Jax Ramblings

MUSIC LESSONS

2008-10-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

The world record for the worst rendition of a National Anthem probably goes to sprinter Carl Lewis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJLvCM4j2mg) with Roseanne Barr (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrFW2aYHVR8) finishing a close second. The difference between their 'interpretations' is Roseanne Barr intended to sing it badly, thinking it 'funny.' Carl Lewis was really trying to sing it well, he just cannot sing. Barr's version angered people: Lewis' was just embarrassing.

There are a couple of music lessons in this...

1. There are certain songs that one mocks at one's own peril. If you
are going to make a political statement by mocking anyone's
national anthem, you have that right under our laws. However,
others have equal right to respond in like manner.
2. There are certain songs that one performs at one's own peril. The
Star Spangled Banner is such a song. It's an odd melody, with a
big range. Great singers sing it with fear and trembling. The
history of music is filled with such pieces. Classical works by
Liszt, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff seem to top the difficult piano
pieces. My kids listen to the guitar work of the band, Dragon
Force, which others play only at their peril
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jgrCKhxE1s)

So...before you mock, count the cost. And before you perform a song in public, be sure you're up to it. The rule of thumb is until you can play it flawlessly seven times in a row, you are not ready.

Buyer Beware!

2008-10-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

by Jack Phillips

October 10, 2008

Believe it or not, I sometimes shop at the local Walmart. Not always the most fun experience, but they do have really good prices, especially on staples we need each week. Recently, after selecting my purchases, I headed over to the toy section to find one of my children (I'm sure you parents out there are familiar with this task). To my dismay, I saw a couple that had selected a low quality acoustic guitar for I assume their child. Obviously being in the store I could not approach them about their purchase. However, as I continued to look for my son, I saw how much this "discount" store was charging for these, bluntly, crappy instruments!

We often assume that these large discount stores can always beat the little guy on price. I can testify that what I have seen at the local discount stores is not low priced nor good quality. What they are selling for $60 was worth maybe $20, with profit. Now, I have no problem with Walmart getting as much as possible, but what are the customers thinking? Do they shop around? Why are they paying more for a piece of junk when they could pay less for something that is at least playable? I would encourage people who are considering a musical instrument for themselves or a child to check out their local music store. Maybe even Jax Music Supply :-)!

You will find the local store, even chains such as Guitar Center, very helpful and can provide guidance to a quality instrument within your budget. Don't assume that the discount chains are the least expensive or offer the best value. Do the research. Shop around. I know most dealers, Jax included, gladly give free advice. We have people that email us all the time for information and never make a purchase. We are happy to provide this service. We know that in the long run the world is better served by providing friendly service and creating more music in the world.

What do you think?

Website: http://www.JaxMusicSupply.com

Monthly Giveaway:

http://www.jaxmusicsupply.com/monthly-contest.aspx

What’s your favorite song?

2008-10-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

by Charles Long

What’s your favorite…er…album…er…CD…er…project?

What makes great music great? This is a fundamental philosophical question. Why do we like what we like? Why are our brains wired in such a way as to find some sounds appealing (we call these music) and other sound revolting (we call these ‘debates’)?

I recently discovered www.acclaimedmusic.net which is sort of a meta-list of all-time greatest songs and CD’s. For example, the top ten most recommended songs of ALL-TIME are…

1 Bob Dylan Like a Rolling Stone

2 The Rolling Stones (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

3 The Beach Boys Good Vibrations

4 Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit

5 Aretha Franklin Respect

6 Chuck Berry Johnny B. Goode

7 Otis Redding Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

8 Marvin Gaye I Heard It Through the Grapevine

9 Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven

10. Sex Pistols Anarchy in the U.K.

Hardly the list I would have come up with! There are two songs on the last I am not sure I have ever listened to all the way through. This says more about my age than the songs (Nirvana and Sex Pistols). I’d have added a Beatles song and probably some Springsteen.

That being said, here’s what’s cool about the acclaimed music list. It is strictly based on a statistical analysis of what the CRITICS write. (Imagine getting paid to listen to and comment on music! Nice work if you can get it…o wait…that’s what I’m doing…well, except without the paid part, but I digress). Back the list. Acclaimed music’s creator (Henrik Franzon) compiles critics’ lists from around the world and across the decades and then, after weighting the lists in a fair way, generates the top three thousand songs and albums. Pretty cool! The author of the site also publishes his PERSONAL top 100, so you can judge if he’s biased or not.

He must be biased…my favorite artist, Bruce Cockburn, isn’t anywhere to be found. Sigh.

Improving your tone

2008-09-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

September 23^rd 1949…Freehold, NJ…Bruce Springsteen is born (in the U.S.A.).

THE BOSS IS NEARLY 60! Dude puts on a very athletic show for his age. I recently had the pleasure of seeing THE BOSS at the Richmond Coliseum, here in Virginia. Unfortunately, the pleasure was mostly visual. This is was THE WORST LIVE SOUND I have ever experienced from a professional artist. I have heard a lot of bands in a lot of weird venues large and small, but this was FAR AND AWAY THE WORST. YIKES! EVEN IF YOU ARE A ROCK ICON: SOUND MATTERS. So what does this mean to you and me (other than avoid Bruce at the Richmond Coliseum)?

First, good equipment makes a difference in every facet of your rig. Since we at JAX deal with a lot of guitar products, let me give you a guitar example. If you own a vintage Strat and play it through a vintage Fender Twin, but use old worn-out strings, you won’t sound good (or at least not as good as you should).

Second, there are things that even the best equipment cannot fix. A million dollar sound system can’t fix the bad acoustics of an out of date venue. I think that this is what happened to THE BOSS at his Richmond ‘show.’ Similarly, great equipment won’t give you great (any?) talent (Jessica and/or Ashlee Simpson, i.e.). A corollary to all this: LOUDER ISN’T THE SAME AS BETTER (Springsteen might take note of this…just a thought).

Third, little things make a big difference in sound. New strings make a huge difference in how your guitar sounds! Change ‘em often! Also, use decent guitar cables…they matter, too! Even the picks you use change the way your guitar sounds.

The good news is that sometimes little changes (picks, strings, and cables) can make a BIG DIFFERENCE! You’d be surprised how much better your rig will sound with NEW STRINGS, BETTER CABLES, and a change of PICKAGE!

The Beauty of the Beat

2008-09-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

By Jack Phillips

September 5, 2008

At this moment, I can here the sound of some music playing in my son’s room; only the drums and bass are coming through. The ceiling fan is on, providing a steady white noise in the background along with the steady click of the chain hitting the light fixture. Somehow it is not annoying, merely comforting. The steady drip of the rain is similar (thank you Hanna). As I think about these things, the reason these sound are not annoying is that they are a steady, regular, rhythm. I feel the human mind craves rhythm, leading to my next point.

Have you ever listened to someone play an instrument that couldn’t get the rhythm right? No matter how precise the notes they play are, it just plain sounds weird. Having a sense of rhythm is essential to quality playing. A guitar player that only knows 3 open chords can sound awesome if their timing is good. How do you learn good timing? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! If you don’t purposely practice your rhythm, you will always sound bad.

To practice, you need a steady beat to practice with. Many people use metronomes. Metronomes are electronic or mechanical devices that provide a steady sound at an adjustable interval. Many inexpensive metronomes are available that include both an aural and visual cues and are highly adjustable. In addition to a metronome, you can use a drum machine. Drum machines are really cool in that they sound like a real drummer without the fills and you can jam and practice with them. Practicing with other musicians, hopefully including a drummer, is a great way to solidify your rhythm skills and discover the beauty of the beat.

Top 10 songs of presidentail candidates

2008-08-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

by Charles Long

I was watching Rachel Ray's show 'Tasty Travels' proving once again that I have no life. RR was in Little Rock, Arkansas visiting the W.J. Clinton presidential library and eatery...I kid you not... it has a restaurant named 42. What was WAY COOL about the W. J. Clinton's library was his collection of saxophones. The man played. This got me to thinking...what does this current crop of candidates listen to? According to Blender.com, here are the candidates top ten songs...

BARACK OBAMA
1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What's Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I'm On Fire Bruce Springsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You'd Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can will.i.am

JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We Make It Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I've Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond1
0. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters

The only thing these guys have in common is Sinatra! Well, that about sums the election up!

Olymping Along

2008-08-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

by Charles Long

We have all heard about the little Chinese girl (Yang Peiye) who was not allowed to be seen singing the Chinese national anthem because she was considered not pretty enough! Another girl, Lin Miaoke lip synced the anthem. Of course, American’s shouldn't be too self-righteous about this. We gave Grammy’s to Milli Vanilli as Best New Artist 1990 after all and they lip synced to beat the band. Then there was the classic play and film ‘My Fair Lady.’ On Broadway, Eliza Doolittle was sung by Julie Andrews (you know, Mary Poppins). The film version featured Katherine Hepburn: a great actress, but no singer. All the songs have Hepburn lip syncing. According to Wikipedia, the real singer was Marni Nixon. So before we cast stones at the Chinese…we ought to consider our glass housing!

All this says more about Man than it does Music. Music doesn’t care about the singer’s looks. What matters to music is the singer’s craft. I am personally so sick of singers who look like models. Give me Mama Cass over Mamma Mia! Give me Janice Joplin over Janet Jackson! Give me Pavarotti over Groben! Man makes everything look great but sound sterile. Music give us a vital sound and peasant looks. Give me music.

And as long as I am on a rant…can we please have some LESS produced music. In the pre-digital era, the music had an edge. The edge was the little imperfections that couldn’t be fixed. In the digital age, those little imperfections are fixed. We get perfect pitch in perfect time…and no soul. And in addition to less produced music can we please have some DISSONANCE, too? When every chord blends perfectly, we have consonant music that is dull! Can I get a clash now and again? Little grind? Its not the consonances that give music real beauty: it’s the dissonances.

So… China …I know you’re reading this…let the singer sing…on camera…the world will love her…she’s a seven year old girl. No one rejects a singing seven year old! So… America …let’s get off the over produced music band wagon and let’s get some real music. Finally, there is hope; the word is that a remake of My Fair Lady is in the works. Columbia Pictures…I know you’re reading this…let’s get some real singers…so don’t keep olymping along.

For the Record- by Charles Long

2008-08-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

When I got started in the music biz, recording was done on long black strips of magnetic ribbon gathered onto reels. We called it 'tape.' I know...I'm old. I did some recording in a studio a few years ago and just about everything was digital; it was unreal (heh-heh). It used to be that setting up a recording studio required a lot of space, specialized equipment, lots of training, and BIG BUX. Nowadays, all you need to make really good recording can be carried in a briefcase.

How can you make your own recordings? First, you'll need some hardware: a computer with a USB 2.0 port and a sound card. Fortunately, just about every computer made nowadays has both these things included. Now, while you can plug things like a microphone or a guitar into your sound card, you will need an adapter that connects either a guitar plug (1/4 inch) or mic plug (usually called an XLR) to a miniplug (the size of the plug on ear buds). But, rather than doing this I'd recommend spending a few bucks on a USB recording unit from a company like Tascam or M-Audio. This gives you a standard mic input and guitar input and a bunch of other useful features as well. While you are at it, invest in some decent cables (check out our cables). You'll also want a decent set of headphones. When you are recording, use your headphones as monitors. Now this is the persnickety part of the process: getting everything talking to everything else. My experience is that this process goes easier on an APPLE, but it can be done on a WINDOWS machine, too.

Now once you have everything talking to everything else the fun starts. I've used GARAGE BAND to create most of the sound samples here at JAX. If you buy a USB recording device, you might get some very serviceable software with it (light versions of Cubase and ProTools, typically). Once you are running your software and your instruments are talking to your computer...well, all kinds of good things happen. Before you record, put some nice fresh strings on your guitar and read the article on tuning. Have fun!

Tune Twice - Suck Less by Charles Long

2008-07-31T19:19:00.000-07:00

"One of the dark secrets of the guitar: guitars don't play perfectly in tune. Actually, all fixed tuning instruments, such as piano (sic), play slightly out of tune." (see www.timberens.com/essays/tuning.htm for the complete essay).

How true it is! The reality is that if your guitar is perfectly tuned for the key of Ab major (as if!) then your guitar is NOT perfectly tuned for the key of E major. That's just the nature of the beast! Most guitarists shoot for what is known as 'tempered tuning,' meaning that the guitar (and possibly the guitarist) is equally out of tune in all keys (see www.wikipedia.org for way more information than you need to know). The best we can hope for is to be equally out of tune in all keys: If that's not a metaphor for life in the modern modern world, then I'm a Neanderthal. I have been called one before, BTW, but that's different entry for a very different blog.

So what's a well-meaning guitarist (secretly longing deep in his/her/its soul to be in perfect tune) to do? I'm so glad you asked! Here are three not-so-easy steps to the 'well tempered' guitar:

1. Learn how to tune your guitar manually...um...aurally (no electronic tuners allowed at first - part of good musicianship is tuning and restringing your best friend with your own two hands and/or ears - at least until you can afford roadies to do it for you). Learning to tune will take some time, but this is time well spent. Thou shalt hone thy craft daily. For the traditional EADGBE tuning, there are various tuning methods to be mastered: the old 'fifth fret' method (except for the second or B string of course) and the harmonics method to name just two. Learn 'em! Love 'em! Incidentally, you will need a reference pitch to tune this way. A tuning fork, a pitch pipe, heck, even a pitch fork will work in a pinch - an old friend of mine could tune his sixth or low E string to the dial tone of a phone. Just tune it!

2. Once you have mastered tuning your guitar manually, aurally and/or telekinetically, then and only then, get yourself an electronic tuner from JAX AND learn how to use it. (Oh, if you do learn to tune telekinetically, please post a video on YOUTUBE). Now when you get your brand spanking new electronic tuner, I'd recommend reading the manual! (I can't believe I just wrote that! Next I thing I know I'll be asking for directions when I'm lost).

Why read the manual? Well, did you know that these newfangled electronic tuners work better if you strike the string lightly? That salient little treasure is often buried deep in the bowels of the manual! So read thy manual since, to the best of my knowledge, no one has yet published the authoritative 'Tuners for Dummies' book for which we have all been waiting. Rest assured JAX will have it when it hits the market. Right now, we have got a bunch of great tuners at JAX, just click on the tuners link and check them out. I use the Boss TU-2 Tuner Chromatic because it's a great tuner, it's easy to use on stage, it has orange lettering, and its name sounds like 'Tu-Tu-Tuner.'

3. Having learned how to tune the old-fashioned way, and only then having bought and tuned up your guitar with your spiffy new electronic tuner from JAX, step three is to recheck your instrument's tuning BY EAR (aurally) in the KEY in which your about to playing. TUNE TWICE: SUCK LESS. (Words to live by. You'll thank me later. Can I get a witness?) "How do I do this?" You say? Play a few chords that commonly occur in the key in which you are about to play. For example if you are about to play in G-major, try a couple different voicings of the following chords: G Major, C Major, D Major, and E Minor. I think you'll be surprised how many times you'll have to tweak a string or two to get those chords to sound right. My experience is that the second or B string is the usual culprit. I suspect that it's because the 2nd string is tuned to a different interval than the other strings in the traditional EADGBE tuning. (E - A is a fourth; A - D is a fourth; D - G is a fourth; G to B is a major third; B to E is a fourth again). So watch...er...listen to that B-string.

There they are: three not-so-easy steps to a well-tempered guitar! (Now played by an ill-tempered guitarist due to having just read the manual of an electronic tuner). Remember to post that video of you tuning-up telekinetically!

Charles Long

The Greening of NAMM

2008-07-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

By Charles Long

July 25, 2008

As we discussed earlier, the staff of Jax Music recently went to the National Association of Music Marketers (NAMM) event in Nashville, TN. Along with hearing some great music courtesy of the 1352 guitar pickers of Nashville (a line from which song and by whom?), we heard and saw some great new music products. Watch the website for new product announcements!

One little item that we already carry, "Wheatware picks," impressed us even more at NAMM! These picks are made from surplus wheat - yeah, you heard me right. I said wheat, as in amber waves of grain. They look, feel, and (best of all) sound great. They are totally biodegradable (90 days in a landfill). Next time you and your band rock the landfill, don't worry about losing these picks! It's cool. No, you cannot eat them when you are done playing guitar!

Talking with the company representatives, we got the impression that more environmentally friendly musical products are on the way. Here's a few suggestions courtesy of JAX:

1. The 'Al Gore' custom line of Wheatware toothpicks (great for
punching out those pesky hanging chads)
2. Danelectro's new and improved 'dolphin-free' Tuna Melt tremolo pedal.
3. Wind-powered rotating speaker system

All kidding aside, check out the Wheatware picks! They're a little
more expensive, but they're worth it!

C.

NAMM 2008

2008-07-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Last month, a couple of us went to the NAMM show in Nashville. For those who do not know, NAMM is the musical instrument and accessories trade group. It supports the musical instrument industry and promotes music programs and education across the country. They host two trade shows a year; one in the summer and one in the winter. This year, the summer NAMM show was in Nashville, Tennessee.

This was the first time representatives from Jax Music Supply attended NAMM. Talk about fun. As most of you all are musicians, I'm sure you can imagine the "kid in a candy store" feeling we felt as we walked the aisles. We had no idea how many cool (and crazy!) products there are out there.

One of the products that we felt was very interesting was the Bogdon Box Bass:

Yes, it is what it looks like. A cardboard box, with a wooden neck, nylon strings, nut and bolt tuning, and a basic bridge. However, it has a pickup in it so, we plugged it in. We heard it and were amazed. Not to be confused with a high end fretless bass but we cannot see how you could go wrong as practice bass. It ended up winning a "Best in Show" at summer NAMM. Very cool idea. We are not planning to carry these for now but you can visit Bogdon and I'm sure they will be glad to hook you up.

Peace and Joy,

Jack

Welcome To Jax Music Supply

2008-07-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to all!

Greetings and salutations to our fellow musicians and gearheads. Our blog is a new feature we are adding to our website. We will post our personal product reviews, trade show reports and other ramblings from the owners and staff at Jax Music Supply. We want this to be interactive so please, let us know what you think!

Peace and Joy,

Jack