, tabs, chords, and, coming soon, standard notation. Also coming soon is a Pro version that will allow further refinements in slowing down playback and other goodies. When you first create an account and load a video, there is an excellent walkthrough that shows you all the features.

I can’t embed SoundSlice here, but check out the links below to see excellent examples of how it works:

The Stephane Wrembel tune  Bistro Fada  (played by Adrian), featured in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris. Wrembel spoke with me for an hour or so about how he practices, a fascinating and useful approach. I’m working up that audio and it should be up here some time this summer.
One of my own transcriptions of a Dizzy Gillespie tune, Birk’s Works, on which you can hear my guitar, trumpet and egg-shaker playing. I’m still trying to figure how to easily put in trumpet fingerings.
Here’s the SoundSlice “About Page“

Or, for a complete overview of the program, watch Adrian’s talk on SoundSlice below:

https://vimeo.com/59193899

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Performance as Practice

When I asked Nicholas Barron about how he practices, he said, “I never practice.” I was intrigued, because the dude can play guitar and sing, and has clearly spent a lot of time doing it. Over the course of the next 90 minutes, he shared the details of what “I never practice” means to him. Performance-as-practice is a focus Nicholas shares with a lot of pop musicians. You can hear the whole interview here. Sometimes practice is seems a dirty word, as though too much practice might kill the authenticity of the music, as Erin McKeown mentioned.

Nicholas Barron is a soulful Chicago singer-songwriter who looks like Vince Vaughn (but funnier), and he sounds like the love-child of John Lee Hooker, John Hiatt, and Joni Mitchell; or maybe Nicholas is a cousin of Ray LaMontagne. James Taylor called Nicholas “undeniable” at  New York Times’ Emerging Artists Series in 2007. Nicholas’s songs are playful, thoughtful, and heartfelt. Check out the vid of one of his more popular tunes, I’m Not Superman below.

Nicholas tried to use conventional types of practice in his quest. He studied at a couple different colleges, including the New England Conservatory, where he was on track to be part of Gunther Schuller’s Third Stream program. But Nicholas told me that sitting in a room working on scales made his brain hurt. He suffers from ADHD, and had a difficult time with what he called the linear approach of conventional kinds of practice.

At a master class given by the excellent trumpeter Pat Harbison, Nicholas said one piece of advice Harbison gave was to

“play everywhere you can, all the time. Play at McDonalds.” I took it to heart. I heard that. I didn’t hear the notes, I didn’t hear the ‘do this.’ They said play, play, play, and that’s what I remember.

The advice resonated with Nicholas and he began doing just that. He sat in with a killer jazz group a few nights a week while finishing up with school, playing with Hammond B3 player, Jimmy McGary (a guy who, according to Nicholas, “looks like Santa Claus and plays like Charlie Parker). Nicholas traveled to Europe, played in the Tube in London, and eventually ended up playing all day nearly every day for four years in the Chicago subways, at the southern stops, honing his chops. In fact, if you come to visit Chicago and enjoy any kind of street performance, you can thank Nicholas Barron for that. He was instrumental in fighting a ban on street performing, and through organizing and help from others, Nicholas got the city to allow street performers.

So here’s the thing. In school music, performance is a rarity. There are, generally, three major concerts a year. Three! All the rest of the time is spent in rehearsal. This doesn’t seem to be a good balance, though because I’ve had years of experience as a band teacher, I certainly understand the reason for it. Because a performance requires a kind of focus that is rarely present in the practice room, it’s a crucial experience for getting better. It’s one of the definitions of practice that often gets overlooked.

So how do you perform more? Go for simple. In school, the music to be performed is often at the pinnacle of the group’s ability, and this takes time to prepare. Learn something you think is easy and then go play it. Give yourself a week or two with it and then take it to an open mic, or play it for friends, families, or on the street for strangers. And don’t just perform it once, another common practice in school music. Perform the same tune dozens of times, if you can. Nicholas Barron has performed most of his songs, and those of many others thousands of times. That’s a kind of practice you can’t get in a practice room.

Get out there and perform.

Check out the Nicholas Barron discography (he’s also on the John Martyn tribute album singing Angeline). Here’s Nicholas performing I’m Not Superman live, and he explains a little bit why doing it live is so important. The introduction is one I’ve not heard before. Classic Nicholas Barron.

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Samskar, Chicken Embryos, and Places of Practice

Zing-Yang Kuo

Zing-Yang Kuo was a physiological psychologist who was interested in investigating behaviors that were thought to be instinctual, or innate  (his early research on this topic was in the 1920s). He studied chicken embryos, because it was believed the distinctive pecking behavior chicks show immediately upon hatching was an instinctual, innate behavior.

Zing-Yang Kuo believed that labeling a behavior as “innate” or “natural” or “instinctual” didn’t help anyone understand the behavior. He watched chicken embryos develop by coating eggs with warm vaseline, rendering the shells translucent. And here’s the thing: He discovered that as the chicks develop inside the tightly packed egg, their head rests directly over their heart, and as soon as the heart begins to beat, the thumping heart causes the chick’s head to move in exactly the same pecking motion. The chicks are practicing this pecking behavior many hundreds, probably thousands of times, before they hatch. The finding blurs the line between natural talent and practice in a very interesting way.

Zing-Yang Kuo’s research highlights the fact that context matters. Where you practice is important, and early on, you have no control over that whatsoever. Some are lucky to be born into a rich musical environment.

Indian vocalist Prasad Upasani is the creator of the fantastic iTabla Pro app (video demo), one of my essential practice technologies. When Prasad spoke with me about his own music practice, he introduced me to a term: samskar. Prasad said this word translated means “unconscious influence.” One of Prasad’s earliest memories is waking to hear his father’s early-morning singing practice. He would wander in, sit on his dad’s lap, and they would sing some of his favorite songs. This early exposure to music and music practice certainly had an impact on his developing sensibilities. Rex Martin, a tuba virtuoso who I mention frequently because his knowledge of music and practice are incredibly deep, had two older brothers who played the tuba, so he was exposed to those vibrations from conception onward. Did this have an impact on his neural wiring? I don’t know, but I suspect it might have.

Readers of this blog know that I don’t much believe in “natural” talent. To me, labeling a skill as a “talent”–in the sense that it’s a natural ability–blinds us to the reality behind that skill, much like the idea of “instinctual behavior” blinds us to the developmental realities that support any ability. Something to think about.

Electron microscopy of a chicken embryo, taken at Lisbon University, Portugal

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A Killer App for Practice With a Rhythm Section

I’ve long been a user and lover-hater of Band In a Box. It’s always been a clunky, overly-complicated, expensive piece of software, but I bought it and used it and recommended it to others despite its clunkiness because there wasn’t anything better available. Now there is. Orders of magnitude better. It’s called iReal Book.

The iReal Book app gives you access to thousands of jazz and other chord charts, and it will play a decent-sounding MIDI rhythm section in several styles. You can enter your own tunes, and, best of all, you can share them with other users. The forum contains thousands of tunes, and with a simple click on an html link, the app automatically installs it to your iReal Book. Within 5 minutes I had nearly 1,500 songs on my device, and over 300 of them were Gypsy Jazz, the genre I play most.

Just before a gig on Saturday I needed a couple lead sheets, and sent them from the app to myself as a PDF and printed ‘em up, no sweat. The printouts are great and structured well. Be sure to check for accuracy, though. One tune, Them There Eyes was missing a line, which is a problem in the middle of a gig. We learned that the hard way.

The app is around $10, and with some of the in-app purchases (I bought the Gypsy Jazz accompaniment and the guitar chords function), you can push the price up to around $20, but that’s still a great deal for the functionality and usability of the app. I’m not entirely happy with the guitar chord fingering choices for the app, and have not yet discovered whether those can be tweaked, but I sure hope they can. If so, this is a grand-slam home run app. It’s a minor quibble, no pun intended. When you consider that Band in a Box goes for around $100, and even more if you want realistic sound quality, the iRealBook app is a steal.

This is one of the best practice tools I’ve come across in many years. Absolutely brilliant! If you need to practice with a rhythm section in just about any style (jazz, bluegrass, pop, rock, etc.), you’ve got to get this app. It’s available for both iOS, MacOS, and Android devices). Here’s a comprehensive video walkthrough of most of its features:

iRealBook Features Walkthrough

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Duke Ellington, Cootie Williams, and the Wise Musician

Duke Ellington

I love this man’s music. And last February, after hearing a smoking middle school septet (yes, I wrote that correctly) do a superb version of Duke’s Black and Tan Fantasy, I think it’s safe to say Duke’s music will be a long-lasting legacy.

Here’s a vid, a short bio on the man. The gem comes around 2:40. “Every musician in the world has some limitation. There is no musician in the world who has no limitation…. But, the wise players are those who play what they can master.”

He also speaks about how and why he writes, and what circumstances help him write. Probably my favorite Duke tune is East St. Louis Toodle-oo. Something about Bubber Miley/Cootie Williams’s plunger work is just great! Here’s a version.

If you’re unfamiliar with Duke, check out the Ken Burns collection. A good selection. Here’s a 1927 recording of East St. Louis Toodle-oo with Bubber Miley on trumpet.

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Happy Birthday Duke! Duke says, “The Wise Player…”

Duke Ellington

I love this man’s music. And last February, after hearing a smoking middle school septet (yes, I wrote that correctly) do a superb version of Duke’s Black and Tan Fantasy, I think it’s safe to say Duke’s music will be a long-lasting legacy.

Here’s a vid, a short bio on the man. The gem comes around 2:40. “Every musician in the world has some limitation. There is no musician in the world who has no limitation…. But, the wise players are those who play what they can master.”

He also speaks about how and why he writes, and what circumstances help him write. Probably my favorite Duke tune is East St. Louis Toodle-oo. Something about Bubber Miley/Cootie Williams’s plunger work is just great! Here’s a version.

If you’re unfamiliar with Duke, check out the Ken Burns collection. A good selection. Here’s a 1927 recording of East St. Louis Toodle-oo with Bubber Miley on trumpet.

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Johnny Cash on Failure

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

Here’s another iconic image of Johnny Cash. I love this one, and like to think this is a good representation of my own attitude towards failure. The story of the image is told by Alex Selwyn-Holmes on his interesting website Iconic Photos. After the quote is a 1959 video of Johnny Cash playing Folsom Prison Blues.

As he grew old, Johnny Cash came to resent the Nashville country-music establishment, which all but abandoned him and the other aging “country” artists who had defined the genre to embrace new pop-oriented country artists like Garth Brooks. His late album Unchained (1996) was virtually ignored by the establishment.

However, the album won a Grammy for Best Country Album. Cash and his producers American Recordings posted an advertisement in Billboard Magazine with the above image as a ”thank you” to the Nashville country music industry after winning the award. The infamous photo of Cash giving the middle finger to the camera was taken back in 1969 during his San Quentin prison performance.

A tireless advocate for the prison reform, Cash began performing concerts at various prisons starting in the late 1960s, leading to two highly successful live albums, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) and Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969). In the latter prison, when Cash performed his prison song “San Quentin” (“I hate every inch of you/May you rot and burn in hell/May your walls fall and may I live to tell”), he nearly caused an uprising. The definitive, iconoclastic image made its way into Cash’s Hollywood biopic, Walk the Line, but the gesture was actually shot during a rehearsal session toward the annoying cameraman, the concert’s official photographer Jim Marshall.

 

 

Here’s JC in 1959 singing Folsom Prison Blues:

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On The Value of Mentors: Bootsy Collins, Mark Mothersbaugh, et al.

Some good advice about finding and working with mentors from James Brown’s funky bassist Bootsy Collins, DEVO’s Mark Mothersbaugh, Pro Skater Javier Nunez, rapper Anwar Carrots, young impresario Levi Maestro, and Dale Crover, drummer for the Melvins and, briefly, Nirvana. They’re chillin’ and shillin’ for Scion, but there are some good nuggets of advice in there. The reason I put this up is that every single professional musician I’ve talked to about music practice has had at least one mentor who changed their lives.

 

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12 Rules of Practice, from Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis (Photo: Wikipedia)

Wynton Marsalis is a musician who knows how to practice. As a younger man, he was equally at home in front of a symphony orchestra playing the Haydn concerto, or laying down some serious jazz with Art Blakey. Check out Wynton’s discography for more evidence.

For a while now, he’s turned his full attention to traditional jazz and his own new compositions. Back when VHS was the only option for video releases, Wynton did a program called Tackling the Monster: Wynton on Practice.  In the video excerpt below, fast-forward to 3:00 to get to the practice tidbits. After that, check out Wynton playing some sweet choruses at the Jazz in Marciac festival in France, in 2009. So tasty and relaxed. After that first tune, the concert goes on for another 45 minutes. Worth hearing, for sure! That’s what tens of thousands of hours of practice sound like.

Here are 12 practice suggestions from Master Marsalis. Each one could be the subject of a book on its own.

1. Seek out the best private instruction you can afford.

2. Write/work out a regular practice schedule.

3. Set realistic goals.

4. Concentrate when practicing

5. Relax and practice slowly

6. Practice what you can’t play. – (The hard parts.)

7. Always play with maximum expression.

8. Don’t be too hard on yourself.

9. Don’t show off.

10. Think for yourself. – (Don’t rely on methods.)

11. Be optimistic. – “Music washes away the dust of everyday life.”

12. Look for connections between your music and other things.

.

(start the vid below at 3:00 to skip the credits). I’ve found some evidence in my own research talking with master musicians that, instead of being something that is dreaded, as Wynton and YoYo Ma mention, practice is also something many musicians love dearly. It’s good to have a challenge and work toward it, even if that work is sometimes supremely demanding, and at times frustrating.

.

Here’s Wynton and crew in 2009. Around 16:00 you can hear Wynton and Wycliffe Gordon sing.

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Where You Practice Matters: Ogle Hans Zimmer’s Lair

Hans Zimmer’s practice room and work station (the grand piano is behind the camera)

Hans Zimmer is an award-winning film composer and music producer. You can seem more pics of his work/practice space here. Here’s the first part of his Wikipedia entry

Hans Florian Zimmer (German pronunciation: [hans ˈfloːʁi̯aːn ˈtsɪmɐ]; born 12 September 1957) is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including award winning film scores for The Lion King (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), The Thin Red Line (1998), Gladiator (2000), The Last Samurai (2003), The Dark Knight (2008) andInception (2010). He is the head of the film music division at DreamWorks studios and works with other composers through the company which he founded, Remote Control Productions.[1]

Zimmer’s works are notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. He has received four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Classical BRIT Award, and an Academy Award. He was also named on the list of Top 100 Living Geniuses, published by The Daily Telegraph.[2]

Of course, few of us have the resources to build an awesome space like Zimmer’s when we’re starting out, but the most important things about your practice space have absolutely nothing to do with money or coolness. Here’s what people like Ingrid Jensen, Sidiki Dembele, Rex Martin, Erin McKeown, Bobby Broom, Nicholas Barron, Prasad Upasani, and several other fantastic musicians have taught me about where you practice.

 If possible, dedicate a room, or a space in your room to playing music. Leave your instruments out and readily available. This way, you can enter the space and not waste time assembling your instrument or finding tools you need. This also allows you to easily pick up your axe and toss off a tune or a lick you’ve been working on at a moment’s notice. More frequent practice throughout the day is better than one long session.
Privacy. Probably the most important aspect, this has two parts. First, privacy will allow you a space free from distractions, so you can focus intently on playing music. Turn off your phone, make it known you’re not to be disturbed. Ingrid Jensen hangs a “Do Not Disturb” sign on her door. The second part has to do with having the freedom to make noise. I always feel self-conscious practicing in my apartment. It was much better when my parents sent me to the garage as a kid. Much more private. You need the privacy to repeat things many times, to make mistakes, and to feel you’re not being judged for it. Though a private space would be great, you may have to cultivate the difficult skill of not caring who hears you practice. Be careful with this superpower. It comes with responsibility.


Gear. The only gear you really need is your instrument. Other good things to have in your practice space are a piano, recording devices, sheet music (and a stand), your phone (with killer aps like Prasad Upasani’s iTabla Pro. Highly recommneded.), and a computer. Rex Martin makes great use of the super-powerful Spectre program. Bobby Broom records ideas or techniques he want to work on with his computer and keeps them all in a special file. When he’s searching around for something to practice, all he has to do is open up the file and choose something. Have all your gear(computer, recording devices, or w.e.) out and ready, too, so you don’t have to search for them.
You might not be able to do any of these. Sidiki Dembele, the amazing djembe player, had to sneak out a mile or two outside his village to practice so he wouldn’t get into trouble (his father didn’t want him to be a musician). Even if you don’t have a musical lair like Hans Zimmer, or even a room in your house, the most important of all these things is FOCUS. It’s easier if you have privacy, but not necessary. If you look at the last post, you’ll see the Dorado and Samson Schmitt practicing in the kitchen with lots of distractions. It probably smelled good, too. Focus is a state of mind and with practice (hehe), you can use it anywhere.

And because I like putting up video, here’s some of Hans Zimmer’s greatest hits:

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