Blues In C, Blues In E, Blues In The Back Of An Odyssey

Happy 2018! Personally, I decided to celebrate the new year by moving Studio Fretboard to new premises. Well, perhaps "decided" is not exactly the mot juste. The building I'd been working out...

So I'm trying to learn how to play the piano. I tried once before, my sophomore year in college, and one semester was enough to send me scrambling back to the guitar. "At least," I thought, "my two hands are both focused on doing one thing...

Mistakes Were Made

I was listening to Leo Sidran's podcast The Third Story this week, in particular his interview with pianist and harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy. It's a great interview, including, among other things, Levy's explanation of how the...

Jazz Algebra

The little mom 'n pop music store where I took guitar lessons in high school is a real estate office now. And Jeff W., my high school guitar teacher, is still around but, as continuing evidence of the immense aura of wisdom that...

I guess everyone in the immediate vicinity of Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins referred to Mr. Hopkins as "Lightnin'," but just thinking about that got to me wondering about blues and jazz musicians without a nickname. It's all downhill and shady once...