"Only play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything" ~ Chick Corea Chet Baker demonstrates this simple principle perfectly in his playing. Check out this video of his playing.  [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZAgXr3ba9s] Chet Baker possesses the ability to scat a similarly melodious solo with his voice. Another proof that he is really playing ONLY what he hears, and NOTHING MORE. No meaningless scale runs of any sort, a true jazz master.  But many don't know, behind all these mastery, is a story of a man's thriumph over adverse conditions in life. Here's a short ...

Many are aware of the problem in our classical music education system nowadays. We have many music students graduating with relatively high grades, but unable to play a simple tune without the help of a written score.  The great jazz pianist Bill Evans addressed this issue in a most profound way, in his interview themed "the Universal Mind of Bill Evans". Here's a quote from the interview,   "In the 17th century, there was a great deal of improvisation in classical music. And because of the fact that there were no electrical recording techniques ...

Words often fail to fully express one's love , so let music do it for you. It is an undisputable fact that music has the power to stir emotions, including love. The words of the late Duke Ellington, “I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.” And as Jaco Pastorius harshly put it, "I’m not here to raise hippie consciousness, I’m here to wet some panties." Not actually what I had in ...

Who is the best jazz pianist on Youtube?? To answer this question, I've spent hours reviewing tonnes of jazz piano videos on youtube. I finally decided to place my vote on 7notemode. To find the best jazz pianist on youtube, we must first ask, what defines a good jazz pianist. Here are a few "criterias" for good jazz piano playing that I've listed, and how 7notemode fulfill each one of them with excellence. Good Solo Improvising Skills A good jazz pianist must be able to improvise solos on the spot even over complex harmonies. ...

Peter Muller is working full time as a quantitative trader, and also full time as a musician at night. I used to be working like Peter Muller, performing locally most of the night, and work as a financial planner at day time. I also work on some local album production and music arrangement on project basis. But recently my newborn son is taking too much of my time, I dropped the night performances altogether. I think that I will be like Peter Muller again when I reach his age at ...

Girls attracted to-->Talented men Piano players-->Talented men By ommiting the middle of the equation, Girls attracted to-->Talented men-->Piano players We get, Girls attracted to-->Piano players Is this a viable equation? And if it is, why am I still a bachelor after so many years of piano playing? Heck, I should be in one of the important case studies for this research.. :( To put this equation in a graphical way, can these two pictures be combined together in any sensible way? This is an open challenge to all you photo modification experts out there.. :D I started ...

Are you looking for some inspiration for writing lyrics, or maybe choosing a catchy song title? Well, this post will surely NOT help you. :) But it is guarantee to give you a few good laughs on a bad- hair day. To do that, I've took the effort of searching through the internet for some of the whackiest, craziest lyrics or song title just to entertain you guys and also myself, partly because I'm also having a bit of a writer's block on my songwriting endeavour. The thing I like about these ...

This is part 3 of a series of post discussing job opportunities in the music line. We discussed about the possibility of being a performing musician in Money and Music (part 1), and being a music producer in Money and Music (part 2). In this post, we are going to discuss about teaching music. TEACHING MUSIC If you are not too egoistic, just looking for some steady income while enjoying music as you work. If you love to interact with people, or maybe kids especially. This is the right job for you. Earning ...

We talked about making money by performing music in part 1 of Money and Music. This time we are going to discuss another line of music business, which is what many would consider as the behind the scene type of job, music production. From wikipedia, "a music producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes" Obviously, music producers nowadays have a very large work scope. But in laymen terms, we ...

Stepping into the music industry, or earning a living through it, has always been a difficult decision for many out there. For a music lover, earning money by doing what you like is definitely a fun thing. But because of that, the competition you will face in this industry is extremely huge. It is the purpose of this post to: 1) explore the options you have on earning money by doing music 2) Compare these options in terms of income stability, degree of work enjoyment, and requirement 3) Give a rough idea, on each ...