#Guitar Lesson: Intros and Endings

Jody Fisher is the co-chair of LA Music Academy’s guitar department. Jody has written for most of the major guitar magazines, including Guitar Player, Just Jazz Guitar and Finger Style Guitar. As an educator, Jody has held the positions of Professor of Jazz and Studio Guitar at the University of Redlands, in Redlands, CA, the University of La Verne, in La Verne, CA, and the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA), in Idyllwild, CA. He has performed with Alphonso Johnson, Betty White, Big Joe Turner, Bo Diddley, Bobby Troupe, Brandon Fields, The Coasters, Dennis Miller, Don Rickles, The Drifters, Harry Connick Jr., Jan and Dean, Joe Diorio, John Abercrombie, John Williams, Mike Stern, Rosemary Clooney, The Shirelles, The Spinners, and many others. Check out www.jodyfisher.com for more information.

From Jody: The following progressions work well for intros and endings. In this series we will use various harmonic devices to come up with interesting sounds. The first progressions follow a diatonic (scale-wise) pattern, then go into a series of chords that move in 4ths.

This is followed by a half-step dominant approach chord into a “V7” chord, and finally re- solving to the “I” chord.

Memorize each progression, making sure you understand how the progression works. Transpose your favorites to all 12 keys and start using them in the tunes you know.

-Jody, LAMA

 

Video Quick Tip – Drums: Left Hand Ghost Note Funk Ostinato

Gary Ferguson teaches funk drums at LA Music Academy College of Music. After his first recording at the age of 17 with Shirley Bassey, Gary Ferguson began touring in the mid-70’s with Etta James, Olivia Newton-John and Cher. Since then, he has also toured/recorded with Eddie Money, Ray Charles, Glenn Hughes, Jim Messina, Roberta Flack, Yoko Ono, David Benoit, Les Dudek, Michelle Phillips, Bette Midler, Susanna Hoffs, Charlie Sexton, Billy Preston, Melissa Manchester, John Hiatt, the New Radicals, Stevie Nicks, Lani Hall, Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, Edgar Winter, James Ingram, Billy Bob Thornton, K.D. Lang, Pat Benatar, Ben Folds, and many more. In 2000, he performed on the Women Rock Lifetime television special, featuring Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, The Dixie Chicks and more. Gary has also recorded on many film and jingle dates and has also contributed tracks to the GarageBand Drum Libraries.

In this video, Funk Drum Instructor Gary Ferguson demonstrates a very useful left hand ghost note ostinato for funk drumming. For more info, visit lamusicacademy.edu

-LAMA Staff

Lukáš Kmiť Makes Nokia Happy

Let’s hear it for Lukáš Kmiť — despite an unwelcome Nokia ringtone during his performance on viola, this pro responds ever so eloquently; with his instrument. How stoked is Nokia about this video?

-LAMA Staff

Indie Labels 12% of 2011 U.S. Sales

image via Seattle Weekly

According to Soundscan, “Overall U.S. music sales rose 6.9% in 2011, as album sales increased for the first time since 2004. Indies accounted for just 12.1% of U.S. music sales last year.”  These stats are promising since many of you release music on your own, with independent partners, or on an Indie label etc. What it truly means is that even with all the talk of internet and Indie artists ruling the world the major label musicians are still moving the most product. But don’t be discouraged. What this study doesn’t account for is other revenue streams – Touring, Merchandise, Ringtones, DVDs, and anything else you can think of! Plus don’t forget The Arcade Fire (on Indie label Merge) took home “Artist Of The Year” at The Grammys! Some of the most exciting music is being created on the indie level — with smart promotions, pr, marketing and social media, you could leverage the tools available today into a long term career.

-LAMA Staff

Black Eyed Cars

Will.I.Am makes us think of flashy outfits and catchy music (the kind you love or hate). Could car designer be next? According to a recent article in the Huffington Post Will.I.Am is starting a car company called “IAMAUTO”. The musician appeared on Jay Leno who is no stranger to cars himself to promote it. “Mr. I am” says that he wanted to start “IAMAUTO” to “bring jobs back to the ghetto that I came from”.  Will.I.Am grew up in the infamous “Estrada Courts”   housing project in Boyle Heights which is usually known for being predominantly Mexican.

via Huffington Post

Think this is a car story and not a music story? Think again! If you are a musician you MUST BE thinking of alternate revenue streams. The sale of recorded music is at an all time low so it is great to see a musician thinking WAY outside the box. We also noted that Will.I.Am naturally announced Beats By Dre technology would be providing the car audio. While we don’t know if this news has Detroit shaking in our boots we can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

-LAMA Staff

Mogees Turn Any Surface Into Musical Instrument

In yesterday’s Discovery article “Any Surface Becomes a Musical Instrument”, we learned about a creation from Bruno Zamborlin.

As part of his arts and computational technologies Ph.D. project, Zamborlin, in collaboration with Norbert Schnell and Frederic Bevilacqua, created “Mosaicing Gestural Surface,” or Mogees.

Stick Mogees nearly anywhere — a tree, car, mirror, perhaps a piece of cheese — either way, the microphone will pick up vibrations and present them as real-time sounds. Audio samples can be programmed into the device for even more fun. You could literally transform your car dashboard into a marimba or xylophone.

Check out the video here:

-LAMA Staff

Video Quick Tip: Jazz and the Ride Cymbal

Joe Porcaro’s musical spectrum ranges from jazz and rock to opera and symphonic. He has recorded with jazz artists including Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Freddie Hubbard, Don Ellis, Mike Manieri and rock/pop artists such as TOTO and Madonna. His credits includes numerous television shows and movies. One of the most highly regarded percussion and drum instructors in the world, Joe is the author of two drum books: Joe Porcaro’s Drum Set Methods and Odd Times, and the instructional video Joe Porcaro on Drums. Please visit www.josephporcaro.com for more info.

In this video, LA Music Academy drum department co-chair Joe Porcaro discusses the history of the drumset and the development of the jazz ride cymbal beat.

-LAMA Staff

5 Random Music Videos That We Love

We love YouTube. There has never been a better time for watching great videos. There has also never been a bigger distraction from getting things done! Despite the busy life at LAMA, we all deserve a bit of time to chill and enjoy random, amazing music videos.

GENE SIMMONS AND PAUL STANLEY OF KISS BICKER DURING INTERVIEW – You can cut through the tension between these two with a knife. Could the rumors be true that they don’t speak at all anymore? It wouldn’t surprise us from this video.

KIRK HAMMET OF METALLICA (UNINTENTIONALLY) KICKS A LITTLE GIRL ON STAGE – Ouch! That has to hurt. Nobody ever said Rock N’ Roll was safe! Don’t let your children near a Metallica stage.

THE LONELY ISLAND PERFORM “I’M ON A BOAT” – Frank Zappa famously said that humor belongs in music. We couldn’t agree more! This song always makes us giggle and we love the cameo by T-Pain!

FASTEST GUITAR SHREDDING EVER? – The jury is still out – but the guy definitely has some chops! What say you?

SLAYER MOSH PIT DURING “RAINING BLOOD” – Do we really need a reason to post this?

Hope you enjoy these videos. We might make this a weekly occurrence!

What are your favorite music videos or music-related videos?

-LAMA Staff

The Music Industry in 2012

Is it just us or has the music industry been in a transitional period for the last decade? It must have been Napster that started this tumultuous period. We went from $20 CDs at Tower Records to .99 cent songs over Itunes and free albums and even CATALOGS using illegal means. Ignore all the doomsayers and lets look positively towards the new year and some things we are excited about. As you recover from your break at LAMA over the holidays, it’s important to brush up with the latest happenings on the business side of things.

WILL STREAMING FULFILL IT’S PROMISES?

For the last few years industry insiders have been heaping praise on streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora, and Google Music as being possible game changers. A way to have all the music available   – while offering users premium features to pay for the music they listen to. Supporters pointed to Europe and how Spotify took the world by storm there. The cold hard reality is that labels are realizing there will never be a replacement for the CD when it comes to profit. Metal label Century Media Records famously pulled their artists catalogs from Spotify earlier this year citing that the pricing plans just don’t make sense. Perhaps 2012 will be the year that the artists and labels finally admit to themselves that the profits of the mid 90s are gone forever and keeping music from streaming services is only going to hurt them.

WHAT ROLE WILL YOUTUBE PLAY?

YouTube went from the website to watch cute kittens and silly children to the #1 destination for people to discover, listen, and watch music of all kinds. Radio and MTV don’t even come close to the amount of music being consumed on YouTube on a daily basis. A significant shift came with the VEVO alliance with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI. Fans hate the ads but the labels and artists love the revenue. It will be interesting to see how YouTube moves into the new year, look for more Live “special” broadcasts such as they did with Coachella this year. Now that Google+ and Google Music are here look for the Google owned YouTube to get more and more compatible with these two services.

WHAT WILL THE CONCERT INDUSTRY BE LIKE?

The live entertainment landscape has been a paradox for a while. For some artists like U2 and Roger Waters it is the best of times while for other less lucky artists it is the worst of times. For the first half of 2011 Pollstar reported that earnings increased 11% but that probably doesn’t tell the whole tale. With the rise of Groupons, Goldstar, and the internet in general, there have been some embarrassing discounted ticket mishaps with tickets for some big name acts practically being given away. Legacy acts such as Bruce Springsteen and The Eagles learned that fans are getting fed up with their constant returns to their cities and aren’t as willing to pay those expensive service charges to hear the same show they saw last year. On the indie level smaller clubs are having a hard time bringing people in to hear unheard bands when they have to compete with the internet, Playstation, TV, and every other cheaper form of entertainment.

SOCIAL NETWORKING ROLE?

Facebook already aligned with Spotify – but do you really want to see a feed of every song your friend is listening to? We are guilty of finding quite a few new bands just by seeing what YouTube videos our friends post on their wall. There has long been talk about a dedicated music social media service – but it seems that it is more likely the social media music impact will come from one of the pre-existing services. We are very excited to watch Google+ grow and how music will fit into it – especially with their new Google Music service which has some big names attached to it.

WILL THE INTERNET BREAK A BAND?

Were not talking about your Rebecca Black — so bad its good type novelty act or an Animal Collective ultra cool hipster act — nor are we referring to those with 5 minutes of fame. We are talking about the internet version of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. A band that has immense pop appeal but also artistic merit. One might try to say Lady Gaga broke on the net – however we would argue she is a hybrid between old wave (MTV, Radio) and new wave (social media, on-line video). We wonder if 2012 will be the year a band breaks completely independently through the internet.

There you have it musicians! The different things music-wise we are looking towards in 2012. Did we leave anything out? Do we have it wrong? Let us know! Have a great break and an even better 2012.

-LAMA Staff