I haven't been over to the Ted Greene page lately, but it has a whole lot more content than the last time I checked. The site has a bit of a strange design -- you need to click a few more times than you'd think, but it's very much worth it.
There's lots of audio and video, plus quite a few lesson sheets and tunes in PDF form. Even though this stuff is on the Web, I'd love to see some released in book and CD/DVD form.
Barbara, if you see this, you are doing a great job.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Song I heard today that I want to play
"Play That Funky Music, White Boy"
Too cliche? Too obvious?
I say no.
Too cliche? Too obvious?
I say no.
Blog still seems to hold up
A look at the stats shows that 10 to 30 people a day hit this blog.
The tech blog I do for the Daily News draws between 100 and 200 on a bad day, and 300 to 600 when I get a good link on another blog or site. On a really good week, meaning a good link during a heavy tech-news period, it can go up to 1,000 or 2,000 a day. That hasn't happened in awhile.
But I'm happier here with 30 a day than I am over there with 200.
On a related note, I'm thinking of moving this blog over to WordPress. Besides being a newer, ostensibly better service, WordPress will allow this blog to be moved over, supposedly in its entirety, and will then allow backups to XML files. I have no idea whether or not Blogger supports this same feature, but I'd like to find out.
One thing's for sure: Writing on Blogger beats the hell out of doing it on Movable Type.
The tech blog I do for the Daily News draws between 100 and 200 on a bad day, and 300 to 600 when I get a good link on another blog or site. On a really good week, meaning a good link during a heavy tech-news period, it can go up to 1,000 or 2,000 a day. That hasn't happened in awhile.
But I'm happier here with 30 a day than I am over there with 200.
On a related note, I'm thinking of moving this blog over to WordPress. Besides being a newer, ostensibly better service, WordPress will allow this blog to be moved over, supposedly in its entirety, and will then allow backups to XML files. I have no idea whether or not Blogger supports this same feature, but I'd like to find out.
One thing's for sure: Writing on Blogger beats the hell out of doing it on Movable Type.
It's been a long 10 months
I haven't written here in a long time. Not much has been happening in the musical realm. The time I do have has been spent working on computers and blogging about it. That sort of thing comes easier. Picking up an instrument I haven't picked up in months and months, trying to relearn what I've forgotten and learn what I never knew is a daunting prospect.
I even worried about the blog being called "Jazz Guitar Journey," because the direction I'm going in remains instrumental and solo but is diverging away from the jazz repertoire. Looking at the long term (and the way I'm going, there is no short term), I'm going to keep the name. If I ever do shift my focus back here, there's no telling what will happen.
Long layoffs from playing. They don't happen to everyone, but they do happen to plenty of us. Some go years or decades without playing. The challenge of returning to the box is one that isn't written about much.
I've seen a couple of players lately. One at a wedding, another on the street in Santa Monica. Neither were all that great, but just seeing people playing out is inspiring.
Especially when it comes to street performers, they toil in obscurity that is anything but relative. People rarely stop, and there's not a lot of attention or respect paid. That all changes when the player is really good and knows how to perform. But a lot of solo guitar playing is meant to be backgroundish. You can still catch ears with good playing.
Time for a Ted Greene reference. I've read plenty of stories about how Ted liked to play parties. He's set up and play, knowing full well what the deal was. Of course, somebody with Ted's talent and command of hundreds or thousands of tunes (much like the great piano players who do this sort of thing, but unlike most guitarists) could draw in a single person or a whole room as much as he liked. Invariably, the stories come around to the person in the room (the teller of the story) who is a huge fan and can't believe that a then-living-legend is playing the party.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that a guy like Ted Greene was so unique, but that shouldn't be the case. Guitarists, like pianists, should know how to play tons of tunes by themselves and be able to do so for a few hours at a crack.
And here I am, not playing at all for months. I couldn't fake my way through a whole tune, much less 10, 20 or more.
It all begins somewhere. At the beginning.
I even worried about the blog being called "Jazz Guitar Journey," because the direction I'm going in remains instrumental and solo but is diverging away from the jazz repertoire. Looking at the long term (and the way I'm going, there is no short term), I'm going to keep the name. If I ever do shift my focus back here, there's no telling what will happen.
Long layoffs from playing. They don't happen to everyone, but they do happen to plenty of us. Some go years or decades without playing. The challenge of returning to the box is one that isn't written about much.
I've seen a couple of players lately. One at a wedding, another on the street in Santa Monica. Neither were all that great, but just seeing people playing out is inspiring.
Especially when it comes to street performers, they toil in obscurity that is anything but relative. People rarely stop, and there's not a lot of attention or respect paid. That all changes when the player is really good and knows how to perform. But a lot of solo guitar playing is meant to be backgroundish. You can still catch ears with good playing.
Time for a Ted Greene reference. I've read plenty of stories about how Ted liked to play parties. He's set up and play, knowing full well what the deal was. Of course, somebody with Ted's talent and command of hundreds or thousands of tunes (much like the great piano players who do this sort of thing, but unlike most guitarists) could draw in a single person or a whole room as much as he liked. Invariably, the stories come around to the person in the room (the teller of the story) who is a huge fan and can't believe that a then-living-legend is playing the party.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that a guy like Ted Greene was so unique, but that shouldn't be the case. Guitarists, like pianists, should know how to play tons of tunes by themselves and be able to do so for a few hours at a crack.
And here I am, not playing at all for months. I couldn't fake my way through a whole tune, much less 10, 20 or more.
It all begins somewhere. At the beginning.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Not that I've been doing anything lately
... but between 10 and 30 people a day stop by this blog. That's more than my other blogs, which get updated way more often.
I guess it speaks to the popularity of jazz guitar among Web surfers because most of you arrive here as the result of search engines. Since Google is so Blogger-friendly, the former owning the latter and all, I come up pretty high in a lot of searches.
Lately I've been spending more time on writing, blogging, working on my various computing projects (Mac, PC and now Palm) doing my "real" paid work at the Daily News and spending time with my family ... not necessarily in that order.
But my musical future -- and very likely a whole new blog to go with it -- will being unfolding at some point soon.
At least I hope.
While here, I heard the new Sheryl Bailey live organ trio record, and it was pretty good. She's such an expressive player -- she can really speak through her instrument. I do have her instruction book, "The Chord Rules," and I have to confess that it seemed a little simplistic, like there wasn't enough there to really get you going as an improviser -- or maybe I'm missing the point.
I guess it speaks to the popularity of jazz guitar among Web surfers because most of you arrive here as the result of search engines. Since Google is so Blogger-friendly, the former owning the latter and all, I come up pretty high in a lot of searches.
Lately I've been spending more time on writing, blogging, working on my various computing projects (Mac, PC and now Palm) doing my "real" paid work at the Daily News and spending time with my family ... not necessarily in that order.
But my musical future -- and very likely a whole new blog to go with it -- will being unfolding at some point soon.
At least I hope.
While here, I heard the new Sheryl Bailey live organ trio record, and it was pretty good. She's such an expressive player -- she can really speak through her instrument. I do have her instruction book, "The Chord Rules," and I have to confess that it seemed a little simplistic, like there wasn't enough there to really get you going as an improviser -- or maybe I'm missing the point.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)