Here is Kaki King during the Saturday morning workshop.

An interview I did with Bryan Sutton.

More videos at our YouTube channel.

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I met with Jimmie before his CD Release Party at Buddy Guy’s new club. Not only was Buddy there, but Jeff Beck also showed up to celebrate his birthday. The next night I met up with Pete Huttlinger to record to lesson videos:

The rest of the summer I will spending getting settled into my new house in addition to cranking out lessons for GE and PG. I will also begin teaching at the Marion Music Academy this fall, so if you are interested in lessons, send me an email and I can get you the info.

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What has Steve Jobs done for us?

Well, I think the iPad (horrible name) is the best thing to come out of Apple for musicians ever. Yes, even better than the iPod.

Here are a few areas where I see a huge amount of potential in this device for both amateur and professional musicians.

Sheet Music Publishing

The biggest and most obvious area the iPad could be used is publishing sheet music. With the advent of the e-reader (Kindle and Nook), digital books are becoming more and more accepted. The issue with sheet music is that the screen has to be large enough so that you can see it while you are playing your instrument. There are some instructional music books on the Kindle, but it just doesn’t work. The iPad’s screen is in full color and large enough to set on a music stand and play from.

There needs to be a Netflix type program for sheet music on the iPad.  What if for 20 bucks a month you had access to the top 5,000 guitar tabs available?  They would be updated and changed each month but only available on your device. The legit guitar tab market has yet to be effectively monetized due to the logisitical and legal issues. Now is the time for this market to expand.

Making Practice Time More Efficient

How many times have you been practicing and became inspired to work on a certain piece and you didn’t have it with you? This has happened to me countless times and it becomes hard to carry all the essential books with you every time you go to practice.

What if you had access to all your music and videos while in your practice room?

Lets say you were working on the latest Satriani tune. There was a part you were stuck on, so you fire up your iPad, buy the tab and even see a short video of Satch playing it himself. Of course this would never replace formal one-on-one instruction, but for intermediate to advanced players it could be invaluable.

Right about now all the musicians born before 1981 are saying “ Why do you need all this fancy tech stuff to learn how to play?”

At one time, records, cassettes and radio (all used to help musicians become better) were considered “high-tech.” If everything we had today was available to you then, I guarantee you would be using them.

Live Performance

I have seen a few more progressive musicians use a computer in addition to their traditional rig of amps and effects. Although to me this is the least revolutionary item on this list, it is an important one.

We have all seen the cool music-making apps on the iPhone. I would love to see a version of GarageBand on the iPad. It doesn’t have to have nearly the functionality of the standard version, but it could be the best musical notepad ever. This could easily relay into using samples and loops from you device in live performance. It would be much easier to carry an iPad to a gig and it would mean more access to different sounds. If you are a traditionalist when it comes to tone, I doubt you would be even considering this anyway.

Educational Benefits

Arguably, everything on this list serves to better educate you as a musician. As a guitar teacher, having video, sheet music and audio files at the touch of a screen would make my life SO much easier.

Here is a scenario:

A student comes in wanting to learn the latest tune by band X, that of course you have never heard of. You fire up your iPad, you student signs into Hal Leonard’s sheet music store, you buy the tab and then begin to work on the tune right there. No more late nights transcribing and no illegal photocopies from the tab book at the guitar store.

You can then fire up YouTube and see exactly where the guitarist plays a certain lick or see what type of gear they use to get that tone.

Combine an iPad with a Fender GDec3 with some kind of wi-fi magic and the possibilities grow exponentially.

One iPad Per Student

Giving iPads to every middle school student will make them better students. Allowing them to learn about technology and research from a young age will make them better informed and it will give them a more global perspective of society.

This item isn’t so much specifically for musicians, but everyone should listen to more music and at least try to play an instrument, right?

If we factor textbooks into the cost of the device, the publishers could subsidize the cost and get their materials into the hands of a much larger student body. Each device will come pre-loaded with textbooks, apps and even special media that can be customized for each class. No more excuses for not taking notes in class.

In the end, this device will change the way we create, develop and consume music. Much like the iPod, there will be use cases developed for the iPad that we haven’t even considered.  This is all bleeding edge stuff, but with the right vision we can use technology to not only make this a better place, but make us better people.

As you can probably tell if you have been to my blog before, I am a big fan of guitars and workshops. In my opinion, the benefit of being surrounded by like-minded guitarists for an extended period of time is invaluable. Even private lessons fall short because you are only exposed to one teacher. This year Austin Peay State University is holding their first annual summer guitar workshop and competition. Christopher Davis (who is finishing his Master’s Degree at APSU) forwarded me the info and it looks like it is going to be an amazing event.

The Facutly will include:

Stanley Yates

Stephen Aron

Richard Smith

Bill Pilburn

Roger Hudson

And several more.

This workshop will be focused on classical and fingerstyle styles and will be held on the campus of APSU from June 27 through July 3. Each day will be a mix of masterclasses, lectures, ensemble rehearsals and performances. The cost for the workshop is $550 for a residential student and $390 for a commuter student. I have been doing workshops and logistics for these types of events for years and I don’t think I have EVER seen a quality workshop that is this great of a deal. If you are considering going to study guitar in college, you MUST do everything you can to attend this workshop. I really wish I would of had something like this available to me before I started my freshman year at MSU.

I am sure my guitar teacher felt the same way.

(pic via Made Underground)

Here goes:

Alex Skolnick writes a great blog and recently has been posting about how some of his favorite songs have horrible lyrics.

I recently have been becoming an avid reader of AudioTuts+. Ear training was always difficult for me in school, so I was very happy to see them to a roundup of the best ear training websites around. My personal favorite is IWasDoingAlright.

Christopher Davis is not only a great classical guitarist, but he runs one the best guitar blogs around. To celebrate my recent move back to the Motherland (Iowa), here is an interview Christopher did with Iowa Luthier John H. Dick.

I have sung the praises of The Bad Plus here before. Ethan Iverson is usually to blame for their excellent blog, Do The Math. Recently, he posted a in-depth interview with Cedar Walton and a transcription of Walton playing “I’ll Remember April.”

Every musician has a particular way that they warm-up before a practice session or a gig. Guitarist Cameron Mizell outlines some of his favorite exercises in a recent post. I think this week I will write up some of my favorite exercises as well, since I just got a new copy of Sibelius.

Hopefully you take a minute and check out these posts. If you like them, leave a comment and let them know.

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Yes, Iowa.

Both my wife and I are originally from Iowa, so it was nice to be able to move back home and be closer to family (especially with the kid). Luckily, I found a position as Managing Editor for GuitarEdge Magazine. Essentially, this is the coolest job ever. I get to write lessons and articles for one of the coolest magazines around and I get to work with some of the best writers in the game.

I am pretty lucky.

This means that you will be seeing a LOT more of my writing and lessons out there in the Internets. One of the coolest things about GE is the fact that the entire magazine is available online for free. Just go to http://digital.guitaredge.com every month and check out transcriptions (10 in each issue), lessons and articles that are way hipper than what you would find in other magazines.

Hopefully this explains why there hasn’t been much activity here lately, but once I get settled more into my new gig I will make it a point to start writing more here. I am thinking on focusing more on longer form articles and saving my Posterous page for shorter links, videos and other oddities.

Would love to hear what you think….

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Posted via web from Jason’s Big Music Corner

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via phish.com

Phish? In 3D? YES! I have been listening to F8 for months now. I wonder if the acoustic “Wilson” will be even more raging when they add another dimension.

Posted via web from Jason’s Big Music Corner

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Posted via web from Jason’s Big Music Corner

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