Back in 2013 I wrote about Ringo's hat as seen in the film "Help!"  I was always curious about the hat, and I admired the lo...

I drew this graphic in Adobe Illustrator as a practice project to learn Illustrator.  The best way to learn a new software program is to use...

I made this animated snow graphic about 8 years ago, using Photoshop.  Then I forgot how to do it.  See next post above for my relearning pr...

My brother Ted, an accomplished guitarist, passed away on April 5, 2019.  I greatly miss him, but I did inherit a tenor banjo and his favori...

To become a jazz musician, or any genre of musician, you must practice consistently over time, both with other musicians and alone.  Progr...

In the past month I have finally hit on a practice routine that works for me.  (I play bass and my chosen genre is jazz and jazz standards.)...

Last Friday our singer was ill, so couldn't make practice, so we worked on instrumentals.  I liked this, because instrumentals are a dif...

Last week my jazz group had a gig at the Slapface Coffee & Tea Cafe in Fremont, CA.  To prepare for the gig, I practiced the songs on my...

I have been using Crescendo music notation software for the past few days, to write out bass lines, to experiment with arranging the notes i...

If you want to be a great bass player, you need to understand chord structures and bass lines.  A great bass line is a string of notes that ...