notes to self

music projects, photo hobby, study notes

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About Me

Hello and welcome to this remote outpost. I'm a software developer and a musician. I also have a couple of degrees in math and one in engineering too. I guess I like learning stuff. To reach out use the contact form.

  • steinway-hand
    classical,  jazz,  jazz education,  videos

    The Perils of a Jazz Pianist’s Left-Hand

    / May 12, 2010 / No Comments

    For the modern jazz pianist, the risk of developing disparities between the right and left hand is well-known and rarely discussed. It’s our secret shame. To understand this, try…

  • in detail,  Journal,  rand-o-mat,  The Others

    The Bufos are Back

    / May 1, 2010 / 1 Comment

    It’s late spring and the toads have returned. Every April thousands of breeding-obsessed amphibians invade our neighborhood for an extended game of Where’s-the-tadpole? These fat little lumps, better known as the…

  • music-o-mat

    Soul of a City

    / April 15, 2010 / 1 Comment

    It’s April, time for the Spring KUHF fundraiser. One of the gifts-with-donation this year is the Engines of our Ingenuity CD Soul of a City. This new multimedia package, the 11th…

  • jazz,  jazz education,  transcriptions

    Horace Silver Transcription, “Peace”

    / April 7, 2010 / 12 Comments

    Horace Silver made his name working alongside Blakey, Rollins, and countless others. But later he would part ways with be-bop to explore the funkier aspects of jazz. His strong…

  • jazz,  jazz education,  transcriptions

    Phineas Newborn Transcription, Sugar Ray

    / April 4, 2010 / 6 Comments

    Phineas Newborn was the pianist’s pianist. He died way too young and only recorded a few albums, all of them gems. I spent some time transcribing the “head” to…

  • Shiny Vapors
    music-o-mat,  Synthesizers

    “Crank It Down”: Music For Sleeping

    / March 29, 2010 / No Comments

    Ambient music, it’s warm milk to a seasoned insomniac. It’s Ambien without the morning hangover. The sandman of choice for me has always been the genre’s master, Brian Eno. There’s just…

  • jazz,  jazz education

    Monk Institute Audition Requirements

    / March 19, 2010 / No Comments

    The audition recording requirements for The Thelonious Monk Institute. It's a good punch list to take home and practice, audition or no audition.

  • ARP 2600
    Featured,  Journal,  music-o-mat,  Synthesizers

    For the Love of You, ARP 2600

    / March 12, 2010 / No Comments

    It’s my sad confession. I once had a crush on a machine. I was an impressionable teenager and the ARP 2600 was my pinup girl. I loved this thing…

  • jazz,  jazz education,  music-o-mat,  transcriptions

    Benny Green Transcription, Cottontail

    / March 5, 2010 / No Comments

    Benny Green trading choruses with a guitarist on the Ellington rhythm changes “Cottontail” from the Ray Brown CD Seven Steps To Heaven. Note the tempo — a scorching 300…

  • jazz,  jazz education,  music-o-mat,  transcriptions

    Benny Green Transcription, The Song Is You

    / March 3, 2010 / 2 Comments

    This is the first chorus of a Benny Green solo on “The Song Is You” from his debut CD Prelude (1989, Criss Cross). The thing that’s impressive about this solo…

  • jazz,  jazz education,  music-o-mat,  transcriptions

    Mulgrew Miller Transcription

    / February 28, 2010 / No Comments

    RIP Mulgrew. What a loss: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/arts/music/mulgrew-miller-jazz-pianist-dies-at-57.html Here are three choruses of a Mulgrew Miller piano solo on “If I Should Lose You,” from the album Getting To Know You.…

  • Roger Ebert: "Esquire" Magazine Cover
    Featured,  film,  glam,  in detail,  Tribute

    Roger Ebert: Hero

    / February 20, 2010 / 2 Comments

    Roger Ebert’s battle with throat cancer has been an unattended background story for many years. News that the disease cost him his jaw and the ability to speak emerged…

  • music-o-mat

    Today’s Music Discoveries

    / February 15, 2010 / No Comments

    A few bands I discovered today while trolling 8tracks.com playlists. Angus & Julia, details here: “Siblings Julia and Angus Stone come from Newport, Australia. Angus and Julia’s decision to collaborate was…

  • in detail,  music-o-mat

    Hipster Proto Bands

    / February 11, 2010 / No Comments

    Band name-dropping is a tried and true technique for making yourself appear knowledgeable and cool. The more obscure the band the better. The smaller their output the better. If…

  • Featured,  in detail,  studio-o-mat

    An Apple for an Apple

    / February 7, 2010 / 2 Comments

    A brief history of the Battle of the Beatle, the legendary band's enduring conflicts with Apple Computers, EMI, and their future in the digital musicsphere.

  • Featured,  in detail,  music-o-mat,  Synthesizers

    Blinded by the Douche

    / February 5, 2010 / No Comments

    “Blinded by the Light” was a perplexing piece of pop music. Despite the song’s surreal refrains, or maybe because of them, it achieved anthem-level notoriety in 1976, popular among both hipster children and…

  • rand-o-mat,  travel

    Feeling Crusty

    / February 3, 2010 / 1 Comment

    The North American plate drifts 3″ westward each year. That’s over 10 feet in my lifetime. I feel so unobservant. How could I have not noticed? One day it’ll…

  • jazz,  review-o-matic

    Review: Cassandra Wilson Closer To You: The Pop Side

    / April 1, 2009 / No Comments

    A review of Blue Note's upcoming compilation of Cassandra Wilson's pop covers, Closer To You: The Pop Side

  • Journal

    Wide-Awake in the Hotel

    / March 11, 2008 / No Comments

    Tonight I sit upright in a hotel in Austin, wide-awake after sleeping during the gloaming and eating obscene amounts of pasta hours later. It could have gone differently. I…

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