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@thebackcue
Support Your Local ______
Support Your Local ______
So, how do artists eat? Let’s change perspectives before we get into that, a lot of people have a skewed view of the arts and economics behind them. Imagine the biggest artist you know and how much money they make. If you thought Kanye or Tom Cruise, you’re probably right. They probably have a lot of money. Now think of an artist you actually like and how much money you imagine them to have. If…
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How to Throw a Jam Master Post
How to Throw a Jam Master Post
Part 1: Vibe – Deciding what exactly your event is going to be and what purpose it will serve in the scene; why are you throwing a jam? Part 2: Budget – How much will your event cost total and where does the money go? Part 3: Date & Venue – When and where should you throw your event? Part 4: Personnel – Who should you hire and what exactly is their job? Part 4.5: A Breaking Promoter’s Guide to…
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How to Throw a Jam Master Post
How to Throw a Jam Master Post
Part 1: Vibe – Deciding what exactly your event is going to be and what purpose it will serve in the scene; why are you throwing a jam? Part 2: Budget – How much will your event cost total and where does the money go? Part 3: Date & Venue – When and where should you throw your event? Part 4: Personnel – Who should you hire and what exactly is their job? Part 4.5: A Breaking Promoter’s Guide to…
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Recording studio, 1980′s.
It's always taken a dozen people to write a pop song. Only thing that's changed between now and forty years ago is how writing credits are handled. Originally only the arranger, lead artist or whoever wielded the most power would get the writing credit. If the person credited wrote anything at all, it was usually just a chart that shows the timing of key changes. Teams of writers at Stax or Motown or Fame studios and every other studio would bang out dozens of charts a day hoping to find a hit somewhere in the stack. Those charts were then taken to a room full of session musicians, the lead recording artist, engineers, producers and possibly other writers that all interpret those charts into actual songs. Forty years ago, none of them would get credit. If they had, every song from James Brown, the Rolling Stones or Sam Cooke would have anywhere from 5 to over a dozen "writers". Don't use utterly arbitrary industry writing credits as an excuse to demean artists you don't like unless you're willing to go back and criticize your heroes for the same practice. Making a pop song is and always has been exceedingly difficult. Literally thousands of people have tried it in the history of recorded music. Even with teams of people, only a couple hundred ever succeeded even once and only a few dozen could do it more than once. It takes incredibly smart songwriting and well thought out techniques to actually make something that is popular with the widest possible segment of the population. You'll get more out of trying to examine those techniques and learning from it than dismissing it entirely. I recommend the podcasts "Switched on Pop" or "Tuner" along with Chilly Gonzales' Pop Music Masterclass series on YouTube -Alpha
So Friday I said I’d start sharing some resources to get people learning an instrument. I’ll post YouTube clips and channels here on the page and longer pieces will be found on the blog (Backcue.com) under the tag “Music Education”
I figured the best place to start would be with the musician that changed how I view music education, Victor Wooten.
Vic Wooten is widely considered one of the best bassists working today. He’s most known as a member of The Flecktones, the backing band for Banjoist Bela Fleck. He’s also got an impressive solo discography but I’m not here to talk about his recorded music.
Besides being a virtuoso bassist, he’s also an educator of the highest caliber. The video below is an overview of his teaching philosophy; that learning music should be more natural and free like learning language than dogmatic and bogged down with rules. You still learn the rules but you get to them through practice and interaction with other players. He goes much deeper than this on his book “The Music Lesson” or his DVD “Groove Workshop” with himself and Anthony Wellington. The structure of my Dance Theory workshop is partially adapted from that book and DVD. So, even if you’re not interested in playing an instrument, there’s a lot to learn as a dancer from his work if you can interpret his lessons to your instrument (your body).
-Alpha
I think it would be dope if we got to a point where after parties for dance events or at the end or beginning of practice sessions, dancers were able to actually have a musical jam session, drum circle or something like it. There was a time when actually making music was just as social as dancing to it or seeing someone else make it. An evening with friends meant sitting on a porch or den and jamming.
I’ve been pushing that people should learn an instrument for a while privately in my Music/Dance theory workshop, comment threads or conversations but I plan on making that more public and easier if I can. I’ve got dozens of YouTube videos, books, and other resources I’ve found useful over the years for learning or understanding the music making process and plan on sharing them and offering reviews for them.
Honestly, music isn’t that much harder to play than it is to listen to critically and I know pretty much everyone already does that because half of you never stop being critical of music. If you can just channel that energy into figuring out how to play a tambourine or hit a clave, you could be a valuable part of a jam session. Even if you pick a more “difficult” instrument like a guitar, if you can put an index finger across the top 3 strings, you’re golden if one person in the room can tell you what fret to play so you’re in key.
Hopefully, I can demystify making music a bit and get everyone more involved in music off the dancefloor so check for that on this page or the site (Backcue.com) if you’re interested. Also, if you have specific questions, please feel free to ask. I’m no expert, but I can point you to them.
-Alpha
Tucker & Bloom North to South Bag Review
Tucker & Bloom North to South Bag Review
Traveling can be a pain. When you’ve got to lug a set’s worth of vinyl and a laptop and drives, it doesn’t get any easier. For a while now, I’ve been able to survive carrying all that with the UDG creator bag. In the past couple years I’ve booked more gigs that require me to get on a plane and traveling with such a large backpack has grown to be a pain. Although it fits the airline’s sizes for…
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Tucker & Bloom North to South Bag Review
Tucker & Bloom North to South Bag Review
Traveling can be a pain. When you’ve got to lug a set’s worth of vinyl and a laptop and drives, it doesn’t get any easier. For a while now, I’ve been able to survive carrying all that with the UDG creator bag. In the past couple years I’ve booked more gigs that require me to get on a plane and traveling with such a large backpack has grown to be a pain. Although it fits the airline’s sizes for…
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How to Throw a Jam pt. 6: Final Hours
How to Throw a Jam pt. 6: Final Hours
This will be the last in the How to Throw a Jam series. At the bottom, you’ll find links to all the previous installments in the series. In the future I might compile everything into a single PDF or other ebook format. If anybody’s interested in that, just let me know. In this installment, I’ll be going over the final days of the event and how that can go, what speed bumps to avoid and what to…
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New Mix for the Summer
New Mix for the Summer
Just in time for your weekend BBQs! New mix for the summer, not a lot of planning for this one. Had a vague idea a couple weeks ago, went on vacation, came back and recorded it in the last couple days. Working on some other mix projects and a lot of these are songs that weren’t quite working in those combined with stuff I’ve been playing recently at my club/bar gigs. As usual with most of my…
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For any Atlanta followers, spinning an open format/vinyl+digital set tonight at The Glenwood, come through for drinks and dancing!
How to Throw a Jam pt. 5: Promotion
How to Throw a Jam pt. 5: Promotion
It’s finally time to get to the actual promotion aspect of promoting. I’ll talk about a few strategies for getting the word out, social media and the importance of the flyer.
How well you handle this part will directly affect your turnout.
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How to Throw a Jam pt. 4: Personnel
How to Throw a Jam pt. 4: Personnel
Venue and date are confirmed and it’s time to start hiring the talent that’s going to bring your event to life. Many general details such as payment, housing, travel expenses, contracts, etc. are already covered in A B-boy Promoter’s Guide to Dealing with the DJso I’ll be skipping over a lot of those things here. Much of that is consistent with anyone you hire so I’d recommend reading that…
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How to Throw a Jam pt. 3: Date & Venue
How to Throw a Jam pt. 3: Date & Venue
Alright, you’ve decided the vibe and set your budget, now to take a couple of steps that will actually put you an unavoidable course to success or failure, setting the date and securing the venue.
Does this process sound fun yet?
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