Ones And Zeros
Published: Fri, 11/03/23
Fortunately, my editor at the time, Andrew Dubrock, was a good enough sport to play tech support while I haltingly taught myself Finale, the industry-standard music engraving program at the time (I eventually switched to Sibelius, a program I continue to have a love/hate relationship with). When I write out music for myself, as I have done for the last several years as part of an ongoing effort to acquire a basic competency in harmony, counterpoint and orchestration, I still write by hand, in part because I was advised to, and in part because it enhances the whole eighteenth-century vibe – although, to be clear, I use a pencil with a massive eraser, not a quill pen.
But when it comes to creating lesson materials, it's digital all the way. I cook up the examples and exercises directly in Sibelius; I copy and paste each line into an online layout program to make the PDFs; I shoot video with a digital camera straight into the computer and capture the sound with, ok, real microphones that run directly into an audio interface best known for the quality of its digital models of famous hardware preamps. The resulting lessons are of course then posted online in a web-based lesson platform, which also includes a digital archive of past lessons and PDFs, a web-based community forum, and web-based live streams most weeks as well.
That's a lot of ones and zeros. Yeah, it's cool that this stuff does exist, since we can all use it to communicate back and forth in ways that were impossible just a decade or two ago. So I'm no Luddite – I interact with these tools and platforms on a daily basis, and yet, I swear, if I get one more ping or email or pop-up inviting me to enhance my work flow with somebody's new AI tools, I am going to completely lose my mind. I feel like I already live in a robot world – every time I do self-checkout at the grocery store or Home Depot, I'm reminded of the fact. And I'm pretty sure that within a year, probably less, I'll have totally drunk the Kool-aid and be using some form of AI in my work, but at the moment, I haven't the slightest desire to let someone's robot write my emails, "inspire" my videos or do any of the dozens of other things AI is supposedly super-freaking great at.
All of which is really neither here nor there, but every once in a while I do a kind of double take at how much binary mayhem it takes to talk to people about a solo acoustic guitar style first documented nearly a century ago on the most analog of recording gear. Then again, that gear was state-of-the-art at the time, so...I really have nothing to rant about, when I pause long enough to really think about it.
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For the 1% of you reading this newsletter who might actually be within spitting distance of Austin, Texas, here are two upcoming shows that may be of interest. My good friend and guitar comrade Chris Bell will be playing with his band The Forgotten Prophets at the Saxon Pub next Tuesday, November 7th, at 6pm. And I myself will playing a solo show tomorrow night, Saturday, November 4th, at 7pm, at the New World Deli.
Yes, eventually, I will get my act together, and figure out a way to live stream the occasional local show.
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This month in the Fingerstyle Five membership, we're working on creating a complete arrangement of "Matchbox Blues," using an alternating-thumb groove in the key of A. Which means I am continuing to obsess about how to make the alternating thumb sound as bluesy and grooving as possible. Find out how to get your thumb sounding funkier and groovier in just three steps with today's Youtube lesson:
Three Steps To A Better Groove
More soon,
David
The Fingerstyle Five membership is for solo guitar players who want to hone their right-hand technique, build a personal repertoire of blues tunes, and learn to improvise. Find out how to join at https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/