7 p.m. May 13 -- better known as next Tuesday, people. Bass players from around the region will convene again at Chicago's Elbo Room to commune.

On stage: Jauqo III-X Reality; Trentin Lee Manning; Will Howard; Doug Johns; Bill Dickens; Mike Sterling and Andy DeLuca. Click on the image for the big version and myspace addys.

This time there also will be tons of raffle/giveaways from Ashdown; Lakland; Mono Gig bags; Morley; Peterson Tuners and Pigtronix. All good stuff -- but you gotta be there to win it!

Monsters I was a great time, and this one is shaping up to be at least twice as much fun. Each of these players brings something unique and different to the table. If you are looking for new techniques and inspiration and support from the bass community, this is your chance.

Be there. Aloha.

I went into the cafe at the end of my street this morning to get cup of coffee and a scone and the owner complimented me on my bracelet, an inexpensive elastic thing made of copper colored beads interspersed with a variety of Mary (Jesus' mom) charms.

I bought about 20 of them in three versions at the Gem and Jewelry show last December; I have but three left because I keep giving them to people who seem to connect with them. Most are Catholic. I'm sure they symbolize something somewhat different to them than they do to me, but that's okay.

The bracelets and another small red coral one I wear with them (it's kind of an east meets west thing) remind me that I don't have to be of this world, i.e., I don't have to participate in any ugliness going on around me. I can be kind and good and helpful. Even when everyone else is acting out. Especially then.

So when the owner complimented me, on it I gave it to her and its mate to her niece, who also works at the shop. It made them very happy.

Me, too.

I’ve enjoyed playing Grand Theft Auto since the day I discovered it’s more fun than going to work. With the release of Grand Theft Auto IV there was a little bit of chatter about video games and violence. A random review I read says: “Commentators agree that the game, with its sophisticated graphics, sets a new standard for realistic violence and sex.” It then goes on to cite studies linking violent media with real life violence.

It seems to me that there are a lot of people out there that don’t want other people to have fun. GTA comes with with a “mature” rating and an explicit warning about what the game contains. While GTA is an incredibly popular franchise it certainly doesn’t appeal to everyone. A study that sets out to link video games and violence is going to prove just that. It’s no different than a study aiming to disprove the link achieving its goal.

There is no conclusive connection between video games and violence. Just as there is no clear link between movies and violence. Blaming media for problems in society is simplistic. Video game players and their developers are going to defend their efforts, just as the producers of an ultra-violent movie would stand by their work. No one knows what comes first: the violence or the depictions of violence.

Now leave us alone and let us play video games. They’re fun!

What would a Tom Petty side project sound like?

The answer is something not too dissimilar to a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album with a hint of Traveling Wilburys thrown in. The Wilbury twist arrives in the form of a loose sounding collection of band-orientated songs.

Mudcrutch teams Tom Petty up with a few of his old bandmates from before he struck oil with the Heartbreakers. The music flows a bit freer than a regular Petty album, owing to the fact that it was recorded over a two week period. Petty also sets aside the guitar to take up bass duties.

There is probably a lot more group writing here. The sound is swinging country rock California style. Fans of Tom Petty will like it. Some of the songs touch upon themes that appear throughout his career. Scare Easy reminds me a lot of I Won't Back Down.

Rolling Stone's review puts it like this: "Even a dude with a track record as golden as Tom Petty's needs to reflect on paths not taken."

Nice.

We’ve been exploring the uses of the min7b5 chord, a chord that doesn’t seem to get a whole lot of play. And that’s a shame, because it’s got a sound all its own. This time out we’ll use the min7b5 in a ii V I going toward a minor key center.

Time for a little background info. What is a “ii V I”? It’s a mini chord progression that sets up a key center. After you play a ii V I — Like Am D7 G, for example — you instantly know that G is the most important note, the key center.

There are minor ii V Is and major ii V Is. Minor ii V Is typically use a min7b5 for the ii — because the ii chord in a common minor scale, the harmonic minor, is a min7b5. Check out the chords in A harmonic minor:

A min, B min7b5, C major, D minor, E7, F major, G# dim

See how B min 7b5 is the second (ii) chord? And notice the V: E7. Now let’s use that min7b5 and V7 to move toward the One minor:

|-------|-------|------|
|-3--3--|-3--3--|-1----|
|-2--2--|-1--1--|-2----|
|-3--3--|-0--0--|-2----|
|-2--2--|-2--2--|-0----|
|-------|-0--0--|------|

If that’s a little dry, let’s try this, which uses add bit more flavor to the plain B min7b5, to make a B min7b5 add 11.

|--------|-0------|------|
|-5-3----|-3-3----|-0----|
|-2-2----|-1-1----|-5----|
|-3-3----|-0-0----|-4----|
|-2-2----|-2-2----|-0----|
|--------|-0-0----|------|

That’s it for this time. Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - November 1, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

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Hello to everyone and welcome to the latest Guitar Noise Podcast! And my thank you to all for your patience in giving me a little time off since the last one.

Our seventh GN Podcast picks up right on the heels of the sixth, working with the Am to G to D progression in 3 /4 timing that closed our last podcast. This time out, though, we add the technique of crosspicking (using individual notes instead of strumming or partial chords) to give some variation and interest that basic strumming wouldn’t cover. Finally, we also work in the walking bass lines from GN Podcast #6 to our crosspicking, making things even more interesting!

As in our previous Guitar Noise Podcasts, I’ll be walking you step by step through the lesson. So don’t think that you ain’t going nowhere, get your guitar, get down on that easy chair and come along and play! And, as always, please let us know what you think.

Peace

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Just for juxtaposition, here’s what we’ve looked like the past week or so…

 

This past weekend, we had some friends over to play music and work out arrangements of songs and Helena was kind enough to take this photo. And we got another five inches the night after she shot this! 

Only eighteen days until spring…

Peace 

It’s been a tough year for working writers, but a fairly decent one for aspiring writers. Studios posted more scripts online in an effort to grab more award nominations. Aside from writing, the most important thing aspiring screenwriters should be doing is reading a lot of scripts.

The Thinking Writer tracked down and shared links to the studios that were basically giving scripts away for free. The links are More Scripts and More Scripts, Pt. 2.

Being earnest, I read all of them. In fact, I printed them all and what a mountain of paper it made.

I was not at all surprised that Cody Diablo’s Juno won the Academy Award award for Best Original Screenplay. I was quite happy with the choice, in fact. As I pored over every script I could find from the past year, Juno is the one that struck me as the most original. It is written with a unique voice. As I read, I could see the movie playing in my mind. It hooked me from the first page. And by the last page I was feeling jealous that my writing isn’t nearly as good.

It stands head and shoulders above the other original scripts I read this year. And those were good scripts too.

As for the Best Adapated Screenplay, I did enjoy reading No Country For Old Men. But it wasn’t my favorite. Of those nominated, I think The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is the one I’d rather read again.

We were honored, this past year, to have good friends from Chicago and New Jersey and Canada and Connecticut visit our home. Fortunately the weather cooperated too, at least for the most part, which isn’t always the case. So, for instance, this is the view our visitors had from our back porch last October…

Right now, the view is dramatically different (and I really should get myself a digital camera sometime in the near future) - ice and snow and only the pine trees still have their green needles, so there are more bare trees than you can shake a stick at. But in its own way it’s still beautiful and breath taking.

And even when the landscape is cold and frozen, it’s hard not to know that it’s always changing. That spring will be back in less time than it takes to think about it and then summer and autumn again will come and go. This is the start of my fifth year here at my not-so-new-anymore home and I can’t always work that fact, that that much time has passed already, into my head.

Maybe because it’s so much easier to just look out my backdoor and get lost in the moment…

Peace

Here we go, my top album picks for 2007:

Crowded House – Time On Earth

This band gets better with each new album. The old stuff still sounds pretty good to me, and they keep writing new songs that grow on you. I never thought they’d be able to top Together Alone, but that is exactly what they did with Time on Earth.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand

This is a bit of a genre bender of an album. There are no new songs here and the title might make you think this is a duets album. Never mind that 2007 was the year that Led Zeppelin returned to the stage and secured their legacy, this is one of the year’s best albums. If you like hearing voices being used like instruments – you should own this album.

Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II

This is a moody searing album that has Neil back with the Bluenotes, for one song anyway. It’s a passionate mish-mash of styles that easily ranks among Neil’s best albums. There are two epic songs clocking in at over 10 minutes, and nothing can stop Neil from switching between acoustic and electric. There isn’t much new here, and that’s why it sounds so great.