One of the mantras my students hear is, “Music is a language. It’s not like a language. It is a language.” It’s easy to consider the idea of music as a language as metaphorical, but I contend that it is quite literal.… Continue Reading
I recently encountered a lengthy article detailing the history of famous rock musicians’ involvement with the occult. Read it here: Devil Music: A History of the Occult in Rock & Roll It’s no secret that rock artists have used occult themes in… Continue Reading
No One’s Listening. Why? Jazz can be as sophisticated as classical music, but with a beat. This gives jazz the potential to capture the interest of “casual” listeners, i.e. those who usually opt for less challenging (threatening?) popular styles, while… Continue Reading
Craig Havighurst recently posted an article at Cuepoint titled The Devaluation of Music: It’s Worse Than You Think. In the article, he explains how he feels “starving artists” have been affected negatively by circumstances beyond piracy and streaming royalties. As I have done with another… Continue Reading
Years ago in Chicago I was asked to accompany two dancers who were providing entertainment at a business women’s dance party given in a hall of the YWCA. After the … Continue Reading
I’m going to rant for a little bit about a trend that I see among music educators that needs to stop, for the good of our art. As you might expect, my personal Facebook account is linked to those of… Continue Reading
Billy Gibbons first inspired me to begin playing the guitar, but it was B.B. King from whom I first began learning how. I was thirteen years old, and very much into early ZZ Top. My mother remarked that their music… Continue Reading
Whether or not you know it by name, the drum break from “Amen Brother,” recorded by the Winstons in the late 1960’s, has been everywhere in music you have heard. Here is an excellent overview of its use throughout the… Continue Reading
Like anyone who understands good music, I hold the opinion that the Beatles were the most significant popular music act of the 20th century, and, depending on what standards by which you measure significance, perhaps the most significant in recorded… Continue Reading
Well, not “dead” like tissue, but “dead” like a marriage. So says Sam McPheeters in this Vice article from 2010. Comparing rock circa 1994 to the Wild West circa 1890, he describes a “closed frontier,” a state in which the once… Continue Reading