I will venture to say that it is that Bass playing experience that comes in handy for you today on the wind instruments.

A better perspective on the thing, so to speak.


--Mac

Hi Doug those are great renditions! My wife plays flute and has for a lot longer than you. You play circles around her in the jazz venue though. You mix/blend works very well. I hope you and Paula get lots of commercial gigs.

Stan

Hi Doug. I worked with Walt for about a year. Great singer. Now-a-days Walt works a single with karaoke CDs, in addition to his day gig at a small Army(?) depot near Richmond. Glad to hear that you like BIAB. It's a great program. Later, Ray

Very impressive, this is great stuff. I was in a three piece group called Just Friends down in LA Calif area all all over the Valley. We did a lot of this stuff in dinner clubs. My favorite venue of all.

Great job, welcome to the forum.

Thanks Ray, toucher, and Stan, for your comments.

Ray- thanks for the info on Walt Street. I'm sure he can karaoke with the best of 'em- a true talent.

Stan- thanks for the kind words. Well, although I've been playing the flute for only a little over a year, I've been a musician for a long time on other instruments (I started on clarinet in 5th grade, circa 1965!), and as you probably know, there are a lot of musical skills which quickly transfer to a new instrument. An Am7 arpeggio is still an Am7 arpeggio, whether it's played on a trumpet, flute, or bass. Each instrument has it's unique problems of tone production and fingerings, of course, and that's the main challenge, I guess.

Plus there are differences in the function of different instruments in a given genre. But it's all music. I think playing several instruments gives one a broader perspective on music overall, because you come to understand each instrument's function and contribution to the whole, as Mac alluded to above. Know what I mean?

toucher - glad to see you on MySpace, too. Yes, we may be on the dinner club circuit, eventually. Thanks!

Best,
Doug

Hi Doug. I certainly agree with your major point re different instruments. However, I sure wish I had learned the piano or guitar before playing the trumpet. If I had, the simple arranging I'm trying to do now would be a lot easier for this old curmudgeon.

Very nice work. Excellent mixing. Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks, PgFantastic!

Shastastan - you may be right about learning a chording instrument before (or simultaneously with) a melodic instrument. I came from a musical family. My mom played a Lowery organ at our house back in the '60s, when I started on the clarinet (I was 10). The Lowery was a two-tiered keyboard with a bass pedalboard. She was no Lenny Dee on it, but she could read and play fairly well. So I became familiar with the basics of chords (and hearing how the bass lines fit in) at about the same time I started my music studies. Plus, music was played often on the stereo. My dad didn't play an instrument, but he was an avid listener. He had a couple of Pete Fountain records which I would play along with, trying to copy his phrases note-for-note. I particularly remember Pete's album "At the Bateau Lounge", on Coral Records (1960). I played it so many times that I can still hear most of it in my head. I think that the practice of relying on my ear from the very beginning, as well as hearing and seeing a chording instrument being played, helped me to pick up the bass guitar and other instruments without too much effort, in my adult life.

I've heard that learning additional languages works in a similar way to learning additional musical instruments- we've heard of people who can speak 4 or 8 or 15 languages fluently, and it seems like a miracle. But they say that the first additional language is the most difficult, the second is a bit easier, and subsequent languages can be picked up even more easily. Because all human languages have many things in common- verbs, nouns, adjectives, syntax similarities. The same thing is true of musical instruments- the elements of music are common among all instruments. So if you become really familiar with the commonalities, the particulars can be picked up without too much trouble.

As far as arranging goes, yes, that's a special skill, but I think it relies upon familiarity with the commonalities of music, mainly. As well as creative aspects of musical expression similar to how a painter chooses to mix the colors in his palette. I haven't really tried my hand at traditional arranging, so I will have to defer to the experts in this area. But I do believe that knowing several instruments (melodic, chordal, and percussive instruments) can be a help in arranging (and mixing, and producing), because you become familiar with how all the instruments fit together to form a particular sonic texture.

Regards,
Doug

Funny; your backing band sounds just like mine.
Nice flute and vocals! well done!

Mike Laatz
Capetownjazz.com

Quick note - I have just posted details about the Elegance Music recording sessions I've done so far, over here:
http://www.pgmusic.com/ubbthreads/showfl...ge=0#Post227372

Hope this is helpful to you guys when you try a project like this.

Many thanks Doug. That's a great article, and should help a lot of people.