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Category: Main Blog Feed

  • Songwriters’ Exchange with Jason & Jess – Replay from June 18, 2024

    Songwriters’ Exchange with Jason & Jess – Replay from June 18, 2024

    Jess Baldissero is not only a good friend, she is one of my favorite songwriters. I was honored that she sat with me earlier in the week to discuss the discoveries and accidents of the creative process. We shared some laughs, talked about good times and hard times and we each played a few songs.  

     

    Audio and Video

    Audio Only

    Getting to Know Trees knowingtrees.com · Songwriters' Exchange with Jason McInnes and Jess Baldissero

    Three tracks from The Hermit, my debut solo album are streaming during the pre-order period. The full album will be released June 28, 2024 on Bandcamp.

    http://joybird.bandcamp.comPick up Jess’s music, featuring her band Joybird, at Bandcamp also. 




  • Don’t Know What to Play? Put Your Worry Away and Try Dreaming

    Don’t Know What to Play? Put Your Worry Away and Try Dreaming

    Musical Dreaming – it’s a practice that I took part in, but had never really considered until some great chats with my old friend John Donahue.

    I think about John and his musical dreaming a lot when I meet with frustrated students. 

    Dreaming with Your Guitar .pdf

    They wanted to play more. They’re just too busy. They’re frustrated with the pace of their progress. They’re overwhelmed and don’t know what to practice.

    I get it. I feel that way about music all the time. Thankfully, I’ve developed some strategies to get me out of such a funk and this is one of them.

    Next time you don’t know what to play, or are bored or frustrated with the same old songs, try some dreaming. 

    The video is the best description I can make of this process.  I’ve also made a .pdf that has some drawings that can be useful, but there’s very little instruction on it.

    I hope you find this useful.

  • Guest Post – John Mead Teaches the Guitar Solo from Dead Flowers by The Rolling Stones

    Guest Post – John Mead Teaches the Guitar Solo from Dead Flowers by The Rolling Stones

    “This is a great solo to start on—it’s simple, clear, and articulate; it will teach you how to hear clear phrases and how to hear bends (which make up a significant part of the solo). It will teach you a couple of fairly sophisticated ideas while being very simple and satisfying to play.”

    John Mead

    We’ve been working on Dead Flowers in some recent Guitar Crew meetups and recently a student asked “Do you know how to play the guitar solo?”

    I thought, I don’t but I know EXACTLY who does.

    Check out this killer lesson from one of my very closest friends, and a truly gifted educator, John Mead.

    John Mead and Jason McInnes
    Sure missing hanging out with this guy!


    Download the pdf.

    You’ll notice that John makes the point that, “THERE IS NO SUCH THING as a ‘pentatonic major scale.’

    Now, if you know me and my teaching, you’ll know that soloing with the major pentatonic scale is a core skill of  my introductory improvising lessons. Ha!
    But, I totally get where he’s coming from and there’s a lot of truth to it. If you’ve had those introductory lessons from my, I highly recommend digging into this lesson to put some of those concepts into practice and to take you’re playing to a new space.  

    John is an incredible teacher, player and music philospher. Give him a shout if you’re looking to turn up your guitar playing. John’s there to help you make that happen.


    Contact John

  • “How do you do THAT!?!?!?” Learn a Song By Ear: An Approach (Free Self-Guided Lesson)

    “How do you do THAT!?!?!?” Learn a Song By Ear: An Approach (Free Self-Guided Lesson)

    When I was first taking guitar lessons my teacher told me to bring in a cassette of any song that I wanted to play. I was so blown away when he’d hear it, having never heard it before, and by the end of the lesson have written down how to PLAY THE SONG. How did he do that?!?!?!?!?!?

    He taught me some stuff, but he definitely never taught me how figure how songs for myself.

    In the years sense, I’ve gleaned a lot about how people learn by ear. And, being on the other side of the teacher/student dynamic I often hear my student bewilderment as to how I can play by ear. And, I found that while many hear me be able to do it, they didn’t have a grasp of WHAT I was doing.

    At first the task seems quite daunting but once it’s broken down into a few manageable steps, it’s really not so difficult. It does take time and effort, but I am fully convinced that it doesn’t take any special talents or innate abilities.

    This is a self-lead lesson where I present very short videos that describe the exact process I use to learn a song by ear.  

    Give it a try and listen to how it goes. Drop me a note to let me know how you do, and if you have any questions or concerns.

    Enjoy!

    Learn a Song by Ear by Jason McInnes

  • Guest Post From Rose Signet – Thoughts On Writing, Recording and Collaboration

    Guest Post From Rose Signet – Thoughts On Writing, Recording and Collaboration

    “Softer the whisper, I will speak, softer the words, they repeat, they repeat, they repeat.”

    from the song Softer

    The song began with a gentle and cyclical guitar part. A jangly loop. I recorded the guitar in stereo and then the vocals in the same room. There was also a moment that was a touch stronger and more physical but fit well with the gentle verses. One of the days when I wasn’t feeling well, but felt compelled to work, I found the bass approachable. I remember that day because I found a really nice bass riff to compliment that more physical section of the song. 

    A few weeks later I recorded friend and collaborator Nic Jenkins on the drum set. It was a casual session with a few takes of each song at Off Center Arts that made me appreciate the ease of the session. Soon after I also recorded Liz Gaylor on the violin, but this time in a different space, at a private library at Los Poblanos. Liz’s violin quietly drones on two strings during the duration of the song.

    Softer was mixed alongside the other tracks at my home in Albuquerque with a few helpful ears and breaks here and there. The song’s overall message, an appreciation for the softer approach, was a guide during the process of making the album. 

    The whole album, Rose Signet, can be found on streaming services.

    Softer
    Josh Martin/Rose Signet
  • Grace McCullough Reads for Bosque Press ABQ inPrint #7

    Grace McCullough Reads for Bosque Press ABQ inPrint #7

    Grace McCullough reads in front of a crowd at Books on the Bosque

    It was standing room only at Books on the Bosque yesterday for the launch of Bosque Press‘ ABQ inPrint #7.

    Grace was one of about 15 writers who read part or all of their piece which is published in this years’ edition.

    She wrote about meeting famed Chicago muralist Hector Duerte. The piece which she speaks about, Corazón Remendado (Stitched Heart), can be seen here.

    Thank you to everyone at Bosque Press and Books on the Bosque for creating such a welcoming, inspiring event.

  • Tisa Batchelder on Her New Album, Dream Girl

    Tisa Batchelder on Her New Album, Dream Girl

    I think probably everybody has some sort of healing dream. And so as you journey through the different songs, maybe little, little parts of the dream are falling into place or coming true.

    Tisa Batchelder

    I’m honored to share this audio essay by my good friend, and one of my very favorite musical artists, Tisa Batchelder.

    In this essay Tisa talks about her album, Dream Girl, which you can find on Bandcamp.com.  

    Tisa Batchelder

    Album Release Celebration

    Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023

    a Martyrs’ in Chicago

  • “Let’s start something loud! Can you hear it?” – Cherishing the Music We Made with It’s a Girl

    “Let’s start something loud! Can you hear it?” – Cherishing the Music We Made with It’s a Girl

    One of my most cherished musical memories is of the four of us standing backstage and hearing the sold-out crowd stomping and chanting,






    I loved this band so much and this album represents some of my favorite music that I ever made.

    It was such a thrill to work with people that had so many good ideas!

    Song Ideas!

    Arrangement ideas!

    Staging and audience interaction ideas!

    Teaming up with awesome bands and venues ideas!

    Elizabeth Breen | Miki Greenberg | Jason McInnes | Lindsay Weinberg

    As Miki would say, “The classic lineup of piano, banjo and two oboes.”

    Our first show was October of 2008 at the Tonic Room. 

    Our album release show was in February 2012 and our last show was sometime that spring.

    And, then . . . I don’t think a decision was made to retire the band. I remember it just kind of happening.

    We had taken a long time to make the record. By the time the album came out all four of us were sending our creative energy towards other projects and family life.

    It’s a Girl was much more like being in a theater production than any other band I was part of before, or since. Theatrical shows close and so did this band, I suppose.

    You can listen to the album for free at bandcamp.  

  • Welles Park in Ballpoint Pen and Ink

    Welles Park in Ballpoint Pen and Ink

    Welles Park, 2022, Ballpoint Pen and Ink, 24″x18″

    This is the piece which I alluded to in previous blog post about practicing my greyscale skills. 

    It is now available for purchase in the gallery. 

    I worked, on and off, for a year to bring this piece to completion. The slideshow to the left shows a bit of that process.

     

     

  • Revisiting My “Practicing Greyscales” Sketchbook

    Revisiting My “Practicing Greyscales” Sketchbook

    Setting clear goals, in terms of both skillset and finished work, continues to take an increasingly important place in my creative world. It’s funny, now, to think that setting of goals was not something I thought about very much.

    Just as I, as a musician, practice scales, etudes and other small bits of music, I’ve developed a sketchbook practice which supports me in building the visual art skills that I lack at the moment.

    At the end of 2021 I began working on a large pen and ink piece. I stepped up to the paper and realized, almost immediately, that I did not have control of the necessary skills to complete the piece as I wanted.  I could understand the process intellectually, but it wasn’t going to come out of my pen without more practice.

    I used some scrap paper and put this sketchbook together to explore the greyscale. I used three of my favorite mark making tools; pencils, roller ball pens, and fine line pens. In addition, I shifted between hatching and blending techniques with the idea that I would be able to explore not only my abilities, but also the qualities of each instrument.

    Thank you for taking a look.

    And, please reach out if my experiences could be of service to your art and/or music making practice. I’m happy to answer any questions that you leave in the comments or send me an email.