The Rue Patisserie
Jul 16, 2020
A week ago Monday, when my online songwriting group met, I played a song I had written in an hour the day before. When you get back to town and your neighbors have been taking care of your cats, and the cats turn out to have been, as they would...
Last Call, Summer Registration
Jul 13, 2020
Summer registration for the Fingerstyle Five membership is closing tonight. If you're still interested, here are a few links to help you out. And if you've already determined the membership is not for you at this time, that's cool too. Just for...
Travis Picking Live Stream, With Membership Details
Jul 13, 2020
In last Friday's Youtube live stream, I presented a steady-bass arrangement of the blues classic "Sitting On Top Of The World" and walked through a five-step process for taking a tune from basic melody to complete arrangement. This is the same...
Live Youtube Lesson & Membership Registration
Jul 10, 2020
I'll be returning to the airwaves this afternoon with a live Youtube lesson on playing the blues classic "Sitting On Top Of The World." The arrangement is one that I recently taught in my Fingerstyle Five membership, and I'll spend some time going...
Miles For Amateurs
Jul 09, 2020
At some point in the jazz history class I took sophomore year, someone asked our professor, "Hey, Mr. Lowe – do you say 'the blues is,' or 'the blues are?' Without missing a beat, the reply came: "The blues be." Free-jazz...
Honk. Squeee! Blat...
Jul 02, 2020
Moving studios three times in the past five years has definitely been, not to put too fine a point on it, kind of a drag, for all the unsurprising reasons. And yet, it hasn't been completely devoid of positives. To paraphrase the python rock-snake...
The Robot Boss
Jun 25, 2020
Yesterday, I was staring at a Haydn string quartet score. Trying to read it, of course, but ultimately, merely staring at it. I try and I rope off an hour each day to practice counterpoint and composition and it usually flies by; I have to ...
Chasing A Book
Jun 18, 2020
There is, of course, no corporal punishment around our house, but when things are getting too out of line there is one threat I can be heard to issue: "Don't make me tell you a 'When I Was A Kid' story!" As in: "What? your cell reception is no...
Making Movies
Jun 11, 2020
I had a housemate in college who observed that once you spend a certain amount of time on a particularly focused task, it takes a comparable amount of goofing off afterwards to rebalance one's internal academic equilibrium. In other words, spend a...
The Point Is Not To Write Great Music
Jun 04, 2020
It would have been my dad's 85th birthday last week. I inherited my share of traits from him, including, as far as I can tell, a certain desire to get stuff done and keep learning, ideally at the same time. I once asked him why he had changed jobs...
