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About Jon
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I'm a musician and writer, dividing my professional time between these two pursuits. I've published six books in the ubiqutious yellow-and-black Dummies series, as well as other books and magazine and newspaper articles on music, guitar, audio, and technology.
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Using Gear for Good
Using Gear for Good. After paying for yet another unforeseen auto repair (are there any other kind?), I found myself envious of the car mechanics who probably never pay full price to have their own cars fixed. When they need to replace their rusted rear shocks (as was the case for me), they simply do it themselves. Sure, they have to pay for parts, but they use their own expertise to save themselves a bundle of cash by not having to incur expensive labor costs.
Remembering Earl Scruggs and Jim Marshall
Recently we have had to endure the passing of two legendary figures in the music industry. Earl Scruggs (born 1924) and Jim Marshall (born 1923) were both household names, depending on whether you played banjo or electric guitar. (Or both, as I do.) Despite their obvious differences—one being an American folk artist, the other a British amp manufacturer—they had many things in common: humble beginnings, a sense of humility that they kept throughout their entire lives, and the ability to create a singular sound that musicians couldn’t live without once they heard it.
Circle Any Two
I used to work with a fellow editor who had a comeback for almost any occasion. Once I apologized to him for getting impatient. He quipped, “Don’t apologize; buy me something.” Whenever we were instructed from on high to complete some insanely difficult task in a ridiculously short amount of time, he would query, “Do they want it right? Or do they want it right now?” But my favorite little meme he introduced me to (now on the web in endless variations) was the famous “Two out of three” rule.
No, ma’am. We’re musicians.
There’s a great line early in the movie The Blues Brothers where our anti-heroes Elwood and Jake Blues (Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi) go searching for their former bandmates, in an effort to get the band back together. They arrive at a rundown boarding house and start asking the landlady pointed questions, all serious-like in their black suits, skinny black ties, and opaque sunglasses.
CD, We Hardly Knew Ye
When CDs came onto the scene circa 1983, they answered a true calling, delivering noiseless, high-fidelity audio to discerning consumers in a nonlinear format. A CD wouldn’t degrade over time simply by playing it back either, which was untrue of both vinyl and magnetic tape. Listeners went through culture shock when they sat next to a set of speakers and heard nothing—as in true, sonic silence—before the first note of music sounded. Only the terminally geeky and audiophile party-poopers groused about how “digital was sterile” or that better fidelity was actually achievable through analog means, assuming your turntable cost more than the GDP of a small country. For everyone else, CDs, and the era of digital audio democratization they heralded, were a godsend.
Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You.
Every one of us would like to think of himself or herself as a professional, or at least qualified as such, whether or not we’ve committed our passion to a marriage of commerce and talent. But the measure of professionalism is not limited to talent. It’s how you comport yourself on the gig or session. And it’s knowing how to relate to the leader, which may require a well–lived life’s worth of experience to draw from.
“WANTED! Guitarist for up-and-coming band with major label interest.”
There was a time when, if you were advertising for a musician, all you had to do was print the magic phrase “major label interest,” and the world would beat a path to your door—if you were foolish enough to include your home address in the ad. Once the masses arrived, you could qualify the statement with, “Well, there’s no money yet, and we have to travel far distances and play long hours at obscure and under-attended venues, but we have major label interest.” And to a person, the teeming throngs would cry, “Sign me up!”
Life in the Key of Songs
Music is all around us—whether we like it or not. Even when you take the buds out of your ears, you still hear music from the loudspeakers at the mall, in the elevators of office buildings, and at the gas tank when you fill up (usually underscoring a pitch to sell you something else). But as musicians, we can learn from “uninvited music,” even when it’s not to our taste, and we can always keep our critical ear perked for inspiration and ideas. Even being able to identify the musical components of the ordinary, non-musical sounds we hear in everyday life can be revealing.
Downsizing the Grammys
Traditions have a way of providing stability, even when you don’t always agree with them. Whether you support a particular institution, despise it, or are indifferent to it, at least you can learn to work with it if it’s a fixed entity. But when long established routines start to unravel, everyone takes notice and becomes concerned.
This Is Your Brain on Music. Any Questions?
Many brain research studies—including those involved with early-childhood learning, improving mental health, and staving off dementia in later life—identify playing music as a means for keeping the old gray matter in shape. Music requires several specialized brain-related activities, the most basic of which is developing a motor skill. Beyond getting the right and left hands to play together and in rhythm, and using the ear to let you know whether or not you’re not making the right connections, music brings other, higher-level skills to bear. All of these contribute to what amounts to exercise for the brain.
