I currently teach at Music & Arts (two locations: MA1, MA2) and just got hired at a School of Rock location (SoR).

The SoR location and MA1 happen to be down the street from each other. Starting in September, my Saturdays will open up for teaching and my initial plan was to split the day:

• MA1 open from 10–5; teach from 10–2

• SoR open from 10–6; teach from 2:30–6

I just talked to my manager at MA1 and they said they can't fit more instructors on Saturdays.

MA2 is in the next town over, about 15–20 minutes away, has the same hours. Presuming they can fit me in, I figure I could still follow my plan of splitting the day; the transition period I built in should cover travel time.

Do you think something like this is a good idea or should I just commit the entire day to one location?

If you’re comping (piano, guitar), you’re thinking about changes.

If you’re playing the head (any pitched instrument), you’re thinking about the melody.

If you’re a pitched instrument taking a solo, you’re thinking about melodic ideas and how they fit over changes.

How does a drummer think about a tune? Do they think about changes? Do they just count bars?

Link

This is a short, two-page document meant to be a crash course in the basics of music notation.

The first page I originally did all in Word, copy-pasting JPGs from the internet but it looked kinda janky. So, I decided to make all the notation graphics myself in Adobe Illustrator which took more time than I'd like to admit.

Let me know what you think!

Link for beginner guitar riffs

Link for beginner bass riffs

For the guitar riffs, I purposely tried to choose things that didn't have alternate tunings with the exception of "Come as You Are" because you gotta have "Come as You Are."

For the bass riffs, same thing except for "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Feel Good, Inc.".

Granted, they're just variations of standard tuning so it'll be the same fingering, etc; just gotta retune to play along with the record and I made explicit notes about it.

Do you think this is a good set of riffs for beginners? Does the engraving look nice and readable?

I'm a big fan of musicals. I like my Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, etc.

I'm also a musician and am particularly drawn to what I refer to as "organic musicals". These are films that eschew the tradition of breaking into song and dance; instead the musical numbers are diegetic and arise naturally because the characters are musicians. Examples include That Thing You Do, School of Rock; and the works of Damien Chazelle.

One director I've followed closely is John Carney. You may know him from Once, Begin Again, Sing Street, Flora and Son, and most recently Power Ballad. No one else is consistently releasing films that are "organic musicals".

I think these are all good films. However, I think the songs are kinda shite with the exception of Sing Street. The songs in Sing Street work and sound good elevating it into a great film.

As a musician, the art of music is near and dear to my heart. Do I care if they get some details wrong? It bothers me a bit but not enough to ruin it. I get it, movie's gotta movie.

But couldn't you have worked on the songs a bit more? Most of them are pretty awful. Listen to "How to Write a Song Without You" from Power Ballad and tell me it isn't the dumbest thing you've ever heard.

I think it's because the films focus mostly on characters with little to no musical proficiency. They're people who know four chords on acoustic guitar and decide they want to be singer-songwriters. I understand it's so the film can appeal to a wide audience; that way it feels accessible and inspiring like "Anyone can do it, even you!". People like that do exist in real life but they're also the ones who tend to write the shittiest songs.

They suck at playing and don't have an ear for melody to begin with which means the only tool at their disposal is lyrics. Songs that are lyric-forward or have lyrics written first tend to be really awful because they're always trying to be poetic or cloyingly sentimental to the point that the music part of "music and lyrics" gets neglected. They think mumbling over a G chord counts as songwriting and whining about their feelings automatically means it's a good song.

I apologize if that last bit and the next feels a little too Inside Baseball for non-musicians.

I think the reason Sing Street works better is because the original conceit is starting a band. They do eventually write songs but the aesthetic of writing songs in a rock band is different from that of a solo acoustic singer-songwriter act; rock songs lend themselves more to abstract or flippant lyrics.

Playing in a band does not require virtuoso level skill but you still need to be proficient enough to play in time with others. Rock bands have a wider sonic palette at their disposal which means they can get away with playing simple stuff because it still sounds cool. A full band with drums and electric instruments will always sound more interesting than a single acoustic guitar.

Sing Street is also the only musical film Carney has directed that is a period piece. The film mirrors Carney's formative years in 1980s Dublin when acts like The Cure, Duran Duran, and A-ha were popular. '80s music was notoriously kinda cheesy but we still remember the good stuff. Carney is credited as a songwriter for most if not all of his films' soundtracks; I imagine he knows how to write '80s rock songs better than he does modern acoustic singer-songwriter fare.

I'm talking about movies like those directed by John Carney: Once, Begin Again, Sing Street.

I like to call these "organic musicals" because they don't do the breaking into song and dance that traditional musicals do. Instead, the musical numbers arise naturally because the characters are musicians.

For the longest time, I had a Yamaha YPG-235 at home.

I just got a Yamaha P-121 for home use and I really like the 73-key layout. I’m not a classical pianist so that size feels perfect for me especially for my cramped home studio.

All the sound patches are pretty good and I like how there aren’t that many of them. Getting to any sound takes maybe one or a few button presses which would be convenient for performing live. It’s also seems like the lightest keyboard out there with weighted keys.

Now my YPG-235 sits in the car as a gig-ready keyboard but I’m thinking about getting something else. Though lightweight, it’s bulkier than I’d like, doesn’t sound amazing, and finding a sound is laborious. I either need to use a scroll wheel or memorize catalogue numbers.

I saw a P-121 near me going for real cheap so I’m thinking of getting another one for live performance. The only thing I have reservations about is the output.

It has aux outs which means the built-in speakers still sound when it’s connected. I suppose then the speakers could act as little monitors but the master volume controls both the speakers and the aux output.

Has anyone here used a P-121 for small local gigs? Do you like it?

Anyone who objects to the P-121, do you have recommendations for a slim and light keyboard for small gigs?

A quick google for the lightest keyboard yielded the Casio CT-S1-76 and Yamaha NP-35 neither of which have weighted keys making them very light.

The CT-S1 is ~11 lbs but has 3.5mm output instead of 1/4 inch so that’s out.

The Yamaha NP-35 is ~13 lbs and does have 1/4 inch outs so perhaps that one.

I’m a musician who teaches a lot of virtual lessons and I use a Canon Rebel T6i as my main webcam. The Canon and a couple smaller cameras are connected to a Blackmagic ATEM mini.

I have an aftermarket AC adapter dummy battery powering the Canon that I got off Amazon.

I understand the T6i doesn’t natively support a clean HDMI output unless you turn off AF. I actually prefer to use MF anyhow so that works out fine.

Despite being powered via AC, my camera has started displaying a low battery warning which can’t be turned off and interferes with my preference for a clean output feed.

Could it be because I’m using a non-OEM ac adapter? I’d entertain getting one by Canon but each unit runs like $150.

I guess I alternate pick most of the time but I don't do strict alternate picking.

I generally don't do sweep picking; I will occasionally sweep a note but not enough to say I am full-on economy picking.

For example, if I played the riff from Day Tripper without thinking, it would look like this.

I like Joe Pass, Martin Taylor, etc. as much as the next guy.

But when they play solo, there are times when I feel like they obscure the melody.

I'm used to head arrangements so if I play a tune by myself, I usually do head in, solo, head out.

When Joe Pass plays, he will play the head but then also improvise other lines in a way that kind of steps on it, to the point I only hear short bursts of the melody and rarely in full uninterrupted. There's a reason my favorite Joe Pass record is Unforgettable and not Virtuoso.

Martin Taylor tends to do the same but in a more polyphonic arrangement with many moving lines which feels like too much going on all at once.

Sometimes people are surprised when I tell them my favorite guitarist is not a Joe Pass or a Barney Kessel; it's Chet Atkins.

I think it's because Chet always honored the melody. He could improvise with the best of them but mostly restrained himself in favor of the melody.