Wednesday, December 31, 2008

An Audio Tour of the Nashville Number System...

Well, I recorded the audio in one take....there's lot's of "ummmmssss...." and even a few sniffles, but I just wanted to see if I could pull this off....The animation doesn't sync up perfectly either, but I'm just learning...

I'd appreciate any feedback....




Saturday, December 27, 2008

Facebook profile pics....

As you may or may not have noticed, I've become quite active on Facebook which is similar to MySpace, but appeals to a different audience. Anyway, during halloween, I got the idea of 'decorating' my profile pic there based on events or holidays. It's been fun...but I thought I let those of you who aren't on facebook see what I do with my spare time....

profilepics

A listening suggestion...

This week, I started loading all of my CDs onto my home computer so that they would be available more easily. It's been fun to listen to them again. I ran across one of my all time favorite albums (I still call them that) and I thought I would make a listening suggestion to you. The CD is "Brother to Brother" by Gino Vanelli.

I first heard this album in high school. I've owned it ever since and listen to it regularly. It has tremendous songwriting, unbelievable musicianship and Gino Vanelli is simply a great singer. There was one hit (that I know of) off of this CD called "I Just Wanna Stop". Each track though is great.



Buy it, you won't be disappointed....

Sunday, December 21, 2008

You better watch out....

On my midnight trip to Walmart last night, I spent a lot of time waiting in line. Walmart is packed on the Saturday before Christmas even at midnight. When I finally reached the cashier, she was wearing a Titans jersey. I told her that I felt like doing a touchdown dance because I had finally gotten there.

Anyway, I paid with a check...Walmart has the cool thing where they read the check and submit it electronically. When I did it, I told the cashier about an earlier trip that I had made to Walmart...I think the cashier was trying to scam me.

I handed her the check to print...here's what happened...

Cashier"I need you to sign the check"
Me"I'll sign it after you print it"

The cashier got a disgusted look on her face, ran the check through the reader, handed me my receipt, the printed check and had me sign a separate slip.

Me"You don't need me to sign the check?"
Cashier "no"

I never understood that. I like to believe in the goodness of people, but I'm just wondered if she was going to somehow find herself with a signed blank check.

If she had, she would have been sorely dissappointed in what she would have been able to get with it anyway.

Just a thought...

I'll take whatever you can give me.....



As you may imagine, the Christmas has the potential of being very emotional and a downer for me. When the holiday season started, however, I found myself being excited. I couldn't explain why, I was just excited....

Being in the situation I'm in, I've found myself trying to reach my kids. Show them that I love them in whatever way I can. My time with them is limited. I have to pack a lot in. Reaching Sarah has been easier than reaching Chris. Sarah and I are a lot alike in personality. I think it's because we are both youngest children. I saw a video series by Kevin Leman called the Birth Order Book. He makes a great case about how much of your personality is determined by your birth order relative to your siblings...

Anyway, I had to delay Christmas shopping this year because I was waiting on some checks from my clients. A check finally came Friday. Christmas was finally on...

Chris and Sarah both love music....which is great. Chris loves to play guitar hero which taught him to love classic rock which is the music that I grew up on. It's one of the ways that I connect with him. Sarah loves music too....but she likes the more modern styles. Being a frustrated musician, I've always wanted to help my kids translate their love of listening to music into a love for making music. Chris took piano lessons several years ago. He has innate musical ability, but he hated every minute of it. He loves athletics, that's cool.

Sarah has never had the opportunity to take music lessons. We tried several times, but couldn't get it worked out. Over the past few months she's expressed an interest in playing guitar. I told her that one of my goals, is to play something with her at her school's annual talent show. I don't know if she'll ever get up the nerve to perform in public. We'll see...

Anyway, so back to the Christmas story...yesterday mornining, I went to the music store that is close by. I had been in their several times just browsing around. Passing a music store for me is about as hard as passing a Starbucks. Anyway, I finally was ready to buy something....I bought a beautiful red electric guitar. It's not a brand name, but it is gorgeous. I bought a small amplifier, it is really cool because is has a headphone jack and a separate input for an mp3 player. I can make some tracks for her to practice with, or she can plug her zune in and learn to play along with her favorite song. It's cool....really cool. I bought some good headphones (so that she can practice anytime, without me getting in trouble with her mom).

The kids will be with me all week, so I went ahead and gave them the guitar stuff. I figure we can play together this week so that they can learn some stuff with me before they go home. Sarah loved it, Chris wouldn't admit to it, but I think he loved it too. I'm hoping that they'll both use it. But the thing was, it really didn't reach Chris as a gift like I hoped it would. I was in a bit of a dilemma.

God, in his infinite wisdom, handed me an opportunity to reach Chris. Chris has a lot of friends, and a lot of them invite him to go with them to events and stuff. Last night, a friend texted him and invited him to go to the Titans game today. We were plotting and planning what to do since the high temp was to be 31 today. I told him, go to bed (he was going to have to get up at 6am, these guys make the Titans game an all day event) and I'll get you some longjohns. Off to Walmart I go...

While I was there, I realized the opportunity that I had been given. In addition to longjohns, I bought a Titans sweatshirt, thermal socks, a cool hat, gloves and a thermal jacket. I laid it out by the fireplace and told Chris "Santa came last night" when he woke up. Chris is a funny guy, he is very emotional about somethings, very stoic about others. However, I think I hit a home run because he said "I like that jacket". He had also never owned a pair of thermal socks.

We spent a few minutes together by the fire this morning before he left. We talked, I think we connected. That is very important to me. He is excited about today. I'm very happy that he gets to go, and that it provided me the opportunity to connect with him.

The other cool thing is, now Sarah and I get to spend the day today learning to play guitar....

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Every little thing's gonna be alright...

This morning I woke up earlier than usual. My usual tendency when I first get up is to get on the computer, check email, may post to the blog check facebook...whatever. I usually wind up getting involved in work.

This morning, I told myself not to do that. There were a few things like folding laundry and getting the ashes out of the fireplace that I needed to do. I went to fold clothes, which obviously has to be done to music. I picked up my Zune and tried to decide what I wanted to listen to. I was scrolling through the artists on there to choose what I wanted to listen to. Now you need to know that all of the music on my Zune is not controlled by me. Chris and Sarah download music all the time when they visit and I've also subscribed to some 'channels' that just download music according to someone's suggestion.

As a I scrolled through the menu, the name Bob Marley scrolled by. I backed up to see what I had. I had never listened to Bob Marley much, but I know he is an icon to many. I expected to see 'I Shot The Sheriff', but the Bob Marley song I had was called 'Three Little Birds'. So I listened....



You know, these are pretty tough times. Every time I turn around I hear about more layoffs. People who have worked for a company for decades are being asked to leave. I don't know if you believe that God only speaks through the Bible. My belief is, he speaks to me in the way I need spoken to. Sometimes its a song, meeting a particular person and on the very rare occasion, he'll use a preacher. The one thing I know for certain. He spoke to me this morning through Bob Marley.

As I was looking for a youtube video to post, the first version I found was this one. It's pretty good...

Monday, December 15, 2008

Sad News....

I received this sad news in an email....

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community.
The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch .
The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flakey at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Merry Christmas....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Update on a new driver....

Chris passed the driving test, he was angry about failing it the first time. In my opinion it was the best thing that could have happened. It humbled him a bit. If you are in Lebanon, beware of a Gold Chevy pickup.

Friday, December 12, 2008

The most difficult words in the English language....

Yesterday was supposed to be a big day...

My son Chris turned 16 on Wednesday and had an appointment to take his driving test yesterday. His mom was going to take him to take the test, after that I was going to take him to the insurance office to get the insurance changes, we were going to go eat dinner to celebrate his birthday together and then go to Sarah's basketball game. It was going to be a big day.

We had a 'wintery mix' of weather here in Nashville yesterday, so I called to find out if he was still going to take the driving test. I found out that he was so I headed to Lebanon to continue the day's planned festivities. While I was on the way, I got a phone call, it was Chris, the conversation went like this...

"How are you doing?"
"Not Good."
"Why?"
"She failed me."
"Why?"
"I drove too fast, you aren't supposed to drive the speed limit when its raining."

I then went into father mode and talked about handling failure, he was very angry, he didn't want to go out to eat and obviously, we couldn't go get insurance. The wintery mix forced the game to be canceled. All of the big plans fell through.

So, what are the most difficult words in the English language? "I failed"

I don't mean to brag but...
Chris has always been gifted athletically. He's fast and has great hand eye coordination. When he was playing baseball in the little league years, he was the only 11 year old to make the 11-12 year old All-Star team. There are a bunch of very gifted athletes in his age group and the team did very well. They made it to the Tennessee State Championship, but lost.

The next year, he changed from Little League to the local Dixie Youth league. He made the All-Star team as a 12 year old. Again, there is a group of very gifted athletes, they made it to the State Championship again, and lost again.

His reaction to losing that game was heartbreaking, he was crushed. In his mind, he was a failure. I kept telling him....

"Do you realize that you are the only boy in the area that has played in two State Championship games?"

"But, we lost them both"

He felt like a failure, I saw it as a tremendous achievement, some day I hope he sees that.

Teenagers aren't the only ones
This morning, the news channels are buzzing about the Senate's rejection of the automaker's "Rescue Package" (formerly known as a bailout). The auto maker's are forecasting a very dark day for the economy and blaming the Senate.

This may be a very dark day, the auto industry is a very large part of our economy, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't the Senate's fault.

I've become quite familiar with failure this year. It has been a tough year, but, one of the most important things about failing, is learning from it. In my children's athletic pursuits I always tell them "You learn more from losing than from winning".

I've posted this quote several times here, but it is something I think of often...

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Nashville Number System....

Last night I attended a meeting of a group called Digital Nashville. It was a fairly eclectic group of video, audio, photographic and software people (most WAY younger than me) who are networking to find some sort of synergy to create something neat. It was cool, I really enjoyed it, and met some wonderful people.

A lot of people don't realize this, but computers and music are closely tied together. Meaning many times, people who have a natural gift for music, also have a natural gift for computers. It's all about patterns and symbols.

I had dinner with some of my new found friends and we got to talking about music and songwriting and he mentioned that he was trying to learn the "Nashville Number System". I was fortunate that when I was a young piano student, I had a teacher that taught me the Number System very early on (I was probably 14 or so). So, it's something that I've used for years. I mentioned it was pretty easy, but after I said that I realized he was a guitar player and I learned it on the piano. The piano is a much easier instrument than the guitar for learning chords than the guitar, so I now see that my "It's pretty easy" comment may have come across as arrogant, but it's just a perspective thing.

I invited him to come over and I would him what I know about it, then as I was sitting here alone, I thought "Why not blog about it and teach more than just one person?" So, here we go....

First, What is the Nashville Number System? For this, I let Wikipedia do the talking...

The Nashville Number System is an informal method of transcribing music by denoting the scale degree on which a chord is built. It was developed by Neil Matthews in the late '50s as a simplified system for the Jordanaires to use in the studio and further developed by Charlie McCoy. The system is similar to the Roman numeral system traditionally used to transcribe a chord progression, but more typically uses Arabic numerals and does not explicitly state the quality (e.g., major or minor) of the chord. By writing chords as numbers, music may be transposed easily. As a simple system of transcription, it can be used with only a rudimentary background in music theory, and may not be as intimidating to learn for musicians unfamiliar with traditional notations. If a set of musicians has basic familiarity, improvisation and jam sessions can be quickly explained using numbers, and chord changes can be communicated mid-song by holding up the corresponding number of fingers. The system is flexible, and can be embellished to include more information (such as chord color or to denote a bass note in an inverted chord) as the user desires.

If you look at any popular sheet music, you are very likely to see chord symbols above the melody line. These are denoted by the root note and a chord quality. You will see symbols like C Em Am and so forth. Guys like me who don't read music use these to 'Fake' the progression behind the melody. There have been many times (when I was younger) that I would backup a singer and that is all I had to go one. In this situation you read the chords and fly by the seat of your pants. You do it long enough, you can feel comfortable with it and make it sound pretty good.

The problem comes when the singer hands you a chord chart and says "here's the song, but that key is (too high, too low, too hot, too cold, too something). At that point you have to see one thing and translate it into a different key all within the very limited time provided by the beat of a song. It can be done (some do it very well) but sight transposition is difficult.

Thus the Nashville Number System was born. Using the Number System, numbers are used instead of Chord names and the translation is much simpler. Here's how it works:

I Know That This Is Basic, But It's Kind Of Crucial
As you know, music is composed of notes and notes are typically used from a particular scale (or key) There are many many many types of scales, but the Number System is based on the major scale so we will limit this discussion to that.

steps

The major scale is based on a pattern of intervals (or steps) a half step is playing notes that are right next to each other, a whole step has a note in between.

The major scale has the following pattern

whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half

scale tone chords

Start with any key on the keyboard, and follow this pattern and you've played the major scale in that key. In the diagram, there are two scales represented. The C scale has 'all white notes', but if you look you will see the pattern mentioned above. The D scale, contains 'black notes' at tones 3 and 7. But if you look at the pattern above, you will see that it still fits.

What the number system does is just say, instead of using the note names, let's refer to the chords by their numbers on the major scale. Wyen you do this for a little while, you begin to be able to translate the number to the scale tone quickly. The number simply refers to the position on the major scale of the key you are playing in.

We are dealing with triads though, what are the other notes?
In most case the other notes fall on the major scale also. The triad built on the first tone of the scale is going to include tones 1 3 5 from the scale. The chord built on the second tone is going to include tones 2 4 and 6 the chord built on the third tone of the scale is going to include 3 5 7 and so forth. When you get into the upper half of the scale, you just extend the same scale for another octave and maintain the same pattern. The chord built on the 6 will contain tones 6 8 10.

This is the basis of the Number System, there is a bunch more to talk about, but I've probably bored you enough already.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

You'll need a carpenter for that....

Over the past few weeks my blog has been more political that I ever thought it would be, but I just write what's on my mind.

Anyway, when I first wake up, I usually make coffee, turn on the news and check email etc. So the news stories filter in.

Yesterday there was a story about the Auto Worker's Union was angry because of what they perceived as a "lack of concern" about the current state of the automotive industry. CNN did a poll to find out how the everyday people felt about it, and most were opposed. This evidently made the union angry.

You may be able to guess that I'm not a pro-union kind of guy. I'm not going to rant and rave about it, I just want to tell a funny story.

Early on in my career, I used to do a bit of traveling for work. I worked for a company in the Medical Physics business and part of my job was to travel and work the company's booth at trade shows.

I had never gotten to travel much growing up, so it was fun to travel to different cities. I didn't go to a lot of places, but every year I got to go to Chicago. Chicago was my favorite. We always went the week after Thanksgiving for a meeting of the "Radiological Society of North America" (RSNA)

Being a "ham and egg" southern boy, Chicago was quite an eye opening experience. At that time, the closest thing Nashville had to a museum was "Barbara Mandrell Country" Chicago had several museums. The first time we went, I talked my boss into giving me half a day off and I visited 3 museums in an afternoon (any one of which would have taken a full day to really appreciate).

Anyway, to the union story. The RSNA show was held in the McCormick Place in Chicago, it is a huge facility especially designed for large conventions and trade shows.

The first year I went, I learned a lot about unions. The McCormick Place is a union shop which means you can't do anything there "without taking somebody's job". We sold software and QA equipment so we had to have electricity at our booth to plug everything in. Well, as you might guess, you can't plug anything in at the McCormick Place, you have to go to the Shop Steward and hire an electrician. The minimum amount of time that you can hire for is one hour. I think it cost us something like $80 to have the guy come to our booth and plug in an extension cord. After that job was done, my boss wanted to make use of our helper who we had for another 59.5 minutes. He said "Why don't you put those brochures in that rack there" the electrician quickly responded "You'll need a carpenter to do that"

P.S. The story I just heard this morning was about Kim Kardashian appearing nude in playboy, when asked for her thoughts on it her response was "When you're naked, you're exposing a lot of yourself" thank you Kim for those words of wisdom....

Monday, December 8, 2008

A billion here...a billion there....pretty soon you are talking some real money...

The current financial crisis has caused the government to start handing out billions and billions of dollars to private businesses. In many ways, this makes me angry. I am a huge proponent of the free market system. Companies should live and die by their decisions. Employees of those companies should also feel the effects, it's the basis of our country. The problem is, the companies get too big to allow to fail.

The first bailout that I heard of is AIG. Just a few years ago, AIG was in trouble for defrauding investors, now they are in trouble and the government is helping them out.

Next came the bailout of the entire financial industry, well known for extravagant spending during the glory days instead of saving for a rainy day (which you know will come).

Next comes the American auto industry, who has let Unions run up their costs and have designed sub-standard vehicles for so long that they have to appeal to our patriotic senses to sell cars instead of contending in the global market.

I realized that allowing businesses of this size to fail could be catastrophic to our economy, but I agree with the Congress when they force these guys to give them a plan. We aren't going to finance "business as usual"...we want a plan for change.

As a small business owner who has had a tough couple of years, I'd just like to mention that I don't need a bailout in the billions, a couple of hundred thousand dollars would set me up for a long long time...

Saturday, December 6, 2008

I need your help...

After about 3 trips to the Verizon store to try to get a phone that would survive the onslaught of a 13 year girl, I finally decided to buy a new phone. I had carried an LG model with the flip face and full qwerty keyboard for several years. The phone was very durable, I decided to buy a new phone and let Sarah Destructo have my LG. After looking at several models, I decided to buy the LG Envy.

I was very proud of my new phone until last night when my son told me that it was a "very girly phone." When I look at it, I don't see girly at all. Help me, did I buy a "girly phone?"

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Christmas Spirit....

Today I went to Target and found a display of Christmas movies, most were $10 each...I bought 5....

A combo of "It's A Wonderful Life" and "White Christmas"
"The Bells of St. Mary's"
"A Christmas Story"
"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

I know of several more I need, but this will get me started...

A couple of days ago, I loaded my Zune up with Christmas Music...

"East Tennessee Christmas" by Chet Atkins
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" by Vince Guaraldi
"The Lost Christmas Eve" "Christmas Eve & Other Stories" and "The Christmas Attic" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra
"A GRP Christmas Collection" and "GRP Christmas Collection Vol. 2" by Various GRP Artists
"A Christmas Album" by Amy Grant
"Traditional Celtic Christmas" by Eric Rigler/Scarlet Rivera
"A Very Special Christmas" by Various Artists
"Light Jazz Christmas Eve" and "Light Jazz Christmas" by Various Artists
"Christmas Portrait" by the Carpenters

Any suggestions on great Christmas movies or music that I'm missing would be appreciated....I know of several movies I'm missing...




"

Taking a swipe at the great Satan.....

Before I start this, I need to tell you that I depend on Microsoft for my livelihood. Years ago, I was faced with a decision as to whether I was going to learn Microsoft based languages like C# and their products, or was I going to expend my time learning non-Microsoft technologies like Java and now PHP etc....

At first, I was trying to study the products and compare them to figure out which I thought was "better". Suddenly, the thought came to me that it doesn't matter which is better, what matters is what my client base uses. When I looked at it that way, the choice was simple, you must learn Microsoft. I simply don't have the brain cycles (or want to take the time) to learn them both. I feel certain though, that if it came to a choice between learning Java and starving. I could learn Java.

I am a Microsoft guy...but not a MICROSOFT GUY if that makes sense. I make my living using Microsoft tools, but, I take a pretty pragmatic approach, I don't think its a good idea just because Bill Gates and his marketing machine says so....

Anyway, to my story. I am about to do some traveling and I wanted to be able to charge my Zune (Microsoft's answer to the iPod) in the car. I went to Target to look into buying a car charger. The Microsoft car charger for the Zune is $70. Microsoft tends to over-engineer everything so what should be a simple product becomes very expensive.

I took a stroll over to the automotive department and Bell makes a power port splitter that amazingly enough has a USB connection on it. It was $12. I bought it and plugged the Zune cable into it (which comes with the player) Voila! Zune charges in the car now! Bell doesn't show it on their web site, but it should power anything (cell phones, music players, GPS systems) that charge from your computer's USB port.

Just a tip from the frugal tech guy ;-)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The state of our society...

Yahoo did a press release stating that the most searched subject for 2008 was Britney Spears....wow.

Some time ago I heard someone say...

"You know our society is in a mess when you consider that there has never been a movie made about Leonardo DaVinci, but there have been three made about Joey Buttafuoco."

So true....