Topping the Charts!

20 01 2010

So this is what I get for not paying full enough attention to things. I just learned today that two of my articles for NoTreble (the Zen of Ear Training Parts 1 & 2) are two of the “Top Posts” for DiscMaker’s Blog! To say the least, I’m thrilled! Part 1 definitely got more comments, but it’s a huge honor for me to have both be so popular. 2009 was good for my NoTreble writing as well – “Building Dexterity on the Bass” was my most popular lesson and I wrote the most popular gear-watch article :-)

Here are the links!

http://blog.discmakers.com/2009/11/the-zen-of-ear-training-part-1/

http://blog.discmakers.com/2009/11/the-zen-of-ear-training-part-2/

http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2009/12/31/no-trebles-best-of-2009/


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Some new sound ideas

19 01 2010

This is my latest idea for a motif in a new song with the band. It’s a short sound clip, but I’m hoping to expand it into a complete song with other movements/motifs. This is very much a work-in-progress. That being said I’d encourage any ideas/feedback that you might have (leave it here or at SoundCloud).

The track is me looped with my bass-guitar, playing with a pure tone, through a phaser and through a chorus pedal for different layers.

Harmonic minor ideas – sound clip by Evan Kepner


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A New Band

23 12 2009

I’ve been feeling a little musically stuck lately, so I decided to start a new band. I put out a single Craigslist ad for “Interesting Musicians” saying “I don’t care what you play, but you must play it well.” The result – after a handful of replies I’m meeting with two great guys – a keyboardist and a violinist, both of whom are highly musically intelligent and interesting. It will be really cool to develop music with other passionate people that want something more complex and elegant than the norm. More to come soon – our first official practice as a trio occurs tonight!


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Stanley Clarke!

17 12 2009

This was by far one of the coolest music-things I’ve ever done – I had an exclusive 20 minute interview with Stanley Clarke before his Return To Forever show in Cleveland. He is a brilliant musician and one of my personal heroes – to say the least I was beside myself with excitement getting to meet him. The show was absolutely stellar – I didn’t stop grinning for a week after this :-)

http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2009/12/17/an-interview-with-stanley-clarke/


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Copyright Vs. Culture

19 10 2009

Music Think Tank has put up an interesting article on Copyright vs. Culture.

Quoting from the article: In the case of the written word, it is possible to draw inspiration (and characters) from multiple sources and to bring those characters together in a new context to reveal new truths (or at least discussions) about the human condition, but when this is attempted with musical materials (such as Danger Mouse’s The Gray Album), the music industry demands no less than total destruction of all such works.

The author argues that the current state of copyright law in the music industry is stifling artistic expression and will impact our cultural growth. It’s an interesting perspective and one I agree with. While total replication of a work clearly should involve some kind of royalty payment I think the art of a “mash-up” or other transformation should fall into an acceptable use category. In an age where so much music is available I think it is impossible to enforce an exclusive copyright law to the fullest extent, there is bound to be replication in produced music and referenced influences.


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