The Good Musician

In case you missed my recent list of Music Recommendation Sources (which has been surprisingly popular), you should head over there and check it out.
A lot of you have made some additions and comments about the list, which I would like to aggregate here.

Audioscrobbler

This one’s actually just an alternative way for using last.fm. If you don’t like being tied to using their player software, you can use the plugin that ties into iTunes and never shows up again. I remember using this from the time last.fm was actually still called Audioscrobbler .

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Unclutterer posts some interesting thoughts about the amount of clutter caused by Rock Band, a very popular video game this Christmas.
The fact that this game requires you to store all sorts of controls for each of the instruments makes me wince, too. I’m a friend of uncluttering, no question, and musical clutter is the pinnacle of it all.

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One question I get asked from time to time is how I maintain advancement and stay aware of it.
Well, the first thing you need to be aware of is your learning pattern. It has a plateau-like structure.
After that, it’s all about a term from empirical research: Operationalization.
Big word, simple meaning. Let me give you an example. Let’s say you wanted to measure whether carrots are good for eyesight. How would you go about it? One way would be to get a bunch of people to test, and do an eyesight test. Then feed them carrots for a week and measure …read more

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Here’s a little gem I found yesterday: Clarion, from Red Sweater Software, is an application for Mac OS X that will help you learn music intervals.
Learning to hear and sing intervals is important as it can empower you to write your own compositions with ease, and also gives you a lot of insight into how music is built. Intervals are, effectively, the building blocks of any music.

The application offers a free trial, so you should check it out. I like the fact that it uses a simple interface, as I personally like to train my intervals in breaks. I …read more

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It’s the end of a turbulent year, a year in which I had to choose not to study music, and where I had to begin a life of practicing alone, and giving up concerts sponsored by my school.
In the new year, I have a few goals I want to achieve, to keep my musician-being going at a healthy rate.
Here are The Good Musician’s new year’s resolutions:

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Ethan Bortnick is probably the most prominent example around, and we’ve written about him before. Just today, my roommate and I were surfing YouTube in search of some good performances, where we kept on stumbling upon child prodigies.
They scare me, and here’s why.
They Know What Their Doing
Prodigies of Ethan’s caliber are usually brought in at an age where a proper perception of how the world works gets disturbed. Ethan is a cute little kid, but following this DVD Trailer, I feel he’s gotten polished into one little, mean, marketing machine.

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Photography by It’sGreg.
One very important aspect of your musical endeavors should be your goals.
Ask yourself these questions:
Where do you want to be as a musician in 5 years?
In 3 years?
In 1 year?
Who are your idols?
What piece do you want to be able to play?

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Photography by paulgalipeau.
Your music teacher, if you have one, is one of the driving forces behind your music. She or he will always put you into a critical light and push you forward. They’ll always know what you can do better, even when you think you’ve reached a pinnacle.

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If I really had the free choice to get however I want to my College Christmas Bash, it’d be these 10 artists:
1. The Red Hot Chili Peppers. They absolutely rock.
2. Green Day. I used to listen to them in my teens, and they have brilliant live shows.
3. Frank Sinatra. I know, he’s not available anymore, but he’d be great.
4. James Brown. He too, died too soon. He’d have funked up the party.
5. The Berliner Philharmoniker. They’d be great to hear right before sitting for Dinner. After all, college people appreciate some good cultured music once in a while.
6. MIKA. …read more

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It’s happened too often that I had a brilliant tune while sitting in the bus, just to end up at home at my instrument, having forgotten how it went.
You may argue that if it didn’t stick, it wasn’t that brilliant, but the point is that even Mozart was known to have had a quill and some paper around him at all times.
Similarly, you should consider a capturing device for your musical inspirations. I personally use Moleskines for note-taking and as an agenda, but they have a product just right for musicians, the Music Moleskine.
I love them for their beautiful …read more

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