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Category: Goals and Education

  • 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.

  • “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

  • Playing By Ear Demo – Hold Music

    Playing By Ear Demo – Hold Music

    I have a thurough self-led lesson about playing by ear in the works. For now, I thought I’d leave you with this.

    My advice on how to learn to play by ear.

    How to Play by Ear

    1. First, seek out financial institutions who provide one minute of music on repeat when you’re on hold.
    2. Next . . .

    OK. While that video is just kind of a kidding around, playing by ear is a goal of many of the people I work with.  Here is a video I made awhile back demonstrating one of the processes I use to learn a song by ear. 


    Blog Post: How I Learn Old Time Tunes – Learning to Play the Tune, Nancy, from a Recording by Jonas Friddle
  • 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.

  • Gift Packages of Lessons are Available this Holiday Season!

    Gift Packages of Lessons are Available this Holiday Season!

    Help a loved one (and/or yourself) start 2023 off with some music!

    • Guitar, Harmonica, and ‘Ukulele
    • Music Theory and Musicianship
    • Songwriting and Composing

    Contact Jason at 773-369-8268 or jason@knowingtrees to discuss some options. He can work with your budget and schedule!

  • Slideshow – Celebrating Tradition Retreat 2022

    Slideshow – Celebrating Tradition Retreat 2022

    Maria was one of the teachers at this year’s Celebrating Tradition Retreat in Spring Green, WI and I was lucky enough to be invited to tag along. What a rare gift to visit without the responsibilities of being a organizer, a teacher or a student! I thought I would take that opportunity to document the retreat.

    The slideshow follows, more or less, the unfolding of events. I did make the amature mistake of leaving my battery charger in New Mexico, so I missed much of the last day, and the goodbyes.

    It takes a moment to load, so if you see a black screen at the beginning wait 5 seconds and the first photo will come up.

    If you would like hi-res jpegs of any of these photos, feel free to download them at https://photos.app.goo.gl/o4MM4juVk7tg1R66A

    Thanks to the Peggy, Maura and Lou and the kitchen staff, and the friends old and new for making me feel so welcome.  

  • Common Bass Walks for Guitar with Alternating Bass

    Common Bass Walks for Guitar with Alternating Bass

    A student and I were working on finding ways to play these bass walks more naturally, rather than having to think through them. I made these short videos (all under 2 minutes) with that in mind.

    This is a play list of five videos. Each video features a different duo of chords and their bass walks.

    • A to D and Back to A
    • A to E and Back to A
    • C to F and Back to C
    • G to C and Back to G
    • G to D and Back to G

    These videos are recorded with a priority of watching my hands and listening to the sound of the music.

    You can scroll through the videos to find the one you want by clicking the three lines and arrow in the top right corner of the video player.

    Sometimes it’s important to intellectually examine these concepts. Other times it’s advantageous to concentrate on the sound and let the music come out of our fingers.

    If you would like a handout component to follow along with, or use to practice with later, download this .pdf which has all the bass runs that are covered in the video.

    One thing the video does not cover is why you might use these in a song. If you are interested in learning more about that, drop me a note at gettingtoknowtrees@gmail.com and we can set up a time to meet over Zoom.

    Enjoy!

  • Workshop: Your First Guitar Solo!

    Workshop: Your First Guitar Solo!

    If you want to play, you’ve got to start somewhere. And there is no better place for you to get started.

    Thursday, Aug. 18 – 7:00 to 9:00

    Live in Chicago!

    Borelli’s (pizza and drinks) 2124 W Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL 60625

    > Single Player or Bring a Friend/Bandmate tickets available. <

    What You’ll Receive

    • Guidance to begin soloing THAT DAY, and for your continued study for years to come.
    • Play along MP3s, so you can continue to grow your new skills outside of the workshop.
    • PDFs of all the material covered
    • Complimentary access to Jason’s Creating and Understanding the Guitar Notemap online lesson.

    Schedule – This 2 hour workshop will be broken up into two sections with a 10 minute break

    • 80 minutes – the heart of the lesson
    • 10 minute break
    • 30 minutes – Jamming along. We’ll play through a ton of familiar tunes and have a lot of space to explore everything we just learned about.

    Cost

    • Single Player – $35
    • Bring a Friend/Bandmate! – $60 for the two seats

    Registration and Payment

    Please fill out this registration form and then make a payment using one of these payment systems. If these do not work for you, please mention that in the notes and we’ll figure out how a payment can happen. (FYI- my first name is William.  I think Zelle and Paypal comes up as William McInnes.  That’s me!)

    Venmo –  @jasonplaystunes   

    Zelle – jasonplaystunes@gmail.com

    PayPal – jasonplaystuens@gmail.com

    ApplePay – 773-369-8268

    Go back

    You're Registered! Your First Guitar Solo, Aug 18, 2022

    If you haven’t already, please make a payment using one of these payment systems. Venmo – @jasonplaystunes Zelle – jasonplaystunes@gmail.com PayPal – jasonplaystuens@gmail.com ApplePay – 773-369-8268 (FYI- my first name is William. I think Zelle comes up as William McInnes. That’s me!) Here is the link for the Creating and Understanding the Guitar Note Map lesson.
    Protected: Getting Around on the Guitar: Creating and Understanding the Note Map
    In addition, you may be interested in Jason’s other lessons/education posts including this one called Getting Familiar with Intervals.
    Getting Familiar with Intervals
    See you at the workshop!

  • Getting Familiar with Intervals

    Getting Familiar with Intervals

    We measure the distance between two notes using intervals.

    Here is a worksheet to help you get familiar with some intervals.

    When you’re done with the worksheet, compare the drawing that you made. What do you notice?

    Add your question to the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.

    Getting_Familiar_With_Intervals_V2Download

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