Notes_Norton

How true. I've been self-employed most of my life, and until I was old enough to collect Medicare, I had no health insurance. I couldn't afford to get sick. On the other hand, knowing you can't afford to get sick, and knowing in my case that you can't call in sick for work, results in a stronger, more vigilant immune system. BTW, to get excess wax out of my ear, I use the old-fashioned, now scorned on way of filling the ear canal with hydrogen peroxide for a minute or two before I get into the shower. In the shower, I use an ear syringe to rinse the softened wax out of my ear. This was recommended to me when I was a child. Recently I've read articles saying not to put HO in your ear, but I wax up very infrequently, and it hasn't hurt me yet. Science marches on, and it might be a good idea not to put HO in my ear anymore, but I like living life on the edge :D Notes ♫

Aliens? "Mr. Spaceman" - The Byrds

And just why is dsylexia so hard to spell?

I always have protected my ears. I use either Westone or Etymotic ear musician's ear plugs. They go into a mold the audiologist makes, and you can plug in 15db or 25db inserts. The attenuation is almost flat, with only a slight roll-off at high frequencies on the 25 db. I bring an SPL meter on stage. Monitor volumes are usually no louder than 95dba (A weighted, Slow response) and during sound test we make sure the volume at the closest table is no more than 85dba. Why? We are the pros, and have the responsibility not to permanently harm the hearing of our guests. Insights and incites by Notes

The early Beach Boys were steeped in the doo wop tradition. Here is an example: And my all-time favorite doo wop song (although I haven't heard them all)

I was digging around in the early roots of rock n roll for a Band-in-a-Box project and I came across this cut by The Clovers. Personally I think The Clovers should get more recognition as pioneers of rock and roll... They did this and so many rock standards first.

Groan...

Speak Low - Cal Tjader & Carmen McRae A nice version of this song by Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash That happens to be a very nice album, too.

I have an old Octapad, but you need to be able to use sticks with it. I save it for difficult things. For simple drum parts I use a Korg PadKontrol just like ||:Pwal:|| who posted it while was looking for the image. It works well. I suppose you cold find one on ebay. You could also bang out drums on any keyboard if you set it to channel 10 and know the note numbers, but I found I do better with controllers designed for percussion. Insights and incites by Notes

I totally agree. I play a few instruments, and guitar is one of them. I'm a righty, but on the guitar my left hand works much harder than my right. The right hand just has to pluck or strum, work the whammy and twiddle the volume knob at times. The left hand has to get into so many contorted positions, be careful not to make the string buzz, don't stretch the string when you want to play in tune, bend it just the right amount when you want to play out of tune, and move up and down the neck to different positions. IMO the right-handed guitar is a left-handed instrument. I was in a band with a lefty guitar player. He played an SG so he could flip it around either way. He learned on a so called left-handed guitar, but his brother played a right-handed one, so he always had access to both. He would play both ways and we did a tune where he went out in front to play a solo, in the middle of his solo the drummer took a 4 bar break, he flipped the guitar over, and continued where he left off. It was a good bit of theatrics for the audience. Anyway, he said he played better on the right-handed guitar, and he is the first one to tell me the standard guitar is a left-handed instrument. While I'm at it, so is the saxophone. I can play two octaves of G, G#, A, Bb, B, C and C# with my left hand only. I can also play the highest D and Eb with only my left hand. There is only one noted that I can play without the left hand, the middle C# because it takes no fingers to play. They don't make right-handed saxes, flutes, or clarinets. I think the standard drum kit is a right-handed instrument (yes, I play drums too) because my dominant foot kicks the bass drum and my right dominant hand does more work and takes care of the majority of accents during rolls. Piano keyboard instruments are right-handed, because the melody most often gets played by your dominant hand. (Yup, I play keyboards too, but not well enough to take a gig in a band and play all night, but I will double on keys in a band). I don't play them, but it seems that Violins, Violas, Cellos and Double-Basses are also left-handed instruments. It seems the fingering hand works harder than the bowing hand. So are people who buy a left-handed guitar doing the right thing for themselves? Perhaps or perhaps not. Insights, incites and musings by Noes ♫

I'm a musician, I don't have any friends I was vacationing in England many years ago. Milling around in Leicester Square (pronounced like Lester) and I saw a musician carrying an alto sax walking by. I struck up a conversation with him told him I played sax, and he invited Mrs. Notes and me to his gig. It was in a member's only dance club where they played swing and jump blues music. This was the days when "Zoot Suit Riot" and similar songs were promoting a swing revival. We got to the door, and he told the person at the gate, 'These are my friends" to have her allow us in. She teasingly said, "You're a musician, you don't have any friends." and we walked in. The band was quite good, the dance floor was filled all night, and Mrs. Notes and I joined in the dancing. It was a fun evening. I'm glad that people want to take the dangerous job of law enforcement. I certainly wouldn't want to do it, and I wouldn't want to talk shop with them either. There are plenty of other things to talk about. Notes ♫

Hang On To Your Life - Guess Who

Me too. So I can't tell if I'm coming or going.

Feelin' Alright - Traffic

Did your brother bust the bus driver?

Boots = shoes = sneakers Hi Heel Sneakers - Tommy Tucker (Robert Higginbotham)

One of my favorite pianists and one of my favorite tenor saxophonists on the same album. The Gene Harris Trio Plus One

I'm Bob with only one o

If you mean me, I'm right proud Puns are fun

We're still doing that jazz disk for Band-in-a-Box, and there are a number of pop songs that have been done by jazz artists, like the one in the above post. So we stumbled on: Billie Jean - Ben Sharkey Nice vocals and arrangement, though I think the piano solo is a little weak.16 bars would have been enough for me. YMMV

We are doing a jazz fake-disk for Band-in-a-Box, based on tunes in the Real Book series, and we found this gem. Aquarius - Benny Goodman