Process

Songwriters’ Exchange with Jason & Jess – Replay from June 18, 2024

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Jess Baldissero is not only a good friend, she is one of my favorite songwriters. I was honored that she sat with me earlier in the week to discuss the discoveries and accidents of the creative process. We shared some laughs, talked about good times and hard times and we each played a few songs.     Audio and Video Audio Only Getting to Know Trees knowingtrees.com · Songwriters' Exchange with Jason McInnes and Jess Baldissero Three tracks from The Hermit, my debut solo album are streaming during the pre-order period. The full album will be released June 28, 2024 on Bandcamp. http://joybird.bandcamp.comPick up Jess’s music, featuring her band Joybird, at Bandcamp also. 

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Don’t Know What to Play? Put Your Worry Away and Try Dreaming

Leave a Comment / Essays, Goals and Education, Guitar, Instruments, Jason's Journal Entries, Mental | Physical | Spiritual, Musical Arts, Process, Self-Guided Lessons, Uncategorized /

Musical Dreaming – it’s a practice that I took part in, but had never really considered until some great chats with my old friend John Donahue. I think about John and his musical dreaming a lot when I meet with frustrated students.  https://vimeo.com/949795666?share=copy Dreaming with Your Guitar .pdf They wanted to play more. They’re just too busy. They’re frustrated with the pace of their progress. They’re overwhelmed and don’t know what to practice. I get it. I feel that way about music all the time. Thankfully, I’ve developed some strategies to get me out of such a funk and this is one of them. Next time you don’t know what to play, or are bored or frustrated with the same old songs, try some dreaming.  The video is the best description I can make of this process.  I’ve also made a .pdf that has some drawings that can be useful, but there’s very little instruction on it. I hope you find this useful.

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Guest Post – John Mead Teaches the Guitar Solo from Dead Flowers by The Rolling Stones

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“This is a great solo to start on—it’s simple, clear, and articulate; it will teach you how to hear clear phrases and how to hear bends (which make up a significant part of the solo). It will teach you a couple of fairly sophisticated ideas while being very simple and satisfying to play.” John Mead We’ve been working on Dead Flowers in some recent Guitar Crew meetups and recently a student asked “Do you know how to play the guitar solo?” I thought, I don’t but I know EXACTLY who does. Check out this killer lesson from one of my very closest friends, and a truly gifted educator, John Mead. Sure missing hanging out with this guy! Download the pdf. You’ll notice that John makes the point that, “THERE IS NO SUCH THING as a ‘pentatonic major scale.’ Now, if you know me and my teaching, you’ll know that soloing with the major pentatonic scale is a core skill of  my introductory improvising lessons. Ha!But, I totally get where he’s coming from and there’s a lot of truth to it. If you’ve had those introductory lessons from my, I highly recommend digging into this lesson to put some of those concepts into practice and to take you’re playing to a new space.   John is an incredible teacher, player and music philospher. Give him a shout if you’re looking to turn up your guitar playing. John’s there to help you make that happen. Contact John

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“How do you do THAT!?!?!?” Learn a Song By Ear: An Approach (Free Self-Guided Lesson)

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When I was first taking guitar lessons my teacher told me to bring in a cassette of any song that I wanted to play. I was so blown away when he’d hear it, having never heard it before, and by the end of the lesson have written down how to PLAY THE SONG. How did he do that?!?!?!?!?!? He taught me some stuff, but he definitely never taught me how figure how songs for myself. In the years sense, I’ve gleaned a lot about how people learn by ear. And, being on the other side of the teacher/student dynamic I often hear my student bewilderment as to how I can play by ear. And, I found that while many hear me be able to do it, they didn’t have a grasp of WHAT I was doing. At first the task seems quite daunting but once it’s broken down into a few manageable steps, it’s really not so difficult. It does take time and effort, but I am fully convinced that it doesn’t take any special talents or innate abilities. This is a self-lead lesson where I present very short videos that describe the exact process I use to learn a song by ear.   Give it a try and listen to how it goes. Drop me a note to let me know how you do, and if you have any questions or concerns. Enjoy! Learn a Song by Ear by Jason McInnes

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Playing By Ear Demo – Hold Music

Leave a Comment / Goals and Education, Guitar, Instruments, Mental | Physical | Spiritual, Musical Arts, Process, Self-Guided Lessons /

I have a thurough self-led lesson about playing by ear in the works. For now, I thought I’d leave you with this. My advice on how to learn to play by ear. https://vimeo.com/902038361?share=copy How to Play by Ear First, seek out financial institutions who provide one minute of music on repeat when you’re on hold. Next . . . OK. While that video is just kind of a kidding around, playing by ear is a goal of many of the people I work with.  Here is a video I made awhile back demonstrating one of the processes I use to learn a song by ear.  Blog Post: How I Learn Old Time Tunes – Learning to Play the Tune, Nancy, from a Recording by Jonas Friddle

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“Let’s start something loud! Can you hear it?” – Cherishing the Music We Made with It’s a Girl

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. . . standing backstage at our album release show and hearing the sold-out crowd stomping and chanting,

“It’s a Gril! It’s a Girl! It’s a Girl!”

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Listening Wide-Eyed: Limited-Sight Contour Drawings of Musical Instruments for Sale

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Today, I am honored and humbled to offer for sale pieces from my Listening Wide-Eyed: Limited-Sight Contour Drawings of Musical Instruments series. Between now and early July 10, 2022 you can purchase a piece of one-of-a-kind artwork made specifically for you or a loved one. Jump to the order form. The Listening Wide-Eyed series is an outgrowth of my visual art, musical and mindfulness practices. Each one-of-a-kind piece from Listening Wide-Eyed is created through a limited-sight process, where I make a drawing on a sheet of bristol board without taking my eyes off the subject. I don’t look at the board until I am done drawing. Within the messiness, the structural knowledge and spiritual essence of each instruments expands.  Each drawing is a made-to-order, one-of-a-kind piece of visual art. They are created with wax pencil and bristol board. Each purchaser is invited to customize their piece, in regards to which instrument, the use of color and matting. There are also options specific to gifting one of these drawings to a loved one. This process started as a way to strengthen my visual record abilities. As my practice bloomed, this limited goal fell away and the drawing practice engendered more connections between the parts and the whole of both the instruments and myself. How do we move? Where are we sturdy? Where are we delicate? How do those and other qualities affect our presentation to and relationships with others?  Considering these questions allowed me to hold and play each instrument in a more open, inviting way.  We see and hear ourselves, and others, every day. I hope having these drawings in our living space, practice room, or at a family dining table prompt us to notice moments when we are making assumptions about what we know about both ourselves and others. I hope that they can act as a guide to remain open, curious and to foster connections in musical spaces and all other relationships. This round of sales does end on July 10, 2022. Order form for Listening Wide-Eyed: Limited-Sight Contour Drawings of Musical Instruments

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