Joe Muscara

I've heard that the Tim Richards Jazz Piano books are good, much more accessible than the Mark Levine ones.

Thanks Jill. Seems like we are in similar boats. I've asked the singer from my band what she wants to do next, tho' I have ideas about what I want to do next myself...

Jill, If your band is breaking up, what do you plan to do next? Mine broke up over the weekend and so the topic is close to home.

Hey, you kids have been practicing! I didn't watch all of it, but it sounded good. I couldn't see you, the keyboard player though. Typical.

I've finally posted the videos from my band's performance at Twestival Houston (if you use Twitter you should know what Twestival was) from Feb 12 on YouTube, though one song is missing and the guy that recorded it for me hasn't gotten back to me about that one. http://www.youtube.com/user/BlueFunkZone The songs are all originals, some written by me, some by the guitar player. Enjoy them, this was the last public performance by the band for a while, possibly ever, as the guitar player and drummer quit over this last weekend. That's a story for another thread! P.S. I was sick as a dog that night, though the next day was worse, probably from being out late and in the cold. But the show must go on, eh?

Welcome to all you new members. I hope you enjoy your time here.

Oh man, I didn't realize Shrub was so musical!

you're 17 and you have a Nord Stage? Damn.

This is more fully discussed in this thread, but if you go to the link in my sig "My band on YouTube," the three most recent videos are from my band's performance last night at the blues jam. I wrote Memphis and co-wrote Weak Young Blues with my guitar player. He wrote Misery.

Aggies. :shakes head:

Tom, How did you know? Joe

We just had a guitar player try out for our band, and while he seemed cool when he was here, a few days later I called him to follow up and let him know what was up. My intent was to get his overall feel of us, and tell him that he was still in the running but we had two other guys left to try. I neither planned to give him a detailed critique of what I thought of him, nor did I expect one from him, but that's what I got. Usually, a person trying out for the band either says, "you guys are cool, I want to be a part of this," or "you guys seem cool, but I don't think it's going to work for me." This guy proceeded to tell me he "wasn't pleased with the size of the room" (I told him it was small beforehand, we deal with it, tell me something I don't know), he thought the format that we played the songs was difficult and that he'd rather play a song 4 - 5 times so he could figure out what he should play (we focus on jamming and having fun, not practicing, I thought I said that beforehand too), he then started to talk about "how advanced" he thought each one of us was, and said that he thought I was the least advanced (oh, nice!). Strangely, while he commented on the bass, keys, and drums, I don't think he *ever* mentioned the singer, which tells me he did not like her. Still, he said he was interested in playing with us again. Despite all the thought he obviously put into this, he clearly did not understand what we are about. His comments were unsolicited and perhaps even offensive, considering that he played rather meekly and had difficulty with the songs when he was here. His playing was competent, don't get me wrong, but he's really insecure about his playing and if I were him, I'd be more concerned about that than what the rest of us were doing, which often was carrying him and the tune because he often did not step up when he should have. So do you think I'm going to call him back to let him know he's not getting the gig? Actually, I might only because I know another band he sometimes plays with and one of the other guitar players we might try out is from there too. Otherwise, I would not bother. I'm sure he would ask why and if I were to tell him today I'd probably light into him. Hopefully by the time I tell him I'll be in a better mood about it.

They presumably got compensated for the original purchase. There's no law against the selling of personal items. Selling someone a book is no problem, but making numerous copies of that book and selling them (or distributing them freely) is obviously illegal. There has been a movement that I haven't heard much about lately, against the sale of used CDs and the shops that sell them. Garth Brooks was big on this. It was because of the loss of royalties from the resale.