LINKS and Inspiration

• Something to think about....

  • "If you hope to play in front of an audience, remember: Listeners want to hear a song's melody. At seminars I often invite students to play with me onstage.  And even though I let the participants choose the tune, they often know the chords, but not the melody.  For instance, most beginners know the chords to a blues, but few know a good melody to play with the changes.  Knowing the melody to a song makes the difference between just jamming over some chords and playing an actual tune."      Joe Pass, 1983

  • "He who knows the most melodies when he dies, wins."    unknown.

  • "The melody is the heart of the song, but the soul is captured in the improvisation over the chord progression".  Hoch, 2002. 

  • Musical styles and jazz development over the years, compliments of http://www.thejazzpage.de/index1.html

  

• I wanted to pass on this tidbit I stumbled upon.  I worked with David Bloom at the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago for a Summer Session in 2001.  Once a week each Saturday morning downtown for 4 hours over 6 - 8  weeks. He does small groups.  Lots of ear training, and ensemble work.  I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend to anyone in the area who wants to expand their "jazzmenship".  Visit www.bloomschoolofjazz.com  

Links

Band In A Box (BIAB) 

Band-in-a-Box is an automatic accompaniment program. Type in the chords to any song (like C or Fm7b5) , pick a style, and press PLAY. Band-in-a-Box (or "BIAB" as it often referred to) then automatically generates a full backing arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar and strings. By typing in the chord progressions, you will quickly build up a library of songs.  Transpose to any key.  A must have software package for the closet musician.

Below are several of references to other web sites which you may find useful or of inspiration.

• Check out  http://www.thejazzpage.de/index1.html one of the premiere sites for jazz music on the web.

• George Bellas Web Page at <www.georgebellas.com>.  George has been one of my teachers over the years.  He is a phenomenal player who has helped me grow musically in terms my technical knowledge.  Check out our version together of Blue Bossa in this short mp3 recording, George and Dan Blue Bossa.

• Music Robot Midi Search Engine at <www.musicrobot.com>.  It has been stated that if Music Robot can't find it then it doesn't exist.  Just a warning, midi on the web ranges from pure crap to solid gold.  So if the first version you find doesn't sound good, keep looking.

• Ron Fry Custom Midi at <www.ronfry.com>.  Ron is a professional midi sequencing artist.  You will have to pay a modest price for his work, but you will be getting top quality midi arrangement.

• PG Music at <www.pgmusic.com>.  Authors of the premier computer music programs, Band in a Box and Power Tracks Pro.  These two programs were used to construct and assemble virtually all the music provided on this web page.

• Noteworthy Composer at  NoteWorthy Composer Music Notation Software. If Band in a Box or Power Track can't help then this is the next resource.  NoteWorthy Composer is a music composition and notation processor for Windows. It provides for the creation, play back, and printing of your own musical scores. It will also save your compositions to other MIDI applications, thus making your compositions available to a wide variety of music software on the market today. Additionally, NoteWorthy Composer is able to automatically convert standard MIDI files into notation, thus enabling the exploration of existing songs that you may have on your machine already.

• GuitarPower "The Ultimate Scale, Chord and Arpeggio Reference for Guitarists". You may have to search www.google.com for this shareware program, but it is worth it as an computer reference for music theory on the guitar.  Will cost about $30 to keep it running, again, well worth it.

• All About Jazz http://www.allaboutjazz.com/index.html A magazine distributed in NYC for free that can be downloaded in PDF format also for free. The website has links, CD reviews, interviews etc. 

• Guitar Masters http://guitar-masters.com/ A great website that offers a comprehensive approach to guitar. Has a great list of standards that can be printed out as sheet music. Also includes scale and arpeggio patterns chord forms etc. 

• Musedit www.musedit.com, this is a new software package I just picked up.  Check out the sheet music to "Take Five" and "Samba Pa Ti" which I was able to put together using it.

• Chords v1.1 - Generate any guitar chord.  I recommend for drawing chord diagrams, see the "Need-to-Know" Jazz Chord section under Jazz Talk for an example of this free programs output. www.coolfreesoftware.com

• www.jazzguitar.be  Looking for some new guitar licks or patterns to spice up your guitar improvisations?  Then this is the right place.  You'll find a variety of  guitar licks going from Charlie Parker to Pat Metheny and written in both standard notation and guitar tablature

•  A Jazz Primer by Marc Sabatella, online version of A Jazz Improvisation Primer. Here you can find information on almost every topic relating to jazz improvisation, from jazz history to music theory to practical advice on playing in a group.  This is a great read will will probaly make you want to send in a few buck for the printed version.

• Guitar College, I met Rich Severson, at a Guitar show and he turned me on to his site.  There are tons of excellent material and information.  You really need to spend some time on this site.

• Some fun sites with lots of sheet music provided:

          http://guitar-primer.com/Charts/index2.html

          http://www.danmansmusic.com/songs2.htm

Video Links

• Very cool recording of those old jazz cats... http://www.dailymotion.com/video/53031

  • "...The film is by Life photographer/director Gjon Mili, a 1950 unfinished follow-up to his groundbreaking film "Jammin' the Blues"; stars Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Bill Harris, Lester Young, Flip Phillips, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich and Ella Fitzgerald. All miming on their instruments to prerecorded playback, lip-synched studio performances in a jam session organized by Norman Granz."  ...could this be true? shades of Milli Vanilli from 1950?  Give it a look see and you decide.

  • Actually, if you check out http://www.dailymotion.com/alternativa/1 you will find lots of rare video footage of early jazz greats.  You may want to save a copy since these links can come and go.
     

• Download this gem: Django and his Hot Club de France Quintet ca. 1938 http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2006/02/hot_club.mov
  He played with only 2 fingers....the other 2 being damaged in a fire.....
   

• You guitar players check this out and be prepared to eat you heart out...
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8&feature=Favorites&page=1&t=t&f=b

• And finally, the song that changed my life forever...http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=PAoAFBGqoMo&search=gary moore - but that is another story!

•  Jazz Master Class present by Dr. Rick Selva at the Zion Conservatory of Music on April 29, 2006.  This open-class is presented several times a year and I can personally recommend it.  I have provided a link for further information: http://home.comcast.net/~rickyselva/JMCMain.html

  •  Here is a video clip of last years event which I attended.  Some great shots of the back of my head.... that's me on the guitar.  http://home.comcast.net/~zcmjazzmc/index.html