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Effortlessness is the Enemy of Cloud-Based Music.
Source:
HypeBot
If you like, just skip ahead and read my latest MTT essay here. Early in January, I did a rather extensive review of Thumbplay Music. In it, I suggested features that were missing from the cloud-based music service. Soon thereafter, I was in a book store and I started flipping through The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely. One chapter called The IKEA Effect caught my eye and I started reading it. In short, the chapter is about how effort ...
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DRUM! Magazine Editors Need Rest: Request Members To Interview Jason Bittner Of Shadows Fall In Real Time
Source:
JCM Media
San Jose, Calif.,—The editorial staff at Enter Music Publishing, publishers of hip, drum/percussion magazines worldwide and online, are, well, just a bit tired of having to do all the work. So they've devised a way to shift some of their percussive editorial practice to members of their rapidly growing online drumming community. So, during the week of February 1-7, 2011, drummers from around the world will have the unique opportunity to interview Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall on DRUMmagazine.com's “Forum ...
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10 Things Musicians Can Learn from Douglas Rushkoff's Program or Be Programmed
Source:
We All Make Music
[Editor's Note: The following guest post is by Marc Weidenbaum.] In an age of digital downloads, virtual instruments, and social-media fandom, everybody, musicians especially, must learn how technology is controlled. People who fail to do that run the risk of leaving themselves open to manipulation—i.e., to being controlled. That anxiety-stoking thesis is central to a new book by Douglas Rushkoff, who besides being a prolific author and longtime observer of digital life, has played keyboards in the experimental industrial band ...
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"Stereotypes in Black Music" by Alan Kurtz, Reviewed by Steve Provizer
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Author Alan Kurtz's thesis is: since at least the turn of the 20th century, African-American performers have been fulfilling and/or re-inforcing stereotypes of the naturally-rhythmic primitive savage-i.e., sustaining “white ethnocentric fantasies"-to advance their careers. Episodes include: Minstrelsy, the “coon song" craze, vaudeville, popular black theater ("In Dahomey," Shuffle Along," etc), Ellington's “Jungle Music," Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Cab Calloway, bebop, R&B, the jazz avant-garde of the 60's, disco and rap/hip hop. Mr. Kurtz says he wants the book to ...
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Bill Bruford Autobiography: It's the book everyone's talking about...
Source:
Lori Hehr Public Relations
Bill Bruford, the Godfather of progressive rock drumming, has produced a short video (below) about the origins and aims of his Autobiography, the book everyone's talking about. It's a memoir of life at the heart of progressive rock and electric and acoustic jazz. It's an honest, entertaining, and brilliantly-written account of Bill's 40 years on the road and in the studio. Whether you are a starry-eyed beginner, an inquisitive fan, or a seasoned professional, you'll be intrigued as Bill lifts ...
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CD Baby Starts New Book-Selling Division, Targets Indie Authors and Imprints [launch]
Source:
HypeBot
CD Baby had a baby. BookBaby, to be precise, is their new venture that focuses on indie authors. After a decade in the music business and paying out $120 million to indie artists, the company has decided to level the playing field between professional and amateur authors in the same way it did with musicians. Authors distributed through BookBaby will receive 100% of their net sales revenue—paid weekly—generated through all their retailer network, including retailers including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & ...
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Book Review: The Penguin Jazz Guide by Brian Morton
Source:
Music and More by Tim Niland
The Penguin Jazz Guide by Brian Morton My rating: 5 of 5 stars After many iterations going back to the ancient Penguin Guide to Jazz on LP, Cassette and Compact Disc (written in Cuneiform script on clay tablets) the venerable guide has changed its format. Gone are the star ratings and the oft-argued about crowns that sparked so much discussion on the jazz world. The new guide exists in a chronological format, decade by decade, akin to the popular “1,001 ...
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Pele-Mele Works Releases “Intervallic Fretboard - Towards Improvising on the Guitar,” and Offers Guitar Players a Novel Approach to the Instrument
Source:
bridgepin
Pêle-Mêle Works releases a new instructional book offering guitarists a different take on the fingerboard, with improvisation as the underlying motivation: “Intervallic Fretboard Towards improvising on the Guitar," by Ashkan Mashhour and Dave Murdy. Whether in jazz, blues, rock, fusion, etc., shapes and patterns are widely used in teaching the guitar, be it for scales, chords, or arpeggios. Intervallic Fretboard takes a novel and different approach to the guitar fretboard, emphasising an intervallic thought process. Moving away from shapes, patterns, ...
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