Meet Patty.
Originally from Colorado, she has traveled across the world to help the
women and children trapped in South Africa's rape epidemic. Her stories
are of incredible pain, unbelievable sadness, and unimaginable grace.
Enter my Ma.
Check
it: She gets to hear from a lot of cool people through her
transformational art business. Well, a customer wrote one day, one
thing led to another, and she found out about Patty's cause. So, coming
from strong German farmer roots, mom kicked it into high gear with a
ridiculously short deadline, my brothers joined in the fight, and...
Cut
to: Mad scientist Josh, cooking up sonic stews in his...OK, I won't
refer to myself in the third person. Is that the third person? There's
so many of 'em in my head, I lose track.
ANYways, I wrote a song for the site. It's available for download under the "Non-Profit Art"
section of the site. Yes, you gotta pay, but every dime goes to Patty.
Actually, three of them go to PayPal, but you know how that goes. Interestingly
enough, in what started out as just a side project song turned into my
best one yet! It's got vocals, cool chords, and a neat little intro
hook. I really hope you'll download it, and help support those women
and children. They could really use it.
I'm very excited
about the cause, and about my song. Help the world, and help Patty help
the world! If you've learned something cool from this blog, or my
articles, or would just like to help, download that song, man!
You
know how they always say that it's good to write from different
perspectives? I wrote this song from that of a Zulu woman. That's sort
of a reverse-Michael Jackson morph right there! Amazing...
OK, new insight here, so listen up, class! I've
been observing an interesting phenomenon in myself and other students
of guitar that doesn't seem to be shared by other artistic disciplines:
We simply view ourselves as invalid, unworthy students of an unattainable goal.
You know I'm always railing on and on about the
importance of ear training...It's like chefs knowing what's in the soup
by tasting it. "I say, Pierre, this must be rosemary." That's an
important skill to have!
Lately, some of my clients have been
knockin' my socks off with their superior command of the skill of
listening. I've got one dude who's just rockin' away figuring out
Avenged Sevenfold songs and...READ FULL STORY
What's UP, rockers? It's been a little while. I've been holed up in my studio, writing songs and watching The Daily Show. Jon Stewart is a funny, funny man.
Anyways, I recorded an instrumental to submit to The Mid-Atlantic
Songwriting Contest. Wish me luck! As some of you know, I took a trip
north recently. I bought myself a ticket to the train, and boy, am I
glad I did. It was so much fun! I've always loved trains, so it was a
great opportunity to do some railroad watching, and get nifty ideas for
songs. I've got one in the works about a laundromat I saw in Jersey.
Seriously. But back to this instrumental...The intention is for it to
sound like a train - dig the bass line kinda throbbing along, and the
lead guitar hook sorta sounds like a train horn.
So, check out the new tune called Northbound. It's on my myspace. Tell your friends, add the song to your profile, and turn it up!
The lesson today comes from one of my students. He was sharing his
aggravation about how one of his soccer teammates refuses to pass the
ball once he gets it. The story reminded me of how musicians do the
same thing - once they get the spotlight, or a cool riff, they don't
want to give it up. If they don't have it in the first place, then
they'll try to make it up. I'll point a finger at BASS PLAYERS putting
too much slap bass in everything, guitarists trying to play lead
between ever stinkin' vocal phrase, and well.......the list goes on!
Step back, evaluate the situation, and if need be - pass the torch.
Hey man, for starters, dig the race war. Anyone else notice it?
I was just talking to an aquantance who's immersed in politics, and I
mentioned how I've been hearing openly racist remarks lately. She
articulated the idea of how, given the current events, folks are not
reacting to just policy lately, but the changing of the status quo. I
feel like I'm in baseball right after Jackie Robinson started playing,
and my kids are going to look back on my generation with disgust,
aversion, and disbelief.
I've seen figures that hate crimes are up against Latinos, have heard anti-black sentiment, been around so much flippant anti-gay remarks that it's staggering, and I've even felt like my own paleness has been resented.
So come on, people!
What's all this about? Didn't we leave this behind? I was talking to a
black client of mine who grew up in Jim Crow Virginia, and I asked him
"have you noticed that racism is really getting bad lately?" His
respose was a surprised "Getting? It's never gone away!"
This really, really floored me.
I've been discussing, ruminating, and talking some more. And I've got an idea.
Music is transcendent not only of different types of
language, but of language itself. It's understood without words, and
even deaf people dance to the vibrations. (Next time you're in DC,
check out the Galludet University dance company.)
In a way,
we're sort of magicians, sorcerers, if you will. We cast spells that
all understand. Let's try to spin some understanding.
We can start by understanding, or at least learning.
Dig - the hispanic population is the fastest growing minority in the
United States. This means two things for me. 1.) it really reminds me
that I should learn Spanish! 2.) I can't wait to learn about Latin
music. Talk about some complex grooves! It's mind-shattering stuff. I
hear the fiery dance of a hard-working, so-non-white culture at play.
When I listen to delta blues, I hear a person working in the sun all
day for almost no money, descended from people who didn't get paid at
all. That gives me a small glimpse into the history of Black America.
Bach makes my abs feel tight in sympathy for the ladies in the
classical era. Corsets must have hurt. It's probably also the only
music that vaguely moves me to go to church. Imagine that.
The bossa nova floats through the air, and I can picture exotic
Brazillian jazz clubs where the flowers are all unfamiliar and the
girls aren't from Charles County. How nice.
And then I get
ready to sail off to war and kick some butt while I'm listening to
"Poser Viking Metal." It's cold outside at the viking port!
So, if I can hear and understand this, and differences are resolved by understanding, and music creates understanding, then...
Cast that spell, rockers! And learn, learn, learn. And don't be hatin'.
I'm trying to learn to sequence drums, and frankly, it's not going so well. Here's the situation.
I've got Cubase 5 (awesome!), Superior Drummer 2.0, and the Korg padKONTROL midi controller.
I'm having trouble sequencing beats. I can play 'em live on the
padKONTROL, but boy, that's a horrible off beat sound. (My fault, not
the machine's.) Sequencing in Cubase is incredibly cumbersome.
I can sequence cool beats in Hydrogen, but can't import the midi file
properly into Cubase. The Hydrogen sounds are fine for jamming, but
just don't cut it compared to Superior Drummer.
SO - does
anyone have a favorite sequencer/program? I'm looking for something
cheap or free. I don't care about the sounds, I just need to be able to
program a song easily to import.
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JoshUrban's blogs, last updated : October 19, 2009
