The Good Musician » jazz http://www.thegoodmusician.com Be a successful musician, one note at a time. Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:11:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Miles and Ella–icons of music http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/05/miles-and-ella-icons-of-music/ http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/05/miles-and-ella-icons-of-music/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 04:00:10 +0000 http://www.thegoodmusician.com/miles-and-ella-icons-of-music/ Post from: The Good Musician

]]> 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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]]> http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/05/miles-and-ella-icons-of-music/feed/ 6 iTunes for Musicians: Organize Your Play-Alongs http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2007/11/itunes-for-musicians-organize-your-play-alongs/ http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2007/11/itunes-for-musicians-organize-your-play-alongs/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:38:07 +0000 http://www.thegoodmusician.com/itunes-for-musicians-organize-your-play-alongs/ Post from: The Good Musician

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Here’s a quick tip for musicians using iTunes.

Often, especially among guitarists, play-along CDs are included with many of the books you can buy nowadays. Organize these using iTunes, following a few simple tips to keep them from mingling too much with the rest of your music.

  • Give them a Genre: Don’t keep a jazz play-along under “Jazz” and a Rock rhythms cd under “Rock”. Instead, dedicate a genre to these CDs (Play-Along or Music Education works fine).

  • Make Smart Playlists:I have some play-alongs with over 200 short tracks. I keep them in a smart playlist that takes out tracks I’ve listened to more than 10 times. I do this because I want to practice all the tracks, und using iTunes to keep track of your progress is good – this way iTunes will guide you through the CD without you having to do anything, and seeing your progress (as the list gets shorter) will motivate you.

  • Scan or Create Covers:I hate to add play-along CDs because their covers won’t show up in Cover Flow view. This is annoying, and I have ever since either scanned my CD covers or quickly created something in an image editor. Nothing fancy, just the text on a colored background or a googled image – anything to avoid the generic image iTunes puts up there.

  • “Want To Play”:When I hear a song I want to learn to play, I usually forget about it unless I write it down – simply because I’ll hear some other song which replaces the old one in my ears. Keep such a playlist as an inbox to reference when you’re looking for something new to play. I glance at it and quickly get sheet music (legally bought!) or tabs from the internet.

  • Maintain a strong rating system: Rating your music, and otherwise keeping it organized is the lifeblood of a musician’s library. Keep your tracks well-oiled and the meta-data relevant, and you can quickly and easily search the sometimes messy realms musicians tend to achieve in iTunes.

    • What are your productive iTunes tips for musicians or in general? Share your thoughts, I’m really eager to hear them.

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