Musician's Woodshed

Root Position Triads Circle of Fifths Exercise

2019-04-20T16:47:00.000-06:00

It has been a while since I posted on this site: I've been in the woodshed.

I recommend Dan Haerle's Book for learning jazz chords and harmony: Jazz piano voicing skills: A method for individual or class study

If you're learning your chords and need to work on triads try this exercise: Root Position Triad Chord Circle of Fifth Exercise for Piano or Any Instrument

General and Jazz Piano Practice Ideas:

Practice hands separately
Practice at painfully slow turtle speed along with a metronome
Record yourself
Listen to a recording of yourself
Sight read easy easy stuff
Practice Hanon
Work on my chord exercise above
Learn tunes out of a fakebook
Get a pair of drumsticks, practice pad, Joel Rothman's Basic Drumming, Revised and Expanded Edition or any snare drum method book.
Play music with other people
check out https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/explore, for chords and lyrics to just about every song.
https://imslp.org/ classical sheet music
take lessons
learn all twelve major and minor scales with correct fingering

Ideas for Learning and Practicing Modes in Music

2016-04-08T19:23:00.001-06:00

Normally the modes are introduced like this:

Playing the different modes with the same starting note illustrates the differences between them more clearly.

It's also helpful to know what notes are sharped or flatted in any given mode.

Practice with a drone.

Piano players can play an octave in the bass with the left hand on the root or tonic, improvise on a mode with the right hand.

Guitarists, try tuning to "Drop D" and play the various modes using D as a tonic note.

Any instrument, turn on a drone and practice to it. Here's one online: http://www.anubodh.com/tanpura_for_bansuri.htm

Try putting weights or wedging business cards in between the keys on your keyboard using a PAD setting to create your own drone.

Or, create your own drone in a recording or other software program or app.

Play around with each mode for a while to get the sound of each into your ears.

Practice modes in different keys.

For more practice like this look into the modes of the melodic minor, harmonic minor, the ten thaats, and if you're really ambitious, the 72 melakartas or parent scales of South India.

Modes of the Melodic Minor:

Ten Thaats

*Note that the first six are the same as the first six modes of the major scale.

Check out Jamey Aebersold's free book for more jazz theory and info: http://www.jazzbooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=FQBK

Enjoy!

Drum Coordination Exercise Double Stop Flat Flam

2016-04-08T18:18:00.001-06:00

Just came up with this little exercise to streamline my drum practice time. I wanted to work on double-stop "flat flams". I was going to read from Stone's Stick Control but my copy is in storage so I wrote this out.

Enjoy!

Rhythm Key Exercise

Using the 15 Stylistic Elements, Plus a Few More:) w/Dave Frank

2013-11-02T21:26:00.001-06:00

The Making of a Steinway - A Steinway & Sons Factory Tour Narrated by Jo...

2013-10-15T03:16:00.001-06:00

Piano Lesson: Major Chord Triads in All Inversions and All Keys Video

2013-04-30T12:50:00.001-06:00

Major Chord Triads in All Inversions and All Keys: Building Blocks to Improvisation

The "secret" to opening up the musical possibilities of the piano lies in building a solid harmonic foundation by having the right information presented to you in a way that is easy to understand... oh yeah, and lots of practice!

If you understand the following diagrams and can form and play these shapes at the piano or keyboard then you will be able to follow this video.

All you have to do is sit down at the piano or keyboard while you watch the video and play along. I take you slowly and systematically through all the chords. This video introduces a practice method that you can apply from now on to quickly learn any type of chord.

I offer these educational materials for free so that more people can benefit. Sign up for email updates and make a donation if you like what you see here, thanks!

Getting the Gig and Keeping It

2013-04-28T01:04:00.001-06:00

“Play what you want and let the audience catch up.” - Thelonius Monk

I read once that Monk would give a musician two takes in the studio and that's it. If they weren't happy with their solo they had to live with it on the recording forever. Talk about pressure!

One of the most important things that I learned early in my professional music performing career was what it looks like to put together a band and get paying gigs. While working as as sideman on jazz gigs with older musicians that had been doing it for more years than I had been alive I had the opportunity to be a part of and see how they did things. I learned by example what it takes to get a jazz group together and in front of people.

I was playing in a jazz quartet that had a weekly Wednesday night gig in my hometown of Amarillo, TX that ran from 1997 to 2009 until the venue closed and changed ownership. I played the gig early on and stepped out for about five years while I was living and attending school in Denton,TX.

Coincidentally, while living in Denton I also had a regular Friday and Saturday night weekend gig playing tabla with a sitarist in Dallas for two and a half years, the last year and half of which we also picked up a weekly Wednesday night gig at another venue.

When I returned to Amarillo in 2006 I was invited to play on the gig again. The lineup was usually a quartet consisting of sax, keys, bass, and drums. For a while the group featured an east coast trumpeter who was living and teaching at a college in a small town two hours away. He made the trip every Wednesday because it was the only consistent jazz gig in the Texas panhandle. For a while, the last Wednesday of the month featured a jazz big band that consisted of local players. Many guest artists sat in to play, some of whom were visiting professional musicians, music educators, and anyone with the skills to keep up or at least willing to make an honest attempt. Anyone, including students, were welcome and invited to sit it. Just don't overstay your welcome. Remember, you are sitting in, this is not your gig and you are not being hired. You might get hired later but right now you are sitting in.

One summer the leader of the group, a saxophone player and college music professor, stepped out to spend time with his family and left me with the gig. The bassist and drummer were still on board and we all loved playing the gig and the extra cash every week didn't hurt either so we kept it going. I was accustomed to the horn players often playing the melody while I comped the chords on the keys so the first thing I did was to call another saxophonist to play with us. He did for a while too, but wasn't always available for the gig so I started playing it as a trio: keys, bass, and drums. My reading improved, my leadership skills were tested, and I was forced to organize things for myself. I appreciated the opportunity and rose to the challenge. When one player couldn't make it to a gig that I booked, I would find a substitute. I was determined to play the gig regardless. On occasion and when the gig payed enough I would hire an extra musician. Sometimes when I booked a gig that the regular drummer was unavailable for I would hire a high school drum student of mine to sit in. One thing that frustrated me sometimes with the weekly gig was that we rarely practiced as a band. We would show up to the gig and read charts, many of which we knew from playing them constantly, others were sight read on the bandstand in front of a live audience. Occasionally it felt like we were practicing rather than putting on a show.

The jazz song books, or “fake books” as they are affectionately referred to by musicians contained a good number of tunes that we didn't play because they were just difficult enough that we couldn't sight read them on the bandstand successfully. We needed rehearsal time. When I started booking my a group we organized jazz band rehearsals at my house and worked out challenging tunes. Thus, our band got even better. We were developing original material as well and had that to offer. We started getting more gigs and making a buzz around our small city because we were one of a small number of jazz bands in the area that was consistently gigging as much as we were and to top it off we had a set list that was unique, challenging, and exiting, and people were digging it! I attribute that success on the fact that we were rehearsing at least once a week and consistently had anywhere from one to two gigs per week. Not to mention the fact that the three of us played together and separately in other musical projects as well and perhaps most importantly, we weren't afraid to take chances musically.

Before I got into jazz and other types of music I grew up playing in punk rock bands that rehearsed in garages and played shows at punk clubs, outdoor park stages, houses, parties, garages, anywhere. One thing that I took away from all that and still value today is the do-it-yourself attitude. We weren't waiting on anyone or anything. We had weekly band practice and worked up mostly original songs that we collectively wrote. In fact, any music project that I have ever been a part of that I have been proud of practiced consistently, usually on a weekly basis, sometimes more before a performance.

It's not that I wasn't proud of the weekly jazz gig where we read charts cold sometimes, because I was and still am. I have and continue to perform with and meet amazing musicians and have had the opportunity to play some neat gigs in part because of the development lead sheet reading skills and by gaining familiarity with the shared repertoire of jazz standards. It's fun to show up to a gig and successfully play with musicians who have never performed nor rehearsed together because we can read charts and know a lot of the same tunes. Sometimes though, it just felt like practice on the bandstand and I wanted more organization so that we could challenge ourselves and grow as musicians, but also so that the audience's experience of the musical performance was higher and we came across as professionals who care about and know what they are doing.

Consistent rehearsals and set list organization resulted more or less directly in the band getting more gigs. Marketing, networking, negotiation and communication skills play an important part too, but the music and personnel have to be in place first.

I always tell young musicians to get together with their friends and put together a band, to make music with and perform for other people. I absolutely appreciate and must have my personal music time. Occasionally I'll do the solo performance thing, but what this musical journey is ultimately about for me is playing music with other people for people and it always has been.

Special Delivery Carnatic Music Books from India

2013-04-04T22:46:00.000-06:00

Carnatic music books and CD's came in the post yesterday from India! I ordered them online from The Karnatic Music Book Center. It took about two weeks and the package was so amazing that I almost couldn't open it. The materials were double wrapped in plastic, then in cardboard, then inside this white cloth bag that was sewn shut. I'm pretty sure that this package was waterproof!

The air that floated from the sky created the sound "S", which is the origin of Nadam. Along with this sound the akshara "A" considered to be the earliest was added to create the sound "SA".

With SA as the base, the other six swaras RI-GA-MA-PA-DA-NI were created.

Purandara Dasa, sometimes called the father of Carnatic Music, not only composed thousands of Krithis, but also created a set of repetitious practice exercises called "Swaravali", "Alankaras", "Geethams" etc which over time has become the standard lessons for the beginners in Carnatic Music. These exercises are in existence for the last many centuries and are the proven tools for any beginner.

The Art of Tabla Rhythm: Essentials, Tradition and Creativity

2013-03-29T10:01:00.001-06:00

Just ordered what looks like a good study on Tabla:

The Art of Tabla Rhythm: Essentials, Tradition and Creativity (Book & CD) (New Vistas in Indian Performing Arts): Sudhir Kumar Saxena: 9788124603680: Amazon.com: Books

Hal Galper's Master Class - The Illusion of An Instrument

2013-01-26T11:26:00.001-07:00

South Indian Classical (Carnatic) Music Basics (Sarali, Janta, Alankaram), Geethams & Varnams Archive: Audio Music Class and Lessons

2013-01-09T15:12:00.001-07:00

South Indian Classical (Carnatic) Music Basics (Sarali, Janta, Alankaram), Geethams & Varnams Archive: Audio Music Class and Lessons

Mel Bay's Percussion Sessions | David Courtney - Tabla Exercises | June 2006

2012-12-27T09:32:00.001-07:00

Mel Bay's Percussion Sessions | David Courtney - Tabla Exercises | June 2006

Soundpainting Class with Walter Thompson

2012-10-27T11:27:00.000-06:00

Soundpainting (Wikipedia)

Some Jazz Albums That Influenced and Informed a Younger Version of Myself

2012-08-01T13:58:00.002-06:00

I grew up playing and listening to punk rock, metal, new wave, and other types of rock music before enrolling in a jazz ensemble at a community college at the age of 20. At that time I knew nothing about jazz and had never listened to it. I had just never been exposed to it growing up in my little West Texas town. The reason that I joined the jazz ensemble was that I figured it was the only outlet in music school for a drum set player. I figured that I should start listening to some jazz if I was going to play in a jazz band so I hit the local music stores! Later I found out that my hometown of Amarillo, TX actually had a rich music history with great local players, some of whom I was fortunate to have the opportunity to play with. They became mentors to me.

Without further adieu, here are some Jazz albums that influenced and informed a younger version of myself.

Unknown Jazz Piano Cassette Tape Compilation

A friend gave me a cassette tape that was a compilation of jazz piano greats. The writing was worn off so I never knew who was on it until years later when I heard the tracks on different albums. Included was Chick Corea's "Matrix", Herbie Hancock's "Riot", Duke Ellington w/Max Roach and Charles Mingus "Caravan", a track from Michel Petrucciani, and others. Needless to say, I wore this tape out and these tracks significantly influenced my conception and aesthetic of jazz.

The Last Time I Committed Suicide (Movie Soundtrack)

I don't remember much about the actual movie but this soundtrack was an early introduction to some heavy hitters for me. The first track on the album was Charles Mingus' "Better Git Hit in Your Soul", and the second was a killer take of "Straight, No Chaser" by a piano-less Max Roach quartet. Also on the album were Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and more!

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

I didn't know anything about Art Blakey when I picked this album up. When I first started getting into jazz in my early 20's I would buy any album that looked interesting. All I could tell from the album cover was that the drummer looked awesome. As it turns out, he was awesome and album is a classic! My introduction to Horace Silver and tunes like "Nica's Dream"

Thelonius Monk - The Best of Thelonius Monk: The Blue Note Years

It's Monk! My favorite track was "In Walked Bud"

Horace Silver - Song For My Father

The first thing I noticed about this album was the way that space was used and the minimalist chords and modal harmonies that Silver was using. I dug the Latin influence and many of the compositions had a meditative quality to them.

Oscar Peterson - Exclusively For My Friends: Lost Tapes

I probably ran across this album in the clearance bin at the music store. I was absolutely floored by Peterson's playing. Blistering runs, killer harmonies, stride piano, high energy ensemble. Peterson would take tunes to the next level with double time solos accompanied by left hand walking or boogie-woogie bass lines, and of course, his signature octave and block chord solos. Peterson's playing will always inspire and astound me!

Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage

Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter! These guys were a musical factory churning out albums that would be top sellers in their own day and go down in history as Jazz classics. Surprisingly I owned and listened to this album before hearing the Headhunters album.

Guess which album is next on the list...

Herbie Hancock - Headhunters

Judge me if you will, but it took me a second to get into this album. I couldn't appreciate the vintage synths upon the first hearing. It sounded dated and almost cheesy to me which was perhaps due in part to me growing up in the 80's, but when Hancock takes off on his Rhodes and Moog solos and Bennie Maupin kills it on the saxophone I knew my initial impressions needed to be reconsidered. To this day Hancock's solo on Chameleon is one of my favorite of all time and this album will always be one of those at the top of my music list. I just recently found a copy on vinyl!

Pharoah Sanders - Thembi

One of my music teachers passed me a copy of this album. I listened to it a lot.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

I don't know what to say about this one other than regardless of what type of music you listen to this album should be in your collection. Miles Davis changed the course of music in the 20th century more than a few times and his influence is just as heavy today as it was then and will be felt for at least the next century and most likely beyond.

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

I had a next door neighbor once who had this on vinyl. I asked him if he would be willing to trade another record for it. From my collection he chose a blue colored vinyl copy of Sonic Youth's "Jet Set, White Trash, and No Star" for it. His remark about Bitches Brew was that, "I'm not that into it, there's no melody." I said something along the lines of, "Hmm... well... thanks for the record dude." and went along my way.

There are so many jazz albums that I love and I can only begin to list a few here. The next album on the list is one that I found on cassette tape, also when I was in my early twenties and led me down another musical path that I could never have imagined at the time.

Ravi Shankar - The Genius of Ravi Shankar

This album was my introduction to the music of India. Pandit Ravi Shankar on sitar with Ustad Allah Rakha on tabla. I now have a vinyl copy of this one as well.

Thanks for reading! Comment and share some of your favorite jazz (or otherwise) albums below!

Beginner's Lessons in Tabla Playing

2012-07-12T15:46:00.003-06:00

Here's a cool post and free pdf about playing tabla: http://www.davidbruce.net/blog/post340.asp

Ektal / Ek Taal / Tabla Lesson

2012-06-13T11:43:00.000-06:00

EkTal or Ek Taal is a 12 beat rhythmic cycle used in North Indian Classical music. I recently performed on a concert where I was required to play this taal. I was never taught Ektal by my tabla teacher so I cross referenced a couple of books for the Theka and found this video on YouTube from WorldMusicGuru helpful as well.

Ek Taal Theka

||: Dhin Dhin | DhaGe TiReKiTa | Tun Na | Kat Ta | DhaGe TiReKiTa | Dhin Na :||

Ektal Kaida

||: DhaGe NaDha | TiReKiTa DhaGe | Tin Na |

DhaGe TiReKiTa | DhaGe NaGe | Tin Na |

TaKe NaTa | TiReKiTa TaKe | Tin Na |

DhaGe TiReKiTa | DhaGe NaGe | Dhin Na :||

||: DhaGe TeTe | GheRe NaGe | Tin Na |

DhaGe TeTe | DhaGe TeTe | Tin Na |

TaKa TeTe | KeRe NaKe | Tin Na |

DhaGe TeTe | GheRe NaGe | Dhin Na :||

||: DhaGe TeTe | GheRe NaGe | Tin Na |

TaKe TeTe | KeRe NaKe | Dhin Na :||

Sources and Resources!

http://www.youtube.com/worldmusicguru
This is the YouTube channel that the lesson came from.
Basic Tabla Strokes and Bols by David Courtney
EkTal by David Courtney
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ektal
https://sites.google.com/site/tablafreak/ektaal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tala_(music)
Classical Music of North India by Ali Akbar Khan and George Ruckert
Pete Lockett - Tabla Tutorials

Free Online Resources for Musicians and Educators

2012-06-11T13:21:00.004-06:00

Free and open-source resources for musicians, music teachers, and anyone else really. There are lots of free solutions for a variety of computing tasks online. These are some of my favorite online and open source tools and have been extremely useful to me. Most of them are free.

Music Programs and Utilities

Reaper
REAPER is digital audio workstation software: a complete multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing, and mastering environment. Reaper has a 30 day trial period after which you are required to obtain a license. A non-commercial license is $60 and is a fantastic price for such a great piece of software.
MuseScore
MuseScore is a free cross-platform WYSIWYG music notation program that offers a cost-effective alternative to commercial programs such as Sibelius, Finale and Capella. You can print beautifully engraved sheet music or save it as PDF or MIDI file.
Weird Metronome
Free metronome for your computer.
Hydrogen
Advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux
Audacity
Free audio editor and recorder

Internet Browsers

I gave up using Internet Explorer for a browser when I discovered Mozilla Firefox many moons ago. Lately I have found myself using Google Chrome most of the time.

Productivity

OpenOffice.org
Apache OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
FreeMind
Download free mind mapping software. Perfect for brainstorming!
Mindomo
Online mind mapping tool.
Foxit Reader
"The best PDF reader"

Computer Utilities

ClamWin Antivirus
Free anti-virus for Windows
Spybot Search and Destroy

Graphic Design

Gimp
Gimp is an free open-source graphic design and image manipulation program.
Scribus
Open source desktop publishing.
Inkscape
Open-Source vector graphics editor.
MWSnap3
MWSnap is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen. (Also, if you are a windows user check out the snipping tool.)
IrfanView
Freeware graphic viewer for windows.

Cloud Computing

Gmail
Attach documents and files to an email for storage.
Google Drive (Google Docs)
DropBox
Free online storage for files.
Amazon Cloud Drive
SugarSync
Free, secure cloud storage.

Blogging and Web Design

Blogger
Free blogging platform. I used to use a self-installed version of Wordpress.org (I don't like Wordpress.com) until I didn't pay my 1&1 internet hosting bill! No big loss, but with blogger I don't have to worry about it going down and use it in conjunction with other free services on the internet.
Photobucket
Photobucket offers image hosting, free photo sharing and video sharing.
Wordpress.org
Powerful and free blogging/website building software.
1&1
I used 1&1 to host my website for years. Simple, easy, cheap.
FileZilla
Free FTP solution
Kompozer
KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.
SoundCloud
Create, record and share the sounds you create anywhere to friends, family and the world with SoundCloud, the world's largest community of sound creators.
BandCamp
Bandcamp helps artists sell their music and merch directly to their fans, and helps fans discover new music and directly support those who make it.
MixCloud

If that isn't enough, here's even more: OPEN SOURCE GOD: 480+ Open Source Applications

More about how I use these tools in conjunction later. Care to share some of your favorite online resources? Leave a comment below!

Online Fake Book Index

2012-06-07T11:36:00.003-06:00

I have found this online Fake Book Index extremely helpful today!

http://www.seventhstring.co.uk/fbindex.html

Jazz Piano Left Hand Shell Voicings

2012-05-29T10:18:00.005-06:00

Jazz pianist and composer Earl McDonald's site contains some great free jazz piano lessons and videos: http://www.earlmacdonald.com/jazz-education.html

Check out this video about Jazz Piano Left Hand Shell Voicings!

Mark Deutsch - Bazantar

2012-05-20T14:43:00.000-06:00

My friend Donovan Stokes introduced me to the sounds of Mark Deutsch years ago. The Bazantar is an invention of Deutsch's that is basically an upright bass outfitted with sympathetic and drone strings. Check it out!

Tone Clocks - Serial Composition Technique

2012-05-17T16:39:00.002-06:00

Peter Schat (1935-2003), author of Tone Clock, was a Dutch composer who created a system of organizing twelve tone rows into tonal groupings for the purpose of music composition. I have been using this method with some success in my own compositions and find that it gets more interesting and challenging the more that I work with it.

Peter Schat's Tone Clock in Jazz and Improvised Music by Theo Hoogstins
This article by Theo Hoogstins explains the fundamentals of the Tone Clock.
The Tone Clock by Theo Hoogstins
Same article as before in a different format.
Peter Schat - Autobiography (Official Peter Schat Website)
Peter Schat - Wikipedia entry

Here is a short "riff-based" composition entitled "Mitten Clause" played by The Fakebooks (Perry Justus, drums; Steven Ronk, bass; Dustin Adams, keys) that I came up with a couple of years ago when I first learned of the technique.

The Universal Mind of Bill Evans

2012-05-16T13:55:00.000-06:00

Watch and learn from the master.

The "Giant Steps Progression" and Cycle Diagrams

2012-05-09T17:33:00.001-06:00

Check out this great article about Coltrane's "Giant Steps" progression and other cyclic progressions in music by Dan Adler: http://danadler.com/misc/Cycles.pdf

Any questions? Comment below!

Fred Hamilton Jazz Guitar Video Lessons

2012-04-29T10:45:00.000-06:00

Fred Hamilton is a wonderful guitarist, bassist, and all around musician and human being that I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to play a concert with. He is also a jazz guitar professor at the University of North Texas. I found the following videos helpful in my journey of learning the guitar. I hope you will too. Cheers!

Guitar Technique - Playing on One String

2012-04-29T10:33:00.001-06:00

Jazz Guitar Method - Single String Exercises