It's been almost a year since I wrote here....

And a very interesting and challenging year for me. I am surprised to realize that the last post I made on this page was just after last New Year. I was living in Seattle at the time, hanging out a lot at a little local music venue and pub called the Blue Moon. I was working on a bunch of stuff with guitar and keys whenever I could, and getting to know some cool musicians up there. I had moved from Detroit to New Orleans, and then from New Orleans to Seattle. I found myself liking Seattle a lot, but missing New Orleans in a deep personal way.

One of the last things I posted about here was a tragic fire that happened about this time last year, which killed a bunch of young people in New Orleans, most of whom had also been busking street musicians or performers. To me it seemed tragically sad that whatever potential they had for the world musically and otherwise was irrevocably gone. I didn't realize it at the time, but it became one of many things that made me just put some backpack's and camping gear in the trunk, and make my way back to New Orleans.

Musicianship is Learned in Many Different Settings.

Like an artist with a paint palate of colors, the more experiences you have the wider your range of creative possibilities.

I like having traveled a bit and lived in different cities. I believe that it has given me a lit of inspiration, to see both how people with different perspectives and surroundings may live differently, and also how similar most of us are in many ways inside. I am also very greatful to have met, befriended, worked with, and learned from so many great musical people in different places and settings. What I learned from Dr. Mitchell, Phyllis White, and Karl Boelter when I studied Music at Oakland University in Michigan has given me a great foundation. What I experienced when watching rehearsals groups of friends of mine belonged to, I got entirely different experiences that were also instructive. "Wytch" in Toronto, "Dragon Tears Descending" and "Rogue Angel 7" , showed me a lot of things about what works and doesn't when putting together a band project. When I moved to New Orleans the first time I met and got to know local old school blues cats, and am glad to have spent some real time with Coco Robicheaux; Billy Outlaw, Jon Williams, John Patten, Blue Max, Willow, Lisa Lynn, and many others. Each of them have had individual perspectives on songwriting and performing that have given me new ideas to play with and explore.

Music education and theory is important to growing musicianship, as well as direct experiences with other performer's and performance techniques. It is a personal evolution of self-development within a musical sphere that expands as the musician's range of experience increases.

In other words, join a choir. Pick up a guitar and learn to play chords. Fool around with a keyboard and learn the same thing in a different way. Join the school band and learn a classical instrument. Take voice classes. Study theater, too. Learn about entertainment venues and the music industry. Find out where local musicians play. Investigate the history of music in your community over the last several decades. Be in somebody else's rock band. Start your own band. painfully try to write a song about your feelings when you've had a bad day. Joyfully try the opposite on a good day. Become friends with people that have done this thing you're trying to do. Work more and more on your particular talents and skills in different ways. Over time, who you are in a unique way will develop more amazingly by virtue of having many different experiences that synthesize within you and harmonize with what's around you.

:D

Seattle Music Sceene: Blue Moon Open Mic Night

If you happen to be up in the seattle area and want a fun evening, the Blue Moon hosts an open mic on Wednesday nights. It starts around 8pm and is run by Angry Joey and co-hosted by his talented daughter Leanne. With any luck I may get to film and post her awsome rendition of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears in the near future. Last nights open mic was amazing from start to finish. There were some noteworthy blues tunes sung by Daddy Treetops, a musician of local folk fame, and also an amazing set of Rastafarian fun lead by Abdulla and his friends.

The crowd on Wensdays is warm and friendly, so if you live in the area or are visiting bring yourself out. If you play, show up with your guitar or a song and sign up with Joey. The crowd is weloming to beginners as well as seasoned ( bad-ass) performers. ;-)~ The Blue Moon is located on 45th street in the U district.

Must be 21 and over to attend, with ID.

Playing the Blues

Here's a neat little tutorial I found that shows how to make 4 simple chords that will work for composing a blues song. Definately some great ideas you can experiment with.:-)

The Blues Scale- C Minor Pentatonic – Blues Scale in C

Before we can play the blues, we have to understand how the blues are built. The scale is a little different, including “bent” or “blue” notes.

On a piano you can hear the C minor pentatonic or C Blues scale by playing these six notes:

C – E flat- F- F sharp- G- B flat.

Like the other scales we’ve discussed, it has a particular pattern that can be moved to any root note by using the same structure of half steps and whole steps.

Respectively, the scale is built one, flat three, four, flat five, five, flat seven- but try just learning it in C first. I recommend playing up and down the scale until you are very comfortable with it, and then just noodling around with those notes. See what melodic phrases occur to you naturally and have fun.

Here's a video tutorial so you can see the scale being played.

COCO ROBICHEAUX- New Orleans Blues

Now how bad-ass would you have to be to win an award called "Best Blues Album by a Louisana Artist"

Seriously. Babies cut their teeth on harmonica's in Louisana. The spices in the food make 'em wail that way. There ain't nobody that can sing the blues like someone who'se stumbled home through the french quarter in New Orleans. The rhythmn is in the sound of steps on the pavement, the rocking of the train, the ebb and flow of the tide.

Here's a site where you can find out more about his music, and a link to his myspace page and other articles. :-)

( I miss you Coco. Thanks for letting me play with You, and telling such fabulous stories! )

http://www.spiritland.com/index.html

http://www.myspace.com/cocorobicheaux

http://oriolepoet.blogspot.com/2008/04/resiliency-and-rebirth-in-big-easy-coco.html

Music~ The Art of Listening

Now, assuming you’re smart, you started at the bottom of the blog. If you ddn’t know already, you now know how to find middle c, what half-steps and whole steps are, what flats and sharps are, what pattern is used from any key note to create a major scale, and how to play that with your left and right hand on the piano in C major and G Major.

Now on to talking about music, and styles of music for a moment. Classical Music is often used as a part of traditional learning in music. Traditional teachers often feel that the classics best give a student an understanding of music theory, playing technique, and the forms of composition.

There’s a lot of BEAUTIFUL classical music out there, the techniques and theory behind which all kinds of more modern music has its roots in.

The common music of today is also highly influenced by Jazz and Blues, Classic Rock, Folk and Country music. You don’t have to immediately like all of the different styles of music to understand that they have had interesting influences on one another. Much of this can be mapped both culturally and mathematically.

In trying to develop a well rounded perception of music, I think it’s a good idea to develop a kind of recognition and appreciation of all the available styles.

Follow along with one of my piano students as I give her lot’s of interesting things to listen to. Here’s this week’s list, and a link to a playlist I created on project playlist where you can hear all of them for free.

Classical
Beehtoven- Fur Elise
Beehtoven-Moonlight Sonata
Samuel Barber- Adaggio for Strings

Jazz and Blues
Etta James- At Last
Ottis Redding- Sittin on the Dock of the Bay
The Animals- The House of the Rising Sun

Lyrical Folk
Leonard Cohen-Famous Blue Raincoat
Leonard Cohen- Suzanne
Suzanne Vega- The Queen and the Soldier
Suzanne Vega- Gypsy

Check back for the Project playlist link