Tag Archives: music

Shooting Stardom: When Teenyboppers Write Subheadings

Posted on June 29, 2019 by JMN

Two of the biggest Spanish-speaking global pop superstars discuss joining forces for the first “Watch the Throne”-style pairing in Latin music. (Joe Coscarelli, “How J Balvin and Bad Bunny Made Their Surprise Album, ‘Oasis’,” NYTimes, 6-28-18) In the universe of … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — More Inconvenience

Posted on June 6, 2019 by JMN

“It seems I am choosing words that will stand, and you are in them, but if I blunder, it doesn’t matter — I must persist in my errors. (Boris Pasternak, “For Anna Akmatova,” translated by Robert Lowell in “Imitations”) The … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — No Money Shot

Posted on June 3, 2019 by JMN

An old advertising tag-line for an investment firm was voiced by the British-American actor John Houseman: “We make music the old fashioned way; we earn it.” Houseman, of course, said “money,” not “music.” In my effort to show with strong, … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — Mind Over Method

Posted on May 24, 2019 by JMN

Pinterest thinks I’m interested in quick-and-dirty guitar: “This article will show you the best method ever of how to efficiently learn and memorize the notes on a guitar neck in the shortest amount of time.” I’ve seen the exact number … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed: NODS & Buck-Effing

Posted on May 20, 2019 by JMN

I’m not a rocker or blues man on a Gibson. I can make a long-fingered foray into the twelfth-fret region, but it’s not fruitful. When I mention “buck-effing” around the fretboard, therefore, only one B-C and E-F pair obtains per … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — Crossed Eyes, Dotted Tees

Posted on May 16, 2019 by JMN

Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the cloud of unknowing, I shall fear no malaise, for thy clef and thy stave, they comfort me. I pause from the demented abstraction of this serialized soliloquy, this goofy guide, to … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — Consolidation

Posted on May 15, 2019 by JMN

The OO states uncover a consistency that helps learn what 8 natural notes are produced at 12 fret-based coordinates. Let’s use a notation specifying string-fret, then note. Example: “1-7B.” In the example, the initial digit (‘1’) designates string 1. The … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — Restatement

Posted on May 14, 2019 by JMN

Here we restate and complement our OO schemes as follows: Octave-of-Following (OOF) *E-string-1 at Fret-0 is an E-note with OOF state re E-string-6 E-string-1 at Fret-7 is a B-note with OOF state re B-string-2 B-string-2 at Fret-8 is a G-note … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — Denial

Posted on May 11, 2019 by JMN

I did not err in an earlier post; the post simply misspoke itself. Derived Octave-of-Following (DOOF) state was announced as coming next. The post should have intended to say: “Octave-of-Preceding (OOP) state — coming next.” Octave-of-Preceding (OOP) state is the … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed

Posted on May 6, 2019 by JMN

Octave-of-Following (OOF) state is the state in which a fretted note is the octave of the following open string. This is true: E-string-1 at Fret-7 is a B-note with OOF state re B-string-2 *B-string-2 at Fret-8 is a G-note with … Continue reading →

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