Notes_Norton

Of course, if you are serious about music, you never quit learning. I've been playing music for a long, long time, and there is still a lot of things yet to be discovered. Notes ♫

You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To - Jazz Standard - I picked this version because I've never heard it before and don't know who she is. I'm posting as I listen, I hope it's OK.

Good points, but if you find the right teacher, you can learn many things that it would take you longer to discover on your own. At least that has been the case for me. Example: YouTube can show you how to play the piano, but a good teacher will fine tune exactly how to curl your particular fingers to be able to play your best. Example: In my early days of playing sax, my teacher fine-tuned how I breathe for maximum breath support, exactly how close to the tip of the mouthpiece to put the reed for my particular embouchure, and how to shape my personal oral cavity to get the fullest tone. From that, I discovered how to change the shape of my oral cavity to get different tones. These are things particular to me, and not exactly like everyone else. Thankfully, I had a good teacher when I was young. I suppose if there was one best way for everybody, there would only need to be one way. Notes ♫

Night Time Is The Right Time - Ray Charles

Formal education and private lessons are very dependent on the particular teacher and how he/she works with the particular student. When a good teacher instructs in a way a compatible good student learns, the student learns well, and at a fast pace. I had one private lesson teacher I 'fired' after one 'lesson'. I've had a couple of students I referred to other teachers because they didn't work for me. I had one student who ended up playing in New Orleans Jazz Fest after only a few years. She learned quickly and wanted more and more. She was well on her way when she moved to New Orleans, and a year later, sent me a tape of her performing in the Rocky Charles band. Like you Craig, I was a quick learner. When in school, I was not only first tenor in the all-state band, every year I was eligible to compete. I was also section leader. Section leader goes to the first alto player by default, and is rarely given to a tenor player. I had formal lessons, I took the Berklee Correspondence course in the late 1970s, so I could learn and continue gigging in south Florida, and throughout my career, my bandmates who played guitar, bass, and keyboards taught me a lot. My first instrument was drums, so I had that down already. I doubled on drums, bass, and rhythm guitar in bands I was in. Add to that theory and music arranging studies, got me to the point that as a multi-instrumentalist, I could write drum, bass, and other comp instruments in a way to make Band-in-a-Box aftermarket styles and sell them to musicians in over 100 countries on this planet. The theory started in school, mostly basic, the advanced theory and arranging was self-taught through books on the subjects. I also make my own backing tracks for my duo, from scratch. They sound more live than the karaoke tracks my competitors use, and the audience responds to that. Thanks to arranging and experience. If I had been only self-taught, I would not be at this point at all, because discovery takes too long, and the input of other minds exposed me to things I wouldn't have thought of on my own. If I had been only school taught, I wouldn't have the experience I had to express my own individuality. In the end, for me, a variety of different learning methods is better than only one. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Today = Now Now Is The Time - Charlie Parker

One groaner deserves another

Thunder And Lightning - Chi Coltrane I really like this one.

Ideally, I think self-taught plus school taught is better than either one alone. Formal education doesn't make you a musician, it teaches you both the theory and how to efficiently use the tools. If you have the music in you (talent) formal education plus your talent combined makes you an accomplished musician. That isn't to say that without formal education you cannot be a great musician. Without the education, it's just a harder, more time-consuming climb to get where you are going. I'd rather listen to a self-taught expressive musician than a trained musician without any talent. In the end, I don't care about how you acquired your skills, do I like what you are playing? Or not? Is all that matters. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

There is more than one right way to go through life. I'm glad you are also having a wonderful life. BTW, I not only seem to like what I do, I love what I do, it's the most fun I can have with my clothes on And to keep on topic, music education helped me get here. Notes ♫

Everybody's Boppin - Lambert Henricks & Ross Like scores of other songs, this is build on the chord progression of "I Got Rhythm" by George & Irish Gershwin. IMO, the scat singing is about as good as its.

Bebop Lives (Boplicity with added lyrics) - Mark Murphy

Bomb? Political Science (Let's Drop The Big One Now) - Randy Newman

"Normal" in the US and most other industrialized countries is working for someone else. Clocking in and clocking out, working regular hours and following the same schedule week after week - after year after year - until they take off the golden handcuffs and retire. By then, the retirees are often too old to travel independently all over the world. In Florida, we targeted the adult community in 1985. So many retirees told us, "Don't wait until you retire to travel, do it while you are young." Mrs. Notes and I are among the small percentage of people who are not normal. We work for nobody but ourselves. No unseen corporate head tells us when to work, when to take a vacation, or anything else. We are not wage-slaves. Responsibilities? I bought a house, cars, even a sailboat, and never missed a payment. We pay our taxes, both local and federal, keep our property up, and live in a way to minimize our impact on climate change as much as we can. We have a good relationship with all the neighbors on our dead-end street, and we all watch out for each other. Mrs. Notes and I practice in the middle of the afternoon when the neighbors are mostly working, and they all know if we choose a bad time for them, they can give us a call, and we'll do it later. After all, we don't punch a clock. Nobody has ever called, but they know they can. My main responsibilities are to both the people who hire us and to the audience. I take these responsibilities seriously. I have never either missed or arrived late for a gig in my life. The people who hire us, the venue, the bartenders, the waiters/waitresses, and everybody else depends on our showing up to make their income for the night. In the early days, I played with a fever of 104. I've since hardened my immune system, and rarely get sick at all. Can you imagine calling bridezilla on the day of the wedding, and saying, "We can't show up today because the sax player is calling in sick." Or how about a club owner with a few hundred people wanting to drink and dance all night? Nope, the show must go on when you are in this business. My mother understood, when my father died, she checked my schedule before deciding what day the funeral would be. She understood my commitment to the gig, and the fact that if I didn't show up, that entertainment purchaser would probably never hire is again, and word of mouth among the others would seriously harm my career. The audience is our other responsibility. They deserve for us to play the best we can, whether there are 10 or 10,000 people present. We need to read the audience, play what they want when they require it, pace them through the gig, and entertain them for what is appropriate for that particular gig. We use our experience and our brains and do everything in our power to give them the best experience for the duration of our gig. In addition, we have a responsibility not to harm the audience, so we do pre-gig sound check with a calibrated SPL meter and make sure the seats closest to the band are not over 85dba (slow response). If they ask us to crank it up, it's their responsibility, not ours. Mrs. Notes and I chose not to have children or pets. To pursue our lifestyle would be unfair to them. Irregular hours, and sometimes working out of town; For example, a 3 week cruise ship gig with options lasted 3 years for us until we decided to give notice and get back on land. We couldn't bring up kids like that, and it would be cruel to a cat or a dog. We've been to 49 US States, most of Canada and down to Latin America, plenty of Caribbean Islands, Europe, Asia, and Africa and have done our best to not be the demanding 'ugly American' but instead an example of friendly good will. Not only that, but we've been invited back to stay in people's homes all over the world. Why? Because we got out of the tourist zones, navigated their transportation systems, and met the people on their own terms as a friendly traveler (not as a demanding tourist). That's a responsibility to our country. So tell me, what responsibilities am I not fulfilling? Am I missing something? I'm of the age where most people retire. I have no plans to retire. If Tony Bennett and Willie Nelson can do it in their advanced years, so can I. Why? Because I really love what I do. I can't think of anything I'd rather do than get up on stage, get into that place where there is no space, no time, no me, and let the music flow through me until the gig ends, and it almost always ends too soon. Well, I can think of one thing, but I can't say that here I wake up in the morning, go to sleep at night, and in between, I do what I want to do and what I love to do. To me, that's the definition of success. I won the life-lottery. And to keep on topic, both my music education and the talent I inherited are the reason why I can do what I do. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

For me, having any hair on top at all is officially a great hair day. Notes ♫

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 ♫