Notes_Norton

Rules? You mean suggestions? ;)

If your sax player has been playing tenor sax or bari for many years, have him lay his hands flat on a table and then see if the fingers on his right hand curve slightly to the right. Notes ♫

Lilac Wine - Nina Simone

Thanks to a few years making a living playing a Fender P-Bass, my left-hand span is just shy of 10 inches. And I haven't played bass full-time since the psychedelic era, when it was hard to get work as a sax player. I could probably stretch farther when I did this 5 hours per night. I started with good-sized hand, the right spans 8.75 inches. Not counting the thumb, from the index to the 'pinky' left hand is 7", right hand is 5.5". I suspect this is from reaching from a minor third to a fifth on the same string of the P-Bass near the nut. I play lead guitar on stage for a number of songs, and that span helps. Funny thing, after all these years, the fingers on my right-hand curve slightly to the right, a function of having to reach for the right-hand keys on the sax. I guess as much as I shape music when I play, my musical tools shaped me. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

When I was young, in a road band, eventually opening for major stars in concert, I was making a lot of money. Motown courted us as their first choice for an all-white band to be released on their family of labels. Unfortunately, the talks broke down over money, (Motown wanted to exploit us), and the band broke up. After that I took a day gig using the electronics I also took in school but found being normal isn't for me so before long, I want back to playing music. Back to regular gigs, back to normal money, back to less glamour, but still playing music, still having fun, still having those gals make eyes at me. I eventually met a female musician who I fell in love with. She is a fantastic singer and plays guitar and synth. She is my lover, bandmate, and my very best friend. 44 years later, we are still having a great time together. I won the love-lottery - it was pure luck. At this point in my life, I don't see me ever making enough money for fancy cars or a house with a pool. I buy brand new minivans to haul my gear and drive them until they are unreliable, usually about 200k miles. The mortgage is paid off, no pool, but a half acre one lot away from a two-mile wide lagoon, east of that a 1/4 mile barrier island, and then the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. It was a good buy, it's worth over 10 times what I paid for it. I know the rule in Florida, the closer to the ocean the higher the percentage of appreciation. Until COVID we travel once a year as close as the US or as far as China and Australia. We've been on every continent but Antarctica. Travel is one of our passions. But I enjoy my life. Instead of saying "I have to go to work today", I say "I GET to go to work today!" I don't have excessive material things, but my life is rich with experience. Mrs. Notes and I prefer the experience over possessions, as long as we're not needy. I enjoy my life, I live it on my own terms, I answer to no one, I prosper by my good decisions, and I hopefully learn by my bad ones. I earn a living doing what I love to do, and look forward to each and ever gig. There are many right ways to go through life, 'one size does not fit all', and this is my way. I think I also won the life-lottery. For someone else, this would be entirely the wrong way. My formal music education, plus what I learned from other musicians, plus what I learned for myself has made me a good enough musician, performer, arranger, MIDI sequencer to make a living doing music and nothing but music. << rewind << When I was in junior high school, I was in the school band, and after school I got into a rock band. We were terrible, everybody was back then. We got hired for a school dance. There I was on stage with my best friends at the time. We were playing the hits of the day to the best of our ability and having the time of our lives. I looked up and that cute girl who never even acknowledged my existence in English class was 'making eyes' at me, and at the end of the night they paid me money. That is when I said, "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life! I'm still doing it and have no plans to retire, it's too much fun to quit. I've played with major stars in huge halls, on cruise ships, in singles bars, in concert, in show clubs, in casinos, for yacht/country club dances, in dive bars, in private clubs for the wealthy, and just about any other place musicians gig. Furthermore, I've played a lot of songs, was treated as a peer by the stars of the day, bedded a lot of women, met a lot of great people, and I've gigged in every state east of the Mississippi and a number of them west. Mrs. Notes and I even played by invitation in the People's Republic of China (we extended that and took a one-month vacation meandering from the Great Wall to exiting from Hong Kong). I know others could do that without formal music education, but the skills I learned plus the talent given to me by my father allowed me to have a life of music, a life of joy, and an escape from being a wage-slave for some mega-corporation. If I had a chance to go back and do it again, I'd do it the same way. Life is the perfect way to spend the time of day. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

This song is a tribute to those who passed before us. We used to do this song on gigs until it went out of favor. Night Shift - Commodores

Music education comes in many forms, from formal schooling, to your buddy musicians showing you things, to completely self-taught (by ear). I am in favor of learning as much as I can in all the different ways you can. They more you know, the more you will be able to do with your instrument(s). That alone doesn't make you a good musician, but a good technician. It teaches you how to use and apply the tools. IMO a good musician is about talent, and a self-taught 3 chord blues person can be a great musician. However, a person with the same amount of talent (musicianship) who has learned how to use and apply those tools can usually make much better music. On the other hand, if the person hasn't got the talent, all the command of the tools in the world won't make great music, just empty notes. You can't have too much education. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Only if you are a wage slave. I work for myself. As an entertainer, I get applause every 5 minutes or so, and the end of the gig I get people thanking me for a delightful afternoon/evening, and when I am playing the music, I'm in that zone where there is no time, no space, no me; just the music feeling like it's flowing through me instead of from me. Mrs. Notes and I love playing music for an appreciative audience, and although we are not going to get rich, or even wealthy playing music for a living, we paid off the mortgage, we have zero debt, we're having a great time, and we answer to nobody but ourselves. No doormat here, instead mini-star status. We played in larger bands before, but started our duo in 1985, since then, until COVID reared its ugly self, we were never out of work. Now that COVID is fading, we're back at it, we have 14 one-nighter gigs this month. Life is good.

Parchman Farm - Mose Allison

Pretending = make believe. It's Only Make Believe - Conway Twitty

Hard to answer this one. College is very expensive. If he wants to be a teacher, it's a requirement. If he wants to play music for a vocation, the knowledge is important, but not the diploma. Being a pro musician is not easy. I've done it, but I know many more who tried and failed and now do it part-time with a day-job. To be a pro musician, one has to be an entertainer and a musical chameleon. As far as sitting in your home studio and becoming a success on the 'net, I know nothing about that. Although I've been called to do sessions in recording studios, I make my living playing live in front of an audience. If he wants to have a wife and children, tell him the teacher route is probably the best one. I've known a lot of musicians who, working at night, with variable income, ended up divorced with child support payments. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Psychotic Reaction - Count Five

I feel the same way when a cover song leaves out a great harmony line. That just leaves a gaping hole in the song.

Ran across this looking for a different version to add to a Band-in-a-Box fake disk. This girl can play the trombone with enthusiasm!!! Puttin' On The Ritz - Gunhild Carling

Stranger In A Strange Land - Leon Russell and the Shelter People

Me And Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul

He's playing mid-evil woman.

I, too, prefer paper magazines. Sadly, they are becoming extinct. Notes ♫

The experiment is to take the strings off (easy to do while changing them) or mute the strings. I tried this with my Parker and even with my hollow body 1970 Gibson ES330 when changing strings. Nothing comes out the speaker. Notes ♫

Rocks In My Bed - Duke Ellington with Ivie Anderson