The Good Musician

I’ve been reading Sounding the Inner Landscape: Music as Medicine by Kay Gardner. She references Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of music and the sciences. I once had a teacher who said that music was like mathematics in technicolor.
Gardner also illustrates the relationship of the chakras to the overtone series. When you produce a pure tone, either vocally or instrumentally, it sets up vibrations that are strong enough to be heard, occurring mathematically on a vibrating string. Going from the root to the octave, the fifth, fourth, third, and so on…
This is one of the most effective, quick warm-ups for …read more

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From the February ‘08 issue of eSkeptic comes a feature from Will Dowd entitled

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Image details: Mendelssohn served by picapp.com
Neighboring Georgetown is building a nationally recognized mega-festival of the arts. The Georgetown Festival of the Arts is an exemplar of community involvement producing a highly educational, thoroughly interactive, fun place to be for all ages. Kids can explore an instrumental petting zoo, learn the history of the dulcimer, and play along during a performance. Art in the Park ran May 31-June 1, and featured two days of fine arts shows and sales in the lovely San Gabriel Park. Georgetown even has it’s own Festival Pyrotechnician.
This coming weekend, June 5-8 is all about Mendelssohn in …read more

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My three favorite foreign movies this decade are Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, Deepa Mehta’s Water, and The Kite Runner from Swiss director Marc Forster.
I happen to adore Bollywood, it reminds me of the sumptuous saturated colors of 1950’s musicals of my childhood. Operetta under the stars on a Dallas summer evening was a treat for the family, following a dinner at the original El Fenix downtown.
Back to The Kite Runner. I always check out the music credits, and saw the composer was Spanish. Interesting. Then I remembered that there is an Arabic musical tradition in Spain from the …read more

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Here is a video which is significant in that

the cellist was one of my longest-standing, dearest friends
it’s an excellent example of a jazz-classical-pop ’60’s mashup
that’s my black cat, Saturn, in the window
shows our corner of Topanga Canyon
great example of John Martin’s classical guitar
great example of Wilson Fisher’s writing/singing for 12-string guitar
that was my life

Listen to all the Green cuts, accompanied by photo-montages of the band and what the life of a musician was like in the ’60’s

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If you take musical instruction, here are five tips to keep your teacher happy.
1. Show up. This should go without saying, but you’d be surprised at how ditching just one lesson can mean the difference between a so-so musician and a good musician. Even if you can’t play or sing, you can talk through the music with your teacher.
2. Be prepared to play or sing on the dot. Arrive early enough to soak your reed, warm up your instrument, or vocalize–whatever you need to do to be prepared to get right to the music. Make the most of your …read more

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Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald represent the ultimate in jazz. These two icons had a long career that impacted several generations of musicians. Every Good Musician library should have pretty much their entire discography.

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Here is a cool track by Cornell West and Talib Kweli–Bushonomics.
The sampling is compelling, and the music is gorgeous, no matter the politics. Nothing wrong with socially-conscious music. Hip-hop is the new folk-protest music. In the 50’s and 60’s we got the Weavers, Peter, Paul and Mary, and now we have Cornell and Talib.

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Elsewhere I’ve mentioned that one of my earliest musical memories as a small child is dancing to the Sabre Dance, by noted Armenian composer Aram Katchaturian. It’s part of his ballet Gayane.

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The Internet Archives music collection has mp3 recordings of everything from Enrico Caruso and Galli-Curci to Laurie Anderson and the Grateful Dead. The sub collections go all the way back to cylinder recordings.
You can also find old radio show archives, such as Fibber McGee and Molly, the Whistler, and the Bob and Ray show. I remember hearing all these on long car trips when I was a child. Bob Elliott is comedian Chris Elliott’s father.

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