Joe G

Interesting article... The Man Who Would Be Jim

The classics never die. They just get recycled.

And here I thought this thread was going to be about the music.

Boys will be boys....

Except that they wouldn't be complaining. Hey-o!

You mean, besides selling it to me? No.

Yea, they're always complaining about getting stiffed by the band...

Yes. ← Yes, you have reservations?

Sounds serious. And lying around in a hospital is just about the worst.

That could be - I can't open this at work. Thanks, though.

Instead of going to bed at 10:30, I stayed up with this thing until after midnight. I've checked out almost all the playing examples/playalong sections, and they do indeed become more challenging and inspiring. The odd meter tracks are fun (one of them, in 11/4, is based on his tune "5 in the morning, 6 in the afternoon"). He also brings in three other compositions of his, one called Fallen Angels, and the other two I didn't catch the names of. I'll have to track them down. The latter two are very difficult, in fact quite a bit out of my reach at the moment. I'll have to work at those. There was at least one "a-HA" moment for me: in the discussion about odd meters, he said that the way to play fluently on them is to find a "transition point", by which he meant a beat or beats inside the bar that you can play towards the upcoming "one" from. This was something I figured out back when we were working up our tune "Meet Me @ 11". Nice to get confirmation that way. One thing I wish this set came with is a book containing all the exercises and chord charts. That would have been very helpful, though probably more expensive.

He did have an intense look about him. Sorry I never got to see him in person.

Comparing the size to the dollar bills, that would be quite a matchbook! Matches to light big Cheech and Chong size... uh,... cigarettes. I believe that is a napkin. Cool nonetheless. And it would be a cool matchbook also. ← Thanks a lot .:.impossible, now I like your matchbook idea better than my napkin idea. ← No shit; Smokin' Section and all that... :bwallace2: That's it, ship everything back.

Well, I've seen a little more, and I agree with you that this is not for beginners. The more music (and theory) you have under your belt, the better off you'll be. I saw the part about the "triads", and I thought the same as you, that he was pretty loose with his definitions, though I understood his point that 3 note structures can be constructed in many ways. I did find the chapters on chromatics a bit disappointing in that he didn't really give us much analysis of his approach ("There's a lot of notes in there - work at it!") But, if you've got some grounding in this, it's all there in the notated examples. Guess he's a do-it-yourself kinda guy. As I mentioned, he throws out some pretty difficult-looking exercises not too far into the chapters. Lots of cool stuff in harmonic and melodic minor modes.

This was in my mailbox today, and I've watched the first couple of chapters. So far, I think it's pretty well laid out. I look forward to working with this a bit at a time. Kinda cracked me up when he laid down some of his wicked 32nd note runs as "exercises". Sure - no problem.

Sure enough. And we panned the drums hard right.

While I've had dreams where I'm watching a concert and hearing magnificent music, usually when it's my turn to play, there's something all messed up about it. Either the guitar is all jacked up, or they want me to play the trombone, or I'm trying to make melodies by scratching two rocks together, or I'm in my underwear... In other words, I can identify with Randy's dream!

Um... she already knows who you are, dude. Seriously, glad to hear there were no fatalities.

Aquarian Dream

Oh, you slay yourself!

Right! Wasn't there talk about Grant "spreading his love through the medium of music"? Classic. The best part about that album is revealed when you put the cd on, and just listen to the first 5 seconds of each tune, skipping to the next on after that. Try it! A friend of mine has some hilarious stories about playing with that drummer.

BA-Dum-tsssss

...and one more.

Well, I could make it a long story, but the short version is: bad (very bad) power situation making it difficult to even power up the keyboard, lousy acoustics making all the instruments sound like shit, lots of ambient noise, and a fairly major hassle just to get into the place. I think we played all right, considering.

That was a good'n.